Chapter 47

Song Xu and Wu Mu followed the camel beastmen to the oasis and rested for a night. Wu Mu had already listened to the squirrel’s slightly embellished story and finally realized that Song Xu might have made up some parts. She probably wanted to talk more about his mother but didn’t get much information, so she made up some things to make him happy.

Hei Sen left the tribe before Wu Mu’s coming of age. At that time, he had already decided to live independently as a half-beastman, but Hei Sen thought there might be another way and left in a hurry. She only said she would be back soon and told him to wait near the tribe after he came of age.

Wu Mu waited for her just to say goodbye. Hei Sen was a warlike tiger beastman who loved to join hunting parties and often went out for long periods. Wu Mu learned to hunt small animals in the nearby forest when he was very young, swallowing them whole, skin and bones included. Only when Hei Sen returned to the tribe could he eat cooked food. Perhaps because he was a half-beastman, he didn’t particularly like cooked food, and Heisen’s cooking wasn’t very good. When the big tiger napped, she would press him under her chin. Wu Mu found it too hot and wanted to wrap around the doorpost, but Hei Sen could pin him down with one paw. Like other young beastmen in the tribe, Wu Mu didn’t like being too close to his mother as he grew older. Most mothers in the tribe took care of their young until they came of age and then immediately drove them away to live independently. Wu Mu became independent earlier than most.

Getting news about Hei Sen made Song Xu happier than Wu Mu. She danced around, describing the imagined mighty tiger beastman, showing a hint of longing. The usually dull and cold snake noticed that the little squirrel might be missing her own mother.

Wu Mu: “Song Xu, mother?”

Song Xu: “What’s our relationship? The big tiger is everyone’s—I mean, mother is everyone’s worries! Don’t worry, we’ll keep moving forward, and I’ll definitely get more information for you.”

Wu Mu realized she didn’t understand his meaning and added a word: “Song Xu, miss, mother?”

Song Xu: “Yes, yes, I want to see Wu Mu’s mom. She must be a beautiful big cat!”

Wu Mu realized she was pretending not to understand his meaning. She suddenly started piling sand on him.

Wu Mu:?

Song Xu laughed: “It’s so cold at night. Pile some sand on for warmth!”

She buried the big snake, leaving only his head exposed. Wu Mu slightly moved his tail, causing the sand pile to collapse. The diligent little squirrel went over to fix it and told him, “Don’t move, don’t kick the blanket!”

Then, she made a sand blanket for herself. The small mound lay beside the snake’s head. Song Xu dug in the sand and suddenly felt like a cat’s eye snail lying in the sand, giggling to herself.

The snake moved quietly again, hissing in question, but Song Xu just looked at the sky and said, “The stars are so bright.”

After a while, she suddenly said, “Is it autumn now? When will winter come? I wonder where we’ll be by then.”

They had set out from Wu Mu’s forest in spring, but the seasonal boundaries became less clear as they traveled. According to the time, autumn should be almost over, but here, the days were still hot, even hotter than the autumnal Gobi they had passed through.

Song Xu had been thinking about where Wu Mu would start hibernating.

Snakes don’t hibernate based on seasons but on temperature. If the temperature stays high enough, the snake won’t hibernate. If they kept moving forward and the temperature dropped to a certain level, Wu Mu’s hibernation would come quickly. She needed to find a safe place for Wu Mu to hibernate.

After spending just one night at the oasis, Song Xu and Wu Mu quickly bid farewell to the camel beastmen. Before leaving, the big camel told them where Hei Sen had left. Song Xu looked in that direction and realized they were heading west again.

Initially, Song Xu set out to see the world and didn’t think much about finding Hei Sen. However, after hearing bits of news about Hei Sen, her desire to find her grew stronger. Whether or not they could find her, hearing more news was interesting.

On their journey, Wu Mu saw Song Xu actively greeting every beastman they encountered, asking if they recognized the tiger tooth necklace or if they had seen a tiger beastman nearby. Unfortunately, all the answers were negative.

“This is what they call ‘the unintentional willow grows into a shade, but the intentional flower does not bloom.’ It means that when you don’t look for something, the news comes to you, but when you search for it, you can’t find it,” Song Xu sighed.

They passed through the most desolate part of their journey, relying on the water in the fruit shell water bottles given by the big camel to get through the barren land.

Ahead, they saw greenery again, though just a little, but it made Song Xu cheer and celebrate. Warm winds blew from another direction, and brief rains made the barren land bloom with flowers and green grass. There were no tall trees here, and the flat ground stretched endlessly.

However, this warmth and greenery were fleeting, like an oasis in the desert, appearing briefly in their journey. They appeared suddenly and disappeared just as quickly, and the road ahead became desolate again.
The harsh winter Song Xu feared arrived suddenly as they bid farewell to the green grass and flowers again. On the plain with no shelter, not even a big tree or rock, the drop in temperature was deadly.

They couldn’t find a place to hide. The ground was covered with a layer of white frost, and the snake’s body, which was soft in summer, was now as cold as ice and iron.

Wu Mu would have to hibernate if it got any colder, but where could he hibernate here?

Apart from moving slowly, Wu Mu showed no other signs of distress. He didn’t ask to find a place to hibernate and continued to accompany her day by day. The barren wasteland showed almost no signs of animal life, and they couldn’t even find wood to start a fire.

Song Xu began to consider whether they should turn back, where the temperature might be slightly higher.

“Here, rest,” Wu Mu rarely spoke.

Song Xu looked at the hole in the ground, which looked like a mouse hole, and confirmed with him, “Are you sure you want to hibernate here?”

Wu Mu: “Not hibernate, just rest.”

“Alright.” Song Xu didn’t object and dug the hole a bit bigger so the snake could fit in.

The entrance was narrow, but inside, the space was quite large, with many small winding tunnels. Wu Mu curled his large body as much as possible in the earthen hole, waiting for the thin layer of frost on his body to melt. He watched Song Xu busy exploring the small tunnels.

The small tunnels were too small for Wu Mu, but the squirrel could barely squeeze half her body in. Only her furry belly and tail were visible, with her head and upper body inside the hole. Finally, she found a larger hole and completely crawled in. Moments later, she excitedly popped her head out and said, “Wu Mu, there’s a nest of baby mice in this small hole!”

They were ordinary mice, not beastmen. The little ones had just been born, and their mother was probably out foraging. Song Xu looked at the big snake in the nearby large hole and thought that the mouse mother wouldn’t dare to return, and the baby mice might starve to death.

Wu Mu wanted to leave the hole after resting for a day, but Song Xu stopped him when she returned from outside: “Better not. The wind outside is too cold; it cuts to the bone. If you go out and freeze, I won’t be able to move you back. Let’s stay here for a few more days and see.”

Song Xu went out two or three times a day. The underground hole was relatively warm, but the surface was different, with howling cold winds that could almost blow the squirrel away. She searched for food for herself and something suitable for Wu Mu to eat, exploring the entire area. She returned with a bunch of plant stems, chewing on something. She shook off the frost from her fur, rubbed her hands and legs, and stepped over the snake’s body that filled the hole to the small space Wu Mu had cleared for her.

“I looked outside but couldn’t find any big animals, not even a rabbit,” Song Xu said, gnawing on a root. “And you don’t eat this.”

“I’m not hungry,” the snake said.

Song Xu hugged his big head, touched: “You’re so considerate, comforting me at a time like this!”

Wu Mu: …But I’m really not hungry.

Song Xu: “Nothing happened while I was out, right?”

Wu Mu thought for a moment: “No.”

A small snake had crawled into the hole to eat the baby mice but ran away when it saw him. That didn’t count.

“That’s good.” Song Xu heard the faint squeaking of the hungry baby mice. She looked at the snake, took the remaining root, and crawled into the small hole.

The baby mice were really ugly, with sparse fur on their pink bodies, tiny eyes that looked almost nonexistent, and protruding teeth. Song Xu broke the root and fed the baby mice, watching them eat with a kind and gentle expression, muttering, “Grow up quickly, get fat, and be a snack for the snake.”

Wu Mu watched her feed the baby mice, thinking she really liked small animals and wanted to play with everything, whether beastmen or ordinary animals.

A few days later, the baby mice Song Xu fed grew fur, which shocked her with their rapid growth. She thought it was time, as feeding them daily was a hassle. After feeding them, she brought them one by one to the big hole where Wu Mu was and told the snake, “You can eat them as snacks if you’re hungry. I’m going out to check.”

She went out as usual, and the snake, just waking from a nap, saw the baby mice and remembered they were Song Xu’s pets.

The baby mice, accustomed to the snake’s scent, squeaked and crawled around the larger space, climbing onto the giant snake’s body. Wu Mu didn’t move, letting the little balls of flesh climb on him like a mountain. When they squeaked from hunger, he remembered Song Xu’s words, “Feed them snacks if they’re hungry.”

His tail moved, sweeping some plant stems from the corner to the baby mice, shaking off those still climbing on him, and encircling them with his tail to let them eat.

When Song Xu returned, she saw a pile of baby mice sleeping soundly beside the snake.

Song Xu:?

She thought: I didn’t realize the snake actually liked these ugly baby mice and couldn’t bear to eat them. Well, if he likes them, they can stay with him and keep him company.