Liu Hao awoke bewildered and surrounded by darkness.
He was fine with the darkness, but this sticky feeling was too disturbing! Liu Hao felt sick and wanted to vomit. He reached up with his hand to cover his mouthâŠ
Huh? His handsâŠ
Liu Hao was struck dumb.
Unfortunately, he had only barely awoken when he lost vigor. Fatigue washed over him, and he fell asleep once more.
Liu Hao dreamed that he was run over by a bicycle. At the hospital, he found that, much to his surprise, he had only received a minor fracture. Still, he was admitted under the doctorâs orders. He pitied himself for being an orphan who had to drop out of junior high to work. At the hospital too, there was no one to take care of him. The only person he was on familiar terms with was the roommate he was renting with. As a matter of fact, heâd received some tasty congee <sup>1</sup> . Liu Hao happily closed his eyes, opened his mouth wide, and moved forwardâŠ.
It hurt so much!
Liu Hao felt his eyes start to tear at the pain. He opened his eyes to reprimand his roommate. Just how difficult could it be to feed someone congee?! He opened his eyes and was stunned. Darkness? The memory of the last time heâd awakened returned to him. Thatâs right. Heâd been engulfed in darkness when heâd fallen asleep.
In that case, what had he hit just now?
Liu Hao cautiously and suspiciously reached out a handâŠah, he had no hands to reach out withâŠ.ah, and no feet. Liu Hao consciously ignored the fact that he didnât have any hands and feet, comforting himself with the thought that his hands and feet had only fallen asleep. Yes, that thought was really very comforting. At that point, Liu Hao reached out with his head to gently and cautiously probe forward. Oh, if he still had a head to extend, then the situation was still pretty goodâŠ
HardâŠ
Hao suddenly froze. Hard?
Every direction Liu Hao moved, he bumped his head. Hard. Hard. Everything was hard. Was he in an enclosed space? Could it be thatâŠhe was in a coffin?
Liu Haoâs own thoughts frightened him into a swoon.
While Liu Hao was dreaming of eating congee, he ended up bumping against the hard substance, producing a sound which alarmed Hua Xiaohua who was incubating the eggs. Astonished, Hua Xiaohua looked at the silver snake egg, then turned to look upwards at the sun.
At this moment, the egg moved again, seeming as though something were knocking here and there against the inside of the shell. Hua Xiaohua became excited and approached the egg, gazing at it unwaveringly. Yin Dabai just so happened to slither out and stared suspiciously at his spouseâs strange behavior. Just as he was thinking about saying something, he was hit on the head by his spouseâs tail. Yin Dabai immediately felt dizzy. As he gradually recovered, he came up from behind and joined in staring with Hua Xiaohua.
After a long time, the eggâŠremained motionless.
Yin Dabai couldnât help himself: âXiaohua, why are you staring at this egg?â
Hua Xiaohua slanted a glance at Yin Dabai: âNone of your business!â Then, head resting on the silver egg, the snake looked for a comfortable position to rest in the sun.
Yin Dabai felt that, ever since theyâd had children (that is to say, the eggs), Xiaohua had become more and more strange. He spat out a snake oath then slithered away, body forming an aggrieved-looking âSâ. Ah, forget it. Iâll go, catch a rat, and provide Xiaohua with a feast.
Hua Xiaohua was very depressed. Completely depressed. That egg had obviously just moved. Why wasnât there any movement now? Didnât it look like that egg would hatch early?! All that excitement for nothing! And the worst part was being laughed at by that guy, Yin Dabai!
Well, actually the main reason was actually that last one.
Hua Xiaohua kept close to the eggs and guarded them for over ten days. One morning before the sun had even risen and with a breeze blowing, an egg moved.
Yin Dabai and Hua Xiaohua watched closely as the silver egg moved. The egg had barely begun to tremble, rocking to and fro like a pendulum, when several fine cracks split the egg at its peak. Hua Xiaohua gathered even closer, completely crowding away Yin Dabai, who was forced to crawl to the other side to continue watching.
At last, those small cracks grew larger and larger until the top completely split open, leaving a hole exposing the upper body of a small, silver snake. Hua Xiaohua was excited and stretched out with a hiss to lick the young snake. Yin Dabaiâs scales immediately began to darken (with rotten, vulgar jealousy). Hua Xiaohua simply ignored Yin Dabai, only to see that small, silver snake eat its silver eggshell (real life snakes donât eat eggshells).
After the first baby snake hatched, the other eggs began to hatch in succession. The second and third were both banded kraits <sup>2</sup> . The fourth was a silver snake. The fifth was a banded krait.
Hua Xiaohua slithered between the five snakes: âOkay, starting from the eldest, in order: Yin Xiaoyi, Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan, Yin Xiaosi, Hua Xiaowu. Huh? Why does it seem like thereâs something wrong?â
Yin Dabai silently turned around: âThereâs still one who hasnât hatched.â
Hua Xiaohua twisted round and found that there was one lone egg. Hua Xiaohua crawled over. Wasnât this the first egg to move? How come it wasnât moving now?
Hua Xiaohua and Yin Dabai, along with the five small newly hatched snakes, surrounded the silver egg. After the sun had risen past the height of a three-poled bamboo <sup>3</sup> . the silver egg still hadnât moved. Waiting and waiting. Waiting and waiting. Night fell and still the egg did not move
Yin Dabai became impatient. Braving the risk of being bitten by his own spouse, he said: âThis eggâŠIâm afraid that itâs a dead egg.â After speaking, he stealthily retreated back a step.
ââŠIt isnât.â
Yin Dabai was flabbergasted that Hua Xiaohua only said âIt isnâtâ and nothing else. It was truly out of character. Shouldnât Xiaohua be more heart-broken? As it was right now, it wasnât good; it could harm the body. Even more, although there was a dead egg here, it was not as awful as it could be. It wasnât anyoneâs fault. He could still remember their next-door neighbor last year whoâd had more than one dead egg.
Yin Dabai crawled over to and then coiled around Hua Xiaohua: âXiaohua, donât be heart-broken. At least we still have fiveâŠâ
âFeeling bothered?â Hua Xiaohua didnât even look at Yin Dabai. âIf you donât want to wait, go back with the children.â
At this, Yin Dabai was forced to return to his previous position. Even though he suspected that it was a dead egg, in the end it was still his child. It would be impossible not to be distressed. Waiting was only proper.
When night fell, the five baby snakes, born only a day ago, slept in a messy pile. Although Yin Dabai looked awake, he had actually fallen asleep. Only Hua Xiaohua remained awake, staring attentively at the egg.
Liu Hao was awoken by his hunger. When he opened his eyes it was still pitch-black, so Liu Hao thoroughly realized that this situation was really, very strange. Confused, he recalled that long-ago memory of bumping into that hard thing which seemed to resemble an upside down oval rather than a square. Also, his neck had been feeling strange. Like it appeared to be able to stretch a lot? Liu Hao shook his head and resolved not to think useless thoughts. Right now, the most important thing was to feed my stomach. Maybe I could break that hard thing open with my head? Eh, it was a strange plan, but a hungry man isnât capable of great intellect otherwise refugees in ancient times probably wouldnât have eaten human flesh or sold their children. Liu Hao was so hungry he suddenly thought mythical horses were floating clouds <sup>4</sup> Eating was paramount. So Liu Hao used all the strength in his body to push his head against what was overhead.
After that, then he saw sunshine. And then, after that. Um. After that, Liu Hao fainted again.