Chapter 3

Yin Xiaoxiao felt tired. Really tired. Awfully tired.

When tired, the body naturally would want to sleep. Yin Xiaoxiao really wanted to sleep.

But…

Yin Xiaoxiao was aggrieved to discover that snakes did not have eyelids. Why did it matter that snakes did not have eyelids? Because it meant that they could not close their eyes.

If Yin Xiaoxiao had a snake’s consciousness, then it wouldn’t matter if he did or didn’t have eyelids. If he had eyelids, he would be able to sleep easily. If he didn’t have eyelids, he could also sleep easily.

Only, unfortunately, Xiaoxiao had been a human in his last life, and humans had eyelids. One might as well ask a human who had, for 20 years slept with their eyes closed, if they would be able to suddenly sleep with their eyes open…

In short, Yin Xiaoxiao felt that this reality was too cruel. Yin Xiaoxiao was in the middle of the cave. It was reasonable to say that, even though it was daytime, a cave would certainly be dark. What’s more, Yin Xiaoxiao was hiding in the innermost part of the cave, where it should be even darker. Only, Yin Xiaoxiao discovered, this cave was really very bright. Even from where he was, ten meters away, he could clearly see the mosquitos fluttering in the air. Although Yin Xiaoxiao’s eyesight was admittedly very good, this feat was really only possible because of how bright this cave was.

So Yin Xiaoxiao, who wanted to sleep, was very sad. How could he concentrate on going to sleep with his eyes open?! In this situation, it felt like his eyes were being stabbed!

Yin Xiaoxiao thought about it, then came up with a solution.

Yin Xiaoxiao crawled out of the small hole and then re-entered the other way. There. Now even if he opened his eyes, it would still be dark and he wouldn’t be able to see anything. Yin Xiaoxiao rejoiced and was then able to fall asleep even with his eyes open.

Gradually, the sky darkened. Hua Xiaohua, entirely content, returned home from the neighbor’s house. The previously fast-asleep Yin Dabai was smacked awake by his spouse’s tail. Hua Xiaohua entered the cave first, followed by Yin Dabai, who dragged along the reluctant Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan and Hua Xiaowu into the cave with his tail. Yin Xiaoyi and Yin Xiaosi wiggled in behind.

“Where’s Xiaoxiao?” Hua Xiaohua glared, ahem, looked at Yin Dabai.

“I know! I know!” Hua Xiaowu crawled to sit opposite Hua Xiaohua. “Xiaoxiao is very fierce. Not only can he stretch his body out straight, he can shout really loudly!”

“…..”

Hua Xiaohua stared expressionlessly at Hua Xiaowu for a while, then turned to continue glaring at Yin Dabai.

“Xiaoxiao already entered this cave. I’ll go look for him.” Yin Dabai answered, then immediately proceeded to crawl further into the cave.

Yin Dabai used his tail to block Yin Xiaoyi from following him. This small snake’s sense of smell still had yet to fully develop, so he wouldn’t be able to find anything.  Yin Dabai coolly tossed his head: “You stay. I’ll look.”

With a shake of the head, Hua Xiaohua watched Yin Dabai crawl away. “Ah, his sense of smell isn’t that good, either. Why did Yin Dabai say that?”

Because he don’t want you following him! Yin Xiaosi muttered in his heart, rolling his eyes when Hua Xiaohua was out of sight.

“Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan, what are you two doing?”

Bored and with nothing to do, Hua Xiaohua watched with a lowered head as Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan lay on the ground, wriggling around for some unfathomable reason.

“I know! I know!” Hua Xiaowu yelled excitedly, looking up at Hua Xiaohua.

Hua Xiaohua acted as though he hadn’t spoken: “Yin Xiaosi, explain.”

“…..Xiaoxiao can stretch his entire body out straight. Second brother ¹ and third brother ² are trying to imitate Xiaoxiao.”

“Eh? That kind of thing is possible?” Hua Xiaohua was very excited. “I’ve never tried that!” and then Hua Xiaohua lay on the ground and began to turn and twist as well.

Excited, Hua Xiaowu happily crawled around Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan and Hua Xiaohua, instructing: “A little less here. That’s right, that’s right. Ah, no! A little more here. Right, right. Exactly like that.”

Yin Xiaoyi solemnly lay down, facing the direction in which Yin Dabai had disappeared.

Yin Xiaosi shook his head, mentally shedding silent tears as he thought, I must have been placed in the wrong snake egg. Yes, that must be it!

In the lower right-hand corner of the cave, Yin Dabai found Yin Xiaoxiao sticking out of a small hole. Yin Dabai crawled around the small exposed section of Yin Xiaoxiao’s lower body a few times.

What was Xiaoxiao doing? Yin Dabai was baffled.

So Yin Dabai bent down and peered at the snake in the small hole.

Calling this hole small was no stretch. It was indeed quite a small hole. While it was far too narrow for Yin Dabai to enter, the newly-born Yin Xiaoxiao had a very thin body and had been able to enter this small hole with more than enough room to spare, leaving a large gap.

Finally, Yin Dabai saw Yin Xiaoxiao in the small hole.

Yin Xiaoxiao was sleeping soundly. As soon as Yin Xiaoxiao had entered and had placed chin on the ground, he fell asleep. But when asleep, he didn’t behave well ³ . The diameter of the mouth of this small hole was enough for Xiaoxiao to stretch out and move into different positions, which Yin Xiaoxiao used to his advantage. So when Yin Dabai saw Yin Xiaoxiao, the snake’s head was tilted upwards, belly (obviously snakes have bellies) also facing upwards. And, as he slept, he occasionally spat bubbles from his mouth.

Yin Dabai felt that this small son of his was a little strange. Who had ever seen a snake sleeping on its back? Yes, while the snakes here they weren’t the same as the snakes outside, nevertheless, there had still never before been such a strange sight.

In the end, Yin Dabai put it out of his mind. Afterall, this was his and Hua Xiaohua’s child. No matter what was up with Yin Xiaoxiao, Yin Dabai would still look after him. All he wanted was for Yin Xiaoxiao to grow up safe and sound.

Yin Dabai used his teeth ⁴ to cautiously and solemnly ⁵ pull Yin Xiaoxiao from the hole, then used his head to surround Yin Xiaoxiao, who had awoken but was still groggy

Yin Xiaoxiao felt that someone was disturbing his sleep, and whoever that was had even pulled at his hips and dragged him a good distance away (actually, it wasn’t that far away…). Because of this, Yin Xiaoxiao couldn’t continue to sleep and he became very angry. After everything that had happened, who would disturb his rest? Bewildered, Yin Xiaoxiao shook his head to shake off the remnants of sleep and prepared himself to scold that person, but he stopped after he discovered that whoever that this someone was touching his upper-body.

And so, Yin Xiaoxiao was awakened by the touch of that whoever-it-was. The completely awakened Yin Xiaoxiao opened his eyes and stared in the direction of the most recent touch.

And so, Yin Xiaoxiao saw Yin Dabai.

And then, it dawned on Yin Xiaoxiao that he had, indeed, become a snake.

And still, although he had already accepted the fact that he’d become a snake, he was surprised by how ruthlessly this large snake was glaring at him (Yin Dabai: I was not glaring ruthlessly!). Yin Xiaoxiao immediately froze, as did, of course, all the curses he’d wanted to hurl, which stayed like ice-up in his small throat.

Yin Dabai touched the dazed-looking Yin Xiaoxiao. This child! Why did he look so expressionless?!

Then..then Yin Dabai saw Yin Xiaoxiao suddenly shriek and turn to flee back into that small hole. Unfortunately, although the diameter of the hole was small enough, it hole itself wasn’t long enough. So Yin Dabai watched blankly as Yin Xiaoxiao wiggled every which way, trying, but failing, to cram inside the rest of his body.

Scarcely a minute earlier, Hua Xiaoer and the others head Yin Xiaoxiao’s sad shrill voice. Surrounded by Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan and Hua Xiaohua, Hua Xiaowu, who had just previously been excitedly imitating Yin Xiaoyi, turned to dash towards Yin Dabai: “You see! You see! Didn’t I say before that Xiaoxiao was really, very loud?!”

“…..”

Footnotes

<ol>Hua Xiaoer Hua Xiaosan 不老实: idiom meaning poor sleeping posture snakes have teeth that are used to help swallow prey. Fangs are specially evolved teeth that are hollow and used to deliver poison 小心翼翼: idiom meaning gently and cautiously</ol>