Chapter 5

After this major bit of exposition, Yin Xiaoxiao was left confused and disoriented ¹ . Still, he now had a rough understanding of the background here.

Seeing that Yin Xiaoxiao was tired, Yin Dabai interrupted Hua Xiaohua’s explanation. “The rest can be explained tomorrow. Xiaoxiao is tired.”

Hua Xiaohua’s mouth shut.

“Go to sleep. Go to sleep. We can put the rest of the discussion on hold until after you get up tomorrow.” Hua Xiaohua finished speaking and then turned to leave. Yin Dabai immediately followed. Yin Xiaoxiao was curious. Could it be that, here, young snakes and their parents didn’t sleep together? But, looking at the indifferent expressions on the faces of the other five young snakes, Yin Xiaoxiao stayed silent.

“Xiaoxiao, let’s sleep together tonight.” Hua Xiaowu came up and rubbed against him, then went to lick him, in the snake-equivalent of a kiss. Yin Xiaoxiao dodged  him, then stiffly said, “I…I’ll sleep by myself. Don’t mind me.”

Dear God ² ! Who would want to wake up only to see a snake first thing in the morning?! Yin Xiaoxiao shouted, inwardly.

Immediately, Hua Xiaowu wilted and mumbled, “Xiaoxiao doesn’t like me. Xiaoxiao doesn’t like me…”

Yin Xiaoxiao acted as though he hadn’t heard. Anyone hearing this kind of thing would also feign deafness.

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan simultaneously turned and looked. Then they, too, turned and crawled over to Yin Xiaoxiao.

“The inherited memories say-”

“-that young snakes must sleep altogether in one pile.”

For a while, Yin Xiaoxiao stared ahead at Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan,, then silently turned his head to look at Yin Xiaoyi.

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Yin Xiaoyi nodded once.

Yin Xiaoxiao was petrified.

The corner of Yin Xiaosi’s mouth twitched.

And then, Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan and Hua Xiaowu pounced upon Yin Xiaoxiao, pressing him under their bodies while Hua Xiaowu shouted, “Eldest brother! Fourth brother! Hurry up hurry up! Let’s sleep together!”

With a wooden face, Yin Xiaoyi slithered over and crawled onto the pile of snakes on top of Yin Xiaoxiao.

Yin Xiaosi hesitated for a moment and then decisively crawled over after a few seconds.

The five young snakes had wound around each other like má huā ³ with Yin Xiaoxiao stuck in the very center.

Yin Xiaoxiao cried at the loss of his snake-dignity. Holy crap ⁴ )! Just how much did I sin in my past life to merit this?!

The sky had already darkened, and the cave was pitch-black. Having failed to struggle free, Yin Xiaoxiao fell asleep feeling wronged. Put it out of mind. Pretend…that the weight was a quilt.

As the first rays of sunlight pierced the cave, Yin Dabai and Hua Xiaohua immediately awoke, and the two husbands travelled from the recesses of the cave to the cave mouth. Then…

Yin Dabai and Hua Xiaohua stood around the pile of what-looked-like-má huā, astonished. Why had these children done this?

Hua Xiaohua prodded Hua Xiaoer’s head. Hua Xiaoer did not wake. Poking the next snake, Hua Xiaosan, produced the same results. And then poking Hua Xiaowu produced the same results.

….

Yin Dabai poked Yin Xiaosi. Yin Xiaosi’s eyes immediately opened, and he glared up at Yin Dabai.

“ Cough , Xiaosi, what are you all doing?” Yin Dabai had always felt that his fourth son had a strange air about him, making him a little afraid. Compared to him, his youngest son was really quite normal!

“….We’re sleeping.” These two words of Yin Xiaosi dropped into the air between them. Likewise, Yin Xiaosi’s head drooped and, with great effort, he turned his tail to Yin Dabai.

“?” Hua Xiaohua’s brain rusted a little ⁵ . “Is this a new way to sleep? Are there any benefits?” By the time he had finished speaking, Hua Xiaohua had become a little excited.

Yin Dabai approached Hua Xiaohua and whispered, “We can try it tonight.” Hua Xiaohua stared briefly at Yin Dabai, then turned his attention back to the “má huā”. Tail swinging back and forth, Yin Dabai’s heart was elated. Xiaohua was shy, really shy.

“…I say….could someone free me?” A weak voice could be heard from the very depths of the “má huā”. Hua Xiaohua carefully looked and saw Yin Xiaoxiao.

Finally, Yin Dabai dragged Yin Xiaoxiao free. Hua Xiaohua enjoyably spectated off to the side.

Then the “má huā” dispersed as the young snakes woke up.

“Dad[老爸: l ǎo bà; translates as father or dad. Since there’s two fathers here, I’m translating this as ‘dad’[/efn_note] . My stomach is growling.” These were the first words that Hua Xiaowu said upon awakening.

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan nodded wildly beside Hua Xiaowu.

“Dabai, go and find food!” Hua Xiaohua bluntly ordered. Yin Dabai gloomily crawled out to find food, thinking: Geez! In this family my position is apparently the lowest.

Afterwards, Hua Xiaowu ran to Yin Xiaoxiao’s side. “Xiaoxiao! From now on, every night, we all must sleep with you in the center so that we older brothers can protect you!”

In his heart, Yin Xiaoxiao rolled his eyes. So it was because of brotherly love and protection that you smothered me?!

Hua Xiaohua finally realized that the má huā was formed because his children were very fond of their youngest brother. So kind! This kind was such a good thing! So nice! Of course the older brothers must carefully protect the youngest!

“Then this…I’d also like to ask, why are some of our family names Hua and some Yin?” This was a question that Yin Xiaoxiao had wanted to ask for a while. And how was it that two male snakes had produced children together?! But this was a question that was better asked after much more investigation, you know?!

“…..After birth, whatever the color of the body, that’s the family name. You see, eldest brother, you and me, all three of us are silver snakes so we’re called Yin. Second brother, third brother and fifth brother are all banded snakes, and so their family name is Hua.” Yin Xiaosi patiently explained for Yin Xiaoxiao.

“So in this mountain range, whatever the color of the snake, that’s their family name, then?” Yin Xiaoxiao extrapolated.

Yin Xiaosi nodded.

“And as for male-male couples with children, the one with the greatest toxicity is called dad ⁶ and the one with the weaker toxicity is called pops ⁷ .”  Yin Xiaosi continued to explain this common knowledge to Yin Xiaoxiao.

Hua Xiaohua hmphed off to the side.

Yin Xiaosi pretended as though he hadn’t heard. Yin Xiaoxiao snuck a furtive look at Hua Xiaohua.

Perhaps it was because he’d been reincarnated as a snake that, even though Yin Xiaoxiao’s previous incarnation had been afraid of snakes, after yesterday evening and this morning, Yin Xiaoxiao actually found these snakes to be awfully cute. This was good for Yin Xiaoxiao’s mental health, otherwise, he would die from fright upon seeing more snakes in the future. To say nothing of…

Yin Xiaoxiao looked around carefully. Hua Xiaohua was still sulking from what Yin Xiaosi had said just now. Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan and Hua Xiaowu were playing. Yin Xiaoyi stood beside the three with a wooden expression on his snakey visage. And what about Yin Xiaosi? He was still facing Yin Xiaoxiao, expounding on what was commonly-held knowledge.

Yin Xiaoxiao’s mouth broke into a smile. This would surely be a happy life! With parents and five older brothers, all of whom liked him and were happy to be with him, this was all that Yin Xiaoxiao wanted!

If a human had been standing in front of Yin Xiaoxiao and seen Yin Xiaoxiao’s smile, they would certainly have been frightened into not moving. However, in the eyes of the snakes surrounding him, all they could think upon seeing his smile was: Wow! Xiaoxiao’s smile is really beautiful! So beautiful!

Inside the cave, Hua Xiaohua and the six young snakes each amused themselves in their own ways, while Yin Dabai crawled home, dragging prey.

Footnotes

<ol>晕头转向: idiom meaning dizzy 尼玛: internet slang which has profaned a sacred Tibetan word. Equivalent would be Holy shit or the like 麻花: fried dough twist 尼玛: internet slang which has profaned a sacred Tibetan word. Equivalent would be Holy shit or the like 脑子锈住了: idiom seeming to refer to something like brain fog 爸爸: bà ba; cutesy way of calling 老爸 or lǎo bà 爹爹: diē die; cutesy way of calling 老爹 lǎo diē which is slang for father and can also be used to refer to an older man</ol>