Chapter 54

Yin Xiaoxiao, in only a short while, ate all the honey in the hive. Having eaten until he was satisfied, Yin Xiaoxiao half-narrowed his eyes. His snakey tongue licked a circle around his mouth. Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t see Mo Laoda’s eyes darken.

Mo Laoda asked, “Xiaoxiao, you like to eat this?”

Actually, Yin Xiaoxiao wasn’t very fond of eating desserts. But, after he’d become a snake, it had been eleven years! A full eleven years that Yin Xiaoxiao had eaten cooked eggs, cooked birds, cooked frogs and cooked hares. If a new type of food showed up, it’d be a wonder if Yin Xiaoxiao could let it slip away! And so, having listened to Mo Laoda’s question, Yin Xiaoxiao resolutely nodded. “I like!”

Having received Yin Xiaoxiao’s affirmative answer, Mo Laoda thought it over deeply: there seemed to still be several hives in this area. Yes, next time he went hunting, he’d look carefully.

Yin Xiaoxiao definitely did not care about what Mo Laoda was thinking of at the moment. Having eaten his fill, Yin Xiaoxiao immediately forgot that, just a moment ago, he’d prodded a sore spot of Ji Kang’s. He dropped ¹ Mo Laoda and went to call on Ji Kang. Mo Laoda naturally didn’t stop Yin Xiaoxiao and only followed behind Yin Xiaoxiao.

Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda again entered the tomb. Oh, that’s right, ever since Yin Xiaoxiao, from time to time, began to call on Ji Kang, Ji Kang had left that small hole there. Ji Kang found it very troublesome to always be opening and closing that small hole ² . Fortunately only Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda could see that small hole, otherwise, if by any chance some viper someday discovered the existence of that small hole, surely they would, in all likelihood, call their friends, who would call their friends to enter the hole and go for a stroll. After all, the viper clans had already guarded this area for millennia and, in their very long lifespans, had hardly any predators, so the vipers were quite affected by curiosity.

Even after having already come to the tomb very often, when he visited again, Yin Xiaoxiao was still absolutely crazy about the precious jade. Ji Kang distastefully retreated several steps to put some distance between himself and Yin Xiaoxiao, who was staring at the precious jade and stones in the lake while drooling, so as to keep from being infected. However Mo Laoda, in proof of this love, only silently turned his head at the sight of Yin Xiaoxiao’s shameful appearance.

“Xiaoxiao, if you really like them, I can easily give you some. Everytime you come, you’re like this…” ‘It really turns my stomach, alright!’

Yin Xiaoxiao immediately turned around and looked at Ji Kang, laughing foolishly. “He, hehe, really?! That’s wonderful!” Yin Xiaoxiao had  been waiting all along for these words to be said. Even if precious jade and stones were definitely of no use to him as a snake, he would be very satisfied with a pile of jade in the middle of the cave in which he slept! Everyday he could see the jade of which he was so fond. Even thinking about it made Yin Xiaoxiao feel very pleased.

Ji Kang snorted lightly, seeming to express his dissatisfaction at Yin Xiaoxiao doubting him, and said, “Of course ‘really’.”

Ji Kang indicated for Yin Xiaoxiao to look at the grave room wall that was covered with gauze. After Yin Xiaoxiao did so, Ji Kang waved his hand, and the gauze that had been surrounding the wall on all sides pulled away. In the wake of the retreating gauze, they were revealed. Yin Xiaoxiao’s eyes widened.

As mentioned earlier, the first time Yin Xiaoxiao set food in the main grave room, he’d felt that there must be something behind the gauze. Later after he came to know Ji Kang, he had actually forgotten about what was behind the gauze. Now that he saw what was behind the gauze, Yin Xiaoxiao regretted everything. If only he had lifted this gauze earlier!

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Behind the gauze was a rock wall into which large and small holes had been artificially cut, and on which things could be placed. On only one side of the stone wall, several hundred stone holes had been carved. What astonished Yin Xiaoxiao was that in these stone holes had been placed jade which had been engraved into rare beasts, flowers, birds, fish and insects, white clouds and water droplets, tables, chairs, doors and cabinets. Anything that you could imagine having existed in the Zhou Dynasty, none of it was missing ³ . It seemed that the jade had been carved to become all the things from life. How much manpower and how many resources were spent to carve to so much jade?

“I really wonder, after Ji Zhao created this kind of tomb for you, how many years did it take for your Zhou Dynasty to begin to flourish again?” All the items here were priceless, and how many were there? Several hundred? Several thousand? Several tens of thousands? A tomb like this, wouldn’t it have hollowed out the entire Zhou Dynasty? Yin Xiaoxiao suddenly recalled, in《Records of the Grand Historians》 ⁴ , a sentence he had read: “In Zhao Wang’s time, the state had declined.” Meaning that, by the time Zhao Wang had succeeded the throne, the Zhou’s national power had begun to decline. In other words, starting from the Zhou’s Zhao Wang, the Zhou royal household had already begun to decline. And ever more coincidental was that the Zhao Wang of Zhou was the son of Ji Zhao, Kang Wang of Zhou, and who had succeeded the throne after the death of Kang Wang. Yin Xiaoxiao began to meditate on this ⁵ . Was it because Ji Zhao had marshaled the entire might of the government to construct this kind of tomb that the Zhou Dynasty’s vitality had been injured, causing the Zhou Dynasty to suffer a setback leading to total collapse? Only just as the thought had occurred to him, Yin Xiaoxiao immediately realized that, even if he said something now, it was useless. No matter what Yin Xiaoxiao or Ji Kang said, it was already entirely without any significance.

Obviously, Yin Xiaoxiao was crazily fond of jade, but standing in front of a stone of a wall filled with jade, his attention slipped away. Was it important? Yin Xiaoxiao couldn’t help but look at Mo Laoda who was standing beside him. At the moment, Mo Laoda was inquisitively looking at the wall full of jade, but aside from the curiosity in his eyes there was nothing. Perhaps, as far as Mo Laoda was concerned, these jades were grotesquely shaped stones. Yin Xiaoxiao, thinking of this, couldn’t help but reveal a wisp of a smile. Speaking of significance, he supposed that having Heitan with him all along was also pretty good. There were no tasty delicacies on jade plates, there was no pearl and jade BWM, and, even to Yin Xiaoxiao’s human soul, Mo Laoda looked sincerely ugly, but these absolutely didn’t prevent Yin Xiaoxiao from wanting to stay with Mo Laoda. Yin Xiaoxiao couldn’t clearly say what kind of feeling this was, but he also didn’t stop feeling ⁶ it. He only let it be.

Yes, Yin Xiaoxiao was only ten years old, and Mo Laoda also hadn’t grown to adulthood. They still had a lot of time to slowly clearly recognize their own feelings, and then slowly receive and accept their choices. Then there would come a day when they would suddenly discover that, even though they hadn’t recognized the feelings in their own hearts, they had already been together, that they had already been together for quite a long while, and, in the future, they would still be together for even longer.

Moved, Yin Xiaoxiao suddenly had the urge to cry. He suddenly wanted to say thank you to Heitan, but thank you for what? Yin Xiaoxiao was again lost in thought. Thank you to Heitan for staying with him after leaving his family? Thank you for the time he’d had a stomach ache and Heitan had very gently and softly rubbed his stomach? Thank you Heitan because he hunted for him, made fire to cook hares for him to eat, and for eating his leftover food? Thank you Heitan for waiting for him for two days and two nights in front of a piece of smooth stone wall after he had gone missing? Thank you Heitan for bringing him to go and see that very beautiful waterfall? Or thank you Heitan for being willing to confront the entire Mo clan on his behalf?

Ji Kang turned around and then saw that Yin Xiaoxiao, who ought to have been drooling over the jade, was staring, spellbound, at Mo Laoda’s profile. And Mo Laoda, who had already sensed Yin Xiaoxiao’s gaze, was pretending not to know that Yin Xiaoxiao was watching him and was looking, as before, “curiously” at the jade on the wall.

The moment Mo Laoda almost couldn’t continue to pretend, Yin Xiaoxiao finally moved–moved closer to Mo Laoda and kissed Mo Laoda’s cheek. Then Yin Xiaoxiao, embarrassed, very slowly slithered away, leaving Mo Laoda standing in a daze.

Ji Kang saw this scene, smiled and then followed Yin Xiaoxiao.

“I saw it all,” said Ji Kang, smiling at Yin Xiaoxiao who was hiding in the bed.

“Saw it, only saw it! An-anyway Mo Laoda is my future partner! Don’t talk about kissing, I’ve already kissed ten people, so what?!” Naturally, it would have been even more convincing had Yin Xiaoxiao’s face and body not been red.

Again, Ji Kang smiled and didn’t expose Yin Xiaoxiao’s awkwardness. Rather indifferently, he asked, “That valley behind my tomb, you still haven’t been there, right?”

Yin Xiaoxiao thought. He knew that what Ji Kang referred to as a valley was actually the place underneath the cliff behind Ji Kang’s tomb. Yin Xiaoxiao curled his lip. “Naturally I haven’t. Why would I go to that precipice for no reason?”

“Oh, inside are many nice things! Presumably, the vipers inside will wonder about you!” The wink Ji Kang sent to Yin Xiaoxiao burst with mysteriousness.

“Nice things? What?”

“That’s, hehe, not going to tell you! If you want to know, then make your Heitan go with you to see!” Ji Kang placed extra emphasis on the four characters that stood for “Your Heitan ⁷ ”.

Yin Xiaoxiao looked at Ji Kang with contempt, hmphed, and didn’t speak at all. Was it necessary to mock him? So, with a swing of his tail, Yin Xiaoxiao returned to Mo Laoda’s side.

As before, Mo Laoda was in a daze….

Yin Xiaoxiao: “…” It was only a kiss, alright! It’s not like he’d never been kissed before!

“Heitan, Heitan, Ji Kang said that under the overhanging cliff behind the tomb there’s nice things. You take me to go and see, okay?”

Yin Xiaoxiao originally thought, ‘How big a deal could it be? How could Mo Laoda not take me?’ Unfortunately, Mo Laoda listened to Yin Xiaoxiao’s words and said, without having to think about it at all, “No!”

Even without waiting for Yin Xiaoxiao to unceasingly coax and pester Mo Laoda ⁸ , Ji Kang right away took the lead and said to Mo Laoda, “Mo Laoda, there will not be any problem.”

Mo Laoda hesitated for a while then finally said, “Alright.”

Yin Xiaoxiao: “…!!!!!”

Yin Xiaoxiao got angry. Heitan, what was the meaning of this? When he’d said ‘let’s go’, it was no. Ji Kang didn’t even speak much more than him, but Heitan immediately agreed!

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Mo Laoda helplessly looked at Yin Xiaoxiao who was slithering, enraged, out of the tomb. He said goodbye to Ji Kang, then chased after Yin Xiaoxiao.

T/N:

Footnotes

<ol>扔下: to abandon at will added for clarity the raw translated as  ‘there was nothing that wasn’t here’ which read to me as exceptionally awkward, so I changed it 《史记》: a history written by Sima Qian 思路开始往拐: from what I can gather, it’s refers to meditating/thinking of something deeply and examining it from all angles; here’s an article on this way of thinking and becoming happier added for clarity 你家黑炭:the aforementioned four characters added for clarity</ol>