Chapter 7

By dawn of the next morning, Hua Xiaowu still didn’t want to move, but naturally, there weren’t any snakes that could fix that. Hua Xiaowu stared, aggrieved, at Yin Xiaoxiao, who stiffened and immediately went to hide. Fortunately, now his body was both small and flexible so hiding wasn’t problematic. Yin Xiaoxiao sighed.

“Dabai! Quickly get up and look for bird eggs!”

Yin Dabai, hurried outside by Hua Xiahua, left to find bird eggs without any complaints.

A little time passed. The sun rose higher, as did the temperature. Yin Xiaoyi, Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan and Yin Xiaosi left the cave for the open air to bask under the sun. Hua Xiaohua carried Hua Xiaowu outside in his mouth, tossed Hua Xiaowu out of the cave, and then returned back to retrieve Yin Xiaoxiao.

“Yin Xiaoxiao, go out and sunbathe.” Hua Xiaohua found where Yin Xiaoxiao had hidden himself.

Yin Xiaoxiao stretched his head towards the entrance of the cave and saw – holy shit! – saw that the sun outside had already made it sweltering outside. He was supposed to bask in that?! Yin Xiaoxiao decisively retreated. “I won’t go.”

Hua Xiaohua immediately and bluntly grabbed Yin Xiaoxiao with his mouth, ignored Yin Xiaoxiao’s struggles, and brought him out of the cave, tossing him to land at Hua Xiaowu’s side.

“Xiaoxiao! Xiaoxiao, come keep me company!” Hua Xiaohua was very happy that Yin Xiaoxiao was lying down beside him.

Yin Xiaoxiao, dizzy from being tossed, hadn’t clearly heard what Xiaowu said. By the time he regained his senses, he felt hot and his silver body had turned a light pink. Yin Xiaoxiao tossed and turned, entirely unable to withstand this kind of temperature.

As a result, Yin Xiaoxiao crawled back into the cave , embarrassed and distressed.

This time, Hua Xiaohua didn’t stop him. Still, Hua Xiaohua thought that it was quite strange. Snakes were creatures that loved sunbathing. Why would Xiaoxiao not like to sunbathe?

Having crawled back into the cave, Yin Xiaoxiao was relieved. God! Yin Xiaoxiao felt that if he’d remained in the sun just a minute longer, he would’ve ended up cooked.

Yin Xiaoxiao looked outside and unconsciously retreated farther into the depths of the cave. Outside, the temperature had to be at least 40* C. How could the temperature be so high?

He thought for a while but it still wasn’t clear, and Yin Xiaoxiao gave up. He didn’t know if it was because he’d turned into a snake, but Yin Xiaoxiao felt that, compared to before, his intelligence had shrunken, making Yin Xiaoxiao resentful ¹ .

It wasn’t until the temperature had lowered that Yin Dabai returned dragging a nest.

Although the area with bird nests was quite far from Yin Xiaoxiao’s home, and even with the speed these snakes were capable of, by the time Yin Dabai returned it was awfully late. The reason for this was quite simple. Yin Dabai had found that the weather was very nice and, at mid-day, had been unable to keep himself from sunbathing. Then, he had fallen asleep.

This time, the number of eggs Yin Dabai brought back was greater than the number that Hua Xiaohua had brought yesterday. At a glance, Yin Xiaoxiao thought that there must have been more than a dozen, and he feared that Yin Dabai had perhaps raided several birds’ nests.

Yin Xiaoxiao saw that the whole family surrounding him, felt eyes become sour ² .

Hua Xiaohua had the role of the “mother” of this family, was sassy and frank, and was fond of nagging Yin Dabai. His character was not good, he was childish and naïve, and he was not polite towards the six young snakes. But without a doubt, he was a good “mother”. In his heart, he really loved the six young snakes.

Yin Dabai had the role of the “father” of this family. He was taciturn but dearly loved Hua Xiaohua, and was patient and accommodating in all respects. He had limited communication with the six young snakes, but all the same no one doubted the love that Yin Dabai had for the six young snakes.

Yin Xiaoyi, slow of speak, took after Yin Dabai. He was the snake most suited to the role of oldest brother, caring greatly for all five younger brothers, whom he protected in his own way.

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan and Hua Xiaowu took after Hua Xiaohua. They were childish and naive, often chattering, easily satisfied and easily merry. This kind of character for a snake would certainly have not been beneficial for a snake on the outside. But for the vipers in this world, this nature was actually very pleasing.

Yin Xiaosi was the only mutation in this family. He hid the important attribute of intelligence, which was otherwise missing in this family. It was because he was burdened with intelligence that he hid this so-called burden. Still, he loved his family. And perhaps it was because of his family’s childish idiocy that he was unlikely to be disgusted or angry.

And Yin Xiaoxiao, this person who was a former human reborn as a snake with all his former memories, had his own family. A family draped in snakeskin. But nevertheless, he had never before experienced such family love in his previous incarnation. Even though he’d turned into a snake, that which he’d feared the most, when it was these snakes who had become his family, and who had loved and spoiled him so much that it hurt, Yin Xiaoxiao could no longer think of any reasons to fear snakes.

That is to say, to put it concisely, Yin Xiaoxiao was no longer afraid of snakes. Actually, Yin Xiaoxiao’s nerves were very rough ³ . He’d very calmly accepted this reality. Even though he hadn’t been calm when he’d found out that he was a snake and all the other assorted dog blood ⁴ .

As such, because of this growing pile of reasons, Yin Xiaoxiao’s eyes couldn’t help but prickle with tears, which fell like gold beans ⁵ . And he cried to express his cut liver and guts ⁶

Yin Dabai had coiled around Yin Xiaoxiao. But at the sight of Yin Xiaoxiao’s tears, Hua Xiaohua and the other five snakes couldn’t help but retreat a few steps, fear and confusion on their faces.

And so, Yin Xiaoxiao cried feeling wronged. The more he cried, the more hurt he felt. They saw him crying, why did they have those expressions on their faces?! Yin Xiaoxiao was struck deeply, feeling that they didn’t love him.

Ultimately, Yin Xiaosi was pushed forward as their representative. He fell silent, then slithered towards Yin Xiaoxiao. He hesitated before saying, “Xiaoxiao, you’re doing….what are you doing?”

Yin Xiaoxiao ignored him.

It was Yin Dabai’s turn.

“Xiaoxiao? What happened?”

Yin Xiaoxiao also ignored him.

So Hua Xiaohua burst out, “Yin Xiaoxiao!”

Tsk tsk. Really, his voice reverberated around the rafters ⁷ . Yin Xiaoxiao stopped crying, startled. He opened both eyes, brimming with tears, and immediately saw Hua Xiaohua. Although Hua Xiaohua had no idea what was happening to Yin Xiaoxiao’s eyes, seeing Yin Xiaoxiao like this immediately softened his heart. Unconsciously, his voice gentled, “Xiaoxiao, what were you doing just now?”

“…I was crying.” Yin Xiaoxiao said between sobs.

“Crying? What’s that?” Yin Dabai asked the question that all the snakes were thinking.

Yin Xiaoxiao stared blankly. Still sobbing spasmodically, he looked at the surrounding snakes and discovered that they all looked puzzled. Yin Xiaoxiao was now at a loss.

Could it be….that snakes didn’t know what crying was?

Yin Xiaoxiao suddenly remembered once watching an episode of “Animal World” ⁸ . W hat did it say? Ah! Something like that terrestrial snakes couldn’t produce tears, but aquatic snakes could produce tears to maintain salt levels.

Yin Xiaoxiao felt regretful for the inconvenience. It turned out he’d misunderstood. As it was, it seemed like he was really the unusual snake, capable of shedding tears. Yin Xiaoxiao flushed pink, tail swinging behind him.

T/N:

Footnotes

<ol>怨念:  used generally on the internet by anime enthusiasts to express their unhappiness when they love whatever it is almost obsessively 眼里酸酸的: idiom meaning that the eyes are tearing 神经很粗: meaning that he can’t read the atmosphere 狗血: idiom meaning [melo]drama 掉金豆豆: literally falling golden beans; an idiom which means that the child is crying 肝肠寸断啊: idiom meaning heart break 余音绕梁: idiom meaning either sonorous or resounding and pleasing to the ears 动物世界: a tv show about animals</ol>