Chapter 8

“Cute. So cute. Really, too cute,” Hua Xiaowu critiqued, positively ¹ . Xiaoxiao’s entire body had turned pink. Cuteness overload! How could he be so cute?!

Although the other snakes were silent, in their hearts, all thought the same: either “Xiaoxiao was shy” or “embarrassed” or “bashful”, and “this small pink body was really too cute. Come on, it’s undeniable.”

Hua Xiaohua drooled. Hua Xiaohua knew instantly that their family’s son was really too adorable, and he dashed forward to cuddle Yin Xiaoxiao.

Yin Xiaoxiao tried his best to explain clearly, “Uh….crying is when tears, a liquid secreted from the eye, falls down like rain. Only they’re salty.”

Hua Xiaowu went over to lick some tears that hadn’t yet dried. “Huh? It really is salty.”

“What purpose do tears serve?” Yin Xiaosi looked serious. compared to Hua Xiaowu who only cared about whether tears were salty or not, Yin Xiaosi cared more for the function of tears.

“Because…” Yin Xiaoxiao tilted his head to the side thinking. “Crying can show a person’s…a snake’s mood. For instance, it could show that someone’s been deeply hurt, that they’re in pain, or happy, and so on.”

As Yin Xiaoxiao explained, the snakes became even more confused. Why would someone cry when hurt, but also cry when happy? Hurt and happy were obviously two different things, right?

Ultimately, Hua Xiaohua voiced the confusion harbored by all the snakes.

How to explain…Chinese history and culture had a wide-ranging and profound source, which was distant and flowing ² . Yin Xiaoxiao gazed upwards at the roof of the cave, distressed.

“In the history of our snake clan, never before Xiaoxiao had there ever been a snake that was able to do this crying!” Yin Dabai said, “You mustn’t tell other snakes about this, and also don’t tell other snakes that you can cry. Understand?”

Yin Xiaoxiao, looking at the sober expression on Yin Dabai’s snake face, coiled up a little and responded, obediently.

Hua Xiaohua raised his tail and hit Yin Dabai. Yin Dabai glared at him. Why are you so strict with Xiaoxiao? Lectured by Hua Xiaohua, Yin Dabai felt aggrieved.

Seeing that Yin Dabai had been driven away, Yin Xiaoxiao asked Hua Xiaohua, “In the history of the snake clans there have been no aquatic snakes?”

Upon hearing Yin Xiaoxiao’s question, Hua Xiaohua and Yin Dabai both unconsciously turned and looked in the same direction before turning their gaze back to him. Hua Xiaohua forced a smile, although to Yin Xiaoxiao, this smile appeared more like a pre-meal baring of fangs. “There haven’t been. The snakes here are all terrestrial, and the history of the snake clans is actually the history of all the snakes in this mountain range.”

Yin Xiaoxiao nodded and crawled away. It almost appeared as though, just now, Dad and Pop had both unconsciously looked in the same direction. What was going on? Could it be that there was some secret there? Yin Xiaoxiao also snuck a quick glance at that area. Ah, well. If the opportunity presented itself, he’d take it to check it out.

From the nest that Yin Dabai had recently brought, Yin Xiaoxiao removed the bird eggs and placed them in a pile. Nice, nice! Fat shiny white balls. They looked so delicious.

A “pa” rang out as Yin Xiaoxiao’s tail hit Hua Xiaowu in the face. “Hua Xiaowu, don’t touch my eggs!” Yin Xiaoxiao spat, facing Hua Xiaowu ³ .

“Hee hee! Xiaoxiao has so many bird eggs. Why don’t you share with me?” Hua Xiaowu circled Xiaoxiao, trying to curry favor.

Yin Xiaoxiao shook his head. “Won’t!”

He was really ready to fight to protect his food from the other children ⁴ …

“Hua Xiaowu! You are not allowed to steal Yin Xiaoxiao’s eggs!” Hua Xiaohua shouted at Hua Xiaowu.

Hua Xiaowu wilted. Yin Xiaoxiao proudly ‘hmph’ed and then started to eat.

As Hua Xiaowu ⁵ drooled, Yin Xiaoxiao ate all the bird eggs.

Fufu~ Really delicious! After Yin Xiaoxiao ate his fill, he rolled over a few times. Hua Xiaowu stared, drooling, as Yin Xiaoxiao spat out the eggshells.

“Ah”, satiated, Yin Xiaoxiao sighed. Bird eggs were really tasty. Still, inevitably, there would be a day when he’d grow tired of them. After all, he would have to eat bird eggs everyday. Yes, he had to think of a way to improve his meals! Perhaps…Yin Xiaoxiao looked at his small, thin body…or maybe he should shelve that until he grew a bit.

Yin Xiaoxiao yawned. This really was the body of a young snake, wasn’t it? He’d barely finished eating and immediately he was tired. Time to take a nap. So Yin Xiaoxiao curled up and fell asleep. Hua Xiaowu hurriedly crawled over to Yin Xiaoxiao and went to sleep as well. Since he didn’t sleep with Xiaoxiao last night, he had to make up for it now!

“Is there anything deep in the cave?”

“Let’s go explore together, okay!”

And so, Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan together went into the depths of the cave.

Yin Xiaoyi thought, then finally crawled over to Yin Xiaosi’s side. “Xiaosi, what should the two of us do?”

‘Who wants to do anything with you?!’ Yin Xiaosi shouted in his mind. But when he saw Yin Xiaoyi’s clear and innocent gaze, he caved. ‘Okay, okay, you’ve convinced me. I’ll go and do something with you, alright?!’

“How about we go outside and look around,” Yin Xiaosi suggested. Yin Xiaoyi agreed.

And so, Yin Xiaoyi and Yin Xiaosi headed outside of the cave.

Having been paying attention to Yin Xiaoyi and Yin Xiaosi, Hua Xiaohua got up, worried. But Yin Dabai wrapped himself around him. “Let them go, yeah? There’s nothing dangerous in this mountain range. What’s more, they have their inherited memories, so they know not to go where they shouldn’t.”

Hua Xiaohua grunted and said, “I’m not worried about Xiaoyi and Xiaosi. Xiaoyi is honest, and Xiaosi is smart. And even though they’re willful, Xiaoer, Xiaosan and Xiaowu also know where they shouldn’t go. It’s Xiaoxiao I’m worried about.”

Yin Dabai thought. “Xiaoxiao’s situation is a little special, to tell the truth. To think that a viper was really born without inherited memories in this mountain range. I think Xiaoxiao’s situation…can only be explained by that place.”

“There?” Hua Xiaohua’s face went white. “Forget it, forget it. In any case, I see that Xiaoxiao’s fine right now. Let’s discuss it later, okay?”

Yin Dabai nodded his head. “I think so too. There’s no need for us to go there and stir up anything.” A pause, then, “Oh, by the way, you know how Xiaoxiao doesn’t have any inherited memories, only eats bird eggs and is able to cry? You shouldn’t talk about that.”

Hua Xiaohua turned and levelled Yin Dabai with a look. “Did you even need to say that? I know what I should and shouldn’t speak of. Oh, but that’s right. You should tell the children not to talk about the Xiaoxiao situation.”

Yin Dabai nodded.

When Yin Xiaoxiao awoke, the sky had already darkened…and the other five young snakes had again wrapped themselves around Yin Xiaoxiao and coiled into a má huā. At least it was finally bedtime. Yin Xiaoxiao turned his head but didn’t see Yin Dabai and Hua Xiaohua.

Yin Xiaoxiao was already well-rested and he wanted to free himself from the má huā. Ultimately, he gave up. Ahhhhh! The more he struggled, the tighter it got!!

Yin Xiaoxiao lamented until dawn.

T/N:

Footnotes

<ol>画圈: drawing a circle on a document to indicate that it’s been reviewed 源远流长: idiom meaning that something has gone back to the dim and distant past the raw had Hua Xiaohua, but I believe that was a typo 孩纸: homophony of children; online typo that became popular, the ‘zhǐ’ changing instead to ‘zi’ again, the raw had Hua Xiaohua, but I believe that was a typo since Hua Xiaowu makes more sense, narratively</ol>