Chapter 96

Yin Xiaoxiao was very happy to eat this meal. Yin Xiaoxiao slithered onto the table ¹ , where Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen usually ate their meals, and stared, wide-eyed and expectant, at Zhou Feng…who was holding a round flat cake in his hand. Wang Yanzhen, in charge of the fried cakes, intentionally fried extra. With how much Yin Xiaoxiao could eat, making several extra was enough. Zhou Feng sat beside the table, patiently rolled up a flat cake and stuffed it into Yin Xiaoxiao’s wide open mouth. Yin Xiaoxiao swallowed the whole cake, tail wagging as he happily ate.

Waiting while Yin Xiaoxiao ate, Mo Laoda wasn’t happy. Naturally, Mo Laoda wouldn’t stop Yin Xiaoxiao from eating, but seeing Yin Xiaoxiao eating food which was made by a human instead of caught by him made Mo Laoda feel dissatisfied. But this wasn’t a big deal compared to Yin Xiaoxiao’s happiness.

Yin Xiaoxiao ate seven or eight thin flat cakes before becoming full, then let out a huge yawn. That was to say, after eating his fill, Yin Xiaoxiao wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep. Seeing Yin Xiaoxiao yawn until his eyes teared, Mo Laoda told Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen, who were just about to eat, “Now, Xiaoxiao and I will rest here for the night. We’ll leave tomorrow.”

Mo Loada spoke mildly, but so firmly and commandingly that no one could refuse. That’s right, this was an order. Perhaps humans were powerful and dominated the outside world, but here humans were the lowest of the low. To Mo Laoda, Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen were synonymous with patheticness, even more so since Mo Laoda was the vipers’ Clan Head. But even if Mo Laoda was an ordinary viper, giving orders to these two humans would have still been very normal. If Mo Laoda and Yin XIaoxiao wanted to stay here, Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen were absolutely not qualified to refuse.

Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen didn’t mind Mo Laoda’s unpleasant tone of voice. They’d both been in the snake tomb for seventeen years.  If they couldn’t even tolerate a single sentence, the two of them would have long ago died countless times. Even more, even without Mo Laoda, Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen were more than willing to give face to Yin Xiaoxiao. Even though Yin Xiaoxiao was also a snake, for some unknown reason, Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen felt that Yin Xiaoxiao was more friendly.

Wang Yanzhen thought for a moment, then said, “Then I’ll go and get the quilt for you ² .”

Mo Laoda nodded his head. Al;though no expression could be seen on his face, internally he felt a little happy. If anything here could be said to warrant Mo Laoda’s happiness, perhaps it was only the word “quilt” which Wang Yanzhen had uttered.

The quilt that Wang Yanzhen had mentioned was made of a pink, soft material, similar to the cotton of the outside world. The quilt was actually made from the clothing brought by the two men and the dead, sewn together. Needle and thread were also found off of corpses. Actually, on this mountain there was absolutely no need to cover up under a quilt. After all, even at night, the temperature was still in the teens ³ . If cover was really needed, sewing together a few pieces of clothes would suffice. Wang Yanzhen and Zhou Feng had also once wanted animal skins but unfortunately smaller animal skins needed to be sewn together and their needle couldn’t pierce the hides – with the abilities of the two men, getting something like bone needles were out of the question – and they absolutely didn’t dare to catch larger animals!

As a result, this quilt was, in fact, made by Yin Xiaoxiao after he learned that Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen really wanted to make a quilt and after seeing the soft pink material. In other words, this quilt was, in actuality, Yin Xiaoxiao’s.

So why was Mo Laoda happy? Because when he curled up in the quilt and when the quilt covered his body, Mo Laoda felt his body temperature increase. All snakes liked warmth, and even a snake as strong as Mo Laoda couldn’t go against instinct. But Mo Laoda only said that warmth was warmth and too much softness was uncomfortable.

Wang Yanzhen left to get the quilt and then placed it in a bedroom, which was especially built for Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda – this was something that Yin Xiaoxiao had strongly demanded. In this bedroom there was a particularly large wooden bed which was also very short.

Mo Laoda rubbed Yin Xiaoxiao’s stomach with his tail. By the time Yin Xiaoxiao felt like he was no longer full to bursting, Mo Laoda had already carried Yin Xiaoxiao on his back to where the two snakes would be resting. This time, wasn’t it better not to have Yin Xiaoxiao slither into the bedroom on his own?

When Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda arrived here, it was already evening. Add in the time taken for Yin Xiaoxiao’s meal and the time spent while Mo Laoda rubbed Yin Xiaoxiao’s stomach and, by the time Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao had gotten under the quilt to sleep, the sky was already dark. Wang Yanzhen and Zhou Feng, having finished their dinner in the outer room, didn’t clear the table but instead groped about in the dark to wash their faces and then go to bed. Trying to find something to provide light at night was once more back on their to-do list.

Mo Laoda coiled around Yin Xiaoxiao under the quilt and, in this rather ambiguous position, placed his mouth close to Yin Xiaoxiao’s ear. “Xiaoxiao, you’re almost fully grown, right?”

Yin Xiaoxiao conscientiously calculated, then nodded his head.  “Ah, it seems like it’s more than half a year.”

“That…” Mo Laoda wound even tighter around Yin Xiaoxiao. “You see, you’ll be fully grown in half a year, and I, I’ve been fully grown for almost eighteen years, so…”

Yin Xiaoxiao quietly listened to Mo Laoda speak then waited a while for the rest of Mo Laoda’s sentence. Confused, he asked, “So what?”

Mo Laoda ground his teeth. Quite tactfully, he said, “I heard Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen say that humans are fully grown at eighteen and then they can marry. Marry means to form a partnership.”

Yin Xiaoxiao’s lips curled. ‘I know what marriage is, you don’t need to tell me! The age of marriage is eighteen? Has the law changed?’ He remembered that, when he was a human, men couldn’t get married before twenty-two years of age, and women couldn’t get married before twenty years of age. But anyway, what was Heitan up to, talking about this topic? What did human marriage have to do with them?

And so, Yin Xiaoxiao, quite serenely, replied with, “Oh.”

Mo Laoda was silent for a moment and then roared, “When are you going to become my partner?!”

Yin Xiaoxiao trembled at Mo Laoda’s sudden shout. After a moment, having had a sudden epiphany, Yin Xiaoxiao responded, “Heitan, you are trying to talk about forming a partnership with me! You should speak frankly. Why keep going around it?!” ‘Sure enough, the humans had led Heitan astray!’ Yin Xiaoxiao muttered inwardly to himself.

Mo Laoda stared forcefully then continued to shout, “Then become my partner!”

“This…” Yin Xiaoxiao hesitated for a moment. Seeing Mo Laoda’s ugly expression, he immediately nodded. “Of course. No problem, no problem.”

Mo Laoda was satisfied with this and the volume of his voice finally returned to normal. “Good, then, since it’s settled like this, as soon as it’s dawn tomorrow, the two of us will go to your family’s home – isn’t it getting close to the date of your family reunion?

Yin Xiaoxiao nodded his head, “Yes. It was supposed to be when I grew to adulthood, but Dad and Pop shifted the gathering up half a year. I really don’t know why.”

This time it was Mo Laoda whose lips curled. He knew why this was, but he wasn’t going to tell. “Okay, okay, let’s go to bed. We have to get up early tomorrow morning!”

Yin Xiaoxiao just went “ah” before his body was pressed down underneath Mo Laoda’s. Yin Xiaoxiao was helpless to do anything but, well, sleep.

The night was extremely quiet. Mo Laoda, who was dreaming of fooling around ⁴ with Yin Xiaoxiao, was suddenly startled awake. Immediately, he heard a muffled sound of pain coming from Yin Xiaoxiao beside him.

“What’s happened?” Seeing the continually trembling Yin Xiaoxiao under the quilt, Mo Laoda pushed down the anxiety in his heart to gatherYin Xiaoxiao close and lick the corners of his mouth. “Xiaoxiao, what happened to you?”

“My…My stomach hurts.” Yin Xiaoxiao’s voice was weak. Saying these words used up almost all his strength.

“Why does your stomach hurt?” Mo Laoda, having heard that Yin Xiaoxiao said his stomach hurt, immediately rubbed Yin Xiaoxiao’s stomach. “Did you eat too much last night?”

Yin Xiaoxiao shook his head. “No, it’s not, not because I ate too much.”

“Then what is it?” Mo Laoda felt helpless. The Little Idiot had just recovered from his toothache. Why did his stomach start to hurt?

“What’s going on?” Two figures entered the room. As it happened, the two figures were Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen who hadn’t yet gone to sleep. Instead, hearing noises, they immediately came over.

“Xiaoxiao said his stomach hurts! What’s causing this?” Mo Laoda asked anxiously, already lifting the quilt. Besides trepidation, his tone was also harsh. These words were directed towards Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen. It seemed as though, if Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen didn’t provide Mo Laoda a reason, Mo Laoda would take his anger out on Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen.

In the darkness, the two men looked at each other. Cautiously, they made their way over to the bed. Zhou Feng sat by the bedside. With a trace of moonlight illuminating Yin Xiaoxiao, he was able to see and his brow wrinkled. Actually, they had been worried before about Yin Xiaoxiao getting a stomach ache, but since Yin Xiaoxiao had looked so eager to eat…

“It must be because of the round flat cakes he ate tonight.”

“Round flat cakes?” Mo Laoda’s first thought was that the two humans had tampered with the cakes! But Mo Laoda didn’t become irrational, and he immediately realized that the two humans had no motive.

“Our human food is different from yours.” Zhou Feng organized his words in his mind. “Even this round flat cake, there was salt on it, and it was fried in lard. The cake itself was made of wheat. These, of course, pose no problems to humans, but for a snake…”

In fact, this sort of thing was very common in modern society. Modern humans were fond of raising housepets, like cats and dogs. At some point, out of love, a human was sure to give their pet human food. Zhou Feng wasn’t certain, but Zhou Feng knew that the best thing to feed a cat was unseasoned stewed meat ⁵ without even a bit of salt. After all, housepets didn’t have tough digestive systems, unlike humans who could eat and digest anything.

Mo Laoda silently listened to the entirety of Zhou Feng’s explanation. Said like this, weren’t all these disasters caused by the Little Idiot’s gluttonous nature? From now on, he couldn’t let the Little Idiot eat human food!

To the side, Yin Xiaoxiao, who was wailing, had absolutely no idea what had just happened. Otherwise, if he knew what Mo Laoda was thinking, he would definitely protest. As for his stomachache, Yin Xiaoxiao guessed that it was because he’d eaten that fried round flat cake!

“The food has upset Xiaoxiao’s stomach, but there’s no way to treat it here.” Zhou Feng was in a difficult position. If this were the outside world then they could go to the vet, but what could be done here?

Distressed, Mo Laoda kissed the corner of Yin Xiaoxiao’s eye. “It’ll be okay. Yin Xiaoxiao will be fine by tomorrow. You ⁶ go back.”

Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen didn’t say anything else and went back. The two men had a lot of confidence in the vipers’ formidable healing and recuperative abilities. Yin Xiaoxiao only ate unsuitable food, so it was surely unlikely to be a big deal.

Mo Laoda didn’t sleep that night, coaxing the groaning Yin Xiaoxiao and rubbing Yin Xiaoxiao’s stomach with his tail – did rubbing someone’s aching stomach with an ice-cold tail really work? But, proving himself to be a viper, even though Yin Xiaoxiao’s recuperative abilities for a viper were very weak, early the next day, Yin Xiaoxiao’s stomach no longer hurt. Only a slight pain was left. Yin Xiaoxiao groaned twice and fell into the land of dreams. Mo Laoda, holding Yin Xiaoxiao in a rigid embrace, also fell asleep.

Quietly pushing open the door, Wang Yanzhen saw this scene then quietly closed the door. He softly said to Zhou Feng next to him, “They’re sleeping. We shouldn’t disturb them.”

Zhou Feng nodded to show he understood, pulled Wang Yanzhen’s hand, and walked over to the door.

T/N:

Footnotes

<ol>added for clarity plural Celsius; 10°C is 50°F 翻云覆雨: could mean either to play tricks on someone or to have sex https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BF%BB%E4%BA%91%E8%A6%86%E9%9B%A8/32348 cats are obligate carnivores and require taurine, an animo acid found in organs. The taurine is denatured when cooked, so don’t actually boil meat to feed to cats as it will remove most of the taurine plural</ol>