Chapter 97

A plan can’t change quickly; this was a sentence that was very easily understood. Mo Laoda’s original plan was to spend one night at Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen’s home and then, early the next day, they would hurry to Yin Xiaoxiao’s family’s home. However, the next day was used to make up for lack of sleep. After waking in the afternoon, Yin Xiaoxiao’s entire body still felt weak. Mo Laoda’s heart ached for Yin Xiaoxiao, and they had no choice but to stay another night. Thus, by the time Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao left Zhou Feng and Wang Yanzhen’s home, it was already the early morning of the third day.

“From now on, you can’t eat human things. Their stuff isn’t fit for consumption. This time it was only a stomachache, but what if next time it’s something more serious?” Mo Laoda earnestly nagged as he carried Yin Xiaoxiao on his back. Mo Laoda felt that, ever since he ran into Yin Xiaoxiao, his temper had gotten a lot better.

Lying on Mo Laoda’s back, Yin Xiaoxiao remained silent for a while until Mo Laoda, unable to wait any longer, poked Yin Xiaoxiao with his tail. A little reluctantly, Yin Xiaoxiao said, “Got it.”

In actuality, Yin Xiaoxiao really didn’t want to promise this to Mo Laoda. He thought that this time, eating the round flat cake and getting a stomach ache, was because he hadn’t thought matters through. He’d been a snake for such a long time. How come he hadn’t considered that he’d get a stomach ache from eating human food?!

“Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. Little Idiot, you’re definitely thinking that you’ll promise me now, wait I’m no longer angry, and then go and eat human food!” Mo Laoda, without the slightest hesitation, trampled Yin Xiaoxiao’s fantasy. “Little Idiot, don’t you even think about it! From now on, I’ll be keeping an eye on you to make sure you don’t eat human food! If I find that you’ve eaten human food and concealed it from me…” Mo Laoda paused, then said, “I hope you won’t mind that there will no longer be any humans inside the boundary!”

Yin Xiaoxiao wilted. Mo Laoda, this wasn’t this threat a little too blatant?!

Seeing that Yin Xiaoxiao had stopped speaking, Mo Laoda snorted. It seemed that he’d guessed correctly. Fortunately, he had already gotten the full measure of the Little Idiot’s sly two-faced ¹ temperament!

Yin Xiaoxiao didn’t arrive back home early. By the time Yin Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda had finally arrived at Yin Xiaoxiao’s family’s home, not only had Yin Dabai and Hua Xiaohua already returned, Yin Xiaosi and Lan Sansan, Yin Xiaoyi, Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan had also all returned.

Seeing Yin Xiaoxiao followed by Mo Laoda, Hua Xiaohua and Yin Dabai glanced at each other, then both helplessly sighed. It seemed as though this thing between their Xiaoxiao and Mo Laoda couldn’t be changed. For over ten years, close to almost twenty years, Mo Laoda still treated their Xiaoxiao as he had from the start. Hua Xiaohua and Yin Dabai had nothing to complain about and no reason to oppose their partnership ² .

Compared to Mo Laoda’s status as a Mo snake, their youngest son’s happiness was obviously more important.

“Dad! Pop! Xiaohong agreed to be my partner!”

From outside the cave came an excited voice, which was followed by the figure of Hua Xiaowu appearing at the entrance of the cave. The snakes inside the cave turned to look behind Hua Xiaowu and immediately saw a somewhat shy female Hong ³ snake.

Yin Xiaoxiao struggled to hold back laughter and maintain a solemn appearance. Consider: Xiaohong, Xiaoming, and so on ⁴ . It was really very funny!

Hong Xiaohong slithered in behind Hua Xiaowu. Hua Xiaowu had a proud expression on his face. “Isn’t Xiaohong great? I really like Xiaohong!”

The female snake called Xiaohong laughed, embarrassed, and lowered her head.

However, it was Lan Sansan who moved closer first. Although Lan Sansan was Yin Xiaosi’s future partner, there wasn’t even the slightest feeling of reserve. After all, Lan Sansan and Yin Dabai’s six young snakes all grew up together, and she was very familiar with Hua Xiaohua and Yin Dabai, so there was no need to play coy. Now, seeing Hua Xiaowu had brought his future partner, she went over, curious. “I am Lan Sansan, Yin Xiaosi’s future partner. Do you know Yin Xiaosi? He’s Hua Xiaowu’s Si-ge ⁵ .”

Hong Xiaohong glanced at Lan Sansan and, in a small voice, said, “I know. Xiaowu told me.”

Hua Xiaowu once more butted in. “Not only Si-ge. I also spoke about everyone, of course.”  Hua Xiaowu looked at Yin Xiaoxiao. “Most importantly, I naturally talked about our family’s Xiaoxiao! It’s well known that our Xiaoxiao is together with the Clan Head, and all the other snakes are really, very envious!”

Yin Xiaoxiao: “….”

Mo Laoda smiled, satisfied, seemingly enjoying what Hua Xiaowu had said.

To the side, Hong Xiaohong immediately looked at Yin Xiaoxiao with an expression of admiration. When discussing the Yin snake with the courage to be together with a Mo snake, everyone felt a lot of amazement and admiration! Mo snakes were very savage and ruthless! And Hong Xiaohong, the entire time from entering the cave until now, still hadn’t looked in Mo Laoda’s direction.

“Alright, alright. Don’t talk about that uselessness,” Hua Xiaohua, unhappy, interrupted Hua Xiaowu. Their Xiaowu’s inherent nature was, essentially, that of a chatterbox. “Yin Xiaosi and Lan Sansan are together. Hua Xiaowu and Hong Xiaohong are together. Yin Xiaoxiao and….the Clan Head are together. That being said,” Hua Xiaohua paused for a while, looking at the remaining snakes, “Yin Xiaosi, what about you? Hua Xiaoer, Hua Xiaosan, what about the two of you? Could it be that you still haven’t found potential partners?” Hua Xiaohua’s tail unconsciously swung back and forth. Surely, that couldn’t be? It couldn’t be that half of their six children hadn’t found partners?

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan glanced at each other with hesitant expressions. It seemed as though they had something to say but didn’t dare say it.

And Yin Xiaoyi hesitated for a moment, then said, “Pop, I found someone.”

“Found someone?” Hua Xiaohua repeated, pleasantly surprised. “Then why not bring them back?” Sure enough, more children meant more worry!

“Th-they’re still too small,” Yin Xiaoyi laughed awkwardly.

“Too small?” Hua Xiaohua repeated.

“Yes. Not even ten years old yet.”

Seeing Yin Xiaoyi’s gaze waver, Hua Xiaohua suddenly had an ominous premonition. “Who is it?”

“Ah? That’s,” Yin Xiaoyi paused, “You ⁶ know them. It’s, it’s Hei A’Lu.”

“Hei A’Lu?” Hua Xiaohua’s body suddenly swayed and his vision started going dark. Yin Dabai, who had been quietly listening to the side, moved.

Yin Xiaoxiao’s tail waved. waved his tail. “Hei A’Lu, huh? Not bad. Pretty cute-looking.”

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh–The gazes of all the snakes in the cave fell on Yin Xiaoxiao. Scared, Yin Xiaoxiao recoiled. “What is it? I said ‘not bad’?”

Yin Dabai suddenly opened his mouth and said, “There’s already a Mo snake. Adding a Hei snake is nothing.”

Mo Laoda’s gaze fixed on Yin Dabai. How dare he compare the all-powerful Mo snake to a Hei snake! If this Yin snake wasn’t Yin Xiaoxiao’s father, he absolutely couldn’t let this go!

Yin Xiaoyi sighed. Did this mean that he had passed?

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“The-then…”

“We also have something we want to say.”

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan’s voices weakly rang out.

Hua Xiaohua suddenly turned his head and looked at Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan. “I’m assuming that it’s not that you ⁷ have also found two Hei snakes or two Mo snakes?”

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan looked stunned then simultaneously shook their heads.

“Then that’s good. That’s very good,” Hua Xiaohua murmurred. “If it’s not a Hei snake or a Mo snake, that’s good. Even if it’s a Lu snake, it doesn’t matter.”

Mo Laoda’s death glare shifted to Hua Xiaohua.

“Xiaosan and I-”

“-are together.”

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan rushed to the other snakes and spoke these words. All the snakes were blind-sided.

Hua Xiaohua stutteringly asked, “Wh-what?”

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan glanced at each other then firmly said:

“We-”

“-love each other.”

Yin Xiaoxiao’s tail unconsciously thrashed. Stunned, he asked, “Brotherly sadistic love ⁸ ?”

Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan looked at Yin Xiaoxiao, not knowing what ‘brotherly sadistic love’ meant.

Hua Xiaohua glared at Yin Xiaoxiao. “Don’t talk nonsense.” Then he very, very seriously – turned towards Yin Dabai.

“What’s to be done?”

Yin Dabai raised his head and looked at the roof of the cave for a very long time. His mouth opened a fraction. “This situation isn’t unprecedented. I don’t support it, but I also don’t oppose it.”

Hey, hey, hey! Yin Dabai, those are your sons! Was it really okay for you to say this?

Hua Xiaohua nodded his head, then turned back to look at Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan. “You ⁹ are serious? You ¹⁰ ’re sure you ¹¹ ’ll together in the future? For a hundred years? Two hundred years?”

Simultaneously, Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan emphatically nodded their heads.

“We’re sure. Forever-.

“-together.”

Hua Xiaohua sighed, suddenly feeling tired. Before, when he didn’t have children, he’d heard others saying that children were a giant headache. Later on, when he had children, he didn’t feel too much worry. He didn’t expect that it would all be waiting for this moment!

However, there was a silver lining. Viper society was a lot more simple than human society. If this were modern times, brothers in a relationship was not only homosexual but incestuous. These two hats ¹² were enough to destroy the futures, even lives, of the two people involved. But here, Yin Dabai had said that, while he didn’t support it, he didn’t oppose it. Hua Xiaohua had only sighed, and, just like that, it seemed as though this matter was over.

The viper clans absolutely didn’t have anything like going abroad. Brother-brother, or sister-sister, or older sister-younger brother, or elder brother-younger sister, this kind of thing wasn’t rare. Thus, while the matter of Hua Xiaoer and Hua Xiaosan being together surely was a psychological blow to Hua Xiaohua, Hua Xiaohua wasn’t compelled to separate the two of them.

Vipers didn’t worry about food and drink, didn’t worry about disease, didn’t worry about amusing themselves. They didn’t distinguish between rich and poor. There were no conflicts of interest. In other words, while there were different levels of strength, this was relatively meaningless. They didn’t live together, and they didn’t need to hunt together. And, although the Mo snakes were said to be bad-tempered and were feared by other snakes, how many Mo snakes were inside the boundary? Additionally, the Mo snakes liked to remain on the mountain in the Mo snake lands where common snakes were unlikely to even approach. Someone Chinese would say that the vipers were surely living in a Peach Blossom Spring ¹³ .

As all material needs were met, it seemed as though inner needs became especially important – with even more importance placed on the snake who would accompany them for their lifetime.

Perhaps this was romantic love or perhaps this was custom or, even more, perhaps this was only a way for the vipers to divert themselves from their loneliness, but no matter what, there was one thing that couldn’t be overlooked: their loyalty and steadfastness to their other half.

Spending their entire life with only this one snake.

Bearing issues of familial relation or ethnicity ¹⁴ in mind, all of that seemed to be particularly insignificant. These were unimportant. What was important was to find your one true snake. An elder can admonish a younger, telling them that this path wasn’t good, but they would not forcefully intervene in this matter. Two snakes forming a partnership, this was the business of the snakes involved, not that of any other snake.

This could even be seen in Father Mo and Mother Mo. They didn’t like Yin Xiaoxiao, they criticized Mo Laoda in order to force Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao to separate, but they wouldn’t actually injure Yin Xiaoxiao. If they had to break up Mo Laoda and Yin Xiaoxiao, the most direct method would be to bite Yin Xiaoxiao to death, after all, Mo Laoda couldn’t be at Yin Xiaoxiao’s side at all times, but they didn’t do this.

Perhaps, for vipers, their partners were more important than anything.

Looking from the human point of view, viper society undoubtedly looked primitive, a byword for backward and uncivilized. They hadn’t learned to use fire. They didn’t have currency or goods. They didn’t have the Three Principles and Five Constants ¹⁵ . But so what? When all was said and done, vipers weren’t humans. They could walk a different path, completely separate from humans.

T/N:

Footnotes

<ol>阳奉阴违: idiom meaning referring to someone who is outwardly compliant but inwardly disobedient added for clarity 红: Hong = red 小红 and 小明: from what I understand, these are two very stereotypically common names. That’s why he’s laughing Fourth elder brother plural plural 兄弟虐戀: literally translates to brotherly sadomasochism, but in pop culture, sadomasochism refers to media with a lot of drama and angst and which may or may not end in tragedy. A non danmei example would be Ashes of Love or 香蜜沉沉烬如霜. The sadomasochism part refers to the emotional rollercoaster that the viewer/reader experiences as the story progresses. There may or may not be actual S&amp;M involved. plural plural; added for clarity plural; added for clarity hat is used figuratively as a synonym for label 桃花源: a utopia sentence restructured for clarity 伦理纲常: an ethical framework based on Confucianism that was supposed to govern feudal society https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%B8%89%E7%BA%B2%E4%BA%94%E4%BC%A6/95744</ol>