Early in the morning, for the first time, the little snake woke before Ah Wan. She poked her furry head out from under the covers, propped herself up on Ah Wan, and tilted her head back to look at her for a moment. Then, she reached across to grab the storybook from the nightstand.
Once she had it, she flipped over to face the wall, lying on her own pillow, which was basically just for show. She flipped through the book meticulously, her brow furrowed in concentration.
Ah Wan turned over in her sleep and, not finding anyone to hold, instantly jolted awake. She opened her eyes and saw the little snake lying on her stomach facing away from her on the bed, doing who-knows-what.
Ah Wan slowly sat up and leaned over to look. The little snake was pointing her finger at the title on the page, slowly reading aloud, word by word: “Lit-tle, Mer-maid.”
“The Little Mermaid.”
Propping up her own cheek, muttering to herself. Unbearably cute.
Ah Wan looked at her fair, clear profile and smiled. She suddenly reached out and pointed at the character for “fish” in the text and asked, “What does this word say?”
Hearing the voice, the little snake turned her head to look. She glanced at it curiously, then frowned deeply, hesitating, “This…”
“It says ‘stupid’,” Ah Wan said. [T/N: In Chinese, the word for fish (yú) and stupid (yú) share the same pronunciation.]
“Oh! Snakey knows! Stupid, as for stupid.”
As she spoke, she used her finger to point and read it three times, then looked at Ah Wan smugly.
“Mm, for stupid human.”
Ah Wan couldn’t hold back her laughter. She whispered in the little snake’s ear, “Stupid, what does this word say?”
As she spoke, however, she was pointing at the character for “fish” in the title.
“This is Lit-tle, Mer…” The little snake read the title word by word, her voice full of enthusiasm, but it slowly faded, “…maid?”
Ah Wan let out a triumphant laugh by her ear. Realizing what had happened, the little snake clenched her fist and pounded it on the book. She whipped her head around to glare at Ah Wan indignantly.
“How can you bully Snakey?”
Ah Wan laughed, leaning backward. The little snake then pounced on her directly, claws bared, pressing down on her with all her weight, and repeated fiercely, “Human, you’re bad. You bully Snakey.”
Ah Wan held her waist and gave an “Mm,” provocatively answering, “Mm, I bullied you. So what?”
She then gave her lower back a light, unheavy smack.
The little snake was angry. She squirmed in her arms and acted out. Knowing her human was ticklish, she started tickling her with her hands.
Ah Wan couldn’t help but laugh a couple of times. She held her close and grabbed her hands, stopping her from flailing.
The little snake struggled hard and accidentally tumbled right into her arms.
Since winter began, the heating appliances at home had basically never been turned off, and the electric blanket was on the bed. So at night, they both slept in rather thin clothes.
Now, with the little snake suddenly pressing down on her, Ah Wan’s ears instantly turned red.
The soft sensation was impossible to ignore. Ah Wan glanced at her, then turned her head away somewhat flustered.
Seeing this, the little snake stretched out her arms, cupped Ah Wan’s face, and turned her head back. She then scooted forward to get even closer to her.
Ah Wan frowned. She draped her arm loosely around the little snake’s waist, rubbing her fingertips together with difficulty, almost generating sparks from the friction. Yet, she still looked at her and spoke casually, “What are you doing?”
“Why won’t you look at Snakey?” The little snake cupped her face and questioned her dominantly.
Ah Wan coughed lightly and averted her gaze, trying to hide it. “No reason.”
“You are, you are.” The little snake got more worked up as she spoke. She wrapped her arms around Ah Wan’s neck, tilting her head to seek her out. She clumsily rubbed their foreheads together, looking at her eyes and saying, somewhat sadly, “Just now, you didn’t want to look at Snakey. Snakey saw.”
With the little snake holding her like this, Ah Wan had nowhere to hide. She could only meet her gaze, coaxing in a soft voice, “I wasn’t.”
“You were.”
After the little snake finished speaking, she took the initiative to rub the tip of her nose against Ah Wan’s. She stared fixedly at those pale pink lips and secretly swallowed.
She then flicked out her Snake Tongue, touching them quickly and lightly, and then looked up again.
Ah Wan’s eyes were a light brown, but now they seemed coated in a layer of ink, unfathomably deep. You couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
After hesitating for a moment, the little snake proactively tilted her head to kiss her on the mouth, but Ah Wan suddenly dodged.
“Mm?”
The little snake looked at her, puzzled.
Ah Wan turned her head away and pressed the little snake against her shoulder, patting her gently.
“Why won’t you let Snakey kiss you?” The little snake leaned against her, her voice soft, with a hint of grievance. She quietly promised, “Snakey won’t bite you, just wants to kiss you.”
Hearing this, Ah Wan took a deep breath. She closed her eyes and calmed herself before replying, “You just want a kiss, but I might not be able to hold back.”
“Hold back what?”
The little snake looked up curiously.
“Nothing.” Ah Wan squeezed her hand, lowered her head, and stared dazedly at her exquisite little face. But in the end, she did nothing, only bowing her head to lightly sniff her hair.
Then she threw back the covers and got up, saying, “Come on, let’s go make breakfast. I’m hungry.”
On the bed, the little snake watched her leave, puzzled. She still didn’t understand her words. She could only obediently get up to change clothes and follow her into the kitchen to cook together.
In the not-so-large kitchen, the two of them squeezed close together. Ah Wan picked up a piece of freshly made plum-sauce spare rib, blew on it to cool it, and fed it to the little snake.
The small pot on the stove was still simmering with corn and rib soup. What the little snake loved most were the little spare ribs—fried, braised, stewed, no matter how they were prepared.
Before winter started, Ah Wan had gone down the mountain and bought many for her, so many they couldn’t even fit in the fridge. Yet, it wasn’t even the twelfth lunar month and they were almost gone.
The little snake was wearing last night’s rabbit pajamas, hood up, nuzzling Ah Wan. After she finished the plum-sauce rib, her eyes were fixed on the bubbling pot, unwilling to look away.
Ah Wan put the sliced lotus root pieces into the pot. She then used a ladle to stir while looking at her phone, occasionally frowning.
The little snake grabbed her arm and stood on her tiptoes, wanting to see too. She was impatient. “What are you playing?”
Seeing her eagerness, Ah Wan directly tilted her phone to show her.
It was a WeChat group chat page. The screen was full of text, with the occasional sticker mixed in.
The little snake looked at it, scratched her head, and then knowingly pushed the phone back to her, saying sheepishly, “Snakey will look after Snakey learns to read.”
Ah Wan looked at her and laughed, retorting curiously, “After you learn?”
She then looked at her phone, shaking her head with pity. “I’m afraid it wouldn’t last.”
Ah Wan’s phone was one she’d bought back in college. Her needs were low, and she had no one she wanted to contact. She had bought it then for classes.
After graduation, she had directly moved here. Having not contacted her family for years, she needed it even less.
So she had no plans to replace it now. Besides, there was really no need. After all, the human she wanted to keep in constant touch with was right by her side.
Ah Wan thought, rather than spend a few thousand on a useless phone, it was better to buy more little spare ribs.
“This is the group for the Mountain Village below. I had someone add me to it a while ago.”
Ah Wan explained and put her phone away. She opened the cabinet and took out a glass jar, pouring out a few Red Jujubes.
The little snake circled behind her and asked curiously, “A group? What’s it for?”
Ah Wan turned on the faucet to wash the jujubes, replying calmly, “Some families down the mountain raise pigs. I wanted to see if any had them for sale, to buy one.”
“What for?”
Little Miss Ten Thousand Whys was curious again.
Ah Wan turned around, opened the lid, and put the clean Red Jujubes into the pot to stew. After covering it, she turned and leaned back against the counter, folding her arms across her chest and watching the little creature before her with a composed, knowing look. She replied with mischief, “To raise. Once I raise a pig, I won’t raise you anymore.”
The little snake was horrified. She stared blankly at her human, not knowing what to say. After a long while, she finally managed to force out: “Human’s bed is tiny, pig is huge. It won’t fit.”
She tried to dissuade Ah Wan with this pale reasoning.
But Ah Wan, hearing this, was unmoved. She even started planning. “It’s okay. If the bed can’t fit it, I can put it in the fridge. And if that still doesn’t fit…”
Ah Wan bent down to meet the little snake’s eyes. She used her index finger to lightly trace a line down the little snake’s abdomen, finally stopping at a spot and poking it slightly harder, smiling. “I’ll put it right here.”
She then left, patting the little snake on the head as she passed.
The little snake turned and watched Ah Wan. Realizing belatedly that she’d been tricked, she stomped her feet in indignation.
Then she grabbed the two rabbit ears on her hood and yanked them down hard, using the big hood to completely wrap her head. She flailed around on the spot as if going crazy, then spread her arms open and ran out, calling out softly and sweetly, “Human~”
After staking out the group for days, Ah Wan finally landed a deal the moment a family wanted to sell a large pig. Her speed was terrifyingly fast.
But then again, these families raised pigs for their own consumption or to save for their children; they rarely had extra to sell. Ah Wan had waited so long just for this one. She immediately paid a deposit and agreed to go pick up the pig the next day.
The next day, after breakfast, Ah Wan went back to her room, changed her clothes, and came out. She asked the little snake, who was watching TV on the sofa, “Going down the mountain soon. Want to come?”
The little snake didn’t even ask what for. Her eyes were glued to the TV. Without turning her head, she answered without hesitation, “No.”
Ah Wan acted as if she hadn’t heard. She took out shoes from the cabinet and put them on, then opened a shoebox to take out a new pair of snow boots.
She then walked over and sat right down next to the little snake. Without a moment’s hesitation, she grabbed her crossed legs, held her by the ankle, and without another word, started pulling the snow boot onto her foot.
“Human,” the little snake gasped, pulling her foot back slightly. But Ah Wan’s grip was tight, and she couldn’t move it. She could only ask, puzzled, “What are you doing?”
“Going down the mountain.”
“Huh?”
Hearing this, the little snake even experienced a moment of self-doubt. “Snakey said no! Snakey wants to watch TV.”
Ah Wan, after hearing this, let go of her foot. She looked at her as if in sudden realization. “Oh, then I must have misheard.”
She then looked down and said regretfully, “Looks like I can only go buy the little pig by myself.”
At these words, the little snake panicked on the spot.
Needing no further prompting, she immediately got up from the sofa. She stomped her foot down, using her heel to force the boot on all the way by herself.
Then she grabbed Ah Wan’s arm and shook it, speaking urgently, “No! Snakey won’t watch! Snakey will go with you.”
Saying this, she immediately grabbed the remote and paused the TV.
Seeing this, Ah Wan couldn’t help but curl her lips. But she said nothing, simply standing up and heading straight for the door.
The little snake turned her head and saw that she was almost at the door. She hastily put the remote down and ran over, tightly grabbing her hand. As they walked out, she carefully negotiated, “Then when will we be back? Snakey still wants to watch a little more TV.”
Ah Wan held her hand back and put it into her own pocket, looking secretly thrilled. She replied casually, “We’ll be back soon.”
The little snake believed it, following her out with joyful excitement.
