Chapter 30 p1: Leaving
The evening sea breeze caressed her face, tangling her long hair, which had become somewhat dry due to malnutrition.
The wind carried moisture and a faint salty smell.
Yu Chujin pushed her long hair back and looked at the sea, which was dyed red by the sunset. A red sun hung at the end of the sea, a breathtakingly beautiful sight.
Yu Chujin did not wait for the large snake’s answer. Of course, it couldn’t answer.
It was just a snake, without so many rich emotions. It was pure and simple and did not understand what humans called love.
“It’s not important. Love or not, it’s not as important as me finding an iron can.”
Of course, if she could find a pot, that would be even better, although the idea of finding a pot was not practical.
Because iron pots were too heavy, most of them would just sink to the bottom of the water, not drift with the current, let alone float across the ocean.
The discussion about love ended there. It was just a boring topic for a boring time.
Yu Chujin did not climb onto the large snake’s back again, but walked on her own.
Afraid of getting her shoes wet, she took them off in advance and walked barefoot in the waves, kicking the water from time to time. It was quite pleasant.
As for the shoes she had taken off, Yu Chujin was incredibly lazy and unwilling to carry them herself. She directly had the large snake help her carry them.
When she handed the shoes over, the large snake straightened up, its eyes immediately shining brightly.
Yu Chujin paused for a moment and urgently withdrew the action of handing over the shoes.
She was too familiar with the large snake’s sparkling eyes. She had to explain it clearly immediately.
“I’m just asking you to help me carry my shoes. It’s not a gift for you. I don’t mean to give them to you. You’re not allowed to hide my shoes on a tree.”
“Besides, no one would give this kind of shoes as a gift. Don’t covet my shoes. I only have one pair. What will I wear if I give them to you?”
The large snake couldn’t understand, but from Yu Chujin’s serious expression and tone, it could tell that the shoes were not a gift for it.
Its small ears drooped, and it pouted in disappointment.
My mate has a lot of skins, but she only gave me one. I’m so sad.
Seeing its obvious unhappiness, Yu Chujin smiled helplessly, “When I have the chance in the future, I’ll give you a better gift, a gift that is more useful to you.”
Speaking of giving gifts, Yu Chujin became troubled.
“What should I give you? What kind of gift would a snake need? There are a lot of delicacies in the human world, but your taste is too strange. You probably wouldn’t like to eat them.”
“How about I buy you a few pounds of raw beef? Have you ever eaten beef? There don’t seem to be any cows on this island.”
The large snake actively responded to her, “Hiss hiss.”
Yu Chujin sighed, “It’s a bit too early to think about these things. I have to be able to go back first before I can buy you beef.”
Kicking the waves at her feet, she left one human footprint after another on the sand, and next to the footprints were the winding tracks left by the large snake’s slithering.
One person and one snake, leisurely strolling by the seaside.
While strolling, she still didn’t forget her original purpose. Although she had picked up a lot of things along the way, she had never been able to find the most important iron can.
Behind them, after the large snake and Yu Chujin had left, a wave rose up where they had originally stayed.
The wishing bottle, a symbol of love that Yu Chujin had thrown out, was washed back by the waves.
Along the way, Yu Chujin’s hands were empty, while the large snake was covered in things: plastic film, bottles, a foam box, all over its body.
It had become a scavenger snake.
“Hahahaha,” Yu Chujin laughed at it.
“Hahahaha,” the large snake copied her laughter.
The large snake often copied her laughter, but every time Yu Chujin heard it, she felt it was very strange. It might be related to the way the large snake pronounced it. It sounded very awkward and low.
If she had to find an adjective, it might be similar to the laughter in a horror movie…
“Don’t copy my laughter in the future. I’m a coward.”
“Hahahaha.”
“…”
The sky was getting darker and darker, and they had only walked about a fifth of the way around the island. The island was much larger than Yu Chujin had imagined.
As for how big it was exactly, Yu Chujin had no idea.
“Forget it, let’s go back first. Finding an iron can depends on luck. We’ll come back tomorrow. Anyway, what we have the most of is time.”
“Hiss hiss.”
Yu Chujin nimbly climbed onto the large snake’s back.
At first, she was very clumsy when she climbed. It took her a long time to climb onto the slippery snake’s back. But after a few times, she had mastered the technique and it became much easier.
The main technique for climbing a snake’s back was that the large snake would use its tail to give her a lift. Hmm, that didn’t seem to be a technique she had learned, but a technique the large snake had learned.
The large snake seemed to know that the two-legged creature was “uncoordinated.” It was very difficult for her to climb up, and she would struggle for a long time. So every time, it would help her with its tail.
Yu Chujin patted the snake’s body, “Let’s go, let’s go home.”
The large snake: “Go… home.”
Yu Chujin’s eyebrows raised slightly, “Not bad. You’ve learned another word.”
With the large snake’s learning speed, as long as she talked to it often, it might not take long for them to communicate smoothly.
However, was it a good thing that the large snake could speak fluently?
The large snake was a chatterbox, so noisy.
For example, now, it had learned the word “go home.” On the way home, it had been nagging.
“Go… home, go… home, go home, go home, go home.”
Like chanting a sutra.
Yu Chujin: “Alright, stop nagging. You’re really annoying.”
The large snake’s ears were pricked up, listening. After a moment, “Alright… alright, alright.”
Yu Chujin facepalmed. Its learning ability was really strong. It had learned two words in a short while.
But the “alright” that the large snake had learned didn’t seem to be a good thing, because…
Yu Chujin clicked her tongue, “Is it endless? I told you to be quiet. Stop nagging.”
The large snake returned a “tsk” to her, “Alright.”
Yu Chujin: “…”
The large snake clicked its tongue and then said “alright,” perfectly imitating Yu Chujin’s impatient and bad-tempered manner.
She couldn’t help but reflect, “Is this how I usually treat you?”
She reflected for two seconds, “So what? Tsk.”
The large snake: “Tsk.”
Yu Chujin narrowed her eyes, climbed up, and without hesitation, tapped its head twice.
“That’s for being rude. Who are you ‘tsking’ at? A rude snake.”
Being hit, the large snake shrank its head, turned its head, pouted, and spoke in human language, “Bad snake!”
Yu Chujin: “So what?”
The large snake: “Bad snake!”
Yu Chujin raised her hand, “You say ‘bad snake’ again and see what happens.”
The large snake looked at her raised hand, its eyes darting around. It closed its mouth and didn’t speak, turning its head away to avoid being hit again.
It was quite tactful. Yu Chujin chuckled.
The large snake’s small ears were pricked up, listening to her movements.
Perhaps because its body was so large, its ears looked particularly small. At first, Yu Chujin hadn’t even noticed its ears. It was only later that she learned it had them.
Yu Chujin found it fun that its small ears would twitch from time to time.
She reached out and pinched its ear.
The large snake shrank its ear, not letting her touch it.
Yu Chujin impolitely pulled its ear out and continued to pinch it. Its small ear had a similar texture to its body, slippery and soft.
The large snake shook its head, shaking her hand off.
Yu Chujin was not to be outdone and pinched it again and again.
The large snake let out a “hiss” from its throat, expressing its dissatisfaction.
Yu Chujin just pretended not to hear. She had always been mischievous. If the large snake had just lain there and let her pinch it, Yu Chujin would have found it boring after a couple of pinches. But it was unwilling…
Since it was unwilling, it was interesting. She had to pinch it a couple more times. The more unwilling it was, the more she had to pinch it.
As she was pinching it, she found that something was wrong. Behind the large snake’s ear, there was a shiny object.
“Hmm? What is this?”
Yu Chujin leaned in to look.
It was a palm-sized scale, growing in its flesh, and it was glowing with a faint cyan fluorescence in the dark.
“You have scales too? Why is there only one behind your ear? And it’s glowing. Wow, so beautiful.”
As she spoke, she reached out to touch the scale behind its ear.
Almost as soon as her finger touched the scale, before she could even feel what the scale felt like, the large snake’s head shot around with a whoosh.
Its eyes were vertical slits, its fangs were bared, and it looked fierce, full of aggression.
The large snake’s appearance had changed, no longer as gentle as before.
Yu Chujin was so scared that she pulled her hand back.
The large snake’s reaction was a stress response. In just a second, it calmed down. Its pupils slowly returned to normal, and its bared fangs were also retracted.
Yu Chujin looked at the large snake in silence.
Of course, she was scared. Who wouldn’t be afraid of being bared at by such a large creature?
But who was Yu Chujin? After being scared, she became angry. She immediately pried open the large snake’s mouth and forcefully stuffed her hand in.
“Baring your fangs, are you? Don’t you want to bite? Bite me, bite me now. My hand is for you to bite.”
The large snake kept its mouth tightly shut and looked at her with an aggrieved expression.
“You’re still aggrieved? You bared your fangs at me. I just pinched your ear. Are you going to bite me? You’re a bad snake!”
Yu Chujin was very angry. She jumped off the large snake’s back and walked forward alone, ignoring it.
The sound of the large snake slithering on the sand came from behind.
The large snake kept following, but it didn’t dare to get too close, only following at a distance that was neither too near nor too far.
Yu Chujin was cold and didn’t turn her head once. She could feel that when the large snake had shown its vertical pupils just now, it had wanted to attack her.
Yu Chujin felt very unhappy. Perhaps “unhappy” was not an accurate description. It should be… a little sad.
Although it was a bit melodramatic to say she was sad, she just felt sad.
Da Huang had also bared its teeth at her before. When Da Huang had first arrived, it was a bit protective of its food and had even bitten Yu Chujin once. Although it was just a very light bite, Yu Chujin had been very sad at that time.
The sadness at that time was similar to the sadness now.
It felt like her sincerity had been misplaced!
You actually bit me for a mouthful of food! You actually wanted to bite me because I touched your ear!
Although she knew that Da Huang’s protectiveness of its food was an instinct, and she had been bitten purely because she was being mischievous, and although the large snake had clearly indicated that it didn’t like its ears being touched, and she had insisted on touching them, and she had been scolded purely because she was being mischievous.
But so what?
Yu Chujin was not a reasonable person. She was puffed up with anger, and her steps forward became faster and faster.
