Chapter 40: Rainy Season
Note: there’s fat shaming going on here, so beware, and also, don’t judge your self-worth by your weight. It probably sounds like empty words from a stranger to another, but please love yourself. If you can’t, know that there are people who love you, even if you don’t think so right now. <>
It was another day of blazing sun, the stifling heat causing people to be unable to even breathe properly. The noisy cries of birds and insects of the forest also gave people an unspeakable annoyance.
Shu Jintian couldn’t contain himself and wanted to go into the water to cool down. It just so happened that he also wanted to go get some seaweed from the ocean water as well, so he told Hanyu that he wanted to go to the sea.
Hanyu naturally had no objections. Whatever the female wanted to eat, he would always do his best to bring it back even if it risked his life, to say nothing of the fact that they were going to the blue water that he liked so much.
The most unbearable time of stifling heat was at noon, and Hanyu used his Spiritual Snake form to carry Shu Jintian on his back and arrived at the blue water.
With his previous experience, Shu Jintian wasn’t glancing around when they were heading to the seafloor, instead hugging Hanyu’s neck relaxedly with his eyes closed. From time to time, he would shake Hanyu’s neck, reminding him that he needed air.
Hanyu didn’t take the initiative either, and waited for the female to deliver himself to his door before he cooperated with the female, and even took the chance to tease him with his forked tongue. Shu Jintian was well aware of this, but he was helpless as well, and could only hold his breath, and brace himself for however long he could.
He could completely accept a kiss from the human form of Hanyu, but his snake form… was truly a bit too frightening. Every time he approached that enormous snake head and the big snake opened his mouth, he could even see the inside of his oral cavity and those pointed fangs; he couldn’t even explain his horror. But he still had to take the initiative to kiss that terrifying snake mouth…
Previously, he did not understand the big snake and Shu Jintian had no idea how he could tolerate a big python’s kiss.
Arriving at the bottom of the blue water, Shu Jintian started tearing off a lot of Lian Fish Zao and placed them into the net he had prepared with weaved vines. Shu Jintian wasn’t sure whether the Yellow-spotted Zao that looked like mushrooms could be kept for a long time, so he only caught enough to eat for a meal. Hanyu had even brought him to get some algae that were net-shaped like luffas, and looked soft, but the algaes’ stems were unexpectedly fresh and tasty. Shu Jintian liked it very much, and so took a bit more of this.
This trip to the seabed could be said to be a fruitful harvest. Shu Jintian carried a large bag of miscellaneous food, while Hanyu also pulled out an entire Floating Zao, that is, the sea algae like luffa.
To conserve energy, Shu Jintian straightforwardly put the sea algae that had to be sun-dried by the beach, waiting for it to dry before he collected it.
After getting the sea algae, the two took a bath in the river, then went to catch some prey before returning to the mountain cave.
“Tiantian, I’ll go make fire.” Hanyu looked at the female who was so tired that his face was completely red, and felt his heart ache.
“No need! I’ll do it myself. In the future, you don’t have to help me cook anymore.” Shu Jintian glanced at Hanyu’s hands, and his heart immediately constricted. Hanyu’s originally fair and slender hands were roasted red yesterday. Today, his skin even appeared to be flaking off slightly, and Shu Jintian felt pain just by looking at his state.
Clearly, he was a snake who was this scared of fire, yet he kept coming in contact with open fire again and again. He simply didn’t have the slightest self-awareness of a snake.
Hanyu also followed along and laid on the ground, his whole body like his snake form, tightly wound around Shu Jintian.
Hanyu pinched the female’s body, and felt that the female finally had some meat. His face had also rounded some, his whole body appearing a lot more docile.
“Tiantian became plump,” Hanyu said softly, gazing at Shu Jintian gently.
“Ah! Even you can see it!” Hearing this, Shu Jintian immediately sat up, touching his face, then pinching his waist. Sure enough, he got a size fatter! Even Hanyu could see that he had gained weight; Shu Jintian could no longer delude himself, and his face immediately displayed a crying expression.
Shu Jintian pinched his abdomen, and he unexpectedly even had a little paunch. Before, it would turn flat after he digested food, but recently, it seemed that it didn’t completely disappear ah! To no avail, he had even thought he had just overeaten!
“That can’t do. I have to lose weight! …Hanyu, did I really get a lot fatter?”
Shu Jintian sort of cared whether Hanyu was dissatisfied with his figure, but after saying that, he lowered his head, pretending not to care, and pinched his abdomen again.
“Tiantian is still too thin; you should be a little fatter.” Hanyu kneaded the female’s waist where there was more meat, and smilingly said, “It would be even better if you grew longer.”
Eh…
“Are you raising me as a snake? Grow longer- that’s called grow taller! Taller!” Shu Jintian was depressed. He was 180cm tall, but when standing beside Hanyu, he was simply like a child with an adult. Sure enough, snakes were long ah. Even when he turned into a human, he was still longer than normal people.
But seeing that the big snake didn’t mind that he was plump, Shu Jintian still sighed in relief.
Shu Jintian was just about to lie down when he felt a chill down his spine, like back when he was locked on by a hungry beast. But the feeling this time was a hundred times more intense than the first time that he encountered the wild beast, and caused his hairs to rise.
Shu Jintian immediately turned his head back, his eyes filled with worry. Where was there any wild beast? There was only something flashing by in the distance, and Shu Jintian wasn’t sure whether he was seeing things.
A cold light appeared in Hanyu’s emerald eyes with a red glow, gazing icily in the direction where the female was looking.
“What’s wrong, Tiantian?” Hanyu embraced the female, seamlessly obstructing his view of that direction.
“Huh? Oh, nothing.” Shu Jintian originally wanted to ask whether Hanyu saw anything, but on second thought, if even Hanyu didn’t find anything, he wouldn’t possibly be able to do so. And so he suppressed the doubt in his heart. However, his heart was still nervously pounding.
Hanyu pressed the female against his chest, pacifying, “Don’t be scared, I’m here.”
Shu Jintian’s heart suddenly skipped a beat. As he obtained a sense of security, an unfamiliar feeling engulfed him, overflowing in his heart.
“Mn!” His face was buried against Hanyu’s bare chest, but Shu Jintian’s eyes were blank, completely deep in thought. How could it be? Did he really fall for this snake?
Shu Jintian couldn’t understand his feelings, and was unwilling to face his emotions. Thus, he leaned against Hanyu’s body vacantly, remaining silent.
The times were peaceful! Shu Jintian quietly stayed with Hanyu, feeling very comfortable.
Forget it, just live like this; it doesn’t seem that bad too! Thinking of this, Shu Jintian was disinclined to think any further. How sleepy; he should sleep now.
The temperature gradually fell, but Shu Jintian still felt unbearably stifled. He could only find some things to do to disperse this stifled feeling. When he had nothing to do, he’d go dig for some sweet potatoes with Hanyu. This patch of land had a lot of sweet potatoes, and they’d dig this patch then dig that patch, and the sweet potatoes dug out had already turned into a tiny pile at their cave, yet this place was still lush. Moreover, the empty lands that they had dug out had cleared the way for these over abundant sweet potatoes, and so the sweet potato vines grew even more profusely.
The vines that had just sprouted were green and verdant, bright and tender like carved jasper. When Shu Jintian returned, he would always bring back a handful. Stir-fried, boiled, or sauteed with meat, the flavour would be good in all these forms.
Whereas Hanyu, in order to make more animal hide, he hunted by selecting prey with better fur. When going uphill, he would treat the skin and dry it on the top of the tree.
And so, seven to eight days passed like this. The sweet potatoes in the cave had piled up into a small mountain, and their hides had increased by eight-folds, and were lovingly piled tidily by Shu Jintian and set on the bedside. And the rainy season that had been brewing for a long time had also finally arrived.
The rainstorm came down heavily, the rumbling sound of rain resonating through the valley. It was accompanied by thunder and lightning flashes, gales erupting everywhere. On this day, everything took a one eighty turn.
The entire world was covered in a blurry layer of rain like a misty muslin enshrouding the mountain forest soaked by the rainstorm.
Although the outside of the mountain forest was inclined, the overly heavy rain still caused a lot of rainwater to rush into the cave. Hanyu found a broken log and laid it horizontally at the entrance, then hung large pieces of tree leaves on the horizontal tree, only then was the inside of the cavern able to maintain a dry and clean state.
“It’s raining again. Luckily, I listened to you yesterday and collected all the sea algae, or else they would have all been soaked.” Shu Jintian said happily, but had no idea that Hanyu had long known the arrival of the rainy season.
After the finger-width Lian Fish Zao were dried, they shrunk to half their size. And the Floating Zao became even lighter, like a bath sponge. The sun-dried sea algae were much lighter, and they relaxedly moved them back.
Hanyu smiled, and nested on the bed and brought him into his embrace.
The similar weather always made him associate it with bad memories. The scene of being humiliated by the wild beast inadvertently came to mind, and Shu Jintian became terribly twitchy for a time. He took a few deep breaths and lazily snuggled in Hanyu’s embrace.
He had recently become constantly sleepy, and Shu Jintian felt depressed, lying in the nest and delving into Hanyu’s embrace without speaking, and soon became half-asleep.
“Is Tiantian hungry? It’s time to eat,” Hanyu said helplessly. His family’s Tiantian has been sleeping a lot recently, and now had not gotten out of bed for long when he wanted to go back to sleep.
“Mn~ True, if you didn’t say, I wouldn’t have noticed, but now that you have, I really do feel a little hungry. What shall I eat ne? Let’s just roast some meat ba!” Shu Jintian rubbed his eyes, forcing away his drowsiness.
“Then I’ll go get some firewood.”
With that, Hanyu was about to leave when Shu Jintian suddenly stopped him.
“Wait, it’s raining outside!” Shu Jintian couldn’t help shouting.
“Mn.” Hanyu tilted his head, waiting for the female’s next words.
“The firewood will be wet~” Shu Jintian said mournfully. Looking at the hazy world outside, he finally shrugged helplessly. “Forget it, let’s eat some red potatoes ba! Just think of it as losing weight.”
Shu Jintian spoke unknowingly, but Hanyu hastily paused. The rainy season was more than ten days, and was usually even over thirty days!
“Then I’ll go wash the sweet potatoes.” Hanyu stroked Shu Jintian’s hair that had gotten longer, then released his twist around the female to wash the sweet potatoes.
Shu Jintian ate such raw sweet potatoes for several days, eating until he felt unwell all over. He had also slimmed down, but his stomach had a hard-to-ignore little pouch sticking out.
It wasn’t too obvious, and it simply couldn’t be seen when he wore clothes. Such an ugly little belly naturally was, intentionally or otherwise, considered as what cannot be seen will not be known. Moreover, because Hanyu did not proposition him recently, and adding that Shu Jintian was covering it up and intentionally concealed his belly, Hanyu did not notice Shu Jintian’s subtle change.
These days, aside from eating raw sweet potatoes, Shu Jintian was eating sweet potatoes, and ate so much that he was about to go crazy.
Reaching the end of his patience, Shu Jintian vented by suddenly falling down on Hanyu, then pulled Hanyu’s arm up to take a bite, grinding his teeth.
“I want to eat meat, I reeaaally want to eat meat!” Shu Jintian unconsciously puckered his lips, looking at Hanyu pitifully.
How could Hanyu bear the female’s pitiful appearance? He immediately became incredibly distressed. After thinking about it, he himself also needed a meal. As such, he took out an animal hide and draped it inside out over the female’s body, gently saying, “Then let’s go hunting.”