Chapter 56: Gradual Acceptance
Edited by Squid
Cold wind mingled with snowflakes whistled past, caressing Shu Jintian’s body that was about to erode from the wind. Shu Jintian stiffly turned his head and blankly asked Shu Hanyu,
“What did I just do? Did you see little snakes fly out?”
Shu Hanyu gave him an affirmative nod, in a rather good mood.
“I saw. Tiantian threw them away.”
“Then what about them? Why did they disappear? They didn’t fall into the snow, right?” Shu Jintian only then came back to his senses and ran over to the side of the snowpile to look.
But in the pure white snow, there wasn’t a single blotch of colour or emerald green figure of little snakes. The shining white expanse was like an enormous cupcake, and the little snakes falling didn’t leave any marks on the snow’s surface at all.
“This won’t do. With such cold weather, they’ll definitely freeze to death. Hanyu, we have to find them as soon as possible.” Shu Jintian became panicked. The little snakes had just hatched, and were definitely at their weakest state right now. They shouldn’t freeze to death. Shu Jintian was now incredibly regretful.
Even though Shu Jintian wasn’t that close to the little snakes, he still had the feeling of being a first-time father to them. Shu Jintian agitatedly rushed into the snow, wanting to look for the little snakes.
Shu Hanyu’s happiness gradually weakened and he remained motionless, slight jealousy in his heart. Didn’t Tiantian want to throw the snakelets away? Why did he suddenly change his mind?
When Shu Jintian’s foot stepped into the snow, the fluffy snow layer let out a crunch as it was squeezed. Listening to it gave people a sense of the snow’s purity and cleanliness.
The more Shu Jintian advanced, the deeper his legs sank. When Shu Jintian walked to where the snow was level, his thighs had already sunk into the snow. Shu Jintian was practically sitting on the snow, and wanting to even budge a step was exceptionally difficult.
Shu Jintian was incredibly anxious, and when he turned back to see Shu Hanyu still standing in his original spot, he was infuriated.
“Hanyu, why aren’t you still coming over ah? Hurry up, don’t let the children freeze!” Shu Jintian’s tone was urgent, the anxiety in his eyes as clear as day.
“Okay, I’m coming. Tiantian, come out. Don’t get cold.” Shu Hanyu endured the souring jealousy and walked to Shu Jintian’s side with a stiff face.
“Don’t bother about me, hurry up and find the little snakes.” When Shu Jintian saw Shu Hanyu come over, he instantly felt as if he had a pillar of support and his extremely uneasy heart steadied a little.
Hmph! These snakelets were really good at stirring up trouble; they even drew away Tiantian’s attention. Shu Hanyu extended his forked tongue and sensed the situation in the snow for a moment, then walked to the nearest little snake.
Shu Jintian wasn’t idling around either, as he continued to struggle over to where the young snakes had fallen.
Shu Hanyu, however, didn’t bother to search where the snakelets fell and swiftly walked to another area, nimbly sticking his hand into the snow and fishing up a little snake wriggling happily.
This little snake was evidently playing very happily, and was even able to still writhe excitedly when caught in male father’s hands. When it saw male father, it immediately stuck out its forked tongue at him.
“You found one, Hanyu! That’s so quick; the rest will be found really quickly too ba!” Shu Jintian only sighed in relief when he saw the little green snake in Shu Hanyu’s hand and smiled gratefully at him. His gaze towards the little snake also carried joy, and he didn’t even feel scared when the little snake stared directly at him and stuck out its tongue.
Shu Jintian did not understand Shu Hanyu and did not know about his race, so he only thought Hanyu had found one out of luck.
With a good start, searching will definitely be very smooth! Shu Jintian secretly encouraged himself. Shu Hanyu was so amazing, and he was so lucky, so they’ll definitely find all the snakes very soon.
When Shu Hanyu saw the female so concerned over the little snakes, his mood fell even more. He lowered his lashes and no longer looked at Shu Jintian, focusing on looking for the little snakes.
Shu Jintian spent a lot of effort before he finally found a snowy patch where a snakelet had fallen. There was a crooked snake imprint on the wide and even snow surface. Shu Jintian lowered his head and looked, but the whiteness of the snow was so bright he couldn’t see clearly, but the little snake definitely didn’t fall shallowly.
Shu Jintian felt remorseful. He took a deep breath, then slowly let it out, producing a white mist.
Enduring his fear for cold and smooth reptiles, Shu Jintian gritted his teeth and stuck his hand down towards the snake imprint. He didn’t feel anything at all. Shu Jintian’s hand strenuously twisted around under the snow, but there was still nothing at all.
It clearly fell down through here, so why wasn’t there anything?
Shu Jintian instantly panicked, and also became frightened as he hysterically dug through the snow. The snakelets must have slithered away after falling, but with such a large area of snow, how could he find them if they slithered far? He must definitely be nearby now, so he had to seize this time to search. Otherwise, he didn’t dare imagine the aftermath.
Though Shu Jintian didn’t manage to experience the joy of pregnancy, incubating for almost a week still made Shu Jintian invest a lot of sentiment. Now, these snakelets that he had already paid feelings for were about to leave him, and he even threw them away himself. Shu Jintian’s heart seized.
Shu Jintian’s mind was a little at a loss and he only knew that he couldn’t stop looking; he’d even forgotten about Shu Hanyu’s existence.
It wasn’t until a large figure blocked the light before Shu Jintian and darkened the dazzling white snow that Shu Jintian lifted his head to look at the oncoming person. His complexion was already snow-white.
“Tiantian?” Shu Hanyu panicked in his heart after seeing the female’s complexion, and asked in concern.
Shu Jintian was dumbstruck when he saw Shu Hanyu. His lips parted, wanting to say something, but couldn’t let out a sound for a time.
He only saw a large handful of snakelets excitedly writhing around in Shu Hanyu’s clutches. The snake heads were organised by Shu Hanyu to face upwards, while the tails below were drooping somewhat naturally and occasionally twining around others. Some directly curled around Shu Hanyu’s wrist. All the snakelets were unexpectedly found by Shu Hanyu.
The numerous little green snake heads enthusiastically straightened up, sticking their tongues out with hisses.
It should have been a very terrifying scene, yet Shu Jintian forgot his fear and panted out bursts of white air as he stared at the snakelets in Shu Hanyu’s grasp, unable to help his heart from aching.
Perhaps something had to be lost before it could be treasured, and before it could be remembered. Shu Jintian calmed down, incredibly glad.
“Great, they’re all found,” Shu Jintian said with a trembling voice. His eyes were watery, and the tears on the verge of falling were desperately suppressed as he stubbornly refused to let a single drop fall.
Shu Jintian shuffled over to Shu Hanyu, giggling.
“Hehe, thank you Hanyu!” Otherwise, I would have regretted it for a lifetime
, Shu Jintian looked at Shu Hanyu emotionally.“Mn!” Shu Hanyu replied faintly, still a little jealous over Shu Jintian’s concern for the snakelets.
A group of little snakes snatching someone’s line of sight twisted their bodies and attracted Shu Jintian’s attention. Shu Jintian apologetically said to the little snakes, “Sorry, I lost control just now. Don’t blame… blame dad.”
When Shu Jintian said the word ‘dad’, his cheeks couldn’t help warming and he didn’t dare to look at the snakes, so he could only uneasily lift his head to look at Shu Hanyu.
“Alright, everything’s fine now. Don’t be scared Tiantian, you’ll always have me.” Shu Hanyu hugged Shu Jintian in distress. His arm holding the snakelets were wrapped around Shu Jintian’s lower back, so the snake group was hanging against the side of Shu Jintian’s waist.
“Eh~” Shu Jintian instantly stiffened when he was hugged by Shu Hanyu’s arm holding the snakes. Unsure whether it was a misconception, Shu Jintian could still faintly feel the snakelets’ wriggling bodies even through the thick hide.
“Fuck, let me go ah!” Shu Jintian was only stunned for an instant and roused himself the next moment, shouting at Shu Hanyu.
Shu Jintian struggled out of Shu Hanyu’s embrace, but he could still clearly sense that he wasn’t as rejecting towards the little snakes as the very start, but a reaction he instinctively felt he should do couldn’t be forgotten for a time.
Shu Hanyu helplessly let go of Shu Jintian, and only felt that the female’s heart was truly hard to understand, especially after birthing eggs.
“Is Tiantian cold? Your face is already turning blue.” Shu Hanyu kissed Shu Jintian’s face in distress and realised that the female’s face temperature was almost the same as his body temperature. With his heart aching, he carried Shu Jintian bridal-style and strode back into the cave.
Shu Jintian himself couldn’t feel how cold his face was, but his body was so cold he was shivering uncontrollably.
In the end, Shu Hanyu boiled another pot of water for Shu Jintian to bathe and warm his body with before he stopped trembling, then bundled himself back up in the soft, long-furred animal hide blankets.
This animal hide blanket was given an extra layer after Shu Jintian finished hatching the eggs, and was now both heavy and warm over his body, providing a strong sense of security.
Shu Hanyu laid the snakelets back in the little nest specially for them and they reluctantly watched female father being put in the big bed by male father before they wearily went to sleep. Before sleeping, a certain young snake even innocently thought, sleeping in female father’s embrace is still the best. It would be amazing if we could sleep with female father! But male father is so tyrannical, not letting us sleep together with female father sob sob sob… Mn~ So sleepy~~
It was nice to sleep when it’s bitter cold. Shu Jintian didn’t really have much energy to move for a long time and his body was tired, while the bed was also nice and warm. Nestled up in Shu Hanyu’s embrace, he soon fell into a deep sleep.
The next morning when Shu Jintian woke up, half his face was red.
Shu Jintian was dressed thickly and sat on a stool padded with animal hide as he ate breakfast. Shu Hanyu, opposite of him, kept looking at him with a strange face, so much that Shu Jintian nearly choked while drinking soup.
“What’s wrong? Why are you looking at me like that? Was my face dirtied by something again?” Shu Jintian rubbed his face with a hand, glancing at Shu Hanyu.
The left half of Shu Jintian’s face was imprinted with a red patch the size of a chicken’s egg. After being forcefully rubbed by Shu Jintian, white surfaced, then rapidly reddened again. The half-white half-red handsome face looked especially hilarious.
Shu Hanyu uneasily shifted his eyes away and no longer looked at Shu Jintian’s face.
“Nothing!” Shu Hanyu seriously said, helping add another ladle of soup for Shu Jintian.
Shu Jintian was suspicious for a while, but no longer cared after seeing that Shu Hanyu didn’t have any abnormalities.
After Shu Jintian ate, he watched Shu Hanyu feed the little snakes and suddenly felt that he didn’t seem as scared of the snakelets anymore.
Perhaps after sleeping, his care for the snakelets settled. When he saw the little snakes’ lively appearances, he felt even more amiable compared to yesterday.
This time, Shu Jintian fed the little snakes again and didn’t have the rejection from yesterday. Shu Jintian could even see the happy emotions in the eyes of the little snakes that were being fed, and he also followed along to foolishly laugh. The watching Shu Hanyu simply glared at the little snakes, contemplating over throwing them away sooner.
But though the little snakes were fearful of male father, they were still exceptionally excited to be fed by female father.