Beauty and the Beasts

After he left, Bai Qingqing went back to look for Parker.

“One… another one…” Parker squatted down by the rice sack, rummaging through it. There were three to four yellowish-orange grains.

Hearing the sound of Bai Qingqing’s footsteps, Parker quickly hid the grains under the sack. He stood up and said, smiling, “Qingqing.”

“Where are the baby snakes?” Bai Qingqing took a quick look around and found the traces of quite a number of them in a corner.

They liked to go to the corners, and with 19 baby snakes scattered around in the room, it was hard to find all of them with one glance.

Bai Qingqing was afraid that she would get bitten by them, and thus tiptoed as she walked toward Parker, pouncing into his embrace. Only then did she feel safe. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing.” Parker seemed a little guilty as he threw a glance toward the rice sack. When he saw one of the grains being exposed, he secretly used his leg to kick it inside.

Bai Qingqing looked at the black hole next to the grinding stone, and her eyes suddenly lit up. “Curtis’s hole hasn’t been cleaned up yet. The baby snakes’ shells must still be inside. I want to go and take a look.”

“What’s there to look at?” Parker walked over to the hole with Bai Qingqing hanging onto him. His face scrunched up at the smell. “It’s so smelly.”

Bai Qingqing’s nose twitched. There was the fishy and moist smell of snakes, and she rolled her eyes at Parker, saying, “Curtis slept in there for a few months and you covered up the hole so tightly. How can it not be stuffy?”

She jumped off from Parker, sat on the ground, and reached her legs in. It felt very empty under her legs, and even though she had been planning on jumping down, she suddenly felt a little unsettled. It seemed to be very deep.

Parker lifted Bai Qingqing up, saying, “I’ll go down and bring the things up for you to see. It’s so dark down there that females won’t be able to see anything.”

“Be careful,” as Bai Qingqing said this, she looked at the baby snakes around her. Seeing that a few of them were showing signs of slithering in her direction, she felt that she needed to be careful as well.

At the very least, if she was bitten, she must remember which of them was the one who had bitten her.

Parker went down with a swoosh, landing silently. Not long later, he carried up a pile of eggshells and jumped up.

Bai Qingqing’s eyes lit up and she grinned. “The eggshells look more endearing. I gave birth to them.”

Parker smiled, then jumped down again and brought the grass that had turned wet from the humidity back up.

“Ssss—”

The baby snakes slithered over from all directions when they smelled the eggshells.

When Bai Qingqing heard crawling sounds, she raised her head and saw the baby snakes, who were like wild red-banded snakes, crowding around and moving toward her.

“Gulp.” Bai Qingqing swallowed a mouthful of saliva and moved toward the hole, her voice trembling a little. “Parker…”

“I’ll be right up.”

Parker’s voice had just ended when he jumped up. He put down another pile of grass and then went down again.

Bai Qingqing let out an exhale but immediately felt scared again.

“Ssss—”

“Ssssss—”

The baby snakes crowded around Bai Qingqing, poking their heads around to look for eggshells, occasionally rubbing against the bottom of her pants.

Bai Qingqing quickly scattered the eggshells to the side.

Some swooshing sounds rang out, and the baby snakes shot toward the eggshells at rocket speed, colliding into each other. They immediately got into an entanglement and fought each other, releasing intense hissings that were like battle cries.

Bai Qingqing felt that it was dangerous and took one step back. However, she accidentally stepped onto Parker’s head just as he was climbing out from the hole. She immediately pulled her leg back and apologized. “Sorry, sorry.”

Parker climbed up, not minding it at all. “Thank goodness you stepped on me. Otherwise, you’d have fallen in.” As he said that, he suddenly noticed the bunch of baby snakes that were fighting each other. Parker felt perplexed. “Why did they start to fight each other?”

“I have no idea either. They seem to be fighting for the eggshells.” Bai Qingqing only felt a little more at ease after standing next to Parker.