Pampered Little Snake, Give Me a Kiss - Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Little Idiot. An Absurd Dream.

The little snake flickered its tongue slightly. Clearly, the sound Song Keling made had provided it with a greater sense of security. Consequently, it didn’t just chase her finger; it arched its neck and upper body, leaning its small head forward. Its beautiful vertical pupils drew closer and closer to Song Keling.

“…” Song Keling knew, of course, that this couldn’t be a response to her words, even though the timing of the movement was uncanny.

After a moment of silence, she continued her dialogue with “Qianqian,” asking, “Is there really nothing else you want to eat?”

The little white snake wobbled its small head slightly and flicked its tongue.

Song Keling felt this behavior was pretty much a confirmation. She said directly, “Fine then, little idiot, you can just stay hungry.”

She took a newborn mouse from the second small box and tucked it into her pocket, tossed the others back into the cage, and returned to the dormitory with the snake.

Once back, she placed the pinky mouse into the plastic tub.

However, Song Keling soon saw Qianqian once again move far away from the mouse and head toward her instead. At the same time, those crimson vertical pupils looked over with a sense of grievance.

Grievance?

Song Keling felt a rare, subtle twinge of guilt, even though she knew snakes were incapable of human emotions.

But this was the “hunger effect.” When the little thing reached its limit of hunger and had no other food, it would naturally eat the mouse. Once it was full, it wouldn’t be craving her fingers anymore.

So, it was for the best for both of them.

With this thought in mind, Song Keling hardened her heart and left the little white snake alone.

Perhaps because her emotions had fluctuated significantly today, as soon as Song Keling entered deep sleep, she began to dream.

In the dream, she was also feeding the snake, worried that Qianqian wouldn’t get enough to eat and would fall ill.

Just as she was picking through newborn mice in the lab, a soft, delicate, and aggrieved voice came from behind her—”In your eyes, is mice the only thing I can eat?”

She turned around at the sound and saw the little white snake in the tub speaking with its mouth open. Curiously, she didn’t find the idea of a talking snake strange at all. She replied, “Do you want to eat my fingers instead?”

“Is that not allowed?” the little snake asked back.

Song Keling: “Of course not. Mice are endless, but my fingers are limited. If you eat one per meal, what then?”

The laboratory fell silent for a moment.

Song Keling believed she had convinced the snake.

But in the next moment, a pair of slender, white hands wrapped around her waist from behind. It felt like a cool breeze from an air conditioner on a sweltering summer day. The delicate, cold hands held her close, and the voice by her ear remained soft, yet her breath was like orchids: “Then… what if I use other parts of my body to eat?”

Other parts of the body?

That was such a strange way to put it. Could a snake feed through other parts of its body?

The moment that thought occurred, Song Keling froze.

Snake?

Then what was this currently holding her?!

Song Keling was startled awake. She stared at the ceiling and let out a long breath. It was just a dream. As her consciousness returned, she realized her phone was vibrating.

She grabbed it to check. Several alarms had already passed.

She had actually overslept.

Song Keling sat up, raking her fingers through her messy hair, her brow slightly furrowed in frustration.

She had run back and forth several times last night, but it shouldn’t have been enough to make her wake up this late. Pulling all-nighters used to be a common occurrence for her.

While washing up, Song Keling recalled that absurd dream.

But she quickly shook her head and tossed it to the back of her mind. A snake turning into a human? This was the 21st century, the era of science.

Song Keling spat out her mouthwash, finished washing her face, and went to check the tub.

The snake and the mouse occupied opposite corners of the box, looking very harmonious.

Seeing that her plan from the night before had failed, Song Keling frowned slightly and lightly tapped on the box with her finger.

The little snake was clearly awake, but it remained coiled in the innermost corner of the tub in a poised and tranquil posture. Hearing the noise, it only slightly lifted its cute little head, seemingly glancing at Song Keling, but made no other major movements.

Song Keling called out: “Qianqian?”

The little snake tucked in the very tip of its tail. Its beautiful red vertical pupils didn’t look at Song Keling, but remained fixed on the pinky mouse not far away.

Song Keling bent down, frowning as she observed closely.

Judging by the luster of its scales and its well-proportioned body, it didn’t seem sick. This state felt more like it sensed danger from her.

Snakes don’t eat when they feel danger in their surroundings because eating affects their mobility and attack speed. If they feel threatened, they might even regurgitate food they’ve already swallowed to facilitate an escape.

If it was because it found her dangerous, then the attack and refusal to eat last night had a logical explanation.

Except…

Why would it suddenly find her dangerous?

Song Keling pondered deeply, and suddenly a thought occurred to her. She immediately walked out.

The door to the neighboring dorm was wide open.

Xu Xinlei was sitting at her desk applying makeup. On that desk, books occupied only a fifth of the space; the rest was a dazzling array of various cosmetics—rows upon rows of similar items that Song Keling couldn’t tell apart.

“Xu Xinlei,” Song Keling called.

Xu Xinlei, eyeliner in hand, could see Song Keling in the mirror. She didn’t look away; her eyelids didn’t move, her lashes didn’t flutter, and the line she drew was precise and steady. She responded, “Yeah?”

“Did you touch my snake?”

Hearing the seriousness in Song Keling’s tone, Xu Xinlei put down her pen and turned around. “No. Why?”

Song Keling looked at her eye, which only had one side of eyeliner finished, and frowned. “Did you take any videos either?”

“No, I haven’t filmed since you told me not to,” Xu Xinlei said, then immediately asked with concern and tension, “Why? Is the little snake missing?”

Seeing that Xu Xinlei didn’t look like she was lying, Song Keling pursed her lips. She first apologized for her suspicion and then explained, “It’s not missing. It just suddenly refused to eat.” And it’s being hostile toward me.

She didn’t need to say the second half.

“Could it just not be hungry?” Xu Xinlei said as she remembered something and reached for her phone. “Oh, right, I added a sign-language/snake-science influencer a couple of days ago. Let me ask him for you.”

The WeChat message was sent, but there was no reply.

Xu Xinlei told Song Keling, “He might not be awake yet. I’ll let you know when he gets back to me.”

Song Keling pursed her lips and didn’t reject the kindness. She said thank you and turned back to her room.

As she reached her desk, she noticed another change.

Previously, the snake and mouse had been coexisting peacefully, but now, the pinky mouse was gone! The little white snake that had been coiled in the corner was now stretched out, slowly moving its suddenly shortened tail.

A distinct bulge was visible in its normally slender body.

Clearly, the mouse had met its end in the snake’s belly.

Song Keling thought: Did it finally get too hungry to resist after holding out all night?

Or did it feel the danger was gone?

Wait.

The danger was gone?!

Song Keling immediately linked this to herself.

When they were in the same room while she slept, Qianqian felt danger and wouldn’t eat. But just now, when she left to find Xu Xinlei, Qianqian felt the danger was gone. Even though it was only for a few minutes, it was willing to eat.

Although this reasoning was a bit heartbreaking, it was the most logical explanation for now.

Song Keling didn’t stay long. She grabbed a jacket and her phone and left the room.

Before leaving, she told Xu Xinlei that the snake had eaten and there was no need to trouble the influencer.

Xu Xinlei replied, “Oh, okay, that’s good.”

Song Keling walked down from the dormitory. After walking a short distance, she looked down at her phone. With an expressionless face, she canceled her original train ticket for Saturday and changed it to Sunday before putting the phone away.

Qianqian had just eaten today; it needed an extra day to digest.

Even though she had just personally experienced a version of The Farmer and the Snake and felt a bit sad, she couldn’t hold a grudge against a little snake that was incapable of human understanding to begin with.

Song Keling didn’t return to the dorm for lunch.

Since she had been rushing her lab work to prepare for the trip to Xuetai, she was actually quite free today. It happened that her senior, Lu Yunli, had something to attend to, so Song Keling took over her tasks to help out.

Qiao Ying and two seniors were wearing goggles, taking venom with test tubes and placing them under a microscope for observation.

It wasn’t until she was called that Song Keling realized she had been daydreaming. She immediately snapped back and recorded the data.

Qiao Ying noticed her abnormality and asked, “Keling, why are you so listless today? Did you go through a breakup?”

Song Keling didn’t know what a breakup felt like. “I guess so.”

Qiao Ying froze and immediately turned to her in surprise. “When did you get a partner? Who?”

Song Keling sighed and looked back. “That little snake I rescued last time.”

Qiao Ying was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing. She returned her gaze to the microscope to analyze the components, teasing with a smile, “What happened? Did it turn into a person to repay its debt of gratitude and then leave?”

Song Keling ignored the mockery and expressed a serious worry. “It seems to have developed hostility toward me. It wants to attack me.”

A senior who was out of the loop asked, “What? Wait, did the junior sister get a snake? When? What kind?”

Qiao Ying said, “During the field internship at Xuetai recently, she rescued an ‘escaped’ pet kingsnake.”

Senior: “And then?”

Qiao Ying said, “Then I don’t know. Keling, you tell them.”

Song Keling said, “Everything was fine before. It would eat when I fed it mice, and we got along harmoniously. Sometimes when I called its name, it would even come over and touch my finger with its head.”

Qiao Ying burst out laughing again at this description.

Senior: “That sounds great. Then what?”

Song Keling: “But it’s been wrong since yesterday noon. When I was feeding it, it…” As she spoke, Song Keling remembered the point where the abnormality began.

Could it really be because I took the mouse away? Did Qianqian develop hostility toward my scent?

She had been joking and self-deprecating at the time!

Hearing Song Keling stop halfway, Qiao Ying pressed, “Then what?”

Within a short span, Song Keling had quickly connected everything—her “stealing food” from the snake’s mouth had accidentally led to the analysis of a toxin never seen before injected into the mouse’s body. She had consulted many documents, and nothing matched it. Furthermore, there were Qianqian’s strange viper-like scales and its non-viper body structure.

Forget so many anomalies—any single one of them would be enough for it to be thoroughly researched in a lab.

“Keling?” Qiao Ying called again.

Song Keling snapped back and said, “Nothing. It’s just that it won’t eat when I’m in front of it. It only eats when I leave.”

Hearing that it was such a trivial matter, Qiao Ying shook her head and laughed. “What’s the big deal? The little girl is just shy. After all, she swallows the whole thing when she eats; she doesn’t want to ruin her lady-like image in front of you.”

The senior was speechless and interjected, “Qiao Ying, are you serious? How could a snake think like that?”

Qiao Ying said, “What do you know? We all say that Keling sacrificed so much by ending a rare field internship early just to personally save a little snake. The little snake should turn into a person to repay her.”

Senior: “…” Oh, he completely failed to get the joke the girls found funny.

Hearing this topic again from Qiao Ying, Song Keling immediately remembered that strange dream from last night.

A while had passed, and she couldn’t remember the specifics of the dream clearly. She only remembered it involved a topic related to hands.

However, for a girl who is attracted to women, that was undoubtedly a sexually charged topic as well.

The seniors made a casual joke. She joked along. A dream is just an integration of information collected consciously or unconsciously in reality; it has no meaning.

Song Keling thought so.

“Oh, right.” Qiao Ying thought of something and said to Song Keling, “I heard Su Su made an appointment to see a movie with you on Sunday?”

Song Keling was stunned and looked over. “Huh?”

After responding, she immediately remembered.

Qiao Ying didn’t know the details and said with interest, “Junior sister, you better seize the opportunity. Su Yili is the ‘belle’ of the Music Department. Her pursuers, both men and women, could wrap around the campus several times. She doesn’t fancy anyone else, but she’s set her sights on you.”

Song Keling felt this was tricky. She had forgotten about this promise she made last week. She said, “But I have to go to Xuetai on Sunday.”

“For what?”

“To release Qianqian back into the wild.”

“Qianqian?”

“The name I gave the little snake.”

Qiao Ying was choked for a moment. After digesting the information, she looked at Song Keling with disbelief. “Junior sister, are you serious or joking? That’s a pet snake. Why would you travel all the way to Xuetai to release it? If you don’t want to keep it, you can ask in the school group chat. Someone will definitely want to adopt it.”

Song Keling whispered, “No.”

Qiao Ying didn’t hear her. “Huh?”

Song Keling immediately raised her voice slightly and brushed it off, saying, “I’ll see then.”

She hadn’t forgotten the Sunday date with Senior Su at the beginning, which was why she had instinctively set the time to take the white snake back to Xuetai on Saturday. But once Qianqian ate and she pushed her train ticket back a day, she completely forgot about the date.

Song Keling took out her phone and opened WeChat.

The last time she chatted with Senior Su Yili was five days ago. In the chat records, she said she was still busy in the lab, and the other person replied, [Then I won’t disturb you. See you Sunday~]

Song Keling didn’t know how to tell her senior. After hesitating for a moment, she closed WeChat and opened Trip.com to check.

She studied it for a bit. If she took a morning train to Xuetai and the earliest flight back in the afternoon, the schedule would be tight but feasible.

Let it be that, then.

Song Keling returned to the dorm and saw the little white snake climbing in the corner of the tub. The stitches on the tail wound were almost invisible. Its head was pressed against the lid of the tub, causing its small but majestic and beautiful horn scales to be slightly bent.

How could there be such a beautiful mutant?

Song Keling didn’t read documents, books, or write papers. Even though she had just been “scorned” this morning, she couldn’t feel angry now. She put down her bag and, without expecting any reward, sat at her desk and quietly watched Qianqian climb the box.

After a while, the little snake stopped its self-entertainment and turned its head.

Person and snake faced each other.

After a long time, it slowly lowered its body and settled back onto the newspaper substrate of the tub, moving sluggishly. Its body was slender, and its pure white scales stood up slightly.

There was a saying online that the Atheris (Bush Viper) is the snake that looks most like a dragon.

Song Keling watched Qianqian as it slowly moved toward her, gradually arching its body. While flicking its black tongue, it searched and confirmed, finally touching the top of the box.

Thump.

It probably didn’t make a sound. But seeing Qianqian’s head suddenly retract, Song Keling somehow imagined the sound in her mind. Looking at those ignorant, bright red vertical pupils, she felt a strange pang of pity.

It was like a mother seeing her child trip.

“Little idiot.” Even though she knew snakes could never truly be tamed, Song Keling couldn’t help but reach out her index finger and gently touch the top of the box. As if comforting it through the plastic, she whispered, “I’ll take you home the day after tomorrow, and then you won’t bump into things anymore.”