Chapter 81 Chapter 18 Is this... human life? ...

In fact, Shengqing deceived people.

When he was visiting the zoo, people asked him what the lion that was turning around eagerly through the glass said to him. He only told part of it and did not confess everything that Kiki said.

That was the first time the snake lied. He was terrified that his lie would be discovered, but luckily, no one at the time asked, "Is that really all?"

If he asks,

Maybe the guilty snake will reveal its flaws.

The lion, oh that is, Qiqi, not only asked Shengqing how he became a human and how he was doing, he also asked about the people around him and another thing.

——What does it feel like to be human?

——What is it like to be a human being?

He could never answer this question.

The reason was simple: he didn't know much about humans. Even though he could walk upright like a human, had nimble hands, limbs, and even spoke like a human, he still didn't know what it was like to be human, or what a human was like.

Before he met Yan Hao, he undoubtedly hated people.

Running around in one circus after another, being whipped and tamed, few animals have much affection for the humans who exploit them.

Perhaps many animals don’t actually understand what hate and disgust are. Even Shengqing himself doesn’t quite understand these emotions.

He just felt that he was sick and uncomfortable, he was hungry and uncomfortable, he was too tired from running around, and the whip was too painful on his body.

In short, all the things related to people bring up bad feelings and emotions, so naturally you feel disgusted with them.

Until I met Yan Hao.

After the appearance of this human being who was different from all the humans he had encountered before, Shengqing felt that humans seemed okay?

Because of his appearance, the well-fed little snake no longer felt any pain in his stomach, and the scars on his body that had once prevented him from sleeping also completely disappeared.

Being with Yan Hao was the most relaxing and comfortable thing. He didn't know what love was, but as the days passed, he began to remember his scent and began to look forward to spending more time with him.

When he's busy, he also feels lonely. Yes, lonely. Shengqing learned this word from his phone.

The person on the phone also said that he liked him?

Like, what is it?

He doesn't even understand human beings.

Questions one after another had been piling up in Shengqing's mind, until he heard Qiqi's questions at the zoo, and he wanted to go out and take a look more and more.

Just like when I wanted to go down the mountain.

The difference is that back then only his upper body looked like a human, but now he looks like a human from head to toe.

He is full of confidence about this.

On an ordinary morning, before daybreak, Sheng Qing was eager to go out and walked aimlessly for a long time from the villa area.

He didn't know where he was going or what he was going to do, he just walked out based on his feelings.

As he walked, he unknowingly walked out of the villa area. There were more and more shops along the street. He was tired and sat casually on the side of the road, planning to take a rest before walking again.

It was not yet fully light outside, it was a little grey, the streetlights were on, and many mosquitoes were buzzing around under the lights.

Shengqing tilted his head back and counted the mosquitoes three times, and the number was different each time.

A mosquito landed on his skin. He saw it but did not move. He watched the mosquito land on his skin, watched it rub its hands, and watched its belly grow bigger and bigger.

After the mosquito flew away, a small red bump appeared on his calf, which was a bit itchy. He reached out and scratched it. It was around this time.

"What are you doing here alone?"

A small tricycle stopped in front of Shengqing. Sitting on it was an elderly man wearing a white vest. Behind the tricycle were some neatly stacked fresh vegetables.

Because the old man's Mandarin was mixed with a strong local accent, Shengqing didn't hear the first sentence clearly at that time. After the old man repeated it twice, he finally understood what he was asking.

But he himself didn't know what he was doing, so he just looked at the old man blankly.

"Have you eaten yet?"

The old man continued to ask enthusiastically.

Shengqing shook his head.

The old man looked at Shengqing, then at the turbulent bridge behind him, and continued to ask Shengqing how old he was, where his family was, why he was here alone, and whether he had no money.

The accent was so thick that Shengqing could only vaguely hear words like "big", "someone", and "money", so he shook his head again.

I don't know what the old man was thinking. After struggling for a while, he tentatively said, "Then I'll take you to dinner. Do you want some buns?"

What is a bun?

The food he had eaten before was all delivered to his room by the villa's servants, and all the ingredients were of high quality, but he had never eaten steamed buns.

In this way, Shengqing rode the old man's tricycle and bumped through the streets and alleys, and finally stopped at the back door of a bun shop in the farmers' market.

As soon as the car stopped, an auntie wearing a plaid apron came out, patted the flour on her hands, and came over to help unload the goods.

I saw Shengqing at first sight.

"Who is this?"

She asked the old man suspiciously in dialect.

"I met him on the bridge. He was just sitting there. He just kept shaking his head no matter what I asked him." The old man replied in dialect, pointing to his head. "I don't think this place is good. Maybe he came out to find a job but couldn't find one. It's a sin to sit there alone..."

Hearing the word "bridge", the aunt subconsciously replied: "The bridge? Wasn't it there last month..." Her voice became smaller and smaller, as if she was being taboo about something.

The old man said, "That's right..."

The defensiveness on the old lady's face had completely melted away, and her eyes were full of sympathy as she looked at Shengqing.

Shengqing didn't understand the dialect they were speaking, so he smiled at the aunt, imitating the way Yan Hao smiled at him before.

He looked young, with a fair and clean face and a shy smile, which instantly reminded the aunt of her own son who was still in school.

She sighed and said that it was not easy, and began to familiarly invite Shengqing to sit in the house, telling him to wait a moment, and the first batch of buns would be out soon.

"You sit inside."

It would take many days for Shengqing to understand why the old couple from the bun shop took him away.

After all, several young people had jumped into the river and died on the bridge some time ago. When the old man passed by, he saw a young man sitting there and was really worried that something might have happened to him, so he went over and took the initiative to talk to him.

The sky outside gradually brightened, and more and more customers came into the store. The empty tables were filled one by one. The old couple took the time to serve Shengqing two baskets of buns, and then started to busy themselves, so they had no time to take care of Shengqing.

Shengqing was quite quiet.

After he sat down, he looked around curiously at the not-so-spacious environment of the store. Although the tables, chairs and benches were quite old, there was no garbage on the floor and the table tops were wiped clean and shiny.

Baskets of steamed buns were neatly stacked waiting to be steamed. An old couple was collecting money while the other was packing the buns. In a corner of the kitchen, I could vaguely see another middle-aged woman skillfully kneading dough and mixing stuffing.

During the long period of time he lived in the villa, he ate almost nothing but food with little oil and salt, and the middle-aged man called the housekeeper always lowered his eyebrows and eyes when talking to him.

The feeling of eating with so many people made him feel that he was one step closer to people.

He followed the example of the customer next to him and picked up a steamed dumpling, dipped it in vinegar, and then put it in his mouth to chew.

The filling of the xiaolongbao was fresh meat, and although the taste was a bit too salty for his previous standards, he still felt it was not bad.

After eating two baskets of steamed buns, he followed the customer in front of him and took out his mobile phone to scan the code to pay.

He used Yan Hao's account, so as soon as he made a payment, he received a notification immediately. Sheng Qing was still unaware of this and sat at the door watching the diners come and go.

The middle shop was so busy that the uncle and aunt were too busy to handle it. Shengqing sat there and thought for a while, then stood up and cleared the dishes and paper towels on the table.

His action instantly made other new customers think he was a hired employee of the store.

"This table also needs a bowl of vegetable porridge."

“I want another half basket of xiaolongbao…”

“There’s no paper here.”

So when Yan Hao rushed to the address provided by his assistant, what he saw was his own clean white little snake running around in a very shabby-looking breakfast shop, wiping tables and delivering buns.

“………”

He took the first step, then stepped back. He did not go forward immediately, but just observed Sheng Qing from a distance.

The driver behind him didn't understand the boss's behavior and took the initiative to speak: "Boss, that's the young master, why don't you go over?"

"I want to see what he wants to do..."

After the earliest morning rush hour, the bun shop finally had some free time. The old couple, misunderstood Shengqing's initiative to help, thought he was looking for work and started talking to Shengqing directly about his salary.

They were a little far away, so Yan Hao couldn't hear what they were saying at all. He only saw two old men sitting opposite Sheng Qing. He didn't know what they were saying. Sheng Qing looked a little confused, and then shook his head.

The conversation lasted for fifteen or sixteen minutes. Shengqing stood up and left. Before leaving, the aunt took the initiative to stuff a bag of food that looked like steamed buns into his pocket.

Shengqing continues to enter the market.

Yan Hao followed at a distance. The market was quite crowded at the time, and the young man ahead of him walked and stopped, occasionally stopping in front of a stall, then being drawn to the noise of another place.

He stopped the longest in front of a seafood shop. He watched the whole process of the boss killing the fish. He also stood there and watched the butcher cutting the meat.

What is he doing?

Yan Hao also began to feel confused.

He followed Shengqing through the farmers' market, through the vegetable section, the fresh produce section, and the dry goods and grain section. When passing the flower and bird market, Shengqing walked very slowly.

Finally walking out of the market, the boy turned around and looked at the bustling crowd behind him.

For a moment, Yan Hao, who was hiding aside, thought he had been discovered, but he was just carefully observing what those people were doing.

Shouldn't... have been discovered?

*

Shengqing had discovered it a long time ago.

Yan Hao followed behind him all the time, but he still followed his previous idea and wandered around the entire farmers' market aimlessly.

The smell of blood, fish, sweat, the fragrance of fruits and vegetables, and various perfumes...

The sounds of hawking, bargaining, and arguing in different tones and voices...

There are so many people here.

I remember when I was in snake form, especially the baby snake form, the change in perspective made it feel like the whole room had changed and the ceiling had become higher.

It was the same when I was in the circus in my early years. I always crawled on the ground and looked at those people. I always felt that everyone was abnormally tall and everyone looked hideous.

But now that he was standing as a human being and looking at these people straight in the eye, he discovered that the people who had frightened him so much before were not as scary as he had imagined.

As the sun gradually rose higher, Shengqing left the noisy farmers' market and sat on a bench in a nearby park.

He did nothing but quietly feel the wind and watch different humans pass by him.

A tender baby still sitting in a stroller, a toddler with a ponytail bouncing around, a teenager in school uniform carrying a backpack, a young man holding a briefcase, a woman hurriedly carrying a bag of vegetables, an elderly couple with silver hair holding hands...

There were so many people, each carrying a different smell, and all this invisible information poured into Shengqing's nostrils.

If he wanted to, he could easily analyze their mood, where they had been, etc.

Is this... human life?

After sitting for another twenty minutes, the sun outside became stronger and stronger. He heard footsteps approaching and a parasol appeared above his head.

It’s Yan Hao.

He handed Shengqing the fruit tea from a beverage store where Shengqing had just stopped. Seeing him take it, he took out a tissue and wiped the sweat from his forehead with concern.

The first thing Sheng Qing said to Yan Hao was, "I know."

"Um?"

Yan Hao was a little slow to react.

"I knew you would come to me."

"Why?"

"I don't know why, but I just have this... indescribable feeling." Shengqing's tone revealed an unconcealed cunning. "I also know that you have been following me all day."

“………”

Shengqing took out his phone, carefully unlocked the screen, and waved the payment record at him. "This is what I earned today."

"That's amazing."

A warm breeze blew by, Yan Hao stared at the young man beside him seriously, and said what he wanted to say when they met.

"I'm sorry, I've been too busy lately and haven't been with you. Is it boring staying at home?" His tone became even lower. "I know it's selfish to keep you by my side..."

After hearing the last sentence, Shengqing's eyes showed obvious confusion.

What does "tied to one's side" mean? For animals, having a safe territory and sufficient food every day is the top priority for survival.

But can you really say that you don’t feel anything at all?

Actually, there is still a little bit.

Sheng Qing thought for a moment, trying to express his thoughts accurately:

"…Actually, I'm just a little curious about how people live. I want to know what I can do. I want to know if I can support myself as a human being."

"You asked me if I felt bored before..."

He doesn't know what boredom is.

As a highly adaptable snake, Shengqing's inherited instinct is to change itself to adapt to different environments, but it has never thought about changing the environment.

He came out today simply because he wanted to know how people live. This is also an act of wanting to change himself to adapt to the environment.

"I understand. I really can't keep you locked up in the house forever. That's not fair to you." Yan Hao's expression turned serious. "So what do you want to do? You can't really go sell buns, right?"