"don't know."
Shi Jinzhe knew she was going to say those two words, "Do you understand anything now?"
"Eat fish."
"...You look like a fish to me."
“We all have scales,” she replied quite seriously.
Shi Jinzhe patted her head twice, "So cute."
Sheh covered her head with both hands, and the willow branches in her palms drooped down to her head. Shi Jin took the willow branches from her and sensed them for a moment.
The vitality was pure and abundant. The mother gave Shekh this branch prepared in advance, not as a deliberate gesture of goodwill, but just a random branch she picked up on the spot.
He wove the willow branches into a wreath and placed it on Shekh's head. "Don't take it off. Wearing it is good for your health. Your mind and body will gradually grow."
"Same as you?"
"The snake will be bigger than me."
Shekh twisted his waist to examine his tail, hesitated for two seconds, braced his arms on either side of his body, and moved his body closer to Shi Jinzhe, comparing his tail to his thigh.
She touched her folded pants, puzzled, "Scales?"
"These are called pants."
"It's slippery."
Shi Jinzhe grabbed her hand that was sliding up and down, but a familiar scene repeated itself: Shekh's tail quickly transformed into human legs.
“It seems that vitality alone is not enough; it must have direct contact with you to transform into legs.” He flipped his palm over. “I just don’t understand why hand contact is necessary.”
After much deliberation, Shi Jinzhe concluded that the probability of accidental contact was low, and that the most convenient way for the two of them to escape together was to hold hands while ensuring physical contact.
At this moment, Shekh took his hand, "The tail is lost."
"It's not lost." Shi Jinzhe let go of her hand, and only after confirming that her tail was intact did he ask, "Do you know how to get to the Thorn Land?"
"Never heard of it."
He rephrased it, "Could you take me all the way west?"
"It's cold in the west." Sheh made an OK sign. "Three fish."
"Ten fish are fine as long as we can catch them." Shi Jinzhe patted his clothes, grabbed her arm and led her to the riverbank. "Eat the fish first, and then help me find my way."
night.
A few fish bones lay beside the crackling campfire. Shi Jinzhe sighed as he looked at his long tail, which had wrapped around him. No wonder he couldn't see any other animals around here, and fish were scarce. It turned out that Sheh had claimed his territory.
"Actually, you don't need to claim territory; the whole world is yours."
Shekh swallowed half a fish tail and didn't reply.
I can't understand eight and a half out of ten sentences. This person is so strange.
Shi Jinzhe was used to her like this. "Want to eat more?"
Is it edible?
He resigned himself to his fate: "I'll bake two more."
With no fish left to eat, Shekh knelt by the rock and looked at him, saying, "Have we met somewhere before?"
"Yes, we are very close, and I am everywhere in your heart and eyes."
Shekh touched his stomach and concluded, "I've eaten you."
"...There's nothing in my stomach."
"My stomach can hold it all."
Shi Jinzhe felt that this topic could not continue, but he couldn't help asking, "Have you ever eaten people before?"
"I won't eat that."
"What did you eat before I came?"
Shekh pointed to the wild fruit on the tree. He had been eating those things for a week straight, and just looking at them made him feel acid reflux.
"How have you been living before? Have you lived here as long as you can remember?"
"Hmm." Shekh rested his head on his crossed arms, glancing sideways at the leaping flames, looking at Shi Jinzhao's face through the flickering red flames. "It's hard for humans to get in here, and no one will bother me."
"You hate humans."
“They don’t like me, and I don’t like them either.” Shekh threw a pebble into the fire, as if to vent the small flames that were about to burst forth.
"They call me a monster."
“You can also call them monsters.” Shi Jinzhe’s gaze swept over the snake’s tail, which was shimmering in the campfire. “If you think someone is a monster just because they look different, then there are plenty of monsters in this world. Dogs think fish are monsters, horses think eagles are monsters, and insects think elephants are monsters.”
While thinking about the fish, Shekh didn't stop using his brain: "Fish can swim, eagles can fly, and elephants are very big."
"That's right. Because they don't understand what makes you special, they can only define you with their short-sightedness. But actually, you are just special, not weird."
"And you?" Shekh walked around the fire and sat down next to Shi Jinzhe, propping his head up and leaning close to him. "You said you've known me before, aren't you afraid of me?"
"I was afraid when I was ignorant, but I'm not afraid anymore."
Shekh moved one step closer to him. “But fish, eagles, elephants, they don’t grow human bodies. I’ve never seen a snake grow a human body either. It’s different. Humans don’t point at dogs and say, ‘Look, monster,’ but they’ll point at me.”
“If someone wants to, he can call anything a monster,” Shi Jinzhe pulled her hand and turned Shehe into a human. “Look, I also look like a human, but real humans don’t have this ability.”
"Are you trying to say you're a monster too?"
“I’m not a monster. I’m the same kind of person as you. We are the same. They are the same kind of people. We are the same kind of people.”
Shekh paused for a moment, then awkwardly followed Shi Jinzhe's logic, saying, "We rarely see each other."
"Yes, it's very rare."
"I have a tail, and you can help me grow legs."
"That's right, we are all special."
"So you're a monster too."
Shi Jinzhe couldn't help but cover his face and laugh. "Yes, 'monster' is a compliment to you and me. They can say whatever they want. Anyway, if this word describes you, it means you are unique."
“Alright,” Shekh reluctantly accepted this explanation.
After eating two grilled fish, Shi Jinzhe accompanied her back to the tree to rest in the middle of the night.
The forest, which has existed for countless years, has some trees with thick trunks that have died of old age, their interiors hollow, making it a convenient place for two people to rest.
Shehe lay prone in front of the tree hole, half of its tail dangling out, its arm supporting its tail as it craned its neck to look down. Shi Jin asked her, "Aren't you going to sleep yet? What are you looking at?"
"Look at the snake."
"A male?"
Shekh stepped aside, making room for him. "Want to see?"
Shi Jin folded over and, after seeing what was happening below, covered her eyes, saying, "Can you watch less of this kind of inappropriate stuff?"
I want to see it.
"You don't want to, you're still young."
“It’s not small anymore. The little puddle you wash your hands in during the day is the pit I made by sunbathing there all the time.”
Shi Jinzhe had nothing to say, so he finally praised her, "You're really amazing."
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