After the cub woke up, he couldn't remember much about what happened in his half-awake state the night before, but his father was still holding him when he opened his eyes. They snuggled in bed, listening to the sound of wind and snow outside the window, and a feeling of happiness welled up inside them.
The cub doesn't know why its father woke up so late today, even though its father usually leaves for work very early to earn money to support the cub.
The child decided to kindly wake up his father.
But even after the child climbed all over his father, went over his father's body several times, pulled his father's hair, and pried open his father's eyelids, his father remained as still as a mountain, breathing steadily.
The cub was completely confused. He stared blankly for a long time, then covered his face in a terrified expression.
Is Daddy fast asleep?!
Where's the assistant?!
Waaaaaah, Daddy's dead!
While the assistant was handling the handover procedures for Shen Qianyu's hibernation and initiating the palace's lockdown, the cub, already crying, dragged the bedsheet up and covered its father's face.
The little guy doesn't yet understand the meaning of life and death, but that doesn't stop him from having awe for life.
Shen Qianyu, who was covered in a white sheet by her children's filial piety during hibernation: ...
This is what the assistant saw when he pushed open the door.
The assistant felt dizzy and rushed over to pull back the covers. He saw the king, who had transformed into a beast. He paused for a moment, unsure of where to begin.
How can you tell if a hibernating snake is breathing?
Perhaps unable to bear it any longer, Shen Qianyu lifted one eyelid and glanced sideways at her assistant.
The assistant stepped back as if granted a pardon, watching as the enormous snake, which had exerted immense pressure on him, slowly tightened its body, firmly protecting the cub in its embrace.
In fact, Shen Qianyu would hibernate every winter, and the royal palace and the Shen family had long made contingency plans. During this period, no one could wake Shen Qianyu. He would just stay in his room, sleeping in a place where no one could set foot. His assistant had been by his side for many years and had been taking over the work according to the arrangements. He had no idea what Shen Qianyu looked like when he hibernated.
Now, thanks to the cubs, he knows too.
However, given the king's nature, during his usual hibernation, he would simply transform into his beast form, casually curl up in a corner of the room, and begin to sleep.
After all, before the cubs arrived, this room didn't even have a proper bed.
Shen Qianyu, on the other hand, is cold, rigid, and restrained all year round, like the snow that remains unmoved on a snow-capped mountain.
Now, the cub pulls him back to the human world.
The assistant dared not disturb the hibernating king any further; he simply spoke earnestly to the cubs:
"Little one, don't cover your head with the blanket. The king is just hibernating. He's going to have a long sleep. He'll be fine when he wakes up."
The cub was drawn into the large snake's embrace and listened obediently to what he was saying.
Seeing this, the assistant was also a little worried. He thought that Wang Dongmian had acted suddenly and hadn't had time to arrange for the cubs, so he planned to go forward and take the cubs out to take care of them temporarily.
"Let's go outside and play, okay? Don't disturb Daddy's rest. Daddy will come to find you when he wakes up..."
The assistant's hand was halfway out when the still-sleeping snake suddenly turned its head, opened its eyes, and stood up, looking at him warily in a clearly aggressive posture.
The assistant got goosebumps at the sight and immediately stepped back a few meters, standing at the doorway, and said to the cub and Shen Qianyu:
"In that case, I won't come in! Son, I'll have someone bring you food three times a day, and I'll also bring you toys to keep you entertained. You can stay with Daddy and take good care of him, okay?"
Cub: "Okay."
Although the child doesn't understand what hibernation is, he does understand "taking care of his dad".
Please, the cubs already know the ropes perfectly well.
After all, the little one vividly remembers that he had been taking care of a very clingy guardian. He would threaten to die if he couldn't see him, and he would be heartbroken if he didn't have him. So the little one has taken on the heavy responsibility of the family at a young age.
But the child forgot that he is still so young, how can he take care of his father who is many, many times older than him?
Is it to protect the tip of the tail, or a particular scale on the body?
The cub looked at its father beneath it, who had closed its eyes and curled up to sleep, and after thinking for a moment, decided to soothe its father according to the cub's usual habits.
He first stepped on his father's snake tail and crawled out, one step at a time. Then he carried his toy dolls back, carrying them back and forth, so that the toys surrounded his father, forming a circle facing outwards, like a group of plush toys guarding the snake.
Then the cub pulled out the candy it had hidden under the pillow, unwrapped it, and fearlessly pried open its father's huge mouth, ignoring the fangs that shrank inside, and stuffed the candy into its father's mouth.
If Dad eats candy, he won't be hungry when he goes to sleep.
Then the child put a little bunny headband on his dad's head, the one he uses when washing his face.
Sometimes the boy wears them regularly because he thinks the colorful headbands are pretty, and both he and his dad have short hair so they can't braid it.
Looking at it now, the once ferocious and terrifying black snake, surrounded by ornaments on its head and plush toy guards, has become utterly intimidating.
He himself has almost become the child's toy.
The most terrifying thing was that the cub found a bottle of paintbrushes and paints that someone had secretly taken from among the toys.
The cub looked at the colors on the paper, then at the unassuming black scales on its father, and muttered, "I'll draw flowers for Daddy," and started working on the snake's scales.
While in a deep sleep, Shen Qianyu didn't feel anything was wrong, except that her scales sometimes felt warm and sometimes cool.
Shen Qianyu wouldn't care about these trivial matters.
He closed his eyes, letting his irresistible instincts run wild, and drifted into a deeper sleep...
No.
What was that sound?
The cub... seems to be crying?
After struggling for a while, Shen Qianyu slowly opened his eyes out of concern for the cubs and out of the instinct of an old father taking care of children.
If the Shen family knew that Shen Qianyu's instinct, which she had conducted numerous experiments and studies on but could never resist, could be overcome simply by the cries of her cubs, they probably wouldn't know what kind of expression to make.
It's safe to say that once you have a child, parents don't have any time to be lazy.
Even if it gets cold, I still get up to comfort the child.
Shen Qianyu didn't pay much attention to the changes around him. He pushed aside the plush toys beside him with his body, swam to the cub, and coiled his snake body around it.
"What's wrong?"
The cubs finally breathed a sigh of relief when they saw their father wake up.
"Dad... needs to eat too, or he'll starve!"
It turns out the cubs didn't know that hibernating animals don't need to eat.
When the child saw that the food delivered was only enough for him and that his father was still sleeping, he started to worry.
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