At night, Jinjin dreamed of playing on the slide with other children at her kindergarten.
Suddenly, a severe pain struck her stomach, accompanied by dizziness and nausea. She quickly clutched her tummy with both hands and squatted by the slide.
“Waaah, Liuliu, my tummy hurts so bad. Am I going to die?” Over the past few days, Jinjin had gotten used to calling out to Liuliu in her mind whenever something happened, crying to Liuliu now.
However, Liuliu ignored her.
Panic surged through Jinjin instantly. She wanted to ask the other children to call the teacher for help, but when she looked up, she found that the children who had been playing with her just moments ago had suddenly disappeared. The entire kindergarten was empty, leaving her all alone in an instant.
Jinjin suddenly felt abandoned by the whole world and burst into loud wails!
“Jinjin, Jinjin, what did you dream about? Why are you crying?” Liu Dujuan’s anxious voice came from beside her ear.
Jinjin opened her eyes abruptly and saw the pitch-black room, realizing that it had only been a dream.
However, the pain surging from her stomach soon made her whimper.
“Waaah, Mother, Jinjin’s tummy hurts!” Jinjin burst out crying. It turned out the stomach ache wasn’t a dream—only the kindergarten and the other children were.
Terrified, Liu Dujuan sat up hurriedly, gently touching Jinjin’s belly as she asked in a low voice, “Is it here?”
Jinjin whimpered and nodded. “Mm-hmm, it hurts here!”
Jin Yao was also startled awake. He quickly crawled over, squatted beside Jinjin, and touched her forehead. Fortunately, she didn’t have a fever.
“Husband, did Jinjin eat too much meat last night and ruin her stomach?” Liu Dujuan asked anxiously.
Jin Yao nodded. “Must be. Rub her stomach first. I’ll head back to the village to get Doctor Qiao to take a look.”
“No, it’s too late. You still have a leg injury, and going down the mountain at night isn’t safe!”
This was the entrance to the deep mountain valley. With his injury, it would be dangerous if he ran into wolves on the way down. She anxiously pulled his arm, refusing to let him leave.
“It’s fine, I’ll take a pitchfork with me!” Jin Yao comforted her.
“Husband, don’t rush. Don’t go back to the village right now. Go call Little White instead. It understands medicinal herbs. Tell it that Jinjin’s stomach is upset, and let it lead you to find herbs.”
Jin Yao thought it made sense. He quickly put on his clothes and stepped outside. Jinjin had mentioned that Little White lived in a nearby snake hole.
By now, Jinjin was so dazed from the pain that she couldn’t remember the lie she had made up that day, so she didn’t stop Jin Yao from looking for Little White.
Liu Dujuan continued using her palm to gently rub Jinjin’s stomach in circular motions around her belly button, asking if she felt nauseous, if she wanted to throw up, or if she wanted to drink some hot water.
Jinjin kept shaking her head.
There were no oil lamps or candles, and the inside of the house was pitch-black at night. Unable to see her shake her head, Liu Dujuan asked again.
Jinjin said softly that she felt a little nauseous, but didn’t want to drink water.
Liu Dujuan had no choice but to scoop her up and hold her in her arms, gently rubbing her stomach.
Leaning against her mother’s chest, Jinjin felt much better. It felt warm and soft, just like being held in her mother’s arms when she was little.
She missed her mother a bit again, wondering if her mother was holding that other Jinjin the way Mother was holding her right now.
After her mother rubbed her tummy for a while, Jinjin let out a few smelly farts with a *poof-poof*, and the pain seemed to lessen.
“I’m sorry, Mother. Did my smelly farts stink up the air for you?”
Once her stomach stopped hurting so much, Jinjin felt energetic enough to talk again.
Disgusted by her own smelly farts, she covered her nose with her hand and asked her mother shyly.
Liu Dujuan burst into laughter. “Not smelly at all. Our precious baby’s farts aren’t smelly at all. Does it hurt less than before?”
“Mm!” Jinjin let out a bashful hum.
“That’s good. When you had an upset tummy as a baby, Mother used to rub it for you just like this. After popping a few farts, you’d stop fussing!”
Liu Dujuan kept holding Jinjin, talking in a soft, gentle voice while continuing to rub her stomach, using her other hand to lightly pat her arm.
Jinjin let out a sleepy, low giggle and fell asleep leaning against Liu Dujuan’s chest.
Jin Yao went near Little White’s snake hole and called out for a while before he saw Little White slowly slithering to his feet, raising its head to look at him.
He quickly squatted down and said, “Little White, Jinjin ate too much last night and woke up with a stomach ache. Do you know any herbs that can treat a stomach ache?”
Little White shook its snake head, indicating that it didn’t know.
Little White had tried before; it couldn’t communicate with this two-legged dad and could only use actions. It had called him ‘Dad’ many times, but he never paid any attention.
Jin Yao froze. It didn’t know? Didn’t it tell Jinjin last time which herb could heal his leg?
Little White wanted to ask about Jinjin’s condition, but with no way to communicate with this two-legged dad, it grew anxious. Ignoring Jin Yao, it turned around and slithered back toward the small wooden cabin.
Seeing it move forward, Jin Yao assumed it was taking him to find herbs. Delighted, he quickly followed it.
When they returned to the front of the cabin, Jin Yao frowned. Wasn’t Little White taking him to find herbs?
Seeing Little White slither inside through the gap under the door, he pushed the door open and went in as well. Stepping over to the bed, he asked worriedly, “Dujuan, how is Jinjin? Little White came back, but it didn’t take me to look for herbs.”
Liu Dujuan said softly, “Jinjin is fine now. I rubbed her stomach for a bit, and she let out a few farts and said it didn’t hurt as much. She just fell asleep.”
Jin Yao leaned down and took a closer look at his little Jinjin’s face in the dark. Touching her forehead, he felt a thin layer of sweat—it seemed there was no major problem.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
“Little White, Jinjin is fine now. Thank you. Did you lead me straight back because you already knew Jinjin was okay?” Jin Yao said gratefully to Little White, who had climbed onto the wooden bed and raised its head to look at Jinjin.
Little White glanced at Jin Yao calmly, its snake mouth moving slightly.
If Jin Yao could understand snake language, he would have heard his cheap snake son calling him a fool.
Little White felt that this two-legged dad wasn’t as smart as Jinjin.
Seeing Jinjin sleeping peacefully, Little White felt relieved. It turned around, slithered back out through the gap under the door, and returned to the snake hole.
Jin Yao sat by the edge of the bed for a while. Once he was sure Jinjin wouldn’t wake up in pain again, he took off his shoes and got into bed to sleep.
After lying down, the couple found themselves unable to sleep for a moment. Jin Yao sighed with emotion, “I feel like Little White might not be an ordinary snake. Didn’t the ancestors say that white snakes possess spiritual energy? This Little White might very well be a snake with spiritual cultivation.”
“It only glanced in the direction of our cabin and already knew Jinjin was fine. Isn’t that miraculous?”
Liu Dujuan said in surprise, “That miraculous? Then it seems Little White really has some spiritual cultivation. But it looks so small, I thought it was just a hatchling.”
Jin Yao shook his head. “Not necessarily. I’ve heard that snakes can practice bone-shrinking techniques. It’s very likely that Little White shrank itself down; a little snake wouldn’t have this kind of spiritual nature.”
“I grew up in this village and have been up this mountain countless times, yet I’ve never seen a single white snake. This time, as soon as we moved here, a white snake appeared. I think Little White might have appeared because of our Jinjin. Let’s wait and see, but whatever happens, we must never harm Little White!”
Liu Dujuan gave a soft response.
Jin Yao’s words reminded her of a legend her grandmother had told her when she was little, about a white snake that saved an entire village and achieved immortality.