“I’m not afraid; you look so cute!” Jinjin squatted down to chat with the little white snake.
“Yay! Finally, a two-legged beast can understand us and isn’t afraid of me!” The little white snake rolled around on the ground in joy, squeaking happily.
Jinjin watched with novelty. The little white snake could even roll around for fun?
It looked like so much fun that she wanted to roll around too.
However, looking at the hillside, Jinjin shook her head and decided against it. She was afraid that if she rolled down into the ravine, she would knock herself silly.
“Can I call you Little White?” Jinjin asked.
“Sure! What’s your name?” Little White asked Jinjin.
“My name is Jinjin. Why do you call me a two-legged beast?” Jinjin chatted with Little White, asking curiously.
“Because you have two legs!” Little White said.
Jinjin looked down at her two feet. Well, fair enough, she did have two feet.
Jinjin and Little White chatted continuously, and before they knew it, an hour had passed. They had become good friends who shared everything.
Hearing her mother call for her again, Jinjin quickly pulled out two stalks of violet-flower Diding and waved her small hand at Little White.
“Goodbye, Little White, Mother is calling me home!”
“Jinjin, can I go with you to your house to play?” Little White raised its head and asked Jinjin.
Jinjin thought about it and nodded. “Sure, then get into my bowl!”
She could introduce her good friend to her parents.
Jinjin squatted down and tilted the bowl on the ground. Little White slithered right into Jinjin’s bowl and coiled up, resting its head on the rim as it watched Jinjin and talked to her.
Jinjin reached out and stroked Little White’s head, and Little White obediently let her touch it.
“Jinjin, I haven’t seen you before. Are you new here?” Little White asked curiously.
“Yes, we moved here at noon today. We’ll be neighbors from now on!” Jinjin said happily.
Thus, carrying the herbs and the bowl in her arms with Little White coiled inside, Jinjin walked back toward her family’s thatched cottage, chatting with the snake all the way.
When she saw seven or eight people in the front yard helping with the work, Jinjin obediently set the herbs down on top of the pile of wild vegetables. Holding her bowl, she squatted by the large rock to watch them work.
Little White crawled out of the bowl, coiled up on the ground beside Jinjin, and watched these two-legged beasts work as well.
After helping hand over a wooden board, Liu Dujuan turned back to check on her daughter, only to see a snake lying right beside Jinjin.
Frightened, she let out a scream and ran toward Jinjin, shouting loudly for Jin Yao at the same time.
“Husband, quick! There is a snake next to Jinjin, save our daughter!”
Hearing this, Jin Yao hurriedly grabbed a shovel and ran over as well.
Yang Hu and the others heard it too, quickly picking up their hoes and rushing toward Jinjin.
Jinjin turned her head and asked in a low voice, “Little White, are they very scared of you?”
“Yes, they are scaredy-cats! Jinjin, Little White is leaving first, I’ll come see you tonight!”
Seeing those people running toward it with shovels, Little White was so frightened that it slithered into the nearby grass to flee for its life.
It encountered this kind of situation often and was quite used to it.
These two-legged beasts were such scaredy-cats, not nearly as brave as Jinjin, who even talked to it and became its friend.
Seeing the snake run away, Liu Dujuan rushed over, pulled Jinjin into her arms, and looked around nervously, gently stroking her back to comfort her:
“Jinjin, don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. It was just a little white snake, not poisonous, don’t be scared!”
“Mother, Jinjin isn’t afraid!” Jinjin quickly raised her head and said.
Heartbroken, Liu Dujuan kissed her forehead. Her Jinjin was so sensible that she even comforted her in return.
Jin Yao, Yang Hu, and the others searched the surroundings, but finding no trace of the little white snake, they came over to reassure Jinjin.
“Don’t be afraid, Jinjin. Don’t go outside tonight. Tomorrow, Uncle Yang will bring over some realgar powder to scatter around the house, then those snakes won’t dare come near.”
Yang Hu sighed internally. The old man and woman of the Jin family were truly committing a sin by driving this family out here. Was this a place fit for humans to live? They would surely get their karma.
“Oh, Jinjin isn’t afraid. Thank you, Uncle Yang!” Jinjin raised her little face and responded with a smile.
Jinjin didn’t know what realgar powder was, but she knew these uncles cared about her, so she smiled back.
Yang Hu and Zhao Yun gave Jin Yao thumbs-up.
“Jin Yao, your daughter has your courage! The little white snake was so close to her, yet she wasn’t scared at all.”
Jin Yao grinned. “Of course, look whose daughter she is!”
After her father and mother went back to work, Jinjin quietly scanned the surroundings and called out to Little White in a low voice, but she couldn’t find it.
Disappointed, Jinjin sat on the large rock, watching the adults help repair their house.
This house was built of timber, and the spaces for the windows and doors were currently empty. Three uncles were working on making the doors and windows.
The roof was made of thatch, and several uncles were helping tear down the damaged thatch on top, while her father and the others were pulling a big saw to cut timber.
She had seen Bald Strong pull a big saw in cartoons before, which looked similar to what her father and the others were doing, so she knew it was called pulling a big saw.
As Jinjin watched, she grew sleepy. Leaning against her family’s rolls of bedding while holding her broken bowl, she fell asleep.
Seeing Jinjin fall asleep, Liu Dujuan worried she might catch a cold. She pulled out one of her own garments to cover her, took the bowl from her hands, and set it aside.
By the time Jinjin woke up again, the sun was about to set. The people in front of the house were gone; the wooden doors and windows had been installed, and her mother was pasting window paper.
The roof of the house had been repaired, and her father was sweeping the yard in front of the door.
Jinjin glanced at her mother’s skirt covering her, grinned, jumped off the large rock, and stretched.
After a nap, her whole body was full of energy.
“Wow, Father, Mother! Our house is so pretty!”
Jinjin felt that her house looked just like the small wooden cabin where Bald Strong lived, and she liked it very much.
Hearing that their daughter liked the house, Jin Yao and Liu Dujuan looked at each other and chuckled softly.
“Mm, as long as our Jinjin likes it!” Jin Yao said with a light smile.
*Hiss!*
Suddenly, Jin Yao stumbled, letting out a gasp of pain.
Jinjin quickly ran over to support Jin Yao and asked, “Father, is your leg hurting again?”
“No, Father is fine!” How could Jin Yao let his daughter worry? He quickly said he was alright.
“Father is lying! Father’s leg is bleeding!” Jinjin squatted down, rolled up Jin Yao’s pant leg, and said with a sob.
Hearing this, Liu Dujuan put down the paper in her hand, hurried over, and squatted down to check, tears streaming down her face immediately.
“Husband, sit down and rest for a bit first. It must be because you were too tired this afternoon!” Liu Dujuan and Jinjin helped him sit on the spot where Jinjin had just been sleeping, speaking through her tears.
Once Jin Yao was seated, he pulled up his pant leg and saw that the wound had festered again and was oozing blood. He let out a sigh, looked at Liu Dujuan, and said, “It’s fine. Once it catches the wind, the wound will dry in a little bit.”
Liu Dujuan wiped her tears and said, “There is still a bit of water left that Zhao Yun brought back. I’ll go boil some water first, and then I’ll clean it up for you in a moment.”
Jin Yao hummed in agreement.
Seeing her father’s leg in pain, Jinjin quickly ran over to the pile of herbs, picked two stalks of violet-flower Diding and yellow-flower Diding, and brought them to Jin Yao.
“Father, apply this to the wound, and your leg will surely be cured.”
Jin Yao glanced at them and raised an eyebrow. “How does Jinjin know these are medicinal herbs?”
Liu Liu had said she couldn’t tell her family about his existence. When she was gathering the herbs earlier, Jinjin had already thought about what to say.
Jinjin felt that since Liu Liu was in her head and her parents couldn’t see him, she couldn’t mention him. But her parents could see Little White, so she should be able to mention it.
“Little White told me! It said using these two herbs together can cure Father’s leg,” Jinjin said, blinking her big eyes.
“Little White? Who is Little White?” Jin Yao was surprised.
“Little White is the little white snake! It stayed with me while I looked for herbs, and it told me this could cure Father!” Jinjin looked at her father with a beaming smile, trying hard to make her father believe that Little White was a good child and her good friend.
Jin Yao froze for a moment, the expression on his face instantly becoming serious. He immediately called out loudly, “Dujuan, come over here quickly!”