Chapter 48 One of a Kind

Chapter 48: One of a Kind

Back home, Xiang Wei was still thinking about why Shen Jiyue had held him back earlier, and wondering if his nose was malfunctioning—why did he keep getting the smells wrong?

After thinking it over, he concluded that they shouldn't have split up. If he had stayed close to Shen Jiyue the whole time, none of this would have happened.

At that moment, the snake instinctively figured out a classic horror movie survival rule: never split up—being alone invites disaster.

After his deep self-reflection, the snake snuck a glance at Shen Jiyue. Good, he didn't look angry. Time to strike.

"I won't mix anyone up again next time!" From now on, he would never be separated from him when going out—completely eliminating any chance of mixing someone up!

Shen Jiyue snapped out of it. In the car, he had already asked Xiang Wei about his condition and learned that his face blindness was congenital. This type of congenital prosopagnosia currently has no medical cure. He had been silent because he was contacting specialists in this field, planning to take Xiang Wei to get checked out first.

"Mm, it's not your fault. You just have a medical condition." Shen Jiyue squeezed his hand, already thinking about how Xiang Wei couldn't recognize faces and needed to rely on other features besides the face to remember people. How could he make himself more memorable? Maybe dye his hair a distinctive color like Chang Hu?

He remembered that Xiang Wei recognized Chang Hu by his hair color—he had referred to him as "that person with pink hair" before and had even asked about dyeing his hair himself.

Shen Jiyue had never dyed his hair before. Approaching thirty and suddenly having a "rebellious phase" with a new hair color would draw stares at work, invite concerned questions from elders, and might even make his grandfather overseas call to ask if something was wrong. But he didn't care about any of that.

Having made up his mind, Shen Jiyue brought up taking him to see a doctor. It was perfect timing—Xiang Wei was still feeling guilty, so even if he didn't want to go to the hospital, he agreed.

"Oh." Fine.

The snake hung his head. Although he'd had one okay experience with a doctor before, that had been at home. He had accompanied Shen Jiyue to the hospital several times and always saw many people there looking down. It made the snake feel gloomy just looking at them, and going to see a doctor for himself was even less appealing.

But a moment later, Xiang Wei cheered up again. Shen Jiyue said he only mixed people up because he was sick, so it wasn't the snake's fault, and his nose wasn't broken either. Yeah, it was all the illness's fault.

His bad mood didn't last long. Xiang Wei sat obediently, watching Shen Jiyue make phone calls and use words he didn't understand. After a while, he got restless and stopped paying attention, going over to pet the snakelet instead.

Oh—he had just heard the doctor's voice on the phone say that congenital face blindness is hereditary. That meant his parents had it, and his kids might have it too—all unable to recognize faces.

The snake tapped the snakelet's head and asked it: "Do you remember me? Do you know who I am?"

The snakelet thought Xiang Wei was playing with it. It flicked its tongue to touch his fingers, coiled around them, climbed up, and affectionately nuzzled against him—completely unaware of what the big snake was worrying about.

After petting the little one, Xiang Wei's small worries vanished. He set the little one down, waved his fingers in front of it, and watched it follow his hand.

His fingers moved up and down, and he told the little one to gather its strength and pounce, to coil and squeeze. Just talking about it wasn't enough, but there was no helping it—the snake couldn't transform back to his original form, so he'd just have to teach this way for now.

At his wit's end, Xiang Wei also found videos of snakes hunting prey to show the snakelet—documentary-style teaching. Watch it first to get familiar, then gradually learn how to hunt, he thought, feeling optimistic.

These past few days, after they finished watching documentaries together, he would use his fingers as fake prey in front of it, encouraging the little one to pounce and bite, to wrap its body around.

It wasn't that Xiang Wei didn't want to use other things as prey—it was just that the snakelet only cared about his fingers. When he waved other objects in front of it, the snakelet didn't react at all, not even looking. Only when he put his fingers there would it follow his fingers.

Of course, it only followed his fingers but never bit, thinking Xiang Wei was playing with it. It would chase after them, stopping when his fingers stopped. When Xiang Wei petted it, the little one would let him, nuzzling his fingers and trying to climb onto his hand.

It stressed Xiang Wei out so much!

But since the little one was still young, it was normal for it not to know how to hunt yet. Every time the snake failed to teach it to hunt, he'd comfort himself that it was fine—once he could transform back into his snake form and teach it, it would definitely work.

From the time the snakelet was still an egg, he had been doing prenatal education and pushing both the little one and himself. Xiang Wei played with the little one for a while, then pulled out his phone, ready for one more bedtime video lesson before sleeping.

Seeing him take out the phone, the snakelet went quiet, eyes fixed on the screen. Both snakes watched intently as the snake in the video successfully hunted and ate its prey, and both let out relieved sighs.

The snakelet stopped flicking its tongue while watching intently, and only after the video ended did it turn and climb onto Xiang Wei, curling around his arm.

By the time they finished the video, Shen Jiyue had finished contacting people and scheduled an appointment to take Xiang Wei to the hospital tomorrow. He stood up and walked toward the pair playing together.

He teased the little snake, played with it for over ten minutes, then set it down, wrapping up their little family playtime. He told it to rest, and also told Xiang Wei to go wash up and sleep, informing him that he had taken half a day off tomorrow to take him to the doctor.

The next day, at the hospital, Xiang Wei told the doctor everything. The doctor across from him was very gentle, which put him at ease while answering questions.

...

He didn't really know what illness he had, and went through the whole thing in a daze. Xiang Wei, as the patient, stood off to the side while Shen Jiyue consulted the doctor about some matters. Only then did the two leave the hospital together.

The snake wasn't worried about his condition at all. He didn't care whether he could recognize other people—as long as he remembered Shen Jiyue, that was enough. Besides, he wouldn't be separated from him when going out from now on, which was basically the same as recognizing him.

So seeing Shen Jiyue's grave expression, Xiang Wei even tried to comfort him in return, unaware that the other man was thinking about going to a hair salon to dye his hair, to give him an obvious feature so he wouldn't mix him up with anyone else.

"Dye your hair? Why?!" Xiang Wei looked shocked. He remembered that when he had asked Chang Hu about dyeing his hair, Shen Jiyue hadn't seemed too happy about it. Why would he suddenly want to dye his own?

He looked at Shen Jiyue's hair color carefully—it looked great. Xiang Wei had gotten used to it, and couldn't imagine Shen Jiyue with a head of pink hair, wearing a suit and tie, looking all serious and proper.

So why would someone who was perfectly normal suddenly want to dye their hair? He hadn't shown any signs of wanting a style change, and he'd never even shown interest in that kind of thing.

Xiang Wei was totally confused, staring at him. If he couldn't give a reasonable explanation, the snake would definitely stop him! A flashy Shen Jiyue would be so weird!

Shen Jiyue hadn't expected such a big reaction. Seeing Xiang Wei's determined "I need to get to the bottom of this" attitude, he was puzzled why he was so opposed. After all, Xiang Wei had been so interested in hair dyeing before, so Shen Jiyue thought he'd be curious or supportive.

Not one to dwell on it, Shen Jiyue didn't hide anything and told him directly: "If I dye my hair a different color, you'll find it easier to remember me."

Xiang Wei never expected that the reason he wanted to dye his hair was for him. The snake froze, his thoughts all jumbled—not knowing what he was thinking, or perhaps thinking nothing at all.

When the snake had first taken human form, the first person he ever met was Shen Jiyue. He had settled in the Shen household, depending on him for everything. Since they met, Shen Jiyue had always been good to the snake, and Xiang Wei had gotten used to it, never once asking why.

Now he was willing to dye his hair a color he had never even considered before, just so the snake could recognize him. Why?

Why would he make changes for something the snake didn't even care about himself?

Xiang Wei rarely felt curious about things, but this was strange—there was clearly no need, was there?

"What are you thinking about?" Shen Jiyue saw him frozen and looking dazed, and waved a hand in front of his face.

Xiang Wei's thoughts were interrupted. He didn't overthink it and just asked directly: "Why do you want to dye your hair because of me? You never liked hair dyeing before. When I asked Chang Hu about it, you didn't look happy."

Shen Jiyue hadn't expected that someone so oblivious that he couldn't even see how obvious Shen Jiyue was about liking him would notice his slight expression back then and deduce that he disliked hair dyeing. He felt a bit complicated.

"It's a very simple thing. I only need to make a small change, and you'll never have to worry about not being able to tell me apart. A pretty good deal."

Shen Jiyue didn't bother with the whole "it's not for you" act. Doing something without making a show of it was one thing; being asked directly and denying it wasn't how he did things.

Do it openly and honestly. Own up to it without hesitation.

His affection had never been hidden or concealed—he only held back his feelings so as not to scare Xiang Wei. Slowly warming him up, teaching him to gradually understand love, to slowly come around. Now was the perfect opportunity.

The slow one was beginning to realize that Shen Jiyue was different to him.

Shen Jiyue watched him, seeing his expression shift from confusion to sudden realization, his clear eyes gradually filling with something else.

If Xiang Wei were someone who had lived in the human world for a long time and had seen people around him dating, he would have asked: "Do you like me?"

But the snake was just a snake who had only recently taken human form. The fact that he could sense how indulgent and familiar Shen Jiyue was with him was already quite perceptive of him.

So after listening, Xiang Wei simply nodded slowly, like he'd just figured out an interesting puzzle. Having learned the reason behind his plan to dye his hair, the snake spoke up seriously: "No, you can't dye your hair."

"?" Shen Jiyue raised an eyebrow and leaned in, signaling him to go on.

Xiang Wei said, dead serious, "If you dye your hair a different color, it'll look too strange. It looks good the way it is now. I don't need to rely on your hair to recognize you. From now on, I'll stick with you whenever we go out, so we won't get separated, and I won't mistake you for someone else."

Shen Jiyue, however, felt that two independent individuals couldn't always stay glued together—that idea wasn't realistic.

The snake frowned deeply, racking his brain, then said, "Then you don't need to dye your hair. I can recognize you by your scent—it's plum blossom fragrance."

Shen Jiyue looked at him in surprise, then something clicked and he quickly reacted, asking, "So when you wore my clothes last time, you were trying to commit that scent to memory?"

"Yeah!" Xiang Wei answered, completely unbothered.

So that really was the absurd reason. Shen Jiyue wanted to rub his forehead again. He knew Xiang Wei's brain worked differently from most people's, but this was on a whole other level.

Who on earth would solve their face blindness by sniffing people out? Humans don't have a sense of smell sharp enough to replace their eyesight—how close would you even have to get to catch a whiff?

Without discouraging him, Shen Jiyue just asked, "So once you've memorized the scent, how do you recognize someone when you're at a distance?"

Xiang Wei insisted, "As long as they're within my line of sight, I can smell the familiar scent and recognize them." He totally forgot he'd already messed up twice before.

Alright, Shen Jiyue sighed. If you're that set on it and don't want me dyeing my hair, fine, I won't. I'll think of another way—like getting an ear piercing with an earring, or wearing something flashy.

"Then I guess I'll have to rely on your nose."

"Yeah!" Xiang Wei nodded proudly, feeling his nose had done all the heavy lifting, so he seized the chance to snag a few more of his shirts, saying he needed to familiarize himself with his scent again.

The snake tried to cover his ass: "The two times I mistook someone before were because they had the same plum blossom scent as you, so I thought they were you." The snake was usually spot-on when it came to recognizing people.

But Shen Jiyue suddenly had a realization: if Xiang Wei's sense of smell was indeed extraordinary and he could detect a person's scent from afar to identify them, then it was plausible he could make mistakes.

His perfume was a certain brand, used by few but not none, so it made sense that Xiang Wei, after being out with him for so long, only encountered the same scent twice recently and mistook those people.

So all he needed was a uniquely scented perfume, and the problem would be solved.

==========Author's Note:==========

Xiang Wei: Refuse to let him become a pink/green/yellow/orange/purple/... haired guy! Keep the original look!

Shen Jiyue (realizing): Need a perfume with a unique scent.

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Hey everyone, happy Dragon Boat Festival~