Chapter 49 Teaching

Chapter 49: Teaching

Shen Jiyue had the idea in the morning, and by the afternoon, he had taken the materials from several perfume companies that his secretary had brought over, swiftly acquired a perfume research institute, and changed its name.

The X's Perfume Research Institute was founded with the sole purpose of producing a perfume with a unique scent.

Keeping this in mind, Shen Jiyue communicated his requirements and had the person in charge report progress promptly. Before Xiang Wei could react, he went and got his ear pierced, wearing a snake-shaped earring.

Until the perfume was developed, he would wear this earring to make it easier for Xiang Wei to recognize him.

"!" The snake, caught off guard by this sudden move, stared in amazement at Shen Jiyue's left ear. He had seen humans wearing earrings in many TV shows and movies, and they always wore them on both ears, looking symmetrical and pretty.

Although Shen Jiyue only had one, it still looked good on him, adding a touch of mystery and edginess to his cold and stern demeanor.

"Why isn't there one on this side?" Xiang Wei reached out and pinched the intact earlobe on the right, asking curiously.

The sudden warmth of the touch on his ear made Shen Jiyue instinctively glance at him, and he replied in a neutral tone, "Not many people wear just one earring, so it's easier to spot than wearing both."

Xiang Wei stared at him quietly, as if trying to burn this image of him into his memory. His intense gaze made Shen Jiyue avert his gaze a little.

"Your earring looks great!" After a long moment, the snake said admiringly, his eyes full of satisfaction and affection, along with a smug pride that they had the same taste.

The snake and the human were like Bo Ya and Zhong Ziqi from the Chinese textbook—soulmates, the best of friends, perfectly matched.

Shen Jiyue smiled at that thought.

He had bought the snake-shaped earring with both Xiang Wei's and his own tastes in mind. While choosing it, he happened to recall the painting Xiang Wei had made, in which the snake was clearly meant to be his snake form—a little yellow snake.

So when buying the earring, he specifically looked for a snake design with yellow accents. After much deliberation, he finally settled on this one—a lively little snake with a pale yellow glow like Xiang Wei's pupils, with a unique flair.

Xiang Wei had no idea that their Bo Ya-Zhong Ziqi bond was actually the result of Shen Jiyue's deliberate effort. He was just happily admiring the snake adorning Shen Jiyue's ear, and the more he looked at it, the more it looked like him.

Haha, it was like the snake had shrunk down and hidden on his earlobe, going to work and coming home with him, eating and sleeping together—they were basically together 24/7.

Chuckling to himself, Xiang Wei started to like Shen Jiyue's ear piercing. He planned to buy him lots of blingy earrings. He had seen many pretty ones at the mall last time, but since he didn't know anyone who wore earrings, he hadn't bought any.

Now, the snake could buy plenty of earrings so Shen Jiyue could wear a different one every day. The snake would remember what he wore each day, so even if they were separated in the future and his sense of smell gave out, he could still recognize him precisely.

A tiny ear piercing temporarily solved the problem of not being able to recognize faces, and the two were back to being all over each other, chatting about this and that, and discussing the snakelet's upbringing and education.

Shen Jiyue clearly had no high expectations for a little snake—just being healthy, happy, and well-fed was enough. If, on top of that, it was well-behaved, liked being touched and cuddled, and was affectionate, then it would be a top-tier pet snake.

Compared to Shen Jiyue's low bar, Xiang Wei seemed like a strict father. Not only was he rushing things by teaching a newly hatched snake how to hunt, but he also showed it videos of snakes hunting in the wild every day. He even used his fingers as fake prey to train it, hoping the snakelet would learn from the videos.

Xiang Wei: Having your own skills is the best. Mountains can crumble and people can leave, but if you have survival skills, you'll never be caught off guard. Although their family would support it, the little snake still needed basic snake survival skills.

The two parents' parenting styles clashed, and neither could convince the other.

Shen Jiyue: Why would a pet snake need to learn how wild snakes hunt? Even if their family went bankrupt, they wouldn't be unable to afford the snakelet's food, let alone make it hunt for its own food.

But seeing the look in Xiang Wei's eyes—the look of a doting father worried his kid would turn out spoiled—Shen Jiyue silently covered his face.

His beloved was perfect in every way, even his stubbornness was adorably persistent.

After a bit of back-and-forth, they reached a parenting truce: they wouldn't interfere with each other's methods. After the brief disagreement, they were back to happily discussing dinner plans and agreeing to hit the mall for earrings that night.

On the rock garden, the snakelet flicked its tongue, watching the parents talk from a distance. Seeing that they weren't coming over to play, it stayed put, quiet and still.

After a while, the parents came over together, reaching out to play with it. It climbed up their fingers, nuzzling affectionately against both the big snake and the human, letting them pet it and soaking up their praise.

When playtime was over and they left, it crawled off to play by itself, totally unaware that its two parents had just had a serious talk about its education.

The little one had no idea that its training plan was already in the works. The easy life of lazing around, sleeping, eating, and getting praised for crawling and being petted was about to slip away—all because the big snake raising it had caught the human parenting bug.

On the other side, determined to crack down on the snakelet's training, Xiang Wei wore a stern expression. He felt that the little snake just chased after fingers but never pounced to bite, never actively hunted—this wasn't going to work.

What if the snakelet grew up thinking that prey was just for chasing, and even when it caught up, it wouldn't eat because it thought it was a game?

The snake couldn't shift back to its original form, but he'd found a workaround. Xiang Wei smiled. The snake friend who had helped him sneak into the Shen family's old mansion had met with him yesterday and agreed to give the snakelet a live demonstration of how snakes hunt.

Xiang Wei was overjoyed, feeling that the snakelet's learning progress—which had been at a standstill (actually zero)—was about to take a huge leap forward. The snakelet was about to join the ranks of little snakes that could catch prey! What a champ!

The next day was the weekend. Xiang Wei got up early, got all dressed up, and went to the front gate to meet his snake friend. The two snakes hissed at each other as they walked into the Shen residence, with the butler giving them a bewildered look.

"Hiss hiss~" Your egg hatched ages ago? And it still can't hunt?

The snake friend remembered that a long, long time ago, on a dark and stormy night, it had led its clumsy buddy inside. That clumsy guy had said he was looking for his egg.

Having hatched eggs before, the snake friend figured this egg must have hatched a long time ago. But a snake that had been out of its shell for so long still hadn't learned to hunt—well, it wasn't surprised at all. A clumsy snake makes a clumsy baby.

Xiang Wei had no idea his snake friend thought he was a total idiot, and he was still defending the snakelet: "It hasn't been that long, just about ten days since it hatched. You don't know, it's so tiny and well-behaved, it won't even bite me."

"Hiss hiss hiss..."

The two snakes walked and talked, quickly arriving home. The snakelet stared at them with big round eyes, especially at the other snake in Xiang Wei's hand. Its posture went from relaxed to a bit on guard.

"Hiss hiss!" This is your kid? Why is it black?

The snake friend still remembered that Xiang Wei's snake form was yellow. How did he end up with a black kid? It was genuinely puzzled.

"Yeah, yeah! Isn't it pretty!" Xiang Wei set down the snake friend and reached out to pick up the snakelet.

Seeing the familiar hand, the little snake slowly crawled over. Unlike usual, it didn't climb up right away. Instead, it sniffed and flicked its tongue, picking up the scent of another snake on his hand. It flicked its tongue, as if trying to mask the scent, then climbed up his fingers.

Xiang Wei introduced the two snakes, then got straight to the lesson. He brought out the teaching prop—a pinky mouse for the snakelet to eat—got the snake friend ready, and told the snakelet to watch and learn.

He held the pinky mouse and dangled it in front of the snake friend. Both snakes locked their eyes on the mouse. The snake friend's gaze burned with killing intent, while the snakelet just stared blankly, wondering if it was being fed despite not being hungry.

The next second, the still-moving pinky mouse was snatched up in one swift bite by the snake friend, who lunged forward with its mouth wide open. Xiang Wei immediately let go, and the mouse was wrapped up in the snake friend's long body, squeezed and swallowed.

With the demo done, Xiang Wei and the snake friend, who had just eaten, both looked at the little snake.

Xiang Wei held up another pinky mouse and dangled it in front of the snakelet, encouraging it to copy what the snake friend had just done—first find the target, pounce and bite, then squeeze and swallow.

The snakelet gathered its strength and lunged, landing with a soft thump. It missed the mouse. It stared blankly at the unfamiliar big snake for a moment, then silently crawled back to Xiang Wei, wrapped around his hand, and buried its head in his palm.

Xiang Wei patted the slightly discouraged little snake, comforting it that it was still young, and once it grew up, it would be able to hunt just as fast. The little snake was so smart; if it kept practicing, it would get the hang of it in no time.

After getting a ton of comfort from its parent snake, the snakelet practiced with the unfamiliar snake again. By the time the snake friend had swallowed yet another pinky mouse and was getting pretty full, the little snake finally succeeded in hunting, chowing down on a tasty meal it had caught all by itself.

"Wow! Our little one is amazing! You learned to hunt so fast—you're the best little snake ever!" Xiang Wei clapped right away, praising the little snake and patting its head, showering it with compliments.

The snake friend, having heard a ton of flattery: ...

At that moment, the snake friend looked at Xiang Wei with the exact same expression Xiang Wei had given Shen Jiyue yesterday—like he was a total pushover parent.

...

On the third floor, Shen Jiyue had just woken up, gotten cleaned up, and walked out of his room, ready to head downstairs for breakfast. He stood in the hallway and watched the whole thing. He closed his eyes, wondering if he was dreaming.

Why, first thing in the morning, was there a wild snake in his house teaching their snakelet how to hunt, while Xiang Wei—who had just talked about teaching the snakelet survival skills last night—stood nearby like a cheerleader, hyping everything up?

And the most absurd part was that the snakelet actually managed to mimic a miniature version of the wild snake's hunting moves in this lesson, and Xiang Wei actually made it work.

Shen Jiyue pinched the bridge of his nose, and only when they seemed to be done did he walk downstairs.

"You're up!" Xiang Wei spotted him, waved excitedly, and hurried over in a few steps. Before Shen Jiyue could even ask, he chattered on about everything.

"...The little one learns so fast, it's already mastered constricting prey!" Xiang Wei's eyes sparkled as he looked at him, motioning for him to be sure to praise the snakelet's big progress when he came over.

Shen Jiyue was socially savvy; he not only enthusiastically praised the snakelet but also commended Xiang Wei's creative approach, and in return, he saw a boy and a snake, both holding their heads high with equal pride.

Beside them was a king rat snake eyeing him curiously—non-venomous, a protected species under China's "Three Haves" list (a category for beneficial, economically valuable, and scientifically important wildlife), whose diet included other snakes, and which had just graciously acted as a temporary teacher to the snakelet, showing it how to constrict and kill its prey.

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

Snake: Human, go ahead, be bold and enthusiastic in praising the snake!

Shen Jiyue: Is there something wrong with this world? Where exactly did Xiang Wei grow up? Does he really know how to train snakes?