After three days of living with a snake.

The sun is rising and our small human opens her eyes and flashes her long lashes just to see her face licked buy a thin and bifurcated tongue.

At this sight, the girl starts yelling like crazy, rolling her eyes backwards and forward.

"What are you doing, "Greeny"? indignantly questions the little girl. "Why are you on top of me?" "No wonder that I felt a heavy rock above my chest while I was sleeping! I almost couldn't breathe and forcibly woke up!"

"I was studying your face, you know? Here at this temple are only monks and this is the first time that I am seeing a woman!"

"Aren't you a woman yourself?" replies the girl.

"Sort of!", speaks back the green snake.

"How's this, sort of? You look like a female to me!", exclaims the human being.

"I don't know the difference between a female and a male snake right now! I never stepped outside this garden before!"

"Where you born here?", asks the girl.

"I think so! I don't remember the details of my birthday because I was probably too small to realize something at that time with my closed little eyes."

"Anyway, get off me! You're so heavy!", says the girl.

After so many complaints from Ruo-er, the snake gets off her body and jumps into the lotus pond.

"Are you hungry?, Greeny suddenly asks her.

"I think so.", replies the girl in a low voice while her stomach was making loud noises."I particularly miss my grandmother's lotus roots soup right now. I haven't eaten cooked food for several days."

The snake starts picking up lotus seeds pods and also digs up sweet lotus roots.

"Do you know to cook?, asks the girl.

"You think the wild animals can cook?, asks the snake. We, the wild creatures, don't have a pair of skilled hands like you humans. It would be impossible and pointless for us too cook. We only eat raw food, everything that we find around us is very good as it is. It takes thousands of years of cultivation for us to transform into a human body and start acting like one does.Cook it yourself!"

"I'll give it a try if you help me gather what I need!, murmurs Ruo-er.

Hearing that, Greeny puts down on the grass, in front of her, a bunch of lotus seed pods and roots.

Later come: two rabbits, a bucket with cold water, some stones, dry branches of tree, a huge pot and two bowls stolen from the monks.

Looking at the dirty pot and bowls, Ruo-er asks Greeny how did she carry them and the snake tells her that in her mouth.

"I swallowed them when a monk was washing the crockery in front of the well and spit it right here.", this answer satisfies the girl's curiosity in an instant.

"No wonder that they're all full of this thick saliva now! I must properly clean them before starting using them!", the girl mumbles.

When the pots are clean again, Ruo-er puts the big one on a trivet made of stones, starts the fire below it by hitting two stones between them and throws the sliced rabbit meat inside the pot. After the meat browns a little, she pours the water and the round sliced lotus roots. Realizing that she still needs something, Ruo-er asks Greeny to borrow from their neighbours again.

Of course that the snake could not simply knock at their doors and ask for some salt because everyone will be terrified by her appearance, so she sneaks into their barn and swallows a bag with salt. Fortunately, the salt was protected by a waterproof bag so it didn't become wet from the snake's saliva.

"Greeny, you should stop this habit of yours of swallowing anything you see in front!, complaints the Ruo-er.

"I'll stop doing it when I'll have a human form, for now I must be satisfied with this!"

The soup is properly seasoned, the greens are added and the smell of fresh cooked food fills the entire garden.

When the boiling is over, Ruo-er fills the two bowls with soup and hands one to Greeny who reluctantly looks at the hot soup.

"Though the soup smells good,I already said that we don't need cooked food and besides this I don't have hands to hold it." Greeny complains about her form over and over again.

"Then I'll put it on the table so you can sip from it." Ruo-er insists. "Take care, it's still hot!"

The big snake takes some sips but because of the soup's temperature, she burns her tongue and yells that her seventh senses were destroyed by the pot's heat. Greeny is so aggrieved that she rolls over the ground for several times and later she dips her head in the pond's water.

When she's out, her seventh senses are back.

"I've told you to be careful! How old are you, seriously?" says Ruo-er.

"I have nine hundred and ninety nine years!" the snake proudly answers. "Just a bit more and I'll attain my human shape. When that day comes, I'll try copying all the habits of the humans until I'm satisfied."

"Do you want to be a human that much?" asks her Ruo-er.

"Yes! Because the humans are considered intelligent creatures, more intelligent than us animals.", Greeny says.

"That's not true!", answers back Ruo-er. "You're the most intelligent snake I have ever seen in my entire life, more clever than many humans in the world and you can speak clearly just like a human. It's amazing!", happily explains the girl.

Hearing this the snake smiles and waves her head in unison with the wind, not wanting to stop from shaking it. Ruo-er checks the bowl of soup from the table and affirms that its temperature is normal now and it can be safely eaten.

Hearing her words, Greeny sips again from it with her bifurcated tongue and makes a long "mmmm...." sound of happiness.

"The human food is not bad at all! I never thought that the meat can be this tasty fried or boiled together with the vegetables. When I'll transform into a human, I'll learn cooking too!", says the green snake.

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