Cangwu

ID 9jpcxb@意意意意意

340

190

"Cangwu Observation Log: Greenie's Diary" My name is Greenie. I don't have any other name. The clan chief calls me Greenie, so the whole clan calls me Greenie too. I coil up wherever I feel comfy—in the chief's sleeves, around his wrist, around his neck, or right on top of his head. You asking who the chief is? The chief is Cangwu. The chief is handsome. That's not just coming from me; everyone says so. He has long, dark green hair that's super sleek. Sometimes I treat his hair like my personal nest. Even when he notices, he never chases me off; he just says, "Just don't take a shit in my hair." His eyes are green, pretty much like mine. His are slit pupils, and mine are slit pupils too. The difference is that when he looks at people, it feels like he's peering right through their souls, whereas when I look at people, I'm just looking. He has pale green scale markings on his face that shimmer whenever he smiles. Two silver discs dangle from his earlobes and jingle whenever he walks. When I was little, I used to pounce on those silver discs, but he'd flick my forehead and say, "These were left by my mother. No pouncing." After that, I stopped pouncing on them—though sometimes I still get the urge, so I have to hold myself back. The chief's word is law in our clan. When the elders scold him, he just beams back with a grin, but as soon as they leave, he turns to me and goes, "Greenie, you be the judge. Where did I go wrong?" I flick my tongue twice, which counts as giving my verdict, and he sighs, "You think I'm in the right too, don't you?" I tell him I didn't say anything, but he replies, "You flicked your tongue, so that means you spoke." That's just how he is—he interprets everything however he pleases. The chief is lazy. When it gets hot in the summer, he shifts back into his snake form and soaks in the water for four hours straight. I soak with him, but as he soaks, he falls asleep and sinks straight to the bottom. He only wakes up when I whip him with my tail. He pops his head out of the water, going, "Huh? How did I sink?" When he's filing his nails, he won't answer anyone who calls him. I crouch by his side and watch, and he only glances at me after finishing a nail: "Greenie, when did you get here?" He walks without making a sound, often scaring the daylights out of folks. When they shriek in fright, he puts on the most innocent face: "That's just how I walk." During clan council meetings, I coil around his wrist. Just as an elder is talking until his throat goes dry, the chief suddenly blurts out, "Greenie, are you hungry?" The elder slams the table in a rage, and he smoothly replies, "Please, go on, I'm listening," while secretly sneaking dried meat into my mouth. But the chief isn't just lazy. He handles tons of things. When the little snakes undergo their humanoid transformation, he keeps vigil by their side. When the little snakes fight, he breaks it up. When a little snake falls into the pond, he's the first to dive in and fish them out. After scooping them up, he'll still scold, "Stupid little thing," and then wrap his robe around the little snake to carry them back, grumbling the whole way. Once, I fell into a stream, and he rushed over to scoop me up, holding me up high and inspecting me for ages: "Greenie, you scared the life out of me!" I told him that I'm a snake and a natural swimmer. He paused for a moment, then set me on the ground: "Oh. Forgot." If you forgot, why did you fish me out so fast? The chief is such a smooth talker when he's out and about. When he smiles at the other clan chiefs, his scales gleam like they're plugged into electricity, and sweet words roll off his tongue one after another. Listening to him from inside his sleeve makes me want to flick my tongue in exasperation. When he speaks with that fox chief of the White Fox Clan, he calls him "Brother Bai Qi" with every breath, praising his fine tea and his exquisite paintings, only to grumble to me later, "That fox is shrewd as hell." He doesn't say much around the taciturn chief of the Black Wolf Clan; the two of them can sit together for half a day without uttering a single word. When the chief gets back, he tells me, "Jinshuo is a solid kid. Being around him saves my voice." He's the rowdiest with the loud-mouthed Lion Clan chief; they bicker the moment they meet, but whenever anyone badmouths that lion chief, he's the first to bite back. After roasting them, he returns and tells me, "That lion is an idiot. Can't leave him unsupervised." Ever since the chief returned from the Royal City, he's been acting a bit different. From time to time, he coils up on the windowsill to gaze at the moon, curling the tip of his tail around me and suddenly asking, "Greenie, do you think the Sovereign has feelings for me since they ate my date paste pastries?" I flick my tongue twice, and he says, "I think so too." A couple of days later, he's coiled on the windowsill again: "Greenie, when the Sovereign said my woven grass nest was good, do you think that was a compliment?" I tell him he's being annoying, and he goes, "Flicking your tongue means you think I'm annoying, but I'm not listening to you." As he speaks, he taps his earlobe with the tip of his tail. A soft chime rings out, and he chuckles to himself. The chief actually looks really handsome when he smiles, but he doesn't usually smile like that. When he does, eight times out of ten, he's thinking about the Sovereign.