Chapter 2
Edward Quan ·
5
When I woke, I was limp with exhaustion.
The serpent beastkin had long since left.
I rubbed my lower back and straightened my clothes.
Just then, the door opened.
Gu Sui came in.
The moment he saw me, his lips curved into a gentle smile.
“Ruoli, did you sleep well?”
His eyes were probing.
I guessed he'd deliberately sent the serpent beastkin last night to test whether the deception would work.
I answered coolly.
“Weren't you there too? Why ask me?”
“Besides... doesn't Chief Gu need to keep Xu Qin company now?”
Something flickered in his eyes.
A trace of panic, perhaps.
It quickly vanished.
He gathered me into his arms.
“There's no Xu Qin.”
“Only you.”
“You're all I need in this life.”
“Things have been unsettled outside lately. Keeping you in is for your protection.”
I remained expressionless.
Protection, indeed.
To stop me dying of anger.
After all, I hadn't heard anything about Xu Qin being forbidden to go out.
I didn't understand.
We'd made things perfectly clear when we bonded.
I wasn't the kind of person who clung on.
If he truly liked Xu Qin, he could simply tell me.
I wouldn't stand in their way.
We could dissolve the bond and set each other free.
Xu Qin's birthday was approaching.
Gu Sui had probably been planning their honeymoon for a long time.
It was a novel idea.
He wanted to try it too.
Even if hiding it from me took all that effort.
“Ruoli.”
“Once I've dealt with things in a few days, I'll come back in the evenings.”
“I haven't spent time with you in so long. It's my fault.”
Exactly.
If it wasn't your fault, whose was it?
Mine?
6
That night, “Gu Sui” returned, just as promised.
As before, he opened the door quietly.
His steps were so light I couldn't hear them at all.
Only when he stood beside the bed did I slowly open my eyes.
In the dimness, I still couldn't see his face clearly.
I reached toward him.
“Tonight... don't take as long as yesterday.”
He didn't answer.
But when I began to draw back, he caught my hand.
Our fingers laced together.
His body seemed permanently cold.
Even colder than Gu Sui's.
No wonder he wore me out every time.
Holding him in summer was like having natural air-conditioning.
Wonderfully cool.
He bent to kiss me.
His lips were cold too.
I soon warmed them.
I swallowed every sound he made in the kiss.
I even deliberately coaxed him into saying all the things I liked to hear.
From the very first time I'd heard that voice, I'd known he would be my next favorite toy.
Half dazed, I felt a cold, smooth tail coil tightly around me.
The summer heat was stifling.
Instinctively, I hugged the tail and pressed closer.
A soft flicker of a snake's tongue sounded beside my ear.
For several days, Gu Sui came during the day to test my reactions.
To see whether I'd noticed anything wrong.
I kept pretending everything was normal.
Sure enough, two days before Xu Qin's birthday, they left the tribe together.
Off on their private honeymoon.
I found it ridiculous.
The only thing I hadn't expected was the serpent beastkin's boundless stamina.
After a month, I was beginning to struggle.
I advised him to take care of his health.
He listened.
Only, lately, I'd kept waking with the sensation of being tightly bound.
I thought they were nightmares and paid little attention.
During an afternoon nap with “Gu Sui,” that coiling pressure came again.
Damp.
Cold.
In my sleep, I patted the smooth tail in irritation.
“Gu Sui... stop playing...”
“...I want to sleep.”
The tail tightened at once.
In the sealed room, where not a ray of light entered, a pair of slit pupils watched me quietly.
Even in my dream, a chill ran down my back.
My scalp prickled.
Then something gently lifted my skirt.
I startled awake.
7
The tail brushed my waist.
Cool lips followed.
Sensing something wrong, I woke completely and looked up.
A pair of amber slit pupils met my eyes.
They were so cold I instinctively shrank back.
“You knew perfectly well I wasn't him.”
“Yet you still say his name in your sleep.”
“I'm Shen Wang.”
“A-Li...”
“Do you recognize me now?”
Gu Sui called me Ruoli.
You called me A-Li.
It would be difficult not to realize you were different people.
I nodded hastily, my eyes fixed on his face.
For the first time in all these days, I could see him clearly.
Cool, pale skin.
Long, narrow, sharply outlined eyes.
A high nose.
Thin lips.
Then my eyes widened.
Damn it!
He was still half man, half snake!
He leaned closer.
His lips brushed my ear as he asked slowly, “Now...”
“Can you feel the difference between him and me?”
I'd felt it on the very first night.
I bit my lip and said nothing.
He asked softly again.
“Here...”
“Has he ever reached here?”
No.
The two of you were very different.
I kept my mouth shut.
He deliberately teased me until I couldn't hold back a sound.
I glared.
“Shut up!”
This time, he actually did.
Then someone knocked.
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Gu Sui's voice came from outside, a little cold.
“Ruoli.”
“Why's the door locked?”
“Open it.”
8
Why had Gu Sui suddenly returned?
In alarm, I tried to push Shen Wang away.
His tail only coiled tighter.
I heard him sigh softly.
Outside, Gu Sui seemed to have sensed something unusual too.
I looked up at Shen Wang and bit my lip.
“I don't want...”
“...anyone else to see.”
His slit pupils settled on me.
He lifted me and unhurriedly put my clothes in order.
Then he raised my chin and brushed the corner of my mouth with his lips.
“This time...”
“Have you really remembered my name?”
“And my face?”
I nodded like a chicken pecking grain.
Noticing my impatience, he rewarded me by tilting my head back and kissing me deeply.
“Good girl.”
Then he put a bright red fruit into my mouth.
Sweet and tart.
I asked what it was.
“A fruit that temporarily hides a mate mark,” he answered casually.
After beastkin were intimate, if they truly had feelings for each other, the male's mate mark would appear on the female.
That was the sign of a bond.
Once it was hidden, it would be as though nothing had happened between us.
I looked at the snake pattern on my thigh.
It had curled all the way around it.
Now it gradually faded until no trace remained.
When I looked up again, Shen Wang was gone.
I froze.
That speed...
Even Gu Sui, the strongest merfolk warrior with four beast markings, couldn't do that.
Yet Shen Wang didn't have a single beast marking on his face.
I turned and opened the door.
Gu Sui's face was dark.
He brushed past me and strode into the room, looking everywhere.
He found nothing.
Only then did he turn back to me, wearing his familiar gentleness again.
“Ruoli.”
“What took you so long?”
I yawned.
“I was napping. It took me a while to wake up.”
“Was there...”
“Someone else in here just now?”
I stiffened and looked up at him.
“What do you mean?”
A moment later, my eyes reddened.
“What are you accusing me of?”
“I knew you were busy these past few days. I've tried not to bother you.”
“I've been here for more than three years, and bonded to you for over two.”
“I know you're tired of me. That's why you're finding every excuse to pick faults, isn't it?”
My voice caught.
Tears filled my eyes, but I fought to keep them from falling.
“If you don't have feelings for me anymore, let's dissolve the bond.”
“I'll leave the tribe.”
“Go somewhere else.”
“Make way for you and Xu Qin.”
My acting was excellent.
But half of what I said was true.
Gu Sui immediately fixed his eyes on me.
Both hands gripped my shoulders.
His gaze was frighteningly stubborn.
“I've never thought of dissolving our bond!”
“From now on...”
“Don't ever say that again. All right?”
I only wanted to laugh.
So someone was an even better actor than I was.
Fortunately, I now had a new toy beside me.
And he was my favorite.