Xin Yi felt that he had understood, because Xie Shuo’s breathing became a bit more rapid.
Shadows flickered on the curtains, and the youth’s smoky purple robes were already soaked with sweat. His black hair and red lips, with eyes like dots of lacquer, even gave the illusion of delicate harmlessness.
The deception was very strong.
He seemed like a young master from a great aristocratic family, well-raised with strict family rules, adhering to propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame; or like an innocent neighbor boy, pure and beautiful.
But a venomous snake was still a venomous snake—no matter how well disguised, it could never be harmless.
Especially those pale golden vertical pupils that stared fixedly at her, hiding a hunter’s instinct beneath their restrained patience.
However, Xin Yi still reached out to touch him, accidentally brushing the red cord and silver bell tied at the end of his hair, and found that her fingertips were damp.
Because even the silk ribbon was soaked with the sweat he had endured seeping out.
He was so good at enduring.
He had held out until now without roughly pouncing on her—was he afraid she would despise him?
“You’ve sweated a lot,” she said.
Then her fair hand trailed from his brow bone, slowly caressing down to his lips, her tone sounding a bit heartbroken. “Your lips are bitten open.”
It would be false to say she wasn’t nervous. After all, no matter how much she had indulged his wild antics before, it had still been with a normal person, not excessively shameful—at least her body and mind could accept it.
But now…
However, Xin Yi also knew that even if her heart was about to jump out of her chest, she couldn’t back out today.
She had to make Xie Shuo believe that she didn’t dislike any form of him.
So she leaned in with a sweet, orchid-like breath, chuckling lightly as she kissed the wound on his lips.
Feeling his trembling breath, she kissed two more times, her tone soft and seductive to the bone. “How do you snake folk mate? Teach me, okay?”
Xie Shuo finally couldn’t endure it anymore and abruptly pressed her down onto the cool bamboo mat behind her.
They were very close, their breaths intertwining as they could hear each other’s violent, unrelenting heartbeats. Xin Yi could even smell the strange fragrance on him.
It was a scent like green orange peel, carrying a sweet aroma.
She liked this smell a lot. Every time before when she was forced to bite his shoulder, she couldn’t help but sniff it.
She didn’t know why, but it seemed this scent was especially rich only when he was immersed in passion.
Xin Yi had even wondered if this was some special pheromone snakes used to bewitch females, making them sink into it and obediently endure.
The candle flames crackled, and the tassels on the curtain drapes fell to the ground.
Sweat seeped more and more from Xie Shuo’s brow and neck, and muffled grunts like pants overflowed from his crimson thin lips.
Just as Xin Yi thought he was going to kiss her, her body suddenly lightened—Xie Shuo had left her.
This discovery made her puzzled: What did it mean? Was he planning to endure the mating period alone tonight?
However, before she could voice her complaint, her ankle was gripped.
Almost caught off guard, a clear tearing sound came from the place originally wrapped by her undergarments, followed by a slight coolness.
The intense sense of insecurity made her instinctively clamp her legs together and struggle lightly. “Xie Shuo, what are you doing—”
Unfortunately, she couldn’t break free. Her jade-white toes painted with dan kou nearly kicked his face, making the silver bell in his hair ring crisply.
Her knee bends were held by the youth’s ice-cold finger bones, bent up to the sides.
Xin Yi’s breathing trembled slightly. Then she watched as Xie Shuo’s face, beautiful as a girl’s, vanished into the folds of her skirt embroidered with crabapple flowers.
All sensations vanished. Xin Yi tilted her face up, biting her lips tightly, gradually turning red like a cooked shrimp.
Until she really couldn’t stand it, she dazedly clamped her legs tighter in her haze, but it was more like inviting him deeper into the trap. The silver bell kept rubbing against her tender inner thighs, chafing painfully.
She had been wrong. Xie Shuo wasn’t some delicate, harmless neighbor boy.
Which normal youth would do this?
Moreover, tonight’s Xie Shuo seemed intent on tormenting her. It hadn’t even properly started, and she had already been teased to tears twice.
By the end, when that terrifying thing approached her intimately, Xin Yi’s reddened eye corners hung with teardrops, still not recovered from her earlier disheveled daze.
…
She knew it would hurt, but she hadn’t expected it to hurt this much.
She even wanted to give up midway. Her slender white fingers had already begun pushing him impatiently, but the problem was that at this point, wanting to pull out was equally painful.
Xie Shuo was clearly suffering too. Sweat rolled from his jaw to his neck, dripping onto her pinkened shoulder.
Yet despite that, he was still working hard to wait for her to adapt.
But Xin Yi knew that if she didn’t ruthlessly use some extreme measure, even if tonight passed, she still wouldn’t adapt well.
So she wrapped her arms around his neck, rubbing away her tears while whispering softly in his ear, “It’s okay now…”
Soon she regretted her bravado.
A more obvious tearing pain came from below. In that instant, she even felt Xie Shuo’s pulse jump at his neck. She bit hard into his shoulder.
Salty-sweet blood overflowed along her lips, and more was dazedly and pitifully swallowed by her.
She didn’t know if it was the effect of snake blood, but the scorching heat gradually replaced the pain. Xin Yi’s sobs slowly stopped, turning into broken, tuneless moans.
Through her hazy, teary eyes, she seemed to see snake scale patterns on the youth’s face and neck.
They were mottled ink-green, just like the gorgeous snake tail that kept moving beneath him.
But before she could see clearly, she was flipped over.
Xin Yi could only weakly prop herself up on the vermilion-lacquered bed rail at the edge of the couch, kneeling in a puddle of mess.
…
It was thoroughly over by dawn.
She had been forcibly awakened several times midway, finally fainting into sleep amid the chirping of birds under the eaves.
Xie Shuo was still awake. He held the woman with her temple hair soaked through tightly in his arms, obsessively and greedily kissing her pink lips.
Then with a burning gaze, he traced her sleeping face over and over.
When Xin Yi slept, she was actually very gentle and quiet, without a trace of her usual provocative arrogance.
She even depended on him unexpectedly.
Xie Shuo didn’t know why, but just looking at her made his heart soften into a puddle, as if the emptiness and regrets in his life had suddenly been filled.
Every time he secretly watched her sleeping face, he had this strange and intense feeling. It seemed only by clutching her tightly could he feel at ease, as if only like this would he not lose her.
Perhaps due to extreme physical exhaustion, Xin Yi naturally missed breakfast, then missed lunch as well.
By the time she woke again, it was already evening.
After opening her eyes, it took her a while to react and realize what had happened last night.
Moreover, the soreness all over her body was even more intense than the first time.
Fortunately, her body was very clean—Xie Shuo must have bathed her.
Xin Yi looked down at the ghastly marks on herself, her brows twitching a bit. But thinking it was all her own doing, she felt too embarrassed to really get angry at him with a straight face.
So she turned her frustration into appetite, humming and hawing as she ordered him. “I’m hungry. Go prepare dinner for me.”
Xie Shuo was, of course, obedient beyond measure.
He could now satisfy any request of hers unconditionally. Even after dinner, he proactively brought out Bamboo Leaf Green for her to play with.
Xin Yi had originally been asking the system a question.
—About Xie Shuo’s muteness: Since his muteness was caused by being force-fed medicine as a child, was there a possibility to cure it?
The system said yes, it was possible, but this golden finger was super expensive.
When Xin Yi heard “super expensive,” she hadn’t taken it seriously at first, wondering just how expensive it could be.
Until she heard it would cost her twenty thousand points, then she instantly behaved, saying she needed to think it over.
As she looked up, she saw Bamboo Leaf Green slithering out from Xie Shuo’s sleeve—a completely emerald green one, extremely clingy.
As soon as it caught her scent, it rubbed against her body.
It had always liked sticking to her to sleep before.
She stroked Bamboo Leaf Green’s head and was a bit surprised.
Because she hadn’t seen this little green snake for a long time. Every time she asked Xie Shuo before, he pretended not to hear or brushed it off perfunctorily, making her almost suspect if he had let it die.
Turns out it wasn’t dead.
Then why was he so stingy, not even willing to lend it to her to play with? At this thought, Xin Yi couldn’t help stroking Bamboo Leaf Green’s head while glaring at the youth.
Time flew by, and all the maids and servants in Goose Water Courtyard had been replaced from top to bottom.
However, after such a shocking and inexplicable incident, every servant on duty was terrified, afraid they might meet the same fate. Even the atmosphere in the courtyard had become oppressive.
By the time Chu Chu woke up, half a month had already passed.
Xiao Cheng Ce could finally breathe a slight sigh of relief. He heartachingly held her and soothed her for a good while.
But whenever he asked about what happened that day, Chu Chu turned pale with fear and kept silent.
She even had nightmares for several nights.
Mumbling incoherently in her sleep, waking up drenched in sweat on her back.
Xiao Cheng Ce knew she had been traumatized and couldn’t force her.
So he could only set the matter aside and try every way to coax her into happiness.
After a few more days like this, he finally remembered Bai Xinyi.
He realized he hadn’t seen her for a long time. During this period, he had been tied up, and she had become sensible and virtuous, not coming to bother him.
That night, after coaxing Chu Chu to sleep, he himself couldn’t fall asleep for a long time.
Silent for a moment, he rose from the bed and pushed the door open, walking aimlessly until he somehow ended up at Bai Xinyi’s courtyard.
Fortunately, there was still light in the room—it seemed the woman hadn’t slept yet.
Xiao Cheng Ce had been particularly irritated lately, thinking he truly didn’t want to see Bai Xinyi from the bottom of his heart. Yet his body was honest, still leading him to this courtyard.
Xin Yi hadn’t expected it either.
She hadn’t expected that two hours ago, Xie Shuo would take advantage of the moment to pin her down on the luohan bed, dirtying her newly changed bamboo mat.
Even more unexpectedly, just as she could catch her breath, there came Xiao Cheng Ce’s knocking from outside, calling her name.
“…”
She hadn’t even had time to bathe yet.
The knocking continued outside, as if he would break in if she didn’t respond soon.
Xin Yi had no choice but to drape on the outer robe tossed by the table, then wrap herself tightly in a thin quilt. She glared irritably at Xie Shuo twice, warning him to hide his snake tail well and not make a sound.
Only then did she get off the bed to deal with Xiao Cheng Ce.
Unfortunately, she had no strength left at all now. Her feet felt unsteady on the ground, nearly buckling, until the mottled ink-green snake tail from the bed coiled around her waist to steady her.
Finally, after much fumbling, the door was opened from inside.
Xin Yi only poked out her fluffy black head, looking up at the handsome man under the eaves with apparent confusion. “It’s so late—why is the general here?”
Xiao Cheng Ce had waited so long that he couldn’t help frowning. Fortunately, the door finally opened.
But the woman inside seemed strange—not only were her cheeks flushed, her voice hoarse, but her temples were soaked with fragrant sweat.
He was momentarily stunned, then frowned even more tightly. “What’s wrong with you?”
Xin Yi, wrapped in the thin quilt, lightly pursed her red lips. Then a faint smile gathered on her clear and beautiful little face. “It’s nothing, just caught a bit of a chill, so I was deliberately stewing under the quilt for a while.”
As she spoke, her body unnaturally tilted to the side, as if unsteady on her feet.
Before Xiao Cheng Ce could voice his concern, in his peripheral vision, he saw something slithering down along the woman’s slender porcelain-white ankle—slowly, moistening a gold-embroidered flower on her skirt hem.
He thought he was seeing things. By the time he looked closely, she had decisively shut the door.