“I don’t know either!” Ban Xia shouted in frustration. “It just said Chi Lian wants to perish with Xuan Ye! Both of them are injured and said if we go in, we’ll die too.”
“Perish together? Why?!” Su Yun, who had been silent, suddenly spoke. Her eyes burned with intensity, her face again showing that obsessive gleam.
Ban Xia pulled out her phone and read the text aloud: “It says he’s unbearably lonely and wants to…” She stopped mid-sentence, her gaze snapping to Su Yun, scrutinizing her like a predator assessing prey.
“Why would he feel lonely? You said you’ve always been with him, haven’t you? Always finding new women for him?” Ban Xia asked after a pause, her tone turning sharp. “Or is it that he truly cared for you, and your leaving him pushed him to choose death?”
Su Yun said nothing. Her face remained blank, but her eyes began to well with tears.
It seemed Ban Xia had hit the mark. This was shaping up to be a tragic soap opera of obsessive love and betrayal.
Ban Xia sneered, signaling to You Huang to hoist Su Yun into the air. Raising her voice, she called out, “Hey! Chi Lian, are you listening? Your woman is here with us!”
No response. The cave remained eerily silent, except for the faintly rippling stench of blood in the air.
“She came back willingly! She said she realized the one she truly loves is you!” Ban Xia tried a different tactic.
This time, there was a reaction—a low, eerie laugh echoed from the depths of the cave. It was full of bitterness and mockery, and it quickly faded into silence.
Ban Xia clenched her fists in frustration. Running out of ideas, she turned to You Huang with a determined expression. “Let’s just storm in. Live or die, we’re going in. There’s no time to overthink it.”
You Huang nodded, clearly already in favor of the plan.
“Wait!” Chi Xue, ever the wildcard, suddenly stepped forward. Biting his finger, he drew a charm in his palm. “Let me try to see what he’s thinking, to understand what he wants.”
“Are you insane?” Ban Xia shouted.
“I’m not insane.” Chi Xue replied calmly, stepping forward and raising his palm toward the back chamber. He shouted, “Chi Lian! Tell me what you’re thinking! My master always said no one truly wants to die holding onto a secret. Everyone longs to confess!”
After a tense pause, Chi Xue’s eyes lit up. “He has an obsession… just like Su Yun. A ridiculous obsession.”
“What is it?” Ban Xia demanded, her eyes wide.
“I can read him! He’s not resisting me. My master was right!” Chi Xue’s excitement grew.
“Stop wasting time and find out what he wants!” Ban Xia barked.
“He says what he wants is nothing but an illusion. In life, in death, in every cycle of reincarnation, it’s always been just an illusion…”
“Huh?” Ban Xia raised an eyebrow.
“He says he was originally just a snake, living in a bamboo grove behind a tea house. For years before becoming a demon, he listened to the stories told by the tea house storyteller.”
“Huh?” Ban Xia repeated, this time louder.
“It’s… it’s a story,” Chi Xue murmured after a moment of silent reading, his head lowered. “His story, its origins and aftermath, doesn’t sound like an easy one.”
Indeed. It wasn’t.
This is a story—a tale of the red-scaled serpent, Chi Lian. Its origins and aftermath are anything but lighthearted.
In the beginning, Chi Lian was just a snake living in a bamboo grove. Nearby, there was a tea house where storytellers spun their tales daily. Bored from his cultivation, Chi Lian would slither over to listen.
There were many types of stories—Romance of the Three Kingdoms, tales of heroes from the Sui and Tang dynasties—but Chi Lian wasn’t interested in those.
What he loved were love stories: Meng Jiang Nu’s thousand-mile journey to find her husband and her tears that brought down the Great Wall, tales of unwavering devotion across lifetimes.
This, he thought, was what humanity was all about. Men and women, complementary opposites, their lives intertwined in harmony. With a heart wholly committed, they could spend their lives together until their hair turned white.
It was then that he formed an ambition—one that seemed almost laughable at the time.
He wanted to become human. Not just any human, but one who could live a life of love and loyalty.
And so, he cultivated diligently. One day, he succeeded in taking human form, becoming a man of extraordinary beauty, charm, and impeccable manners.
A man like this naturally had no trouble finding a partner.
By the second year of his transformation, he met his beloved, a young woman named Su Fu. She had a delicate face with a dimple that appeared whenever she smiled.
Su Fu came from a wealthy family. She didn’t mind Chi Lian’s humble origins and was even willing to bring him into her family. A wedding date was quickly set, and everything seemed perfect.
Chi Lian was resolute. He would love and cherish her for a lifetime, just like the stories said. He would fetch her foot-washing water, warm her bedding—whatever it took to make her happy.
“I’ll treat you well, always,” he promised on their wedding night, holding her in his arms. It was a cliché, but he meant every word. To him, life couldn’t be more complete.
They consummated their marriage that night. Both were shy, and as he carefully undressed her, his hands trembled with nervous excitement.
Everything went smoothly—the foreplay, the union—it was their first time, filled with fear and joy.
Su Fu reached her climax in that first encounter. Though she had kept her eyes tightly shut out of modesty, she couldn’t help but smile in quiet delight as she opened them slightly at the end.
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