Teasing

Seeing the girl opposite him smiling like a flower, and feeling her icy, slick snake tail slowly coiling around him, Ding Songyan instantly relived the childhood trauma of watching films and television shows like New Legend of the White Snake and Anaconda.

He forced out a smile and answered her question:

"Understood."

Heaven have mercy. Who could have imagined a white snake would come to listen to my Legend of the White Snake?

The girl nodded in satisfaction. Her thick snake tail whipped back and vanished without a trace.

"Can you show me the story you wrote today now?"

"Of course, of course." Ding Songyan turned halfway around, picked up the stack of papers, and presented it with both hands.

By lamplight and moonlight, the girl read through them intently, occasionally letting out an "Oh."

When she reached the final page, she looked up and said contentedly:

"So Lady White is even more powerful than I thought. She can even go to the Heavenly Court to steal the Immortality Elixir. Hmm, what about Fahai? He's already confirmed that Lady White is a snake demon, so why doesn't he come subdue her?"

Good question. That's exactly where I got stuck... And you're actually hoping Lady White gets subdued? If she really did, you'd start sniveling again. Being a white snake yourself, you really identify with her, don't you? His whole body taut, Ding Songyan instinctively grumbled inwardly to ease his urge to urinate.

With no time to think it through, he blurted out:

"Didn't you just say it yourself? Lady White can go to the Heavenly Court to steal the Immortality Elixir. She's far more powerful than Fahai. He's searching far and wide for helpers to make absolutely certain of success."

"Lady White has just given birth to Xu Shilin, and she's still very weak. Doesn't that put her in terrible danger?" The girl grew anxious about the story's next developments again, her eyes burning as she waited for Ding Songyan's answer.

Are you going to keep asking all the way to the ending? Ding Songyan sighed helplessly.

"Lady White has helpers too.

"There's a great hero in the martial world named Yan Nantian. Nothing pleases him more than seeing lovers finally united, and he sees nothing wrong with a demon and a human falling in love. When the time comes, he'll happen upon them and draw his blade to help."

In dangerous surroundings and pressed for time, Ding Songyan had evolved from adapting the story to making things up wildly.

The girl let out a long "Oh," visibly relieved.

"Then I'll listen to the details tomorrow." She stood up with a smile.

Seeing that she bore him no ill will, Ding Songyan recovered from the terror of his first encounter with a snake demon and asked, partly out of curiosity and partly to build a closer rapport:

"Is your name Lady White too, miss?"

The girl burst out laughing.

"We're not quite that fated. Didn't I tell you? My name is Xiaoqing."

"But aren't you a white snake...? I thought Xiaoqing meant your maid, since her clothes are blue-green," Ding Songyan explained.

"Can't a white snake be called Xiaoqing?" In excellent spirits, the girl's smile held a hint of mischief. "Can't I have 'qing' in my name?"

Fine, fine, everything you say is right! Ding Songyan was just about to speak when his head suddenly swam.

An instant later, he returned to normal. Everything before him was cool and clear as water, with no sign of a figure in a plain top and white skirt.

He himself was still in the posture he had held just after setting his brush on its rest. He had not turned toward the wooden bed.

Everything that had just happened, including the snake demon in her white skirt, seemed like a fleeting golden-millet dream he had accidentally slipped into while writing his detailed story outline.

The dim yellow lamplight mingled with the bright moonlight, hazy and dreamlike.

"I didn't fall asleep..." Ding Songyan quietly took stock of his surroundings for a while, detecting no lingering fragrance.

Yet he still believed that the girl named Xiaoqing had truly visited.

The papers bearing his detailed story outline, spread across the wooden chest, had shifted position.

Ah, being a storyteller in this world is a high-risk profession too. Who knows what strange creatures might come to hear your stories? If you leave them dangling too much, or give them an ending they don't like... hiss, I daren't imagine what happens next. Ding Songyan seriously considered whether he should report this to the authorities.

In only half the time it took to drink a cup of tea, he made his decision:

So what if she's a snake demon?

Can't a snake demon become a friend?

I initially took Xiaoqing seriously and wanted to build a connection with her because she seemed to come from a good family, had a reasonably kind heart, and still retained a little innocent charm. None of that has changed, so naturally my thinking won't change either.

Whether she's human or demon doesn't affect that judgment. It's not as if I'm trying to become Xu Xian.

Besides, after this incident, Ding Songyan felt that he and Xiaoqing were no longer quite so distant. They now shared a little secret, and he could try asking about many things he had previously found awkward to bring up or inquire into.

Ding Songyan exhaled. Remembering the plot twists he had invented in front of Xiaoqing in his panic gave him a headache.

I'll have to use all of them. You can deceive anyone, but never your god of wealth-especially a god of wealth who could swallow you in one bite!

Running through what he had said earlier, he decided it was workable enough. At least it explained why Fahai did not dare confront Lady White directly, instead luring Xu Xian to Jinshan Temple to draw her there.

With a plan in mind, Ding Songyan picked up his brush, dipped it in ink, and resumed his work.

Dingjiang Prefecture only shut its city gates and imposed no curfew, but late at night, its alleys were still empty and silent.

The maid in the blue-green silk skirt hurried after Xiaoqing and asked worriedly:

"Miss, why did you use a transformation technique to frighten Second Brother Ding?"

Xiaoqing still wore the purple outfit she had worn during the day and looked slender and delicate. Breathing in the cool night breeze, she swung her hands cheerfully.

"He deceived me first! It was clearly a story he'd just made up, yet he claimed it was a tale he'd newly learned. That song too. I asked around, and there's no such song form!"

"But... but what if he reports it to the authorities and says he encountered a snake demon?" The maid was full of worry.

Xiaoqing chuckled.

"He doesn't know, but surely the Yi clan and the Xiaoming Sect do? After Emperor Zhuanxu brought about the Severance of Heaven and Earth, what snake demons could still take human form?"

"That's true." Reassured, the maid murmured to herself, "And there are quite a few arts that let you cultivate a snake body. It wouldn't be easy to guess which one."

Walking lightly toward the main street, Xiaoqing swung her arms back and forth and said with a grin:

"Staying in human form normally and only revealing a snake tail when you want to-that's something you can only do in the Celestial-Human Realm. If Second Brother Ding reports it, he's sure to give the Yi clan and the Xiaoming Sect a fright."

"Yes, yes!" The maid grew cheerful along with her mistress. "Aside from Great Grandmasters in the Celestial-Human Realm, only a few martial arts specializing in transformations can do that..."

At this point, she suddenly froze.

"Miss, might the Yi clan and the Xiaoming Sect guess our identities because of this and spoil what comes afterward?"

"Oh, right..." Xiaoqing blinked and stopped walking.

After a few breaths, she pursed her lips and said:

"Second Brother Ding probably won't report it.

"Even if he does go to the government office, it'll be Second Uncle's headache. At most, I'll get punished a little and confined to quarters. I'm used to it anyway."

The maid was momentarily speechless. Seeing that her mistress no longer fretted over it, she too relaxed.

After thinking for a moment, she asked:

"Miss, do you think we'll get to hear the end of Legend of the White Snake before we leave Dingjiang Prefecture?"

"We should." Xiaoqing pondered for a while, then said fiercely, "If not, on the night before we leave, I'll kidnap Second Brother Ding and make him tell the story all night, right through to the ending!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" The maid wholeheartedly agreed.

With their worries gone, mistress and maid strolled through the sparsely populated streets and alleys, laughing and playfully bantering as they headed toward the Tianyang Guildhall.

Beneath a large tree outside Dangkang Temple, under the blazing sun.

Using yesterday's detailed draft outline, Ding Songyan added Yan Nantian and advanced the story all the way to Fahai "luring" Xu Xian into his lair at Jinshan Temple.

Seeing Xiaoqing once again wearing an indignant expression that said, "How can you stop here?" he knew she would probably visit again that night. He restrained his impulse and did not ask for information on the spot.

There were too many people and listening ears here. It was no place for a conversation.

He would wait until the still of night to ask.

After making do with a simple lunch, Ding Songyan remembered Qin Nuangsheng's instructions from yesterday and made his way to Longxing Street, where he found Doctor Shao's Yannian Medical Hall.

He had barely entered and had yet to ask any questions when he saw a familiar figure sitting in a chair to one side.

It was the one-legged, three-eyed Qu Zhongheng.

Qingyan even told me to bring the gift we'd prepared to Baoping Lane tonight to thank Qu Sanlang. I didn't expect to run into him at the Yannian Medical Hall at noon... Ding Songyan walked over and addressed Qu Zhongheng, whose horizontal forehead eye was tightly shut:

"Qu Sanlang, what's happened?"

Qu Zhongheng looked up at him and said listlessly:

"My father suddenly had unbearable stomach pains, so I had to bring him to Doctor Shao. Doctor Shao said things weren't looking good and that he'd need to open his abdomen."

Open his abdomen? Ding Songyan instinctively wanted to clean out his ears, wondering whether he had misheard.

Doesn't that phrase clash a little with the style of this world?

He had only just sat down when the wooden door separating the inner and outer rooms opened. Doctor Shao emerged in a straight-cut blue silk robe, followed by two youths and two boys.

One of the boys carried a wooden tray holding bloodstained instruments: a thin willow-leaf blade, a thin straight-edged blade, a round needle, tweezers, scissors, catgut thread, and other items.

Qu Sanlang sprang to his feet and hopped toward Doctor Shao.

Doctor Shao nodded slightly.

"Your father had an intestinal blockage. I've removed that section and stitched the two ends back together..."

As he explained the situation, Ding Songyan listened, dumbstruck.

Medicine in this world has advanced this far?

"He'll need to stay at the medical hall for at least another month." Doctor Shao then turned to Ding Songyan. "Wait a moment. I'll go clean up."

"Of course, Doctor Shao." Only today did Ding Songyan notice that Doctor Shao's pupils seemed tinged with white.

After sitting down again, Qu Sanlang visibly relaxed and sighed to Ding Songyan beside him:

"Before Emperor Zhuanxu brought about the Severance of Heaven and Earth, our people had the Jiliang Divine Horse. Merely riding one could extend your life to a thousand years. Now, not only can the Jiliang itself no longer live long, it's almost vanished entirely. Even if some great stroke of fortune lets you encounter one, riding it can only extend your life to two hundred at most."

Two hundred is plenty... I only lived a little past thirty in my previous life... Ding Songyan muttered inwardly.

"In this day and age, living to two hundred would still be good," Qu Sanlang continued on his own. "If there were still a Jiliang Divine Horse, my father wouldn't have suffered this pain before even reaching seventy."

"At least Doctor Shao is here and can save him," Ding Songyan offered in consolation.

He did not ask why First Brother Qu and Second Brother Qu had not appeared. Ding Qingyan had not mentioned them earlier either. Given what he knew of the Qu family's obsession with mechanical contraptions and their frequent accidents, it was better not to ask.

After keeping him company and chatting for a while, Ding Songyan took out the mechanical item his sister had bought and handed it, box and all, to Qu Zhongheng, expressing his thanks.

Qu Zhongheng showed a hint of a smile.

"Little Sister Qingyan is truly thoughtful. It would be rude of me to refuse.

"Second Brother Ding, I used to think you were timid and cringing, nothing like a man. If not for Little Sister Qingyan, I wouldn't even have wanted to bother with you. Now it seems you're actually a decent person."

Brother, if you don't know how to talk, don't talk... You can forget about marrying my sister in this lifetime! Ding Songyan realized that Qu Sanlang's emotional intelligence was truly low-the sort who could not even put on an act.

Still, when dealing with someone like him, there was no need to keep eight hundred schemes tucked away in your heart or worry that he would say one thing to your face and another behind your back.

After a moment's thought, Ding Songyan changed the subject:

"Qu Sanlang, do you normally never use that eye on your forehead?"