Allergy

"Study, see a doctor, get certified."

"Let's call it quits." Behind her glasses, Xing Yue's eyes were full of impatience and indifference, as though even one more word with her wife would exhaust her.

Xing Yue set the divorce papers on the table. Without giving Bu Yao a chance to talk things through, she turned and left.

When Bu Yao came to her senses, fury seized her. She shouted after Xing Yue, "How dare you?! I'll kill you, Xing Yue!"

"From now on, I'll be a widow, never an ex-wife! I want you dead!"

Xing Yue walked faster. Bu Yao suddenly deflated, her expression crumpling as she murmured, "If you don't love me, why did you marry me..."

Moonlight slipped through a gap in the curtains, lending the dark room a faint glow.

When Xing Yue woke, it was already the following evening. A snake's tail coiled around her chest, waist, and legs... Looking closer, she saw that its base was still trembling.

The scales pressed against her skin, pouring out warmth until even her snow-white skin had flushed red.

Xing Yue opened her eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling and let her mind go blank for a moment. She was still holding the soft tip of Bu Yao's tail in her palm.

She hooked it over her index finger and gave it a little shake. The next second, it slipped off and drooped limply... After twenty-three hours of intimacy, it had long since gone weak.

Xing Yue hadn't enjoyed herself like that in a long time. She had gotten a little carried away. Still wanting more, she held the beautiful tail tip and toyed with it between her fingers.

"Xing Yue..."

The woman beside her murmured, her voice hazy with sleep.

Her hairpin had come out last night, leaving a cascade of red hair spread across her smooth, pale back. It looked like clouds set aflame above a snowy mountain, a scene as captivating as an oil painting.

No matter how many years passed, that red hair never failed to take Xing Yue's breath away.

She smiled. "I'm here."

Bu Yao lay on her stomach, her whole body limp. Whatever was on her mind, she rested her cheek on her arm and murmured, "Xing Yue..."

Again and again, she said Xing Yue's name. So much lay in it: longing, reproach, and, more than anything, hurt.

For a moment, Xing Yue almost had the illusion that Bu Yao loved her. But remembering their brief marriage, she knew love had been the last thing between them. They had been more like enemies. The thought lodged in her throat.

She peeled the tail off her body, picked up her black lace bra from the corner, put it on, and fastened it behind her back.

"What have you been busy with these past few years, Miss Bu?" she asked casually.

Bu Yao used her tail to pick up the fitted dress from the floor and set it on the bed beside Xing Yue's hand. "Studying, seeing a doctor, getting certified."

Xing Yue caught two words, and her hands paused as she dressed. "You were sick?"

The tail picked up her black stockings and even curled around them twice, as though reluctant to let go. Unfortunately, they were torn in several places and couldn't be worn again. Bu Yao quietly tucked them under the covers.

When Bu Yao said nothing, Xing Yue pressed her. "What kind of illness?"

What illness took ten years to treat? Bu Yao didn't look seriously ill, either.

They had been married, after all. Xing Yue wasn't going to withhold concern where it was due.

In a low, husky voice, Bu Yao said, "Lovesickness."

Xing Yue: "..."

She took it as a joke and merely smiled without replying.

Once dressed, Xing Yue raked her fingers through her hair, tied it up, gathered her bag, and said goodbye. "Last night was lovely. You were amazing, baby. Bye."

After the divorce, Xing Yue had changed her phone number and deleted her WeChat account. Once they parted this time, they wouldn't talk again unless one deliberately sought the other out. Neither had a way to contact the other.

Xing Yue had no intention of rekindling anything or meeting up again. Afraid of getting burned, she left without hesitation.

Bu Yao remained on the bed, half human and half snake. From the moment she had woken until Xing Yue left, she hadn't changed position once.

Bu Yao hadn't been joking. She really had spent nearly ten years being treated for an illness.

She suffered from severe romantic delusions. She had met Xing Yue only once, yet believed Xing Yue liked her, so she had tossed her shed snakeskin onto the route Xing Yue took home.

As it happened, Xing Yue needed a wife, and they married quickly. Whenever they argued, Bu Yao thought Xing Yue was testing their relationship. She was convinced Xing Yue loved her desperately.

Only when the divorce papers were placed before her did the world she believed in—a world where her wife cherished and adored her—finally collapse.

Their marriage had been that awful all along...

As Xing Yue left the hotel, she suddenly remembered something important. Her ex-wife couldn't put on her own shoes. If Xing Yue just left, Bu Yao would have to go home barefoot.

Should she go back and help Bu Yao put them on?

The thought had barely surfaced before Xing Yue berated herself. She had been at Bu Yao's beck and call for so long that something was seriously wrong with her.

Miss Bu was just a spoiled princess. She couldn't put on her shoes at eighteen, but surely she could at twenty-eight?

No matter how many times Xing Yue warned herself not to get burned, her feet carried her back toward the room.

Oh, forget it. What's one or two more times... she thought with disgust.

The hotel room door was still open. Xing Yue didn't go in. From the hallway, she saw a girl with a catfish-like hairstyle half-kneeling inside, putting Bu Yao's shoes on for her.

Judging by her clothes, the girl didn't look like a servant of the Bu family. She was probably an intern at the law firm, or perhaps some sort of assistant at Bu Yao's work.

Xing Yue watched for a moment, then left. She should have realized: in the ten years since their divorce, someone else must have taken over what she used to do. With Miss Bu's status, why would she ever need to worry about putting on shoes?

She smiled wryly. It was late by the time she got home.

She plugged in her phone. WeChat was flooded with messages from Bo Wuxue—

"Where the hell did you go? You didn't actually leave with Bu Yao, did you?"

"Unbelievable. Such a closet flirt. Didn't you say you'd never have anything to do with her again and never see her?"

"You there? Why isn't our celebrity answering? Are you two going at it? How was it? It's been so long since you got any—don't tell me you wore out the little Fire Snake. Be gentle~"

Xing Yue soaked in the bath, the scent of the Fire Snake still all over her. The warm water didn't wash it away. If anything, it grew stronger.

She flicked out her forked tongue, her ears warming slightly.

Bo Wuxue suddenly sent her a contact card.

Xing Yue: [???]

Bo Wuxue: [It's Bu Yao's. She asked me for your WeChat, but I didn't give it to her. I sent hers to you instead. Add her or don't—it's up to you.]

Just what she had feared. Xing Yue regretted letting herself go so far last night. Bu Yao's mating scent had left her dizzy and senseless.

How had she ended up spending the night with an ex-wife she hadn't contacted in ten years? And Bu Yao's attitude toward her had changed completely. She had actually treated Xing Yue like a person.

The more Xing Yue thought about it, the more uneasy she felt. Could Bu Yao be after revenge? Was she after my assets?

She had heard that Bu Yao had spent five years straight helping revise same-sex legislation. That made Xing Yue feel distinctly at risk.

While she was still thinking it over, a friend request popped up.

[I'm having an allergic reaction.]

Xing Yue stared at the baffling message. She didn't accept the request, replying with a question mark in the message box instead.

Bu Yao: [The finger cots we used at the hotel yesterday. I'm allergic to latex.]

"..."