Breakup

"I'll never love a woman like you in this lifetime."

Bu Yao was always like this. The moment something went against her wishes, her lofty, overbearing nature came out in full force.

She was often gentler with the butler than she was with Xing Yue. Of course, the butler was a servant who obeyed her every whim. He never resisted an order and went along with everything she wanted.

Xing Yue couldn't do that. She wasn't a servant of the Bu Family. She hadn't signed an employment contract, and she couldn't spend every moment at Bu Yao's beck and call.

Finding He Zhiwen was nothing to the Bu Family. If they wanted to, they could do it with ease. But right now, Bu Yao was furious about what had happened between Xing Yue and He Zhiwen in the car that night.

"You'd better think carefully before you speak to me." She stood before Xing Yue, her bright eyes cold with resentment. "No one but my family can help you."

Listen to her. Just listen to her. Xing Yue's mouth twitched into a smile uglier than a grimace.

The Bu Family had money and power. They could hire investigators with exceptional skills and Extraordinary Snakes with extraordinary senses of smell. They could bring the truth to light without breaking a sweat. An ordinary person like her could do nothing but wait for news.

Bu Yao wouldn't have said that without good reason. She must have sent people to investigate right away, and what they'd found was probably far more substantial. They might already have a good idea of where He Zhiwen was.

But Bu Yao was in a bad mood, so she wanted Xing Yue to soothe her. She wanted Xing Yue to beg.

The pressure made Xing Yue sick. Her pale lips trembled. "Don't act like your family is doing this to help me. You know who gave her that letter. After I left that night, your mother must have said something to He Zhiwen. That's how Jiang Yue got the recommendation letter. Your family is investigating to clear its own name and shake off suspicion. It has nothing to do with me."

Ten years of resentment burst out. Xing Yue had always treated Madam Bu with respect in front of Bu Yao, but today she couldn't hold back. "Your mother gets to play the saint in every story. She pretended to offer me an opportunity, and everyone was jealous because they thought the chairwoman of New Shadow Entertainment was going to make me a star. In truth, she hates me to the bone. She let Jiang Yue in to stir up trouble. Without her pushing things along, my Studio would have buried that garbage on the trending lists long ago. Would it have blown up like this? Watching me get mocked and doubted, watching me run around like a stray dog—your mother must be enjoying it more than anyone. She's sanctimonious and utterly fake!"

Given Qiao Rui's ability, she would certainly have found a way to contain a scandal like this. At the very least, she would have paid to get it off the trending lists. Yet an entire day had passed since the audio leaked, and her Studio hadn't even issued a statement.

It was all because of that damned show. Her Studio had a contract with New Shadow Entertainment. If they weren't holding Qiao Rui back, she would never sit by and do nothing. Who else would give the company that kind of order but Madam Bu?

And now Madam Bu was playing the good person again, posing as Xing Yue's savior. If not for her, Xing Yue would never have suffered any of this in the first place.

Smack! A sharp slap landed across Xing Yue's face.

Bu Yao was beside herself with anger. No one had ever spoken about her mother that way.

Xing Yue stood frozen for two seconds. She couldn't even feel whether her face hurt. All she knew was that Bu Yao's slap had torn a hole in her heart. Cold wind poured through it, leaving the whole thing in tatters.

She seized Bu Yao's wrist and dragged her out of the house. Her voice was calm and utterly cold. "Get out. Leave my home. I'll never love a woman like you in this lifetime."

She had been a fool to get back together with Bu Yao. In Bu Yao's eyes, they belonged to different worlds. How dare Xing Yue speak ill of the elegant, noble Madam Bu?

How could someone as lowly as her, worth less than a watchdog at the Bu Residence, dare speak out of turn?

Xing Yue used nearly all her strength to drag Bu Yao outside. A deafening roar filled her ears, drowning everything else out. Once Bu Yao was gone, Xing Yue locked the door, leaned against it, and slid helplessly to the floor.

She sat there for a long time, until her limbs were cold and her legs had gone numb. Then she rose unsteadily and poured herself a glass of warm water.

Qiao Rui called. Usually brisk and fiery, she spoke with rare gentleness. "You didn't come to the company, Xing Yue? I know what happened today is upsetting, but we still have work to do. Take two days off and come back the day after tomorrow."

She didn't know what had gone on behind the scenes. She believed the trending posts: Xing Yue had met her married ex at night. After all, Xing Yue really did have an ex-girlfriend like that, and the voice in the recording was unmistakably hers.

Qiao Rui figured Xing Yue had mishandled her love life and given someone ammunition. It wasn't all that serious. What celebrity didn't have a scandal or two? People would curse her for a couple of days, then the attention would fade.

"I'm not coming," Xing Yue said flatly. "Not now, not ever."

The answer nearly made Qiao Rui swear. "What? You're not coming back? Come on, you can handle this much pressure. It's not the end of the world. Two days off should be enough, all right? We signed a contract. You can't just decide not to show up. Do you want to breach it? Don't be stubborn, Xing Yue. Listen to me..."

"Yeah. Follow the procedure." Her face was ashen.

Qiao Rui's voice shot up. "What procedure? Are you seriously—Xing Yue? Hello!"

Xing Yue turned off her phone. She looked at the still-new device, took out its SIM card, and put the card back into her old phone. Then she dropped the phone Bu Yao had given her into a flowerpot full of water. At last, she had some peace.

Remembering that there was still one person in the world who truly cared about her, she forced her aching eyes open and checked her messages. Neither her texts nor her call history showed a familiar name.

Strange.

Xing Yue logged back into WeChat and finally saw several messages Bo Wuxue had sent during the day—

[Ahhh, guess what gift I got? An adult doll that looks exactly like my snake form!]

[That woman gave it to me, hehe.]

[Image.]

Xing Yue opened the picture. It really was an adult toy identical to Bo Wuxue's snake form, and startlingly lifelike. Seen through a screen, the difference was hard to spot unless she looked closely.

It was almost a perfect replica of Bo Wuxue's snake form.

Bo Wuxue's fiancée had probably heard how obsessed she was with her own python body and her narcissistic kink.

No wonder she was excited. She designed adult toys as her own side business, too. This gift was right up her alley.

She was probably enjoying a lovely date with her fiancée right now. She likely had no idea what had happened to Xing Yue today.

Xing Yue was happy for her best friend, but she couldn't stop feeling down, as though someone else had taken a part of Bo Wuxue away from her. It hurt almost as much as breaking up with a girlfriend.

She hesitated over what to reply. She didn't want to spoil Bo Wuxue's wonderful date tonight, though. She would answer tomorrow...

Xing Yue put down her phone. She was so exhausted she barely wanted to breathe, but just then the doorbell kept ringing.

Her face turned cold. She went downstairs barefoot. Despite her attempt to appear indifferent, her steps were quick.

Before she even opened the door, she began to complain. "I told you, I'll never love a woman like you in this lifetime. Stop bothering—"

Tan Xiang'e stood at the door.

Xing Yue broke off and froze. She didn't even know whom she had hoped to see when she opened the door. She was afraid it would be Bu Yao, and afraid it wouldn't.

She felt awful. She must have looked ridiculous. No wonder Bu Yao always called her pathetic.

Tan Xiang'e watched Xing Yue's expression change several times in a matter of seconds. Unsure whether to come in, she lifted the medical case in her hand. "I waited for you at the company, but you didn't show up, so I came to check on you. We still need to continue your treatment."

She had heard about Xing Yue's situation. The missing person seemed to be Jiang Yue's wife. Before that, Jiang Yue had come to her with some strange questions.

But when Tan Xiang'e asked around, she learned that Jiang Yue's Older Sister wasn't married. Where had this supposed brother-in-law come from? Finding it suspicious, she had told the police. Jiang Yue, however, said she had lied because she didn't want people to know she was married.

After all, pretending to be single seemed common enough among influencers. Nothing came of Tan Xiang'e's report.

Xing Yue invited her in and poured her a glass of water. "Doctor Tan, I'm going to take a shower. I'm covered in sweat."

"No rush," Tan Xiang'e said.

No one would be there to heal Xing Yue tonight. She didn't know how she would endure it.

While applying the anesthetic, Tan Xiang'e brought up Jiang Yue's visit that night. "She asked me what species those four Snake Eggs were. I don't know what she wanted with that information. Her wife went missing that same night. Could it... have something to do with me?"

Her conscience troubled her. She was afraid the two events were connected.

Xing Yue had been lying flat, but she suddenly sat up. Oh no. Something must have happened to those four little snakes too.

"I'm going to the police station. It won't matter if we put the surgery off for a day, will it?"

Tan Xiang'e stopped her, her expression uneasy. "Don't go. The Snake Eggs are already gone. They disappeared the same day He Zhiwen did. For some reason, the thief left them with a family in a village. Unfortunately, they didn't know how to care for them. They had no incubator and didn't keep the eggs warm with a snake's body. They just put them on the heated bed. By the time the police found them, they'd all frozen. None were viable."

Without an incubator to regulate the temperature, Snake Eggs had to be kept warm by a snake coiled around them. The family didn't know that. Besides, they were an elderly couple, long past the healthy stage when they could freely control their snake tails.

They thought the heated bed would keep the eggs warm, so they didn't take them to a hospital. The eggs froze and died.

The more Tan Xiang'e thought about it, the more responsible she felt. Guilt left her hands unsteady even as she held the scalpel. "Why would the person who stole the eggs do something so contradictory? Why steal them only to neither sell nor raise them? If they wanted to kill them out of spite, why go to the trouble of taking them to such a remote village? Could He Zhiwen have been trafficked into the mountains too?"

Xing Yue hadn't even had time to process the little snakes' deaths. Tan Xiang'e's words made her worry about He Zhiwen as well.

Spirit Snakes were in constant danger. Any listing offering one for sale would inevitably cause a stir. Xing Yue feared He Zhiwen was being traded on the Black Market without being identified as a Spirit Snake.

Perhaps she had been sold to some old bachelor deep in the mountains and forced to bear his children. Perhaps she had been sent to a foreign country where she knew no one, to perform as a circus snake. Or perhaps some sadistic buyer had purchased her to enslave and abuse her.

No wonder Jiang Yue had volunteered the fact that He Zhiwen was a Spirit Snake to the police. They would be watching closely for sales of Spirit Snake flesh, blood, and scales, and for organ trafficking.

They had been looking in the wrong direction from the start. He Zhiwen wasn't being sold for being a Spirit Snake at all. She was being sold as an ordinary woman.

Anger surged through Xing Yue. She clenched her fists so tightly her knuckles turned white. How could anyone be so vicious to her own wife? It was horrifying.