The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 13

With one hand, Qu Linyan held Fu Xiaoba. In the other, she held the remaining candy figure. She casually found an inn and settled there for the time being.
Along the way, Fu Xiaoba truly did not dare make a sound. Aside from a few uncontrollable trembles in Qu Linyan’s arms at the start, she stayed as quiet as if she had fallen asleep.
After entering the guest room, Qu Linyan shut the doors and windows. She placed Fu Xiaoba properly on the bed, then sat beside her and lowered her head, meeting her eyes for a good while.
Fu Xiaoba instinctively glanced at the “portrait” of herself in Qu Linyan’s hand, so frightened that she swallowed hard.
Seeing this, Qu Linyan broke off a small piece from the tip of the candy figure’s tail.
Fu Xiaoba’s little heart trembled along with it. Her bean-sized eyes stared at the broken tail tip of the candy figure. Her little belly drew in, and she sucked in a cold breath.
Qu Linyan had just brought that piece of candy to Fu Xiaoba’s mouth when Fu Xiaoba cried out strangely, as if someone had stepped on a sore spot.
“This is a candy figure. It can be eaten.” As Qu Linyan spoke, she pressed the broken piece of candy against Fu Xiaoba’s beak.
Fu Xiaoba refused to open her mouth. Her little body shifted backward, and her eyes were full of fear toward the unknown.
“I bought it especially for you. Human children all like this,” Qu Linyan said.
The moment Fu Xiaoba heard that, she became unhappy.
Who was a child? Who was a child! A five-hundred-year-old demon had just reached adulthood!
She cried and fussed, and Qu Linyan could not understand a word. Qu Linyan simply took advantage of that little pointed mouth opening and threw the candy piece in.
Fu Xiaoba instinctively wanted to spit it out, but she was caught off guard by the sweetness melting in her mouth. It seized the tip of her tongue. She blankly closed her mouth and let it dissolve, then stared at Qu Linyan with wide eyes and blinked foolishly twice.
Seeing greed in her eyes, Qu Linyan smiled and slowly broke off more pieces to feed her.
She watched with great patience as Fu Xiaoba ate the whole candy figure. She was just about to stand and wash her hands when the little peacock stood on the bed, swayed forward several steps, patted her wings, opened her mouth, and took Qu Linyan’s finger in one bite.
That warm, soft little mouth lingered over the sweetness that had long melted onto Qu Linyan’s fingertip.
Qu Linyan’s body stiffened. When she came back to herself, she saw that bold peacock had just finished licking her index finger and seemed ready to move on to her thumb.
Qu Linyan did not know why, but her cheeks suddenly burned. She felt terribly awkward. Gritting her teeth, she lifted her hand and flipped Fu Xiaoba backward in a big tumble. Fu Xiaoba landed with a thump on the folded quilt.
Then Qu Linyan stood, face and ears red, and walked out of the room. To show her anger, she even slammed the door behind her.
Although Fu Xiaoba had fallen onto the quilt and was not hurt at all, she was still stunned for a long while by Qu Linyan’s sudden move.
When Qu Linyan returned to the room, Fu Xiaoba had already curled obediently in the corner of the bed. She had pulled open one corner of the folded quilt and covered herself with it. Her eyes were closed very tightly, and she looked terribly wronged.
“Asleep?” Qu Linyan frowned and glanced at Fu Xiaoba.
Fu Xiaoba opened her eyes and looked timidly at Qu Linyan. She did not dare… no, she could not speak.
Qu Linyan walked to the bed and sat down. As if nothing had happened, she took off her shoes and outer robe, leaving only a thin white inner garment. When she lay down and turned over, she casually pulled the quilt over herself.
With that pull, Fu Xiaoba lost her blanket. She stared blankly for a good while, then crept from the foot of the bed to the head and cried softly twice.
Qu Linyan took a deep breath, reached out, and tapped her little head. “Speak human words.”
“I want the blanket.” Tears stood in the corners of Fu Xiaoba’s eyes, and her tone was terribly wronged. “I wanted to talk, but you would not let me…”
Qu Linyan turned on her side to look at Fu Xiaoba. After a moment of silence, she reached out and grabbed her into the blanket. “In human eyes, a mountain… a mountain peacock cannot possibly speak. Are you afraid no one will know you are a demon?”
“It is not as if I cannot take human form. You changed me into this, and you sealed my spiritual power…” Fu Xiaoba’s voice grew smaller and smaller.
Qu Linyan thought for a moment. “When you have not taken human form, you are already noisy. If you took human form, would you not become like a fox spirit, hooking arms and shoulders with human men every day?”
Fu Xiaoba widened her eyes in confusion. “But did I not come out to undergo a love tribulation? If I do not find someone to have romantic love with me, how can I undergo that love tribulation?”
“That… that does not mean just anyone will do!” Qu Linyan frowned, immediately lay flat, and put on an impatient look.
Fu Xiaoba hummed softly twice and argued for herself. “I did not say just anyone would do. The man in the day, I only greeted him. He was not even one ten-thousandth as good as Brother. I did not like him either.”
Hearing this, Qu Linyan unconsciously lifted her brows. From the corner of her eye, she glanced at Fu Xiaoba and asked, “Then… what kind do you like?”
“At least good-looking. So good-looking that… as long as I look at him, I will not feel angry or sad, and I can forget all my worries.”
“For example?”
Fu Xiaoba thought for a moment, then flattered Qu Linyan. “You are like that, Little Black.”
“That, that truly is…” Halfway through speaking, Qu Linyan suddenly turned away from Fu Xiaoba, her mouth unable to stop curving upward. She said with great vanity, “Rare in the human world.”
“Isn’t it?” Fu Xiaoba nodded hard.
Such a venomous demon woman who wanted to eat people at every turn. Anyone who saw her would have an empty head. How could they still dare be angry, sad, or remember their worries?
Qu Linyan was pleased by Fu Xiaoba’s praise and finally loosened her grip. “If you want the seal on your spiritual power removed, that is fine. But we must make three rules first, so you do not cause trouble for me everywhere.”
The moment Fu Xiaoba heard she could regain her spiritual power, she became alert at once. “Three rules it is! Four, five, or six rules are fine too!”
Qu Linyan said, “First, before I allow it, you cannot casually strike up conversations with human men.”
“Ah?” Fu Xiaoba was surprised. “Then how will I undergo tribulation?”
Qu Linyan turned over and pressed a finger to Fu Xiaoba’s noisy little mouth. “I am… I am checking them for you, am I not? It is for your own good. Do you understand? Better none than bad ones!”
“Oh, oh…” Fu Xiaoba nodded again and again.
Seeing her nod like a chick pecking rice, Qu Linyan unconsciously nodded twice along with her. “Second, you absolutely cannot use any spells in front of humans.”
Fu Xiaoba tilted her mouth to the side and freed herself from Qu Linyan’s fingertip. “I know this one. It will draw Fahai over!”
Qu Linyan thought about the third point for a very long time. Only at the end did she say hesitantly, “Last, I will not waste too much time with you in the human world. It is now the end of winter. When the summer solstice comes, whether or not we have found someone to undergo tribulation with you, you must return with me to Soul-Wounding Valley…”
“Why?” Fu Xiaoba asked back.
Qu Linyan froze. She did not know how to answer, but then she heard Fu Xiaoba make a sound of realization.
Sure enough, Fu Xiaoba had thought of the answer herself. “You want to take me to see A-Qing!”
“Ah… yes!” Qu Linyan agreed. “I will take you to see her.”
“But the her outside the dream does not know me,” Fu Xiaoba said again.
Qu Linyan said, “She does not like talking with people. But in the dream, she talked very happily with you… I think if I take you back to keep her company for a while, she should be very happy.”
“That makes sense!” Fu Xiaoba patted her little wings under the blanket and happily agreed. “Perfect. I miss her too. The food she makes is better than yours and Brother’s…”
Qu Linyan instinctively turned to look at Fu Xiaoba. Fu Xiaoba shrank her neck in fear, afraid that comparison had angered Qu Linyan.
But Qu Linyan only smiled faintly and reached out to lightly tap Fu Xiaoba’s forehead.
The next second, spiritual light flashed. On the bed that had been spacious before, a woman appeared.
Qu Linyan shifted toward the outer side, turned onto her side, and stopped paying attention to Fu Xiaoba.
Her eyes stayed open, without the slightest sleepiness.
After some unknown time, Fu Xiaoba’s breathing gradually evened out.
Qu Linyan quietly changed sleeping positions, lying flat. She turned her head and looked at Fu Xiaoba, whose sleeping posture was unusually honest but whose face was full of a smile. Curiosity rose in her heart.
What happy thing was this little pheasant dreaming about?
She thought for a good while. In the end, she could not hold back that curiosity. She secretly took out the Dreamweaving Shuttle and lightly touched it to Fu Xiaoba’s brow.
In only a second, she was already standing in a place wrapped in water mist.
Why did something feel strange?
Qu Linyan froze, then suddenly realized she was soaking in a hot spring. She wore only the thinnest inner garment. At this moment, it was soaked through by the spring water, outlining the curves of her body.
Her heart jumped. She turned and saw Fu Xiaoba with half her head buried in the water, blowing bubbles.
“You…”
Hearing the voice, Fu Xiaoba rose from the water. She was not wearing a stitch, like a lotus emerging from the water, slender and swaying in the mist.
At last, she turned and smiled sweetly. Her cheeks were faintly red, but her eyes were innocent. “Little Black, should I help scrub you too?”
Qu Linyan rushed out of the dream in shame and anger.
Her face and ears were red. Her ten fingers clutched the quilt tightly. Again and again, she took deep breaths, trying hard to forget the scene she had just seen.
Good, Fu Xiaoba. You actually dare lie beside me and have… have that kind of dream about me…
Impudent. Truly impudent!