The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 14

Fu Xiaoba slept a very good sleep.
Last night’s dream seemed extremely sweet, but after she opened her eyes, she did not remember even a tiny bit of it. All that remained was the faintly raised corner of her mouth after waking, and a good mood stolen out of the dream.
Qu Linyan was not in the room. Who knew where she had gone? Fu Xiaoba sat on the bed and stretched hugely. Then she rose, barefoot, and hopped in a few steps to the open window. Curious, she looked at the people coming and going outside.
“Places where humans live are truly lively,” she murmured by the window.
When Qu Linyan pushed open the door, she saw Fu Xiaoba with loose hair, a pair of bare white feet, and a lazy body leaning by the window. Qu Linyan could not help frowning. She immediately set the breakfast she had brought from downstairs on the small round table, stepped forward, dragged Fu Xiaoba back from the window, and closed it with her other hand.
When she turned back, Fu Xiaoba was already standing very straight, her two bare feet curling their toes in unease.
Qu Linyan shook her head helplessly. She had just lifted her hand when Fu Xiaoba hugged her head with both hands and hid several steps back, shouting, “Ahhh, I was wrong, I was wrong!”
“I was not going to hit you!” Qu Linyan did not know whether to laugh or cry. After thinking for a moment, she swept her sleeve, tied up Fu Xiaoba’s hair, and put on her socks and shoes. “When you change form, why not change all the way? Where in the human world does a proper young woman go barefoot?”
Seeing that Qu Linyan truly had no intention of hitting her, Fu Xiaoba quickly lowered the hands covering her head. She blinked innocently. “I did not know. No one ever taught me I had to do this…”
Qu Linyan turned away and did not want to speak. She only reached out and tapped the tabletop.
“You made this for me?” Fu Xiaoba carefully stepped forward. By the stool, she stuck out her bottom and tested the seat for a full two seconds. Seeing that Qu Linyan did not deny it, she finally sat down in peace. She grabbed a steamed bun from the table and took a big bite. Before swallowing, she praised, “Delicious. I did not expect you could make such good things, Little Black!”
“It is just a steamed bun. They sell them everywhere.” Qu Linyan sat across from Fu Xiaoba. “I asked the inn’s Little Second downstairs for them.”
“Little Second?” Fu Xiaoba shot to her feet and asked in shock, “My second sister, who died more than four hundred years ago, reincarnated as a human?”
Qu Linyan was speechless for a moment. She only reached out, dragged Fu Xiaoba back into her seat, and glared at her. “Eat.”
All right, all right. Eat, eat, eat.
Fu Xiaoba buried her head and ate, two bites of bun and one mouthful of porridge, slurping all the things Qu Linyan had brought back into her stomach.
After that, she patted her belly and burped. She had just stood, wanting to go downstairs and find her long-dead second sister, when she heard Qu Linyan say, “Little Second usually means a waiter in a tavern or inn.”
Fu Xiaoba’s bottom, which had just left the stool, fell back onto it. A fake smile rose at the corner of her mouth, awkward yet trying to look calm.
To hide the embarrassment in her heart, Fu Xiaoba decided to happily change the subject.
“Little Black, I had a dream last night! I think I was very happy in the dream!”
Qu Linyan froze.
Fu Xiaoba was actually saying she had been very happy in the dream?
They had bathed together, and she had been very happy? This peacock really was a little hooligan. Who knew what she thought about all day long?
Qu Linyan did not notice that her expression turned unnatural in that instant.
She opened her mouth. After a long while, only one word came out. “You…”
Strange. After leaving the dream last night, she had clearly used the Dreamweaving Shuttle to erase Fu Xiaoba’s memory of that dream. Why was Fu Xiaoba mentioning it now?
Had the Dreamweaving Shuttle gone wrong again?
Xiangsi’s treasure was truly hard to use.
Whenever she thought of last night’s dream, Qu Linyan felt both ashamed and angry. Now that Fu Xiaoba brought it up, her whole body felt uncomfortable.
But Fu Xiaoba could not see what was wrong with Qu Linyan. She only propped up her chin and pursed her lips. “But after I woke, I forgot everything.”
After hearing this, Qu Linyan let out a breath of relief. She looked as serious as a schoolteacher. “If you forgot, do not think about it.”
Fu Xiaoba nodded.
Qu Linyan seemed to suddenly remember something. A little displeased, she raised her brows and asked, “Fu Xiaoba, do you usually dream of strange things?”
“What counts as strange things?” Fu Xiaoba’s eyes were confused.
Qu Linyan hesitated for a moment. “Like… have you ever dreamed of someone bathing you? For example, A-Qing, or that fiery… very bad-tempered peacock.”
Fu Xiaoba seriously thought back for a while. Then she shook her head. “No. From childhood to now, only you have helped me bathe, Little Black. If I dream, of course I dream of you.”
When Qu Linyan heard this, her cheeks reddened slightly, and even her eyes softened without her noticing. “Truly?”
Fu Xiaoba nodded seriously. “Truly. It was like that in Wuyou Valley, and in the dream too.”
“What, your brother never bathed you?” Qu Linyan asked with great interest.
“At most, he prepared a bucket of water for me and told me to jump in and splash myself clean.” As Fu Xiaoba spoke, she moved the round stool beneath her little by little until she was beside Qu Linyan. “Little Black is still the best. You bathe with me!”
Seeing Fu Xiaoba’s expression as if she was about to stick to her, Qu Linyan quickly reached out and held her half an arm’s length away. She said seriously, “Xiaoba, since you have taken human form, you should understand some things. Unless it is someone who can stay with you for life, they absolutely cannot see your body.”
Fu Xiaoba tilted her head. “Not even Little Black?”
“No!” Qu Linyan said.
Fu Xiaoba blinked. “Not even Brother?”
“Men are even less allowed!” Qu Linyan glared at Fu Xiaoba.
Fu Xiaoba shrank her neck and said pitifully, “If I do not leave Wuyou Valley, I will stay with Brother for life. If I return with you to the flood dragon clan, I will stay with you for life… I do not really understand. If not even you two count as people who can stay with me for life, then who does?”
“This kind of staying is not the same as keeping company…” For a moment, Qu Linyan did not know how to explain. She thought for a long time before coming up with one sentence. “To stay with someone for life, you must entrust them with your true heart. Do you not want to undergo a love tribulation? When you find that person, you will understand what I said today.”
“Then are you not supposed to check people for me? Go find one for me.” Fu Xiaoba reached out and grabbed Qu Linyan’s sleeve, her tone especially obedient.
Qu Linyan lowered her lashes unhappily. She knew Fu Xiaoba had come to the human world to undergo tribulation and ascend. But for some reason, every time this girl talked about undergoing tribulation, Qu Linyan’s heart felt especially uncomfortable.
What was wrong with being a demon? Why insist on becoming an immortal and being managed by all those rules in the immortal realm?
She frowned. When she returned to herself, she happened to see Fu Xiaoba’s little hand, which had just held a steamed bun, gripping her sleeve. She could not help taking a deep breath. Without changing her expression, she pulled the sleeve back. “Go wash your hands.”
“Oh…”
Fu Xiaoba rose and walked to the basin stand by the bed to wash her hands. After washing them clean, she turned to look at Qu Linyan and asked softly, “Little Black, did I make you angry again?”
“No.” Qu Linyan stood and walked to the door. She looked back at Fu Xiaoba. “Come. I will take you to see human men.”
Hearing this, Fu Xiaoba happily lifted her skirt and chased after her in big steps.
What were human men like?
Full of curiosity, Fu Xiaoba followed Qu Linyan to sit for a whole day in a private room on the second floor of a restaurant.
Throughout the day, Qu Linyan ordered many delicious things one after another. Fu Xiaoba lay by the window, eating while watching every hurried passerby outside with great interest.
Joy and sorrow, blank faces and loud scolding, the busy market streets were full of all kinds of human life.
At night, the “restaurant” across the street, which had not opened all day, suddenly became lively.
Many men dressed respectably had only just passed the door when the brightly dressed girls welcomed them inside.
Qu Linyan suddenly stood, patted Fu Xiaoba’s back, and told her to hide her form. Then she half pushed, half pulled her inside.
“Young Master Zhang, you have not come in so long. Did you forget me?”
“How could I, how could I? How could I forget you?”
“I want to see Yuan’er. Where is Yuan’er? Tell her to come see me!”
“Oh my, Yuan’er is already receiving a guest…”
“No, I have come three times these past days. Every time, she is receiving a guest. Receiving someone is receiving someone. Why can she not receive me?”
“Young Master Wang, calm down. We have so many girls here. Choose any one you like. Yuan’er truly is not free today…”
“Young Master Wu, do you want to hear music today, or talk heart to heart?”
“Of course… both, both.”
Fu Xiaoba stood blankly in the middle of the first floor of the “restaurant,” goosebumps rising all over from the greasy courtship behavior around her.
Why did all these men look so vulgar?
Could it be that the men who looked normal on the street during the day turned into this at night?
“Little Black, this…”
“Do you not want to undergo tribulation?” Seeing Fu Xiaoba’s shocked expression, Qu Linyan held back laughter. “Most of the men here have money and power. Compared to ordinary people, they are higher quality. Now you have seen them. How about choosing one to try?”
The corners of Fu Xiaoba’s eyes twitched twice without her noticing.
She only knew that when peacocks courted, the males spread their tail fans to attract females. So in the human world, when men and women courted, women had to go forward this actively, cling to them, and act coy?
Surely not? Surely not? The stories she had heard before had not been like this!
Could it be that, in Qu Linyan’s eyes, quality men who passed the check all required women to fight over them like this?
This was far too hard for her!
Fu Xiaoba gritted her teeth, stepped forward, and grabbed Qu Linyan’s arm. “Um, I suddenly am not that anxious to undergo tribulation. How about… how about we slow down first? I need to adjust, adjust to human… human courtship behavior.”
Qu Linyan smiled. “How can that do? You want to ascend as an upper god. You cannot even bear this little hardship?”
Fu Xiaoba was speechless for a moment. She stared with wide eyes for a long while before saying, “I keep feeling something is strange.”
She had little experience, but she faintly felt Qu Linyan was teasing her.
Being clever, she felt she badly needed some time to carefully investigate.