The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 19

In that instant, Qu Linyan felt her heart skip half a beat. Her emotions were clearly unsettled, yet she could not look away.
She watched Fu Xiaoba lick her finger clean, her little face slightly red, then act as if nothing had happened and eat the first stick of candied hawthorn one piece at a time. After that, Fu Xiaoba picked up the second stick, raised her head to glance at Qu Linyan, and asked, “Little Black, do you still want some?”
Qu Linyan heard this and lifted the corner of her mouth. “Feed me.”
This time, however, Fu Xiaoba raised her hand and poked the candied hawthorn to Qu Linyan’s lips.
Qu Linyan lowered her eyes and glanced at it. She pouted slightly and leaned back half an inch. “Why are you not taking it off and feeding me?”
Fu Xiaoba licked her lips and said softly, “It is sticky.”
“Fine.” As Qu Linyan spoke, she took a tiny bite. Then she rose and walked to sit by the window, her thoughts drifting who knew where.
Fu Xiaoba stared at the remaining half piece of candied hawthorn for a good while. Although there was some confusion in her eyes, she still opened her mouth and ate it.
After finishing the candied hawthorns, she stuffed the last half of the bun on the plate into her stomach, noisily drank all the rice porridge in the bowl, and gave a very satisfied burp. Only then did she sway to her feet and walk to the basin to wash her hands clean.
After eating and drinking her fill, Fu Xiaoba rubbed her belly, clasped her hands behind her back, and hopped a few steps behind Qu Linyan. Obediently, she asked, “Little Black, are we setting out now?”
Qu Linyan returned to herself and nodded. She stood and said, “Let us go.”
“Little Black.” Fu Xiaoba frowned.
“What is it?” Qu Linyan asked casually.
Fu Xiaoba bit her lower lip. “It seems like something is on your mind.”
Qu Linyan’s steps paused slightly. She raised her eyes to Fu Xiaoba and smiled faintly. “Is there?”
“There is! You have been strange since you came back. Are you hiding something from me?” As Fu Xiaoba spoke, she wanted to step forward and pull Qu Linyan’s arm. But the instant her fingers touched her, Qu Linyan seemed to be stabbed by a needle and suddenly drew her arm back a little.
Fu Xiaoba was startled by Qu Linyan’s reaction. She had just wanted to ask why Qu Linyan was losing her temper when her fingers faintly felt something wet. She lowered her head and saw a faint trace of blood on her fingertips. Her brows tightened, and she looked at Qu Linyan’s right arm in surprise.
At some point, a small patch of Qu Linyan’s sleeve had been soaked with blood. The blood looked especially dark against the black cloth. If Fu Xiaoba had not looked carefully, she really would not have seen it.
“How did you get hurt?”
Qu Linyan instinctively wanted to hide the wound, but Fu Xiaoba pounced forward and hurriedly lifted her sleeve. She happened to touch the long wound wrapped in bandages, hurting Qu Linyan so much that she bared her teeth on the spot.
The wound ran from her elbow to near her wrist. It had soaked through several layers of bandage. If Fu Xiaoba had not found it, even Qu Linyan would not have known that the wound had still not stopped bleeding.
Fu Xiaoba helped Qu Linyan sit by the table. She unwrapped the bandage, frowned, and observed for several seconds. Then she bit her lip and said, “You met Brother…”
“I did not hurt him.” Qu Linyan stressed the main point at once. “He attacked first. He was completely unreasonable.”
Fu Xiaoba said anxiously, “You did not even tell me! If I had not found it, were you going to pretend nothing happened and pretend you were not hurt?”
Qu Linyan swallowed unconsciously. “It is only a small wound.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Fu Xiaoba rushed out of the room, leaving her alone inside.
The sounds of footsteps going up and down the stairs were frantic. Before long, Fu Xiaoba rushed back, holding a roll of blood-stopping bandage in her left hand and a bottle of wound medicine in her right. She slapped them onto the table and said with a frown, “I did not pay. I put it on credit!”
Qu Linyan worked hard to hold back laughter. “I will pay later.”
Fu Xiaoba nodded, frowned unhappily, and stepped forward to apply medicine and wrap Qu Linyan’s wound again.
At the end, Qu Linyan looked at her arm, which had been wrapped until it was a whole circle fatter, and did not know whether to laugh or cry. She had to admit that Fu Xiaoba’s skill at bandaging wounds had not improved at all after several months. After she wrapped it, the arm was swollen and ugly.
“When we first met, I was badly injured. You also wrapped me up circle after circle until I could barely move.” Qu Linyan curved her brows and smiled.
Fu Xiaoba pouted. She only carried the water basin over, grabbed Qu Linyan’s dirty sleeve, and put it into the water to scrub, as if she had completely forgotten that for demons, changing clothes was only a matter of shaking their body.
Not only did Qu Linyan not remind her, she even seemed to like watching this silly girl busily work for nothing. As she watched Fu Xiaoba clumsily scrub half the sleeve, she asked casually with a smile, “Xiaoba, Fu Zhuochen came looking for you. Why do you not ask about him?”
“You said you did not hurt him, and I believe you.” As Fu Xiaoba scrubbed the bloodstain on the sleeve, she lifted her eyes to Qu Linyan. Her gaze was especially serious. “As for the rest, if you are willing to tell me, I will listen.”
“If I am not willing to tell you, then you do not care?” Qu Linyan asked back.
Fu Xiaoba made a soft sound of agreement. “I do not care. You great demons always have many secrets. Some things can be said, and some things cannot be said. I only ask that you do not lie to me. I do not ask you to explain everything clearly.”
Qu Linyan could not help falling into a daze, but her sleeve was tugged forward a little and touched the newly wrapped wound. Pain made her bare her teeth, and her left hand instinctively covered the wound on her arm.
“Did I hurt you? Why do you not just take off the clothes…” As Fu Xiaoba spoke, she shook the water from her hands to both sides and moved forward to help Qu Linyan loosen her robe.
Qu Linyan quickly stopped both her hands and said unnaturally, “It is fine. Wash it like this. I will move closer.”
As she spoke, she shifted a little toward Fu Xiaoba.
Fu Xiaoba unconsciously licked her lips, then went downstairs to exchange the water for a fresh basin. After that, she continued washing.
For a while, neither of them spoke. The atmosphere grew a little awkward.
Qu Linyan thought for a moment and brought back the topic she had not finished earlier. “Actually, I simply woke early. Seeing that you had not woken, I went out alone to buy some things we would need on the road. Everything had been fine, but on the way back, I ran into that good brother of yours. He forced me into an empty place and said he would kill me first, then find you and bring you back… Luckily, I reacted quickly and hid in the dream of a passing infant. Otherwise, I truly do not know how I would have escaped.”
Qu Linyan put extra weight on the word “good” in “good brother,” afraid Fu Xiaoba would not hear the dissatisfaction in her words.
Fu Xiaoba did not believe her at all. “Do not lie because you think I am stupid. If it was that simple, why did you hide it from me when you came back?”
Qu Linyan lowered her lashes, propped up half her face with one hand, and suddenly sounded awkward. “Was it not because I was afraid you would hear Fu Zhuochen had come, then happily follow him back at once?”
Fu Xiaoba puffed up her cheeks angrily. “Fu Xiaohei! You look down on me too much, don’t you? When have I ever lied to you? Since I promised I would return to the demon realm with you, how could I go back on it so easily?”
After saying this, she scrubbed the sleeve even harder, as if she wanted to scrub a hole through it.
“It was my fault. I should have believed you!” To keep the wound from being tugged again and again, Qu Linyan placed the arm wrapped like a rice dumpling right beside the water basin.
In truth, what she feared was only that Fu Xiaoba would worry over this wound for her and feel troubled because of that promise.
But how could she say such sentimental words aloud?
All she could say was, “You are going to scrub my sleeve to pieces.”
When Fu Xiaoba heard this, embarrassment crossed her face for several seconds. She quickly pushed the basin aside, grabbed the sleeve, and used her clumsy magic to make a ball of fire in her palm, trying to dry it right under Qu Linyan’s eyes.
As she dried it, she kept talking about Qu Linyan’s earlier “not trusting her.” She muttered for a long time, not stopping until the sleeve in her hands was dry.
After Qu Linyan’s ears finally grew quiet, she looked at the sleeve Fu Xiaoba had tormented until it was wrinkled and faintly smelled burned. There was not the slightest dislike in her eyes. Instead, she smiled, her mood very good.
She stood and stretched her body, then turned and walked to the door. Looking back at Fu Xiaoba, who was still sitting by the table and muttering at her, she could not help laughing. “Let us go. If we stay any longer, your brother is going to come kill his way here.”
“Surely you two are not that unable to exist together. Not only did you not hurt me, you have been especially good to me. I can explain for you to him. You are not a bad person…” Fu Xiaoba muttered softly as she chased after Qu Linyan and gently held the edge of her sleeve.
“Who told you I am not a bad person?” As Qu Linyan spoke, she turned her hand and grabbed Fu Xiaoba’s wrist. “This bad person is going to catch you and bring you back to her old nest, then slaughter you with one knife.”
As soon as she finished speaking, just as she turned to close the door, a strange and powerful spiritual aura suddenly appeared behind her.
“Miss, is your old nest in the earth realm?” a voice asked from behind.
Qu Linyan turned and protected Fu Xiaoba behind her. Raising her eyes, she faced a girl in green, about sixteen or seventeen in appearance. A pair of pretty almond eyes looked over Qu Linyan and Fu Xiaoba with a smiling expression.
“Who are you?” Qu Linyan’s gaze was guarded.
“Same as you. A bad person.” As the girl spoke, the corner of her lips lifted slightly. “A bad person with a purpose and a heart full of secrets.”