The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 35

“The fox clan… What do they mean by this? Do they really think I…”
“A-Yan, this is not a bad thing. If so…”
“I do not want to see that fellow. If… why did he not come yesterday? He did not come, and Xiaoba was so disappointed…”
“This has little to do with him. It is only an excuse. Look… inviting you like this… also shows respect…”
“I already have an agreement with the devil clan. There is no need for this…”
“At least ask… what she thinks. You…”
Fu Xiaoba naturally knew that consummating a marriage required doing what men and women did, but she did not know what that meant. She knew even less about how two women could do such a thing.
Qu Linyan had said she would teach her, so Fu Xiaoba thought Qu Linyan understood it. But when she remembered Qu Linyan’s slightly confused eyes at that time, she later understood that Qu Linyan also knew nothing and had simply forced herself forward.
A long time later, whenever the two of them thought back to that extremely clumsy wedding night, they could not help laughing. Truly, one dared to “teach,” and the other dared to “learn,” and somehow they struggled through it for a long time.
There was no sunrise or sunset inside the flood dragon cave. They had always used the change between underworld power and sunlight power inside the spiritual cave to tell night from day.
The next day, when sunlight power gradually rose, Fu Xiaoba opened her eyes in a daze.
She reached to the side, but Qu Linyan was not there. She turned her head and squinted toward the outside of the room. She could faintly hear Qu Linyan and Xiangsi talking about something, but she could not hear the details. She only knew those voices had woken her.
A moment later, Qu Linyan lifted the door curtain and walked in. Seeing Fu Xiaoba’s eyes open, she quickly came to the bed and sat sideways. Her slender fingers gently smoothed the loose hair before Fu Xiaoba’s forehead. “Awake?”
“Mm.” Fu Xiaoba nodded. She felt too weak to use much strength. She only instinctively caught Qu Linyan’s hand, narrowed her eyes, and did not speak.
“If you feel tired, sleep a little longer?” As Qu Linyan spoke, she bent and kissed Fu Xiaoba’s forehead.
“Just now, I seemed to hear you and Xiangsi arguing. Did something happen?” Fu Xiaoba asked.
Qu Linyan said gently, “It is nothing important. If you are tired, sleep. After you wake and eat, it will not be too late to listen.”
“Mm.” Hearing Qu Linyan’s voice so soft, Fu Xiaoba remembered last night. Her cheeks reddened, and she could not stop pressing her lips together to hide a smile. She turned sideways, half-buried her head in the soft pillow, closed her eyes, and drifted back to sleep.
Qu Linyan sat beside Fu Xiaoba for a good while. Seeing that her breathing had deepened, and that she seemed asleep, Qu Linyan rose and left to busy herself with clan matters.
Fu Xiaoba had always slept peacefully. But this time, perhaps because last night had been too tiring and she had been woken halfway through, she did not sleep steadily afterward. She opened and closed her eyes again and again, sometimes seeming to see Qu Linyan leave, sometimes seeming to see a white figure.
She did not know what was wrong with her. She drifted half asleep and half awake for a long time. She was so tired, so exhausted, yet she could not wake up. She could only dream the same short dream again and again.
In the dream, Qu Linyan knelt for a long time in the flood dragon clan’s forbidden land, beside the black ice bed where Qu Muqing slept. Her eyes were full of helplessness and pain.
Fu Xiaoba stepped forward and gently touched Qu Linyan’s thin shoulder. Before she could speak any comforting words, she felt a force draw at her palm. In an instant, that power rushed from her arm into her heart and lungs, and her soul burned as if thrown into fierce fire.
She looked at Qu Linyan in terror, her face twisting with pain. “Little… Little Black…”
“Xiaoba, are you not here to pass a trial?” She saw Qu Linyan press her hand down with her back turned. Then Qu Linyan turned her head. Her eyes were red and full of tears. “Xiaoba, sooner or later, you have to go back anyway. Before you go back, save A-Qing, all right?”
“Little Black… what, what is wrong with you…”
Qu Linyan rose and lifted her around the waist. Ignoring her struggles, she carried her toward the flood dragon clan’s altar.
Below the altar stood the flood dragon clan’s elders and elite clanspeople. Blood sacrifice spell marks covered the area. The marks linked together, forming a giant blood sacrifice array. At the center of the array, Qu Muqing lay still with her eyes closed and her lips pale.
“You said I was not your trial… You said we would search for a way to save her together. You said that when she woke, she would accept me and accept us…”
“I lied.” Qu Linyan closed her eyes. “I am sorry. I am sorry, Xiaoba… If you die, you will only complete your trial and ascend. A-Qing’s soul has been outside the six paths for a thousand years. She can no longer enter reincarnation. I am sorry… I do not want this…”
No. No…
“No! Do not, Little Black. Do not do this…”
“I am sorry.” In the end, Qu Linyan tied her to the center of the altar. “I need the blood from your heart. In the next life, I will make it up to you.”
Bloody spikes carrying fire spread up from below her feet and pierced into both her and Qu Muqing’s hearts.
It hurt so much… The vines that pierced her heart carried nameless fire, burning her three souls and seven spirits.
In that moment, she remembered her brother’s warning.
“Then did you ever truly care for me?” She tried to see an answer in Qu Linyan’s eyes. “Do you know that a sacrifice pushed onto a life-exchange altar will have her soul scattered after death? I cannot go back. I will have no next life.”
Qu Linyan lowered her eyes. She only leaned down and placed one last light kiss on Fu Xiaoba’s lips. Then she avoided her gaze, turned, and leaped down from the altar without looking back.
In an instant, the clanspeople raised spiritual power in their palms and opened the blood sacrifice array. Death-fire burned around the altar.
How could this be? Qu Linyan should not be like this… Fu Xiaoba stubbornly lifted her eyes. Her gaze crossed the firelight and looked at Qu Linyan in pain, silently questioning her.
Qu Linyan, you promised me. Is our one lifetime truly this short?
“Qu Linyan… Qu Linyan, you bastard!”
You lied to me. You are a huge liar… You lied to me…
“Xiaoba? Xiaoba, what is wrong!”
“Do not come here! You lied to me. You lied to me!” Fu Xiaoba woke from the dream trembling, her eyes full of terror. “Go away! Do not come near me!”
Qu Linyan was holding her wrist tightly, and that frightened her terribly. She instinctively tried to break free, but Qu Linyan held her even tighter.
“Xiaoba, did you have a nightmare?” Qu Linyan slowly sent spiritual power into Fu Xiaoba’s body to calm her mind.
Fu Xiaoba kept trembling. Qu Linyan saw it all, and her brows drew together tightly. Worry filled her eyes, and her voice was especially gentle. “Xiaoba, it is all right now. It was only a nightmare. It is all right… I am here. I am here.”
Fu Xiaoba slowly came back to herself. She raised her eyes and looked at Qu Linyan before her. Her gaze hesitated for a long time. At last, she leaned lightly against Qu Linyan’s chest and silently cried.
“What did you dream?” Qu Linyan gently stroked Fu Xiaoba’s long hair.
Fu Xiaoba only shook her head.
“Xiaoba, do not hide it from me. What did you dream?” Qu Linyan could tell that the moment Fu Xiaoba woke, the look she gave her had been fear, pain, and despair. “In the dream… did I scare you?”
Fu Xiaoba clenched Qu Linyan’s sleeve hard. After a long silence, she whispered, “I dreamed that you wanted A-Qing, so you did not want me anymore…”
“How could that happen? How could I not want you?” Qu Linyan reached out and wrapped an arm around Fu Xiaoba’s thin shoulders. Softly, she scolded, “In your heart, am I such a bastard?”
Fu Xiaoba shook her head again and again.
She also did not know why she would have such a dream. Everything in the dream had been so clear. She even remembered every face of every person who hurt her, and even the pain of spikes piercing her heart had been so real. It was nothing like ordinary dreams, which were usually blurry and without sense.
But she did not know how to tell Qu Linyan about that frightening feeling of reality. She could only quietly lean in that warm embrace without saying a word.
Qu Linyan held Fu Xiaoba and coaxed her softly for a long while. Only then did she rise and bring over the sweet porridge she had cooked earlier.
Fu Xiaoba liked sweet things. After drinking the sweet porridge Qu Linyan had personally made, her mood became much better. She could not help remembering the arguing voices she had faintly heard while half asleep earlier, and she cautiously tested, “This morning… I heard you and Xiangsi seemed to be arguing…”
“No. We only disagreed. It does not count as arguing,” Qu Linyan said.
Fu Xiaoba raised her eyes. “Did something happen? Can you tell me?”
Qu Linyan smiled. “When have I ever hidden anything from you? It really is not a big matter. If you are curious, I will tell you.”
Fu Xiaoba blinked and obediently waited for Qu Linyan to continue.
Qu Linyan said, “Yesterday was our wedding. No one from the fox clan or bird clan visited. But this morning, they sent rich wedding gifts, along with a letter and an invitation. They said that two months from now is the fox clan’s little princess’s coming-of-age ceremony, and they hope you and I can attend.”
“Little Black, did you… not offend them not long ago?” Fu Xiaoba’s eyes rolled, and she propped her chin in her hand. “Could this be what humans call a trap banquet?”
“This is the letter.” Qu Linyan took an envelope from her sleeve and pushed it before Fu Xiaoba.
Fu Xiaoba took the letter, opened it, tilted her head, and looked at it for a long time. Finally, she raised her head and looked at Qu Linyan, who was drinking water. “What does it say?”
Qu Linyan almost forgot this little peacock could not read.
She choked, covered her mouth and nose, and calmed herself. Then she sat beside Fu Xiaoba and said, “I will read it to you.”
The letter’s contents were quite direct. It said the demon realm’s clans were all one body. They had been split apart for thousands of years, looked down on by the heavenly and devil realms, and pushed away by humans. If this continued, it would not be a solution. The flood dragon clan had stood alone in Soul-Wounding Valley for over a thousand years. But no matter how strong one clan was, when trouble came, it would still be isolated and without help. As for the matter at Qixia Mountain, as long as the flood dragon clan promised not to attack again, the bird clan was willing to let go of the past. The fox clan would also use this chance to persuade the demon realm’s clans to accept the flood dragon clan again.
At the end, the bird clan leader even used emotion as a card. Clan Leader Qu’s new wife is Brother Zhuochen’s younger sister. Over four hundred years, I have heard him mention this girl more than once, but I have never met her. I heard he stayed at Qixia for several months, and after returning, he has barely seen Xiaoba again. He misses her very much. He will come then, but I wonder whether Xiaoba is willing to meet and talk with him.
“So this is to use the chance to ease the relationship between the flood dragon clan and the whole demon realm. That is not a bad thing, right…” Fu Xiaoba spoke carefully, her gaze moving over Qu Linyan’s face, afraid that one biased word from her would make Qu Linyan unhappy. “Brother will also go. If he agrees to us being together, then he should… he should not let others hurt us, right?”
“For over a thousand years, the demon realm’s clans have rejected the flood dragon clan. Are we now supposed to be deeply grateful for their little concession? I was already planning to go to the devil realm once my wounds healed, to find Miss Shen and have her fulfill the promise she made that day. At that time, the whole devil realm will be our support. Why would I lack the fox clan’s false kindness?” Qu Linyan bit her lip, dissatisfied. “Besides, if Fu Zhuochen truly wanted to see you, why did he not come yesterday? When we bowed in the hall, we had no parents and no elder brother. He… he treats you as…”
Fu Xiaoba lowered her head and did not dare make a sound.
Seeing this, Qu Linyan’s heart softened at once. She did not dare keep saying angry words. She only gently held the back of Fu Xiaoba’s hand and asked, “Do you truly want to see him?”
“He is my only family…” Fu Xiaoba raised her head. Her tearful eyes looked so wronged that Qu Linyan did not know what to do.
After a long while, Qu Linyan drew Fu Xiaoba into her arms, lowered her head, and kissed the space between her brows. “I am the one who made it so you have a home you cannot return to.”
Fu Xiaoba said in panic, “No, Little Black, I did not mean that…”
Qu Linyan said, “I will take you.”
“Ah…” Fu Xiaoba froze.
Qu Linyan smiled gently. “You have just come to the earth realm. The road was dark everywhere, and you have been living with me in this spiritual cave. If you stay too long, you may forget the warmth of sunlight. I told you before that the earth realm is not a place without light. Most of it is demon territory, and its scenery is beautiful, not worse than the human world.”
Expectation shone in Fu Xiaoba’s eyes.
Qu Linyan continued, “Hundred Flowers Valley is the demon realm’s capital. It is a place where spring lasts through all four seasons. The fox clan’s little princess is turning five hundred, so every clan will go. It will be very lively. If you want to go, I will take you to see it.”
“Really?”
“Of course.” Qu Linyan pinched Fu Xiaoba’s cheek.
Fu Xiaoba pressed her lips into a smile, her eyes full of joy. “Little Black, you are so good.”