The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 5

“Fu Xiaoba, how did you sleep last night?”
Fu Xiaoba slowly opened her eyes to a slit. Sleepy and hazy, she looked completely unwilling to wake.
“Mm…” She hummed in enjoyment and closed her eyes again.
It had been so long since she had slept in the soft nest. There had even been spiritual power as a blanket. It had been warm and comfortable.
The black flood dragon held a bowl of millet porridge and lightly crouched beside Fu Xiaoba’s nest. She had meant to call her up for breakfast, but who knew Fu Xiaoba would open her eyes for less than two seconds before closing them again? The black flood dragon could not help reaching out and lightly patting her pointed beak. “Little pheasant, wake up. The sun is already shining on your bottom.”
“Peacock…” Fu Xiaoba did not open her eyes. Though her mind was not fully awake, she still corrected her by instinct, and her tone carried a bit of dissatisfaction.
The next second, the black flood dragon poked her belly hard. The touch was icy, frightening her so badly that she jolted. Her eyes flew open, and she saw a face very close to her own, enlarged before her.
Last night, she had not seen clearly in the moonlight. Now, looking up close, she could not help being amazed again.
The woman before her had narrow willow-leaf eyes, thin lips like cherries, and a nose that was straight and delicate. Her features were refined, as if carefully carved by someone. Her skin was not the bright white of jade, but more like pale wheat, adding a few warm tones to those cool and distant brows.
All the praises Fu Xiaoba had heard before were things like skin smooth as cream and hands soft as tender shoots. She had thought every beauty in the world should be fair and slender. Only now, after seeing the black flood dragon, did she understand what sharp, heroic beauty meant.
But…
This venomous beauty had come to eat her.
“I made you something to eat. Hurry and eat.” The black flood dragon set down the bowl of porridge, then reached out and “served” Fu Xiaoba out of the peacock nest, placing her beside the bowl.
Fu Xiaoba swallowed several times by instinct. Looking at the millet porridge before her, her eyes slowly grew wet.
On normal days, Fu Zhuochen took care of all three of her meals. Now, all of a sudden, someone else had made breakfast for her. This person was even the little black snake she had spent two months carefully raising. How could her feelings not be complicated?
Seeing tears in Fu Xiaoba’s eyes, the black flood dragon felt especially pleased. She reached out, rubbed Fu Xiaoba’s silly tuft, and smiled. “You little pheasant made terrible meals for me for so long. I only made one bowl of porridge for you. How are you already moved to tears?”
The moment she rubbed, Fu Xiaoba took a deep breath and buried her head, eating wildly. At the same time, the tears in her eyes began falling drop after drop, impossible to stop.
Moved? Not even a little!
At this moment, her heart held only fear. Her fear was making her legs weak.
This black flood dragon really did think she was too thin and had too little meat. She was planning to fatten her up before killing her.
Fu Zhuochen went to Qixia Mountain once every hundred years, and each time he took at least half a year to return. This time, he had been gone for less than three months. At the earliest, he would only return in spring. Could she really live until then?
Fu Xiaoba had nearly forgotten that she still had the task of passing a love tribulation in this life. If she died in this demon’s belly, would that love tribulation have to wait until her next life?
No, no. She had to pass this tribulation.
She had endured nearly five hundred years. At last, she was about to take human form and go outside the mountains to undergo her tribulation. If she was eaten in one bite, then five hundred years of effort would all be wasted, leaving only the words, “Young hero, please try again.” Would that not be painful?
How about she discuss it with this black flood dragon? After all, she had saved her life. For these two months, she had not treated her badly. Even if she had no great merit, she had at least worked hard.
Thinking this, Fu Xiaoba lifted her little head, which was covered in porridge, and looked at the black flood dragon crouching nearby. She called timidly, “Little… Little Black…”
“Stop. The name this little pheasant chose is careless enough.” The black flood dragon took out a silk handkerchief from somewhere and wiped the little peacock’s mouth. “My name is Qu Linyan. Remember it?”
“I… remember…” Fu Xiaoba instinctively stepped back half a step and corrected her, “I am a peacock, not a pheasant…”
“Close enough.” After Qu Linyan spoke, she saw Fu Xiaoba’s red eyes and quickly changed her words. “Ah, all right, all right. Little peacock. Little peacock, fine?”
Fu Xiaoba nodded. She took a deep breath, gathered her courage, puffed out her chest, lifted her head, and stammered, “Li… Qu Linyan, there are some things I, I must explain clearly to you! When I saved you, I saw your spiritual power was weak, and you were thin and small. I did not ask you to repay me. I only wanted to keep you by my side as company. But, but now… now that you, you are not a wild little mountain demon, then, then you must repay the kindness.”
“Oh?” Qu Linyan lifted her brows. She picked Fu Xiaoba up from the ground, held her in her arms, turned, walked to the table, and sat down. She stroked the feathers on Fu Xiaoba’s body. “How do you want me to repay you?”
“My cultivation really is low. If you want to eat me, I have no way to escape… But I did save you, and I looked after you for so long. Even if you want to eat me, you should follow a little justice of the three realms, right? I, I have one last wish. I wonder if it can be fulfilled before I die…”
Qu Linyan could not help laughing.
This little peacock was truly interesting. Last night, Qu Linyan had casually said she would eat her, and Fu Xiaoba had remembered it in her heart. She was not even dead yet, but she had already thought of her last wish.
Fine. Qu Linyan did want to hear what last wish a little mountain demon could have.
“Say it. I am not someone who receives kindness and refuses to repay it.”
Seeing that Qu Linyan was still rather easy to talk to, Fu Xiaoba quickly cleared her throat. “I have an elder brother…”
“You want to see him once before you die?” Qu Linyan nodded. “Understandable. Tell me where he went, his name, and what he looks like. I will capture him for you.”
Capture him? This… this tone was far too bold.
But come to think of it, Fu Zhuochen’s true body did seem smaller than this black flood dragon. What if he could not beat her?
Forget it. Every pheasant had to die someday. As long as she could live a little longer and pass her tribulation, that was enough. She must not drag others down.
Wait. Why had she called herself a pheasant… No, no, no!
Fu Xiaoba shook her head and waved her little wings. “What I mean is, I have an elder brother. He once told me that I was originally a fairy from heaven.”
“Pfft…” Qu Linyan could not hold it in.
“…” Fu Xiaoba looked at her with wounded eyes.
Be serious. Be serious.
Qu Linyan lightly coughed twice and smoothed the feathers on the peacock wings in her arms. “Continue.”
Fu Xiaoba continued, “I was originally a fairy from heaven. I only lack one lifetime of love tribulation before I can ascend as an upper god. I am about to take human form soon, and then I can leave the mountains to undergo my tribulation!”
Qu Linyan asked, “And then?”
“And then… then you cannot eat me at this key moment!” Fu Xiaoba flapped a few times in Qu Linyan’s arms and said excitedly, “Let us discuss it. Can you wait until I take human form and go to the human world to find someone for a deep and tangled romance? After I suffer all the pain of love and my heart turns to ash, you can eat me then. I promise I will not resist!”
Qu Linyan said, “You?”
Fu Xiaoba nodded. “Me.”
Qu Linyan said, “A fairy, ascending as an upper god?”
Fu Xiaoba nodded hard. “Yes!”
“Pfft…” Qu Linyan felt as if she had heard the greatest joke under heaven.
“Do not disbelieve me!” Fu Xiaoba felt terribly wronged. “My brother is very powerful. He would not lie to me!”
Qu Linyan smiled and shook her head. When immortals underwent tribulation, at the very least, they had human form. Who became a phea… a peacock to undergo tribulation?
Could it be that these days, when immortals underwent tribulation, they could jump into the animal path too?
Fu Xiaoba’s brother was truly unreliable. Who knew what grudge he had against her? Why make up such strange lies for an ignorant little demon? If this got out, would it not become a joke?
“What kind of brother is this? Let me meet him if there is a chance.”
“You… you would not eat him too, would you? You… every debt has its debtor. I saved you. If you want to repay kindness with hatred, just eat me!”
She was rather protective of that liar brother.
Fine, fine. Looking at this little one’s serious and hopeful eyes, she had clearly believed such absurd talk.
Since this little demon truly had shown her kindness and had made such a wish, then when Qu Linyan’s wounds healed, she would pass her a hundred years of cultivation and take her away from this place to see the human world.
It was just that this tiny demon’s cultivation was so low, yet she was already thinking of going to bring trouble to some human man. That absolutely could not happen. Qu Linyan would have to keep an eye on her when the time came.
“If you want to take human form and go outside to look around, I allow it,” Qu Linyan said. “But my spiritual power has recovered less than twenty percent. For now, I cannot pass cultivation to you. Once I rest a while longer, then…”
“You want to give me cultivation?” Fu Xiaoba was so surprised that she interrupted Qu Linyan.
“Yes. Do you not want to take human form?”
Fu Xiaoba had nothing to say for a moment. She had not expected Qu Linyan to be this impatient. To eat her, Qu Linyan was even willing to give her cultivation. This was forcing her to ripen. What a ruthless woman.
Fine, fine. Death came sooner or later either way. She should quickly pass her tribulation and die back to heaven.
Being an immortal must be steadier than being a little demon. When the time came, she could close her eyes and never again live in fear.
*
Every day, Fu Xiaoba felt her life had entered a countdown.
Ever since the night she had kindly helped “warm the bed,” the Little Black she had raised for more than two months had transformed into Qu Linyan. Every day, Qu Linyan provided three meals, as if she could not wait to fatten Fu Xiaoba until she was round and plump. Once Fu Xiaoba fulfilled her last wish, Qu Linyan would eat her in one bite.
If anyone asked what Fu Xiaoba felt now, the answer would surely be regret. Great regret.
If, on the day she found the little black snake, she had chosen a different place to stare into space.
If, when the little black snake’s outer wounds were mostly healed, she had been willing to let her go free instead of keeping her nearby to relieve her boredom.
If, that night, she had shown a little less unnecessary concern and had not gone to warm that bed.
Then Little Black would not have become a Big Black who wanted to eat peacocks.
However, although Qu Linyan would eat her sooner or later, at the moment, spending time with Qu Linyan was rather comfortable.
Qu Linyan was not like Fu Zhuochen, who always loved to attack her with words. She also never forced her to cultivate.
On normal days, not only did Qu Linyan make all kinds of delicious food for her, she also helped her bathe, smoothed her feathers, dried her off, and sat down to chat with her.
They talked about the sky, the earth, and the world outside.
Sometimes, Fu Xiaoba even had the feeling that Qu Linyan did not seem to want to eat her at all.
After all, this black flood dragon was quite good at every other time, aside from the frightening look she had when she revealed her true body in the snowy night.
So good that Fu Xiaoba rather liked being with her.
One day, she could not help asking Qu Linyan, “I feel like we are already pretty familiar with each other. Do you… still plan to eat me now?”
When Qu Linyan heard this, she could not help laughing. “I never thought of eating you. That day, it was only a casual joke. I had nearly forgotten it, yet you took it seriously for so long?”
Hearing this, Fu Xiaoba felt as if a heavy burden had lifted. “Then you treat me so well because… you are repaying my kindness?”
Qu Linyan looked at Fu Xiaoba seriously and smiled faintly. “More or less.”
Was it truly to repay kindness? Now that she stayed here, rather than calling it repayment, it was more like stealing half a day of ease from life.
Such a simple, worry-free life probably existed only in Wuyou Valley.
Fu Xiaoba happily jumped out of Qu Linyan’s arms and flapped her wings on the ground, turning circle after circle. She left many tiny footprints in the white snow.
After hopping happily for a while, she turned back, raised her neck, looked up at Qu Linyan, and said, “Little Black, stay here. You are so powerful. If you stay, when Brother comes back, he will not dare be fierce to me!”
Qu Linyan laughed, her brows curving. “You little pheasant, you say whatever comes to mind. Do you not want to go out and undergo your tribulation?”
“I have not taken human form yet, have I?”
“After a while longer, I can pass cultivation to you.”
“Mm… Actually, I am not in a hurry to undergo tribulation.” Fu Xiaoba hopped in place, looking silly and cute. “Life right now is rather comfortable! Just thinking about tribulations feels troublesome. If I can delay one more day, then I will delay one more day!”
After speaking, she hopped forward and lay down beside the hem of Qu Linyan’s robe. She tugged a corner of the cloth over her little body and yawned widely.
That lazy little look was extremely cute.
This feeling was truly strange.
No matter how Qu Linyan thought about it, she could not have imagined that she would one day find a little peacock shaped like a pheasant cute.
She could not help shaking her head and thinking, Qu Linyan, there is something wrong with you. After one serious injury, your taste has fallen straight down.
…
The days passed one by one. In the blink of an eye, deep winter arrived.
In the third month after Fu Zhuochen left Wuyou Valley, the quiet valley welcomed back that flash of red that seemed able to melt ice and snow sooner than usual.
Fu Zhuochen left the valley once every hundred years, and even at his fastest, he only returned after half a year. This time, he had been gone just over three months. So when Fu Xiaoba sensed that familiar spiritual presence from far away, she almost thought she was imagining things.
“It is Brother!” Fu Xiaoba jumped out of Qu Linyan’s arms, turned, spread her wings, and circled around Qu Linyan’s feet. “Little Black, my brother is back! I sensed his spiritual presence!”
Looking at the joyful, excited Fu Xiaoba, Qu Linyan could not help frowning.
“So it is him…”
Fu Xiaoba was puzzled. She tilted her little head. “Little Black, why are you…”
Before she finished speaking, an object appeared in Qu Linyan’s hand. It was thick in the middle and pointed at both ends, shaped like a date pit, white as clouds and snow, and rather pretty.
“Eh?” Fu Xiaoba had just wanted to see that thing more clearly when her vision went black and her mind slowly blurred.
In the last second before awareness vanished, only one thought remained in Fu Xiaoba’s heart.
Little black snake, big liar. You promised you would not eat me…