The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 50

Yun Su suddenly did not know how to face Qu Linyan’s burning gaze. She instinctively turned to escape.
Seeing that Yun Su did not answer, Qu Linyan could not help walking back and forth several steps. From several meters away, she tested softly, “Xiaoba…”
Yun Su did not know why that soft call, tinged with a sob, made her heart feel as if it had been cut by a knife.
She hated that name. Even in the dream, when those two words came from the little black snake’s mouth, they had been so gentle.
Yes. In the dream, she was so attached to Qu Linyan. But as soon as she left the dream, she remembered that immortals and demons were different. She remembered the fear and hopelessness Qu Linyan had brought her the night she was first kidnapped. She remembered that now she was only a prisoner under house arrest.
A golden canary. A bird in a cage. An empty shell Qu Linyan had snatched back from the heavenly realm by force.
An empty shell specially prepared so she could find a little peacock called Fu Xiaoba…
All the tolerance and gentleness Qu Linyan gave her now belonged only to Fu Xiaoba. What Qu Linyan wanted was nothing more than Fu Xiaoba.
But inside and outside the dream were separated by years and a lifetime. Even if Qu Linyan was still the Qu Linyan from the dream, she had already forgotten everything. She was no longer that little peacock in the dream.
“Qu Linyan, do you not know who I am?” Yun Su said with no confidence at all.
“I know. I know better than you! Your likes, your habits, even the way you look when you are happy or afraid, all are exactly the same as before!” As Qu Linyan spoke, she slowly stepped forward and said softly, “You are Xiaoba. You are her… You have me in your heart. So even if immortals and demons are different, even if you gods have always looked down on demons, even if there was hatred between you and me, as long as I stand before you, you cannot hate me at all. Is that not true?”
Yun Su argued quietly, “I am only afraid of you…”
Qu Linyan shook her head. “You cannot fool me!”
That day, she had been so furious her heart had nearly burned. Breaking into the heavenly realm, knocking Yun Su unconscious, and stealing her away had been extremely violent.
If, on the return journey, she had not accidentally touched the sleeve damp with tears, and if her heart had not moved, leading her to enter Yun Su’s dream through the Dreamweaving Shuttle and see the blurred figure of herself inside that dream, she might have thought all her obsession over these three hundred years had been given to the wrong person.
Qu Linyan gritted her teeth, stepped forward, and grabbed Yun Su’s wrist. Stubbornly, she said, “If you truly put down the past life completely, why did you cry on the day of your wedding with Zhiming? If you truly put down the past life, what was that dream? In your dream, my figure and my promises, why did you not put them down?”
Yun Su was shocked. “You… you spied on my dream!”
“Yes! I spied on your dream! If not, I would never have known that you say one thing and feel another. I would have been driven away by two or three heartless words from you!”
“You can enter my dreams so easily. You, you…” Yun Su stared blankly at Qu Linyan. Suddenly thinking of everything wrong in the dream, she could not help trembling as she questioned, “It was you? What I saw in my dreams was not the past at all. It was you. You made it all up!”
“If I said all of that truly happened, and I only missed you too much, so I…”
Yun Su’s eyes reddened. “So those really were memories you forced into me, were they not?”
“I said all of it truly happened!” Qu Linyan could not help angrily pulling Yun Su into her arms with force. Through gritted teeth, she said, “Why are you changing the subject? Why are you finding every excuse to reject me? You clearly cannot put me down. Why do you deceive yourself and others? Why do you always run away instead of facing it?”
“You spied on my dreams and confused my memories. You never had good intentions!” Yun Su tried to struggle, but no matter what, she could not twist free of Qu Linyan. In her panic, she bit hard into Qu Linyan’s neck. Only when Qu Linyan hissed in pain did Yun Su manage to shove her away.
But the instant she pushed Qu Linyan away, Yun Su looked at the bloody bite mark on her neck and could not stop her heart from aching.
Immortals, demons, gods, and devils all had protective spiritual power of their own. With Qu Linyan’s cultivation, her protective spiritual power had to be powerful. Ordinary blades could hardly pierce it. Yet Yun Su, who had lost all her spiritual power, could bite and wound her so easily…
Qu Linyan truly had no defenses against her at all.
“You…” Yun Su wanted to step forward and check the injury, but did not dare move closer.
“Yes, I did not have good intentions…” Qu Linyan gritted her teeth and shouted angrily, “So what! I wanted to drag you into this mortal love. If not, you would have followed someone else!”
Yun Su was speechless.
“You clearly… are Xiaoba…” Qu Linyan looked at Yun Su, her eyes full of grief, yet she still worked hard to control her emotions and said gently, “It does not matter if you forgot everything from before. I remember. I can tell you. As long as you are willing, as long as you are willing to stay, we will never separate again…”
Yun Su could not help closing her eyes and turning away, her body trembling faintly.
Qu Linyan said, “You said that if I kept you, you would not leave!”
“I do not remember!” Yun Su covered both ears and cried, “I entered the mortal world to undergo a tribulation. You were the tribulation I passed through only by dying in that lifetime. I cannot avoid you fast enough. How would I dare renew our past bond?”
For three hundred years, she had been tormented by a dream. The pain and despair in the dream were so real, so real that every time she woke, her heart could not calm for a long time.
Now, she was finally no longer tormented by that nightmare, but had fallen into a deeper fear.
The tribulation she underwent was a love tribulation. If she had not been hurt deeply by love, how could she have achieved the proper result?
Yes, inside and outside the dream, Qu Linyan had treated her well in every possible way. So well that Yun Su could not help wanting to rely on her, wanting to remember everything from before.
But the fact that three hundred years ago she had nearly had her soul scattered told her clearly that Qu Linyan must once have hurt her deeply. If she remembered everything and fell again, how could she forgive it?
“Qu Linyan, if it is truly as you say, if I was once so firm in this, then why did we part back then? If you were truly so important to me, why did I choose to forget you?” Yun Su stepped forward two steps as she spoke. “You hurt me, did you not? You failed me, so my heart became ash toward you, and that was why I chose to forget you. Is that right?”
Qu Linyan could not help taking a deep breath. Through gritted teeth, she asked, “Do you truly think that?”
“Is that not so?” Yun Su smiled bitterly. “Three hundred years ago, if Zhiming had not saved me with the Nether Soul Lamp, my soul would have scattered long ago. How do you explain that?”
Qu Linyan was silent for a long while. She laughed at herself and said, “I have nothing to explain. Three hundred years ago, I truly failed to protect you. But I also never did anything that wronged you. My conscience is clear!”
Yun Su hesitantly lifted her eyes and happened to meet Qu Linyan’s firm gaze.
In that moment, she knew she could not escape.
She saw Qu Linyan move close to her again, trying to take both her hands. Carefully, Qu Linyan said, “Xiaoba, I beg you. Do not rush to deny me, all right? I was wrong. I truly was wrong. I only missed the version of you who would not reject me from a thousand li away too much.”
Yun Su said, “Clan Leader Qu, I hope you remember that my name is Yun Su.”
“I promise you. I will never call you by the wrong name again, and I will never spy on your dreams again.” Qu Linyan could no longer hold back the tears in her eyes. They blurred her vision, and she pleaded softly, “As for the past life, if you are willing to listen, I will tell you about it. If you are not willing, I will wait for you to slowly remember… But can you wait until you remember everything before judging me? I swear, when that time comes, whether you leave or stay, I will never stop you. All right?”
This time, Yun Su did not pull back her hands. After a moment of silence, she lowered her head and asked softly, “How can I trust you? You sealed all my spiritual meridians and imprisoned me here. No matter how nice your words sound, am I not still at your mercy?”
“I trust you. You trust me too, all right?” After Qu Linyan spoke, she formed seals with both hands.
The next second, a stream of spiritual light surged from her fingertips into the space between Yun Su’s brows. When the spiritual light scattered, Yun Su felt the spiritual power she had lost for so long slowly begin to recover.
This action surprised Yun Su greatly.
Although Qu Linyan could injure even Zhiming, so Yun Su certainly could not be her opponent, Qu Linyan also could not guard her every moment.
Sealing Yun Su’s spiritual power had been the best way to keep her at her side.
What Yun Su had said just now had been casual. She had never imagined Qu Linyan would truly return her magic power.
Yun Su said, “Are you not afraid I will run away?”
“I am afraid.” As Qu Linyan spoke, she held Yun Su in her arms with worry over gain and loss. “So promise me. Do not leave, all right?”
Yun Su stared blankly at the bite mark on Qu Linyan’s neck and could not help softening. “All right. I promise you. Before I remember everything, I will not leave.”
As soon as her words fell, she felt Qu Linyan hold her even tighter. She quickly added, “Let me say this first. If you once failed me, I will definitely abandon you and leave!”
“I never failed you!” Qu Linyan said firmly. “If even half a sentence I said today is false, let me die beneath heavenly thunder!”
Yun Su did not know why. She clearly had not managed to remember her past life, and the broken pieces in her dreams had also been tampered with by Qu Linyan, so she did not know which parts were true and which were false.
But she could not help believing every word Qu Linyan said.
No matter how many doubts were in her heart, as long as Qu Linyan explained, she believed her.
This trust seemed carved into her bones and blood, controlling every bit of her reason.
Just like three hundred years ago…
Dustfall Platform. Severing Love Threads.
She held Severing Love Threads and sat quietly on Dustfall Platform. With one comb, she forgot fate. With the second comb, she forgot mortal dust.
All kinds of past events and mortal bonds scattered completely. She had clearly put them all down, yet there was still a voice in her heart telling her: she must not forget. She absolutely must not forget.
At that moment, Severing Love Threads fell from her hand. After a moment of silence, she picked it up and chose to flee.
Yun Su could not help slowly lifting both hands and answering Qu Linyan’s gentle embrace.
For one moment, she actually felt she had waited for this moment for too, too long.
Perhaps Qu Linyan was the feeling already carved into her three souls and seven spirits, the feeling she could not bear to sever even after forgetting everything.
Qu Linyan said she had never changed.
In truth, she had changed long ago.
Since returning from her tribulation, all her likes had changed quietly along with everything she had forgotten.