The Little Peacock Raises a Snake (GL) Chapter 62

That night, Yun Su placed the little black snake beside her pillow and gently covered it with one corner of the quilt. Only after seeing it fall asleep did she close her eyes.
In a haze, she seemed to return to Wuyou Valley, back to the snowy night of that year.
The little black snake did not want to be pressed under her and slipped out of the room from by her feet.
“Little Black, why are you going outside? It is so cold…”
The world outside was frozen. With her little wings tucked behind her, she chased out after it, but she could no longer find the little black snake anywhere.
She walked blankly through the snow and ice. She could not see the path ahead, nor could she find the way back.
Everything that should have been familiar seemed strange in that moment.
“Little Black!”
She called in panic. The worry in her heart slowly turned into fear.
It was as if that was not just a little black snake she had picked up and brought home, but the person who had always accompanied her, protected her, and let her live without worry.
She did not want to lose her, and she was afraid to lose her.
She fell to the ground and began to cry, eyes red.
As she cried, she opened her eyes and saw the little black snake had returned to her side.
Slowly, it wrapped around her body.
“Little Black…”
She could hardly breathe.
After a burst of dizziness, the ice and snow around her disappeared.
Inside the dim flood dragon clan spiritual cave, Qu Linyan stood before her, holding her in her arms with tears in her eyes.
“Tomorrow, I will fight for you. If the heavenly realm’s people want to take you away, they must first step over my corpse… For you, I am willing.”
That gentle and determined gaze deeply stirred her heart.
“I love you.”
“I… do too…”
Even though shouting filled the outside, even though others’ anger seemed like a wildfire that could burn them to ash at any time…
At least in that moment, they depended on each other with their lives and did not fear the endless dark.
When they parted, Qu Linyan kissed the space between her brows.
She instinctively gripped Qu Linyan’s sleeve tightly, afraid that if she let go, she would lose everything.
Qu Linyan gently pinched her cheek, her beautiful brows and eyes curving.
She said to her, “Xiaoba, wait for me to come back.”
She had always been obedient. Whatever Qu Linyan said, she listened.
But in that moment, no matter what, she did not want to let go.
She was so afraid. Afraid she would never wait long enough…
“Do not go, Little Black. Do not go!”
Yun Su woke from the dream with a start. Before her mind settled, she had already been pulled into a warm embrace.
“Do not be afraid. I am here.” That person spoke softly by her ear. Even the breath brushing the side of her ear seemed to carry a fatal tenderness, making a person sink into it.
Yun Su slowly lifted her eyes and stared blankly at Qu Linyan, who had somehow regained human form.
Those confused, clashing memories threw her heart into complete disorder.
The Qu Linyan who had personally sent her onto the altar, and the Qu Linyan who had ignored her clansmen’s fury and insisted on protecting her. Which was true? Which was false?
She quietly looked at Qu Linyan, and even her breathing seemed heavier.
Qu Linyan wore only a thin white inner robe. The collar was slightly open, revealing a faint glimpse of thin, delicate collarbone. Perhaps because her injuries had not healed, her lips were deathly pale, yet her eyes were weak and gentle in a way that could steal the soul. Yun Su could not look away no matter what.
The last time they had shared a bed and slept in each other’s arms like this had been three hundred years ago.
Yun Su had not expected herself to be such a spineless person.
To her, all the pain from her previous life no longer seemed important. Even though so much unwillingness and resentment remained in her heart, in this moment she still honestly longed for the warmth this person gave her.
Was she not that useless? She had never changed.
Even after going to Dustfall Platform, she had never truly put everything down.
Even knowing immortals and demons were different, she had never kept a proper distance from Qu Linyan.
Even after remembering that bone-piercing pain from her past life, she still chose to give up her godhood, hide from place to place, and remain forever in the lower realm for Qu Linyan.
After a long time, she blinked her reddened eyes and gently pushed Qu Linyan away. Lowering her brows, she said, “It is too crowded. Get down.”
“My wounds have not healed. Do you really want me to sleep on the floor?” Qu Linyan said softly. Her eyes were careful, her tone wronged, and her fingers kept rubbing the corner of the quilt, like a young wife who had done something wrong.
But Yun Su did not fall for this. She frowned at once. “Are you getting down or not?”
“I will get down.” Qu Linyan sighed and climbed out of bed.
Although she did not know exactly what she had done wrong to make Yun Su so harsh with her lately, that did not matter. If Yun Su was angry, she had to follow her, coax her, and find different ways to make her happy.
Who told Yun Su to have forgotten so much? Qu Linyan had to wait with even more patience.
Now that she had recovered one-tenth of her power, keeping warm was naturally no problem. But she was still injured, and the cold wooden floor truly was not comfortable to lie on.
Yun Su lay on the bed with her eyes closed for a long time, but no matter what, she could not sleep. She opened her eyes and turned to look at Qu Linyan, whom she had driven off the bed.
As luck would have it, Qu Linyan had just changed positions on the floor several times while pillowing her arm. She had finally settled down and was lifting her eyes to look at Yun Su, when she met Yun Su’s gaze.
She curved her lips. “Cannot sleep? Worried about me?”
Yun Su frowned, sat up, grabbed the quilt on her body, and threw it hard into Qu Linyan’s face.
Qu Linyan peeled the quilt off her head, casually smoothed the messy hair falling over her eyes with her long fingers, and looked up. “You will catch cold like this.”
This was truly nonsense. Immortals, demons, gods, and devils all had spiritual power protecting them. How could they fear a human world’s chill?
But many times, a useless bit of concern could still crash straight into the heart.
Yun Su could not help glancing at Qu Linyan. “If you do not want it, give it back.”
Hearing this, Qu Linyan shifted twice to the foot of the bed, pushed the quilt back up in a few movements, propped her chin on one hand, and lay at the bed’s edge to bargain. “Sleeping on the floor really is uncomfortable. Let me come up, all right?”
After speaking, she stretched out her other hand as if acting spoiled and lightly tugged Yun Su’s left little finger. “If you think it is too crowded, I can change back.”
Yun Su hesitated for a moment. In the end, her heart softened, and she patted the bed. “Come up.”
Qu Linyan’s mouth could not stop curving upward. She showed no sign of being injured as she climbed onto the bed at once.
Yun Su instinctively moved inward. When she looked back, Qu Linyan had already covered herself and lain down, turned sideways to face her.
“You… sleep flat,” Yun Su said.
“Sleeping flat takes up space. I do not want to crowd you.” Qu Linyan tugged her sleeve. “Do not sit there. Rest early.”
Hearing this, Yun Su lay down again.
They shared the same bed and pillow, and Qu Linyan’s eyes kept watching her. This made Yun Su’s heartbeat speed up, and her whole body felt awkward.
“Turn around!”
Qu Linyan shook her head. “My left arm is badly injured. It cannot be pressed.”
Yun Su was briefly speechless. She turned and glared at Qu Linyan for a long time. Seeing the half-smile in her brows and eyes, anger rose in her.
She turned over, grabbed Qu Linyan’s left arm, and pinched it with a little force. “It seems very sturdy to me. It can be pressed just fine.”
Qu Linyan said, “It is sturdy, of course. I only mean that, relatively speaking, pressing this side hurts more…”
In Yun Su’s eyes, this behavior of getting a benefit and still acting pitiful was clearly the behavior of someone already in the wrong, yet still pushing farther and farther.
The next second, Yun Su pulled Qu Linyan inward with force, then turned over on top of her. She bound Qu Linyan’s hands with her ten fingers and pressed them tightly onto the pillow.
Qu Linyan saw fire in Yun Su’s eyes.
It was not anger stirred up by words. It was more like a feeling that had been pressed down in her heart for a long time and finally burst out, fierce and surging.
“You…” For a moment, Qu Linyan did not know what to do.
“Who allowed you to provoke me?” Yun Su’s eyes were red as she spoke in anger. “Do you think I cannot bear to part with you, that I feel sorry for you and care about you, so no matter what you did to me, I will never truly hurt you, resent you, or leave you?”
“I never thought that…” Qu Linyan truly had never thought that, nor had she expected Yun Su to have such an idea.
“Actually, even if you did think that, it does not matter, does it? Everything that happened before cannot be changed. You succeeded. I can never go back! And you still hang around in front of me as if nothing happened, still smiling, still hoping I will change my view of you, soften toward you, and return to your side again…”
As Yun Su spoke, her body trembled. “But toward me, have you truly hidden nothing, deceived me in nothing… and never wronged me at all?”
Qu Linyan shook her head. “I truly did not…”
“And those vows?” Yun Su could not help gritting her teeth. Her voice was low and angry. “Once, I believed every word you said. I gambled with my life. What about you?”
Qu Linyan lost her words for a moment and only stared blankly at Yun Su before her.
In that instant, she seemed to see Fu Xiaoba from three hundred years ago, her blood drained away, her face twisted in pain.
She saw the resentment and despair of the person she loved, waiting and slowly losing all hope.
She had almost forgotten. No matter how she had risked everything, no matter how close she had come to death, in the end she had not protected Fu Xiaoba. She had not fulfilled any of the promises she had made.
“You are a liar!”
This time, Qu Linyan could not say a word. She only lifted her eyes and quietly looked at Yun Su, then smiled bitterly.
Yes. She was a liar. There was nothing to explain.
Not one of the promises she had once made had been fulfilled.
So this was what Yun Su had cared about all along…
She had been one step late. Only that one step had made them miss three hundred years for nothing. Everything from the past could never be chased back.
Qu Linyan closed her eyes and let Yun Su vent on her without a sound. Even though her inner and outer injuries had not completely healed, even though the person before her kissed and held her with such force, she still did her best to cooperate.
The once-obedient girl had grown up.
She no longer only relied on others, and she no longer listened obediently to anyone.
She had learned anger, but she did not cry or make a scene. She only vented in the way she had long wanted.
The person who had once always cared for her, protected her, and seemed capable of everything was now in her hands, possessed by her and bullied by her, with no strength to resist.
She even had to obediently cooperate.
This feeling loosened the tight string in Yun Su’s heart. It was as if she truly could control everything now, no longer the foolish girl from before who never had a choice and could only obey fate.
The person she liked and wanted was finally, for the first real time, held in her own hands.
At the end, she helped the exhausted Qu Linyan sit up. Her damp fingertips formed a box of wound medicine.
Her soft finger pads carried cool spiritual power as they pressed against every bruise and torn wound on Qu Linyan’s body, spreading medicine bit by bit.
“Qu Linyan, you have no chance to lie to me again, and no chance to fail me again.” Yun Su brought her lips beside Qu Linyan’s ear and threatened her softly in the calmest tone. “The me now can keep you if I want to, and you cannot drive me away. If I want to leave, you cannot keep me. Do not be clever and think I cannot live without you.”
Hearing this, Qu Linyan only buried her head in Yun Su’s neck. “From beginning to end, I am the one who cannot live without you.”
Yun Su’s heart moved. She turned her face and kissed the space between Qu Linyan’s brows. “Then from now on, listen properly. If you do, I may consider treating you a little better.”
“Mm,” Qu Linyan answered softly. “My life is yours.”