Will you try to fall in love with me?
Even though other snakes lacked tear glands, it didn’t mean they couldn’t cry—it only meant there were no tears when they did. The degree of heartbreak wasn’t any less than a Fire Snake’s.
Xing Yue was speechless, choking back her frustration. She’d thought Bu Yao had left. Based on the Eldest Miss’s temper, she should’ve stomped off barefoot to call someone to deal with her by now.
She let out a long exhale and pushed away the clinging Bu Yao, sitting up against the headboard. Lazily, she said, “Got hit—how can I not cry?”
That slap—Xing Yue actually didn’t care much about it. After saying something like that, who could hold back? She had just wanted to anger Bu Yao into leaving. In the end, the person hadn’t gone, and she’d gotten slapped for it.
Xing Yue had just woken up, her long black hair slightly disheveled, her eyes sultry and alluring. Her posture was so casual, her entire being exuding an unbridled, roguish charm—a gentleness that felt unreal, as if veiled by a thin, hazy mist.
Looking at Xing Yue like this, she seemed even more of a bastard. Yet Bu Yao adored her beyond all reason.
She leaned in, and with a snake tongue as warm as fine jade, gently licked the swollen side of Xing Yue’s face. She was comforting Xing Yue, but she would definitely not apologize.
“Who told you… to mess with me,” she measured her words carefully, finally finding a term that wasn’t quite right but wasn’t too harsh either. “I’m very serious about you. Can’t you just like me a little more?”
Bu Yao murmured in quiet resentment. Her exquisitely beautiful face was filled with mortification. Being treated like this by the one she loved—could anyone still be happy? Calling it broken heart syndrome would be an understatement.
She didn’t stubbornly wait for Xing Yue’s answer. Perhaps, deep down, she could vaguely guess a couple of hints already.
Without waiting for Xing Yue’s reply, she went over to the vanity, sat on the floor, and began picking up the scattered cosmetics and skincare products—bottles and jars, one by one—using her phone to identify the brands so she could buy Xing Yue new ones.
The Eldest Miss had thrown such a grand tantrum, yet she could also coax herself back to calm.
In moments like these, Xing Yue could briefly feel like a real jerk. She got out of bed to help clean up the mess on the floor, her tone softening considerably: “Why did you come back to find me? I always make you cry.”
She wiped Bu Yao’s face. A Fire Snake’s tears were always hot.
Bu Yao turned around, facing her back to Xing Yue. In her hand, she still clutched the cracked toner bottle; the clear, refreshing liquid was all over her hands. If she didn’t come back to find Xing Yue, then she could only cry alone. Coming back meant she could cry right in front of Xing Yue.
Mother said that feeling heartache for someone meant loving them; not feeling it meant not loving them. Loving someone amplifies their bad moods, their rough patches—magnifies them many times over, leading to even more heartache, even more tenderness, offering double the comfort, being especially good to them.
Xing Yue clearly did feel heartache for her—so why didn’t she love her? She wasn’t even good to her. She even said sleeping together was just for stress relief and was always trying to chase her away.
“Alright, alright. Aren’t the things I promised you already in progress?” Xing Yue was the first to concede. She came around to Bu Yao’s front and took away the cracked bottle. “I haven’t contacted my ex-girlfriend, and I’m not messing around with anyone else. Have you been properly learning to cook? How far along are you?”
She couldn’t bear to see the Eldest Miss like this—crying without even making a sound. It was beyond pitiful.
Bu Yao displayed her learning progress: “I can tell the difference between napa cabbage and baby bok choy now.”
Xing Yue nodded approvingly. “What about salt and sugar? That’s more important.”
The Eldest Miss was speechless. “I’m not an idiot!”
“I’d like to treat you as smart, but your abilities don’t allow it,” Xing Yue flicked Bu Yao’s forehead. The fact that this utterly helpless Eldest Miss was actually learning to cook shocked her to the core.
Her opinion on Bu Yao’s cooking skills didn’t matter much—good or bad, it was fine. She just wanted a sense of balance, something that could make her feel that there was reciprocal effort in this relationship.
Even if feelings shouldn’t be calculated, she couldn’t stand unilaterally serving Bu Yao without receiving the slightest response.
She longed for someone who could truly, genuinely love her.
After tidying up the floor, Xing Yue stretched when she saw Bu Yao come over holding a cup of ice.
“Are you going to the company this afternoon?” Bu Yao asked. Seeing the still-swollen side of Xing Yue’s face, her gaze wavered and darted nervously. “Want to put a little ice on it?”
Would Xing Yue really become a big singer in the future? If she got famous, would she really switch to a hotter girlfriend? Bu Yao felt her heart itched with these questions, yet—was there any woman in the world who was hotter than her, prettier than her, richer than her?
What was Xing Yue thinking? Then again, if Xing Yue’s brain had short-circuited, it wasn’t entirely impossible…
“Yao Yao,” Xing Yue suddenly called out a pet name she hadn’t used in ages. The last time was during their honeymoon. She pillowed her head on Bu Yao’s tail, turning her injured face upward. “Your grandmother’s medical skills are supposedly incredible. Could you ask your mom to help me find a doctor? To treat this problem of not being able to show my tail? Hmm?”
The matter of Xing Yue being unable to reveal her tail was known only to her parents, her best friend, and her two exes. After all, it wasn’t something one could easily bring up.
Bu Yao knew Xing Yue had a minor disability, but since Xing Yue was so sensitive about it, she had never brought it up.
Suddenly wanting to treat her tail—and even asking her mother to pull strings, which would mean spreading knowledge of it, to some small extent. For Xing Yue, who had always been so sensitive and kept it hidden, terrified of anyone finding out, this behavior was highly unusual.
“Why are you suddenly bringing this up?” Bu Yao didn’t agree right away. Her dazzling, brilliant gemstone pupils were full of confusion.
Her alluring red tail coiled around an ice cube from the cup, sliding it up and down gently across Xing Yue’s face.
Xing Yue wrapped her arms around the snake tail, her fingertips caressing the scales on it. “From what your mother implied, only by becoming famous can one earn more money. Don’t you want me to become capable enough to marry you? The moment I start appearing on programs, start walking this path, the fact that I can’t reveal my tail will be discovered by everyone very quickly. I don’t want to be mocked. You’re the only one who can help me.”
She grasped Bu Yao’s hand, her gaze fixed on her. As if, at this moment, she truly needed this woman before her. As if Bu Yao was the only one in the whole world who could save her.
Xing Yue had thought it through. If she couldn’t resist, then she’d enjoy it.
At her current status and position, if Madam Bu wanted to suppress her, she could do it any minute. She wanted Xing Yue to play the clown, and Xing Yue would play the clown. She wanted her mute, and she’d be mute.
Rather than swallow such humiliation, why not use the Bu family’s power and influence to gain something good for herself? The process might be a little shameless, but if it allowed her to strike back, what did going even lower cost her?
Xing Yue had never liked the turbulent environment of the entertainment industry. Madam Bu, just to knock her down a peg, was forcibly stuffing her into it. She was going to ride this wind and make Madam Bu regret it.
Little Green Stone Snake never would have guessed that she had, completely by accident, opened up a new line of thinking for Xing Yue.
Bu Yao leaned down, looking more closely into Xing Yue’s eyes, and suddenly asked, “Are you planning to get famous and then ditch me?”
“…”
Xing Yue hadn’t expected this woman to still be hung up on the hurtful things she’d said yesterday on purpose. “No. What I promised will always hold true.”
“Then will you try to fall in love with me?” The woman flicked her snake tongue, her ears warming slightly.
Xing Yue gave her a fierce kiss. Bu Yao’s tongue hadn’t even had time to retract—she was kissed squarely. “I don’t need to try to fall hard for you. The Eldest Miss is beautiful and coolly elegant—like snow atop a high mountain. Falling for you is only natural and right.”
