Chapter 53: Snail

Forced Snake Tail Rub

This was the first time Xing Yue had ever heard someone call thirty-six years old “young.” The last time she had come to a place like this was with her college roommates. How many years had passed since then?

Under Bai Yulun’s photography guidance, she did a few poses. She didn’t know how the photos turned out. She wasn’t someone who knew how to take pictures. Even her rare selfies lacked varied expressions and poses.

Bai Yulun kept praising her—and in a particularly exaggerated manner: “Waah, amazing!” “Good, good, yes, just like that.” “Sister Little Yue is so beautiful. You could easily be a book cover model.”

She was praised to the point where Xing Yue’s face flared with a rosy hue.

“President Bai, should I take a few shots of you?” she offered, a bit shy. It seemed that since they’d entered, she had been the only one photographed. Bai Yulun had played the role of photographer the whole time.

Although she had no real photography skills, with Bai Yulun’s looks, she should look good no matter how she was photographed.

“Sister Little Yue, haven’t you seen that really popular photo trend online lately?” A breeze picked up, and Bai Yulun quickly reached a hand up to smooth her bangs. This little mannerism looked very youthful on her, playful and full of energy.

After fixing her hair, she bumped shoulders with Xing Yue. “You know, the one where they put a childhood photo in front, then a transition to a grown-up photo? Same person, same pose. It seems pretty interesting. Want to take one with me?”

It had been so long. Xing Yue had no recollection. “Do we even have a photo together?”

“We do,” Bai Yulun replied, scrolling through her phone to show Xing Yue. “Look. Taken at Little Snowflake’s place.”

In the photo, a seventeen-year-old Xing Yue was holding a little glutinous rice dumpling barely six years old. The little dumpling was clutching a pink-white-gold baby python tail to her chest. Her nose was red-tipped, looking like she’d just been crying. Held in her arms, her expression was all bashful. So young, yet already knowing how to be shy.

Xing Yue originally had no memory of this at all. But seeing the picture, her mind automatically replayed what had happened that day twenty years ago. Bai Yulun was probably about to go abroad, wasn’t she? Not wanting to part with Bo Wuxue, the two little ones had been making promises to each other about when they’d meet again.

Making those promises inevitably led to sadness. Xing Yue had coaxed them a bit. This photo was taken by a servant of the Bo family.

Xing Yue hadn’t quite gathered her thoughts back to the present when her neck was suddenly encircled in a hug. A sweet, peachy fragrance hit her. As soon as she lifted her eyes, the youthful face was enlarged right before her.

“Take one picture with me, Sister Little Yue,” the woman said, dragging out the last syllable, pestering Xing Yue into taking the same hugging photo they’d taken twenty years ago.

Xing Yue stiffened all over. “President Bai…”

“Oh, come on. Let’s find somewhere private. Want to see my snake tail? It’s pink. You like that?” As she spoke, she suddenly let out a laugh.

With this ambiguous tone, Xing Yue couldn’t tell for a moment if Bai Yulun was teasing her or something else. She pulled away the arm wrapped around her neck. “I think I left my throat-soothing tea. It’s in the mall. I need to go back for it… President Bai, you go to the bar first. No need to wait for me.”

She pulled away and left, walking very quickly.

This was the most awkward thing between same sexes. Xing Yue and Bai Yulun weren’t familiar. She often couldn’t tell if many things said were jokes or serious.

For example, Bai Yulun saying she could improvise or switch—Xing Yue couldn’t judge if she was really bisexual, homosexual, or just a straight woman joking around while teasing her.

And now, suddenly bringing up taking some trendy childhood-to-adulthood transition video and saying she’d show her snake tail.

What did showing one’s snake tail even mean? In this world, colleagues who worked together for decades, or roommates for years, often didn’t know each other’s tail colors or patterns. They’d never even seen them.

Such suggestive words sounded more like being in heat, spotting a palatable snake, and issuing a mating invitation.

No matter what, that tone made Xing Yue very uncomfortable. Perhaps she was just out of touch with the younger generation’s way of thinking. Could these kinds of jokes be tossed around so casually now?

Xing Yue found a convenience store and bought a bottle of water. She sat there until almost time for work before leaving.

She entered the bar, looked around, and asked someone: “Manager Jiang, has President Bai come back?”

Hearing this question, the man found it odd. “President Bai’s very busy. Since the opening, aside from the first day you started, she only came that once.”

Bai Yulun hadn’t even come for the bar’s grand opening. Taking over other family businesses kept her busy enough. Opening a bar was just a whim, something to do casually. Everything had always been fully managed by others.

Xing Yue frowned. So busy? It didn’t seem like someone who had the time to personally take an employee shopping for work uniforms. She probed further: “So the clothes the other three resident singers wear to work… weren’t bought by President Bai?”

This question was even stranger. Manager Jiang was amused. “You’re really funny. What’s up? Did President Bai take you clothes shopping?”

Xing Yue’s expression changed subtly. She shook her head.

Though she denied it, Manager Jiang understood but didn’t expose it, his expression full of meaning.

Just looking at Xing Yue’s treatment, he knew her relationship with Bai Yulun wasn’t ordinary. Even allowing her to casually drink liquor worth several hundred thousand a bottle? If Xing Yue wasn’t Bai Yulun’s little lover, who would believe it?

Xing Yue had been worried she was overthinking, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case at all… Even someone as slow to catch on as she was could see it now.

The way Manager Jiang looked at her—it was as if she and Bai Yulun really were that kind of relationship.

After her eight-hour shift, Xing Yue’s mood was uneasy. On the one hand, she didn’t want to play these youthful games. On the other, she needed this job. But Bai Yulun’s behavior, treating her like prey, made her extremely uncomfortable.

Seeing that Bai Yulun hadn’t shown up, she was just starting to breathe a sigh of relief when, after work, she once again saw that car parked at the bar’s entrance. Xing Yue’s heart immediately tensed again.

Within just a day’s difference, the atmosphere between them had become noticeably awkward, lacking the previous evening’s playful charm.

“Sister Little Yue,” the woman said, adopting the same posture, leaning on the car window to look at Xing Yue. “Get in quick. Once I drop you home, I’ll head back and sleep. So tired.”

Her tone suggested she already considered driving Xing Yue to and from work her daily duty.

But this kind of scene shouldn’t exist between a superior and a subordinate. Anyone who didn’t know them would think the two were dating.

Xing Yue recalled that look Manager Jiang gave her and felt even more resistant.

“President Bai, actually, I… can get back on my own,” she broached.

Bai Yulun furrowed her brows and said with a troubled expression, “No can do. This is a task Little Snowflake gave me. I promised her I wouldn’t let you walk the night roads alone.”

Seeing Xing Yue still standing at the door without any sign of getting in, Bai Yulun widened her eyes, blinking them innocently. “Sister Little Yue, sister, good sister, Sister Little Yue…”

It was now four in the morning. The people trickling out of the bar were mostly her coworkers. Several of them glanced her way.

Xing Yue just wanted to leave quickly. She got into the car and urged, “Stop shouting. Let others hear and they’ll wonder what I did to you.”

The car navigated familiarly in the direction of Xing Yue’s address. Bai Yulun spoke up, “Isn’t that true? I merely asked if you wanted to see my snake tail. Sister Little Yue is like a snail. Touch its antennae and it scares itself right back into its shell.”

Well then, from now on, her nickname for Xing Yue on her contacts would be “Snail.” It suited Xing Yue’s personality perfectly. How could someone be so timid, being scared off by a single sentence of hers and fleeing in panic?

Xing Yue murmured softly, “How can you just casually show your snake tail to others?”

Bai Yulun’s face showed displeasure as if she’d been holding it in for a long time. “Little Snowflake—how come you can rub and kiss hers as much as you like? You always play favorites. Every time you came over, you held her first, then me. If she was being stubborn and wouldn’t get off you, you’d just keep holding her and stop holding me.”

When young and unable to control their tails, it was one thing. Even after Bo Wuxue became an adult, she often let Xing Yue pat her snake tail, assisted with molting, and even transformed back into her full snake body to coil up on Xing Yue’s living room sofa, in the Red Camellia Courtyard, on the bed, on Xing Yue herself.

When Bo Wuxue was small, she was very clingy—didn’t cling to just anyone either, only loved clinging to Xing Yue. Loved being a little accessory attached to Xing Yue. She got held a lot. Only once she grew up did it get a little better.

Snakes only revealed their true snake form when they were absolutely certain of their own safety and that the environment was completely free of threats. This showed just how much Bo Wuxue trusted Xing Yue. Their bond was very deep.

Xing Yue was a little at a loss for words. It wasn’t appropriate to say she saw Bo Wuxue as family. She tugged at her seatbelt and said vaguely, “Things from twenty years ago… I can’t really remember anymore…”

And her acquaintance with Bo Wuxue went back far longer than twenty years.

As for Bai Yulun, to her, they were just fleeting encounters, a few times she’d held her like an older sister carrying a child—and even that was just while she was at it. If Bai Yulun hadn’t been doing homework at the Bo family’s place, they probably wouldn’t have even met.

After she went abroad, they had zero contact. After returning to the country, still no contact. There truly was little emotional bond to speak of.

Hearing this, the already slightly resentful woman pulled the car over to the side of the road, put both hands on her hips, and put on a stern face. “I don’t care. You have to see my snake tail.”

Xing Yue had never encountered such a demand before. Could someone actually force a snake tail rub on another?

She was getting a slight headache. A thick pink python’s tail abruptly coiled into view inside the car, and the cramped space had nowhere to properly accommodate it. The plump, chubby, rounded python tail slithered onto her lap, crawling and shifting around.

This tail wasn’t pure pink. It was a mix of pink, white, and gold—dreamlike and noble. The snake scales were like moonlight shimmering on a river’s surface, full of sparkling, glittering light. So dazzling that even Xing Yue hesitated to touch it…

A noble family’s meticulously cared-for tail was different from ordinary snakes’ after all. Most snakes’ scales were without luster, a very plain, single color.

Bai Yulun grasped Xing Yue’s hand and placed it on her own tail. “How’s the texture? Sister Little Yue.”

Xing Yue touched it once, then retreated her hand like a startled snail.

“Not sure…” she murmured. Not exactly brushing her off, but truly, she had touched very few snake tails. She couldn’t say much.

Bound by her breed’s nature, Xing Yue craved heat, disliking cold. Bai Yulun’s tail was too cold. She didn’t like the moon, nor this cold, crisp sensation.

After a moment’s thought, Xing Yue added, “It’s very beautiful.”

The outward appearance was lovely.

The car was filled with the heavy scent of sweet peach. It made Xing Yue’s head a bit foggy. Suddenly, someone knocked on the car window. Jolted awake, she blinked and her eyes cleared considerably.

The car window slowly rolled down.

Uncle Li presented his standard, official smile. “Excuse me, could you please move your car?”

Xing Yue’s breath caught. Subconsciously, she turned her head to look at the vehicle behind them.

Inside that car, sitting in the back seat, who else could it be but Bu Yao? With obstructions in the way, Xing Yue couldn’t see Bu Yao’s expression. She could only make out a graceful, alluring sitting posture, clad in a magnificent, formal dark blue evening gown. Even without seeing her face, she inexplicably felt a chill that seemed to freeze the air.

Xing Yue suddenly remembered… today was Bu Yao’s birthday.

The signal light on Uncle Li’s earpiece flickered. He maintained that unchanging, perennial, official smile. “Our family’s eldest miss said: if you don’t want to make headlines, please find somewhere else for your… car activities.”