Chapter 9: The Indictment

Xing Yue was filled with resentment!

The recording studio wasn’t spacious to begin with. Packed with several pieces of equipment, it felt even more cramped, making it difficult for two people to even turn around. Inside was a tiny 1.5-meter bed, creating a visible sense of oppression.

Yet, it was precisely this environment that allowed Xing Yue to relax. The pressure on her was immense, and only through forceful insistence had she managed to get the company to renovate the studio according to her needs.

Bo Wuxue had nowhere to put her tail and was forced to transform it back into legs. She furrowed her brow in disbelief. “You went to a hotel with Bu Yao, had an allergic reaction to finger cots, kissed her foot, and the most critical part is—she said she was stringing you along for fun, and you turned around and apologized to her?”

Any one of these things was enough to shock her. Back in the day, Bu Yao had a unique talent for humiliating people, which was precisely why Xing Yue couldn’t stand it and chose to divorce her.

What was going on now? Had she been humiliated into becoming a masochist? She couldn’t endure it ten years ago, yet ten years later, she’d fallen in love with the feeling? Was Xing Yue a damn masochist?!

Xing Yue sat in the sofa chair, tilting her head back with a sigh, her glasses held in her hand. “Let me emphasize again: that doctor suspected me of luring an underage girl. To avoid unnecessary trouble, I kissed her foot to help her reveal her snake tail. Do you understand the cause and effect? Do you?!”

Just saying it made her face flush. Xing Yue herself was speechless. Who told Bu Yao to have this kind of problem? She was the victim who had been set up, alright?

Bo Wuxue had a Gothic Lolita style. Today, she was dressed in dark colors, her black-and-red puffy skirt leaving her nowhere to sit.

“So how do you explain the apology? She said she was stringing you along, humiliated you to this extent, practically calling you a desperate simp, and you still turned around and hugged her? Tsk, tsk… Teacher Xing, you’re too much of a people-pleaser. I never realized you were this type of person.”

It wasn’t that Bo Wuxue was being deliberately harsh; she was the second victim tormented by Xing Yue’s marriage.

The wife had a huge temper, always bossing people around. The wife was so delicate she couldn’t even put on her own shoes. The wife was too picky, demanding tomatoes with thirty percent sugar. The wife was so fierce, she wouldn’t let her sleep in the bed. The wife was so annoying, imposing an 8 PM curfew.

These were all things Xing Yue had repeatedly complained to her about after getting married. The grievances poured out were deeper than the sea, and Bo Wuxue had cursed Bu Yao alongside Xing Yue plenty of times.

And now look at Xing Yue—cursing and cursing, she ended up in bed with her.

“I don’t want this either,” Xing Yue said, moving the mixing console aside to make room for Bo Wuxue’s skirt. “But she really… the moment she cries, I just…”

Xing Yue couldn’t quite articulate it. She felt Bu Yao had changed. Although it seemed like an act, her temper had genuinely improved just a little, and she seemed to treat her with a tiny bit more respect. She wasn’t ordering her around but making requests.

This feeling was as if… as if Bu Yao was acting coquettishly towards her.

What was even more terrifying was that even if Bu Yao was faking it, she still couldn’t refuse her. Too terrifying.

Xing Yue watched the skirt that simply wouldn’t settle properly, no matter how she arranged it, and patted the puffy arc. “Can’t you just take off the petticoat?”

Bo Wuxue lifted her skirt. “Are you even speaking human language right now?”

Soon after, a celadon-colored snake tail emerged from under the skirt, covered in mossy stone patterns—various green stone shapes in different shades, looking cool and gloomy.

A snake head emerged along with it, tongue flickering. It climbed onto the 1.5-meter bed in the studio, finally finding a place to settle.

Xing Yue removed the white mesh petticoat from the skirt, folded it, and set it aside.

Without the petticoat, the little dress lost some of its opulence, gaining a touch of casualness. She casually tossed it onto the bed, covering the Green Stone Snake’s eyes.

“Don’t come to my recording studio so often from now on. I still have to make room for you. Just send the lyrics to my email when they’re done,” Xing Yue said disdainfully.

A snake head poked out from the dress. Bo Wuxue snorted, “No way. For your first original song, I want to follow your progress in real-time.”

The company had no plans for Xing Yue to write original songs. Her main positioning was as a cover artist, and the company had spent a fortune buying copyrights.

If Xing Yue’s original work flopped and she wanted to return to doing covers, she might not be as popular as she is now. After all, there were too many internet celebrities, too many talented people. Who knew if the fans would still support her if she tried to take that old path again?

Xing Yue’s current endeavor could be considered a secret operation.

Actually, the main reason Bo Wuxue came today wasn’t this. She crawled onto the bedside table, intending to take a sip of water to calm down. Just as she leaned down to drink from the cup, her pupils suddenly dilated in shock.

The reflection in the water: a giant celadon-colored python head. Too beautiful! A kind of beauty that disregarded everyone else’s life or death!

She tilted her head in a daze, her snake tongue licking the water’s reflection. The moment her sensitive nerve endings touched the surface, it was as if an arrow struck her heart. Her gaze grew even more infatuated.

Xing Yue: “…”

She picked up the dress and covered Bo Wuxue’s eyes again. This best friend of hers had some serious issues. She couldn’t see her own python head; otherwise, she’d turn into a narcissus, lost in admiration of her own beautiful, giant green python head.

Wrapping the clothes around her, Xing Yue vigorously rubbed the snake head. “Don’t have an episode in my place. Go back to your own room.”

When Bo Wuxue’s Narcissus Disease acted up, she’d become self-amorous to the extreme. The imagery was too steamy; she had no desire to witness it.

The Green Stone Snake burrowed into the clothes, her facial features gradually reemerging. Transforming back into human form, her eyes became much clearer, and she finally remembered the serious business.

“When do you plan to see Dr. Tan again?” She had heard about the hypnosis from Xing Yue. Worried, and too impatient to continue discussing it on WeChat, she had come to the company in person.

Xing Yue hadn’t revealed her tail for many years. Just like muscles atrophy when a person doesn’t use their legs long-term, Xing Yue’s tail had mostly necrotized by now.

It was a very serious issue, but Xing Yue just didn’t care. Even instruments couldn’t detect the nerve elements in her snake tail anymore. Bo Wuxue feared that if she didn’t seek treatment soon, Xing Yue would truly become disabled.

“Wuxue, do you really think a hypnotist is useful?” Recalling what happened at the hospital, Xing Yue still felt uncomfortable. “That hypnotist… the way she looked at me, it was as if she wanted to capture me for research. She didn’t seem like someone who could properly treat an illness.”

And the process was agonizing, so vivid—it was as if she had returned to her early childhood. She really didn’t want to experience it a second time.

What others didn’t know, Bo Wuxue was crystal clear about. They had grown up together. Xing Yue’s childhood was a living hell on earth.

But avoiding it like this wasn’t a solution either. In a few more years, Xing Yue wouldn’t even be able to use her legs. She’d be relying on a wheelchair before she even turned forty.

“Just go give it a try,” she said, putting away her earlier frivolous, mocking attitude. Her mood was uneasy. “Everyone says Tan Xiang’e is very skilled. Just try it, okay? You’re already a few years older than me, and I’m afraid you’ll die early with this kind of self-neglect.”

Xing Yue flicked her forehead with the back of her hand. “Fine, fine, fine. Stop nagging. Go home and stop hindering my work.”

Having achieved her goal, Bo Wuxue swiftly scrammed, but before leaving, she couldn’t help reminding her: “Are you going to get together with Bu Yao or not?”

Even with all the years of their friendship, she couldn’t understand what Xing Yue was thinking.

She thought Xing Yue didn’t like Bu Yao, yet the two had a flash marriage. She thought Xing Yue loved Bu Yao deeply, but then they divorced. She thought Xing Yue was heartbroken, yet soon after, she started dating a new girlfriend. Just when she thought Xing Yue definitely had no feelings left for Bu Yao, the moment they met again, these two entangled once more.

Xing Yue was a bit conflicted, unsure how to explain to Bo Wuxue. “Mating joy doesn’t mean love. You could say my pressure was too high, and Bu Yao just happened to appear. I was influenced by her scent and got a little dazed.”

Simply put—she didn’t love her, didn’t want to be with Bu Yao. The one-night stand was something she failed to refuse. Given another chance, she definitely wouldn’t do it.

Even the flash marriage ten years ago was purely because she fell for Bu Yao’s looks. There was absolutely no emotional foundation. After marriage, life was a complete mess; there was no environment to cultivate feelings.

Bo Wuxue was somewhat naive by nature. Besides Xing Yue, all her other friends followed the expected path, obeying their parents’ arrangements—what school to attend, what hobbies to learn, what major to take, including whom to marry…

She had no right to choose; she had been arranged since birth. Therefore, even simple human nature took her a long time to ponder, and her understanding was limited.

“I understand now.” Bo Wuxue nodded, speaking with solemn gravity: “You’re toying with Bu Yao’s body.”

“…”

Xing Yue was utterly bewildered. Suddenly, she retorted: “Then do you think Bu Yao likes me? If she’s approaching me this time because she can’t bear to part with me, loves me, and wants to remarry me, then I’ll admit to the crime you’ve charged me with.”

This was a question Xing Yue herself couldn’t figure out. She was frequently humiliated by Bu Yao and didn’t believe that treating someone like that was the correct way to express love.

Besides, Bu Yao’s words still echoed through her eardrums—

“Two little female snakes cannot be together!”

At the time, she thought perhaps Bu Yao didn’t actually like women. She was just young and hadn’t yet understood her own heart. Marrying her had clarified it, so much so that she could even say something like that.

Bo Wuxue burst out laughing: “Hahaha, dream on! Bu Yao is the Eldest Miss of the Bu family. What kind of woman would catch her attention? It’s more likely she’s here to take revenge on you.”

The little green stone teased and left. A few simple, mocking remarks, and Xing Yue took them seriously.

Yeah, Bu Yao was a favored daughter of heaven, the darling of God. There was nothing she wanted that she couldn’t get. The Bu family, being the leaders of high society, had Bu Yao at the very top of the household hierarchy. Even Father Bu, Mother Bu, and Old Master Bu all came second.

With a Camellia Princess raised in such an environment, what reason did she have to think about an ordinary person like her?

Sometimes, she even found herself ridiculously jealous of Bu Yao…

＊

By the time Xing Yue finished recording the songs for the day, the sky had already darkened. She only started testing the new lyrics Bo Wuxue wrote after everyone in the studio had left, working for another three or four hours.

She hadn’t driven here today and, not being a regular subway user, didn’t know if the metro was still running at this hour. She planned to hail a taxi home.

Just as Xing Yue was trying to flag down a cab outside the company, a car pulled up in front of her. Although she hadn’t seen the driver for many years, she recognized him instantly.

“Miss Xing, long time no see.” Uncle Li got out of the car and naturally opened the rear door for Xing Yue, just like he did back then.

There was a woman in the back seat, wearing a black off-shoulder mermaid dress, the skirt slit up to the thigh. Large expanses of porcelain-white skin were hidden in the night, mysterious and magnificent. Red curly hair cascaded down like a waterfall, coldly alluring like a piece of art. It made one involuntarily hold their breath just looking at her.

Bu Yao was clearly not as tall as her, yet her legs seemed longer than her entire life.

She was so resentful!