After clearing the air, She Mei’s attitude grew even friendlier, and Ren Tan and the others were able to set their worries aside for the time being.
Yin Luan ran over and whispered something to the Big Snake Demon, who immediately burst into laughter. The sound sent shivers down the spines of the group standing nearby, tingling from head to toe.
“As expected of a Snake Demon—that laugh is downright lewd,” Xiao Luo whispered. “We still need to stay on our guard. What if she doesn’t care whether it’s meat or veggies, men or women? That could get messy…”
“Don’t you think Yin Luan kind of vibes with her on that level?” Lily chimed in.
With that, She Mei shot a flirtatious wink at Eldest Young Lady Ren Tan, twisted her slender waist, and sauntered off with an exaggerated sway.
“What did you say to her?” The Eldest Young Lady had a bad feeling.
“I told her you’re scared of snakes,” Yin Luan replied with a confident grin, “and asked her to help cure you!”
“You…!”
Ren Tan nearly passed out from sheer exasperation.
Was this rascal getting revenge for being forced into those ladylike etiquette lessons? It had all been for her own good—why couldn’t she appreciate that?
“Big Snake Snake agreed, and she said the treatment is absolutely necessary,” Yin Luan continued. “During your heavenly tribulation, snakes are bound to show up. If you faint from fear, it’ll spell big trouble!”
She turned to the two Sprites. “If Ren Tan freaks out, do you think Big Snake Snake might just gobble you two up for a power boost? Who knows…”
“Ren Tan, you have to get over your fear of snakes!” “Eldest Young Lady, this affects everyone’s safety!”
“You guys,” Ren Tan swallowed hard. As her three companions closed in, she backed into the corner. “Stop, just stop! Let me take it slow… Don’t drag me into a room full of snakes—I’ll really cry!”
~~~
The group settled in temporarily at the Snake Cave.
The place was decent enough, aside from the dim lighting—safe, secluded, and undisturbed by the outside world.
With She Mei’s help, Eldest Young Lady Ren Tan’s treatment began in earnest without delay.
“Let’s start with a teeny tiny snake,” Yin Luan said, holding up a white snake even thinner than a finger. She addressed the Eldest Young Lady. “Relax—it’s non-venomous, totally harmless, and won’t hurt you at all.”
“No, no, I can’t! Just looking at it makes my stomach flip upside down…”
Ren Tan recoiled, waving her hands frantically.
“Please cooperate with the treatment,” the Little Snake Demon said with dead seriousness. “Otherwise, this one will have to resort to force!”
“I really can’t handle this… Ah!”
A cool, slippery sensation crept across her arm. Ren Tan yanked back on instinct, but Yin Luan had a firm grip on her hand.
The Eldest Young Lady’s heart pounded, her breaths coming faster. Her gaze darted between the young maiden’s face and the slender creature slithering up her arm.
Truth be told, Yin Luan’s body temperature wasn’t much warmer than the Little White Snake’s—her hand felt just as cool, and impossibly soft.
Sure, this girl was always pouncing on her or nuzzling against her body, but something as straightforward as holding hands like proper friends? Come to think of it, they hardly ever did that.
An unfamiliar warmth stirred in Ren Tan’s chest.
Sheesh—always doing the stuff they shouldn’t, but skipping the normal bestie things like this. It was harder to adjust to than she’d expected…
“See? Not so scary, right?” Yin Luan said with a cheeky smile. “Snakes are super lazy creatures, really. Once they’re full, they barely move and aren’t aggressive at all.”
The Little White Snake, coiled comfortably around Ren Tan’s arm, nodded with an almost spiritual intelligence, as if endorsing the point.
“Which means when they’re hungry, they get really aggressive…”
The Eldest Young Lady stared tensely into the Little White Snake’s eyes, her panic mounting with every second.
Hiss—hiss—
Especially that forked tongue, flicking in and out—it felt like it could lash out at any moment.
“Perfect,” Yin Luan said. “You’ve gotten used to Little White White. Time to level up… Qing Qing, you’re on!”
At the Little Snake Demon’s call, a vibrant green snake as thick as two fingers emerged from her body. It flicked its tongue and began crawling up the arm toward the Eldest Young Lady.
“No way—something that thick? I can’t do it!”
Ren Tan thrashed at the sight.
But Yin Luan was ready; her other hand seized the Eldest Young Lady’s palm, their fingers interlocking.
When it came to raw strength, ten Ren Tans couldn’t match a single Little Snake Demon. The green snake swiftly wrapped around the Eldest Young Lady’s arm, intertwining playfully with the Little White Snake.
“Don’t… don’t come any closer…”
Tears welled in Ren Tan’s eyes. With that fragile expression, she looked every bit like an ordinary girl her age.
“Calm down a bit,” Yin Luan gazed at the Eldest Young Lady’s moist red lips and swallowed involuntarily for some reason. “At a time like this, you need to shift your focus—think about something else… For example, at this very moment, has the image of someone important popped into your mind? Do you have someone you love or anything like that?”
“Are you joking?” Ren Tan’s legs went weak; if Yin Luan weren’t holding her hands, she would have collapsed right then and there. “Someone like me, who’s spent her life wandering from place to place, doesn’t have the luxury for thoughts like that.”
The Eldest Young Lady possessed beauty, wisdom, and wealth. Under normal circumstances, she would be the ultimate dream girl.
Marrying her would mean gaining a peerlessly elegant beauty + a super strategist + a lifetime free from worries about food or money.
But it was precisely these qualities that kept almost no one around her daring to entertain such ideas.
Excellent women attract admirers, but women who are too excellent tend to inspire awe from afar instead.
“Once you regain control of the chamber of commerce and your life stabilizes,” Yin Luan continued, trying to distract the Eldest Young Lady, “what are your goals? Becoming the richest woman in the Great Zhou Kingdom… or maybe the Eastern Wastelands?”
“Don’t make me sound so old—’richest woman’ is still a long way off…”
Perhaps from the tension, the flush on Ren Tan’s face grew even more pronounced, making her whole demeanor radiant and captivating.
“My mother’s situation isn’t resolved yet—I don’t know how things will unfold once she wakes up. And then there’s you; you’ve helped me so much, so I definitely need to help you uncover your origins. There’s still plenty to take care of…”
“You really will keep helping me?”
Yin Luan placed Ren Tan’s hands on her own cheeks and blinked as she asked.
“Do I seem like the type to go back on my word…?”
Ren Tan gradually stopped feeling the chill from the snakes on her arms and paid no attention to the two snakes playfully tussling.
Her focus shifted to another “snake.”
Looking closely, she was actually quite pretty…
It wasn’t that she hadn’t been pretty before—it was just that they rarely stared at her face from this close distance on ordinary days.
She was cute, innocent, playful, and cute all over again.
Wait, wait—why was she thinking like this? Having such thoughts about a naive, completely defenseless friend was downright wicked!
“Hee hee,” Yin Luan flashed a brilliant smile. “Then how about helping me out a little more right now! Big Black, it’s your turn!”
A Big Black Snake as thick as a calf draped itself over Yin Luan’s shoulder, flicking out its tongue as if greeting the Eldest Young Lady.
“I #%&*#￥……”
Inside the snake cave, the Little Snake Demon’s laughter intertwined with the Eldest Young Lady’s shrieks, creating such a joyful atmosphere that passing snakes occasionally stopped to watch…
