Yu Ying carried the glass jar back to the castle. As she pushed open the heavy wooden door of the castle, she lowered her head and saw the silver-white snake curling its tail, waiting for her to come home.
The little snake opened her light pink eyes and tilted her head to look at Yu Ying, but she could only see a blurry glass jar.
She was a nearsighted snake who occasionally became confused and bumped into Yu Ying. She usually distinguished her mother from others by scent.
The little snake smelled the salty, damp scent of the sea, mixed with a trace of foul stench. This scent did not belong to her own kind, nor did it belong to her mother.
She flicked her forked tongue and emitted a threatening hiss.
“Baby, do you like your new companion?” Yu Ying extended her palm to the ground, and the little snake climbed onto her wrist, declaring her sovereignty to the mysterious creature in the glass jar.
Yu Ying was her mother.
The little snake twisted her tail, her eyeballs pressed close to the glass jar. She saw the blue jelly inside the jar, piece by piece, and it looked very delicious.
The baby jellyfish did not like being stared at by the snake’s damp, gloomy pupils. Its jelly-like body pressed tightly together, distorting into countless eyes—they had the shape of human eyes but lacked pupils.
Hiss! The little snake let out a hiss, trying to scare away the monster in the glass jar. She retreated to Yu Ying’s wrist, stretching her snake head to intimidate the monster.
Yu Ying had never seen the little snake so excited. She placed the glass jar on the dining table and tied on a maid’s apron to cook dinner.
“Baby, get along well with your new companion.”
The little snake wrapped her slender tail around the glass jar. The glass jar could not withstand the pressure and developed spiderweb-like cracks. She used all her strength, yet she still could not kill the monster.
Sui Lin sat in a chair, watching the struggle between the two weak creatures with contempt. She rested her chin on one hand, pinching the little snake’s tail just as it was about to shatter the glass, and pinching the jellyfish’s tentacles just as it released its stinging cells.
How boring, Sui Lin thought. She still preferred to fight to the death with the other two anomalies.
Yu Ying did not make dishes heavy in oil or salt. She brought out two plates of vegetable salad and placed one in front of Sui Lin. “Teacher Sui Lin, try the salad I made.”
Sui Lin’s snake tail swayed. She lifted her knife and fork and took a bite, expressionless, suspecting that the human was taking revenge on her.
“Don’t you like it?”
“I like it,” Sui Lin gritted her teeth.
The scent of chicken wafted into Sui Lin’s nose. She saw Yu Ying carrying a whole chicken and placing it in front of the little snake.
Yu Ying stroked the little snake’s head. “Good girl, eat.”
Sui Lin chewed the vegetables indignantly. “Can it finish all of that?”
The little snake moved her dinner plate, circling the chicken with her tail, slowly tearing it apart and showing off the chicken her mother had cooked for her.
“Can you help me pour a glass of milk?” Sui Lin said hypocritically. Her blood-red eyes stared at the chicken on the plate. Taking advantage of the moment Yu Ying turned away, she opened her snake mouth.
The snake mouth opened fully, the upper jaw still coated with green liquid, and the snake tongue hidden within the oral cavity. She swallowed the chicken in one gulp, the entire chicken getting stuck in her throat.
The chicken rolled into her snake tail, wrapped in mucus. The middle of Sui Lin’s tail bulged into a circular shape.
The little snake, holding a piece of shredded chicken with her sharp teeth, slapped the table with her tail and crawled to her mother to report the injustice.
Mother, that smelly snake snatched the chicken! She opened her bloody mouth and devoured the entire chicken in one bite.
“Are you finished eating?”
Yu Ying knew the little snake’s eating speed; a stray snake would eat faster than a domesticated one. She recorded the little snake’s eating speed, which was ten minutes faster than usual.
The little snake rubbed against Yu Ying’s finger aggrievedly.
“You cannot eat any more chicken; you have already eaten a whole one.” Yu Ying picked up a piece of lettuce and fed it to the little snake. “Be a good girl, open your mouth and eat it.”
Sui Lin added insult to injury, “It ate very quickly just now; it needs to eat more vegetables to aid digestion.”
The little snake held the vegetable leaf in her mouth, glaring viciously at Sui Lin.
That detestable smelly snake, she snatched her chicken and then turned around to frame her!
Sui Lin chuckled, mocking the little snake that had not yet fully evolved.
She looked down at the vegetable salad—broccoli, cherry tomatoes, lettuce, cabbage. They were all vegetables Sui Lin hated, yet the leaves were coated in her mother’s scent, enticing Sui Lin to finish the entire plate.
Outside the window, the sky was completely dark. The moonlight was invisible, and the castle was shrouded in darkness.
Yu Ying tidied up the plates, and Sui Lin swayed her tail and walked to Yu Ying’s side. She took the plates from Yu Ying’s hands. “I’ll wash them.”
Sui Lin pulled her red lips into a stiff smile; her smile was somewhat creepy. Yu Ying let go of the plates, and Sui Lin’s fingers gently caressed the back of Yu Ying’s hand.
She had to learn how to disguise herself as a human so she could easily mingle in human society to find her mother.
Her mother had taught her to be friendly to humans, so Sui Lin expressed friendliness to Yu Ying.
“What did you eat?” Yu Ying’s gaze fell on Sui Lin’s tail; the middle of it was bulging.
“Vegetable salad,” Sui Lin replied with a smile.
A thought popped into Yu Ying’s mind: Did Sui Lin swallow the whole chicken when I wasn’t looking? No, that’s impossible, Yu Ying dismissed the thought.
Teacher Sui Lin had a human’s fragile, narrow throat; how could she swallow a whole chicken? She must have seen it wrong. Yu Ying felt that the situation was becoming increasingly absurd.
“Good night, sleep well.”
Sui Lin carried the plates and watched Yu Ying go upstairs. Her raw, naked gaze turned into a blade, stripping away the gorgeous dress Yu Ying was wearing.
The romance reality show’s live broadcast room had high traffic, with over ten thousand discussions.
【The look in Teacher Sui Lin’s eyes when she looked at Yu Ying was definitely not innocent!】
【Did anyone see that? Sui Lin just secretly touched Yu Ying’s finger!】
【I feel like Sui Lin is going to sneak into Yu Ying’s room in the dark after saying goodnight, just to say goodnight again.】
【Ahhh, I can picture it! So crazy, so intense!】
Mother had not taught Sui Lin how to wash dishes, and she did not know how to clean them. Sui Lin needed these small, daily tasks to make herself look more like a human.
Crash! Sui Lin dropped the plate and swept the ceramic shards into the trash can. Washing dishes is very simple; I don’t need my mother to teach me.
Sui Lin licked her red lips with her snake tongue, satisfied, and hummed a melodious tune as she returned to her room. She stared at the clock, her eyeballs moving in sync with the second hand.
Soon, she would be able to sneak into Yu Ying’s room again.
Tap, tap, tap. Yu Ying held a hammer, nailing nails into the window frame. She nailed boards over the gaps in the window, leaving only enough space for sunlight to enter.
Whenever she fell asleep, Yu Ying always imagined a python crawling through the window, onto the warm, large bed, and even attempting to crawl into her body. The cold wind blew in waves, making Yu Ying feel uneasy.
Yu Ying wound red silk threads around the nails, with a bell hanging from each thread. Anything crawling through the window would pull the thread and ring the bells.
She nailed boards over all the windows in the room and covered them with red threads and bells.
Right, there was also the door lock. Yu Ying pulled out the key and inserted it into the keyhole.
Regardless of whether what she saw was a hallucination caused by mental illness or a real existence, she had to ensure her own safety first.
Yu Ying finally felt the warmth of the room. She sat at the desk and turned on the desk lamp to illuminate the glass jar.
She opened the drawer and searched for a bottle of solution. She unscrewed the lid of the jar and poured the solution into it.
The jellyfish’s body was crystal clear, and blue bubbles emerged from the jelly-like substance as it absorbed the solution. Its body rapidly coalesced, resembling a slime.