Not long after Wang Jingxuan was locked in the cell, an accident happened. Perhaps because he had misused his ways and forcibly borrowed the demon power, after the snake demon retrieved all its power, he went insane!
The jailer called in a doctor, who only said that it was hysteria and there was no cure!
So, everyone watched in horror as Wang Jingxuan talked to himself in the cell. Sometimes he shouted that there was a big snake in the jail, and sometimes he kept calling out the name "Lu Chun".
When Lu Chun heard about this, she didn't feel much. Even though she and Wang Jingxuan had once been in love, he had almost taken her life. She didn't need to worry about him anymore.
When Shen Cuiyu and the others were about to leave, they were in a dilemma about this snake demon.
At the banquet that day, the snake demon had faked its death. After Wang Jingxuan was taken away, Lu Chun had brought it back to the mansion.
The feud between Lu Chun and Wang Jingxuan was over. Logically, the snake demon should have left and gone back to the deep forest to cultivate in peace.
But at this moment, it looked at Lu Chun with its eyes as clear as autumn water, and said in a gentle voice:
"You saved me, so you are my benefactor. I originally planned to repay you after I recovered from my injuries, but I was delayed because of this matter." As it said, it got closer to Lu Chun, knelt down in front of her, and pleaded sincerely, "Let me stay by your side until my next tribulation."
Everyone was a bit surprised when they heard this. Great demons faced tribulations once every hundred years. Did the snake demon mean to accompany Lu Chun for her whole life?
Lu Chun was a bit overwhelmed by the snake demon's sincere look, but she didn't dare to agree easily.
In fact, during the days they had spent together, Lu Chun could feel the snake demon's sincere heart for her. But demons were different from humans. Demons had long lifespans, while humans lived for at most a hundred years. When she grew old, the snake demon would still be in its prime...
An image of herself as an old and wrinkled woman suddenly appeared in Lu Chun's mind, and a kind of indescribable sadness welled up in her heart! It was as if she had experienced this kind of pain once in the distant past...
Lu Chun came back to her senses, forced herself to avoid the snake demon's burning gaze, and said coldly:
"Demons and humans have different paths. You'd better cultivate well and don't come to find me again!"
After saying that, she didn't even dare to look at the snake demon's reaction, and turned around and left in a hurry.
The snake demon stood there motionless, silently looking at Lu Chun's departing back. Its look was very complicated, as if it had a thousand words to say.
"You two are indeed destined. But if you really want to stay by Lu Chun's side, you should think carefully about whether you've hidden anything from her," Shen Cuiyu said slowly. Her tone was hard to read, as if she was hinting at something.
The snake demon suddenly looked up. Its golden pupils were full of surprise.
Shen Cuiyu stood under the corridor, her eyes silently falling on the snake demon. Her calm eyes seemed to be able to see through the appearance and reach the essence.
In fact, the snake demon was strange from beginning to end.
It could fulfill many of Wang Jingxuan's wishes. Even if its demon power hadn't recovered, it should have had ways to protect itself. How could it have been imprisoned and tortured by a mortal and let him take its power at will?
Moreover, the snake demon could have pretended to submit and then come back for revenge after it recovered. But it chose the most passive and humiliating way and endured it silently. It was really too strange!
However, its wounds were real. The whip marks that went deep into the bone and the skin worn out by the iron chains were indeed inflicted by Wang Jingxuan himself.
With these almost contradictory clues in front of her, Shen Cuiyu's eyes darkened slightly.
Unless... all this was a well - planned stratagem of self - injury by the snake demon.
It wanted to gain Lu Chun's pity with its miserable appearance, and use Wang Jingxuan's greed and cruelty to set off its own patience and affection. Even more, it had probably foreseen that Wang Jingxuan would resort to poisoning, and had been waiting for this opportunity to make Lu Chun completely give up on him!
If so, the snake demon's obsession with Lu Chun was probably much deeper than they had imagined.
Shen Cuiyu took one last look at the snake demon, but finally didn't expose it.
Since the snake demon wouldn't harm Lu Chun, some truths were better told to Lu Chun by the snake demon itself.
She turned around, nodded slightly to Lu Chun and her younger brother:
"The matter is over. Farewell."
Her light blue clothes brushed past the threshold. Shen Cuiyu and the others' figures gradually disappeared into the morning mist, leaving only a quiet courtyard and an unfinished story of the bond between a human and a demon...
When Lu Chun returned to her room, before long, a continuous drizzle started to fall.
The resolute words she had said to the snake demon still rang in her ears, but an inexplicable dullness blocked her heart, making it feel heavy.
She couldn't tell what kind of emotion this was. As the evening wind blew through, there was only a cool void left.
She subconsciously raised her hand and gently pressed it on her chest, trying to suppress the discomfort.
"Maybe... maybe I've gotten used to its chattering around me these days. It just feels uncomfortable when it suddenly becomes quiet," Lu Chun murmured to herself, trying to convince herself with this most reasonable reason.
But when her fingertips touched her wrist, the familiar warm feeling was gone. There was only the coolness of the skin touching the air.
Lu Chun opened the window impatiently. The raindrops fell in a line from the eaves. The courtyard was empty, and the snake demon's figure was long gone.
For some reason, Lu Chun felt even more blocked in her heart!
"It seems that it doesn't miss me much. It just left without hesitation..."
She suddenly closed the window and fell onto the bed to sleep.
Maybe she wouldn't think so much when she fell asleep.
The sound of the dripping rain came faintly, which was quite conducive to sleep. Before long, Lu Chun's breathing became even. In a daze, she had a dream -
The beginning of the story was always very cliché. An orphan girl saved a dying little snake, and then accidentally found out that it was a snake demon!
This snake demon had a cold personality, but it also knew how to repay kindness. It claimed that it would fulfill one wish of the girl.
The girl had no father, mother, or siblings. She had been accompanied by loneliness for a long time, so she was much bolder than ordinary people.
She walked around the snake demon, who looked like a handsome young man, and commented carefully, "Your appearance is okay."
The snake demon frowned, not understanding what this had to do with repaying kindness.
The next moment, the girl said something astonishing:
"If you really want to repay me, accompany me for my whole life."
The snake demon frowned and was stunned on the spot for a moment.
Although it was a demon, it had lived for hundreds of years and was used to human greed. It had thought that the girl would ask for money or status, but it never expected that what the girl wanted was... it?
Before it could react, the girl immediately said again, "Look, your lifespan is so long, while mine is so short. Judging from your appearance, you shouldn't be a stingy demon. Why don't you... think about it carefully."
The snake demon fell silent, but couldn't resist the girl's persistent pestering. Finally, one day, the two began to live together.
They ate together, went to the bustling market, and hid in the mountains. They basked in the sun on sunny days leisurely...
The days were plain but fulfilling, but they couldn't stop the passage of time.
Demons had long lifespans and wouldn't change for hundreds of years, but humans were different. Beauty faded like a flower falling from the tree. When the two stood together, at first they looked like a couple, but later they looked like siblings, mother and son, and then grandparents and grandchildren...
Until the girl died in the snake demon's arms. When she was dying, she didn't say anything reluctant. She even smiled calmly.
"Thank you for accompanying me for my whole life. Go back to your mountain forest. You've repaid your kindness. In the next life, don't come to look for me."
The snake demon didn't say anything. It calmly buried the girl, but didn't follow the girl's instruction to hide in the mountain forest. Instead, it went to the Underworld and used its demon power to find out the time when the girl would be reincarnated...