A Thousand-Year-Old Snake Spirit Walks into a Trap - Chapter 6

As punishment, the young monk had to bring me food and drink, clean my room, and run errands for me every day.

For a few days, I lived comfortably like a lord.

One day, I used a little of the silver I had saved as a constable to buy wine to drink with my meal.

After eating, I wandered around for a while, then returned to my room and went to sleep.

In my dreams, I grew hotter and hotter. My body shifted restlessly, yet I couldn’t move freely.

I startled awake and saw a dark figure pinning me down.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s me.” Liu Yang’s voice came out of the darkness, low and hoarse.

I was horrified. “How did you find me here?”

“I know that monk,” he said, taking off my clothes.

That bald ass had sold me out!

I tried to retreat toward the foot of the bed. “This is sacred Buddhist ground! You can’t do this here!”

Liu Yang ignored me.

“Mother said you left because I didn’t perform well. This time I’ll do better.”

“What kind of reasoning is that? That’s not why I left!”

He kissed me as he asked, “Then why?”

I told him I had gone to find the little fox to help the cat spirit.

“Then why didn’t you come back?”

I fell silent.

He stared at me in the dark for a while, then suddenly cut his palm and fed me his blood.

“I have a house here too. I’ll take you there.”

Under cover of night, a dragon silently abducted a snake from a temple—a snake he had forced into heat.

He didn’t take me to the bedroom. We entangled ourselves in the empty courtyard instead.

Moonlight traced our closely entwined forms.

I couldn’t bear it. Shuddering again and again, I grabbed his hair and tried to push him away.

“Enough!”

He leaned in once more and murmured, “Not enough.”

I clutched his shoulders so tightly that my nails broke the skin and drew blood.

He fed me that blood too.

Over and over.

While I was dazed, he suddenly kissed me and passed something into my mouth.

It quickly dissolved, and my body absorbed it.

I came to my senses and tensed again.

“What did you give me?”

He made a low sound. “Something to keep you from running. Wherever you go now, I’ll be able to sense where you are.”

“You…!” I pointed at him, trembling. “You scheming bastard!”

That was how I came to live in Liu Yang’s house.

His parents visited once and spent a long time smiling at me.

“The first time I saw this child, I knew he and Liu Yang were meant to meet. I was right after all.”

I couldn’t quite smile back.

“Would you two like to stay a few more days?”

All three faces changed.

Liu Yang pulled me over. “Don’t interrupt their time together. Ordinarily, we might not see each other even once in a hundred years.”

Madam Liu took her husband’s arm. “Exactly. Last time, we only let him stay so long because you were there. Otherwise, looking at him just gets on my nerves!”

The three of them were openly admitting how they had maneuvered me.

I managed a stiff smile. “Ha. Well, what an honor.”

The next day, Madam Liu was already clamoring to leave. Before she went, she kept asking Liu Yang to give her a share of his treasures.

“No,” he said coldly.

And earned himself a slap.

After his parents left, Liu Yang took me into the study. He pushed aside a bookcase and activated a mechanism.

A hidden doorway appeared in the wall. The stone door opened, and he took my hand and led me inside.

After several turns, he opened another door.

The sight beyond it stopped me in my tracks.

The entire secret chamber glittered with gold. Gems, gold bars, and strange treasures filled it to the brim.

“This… what is all this?”

“What I’ve collected over the years. There’s more in my other houses. It’s yours now.”

Liu Yang hugged me from behind and kissed my cheek.

I had to admit, I was tempted.

“Then why wouldn’t you give your mother some?”

“Family ties have always been weak among dragons. We only give away treasure when courting a mate. She’s never given me any either.”

“But…” I was about to say more when he continued.

“We’re already one of the most affectionate dragon families. I’ve hidden a small treasure vault beneath their room too. If fate allows it, they’ll find it.”

I said no more. I stepped farther into the chamber and picked up a gem-studded mask, then a jade sculpture.

In a chest beside them, gold ingots lay in neat rows.

For the first time, I hugged Liu Yang of my own accord.

“You’re really giving me all this?”

He kissed my forehead. “Of course.”

I remembered what a girl I once knew had told me: “A man’s heart is wherever he puts his money.”

Apparently he really did like me quite a lot.

A handsome dragon with money who could help my cultivation? However I looked at it, I wasn’t losing out.

If he ever grew tired of me, I could always steal a few treasures and run.

Two thousand years later, Liu Yang was still by my side.

He accompanied me as I did good deeds throughout the mortal world, building a reputation.

People made clay statues of me and left offerings every day.

Before long, my heavenly tribulation came.

Liu Yang endured half the lightning tribulation for me. With hardly any suffering, I became a half-immortal.

I was a little touched.

As a reward, I let him do whatever he wanted for once.

Afterward, he took out two contracts for me to inspect.

They looked like marriage contracts, but the paper held an immense amount of power.

“What are these?”

“Dragon contracts. We put our blood on them and speak the vows, and we’re bound together for this life. Neither may betray the other. While you live, I live. If you die, I die.”

My heart trembled. “Then what if you die?”

He handed me the sheet with noticeably less written on it.

“That clause only applies to me.”

I didn’t understand. “Why? That isn’t fair to you.”

Liu Yang sighed and gathered me into his arms.

“Because you never quite trust me. I want to prove how I feel about you.”

I handed the contracts back. “You don’t have to do this. I’m not made of stone. I’ve seen everything you’ve done for me. I trust you, and I won’t betray you.”

“I know.” His voice was gentle. “You trust that I love you. You don’t trust that I always will. So you hold something back.”

“This is how I show you that I’m certain.”

He slipped a finger into my mouth and cut it on a fang, then let his blood fall onto his contract.

Next he lifted my hand, made a cut in the same way, and put a drop on mine.

He rested his forehead against mine. His voice was low and soft, beguiling as an enchanting spirit.

“Come. Say it with me…”

In a daze, I repeated the vows.

The contracts glowed gold, rose into the air, and burned of their own accord.

As the last ash vanished, I felt a connection form inside me, linking me to Liu Yang.

Never to part, through this life and every life to come.

My feelings were tangled: a little touched, a little happy, and a little sad for him.

Then a wave of heat interrupted my thoughts.

“Liu Yang! You cut your hand on my fang on purpose!”

And to the dragon’s quiet laughter, spring came to the snake once more.

—The End—