Volume One, Chapter 67: Miss Bai (1)

After Qin Yu saw Xiao Qing’s true form, he began to have some suspicions about her identity.

“I never intended to deceive you,” Qin Yu said, his gaze piercing through the candle stand and resting on the painting of green bamboo. “I just want to get to the bottom of a few things.”

Xiao Qing, though appearing human, was markedly different from a real person.

Her forehead was broad, yet her chin was sharply pointed, giving her face the shape of an inverted triangle. Her eyes were narrow and slanted—a pair of phoenix eyes with triangular corners. Her lips were low-peaked, with a clearly defined contour... Rather than a human face, it was more like a collection of geometric shapes assembled into something resembling a face.

She would occasionally fail to suppress the urge to flick her forked tongue, and if any viewers in the streaming room happened to have network lag, they might catch a glimpse of the slender, split tip of her tongue...

Xiao Qing’s emerald eyes scrutinized Qin Yu’s face for a long moment before she finally spoke, “Have you ever heard of the Flying Serpent?”

Qin Yu answered, “The ancient texts record that after Pangu created heaven and earth, Nuwa, aside from molding humans from clay, also fashioned a pair of pets in her own image, each with the body of a human and the tail of a snake. The male was named Bai Xi, the female was called Flying Serpent. It’s said that when Nuwa patched the sky and the five-colored stones ran short, she used her own body as a substitute. Bai Xi and Flying Serpent followed her.”

“More or less correct,” Qingman said, recalling events from her previous life, her tone tinged with melancholy. “But the books never mention that Lord Bai Xi and Lady Flying Serpent had a daughter.”

Mu Ling returned just in time to catch the story being told in the streaming room. He immediately grabbed a small stool and sat beside Qin Yu, ready to enjoy the drama.

On hearing this, Mu Ling commented, “Don’t tell me she’s that daughter?”

Qin Yu shot him a sidelong glance and reminded him, “Try to show some basic decency while watching.”

Mu Ling obediently mimed zipping his lips shut.

Qin Yu turned back to Qingman, voicing the same suspicion as Mu Ling, “Are you that daughter?”

Qingman pulled at her lips, “I was merely a maidservant to Lady Bai, nothing more. Because I spent so many years with Lady Bai in Nuwa’s temple, I managed to absorb a bit of her aura, which barely allowed me to transform into this ugly human form.”

Lady Bai, whom she spoke of, was the only daughter of Bai Xi and Flying Serpent.

Qingman’s emerald eyes drifted to the corner, her thoughts swirling.

“I accompanied Lady Bai in her cultivation deep in the mountains for thousands of years. Then one day, Lady Bai suddenly told me she was leaving to repay a kindness, and that I should learn to take care of myself.”

“I had never left Lady Bai’s side since gaining consciousness, so naturally, I refused.”

“I asked her what debt she was going to repay, but she only smiled and said nothing.”

To this day, Qingman remembered how sunlight fell upon Lady Bai’s pure white tail that day, making it look so beautiful.

“I thought if I stayed close to Lady Bai, she would never shake me off.”

“But she knew my habits as well as I knew hers. Taking advantage of my sleepiness on a rainy night, she slipped away, leaving me only a short letter.”

“The letter said: Xiao Qing, you’ve kept me company for so many years; it’s time you became your own person.”

“I didn’t understand why. Clearly, we were so happy together in the mountains, so why did everything suddenly become like this?”

Qingman still struggled to control her human facial expressions, and as her emotions rose, her face became contorted.

Her memory retraced its steps, as if she were back on the day she clutched the letter and cried out all day, “I don’t want to be myself; I want to stay with Lady Bai forever.”

But no matter how hoarse her voice became, Lady Bai was gone.

On the first day after Lady Bai left, Xiao Qing swam to the cold spring where they had once played together. But the beautiful waters no longer echoed with Lady Bai’s soft murmurs or her crisp, bell-like laughter.

Through thousands of nights and days, every corner of the mountain held their unique memories.

It felt as if something had been carved out of her heart, leaving it hollow and empty.

She didn’t know how long she wandered in a haze before finally deciding to follow Lady Bai’s footsteps, to see what the world outside the mountains was like.

But as soon as she left the mountain, she encountered an old man gathering firewood, and ended up terrifying him to death.

After that, she traveled to many places, but people avoided her, even attacking her with stones and sticks, cursing as they struck: “Monster! Snake demon! Get lost!”

Xiao Qing couldn’t understand. She had only been able to take human form thanks to Nuwa’s blessing. Why did these people hate her so much?

Nuwa had created all life in the world and sacrificed herself to save humanity.

If she knew that the beings she gave her life to save despised her image so deeply, how sorrowful would she be?

She thought of Lady Bai, who shared her form, and wondered if Lady Bai, too, was hiding somewhere, suffering as she was.

In that moment, Xiao Qing became even more determined to find Lady Bai! She would never let the filth of the world harm Lady Bai!

Later, after repeated beatings, she learned to fight back.

Once, after being beaten nearly to death, she fled into a mountain cave in desperation.

There, she encountered a real demon.

“Hey, this is my turf!”

The demon stood at the cave entrance, declaring her domain.

Xiao Qing was barely alive, but she could only glare fiercely at the entrance, keeping her guard up.

She knew this wouldn’t stop anything, but she stubbornly stared anyway.

Strangely enough, it seemed to work—the demon appeared intimidated and didn’t enter.

Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, until at last she fainted.

In her haze, she dreamed.

In the dream, Lady Bai returned.

She heard Lady Bai’s soft, reproachful voice by her ear, “Xiao Qing, how can you be so foolish? How did you end up so battered?”

The feeling was so real; she wanted to wake, but her body was heavy and wouldn’t let her.

When she finally opened her eyes, sunlight sneaking in illuminated the stalactites at the top of the cave, making them shimmer with iridescence.

Xiao Qing felt dazed, as if she had returned to the mountains in a dream.

Until a woman’s voice pulled her back to reality, “Hey, how did you get so badly hurt?”

It was the demon at the entrance.

Xiao Qing immediately coiled her snake tail in alarm. If the demon made any improper move, Xiao Qing was ready to strike.

“How can you snakes be so ungrateful? I saved you and now you want to attack me?”

The demon’s voice sharpened, and she sashayed forward a couple of steps.

Fragments of sunlight spilled over her, making her lips red and teeth white. Most striking were her eyes, so alluring they seemed almost to drip with charm.

This was the most beautiful face Xiao Qing had seen since Lady Bai.

She stared in a daze, then remembered Lady Bai, her expression darkening. She warned, “Don’t come any closer.”