Chapter 2
Not long afterward, the doorbell rang.
The delivery guy saw the limited-edition Bulgari necklace around my neck.
First, he took a step back.
Then, feigning composure, he pulled out the delivery slip for me to sign.
Sneaking glances all the while, he said, “I’ve seen a lot of pet snakes, but yours is… special.”
[He certainly is. Thousands of years old, and he can even turn into a man.]
[I’m dead. The second the delivery guy leaves, he’s going to text his girlfriend: “Babe! I just saw someone wearing a snake like a necklace! Not gonna lie, it actually looked pretty good…” Then he’ll ask if she wants one, and she’ll tell him to get his head examined, hahahaha.]
The comments flashed by one after another.
I sat on the floor, assembling the enclosure according to a tutorial on my phone.
The thing cost a fortune and didn’t even come preassembled. The nerve.
Suddenly, several messages popped up on the screen.
They were all from my brother:
“Looks like that punk Zhou Yanxu got dumped. He’s been drinking himself senseless every day. Serves him right, haha.”
“I also heard their pet snake went missing. The whole Zhou family is searching for it like they’ve lost their minds. Old Master Zhou even announced that whoever brings it back first gets fifty percent of the family’s shares.”
“If your brother happens to find it, do you think they’ll let me inherit?”
I glanced at the little white snake I’d just placed inside the enclosure to see if it fit.
If the Zhou family discovered that your darling little sister had stolen their precious snake,
I couldn’t say whether you’d inherit anything.
But they would definitely come after us.
I shut the lid of the enclosure. Finished!
Through the glass, I poked the bewildered-looking snake. “This is where you’ll live from now on.”
[Help! I can see four giant words written all over Zhou Ci’s face: I don’t wanna be separated from Ying Xu!]
[That’s what he gets for pretending to be her pet. Pet snakes belong in reptile enclosures~]
[Zhou Ci, listen to me. Stop playing the innocent pet snake. This role isn’t for you. You need to reveal your true form and go at it with the heroine for two hundred chapters!!! I’m a distinguished VIP. That isn’t too much to ask, is it?]
[It’s fi-i-ine. Once the heroine falls asleep, you can do~what~ever~you~want~]
The little snake hissed twice.
Its golden slit pupils fixed on me with the gaze of a predator locking onto prey.
I rubbed my eyes, and the snake was harmless and adorable again.
I’d imagined it after all.
The comments didn’t appear again for the entire afternoon.
That night, I lay in bed.
Staring at the patterns cast by the crystal chandelier on the ceiling, I kept thinking about the surreal things that had happened that day and everything the comments had said.
I couldn’t fall asleep no matter what I did.
When drowsiness finally came, I switched off the light and closed my eyes.
A soft rustling reached my ears.
Something was moving across the floor.
My nerves stretched taut. I held my breath, my fingers twisting instinctively in the sheets.
A chill brushed my ankle, climbed my calf, and wound tightly around both my legs.
I knew that feeling all too well.
It was… a snake tail.
Only it felt nothing like it had during the day. This tail was thick, long, and powerful, and its scales pressed roughly against my skin.
In an instant, I understood where the marks on my body had come from.
The icy tail coiled around me and crept upward, inch by inch. It must have brushed somewhere sensitive, because I shuddered and opened my eyes on instinct—
straight into those familiar golden slit pupils, now magnified several times over.
Human and snake stared at each other for a long moment.
The snake spoke first. “Sorry. I woke you.”
His deep, magnetic voice offered an apology, but his tail didn’t loosen in the slightest. If anything, it coiled tighter.
I stared and stared at him, my mind blank.
It was one thing for him to grow bigger. Why had he changed color too?
The little white snake had become a massive black one.
Moonlight spilled through the window and glinted coldly off his pitch-black scales.
One by one, the things mentioned in the comments had been proven true.
It was absurd, yet somehow it all added up.