The little snake, who was always so even-tempered, was truly angry this time!
Liu Qingzhang spent a full week coaxing him before the little snake finally calmed down.
After biting Liu Qingzhang one day, the little snake at last flicked out his tongue to lick the two tiny blood spots. He even allowed Liu Qingzhang to stroke his scales. Mr. Liu’s devoted little padded jacket had been a bit drafty lately, so he shifted back to human form and sat in Mr. Liu’s lap. In a rare display of petulance, the youth asked, “If Mr. Liu likes me, why won’t you look at me? Why won’t you kiss me?”
Liu Qingzhang kept his gaze straight ahead. If not for his body’s obvious reaction, he might as well have been Liu Xiahui. Bai Ying reached out petulantly to touch him, but Liu Qingzhang caught his wrist with a large hand. He dressed the youth in his sleep robe, fastening it tightly so not even his collarbone showed. Finally, he avoided the youth’s soft lips and only kissed his hair, coaxing softly, “Mr. Liu likes the little snake very, very much. But the little snake is still too young. Mr. Liu can’t bully you right now.”
Bai Ying eyed this old-fashioned relic, unconvinced. In ancient times, he would have been old enough to marry at this age. Liu Qingzhang was a great snake of eight or nine hundred years—why was he still so rule-bound?
Liu Qingzhang coaxed him for another half day before the little snake’s anger fully dissipated. As night deepened, Bai Ying burrowed into the bedding to sleep. He grabbed Liu Qingzhang’s wrist, refusing to let him go. “If you won’t kiss my mouth, can you kiss other places?”
Liu Qingzhang leaned down and gently kissed his forehead.
Bai Ying suddenly lifted his head and planted a smacking kiss on his cheek.
Afterward, the little snake buried himself in the covers like he’d done something naughty. A muffled voice emerged from inside: “Good night, big snake. The little snake is going to sleep.”
Liu Qingzhang bid him good night as well, then turned off the light and left, closing the door behind him. He wasn’t sure how he made it back to his bedroom—every step felt like walking on clouds.
It took a long while before he realized he was still touching the cheek Bai Ying had kissed, wearing a foolish grin utterly unbecoming of a great demon like himself.
Liu Qingzhang held back from touching Bai Ying until the youth reached adulthood in the mortal sense.
On Bai Ying’s eighteenth birthday, Willow Mansion hosted a grand banquet for guests. The classically opulent ballroom brimmed with dignitaries, glasses clinking amid the revelry. Yet all the room’s extravagance was mere backdrop to the youth—not even a fraction of his own radiance.
Perhaps “youth” was more accurate now.
His features had fully matured, though his temperament remained innocently pure. Bai Ying’s appearance at the banquet was brief, but it was enough to haunt many guests for years to come. Before the event even ended, people were inquiring whether Willow Mansion’s precious pearl had been betrothed to any great clan. They wondered if their own children—or even themselves—might have a chance to support him. But they soon received the heartbreaking answer.
Willow Mansion’s little pearl had an owner long ago.
The great snake, who had guarded him so faithfully, had eventually begun to covet what he protected. He took the little snake into his embrace at sixteen and resolved to devour him whole at eighteen.
The little snake who slipped away from the banquet threw himself into the great snake’s arms.
They returned to Liu Qingzhang’s room—the same one where Bai Ying had stayed when he was small, falling asleep each night on the great snake’s warm, reliable chest. As he grew, Bai Ying had gotten his own room. But now that he was finally an adult, he moved back here.
Liu Qingzhang lifted him onto his lap. “Does the little snake still like Mr. Liu now?”
The younger one could afford whims, but the elder had to know his limits. Liu Qingzhang suppressed the urge to swallow the little snake whole—both the emotion and the desire—and waited two more years.
He told himself he was giving the little snake a chance, but in truth, even Liu Qingzhang didn’t know what he’d do if the answer was no.
It wasn’t him giving Bai Ying an opportunity; it was him begging Bai Ying for one.
The youth he had raised wrapped his arms around his neck and whispered softly in his ear, “I’ve always, always liked Mr. Liu.”
Liu Qingzhang’s breathing quickened. His scorching palm slid to the youth’s waist. He nipped the youth’s pale, plump earlobe, sucking it to a dripping crimson as the youth let out soft hums.
“Does the little snake know what a grown child bride has to do?” Liu Qingzhang hinted in an ambiguous tone.
Bai Ying’s face flushed red. His voice was a mosquito’s buzz: “To… to consummate with her husband…”
The suit jacket had long fallen to the floor. The shirt beneath was roughly torn open by the impatient man, buttons silently rolling to the carpet’s edges.
The child bride, pampered for sixteen years, had finally reached the night to share a bed with her husband.
For a long time, Bai Ying had mistakenly thought Liu Qingzhang was a great demon of pure asceticism. So many times when he’d begged Mr. Liu for kisses, Mr. Liu only kissed his hair at most, or his forehead if he pushed further.
If not for seeing Liu Qingzhang’s reactions, the adolescent little snake might have overthought it, wondering if his future husband was impotent.
But now, Bai Ying finally understood: Mr. Liu wasn’t impotent—he was extraordinarily patient, holding back for two years until the little snake came of age. Once restraint was no longer needed, the long-suppressed fire roared back, consuming the little snake first.
The little snake was devoured over and over that night. At first, he was terrified of Mr. Liu entering him. Without clothes to shield him, one glimpse of Liu Qingzhang’s size down there made Bai Ying want to flee. Fortunately, Liu Qingzhang knew forcing it would hurt the little snake, so he took the initiative, straddling the little snake’s waist and abdomen. But it wasn’t long before Bai Ying realized that, with their vast physical disparity, topping wasn’t easy either.
After being drained several times, Bai Ying melted into a puddle, left with only the strength to beg for mercy.
Liu Qingzhang coaxed him into saying things he’d never utter normally. Each time, Liu Qingzhang promised to stop if the little snake said it. But every time Bai Ying obediently complied, the man atop him only grew more excited. The once trustworthy great snake was utterly shameless now. Poor little white snake had a tiny brain to begin with, and with the haze of passion clouding it, he fell for the same trick all night long.
At first, he called Liu Qingzhang “Mr. Liu.” Later, Liu Qingzhang coaxed him into calling his name.
Before long, the greedy great snake wanted more. He forced the little snake to mix in calls of “husband,” “lord husband,” “dear husband,” and the like. Satisfied for only moments, a new idea surfaced.
“Wasn’t the little snake eager to call me daddy when he was small?” Liu Qingzhang kissed his tear-dampened lashes. “Why not now?”
Tears streamed down Bai Ying’s face. The intense taboo feeling made it impossible to voice that title.
Liu Qingzhang wasn’t his father, of course. But if he called him that, Bai Ying felt like they were committing incest…
He refused to speak, but Liu Qingzhang wasn’t impatient. He used slow, torturous methods, bringing Bai Ying to the peak again and again, only to stop at the crucial moment.
Tormented to the point of thinking he’d die on their wedding night, the little snake finally trembled as he wrapped his arms around Liu Qingzhang’s neck and whispered the two words Liu Qingzhang craved in his ear.
Thoroughly satisfied, Liu Qingzhang finally let him go. He lowered his head and kissed Bai Ying’s dazed face.
***
It wasn’t until the evening of the second day that Bai Ying, having skipped breakfast and lunch, finally came to the dining room.
Zhong Peide stared in shock. The little young master, who hadn’t sat on Mr. Liu’s lap for meals in years, was being held there today while he ate.
Then he heard news like a bolt from the blue.
That shameless great snake had gobbled the tender grass—the little young master had been upgraded to Madam Liu!
