Chapter 8: “He Was Kissing One of the School’s Best-Known Gay Students”

Shi Yanchi hurriedly put together a meal. Tu Lin devoured it, shoveling the food into his mouth and swallowing it whole without chewing. The large bowl was empty in no time.

Shi Yanchi was alarmed by the sight, but didn’t scold him for forgetting the human way of eating he’d just learned.

The food was gone, but nothing had changed.

“Hungry. So hungry.” Tu Lin clutched the empty bowl, staring blankly at Shi Yanchi with his pupil-less white eyes. “So hungry…”

Shi Yanchi hadn’t expected Tu Lin to get like this after missing a single dinner, but Tu Lin wasn’t an ordinary snake. Anything could happen to him.

Shi Yanchi didn’t hesitate. He got up and went back to the kitchen.

Tu Lin followed close behind. When Shi Yanchi stopped in front of the stove, Tu Lin stopped too. He lowered his head and brought his face close to Shi Yanchi’s neck, repeatedly flicking his tongue.

“It won’t take long.” Shi Yanchi hurried through the prep. “Just a few minutes.”

He was thinking about what to cook and forgot to dry his hands properly. The knife slipped from his grip, its sharp edge sliding across his fingertip. A few seconds later, a bead of blood welled up.

Shi Yanchi frowned and turned on the tap, but before he could bring his hand under the water, a hand reached around from behind and grabbed it.

“Tu—”

A thick snake tail wrapped tightly around Shi Yanchi and lifted him up. Tu Lin’s forked tongue darted out and swept the blood from his finger. Then he took the whole finger into his mouth.

He wasn’t just licking the wound. He was sucking on it, swallowing Shi Yanchi’s blood.

The cut wasn’t deep, and there wasn’t much blood to drink. When Tu Lin had sucked it dry, he let the finger go. He waited a few seconds to make sure no more was coming, then slid his snout up Shi Yanchi’s arm. His tongue flicked out again and again, searching for somewhere he could drink more.

At last, he stopped beside the artery in Shi Yanchi’s neck.

“Tu Lin!” Shi Yanchi sensed the danger on instinct and braced a hand against his chest.

“Hungry.” Tu Lin could only repeat that one word now. “So hungry…”

He brought his face closer and pressed his nose against Shi Yanchi’s skin, inhaling deeply, almost greedily. But he made no other move.

His arms tightened around Shi Yanchi, and his tail twitched restlessly. He was clearly close to his limit, but still did nothing out of line. He only kept calling out in confusion, as if Shi Yanchi were precious to him, someone he couldn’t bear to lose.

Shi Yanchi thought through a great many things in a very short time. In the end, his irrational side won.

He raised the knife and cut his hand again. Before the blood could drip to the floor, he held it out to Tu Lin.

“Tu Lin,” he called. “Drink.”

The mindless Tu Lin paused for a few seconds, seeming almost more intelligent than usual. But the moment passed, and he covered Shi Yanchi’s wound with his mouth, drinking in quick, eager swallows.

It took about three or four minutes for him to slow down. He stopped sucking and began to lick the wound gently instead.

Shi Yanchi felt a little dizzy. After a moment, he turned to look at Tu Lin. His face was as pale as his eyes; the scales and the blood on his mouth were the only vivid color.

Shi Yanchi gently wiped away the blood. “Do you want more?”

Tu Lin looked at him in confusion, as if trying to work out what the question meant. After a few seconds, he shook his head. Halfway through, he suddenly shrank into his little snake form and dropped into Shi Yanchi’s hand.

He wasn’t very energetic, but his scales and eyes were bright. He didn’t look sick.

Shi Yanchi rubbed his head. The snake slowly curled into a little ball in his palm and nestled there. He touched Shi Yanchi’s hand with his tongue, then went still, apparently exhausted enough to fall asleep.

Shi Yanchi carried him to the bedroom and set him on the pillow beside him.

The next morning, Tu Lin was still in snake form, but his usual energy and wits had returned. The little serpent slithered all over Shi Yanchi as though seized by a fit of snake madness. When play finally wore him out, he coiled on Shi Yanchi’s head. His cool forked tongue brushed here, then licked there.

By now, the snake had apparently decided Shi Yanchi was a human-shaped, portable heated nest.

Though Shi Yanchi wasn’t exactly thrilled about it, seeing Tu Lin safe and sound let him breathe easier.

Once his worry had eased, he began to think about other things.

He’d brought the snake home on a whim. His transformation into a human-bodied monster had been entirely unexpected. Even now, he hadn’t taken the matter seriously. He’d fed Tu Lin human food and let him sleep in a human bed without ever looking into snake habits. The only reason the snake had survived this long was his innate talent as a monster.

But what had happened the night before made Shi Yanchi realize that it might be time to become a responsible owner. At the very least, he needed to do some research.

“Tu Lin, I need to go out today. But this time I promise I’ll be back soon.”

The snake couldn’t speak, so Tu Lin expressed his feelings by wrapping himself around Shi Yanchi’s hand, attempting a squeeze that wasn’t painful and had no real strength behind it.

Shi Yanchi remembered how Tu Lin had reacted the last time he came home late from work. He knew he couldn’t push too hard, so he spoke gently. “I need to buy you some supplies.”

He paused and emphasized, “For you.”

Tu Lin’s resistance softened, but only a little. He still clung to Shi Yanchi’s hand.

“It’s for your own good. And I won’t be long.”

The snake was still having none of it. The snake was pretending to be dead.

Shi Yanchi couldn’t help laughing. “Then do you want to come with me?”

Tu Lin came right back to life. He raised his head, flicked his tongue as if pretending to think it over, then nodded eagerly.

Since bringing Tu Lin home, Shi Yanchi had never taken him out. Fortunately, the snake was small and didn’t need much preparation. He could just tuck him into his coat pocket.

Shi Yanchi slipped him inside and pulled the pocket open. “If you want to come with me, you have to behave even better than you do at home. Understand?”

Tu Lin stared at him with his bead-sized eyes, though Shi Yanchi couldn’t tell if he’d understood.

“Don’t crawl around. Don’t stick your head out, and don’t let anyone see you. If you don’t behave, this will be the last time I take you out. I won’t bring you with me again.” Shi Yanchi tapped him on the head.

The threat clearly worked. Tu Lin showed a rare amount of obedience, curling up quietly in the pocket like a plastic toy with no signs of life.

Shi Yanchi rubbed his head. Tu Lin touched him with his tongue in reply, promising to behave.

Shi Yanchi still didn’t pull his hand out. He left with both hands seemingly in his pockets, but really spent the whole way out bothering the little snake.

Harbor Bay wasn’t a huge place, but it wasn’t tiny either. People from the same social circles tended to converge in Central and Western District and Wan Chai. Shi Yanchi lived in Repulse Bay and worked in Central and Western District, so his life usually ran between those two points. He rarely came out this way, and, given his lack of interest in shopping or entertainment, he was an unusual sight.

It was the weekend, and the space beneath the overpass was filled with Filipino domestic workers enjoying their day off. Their voices blended together into a loud hubbub, lively but not quite noisy.

Shi Yanchi went into a bookstore, planning to look for some books about snakes.

He hadn’t been to a place like this in years, though he’d been a regular at bookstores in middle school.

It wasn’t because he loved studying. He wasn’t some extraordinary talent who could get great grades without trying. Whenever he had time, he went to bookstores to study or buy workbooks. The curriculum in Mainland China was quite different from Harbor Bay’s, but he found the problems interesting and had worked through plenty of them.

The reason he hadn’t visited any bookstores since finishing secondary school was Tu Lin.

In a bookstore near school, he’d seen Tu Lin kissing one of the school’s best-known gay students. That had been the first time he’d learned Tu Lin was gay.

It had been a big deal, but also meant nothing.

Bookstores had changed a lot since then. There were still plenty of textbooks and workbooks, but popular novels had taken the place of classic literature and science magazines. They all had pretty titles.

Shi Yanchi wandered around for a long time before finally finding a few books about reptiles in a corner.

“‘Cold-Blooded Animals Aren’t Cold-Blooded!’ What a title…” Shi Yanchi pulled open his coat pocket and looked down at Tu Lin. He asked quietly, “Is it true?”

Tu Lin tilted his head. His bead-sized eyes gave nothing away, though his expression seemed puzzled.

Shi Yanchi casually opened the book. One line read: “Snakes have no external ears or eardrums and cannot hear sounds carried through the air.”

“So you’re a little deaf. No wonder you never listen.”

Tu Lin heard that one just fine and understood every word. He twisted angrily, gathered himself, then shot upward and bit Shi Yanchi’s finger.

It didn’t hurt much. It was just cool and damp. Shi Yanchi shook his hand, but the snake wouldn’t let go.

“Small body, huge grudge.” Shi Yanchi chuckled under his breath and tucked him back into the pocket. “I’ll just buy this one.”

There were a lot of people in the bookstore. While waiting in line to pay, Shi Yanchi naturally remembered what had happened after he’d seen Tu Lin kissing that person.

He hadn’t found the workbook he wanted, so he’d gone to other places to look. It was so obscure that he’d searched through half the bookstores in the area without finding it. He still hadn’t given up, and was about to try another shelf when he ran into Tu Lin, who had just finished his date.

Tu Lin’s face and ears were flushed red. When he saw Shi Yanchi, he jumped in fright.

“Why are you here?”

Shi Yanchi stared at Tu Lin’s lips for a while. He had no experience, so he couldn’t tell what he was seeing. All he knew was that it made him feel a little sick.

“Buying a book,” he said.

“Oh. Did you find it?”

“No.”

“Do you want me to help you look?”

“No.” Shi Yanchi turned his head and took a few steps back. “I don’t want it anymore.”

Then he turned and left the bookstore.