After The Charismatic Beauty Was Coveted By A Gloomy Monster - Chapter 2

Yu Ying drew back the curtains of her room. There was still a fissure slicing across the sky, and the world outside was plunged entirely into darkness. She pulled the curtains shut again and switched on every single light in the room.

Yu Ying turned on the climate control system to raise the room’s temperature. It wasn’t until she set the temperature to 28°C that she finally began to feel warm. Yu Ying crawled under the covers, wrapping herself tightly in the blanket, and huddled on the bed as she opened a search engine.

Can high-intensity work trigger mental illness?’

Can someone in the early stages of mental illness see unnamable entities? Like monsters, for instance.’

Half an hour passed, but Yu Ying failed to find a single piece of useful information. Suddenly, the search interface popped up with reports from multiple mainstream media outlets.

Yu Ying clicked on the news and quickly scrolled through the articles.

A number of psychiatric hospitals across China had broken out in sudden, unexpected emergencies. Overnight, several psychiatric patients claimed that they had seen monsters. Among these monsters were sea snakes with blood-red, fanged gaping maws, eerie transparent jellyfishes, and pink tentacles that possessed immense destructive power.

Psychiatric experts claimed that this phenomenon might be related to some sort of alien mind control, and no relevant treatment method had been found so far.

Yu Ying searched for astronomical and meteorological reports regarding Heishui Island, yet there were no news reports whatsoever regarding the bizarre phenomenon that had occurred this afternoon.

Even in the playback of the romance variety show’s livestream room, none of the viewers were able to see the snake tail behind Teacher Sui Lin.

One thing could be confirmed now: Yu Ying could see the fissure appearing in the sky, and she could see the snake tail behind Teacher Sui Lin. Just like all those psychiatric patients, she was seeing unnamable, eerie entities.

Yu Ying still could not quite accept that she was mentally ill. She pinched the bridge of her nose in exhaustion and locked her phone. Lying flat on her back on the bed, she stared up at the ceiling, the brilliant light from the lamps reflecting in her eyes.

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a book on the bookshelf, The Fantasy World of the Mentally Ill.

She got out of bed, stepped onto the soft carpet, and pulled out the thick volume. Wiping the dust off the book, she saw that the table of contents recorded various illusions seen by psychiatric patients. Yu Ying located the section on monsters and flipped to page 275.

Psychiatric patients are usually prone to sinking into a fantasy world, seeing things that those around them cannot see. In 1990, a large number of psychiatric patients appeared on Heishui Island. They unanimously claimed to have seen eerie monsters, but after scientists intervened to investigate, it was discovered to be nothing more than their imaginations.

The location, the people, and the characteristics of the illness all matched perfectly. Yu Ying closed the book and returned it to its original spot.

The romance variety show had already commenced filming; she could not breach her contract to stop filming at this time, let alone seek help from a psychiatrist.

Yu Ying opened the memo app on her phone and began recording her condition.

April 1, 2025: I saw a snake tail behind Teacher Sui Lin.

Having provisionally diagnosed herself with mental illness, Yu Ying actually felt a whole lot more clear-headed. She put down her phone, pulled open the wardrobe to pick out a nightgown she liked, and walked into the bathroom.

Yu Ying tested the water temperature. The piercingly cold stream of water hit the back of her hand, and she flinched back. The water heater’s temperature display read 27°C. She pressed the heating button, but the water heater failed to heat up normally.

She would fix the water heater tomorrow; she was truly too exhausted tonight. Yu Ying gave up on the idea of repairing a water heater in the middle of the night. Crossing her arms, she pondered whether she should go upstairs to borrow Teacher Sui Lin’s bathroom.

She needed to submerge herself in warm water, take a thoroughly relaxing hot bath, and then get a comfortable night’s sleep.

An eerie silence had settled over the ancient castle. Yu Ying could clearly hear the ticking of the clock’s second hand, tick-tock, tick-tock. Cold sweat broke out in Yu Ying’s palms. She walked swiftly to the door of Room 404 and curled her fingers to knock on the door.

Room 404 was dim without a single ray of light; not even moonlight filtered into the room. Sui Lin was shaking an iron cage in her hand. A snow-white rabbit was cowering in the corner, this was Sui Lin’s dinner for tonight.

Softly humming a classical ballad, she placed the iron cage on the round table, which she had lined with lit white candles, and prepared a plate of her mother’s favorite vegetable salad.

The rabbit inside the iron cage let out terrified shrieks. Sui Lin enjoyed the rabbit’s cries. She opened the iron cage and effortlessly pinched the rabbit by the scruff of its neck. The rabbit’s four limbs struggled wildly, kicking hard against Sui Lin.

Sui Lin bared her sharp teeth and bit down hard on the rabbit’s neck.

Knock, knock, knock. The urgent sound of knocking interrupted Sui Lin’s meal. The rabbit that was practically in her mouth managed to flee, leaving Sui Lin with a mouthful of rabbit fur. She stood up in annoyance, twisted open the lock, and directed a cold gaze at a shivering Yu Ying standing outside the door.

She felt that Yu Ying resembled that rabbit—resembled her prey.

“Teacher Sui Lin, may I borrow your bathroom?” Yu Ying added as she continued, “The water heater in my room is broken, and I know this sounds rather…”

Sui Lin’s snake tail blocked the doorway, the tip of her tail tapping against the floor in impatience as she swept a cold glance over Yu Ying.

Yu Ying had changed into casual clothes. She wore a simple striped T-shirt on her upper body, paired with a pair of vintage shorts on her lower half, and a pink, glittering rhinestone belt tied around her waist. She had gathered her hair into a messy bun loosely tied at the back of her head, with a few stray strands of hair draping down.

A thin layer of sweat had broken out on her body, and a faint, elusive fragrance wafted into Sui Lin’s nose.

Creak— Sui Lin pulled the door wide open and stepped aside. Yu Ying walked into Sui Lin’s room.

A woman’s sixth sense is incredibly accurate; Yu Ying felt that Sui Lin’s room resembled the lair of some cold-blooded animal. The room was freezing cold and damp, and the blankets were coiled into a messy heap.

She noticed the round table in the corner, which was surrounded by a ring of white candles, with a plate of her favorite vegetable salad sitting in the center.

Yu Ying turned around, her gaze landing on Sui Lin’s lips. A few white tufts of fluff adhered to those bright red lips, looking like the fur of a rabbit or a cat.

After locking eyes with Sui Lin for a brief moment, Yu Ying stepped into the bathroom.

Standing before the vanity, she cupped cold water in both hands and splashed it onto her face. The shocking sensation of the cold water allowed her to regain a bit of her sanity.

Everything stems from my hallucinations, Yu Ying kept telling herself in mental suggestion.

Yu Ying turned on the heater, grabbed the hem of her shirt to pull it off over her head, and unclasped her bra. She had absolutely no idea that a pair of eyes outside the bathroom door was tracing the curves of her body.

Outside the bathroom door, Sui Lin’s gaze moved sluggishly in tandem with Yu Ying’s movements. Her intent stare was like a venomous snake, sticking out a bright red fork tongue as it slithered across Yu Ying’s skin.

Steam began to diffuse, squeezing out from the crevices of the bathroom door. Sui Lin disliked high temperatures; the moisture settling over her skin’s pores would make her irritable.

Yet, she caught a scent of a natural body fragrance mingled within that clean aroma—it was the scent of her mother. It was difficult for her to describe her mother’s fragrance; if she absolutely had to put it into words, it would be the scent emitted by a white shirt washed with saponin pods drying under the sun.

Strands of the scent drifted into her nasal cavity. She inhaled deeply, allowing the fragrance to envelope her. This sensation made her feel as though she had returned to her mother’s embrace, back when she was merely a small snake only one meter long.

Her mother loved to bathe, and Sui Lin loved to watch her mother bathe. Her mother would fill her little wooden basin with cold water and gently stroke her soft belly with her fingertips.

Sui Lin would slither up her mother’s arm, wrapping her snake tail around her mother’s wrist, and extend her snake tongue to lick away the residual water droplets on her mother’s skin.

Inside the bathroom, Yu Ying stood beneath the shower head. She used one hand to sweep her long hair back, letting the stream of water glide across the bridge of her nose and fall into her cleavage, with a few droplets cascading down onto her tight waistline.

She quickly finished her hot shower, picked up a bath towel to wipe away the remaining water droplets on her body, and slipped into clean undergarments. Yu Ying rummaged around for a long time but could not find her nightgown.

Oh no, the nightgown is still on Sui Lin’s bed.

Yu Ying tapped on the bathroom door, “Teacher Sui Lin, could you please hand me my nightgown?”

Sui Lin disliked taking orders from anyone, yet her body reacted instantly upon hearing Yu Ying’s directive, almost as if Yu Ying had conditioned her in the past.

Using her snake tail, she picked up the nightgown in distaste. As the silk nightgown brushed past her nose, she bunched the nightgown into a ball with both hands, burying her face into the fabric to inhale a concentrated wave of fragrance.

How could a human’s nightgown possess Mother’s scent? Why would a human possess the exact same body fragrance as Mother?

There was no way Sui Lin would return a nightgown carrying her mother’s scent to a human. She hid the nightgown away inside her wardrobe and randomly pulled out a nightgown she herself had worn before.

The snake tail slammed against the glass door of the bathroom, causing spiderweb-like cracks to fracture across the glass. Yu Ying turned the lock, cracked open a sliver of the door, and extended her arm out. The trapped steam came squeezing out along the gap.

The sweeping wave of fragrance made Sui Lin feel dizzy and intoxicated. The tip of her snake tail hooked onto the crisp white bedsheets, rubbing back and forth against them.

Sui Lin’s icy palm clasped around Yu Ying’s wrist. She slowly lowered her head to sniff the fragrance on Yu Ying’s body, her thumb gently wiping away a stray water droplet, her lips incredibly close to the back of Yu Ying’s hand.

Snapping back to her senses, she let go of Yu Ying’s arm, and Yu Ying swiftly yanked her arm back inside. The bathroom door shut once more, and Yu Ying pressed her spine tightly against the glass.

The sensation of Teacher Sui Lin’s touch just now had struck terror into her core. It felt as though the blood throughout her entire body was gradually freezing over, leaving her unable to feel even a shred of warmth.

Yu Ying had no spare capacity to think about anything else, to the point that she failed to notice the nightgown on her body was not her own. She pushed open the bathroom door and stepped out barefoot.

The floor of the room was not lined with a soft wool carpet; Yu Ying stepped with bare feet directly onto the wooden floorboards.

Taking a hot shower had done nothing to alleviate her condition; Yu Ying could still see Sui Lin’s snake tail. Sui Lin stood inside the darkened room, that thick, muscular snake tail clutching the blankets while rubbing against them frantically.

Sui Lin quietly watched Yu Ying. Yu Ying’s long hair fell damply around her, water droplets dripping onto her collarbone. Her deep V-neck collar offered a glimpse of an alluring cleavage, and the nightgown’s belt was tied loosely around her waist.

Looking further down, Sui Lin caught sight of the arched instep of Yu Ying’s foot.

Humans are so troublesome…

Sui Lin walked over to the shoe rack, hooked out a pair of slippers, and tossed them in front of Yu Ying. Yu Ying slipped into them and uttered a word of thanks.

“You have a certain fragrance on your body.”

Yu Ying tugged at her collar to sniff the scent on herself, “It’s a perfume gifted by a brand sponsor. If you like it, Teacher Sui Lin, I can give it to you.”

“No need.” Sui Lin rejected the human’s gift.

Once Yu Ying left the room, Sui Lin brought out a gleaming golden treasure chest. She carefully opened the chest. Inside, it was not filled with rare and precious treasures, but contained only a tattered, colorful floral dress.

This was the single item left behind by her mother that she had managed to snatch. The residual scent on the floral dress had dissipated over time. Sui Lin’s scalding teardrops splattered onto the hem of the dress. Like a child who had done something wrong, she haphazardly wiped at her tears.

Sui Lin lay back down onto the large bed, her snake tail arranging the blankets to construct a nest. The tip of her tail pushed open the wardrobe to retrieve Yu Ying’s nightgown, stuffing the garment tightly into her embrace.

She buried her cheek into the nightgown, feeling as though she had returned to her mother’s warm embrace once more. Her tears soaked through the fabric of the nightgown, and her flushed lips bit down on a corner of the gown as a crimson blush gradually spread across her cheeks.

The snake tail threw the pristine white sheets into total disarray, leaving the neat sheets completely wrinkled. Her cheek pressed tightly against Yu Ying’s nightgown as her snake tail writhed. She tilted her head back, her eyes swimming with a layer of mist, her slender fingers stroking her white neck as her writhing snake tail left behind a sticky, transparent fluid.

A certain unspeakable scent grew so thick it could not be dissolved. Sui Lin stared blankly into the empty void, murmuring softly, “Mother, I just miss you so much”

which is why I would commit such a rebellious, sacrilegious act. I didn’t want to be like this either; I just miss Mother too much, miss everything about Mother.

According to the calculations of a certain highly irritating octopus, there was a specific time differential between the game world and the reality world. One day in the reality world was equivalent to one year in the game world.

It had already been seven years since she lost her mother. In those seven years, she had grown from a silver little snake into an abyss giant python.

She had once sworn that if she found her mother in the first year, she would respect her mother beyond measure. If she found her mother in the second year, she would hand the throne right back to her mother.

But her mother had been gone for seven years, and not once had she returned to visit her. She swore that if she could find her mother now, she would wrap her snake tail tightly around her mother’s waist, entangling with her mother until death, never to be separated again.