After The Charismatic Beauty Was Coveted By A Gloomy Monster - Chapter 4

Sui Lin lay on the soft, large bed, her snake tail messing up the quilt. Her red lips bit into Yu Ying’s bathrobe as she held a medicine bottle, shaking out medicinal powder. Her snake tail lashed out frantically, sweeping against a cup on the desk; the cup hit the ground and shattered into pieces.

Her entire body was covered in a layer of cold sweat, yet her eyes gleamed with excitement. She was different from other supernatural entities; pain made her feel excited.

She remembered her—the very first human to ever wound her…

After Mother left the game world, Sui Lin had never allowed herself to suffer such a severe injury. Sui Lin remembered vividly that one time, she was so starved that she secretly sneaked into her neighbor’s house, eating all the chickens they raised and even devouring a small lamb.

Several days passed after the incident, and no one suspected her. Sui Lin thought she had hidden it perfectly. Then, late one night, she sneaked out of the house, but just as she slithered out the front door, she encountered Mother waiting outside.

Mother’s tail was longer than hers, thicker than hers, and her scales were harder than hers. Mother rarely used her snake tail to discipline her, but that time, Mother struck her with it, leaving her severely injured.

Sui Lin had knelt before Mother without uttering a single sound to accept the punishment. Compared to the penalty itself, she cared far more about Mother.

After the punishment, Sui Lin discovered that Mother striking her actually brought her pleasure. Ever since that occasion, Mother rarely punished her. Consequently, she would intentionally commit blunders in a wretchedly provocative manner every single time, just to exchange it for even harsher punishment.

Perhaps in the eyes of other members of the snake clan, Mother’s aura of intimidation was a terrifying wrath, but a certain snake considered Mother’s punishment to be a reward.

Only a child who made mistakes could receive this kind of reward.

The scales on Sui Lin’s snake tail stood on end as she continuously twisted and turned on the bed sheets. Clutching Yu Ying’s bathrobe, her breathing grew even more scorching hot.

Her crimson eyes flashed with an eerie light, and an unspeakable ecstasy surged from the tip of her snake tail straight to her nerve endings. She exhaled a breath of scalding air, her body slumping limply onto Yu Ying’s bathrobe. Her sweat dripped down alongside it, blending completely with Mother’s scent.

A certain snake was plotting a wicked idea in her heart; she had thought of a great method to quickly find Mother. She did not wipe away the sweat on Yu Ying’s bathrobe—the clothes of humans were something she could desecrate at will.

Bzzzz

A sharp ring suddenly pierced Sui Lin’s ears, and she clutched them tightly. Discerning the ringing noise carefully, she could hear the slimy, sticky sound produced by a cartilaginous creature crawling.

Was that loathsome octopus about to open the portal to the game world? Or rather… did the octopus know she had been discovered by a human?

“It hurts so much.” Sui Lin felt as if ten thousand fine needles were piercing into her head. Only when crushed by a higher-level supernatural entity would she shed tears.

Sui Lin bit her lower lip fiercely, pinching her own flesh with her fingernails to redirect the pain. After a short while, the ringing in her ears vanished, and Sui Lin breathed a sigh of relief.

So it turned out that only Mother’s punishment could bring her pleasure…

The octopus possessed nine brains and could easily control the brain of any species—a phenomenon known in human terms as parasitism.

It could control the brains of other creatures, eating away at the central nervous system bit by bit, thereby entirely replacing that species.

“Damn it.” Sui Lin stepped out of bed and looked at herself in the mirror. Her upper body was a human form so beautiful it defied description, while her lower body was a silver-white snake tail.

She preferred this form of herself; she disliked human legs. Mother could grow a pair of legs and walk just like a human, but a certain snake could only twist her legs into a tangled mass like fried dough twists.

Sui Lin stood before the mirror and rotated her neck a full three hundred and sixty degrees. The back of her head appeared in the mirror, along with her smooth, silver long hair.

She used this method to check whether her brain had been parasitized; a certain octopus would not be able to rotate its head so flexibly.

Crack. Sui Lin snapped her head back around to face the mirror directly. She pressed her palm against her neck to stretch it a bit, then began to worry again that the human might know her identity.

The sky was not yet bright, and it was still foggy outside the window. The entire island was shrouded in an eerie, supernatural atmosphere. Sui Lin pushed open the window and climbed down to the second floor.

Compared to climbing stairs, she much preferred scaling walls. Sui Lin crawled down to the window on the second floor, quietly pushed it open, and peeked into the room. The warm air inside the room washed over her like a torrent of heat; Sui Lin recoiled and nearly fell down into the flowerbed below.

As she thrust her body through the window, she failed to notice the succulent plant sitting on the windowsill. Seeing that the flowerpot was about to plummet, her snake tail swiftly coiled around the ceramic pot.

Phew, that was close.

Sui Lin nimbly and quietly hopped off the windowsill, closing the window smoothly behind her. She picked up the blood-stained quilt from the trash can and carried it into the bathroom to wash it clean.

She had never washed clothes for a human before. Both Mother and she belonged to the snake species; even when they assumed a half-human, half-snake form, there were always other snakes to wash clothes for them.

The various bottles and jars inside the bathroom made the snake feel utterly dazed. She unscrewed every single bottle and poured the contents into the basin. Squatting in front of the laundry washbasin, her hands scrubbed and rubbed the bed sheets she had soiled.

The washbasin was completely filled with suds. While washing the laundry, Sui Lin cursed the ancestors of the octopus. Sui Lin wrung the bed sheets dry, then rinsed away the suds under running fresh water.

The little snake heard the commotion in the bathroom, opened her eyes dazedly, and crawled along the floor. She slithered to the bathroom doorway, her eyes widening in utter disbelief.

A certain python, who was stupid to the core, was actually washing bed sheets for Mother?!

The little snake’s vision was rather poor, so she could only make out Sui Lin’s blurry silhouette, but she would never mistake that snake tail.

What awful thing did that big python want to do to Mother’s bed sheets?! The little snake rushed rapidly toward the big python and opened her mouth, biting down on the big python’s tail.

Sui Lin did not pay much attention to the little snake’s attack; she only wanted to finish washing the bed sheets quickly so she could return to sleep.

Go ahead and bite, bite all you want—it doesn’t hurt or itch at all.

Rinsing the suds off the bed sheets completely, Sui Lin tossed the bed sheets into the silent dryer. Swishing her snake tail, she gripped a mop and wiped away the coagulated bloodstains on the floor.

Just as she finished mopping the floor clean, the dryer let out a sharp ding. Hearing the sound, Yu Ying let out a low groan and reached out blindly in the direction of the little snake.

Sui Lin hurriedly stuffed the little snake back to Yu Ying’s side. Her snake tail gently patted Yu Ying’s back to soothe her to sleep, and Yu Ying plunged back into a deep slumber once more.

She walked over to the bathroom, squatted down, and clumsily opened the dryer, only to be blasted in the face by hot air. It scalded her so much she wanted to shriek. Sui Lin quickly clamped her hand over her mouth, swiftly pulling the bed sheets out.

The snakey had never learned how to fold a quilt. She crumpled the bed sheets into a chaotic ball and stuffed them into the wardrobe; the messy sheets looked completely out of place inside the wardrobe.

Aha, got it.

A certain snake stared at the little snake nestled in Yu Ying’s embrace. Hooking the little snake up with her tail, she stuffed her into the wardrobe as well.

Simply perfect. A snake as industrious and beautiful as herself absolutely could not be found anywhere else in the entire game world. Back then, when Mother chose to raise her, she must have recognized these stellar qualities in her.

Sui Lin blinked her eyes sleepily, pushed open the window, and used her snake tail to coil around the ceramic flowerpot, placing it back in its original position. She rapidly climbed back up to the fourth floor.

The first ray of morning sunlight was blocked outside the window of Room 404. Having bustled about the entire night, Sui Lin finally closed her eyes, crossing her hands over her chest as she prepared to fall asleep.

Ah—— A piercing shriek shattered the tranquility of the old castle.

Sui Lin smothered her head with a pillow.

Humans truly were exceptionally annoying.

Inside Room 202, Yu Ying opened her eyes to find the room swept spotlessly clean. The succulent was still in its original place, and the room was filled with the woody fragrance she was familiar with, devoid of even a trace of blood.

Nothing had changed; it seemed as though everything had merely been her hallucination. No, wait, something was missing. Her little snake was gone!

Yu Ying flung back the blanket and got out of bed, stepping barefoot onto the floorboards. She quieted down to listen intently to the movements in the room, catching a faint, soft hissing sound.

“Xiao Xue, how did you end up inside the wardrobe?” Yu Ying grabbed the little snake. The little snake coiled within her palm, flicking her tongue as if she had something to tell Yu Ying.

Regrettably, Yu Ying could not understand snake language for the time being. If she could be like the players in the game who could communicate seamlessly with different supernatural entities, then she would be able to comprehend the little snake’s language.

Right as dawn was about to break, a giant python climbed through the window into your room, washed your quilt clean, and tidied the room until it was completely spotless.

This was what the little snake desperately wanted to tell Yu Ying. She opened her mouth, but could only emit hiss hiss hiss sounds.

The little snake crawled onto the windowsill and tapped her tail against the glass pane.

“Are you trying to tell me that something else has been here?” Yu Ying held the little snake by the windowsill. “Don’t worry, with me around, no other snake will bully you.”

Snake? The word Yu Ying uttered subconsciously served as a reminder to herself. She looked down at her palm; last night she had clearly stabbed Sui Lin’s snake tail with a dagger. The bed sheets had been covered in bloodstains, and the room had been filled with the stench of animal blood.

Yu Ying lay flat on the floorboards to peer under the bed, but the dagger was not underneath it. She abruptly flipped the pillow over and spotted the dagger resting beneath it.

No, no—it wasn’t her dream or a mirage. Yu Ying sat on the bed in frustration, running a hand through her long hair. She remembered stabbing Sui Lin’s snake tail; she remembered the warm blood splattering onto her face.

Blood… she remembered now. She still had dried bloodstains on her face.

Yu Ying rushed into the bathroom like crazy, leaning her hands heavily against the sink. She stared at herself in the mirror, attempting to locate the flaw that proved she was a psychiatric patient.

It seemed as though her illness had grown even more severe…

Yu Ying washed her face with cold water to regain a shred of sanity. She returned to the room, picked up her phone, and searched for headlines related to supernatural entities.

None? How could there be none? Not a single news outlet had reported on the matter, yet she distinctly remembered adding it to her favorites back then.

Strange phenomena have occurred in multiple psychiatric hospitals across Huaxia. Patients uniformly claim to have witnessed supernatural monsters. Experts state that this phenomenon is related to alien mental control, and there is currently no cure available.

Yu Ying vaguely recalled the contents of that report. The news was concealing the truth, and her own memory was likewise concealing the truth—it was as if some supernatural monster was watching her from the shadows, determined to keep her from uncovering the reality of the world.

“The production crew has issued a mission to you. Please proceed to Room 202 to invite Sui Lin to join you for breakfast.”

Black characters materialized on the projector screen, and a robot reminded Yu Ying in a thoroughly mechanical tone.

Sui Lin was injured. Yu Ying could seize this opportunity to inspect Sui Lin’s injuries. If there was a wound on Sui Lin’s snake tail, it would prove that all of this was definitely not Yu Ying’s hallucination.

Yu Ying changed into a heavy, exquisite green Lolita dress and stepped into a pair of retro high heels. The little snake slithered up to Yu Ying’s waist, wrapping around it like a lifelike imitation belt.

Before heading out, Yu Ying put on a pair of black lace gloves to prevent coming into contact with a certain snake’s clammy, sinister aura.

She walked up the spiral staircase, arrived at the door of Room 404, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door.

Knock, knock, knock. Sui Lin had just entered dreamland, falling into Mother’s embrace, when she was awoken by a flurry of urgent knocking. Her beautiful dream shattered completely.

Good heavens, if it weren’t for Mother’s teachings, she would truly love to tear these foolish humans to shreds. In order to successfully find Mother, Sui Lin had no choice but to tuck her tail between her legs and behave like a proper snake.

She crawled out of bed, the underside of her snake tail rubbing across the floorboards, leaving behind a slimy trail. She unlocked the door and forced out a smile with great effort. “Is something the matter?”

Is something the matter? My beautiful young lady, nothing matters enough to dare disturb my sleep. I see you are truly tired of living. Right now, I would absolutely love to swallow you into my belly, allowing your flesh and blood to merge completely with the sour, foul mucous fluids of my stomach.

“I would like to invite you to join me for breakfast.” Yu Ying felt a wave of icy air rushing toward her. She glanced back over her shoulder, but there was nothing there.

She was enveloped by the shadow of a python; the python flicked its tongue to lick her neck, and its shadowy tail wrapped around Yu Ying’s ankles.

These were merely the underhanded, dark tricks of a certain snake; Yu Ying could not perceive the python’s shadow with her naked eyes.

Yu Ying’s gaze fell upon Sui Lin’s snake tail, sweeping across Sui Lin’s scales, but she failed to discover any wound.

She took a step forward to meet Sui Lin’s gaze directly. “Did Teacher Sui Lin happen to get hurt last night? I heard a very strange cry for help and assumed you were injured.”

“I was simply too frightened to come upstairs and ask if you were hurt.” Yu Ying wore a distressed expression, presenting the image of an innocent, delicate flower.

In reality, she was provoking Sui Lin, trying to enrage her—ideally to make Sui Lin fly into a rage out of humiliation and expose her flaw.

Sui Lin gnashed her teeth in fury, but in the next instant, she reverted to a friendly demeanor, flashing a standard, eerie “artificial human” smile at Yu Ying.

Provocation—this was an absolute, blatant provocation. She definitely hadn’t shrieked loudly because of the pain. Sui Lin could not possibly be foolish enough to expose her own identity; she swallowed her rage and prepared to slam the door shut to go back to sleep.

“Can Teacher Sui Lin join me for breakfast?”

Based on Teacher Sui Lin’s behavior of climbing through windows in the middle of the night within her dreams, Yu Ying could deduce that Sui Lin was a nocturnal creature—sleeping during the day and emerging at night to hunt.

“If you wish to sleep a bit longer, it doesn’t matter.” Yu Ying lowered her gaze. “I will just accept the production crew’s punishment in a moment.”

Yu Ying was like a young mouse enticing a snake to slither out of its burrow. She felt a faint sense of anticipation, waiting to see the certain snake fall into the trap and explode with rage out of sheer humiliation.

“I have already slept for eight hours.” Sui Lin walked out of the room, glaring viciously at Yu Ying. “I can join you for breakfast.”

The snakey had been wearing Yu Ying’s bathrobe when she fell asleep last night. Now, she entered the audience’s field of vision clad in the bathrobe. The infrared camera captured the interaction between her and Yu Ying, uploading it to the dating show’s cloud database and synchronizing it to the live stream.