Pampered Little Snake, Give Me a Kiss - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Angry

As they spoke, they had already reached the ground floor.

Out of the corner of her eye, Su Yili saw Song Keling stop her pace. Knowing she intended to end things here, Su Yili looked over first. “I know you’re busy, but you have to eat dinner, right? You’re going to the cafeteria anyway—can you take me with you?”

Song Keling’s gaze fell on her, filled with hesitation. “Senior, you want to eat at the cafeteria?”

“I can try it once in a while,” Su Yili said with a smile. “If you feel bad about it, I know a new local restaurant nearby. You can treat me there once you’re done with your busy schedule~”

She didn’t intend to give up just like that.

Song Keling looked at Senior Su’s beaming face and caught the subtext. She just wasn’t sure if the other was being serious or just offering polite pleasantries. Song Keling pondered silently for a few seconds before finally handing the decision-making power to Su Yili, saying, “If Senior still has time then.”

Su Yili liked this answer. She arched a willow-leaf brow slightly, her smile radiant. “I definitely will! Let’s go~ Which cafeteria is good? It’s been so long since I’ve eaten here, please recommend something delicious to me…”

The various cafeterias at New University were all quite far from the dorms. If she weren’t with Su Yili, Song Keling could have ridden her bike there, gone back and forth in ten minutes, and brought the food back to the dorm. But with Su Yili there, the situation was different. The other was wearing a short skirt today, making it easy to overexpose herself on the back of a bike; furthermore, she clearly intended to chat and browse as they walked the whole way.

Consequently, by the time Song Keling finished eating and returned to the dorm, more than an hour had passed.

While still in the corridor outside the dorm, Song Keling heard her roommate Xu Xinlei’s voice. It sounded like she was talking to someone. Did she bring a friend to the dorm? Remembering the special little snake being kept in her room, Song Keling immediately quickened her pace!

However, as she reached the door to open it, Song Keling realized Xu Xinlei’s “conversation” was strange. She didn’t hear anyone else’s voice; it was only her roommate’s. Having seen Xu Xinlei record vlogs many times, Song Keling’s brow twitched, and she pushed the door open immediately.

The lights in the dorm were bright.

As Song Keling expected, Xu Xinlei was recording a video. But instead of staying in her own area, she was poking her head around Song Keling’s room. Song Keling had turned off the lights when she left; Xu Xinlei certainly knew she wasn’t there.

So, this was…?

Xu Xinlei was also startled by the sound of the door opening. Seeing Song Keling, she immediately clapped a hand over her heart. Having never done anything bad before, she had been caught red-handed on her first try. Her eyes darted around guiltily, trying to use her “startled” state to hide her conscience, but she clearly failed as she started to stammer. “Ke—Keling, why are you back? Don’t you have to go to the lab tonight?”

Song Keling: “I forgot my phone. I came back to get it.”

“Oh, oh…” Xu Xinlei gripped her selfie stick tight, trying to shuffle to the side and inconspicuously turn her position back, hoping to pretend nothing had happened.

Song Keling didn’t cooperate, asking directly: “Is there a reason you’re in my room?”

Xu Xinlei: “!!”

“I didn’t go in, I didn’t go in!!” Xu Xinlei clarified hurriedly, turning off her phone recording. Under Song Keling’s gaze, she added, “I was just standing at the door taking a look…”

Song Keling knew there was nothing much to see in her room, except for a certain “little friend.” She had no intention of making Xu Xinlei feel cornered, so she didn’t use a confrontational tone, simply asking back: “Aren’t you afraid of snakes?”

“I am…”

Seeing that Xu Xinlei didn’t deny it, Song Keling asked, “Then you still dare to come look alone?”

“No, I just wanted to film some video from a distance.” At the mention of this, Xu Xinlei’s tone instantly became cheerful and excited. “Keling, my vlog from the Xuetai internship went viral! It blew up because I filmed that little snake of yours. In just two days, it hit the trending list, and I gained nearly 30,000 followers! 30,000 in two days! Do you know what that means? I’ve been making makeup transformation videos for over a year and only have 200,000 followers!”

Song Keling said “Congratulations” while walking toward her room. Xu Xinlei tried to follow her in, but seeing Song Keling raise her hand to close the door, she said quickly, “Hey, wait.”

Song Keling held the doorknob, looking down at Xu Xinlei with an expressionless gaze. Her barefoot height was nearly 170cm; with shoes on, she was much taller than the 160cm Xu Xinlei. Xu Xinlei looked up at her; the lack of expression made it unclear if Song Keling was angry about her behavior.

Xu Xinlei hesitated but pushed for it anyway. “Keling, could you let me film the little snake?” Before Song Keling could speak, she explained hurriedly, “Just for a few seconds. It wasn’t clear in the last vlog because I was scared and stood pretty far away. Now many fans in the comments are asking for close-up photos.” She continued in a low voice, pleading, “I’ll just film a short clip, okay?”

Xu Xinlei knew Song Keling was into girls, and she knew that to people from Xincheng, she was a standard Southern girl. Once when they were chatting, she had asked Song Keling what her first impression of her was. Song Keling had thought about it and said plainly that her voice was very soft, like melting ice cream. Xu Xinlei took it as a compliment. After all, what else could describing a girl’s voice as “sweet” be?

So now, she unconsciously used a coquettish tone to plead. But Xu Xinlei didn’t know that Song Keling actually didn’t like eating ice cream. She didn’t like things so cloyingly sweet that they made her throat feel sticky for ages.

Thus, Song Keling only frowned. As usual, she was straightforward—if it was a no, it was a no. She refused: “No.”

Xu Xinlei asked immediately, “Why? It’s just for a moment, a few seconds. The snake won’t lose any meat.”

Song Keling said, “Qianqian’s situation is very special. It’s not suitable for you to put her online. Besides, I’m not the owner raising her; I’m just taking care of her temporarily. I’ll be releasing her again in a while.”

Xu Xinlei said, “That doesn’t matter! I can go to Xuetai with you to release her!”

Song Keling: “Just to film content?”

“…” Xu Xinlei didn’t argue, simply clasping her hands together in a pleading gesture.

Song Keling looked at her roommate in silence. She was wondering: if she didn’t agree, would Xu Xinlei turn around and report her to the dorm supervisor for keeping a venomous, dangerous animal? After all, they were just roommates; their friendship wasn’t particularly deep. At this thought, Song Keling’s eyes darkened slightly. Forget not having a deep friendship—even if they did, once interests were involved and they were at odds, a falling out could happen in an instant.

“Ten seconds.” Song Keling finally compromised, but added a condition: “Only phone recording, no flash photography, and don’t speak too loudly, or you’ll scare her.”

Excited, Xu Xinlei agreed wholeheartedly: “Mhm, okay, okay, okay!”

However, Xu Xinlei was happy too soon. Because Song Keling was only the temporary caretaker, not the one being photographed. Her nodding in agreement was actually quite useless.

Inside the luxurious reptile enclosure, nothing could be seen. Xu Xinlei adjusted various angles, becoming anxious, until she finally saw a tiny bit of snake tail—as thin as a strand of hair—inside the stone hide.

“Keling, hurry and call it out.” Xu Xinlei took out her phone to adjust the settings while calling to Song Keling.

Song Keling raised her hand and tapped her finger on the box. But whether Qianqian was sleeping or something else, the tiny snake tail only gave an imperceptible twitch and didn’t move again.

“Qianqian. Qianqian?” Song Keling sat down and tapped gently again with her finger.

Xu Xinlei, standing by: “Let me!” She raised her hand to knock on the top of the box but was stopped by Song Keling. “She’s probably sleeping. Don’t disturb her. It’ll be the same if you film tomorrow.”

“But won’t you be very busy soon?” Xu Xinlei felt it didn’t need to be that much trouble, saying, “Why don’t you just grab her out so I can film for a bit?”

Song Keling: “?” She looked at Xu Xinlei with a frown. Song Keling emphasized: “She is a venomous snake.”

Xu Xinlei: “I know! But isn’t that Five-Paced Viper you’re researching also highly venomous? You dare to grab that with your hands…”

Song Keling pursed her lips, her face turning cold. She looked at the little white snake hiding in the hide, refusing to come out. “That’s different.”

“I told you, Qianqian’s situation is very special.”

Seeing that Song Keling seemed unhappy, Xu Xinlei immediately put down her phone. “Okay, okay, tomorrow then. I was just worried you’d be too busy and didn’t want to trouble you. Will you be back tomorrow at noon? Or in the morning?”

“Evening.”

“Mhm, okay. Keling, thank you~” Xu Xinlei happily agreed, gave Song Keling a greeting, and went back to her own room.

After Xu Xinlei left and the sound of her footsteps was closed behind another door, Song Keling leaned close to the enclosure. She tapped gently with her knuckles and called again: “Qianqian?”

The little snake inside the hide gave no reaction; it didn’t even bother to move its tail for her. This was unprecedented. Even during the “sensitive period” before, Qianqian would react to her voice and scent. Furthermore, this was supposed to be the snake’s most active time. Not long ago, it had been frantically shaking its tail to threaten Senior Su Yili.

Uh… It couldn’t possibly be angry just because she had been gone for over an hour, could it?

As soon as the absurd thought appeared, Song Keling dismissed it. How was that possible? Leave aside the fact that snakes don’t have emotions—even if they did, she had been away for much longer during classes before, and she’d never seen Qianqian like this. Could it be sick? Or had it accidentally injured itself while playing in the box?!

At this thought, Song Keling couldn’t help but feel anxious. She took out her snake hook, found her gloves to put on, and then opened the box to remove the hide. Qianqian’s tiny teeth wouldn’t easily pierce a thick glove, though there was still a risk. But if Qianqian wanted to bite her, she’d had a thousand chances on the way back to Xincheng.

Song Keling successfully removed the hide. She saw the snow-white, index-finger-thick snake with its scales slightly raised. The cool and cute little snake was coiled up, hiding in the winding tunnels inside the stone. Song Keling looked around and only saw its body and tail; that tiny round head was nowhere to be seen. It was clearly buried inside its coiled body.

From what she could see, it didn’t look injured. Song Keling put down the snake hook and, with her ungloved hand, gently touched the tiny tip of the tail that was exposed. Upon being touched, Qianqian immediately pulled its tail in an inch.

Song Keling touched it again, and the tail shrank in another inch. If it shrank any further, it would be too short to touch. Song Keling wanted to gently pinch the cool, thin tail to pull it out a little, but in the next instant, she saw a drooping little forehead slowly emerge from within.

Not only was the tiny snake head hanging low and listless, but even its two proud, magnificent horn scales had collapsed downward. It looked as though it were heartbroken, having suffered an immense grievance.

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