Do You Want a Wife or Not?

Xuan Si left and did not return until dark.

The scholar leaned against the cave wall, curling up in silence. His clothes were draped around him, and the wet and cold feeling made him somewhat uncomfortable.

There were many snakes on Snake Mountain, but it had been recorded in miscellaneous books that only a few species of snakes had something on their tails and secreted snake fluid when showing favour to their mates. Xuan Si was probably the type of snake that turned into a demon. At first, he hadn’t known about snake fluid or how it works, and later he discovered that Xuan Si used it to nourish his body.

In addition, he found that this method of attracting mates also aroused his latent desire.

When he had still been teaching in the village, he had lost control several times because of the snake fluid left by Xuan Si.

Those days in the cave were all spent with Xuan Si taking care of him, Xuan Si would help him clean up. He hadn’t suffered too much in this regard. But this time, he didn’t satisfy Xuan Si. Xuan Si left again, and he had to deal with the rest of the snake fluid himself.

The scholar glanced at the dim light at the entrance of the cave in embarrassment and lowered his eyelashes.

Even if Xuan Si was gone, things still had to be done.

After a long time, there were more rustling sounds in the cave. It was the scholar who untied his clothes again and washed himself. He leaned against the cave wall and raised his head slightly. He narrowed his eyes during the movement, and his long legs hung down in the pool beside him, moving slightly in pain.

As he lowered his eyes and looked at himself by the pool, he noticed that the snake scales on his body had clearly grown again, and they were even more numerous than when he had been in the village. Every time he was approached by Xuan Si, there would be more traces of snake scales on his body, but they were not real scales at that time.

This was proof that he had been chosen by the snake demon.

He didn’t want to have sex with Xuan Si, he was afraid that snake scales would appear all over his body in twos and threes and would never fade away. The mark that declared to the world that he had once been the snake’s wife would completely make him lose the possibility of living a normal life. He was afraid, afraid that he would have nothing after Xuan Si left.

But in fact, he already had nothing.

Xuan Si’s arrival had caused his only remaining shabby house to be burned to ruins. Xuan Si was gone, but those scales wouldn’t completely fade away with the passage of time.

The scholar lowered his head and looked at his fingers, then suddenly reached out and persistently used his nails to pick off the scales. The skin where the scales had grown was rough, as hard as nails, and they couldn’t be removed at all. Instead, traces of blood appeared, with a little bit of pain.

He frowned in pain, a little angry, and asked why he wasn’t like a human being, and why a snake wasn’t like a snake. If he were a human being, he shouldn’t live in a cave. If he were a snake, he wouldn’t be afraid of Xuan Si losing him. It just so happened that he looked like both a man and a snake, making it difficult for him to choose any path.

He simply grabbed the dagger used to bleed chickens by the haystack, pierced the snake’s scales, and cut them off abruptly. Blood came out immediately, but this seemed to make the scholar’s depressed heart feel much better. He used the dagger to peel off the snake scales on his chest. Along the black scales, he opened the wound with the dagger and peeled off most of the piece.

He dug out the scales, stood up staggeringly, put on his clothes, and walked outside.

.

When Xuan Si came back again, he saw the scholar’s clothes stained with blood, laying outside the cave.

The scholar’s forehead was hot, and his eyes were in a trance. He didn’t react at all when he was picked up by Xuan Si. He just frowned, as if he wasn’t used to the feeling of being suspended in the air.

“Wife?” Xuan Si called anxiously.

It had only been a few hours since he last saw him, but the scholar seemed to be back to the way he was when he had been in the Snake Immortal Temple—confused and lacking energy. Even with blood dripping from his body, he didn’t seem to know the pain.

He thought that Xuan Si had chosen to leave because he was unwilling to be with him. Now that Xuan Si was gone, he had wanted to leave the cave and live among others like a normal person, but he knew in his heart that he wouldn’t be accepted by anyone.

So, he had cut off all the snake scales on his body and walked into the forest with bare feet.

After the scholar came out of the cave, the smell of blood attracted many jackals, their green eyes staring eagerly in the darkness, all wanting to feast on the scholar’s flesh. However, due to the scent of the snake demon on the scholar’s body, they had not come close until now.

But the scholar’s body was already losing a lot of blood. When Xuan Si saw this, he flicked his tail. The strength of the thousand-year-old demon made all the beasts at night retreat. He picked up the scholar and hissed softly, as if for the first time, he seemed nervous. He swam quickly, heading toward the cave.

“Wife…”

“You don’t have a wife,” the scholar didn’t resist when he was hugged. He just murmured, “Xuan Si has left. He doesn’t have a wife anymore.”

Xuan Si brushed away the scholar’s broken hair with his fingertips and looked at the pale face, as if he wanted to explain: “Xuan Si, the body is uncomfortable. It has been resolved, and he has not left.”

“You are leaving,” the scholar just opened his eyes and said calmly in Xuan Si’s arms, “You will leave sooner or later.”