Chapter 491 - 247: A Snake Has Its Ways

Chapter 491: Chapter 247: A Snake Has Its Ways

The vice squad was about to depart.

In a fit of rage, the Red King was leading his team to the brothel to furiously drum up some "business."

Just before they left, everyone stood ready. Zheng Xiu walked into the inn’s courtyard and looked up. He saw a slender figure curled up on the roof, hugging their knees, basking alone in the moonlight.

Recalling Snake’s strange behavior during dinner, Zheng Xiu thought for a moment. Then, using his hands and feet, he stealthily scrambled up a Pillar to the roof. Treading lightly on the tiles, he crept closer to Snake.

But before Zheng Xiu could get close, Snake, her back still to him, spoke without turning her head. "Stop hiding," she said sullenly. "I heard you ages ago."

"MEOW!"

On Zheng Xiu’s head, the Orange Cat let out a mocking meow. Humiliated, Zheng Xiu slapped it hard on its rear.

"SLAP!"

The Orange Cat was stunned.

Zheng Xiu sat down next to Snake.

"Come on, Sister Ye is calling for you."

Zheng Xiu maintained his deliberately childlike tone. Since Snake and Ye seemed to like his "Little Horse Red King" persona, he figured he might as well interact with them with a child’s disposition.

"I’m not going, not going, not going!"

Snake shook her head vigorously.

"But your sister said..."

"You’re so annoying!" Snake shook her head impatiently, a HISS escaping her lips from time to time. "If you want to go, just go! I’m staying here. Why don’t you all just go with my sister? It’s not like it matters. After all, she’s the pretty one. Everyone likes my sister."

"Let me tell you a little bedtime story."

The young man fell silent for a moment, then suddenly grinned. Snake was growing impatient and was about to refuse, but he had already begun the story.

"Once upon a time, a husband and wife bought an old horse. They were overjoyed and rode it together down the street."

Snake instantly fell quiet, her pointed ears twitching slightly.

’Maybe I could make a decent Storyteller,’

Zheng Xiu thought to himself and continued:

"A passerby saw them and started wagging his finger. ’My, my, those two are terrible people! Look, they’re about to break that poor old horse’s back!’"

Zheng Xiu perfectly mimicked the disgusting, gossipy tone of a nosy bystander.

"The couple heard this and felt ashamed. So the wife got off, leaving the husband to ride alone. But then, another passerby started criticizing them: ’That old man is a beast! Riding the horse himself while making his wife walk and lead it. He should be ashamed!’"

Snake snorted.

"So, the couple had no choice but to switch. The wife got on the horse, and the husband led it. But then, another passerby pointed at the wife and jeered, ’What a shrew! She has no sense of propriety, daring to make her husband lead the horse!’"

The short bedtime story resonated with Snake. Zheng Xiu paused deliberately, and she couldn’t help but chime in, "Then they should just both not ride it, big deal!"

"Exactly," Zheng Xiu said, stifling a laugh as he revealed the ending. "So they both dismounted and walked beside the horse. Finally, the passersby saw this and burst out laughing, clutching their sides. ’This couple is so stupid! They bought a horse and they don’t even know to ride it!’"

Snake frowned, her round pupils narrowing into vertical slits. She tilted her head, and it seemed as if her tongue was flicking beneath her veil. "Hiss... What’s your point with this story?"

"Ahem, I don’t mean anything by it. The story just shows that people tend to only see your flaws and ignore your good qualities. Take... my uncle, the Red King. People only see his wealth and his immense power, but they overlook his diligence, his kindness, his integrity, and his friendly nature."

Snake let out a snicker, amused. "Is the Red King your father or something? The way you defend him."

"Anyway," Zheng Xiu concluded, "it doesn’t matter if someone’s ugly. Having a kind heart is what’s most important."

Snake’s eyes went wide.

A sudden, awkward silence fell over them.

The Orange Cat speechlessly covered its eyes with its paws and leaped off the young man’s head.

After a moment of silence, Snake let out a sudden cry. She flipped over and pinned the young man under her, her anger boiling over. "I’ll bite you to death!" she snarled. With that, she lunged forward. Her veil lifted at the corner, revealing fine scales that shimmered a faint silver in the moonlight. The sight of the densely packed scales stunned Zheng Xiu. In that split second of hesitation, Snake sank her teeth into his cheek.

Zheng Xiu felt a slight stinging pain. When Snake pulled away, she left two small teeth marks on his cheek, and his entire face went numb.

"You..."

[You fiercely resisted the snake venom. Your Constitution has been slightly tempered.]

[Through unyielding effort, you have struggled on the brink of life and death multiple times, causing your Constitution to improve.]

[Constitution +1.]

[Constitution increased to thirty-nine.]

The experience points appeared out of thin air, catching him completely off guard. It left Zheng Xiu dumbfounded. He couldn’t help but ask, "Want to bite me a few more times?"

Zheng Xiu’s fluent response left Snake gaping. She pointed at his mouth, dumbstruck. "You’re... not poisoned?"

The poison she used wasn’t lethal, but it should have paralyzed his mouth and tongue, rendering him speechless.

Yet after her bite, Zheng Xiu was still enunciating perfectly, showing no signs of being poisoned. This made Snake wonder if she’d missed her mark. Or was his skin just too thick for her fangs to penetrate?

’A miscalculation,’

Snake thought with bitter regret.

Just then, Ye’s gentle voice drifted up from below. "Stop fooling around, Snake."

Ye, Xi’er, Situ Yong, Jun Buxiao, and Yin Qingqing were all dressed and assembled in the courtyard below. On Zheng Xiu’s instructions, Jun Buxiao and Situ Yong had shed their work uniforms for plain clothes. They had to at least look the part of men going to a brothel for pleasure.

Zheng Xiu called it a "vice squad sting operation."

Situ Yong played the part best. He was dressed in a gaudy, colorful brocade robe, his white hair tied back with a gold band, and a jade pendant hanging from his waist. To the uninformed, he didn’t look like the world-renowned Elder Divine Doctor at all. Instead, he was the spitting image of a wealthy old gentleman who spent his days lingering in the company of women.