Encountering a Snake - Chapter 24

v2c24

By the oil lamp, Ji Jiu leaned over the desk, painting. Due to the warming weather, some small insects had appeared. They either flew through the cracks in the door and window or had never really left the room, swirling around the oil lamp, as if the flame held some mysterious allure, even making them fearless of the danger of being burned.

They flew wildly. This was the thought that floated in Ji Jiu’s mind when he raised his eyes and saw those small, swirling shadows.

Unable to resist, Ji Jiu used the brush handle to flick the flame. The fire wobbled, and several insects perished in an instant. The others scattered for a moment, but when Ji Jiu withdrew the brush handle, they gathered around again.

Moths to the flame. Ji Jiu watched for a long time.

Yi Mo walked over and cast a small spell. The dim light immediately brightened, resembling daylight. Ji Jiu glanced at him, then lowered his head to continue painting. This time, he was painting a landscape, and in the bright light, he straightened his back slightly, no longer needing to lean on the desk.

Yi Mo stood silently to the side, watching, observing his hand, his brush, as distant mountains and near waters gradually appeared on the paper, along with a small village and curling smoke. When Ji Jiu was about to finish, Yi Mo asked, “Where is this place?”

“My mother’s hometown,” Ji Jiu replied, adding the final stroke. Then, he remembered to ask, “Where is your hometown?”

Yi Mo thought for a long while before shaking his head. “I don’t remember.”

Ji Jiu paused in surprise, then quickly said, “You can forget something like this, but how could you forget Shen Qingxuan?” He blurted it out without thinking, and both of them froze for a moment.

“Do you want me to forget him?” Yi Mo asked.

“Forget him, you should do your own thing,” Ji Jiu replied.

“Do what?”

“Become an immortal, that’s what you should do.”

Yi Mo fell silent.

The ink on the painting slowly dried as he remained silent. Ji Jiu rolled it up and set it aside, then spread a new sheet of paper. He picked up his brush but hesitated, as if he didn’t know what to paint.

Yi Mo then spoke, “I don’t remember much about my hometown, I only remember what it looked like during the peach blossom season every year.” As he spoke, he picked up a brush from the rack. Ji Jiu moved aside to let him.

Yi Mo slightly leaned forward, his head bowed, long hair cascading down, obscuring his face and expression. He held the brush carefully and began to paint.

Ji Jiu’s view was blocked by Yi Mo’s long hair, unable to see the direction of the brush, but he vaguely felt that this demon even had exceptional painting skills. Unable to resist his curiosity, he walked over to see.

The white paper first filled with black ink, then small red dots appeared, each one round and varying in shape. He didn’t paint a single peach blossom. Yet Ji Jiu could clearly see the peach buds blooming all over the mountains.

Yi Mo put down his brush and said, “Come here.”

Ji Jiu walked over, and Yi Mo pulled him in front of him, embracing him from behind. “Look,” he said, and with a flick of his long sleeve, the red dots on the paper seemed to be brushed by the wind, gently trembling, and then gradually blossomed.

The mountains and fields were covered in peach blossoms, blooming brilliantly like clouds and sunset, ten miles of peach blossoms.

Ji Jiu had never seen such a sight. He gasped softly, unable to say a word. It was too beautiful, so beautiful that there were no words.

The peach blossoms continued to bloom, each one competing to open. When they reached their peak, the petals fell. The falling petals were a brilliant sight, breathtaking.

Yi Mo whispered in his ear, “Is it beautiful?”

Ji Jiu stared at the painting without blinking, nodding.

“But,” Yi Mo tightened his arms around Ji Jiu’s waist and whispered, “I only want to paint peach blossoms all over your body.” Yi Mo said, and his hand on Ji Jiu’s waist slowly began to caress and gradually move downward, across the curve of his waist, to his rounded hips. Through the long robes and undergarments, his fingers slid between the crevice, and he murmured, “Then enter your body from here, as if returning to my hometown.”

Yi Mo’s voice was deep yet calm, without any emotion. He didn’t realize what he was saying but expressed what he was thinking honestly. Ji Jiu’s body stiffened instinctively at his touch, his ears suddenly flushing as those words fell.

Yi Mo didn’t know that these were the most obscene and beautiful words Ji Jiu had ever heard.

—You are my hometown.

Ji Jiu came back to himself quickly and pushed him away, his face red, though there was a strange brightness in his eyes. Only he knew how fast his heart was beating, as though it might leap out of his throat, impossible to suppress.

But when he walked to the window and pushed open the wooden frame, his heart gradually calmed down.

Ji Jiu said, “The one who made you feel like you were returning home is no longer here. Are you going to keep looking for this longing for home?” After a pause, he added, “Even if you find it, it will only last for a few decades, and before long, you’ll still have to part. If he reincarnates as a moth to the flame, born and dying within the same day. Where will you find him then?”

Ji Jiu continued, “Let go of yourself.”

Yi Mo was stunned for a moment, then said, “I thought that today, you would let me let go of you.”

Ji Jiu turned his face and looked at him quietly, saying, “You can’t trap me. The only one who can trap me is myself.”

Little did he know, this sentence echoed the words Yi Mo had said over a hundred years ago when discussing the life and death of demons: “Only the demon itself can kill it.”

Ji Jiu had no memory of it, but Yi Mo did.

Yi Mo said, “Is it because you feel guilty towards me? Is this guilt what traps you?”

Ji Jiu thought for a moment, then unexpectedly shook his head.

Ji Jiu said, “I don’t owe you anything. There’s no need to feel guilty.”

“Hmm?”

“Your relationship with Shen Qingxuan is your own business. You’ve been searching for him for over a hundred years, searching for his reincarnation, that too is your own matter. Not becoming an immortal and getting lost in the human world is your own choice. In all this, I, Ji Jiu, did not instigate anything, and in fact, I wasn’t even involved. So I don’t owe you anything, and there’s no need for any guilt.” After a glance at him, Ji Jiu knew that he had overheard their conversation from earlier. Although one should not eavesdrop, it seemed these standards didn’t apply to demons, so he let it go. He continued, “I don’t want to be entangled with Madam in this matter.” Then added, “It’s not so much guilt as it is sorrow.”

But these words, if spoken to Madam, she wouldn’t understand and would only keep pestering him, so it was better to resolve it simply. Even if there were guilt, that guilt was not for Yi Mo, but for Madam. Because of Yi Mo’s sudden appearance, it made him troubled, and since then, he couldn’t give her the normal love between a man and a woman anymore. It was impossible not to feel guilty. But these words, Ji Jiu could not say to anyone; in this lifetime, they could only remain buried in his heart.

Yi Mo asked, “What are you so sad about?”

Ji Jiu replied, “It’s hard to say. Although I know I don’t owe you anything, I still feel deeply saddened. I think I should be good to you, but I should also be bad to you. But ‘good’ has limits, while ‘bad’ has no boundaries. You’d better stop thinking about becoming an immortal. I can’t accompany you for many more years. Even if there is another reincarnation, Ji Jiu dies, and Shen Qingxuan won’t be reborn. Whoever you find will just be a stranger, someone who will treat you with boundaries.”

Yi Mo was about to say something, but Ji Jiu shut the window and walked to the bed to lay out the bedding, not wanting to continue the conversation.

That night was destined for something to happen. Years of living with hidden dangers had honed Ji Jiu’s instinct to sense the lurking danger. So, by saying all these things, he was only trying to mitigate that danger.

He couldn’t clearly understand what the danger was, but perhaps he could avoid it by chance.

If he could avoid it, maybe this kind of life could continue, and he could keep this demon by his side, giving him kindness with boundaries. He tried his best not to hurt him.

But that night, when Ji Jiu woke up from his sleep and sensed the movements of the person behind him, he knew that this kind of life was over.

Ji Jiu called, “Yi Mo.”

His voice was not harsh; he kept his composure, even with a hint of pleading, more of it being suppressed. The forced memories, though he wished to forget them, were already deeply engraved in his body, and his subconscious had already remembered them. He couldn’t be with him in that way. When he was held, he could still endure it, but when his inner clothes were unbuttoned and pants removed, the humiliation and shame buried in the dark corners of his mind once again woke up and broke free. Ji Jiu struggled desperately, trying to control himself from losing control, attempting to negotiate, saying, “Let me go.”

Yi Mo, however, held him firmly, and at the same time, he whispered, “You like it, why not?”

Once again, Ji Jiu was reminded that even when forced by someone of the same gender, he still had feelings. The shred of rationality he had fought to maintain turned to smoke, disappearing suddenly.

Yi Mo knew that he was unwilling but did not plan to stop. For so long, whenever he was a bit affectionate, Ji Jiu would stiffen, and his body would grow cold. His resistance had never shown any signs of fading with time. Yi Mo didn’t know why this was.

Even though he could vaguely guess something, he wasn’t willing to think too much about it or admit it.

Yi Mo flipped the desperately struggling Ji Jiu over and then pressed him down tightly, making sure he could no longer move or escape. He held Ji Jiu tightly, but what appeared in his mind was Shen Qingxuan, blushing underneath him, yet never resisting.

Even after a busy day, so exhausted that he could barely keep his eyes open, Shen Qingxuan would still open his body to accommodate him.

The hard object rubbing between their legs made Ji Jiu fall silent. After one final struggle, which was still in vain, he knew the person on top of him had no intention of letting him go. Ji Jiu could almost feel the cold air seeping from his pores, spreading like light mist, freezing him from the inside out.

Ji Jiu’s head tilted weakly on the pillow, and he murmured, “Don’t force me.” Then he closed his eyes.

Yi Mo froze for a moment, lowered his eyelids, and kissed his neck as though comforting him, whispering, “Don’t be afraid.”

Ji Jiu didn’t respond to him.

In the end, Yi Mo gave up. He didn’t force himself on him like before, instead rubbing himself against Ji Jiu’s legs, against the crack of his hips and the inner side of his thighs. He didn’t know, though, that these actions to Ji Jiu were just as unpleasant as direct invasion, and in fact, they felt more obscene.

Afterward, Yi Mo lay on top of him, burying his head in Ji Jiu’s neck, leaving marks on his skin, one after another, endlessly deep and shallow. But these kiss marks would soon fade. Just like the intimacy, no matter how lingering or intense the process, everything would stop with the release of their fluids, like water flowing over the body, leaving no trace. The heat would dissipate, the kiss marks would disappear, and the people who accompanied them would eventually die.

Yi Mo didn’t know what he could hold on to.

At this moment, Ji Jiu, who had remained silent all this time, finally seized a moment of Yi Mo’s carelessness, flipping him over and tossing the man off his back.

That night, Ji Jiu’s eyes were like those of a beast on the brink of despair, filled with a soul-shaking hopelessness.

So, when his slap came, Yi Mo, staring into those eyes, actually forgot to dodge.

Ji Jiu’s hand had killed before. With a drawn bow, it could shoot a target from a hundred paces away.

He slapped Yi Mo with the strength of a killer.

Yi Mo’s head tilted to the side. When he turned back to face him, he saw Ji Jiu’s dim eyes and heard Ji Jiu say:

“You disgust me.”