“Xue, his name is A-Dai. If you give him a random nickname, he might get upset!” Jin Lin smiled innocently, kindly reminding her.
“Alright, A-Dai. What should I do to make sure A-Dai doesn’t bite me?!”
“Hmm—” Jin Lin rested his chin on his hand, deep in thought. Yun Qingxue stared at him eagerly. Although Jin Lin naturally exuded an air of foolishness, right now, aside from this fool, she had no one else to rely on!
“There is a way to ensure he won’t harm you…”
“What way?” Yun Qingxue’s eyes lit up, but Jin Lin hesitated and didn’t speak immediately.
Though anxious, Yun Qingxue didn’t press him.
“This method… is quite difficult…”
Finally, Jin Lin began to explain slowly. Yun Qingxue listened intently, her ears perked up. This was a matter of life and death—she had to pay close attention, even if it was just nonsense.
“You see… since A-Dai hasn’t reached the stage of transformation yet, you can form a pact with him, making him acknowledge you as his master. That way, he won’t be able to harm you…”
“But don’t underestimate A-Dai just because he’s a small snake who hasn’t transformed. This little guy is inherently proud. I’ve been taking care of him since he hatched, but he’s never agreed to form a pact with me…”
Jin Lin glanced at Yun Qingxue. “So, even though he seems to like you, given his arrogant nature, he probably won’t agree to form a pact with you either…”
“Hiss!”
Before Jin Lin could finish, Yun Qingxue felt a sharp pain in her wrist and gasped. Looking down, her face paled in terror.
The little venomous snake A-Dai, who had been feigning sleep moments ago, had suddenly bitten her wrist right at the artery. Blood gushed from the wound.
“Am I going to die?!” Yun Qingxue looked at Jin Lin in desperation. “Is there an antidote?”
No one answered her.
Jin Lin, who had been enthusiastically explaining how to form a pact with A-Dai just moments ago, now stood frozen, his eyes fixed on Yun Qingxue’s wrist.
As Jin Lin stared blankly at her wrist, Yun Qingxue stared at his face, interpreting his dazed expression as sympathy and helplessness.
This damn snake! Feeling like her time was running out, anger surged in Yun Qingxue’s heart. She reached out with her other hand to grab A-Dai, who was still coiled around her wrist.
“A-Dai! You ungrateful little—!”
Before Yun Qingxue could grab A-Dai, a heart-wrenching, furious howl erupted from the attic.
Startled by Jin Lin’s sudden outburst, Yun Qingxue froze mid-motion and instinctively looked up at him.
Jin Lin, who had been staring blankly at her wrist moments ago, now wore an expression of utter devastation. His clear eyes brimmed with the sorrow of a jilted lover as he gazed at her bitten wrist—or more precisely, at A-Dai still coiled around it—his face a picture of exaggerated despair.
“After all I’ve done for you since the day you hatched—caring for you, teaching you… I thought you were just proud, independent, and hated being bound… But you, you heartless, fickle little snake! You go and form a master-servant pact right in front of me with a girl you’ve only met twice!”
He pounded his chest dramatically, the very image of a scorned lover. “If I’d known you’d betray me like this, I should’ve steamed you into snake soup the day you hatched!”
“Um… excuse me,” Yun Qingxue interjected, catching the key point in Jin Lin’s rant.
His lamentations stopped abruptly. Jin Lin blinked at her, wiping nonexistent tears from his eyes, his mood shifting like magic. “What is it, Xue?”
“Who did A-Dai form a pact with?” Yun Qingxue asked, her voice a mix of shock and tension, as if she’d won the lottery but feared it was a dream.
Jin Lin blinked. “You.”
“Me?!” Yun Qingxue pointed at herself.
Jin Lin pouted. “When that little snake bit your wrist just now, he smeared your blood on his seventh inch and let it merge into his body. That sealed the master-servant pact. It means he now acknowledges you as his master.”
“So… the bite won’t hurt me?” Yun Qingxue felt a wave of relief, as if she’d narrowly escaped death.
“Of course not! You’re his master now—how could he harm you?” Jin Lin glared at A-Dai. “Stupid snake! Ungrateful brat!”
He’d raised the little snake for nearly two centuries! As the Dragon King of the Water Tribe, he’d treated A-Dai like royalty—only for the snake to betray him for a girl he’d met twice! The injustice!
“Hiss—hiss—!”
A-Dai, hearing Jin Lin’s insults, raised his body defiantly. His beady black eyes locked onto Jin Lin as he flicked his tongue, his tiny head held high, radiating an air of “I do what I want!”—completely disregarding Jin Lin’s outrage.
While the two bickered, Yun Qingxue examined her bitten wrist again. A-Dai was still coiled there, glaring at Jin Lin with his beady eyes. The two puncture marks from the bite had vanished without a trace, leaving her skin flawless—no blood, no scars.
Though her body had remarkable healing abilities, wounds usually took a full day to disappear. The speed at which A-Dai’s bite healed made Yun Qingxue wonder if the entire incident—the bite, the pact—had been an illusion.
Her hand, frozen earlier by Jin Lin’s outburst, reached for A-Dai again. She pinched his tiny body and lifted him off her wrist.
A-Dai’s beady eyes turned mournful as he looked at Yun Qingxue. He’d been in the middle of a staring contest with his former caretaker, the Dragon King, but his new master’s casual grip shattered his dignity. Suddenly, he felt like a “short, ugly loser”—all his pride crumbling in her grasp.
But as the saying goes, “Lose the battle, not the war.” Though unintentionally “betrayed” by his new master, A-Dai still flicked his tongue defiantly at Jin Lin.
Holding A-Dai in her hand, Yun Qingxue inspected her wrist once more. Truly… not a single mark remained.
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