Chapter 25 You are my little snake, you must obey my commands. ...

Shu Qing had expected Jiu Su to deny it outright, or at least show some panic, but he didn't at all. He didn't even make a single crease in the paper peach blossoms in his hands, and continued folding paper with a leisurely air. He just raised his eyes and revealed that very familiar half-smile.

"How did you know?" Jiu Su asked calmly. "Did he tell you?"

Shu Qing held the flower, stared at him expressionlessly for a moment, and said, "No, I was just guessing at first, but now I'm sure."

Jiu Su smiled and said, "Where did I give myself away?"

"What do you think?" Shu Qing listed them off one by one, "First, the wound on your foot... We're together every day, even if you use illusion magic to cover it up, I can still see it. What a coincidence that you have a wound on your foot that you covered up with illusion magic, and Little Red's tail also has a wound? Don't tell me there isn't one, there's blood on the branch you soaked in the water, I'm an artist, I have sharp eyes!"

She took out the small crystal pendant that resembled a white rose from her bosom. The pendant was still sparkling, but one petal had turned light gray, like a withered petal.

“These are your scales, aren’t they?” she asked. “You made them for me from your scales?”

Jiu Su avoided the topic, "Just because of that?"

This is essentially tantamount to tacit agreement.

"Of course not! There's also the fact that Xiao Hong must have disappeared before Jiu Su appeared; you always replied to my messages when I couldn't see Xiao Hong; you and Jin Wanli were both injured by the formation in that video, but I didn't react; not to mention Jin Wanli's various attempts to cover up his true feelings."

Shu Qing sat down next to him. "In short, there are quite a few signs. If you pay attention, you can notice them. Besides, you said the other day that you wanted me to treat it as if you owed me a debt... Is that possible? I'm not the kind of person who would allow someone to owe me a debt and not pay it back. I only managed to get away with Xiao Hong by paying off her debt with her body. What you're doing is not much different from self-destruction, is it?"

Jiu Su remained silent, a faint smile playing on his lips. His expression was so complex that Shu Qing couldn't tell what he was thinking.

For a moment, she was at a loss for how to continue. Her silver tongue froze briefly, and the two remained in an awkward stalemate for a while.

At first, she was still concerned about the fact that "Jiu Su is Xiao Hong," but in the awkward silence, many memories belatedly flooded into her mind. Shu Qing recalled that when she first found Xiao Hong, she had even taken a bath in front of him. Let alone continuing to communicate, she wished she could find a crack in the ground to crawl into.

She even kissed Xiao Hong!

No wonder Jiu Su explicitly and implicitly told her not to treat Xiao Hong like a small animal, but to see it as a person...

He shouldn't be too tactful. Can't he just say it directly about something so important?

Jiu Su watched as Shu Qing's face turned from white to red. Although he didn't know what she was thinking, his keen animal instincts told him that he couldn't let the silence continue. So he coughed lightly and said, "I thought you would have many questions for me."

Shu Qing seized this opportunity and quickly passed the buck back: "I was thinking... you're not actually the little monster that hatched in my refrigerator?"

"I suppose so," Jiu Su said, downplaying the issue. "I am a demon who has died once. When I died, my soul was not destroyed, and what was reborn was just a new demon body."

Shu Qingxin said: No wonder he is so secretive about his age.

It's hard to say about mental age, but as for physical age... well...

Why did you die once?

“For no reason,” Jiu Su looked at her and answered casually, “I’m just not as skilled as others.”

Shu Qing said "Oh," genuinely afraid that Jiu Su's claim of "dying once" was related to her. There was no way around it; his appearances in her inexplicable dreams were far too frequent, not to mention Jin Wanli's inexplicable hostility towards her.

She mentally reviewed everything that had happened in the past few days: Jin Wanli's actions were easy to explain, and this hostility had a source. Jiu Su, a powerful demon who could call him brother, was inexplicably registered as her pet snake. If she were in his shoes, she would definitely be angry too.

"Then..." she suddenly became a little timid, and took a sip of water as a cover-up, "You and I, did we know each other before?"

Jiu Su stared at her for a while, then smiled and said, "I don't know her."

“But,” she pressed on, “I dreamed of you before I knew you.”

Jiu Su turned her gaze into the distance, leaving only a beautiful profile view.

If Shuqing had spent more time with him, she would have known that this was a sign he was about to lie—his eyes were too shallow to conceal his true feelings.

"Are you trying to talk about reincarnation and past lives?" Jiu Su said calmly. "Actually, those are all false. After a person dies, their consciousness is extinguished, and there is no such thing as a soul. I am a demon, born with special abilities, which is why I have a chance to have an immortal soul."

“However, it’s true that when children first develop sentience, they are more likely to see non-human beings like us.” He turned to her and smiled. “Perhaps you encountered my spirit when you were little.”

Shu Qing stared at him suspiciously: "Really?"

Her hometown is in the capital city, thousands of miles away. After starting work in the IT industry, she moved to H city in the south. What a coincidence, he, a wandering soul, also traveled this far from south to north?

“Perhaps.” Jiu Su lowered her eyelashes. “Perhaps there are other possibilities. I know more about demons, but the matters of life and death are mysterious and difficult to understand. I don’t know everything.”

His candid "I don't know" made it impossible for her to press him further. Even gods aren't omniscient and omnipotent, let alone a monster who had died once.

Shu Qing was skeptical, more inclined to believe than disbelieve. Knowing that continuing to ask wouldn't yield any new results, she dropped the topic.

She then turned to ask about something she was more concerned about: "So what kind of relationship do we have? Am I your... uh," a master-pet relationship was definitely out of the question. Considering that she was still renting a place herself, she was too embarrassed to call herself a landlord, so she said, "Am I your roommate and creditor?"

Jiu Su hummed in agreement.

Is that all?

Jiu Su sighed softly and conceded, "You've already questioned me about this before. We spend so much time together, there must be some friendship between us, why leave me no room for maneuver at all?"

Shu Qing felt a mix of bitterness and tenderness in her heart, as if she had been squeezed tightly by a hand.

Her vague, lingering feelings for Jiu Su were, in truth, simply lust at first sight and a fondness for his care; they weren't anything more than a matter of being inseparable from him. When he had previously insisted that he liked her but couldn't be with her, and she decided to let go of this faint affection, she wasn't particularly sad. Now that she knew he was actually her Xiao Hong, she belatedly felt a pang of sadness.

Jiu Su is knowledgeable about everything and has a hundred ways to deal with things; he is a grown man. Even if he is heartbroken, it's just a small wound, not something she would care about.

But Little Red is just a tiny snake, only a tiny bit big. How can she bear to be sad?

"How will we get along from now on?" Shu Qing asked. "Should I treat you like Xiao Hong in human form?"

Jiu Su nodded.

"So what should our next steps be?" she continued. "The Super Management Bureau hasn't stipulated whether or not it's necessary to report when a monster transforms into human form. I guess not many people encounter this kind of thing, but logically it should be required, right? But since Jin Wanli already knows, I probably don't need to make this special trip again?"

Jiu Su nodded again.

"Alright, that makes things easier." Shu Qing stretched lazily and sprawled on the sofa without any regard for her image—actually, she would have tried her best to maintain an image in front of Jiu Su in her human form before. Now that her identity has been exposed, image doesn't matter at all, since Xiao Hong has seen her in every form.

So Jiu Su saw her roll over on the sofa, turn over and lie face down, prop her chin up with her hands, and stare at him with bright eyes, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't.

Jiu Su did as she pleased, reaching out to stroke her fluffy head. "What's wrong?"

"Little Red—" Shu Qing drawled, "You're my little snake, you have to listen to me. It's almost noon, hurry up and cook, I want braised fish!"

Jiu Su: "..."

So, you're using him now?

That's not bad. If he could truly follow his heart, he'd be willing to be at her beck and call for the rest of his life, and he'd give anything in return.

He would be grateful if she stopped pursuing any "past life connection" or caring about whether he liked her or not.

There is a kitchen in Qifeng Photography Studio. Qi Yun invited a group of chefs to treat them to a meal before, so now the ingredients and seasonings are readily available, which saves trouble. Shu Qing watched as Jiu Su glared at her, but actually went into the kitchen to prepare lunch for her. Shu Qing felt a little heavy-hearted, far from the relaxed attitude she showed.

A crucial question was stuck in her throat, but she was afraid the answer wouldn't be what she wanted to hear, so she didn't dare ask it.

She picked out some minor, casual questions and asked jokingly, "So, should I call you Jiu Su or Xiao Hong from now on? Oh right, you said you didn't want me to call you Jiu Su. How about Xiao Hong then?"

"Fine." Jiu Su glanced at her. "Do you really have to stand here?"

Oh right, she also has a curse debuff on her. Although she's wearing a lot of amulets, her current position means she might still get hit by hot oil once the fire starts, which is definitely dangerous.

Shu Qing took two steps back and stood at the kitchen doorway, continuing the conversation by making small talk: "You don't like this name? I feel this name is much more sophisticated than the one I came up with. It's a bit like the name of a healing sect in a game... Oh, I mean, a family of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners, they know how to come up with names. It sounds very nice."

“I was born without parents and was adopted by my adoptive father. I am his ninth child.” Jiu Su made a beautiful cut on the fish. “My birth order, plus the fact that I am a white snake, gave me this name. It’s a perfunctory name, and I don’t really like it.”

"Well..." Shu Qing said awkwardly, "I think the name I chose was pretty random."

Jiu Su turned her head to look at her, and smiled again, a smile more genuine than any of her previous smiles: "You're different."

Shu Qing was captivated by his good looks and her mind went blank for a moment before she heard him continue calmly, "You are limited by your skill level."

"..."

Lunch was indeed a braised fish, along with a variety of side dishes and soup.

Jiu Su seems to have some special requirements for the variety of dishes. Whether she has a fever and can only drink porridge, or when the two of them are both lively and can eat and drink, the dishes must be a combination of meat and vegetables, with soup and dessert. Otherwise, it seems that they are not worthy of being on her table.

If he could stay by her side like Xiao Hong, her quality of life would definitely improve dramatically.

Although Shu Qing had something on her mind, she still enjoyed the meal quite a bit. She even abandoned her usual habit of scrolling through her phone while eating. It wasn't until she finished eating that she realized Jin Wanli had sent her several messages.

“It’s related to that streamer you offended before,” Jin Wanli said. The monsters were incredibly efficient; they found clues in the time it takes to eat a meal. “But this time it’s not her personally, it’s the studio behind her. The person in charge of that studio, the one with the scar on his nose, is already arresting people.”

"Also, that studio and that business you mentioned—the one that raised that little monkey—are controlled by the same group of people. Tell me, when you filmed that ad, something so offensive, didn't you even think to be more careful? Couldn't you have been a little more shrewd?"

Minister Kim really has a mouth that's unsuitable for being a civil servant, making Shu Qing's eyebrows twitch.

Is that what she wanted? How could a law-abiding citizen like her know the ins and outs of these people?

Jiu Su reached out her hand to her, "What did you say?"

Shu Qing showed him her phone and casually said, "I thought he would talk to you first."

“No,” Jiu Su replied casually, focused on Jin Wanli’s message. Shu Qing asked casually, so he answered casually, “I don’t have a cell phone, so he can’t find me.”

Shu Qing was surprised, "Huh?"