Chapter 115 Bonus Chapter 4 (5)
Lin Langyi seems to have been possessed by a snake lately.
Although her other colleagues did not encounter it again, Lin Langyi caught glimpses of that dark tail out of the corner of her eye several times.
In the blink of an eye, it disappeared again.
She suspected that she had injured herself while doing experiments for too long, or that dealing with three alphas by herself was too much for some and too much for others, causing her kidneys to become so weak that her eyesight had deteriorated.
Because the snake seemed to be swimming right next to her, and only she could see it.
Even in her dreams, she saw an identical black snake tail, a very pure and deep black, with delicate and neat scales that smoothly tapered from thick to thin, and the very tip of the tail lay obediently on the carpet like a tightly woven whip.
Only the hind half of the snake was sticking out from the corner of the table. It was docile and obedient, motionless, like a corner of clothing peeking out during a game of hide-and-seek, waiting for someone to catch it.
It was the Year of the Snake, so Lin Langyi woke up groggily in the morning, suspecting it was a good omen.
She doesn't actually have much of a liking or dislike for these soft-bodied, cold-blooded animals, nor is she afraid of them. On the contrary, because she is a good swimmer and spent a lot of time in the water when she was a child, she has seen quite a few water snakes. After coming to work at Yingshan Lake, because the environment here is near the water, she often sees snakes slowly crawling across the bluestone slabs when she goes for a walk in the summer.
After seeing so many, you become indifferent, unless they are truly beautiful.
In reality, snakes usually look quite ordinary. However, she had seen many beautiful pet snakes among the snake-keeping bloggers online. When she first saw that jet-black snake with Du Qing, she thought it was also a pet snake of excellent quality.
But nobody at the research institute keeps snakes. Everyone comes in like a dead dog and goes back like a dead dog. They're either doing experiments or falling asleep instantly. It's good enough if they can support themselves, let alone keep pets.
Lin Langyi could only conclude that it was a water snake that had run in from outside, but upon closer thought, in the dead of winter, were there really any snakes that hadn't hibernated?
She saw the tail in the bathroom that day and knew that the snake hadn't had time to escape from the drainpipe, but she just turned off the light and closed the door without trying to drive it away.
The research institute has a constant and comfortable temperature. If the snake is driven out now, I wonder if it will die.
After Du Qing left, Lin Langyi opened the door again and searched everywhere but couldn't find the black snake. She could only assume that it had finally been too frightened and hurriedly ran out of the drainpipe.
But in the following days, Lin Langyi kept seeing that black tail, so frequently that she thought she was being visited in a dream by a snake spirit. She even secretly searched for dream interpretation guides online, which confidently stated that being bitten by a snake was a sign of good luck and great wealth.
That means she's not sleepy anymore!
Lin Langyi was no longer sleepy; it was rare for her to wake up halfway through a dream… Ugh, so annoying! In her dream, she was almost catching that snake, but before she could even drag it out, she hadn't seen its head. She'd probably have been bitten if she'd deliberately put her finger in its mouth. Seriously—
Lin Langyi felt a cool, silky softness on her index finger. She opened her eyes and looked at the ceiling. Uncertainly, she hooked her finger, and the soft thing lying on her finger lost its support and slipped down.
There was not a sound at all.
A few seconds later, something slowly wrapped around her finger, its grip was very light, and it held her without any sense of restraint, like an oversized ring on her finger.
She inexplicably recalled that beautiful black tail, a long, thin section that seemed to beckon people to touch it as it swayed.
Lin Langyi paused for a few seconds, then sat up abruptly with lightning speed. The bedside nightlight turned on alertly, and almost simultaneously, the loose "ring" instantly loosened and sprang outwards.
Could Lin Langyi really let it escape?
She pulled the blanket over her entire upper body and lunged forward, chasing after the direction of the touch that had accidentally brushed against her skin as the other person fled in panic. With lightning speed, she grabbed something smooth, cold, and tentacle-like.
She straightened up and dragged the black snake, as black as ink, back by its tail.
Under the warm glow of the nightlight, the snake continued to frantically wriggle and flee. It was completely black, without any impurities, and as it twisted, its scales reflected a dazzling metallic sheen in the light, like the cool, dark reflection of a black ghost supercar under the lights.
Having been nestled in her blankets for so long, it still retained some warmth, and when touched, it felt exactly like a warm, translucent piece of black jade.
This snake was very clean, it must have been carefully cared for by its owner every day. There was no fishy smell on it, but rather a strange fragrance.
It smells familiar; I feel like I've smelled it somewhere before.
Lin Langyi grabbed the snake and said, "You really are a pet snake! I've seen this kind of snake in videos before, it's a Mexican black king snake, right?"
She recognized it immediately as a non-venomous snake, and the courage she had shown earlier in catching it with her bare hands returned.
What's there to be afraid of if it's not poisonous?
With her other hand, she grabbed the snake by its vital spot, trying to turn its head over for a look. The snake struggled even more fiercely, but she managed to twist it around – that was her skill.
Lin Langyi leaned closer to the light and saw its emerald eyes. Only the vertical pupils in the middle remained completely black, because when facing the light, the pupils instantly compressed into a thin vertical line as thin as a blade.
Extremely dangerous and chilling beauty.
Lin Langyi shuddered and instinctively tightened her grip on the seven-inch mark.
She was starting to feel a bit scared... Speaking of black king snakes, their eyes are supposed to be completely black, right? Why are their eyes the wrong color?
If it's not a non-venomous black king snake... what if it is a venomous snake?
She doesn't understand snakes!
Lin Langyi stared intently at the snake, and the snake, having had its head turned by her, also stared intently at her. Having been thoroughly examined, it gave up and ceased struggling and resisting, and instead gently flicked its scarlet forked tongue.
The emerald eyes made her feel a little uneasy.
I'm afraid of being bitten back if I lose it, and I'm sweating bullets when I hold it in my hand. It's like being caught in a dilemma.
Lin Langyi's expression of fear was too obvious. In an instant, various science videos flashed through her mind. She quickly let go of the snake's tail and twisted its head back.
Don't look at me, I'm afraid you'll spray venom.
The snake seemed to freeze for a moment. Its previous writhing and struggling movements suddenly stopped. Like a whip that had lost its dream, she held it by the head, while its tail fell to the blanket and remained motionless.
It paused for a few seconds and tried to turn its head to look at her again, but Lin Langyi's eyes were sharp and her movements precise. Before it could fully turn its head back, she quickly twisted the snake's head back.
The snake seemed bewildered by her contradictory actions. After she abruptly interrupted their eye contact, it mechanically flicked its tongue, then silently coiled its tail like a mosquito coil, and drooped its head, as if it were heartbroken.
"I'm not afraid of you biting me, I'm afraid of you poisoning me." Lin Langyi had a high respect for the snake spirit who frequently appeared in her dreams. While explaining, she activated her personal computer and asked it to check if there were any black king snakes with bright green eyes.
The body was identified by the photo, confirming it was Black King, but Lin Langyi, fearing the worst, insisted on having the snakehead show his face for further investigation.
But the snake seemed unhappy. No matter how hard she tried to turn its head around, it wouldn't cooperate. Lin Langyi didn't dare to act recklessly again before she was sure whether it was poisonous or not. In her haste, she accidentally slipped and the snake fell onto the quilt with a "thud".
Lin Langyi quickly pulled her hand back, afraid of being retaliated against by the enraged snake.
But the black snake seemed even more upset. It listlessly coiled itself into a mosquito coil shape, then buried its head in the center, with the outermost tip of its tail drooping lifelessly to the side, like the pointed tip of an ice cream cone.
A mechanical voice broadcasting science information filled the room, repeatedly explaining how docile, easy to care for, and hardy the black king snake is.
The snake only reacted when the word "non-venomous" was mentioned, burying its head deeper and deeper, as if it knew that Lin Langyi was afraid of its venomous fangs.
The optical computer search engine insists that the snake is a non-venomous black king snake, docile and easy to keep.
It certainly seemed so; despite how roughly she handled the snake, it showed no intention of biting her.
Lin Langyi felt relieved again, got up and got out of bed. When she lifted the blanket, the tip of its tail twitched, and the mosquito coil curled up even more tightly, as if it had become withdrawn.
"You can't sleep in the bed." Lin Langyi couldn't bear to throw a beautiful, obsidian-like snake out to die in the dead of winter. "I'll take you in for the winter. You can leave when the weather gets warmer."
Its head didn't lift up; only the tip of its tail twitched slightly before it obediently tucked back in, standing guard for the last time.
Lin Langyi didn't have any fish tanks to keep snakes. She thought for a moment and then her eyes lit up: "I remember there was a discarded stainless steel water tank in the warehouse. It was dyed when we were doing experiments. It looks a bit ugly, but it's sturdy and durable."
She thought it was a good place to temporarily keep snakes and immediately decided to move the snakes there.
This time, she was much more careful, gently wrapping the snake in the blanket. It seemed to know where it was going, as it poked its head out from under the blanket and slithered up her arm into her coat pocket.
Lin Langyi found it strange. She liked dealing with smart people who were easy to understand and quick to grasp concepts. Naturally, she also preferred pets that were easy to manage.
The snake slithered into her pocket and then remained still, as if discreetly minimizing its presence.
Lin Langyi went to the warehouse with familiarity and picked and chose, each abandoned retired water tank had its own flaws.
Finally, she came to a water tank in a junkyard that wasn't too badly dilapidated. Before she could even reach out to pick it up, something soft poked her on the side.
She looked down and saw a small, dark head popping out of her pocket. The black snake flicked its tongue and, as if it knew she was looking at it, raised its head slightly. Its emerald eyes looked round and bright now, and it wasn't so scary anymore.
It turned around and gently bumped its head against her waist.
"What's wrong?"
It flicked its tongue again, flattened its head, and gently bumped her waist once more.
Lin Langyi, a novice snake enthusiast, didn't understand snake body language. She stretched out a finger and pressed it on the snake's head, then pushed the snake back into her pocket.
"Stop messing around, I'm building you a nest."
She found other things, such as poplar wood shavings from the mice that could be used as a base, a thermometer and hygrometer from the lab, a homemade heating pad, tweezers, a spray bottle...
As she collected the items one by one, the black snake would sometimes bump her head against her, and sometimes it would just stick half its head out without moving. When she hesitated about whether to take the water filter basket from the sink to use as a climbing frame or hammock for the little snake, the snake kept bumping her hand against its head. Before she was about to leave, it used its tail to stickily wrap around her wrist and gently pull it back, as if it were being affectionate.
In a flash, Lin Langyi suddenly realized that the black snake was expressing its preference by bumping its head against her.
Is it that smart? Everyone says animals are intelligent and perceptive; this one must be a psychic!
Lin Langyi was very surprised. Her personal computer was diligently providing a voice introduction to the snake-raising strategy, explaining in detail that the snake's habitat should be enriched with more "hiding places" (referring to increasing the diversity of the environment).
Especially for some timid snakes, placing some strange "avoidance" can alleviate their anxiety and prevent them from developing depression.
Lin Langyi stared at the half-black, flat head that had popped out of her pocket. It seemed unusually sensitive to its surroundings, and almost every time she looked at it, it would raise its head alertly and flick its tongue at her.
Remembering how it used to hide everywhere... Hmm, it must be a timid and shy snake.
Lin Langyi unknowingly became much more attentive to it. Originally, she only planned to make a simple hut for it temporarily, but it was so well-behaved, obedient, and intelligent that it seemed to recognize people and showed no aggression towards her. As a result, Lin Langyi, who liked intelligent people, also began to like the intelligent snake.
She tried walking around the warehouse, but the snakes were all quiet. They didn't use their heads to express any preference for any kind of recycled item. They were even unmoved by the skull model, which was known as a "straight snake killer" in the popular science video.
Lin Langyi had no choice but to return home, intending to solve the basic living problems first before pursuing a higher quality of life.
But as soon as she returned to her lounge, the snake suddenly became energetic, as if it really liked everything in her room.
She walked past the windowsill, and the snake's head rammed violently. Lin Langyi stepped back and took the two coconut shells that she had been using as wind chime ornaments.
She went to the bathroom to wash her hands, and the snake's head popped out again. Following its hissing tongue, Lin Langyi took the large, empty jar of body lotion that she had placed on the sink.
She sat on the edge of her bed and took a sip of water. The snake crawled toward her bedside table. Lin Langyi was still holding a cup in her hand when she saw the snake crawl into the hole of her Halloween pumpkin-shaped tissue box.
"You like this? Well, you snakes like narrow, secluded places where you can crawl around; it makes you feel safe, right?"
Lin Langyi put down her cup and saw that the snake had stuffed itself entirely into the pumpkin. She suddenly sighed, "This tissue box has really been with me for a long time. Look how old it is."
The snake burrowed even more vigorously, seemingly not minding the old things at all, choosing only the little trinkets that had been with her for a long time.
Lin Langyi continued, "Isn't it interesting? I also think it's beautiful, which is why I kept it and didn't exchange it. My ex-boyfriend made it by hand before."
The snake, which had completely burrowed into the pumpkin, suddenly raised its upper body with a "whoosh" and used its head to flip the pumpkin over.
Lin Langyi: ...
It aggressively abandoned the overturned, still-wobbling pumpkin, and with a flick of its tail as it crawled away, swept the pumpkin aside as if it were trash, returning it to its pocket.
Huh? A black snake's heart, a needle at the bottom of the sea.
Lin Langyi walked past her wardrobe... uh, half of the snake's body was sticking out, coiling around her wrist and slowly rubbing it, its tail tip constantly twitching.
I understand.
Lin Langyi was already considering how to keep the snake warm in winter. Upon seeing this, she immediately rummaged through the deepest part of the wardrobe and pulled out her old clothes that she no longer wore, considering whether to use them as a mat for the snake.
Actually, fabric is not recommended for setting up a snake enclosure.
But the timid snake showed great fondness for the clothes, more than for anything else. Whenever she made the slightest move to put the clothes down, it would desperately try to hook them with its tail.
Okay, every snake has its own preferences.
Lin Langyi set up all the contraptions and then put the snake inside.
The snake slid into her clothes with an air of superiority, creating a round, bulging mound.
Snake was satisfied, and Lin Langyi was also very satisfied with her hands-on skills.
She only felt sleepy after finishing her work, yawned listlessly, and went back to bed to continue sleeping.
When she woke up the next day, the snake had actually escaped. As soon as she opened her eyes, she felt a long, cool, soft creature pressed tightly against her arm.
It was very quiet, and you could hardly feel its body rising and falling with each breath. Because they had been together in the blankets for a long time, the surface of the blankets had become warm.
Lin Langyi scrambled to her feet. Unlike last night, when the snake was startled and fled at top speed, it drowsily raised its head, nodding its head incessantly in the air, as if it hadn't woken up yet.
It can't even get enough sleep for one night? What a lazy snake.
When the snake saw her, it went even further, swimming a few inches closer to her, wanting to continue sleeping close to her.
Lin Langyi had no choice but to touch its body with her finger.
I'd heard that black king snakes were easy to care for and docile, but I didn't expect them to be this affectionate. The informational video said not to touch them for the first three days, but that advice doesn't seem to apply to them at all; even when it escaped, it crawled up to her to sleep!
As Lin Langyi was stroking it, she suddenly pressed her finger against the side of its body and then pushed it over.
The snake was still half asleep and didn't know how a snake could be so unwary. It tilted to one side and was flipped over by her without any ability to resist.
It looked at her, twisted its belly, and just as it turned back into the correct position, Lin Langyi flipped it over again.
The snake wasn't angry. It flicked its tongue and gently brushed its tail against the sheets, as if it were playing with her.
But Lin Langyi wasn't playing with it. After turning the snake over, she thought about the introduction she had seen in the popular science video yesterday, and applied what she had learned by touching the snake's body with her fingers.
At first, the snake didn't know what she was going to do. It was just ticklish from her touching, and it couldn't help but curl its tail and rub against the sheets.
Lin Langyi roughly located the snake, and her fingertips touched a slightly raised scale. The snake that had been lying flat in her hand suddenly darted outwards.
This is an instinctive reaction to run away.
But Lin Langyi was more decisive. She grabbed the snake's body with two fingers, raised her arm sharply, and lifted the snake upside down.
This black snake is likely an adult, heavy and medium-sized. When it was lifted upside down, the front half of its body could be easily raised.
Lin Langyi held the snake's body firmly with her fingers, and with her other hand pressed its tail downwards to expose the cavity more clearly.
The snake seemed to understand something completely. It struggled desperately, tightly coiling around her wrist in an attempt to stop her. The entire snake twisted and coiled, almost turning into a pretzel, every part of its body struggling violently, as if it were dying.
She touched it, quickly put the snake down, and said in the tone of someone concluding an experiment, "Oh, it's male."
The snake darted away like lightning, without looking back; it never wanted to be near her again! And so, the snake curled up quietly in the corner at the foot of the bed.
That wasn't enough; he coiled his long snake body into a mosquito coil shape, trying to minimize the space he occupied, so that Lin Langyi couldn't see it.
Finally, he slumped his head into the center of the mosquito coil, looking utterly lifeless.
Lin Langyi felt no remorse for driving away her pet. She got up and went to wash up, still pondering practical issues as she brushed her teeth.
One point in the science video was absolutely correct: snake enclosures must always be covered, otherwise they can easily escape.
For example, today, it ran away on the very first day.
It's a potential problem.
But Lin Langyi felt that the pet was generally to her liking. It didn't cry, make a fuss, or bark, and didn't need to be walked. It had a small range of movement. The biggest problem with reptiles is that they don't recognize their owners, but this one seemed to have exceeded her expectations. Even when she handled it like this, it didn't bite. It was indeed a very good snake.
Therefore, her solution was to solve the problem, not to eliminate the snake.
After she finished washing up, she returned to the foot of the bed. Snake was still withdrawn. Lin Langyi's way of coaxing Snake was very simple: she kept touching his body and praising his good looks.
Logically speaking, a snake's tiny head is not capable of analyzing such complex things. They are not like cats or dogs that enjoy being petted by their owners. They will only bite back when they get tired of being petted or when the smell of rats is not washed off their hands after being fed.
But the good snake was different; he was genuinely good-tempered. Lin Langyi had only touched him four or five times when he released the mosquito coil again and climbed up her hand.
Lin Langyi put the snake back into its enclosure. He swam to the rectangular dish that served as both a bathtub and a drinking fountain and took a bath. It was the dish Lin Langyi used to use to put food in the oven when he had extra meals. It was bright orange and the beloved item he had desperately poked her side with his head to get it last night.
She temporarily used an old white coat as a "lid" on top of the terrarium, and then cut out a few crooked air holes with scissors. At first glance, it looked like the curtain that a mother would cover on an old-fashioned television set.
Snake, halfway through her bath, propped herself up and hissed in protest for a long time when the white coat was laid out. (Brother Yue owes...)
It looked familiar; he used the same body language yesterday when he was selecting items for the zero-yuan purchase, but Lin Langyi had forgotten what it meant.
Just kidding, it's just a snake, not some kind of spirit. There really is a corresponding instruction manual.
"Take a good bath." She pointed at him through the enclosure with her finger. "The air conditioning in the room is too high, and the humidity isn't enough. You haven't been in the enclosure all night, so be careful not to get dehydrated."
The snake was still hissing stubbornly, but Lin Langyi was determined to ignore it. Soon, the snake wisely crawled back into the orange plate.
The water level covered half of its head. It rested its chin on the edge of the plate, and a teardrop-shaped water droplet, resembling a beauty mark, clung to its wet eyes, like a lustrous piece of amber.
He would occasionally flick his tongue with a resentful look, and there was an inexplicable sense of melancholy, as if he were lamenting the passing of spring and the coming of autumn.
Unfortunately, she encountered Lin Langyi, who was completely oblivious to romance and whose mind was only focused on experiments.
She was basking in the joy of having temporarily blocked the possibility of him sneaking out, and also proud of her ability to make good use of waste.
She took several photos of the snake's face and body, intending to spread the word around Yingshan Lake so that it wouldn't frighten others should it accidentally escape again.
It's easy to notify colleagues; just a shout in the group chat is enough. But the group of alphas locked up on the second basement level wouldn't know, especially Yuan Chuyu, who has free movement and is more likely to encounter this situation than others.
Lin Langyi's first stop was his place. She hadn't seen him for a while, and when she finally remembered, several days had passed.
She remembered him saying that he had also entered a beast-like state, but there had been no news of him since... Hmm, it seems that after she ate the meal he cooked, the host didn't exert any effort at all.
Lin Langyi's conscience would only beat intermittently late at night, like belatedly trying to mend the fence. At this moment, she finally remembered the former commander she had forgotten for a long time, so she pretended to take a tablet, put on a white coat, and went to find him.
To everyone's surprise, they came up empty-handed.
Lin Langyi stood at the entrance of the isolation observation room, staring at the empty room inside, unable to react for a long time.
Yuan Chuyu added her contact information the day he first met her, and now, before contacting him, she also sent him a message.
Although he replied slowly, he did send a simple "OK".
So where are the people?
Lin Langyi knocked on the door again. The steel door made a deep, resonant sound that was audible.
She tentatively took a few steps inside and saw that the entire room was clean and tidy, spotless. Yuan Chuyu seemed to have a cleanliness obsession; every item was placed where it belonged, even the blankets on the bed were folded neatly, and the sheets were without a single wrinkle.
It was as if he had never slept in a bed.
As expected of someone serving in the military region, their basic skills are truly solid!
Lin Langyi glanced at the closed bathroom door one last time, but still didn't plan to go in... If it really didn't work out, the "routine ward rounds" could be postponed until another time.
She had just turned and taken a step outside when a loud "bang" suddenly echoed from the bathroom, followed by a series of crashing noises, as if something had fallen from the ceiling and accidentally knocked over the toiletries.
"Are you alright?" Lin Langyi immediately stopped in her tracks, afraid that he had slipped and fallen while taking a shower, and hurriedly went to the door to ask what had happened.
The door was hastily opened from the inside, but there was no steaming water vapor or fragrant shower gel scent. Lin Langyi only had time to notice the bottles and jars scattered all over the bathroom floor—
And then there's Yuan Chuyu, loosely dressed in a white bathrobe.
Strangely, there wasn't a drop of water in the bathroom, but he was soaking wet. His bathrobe was draped haphazardly over his body, with tiny, scattered watermarks everywhere.
His breathing was inexplicably rapid, as if he had just finished weighted cross-country training. He awkwardly adjusted his clothes, covering up his muscular body from his chest to his lower abdomen.
His belt trailed halfway on the ground. He reached back with his left hand and found that the belt loop on the left was empty. Only half of the belt was hanging, swaying gently in the air.
Then, she reached for the belt, and the fabric of the front of her dress opened slightly, revealing her smooth and delicate skin, like a woman playing the pipa, half-concealing her face.
It's hard to believe that he could have such a cool, pale complexion in the dusty, windy environment of the border region.
Lin Langyi's gaze was a bit too direct. Yuan Chuyu pursed his lips, lowered his eyelashes, and silently turned his head slightly away, the blush on his ears spreading all the way to his cheeks.
He seemed so shy from being stared at that his movements became distorted; someone who could fold a blanket so neatly couldn't even tie a belt properly.
The bathrobe belt was tied crookedly, like a missing piece of a puzzle, enough for Lin Langyi to scan his straight, broad shoulders and superior, beautiful abs in a very short time.
His face flushed even more, and he whispered her name, "Langyi".
"Ah... Ah? Captain." Lin Langyi was momentarily stunned by his handsome appearance after the bath and didn't mind his sudden intimate address.
"...You were looking for me?" He stood before her, his head bowed.
"Yes, I've come to visit you. How are you feeling? Have you ever been in beast form?"
"No," he answered with unusual firmness.
"What are you...?" A string of words like "breed," "animal," and "beastman" floated through Lin Langyi's mind, but she swallowed them all in the end, feeling that none of them were suitable.
The blush on Yuan Chuyu's face faded a little. He paused for several seconds, and finally shook his head: "I'm not sure."
Lin Langyi expressed her understanding, as the beast form accompanies the susceptible period, and in severe cases, it can indeed cause confusion. Yuan Chuyu may not even know what he is in a daze.
"Then next time you enter your susceptible period, remember to call me. I still don't have any information about you, and the file is not complete."
"OK, thanks."
After giving his instructions as planned, Lin Langyi turned to leave, thoughtfully trying to close the bathroom door for him.
Yuan Chuyu suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrist, but quickly let go in a second and instead grabbed her sleeve.
Feeling a slight chill on her fingertips, Lin Langyi inexplicably thought of the snake she had recently raised.
Yuan Chuyu's eyelashes trembled slightly. He composed himself, raised his eyelids to glance at her, and then quickly lowered his eyes again.
He specifically said, "There seems to be a certain smell on you."
Lin Langyi's first thought was of her snake. She asked, "What does it smell like? I have a male snake."
Whether it was a misperception or not, a sweet smile appeared on Yuan Chuyu's lips when he mentioned keeping a snake, but soon after hearing her say it was male, he reacted strongly by turning his head away as if he couldn't stand such words.
Lin Langyi hesitated for a moment... Why is she blushing? What's wrong with raising snakes?
Yuan Chuyu didn't look at her. He said softly, "Do you like snakes?"
Lin Langyi, a straightforward person, said, "I don't feel anything."
He suddenly fell silent again, his eyes lowered, and it was unclear what he was thinking.
"But my snake is very beautiful and obedient, which is quite good. It just likes to run away, so I'm letting everyone know." Lin Langyi pulled up the photos saved on her personal computer, just like any parent showing off a picture of their child. "Isn't it beautiful?"
Yuan Chuyu glanced at her quickly. His hand, which had been holding the collar of her clothes, slid down the bathrobe and then unconsciously let go, allowing a sliver of sunlight to seep through.
He said gently, "I'm glad you like it."
As Lin Langyi scrolled through the photos, she said, "Not bad, right? If only he could bite me—"
"He would never bite you!"
The resounding guarantee effectively shut down Lin Langyi's second half of the statement, "So the interpretation of the dream means that I'm about to have a string of good luck."
Looking at Yuan Chuyu's unusually serious and cautious expression and his tightly furrowed brows, she asked blankly, "How did you know?"
He seemed to pause for a moment, then said carefully, "Black King Snakes are quite docile and easy to raise."
Lin Langyi: "Well, but his teeth aren't just for show."
Yuan Chuyu hesitated for a moment, then could only repeat dryly, "He won't bite you."
"It's okay, it's fine if you bite me." Lin Langyi waved her hand, thinking to herself that all these people who do scientific research are obsessed with metaphysics.
"You are really good, kind-hearted, capable, and loving." After hearing her magnanimous words, "It's okay even if I get bitten," Yuan Chuyu suddenly sighed softly and said slowly in an extremely gentle voice, "Being by your side... well, I mean being treated by you must be very blissful."
Oh, you're too kind.
Lin Langyi extended a friendly invitation, exchanging pleasantries: "You seem to have the least degree of beastification. You can go for walks around Yingshan Lake more often, instead of always staying locked in your room... Do you want to go see my snake? I think you know quite a bit about snake habits."
Yuan Chuyu's body stiffened almost imperceptibly, and he shook his head: "Next time."
"OK."
After leaving him, Lin Langyi went to visit several other alphas. Each of them, whether subtly or directly, said that she smelled of pheromones.
"I keep snakes," Lin Langyi told everyone.
“I can still tell the difference between ordinary scents and pheromones,” Xi Zhiyue insisted.
Lin Langyi: "Oh really? For example, you think I always smell really good. So, do betas have pheromones? So you can tell the difference?"
Xi Zhiyue: ...
He cleverly changed the subject, clutching his chest and saying that he felt his morning sickness was getting worse because he could smell snakes. He also mentioned that rabbits and snakes have never gotten along, and asked if it would be possible to temporarily send the snake to its proper place to hibernate.
Bian Shu went back for most of the day, and when he came back, he had brought all his luggage. When asked, he simply said, "My leave application has been approved."
Then, adding calmly, "May I see the snake?"
Lin Langyi took out the photo, and Xi Zhiyue enthusiastically said, "We can invite the captain to go and see the snake together."
"No, are you guys alright? It's not an animal smell, it has nothing to do with snakes, it's pheromones, and it's exactly the same as what I smelled the other day!" Cheng Yanjin, who could never keep a secret, sniffed Lin Langyi from all sides, making strange dog-like whimpering sounds in his throat.
He kept giving her meaningful glances, wanting to ask but then timidly asking, "Have you seen anyone?"
Lin Langyi thought to himself that a dog's nose is still a dog's nose. He had suspected that she had seen Yuan Chuyu before, and he suspected it again today.
"Okay, I did see your captain; he was also there for a medical checkup."
Cheng Yanjin wasn't fooled at all. He wrinkled his nose and said, "Zhuzhu, do you know how strong your pheromones are? It's not like what you'd get from just two people bumping into each other and chatting on the street. It's like you two slept together—"
"How is that possible? The measuring instrument on Yuan Chuyu's wrist didn't even beep."
"Really!" Cheng Yanjin was extremely anxious. "The captain leaving his pheromones on you like this is clearly malicious. I have to send him a message to tell him to stay away from you."
Lin Langyi slapped his hand away: "That's enough. Do you think everyone is as promiscuous as you? People know how to behave and are polite. Sending this message out of the blue makes people think I'm being presumptuous."
Cheng Yanjin had no idea how to describe the hidden emotions conveyed by pheromones to the beta who had no sense of smell. It was like his girlfriend being bewitched by a manipulative man, and he was being falsely accused of trying to dissuade her.
We're all guys, that's enough. You can fool others, but do you really think you can fool your brothers?
"Didn't you just say you were raising a snake?" Cheng Yanjin slapped his forehead, suddenly grabbed her hand, and, like his brothers, cleverly changed to a roundabout tactic. "Why don't you raise another dog, and get me a cage to keep me locked up? I'll watch over the snake for you, no, I mean, guard the door—hey baby, don't push me."
It was Xi Zhiyue who suddenly spoke up: "By the way, Zhuzhu, the snake needs to be fed."
Lin Langyi turned her head: "Feed the rabbits?"
He choked for a moment, then quickly regained his composure and said, "Usually, it's a rat."
Bian said, "Hmm, frozen rats or live rats, live rats are better."
Xi Zhiyue: "We also want to see snakes feeding; we've never seen one before."
Bian said, "You've probably encountered this during field training."
Xi Zhiyue: "Really? I forgot."
Cheng Yanjin: "Isn't there a bunch of white mice in the lab? Isn't that enough for him to wreak havoc?"
Lin Langyi emphasized: "Laboratory mice, sick mice, and surgical mice cannot be fed to you, as they will get sick."
Several people looked at her together and said coldly, "What does it matter if you're sick?"
"Haha, the captain never worried about getting sick when he was training us."
"So what if you're sick? Just go for a weighted cross-country run and work up a sweat, and you'll feel better."
"An alpha can't say no. Getting sick is just an excuse, it's shameful."
...
Lin Langyi finally managed to lock everyone back in their rooms. She smoothed out the crumpled corners of her clothes that had been squeezed by others, and as she walked back, she smelled her own sleeves, but still couldn't smell any difference.
*
After finishing her work for the day, she returned to her room. The black snake in the enclosure was quietly coiled inside a coconut shell. When it saw her, it obediently poked its head out of the coconut shell.
Lin Langyi changed his water and spoke to him in a normal tone:
"We don't have any mice yet. I've put some nutrients in the water. If you don't like drinking this, I'll expedite the delivery of frozen mice."
The snake darted out with a "whoosh" and plunged headfirst into the nutrient solution.
Lin Langyi watched him finish drinking the nutrient solution before gently patting his head. Snake obediently raised his head and licked her finger with his forked tongue.
"I watched some tutorials today, and they said that snakes don't recognize their owners. I can only let you get used to my scent so you can avoid being bitten." She smiled, tapped his head, and his little head kept swaying down.
He stopped hissing and kept his mouth tightly shut, only rubbing his head affectionately against her fingers, afraid of scaring her.
"So I've decided to spend every day with you these next few days. The first week is crucial for a new snake entering the family, don't you think?"
The snake was clearly happy. It subconsciously opened its mouth and flicked its tongue, then immediately closed it tightly. To make itself look less intimidating, it even tried to puff out its head to make it rounder, so that it wouldn't look like a venomous snake's triangular head.
Lin Langyi took out the snake. Since it had no foothold in the air, it took the initiative to wrap its tail around her wrist so that she could take it away.
The room was at a comfortable temperature. Lin Langyi, wearing short-sleeved pajamas, sat on the bed, placed the snake on her lap, and played with it casually.
The snake seemed very shy. Once he lay down on her lap, he didn't dare to move and obediently lay there, with only the tip of his tail occasionally sticking up, revealing his extremely happy mood at that moment.
Lin Langyi's "accompaniment" lasted for a whole week. She would hold the snake's tail and sleep with it at night, and carry the snake in her pocket when conducting experiments, always keeping it close at hand.
For a week, the so-called "frozen rat" delivery she mentioned never arrived. The snake only drank diluted nutrient solution that was as thin and tasteless as water, without eating any other food.
On the seventh day, Lin Langyi finally didn't take him to the lab again, because the professor was coming to hold a regular meeting that day, so it wasn't convenient to bring the pet.
The "routine meeting" had been going on for more than half an hour when the door to the lounge suddenly opened from the outside.
Lin Langyi was still wearing her white lab coat, her hair tied up with a pen, her left hand in her pocket, and her other hand on the doorknob. She stared silently at the rug beside her bed in her room.
A thick, long black tail was coiled on the carpet; it was so long that it couldn't even be completely tucked away on the narrow, rectangular carpet.
It was probably startled by the sudden opening of the door that caused its tail to snap straight up instantly, like a horn signaling an attack.
Lin Langyi slowly looked up along the shiny black tail and saw the smooth, taut waistline where the tail met the human body, as well as the firm and beautiful abdominal muscles she had once glimpsed through the bathrobe.
Further up, Yuan Chuyu's clearly flustered expression was barely suppressed. He was still a little damp, especially his hair, which clung to his skin like a newly hatched chick.
Lin Langyi slowly closed the door behind her, then locked it with a "click" as she twisted her finger.
Black scales spread from the side of Yuan Chuyu's neck to behind his ears, making his handsome face look like a flower blooming in thorns. His Adam's apple bobbed repeatedly, causing the scales to breathe as if they were alive.
Even a commander with such quick thinking and responsiveness was speechless at this moment.
In fact, for a top-tier alpha, she should have been able to detect her movements from ten meters away, but Lin Langyi administered a sufficient dose of the drug, for a week, without any hesitation.
Yuan Chuyu was so engrossed in her intense gaze that he dared not meet her eyes. His vertical pupils, which had changed instantly when he sensed danger, could not relax, and he could only awkwardly look away.
And the scales on his body... He helplessly and futilely covered his neck with his palms, feeling a cold and sharp touch, nothing like the soft and delicate fur of a cat or dog.
Frustrated, he bent his fingers and dug at the scales, trying to tear them off. As he struggled, his tail thrashed and thrashed wildly. Because of his unstable hormones, the scales spread even more recklessly across his face, covering his eyes and temples, causing him pain and discomfort.
“Commander’s willpower is indeed far beyond that of ordinary people.” Lin Langyi smiled and slowly walked to the bedside. The thick and long tail that was in half-human snake form was weakly retracted, like a pitiful tentacle that had been dehydrated and stranded.
"She hasn't eaten for a week and I've been giving her medicine every day. Is her period of high susceptibility only starting now?"
"I'm sorry," he said repeatedly, his head bowed.
"What are you apologizing for?" Lin Langyi stood in front of him, the tip of her shoe pointing directly at his curled-up tail. She kicked it with her toe, and the tail tip quickly curled inward like a mimosa.
She asked, "Are you sorry for shamelessly sleeping with me for ten days? Are you sorry for playing dumb and not telling the truth in front of me? Or are you sorry..."
She thought for a moment, then parted her lips and uttered a few words: "Climbing on my back and begging for sex every day? Rubbing against my arm?"
With each sentence he spoke, Yuan Chuyu's head drooped an inch lower, without uttering a single word of rebuttal or explanation.
Because of those blunt and unvarnished words, his tail became tangled and awkwardly knotted. The once vibrant black snake now looked as if it were about to die, listless and weak.
"I've asked you so many times and you still won't tell me? You're really tight-lipped, you'll only be able to stand it if I starve you for a week, right?"
"no……"
"Um?"
“It’s not from hunger…” he said softly, “I’m in my most vulnerable period, and I just can’t control myself.”
"Not hungry?" Lin Langyi's focus shifted instantly. "Aren't you hungry?"
He spoke slowly with his clear and handsome face: "I'm not hungry. You feed me water every day, and that water is a little sweet... Love makes even water taste sweet."
?
Who has feelings for you?
Lin Langyi said expressionlessly, "The sweet water in your mouth is the ovulation-inducing hormone drug that I often give to mice. I changed it to oral administration for you, otherwise I would have to give you an injection every day."
His tail suddenly flicked lightly, then he carefully lay down on her shoes, using only the thinnest tip of his tail to gently encircle her ankle.
Having systematically studied snake body language, I'm happy.
No, what's so great about giving him medicine?
A thin layer of sweat covered Yuan Chuyu's body. He actually looked quite unwell. The rough action of tearing off the scales had left obvious red marks on the side of his neck. The contrasting red, black, and white marks on his skin made it hard not to draw attention to his excellent physique.
He spoke with a slight wheezing, intermittent breaths, his tail rubbing back and forth against her shoes. He said, "You went to the trouble of changing your medicine for me?"
No, how come this person doesn't seem to grasp the main points when listening to others?
Lin Langyi lifted her foot again, trying to shake off the tail on her shoe, but the tail suddenly became extremely sticky, wrapping around her ankle and slowly and heavily rubbing against her skin.
The snake scales make a faint sound when rubbed together, which inexplicably makes your teeth ache, but ironically, when you actually coil around her, the tightly packed scales feel smooth to the touch.
His tail applied just the right amount of force, tightening around her ankle little by little as if swallowing it.
She could clearly feel the squeezing sensation from the snake's tail; the sluggishness of blood flow being forcibly slowed down by the compression of blood vessels was amplified throughout her body.
"I can't control myself..." A few glistening water droplets clung to Yuan Chuyu's eyelashes, his eyes were unfocused and blank, and large patches of red spread out at the corners of his eyes.
"I don't control the tail, so don't hate it..."
"I'm so hot, Zhuzhu... What medicine did you give me...?"
Lin Langyi was dumbfounded and amazed. When taking the medicine, he did it without saying a word, and now he's starting to act like he's taking the medicine too seriously, huh?
"It's just a safe way to induce ovulation—" She stopped abruptly halfway through her sentence because Yuan Chuyu was much more composed than she had imagined, so in the latter half of the week, she secretly increased the dosage.
Hiss—uh, this…
Actually, if you think about it carefully, if it hadn't reached the moment the string broke, given his style, he would definitely have continued to endure it.
Lin Langyi quickly reached out to test Yuan Chuyu's forehead temperature. He obediently raised his face, turned his head slightly so that his nose would actively search for and press against her wrist, and then raised his chin even higher, gently rubbing the skin on the inside of her wrist with his teeth.
His forehead was burning hot, and the slight scraping sensation on his wrist was obvious. Lin Langyi could even hear him swallowing hard. He gently picked up a thin layer of skin on her arm with his teeth and kissed it while panting.
It was as if he really wanted to devour her.
"Are you starving?" Lin Langyi lowered her voice and approached him. "Trying to bite me?"
"Mmm...I want you, I only want you...Zhuzhu, good Zhuzhu, I want you..."
"Who told you that you need this?"
His eyes were unfocused, the side effects of the medication were beginning to appear, and his vision was gradually becoming blurry. Every time he tried to focus his gaze, the vertical line in his eyes would suddenly tighten and become stern, but soon he would fall back into her control.
The snake's talents were on full display at this moment: its voice, its breath, its temperature, and the way it moved, slowed down and amplified its movements. He let himself be drawn into her allure, longing to be enveloped by her scent from all sides.
The tail had slowly climbed up her calf, and the warmth of their bodies mingled, warming the originally cold and dangerous scales.
"Aren't you going to touch me anymore?" Yuan Chuyu tried to put his tail in her hand, but he accidentally brushed against the bottom of her clothes.
"Don't you love touching my tail the most...?"
"Stop bothering me!" Lin Langyi confirmed that this person had completely entered a vulnerable period.
The tail wrapped around her waist and pulled her toward him. She had never fed him frozen rats, but she imagined that this was how the black king snake would constrict its prey with such beauty and agility.
"You touched my cloaca last time, squeezed it—"
With a "smack," Lin Langyi slapped his mouth and nose, sealing them shut to prevent him from speaking.
He opened his mouth to suck on her finger.
Like a snake swallowing its food with methodical pressure, it held its mouth very deep, and the scales on the side of its neck trembled and undulated as its Adam's apple moved, creating a very eerie and beautiful sight.
Pulling and tugging, Lin Langyi was almost pressed against his bare chest. He then used the tip of his tail to wrap around her back, pushing her forward from behind like fuel for the fire.
I couldn't touch those abs the other day, but now I can really enjoy touching them.
"Yuan Chuyu!" Lin Langyi felt guilty. The vow she made just now was like her saying "I will definitely not stay up late tonight" when she was in school. It was all for nothing. What three people, three people, and now damn it, another one has been added.
She reached out and grabbed his cheek, wanting to scold him a few more times, when the scales around her suddenly burst forth and spread towards her.
Yuan Chuyu couldn't control the appearance of the scales, and his eyes instantly reddened.
“You hate my scales, don’t you? I’m not a cute, furry animal.” He was heartbroken. “I really want to stay human in front of you. I’ve been taking a lot of medication to manage my period and try to postpone it, but I can’t control myself when I’m with you every day… Please don’t abandon me.”
"Snakes are easy to keep. You can feed me once a week, it's fine. I can endure hunger, and I'm not afraid of being hungry. You can feed me anything."
Lin Langyi remained silent.
The tiny droplets of water on his eyelashes trembled and flowed down his eyelids, like a gushing opening, silently shedding tears.
Alphas during their most vulnerable period are really sensitive and fragile, and they can be quite demanding.
"If you don't want to see me, could you leave me that coconut shell? It has your scent on it. I can curl up inside and hide there without bothering you..."
"I got the old clothes I used as a mat dirty. Could you give them to me, or can I buy them at the original price?"
He was thinking in a daze, as if the snake's brain really couldn't analyze too complicated a problem, and he was still pleading with her, almost to the point of tears, to take the plate, the body lotion bottle, and all sorts of other old things she had used, as if he were collecting junk.
Nest building in another sense, this is true nest building.
After collecting the scraps, the stray snake looked at her with red eyes and said, "Snakes that don't hibernate in winter and are left to die in the wilderness won't live to see spring."
You don't actually think you're a snake, do you?
Lin Langyi was already fully seated on his tail. The texture was supple, yet it remained firm when she exerted force. She sensed the scale she had used to determine his gender before. Among the closely packed scales, the only one that seemed out of place was the one that could be pried open a crack...
She felt she had already mastered the skill, and the next step she should have taken was to ask him to provide some bodily fluid samples for research purposes, since he was a precious fully evolved beast form with considerable research potential.
But this time it will be a little more troublesome, she thought, because she had judged it herself and found that the snake had two barbs.
[Author's Note]
The original Serpent is truly a master of feigned retreat, a cunning and manipulative Serpent.
Black king snakes are indeed very beautiful, but those who are afraid of snakes should not search for them. Also, the snake-keeping guides above are inaccurate and are just for the sake of the story. You should not touch a new snake for the first three days, or you will really get bitten.
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