That Black Snake Always Crawls onto My Bed at Night - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Things truly spiraled out of control around the time of the Lantern Festival.

A child in the village suddenly died.

He was the Village Head’s young grandson. He had been lively and energetic that evening, but by nightfall, he was burning up with a fever that wouldn’t break. He breathed his last the following morning. The Village Head’s wife wept until she nearly fainted, insisting that before the boy died, he kept crying out about a “Black Snake.”

In less than half a day, the blame was pinned squarely on my head.

They said I had invited a snake into my home and disturbed the village’s feng shui.

They said I was colluding with an evil entity and had taken a life.

Some even dug up old grievances, saying my parents’ deaths had been suspicious and that perhaps my lineage was tainted.

As I walked down the road carrying a basin of washed clothes, someone spat right in my face.

“You cursed thing.”

“Why aren’t you dead yet?”

My footsteps faltered for a moment, but in the end, I said nothing.

When I got home, I shut the door and stood in the courtyard for a long time without moving.

The sky hung low and overcast.

I suddenly felt like crying.

It wasn’t because I felt wronged.

It was because I was all too familiar with this.

From the time I was small, whenever something unfortunate happened in the village, it always found its way back to me. If a chicken went missing, it was because I had cursed it; if someone fell ill, it was because my fate was too harsh. Even if some man got drunk and fell into a ditch, they eventually blamed it on my supposed indecency.

I didn’t understand.

I just wanted to live.

Why was it so hard?

That night, the Black Snake arrived before the darkness had fully set in.

He stood at my door in human form, carrying the scent of rain, his features even colder than usual.

I asked sullenly, “What are you doing here?”

“Taking you away.”

I froze.

“Where?”

“Away from here.”

He looked at me, his voice kept very low.

“This village can no longer protect you.”

My heart skipped a beat.

“What do you mean?”

“They are coming to seize you tonight.”

Before I could even process his words, the sound of chaotic footsteps actually drifted from outside the courtyard gate.

Someone was shouting my name.

Others were cursing, saying that only by tying the witch up and sacrificing her to the river would the village find peace.

My face turned pale.

He reached out and grasped my wrist.

“Are you coming?”

I hardly hesitated.

“Yes.”

He led me out through the back window.

Just as I hit the ground, I heard the front door being kicked open with a loud bang.

Villagers rushed into my house holding torches, their curses, weeping, and shouts blending into a cacophony.

My legs felt weak and I stumbled, but he pulled me firmly into his arms.

“Don’t look back.”

His voice was steady against my ear.

“Follow me.”

I gritted my teeth and nodded.

The mountain path was incredibly dark, and the ground beneath us was nothing but wet mud. Usually, I had to carry a lantern just to dig for wild vegetables on the mountain, but now, as he half-dragged and half-carried me forward, I barely tripped once.

After running for an unknown amount of time, the firelight behind us finally faded into the distance.

I was so out of breath I couldn’t catch it, so I leaned against a tree to stop.

“Where are we going?”

“To where I live.”

“A snake den?”

He glanced at me.

“If you like calling it that, fine.”

I wanted to keep acting tough, but my stomach growled first.

A hint of a smile seemed to flicker in his eyes.

“Hungry?”

I remained silent.

He leaned down and whispered in my ear, “Madam, there is no use in being stubborn.”

Annoyed, I tried to stomp on his foot.

He shifted to avoid it and instead picked me up quite naturally.

“What are you doing!”

“You can’t walk anymore.”

“I can!”

“But I want to hold you.”

Me: “…”

The rain was still falling.

He carried me all the way into the deep mountains. His robes were cool, but his embrace was steady.

I had been tense at first, but listening to the slow, unhurried thrum of his heartbeat in his chest, I gradually settled down.

There was a stone cave in the mountains.

The entrance wasn’t large, but it went deep inside, and lamps were lit.

They weren’t oil lamps, but a kind of pale green flame embedded in the stone walls, making the entire cave look as though it were submerged in shimmering water.

As soon as I was set down, I saw a pile of things tucked away in a corner.

Honeyed dates, sugar pastries, a silver hairpin, red string, and even a wood carving I had lost when I was a child.

I was stunned.

“These…”

“They are all yours.”

“You stole my things?”

“I picked them up.”

His tone was incredibly innocent.

“You lost them, so I brought them back.”

I stared at the pile of items, momentarily speechless.

It turned out that all these years, he really had been watching me.

Not for a day or two.

But year after year.

I couldn’t describe the feeling in my heart.

It felt sour, swollen, and a little panicked.

“You’re sick.”

“Mhm.”

“What kind of sickness?”

“Lovesickness.”

I shut my mouth immediately.

I swore that if I ever responded to another one of his sweet words again, I’d be a dog.

As it turned out, I slapped my own face in less than fifteen minutes.

Because when he turned to fetch water, blood began to seep through the back of his clothes again.

I frowned and called out to him, “Stop right there.”

“What is it?”

“The wound on your back has opened again.”

He turned back to look at me, his eyes dark and deep.

“Are you worried?”

“I’m afraid you’ll bleed out and get my place dirty.”

The corner of his lip hooked up slightly.

“Your mouth says one thing, but your heart says another.”

Ignoring him, I took the medicine and went over to re-bandage him.

The bone structure of his back was beautiful-broad shoulders, narrow waist, and pale, cool skin-but the layers upon layers of wounds were frustrating to look at.

“Who hurt you?”

“Some were that crowd that wanted to catch you.”

“And the others?”

“Old debts.”

My hands paused.

“Do they have to do with me?”

“Yes.”

“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?”

He was silent for a moment before saying softly, “I didn’t originally intend to pull you into this.”

“But you came anyway.”

“That was because they touched you first.”

When he said this, his voice was very light, but it contained a suppressed, icy fury.

I suddenly thought of the steward who had come to demand the debt that night, and the villagers who had fallen into the mud in the middle of the night. My heart fluttered erratically.

“You… didn’t kill them all, did you?”

He turned his face to look at me.

“Are you afraid?”

I pursed my lips.

“I just don’t want to carry the burden of lives on my conscience for no reason.”

“Then I won’t kill them.”

He answered quickly.

So quickly it was as if he didn’t need to consider it at all.

I blinked in surprise.

“Why?”

“Because you don’t like it.”

The movements of my hands slowed down.

In that moment, I suddenly felt that this snake was sometimes more human than actual people.

And those people in the village, on the contrary, were more like malevolent ghosts that would swallow a person alive.