Looming over Xi Rin like a dinosaur, was a gigantic snake with menacing purple scales and razor-sharp horns. Its malicious red eyes were staring at the white lily in her hands agitatedly. Seeing the snake"s reaction to the flower, Xi Rin dropped the flower and started to slowly back away. But as luck would have it, as Xi Rin was slowly backing away to safety, she accidentally stepped on a branch and snapped it. Loudly. And that was all the snake needed to lunge at her with bearing fangs.Cussing all possible swear words underneath the heavens, she turned her body as the snake bolted by her, missing by a hair"s width. The ground quivered from the snake"s landing and a pit could be seen underneath it. And to make matter worse, venom was dripping from its fang and like acid, it would burn anything it touches. Needing to see no more, Xi Rin already turned back on her heels and ran.
In spite of running for her life, instead of her brain shutting down, it still functions to make split-second choices. She always made sure to run the easiest path possible while making things difficult for the snake. Like running between tight s.p.a.ces where trees and plants would grow tightly together. But rather than the snake getting stuck, it would just knock down everything in its path as it goes.
Glancing behind, a streak of purple could be seen still chasing her relentlessly. And it was getting dangerously close. Gritting her teeth, she forced her legs to move faster as she jumped over another branch. She could feel the ground tremble from snake"s movements and its hissing behind her back. Making a sharp turn, a shot of venom flew right past her. It hit a tree, turning it into ash immediately.
The h.e.l.l?!!! That"s unfair!!
Turning another corner, she starts to question her rotten luck.
What kind of reincarnation is this?!
Since the day she revived till now, she was either hara.s.sed by debt collectors or hurled with questions from people about her origin. Mainly Qiu Zhi.
"Hey, do you have any treasure? Jewelry? Can we sell them?"
"Hey. Are you from a rich family?"
"Hey. Do you have any money?"
Even if she evades the questions, he would ask her the same questions day after day until she answers him. But even though Qiu seems like an immature boy, she feels like that"s not the case. Sometimes he can be highly perceptive. Other days, she just wants to pry his head to see what"s in there.
Whatever his secrets are, she doesn"t care. Everyone is ent.i.tled to have one or two dark secrets of their own. That is, as long as it doesn"t involve her.
But that"s not the reason why she"s running around in the forest now. That evil Qiu Zhi. As soon as she recovered, he made her do work pay off debt while he would run off somewhere to play! Always using the same excuse, saying, "Since you are now a member of this household, you have to help out!"
Only today, he didn"t bother. So she decided to go see the world, and the forest might as well provide her with some wild vegetable to eat. Enjoying the view as well as grabbing some mushrooms here and there, she spotted white flowers that looked like white lilies from her past life. But lilies don"t grow on common ground like these. They"re supposed to grow in water. Therefore she decided to pick a few out of her curiosity. But if she knew that her curiosity would have resulted in this, she would have just obediently stayed home and work instead.
Stuck in thoughts, her foot missed a step and she fell. And starts rolling down a hill. If she keeps rolling like this, then she"s going to hit her head or break some bones. Or worse, be caught by that snake.
Ah, d.a.m.n it! She doesn"t want to die yet! Not again!
Forcing her arms out, she held onto a tree trunk to stop the rolling. Standing up, she did a quick check before almost falling down again to the ground shaking. Looking up, she saw a tail swept by before hundreds of tree fell down as a result. Retracting its tail, it shot closer to her before shooting its tail out again.
No, no. She ain"t going to wait for that tail to hit her. Running now wasn"t an option, so she picked the seemingly safest choice for her. Seemingly.
Grabbing onto a tree branch, she heaved herself upwards and started to climb. Scrambling upwards like a professional tree climber, she made a decent height before finding a st.u.r.dy branch to sit on. Then wrapping her arms around the trunk, she hugged the tree like it"s her lifeline.
Technically, it was. As the snake"s tail swept by making trees fall and fly, she braced herself for the impact. Squeezing her eyes close, she wonders if this was a smart choice. But now is not the time to wonder. The snake"s tail whizzed by, hitting her tree with such force that she was sent flying along with it. Clutching the tree with all her strength, she didn"t forget to curse all eighteen generations of that snake.
d.a.m.n you, snake! I hope you die a horrible death! And I curse the snake who gave birth to you! And the one before it too!
Why did she just have to touch that flower??!
Looking up, she saw that she was headed for a mountain. If she can just manage to land on that mountain, then it would buy her some time to hide from that snake. But as luck would have it, the tree starts to lose momentum and began to drop. Cursing her horrible luck, she noticed that she was heading towards a cave at the bottom of the mountain.
As the tree crashed into the ground, she jumped off and rolled into the cave. The cave was dark and with the tree covering the entrance, she was perfectly hidden from sight. Holding her breath, she peeked through the leaves of the tree to see the snake heading towards her. It seemed to have lost sight of her and was searching all over while keeping a distance from the cave. Soon, the cave became the only area it hasn"t looked. But as soon as it even glances at the cave, it seemed to trembled then flee.
Only did when the snake disappeared from her sight, did she dared to breathe. Collapsing on the ground, the adrenaline slowly dissolved to be replaced with exhaustion. Thinking she could finally rest, she laid limply on the ground, not moving an inch.
Laying silently, she could almost swear that she hear the swishing sound of the snake slithering away, but she dismissed it as an illusion. Still laying limply, she then heard the rumbling of a low growl and her face paled.
Snakes don"t growl. That means...there is something else...
The growling continued. This time, closer and louder. Turning her head, she saw two piercing golden eyes and the dim glint of canines.