"Mom, don't kowtow anymore, he... he mostly won't come out." I saw my mom's forehead bruised from kowtowing; I rushed to embrace her.
My mom, with great strength, pushed me away hard, "Get back, don't get in the way, child."
"Mom…" I stumbled and fell to the ground, grimacing with pain.
My mom, as if possessed, continued to kowtow ceaselessly.
She seriously kowtowed until her head was injured, and blood flowed from the wound.
Blood stained the concrete floor; if this continued, something terrible would happen.
I didn't wait before moving to forcibly pull her up.
Suddenly.
An insinuating laugh echoed through the room, so chilling it felt like it could freeze one's heart, "I just want her to repay me, what can you do? Do you people of the Su Family have any right to negotiate with me?"
Not far away, a man sat on a dilapidated, simple stool.
He appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
He was dressed in a blue robe; his features were as elegant as if carved from jade.
Ink-stained hair as soft as silk hung around his bare feet, the very image of an Immortal with an ethereal aura.
Only, his soul-ensnaring peach blossom eyes brimmed with malice, his gaze semi smiling yet not, staring at me.
It made one anxious.
My mom's entire face turned pale, her eyes wide with terror as she continued to murmur the same plea, "Snake Lord, if you seek retribution, let it fall on me; spare Su Wan, what has she done wrong..."
The man ignored my mom, his gaze moving past her and settling on me, "Su Wan."
"You… you're that ghost python…" I never imagined the creature that filled me with indescribable fear every night would look like this.
I froze completely, unsure whether to be scared or to be awed.
I took a deep breath and asked him, "Is there any way you could save my mom, she doesn't have much time left."
He squinted at me, lazily propping his chin up, and commanded, "Drip blood on the cheongsam, claim ownership."
As soon as he finished speaking, he disappeared.
I almost didn't hesitate at all, biting my finger despite the pain.
Slap—
My mom slapped my face hard, stopping me from dripping blood on the cheongsam, "Stop it!! Su Wan!"
"Mom, how could you…" Hit someone?
I was shocked, my face stinging.
My mom had always been gentle with me; this was the first time she had hit me.
My mom interrupted me furiously, "Who allowed you to decide to do this on your own?! If he entangles you, you'd be ruined for life."
"I… just wanted to save you." I had not finished speaking when she snatched the cheongsam from my hands.
My mom glared at me fiercely, "I don't need your salvation! If he fixates on you, I would rather be dead."
She was severely ill, her body had become emaciated.
Yet, enduring the pain, she held the Ghost Python Cheongsam and began searching around the house.
Seeing how she despised that man, I thought she was looking for my father's Yin Yang Scissors to destroy the cheongsam and eliminate future problems.
Who would have known that, after half an hour, my mom pulled out a dusty box from underneath a very old cabinet.
It was wiped clean to reveal a plain pagoda tree box made of solid wood.
There was a round Copper Key that resembled a Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Plate.
My mom placed the Ghost Python Cheongsam inside the box and turned a copper key tied with a red string to lock the Eight Trigrams Lock.
The ghost python inside seemed to struggle.
The box shook violently in a strange manner.
However, after a few shakes, it quieted down.
I thought that the ghost python must have been subdued by some force inherent to the box.
"Go to sleep quickly; I'll take you to get rid of the freak in your stomach tomorrow," my mom urged me to go to bed hastily.
I looked at the pagoda tree box, feeling uneasily uncertain, "Is the box really effective?"
"It has been passed down through the Su Family for generations; there won't be a problem," my mom assured me with certainty, signaling with her eyes for me to go to sleep.
I initially thought that with the cheongsam locked away, that man surely wouldn't appear.
Come midnight, a large number of snakes appeared at the doorstep of my house.
I woke up, chilled to the bone, and the first thing I saw was a multitude of snakes coiled and poised outside the glass window.
The cold moonlight reflected off their scales, casting sinister light.
The hissing and calling of the snakes rose and fell, one after another.
Their eerie sounds seemed to coalesce into a phrase, calling out coldly, "Su Wan, Su Wan…"