I was completely at a loss and didn't dare to tell my mom.
Then something even more terrifying happened. My mom went to the hospital for a check-up, and it turned out to be late-stage liver cancer.
She had at most two months left to live!!
"Mom, I don't want you to die. Please wear the qipao, even if it's just for three more years." I held the pure black qipao embroidered with a white snake, kneeling at my mom's bedside, desperately begging her to wear it.
That snake was terrifying, so terrifying, and it had already died.
Yet, in the middle of the night, it would still crawl into my bed, causing me to become pregnant, though I didn't even know what was growing inside me.
But if this embroidered snake qipao could prolong my mom's life, I didn't care. I just wanted my mom to live.
My mom shook her head and refused, "Have you forgotten your father's dying wish? No one can wear this qipao again!! Over the years, many have come to borrow it, but I've kept my promise to your father and never lent it out. How could I break that promise for my own sake?"
My mom worked as a seamstress, sewing clothes for others, even at the cost of losing her eyesight. With her own hands, she raised me with great hardship.
Our life was very poor, struggling just to get by, barely having enough to eat.
During this time, many people offered large sums of money to borrow the qipao from my mom. If she agreed, we could immediately escape our poverty.
But she never agreed once.
"Mom, at least give me a reason. I don't want to lose you," I said, tears streaming down my face.
She wiped the tears from my face, sighed, and said, "I don't want to leave you alone in this world either. Alright, let me tell you the truth. The snake on the qipao is real. Your father personally killed it and skinned it, then embroidered it onto the qipao. The qipao can give anyone who wears it extra life, but it will also extend the snake's vitality. The fortune teller who came when you were born said that whoever wears this qipao to extend their life will bring a curse onto you. I can't do something so selfish for my own sake…"
"But Mom… don't you know… he's already been taking revenge on our family." I clenched the delicate silk qipao in my hands, gritting my teeth. "Every night, he comes after me. I… I'm pregnant now…"
My mom's pupils dilated, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing. She exclaimed, "What? Say that again."
"I'm pregnant… it's from the ghost snake on the qipao…" I could barely speak, trembling with fear, "Mom, wear the qipao and prolong your life. After all, my life is already…" like this.
My mom broke down even more, screaming in madness, "Enough, Avril, enough! Stop talking!!"
I closed my mouth, watching her pale face, my heart bleeding.
I regretted telling her this, causing her even more stress while she was already sick.
My only goal was for her to wear the qipao and extend her life.
What happened next shocked me!
Suddenly, my mom collapsed from the bed and knelt on the cold floor, repeatedly bowing and praying, "Master Snake, please spare my daughter. All the mistakes are ours, and have nothing to do with Avril!"
No, my mom wasn't pleading with me.
She was begging the white ghost snake on the qipao.
But neither the qipao nor the giant snake on it responded.
The room was enveloped in a heavy, oppressive silence.
The stillness was eerie, but my mom kept bowing, nonstop.
In the quiet, the sound of her bowing, "Thud thud thud—" felt unusually strange.