Tang Yue's Secret

They arrived at Tang Yue's apartment building, and Mo Fan was just about to head upstairs when she came stepping out the front door — Teacher Tang Yue, beautiful and full of graceful maturity, dressed in a long forest-girl knit cardigan, her heels clicking against the pavement. Those long, elegant legs of hers were simply impossible to look away from…

That effortless sensuality — it was exactly the kind that younger girls envied desperately and could never replicate no matter how much makeup they layered on.

"What are you staring at!" Tang Yue gave Mo Fan a coy roll of her eyes, somehow making even indignation look utterly charming.

She had never met a man quite as shameless as Mo Fan. His eyes practically crawled all over her — did he have any idea what the word "propriety" meant? Did he have even a shred of decency?

"Teacher Tang Yue," Mo Fan said without the slightest filter, "I genuinely think our country needs more teachers like you in middle school and high school. Parents would never have to worry about their sons going the wrong way while growing up."

Tang Yue's cheeks burned scarlet. She let out an indignant scoff in his direction — even that carried a trace of her perfume — then tossed her head up with an imperious little pout and strode ahead on her own, utterly unwilling to dignify that shameless little brat with another word.

Mo Fan trotted cheerfully after her. "Where are we going?"

"Just a walk." Tang Yue stretched languidly, every inch the picture of a woman fresh from an afternoon nap — unhurried, graceful, like a pampered cat.

Mo Fan glanced uneasily toward the direction they were heading — toward Yan'an Road — then swallowed his nerves and fell into step beside her.

Seeing Mo Fan deliberately hanging a half-step back, Tang Yue couldn't help letting out a soft laugh. "Is it really that scary?"

Mo Fan nodded.

*Even with Demonization*, he was completely convinced that the Sky-Scraping Serpent would still obliterate him in an instant.

"Let me tell you a story, then." Tang Yue slowed a half-step and walked shoulder to shoulder with him.

"Does it have something to do with that serpent?" Mo Fan asked.

"It has to do with me." Tang Yue smiled, something bright dancing behind her eyes.

"Right. Should I start you off with 'once upon a time'?"

"Of course!" Tang Yue shot him an exasperated look.

Mo Fan obediently shut his mouth and stopped ruining the atmosphere.

Tang Yue walked very slowly, her heels tapping out a soft, unhurried rhythm — **tap, tap, tap** — pleasant and easy on the ears.

Every now and then, a strand of her drifting hair carried with it a wave of fragrance — her shampoo mingled with the perfume she favored — a scent uniquely her own, with a pull so compelling it made a man want to bury his face in her hair and breathe it all in.

Mo Fan had loved Hangzhou — beautiful company included. At least, that was how he'd felt a week ago.

"My hometown is a cluster of villages nestled among small lakes and ponds," Tang Yue began, a rare childlike softness in her eyes — the look of someone who had actually grown up in such a place. "The villages are scattered across the land the same way the ponds are, and if you connected them all, they'd amount to a proper little town in their own right…"

"Back home it's one mountain, one village," Mo Fan offered.

"Hey — no interrupting!" Tang Yue glared.

Mo Fan shrugged and sealed his lips.

"Our villages don't just sit beside the lakes — they're outside the Safe Zone entirely. Most of the people there are mages, and even girls who look like a stiff wind could carry them off might be some of the finest hunters you'd ever meet." Tang Yue paused here, glanced pointedly at Mo Fan, and then her lips curved into an unexpectedly girlish pout. "Why aren't you asking why?"

"Uh…" Mo Fan nearly broke into a sweat. *Didn't you just tell me not to interrupt?* He hastily played along. "So… why's that?"

The moment the question left his mouth, Mo Fan actually stopped to think about it — and realized what she was describing really was strange.

A community of powerful mages — that part he could accept. Some places just produced exceptional talent.

But a village outside the Safe Zone meant their entire settlement was planted squarely in Demon-Beast territory.

Never mind a defenseless village — even a small fortified town that strayed beyond the Safe Zone would be swallowed up by Demon-Beasts without question.

"Because our village is protected by a god." Tang Yue smiled, her eyes curving into pretty crescents.

"Protected by a god??" Mo Fan stared at her, genuinely baffled.

"That's right. We never had to worry about Demon-Beast attacks, because wherever a god resides, no Demon-Beast or evil creature can set foot within ten kilometers."

"Gods can do that? I always figured they were just there for emotional comfort."

"The god we worship isn't like that."

"Oh? What kind of god is it — I might have to make a pilgrimage myself one day and ask it to look after me and my hometown too." Mo Fan teased.

"You already have," Tang Yue said, looking at him with those beguiling eyes, blinking slowly.

Mo Fan was completely at a loss. *When had he ever paid respects to their god?*

But then, without knowing why, the face of the Sky-Scraping Serpent suddenly surged to the forefront of his mind — those imperious eyes gazing down on everything from on high. If he had to put it into words, that creature had stood there like nothing less than a living god.

Mo Fan's whole body went rigid. He stared at Tang Yue — still smiling that gorgeous, disarming smile beside him — and found himself backing away several steps without meaning to, his face frozen, unable to get a single word out for a long, long moment.

Tang Yue kept smiling at him.

Mo Fan was the rare sort who neither feared demons nor bowed to gods — or, to put it plainly, the kind of person who was just a little unfeeling and not given to existential brooding. She had assumed there was nothing that could truly terrify him, and that even when he was scared, he'd keep his mouth running with dark, sarcastic commentary. But this time, the Sky-Scraping Serpent seemed to have struck him completely dumb, and Tang Yue felt a faint, impish satisfaction stir within her at the sight.

"T-Tang… Teacher Tang Yue," Mo Fan finally managed, his voice halting, "please don't joke around like that."

"I'm not joking," Tang Yue said, still smiling.

"…You… your whole village — are you all snake-people?"

Tang Yue's eyes flew wide. "We are perfectly normal human beings, thank you very much!"

"Normal human beings who worship a snake as a god?" Mo Fan genuinely couldn't wrap his head around it.

"Did you ever pay a single moment of attention in history class?!" Tang Yue was thoroughly unimpressed with her inattentive student.

"Not really — but I'm all ears now." Mo Fan felt like his entire worldview was caving in around him.

"The history textbooks do mention it, but only briefly. It's one of our village's secrets — something we don't share with outsiders. Unless…" Tang Yue paused.

"Unless I marry into the village?" Mo Fan cut in.

"Please!" Tang Yue made a sound of disgust. "Who'd want someone like you — no manners, no virtue?"

"I didn't say with you specifically. Your village must have other girls," Mo Fan said with an impish grin.

"Come with me," Tang Yue said. "I want to take you somewhere."

"No way." Mo Fan shook his head firmly. "A village as peculiar as yours almost certainly has some kind of deranged human sacrifice ritual going on. I don't want to know your secrets, and I'm not going anywhere."

"…You have watched way too many movies!" Tang Yue didn't know whether to laugh or to throttle him.