When the white snake drained my blood until I passed out, all he did was blame me for being too frail.

But now the snake had only been squeezed once, and he looked like someone had carved a hole in his chest.

I stared up at him, blinked, and let my voice go small and wounded:“Didn't you say she understands people? I was just trying to bond with her.”

Sid's throat worked. He looked like he wanted to explode, but he swallowed it down.

Maya glared at me:“Mommy, don't you ever bully her again!”

I crouched down and looked at the daughter I'd spent three days and three nights in labor to bring into this world.

“Maya, she just bit Mommy.”

Maya blinked, then puffed up without a shred of doubt:

“Then it's definitely Mommy's fault. She never bites me, and she never bites Daddy.”

Word for word, the same thing she'd said in my last life.

My heart still went cold. I couldn't help it.

In that life, I'd died without ever understanding.

How could a child I'd carried for ten months and given birth to side so completely with a snake?

I didn't learn the truth until after I was dead, when I heard Maya say it herself.

It was almost laughable. The reason was that I wouldn't let her eat candy because of her cavities.

And Sid had told her that Mama Bianca would buy her a whole roomful of candy.

Just like that, my daughter helped someone else murder me.

She didn't even look sad when she saw my body. She kicked my corpse. Twice. Hard.

The smile on my face faded, bit by bit.

Sid noticed the silence. He pulled Maya behind him immediately.

“She's just a kid. She doesn't know any better. Don't hold it against her.”

I didn't say anything.

I just turned and walked into the closet.

Once the door was shut, I pulled a black cloth bundle from the farthest cabinet.

This was the first thing I'd done after being reborn: gone straight to Clearwater Monastery on the outskirts and asked for what I needed.

I took out a porcelain vial. Through the door, I could hear Sid's low murmur in the bedroom.

“Bianca, just hold on a little longer. Once she's asleep……”

Outside the door, the white snake flicked its tongue.

The sound was eerily close to a woman laughing.

That night, Sid was gentle with me in a way he almost never was.

He said he was worried the bite on my hand would hurt, told me to rest early, and offered to put Maya to bed himself.

I watched him set the Jade Terrarium on the nightstand, and everything behind my eyes turned cold.

It had been exactly the same in my last life.

Every time the white snake bit me, he'd become impossibly tender afterward.

Pouring me hot water. Tucking the blanket around me. Sometimes even pressing a kiss to my forehead.

I used to think it was guilt.

Now I understood.

He was just soothing an animal before slaughter.

The lights went off. I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep.

Before long, a faint scraping sound reached my ears.

The lid of the Jade Terrarium, being pushed open from the inside, inch by inch.

A length of cold, smooth body slipped out.

It didn't drop to the floor.

Instead, it glided down the nightstand and onto the bed without a sound.

A sudden chill against my wrist.

The little white snake coiled around it.

Its movements were practiced.

First around the wrist. Then flush against the pulse point. Then its mouth opened, fangs lining up with the thinnest vein.

This was how it had fed, every night, in my last life.

My lifeblood could nourish a soul.

Every bite drew Bianca's spirit closer to solid form.

The day it drained me dry, she would come back to life for good.

My eyes snapped open.

The tips of the snake's fangs were already touching my skin.

My free hand shot under the pillow, pulled out the Cinnabar Cord, and looped it around the snake's throat in one motion.

The white snake froze.

Its thin body thrashed wildly across the sheets, but every twist only pulled the cord tighter.

It opened its mouth to cry out, but the sound that came wasn't a hiss.

It was the faintest whimper of a woman.

A second later, the master bedroom door flew open and Sid rushed in.

He wasn't even wearing slippers.

The moment he saw the white snake bound by the Cinnabar Cord, his eyes went red.

“Janet! Have you lost your mind? Let it go!”

Maya came running in right behind him, crying so hard she could barely breathe.

“Mommy's mean! Why do you always bully Bianca!”

I sat on the bed and held up my wrist.

A thin line of blood ran where the snake's fangs had broken the skin.

“It crawled into my bed in the middle of the night and tried to bite me.”

Sid faltered.

But his expression hardened almost immediately.

“Bianca was just hungry. She's that small. What could she possibly do to you?”

I laughed.

“She's hungry, so she gets to drink my blood?”

Sid looked away.

But Maya sobbed out—

“A little bit won't kill you! Bianca's sick, she needs Mommy's blood!”

The room went dead silent.

Sid's face changed instantly. He clamped his hand over Maya's mouth.

Too late.

I turned my gaze slowly to her.

“Who told you that?”

Maya's eyes darted in panic, and she shrank into Sid's arms.

Sid forced an explanation:

“She's making things up. Too many cartoons.”

I looked at the two of them, father and daughter, and almost found it funny.

In my last life, I'd actually cried over their favoritism. So many tears.

Sid seized on my distraction and reached for the white snake.

I pulled the Cinnabar Cord tight first.

The snake's body arched in pain, and Sid froze.

“Janet, let Bianca go. I promise I won't let her bite you again.”

I studied his face, white with fear.

When I died in my last life, he hadn't been this afraid.

I let go.

The white snake dropped into Sid's arms, limp as a broken piece of white string.

He cradled it, hands shaking.

Maya threw herself over too, crying and blowing soft breaths on the snake.

I got out of bed calmly and went to the bathroom to rinse the blood off my wrist.

In the mirror, my face was pale, but my eyes were clear.

Outside the door, Sid's voice dropped low, coaxing—

“Don't be scared, Bianca. Tomorrow I'll put sleeping pills in her food.”

“Once she's out cold at night, you can drink as much as you want.”

I turned off the faucet.

The water stopped.

Tomorrow night?

He didn't know yet. Bianca wouldn't live to see tomorrow night.

The next morning, Sid came to me with a warm glass of milk, all on his own.

Maya was holding Bianca's terrarium, stroking it gently.

“Bianca, I'll come straight home after school to play with you. Wait for me, okay?”

I sipped the milk slowly and said nothing to give them away.

In my last life, this was the day Sid had started lacing my food with sleeping pills.

I slept longer and longer.

And the snake stopped biting just my wrists.

Every time I woke, there were wounds on my neck, my collarbones, over my heart.

Sid would see me growing paler by the day and just smile:

“Janet, are you not sleeping well?”

And Maya would hide off to the side, giggling behind her hand.

This time, I smiled and said, “You two go to work and school. Leave Bianca to me.”

Sid smiled, satisfied.

Maya still wasn't convinced. She carried the terrarium over and set it in front of me.

“Mommy, you're not allowed to bully Bianca. You have to feed her bird's nest broth later, and change her warm water every hour.”

I bent down to look at her.

“Anything else?”

Maya thought about it seriously.

“If she wants to bite you, you can't run away. Daddy said Bianca bites you to make you better.”

Sid's expression darkened.

Maya shut her mouth immediately.

I smiled. “Okay. Mommy will remember.”

Before they left, Sid reached into the Jade Terrarium and stroked the snake, gentle as anything.

I stood beside him and reached out to do the same.

The white snake lunged and sank its fangs into my wrist.

Maya shoved me away at once.

“Mommy's so dumb! Bianca doesn't want you touching her!”

She stretched out her little hand and petted the snake for a long, smug time.

The snake didn't resist once.

I lowered my eyes and hid the smile pulling at the corner of my mouth.

A few minutes later, Sid left with Maya.

The whole villa was empty now. Just me and the white snake.

Inside the Jade Terrarium, the snake slowly raised its head.

Its tongue flickered out, and then its body began to tremble.

It didn't know that on the very first day after my rebirth, I had mixed a full dose of Soul-Dissolving Elixir into Sid and Maya's shower gel and hand soap.

Every loving stroke from that father and daughter had pushed the white snake one step closer to the grave.

The snake smashed the lid off the terrarium and lunged at me.

I was ready.

A Cinnabar Cord snapped tight around its throat.

The snake thrashed violently, its tail sweeping the cups off the coffee table.

Glass shattered across the floor.

I didn't even blink.

“What do you think their faces will look like when they come home and find your body?”

The snake went rigid.

It understood.

For the first time, fear surfaced in those tiny black eyes.

I carried it out the door.

At the far end of Westgate Row sat a herbal apothecary.

Famous for one thing: steeping snakes in medicinal wine.

Mr. Mason saw the white snake in my hand and turned without a word, pulling aside the curtain to the back room.

Rows of dark wine jars lined the walls. The air was thick with the smell of herbs.