CHAPTER 14 LOOKING BACK

“Stowy.” Seeing Stowy come out, I grabbed him. With a sudden force, I picked up the snake body with

the bamboo stick.

Looking at Orion, I said, “You are also dead. Believe it or not, I will slice this ghost snake into several

pieces.”

I pulled Stowy back slowly and spoke solemnly to him, “If you don’t feel well, you should go back to the

Black Mamba Bracelet.”

Stowy seemed to be restricted by something. He was too exhausted and didn’t have much energy left.

Just now he stopped Orion twice. He was probably struggling to stand up right now.

“Haha!” Orion laughed as he listened and looked at me. “The Serpent Sarcophagus is coming out

soon, and you are letting Stowy go? Aurora, you don’t know what the Serpent Sarcophagus is, right?”

“The Dragon family’s daughter has already been sacrificed, and the Serpent Sarcophagus is about to

come out. Would you like to take a look?” Orion pointed to the grave.

He snickered at me and said, “Do you know why eighteen years ago the Dragon family had to wait for

you to be born and sacrifice you to the Serpent Sarcophagus when your cousin was obviously more

than a month older than you?”

“Because your uncle was deluded and refused to bring your cousin back. He even bribed everyone in

the village just to wait for you to be born and buried inside.” Orion’s voice was cold.

As if telling a joke, he continued. “But when the sarcophagus was opened, they saw the treasures

passed down from generation to generation in the sarcophagus. Tempted by greed, they incited your

dad to beat me to death. As long as I died, you wouldn’t need to be buried alive.”

“You are so powerful. How can you be killed?” I looked at Orion, not convinced.

“It’s definitely not possible at other times or by anyone else. But at that time, I was molting and

returning to my original state, and the person who beat me was your dad, so I was killed.” Orion was

resentful.

He gazed at me gloomily. “Too bad your dad was bitten by me and you almost died. But your uncle led

the villagers to divide the treasures. In your village, except for your family, everyone has a nice time

and is rich even if they don’t do anything. It’s ridiculous that you saved them just now.”

“Your uncle is poorly ill and about to die. He still wanted to bury himself in the Serpent Sarcophagus so

that he can stay “living” and protect your cousin when he died.”

“These villagers are still thinking about the treasures, which is why they came along to look for the

Serpent Sarcophagus. I made your cousin come back so Peter can have his wish granted.” Orion

slowly raised his head.

The rain hit him in the face, but he seemed to enjoy it. “Stowy, you can’t protect Aurora. You can stop Exclusive content from .

me, but can you stop the Serpent Sarcophagus?”

As soon as Orion finished speaking, the snakes in the grave began to crawl out in shock. The grave

started calling out to me again, “Aurora... Aurora...”

My legs began to be pulled toward the grave involuntarily. Stowy hurriedly held me back.

I turned my head and looked at Orion puzzledly, “Not you?”

Orion laughed softly. “I only want to sleep with you in the Serpent Sarcophagus. I don’t want the

Serpent Sarcophagus to eat you.”

“What on earth is the Serpent Sarcophagus?” I held the bamboo stick and shook the snake body. “If

you don’t tell, I’ll throw your snake body in.”

But Orion didn’t care at all. He waved his hand slightly, and the snake body that had several nails in it

slithered towards me quickly along with the stick.

Stowy hugged me with one hand, and grabbed the ghost snake with the other, and then threw it into

the pit. “Orion, you can look for it in the Serpent Sarcophagus.”

Just as Stowy was leading me to escape, I scanned across the grave. The entire grave was like a

square-shaped bloody mouth, or a coffin with bright red velvet liner.

Uncle Peter and Melissa’s bodies sunk slowly. Orion’s snake body was also falling.

At that moment, it looked like Melissa opened her eyes. A creepy smile appeared on her pale face as

she looked at me and said, “Aurora, come here!”

It was clear that Melissa had sunk quite far down, but it felt as if she was speaking inside my head, just

like the voice that called out to me.

“Don’t look!” With a wave of Stowy’s black sleeve, he covered my eyes and took me to run away

quickly.

In the distance, Orion didn’t look anxious at all. He walked slowly toward the grave and jumped straight

down.

Stowy didn’t run far before he had trouble breathing. He turned to look at me and said, “At this point,

the Serpent Sarcophagus won’t call out to you again. You run by yourself. Don’t go back to the village.”

I looked at his pale face and nodded. “Have a rest.”

Stowy didn’t even have time to nod before his body became transparent and disappeared.

I followed the stream. I didn’t get very far when I heard someone snicker. “The Lady of House Dragon

was entangled with a snake. So she becomes the snake’s wife and delivered a babe. Her name is

Dragon, but her child is a serpent. How strange! How strange!”

I looked up and saw Mr. Han holding a broken umbrella and looking at me with a smile. “Aurora, hey,

Aurora!”

I looked at Mr. Han and suddenly felt relieved.

I hurried to him. “Why are you here? Are you not guarding the village?”

Mr. Han placed the shattered umbrella over my head and looked at me with a scruffy face. “Aurora,

Aurora...”

As he said my name, he looked in the direction of the grave.

His voice didn’t sound as confused. He sighed lightly and said, “I’m not guarding the village. I’m just

guarding you.”

I was stunned for a moment, but soon Mr. Han laughed, clapped his hands, and shouted, “Aurora is

here. Aurora is here.”

With that said, he pulled me up and ran.

Before we got far, I saw my parents wearing raincoats, holding flashlights and wooden sticks, and

searching the mountains with a few police.

When she saw me, my mother rushed over and hugged me. “Aurora, are you okay? Are you okay?”

“Mom!” I was relieved when I saw that my parents were all right.

I immediately wanted to talk about the Serpent Sarcophagus, but my dad said right away, “My daughter

is terrified. I’ll help her to rest first. I’ll accompany her to provide a witness statement later. How about

it?”

The police seemed relieved and glad that I was fine.

My mother took me to leave. My dad handed Mr. Han a pack of cigarettes but shook my hand again,

beckoning me to think before I speak.

“Where is Pearl?” I thought of Peal, who was detained, and turned to look at my mother.

“Pearl is with Master Chang in the hospital. She’s okay. You can call her later.” My dad held a cigarette

in his mouth.

He was about to light it up, but he flicked the lighter over and over again and still wasn’t able to light the

cigarette up. He tried with a new cigarette only to find out it was also wet.

“Don’t smoke. You’ll make Aurora feel uncomfortable.” My mother put her arms around me and glared

at my dad.

“Just one to calm me down.” My dad didn’t care at all and handed the cigarettes to the police in front of

him with one in his mouth.

But when it was my dad’s turn, no matter how he tried to light it up, he just failed.

I reached out and touched the Black Mamba Bracelet on my wrist, suddenly feeling so touched.

We went straight back to the town and didn’t go to the village.

My dad took care of the police in the store below while my mom accompanied me to shower.

After bringing clothes to the bathroom, my mother didn’t plan to leave. She stood by the door and

looked at me. “Let me see.”

“I’m okay.” I knew what she was worrying about and said in a low voice, “I only stayed with Mrs.

Quebec for one night.”

“Don’t be shy. I have seen every part of your body when you were young. I can’t stop worrying until I

take a look. If you don’t take it off, I’ll take it off!” My mother stood on the side and yelled at me.

When she finished yelling, all traces of calmness that she had on her face when she faced the police

disappeared. She trembled and appeared as if she could no longer support herself as she leaned

against the bathroom door.

Since childhood, my mother looked carefree no matter what she did.

She was the kind of person who gambles away tens of thousands in one night without any hesitation.

But now her eyes were red, and her eyelids trembled as if she was about to collapse at any time.

“I’ll take it off.” I took off my clothes one by one and moved the Black Mamba Bracelet on my wrist

when I pulled my top.

Back then Stowy snuffed out my dad’s cigarette, so I was aware that he must be still conscious now. I

blushed instantly.

When I took off my clothes one by one, my mother turned me around and made sure that there was

nothing wrong except wounds from scratches.

She washed her face with cold water, calming down, and then said, “When you see the police, tell them

that it was because of the death of David’s wife upstairs that you were afraid of being avenged by his

mother, so you went to your relatives’ house to hide. But they chased you there, so you hid in the

mountains and then ran into a group of snakes, which was why you called the police.”

“But what about the death of Uncle Peter and Melissa? And those people in the village...” Hugging

myself, I looked at my mother, “You guys want to conceal the truth?”

I thought of the most important thing. “The Serpent Sarcophagus is still in the grave. And the snake

named Orion. We...”

“Don’t mention the Serpent Sarcophagus!” My mother looked back at me fiercely with blood-shot eyes

and panted heavily. “Aurora, forget these things. Don’t mention the snake and the Serpent

Sarcophagus. What happened to your uncle and cousin has nothing to do with us.”

“But...” I was a little perplexed.

My mother waved her hand feebly. “Just deal with the police this way first. We can talk about the rest

later.”

“You and dad always knew of the Serpent Sarcophagus, right?” I folded my arms across my chest.

I started feeling goose bumps pop up and looked at my mother intently. “So you guys don’t take me

back to Dragonlair Village except for the New Year.”

“Yes.” My mother was gripping the handle of the bathroom door.

She glanced back at me. “The year I married your dad, it happened that Peter’s aunt was entangled

with a snake. One day, she ran out from the backside of the mountain. Her whole body was covered

with scratches and a strong smell of snakes.”

“The next day, the Dragon family moved the graves and buried her in the sarcophagus. It’s the grave

that you saw. It’s also the place that was dug out when you were born.” My mother’s voice was soft and

quiet.

But I felt a little chilly. “Since you knew all this, why did you go back there when you were pregnant with

me? You should know that they were going to bury me?”