Chapter Twenty: Accommodating Oneself for the Sake of Pleasing Others

  "Really? Then I'll ask you, didn't you say that a few days ago you saw a female ghost? Isn't that even more ridiculous than what I'm saying?" Rui Xin retorted.

  "This..." Hong Jun was speechless, Rui Xin's words left him unable to refute. Indeed, in this vast world, there were too many things that couldn't be explained. If he could encounter a female ghost in broad daylight, why couldn't Rui Xin encounter a live snake in winter?

  He shuddered again at the mention of the female ghost, and subconsciously glanced out the window. The warm sunlight was embracing the curtains, and it was almost noon. Hong Jun's heart relaxed a bit. At least ghosts wouldn't appear at noon, when the yang energy is strongest. He thought to himself that the female ghost hadn't appeared for some time now. Then he cursed himself for being foolish, still thinking about the ghost that had nearly taken his life.

  "Alright, winter is just winter, a live snake is just a live snake, you continue." After thinking about the female ghost, Hong Jun gave up on understanding the nature of the snake and asked Rui Xin.

  "That's a black snake," Rui Xin continued, "a completely black snake."

  "Black snake? Are there still black snakes in this world?" Hong Jun asked.

  "I didn't know at the time, but I saw it with my own eyes," Rui Xin said. "And that snake was struggling desperately, its triangular tongue sticking out very long. Later when I went to university and read a lot of materials, I found out that there really is such a thing as a black snake, also known as a black rat snake, which is a non-venomous species originating from the eastern United States. This type of snake has a relatively slender body, about 1.5 to 1.8 meters long. The upper surface of an adult snake is black and shiny, while the lower skin is blue-gray. Black snakes live in hollow tree trunks and rock crevices. They are very skilled climbers and can often climb to the top of trees to search for small birds. In addition, they also feed on insects, rodents, lizards, and frogs. Sometimes people keep them as pets. The blue snake is a subspecies living in the Midwest, with a blue body and white belly. The tiger snake is another type of black snake, and there's also the rat-eating black snake; they are very similar in appearance and behavior, but the tiger snake or rat-eating black snake can grow up to 2.7 meters long."

  However, these black snakes look different from what I've seen before."

  "Ah, have you discovered a new species?" Hong Jun teased, never forgetting to joke regardless of the situation or occasion.

  Rui Xin didn't mind and seemed to not notice the sarcasm in that sentence: "I saw a black snake in my hand, but it scared me so much that I screamed and threw it away with all my might. My dad who was living in another room heard me and rushed over to ask what happened. I cried and said there was a snake on my face, but Dad didn't believe me at all, just like you, saying where would a snake come from in the middle of winter? You must have been sleep-talking. I said no way, I was holding it just now and threw it to the corner of the wall. As I spoke, I pointed to the west corner of the wall, don't believe me? Go take a look, it's right there.

  "Who knows, Father walked half-believingly to the corner of the wall and took a look, but there was nothing."

  "What's wrong?" Hong Jun asked.

  "Yes, nothing at all, I found it strange too, so I got up and walked over to take a look. Indeed, except for a stool in the corner of the wall, there was no sign of a snake at all. Not to mention snakes, not even anything that could be remotely related to snakes."

  "Has it crawled away?" Hong Jun speculated.

  "It shouldn't be, from the time I threw it out to when Dad came in, it was at most 10 seconds. The snake's speed is simply not possible for it to crawl away. When I threw it, I used all my strength and even heard the dull sound of the snake hitting the wall. I reckon it would have been knocked half dead. It shouldn't be able to crawl away. And Dad searched the room thoroughly but didn't find any sign of the snake either." Rui Xin said, "I didn't see any sign of the snake either and suspected that maybe I had a hallucination while sleeping. Anyway, except for being scared out of my wits, nothing else happened, so I ran into my sister's room and squeezed in with her for the night."

  Hong Jun smiled: "Oh, false alarm."

  Rui Xin shook her head: "It wasn't a false alarm, that night in my sister's room, I didn't sleep soundly, and I was still afraid that the snake would suddenly appear again. But nothing unusual happened that night."

  But by the next morning, I found out it wasn't just a false alarm.

  After getting out of bed, I first washed up and rinsed. When washing my face, I felt something was wrong. Because after washing my face, there were white skin flakes in the washbasin.

  "At first, I thought it was just dandruff on my scalp, but when I rubbed my hair with my hand, there were no flakes of skin. When I looked closely at the washbasin again, those pieces of skin were several times larger than dandruff, and the largest one was as big as a tea leaf. I wondered how dandruff could be so large. So, I picked up the mirror in doubt, and when I saw my reflection, I froze. On the right side of my face, where I felt like a snake had crawled last night, the skin color had completely changed to white, just like paper. A terrible psoriasis had grown there. When I lightly touched it with my hand, some flakes fell off, and my hair had also turned dry and yellow. Overnight, my beautiful appearance was gone, replaced by that of an ugly girl."

  Ruixin's face still had a lingering fear: "Do you know how big of a blow I suffered? A girl values her appearance the most, women are born to love beauty, especially me, originally very beautiful, now, overnight, the proud beauty is gone."

  Rui Xin stared into Hong Jun's eyes and squeezed out six words from between her teeth: "You might as well kill me."

  Listening to Rui Xin's cold tone between her teeth, Hong Jun shivered.

  Silence.

  After a long time, Hong Jun broke the silence: "Then, what happened later?" Rui Xin was still standing alive in front of him, so even if he had attempted suicide before, it hadn't been successful. He didn't have anything to worry about anymore; now he was just curious - since Rui Xin had become ugly overnight, how did she change back to her current beauty?

  However, Rui Xin seemed to be intentionally teasing him and continued to recount in an orderly manner: "My beauty suddenly disappeared, and I, who was still in my teenage years, couldn't accept this fact. I thought about death and even attempted suicide, but was rescued by my family every time. In order for me to regain my looks, my dad took me to see many doctors, but none of them could determine what disease I had, so naturally, no one could treat me. My dad wanted to take me to a big city for treatment, but our family was extremely poor and didn't have any extra money. For this reason, my dad and sister discussed it for a whole night and decided to go work in the south. At that time, the average salary in Liaoning was only 300-400 yuan, while a relative who worked in Zhejiang told my dad that the minimum monthly salary there was 1,000 yuan, which was three times more. The temptation of triple the salary was huge, and my dad didn't want his once-beautiful daughter to become decadent and lose confidence in life because of this. So, he and my sister went south, but unexpectedly, they lost contact after that.

  After that, I gradually accepted the reality of my disfigured appearance. With the help of my fellow villagers and the government, I was able to attend university in Binhai. While studying, I searched for my father and sister, and also tried various methods to restore my appearance, but none were successful.

  It was during my junior year that something happened which once again changed my fate.

  "What's going on?" It was almost noon, and the outdoor temperature had risen sharply. Hong Jun felt a bit hot, so he stood up and pressed the fan button. A gust of hot wind made him feel slightly cooler.

  "I bumped into you and was knocked down by you," Rui Xin said.

  "This thing? No way, can this thing change your fate?" Hong Jun felt like he was listening to a fairy tale, and even more so that Rui Xin was joking with him.

  "Don't believe me? Really." Rui Xin's serious expression made Hong Jun dismiss the idea that this was a joke.

  "Huh?" He responded with a nasal tone.

  "You knocked me down, and to you, it might not even be a small episode in life, but to me, it was a collision that changed my fate." Rui Xin leaned her head against Hong Jun's warm chest, "Because from that day on, the white spots on my face slowly faded away, and my hair regained its black color. A month later, I recovered my beauty from when I was 15 years old."

  "You mean this is my credit?" Hong Jun asked, "So magical? You saw a black snake, became ugly, was knocked down by me, and then became beautiful again."

  "I don't know if it's your doing, but one thing is for sure, you knocked me down. When I got up, out of habit, I touched my face and a patch of leukoderma fell off, revealing my original skin tone, no longer covered by the leukoderma."

  "Haha, so I'm a benefactor to you now?" Hong Jun joked.

  "Hmm, not only has my beauty returned, but that one collision also made me like you. You know, you're the only person who didn't show any disgust on your face when you first saw my ugly appearance." Rui Xin paused for a moment, "Can you tell me, why didn't you show any signs of disgust when you suddenly saw my ugly face?"

  "At that time, I didn't show any surprise or disgust at your appearance because I think the body is given by our parents, regardless of whether it's beautiful or ugly, tall or short, fat or thin. We should all cherish ourselves and not be inferior because of our own defects, nor should we mock others for their defects."

  "But, Black Snake, you turned ugly, and then I bumped into you, and now you're recovering your looks. Don't you think this is a bit strange?" asked Hong Jun.

  "Yes, it's indeed very strange. Until now, I still can't figure out the connection between them. Maybe, my becoming ugly is fate, letting me hide my appearance before meeting you, so I wouldn't receive attention and harassment from men, and then after meeting you, my appearance was reborn for you."

  "A woman's beauty is for the one who loves her." Rui Xin whispered, "When will you regain your memory? Do you know that you are the only one in my heart, I live for you, die for you, everything of mine is yours." Rui Xin said silently to Xin Xing.