The wedding was Aponia's reward.
During her prayers at the church, Aponia had expressed a desire to "live together."
Ye Feng had casually replied, "Isn't that just like being a couple?"
Aponia had blushed, lowered her head, tucked her messy hair behind her ears, and focused intently on her meal.
Now, the verbal agreement had turned into an engagement, and the wedding ceremony was set to take place at the church.
The formalities had to be followed.
As Aponia herself put it, "I also value the sense of ritual very much."
However, before the formalities could be completed, Aponia moved in.
"..."
"..."
With another person in the house, the atmosphere somehow felt colder.
"Sneaky little snake, we're going to be family now," Aponia said gently, seated gracefully at the dining table with her hands folded. Her voice was serene and elegant. "I never imagined that one day we would sit together like this, Mobius."
"Tch."
Mobius clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Shouldn't you stay put in your so-called 'Deep Place'? What brings you to wander around so freely?"
"Here, I am no longer a prisoner of fate. I am a favored one of destiny."
"Ha."
Mobius leaned forward, her slender waist arching seductively as her snake-like pupils locked onto Ye Feng. "Do you even understand the kind of relationship Aponia and I share?"
"I do," Ye Feng replied with a smile. "But no matter what your relationship was in the past, I hope you can get along now."
"Ha! How naïve."
Mobius wiped her lips, stood from her chair, and stepped barefoot onto the sunlit floor. Her alabaster feet, adorned with onyx-like nails, gleamed faintly.
"I'm full."
"Even at home, you should wear shoes, Snake," Ye Feng gently reminded.
Ignoring him, Mobius walked straight to her room.
"Mobius seems upset…" Aponia said softly, lowering her gaze. "Perhaps I shouldn't have come here."
But seeing that Mobius could spend all day with Ye Feng while she could only meet him on Sunday afternoons, Aponia couldn't deny the jealousy brewing within her.
She did not seek to hide or excuse it.
"It's fine. The fact that she hasn't run away means she's willing to accept you," Ye Feng reassured her.
"Hopefully…"
Despite her lingering guilt, Aponia remained resolute.
As October turned to late autumn, the engagement ceremony between Aponia and Ye Feng was scheduled for the following Sunday.
As the date approached, Mobius grew increasingly irritable, like someone in the throes of severe menopause.
To make matters worse, the "noises" at night were relentless.
No—those noises persisted even during the day.
Had the house always had such poor soundproofing?
Although they were incessantly "doing it," Aponia always appeared before others with the same pure and saintly demeanor, as if nothing had happened.
It wasn't just Aponia's demeanor that infuriated Mobius—it was also Ye Feng's condescending way of treating her like a child, comforting her like she didn't understand.
If I'm just a child to you, then take proper responsibility! Stop behaving like animals all over the house!
Mobius watched quietly from the shadows, her snake-like pupils glowing faintly in the darkness as she peered through the slightly ajar bedroom door.
She saw Ye Feng, looking smaller, and Aponia, entirely uninhibited.
The curvaceous movements and her tousled hair were truly breathtaking.
"What a little tramp. I never saw this side of her before," Mobius muttered.
In her mind, Aponia had always been a paragon of purity and devotion, almost to the point of being twisted by her saintly image.
The more repressed one is, the more explosive the release?
Mobius retreated silently to the basement.
She spent most of her time there; it had effectively become her laboratory.
She tried to channel her frustration into experiments, but every time she lifted a vial, the image of Ye Feng being enveloped by Aponia's soft curves popped into her head.
For a fleeting moment, Mobius even wondered if Ye Feng might suffocate in there.
Then she glanced down at herself.
"Tch."
Her cold voice echoed in the quiet, icy basement.
There was a time when Mobius had been "quite large" too.
"Maybe I should prepare a suppressing agent for Aponia," she mused, unable to reconcile her mental image of Aponia with the brazen behavior she had witnessed.
Yet, she couldn't deny that Aponia looked genuinely happy.
Mobius gazed at the vials on her workbench, picking up a pink solution along with a few others.
She pinched the vial's neck between her thumb and forefinger, holding it to the light with a sinister, enigmatic smile curling at her lips.
The next day was Ye Feng and Aponia's engagement ceremony.
Though no one would witness it, their bond didn't need external validation.
...Well, not entirely alone—Mobius would be there.
She volunteered to play the flower girl and personally deliver the rings.
That afternoon, taking advantage of Aponia's absence, Mobius brought Ye Feng a cup of tea.
"Congratulations on your engagement with Aponia tomorrow," she said sweetly.
Seeing the steaming red tea, Ye Feng was pleasantly surprised. "Snake actually brewed me tea? I'm touched!"
Mobius sat silently beside him, making a deliberate effort not to look at the tea.
Before she could come up with a reply, Ye Feng drank the tea in one gulp.
Watching his complete lack of caution, Mobius felt a pang of guilt—quickly replaced by the thrill of her plan's success.
"Hmm? My head feels a little dizzy… Snake? Why do I see two Snakes?"
As Ye Feng wavered unsteadily, Mobius's lips curled into a satisfied smirk.
"...Did you forget something? I'm Mobius, after all. And you, my dear little white mouse, are the first to test my new concoction."
"...A drug?"
Ye Feng clutched his forehead, staring at Mobius in disbelief.
"What did you give me?"
"Hehe, guess?"
Mobius leaned forward, dragging the now-weak Ye Feng to the basement.
"Ugh, my body feels so hot… Snake, what are you going to do?"
"What am I going to do? Hehe, what do you think, little white mouse?"
She shed her outerwear, ready to savor her prey.
"Snake… this… this isn't right. We can't…"
Seeing the clarity still lingering in Ye Feng's eyes, Mobius's anger surged.
"Why not? Aponia can have you, but I can't?"
Her voice dropped to a dangerous murmur.
"Little white mouse… get ready to be eaten."
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