At this moment, everyone was basking in the spring sunshine, happily enjoying themselves. Nobody paid attention to the slender figure under the tree.
"Injured?" Ivy frowned slightly, her face skeptical as she looked at the unmoving gray snake on the ground.
"Yes, yes, young lady, this old grandpa really has no strength left. Please hurry and put me back on the tree," the gray snake said, struggling to raise its head to look at Ivy's doubtful face. Unfortunately, Ivy couldn't understand a word he said.
Seeing the gray snake suddenly lift its head, Ivy jumped in fright and quickly backed away. But after a few seconds, when she saw the snake lower its head again, she picked up a long branch from the ground, went over to the snake, and poked its body with the stick. "Are you really hurt or what?"
"Ouch, young lady, stop poking me! My old bones are about to fall apart." This time, the energy he spent refining his essence had drained him, so even a simple branch was too much to handle.
"Haha, looks like you really are hurt." As she spoke, Ivy revealed a sly grin.
Hearing this, the gray snake on the ground couldn't help but shiver. Why did this young lady's words sound so creepy?
"Hmph, what else can you cold-blooded animals do besides biting people and poisoning them?" Ivy said irritably. The scene from her childhood still haunted her like a nightmare—she'd only wanted to show her mom something, but ended up getting bitten by a poisonous snake. That bone-deep pain was something she would never forget.
"Hey, young lady, I'm not some ordinary snake! I'm the only elder from the Kingdom of Phoenixcrest who can freely travel between the human world and ours—even our emperor can't do that! So I'm not some cold-blooded animal." The elder hurried to explain, but to Ivy, his mouth opening and closing just looked like he was flicking his tongue menacingly.
"Sunny, hurry up, it's right over there!" Suddenly, Sunny's voice rang out from the distance.
Hearing this, Ivy quickly looked at the gray snake on the grass and said, "You know what they say—get bitten once, get smarter. I won't let Sunny fall for your tricks!" With that, she mustered her courage, strode forward, and with the pointed toe of her shoe gave the gray snake a sharp kick. The snake flew off, tracing a silvery arc through the air and vanishing, along with the elder's panicked scream.
Later that afternoon—
When Ivy got home, she tossed her bag onto the sofa and flopped down, too lazy to move.
"Why do you look so out of it?" Mr. Shen handed her a glass of juice and sat down on the sofa too.
"Ugh, you have no idea. Our company organized a spring outing today, and then we found an injured snake. Sunny insisted on rescuing it. After she left me alone with it, I just..."
"So you dealt with it, huh?" Mr. Shen cut in. "Looks like you still hate snakes. So, how did you handle your 'enemy' that you both fear and despise?" He looked at her with curiosity, not at all worried about whether his daughter had been scared again. After all, back when she was little, that surprise snake incident had made her cry for days!
Ivy rolled her eyes at her dad. Just then, a figure darted in through the door, clutching a small cardboard box and sneakily heading upstairs. Ivy frowned—her bookworm brother was definitely smuggling something home again. She got up, ready to follow him upstairs.
"Xin'er, you still haven't told me!" Mr. Shen was clearly still interested in how she handled her 'enemy.'
"Kicked it and sent it flying." With that, she headed upstairs without looking back.
*****
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