The wedding was to be Aponia's reward.
During her prayers in the church, Aponia had expressed her hope to "live together."
To which Ye Feng had replied, "Wouldn't that make us husband and wife?"
At that, Aponia had shyly lowered her head, tucking a stray strand of hair behind her ear as she focused intently on eating.
For now, it was just a verbal agreement. Next would be the engagement, and finally, the wedding in the church.
There were still proper steps to follow.
In Aponia's own words, "I, too, place great importance on ceremony."
However, before all that, Aponia took the first step and moved in.
"..."
"..."
There was one more person in the house, yet the atmosphere seemed to have grown even colder.
"Snakey, we're a family now," Aponia said, sitting elegantly at the dining table, her hands folded, serene and graceful. "I truly never imagined that we would one day be sitting together like this, Mobius."
"Tsk."
Mobius clicked her tongue. "Shouldn't you be staying in your[Deepest Place]? Do you really have the time to be running around all over?"
"Here, I am no longer a prisoner of[Fate]. I am one favored by it."
"Hah."
Mobius placed her hands forward on the table, her supple waist leaning forward bewitchingly. Her vertical pupils fixed on Ye Feng.
"Surely you know what kind of relationship Aponia and I have?"
"I do. But regardless of your past relationship, I hope you two can get along here."
"Hehe, what a fanciful delusion."
Mobius faintly wiped her lips and rose from her chair. Her translucent, pale feet stepped onto the sunlit floor, her jet-black toenails reflecting a crystalline sheen.
"I'm finished eating."
"Snakey, remember to wear your slippers, even at home."
Ignoring Ye Feng's reminder, Mobius walked straight back to her room.
"It seems Mobius is angry..." Aponia said, her eyelids lowered. "Perhaps I should not have come here."
But she could only meet him on Sunday afternoons, while Mobius could cling to Little Feng all day long...
Aponia knew she had committed the sin of jealousy.
She had no intention of making excuses to hide it.
"It's alright. The fact that Snakey didn't just run away from home proves that she's still willing to accept you."
"I hope so..."
Though Aponia felt a sense of guilt, her resolve remained unshaken.
---o---
[Late October. The white season was fast approaching.]
[Aponia and Ye Feng's engagement ceremony was set for the following Sunday.]
[As the day drew near, Mobius grew increasingly agitated, like a patient with severe menopausal symptoms.]
[Worse than that, however, was the demonic chorus that assaulted her ears every night.]
[No... even during the day, it didn't seem to lessen.]
[I never realized it before, but the soundproofing in this house is terrible!]
[And yet, despite their constant activities, whenever they appeared again, Aponia would wear the mask of a pure and holy saint, as if none of those things had ever happened.]
[Putting Aponia's attitude aside, what infuriated Mobius even more was that Ye Feng would placate her as if she were a mere child.]
[If you're going to treat me like a child, then take some damn responsibility and stop shamelessly getting it on all over the house!]
She couldn't take it, she really couldn't take it!
They were like a pair of monkeys!
Mobius stood silently in a dark corner, poised like a snake.
In the darkness, her pair of fluorescent vertical pupils watched through the slight crack of the bedroom door.
Mobius saw the shrunken Ye Feng and a wild, unrestrained Aponia.
The dynamic curves of her body and her flying hair were a breathtaking sight.
"What a shameless hussy. I never realized it before."
In Mobius's memory, Aponia had always carried the air of a saint, so pure and pious as to be almost warped.
Was it as they say? The more you suppress something, the more violently it erupts?
Mobius departed as silently as she had come. She went down to the basement.
She spent most of her time here; it had essentially become her laboratory.
She wanted to use experiments to calm herself down.
But the moment she picked up a reagent bottle, the image of "Little Feng" being smothered by Aponia's plump, pale curves would flash in her mind.
For a moment, Mobius even wondered if Ye Feng would suffocate in there.
Then, she looked down at herself.
"Tsk."
The cool sound echoed in the silent, cold basement.
In the past, Mobius had also been quite large.
"I really should prepare a fever-reducing injection for Aponia."
Mobius couldn't imagine Aponia making such expressions, or performing such humble, even debased, actions.
But... she looked so genuinely happy and blissful.
Mobius looked pensively at the reagents on the lab bench. She picked up a pink-colored test tube, then grabbed several other vials.
She pinched the tube between her thumb and forefinger, held it up to her eyes, and swirled it gently. As the reagent within began to glow with a pink luminescence, Mobius's lips curled into a dangerous and bewitching arc.
---o---
[Tomorrow was the day of Ye Feng and Aponia's engagement.]
Though there would be no witnesses, the bond between them needed no validation from others.
...Alright, it wasn't entirely true that there were no witnesses. At the very least, Mobius was here.
Mobius had said she would act as the flower girl and personally deliver the rings.
That afternoon.
While Aponia was away, Mobius obediently brought over a cup of black tea.
"Congratulations. You and Aponia are getting engaged tomorrow."
Looking at the swirling sleeping dr—ah, no, looking at the swirling black tea, Ye Feng said in pleasant surprise, "Snakey actually made me tea! I'm so touched!"
Mobius sat silently beside Ye Feng, trying her best not to look at the tea.
Before Mobius could even think of what to say, Ye Feng had drained the cup in one go.
Seeing him so completely unguarded around her, Mobius felt a slight pang of guilt, but it was immediately followed by the thrill of her scheme succeeding.
"Hm? My head's a little dizzy... Snakey? Why are there two of you?"
Watching the swaying Ye Feng, Mobius could no longer suppress the slight upward turn of her lips.
"...Have you forgotten something~? I am Mobius, you know. You're the very first little white mouse to test my drugs since I arrived here. My dear little white mouse, how does it feel to be drugged?"
"...Drugged?"
Ye Feng clutched his forehead, looking at Mobius in disbelief.
"What did you drug me with?"
"Heehee, why don't you guess?"
Mobius stepped forward and moved Ye Feng—who seemed mentally clear but whose body was limp and weak—to the basement.
"Ngh, my body's so hot... Snakey, what are you doing?"
"What am I doing...? Hmph hmph~ What do you think, little white mouse~~?"
Then, Mobius shed her clothes and began to enjoy her prey.
"S-Snakey, no, you can't. We can't do this..."
As he watched Mobius coil around him, a sliver of clarity remained in Ye Feng's eyes.
Noticing that clarity, a surge of anger rose from Mobius's heart, and a wicked thought took hold. She snorted.
"Why not? If Aponia can have a taste, why can't I? Little White Mouse, prepare to be devoured."