Chapter 2: Snake Kiss – translated by samuki (2/2)

“Snake kiss4, Prince, give her a snake kiss, then she’ll really be yours, heart and soul.” Lolidragon seemed unusually excited as she cheered us on in the sidelines.

Snake kiss? What’s a snake kiss? Kissing a snake? I was baffled.

“Stick your tongue in Phoenix’s mouth and move it around; that’s a snake kiss.” Lolidragon’s voice rang out in the PM channel.

Oh…. I did as I was instructed, and stuck my tongue into Phoenix’s mouth and moved it around… Finally, when I ran out of breath, I stopped the snake kiss, and licked my own lips, wondering Had Phoenix eaten some candy? Why does her mouth taste sweet?

“So stimulating…” Lolidragon said dumbly. I shot her a glance, thinking, Lolidragon, even if you want to try it out, please don’t look so eager! Have some self-restraint, alright?

I looked down to see how Phoenix was faring, only to see that her eyes had already formed two giant hearts and her entire body was limp, remaining upright only through the support of my two arms… How could this be? I only felt that it was a little numbing, and sweet! I scratched my cheek and decided not to think about it any further. As long as I could seduce Phoenix away from Fan, all was well! But I still have the problem of the three vengeful spirits to deal with!

I handed a still-swooning Phoenix to her sister, White Bird, and moved toward the team of resentful spirits who were standing like statues, frozen to the ground with shock at what I had just done. First, I walked to Fairsky’s side and smiled at her. She couldn’t help but to smile back, then… I repeated my actions and gave her a good snake kiss. Looking at another heart-shaped-eyed girl in my arms, I suddenly felt that it was extremely fun!

I threw Fairsky over to Rose and turned my head to look towards the two men. I frowned. I don’t mind kissing girls, but if it’s men… After all, I’m a young maiden; it wouldn’t seem too good if I did that, right? But, I really want to know if kissing guys or girls feels more comfortable.

“Prince, your highness….” Gui’s tears had already formed two waterfalls, and his voice was full with grief.

I was thinking, Okay, I’ll kiss him once, seeing that he’s so pitiful…But just as I was about to walk toward him, and Gui looked extremely ecstatic when…

“You’re not allowed to kiss him; I’ll leave the issue of you kissing girls alone, but… You! Must! Not! Kiss! Gui!” Wicked’s flames of wrath were strong, almost to the point of materializing. I stopped walking, for the safety of my life, and shrugged at Gui.

“Wicked, what quarrel do you have with me?” Gui’s eyes were full of pain and anger.

“Hatred as deep as Blood Sea5!” Wicked glared right back.

I turned around, no longer caring about the brawling duo and stretched lazily, only to find out that… I was hungry. “Lolidragon, I’m hungry.”

Lolidragon looked unfazed, as if she already knew that was coming. “The food has already been prepared, and you can familiarize yourself with the new members White Bird, her husband Outside Window, Feng Wu Qing’s ‘parents’, and so on while you are eating.”

“Feng Wu Qing’s ‘parents’?” Iemphasized on the word ‘parents’. If I’m not wrong, doesn’t Feng Wu Qing have the same parents as me?

“Yeah, this time in the siege, Feng Wu Qing’s ‘parents’ helped out a lot, plus they’ve already decided to settle down in Infinite City,” said Lolidragon,emphasizing the word ‘parents’ as I had.

“…” My shoulders slumped down; I had just managed to get out of one storm, when another one comes – I was beginning to suspect that I hadn’t yet made my peace with any unhappy deities somewhere.

I followed Lolidragon to the dining room…and started sweating like mad. Is there someone getting married? How come it looks like a wedding feast?! I could only see row upon row of lanterns and ribbons, all with a red theme color, and counted scores of round tables with everyone sitting in their proper places, all wide-eyed with excitement, watching my entrance. Suddenly I felt as if Lolidragon and I were the long anticipated bride and groom. I even looked back to check if there was a giant ‘Congratulations’ stuck to the wall behind me.

What the…? That’s what I get for turning back to look; it’s unknown whether the word was painted on with coloring or whether it was actual blood.It looked like it had just been written because it was still dripping.

“Liege Lord, would you like to go over the city’s operations or finances first?” An unfamiliar face… This should be the White Bird that Lolidragon was talking about! She was holding a thick stack of paper, blocking my way toward my lovely dining table, her expression respectful yet not too humble.

“Let’s eat first!” I waved my hand; nothing is more important than my wonderful food.

Upon hearing that, White Bird put away the papers in her hand and said, “Yes, my Lord. Then would you please announce the commencement of dinner?”

I rubbed my nose; I wasn’t used to being addressed so politely. “Everyone, it’s time to eat.”

The quiet crowd suddenly roared back to life, and I too was eager to sit down and enjoy my exquisite meal of… White rice, meat floss, and egg soup? I blinked but it was still those three things. It can’t be… Are those appetizers? “Lolidragon, these are…”

“Main dishes.” Seemingly knowing what I was thinking, Lolidragon replied without a moment’s hesitation.

“This…,” The corner of my mouth cramped as I recalled Zhuo-gēge telling me something about Infinite City’s financial woes. But is it really this bad?

“What’s the matter? The person who spent 5000 crystal coins taking a ship to Eastern Continent isn’t satisfied with the food?” Yu Lian-dàsăo’s warm voice rang out, but I felt like I’d fallen into an ice pit and couldn’t stop shivering.

“These dishes are wondrous; I haven’t had such, such healthy food in ages!” To prove my point, I even lifted up my rice bowl and started shoveling huge amounts of plain rice into my mouth.

Yu Lian-dàsăo gave a small smile once again. “Prince should have been rather well-fed during this trip, right?”

Right… I started sweating violently. Suddenly, I had an inspiration that I hoped would save my skin; I snatched up my backpack and dug out a gleaming red ruby (Remember which one this was? The one on a certain someone’s large door… I had hacked it down before leaving.) I presented it with shaking hands. “Dàsăo, this is little brother’s small gift of appreciation, please accept it.”

Yu Lian-dàsăo signaled for Phoenix to take the ruby. Phoenix actually…sniffed the ruby before saying, “3000 crystal coins.”

Oi, you’re a phoenix, not a dog…yet you sniff?

Yu Lian-dàsăo used her eyes to cue Lolidragon next, who threw down her chopsticks hurriedly to say in a calm and dignified manner, “Prince, because of the city’s economy crisis, we’ve decided to send you out to earn money.”

I pointed to my own nose, face full of shock, thinking Me? Earn money? Spending it all is more likely… What if! What if they really want me to work as something like a male host? I paled and asked, “How am I going to do that?”

Doll suddenly broke out in a radiant smile, “Prince-gēge is so good-looking.”

Lolidragon nodded. “Plus Blood Elf’s name is so well-known.”

I’m done for, I’m done for; they really want me to work as a male host? My first part time job and I have to sell my body? No way, this will never do, if news of this spreads, how am I, a little maiden, supposed to continue living? It’s impossible… But – I eyed Yu Lian-dàsăo’s widening smile… Ugh, I’ll at most be a male escort, selling my smile and not my body; I can still tolerate that… I looked at Yu Lian-dàsăo’s smiling face again… Ugh, at the very most, I’ll accept selling my body to ‘beauties’.

“According to what Lolidragon said, you can sing rather well?” Wolf-dàgē suddenly asked out of the blue.

I was stunned. Do I sing well? I turned toward to Lolidragon, face full of puzzlement.

“Didn’t you sing ‘It’s My Life’ to me before?” Lolidragon lifted an eyebrow. “I dare say that at the very least you’re a match for the original singer.”

“Prince, you sing, and I’ll help you to play the accompaniment!” Gui raised up his guqing and started tuning.

Use a guqing to play rock and roll songs? We’d better not, right? Even if the original singer didn’t turn in his grave, the guqing string would surely break… But, looking at the anticipation in the eyes of the crowd, I was too embarrassed to say no, so I had no choice but to discuss the choice of songs with Gui. “Let’s change it to a song with more sentimental feelings, that one isn’t very suited for accompaniment on guqing.”

“Which one then?” Gui asked.

I didn’t need to think twice, “Dreams Want to Fly.”

As Gui played the first note, I too immersed myself in the song’s lyrics. I opened my mouth and sang:

Dreams want to fly

Flying with wings wouldn’t be amazing any longer, feathers are too soft

Dreams are heavy and burdening, nothing seems more difficult than taking-off

I jump, I leap, I will try

I fall, I’m hurt, I pity myself

Crossing over heart, over hardships, but not over feelings,

Taking the final step, hurting myself, hurting others, but I can’t hurt eternity,

Legends, created with sadness, bitterness and sorrow

Touched only by wanting to fly, and flying

Dreams want to fly

by Yu Wo

I stopped singing, took a deep breath, and came back to reality. When I opened my eyes again, everyone in the audience seemed absorbed in my singing. I could only scratch my cheek; did I really sing that well?

Yu Lian-dàsăo was the first to open her eyes; they shone with bright excitement as she said, “We’ve struck gold!”

“Huh?” What does she mean? How come I feel so uneasy again, especially after spotting my parents sitting at the table to my left, looking like they’re deep in thought? My heart started racing at the thought.

[½ Prince Volume 4 Chapter 2 End]

Footnotes

1 Cold arrows: A term in Chinese that literally means sneaky attacks using arrows.

2 Red packets: These are mainly presented at social and family gatherings such as weddings or on holidays such as the Lunar New Year. The red color of the envelope symbolizes good luck and is supposed to ward off evil spirits. The act of requesting for red packets is normally called (Mandarin): 討紅包, 要利是. (Cantonese):逗利是. A married person would not turn down such request as it would mean that he or she would be “out of luck” in the new year. In keeping with Chinese customs, newly wedded couples are also usually expected to be extremely generous with the amount offered in the red packets, so as to receive blessings for a blissful marriage.See wikipedia () for more information.

3 “…cry until the Great Wall of China falls down”: There’s a story about this saying. The building of Great Wall of China caused a lot of people’s deaths so the people in ancient China were unwilling to go build it. However, the emperor of that time forced the men to leave their homes to build the Great Wall. A woman called Meng Jiang Nv had just married when her husband was forced to go build the Great Wall, and he died. Legend said Meng Jiang Nv cried days and nights under the Great Wall after her husband death until the unfinished part of Great Wall was shaken and fell down.

4 Snake kiss: Snake kiss is pronounced the same in Chinese as ‘tongue kiss’…which, as you can guess, is a French kiss.

5 “Hatred as deep as the Blood Sea”: Usually this phrase is used for a really deep hatred, for example when the enemy had killed your parents…hence the blood sea part. The blood sea part also can mean that you hate your enemy so much that you want to see his blood flowing out so much that it can form a ‘sea’.