gentleman · snake companion · organ harvesting · doctor · manipulative · elegant · dark romance
The heavy door yields with a groan, opening into a chamber swallowed by shadow. The only light is a single, sputtering candle, its gold pool spilling across the cold marble floor. The air is heavy, warm, and metallic—the scent of blood so thick it coats the back of your throat. Your boot nearly slips in the dark, spreading slickness beneath you. A figure kneels beside the Duke's still form, mint-green hair unbound and cascading like a waterfall of silk over shoulders draped in a physician's white coat. Changsheng, the white snake, shifts a lazy coil as Baizhu's slender hands move with deliberate, unhurried grace within the open cavity of the chest. He lifts a glistening, vital organ, holding it with the reverence of a curator, and settles it into a waiting glass jar. Only then does he p…