Chapter 20: The Vampire’s Prey (20p2)
After he left.
Yu Jiao threw back the covers and stared at the ceiling, her gaze cool and dark.
Although this body hadn’t awakened, it still possessed a vampire bloodline. The blood of a high-purity vampire like Xie Yanchuan was a great tonic for her.
Yu Jiao deliberately avoided thinking too deeply about his words and actions.
—While she was skilled at playing with and exploiting cheap affection, she disliked shouldering the weight of a heavy love.
Suddenly, her expression froze.
Wait.
How could the twins have not discovered the symbol on my chest?
Yu Jiao shot up and yanked open the tightly buttoned collar of her pajamas.
Yu Jiao: “…”
Her vision went black.
There, on her pale chest, was a pattern drawn in red ink!
The one she had drawn before had been washed off long ago. It was obvious who the artist of this “body sketch” was…
Yu Jiao closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
Wei. Chang. Lin.
Just then, another knock came at the door.
A female blood servant’s voice came through. “Second Miss, it’s time for lunch.”
The aroma of food wafted in through the crack in the door.
“Come in,” Yu Jiao replied coolly.
The door was pushed open. The female blood servant wore a uniform dress and, like the others, a white mask with a number on it.
After methodically arranging the food, she approached, intending to help Yu Jiao out of bed, but her hand was swatted away without mercy.
The masked blood servant looked over, puzzled. “What is it, Miss?”
Yu Jiao’s pale face was devoid of expression. Her tone was sarcastic.
“Wei Changlin, I won’t fall for the same trick twice.”
“…”
The ‘blood servant’ burst out laughing.
“Ah, you’ve gotten smarter.”
The voice was distinctly female, soft and clear.
Having dropped the disguise, he shed the respectful demeanor of a blood servant and became lazy and dangerous.
“How did you find out? It was a flawless performance.”
He swayed his curvy figure and batted his eyelashes theatrically.
A look of disgust crossed Yu Jiao’s face, and she turned away.
Wei Changlin only escalated his efforts to disgust her. He clutched his chest like a tragic heroine and said in a simpering voice, “I’m so hurt. I was the one who quietly washed your body, changed your clothes, hid the symbol, and concealed your identity~”
A vein throbbed at Yu Jiao’s temple.
“I’m so grateful to you!” she said through gritted teeth, taking deep breaths to calm her anger. Her pale face was flushed with shame and rage.
“You’re welcome. Speaking of which…”
Wei Changlin leaned against the wall with a roguish air and blew her a kiss. “You have a great figure, Miss~”
With that, he deftly caught the pillow she had thrown at him.
“Alright, alright.”
He braced his hands on the bed and leaned in close to her. “That symbol really is too dangerous. It’s too easy to expose.”
Yu Jiao was furious. “And whose fault is that?”
Wei Changlin chuckled. “Isn’t this my way of compensating you?”
“This new drawing,” he said, his long fingers tapping her chest through her clothes, “contains one of my arrays. The next time you’re kidnapped, you won’t be so passive.”
As he spoke, his gaze turned cold.
He had clearly already found out what Xie Ning had done.
Hearing this, the young woman snorted. “I suppose you’re of some use then.”
Seeing her awkwardness, Wei Changlin was suddenly struck with a mischievous impulse. “However…”
Yu Jiao: “?”
Wei Changlin smiled brightly. “It needs a few more strokes to be effective.”
Yu Jiao: “!”
He said it with such conviction that the young woman’s face turned red and white, a look of hesitation in her eyes.
It seems she believed me.
Wei Changlin’s gaze darkened. He felt a rare pang of guilt and coughed. “I was just—”
He had just begun to confess when he saw the young woman bite her lip in humiliation, her pale fingers trembling as she undid her buttons. Hearing his voice, she looked up, her beautiful, innocent face tilted towards him. “What did you say?”
“Ahem, ahem!”
Wei Changlin coughed violently, as if he were choking, his face turning red.
Thankfully, the mask hid his embarrassment. He held a fist to his lips and mumbled, “I said—”
“—It’s… it’s crooked! Yes, the drawing was a bit crooked. It needs to be fixed.”
His eyes darted away, so he didn’t see the fleeting, mischievous smile in the young woman’s eyes.
She had already undone three buttons, revealing the chest covered in red lines—while she had been unconscious, Wei Changlin had drawn an orchid on her. The loose, soft pajamas revealed a solitary orchid, blooming from a secret valley.
Yu Jiao looked down at the drawing.
This guy is a gentleman, after all, she thought. He knew where to stop. It’s clear he didn’t take advantage of me while I was unconscious.
Besides… with his immature demeanor, he’s probably all talk anyway.
Yu Jiao’s lips curved into a slow smile. She braced her arms on the bed and leaned back.
With a hint of provocation, she presented herself for the taking.
“Hurry up and draw, Mr. Song.”
Hearing her call him that, a flicker appeared in Wei Changlin’s peach-blossom eyes.
He understood at once—she was toying with him!
A surge of anger rose within him, but the fire spread from his heart to… He let out another low, husky cough.
Yu Jiao tilted her head and urged, “I’m tired. Are you going to draw or not, Mr. Song?”
Wei Changlin narrowed his hazy peach-blossom eyes and shot her a resentful glare.
As if in a fit of pique, he pulled a fountain pen from somewhere and uncapped it.
“If you’re tired, then lie down.”
With that, he reached out and pushed her down, bracing his arms on either side of her.
The position was extremely intimate.
The young woman’s body was completely open, like a beautiful scroll waiting for a collector to stamp it with their personal seal.
Yu Jiao stared with great interest at his slightly red ears and his bobbing Adam’s apple.
And his gaze… it swept over her eyes, nose, lips, neck, collarbones, and skin…
The air gradually grew warmer.
Sensual and ambiguous.
But the next moment, Wei Changlin closed his eyes and, with a whoosh, pulled her open collar shut.
When he opened his eyes again, his gaze was cold and righteous. He buttoned her up, then turned the tables on her. “Who said the array had to be completed on your chest? What kind of filth is in that little head of yours?”
The temperature immediately dropped.
Yu Jiao: “…”
Psycho.
She kicked him.
Wei Changlin pinned her flailing leg down. With reason having triumphed over desire, a retaliatory smile appeared in his glistening peach-blossom eyes.
He added slowly, “To complete the array, it has to be drawn on your neck.”
His large hand pinned down her struggling hands. He freed one hand, twirled the pen, and said with a great show of pretense, “Let’s see… hmm, it seems the effect will be best if I draw it here.”
The tip of the pen landed on the side of her neck.
It was the same spot where he had left a love bite the first time they met.
The mark had long since faded, leaving only a faint, reddish trace.
Now, he was bringing it up again, grinding it in.
The sharp, cold tip of the pen on her sensitive skin sent a shiver of danger through her.
Yu Jiao’s brow furrowed. She bit her lip and glared at him resentfully.
She looked as if she were about to cry.
Wei Changlin’s breath caught.
His deep gaze was fixed on her for a moment. He let out a long sigh and surrendered. “I give up.”
He released her. Yu Jiao rubbed her wrists and complained, “You’re too rough.”
Looking at her soft, plump forearms, Wei Changlin sneered, “Hey, you…”
Taking advantage of his shifted attention, Yu Jiao gave a triumphant smile and snatched the mask from his face.
—It was the face of the handsome young woman from their first meeting.
She looked a little surprised.
Yu Jiao’s eyes were cunning. She had long suspected that there were limitations to his female disguise, and it seemed the limitation was that he could only use this one face.
And she finally remembered why the girl on the “Campus Stars” list had seemed so familiar.
It was the same face!
The reason she hadn’t connected the two at first was because the girl in the photo had a timid expression. The same face on a shameless person like Wei Changlin gave off an air of heroic spirit and dissolute freedom.
Countless speculations flashed through her mind, but she didn’t tip her hand.
She just pouted and feigned disappointment. “No new tricks?”
With that, she tossed the mask back to him.
After putting the mask back on, Wei Changlin pinched her cheek and smiled. “I’ll have a new trick for you next time.”
Yu Jiao swatted his hand away. He continued, “It’s getting late. I have to go. You be good and rest up. I’ll find a chance to come by at mealtimes.”
Yu Jiao rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t make it sound like we’re having a secret affair.”
He chuckled, ruffled her hair again, and then left, somewhat reluctantly.
Soon, the sun set. After the warm glow of the evening faded, the room became exceptionally cold and empty.
For some reason, Yu Jiao was constantly tired. She spent the entire uneventful day in a drowsy state.
It was as if she had been forgotten in this room. Her body showed no signs of recovery, like an endless hourglass, filled by a drop of Xie Yanchuan’s blood, only to leak out from somewhere else.
What was even stranger was that the twins never came back.
Yu Jiao frowned.
Something’s not right. I haven’t seen a shadow of Xie Zhenye since I woke up. And thinking back on what Xie Yanchuan said before he left, it seems to have a hidden meaning.
The next time Wei Changlin found a chance to sneak in, Yu Jiao grabbed him and got straight to the point. “Where are Xie Yanchuan and Xie Zhenye?”
She looked as if she had been worried all day, like a wilting flower. She reached out and clutched the hem of his clothes, her eyes filled with a deep concern.
It was a look of care she had never shown before.
The pleased, expectant look in Wei Changlin’s eyes gradually grew dark and unreadable. He tossed aside the snacks he had specially prepared for her.
“Tools that don’t behave… naturally need to be repaired.”
He said the words with a voice full of malice. The color instantly drained from the young woman’s face. She looked up and glared at him. “What do you mean?”
Wei Changlin snorted.
He was growing more and more annoyed, feeling that all her previous tears and smiles had been nothing but an act, not worth a fraction of the genuine emotion she was showing now.
He knew she was smart and would understand with a single hint. Sure enough, after a moment, her long eyelashes trembled, and she said with difficulty, “Father… what did he do?”
Wei Changlin didn’t answer, just crossed his arms. “You’re that concerned about those two?”
The young woman turned her face away listlessly. “None of your business.”
She had the look of a heartless corpse.
Wei Changlin was so angry he stormed out.
…
The door slammed shut with a deafening bang. Yu Jiao’s worried, lovesick expression vanished.
She smiled and tapped her lips.
—She wasn’t “the only woman in the world in love with two men.” Of course, her feelings for the twins weren’t that deep.
However, this fabricated ‘love’ was indeed a very useful tool.
Her grey pupils shifted as one wicked plan after another formed in her mind.
She waited leisurely in her room. Soon, a knock came at the door:
“Second Miss, the family head has instructed me to take you to the study.”
Yu Jiao’s lips curved.
It seems the fuming Wei Changlin still held his nose and helped me out.
Yu Jiao got ready and walked out of the room. Waiting in the corridor was a long-unseen, familiar face.
011 bowed. “Second Miss.”
With his respectful support, Yu Jiao went to her father’s study.
They didn’t speak on the way. The entire time, she could feel his restrained gaze on her, like an unsteady scale, tipping towards her from time to time.
He seemed to have a lot on his mind.
But he wasn’t a capture target, so she didn’t care.
They finally arrived.
Just as she was about to push the door open, she thought she heard 011 whisper:
“Be careful.”
The next second, she had already stepped into the dim study, and the heavy door had closed. Inside, a vinyl record was spinning, a low, classical melody filling the air.
—It seemed the warning, which should not have come from a blood servant, was just her imagination.
“Jiao’er.”
Yu Jiao came back to her senses.
Her father was sitting in a single armchair. His slightly aged features looked somewhat sinister in the dim light of the floor lamp.
Yu Jiao walked over and sat down naturally, without any unnecessary ceremony.
A very long, colorful carpet separated the father and daughter.
The family head’s face stiffened. He swallowed the reprimands and accusations that were on the tip of his tongue and put on the smile of a kind, loving father.
After twenty minutes of rambling small talk, he finally got to the point.
“Jiao’er, as my esteemed daughter, as a member of the Xie family, you should do your part for the family.”
His voice was heavy.
Yu Jiao propped her chin on her hand and stared at the incense burner on the nearby table, which was emitting a steady stream of smoke. She felt a little tired.
Finally getting to the point, she thought.
She looked up and listened to him ramble.
“It’s a rare opportunity that Mr. Xue has taken a liking to you… He is the most talented child in many years, even stronger than our two boys. Although it might be due to some secret technique of the Xue family…” his voice became a little vague. “In short, his future is limitless.”
His tone was meaningful. “You won’t be wronged if you’re with him.”
Yu Jiao: “?”
What the hell?
Xue Zhu shouldn’t have a very good impression of her as a ‘Miss Xie’.
Could it be… my identity has been exposed?
Perhaps shaken by this speculation, her somewhat muddled thoughts cleared for a moment. She caught a faint, elusive scent, and a sense of familiarity within it.
It was the unknown gas Xie Ning had used, and also the incense in her own room.
It seemed to be a strange fragrance that drained one’s strength and induced drowsiness.
Yu Jiao’s sharp gaze swept over the incense burner on the desk—every room in the Xie Manor had this inconspicuous incense burning. She had long since gotten used to it and had never expected it to be tampered with.
However, after the brief moment of clarity, an even more overwhelming wave of drowsiness washed over her.
Before she passed out, looking at her father’s old face, she thought with a sneer: The methods of the Xie father and daughter are truly cut from the same cloth.
…
When she woke up again.
Yu Jiao was lying in a large, soft bed, wearing a long slip dress that accentuated the lines of her body, leaving a large expanse of skin exposed.
She had the distinct feeling of being a carefully wrapped gift.
Yu Jiao’s cold gaze swept over the rose petals, the bottle of red wine, the lace, the aromatherapy, and the half-burned candle.
It was as ambiguous as it could get.
It looked like a bridal suite.
After gathering a bit of strength, the first thing Yu Jiao did was douse the hateful aromatherapy with the red wine.
A moment later.
The fragrance dissipated. Her strength slowly returned, and her senses gradually cleared.
Just then, she keenly caught the sound of leisurely footsteps approaching from the corridor outside the door.
Like a victorious cheetah, patrolling its territory and collecting its spoils.
She heard a blood servant say respectfully:
“Young Master Xue, the person you wanted is inside.”