Chapter 10
Chen Wang, it turned out, was an excellent teacher.
She was skilled, and when teaching, she was steady and patient, holding almost nothing back. The fact that she was going to such lengths showed just how important the Night Division’s Full Moon Ball was to her.
The only problem was that Fu Xia, being a beginner in rope art, was clumsy and heavy-handed, accidentally hurting several people. Being stared at with a mixture of resentment and a strange hint of desire made her skin crawl. Just as she was about to apologize, Chen Wang slapped her on the back.
Right. She wasn’t mentally prepared to be a “master” yet.
After another two hours of special training, Fu Xia was still in a daze when she left the club. Her mind was filled with images of the “teaching tools” under the dim red lights. If she wasn’t mistaken, those people were all students at Lorenz Academy. Proud young masters from wealthy families, kneeling before her, their eyes behind the masks filled with a desperate longing, as if ready to offer up their very being to be dominated by another.
This was not a scene a scholarship student would normally see.
The young masters probably wouldn’t want anyone to know they do this sort of thing in a school club, right? Fu Xia thought slowly.
Unfortunately, her phone had been confiscated by Chen Wang. Since Chen Wang was running the club, she had naturally considered the security issues. On the surface, it was just a club that taught rope art. …As for what students who hit it off decided to do afterward, that was outside of her jurisdiction.
The campus was much quieter after nine o’clock, the sky completely dark. As she walked out of the club area, the crowds thinned even further, with only the occasional couple passing by. Lorenz Academy was near a scenic area and had excellent landscaping of its own. After nightfall, things would occasionally fly across the sky. They could be birds, or they could be bats.
Walking alone in this situation was a little terrifying.
Fu Xia didn’t walk very fast. She had been through so much in the past two days that her nerves were constantly on edge, the stress becoming overwhelming.
And the root of all this, no matter how you looked at it, was Pei Wang.
For some reason, Fu Xia felt that even if he were kneeling before her, his gaze would still be aggressive. Subconsciously, she was still afraid of him. After all, he was capable of stabbing someone so cleanly and had a habit of appearing nearby without a sound. Despite being hit with a baseball bat and fighting with Xie Rin, he didn’t seem to have a single scratch on him.
…Could she really be in a dominant position with Pei Wang?
Fu Xia wasn’t so sure.
If she could tame him, she wouldn’t have to pay back the money, and she could even earn money from Xie Rin and Chen Wang. In just half a semester, she could save up enough living expenses for a very long time.
As she was thinking this, Fu Xia lifted her eyes and looked ahead.
Her steps faltered.
This was the path to the scholarship student dorms. The streetlights were placed every twenty meters, so the lighting wasn’t particularly bright. About a hundred meters away, a person was standing under one of those lights. He was wearing a black trench coat, his posture tall and straight. The gentle breeze stirred his soft black hair, revealing a pale profile.
Even from a distance, Fu Xia could clearly see his face.
…It was Pei Wang.
His skin was pale, so pale it was bloodless. The streetlight cast his shadow long across the ground, twisting it into a monstrous, inhuman shape. And in that shadow, at his feet, lay a student in a uniform, sprawled out like a dead dog.
Fu Xia wanted to turn and leave. She looked around; there didn’t seem to be any security cameras on this path, which only made her feel more unsafe. She began to desperately want to get away.
But her legs felt as if they were nailed to the ground. She wanted to move, but she couldn’t.
…Why does this always happen to me?
Pei Wang glanced in her direction. The monstrous young man began to walk toward her.
In less than half a minute, he was standing in front of her. His tone was as calm as ever. “You always show up at times like this.”
Fu Xia forced a smile that was uglier than crying. “I guess you could call it fate…”
Even as she said it, she thought to herself that from now on, she would have to stick to crowded places, or else she’d keep running into ghosts.
His gaze fell on her face. The bruise on her temple was starting to show. Her eyelids were lowered, and her injured lips were pressed tightly together in nervousness. Her every anxious little movement was completely exposed to the vampire’s eyes. Pei Wang’s gaze lingered on her lips for a few extra seconds.
The wound there wasn’t just the one he had left.
He didn’t think much of Xie Rin, but the annoyance of having his property touched still welled up inside him.
He reached a hand toward her, but Fu Xia, catching a glimpse of the shadow on the ground, instinctively took a step back.
His hand stopped, hovering in mid-air.
Pei Wang raised an eyebrow. “…Are you resisting me?”
No kidding, Fu Xia thought irritably. Who wouldn’t be scared after constantly running into you in the middle of a murder?
“A little… uh… scared,” Fu Xia said.
Pei Wang tilted his head. This time, his hand made contact with her face. The hand in her line of sight was pale and slender. Unlike Xie Rin, he wore no accessories, and his nails were neatly trimmed, almost flawless.
But the next second, his hand pressed down on the bruise on her temple.
Fu Xia thought he was going to apply pressure and prepared to either endure it or run, but his touch was surprisingly light. His thumb gently circled the injury, and for a bizarre moment, Fu Xia actually thought he was a nice person.
But his next words brought her crashing back to reality.
He said slowly and deliberately, “The good news is, I’ve already gotten revenge for you.”
Fu Xia’s head snapped up. Her gaze shifted from his face to the ground a hundred meters away, where the figure with the obscured face still lay motionless.
“I don’t like trash touching my pet,” Pei Wang said.
He lowered his hand, gesturing for her to go and check.
Fu Xia looked at him, then at the body on the ground. A terrible premonition bloomed in her heart. She pushed past Pei Wang and ran.
Her heart was beating frighteningly fast. Though it was only a hundred meters, it felt like she had just run an 800-meter race, and she couldn’t catch her breath, a strong sense of oxygen deprivation overwhelming her. She squatted down, bracing herself on the ground to keep from toppling over.
The person on the ground smelled of alcohol, and his school uniform was wrinkled. He was lying face down, his eyes closed. Fu Xia recognized him at once. It was the guy who had shot the arrow at her in P.E. that morning.
With a trembling hand, she reached out to check for a breath.
But there was nothing. No rise and fall of his chest, no breath.
“…You killed him?” Fu Xia asked.
Pei Wang had followed her at some point and was now standing behind her. “Must you ask questions with such obvious answers?” his voice came from above. “Or would you have preferred to get revenge yourself?”
Fu Xia had never planned on getting revenge right now! And even if she did, it wouldn’t have been by taking a life. At most, she would have beaten him up, and she would have done it discreetly.
Fu Xia squatted on the ground and buried her head in her hands, completely breaking down. She had been shot in the head by this guy in the morning, and by night, he was dead. If an investigation were to happen, wouldn’t she be the prime suspect?!
Unwilling to face it, she curled into a ball. “…Just kill me too.”
She didn’t want to live anymore. Tangled up with two psychos, saddled with a massive debt, forced to call someone her master, and now a potential murder suspect. She felt like she could see the end of her life.
The person behind her didn’t answer.
Under the moonlight, Pei Wang looked down at her. His eyes were like those of a large predator, glinting coldly in the dark.
When he had first learned of the Progenitor’s last testament, Pei Wang had let out an uncontrollable sneer. To fawn over and please his food like a subordinate, just to make an ordinary, mediocre human fall in love with him? Pei Wang had no clear concept of love; in fact, he despised such a weak emotion.
And he still did.
He didn’t mind her fear. Pei Wang was skilled at being a dominator. He had been in a position of power for a long time and understood that the fear of others was proof of his strength. Pei Wang was supremely arrogant. Cruel to others, disrespectful to the Progenitor. He didn’t need companions; vassals would flock to him on their own.
But now, Pei Wang was suddenly starting to enjoy playing with Fu Xia.
She would stand on her tiptoes and try to please him in her clumsy way, but even under his Domination, she would bite him hard. Like a little mouse trapped in his hand, frantically scurrying about, coming up with endless schemes, but never able to escape his grasp.
—Without even realizing it himself, Pei Wang was starting to find Fu Xia cute.
He reached down, grabbed the back of her collar, and pulled her to her feet. He held her from behind.
“If he had used a sharpened arrowhead, you would be dead right now.”
Fu Xia was held tightly. The material of his trench coat must have been of high quality; it felt cool against her skin even in the summer. But the hand on her waist was squeezing too tight.
…Is he trying to strangle me?
Fu Xia didn’t dare look at the person on the ground.
Pei Wang tilted his head, his face close to her neck. The person in his arms was barely resisting. Due to the height difference, her toes were just touching the ground, and most of her weight was supported by the arm around her waist, as if it were her only anchor.
Perhaps because she had just come from the club, Fu Xia carried a faint scent of incense. The smell reminded him of her blood. The human chosen by the Progenitor had a unique blood that intoxicated him. Perhaps she was special in other ways, too. Until her value was completely gone, he didn’t mind keeping her by his side.
The position was extremely uncomfortable. Fu Xia squeezed her eyes shut. “If you’re going to kill me, can you just get it over with?”
Pei Wang lifted her higher, feeling the rapid beat of her heart and her quickened breaths from her terror. He opened his mouth, and his sharp fangs gently grazed her skin, back and forth, before the touch turned into a sucking kiss.
Soon, the human’s breathing became ragged. Her hands clawed at his arm, her struggles bumping against him, but her strength was like an ant trying to shake a tree.
His blood began to boil. For the first time in a thousand years, Pei Wang felt a change in his body.
“Don’t worry,” he said, his eyes gradually filling with a blood-red hue. “You won’t die like he did.”
To her horror, Fu Xia felt something hard pressing against her.
Just as she froze, a voice called out from a distance.
“…Oh my, sweetie.”
Xie Rin’s voice was like a lifeline. “No wonder you were gone for so long. You were tangled up with someone nasty.”