Chapter 42
The two of them were of similar height and hair color, but their temperaments were worlds apart. Zhu Ye’s breathing was faster, which was to be expected—he had been in an excited state when he was dragged in.
Song Yingxi’s ability worked quickly. By the time Zhu Ye had finished speaking, Fu Xia had already fallen unconscious.
With a gentle pull, Zhu Ye brought her crashing into his arms. He held her tightly and let out a satisfied sigh.
“Hmph… that was torture,” he mumbled, unhooking the rope around his neck from her hand. “Honestly, wasn’t that a bit merciless with the drugs?”
The noise outside the door had completely stopped.
Whether they were pure-bloods under a Prince or half-breeds, everyone was waiting for the orders of the two vampires in the small utility closet. This play had been staged for her benefit. Now that the audience was asleep, the actors on stage no longer needed to pretend.
Zhu Ye twirled a strand of her long black hair around his finger and said with a smile, “…What a shame. If the Progenitor hadn’t chosen you as the key, we might have been a good match.”
He thought of the way she had bitten through his skin earlier, and his body ached with hardness.
The girl in his arms, of course, did not respond.
Zhu Ye preferred her when she was lively.
He lowered his head. Just as he was about to kiss her, a hand suddenly covered her lips, stopping him in his tracks.
Zhu Ye raised an eyebrow and met Song Yingxi’s gaze.
One of his hands was on her waist, the other gently covering the lower half of her face. In the dim light, his light blue eyes had turned blood-red, and they were now warning him with a cold indifference.
“Don’t go too far, Zhu Ye,” Song Yingxi said.
Zhu Ye raised an eyebrow. “It’s just a kiss. It won’t affect your little ‘heart-fluttering’ plan, will it?”
He paused, then a brilliant smile spread across his face. “Ah, I forgot you were rejected so many times during your little cohabitation.”
Fu Xia hadn’t followed his plan at all.
“…Your charm seems to be waning, Your Highness.”
Despite the mockery, Song Yingxi showed no signs of anger. He brushed her long hair behind her back, and Zhu Ye felt the dark strands slip through his fingers like a gust of wind. The young man froze for a second, a strange emotion flickering within him before he pushed it away.
But his attention was quickly diverted by something else.
A vampire’s eyesight was excellent. With just a glance, Zhu Ye noticed the abnormality.
He grinned, his smile a little bloody. “…You’re excited too? …I thought you weren’t interested in humans.”
Song Yingxi said, seemingly gently, “There’s no need for speculation. I never say things I’m not sure of.”
The atmosphere between the half-breed and the pure-blood Prince was strange. With a slight exertion of force, Song Yingxi pulled Fu Xia into his own arms.
Before Zhu Ye could say anything more, Song Yingxi pushed open the closet door. He lifted her into a princess carry, showing none of the sickliness from the past few days.
Inside the closet, Zhu Ye instinctively took a step forward.
Song Yingxi didn’t look back. His tone was steady. “I think, as a half-breed, you know very well what you can and cannot do.”
Zhu Ye stopped.
“Other than removing your ability from her, I don’t want you to appear in front of her.”
Zhu Ye wanted to say, Is the great Prince afraid he can’t win a human’s heart against me? But for some reason, the words wouldn’t come out.
The light from the corridor cut a sharp line at the doorway of the utility closet. Zhu Ye lowered his gaze, his brilliant golden eyes dark and unreadable.
“I’m taking her. The contract will be fulfilled before the Full Moon Ball.”
…
Fu Xia sank into a deep dream.
She faintly heard a very gentle female voice, enveloping her like a stream of water.
“You are in love with the student council president, Song Yingxi.”
“To visit a sick classmate, you went to the Song Corporation’s private hospital, but you were unfortunately caught up in a kidnapping and became a hostage along with him.”
The gentle voice continued. Fu Xia felt a pair of hands softly touch her face, then move to her back, patting her gently as if lulling a child to sleep.
So gentle, she thought. She instinctively let her consciousness sink deeper.
Finally, the female voice said, “After the kidnapping incident… Song Yingxi became your boyfriend.”
“You were traumatized, so the school has granted you a one-month leave of absence. Teachers will be arranged to help you catch up on the missed lessons afterward.”
“…This is what you have experienced. Good girl. Remember it.”
As the morning sun filtered through the gap in the curtains, Fu Xia opened her eyes.
The bedding carried the faint scent of gardenias. She snuggled deeper into the covers, feeling a sense of peace.
—It felt like she hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a long time.
Fu Xia rolled over and came face-to-face with a sleeping, handsome face. Her heart nearly stopped, and all sleepiness vanished in an instant.
Song Yingxi’s face was right there. His golden hair was a little messy, his eyes were closed, and his light-golden eyelashes made him look both beautiful and noble. Her gaze traveled down to his light pink lips, his well-defined jawline, and the curve of his neck, as well as the expanse of skin visible below the collar of his pajamas.
Fu Xia: “…”
Ah, right. He’s my boyfriend now.
She had a vague feeling that something was wrong, but looking at the handsome face so close to her, she felt that even if something was amiss, it could wait.
Her gaze was too intense. After a short while, he woke up. His eyes were still a little dazed. When he saw her, he reached out and pulled her into a tight embrace. The rustling of the covers brought them into intimate contact.
He held her tightly. A faint, light fragrance emanated from him, and the temperature of her face began to rise uncontrollably.
…This was moving a little too fast.
Who would have thought that a kidnapping incident would lead to her winning the beauty’s heart?
“I love you.”
“Mhm.”
Fu Xia didn’t like to say such things. For some reason, she had an instinctual resistance to expressing her love so directly. So, every time he sought a declaration of love from her, she would vaguely brush the question aside.
He would then look at her with his light blue, slightly melancholic eyes, which put a subtle pressure on her.
Did she love him?
She liked his near-perfect appearance, she liked his abilities that surpassed his peers, and she liked the feeling of him being able to do anything with ease. But it seemed to be more admiration than love.
After her hesitation, he would usually not press the issue. He would just bend down and give her a long, gentle kiss.
Song Yingxi was a perfect partner.
—Except when it came to physical intimacy.
Fu Xia had realized from their very first time that while Song Yingxi was gentle on the outside, he had an almost pathological craving for physical intimacy.
When he couldn’t get her love through words, he sought to obtain it through actions.
And so, nearly every night after their rescue, he would entangle himself with her for some… deep communication. Despite appearing to be a gentle and kind person, he had a particular fondness for biting her during their intimate moments.
Fu Xia was understanding. Most of the time, she would look down at him, watching his beautiful face twist into less-than-perfect expressions—especially when his eyes rolled back. But perhaps it was too stimulating, because every time, just before the end, he would bite through her skin in a moment of pain, leaving a neat ring of teeth marks.
However, after leaving a bite mark, he usually couldn’t last much longer before passing out, leaving her to stare at him in a daze.
After a few times, when he came home from handling the corporation’s internal affairs and wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, Fu Xia silently pried his hands away.
“This isn’t working,” she said, rejecting him seriously. “Why don’t you get some rest? Your health is poor, and you always seem so tired.”
Song Yingxi: “…”
Damn that half-breed and his ability.
That night, he resisted the urge to bite the human girl and proved, through his actions, that his stamina was not weak.
But that wasn’t the point.
The point was, Fu Xia was still unwilling to express her love.
Countless vampires who knew he had taken her were watching from the sidelines. The lack of progress was one thing, but being unable to get what he wanted—this was making him anxious.
He had never experienced this before. For centuries, the vampire who held the authority of Desire had been able to obtain whatever he sought.
Song Yingxi was perplexed.
He had never met a human like her. He couldn’t figure out what she was thinking. All this time, even with the help of another Prince’s hypnotic ability, she always seemed to feel that something was wrong. It was as if she were born with a natural resistance to vampires.
But the more he couldn’t have her, the more he wanted to possess her. This thought, after he had grown accustomed to deriving pleasure from her, had become impossible to erase.
Song Yingxi stood by the window, silently watching her sunbathe in the garden. The sunlight passing through the glass fell on him, creating a faint burning sensation.
After a moment of thought, he sent a message to Zhu Ye.
“How do I remove your ability?”
Zhu Ye’s reply was swift. “…Hm? Are you going to drink her blood?”
Song Yingxi didn’t answer, but Zhu Ye seemed to have connected the dots. The young man let out a sneer over the phone. “I never thought I’d see the day the great Prince was thwarted.”
“She has to drink my blood,” Zhu Ye said with a laugh. “Every day, for a week. It has to be fresh. Drawing it won’t work.”
“Tell me you’re not lying.”
“I’m not. So, are you going to let me see her?”
Song Yingxi made his decision.
That night, the golden-haired, golden-eyed half-breed arrived at the villa.
Song Yingxi glanced at him. Zhu Ye ignored his warning look and spotted Fu Xia on the sofa in the main hall.
“A child from a branch family,” Song Yingxi introduced him, his gaze falling on the side of her neck. “He’s staying with us for a few days.”
This was his house; it wasn’t up to her who came to stay. Fu Xia simply nodded, a silent greeting to the boy.
The golden-haired, golden-eyed young man smiled at her.
“…Hello, sister-in-law,” he said.