Chapter 46
As one of the first vampires, Song Yingxi had pondered a question centuries ago.
How should a vampire fill the long, endless years?
Provoke a war between humans and vampires? Song Yingxi had been through that many times. The outcome was always the same, eventually reaching a delicate balance.
Attain a high position and great wealth in human society? Song Yingxi already possessed these things, so they held no interest for him.
He was the Prince who held the authority of Desire, yet he was gradually losing his desire for anything. If this continued, Song Yingxi might, like one of his colleagues, disband all his forces and slowly fade from sight.
And so, Song Yingxi had found a new project.
He integrated himself into human society with different identities, donning a gentle mask, mimicking human behavior, trying to understand the thoughts of these… food sources.
As it turned out, humans were indeed interesting creatures. In the first hundred years, Song Yingxi had felt a certain amusement. Human nature was fascinating; they were always doing the unexpected. But as time went on, he gradually became able to guess what the people he met were thinking, what they were going to do. The nascent interest he had felt withered away.
Song Yingxi still remembered an evening when a long-retired vampire had appeared before him.
“You will understand me,” the Prince, who had a young face but moved with the decaying aura of the dying, had said. “In a few hundred years, you will be just like me.”
Her Lighthouse had been human. Song Yingxi remembered. But a human’s life was so finite. In less than a century, the fragile human had closed her eyes for the last time.
A vampire only has one light in their entire life. For her, that light had gone out.
Eternal, stagnant time was a long curse. In that Prince’s eyes, vampires were nothing more than walking corpses.
Song Yingxi couldn’t understand that feeling. He had everything, yet his desire for something that didn’t exist grew stronger and stronger.
Ah, right. He hadn’t met his Lighthouse yet.
—The soul-fire of a vampire, the only ray of sunlight in the darkness, the one thing that could make a stilled heart beat again.
Until the Progenitor started this game before his death.
In the moment Fu Xia had rejected Song Yingxi with a cold face, he had felt a long-forgotten desire.
He wanted to possess her completely.
The thought had ignited his long-dormant heart. Song Yingxi tried to understand Fu Xia’s mind, only to find that she was always doing things that surprised him.
How special. How interesting.
And so, Song Yingxi had willingly played the part of a good boyfriend, confident that he could protect her from the other vampires.
—Until Fu Xia fell in love with him.
But the accelerated heartbeat in the darkness had not been from affection; it was the excitement of a predator about to catch its prey.
Song Yingxi: “…”
He wasn’t angry. In fact, he was faintly excited.
“How cruel.”
“Why didn’t you think of that when you were deceiving me?” Fu Xia retorted.
The figures in the night quickly engaged the vampires in the villa. Song Yingxi was highly controlling; there weren’t many vampires stationed to protect Fu Xia.
The vampires who had come to her rescue soon arrived on the terrace. The sounds in the night were faint. Fu Xia saw the familiar faces and, relieved, lowered her head to try and collect the blood from the groove of the dagger. This was heart’s blood, too; it would be perfect to use directly.
Yan Zhu, Xie Rin, Song Yingxi.
Only four more left. Fu Xia just didn’t know if Pei Wang would willingly offer up his own blood. She thought of her last encounter with him. Vampires… didn’t seem like a grateful race.
“Are you okay?” Yan Zhu landed on the terrace, bracing himself on the railing. He hadn’t had time to worry before he saw the dagger in Fu Xia’s hand. “What’s this…?”
“The murder weapon,” Fu Xia said.
She had expected Xie Rin to come, but she only saw Pei Wang and Yan Zhu. The atmosphere between the two was a bit strange. The other vampires wisely kept their distance, though a few were staring at her with pleading eyes.
The black-haired, green-eyed young man leaped lightly in front of Fu Xia. He not-so-gently turned her head, checking for any injuries.
Fu Xia pushed his hand away from her face. “Are you all healed?”
“Mhm,” Pei Wang said.
Fu Xia expertly played the emotional card. “Good, good. It seems you remember what I said.”
Pei Wang tilted his head, his green, beast-like eyes reflecting her image. “Are you talking to your pet dog?”
Fu Xia: “…”
Yan Zhu, who was squatting on the ground, coughed. When both their gazes fell on him, he calmly looked at the unconscious Song Yingxi.
“I thought this would be a tough fight. Pei Wang holds him off, and I take you away.”
Yan Zhu looked up, his mask today a particularly beautiful black and gold. “You’re amazing, Fu Xia.”
“You didn’t stab deep enough,” Pei Wang said flatly. His tone was calm, as if the death of a peer of his own rank couldn’t stir any interest in him.
“…Don’t mind him,” Yan Zhu said. “His emotional intelligence has always been like this.”
The fact that Pei Wang was in a state to make a joke or two gave Fu Xia hope. By extension, his heart’s blood was as good as hers.
Yan Zhu squatted down to check on Song Yingxi.
“I didn’t kill him, did I?” Fu Xia asked.
Yan Zhu shook his head. “No. An injury of this degree will probably just make him sleep for about a week.” Even if it didn’t beat constantly like a human’s, the heart was still a vital organ for a vampire.
“So should we take him with us?”
“Mhm,” Yan Zhu said, bending down to hoist Song Yingxi up. “Just in case this portion of blood doesn’t work after you’re turned.” He was much more detail-oriented than the others.
“The substance in my blood should be fine now. Where are we going next?” Fu Xia asked. This was Song Yingxi’s territory, after all. It was dangerous to stay too long.
Yan Zhu paused. “…To the Xie family estate.”
…
The vampire who had always been a loner, in order to save his Lighthouse, had made a deal with another Prince.
Xie Yan was the most normal of all the Princes. He was steady and always acted after careful planning. Though Xie Rin often called him old-fashioned and boring, he was a reliable colleague. Most importantly, he wasn’t that desperate for the Progenitor’s legacy.
From Yan Zhu, Fu Xia learned that Xie Rin was still grounded.
“He caused too much trouble this time.” Fu Xia could hear a hint of schadenfreude in Yan Zhu’s voice.
“Besides the Princes, the elders of each family are also watching.”
“Xie Yan hates instability, so before the Full Moon Ball, Xie Rin doesn’t have the right to go out.”
No wonder he comes to my dreams every night. He has nothing else to do.
“He’s in this villa?”
“Mhm. He’s not a problem.” Yan Zhu showed no concern for his “brother” at all.
“By the way,” Fu Xia asked, “I lost my memories of you for a while. Was that Song Yingxi’s ability?”
“No. The one who hypnotized you was Heceline. She’s a neutral party.”
“As long as the benefits are sufficient, or if she finds something interesting, she’ll participate,” Yan Zhu explained.
“She won’t disagree,” Pei Wang said, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall.
Yan Zhu paused. He didn’t have to think to know what Pei Wang meant. When the time came, Pei Wang would use his iron-fisted methods to force her to comply.
“Who are the other two Princes?”
“One is Xie Rin’s brother. The other… is in seclusion. The one closest to her is Song Yingxi.”
“When Song Yingxi wakes up, I’ll go and ask,” Fu Xia said. Even though she had stabbed him. They had pretended to be a couple for so long, after all.
A brief silence fell over the room.
All of this was predicated on one thing: turning Fu Xia into a vampire first.
But the problem now was—
Who was going to do it?