Chapter 24: The Vampire’s Prey (24)
Like two imposing towers, the twins blocked Yu Jiao’s path completely.
The two similar faces were marked with the same sickly pallor and cold gravity.
Their cheeks were pale and gaunt, making their already sharp features even more defined. Their bloodless, thin lips softened their sharp edges, adding a touch of tragic beauty.
Two pairs of deep blue eyes, like burning phosphorescent flames, stared at her.
The emotion in their gaze was so heavy it made one’s heart tremble, as if they wanted to lick, devour, and burn her to ashes.
But this moving, sickly beauty was destined to receive no favor.
The young woman’s eyelashes were lowered.
She was obedient and quiet, like a flower mounted in a picture frame, a beauty on the verge of withering.
A large hand wrapped around her slender waist, tightening intimately.
Xue Zhu, like a composed collector, pulled the precious flower into his embrace in a clear act of claiming ownership.
And the young woman showed no resistance.
They stood together, wearing matching custom-made formal attire, looking surprisingly well-suited.
It was a piercing sight.
Two menacing gazes, like blades, coldly carved into the audacious hand, then slowly moved up to fixate on the triumphant, hateful face.
Xue Zhu, as if oblivious, smiled suavely and held Yu Jiao in a cloying embrace.
“Darling, your two half-brothers are here. Hmm…” He looked them up and down, a slight frown on his face, as if he didn’t understand. “Although you’re not related by blood, you are of the same clan. To come to your little sister’s engagement banquet empty-handed… that doesn’t seem right, does it?”
He clicked his tongue, shaking his head.
His tone was practically begging for a punch.
A vein throbbed on Xie Zhenye’s forehead. He wished he could smash his fist into that hypocritical face and shatter it.
“That’s right, the same clan,” he said, narrowing his eyes, a fierce smile on his face. “So our business is none of an outsider’s concern.”
Xie Yanchuan’s deep, dark eyes were filled with an icy chill. He closed his eyes, suppressing the turmoil within him.
When he opened them again, his gaze was as vast and tolerant as the sea. “Yu Jiao, can we talk?” he said slowly.
He paused, his emotionless eyes flicking over to the smiling Xue Zhu, and then emphasized coldly, “Just us. No outsiders.”
Xue Zhu, who had been repeatedly called an ‘outsider’, smiled good-naturedly. His voice was leisurely, like a trader who held all the winning cards.
“Darling, would you like to go?”
Three pairs of eyes were fixed on her.
The air and time seemed to stand still, as if afraid to disturb anything, silently waiting for a verdict.
At the same time, many curious gazes, some feigning nonchalance, some openly staring, were gathered here. Hearing this, the clinking of glasses in the banquet hall seemed to quiet down. More than half the guests pricked up their ears, waiting for the young woman’s answer.
The young woman at the center of attention kept her long, thick eyelashes lowered, casting a small shadow.
The expression on her face was as faint as that of a Madonna statue in a church, as if she had renounced all personal feelings.
After what felt like an eternity, but was perhaps only a few breaths, the young woman sighed softly. Her cold expression cracked slightly, as if she were wavering.
Just like she had when she had seen them show weakness before.
A flicker of emotion crossed the twins’ eyes.
Just as they thought they would get the answer they wanted, the young woman raised a hand and pressed her temple, as if she were tired. Then, she dependently clutched Xue Zhu’s sleeve and, lifting her small face, said softly, “I’m so tired. I want to go upstairs and rest.”
“Alright,” Xue Zhu’s lips curved. He dotingly ruffled her hair. “I’ll go with you.”
The young woman nodded. Without a glance at the thunderstruck twins, she lowered her eyes and followed beside Xue Zhu, turning to leave without a shred of reluctance.
—From beginning to end, she hadn’t even deigned to look at them.
The twins’ pale faces were as if drained of their last bit of life, so white they were almost transparent.
Seeing her about to leave, to be submerged.
“Wait—!”
Xie Zhenye instinctively took a step forward and grabbed her slender wrist.
She was pulled to a halt. She frowned slightly and finally looked over, meeting a pair of beautiful, sharp eyes that held a hint of a plea.
The young woman avoided his gaze, but she couldn’t escape a question as cold as the clash of jade stones.
“Yu Jiao, what exactly happened?”
Xie Yanchuan’s jaw was tight. He pressed his pale lips together. “Was it… did the family head force you?”
Both of them were looking at her with an almost desperate, pleading expression.
Like believers, yearning for the mercy of a god.
However, the young woman simply brushed Xie Zhenye’s hand away with a cold expression and avoided Xie Yanchuan’s question.
A cold, rejecting posture.
“Young Masters, please have some self-respect.”
“…”
Xue Zhu crossed his arms and watched the show with a knowing smile, as if he had already won. Seeing that Yu Jiao was done, he wrapped an arm around her waist and gave the twins a theatrical bow. “Excuse us.”
With that, he led her away, leaving the twins standing rigidly in place like abandoned dogs, under the scrutiny of many meaningful gazes.
…
Feeling the meaningful gaze from her side, Yu Jiao shot him a look. “What?”
“I was just thinking,” Xue Zhu raised an eyebrow, “now that you’ve finally seen the person you’ve been longing for, how could you bear not to tell them the truth?”
“Because…”
Yu Jiao lifted her skirt and placed her hand in his outstretched palm. Guided by him, she gracefully ascended the stairs.
“The truth is only effective—”
She tilted her head. Her glistening face glowed gently in the warm light, but there was not a trace of soft affection in her eyes.
“—When it’s revealed at the right time.”
Her undisguised wickedness and the cool smile on her lips made Xue Zhu’s Adam’s apple bob. He couldn’t help but lick his lips.
He had the untimely thought of that soft, sweet touch.
His gaze gradually deepened.
The two of them had already reached the top of the stairs.
They stopped.
Xue Zhu reached out a long fingertip and pressed it against her lips, grinding it gently.
A blatant suggestion.
Yu Jiao’s eyebrow arched. “If I’m not mistaken, we’ve already kissed twice today. Fiancé, don’t tell me you’re addicted?”
As she spoke, her lips opened and closed, as if she were pecking at his fingertip.
His gaze was as dark as a burning flame. With an intensity that threatened to incinerate everything, he pressed her against the railing.
He leaned in close, his voice low and husky:
“Open your mouth.”
“…”
It came at her like a venomous snake, coiling around its prey.
As if he wanted to steal all her breath, Yu Jiao was kissed until she was dizzy. She had the fleeting thought:
Perhaps Xue Zhu really is gifted in the art of kissing. During the day, he was like a dazed goose when I kissed him, but now he’s already developed a taste for it.
Suddenly, a system notification sounded in her ear:
【Capture Target Blackening Level: 30%】
Like a basin of cold water poured over her, it broke through her viscous thoughts.
Yu Jiao finally felt the two scorching, almost murderous, gazes from behind her.
She belatedly realized: she and Xue Zhu were openly kissing on the landing of the stairs, in full view of the twins below.
“…Enough… enough.”
Yu Jiao gasped for breath and broke free, like a flower that could not bear any more watering.
Xue Zhu’s gaze was like a surging red river. He tried to move closer, but was pushed away again.
“Let go of me.”
After the kiss, her voice was still cold, but the ends of her words were tinged with a lustful quality, exceptionally alluring.
Pulling back slightly, looking at her glistening eyes and crimson lips, Xue Zhu let out a low laugh, like a beautiful, wicked demon.
He pulled her into his arms with a sated look, narrowed his long eyes, and looked down from his superior height, meeting the twins’ fixed stares.
He slowly curled his lips.
“…”
In the magnificent, brightly lit banquet hall, even the grand chandeliers could not cast a warm light on the two men’s dark faces.
…
Yu Jiao was pressed into his cold embrace, her body tight against his chest.
Just as she was about to struggle, she suddenly paused. “Don’t tell me you…”
Hearing her, he released her. His dark eyes were fixed on her.
“Hmm?”
His voice was still husky with desire.
Yu Jiao let out a soft laugh. She leaned back against the railing, almost teetering, like a vibrant flower blooming on the edge of a cliff.
With a cool smile, she said leisurely, “You’ve fallen for me, haven’t you?”
Xue Zhu suddenly froze. An unknown, dark mist rose in his phoenix eyes.
He looked at her with an unreadable expression.
A soft, boneless hand rested on his chest.
“Since a moment ago… your heart has been beating so fast.”
“…”
He slowly let his smile fade. A gloomy air settled around him, like a corpse that had been dead for a long time.
It was the first time he had shown such a dark expression.
Yu Jiao raised her eyebrows. She brought her crimson lips to his ear and breathed, her breath like an orchid.
“You’re done for.”
Her words were like jade beads, clattering to the ground.
A scattered mess.
After a long moment, Xue Zhu finally spoke, his voice hoarse. “I…”
Before he could make an excuse, Yu Jiao pushed him away without hesitation. She composedly smoothed her hair and said without looking back, “Later. My important guests have arrived. The main event of the evening is about to begin.”
Her tone was meaningful.
Xue Zhu looked up.
—At the entrance of the banquet hall, the Xie family head had arrived, fashionably late, with Xie Ning.
…
“Jiao’er, I’ve brought Ning’er to apologize to you.”
The Xie family head put on the air of a friendly yet dignified father and pulled the bowing Xie Ning forward.
Yu Jiao crossed her arms, a look of keen interest in her eyes.
Xie Ning kept her head down and said in a low voice, “Little sister, I didn’t mean it that day. I was just blinded by hatred…”
She spoke words of weakness, but her eyes held a madness that wanted to destroy everything, which she thought she had hidden well.
Her gaze, roiling with a thick malice, was fixed on the center of Yu Jiao’s chest.
—At the blood-red orchid.
She seemed to be searching for something. A crazed, excited light suddenly shot from her eyes.
In her trembling hand, she clutched a small bottle.
Click.
The sound of the cap being opened was hidden in her hoarse voice.
“I’m sorry, little sister.”
The oblivious Xie family head coughed. “That’s right. You’re sisters. There’s no reason to hold a grudge, is there? Jiao’er, this was indeed Ning’er’s fault, but you’re engaged now, a grown-up. Your big sister has apologized. You should forgive—”
Before he could finish his rambling, he was cut off by Xie Ning’s shrill voice.
“I’m sorry. Go to hell—”
With a crazed look on her face, Xie Ning suddenly raised her hand and, in front of everyone, threw the bottle of unknown liquid at Yu Jiao’s chest.
Splash!
Like a silver river.
The liquid, which glowed with a mysterious purple light, drenched Yu Jiao’s smooth shoulders, neck, and chest.
This sudden turn of events stunned the Xie family head and drew the curious gazes of the crowd.
However, the expressions of those who were waiting for a show suddenly grew grave.
They saw the orchid on the Second Miss Xie’s pale chest gradually fade away, and then, a strange, ominous symbol appeared.
It was the mark of a vampire hunter!
An uproar went through the room.
“Why does the Second Miss Xie have the mark of a vampire hunter on her?”
“No wonder we could never catch him. So there was a traitor in the family.”
“How terrifying…”
Gazes of disgust, contempt, and fear came from all sides.
The twins had been standing in a corner, far away. Hearing the commotion, they pushed through the crowd, their eyes widening in disbelief.
In an instant, all the strange pieces clicked into place.
The men’s school uniform, the covered chest, her convenient appearance in the changing room…
“Yu Jiao… what is the meaning of this?”
Xie Ning shrieked, “What else could it be? The person you’ve been longing for has been deceiving you, deceiving the Xie family all along!”
“She came back to the Xie family, she got close to us, all with ulterior motives! She wants to kill us!”