Chapter 34: The Vampire’s Prey (34)
The hand holding the cigarette paused. His pale, slender index finger tapped it nonchalantly.
The ash drifted down.
“Heart flutter?”
He repeated the words softly. As he spoke, he exhaled a wisp of white smoke. Under the ethereal haze, his bewitching face was as if veiled, looking hazy and reserved.
Xue Zhu leaned leisurely against the window. He suddenly raised a hand to his left breast, lowered his eyelashes, and put on a show of feeling it out.
After a moment, he looked up, smiled, and answered, “Of course.”
Yu Jiao’s eyebrow arched. She sneered, “Then your beloved fiancée was missing for so long, and I didn’t see you frantically searching for her.”
Seeing him about to speak, she immediately cut him off. “Don’t give me any of that nonsense about believing I could handle it on my own.”
“…”
Xue Zhu let out a soft laugh, casually stubbed out his cigarette, and slowly walked over, his presence oppressive.
And the slender young woman stood her ground, like a fly caught in a spider’s web, watching with wide eyes as the predator approached.
—But she was not a passive prey.
As he drew near, Yu Jiao stood on her tiptoes and met him, her slender, pale fingers tapping his chest.
“You didn’t come looking for me. Were you hoping to let things take their course and let me die?”
A large, cold hand seized hers.
“My dear, have you forgotten?” Xue Zhu blinked. “We have a contract of shared pain. If you die, I won’t be able to live either.”
“Hmm?”
Yu Jiao feigned surprise. “I thought that dying with me was your greatest dream.”
After her exaggerated words, her eyes were cold and dark, and she looked at him with a bright smile.
Xue Zhu took her hand and solemnly pressed a light kiss to it.
“Yes, that’s right.”
The two of them stared at each other in silence. Though their posture was intimate, it was as if they were separated by a vast, snowy expanse.
Just then, a melodious sound rang out, breaking the stagnant air.
“It’s time for class.”
Xue Zhu smiled gently. “My dear wouldn’t mind attending class with me, would you?”
Yu Jiao returned the smile. “I mind very much.”
…
Although she said that, she didn’t hesitate to skip her own class to accompany this pervert to his.
—After all, capturing the target was the top priority.
As a noble academy, besides the required cultural courses, there were also various elective courses such as flower arranging, tea ceremony, and archery.
The class Xue Zhu was attending today was equestrianism.
Before class, they needed to change into the proper gear.
Under a barrage of horrified stares, Yu Jiao followed Xue Zhu into his exclusive changing room without a shred of hesitation. The door closed, and in the vast room, the two of them stood facing each other.
Xue Zhu took out his riding gear from a locker and, as if no one else were there, began to unbutton his clothes. Yu Jiao brazenly watched him take off his uniform, revealing his beautiful body.
“Like what you see?” he asked as he undressed.
The morning sun seemed to have a cool tone. It fell on him, on his slender, lean body. His semi-long, curly hair was scattered on his shoulders and neck. The raven-black color made his skin look even paler and colder, like an ancient tombstone.
He curled his crimson lips.
It was a terrifying kind of beauty.
Yu Jiao clicked her tongue and answered dishonestly, “It’s alright.”
After a critical appraisal, she had to admit that he was the one in this game world whose aura best fit that of a vampire.
Xue Zhu smiled.
He quickly changed into his gear. The dark riding suit enveloped his lean body. The tailcoat design made him look like an elegant gentleman, and the white breeches and black boots added a touch of asceticism.
Her appreciative gaze made his lips curve in pleasure. Then, he went back to the locker and took out a set of women’s riding gear, handing it to her.
Yu Jiao’s eyebrow arched. She took it. “So this is how I’m supposed to attend class with you.”
“That’s right. I’m counting on my fiancée,” he answered with a smile. He crossed his arms and stood there, with no intention of giving her privacy.
Yu Jiao was not the least bit embarrassed. Instead, she curled her lips, sat down on a long bench, placed the riding gear beside her, and leaned down to slowly take off her shoes.
She suddenly asked, “Speaking of which, this contract only shares pain, right?”
Xue Zhu stared at her as she took off her stockings and answered absently, “Hmm, why?”
After she had taken off her stockings, there were several distinct red marks on her snowy white ankles and calves.
They looked as if they had been left by someone’s grip.
Xue Zhu’s gaze paused, and he slowly narrowed his eyes.
Only then did he notice that on the young woman’s thighs, hidden by her skirt, there were also a few red marks… and bite marks. On her pale skin, they were like red plums in the snow, exceptionally piercing.
A soft laugh.
Yu Jiao narrowed her cool, glistening grey eyes and said coolly, “You let the Xie twins take me away because you thought that what I had done and said had already angered them, and that I would be brutally retaliated against, right?”
Xue Zhu’s gaze moved up, his look dark.
He didn’t answer, which was a tacit admission.
“I really don’t understand—”
Yu Jiao tilted her head and slowly undid her tie and buttons. “My dear, you actually thought they wanted me dead? How could you be so naive… President Xue, did you really not see it?”
As she spoke, her uniform shirt was completely unbuttoned.
Her slender, pale fingers brushed her hair back. As she did, she seemed to nonchalantly trace over her chest, shoulders, and the side of her neck, brushing past the scattered, ambiguous red marks on her snowy skin.
She lifted her smiling eyes, her rosy lips parting slightly to utter sweet words:
“They… are desperately in love with me. How could they bear to kill me?”
She propped herself up on her arms, her clothes half on, half off.
The marks and her pale, smooth skin formed a beautiful picture, as if telling one lingering story after another.
“However…”
The corners of her eyes tilted up, beautiful and alluring. Her voice was low and leisurely. “I was indeed… brutally… retaliated… against… and thoroughly… tormented.”
She enunciated each word, as if she were holding a piece of honey on her tongue.
Xue Zhu’s breath caught. The composed smile on his face froze. His snake-like black eyes stared at her darkly.
Seeing the coldness around him grow, Yu Jiao burst out laughing.
“My fiancé, you really didn’t see this coming?”
Her light gaze fell on him, and she said meaningfully, “That’s right. After all, you’re a pure, innocent, virgin who doesn’t even know how to kiss.”
“…”
The pure, innocent virgin’s brow twitched.
Under his heavy, mountain-like gaze, Yu Jiao nonchalantly twirled a strand of her hair. “It seems this contract can only share pain, and not pleasure.”
“So, my dear, these past two days, when you occasionally felt a slight pain, you weren’t still wondering what kind of torture the twins were using on me, were you?… So pure, so cute.”
Yu Jiao shook her head and clicked her tongue, looking at him with a smile in her eyes.
His face completely darkened.
The light, breezy smile was gone. His handsome, demonic face was expressionless, like a wrathful demon. His dark phoenix eyes were fixed on her.
But Yu Jiao was not afraid at all. Instead, she smiled. “What are you feeling now? Anger? Regret? Jealousy?”
She mercilessly stabbed him with her words, one after another.
“But… does that decaying heart of yours even convey those emotions?”
With each word she spoke, his jaw tightened.
By the time she had finished, he was like a fully drawn bow, pushed to the brink.
As if casually releasing the bowstring, Yu Jiao hummed:
“There’s nothing you can do about it, even if you’re unhappy. After all—this is the bitter fruit of your own making.”
“…”
A long silence. Even breathing felt like being cut by a knife.
Yu Jiao no longer looked at him. In front of him, she took off her clothes and changed into the riding gear.
The entire time, his dark gaze was like a vulture, circling her. It was almost masochistic, the way he looked at her, over and over.
After she had changed, the tormenting marks were completely covered. His gaze, which seemed to be able to swallow everything, fell on her face.
She approached him, tilting her head with a smile. “Don’t be sulky. Didn’t I come to see you? Hmm, speaking of which, my dear, aren’t you curious how I left the Xie family?”
Xue Zhu lowered his eyes and looked at her beautiful, wicked, smiling face. He heard her say softly:
“It was that vampire hunter who saved me. As a reward for him…”
The young woman’s lips curved, and her slender, pale fingers tapped her cherry-pink lips, a sweet smile on her face.
Her unfinished words left much to the imagination.
Crack.
A grating, cracking sound.
Xue Zhu had crushed the riding helmet in his hand.
“…”
He casually tossed the shattered helmet aside. His large hand wrapped around her waist, and he cupped her face. His gaze was like a burning ghost fire, as if it wanted to burn her to ashes as he stared at her.
Yu Jiao looked back at him, her grey eyes as calm and unwavering as a block of ice.
After a long moment of staring, he suddenly buried his head in the crook of her neck, took a deep breath, and then sighed.
“My dear, is this your punishment for me?”
The tall young man was hunched over, with a strange, lowliness about him.
Yu Jiao stroked his head and said gently, “How could it be? I was having so much fun then, I had completely forgotten about you. How could it be revenge?”
He froze.
“…”
Yu Jiao felt a cool, heavy breath on the side of her neck. Then, as if he couldn’t control it, a pair of sharp fangs emerged and pressed against her artery, grinding slowly, as if about to pierce her at any moment, a thrilling sense of danger.
With her life hanging by a thread, Yu Jiao gently stroked his dangerous head, almost with a sense of tenderness and tolerance.
“It’s confusing, isn’t it? Unsettling? Painful?” Yu Jiao said softly. “This intense emotion makes you feel helpless, doesn’t it? So you want to escape, to solve the problem once and for all, which is why you let others try to kill me…”
Her voice grew even gentler, like the lure of a demon. “Go on and bite. Get rid of this trouble with your own hands. Then, no one will ever make you suffer like this again.”
“…”
The sharp fangs pressed two small indentations into her delicate skin, causing a slight, stinging pain.
The moment a bead of blood appeared, it was licked away by a soft tongue.
It was unclear if it was the stimulation of the blood, or the shared pain, or something else.
Yu Jiao felt the arm around her waist tighten, and the head buried in her neck press in deeper…
He was almost out of control, licking, sucking, squeezing the two small wounds, as if trying to draw more blood, like a clumsy child.
Though his efforts were futile, he did not sink his fangs in.
It was less a bite to kill and more a kiss.
A clumsy, artless kiss.
Like a void that could not be filled, the more he kissed, the more he craved. The hand on her waist began to caress her unconsciously.
His breathing was ragged, his hums low, a pitiful display of clumsy, unvented desire.
Yu Jiao pushed him away.
He looked at her, almost in a daze. His crimson lips were slightly parted, revealing a pair of sharp fangs.
His demonic, pale face was flushed with a faint red, giving him an even more captivating tension. His deep phoenix eyes were veiled in a mist, making them seem less bottomless.
Yu Jiao smoothed his clothes and asked nonchalantly, “Can’t bring yourself to do it?”
“…”
“Admit it. You like me.”
She curled her lips, her expression superior, arrogant.
“…”
Xue Zhu seemed to have finally calmed down. He stood up straight, retracted his fangs, and was once again the composed, elegant, and powerful President Xue.
He pressed his lips together and forced a smile.
“No.”
His long, cold fingers lifted her face. He slowly leaned in. Though he looked as if he were about to kiss her at any moment, he said:
“It’s just that, compared to dying together now, I’m more looking forward to a lifetime of torturing each other.”
Yu Jiao slapped his hand away and let out a light, half-smiling hum. “A straight man’s mouth is harder than any other part of him. We’ll see.”
After being pushed away, Xue Zhu stared at her lips with a look of regret. Then, his gaze moved down to the fresh love bite on the side of her neck.
He slowly curved his lips.
It was unclear what he was thinking.
Yu Jiao ignored him. After getting her gear in order, she was about to push the door open.
—After dawdling in the changing room for so long, I wonder what kind of stories people outside are making up.
Just as her hand was on the doorknob, she suddenly heard an anxious, fearful warning from outside:
“Young Masters Xie, please think carefully! The person in the changing room is our President Xue! If you two burst in like this, are you trying to make an enemy of the Xue family and the entire Secret Society?!”
Yu Jiao paused.
She had been at the academy for less than half an hour, and they had already found her. They were like hyenas, smelling blood.
Just as she was thinking, a tall, cold body suddenly pressed against her from behind.
He wrapped one arm around her waist and lifted her chin with the other. Then, a pair of cool, soft lips pressed against hers. A nimble tongue pried open her teeth and thrust in, tangling with her own in a deep kiss.
Yu Jiao was caught completely off guard, her eyes wide.
Just then, the changing room door was thrown open—
Revealing two menacing figures.
“…”
Xue Zhu’s kiss was full of aggression, leaving no room for her to breathe. Yu Jiao was kissed until she was powerless to resist. Her glistening gaze shifted and met two dark, fiery stares.