Chapter 139: The Pursuit of Fate
January 12th, Sunday.
After three days of frantic repairs, the Hongtian Entertainment Center reluctantly reopened. Although many places still bore signs of the bloody turmoil that occurred just hours ago, the casino on the first floor was once again filled with singing and dancing, crowded with people wearing smiles.
If one looked carefully, they could see that among the guards in the casino were still many ordinary thugs who had fled in panic two days earlier. This was the old street; no one cared about the changes beneath the surface; everyone relied on the current order to make a living.
In a luxurious room on the sixth floor, Meng Huai was sleeping alone, dressed only in shorts, covered with an air conditioning blanket, still deeply asleep. An intravenous drip was connected to his arm exposed from the blanket.
On the sofa, Jiang Yan, who had not slept for a full two days, finally succumbed to sleep. Apart from a simple personal clean-up, Jiang Yan still wore her battle outfit from three days ago, her slender and delicate body curled up on the sofa, emitting soft breathing sounds.
On the other side, Wan Yue, now wearing a denim outfit, sat in another single sofa with one leg crossed over the other, smoking a cigarette, her gaze shifting back and forth between the sleeping Jiang Yan and the unconscious Meng Huai.
After pondering for a long time, Wan Yue stubbed out her cigarette, took out her phone, turned it on, and dialed her first number of the past week.
“Old Jin, this time I’ve really helped your Wang family by giving the Black Dragon Society a good beating…”
With her eyes squinted, Wan Yue spoke nonchalantly and seductively, “…Mhm, I wiped out Zhu Lao Er’s stronghold, right in the old street of Northern Myanmar… Mmhmm, surprising, right?”
On the other end of the phone, Old Jin gasped in shock, and the smile at the corner of Wan Yue’s mouth widened.
“This time I won’t ask you for any benefits, but you have to help me with something… Yes, send a capable doctor over, must arrive within three days. Whether I can return to the country early this time depends on how efficient you are…”
A few minutes later, Wan Yue hung up the phone, turned around, and saw Guo Hao standing by the door with his head bowed, silent.
“Xiao Hao, is there something you need?”
Wan Yue twisted her sexy waist, her beautiful eyes focusing on her former fiancé’s underling.
“Sister-in-law, the spoils from everyone’s joint operation have been tallied. Brother Xiang means, on top of what we discussed before, to give you an extra ten percent. Do you want the goods or cash equivalent?”
Xiang Zuxing temporarily changed their previously agreed seven to three split to six to four, meaning Fengxinzi would see at least several tens of millions more in profit, a true golden belt made from murder and arson.
Wan Yue deeply empathized with the helplessness and sense of crisis behind Xiang Zuxing’s generous goodwill.
After a moment of contemplation, Wan Yue smiled and made a gesture to invite him in, “I only need hormone suppressants and revitalizing potions. The rest can be converted into cash. You can contact Liang Tai later and have him assist.”
“Okay, then…”
Guo Hao stood in the room but did not sit down, his gaze fixed on the unconscious young man on the bed, his expression strange, as if he wanted to say something but held back.
“What’s the matter? Nothing to say?”
Wan Yue followed his gaze and smiled slightly. Slowly rising, she walked to the bedside, pointing at the young man on the bed, “You find this person quite puzzling, don’t you?”
“Sister-in-law, this person is already a Blood Clan member and has been reduced to a useless state.” Guo Hao shifted his gaze back, his expression unusually serious, “Blood servants are one thing, but those force-fed by the Black Dragon Society to serve as attendants essentially don’t come back!”
A high-ranking attendant who had been smuggled back from Myanmar with a rare blood type, would the Black Dragon Society really waste such a person?
Wan Yue sat down at the bedside, pinching Meng Huai’s chin, examining him back and forth. The amused expression on her face grew increasingly evident, “Moreover, he’s an old acquaintance of Jiang Yan. Do you really think Jiang Yan only thought he was handsome, and that love-struck, she let him off the hook?”
Upon hearing this, Guo Hao was taken aback, and it took him a long time to respond. He walked toward the door while still unable to resist glancing back a few times.
“By the way, Xiao Hao, I heard Brother Xiang will be assigning you here to take charge; it’s a good opportunity for training, so cherish it.”
Wan Yue seemed to remember something just as Guo Hao was leaving, and softly added, “Regardless of whether it’s on the surface or in the shadows, when it’s time to be generous, never be stingy. When lacking in hard power, don’t lose your temper, especially when dealing with the Luo family.”
“Remember my numbers; if there’s anything you can’t solve with Brother Xiang, just contact me.”
The crew-cut young man was taken aback, turned back, and nodded vigorously.
…
In a daze, Jiang Yan felt she had returned to that filthy basement, dim, foul-smelling, and bloody.
A typical underground feeding ground for the Blood Clan, a place that raised blood food, the ugliest and most dehumanizing realm of the blood world.
The young man in front of her was unfamiliar and was slowly raising his head, a grotesque and crazed smile on his ugly face, a bloodied mouth with sharp teeth dripping with disgusting saliva.
“Jiang Yan… it’s me…”
Meng Huai, do you remember? Let me take a sip.
The hideous Blood Clan youth laughed cruelly and eerily, his stench-filled breath and blood-soaked sharp teeth drawing ever closer.
“No, you aren’t Meng Huai. I don’t know you…”
Jiang Yan raised her gun, aiming at his forehead, shaking and unable to pull the trigger no matter how hard she tried.
“Is it because I don’t look like him? Or is it because I’m from the Blood Clan?”
The terrifying and twisted face of the Blood Clan youth revealed a mixture of disappointment and disgust, a severed hand still tugging at a steel chain, his body inching forward continuously.
Suddenly, the youth jumped up and grabbed Jiang Yan by the neck, the sharp teeth of his bloodied mouth rushing toward her.
“Don’t come near!”
Jiang Yan closed her eyes, pulled the trigger, and the deafening gunfire echoed in the basement, blood and brain matter exploding and filling her entire field of vision.
…
“Ah!?”
Jiang Yan woke up from her dream, drenched in sweat, then suddenly remembered something, rolling off the sofa and frantically lunging toward the bed.
The black-haired girl tightly grasped the sleeping young man, nearly pressing her eyes against his face, nervously confirming his identity over and over again.
Even though she had repeated similar actions many times already.
“Meng Huai…”
Before her, the young man remained asleep, his familiar yet slightly different face easing Jiang Yan’s racing heart.
Jiang Yan raised her hand and touched a specific area of her neck; the absurd events that occurred in the basement just hours ago were still vivid in her mind.
“How did you become a Blood Clan member…? You just can’t stop following me, blocking my way…”
Holding Meng Huai’s frail body, feeling the disarrayed yet somewhat nauseating scent emanating from him, Jiang Yan painfully closed her eyes.
The throbbing in her temples escalated; a sense of blockage within her intensified as if her subconscious desired a knife to pierce through the soul-deep confines.
“You holding him won’t change anything.”
The door opened, and Wan Yue entered with two lunch boxes, first smiling, then sitting down on a nearby sofa.
“Sister Wan…”
Jiang Yan was startled, hurriedly letting go of Meng Huai, her ears flushed red in embarrassment, not knowing where to place her hands. Avoiding Wan Yue’s gaze, she slightly turned her head and noticed that the outside world had once again fallen into darkness.
“Hurry and eat, or you’ll feel worse… Tsk, you actually let this guy suck at least several hundred milliliters in one go. You’re quite generous; don’t you worry about your health?”
Wan Yue chuckled softly, placing the lunch boxes on the coffee table, then pointed at Meng Huai’s unconscious body, “Afterward, take a shower and change; sigh, a usually clean girl has now started to smell. And I feel like your period is here, so you need to take care.”
“Sorry, Sister Wan…”
Jiang Yan’s face turned even redder; she picked up a lunch box from the coffee table, quickly retreated a few steps, and sat in the corner, wolfing down the food.
“I think rather than worrying about why he became a Blood Clan member, you should ponder why he is now a high-ranking attendant and is even about to be promoted to knight upon waking…”
The one who bled him, what height of realm must they be at, what caliber must he possess to have won such a lottery, and yet be deemed food by the Black Dragon Society?
Wan Yue lit a cigarette, slowly walked to the bedside, and watched the unconscious young man with intrigue, surprise and confusion in her eyes.
As she spoke, Jiang Yan dropped her lunch box, shocked.
“He… he’s about to be promoted?”
Ignoring the mess on the floor, Jiang Yan rushed to the bed, grabbed Meng Huai’s pulse, and felt his breath, her expression becoming increasingly horrified.
Right… what was I thinking? Why did I not notice this… Jiang Yan stared at the food spilled at her feet, then looked at her own body, lost in confusion.
“Ha, what do you think? He was already close to being a high-ranking attendant and just drank so much of your blood…”
Wan Yue sighed, sitting down, placing her hand on Meng Huai’s pulse, sensing some strange yet familiar micro-changes, her voice slightly somber: “I don’t know how much strange medicine certain individuals have fed him, or how much blood food he has consumed, to become this inhuman state.”
“If it were just a blood servant, it would be easier to say; if I abstain for a while and take some medicine, I could still purify him back, most kids at Fengxinzi Manor are like this. But him, he might find it difficult; once Pandora’s box is opened, the inner demons are hard to contain.”
Saying this, Wan Yue withdrew her hand and took a deep drag on her cigarette: “I suspect someone has tampered greatly with his body.”
“Sister Wan, what should I do now…?”
Jiang Yan trembled, looking up at Wan Yue, biting her lip with a visible pleading in her eyes.
“Let’s wait and see; I’ll have Old Jin send someone over to perform a comprehensive examination on him.”
After Wan Yue finished speaking, she looked at Jiang Yan with a smile, leaned forward, and gently touched Jiang Yan’s slightly dirty face: “Hurry, eat, then go to the third-floor spa to clean yourself up; your clothes are over there.”
“Tonight, let’s book a room and have a good rest; there’s serious business to attend to tomorrow, and I’ll keep watch tonight.”
“Thank you, Sister Wan.”
Jiang Yan returned to her corner, picked up the lunch box again, eating while stealing glances at the young man on the bed, the tugging pain in her heart difficult to articulate.
…
At some point, only Wan Yue remained in the room.
Glancing at the night sky outside, she drew the curtains, walked to the door, and locked it securely. Confirming that no one would disturb her, Wan Yue returned to the bedside and abruptly pulled off the air conditioning blanket
