Chapter 172: Who Is the Real Queen
February 20th, Thursday.
It has been five days since Zhou Ping’s fall on Valentine’s Day.
For the Golden River Club, this has been another major blow after months—an old member who had accompanied Hyacinth’s growth for seventeen years has fallen in blind pursuit of love. It serves as a wake-up call for everyone.
No one dares to inquire who handled her aftermath, and the only rumor is that the Wang family has taken on all the compensations needed after Jiang Yao harmed the innocent.
Unlike the Golden River Club, most little blood servants at Hyacinth Manor know little about Zhou Ping. Apart from superficial sorrow and empathy, many are still dealing with their past sadness and may not have deep emotional connections to Zhou Ping’s passing.
Perhaps as time goes on, even in the Golden River Club, Zhou Ping’s name will gradually fade away, just like those who have fallen over the past two decades.
People are like this; only their own suffering feels unique in this world.
Jiang Yan has resumed her training, or rather, she began some basic courses impatiently as she nears the end of her menstrual period. She has found that only during workouts can the inexplicable feeling of congestion within her body be relieved.
Or perhaps Jiang Yan feels her practice pace isn’t slow, but her body resembles a pressure cooker more and more, requiring continuous relief to avoid exploding.
Over the past few days, Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao have hardly exchanged a word. The latter is in a “reflection” state appointed by Wan Yue, and as soon as she returned to Hyacinth Manor, she voluntarily moved out of the shared room with Jiang Yan, shrinking into a single guest room by herself.
Other than during meal times and occasionally sensing the breath released during each other’s training, Jiang Yan hardly saw Jiang Yao throughout the day.
This state is less about reflection and more about avoidance or tenacious silence.
Meng Huai is recovering well; withdrawal reactions from drug addiction are becoming less frequent. However, the distance that had quietly shortened between him and Jiang Yan on Valentine’s Day seems to have suddenly expired, becoming distant once again.
Most of the time, Meng Huai shuts himself in his room, even meals are delivered to him by someone else. The only time he goes out is to the library to borrow books, immersing himself in study like a hermit knowledge youth oblivious to worldly affairs.
Only Jiang Yan and Wan Yue probably know that Meng Huai has already started taking purification drugs, and the painful reactions from it force him to stay in his room, gritting his teeth.
Coincidentally, Wan Yue has also gone missing over the last few days and has blocked all contact, both at the Golden River Club and Hyacinth Manor. Aside from the usual routine tasks, it feels as though she has entered a peculiar holiday.
After completing her morning practice, Jiang Yan enjoyed a pleasant shower and changed clothes, preparing to head to the dining hall. When she was about to press the button for that floor in the elevator, she hesitated and ultimately selected the floor where Meng Huai lives.
In the corridor, there’s no one around; they must have all gone to eat. A meal cart is parked in front of Meng Huai’s room. It seems the person delivering the meal didn’t get permission from the occupant inside and had to choose this non-face-to-face handoff.
“Meng Huai?”
Jiang Yan stood at the door to his room and gently knocked on the door.
She could sense the person inside the room had lost control over their hormonal balance for some reason, exuding an erratic aura like a leaking pressure.
What reassured Jiang Yan was that the impurity-like characteristics of the dark blood clan aura had significantly weakened, heading toward a more normal bloodline.
The door opened, and Meng Huai’s face appeared somewhat pale, dressed in thin dress pants and a shirt, which was noticeably damp with sweat. Even his shoulders and arms were slightly trembling—clearly tortured by the bone pain reaction from taking the purification drug.
Meng Huai had been insisting, unwilling to let Jiang Yan see how painful he was.
“Hmm? Are you not eating?”
In the room, the meal cart had a substantial spread. Meng Huai had been engrossed in eating for a while before he noticed Jiang Yan hadn’t served herself any food.
Jiang Yan was in a daze. She realized that in just a few days, Meng Huai seemed to be becoming more like his former self—reserved and taciturn.
The strong desire for closeness and reliance in her eyes seemed to have vanished, leaving her slightly unadapted or perhaps mixed with a hint of disappointment.
Perhaps he is still fighting the pain within and has no time to care about anything else—seeing the cold sweat and blue veins on his forehead, Jiang Yan could only interpret it this way.
“Oh… I’ll go eat later.”
Jiang Yan regained her senses, shaking her head slightly and forcing a smile, “You’re recovering so quickly. Once the purification treatment is complete, I’ll teach you some basic courses of the Aletai lineage.”
“Hmm.”
Meng Huai looked at Jiang Yan silently for a few seconds, then lowered his head slightly to continue eating, though the pace of his chewing slowed down noticeably.
The atmosphere was a bit awkward; neither of them seemed to find topics to discuss until Meng Huai finished his meal. Jiang Yan then collected the dishes with a cool expression and prepared to push the meal cart back.
“Jiang… Has your sister not spoken to you yet?”
Just as Jiang Yan was about to leave, Meng Huai asked from behind, “I sensed her overwhelming bloodlust last night… She moved out of your room?”
“She’s almost completed the basic courses of the Aletai lineage. She can’t afford to be distracted, plus it’s better at night—you will too.”
Jiang Yan paused, slightly tilting her head, and didn’t directly answer his question.
“Does Wan Jie impose restrictions on all your personal activities? I mean, you’re not truly free, are you?”
Meng Huai’s footsteps crept closer, but he still maintained a considerable distance from Jiang Yan.
“This is a place for newcomers, lacking the means—and even awareness—to protect themselves. Discussing freedom here is somewhat extravagant.”
Jiang Yan smiled as she turned, running her fingers through a lock of her hair. “Meng Huai, Wan Jie has always taught us that the blood clan world isn’t the opposite of normal people; it’s merely a gap in this world, and we must first learn to find our position within that gap.”
“Hmm… The blood I drank yesterday… doesn’t seem to be yours.”
Meng Huai diverted his gaze from Jiang Yan, as if afraid to meet her cold smile.
“Hyacinth has its own blood procurement channels, and it forbids anyone from harming ordinary people under any pretext, let alone blood invading ordinary people.”
Jiang Yan felt that today’s encounter with Meng Huai had suddenly returned to a state of intense estrangement—both holding numerous thoughts and emotions unknown to the other while being forced to confront one another, leading to paralysis.
This feeling is rather unpleasant, or perhaps it’s mixed with some inexplicable anxiety.
“I’ll gradually teach you some of the rules about Hyacinth. However, there’s one thing you’ll find easiest to understand: even among the blood clan, one must work hard to obtain blood in Hyacinth. We have never gained without effort.”
“You’re still in the treatment period, so you don’t have to worry about these things… Hmm, your shirt is soaked with sweat. Take it off, and I’ll send it for washing. Rest well.”
Jiang Yan said, pointing at Meng Huai’s shirt. A few minutes later, Jiang Yan pushed the meal cart away and even closed the door herself.
Their brief exchange of just a few minutes felt stiff from the topic to the tone, completely different from that evening of Valentine’s Day.
As the door closed before her, Jiang Yan’s presence gradually faded. Meng Huai let out a sigh of relief, his body, which had been taut from enduring bone pain, finally relaxed, although the veins on his forehead stood out even more.
In a high-end office building on the twenty-seventh floor, Shengxiang Investment Consulting Firm.
Old Jin was sitting at Zhong Jing’s position, busy checking data on the computer, while Wan Yue sat on a small sofa sipping red wine. Zhong Jing was standing by the open window sill, smoking one cigarette after another.
As expected, Old Jiu Shu and the others were still cautious. Ha! They even changed names on the final health examination report they sent you for some key items. Sigh, they are really calculating everything.
Old Jin wiped his sweat as he stood up from the computer, looking somewhat grim, his tone more bitter. No wonder you wanted me to switch the health examination records of Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao back then, to guard against Old Jiu Shu and Auntie deliberately confusing the real from the fake.
It’s just a petty trick that has turned things around nicely now.
Wan Yue drank her red wine in one gulp, nodding as if she had anticipated it, feeling no sense of achievement.
Who is the real queen? Karumi Haruna means that both bloodlines are incredibly valuable, but only the true queen is the target the Engel family wants to reclaim.
Zhong Jing hurriedly stepped closer, bringing his head right beside Old Jin’s, staring intently at the computer screen.
Hmph, you seem to be more eager than I am.
Wan Yue hummed lightly, lighting a cigarette with a snap while looking at Zhong Jing’s somewhat nervous expression, a playful smile appearing on her face. “Xiao Jing, who do you hope the real queen is?”
Once these words were spoken, Old Jin turned to look at Zhong Jing with a smile. Even the two old men noticed the young man’s strange emotional shift.
“Uh, please interpret these analysis documents for us, Master Jin,” Zhong Jing said, momentarily stunned, instinctively touching his nose and slowly stepping back a couple of paces, sitting back down in his position with a smile. “Hehe, I’m just curious. I guess it’s Jiang Yan.”
Old Jin and Wan Yue exchanged glances, and after a few seconds, the former laughed and shook his head repeatedly.
“This is the final composite image of Jiang Yao’s body. In the heart area, there’s a tiny and easily overlooked so-called heart tumor. In the position of the spleen, there’s a small cyst.”
“This is Jiang Yan’s. The heart area is similar to Jiang Yao’s, but there’s no cyst in the spleen area. Instead, a small fibroid exists in the uterus.”
Old Jin turned the computer screen slightly to allow Wan Yue and Zhong Jing to see clearly, still pointing at the screen with a pencil in his hand.
“How can he understand this? You’re the expert; you go ahead and explain.”
Glancing at Zhong Jing’s confused face, Wan Yue smiled again. “Give us something meaningful—easy to understand content and conclusions.”
“Um, in the last comprehensive health examination, according to Old Jiu Shu’s examination project plan, I performed many detailed checks on them. Currently, Jiang Yao’s ovarian and uterine functions are quite normal, while Jiang Yan has obvious symptoms of congenital ovarian dysgenesis.”
“So, Old Jiu Shu proposed to conduct a second specialized gynecological examination for Jiang Yao and Jiang Yan to avoid errors.”
At this point, Old Jin paused, his expression somewhat hesitant.
After a few seconds, Wan Yue walked directly to the computer desk, looking at the tabletop with a serious expression: “What’s going on? It’s already this time, and you still plan to beat around the bush? Just say it!”
Old Jin swallowed, continuing, “The conclusion is that the bloodline develops based on the reproductive system. If the second examination shows the same results, it not only proves Jiang Yan cannot give birth but also confirms her bloodline is immature, not the real queen.”
Because, during the previous competition for the grandmother and the queen with the Tanaka family in Japan, to escape, the Tanaka family had the queen give birth to a child, transferring the bloodline to the child, which was then taken away by them…
The room fell silent. Zhong Jing, feeling somewhat irritable, loosened his tie and walked to the window edge, lighting a cigarette.
Wan Yue stared at Old Jin’s face, and after a long while, she softly asked, “Aren’t you just a marginal figure in the Wang family? How do you know what happened back then?”
When Old Jiu Shu and Auntie were discussing this, I happened to overhear a few words… That’s when I understood why they insisted on having Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao undergo so many reproductive system checks.
Old Jin awkwardly lowered his head, pretending to take off his glasses and wipe them.
“Eighty years ago, or rather, past queens only had one. So, there wasn’t any need to differentiate between genuine and fake… Now there are two; for the Fujiwara family or Engel family, as long as they don’t obtain these health examination results, both of them are like blind boxes to them…”
So, they had to remain cautious, watching the development of the bloodlines to see the results.
Wan Yue stood up, beginning to walk around the room, lost in thought.
The Wang family’s ancestors once said that after the bloodline fully develops, it makes the queen extremely unstable and leads to distortions, becoming a madman that is neither human nor ghost.
Not knowing how much time passed, Wan Yue stopped, glanced at Zhong Jing’s back, which had always been turned away from others, and gently said, “But now, whether it’s Jiang Yan or Jiang Yao, neither has shown this phenomenon.”
Combined with the secrets controlled by Karumi Haruna, the queen’s growth will ultimately lead to the complete development of the bloodline, followed by a dormant state.
Then based on my conjecture, if the Wang family has a counterattack plan against the progenitor, who would they choose to be the Trojan horse…?
After speaking, Wan Yue grabbed her small bag, no longer paying attention to Old Jin and Zhong Jing, and left the office without looking back.
Zhong Jing slowly turned around, opening his mouth several times without making a sound.
…
Dinner time had long ended; the restaurant was empty, except for a few dim lights still on.
Jiang Yao, who had vanished for almost a day, quietly appeared at the back door of the restaurant, peeking left and right, and then tiptoed into the kitchen, starting to rummage through cabinets for something to eat.
“Just eat when it’s mealtime; there’s no need to sneak around.”
Jiang Yan appeared at the kitchen door, feeling a bit helpless, quietly watching Jiang Yao, who was secretly preparing to cook noodles.
Jiang Yao was taken aback, looking back for a moment, then lowered her head and was about to leave.
“I saved you some food, it’s in the fridge. I’ll heat it up for you; eat it before you go.”
Jiang Yan sighed and took out the food she had reserved for Jiang Yao, starting to heat it up. Jiang Yao, meanwhile, obediently sat down to the side, keeping her head down.
A few minutes later, Jiang Yao began to devour her meal, clearly having been hungry for most of the day.
“I can feel your menstrual period is coming, so don’t exercise. If you didn’t bring your stuff, I have some in my room.
Sitting beside Jiang Yao and watching her eat, Jiang Yan spoke softly: “I estimate all your clothes are piled up in my room; let me help you wash them later…”
Jiang Yao said nothing, just focused on eating, as if she didn’t hear anything Jiang Yan said.
“Little Ping Sister’s matter, and the trouble you caused in East Wind Community, the Wang family took full responsibility. In fact, once Wan Jie received Zhong Jing’s investigation results, she knew that Little Ping Sister had completely fallen…”
Seeing Jiang Yao’s hair nearly dipping into the soup bowl, Jiang Yan hurriedly moved closer and pushed her hair back.
“Has Little Ping Sister been found? Where is she buried…”
Jiang Yao’s body trembled, finally raising her head. The pheromones that had already begun leaking felt even more chaotic.
“This matter has been covered up. At least for the next year, Wan Jie won’t let anyone know to avoid unnecessary complications.”
Jiang Yan shook her head, not directly answering her question.
“I’m finished… Um, I can’t exercise anymore. I want my phone.”
Jiang Yao put down her bowl and chopsticks, wiped her mouth with her arm, and reached out her small palm with a serious expression.
“You’re still in the reflection period; no phone. If you’re bored, do some small chores within your ability. Helping in the kitchen here is also fine.”
Jiang Yan’s face darkened, directly rejecting Jiang Yao’s request.
“Why not?! If that scumbag isn’t dealt with, he will harm more people! What wrong have I done?!”
Jiang Yan became furious, slamming the table, her face flushed.
“No, no, it’s different.”
Jiang Yan shook her head gently, her expression very serious: “We can’t judge all evils, but we can choose not to involve the innocent. How many people he will harm in the future, we don’t know, but at that moment, you could have completely avoided the deaths of more than a dozen people.”
“Hypocritical!” Jiang Yao shouted loudly, her face alternating between red and white, “Isn’t the Golden River Club also deliberately using ordinary people as shields in the downtown area?! Isn’t it just to protect themselves, speaking so nicely!”
Jiang Yan slowly stood up, quite surprised. For a moment, she couldn’t tell if this was Jiang Yao’s unreasonable insistence or if she genuinely believed this.
Wan Jie merely wants everyone to live in the sunlight, to be normal people, teaching us that we are not an alternative and that there’s no opposition to the lives of ordinary people. How could you understand it this way?
Jiang Yan walked in front of Jiang Yao, exposing a deep disappointed expression.
“Hmm, we think we are normal; don’t deceive yourselves! The hidden arrows? The dark blood clan? The Wang family? Do they see us as harmless normal people? Little Ping Sister considered herself too normal, which is why she was driven to death!”
Do you know why both the orthodox blood clan and the dark blood clan call us wandering blood clan ‘rats’?
Bloodshot appeared in Jiang Yao’s eyes, her voice trembling: “In the eyes of others, we are a menace; yet we still think living under the same roof as normal people makes us not monsters. What are rats? They are what everyone tries to hunt down!”
Jiang Yan was stunned, unable to respond for a long time. Facing Jiang Yao’s sharp accusations, she realized she was completely defenseless.
“Go back to your room and continue reflecting.”
Jiang Yan covered her forehead, weakly waving her hand, not intending to continue this quarrel. Or rather, she had never questioned the so-called principles.
Jiang Yao ran out, and the two sisters’ conversation ended unfavorably once again.
