Chapter 22: Strange Matters in the Neighborhood
June 17, Monday.
The past weekend was always the busiest; running a business like “Cold Drink Cups” truly takes a toll.
However generous the monetary rewards, they could not erase the physical exhaustion. The stall was not closed until after three in the morning, so Monday’s lazy sleep extended until noon.
In fact, Jiang Yan had woken up over half an hour ago, but she was still lying under the weight of a delicate thigh, making her both amused and reluctant to interrupt someone’s sweet dream.
The double bed, measuring one meter eighty, theoretically had plenty of room to accommodate Jiang Yan and her sister Jiang Yao’s petite frames, but the latter’s sporadic splayed sleeping positions often forced Jiang Yan into a corner.
At present, Jiang Yao, with her disheveled light golden hair, still had a heavy sleepiness on her face. She was hugging Jiang Yan’s arm with one leg flung across her, sleeping soundly.
A message alert popped up on Jiang Yan’s phone. Upon opening it, she found that a large freezer she had ordered the day before had finally arrived and needed to be picked up from the snack shop.
Business was doing well now, and the demand for procurement and storage of ingredients had surged; the small freezer she had inherited from the previous owner was clearly insufficient.
“Xiao Yao, wake up. We need to have breakfast and head to the shop to pick up the freezer. I’ll go to the seafood market to check and replenish some ingredients.”
Jiang Yan moved Jiang Yao’s leg aside and carried her clothes toward the bathroom. It would be uncomfortable to start the day without a shower in this hot weather.
After about ten minutes, Jiang Yan returned to the bedroom refreshed but found that Jiang Yao was still sleeping deeply with a flushed face and showed no signs of waking.
“Xiao Yao?”
Feeling something was off, Jiang Yan stepped closer and touched her forehead.
There was no need for fever-inducing medicine at home; the body temperature of a blood clan member is generally lower than that of a normal person in a non-boiling blood state, but Jiang Yan felt that Jiang Yao’s skin temperature was now about the same as a normal person’s.
Suddenly remembering something, Jiang Yan grabbed Jiang Yao’s wrist. After just a few seconds, she gradually released her grip. Jiang Yao’s pulse was barely twenty beats per minute.
“She drank more of my blood early yesterday morning, Xiao Yao is starting to break through…”
Staring blankly at Jiang Yao, who was in a state of slumber, Jiang Yan realized the deficiencies in the former’s pheromone control were now more pronounced.
Even though she hadn’t entered the more sensitive boiling blood state, Jiang Yan was still able to sense waves of continuous, ethereal, and deadly aura emanating from the bedroom.
In her dormant state, Jiang Yao was making a leap towards the servant realm, yet her unconscious pheromone release carried a level of intimidation that was already comparable to that of the warped black blood clan knight they had encountered before!
In an extreme hypothesis, if Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao were to face that same warped black blood clan knight again now, disregarding that the opponent was in a state of desperation due to blood thirst, it would certainly be much easier.
Based on Jiang Yan’s personal experience, both she and Jiang Yao, in non-boiling blood states, were not significantly different from ordinary blood clan members and could easily be looked down upon by higher-grade blood clans. However, once they entered the boiling blood state, their strength would exponentially increase, enabling them to overpower knight-level black blood clan members when they were mere blood servants.
Regardless of Jiang Yan’s own understanding or the internal materials of the Dark Arrow unit, let alone two blood servants; even ten blood servants would still seem like nothing in front of a blood clan knight.
“No matter how lightly the reasons are spoken, Wanyue and Huang Gu have already been paying special attention to me and Xiao Yao… What kind of monster has that strange big meatball turned us into?”
Filled with confusion, Jiang Yan made a temporary decision inside.
……
……
At noon, the scorching sun made the entire old street seem to be gasping for breath, with few pedestrians in sight.
The nearby auto repair shops and beauty salons were deserted, and several shop owners were gathered under the shade of trees, chatting about various topics.
“Hey, it’s Xiao Jiang! Preparing for the evening business in this heat, so diligent! No wonder the business is good!”
Sister Chen from the beauty salon next door was a chatty middle-aged woman, stylishly dressed in a half-sheer dress, making her figure somewhat enticing and attracting the glances of several young men in the auto repair shop.
“Um, the delivery man is bringing the freezer. By the way, Sister Chen, Old Zhou, my sister and I have some matters to attend to over the next few days and will have to close the shop. There are still some ingredients in the shop, and I’m worried they’ll go bad in the freezer. If you don’t mind, feel free to take some home and help me out.”
Jiang Yan opened the roll-up door and greeted the shop owners she had started to get familiar with under the shade.
“Huh? You’ve barely been in business for less than a month, and you’re already closing for several days? I told you, Xiao Jiang, in the catering business, especially for something like your nighttime cold drink cups, closing is an easy way to lose repeat customers. Once they find new experiences elsewhere, it’s hard to get them back!”
Upon hearing there were free ingredients available, Sister Chen was the first to rush into the snack shop, freely rummaging through the freezer and eagerly imparting business advice.
“I really can’t stay open, so it has to be this way.” Jiang Yan could only helplessly respond, then walked over to Old Zhou, the auto repair shop owner, with a bag of refrigerated pig’s feet, “Old Zhou, you take these. They’re good in any stew, braised, or roasted.”
The portly Old Zhou naturally accepted the bag with both hands, laughing broadly: “Since you sisters opened this snack shop, our usual customer flow has increased by twenty percent! Business has improved a lot! Two young girls striving here is not easy; if you need any help, just tell me!”
Several shop owners who had rushed over upon hearing the news all praised Jiang Yan while accepting the refrigerated ingredients.
“Hey, hey, neighbors, pay attention! The street office has new public service announcements that require everyone to cooperate.”
A middle-aged woman in a spotted shirt walked over from a distance, holding a stack of colorful flyers.
Jiang Yan recognized her as Sister Lu from the Yushui Street Office. She had consulted some matters with her before opening the snack shop, so they were nodding acquaintances; she looked older than Sister Chen and was likely to retire in a few years.
“Sister Lu, what’s this? Drug prohibition announcement? Do we have to post them at the shop door?”
Sister Chen accepted the flyer with an unhappy expression. This kind of announcement wouldn’t affect the auto repair shop or the snack shop much, but for beauty salons, it could somewhat ruin the decor.
“Don’t you know?!”
Sister Lu, evidently a gossip, lowered her voice and appeared very mysterious: “Something strange happened over at Taihe Community the night before last… The man in that household, surnamed Wei, suddenly went mad in the hallway and bit someone! It’s said to be due to drug overdose; several police officers couldn’t handle him, and later, he died with bleeding from all seven orifices! As a result, the street office received a specific reprimand from the district to intensify drug prohibition publicity!”
Jiang Yan listened quietly, glancing at the colorful flyer in her hand, and suddenly an image of a person popped into her mind.
“Taking drugs and biting people? How terrifying! What about the other family members? Are they okay?” Sister Chen also showed a look of horror.
“At that time, only his second wife was there; it’s said she was also bitten and ran downstairs covered in blood to hide. Old Wei’s son and daughter-in-law only come back once every month or two; they haven’t been in contact now,” Sister Lu vividly painted the entire incident, as if she had been there.
“You’re… Xiao Jiang, right? Your shop has more young people coming in and out; you need to pay extra attention to this announcement. Here, take more flyers to post up!”
Before Jiang Yan could respond, several more flyers were stuffed into her hands.
Not long after, the delivery man for the large freezer arrived. After a busy period, the temperature outside the shop had climbed to nearly 40 degrees, and the shop owners who had been under the shade had vanished, all retreating back to their own shops to enjoy the air conditioning.
Jiang Yan bought some paper and pens from a nearby stationery store, wrote a notice about the temporary shop closure for a few days, and stuck it on the roll-up door. She then planned to head back to the rental apartment, as there was still a silly girl lounging in bed, fast asleep.
“Tan… Sister Tan?”
Feeling a familiar presence behind her, Jiang Yan abruptly turned around, only to find Sister Tan, whom she hadn’t seen for ten days, standing in front of her, holding a bag of vegetables, a mix of meat and greens.
Her face was slightly pale, looking tired, and her pheromone control was clearly in disarray, exhibiting a kind of violent chaos mixed with an inexplicable sense of anxiety.
“Xiao Jiang, can I sit in your shop? I hope you don’t mind…” Sister Tan’s expression seemed hollow.
“Oh, sure…” Jiang Yan quickly opened the roll-up door again.
Sister Tan walked into the shop with a bit of a daze, seemingly forgetting to put down the vegetables, and just stared blankly at the ground.
Feeling the intensity and disarray of her aura increasing, Jiang Yan noticed a similar flush on Sister Tan’s pale skin as if she had a fever. She couldn’t help but glance outside and then quickly pulled down the roll-up door, as if fearing that this aura would leak out.
It was increasingly clear that Sister Tan was in a typical blood thirst state!
“Sister Tan… are you feeling unwell?” Jiang Yan thought for a moment before tentatively asking.
“Um… I’m fine; you carry on…”
Perhaps due to some concern, Sister Tan turned to leave just as mysteriously as she had appeared, slipping away quietly.
Watching her slightly trembling figure, Jiang Yan suddenly felt a wave of intense unease wash over her.
