After helping Bai Xinjian home, Claude returned to park the car and entered the mansion again. He saw Bai Xinjian leaning against the sofa in the living room, fast asleep.
Claude walked over and patted him gently. “Mistress, go back to your room to sleep. You will catch a cold like this.”
“Hmm?” Bai Xinjian opened one eye drowsily. “I am too tired, Claude. Please, let me sleep for a while longer.” His voice was soft and clingy, like someone acting spoiled.
“It must be due to the blood loss,” Claude said. “At least wash your face and change your clothes before you sleep.”
He knew he was just a gardener, and his work for the day should have ended there; anything more would be overstepping his bounds. Yet, he could not bear to watch Bai Xinjian sitting there alone, injured and unattended.
“Mistress.” Claude reached out and helped him up from the sofa. “I will take you to your bedroom.”
Bai Xinjian was assisted to his feet in a daze, stumbling as he leaned on Claude to climb the stairs. After helping him to the bed and ensuring he was lying down, Claude went into the bathroom to fetch a basin of water and a towel.
“Mistress, wash your face,” Claude said softly, calling him.
But Bai Xinjian’s face was buried in the pillow, and he seemed to be already asleep. Claude dampened the towel, wrung it out, and held Bai Xinjian’s head to turn his face to the side. Eyebrows, eyes, nose; he traced Bai Xinjian’s face inch by inch with the towel. Finally, his gaze landed on the bandage around his neck and the butterfly knot he had tied himself.
Truly beautiful, Claude thought.
He recalled the restroom behind the Jiang banquet hall. He had buried his face in that fair neck, opened his mouth to reveal sharp fangs, and pierced the skin. Then, the warm, fragrant blood had flowed slowly into his mouth and stomach, merging with his body.
Truly wonderful.
He wanted to cut him into pieces and eat him all up. No. He could not. Another voice in his mind told him: He is a human, and humans are too fragile. Being bitten a few times had already made him this weak. If he were cut into pieces, he would certainly not survive.
I must cherish him.
Claude wiped Bai Xinjian’s face clean with light, careful movements. He then changed the water, took off his shoes, wiped his hands and feet, cleaned up the spilled water, and tucked him in.
“Goodnight,” Claude whispered softly to Bai Xinjian.
He leaned down, getting close to him. He did not know what he wanted in that moment. Human etiquette was too complex and did not suit him, but he could not eat Bai Xinjian, nor could he drink his blood. Finally, he clumsily opened his mouth and gently nibbled on Bai Xinjian’s cheek. That would have to count as a kiss.
Satisfied, Claude extended his thumb and carefully wiped away the moisture he had left on Bai Xinjian’s cheek before backing out of the room.
The next day, people from the Alliance visited to notify Bai Xinjian about Shen Yuhuai and requested his confidentiality. The fact that Shen Yuhuai had become an Unfortunate One could not be leaked, or the public morale would crumble. Once they received Bai Xinjian’s assurance, the Alliance officials left.
[Now that is over, the plot is back on track,] 0048 said. [After confirming that Shen Yuhuai has become an Unfortunate One, the original host will begin actively and proactively pursuing Gu Yue.]
Bai Xinjian turned on the television. It was broadcasting news about the increasing number of Unfortunate Ones in the city. Most people’s states of mind and thoughts were not shaped overnight. The Imperial Capital might still be calm on the surface, but in other cities where management was more lax, things had already descended into chaos. In the news, panicking citizens were frantically shopping in supermarkets; daily essentials like tissues, bottled water, cookies, and canned goods were sold out. Due to the chaos, people were pushing and trampling each other at the entrances.
Reporters and news anchors reminded everyone that the Alliance could control the situation, and the latest batch of serum against pollutants would be developed soon, urging the public to believe that humanity could defeat the virus.
But who cared? Everyone only cared if they would die in the next second, or if the items on the shelves would be snatched away by others, leaving them to starve to death at home. Compared to waiting for an intangible serum, the terrifying sight of loved ones turning into Unfortunate Ones, or being taken away by health authorities one after another, or dying in attacks by the infected, was the root cause of the panic.
“Mistress.” Bai Xinjian was watching the news when he heard Su Qin call him.
Bai Xinjian looked up. Su Qin glanced at the news on the television, hesitated, and said, “You have a reservation for the Alliance Military Family Association tea party this afternoon. Are you still going?” She was worried that after seeing the scenes on the news, Bai Xinjian would be afraid to go out.
Bai Xinjian narrowed his eyes. “Of course. Su Qin, help me prepare an outfit.”
Su Qin nodded and went upstairs to organize an outfit for Bai Xinjian. The Mistress was still the same; nothing had changed. Appearance was more important than anything else.
After getting dressed and groomed, Bai Xinjian got into the driver’s car and headed toward the Alliance Military Family Association. He was going there not for the sake of some ethereal reputation, though after what happened at the Jiang family banquet last night, he did need to prove that he was doing well. If someone greeted him at the tea party, the original host would have calmly told them that his husband, Shen Yuhuai, had just left early due to an emergency, refuting the rumors that he had become an Unfortunate One. The original host had always cared deeply about face.
The reason Bai Xinjian proactively chose to attend the tea party was that it was very close to the Alliance military office building. Gu Yue’s office in the Amber Theater was also located there. If he walked a few more steps, he might just run into him.
In the original story, Bai Yu almost never visited the military office building to see Shen Yuhuai because Shen Yuhuai was always at the front lines and rarely appeared there. Even if he did, he usually would not come out to see Bai Yu. He would say, “Is there something you cannot say at home?” So, Bai Yu had never had much interest in performing this act of loving couple.
But Gu Yue was different. In Bai Yu’s heart, Gu Yue was a polite and gentlemanly man; even if he did not like him, he would not refuse him most of the time. Perhaps this was the so-called the unattainable is the best. At this stage, Bai Yu was full of fascination for Gu Yue. It was not just because he viewed him as a future patron, but because he genuinely felt that Gu Yue was much younger and more handsome than Shen Yuhuai, whom he had grown tired of looking at for two years.
“Very good,” Bai Xinjian said to 0048, sitting in the back seat with great interest. “A young military officer husband, on the way to committing adultery.”
[I can tell you are quite the gossip; even eating your own melon,] 0048 reminded him. [Do not forget not to break character.]
After getting out of the car and stepping into the tea hall, Bai Xinjian saw that the spacious, bright hall was already filled with people sitting at round tables in different corners, especially near the floor-to-ceiling windows. Those windows faced the Alliance office building next door.
“My husband’s office is on the twenty-first floor.” Bai Xinjian heard two women discussing at a table nearby. “He was a mech technician in the Falcon Theater, but now he has been moved to an administrative post. The salary is a bit less, but at least it is leisurely. I am waiting here for him to finish work, and later we are going to a restaurant on Queen’s Road for dinner.”
“How happy. How many years have you been married?”
“Almost seven years. It is almost the seven-year itch; next month is our seventh wedding anniversary. He said he wanted to find a place to spend it with me and even promised to buy me a new ring.”
“You have such a good relationship, I am so envious. By the way, I heard you also attended young Master Jiang’s birthday banquet yesterday? Are those rumors about General Shen true?”
“I do not know. Although my husband is in the Falcon Theater, they cannot disclose high-level matters to outsiders; even I cannot be told. But I guess General Shen must be fine, right? Otherwise, wouldn’t the Alliance be in a mess?”
The purpose of the military family tea party was basically to provide a platform for military families to communicate and vent. The topics discussed there were very mixed. If one was lucky, one could expand one’s network within the Alliance through such a tea party. Unfortunately, Bai Yu had never been popular. They knew that Shen Yuhuai did not like such nepotism, so trying to curry favor with Bai Yu would not work. Coupled with Bai Yu’s own spoiled temper and his lack of favor in the Bai family, everyone knew it was useless to be close to him. Gradually, in such occasions, most people would only greet him briefly and treat him as transparent.
Bai Xinjian did not care. He did not need anyone to talk to, and he could not feel enjoyment anyway, so he just considered it collecting life material.
Just as he overheard the two women next door talking about whose wife had an affair and was caught in the act by her husband’s family, and was currently fighting for a divorce in the military family court, he suddenly looked up and saw a tall man walking out of the Alliance office building opposite with long, hurried strides. It was Gu Yue.
Bai Xinjian set down the cloyingly sweet pastry in his hand and hurried out of the tea hall. Sensing Bai Xinjian’s behavior, 0048 was startled: [Host, what are you doing?]
“Acting!” Bai Xinjian said. “Whether the news of Shen Yuhuai becoming an Unfortunate One leaks or not is unimportant to Bai Yu; he only cares whether he has a patron. Letting others perceive his affair with a lover at this time has only benefits and no drawbacks. Anyway, Shen Yuhuai will not come to find him suddenly at this moment. In his heart, Shen Yuhuai is already a dead man.”
It had to be said that the host’s psychological analysis of Bai Yu was very precise, but the host’s actions seemed bolder than Bai Yu’s. It was broad daylight! Under the gaze of many Alliance military families in the tea hall, Bai Xinjian ran toward Gu Yue happily, like a butterfly.
“Captain Gu!” Fortunately, Bai Xinjian did not pounce on him directly but stopped a few steps away. The breeze ruffled Bai Xinjian’s soft hair. The wound on his neck had not yet healed, so he had chosen to tie a soft silk scarf around his neck to cover it today. He stood with his hands behind his back, tilted his head slightly, and smiled as he approached Gu Yue. “Off duty? I came to the tea party today, and it is almost over. To thank you for taking me home last night, may I invite you to a meal?”
Gu Yue’s heart skipped a beat. It was as if a beautiful, colorful butterfly had quietly landed on his shoulder. He gave a dry cough, his speech uncharacteristically stuttering. “I can. Please wait for me a moment.”
“Alright,” Bai Xinjian smiled. “I am taking your car, so I will wait here for you.”
The silk scarf around his neck swayed in the wind, and the butterfly that had landed on Gu Yue’s shoulder also flapped its wings. Gu Yue’s face flushed slightly, and he turned and hurried toward the parking lot.
“God, did I see that right just now?” In the tea hall, many men and women exclaimed in wonder.
“Is that the young master of the Bai family?”
“That is the one from General Shen’s house.”
“Is he hitting on Gu Yue?”
“What is going on?”
“Can this be real? How shameless!”
“Taking advantage of the General’s absence to…”
“Does General Shen know about this?”
“I bet this will be the headline in the Alliance tabloid tomorrow!”
In a corner that no one noticed, a tall and upright figure stood there, looking gloomily at Bai Xinjian, who was standing outside the Alliance building looking around while waiting for Gu Yue to drive over and pick him up.
He is mine.
He is mine.
A low, angry sound emanated from the monster’s throat.
He is mine, and no one can take him away!
In an instant, the figure turned into a black mist and vanished into the corner in the blink of an eye.