Ren Siyi, in a moment of sheer impulsiveness, followed Shen Shen into his third-floor room.
To be honest, she felt a bit awkward about it.
But that awkwardness was nothing compared to the terror of being ambushed by Shen Du the night before.
Sure, he was under confinement now, but who knew if he could sneak out? And besides, Shen Shen couldn't keep him locked up forever.
Staying by his brother's side was, for now, the safest option.
Ren Siyi silently told herself to just treat him like an elderly person. He was, after all, an old thing that had lived for nearly a thousand years.
Even if they slept together, it was fine—she'd slept with her grandparents when she was little.
That was what Ren Siyi told herself. But then Shen Shen, upon entering his room, took off his suit jacket, unbuttoned his shirt, and tossed it casually into the laundry hamper.
And just like that, he walked into the massive attached bathroom bare-chested.
His skin was a cold white like moonlight, his back muscles defined beneath his shoulder blades, his waist lean and tapered, with the distinct shark-line muscles along his sides from swimming.
What kind of old geezer looked like that?!
Ren Siyi didn't dare look any longer—any more and she'd get a nosebleed.
Shen Shen, completely indifferent to her presence, treated her like a little cat or dog he'd brought into his room. Before stepping into the bathroom, he remembered something and turned back to say, "You can rest for a bit now. I'll be going to the hospital in the latter half of the night—you're coming with me."
Only then did Ren Siyi remember—this guy was nocturnal…
If she stayed with him, she'd have to adapt to his schedule too.
That wasn't hard, though. She'd already been living in the villa for nearly two months.
She nodded. "Oh, okay."
While he went to shower, Ren Siyi wandered around the room.
His room was like one of those ultra-luxurious presidential suites she'd seen in short videos of people accidentally stumbling into celebrity penthouses—it had everything. Antiques and famous paintings went without saying, but there were also several functional side rooms: a walk-in closet, an enormous bathroom, a study, and a living area.
His room was probably the highest-tier configuration in the entire villa.
Ren Siyi felt a little restless, unsure whether to stand or sit.
Still, at least she finally had some sense of safety. Soon enough, she grew sleepy.
She yawned, kicked off her shoes, and curled up on the soft sofa by the window, planning to take a quick nap.
She drifted in and out of sleep, and when she groggily opened her eyes, she saw the man still standing before the bathroom mirror cabinet, slowly buttoning up his shirt one button at a time.
He was so, so slow. Ren Siyi pulled out her phone to check—he'd been in the shower for over an hour.
No wonder. As a Long-lived One, time was the one thing he never lacked.
She yawned and dozed off again.
Shen Shen was something of a perfectionist—from his outfit to his tie and accessories, he'd meticulously pick everything until he was satisfied, even pressing out every wrinkle in his clothes before heading out.
Having lived this long, he had far too much time to waste.
Once he was fully dressed, he stepped out of the bathroom and saw the girl curled up on his sofa like a cat, fast asleep.
Shen Shen walked over, scooped her up in a princess carry, and headed out the door.
She hadn't been sleeping deeply anyway. She woke up and found herself looking at the beautiful, sharp line of his jaw.
A pure white moon hung in the sky, suspended quietly right above his head.
He was breathtakingly beautiful.
"Um… Mr. Shen, put me down."
They'd already reached the car. Shen Shen simply set her down inside.
Ren Siyi felt her cheeks burn. Even though she never had to worry about the heat around him, her whole body still felt warm and flustered.
"Mr. Shen, I need to have a serious discussion with you about this habit of picking me up whenever you feel like it."
"Mm." Shen Shen set down his phone, looking unconcerned.
Ren Siyi had lost count of how many times he'd carried her like this. This was way too intimate!
"A princess carry is a privilege reserved exclusively for boyfriends." At least, that was what Ren Siyi believed, having grown up reading romance novels. "On the human side, that's how it works! If you carry someone like that, you have to be their boyfriend!"
Shen Shen was utterly unbothered. "Don't give me that. I've been human before—humans have no such consensus."
"…"
"Then… can it be my personal rule? Does that work?"
Shen Shen hadn't actually thought about it that deeply. He just did whatever was most convenient.
Carrying, hauling, slinging over the shoulder… it didn't matter to him. It was like picking up a kitten—he never thought about what posture to use.
This girl had a lot more little thoughts in her head than a cat did.
Shen Shen conceded, asking patiently, "Then how would you like me to carry you?"
Ren Siyi thought to herself—why did he have to carry her at all? Couldn't he just wake her up and walk together?
Ugh, this vampire boss really had no sense of boundaries.
"Don't carry me." Ren Siyi said, word by word. "I have legs. I'm not crippled. Why do you have to carry me around?"
"I don't like dawdling," Shen Shen said. "If you make me wait too long, I'll ignore your protests."
Ren Siyi: …
God, the guy who takes an hour to shower and another half hour to groom himself—who's the slow one here?!
So double-standard.
Ren Siyi stopped paying him any attention and looked down at her phone. After a while, the sedan drove into the internal road of Shen's Hospital.
This was Ren Siyi's first time at this top-tier private hospital. She'd only ever seen it on TV before, knowing it was the ceiling of comfort in domestic hospitals, and naturally, the ceiling of medical expertise as well.
She'd once thought that if her grandparents ever fell ill in their old age, she'd work hard to earn enough money to bring them here for treatment.
Now, she'd become the boss of this hospital's leg ornament.
Following Shen Shen out of the car and into the hospital, Ren Siyi immediately sensed something was off.
She'd now developed a vampire radar. In the hospital lobby, she spotted several top-notch expert profiles on the wall, their complexions clearly bearing the same cold moonlight pallor as Shen Shen's.
This hospital definitely had quite a few vampires!
Of course, not all of them—for instance, some of the white-coated doctors and nurses passing by would politely nod to Shen Shen and address him as Mr. Shen, but their eyes didn't carry that sense of fear.
They should be humans.
But Shen Shen's assistant—that handsome man named "Yi Mochi" whose gaze kept lingering on her—was one hundred percent a vampire!
Shen Shen and his assistant Yi Mochi went to the adjacent ward to discuss work.
Ren Siyi was left alone in Shen Shen's office. A female assistant brought over a fruit platter and pastries, setting them on the coffee table.
Ren Siyi eyed her warily, because she didn't seem quite right either—pale skin, and quite beautiful.
The vampires Ren Siyi had encountered were rarely ugly.
Especially since she'd brought in a chill of cold air with her.
"Mr. Shen instructed me to bring these in case you're hungry," she said with a smile.
"Thanks." Ren Siyi curled away from her, putting some distance between them.
"Oh, and Mr. Shen said if you're tired, I can take you to his living quarters to rest—there's a bed there."
"No need!" Ren Siyi had no intention of following this female vampire anywhere!
The female assistant noticed her discomfort, smiled, and withdrew with her tray.
Only after she'd left did Ren Siyi breathe a sigh of relief.
Vampire PTSD!
The moment she was away from Shen Shen, she felt uneasy.
She went to the window of the adjacent office. Shen Shen and Yi Mochi were still talking—he was seated, while Yi Mochi stood.
Noticing the girl peeking over, Shen Shen gave her a slight nod.
Soundproof glass—Ren Siyi couldn't hear what they were discussing. People came and went around her, cold drafts swirling, but under his gaze, she felt a sliver of safety.
Yi Mochi glanced at the young woman, then said to Shen Shen, "The Heart Cultivation Device at the biological research institute is still in testing—we can't guarantee a hundred percent success rate yet. I truly didn't expect we'd find a Hetero-blood this easily."
They'd searched for over a decade with nothing to show for it, and the heart cultivation technology had been under development simultaneously, but no one had ever done this before, and the possibility of failure couldn't be ruled out.
Shen Shen didn't accept failure. He only said, "There's only this one person. Miss this chance, and the next might not come for a hundred years."
"Yes." Yi Mochi felt the pressure too—unless everything was absolutely certain, he wouldn't dare attempt it lightly. "Mr. Shen, you may need to keep a closer watch on her for a while longer."
"Make it quick. The longer we wait, the more complications arise."
"Yes."
Yi Mochi nodded nervously, then added, "Also, I'd like to take a small test tube of her blood for isolation and research to improve precision. Is that acceptable, Mr. Shen?"
"Not for a while," Shen Shen said. "She's been a bit weak these past few days. Let her recover first."
"Understood."
Yi Mochi looked at Shen Shen. The man was gazing at the girl outside the door, his expression soft.
In his understanding, Shen Shen wasn't a soft-hearted person—soft-heartedness wouldn't have gotten him to where he was today, to this position.
But he was also complicated. He didn't allow the Blood Clan to kill indiscriminately, and he never abused his power to harm others.
As for the Hetero-blood matter—having to break his own rules with his own hands—Yi Mochi knew Shen Shen would do it, for the sake of the Blood Clan's interests.
But… he doubted Shen Shen truly wanted to do it in his heart.
"Mr. Shen, perhaps you could entrust her to me. I'll keep a close watch on her and guarantee absolute safety," Yi Mochi suggested. "Once the time is right, I'll bring her to the operating table myself—no need for you to personally handle this."
"No need," Shen Shen refused.
"Do you not trust me?"
"You wouldn't be able to resist her allure."
With that, Shen Shen walked out of the office and said to the girl leaning against the window, stifling a yawn, "If you're tired, why not go sleep in my living quarters?"
"No sense of security." Ren Siyi asked, "How many vampires does your hospital actually have?"
"The Blood Clan's numbers aren't as many as you think," Shen Shen said. "Some of the hospital's medical experts are Blood Clan, some nurses and patients are, and the rest are humans—roughly a three-to-seven split."
"Three being vampires?"
"Seven is."
"…"
That's still a lot!!
Shen Shen led her toward the living room, and along the way, Ren Siyi kept glancing around warily.
"No need to be so tense," Shen Shen said. "By my side, you're absolutely safe."
That was true enough, but Ren Siyi still wasn't used to being surrounded by vampires. She would need some time to adjust.
When they reached the living room on the seventh floor, it resembled a hotel suite—his private domain.
Through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, the city's glittering lights were still visible in the distance.
Shen Shen sat down at his desk, turned on his computer, and prepared to work. He said to Ren Siyi, "Make yourself at home."
Ren Siyi sat down on his large bed, bouncing slightly on the mattress. It was incredibly soft to sleep on.
He really knew how to enjoy life—she had never slept on a bed this soft and comfortable in her entire life.
The bedding felt so silky to the touch, like real silk.
"Then I'll go to sleep now. Good night."
"Good night."
"Oh, and one more thing—if you're going to leave, make sure to wake me up so I can come with you."
Shen Shen looked up at her and said helplessly, "Siyi, you're more clingy than I imagined."