(To your back-left, the chief of the younger generation of the Hunters’ Association is sitting there. What you need to do is approach him, trick him into becoming your boyfriend, and then viciously humiliate him.)
‘A hunter? Is he a hunter who specializes in hunting vampires?’
(Yes, the Association only hunts and captures bad vampires.)
Cen Jin took a deep breath and patted his chest.
(But what you need to do is also evil deeds.)
Cen Jin’s movements stiffened, and the relaxed mood he had just felt instantly grew heavy again.
That’s right, he had to play the villain.
‘Should I go over right now?’
In truth, Cen Jin had no idea which one of them was the chief of the hunters. He had simply looked in the direction indicated by that voice and spotted the same group of guys who had been blocking the entrance earlier.
‘Can I finish my drink before going over?’
There wasn’t a hint of fear in his voice; he simply didn’t want to exert himself so eagerly.
He hated being tired.
(……Fine.)
What a lazybones.
Cen Jin held the glass with both hands. Though he had just said he would go after finishing his drink, he hadn’t taken a single sip, terrified that it would delay his task.
His previous excuse about finishing the drink was merely a pretext to slack off.
He leaned back against the chair, his dangling feet missing the floor as they swung back and forth out of sheer boredom. He stared at the group in the booth, attempting to pick out the Hunters’ Association chief among them.
(It’s time to go.)
‘Hold on, I’m thinking.’
The bartender kept glancing over at Cen Jin from time to time, feeling slightly disappointed when he noticed that the drink he had mixed remained untouched.
Sitting cross-legged on the barstool like a little house cat, hugging a schoolbag to his chest no matter how one looked at it, he resembled an underage kid.
Yet this animal-like youth was staring blankly at a specific spot.
The bartender looked over in that direction and understood. The figures seated in that booth were all notable figures; right in the center, surrounded by the crowd, was the young master of a powerful local family. Though blessed with striking looks, his temper was second to none.
Catching Cen Jin’s profile, the bartender couldn’t help speaking up: “Are you… of legal age?”
Cen Jin turned his head to look at him, his eyes widening. “Of course I am.” Was it really that unnoticeable? Or did he dress too much like a primary school student?
Cen Jin tugged at his crew socks, resolving to change out of this outfit later.
The bartender breathed a sigh of relief. “I noticed you seemed rather interested in those people over there” he motioned with his eyes toward the booth.
Cen Jin nodded, looking expectantly at the bartender, assuming the man was about to share some juicy insider gossip.
“Don’t let those guys’ polished appearances fool you; never let their looks deceive you. They love tricking kids like you,” the bartender said with an earnest expression.
Cen Jin: “?”
At that very moment, the polished men the bartender had just warned him about walked over.
The bartender immediately snapped his mouth shut. Meeting a warning glare from one of the men, cold sweat broke out on his forehead. He hastily turned around, pretending nothing had happened as he resumed his work.
Two men sat down on either side of Cen Jin. At first, Cen Jin had no idea they were targeting him; seeing them sit apart, he assumed they were strangers.
The moment they sat down, as if finding the spacing between the floor-bolted stools too far apart, they abandoned the seats entirely and stood right by his flanks, pressing even closer to him.
Cen Jin felt thoroughly uncomfortable, especially with the gazes of both men pinning him in place.
Holding his glass in one hand while his other hand anchored the schoolbag against his chest, he prepared to slide off the stool and walk away. Before he could move, however, a hand pressed down on his shoulder as a man leaned in from behind.
Because one was standing and the other sitting, Mann could only see Cen Jin’s ears and a sliver of his profile when he lowered his head.
Doesn’t dare look up? Is he really that scared?
Softening his tone, Mann said, “Let’s get acquainted. My name is Mann, and we just saw each other earlier.”
Cen Jin turned his head to look at the man beside him, but he didn’t recognize the blonde man at all.
(They are the ones who blocked you at the entrance just now, and they’re also Wei Xin’s friends.)
(Didn’t you stare in their direction for quite a while just now? You didn’t even recognize them?)
Cen Jin didn’t dare admit that he hadn’t looked closely at all, and had simply been staring blankly into space without focusing his vision.
Before Cen Jin could utter a word, the drink in his hand and the bag in his arms were snatched away by the two men.
“Let’s go.”
Wei Xin sat in the center of the sofa, flanked by Talon.
Everyone in the booth was gazing toward the bar area, where the pretty young boy sat facing their direction, allowing them to clearly catch his expression.
He had followed along after being coaxed by Mann with just a few words how easy to trick.
“Such fair calves.”
“He looks so scared. Did Mann bully him or something?”
“Nah, I doubt it. I saw Mann say maybe one or two sentences to him.”
“Mann’s not bad, then. Consider this him making up for his past mistakes.”
Cen Jin was escorted between the two men, carrying nothing, with an arm slung around his shoulders, half-pushed as he walked over.
His brows were lightly furrowed, his hands hanging awkwardly without knowing where to place them, his body stiff and his stride restricted he looked far from willing, resembling someone under duress instead.
Talon lifted his chin and remarked to Wei Xin, “I just remembered where I’ve seen him before.”
“Wasn’t it just at the entrance?” someone retorted.
Talon shook his head with a knowing look. “No, it was on our school forum.”
“Don’t let his innocent, white-lotus act fool you; he’s a notorious social butterfly at our university.” Talon licked his back molar. “He’s got loads of boyfriends.”
Talon had only heard rumors of such a person and seen photographs, though those were merely shots of his back. He had never laid eyes on Cen Jin in person, nor had he cared much until today, seeing him with his own eyes, making him curious to witness how this “white lotus” went about catching boyfriends.
The members of their circle were all decent-looking, and they were all rather keen to experience this white lotus’s seductive charms firsthand.
Wei Xin remained utterly unenthusiastic. Since the descendants of these hunter families all belonged to the same association, they had constantly been compared by their elders since childhood, so Wei Xin was well aware of his peers’ true natures.
Stifled by strict supervision, going out to blow off steam was common enough. But this was the first time Talon had harbored such malicious inclinations.
What was so fascinating about some guy?
Wei Xin cast a glance at the two tall figures and one shorter figure drawing near, his gaze lingering on the boy in the middle for a fraction of a second before looking away.
Boring.
He loathed fickle people of this sort.
Coming to a bar dressed like that nobody would believe it wasn’t intentional.
Wei Xin lifted his glass for a sip, letting his eyes drift back toward Cen Jin for a fleeting moment.
Cen Jin was led up to the booth. Several gazes locked onto him unflinchingly, and a few people even shifted their weight to clear an open spot beside them.
Mann gave him a light nudge, signaling for him to choose a seat.
Cen Jin glanced back at Mann, the psychedelic lights dancing within his eyes, leaving Mann momentarily dazed. It wasn’t until his glass and bag were taken from his hands that he snapped back to reality.
His dazed expression did not go unnoticed by the others, who seized the opportunity to tease him relentlessly.
Hearing their exaggerated laughter, Cen Jin pressed his lips together and took a seat at the very edge of the sofa.
The person who had originally occupied that spot hadn’t expected Cen Jin to choose his exact seat, so he hadn’t bothered to scooch over. When Cen Jin ended up pressed flush against his leg, the guy suddenly lost any desire to make room.
With half of Cen Jin’s hips hanging off the sofa edge, he found it remarkably uncomfortable. After enduring it for a moment, he turned his head and asked the boy staring straight at him, “Could you move inward just a little bit?”
“Y-Yeah—”
“No need.” The boy’s reply was cut off by an amused voice.
Cen Jin remembered that person it was the one with the terrible temper.
Talon chuckled. “Sit over here instead.” Knowing that Wei Xin disliked anyone sitting right next to him, Talon cleared a space on the opposite side.
Cen Jin tilted his head, glanced at that spot, nodded, and walked over.
Stepping through required him to cross paths with three or four individuals, none of whom bothered to pull their legs back, leaving them sprawled out lazily. Sandwiched between these men and the table, Cen Jin had to carefully step over multiple pairs of legs before finally reaching the seat beside Talon.
He sat down, still clutching his glass of wine and hugging his small schoolbag tightly to his chest. As he leaned back against the backrest, he let out a soft sigh of relief.
“So delicate.” Wei Xin withdrew his gaze, speaking loudly enough for everyone present to hear.
In Cen Jin’s worldview, using the word “delicate” to describe a male was by no means a compliment.
Cen Jin’s expression shifted. His cheeks puffed out as if he wanted to retort, though he ultimately held his tongue.
Talon stepped in to smooth things over, turning sideways so his entire body faced Cen Jin directly. “What Wei Xin meant was that you’re cute.”
Wei Xin frowned, displeased by Talon twisting his words. Yet when he looked over, he could only catch sight of that lowered head past Talon’s shoulder.
His eyes were half-drooped, wearing a small, sullen expression. Porcelain-white and entirely uninterested in paying attention to anyone.
Unable to resist, Talon reached out a finger to poke Cen Jin’s cheek. “You’re not even happy when someone calls you cute.”
“I’m not cute, I just don’t like talking.” Cen Jin swatted the man’s hand away.
Wantonly touching someone else’s face was a thoroughly impolite gesture.
This short-tempered fellow truly lacked any manners whatsoever.
Cen Jin mentally jotted down his critique.
Talon introduced everyone in the circle. There were simply too many names for Cen Jin to retain, so he only managed to remember the blonde man named Mann, the ill-mannered man named Talon, and a fierce-looking one named Wei Xin.
Talon appeared to hold considerable sway among this group; he kept the conversation flowing and set the pace, while no one else dared to interrupt.
‘Is he the hunter boyfriend I’m supposed to find?’
(No, Wei Xin is.)
Cen Jin’s mouth drooped at the corners.
“You haven’t told us your name yet.”
“Cen Jin,” he replied.
“Cen (as in ‘once upon a time’)? Is it the ‘Cen’ with multiple pronunciations?”
“Which ‘ceng’ are we talking about?”
“Is it the mountain radical on top, with ‘jin’ for ‘today’ underneath?” Talon asked.
Cen Jin nodded.
“What about the other character?”
“‘Jin’ as in jinchi [reserved/prudish]? Or ‘jin’ with the woman radical?”
“‘Jin’ with the clothing radical.”
Talon kept his eyes fixed on the person beside him, only to find that Cen Jin didn’t quite match the descriptions posted on the campus forum.
Cen Jin held the glass with both hands. Whenever he didn’t know what to say, he would pretend to drink, though in reality, the liquid merely brushed against his lips, leaving them damp prompting him to trace the edge with the tip of his tongue.
Cen Jin was hardly any social butterfly; he was unmistakably a delicate white lotus, albeit a remarkably resilient little white lotus.
For some inexplicable reason, less than half an hour after meeting Cen Jin, Talon had already arrived at this conclusion.
“Do you have a boyfriend?” Talon asked with a smile.
Just as Cen Jin was about to “drink” again, Talon pressed down on his cup, taking it away and placing it on the table.
It seemed answering was mandatory.
“No.”
Cen Jin told a tiny white lie.
His past relationships didn’t count; he had only just arrived here, and since he hadn’t started dating anyone yet, that meant he didn’t have one.
“Then what type do you like?” Talon guided him step-by-step, tracing a circle with his finger. “Take a look around our group and see if there’s anyone here who fits your type.”
Such a tedious question, yet it caused everyone around them to unconsciously lean forward, holding their breath.
Cen Jin’s gaze swept over the group. The way they looked at him carried an intensity that felt overly scorching, their unblinkingly fixed stares making them look dazed and foolish though Cen Jin hadn’t seen them drink all that much.
It seemed this crowd didn’t hold their liquor very well at all.
When Cen Jin’s eyes landed on Wei Xin, he noticed the other man’s gaze flicker.
Wei Xin was the only one who hadn’t been looking at him.
Cen Jin extended a finger, reaching past Talon to point directly at Wei Xin.
He heard the men around them gasp in unison, though Cen Jin couldn’t fathom why their reactions were so dramatic.
“Hmph.” Wei Xin let out a cold laugh.
Cen Jin’s finger trembled.
Having been mocked by this Wei Xin twice in a row, he felt rather displeased. Pressing his lips together, he started to pull his hand back, only for his finger to be intercepted and caught in Talon’s grip the next second.