“You did very well yesterday.”
Speaking of yesterday, Xun Jin wasn’t very happy.
Too many things had happened yesterday, and just thinking about them made him feel exhausted.
He merely let out a vague “Mhm,” and then asked, “What was so good about it? Weixin still didn’t agree to be my boyfriend.”
Cianus was momentarily stunned, completely forgetting what he had been about to say next.
“What boyfriend?”
Xun Jin suddenly remembered that Cianus had only asked him to get close to Weixin, not to make Weixin his boyfriend.
Being a boyfriend was simply Xun Jin’s own task, which he had accidentally mixed up and blurted out.
He hurriedly shook his head to cover for it. “Nothing. What were you just about to say?”
Xun Jin’s intent to change the subject was far too obvious, and the more Cianus thought about it, the more wrong it felt.
“I didn’t ask you to be Weixin’s boyfriend. I only asked you to get close to him and create opportunities for time alone.”
“Oh.” Xun Jin just wanted to gloss over the topic as quickly as possible.
Unexpectedly, Cianus refused to let go of the subject. “Aside from Weixin, do you have any other boyfriends?”
“Talon, of course.” Seeing that he couldn’t hide it, he answered whatever was asked.
“And besides him?”
“No one else.” Xun Jin looked at Cianus and shook his head.
Ethan was already broken up with, so he didn’t count, and Weixin hadn’t agreed, so he didn’t count either.
Speaking of Ethan, however, he wondered how he was doing right now. Was he still out by the flower field? Could he have died from excessive blood loss?
Cianus figured Xun Jin was probably still angry about yesterday’s incident, which was why he was so absent-minded and kept losing focus while talking to him.
Cianus’s thoughts drifted back to the scene in the haunted house yesterday: Xun Jin running frantically ahead, losing his way and nearly stumbling into dead ends multiple times. When he ran, the frequency and amplitude of the soft flesh on his thighs jiggling, coupled with the gasps echoing through the narrow space, were indeed enough to stir up restless, vivid imagery.
Cianus cleared his throat, steadied Xun Jin’s shoulders, and forced his attention back to himself. “Those bad boys outside are far too playful. Don’t let them trick you.”
“I haven’t been tricked.”
Xun Jin had no idea how the conversation had veered off in this direction. Logically speaking, shouldn’t he, the vampire, be the one with ulterior motives?
Holding Xun Jin’s shoulders, Cianus lectured, “Those young masters are completely spoiled rotten. All those sweet-talking things they tell you are just games to play with you. They only want to trick you into bed and then devour you.”
Xun Jin felt he had it backwards.
“You must never be careless when looking for a boyfriend. Sometimes, don’t just look at a face—you have to look at their character, too.”
“For instance, it’s great to find someone older; they actually know how to cherish people.”
“Even though I’m not from your school, I can change into your school uniform and accompany you to class.”
Xun Jin couldn’t see any connection between Cianus’s words. “I only make friends with them to drink their blood.”
Trusting Cianus within just a few sentences, Xun Jin ended up recounting what he had experienced in the flower field yesterday.
Naturally, he omitted many details that shouldn’t be shared.
The more Cianus listened, the tighter his brow furrowed. “That what’s-his-name, Sen what was he even thinking bringing you to such a remote place?”
“It’s Ethan. He’s a football player, a jock at our school,” Xun Jin corrected him.
“How do you remember so clearly?” Cianus asked with a hint of sour jealousy. “Even what he does for a living?”
“…”
Do you even hear what you’re asking?
“…When Zelan and I came back last night, we didn’t check on Ethan. I’m worried he might actually die.”
“Why worry about him? He chose that isolated spot himself; even if he died there, no one would ever find him,” Cianus said coldly, his ruthless, unfeeling demeanor seemingly revealing his true nature.
“If he manages to survive, guess how he’ll treat you?”
“He’s a human who nearly lost his life to a vampire. Do you think he’ll spare you? He’ll either call the police or contact news media, claiming there’s a vampire at Santiago Academy who tried to kill him.”
“Tell me, do you think news like that would alert the Hunter Guild?”
Cianus’s voice dropped lower and lower, his tone turning so chillingly sinister that the surrounding temperature seemed to plummet. Just listening to it made Xun Jin imagine a thousand gruesome ends for himself.
“Will Ethan… really tell people…?”
“There’s no guarantee whether he’s dead or alive right now. If he’s dead, fine; but if he wakes up and walks away, even if he doesn’t tell anyone else, he still holds leverage over you,” Cianus said. “He’ll threaten to make you comply with whatever he wants.”
“Threaten me…” Xun Jin repeated.
“What, do you think he wouldn’t do that?” Cianus challenged.
“Ah, no.” Xun Jin looked up at him, his upturned eyelashes making him look utterly clueless and innocent.
“If I were Ethan, I certainly wouldn’t let an opportunity like this slip by,” Cianus murmured, his voice deep, soft, and crystal clear with every syllable.
“What opportunity?” Xun Jin’s trailing note brushed against Cianus’s heart like a gentle feather.
Pausing for a moment, Cianus replied, “An opportunity to get even closer to you.”
The moment Ethan was brought up always fond of pawing at him Xun Jin shook his head vehemently. “I don’t want that kind of thing.”
“Good. So you just need to stay away from him.” When necessary, he wouldn’t hesitate to kill Ethan outright.
Yet Cianus kept those true thoughts to himself, afraid of terrifying the little vampire and equally afraid of hearing Xun Jin plead on Ethan’s behalf.
Cianus sat down beside Xun Jin, pressing close against his leg. The contrast in their heights and builds was striking while Cianus wasn’t heavy and possessed a slender frame, Xun Jin’s skeleton was vastly more petite than his.
Unable to resist, Cianus reached out to wrap his fingers around Xun Jin’s thigh bone to measure it. “Why are you so tiny, like a little girl.”
“I’m a boy.” Xun Jin’s thigh grew sore from the pinching, so he grabbed Cianus’s hand and tossed it away.
“I taught those two young hunters a lesson yesterday.” Cianus didn’t spell things out completely, sharing the same underlying anxiety as before.
“No wonder we couldn’t find Talon and Mann later.”
Cianus: “You?” They sounded far too intimate.
“Me and Weixin, of course. You knew about that already.” Xun Jin felt Cianus was sometimes even sillier than he was, always asking questions with obvious answers.
“Hmph, I know,” Cianus said. “His turn will come soon enough.”
“What do you mean? Are you planning to do something to him?” Xun Jin turned his head to look at Cianus beside him.
Resting his arm along the back of the sofa, Cianus naturally draped it over Xun Jin’s shoulder. “Why ask about that?” Since the tasks assigned to Xun Jin were already completed, what came next was far too dangerous; he didn’t want to drag Xun Jin into it.
Xun Jin answered honestly, “He hasn’t agreed to be my boyfriend yet, and I haven’t gotten to drink his blood either.”
“…”
Cianus licked his fangs and offered a few vague, perfunctory murmurs in response.
It looked like he would have to speed things up.
When Ethan regained consciousness, his eyes met an intricately patterned ceiling.
The interior design of the room didn’t look modern. Lying on a hard wooden plank bed, Ethan felt as though he had traveled straight back to the Middle Ages.
He sat up, feeling an intense, throbbing pain in his neck.
Reaching up, Ethan touched his neck and encountered a tightly wrapped layer of gauze. He couldn’t help suspecting that the person who applied this bandage harbored personal grievances; it felt less like medical treatment and more like an attempt to strangle him.
“You’re awake?”
A girl wearing a form-fitting black short top and jeans pushed the door open and walked in, carrying a small wooden basin with a towel draped across the rim.
Racking his brain for any memories of this person, Ethan realized he had never seen her before.
“Let me tend to your wound first.” The girl paused upon seeing the gauze on Ethan’s neck, then complained, “Why is it wrapped like this? I remember he knows how to bandage wounds properly.”
He? Who is “he”?
Ethan thought to himself privately.
The girl finished quickly, cleared away her supplies, and told Ethan to stay put in the room while someone came to find him shortly.
“Aren’t you going to explain anything to me? Why am I here? Where is this?” Ethan demanded, calling her back.
“You don’t know?”
The moment Ethan saw the man enter the room, he bounded straight off the bed.
He looked vaguely familiar, as if he’d seen him around school.
“Ethan.”
Weixin glanced at the wound on Ethan’s neck; the gauze wrapping had already been removed.
“You know me?” Ethan asked with guarded suspicion.
Weixin: “We’re the ones who brought you back.”
Ethan didn’t reply. A persistent, nagging premonition lingered in his mind, telling him he was forgetting something vital.
Caressing the gauze on his neck with a furrowed brow, he fell into deep thought.
Right! What about Xun Jin?
Ethan’s immediate worry was that Xun Jin’s hidden identity might be exposed. He blurted out anxiously, “Thanks for saving me, but I have to go.”
Weixin blocked his path, speaking with a trace of impatience. “I didn’t say you couldn’t leave.”
“I know, but I have things to do.”
Weixin clicked his tongue. “What I mean is, you can’t leave right now.”
“Why?” Ethan asked.
Weixin looked him over with cold indifference, his gaze radiating irritation.
He felt he had made himself crystal clear was it really that hard to understand?
So this guy was Xun Jin’s ex-boyfriend? He had no idea what Xun Jin ever saw in him—totally brainless and stupid.