When it was time to leave, every single one of them was clearly plastered beyond belief, yet they all insisted on arguing over who would get to drive Cen Jin home.
The final spectacle consisted of a neat row of luxury vehicles parked right outside the gates of the villa district, with identical designated drivers occupying every single driver’s seat.
The young men slouched in their seats, completely dead to the world, while still muttering about escorting Cen Jin home.
After stepping out of the car and listening to Talon ramble on for a bit, Cen Jin turned and walked back.
Guided by the voice echoing in his head, he located his own home.
The floor-to-ceiling windows of the villa’s main hall were still illuminated, casting a warm glow over the small garden outside.
“Your father, mother, and older brother are all sleeping; they are currently in their dormancy period. Normally, the only ones keeping a normal human schedule in your household are you and Lestrange Zelin.”
‘Who’s that?’
“Your cousin. He attends the same school as you, and the elders arranged for him to board at your house so you two could look out for one another.”
‘Does he hate me too?’
“Yes. He knows everything you’ve been up to outside.”
“Oh,” Cen Jin replied in a low murmur.
Dragging the straps of his schoolbag, he trudged back at a leisurely pace.
Pushing open the front door, Cen Jin found that the hall was merely lit up, while the sounds of the housekeeper washing dishes drifted from the kitchen. There was no sign of his so-called cousin.
He slipped off his shoes in the entryway and tiptoed upstairs, moving lightly.
Just as he thought he had successfully slipped by unnoticed, a clear, youthful adolescent voice chimed down from above: “What time even is this? Where have you been running around playing the delinquent again?”
Cen Jin looked up toward the source of the voice and spotted a black-haired youth standing in the second-floor hallway. His skin was deathly pale the signature complexion unique to vampires. As he spoke to Cen Jin, he deliberately put on a stern expression, lecturing him with absolute solemnity.
Had Cen Jin not been forewarned that the family members in this household consisted solely of himself and his cousin Zelin, he would have mistaken the youth for his own older brother.
Zelin wore a school uniform that, at first glance, appeared identical to Cen Jin’s, yet subtle differences emerged upon closer inspection.
For instance, his own shorts were significantly shorter than the youth’s.
“I don’t know what time it was. I went to a bar.”
Perhaps Cen Jin’s excessive honesty left the black-haired youth entirely at a loss for words; his expression froze momentarily, finally capturing a trace of the awkwardness appropriate for his age.
Hearing the commotion, the housekeeper busy in the kitchen poked her head out to take a look. “Second Young Master, you’re back.”
“Zelin Young Master was waiting for you the entire time during dinner. He even had the dishes reheated several times.”
Cen Jin’s focus veered off course entirely, leaving him genuinely astonished.
‘Don’t vampires drink blood? Why are they eating human food instead?’
“Times are changing, and vampires are evolving as well.”
“To blend into human society, maintaining normal three meals a day is still necessary. This helps cultivate the body’s adaptability to human nourishment. Of course, blood must be consumed at least twice a week. The basement of your house functions as a cold storage facility stocked with blood; just remember to grab some when needed. Though you won’t need it, since whatever blood you drink comes straight from your “boyfriend.” ”
“Your household’s cook is also human, so you must remember to maintain human decorum while at home.”
Zelin absorbed Cen Jin’s reaction, though he misinterpreted the boy’s astonishment as something entirely different.
“Who was waiting for him? Eat it or leave it, I couldn’t care less.”
Cen Jin shifted his gaze back to Zelin and continued trudging up the stairs without a care in the world.
Zelin’s expression twisted slightly. As Cen Jin brushed past him, the youth reached out and grabbed him by the arm.
“What is it?” Cen Jin glanced down at the hand clamped around his arm, then looked up at his seemingly furious cousin.
“Is it that satisfying to have a bunch of guys swarming around you?” Zelin’s cold, icy words carried a sharp edge of aggression.
“What on earth are you talking about?” Cen Jin frowned. He had no idea whether this cousin of his had always harbored such an attitude toward him or if he was simply acting abnormally tonight.
All Cen Jin wanted right now was to hurry back, take a thorough shower, and crash into a deep sleep.
Zelin exerted every ounce of self-control to keep his expression in check. Had he possessed a mirror, he would have realized his current state was thoroughly abnormal; yet having reached the absolute breaking point of his emotions, he could no longer hold back. “I saw everything just now outside, that whole line of cars parked right at the gates.”
“You reek of alcohol. You went out drinking with them, didn’t you?”
“That’s why you couldn’t be bothered to come home for dinner either, doing whatever you please without a single word of notice. The housekeeper went to all the trouble of preparing so many dishes, only for all of it to end up dumped in the trash.”
Hearing Zelin rattle on like that, Cen Jin felt a fleeting pang of guilt, as though he had genuinely done something wrong. Yet he had only just arrived in this world; how was he supposed to know about any of these rules?
Consequently, Cen Jin felt virtually no real remorse.
They said demons were cold-blooded and ruthless, lacking any semblance of human empathy; Cen Jin figured cold-blooded creatures like vampires were pretty much the exact same way.
Zelin kept dragging him along while spouting an endless stream of complaints. Cen Jin had zero desire to listen.
“Leave me alone.” Cen Jin knitted his brows.
The grip Zelin maintained on his arm tightened sharply.
“Out of those people tonight, exactly how many of them are your boyfriends?” The question held zero warmth.
Even with all the psychological preparation he had done, Cen Jin hadn’t expected his cousin to despise him to this extreme degree.
He attempted to pry Zelin’s fingers apart, but this boy younger than him possessed strength that far outmatched his own.
Cen Jin could feel the circulation in his arm being cut off by the tight grip.
“Let go!”
He slapped against Zelin’s hand.
“One? Two? Three?”
Zelin’s voice carried an unnatural tremor, as if he were driven to the verge of blind fury, or perhaps consumed by some violent, frantic emotion raging desperately deep within him.
“Or all of them?”
Cen Jin grew utterly exasperated by Zelin’s grating, obnoxious insults.
Driven past his breaking point, he swung his leg out to kick Zelin, only for Zelin anticipating the move to catch him mid-air by the ankle.
Losing his balance, Cen Jin tumbled straight down onto the floor.
Fortunately, the thick carpeting cushioned the impact, sparing him from any sharp pain.
Yet stinging, involuntary tears welled up instantly, clinging like tiny pearls to his lower eyelashes. A single droplet of moisture was enough to send the blood rushing straight to the head of anyone watching.
Zelin shifted his weight, pinning Cen Jin’s shoulders down as he straddled his waist.
When Cen Jin attempted to push himself back up, Zelin shoved him right back down. Furious, Cen Jin grabbed Zelin’s wrists, pressing down with enough force to leave distinct fingernail impressions etched into the pale skin.
“You stayed out this late drinking with them, what on earth did you guys go and do?”
“What did they do to you?”
“Did you let them touch you?”
“They touched me! Are you happy now?!” Cen Jin blurted out reckless nonsense in a fit of rage.
He had merely intended to contradict Zelin to spite him, but his words only poured gasoline onto the fire.
“Where did they touch you?”
“Your face? Your waist? Your legs? Your ass? Did they kiss you? Your mouth is shaped so prettily they must have been dying to taste those lips of yours, right? Did they stick their tongues in? Did they shove their tongues inside your little mouth and swirl them around”
Smack.
Cen Jin delivered a sharp, resonant slap across his face, the sound echoing loud enough to travel all the way downstairs.
Alerted by the commotion, the housekeeper called out, “What’s going on up there?” as she hurried up the stairs.
The blow knocked Zelin’s head violently to the side, though it finally seemed to snap him back to a semblance of sobriety. His messy black hair spilled across his face, the bright red handprint starkly contrasting against his stark white skin, drawing a harsh, unbridgeable boundary.
Though Zelin was the one who had been struck, Cen Jin felt his own palm burning with a fiery sting.
He had been driven completely mad by the filthy nonsense spilling from Zelin’s mouth. Far from feeling satisfied after a single strike, as Zelin sat there momentarily stunned, Cen Jin hauled off and delivered a second slap.
This time, however, his hand was intercepted halfway.
Vampires possessed immense physical strength, a raw power that usually bore no proportion to their slender frames, creating a stark and jarring contrast.
Zelin still outmatched Cen Jin in sheer power. Catching Cen Jin’s wrist, he trapped it effortlessly. Cen Jin tried to swing his free hand to strike the face again, but Zelin easily pinned both arms down against his chest.
Cen Jin caught sight of Zelin’s pupils shifting gradually from pitch black to a glowing crimson, flashes of white flickering at the edges of his teeth.
Yet the transformation vanished as abruptly as it appeared, retreating within two seconds.
The housekeeper had arrived upstairs.
The confrontation between Cen Jin and Zelin came to an abrupt halt.
Storming back to his room without looking back, Cen Jin slammed the door shut behind him. Disregarding whether his clothes were dirty or clean, he collapsed face-first onto the bed, utterly drained of energy.
It was then that he felt something warm sliding down his cheeks, trickling past both sides of his face to soak into his ears.
Reaching up to wipe it away, he found clear liquid.
Cen Jin hadn’t even realized he was crying.
Sometimes having a tear-incontinence constitution was thoroughly disadvantageous; even when he wasn’t entirely losing an argument, the moment the waterworks turned on, it made him look like he had utterly surrendered.
How humiliating.
Cen Jin sniffled, raising an arm to bury his face. The corners of his mouth beneath his arm remained pulled into a flat, rigid line.
“Today’s task has been completed and exceeded.””(You have harvested ten malice points from Zelin.”
Cen Jin curled his lip, finding a tiny sliver of comfort amidst the absolute wreckage of his mood.
Yet the cost had been far too steep, coming dangerously close to a genuine physical brawl with Zelin. Cen Jin had even caught Zelin on the verge of full transformation.
At that moment, Cen Jin was certain Zelin had wanted to sink his fangs deep into his throat and drain him dry.
Cen Jin resolved to steer clear of his cousin from this day forward. Even if extracting malice points from Zelin was an option, he wanted nothing more to do with him.
Perhaps due to sheer exhaustion, Cen Jin drifted into a deep sleep right there on top of the bed without even washing up, his small schoolbag resting right beside the mattress.
The overhead lights remained off, leaving only the cool moonlight streaming directly across the bed.
Click.
The distinct sound of a metal clasp snapping open echoed sharply through the quiet room.
Though the noise was prominent in the silence, the figure fast asleep on the bed remained utterly dead to the world, merely smacking his lips a few times without the slightest intention of waking up.
A glass jar rolled out from inside the schoolbag. Bathed in the silvery moonlight, wisps of mist curled slowly inside the container. Something shifted vaguely at the center of the jar, half-shrouded and impossible to discern clearly.
Just as the jar began rolling forward toward the sleeping boy, it abruptly froze in place.
At that exact second, a faint rustling sound broke the stillness at the bedroom door.
The door drifted slowly open, and remained ajar.
Cen Jin was shaken awake by the housekeeper.
He groggily peeled back a corner of the blanket, crawled out of bed, and sat dazed for a moment before remembering he hadn’t showered the night before.
Rolling off the bed, he started to dash toward the bathroom, only to freeze mid-step.
Lowering his head slowly, he stared down at the clothes he was wearing, failing to process the situation for a solid beat.
The window in the bedroom stood open, dispersing any lingering traces of alcohol in the breeze perhaps the housekeeper had opened it that morning? But what about the clothes he had on?
The garments he had worn yesterday had completely vanished, and a search of the bathroom yielded nothing.
Cen Jin stood frozen before the full-length mirror in the bathroom, staring blankly at the platinum-blonde youth clad entirely in silk loungewear.
“If you don’t start washing up right now, you’re going to be late.”
Cen Jin’s eyelids fought a losing battle, his eyelashes feeling as though they had been glued together, making each blink a monumental struggle.
Reaching a hand inside his sleep shirt to scratch his stomach, he muttered in a hoarse, raspy voice, “Late for what…”
“You are a student at St. Jago Academy, a noble institution combining middle school, high school, and university into a single campus. Your current identity is an eighteen-year-old freshman.”
The mere mention of school triggered an automatic panic response in Cen Jin. Yet his brain remained stuck back in the events of the previous night.
“Oh, oh… right, I need to shower. I didn’t wash up yesterday, I still smell like alcohol.”
“No need, you already washed.”
“I didn’t?”
“Your dirty clothes were washed too; all you need to do now is change into your uniform.”
“I was fast asleep, I didn’t take a bath at all! Who helped me wash up?”
Cen Jin’s head was spinning with question marks. He reached down to tug at his loose waistband, only for a expanse of milky-white and delicate pink to greet his eyes.
His face flushed bright red in an instant.
He wasn’t wearing any underwear!