“Watch out!” Su Mo sprang up abruptly, instinctively shielding Ye Linghan behind him as his eyes swept the surroundings.
Zhang Ping, who had been right in front of them just a moment ago, had vanished in an instant without making a single sound. The disappearance had been clean and swift.
To be able to approach them so ghost-like and silently whisk away a living person—this was undoubtedly the work of the Kindred. However, because the opponent was in the dark and they lacked a counter-strategy, Su Mo did not dare to act rashly.
Though it was his first time experiencing such a thing, Ye Linghan, protected behind Su Mo, reacted quickly.
He placed his hand on Su Mo’s arm. “It’s okay, let me handle this.”
His composure caused a flash of surprise in Su Mo, who felt a flicker of curiosity in his heart. He wanted to see what kind of waves this seemingly harmless youth could stir up.
Still, he remained worried. “What are you going to do?”
He saw Ye Linghan produce the Spirit-Vision Mirror from inside his clothes. Upon opening it, a faint purple light instantly radiated from the mirror’s surface.
He aimed the mirror at the spot where Zhang Ping had originally been sitting. The two followed the beam of light projected by the mirror, and sure enough, Zhang Ping appeared as if he were being suspended in mid-air by something invisible. His head was tilted back, and he struggled with his hands and feet. His face was contorted in pain, and his lips moved as if he were muttering or moaning. Pressed against the side of his neck was a vampire, currently feasting on Zhang Ping’s blood.
“Holy crap! It really is a vampire!” Su Mo clenched his fists.
However, because the Spirit-Vision Mirror could only visualize objects, they could not hear what Zhang Ping was saying through his moving lips within the barrier.
Zhang Ping’s eyes were fixed, deathly still on the direction where Ye Linghan and Su Mo stood. His face was ashen, seemingly blaming them for not saving him.
The vampire seemed to sense it had been discovered. It looked up at Ye Linghan, and upon seeing the Spirit-Vision Mirror in his hand, it first showed surprise, then revealed a grotesque smile, its mouth stained with traces of blood.
“Do you have any way to catch him? My Spirit-Vision Mirror won’t last long!” Ye Linghan whispered.
“I don’t; I can only try to grab him by force! But their barriers don’t last long. It’ll be easier to capture him once it vanishes,” Su Mo said with a hint of anxiety.
“Then, when will their barrier vanish?”
Ye Linghan was getting anxious because the Spirit-Vision Mirror could only be maintained for about seven and a half minutes; it couldn’t stall for long at all. The only way was to gamble—to gamble that the mirror could last a bit longer.
At that moment, the vampire, revealed under the light of the Spirit-Vision Mirror, suddenly turned into a wisp of black smoke and escaped through the window.
In an instant, the barrier he had created vanished. Ye Linghan was quick-handed; the moment Zhang Ping fell, he caught him. Zhang Ping, however, had collapsed onto the chair in a state of shock due to excessive blood loss.
“Stop!” Su Mo wanted to give chase, but Ye Linghan stopped him.
“Don’t chase him for now; we won’t catch him. Saving the person is more important.”
Su Mo clenched his fists. “Dammit, how could we let him nearly kill someone right in front of us! This is completely out of line.”
In the past, when both sides lived in peace, things were relatively harmonious with almost no conflict. But suddenly, it was as if a dam had burst; the crack was being torn wider and wider, and more and more vampires were beginning to use their supernatural powers to harm people everywhere.
However, this incident was clearly intentional. Otherwise, no matter what, the Kindred wouldn’t openly provoke and harm a witness; someone was clearly pulling the strings.
Ye Linghan said in a heavy voice, “So, Zhao Xingjian’s death is definitely no small matter. It must have touched someone’s interests.”
Su Mo understood, his eyes meeting Ye Linghan’s with an intense gaze.
Zhang Ping was sent to the hospital. After emergency treatment, he was temporarily out of life-threatening danger. Ye Linghan and Su Mo had no choice but to suspend the questioning, planning to wait until Zhang Ping woke up before making further moves.
“I’ll contact the police about this later. This is a massive issue; the three of us likely have limited capabilities, so we’ll have to coordinate with them to send more people.”
On the way back, Su Mo and Ye Linghan discussed the follow-up matters. He and Yao Qingluan had only established the Investigation Bureau a short time ago. Furthermore, because Blood Hunters had lived in seclusion for so long, there were still misunderstandings with the police, so they had never had many people.
They had originally thought that in these peaceful times, they would at most handle disputes between a few small fries and wouldn’t need to make a big fuss. But currently, it seemed they had made things far too simple.
“Let’s go back and tell Sister Luan about the situation, then ask the police to intervene.”
Ye Linghan crossed his arms and followed Su Mo. They locked the car and headed upstairs together.
“No need to contact the police, just recruit me!” Just as Ye Linghan and Su Mo were about to step onto the stairs, a loud male voice rang out from behind, startling both of them.
Su Mo, being highly defensive, instinctively turned around and threw a punch. The person was not to be outdone and raised a hand to meet the blow.
“I say, why do you start hitting people right away? That’s not very sportsmanlike!” The man did not attack; he simply focused on defending.
Su Mo remained silent, pressing forward step by step. “Who knows who you are? Why are you following us?”
The man looked helpless, taking a moment to complain to Ye Linghan, who was standing aside watching the excitement. “Hey, don’t just watch! Help me stop him!”
Having seen enough of the show, Ye Linghan jumped between the two and blocked Su Mo’s strike. “Alright, alright, he doesn’t look like a bad guy. Let’s ask him what’s going on before we fight.” As he spoke, he patted the back of Su Mo’s hand.
“Exactly! To think I specifically wore a formal suit for the interview, only to be beaten like this by you guys!” the man grumbled while smoothing out the wrinkles in his suit, trying to make it look as neat as possible.
Hearing this, Ye Linghan raised both hands in a defensive gesture. “Hey! This has nothing to do with me. He’s the one who hit you, not me.” As he spoke, he tilted his chin toward Su Mo.
Beside him, Su Mo regained his composure and calmed down significantly.
“What did you mean by that just now? What do you mean by ‘just recruit you’?” Ye Linghan asked on Su Mo’s behalf.
“First, let me introduce myself. My name is Liao Xihe, and I want to join your investigation team.” After Liao Xihe finished speaking, his bright eyes were filled with expectation.
Now that things had settled down, they could see what the man calling himself Liao Xihe looked like. He was about the same height as Ye Linghan and Su Mo, around 1.8 meters; the three of them stood fairly evenly. However, his appearance didn’t quite match his voice. He looked rather delicate, possessing the gentle aura of a “refined jade” youth. It was clear his parents had good genes.
After hearing this, Su Mo’s gaze met Ye Linghan’s. The event was sudden; meeting someone downstairs who wanted an interview was even more rushed than when Ye Linghan had visited the first time, so Su Mo couldn’t make a decision immediately.
“About that…” Su Mo said meaningfully, casting a mischievous glance at Ye Linghan. “You’re not here to apply for a job as a janitor, are you?”
Great, why did he have to blurt that out? Ye Linghan covered his forehead; Su Mo really didn’t need to ask that.
The question stumped Liao Xihe. He scratched his head, a look of confusion in his eyes as he looked between Su Mo and Ye Linghan. “What janitor? Aren’t you guys specifically for catching vampires?”
“Ah, right, right.” Su Mo nodded, stifling a laugh. “We currently have three people in total. Why don’t you come upstairs with us, and we can discuss it then? What do you think?”
Liao Xihe nodded eagerly. “Of course, no problem!”
He was like a green youth just entering society, curious about everything new, and he followed the two upstairs with great enthusiasm.
Su Mo pushed open the door and called out toward the room, “A-Luan, there’s something I want to discuss with you.”
Liao Xihe followed behind the two, poking his head in to look.
However, there was no response.
“Is Sister Luan not home?” Ye Linghan looked around but found no sign of Yao Qingluan.
“Sister Luan? The other investigator is a girl?” Liao Xihe asked.
Ye Linghan raised a hand to signal Liao Xihe. “Friendly reminder: don’t get any ideas about this sister, okay~.”
Liao Xihe waved his hands hurriedly. “I won’t, I won’t. I was just impressed that a sister could be an investigator; she must be a very powerful person.”
Not knowing the inner dynamics between the two, he simply assumed Yao Qingluan might have a bad temper or be hard to deal with, so he didn’t dare to overstep.
“Strange, where did A-Luan go? She hasn’t been answering her phone.” Su Mo held his phone, staring at the words “Calling…” on the screen.
Usually, Yao Qingluan would tell Su Mo wherever she was going. But this time, not only had she not informed him beforehand, but the call was also going unanswered, making Su Mo inevitably worried.
“What if Sister Luan’s phone is on silent, or it’s inconvenient for her to answer?” Ye Linghan consoled him.
Liao Xihe didn’t know the background, so he didn’t dare to speak rashly and stood to the side looking somewhat awkward.
Su Mo immediately dismissed the idea. “Impossible. A-Luan wouldn’t do that. Plus, our phones have to stay on twenty-four hours a day; she wouldn’t put it on silent.”
Then it was truly strange. They hadn’t caught the vampire from earlier, and now something was wrong at home. They could only pray that Yao Qingluan was safe and sound.
“Just find a seat anywhere.” Seeing that Liao Xihe was uncomfortable, Ye Linghan kindly reassured him.
“Okay,” Liao Xihe agreed, but he didn’t sit down; instead, standing obediently to the side.
Suddenly, a ringtone sounded, exploding in the silent room like a blade slashing through space.
“It’s A-Luan,” Su Mo murmured.
The other two gathered around.
Su Mo’s heart was pounding. He felt a strange sense of unease, and his right eyelid suddenly started twitching uncontrollably, as if it were a premonition of something bad.
He pressed the answer button and put the call on speaker, his expression wary. “A-Luan?”
“Ooh~ no wonder you care so much about the little beauty, making so many calls. So she’s your little lover.”
On the other end of the phone, it wasn’t the familiar voice of Yao Qingluan. Instead, it was a man’s voice that was somewhat shrill and carried a hint of madness.
As he spoke, the sound of muffled sobbing could be heard in the background.
“Duan Jiu!” Ye Linghan shouted from the side.
The moment the other party spoke the first sentence, Ye Linghan recognized the owner of the voice. It was exactly the person he had seen on the surveillance footage from the underground casino—the one holding a gun to Wang De.
Ye Linghan had thought there would be no more interaction after that time, but he hadn’t expected their second encounter to come so soon.
Su Mo’s eyes widened in shock as he stared directly at Ye Linghan. “You know him?”
Before Ye Linghan could respond, Duan Jiu’s voice came through again. “Ye Linghan, long time no see. Ah-hahahahaha!”
As if deliberately adding fuel to the fire, he pointedly used Ye Linghan’s name, making it sound as if the two were very well-acquainted. His laughter was sharp and piercing, making anyone who heard it feel very uncomfortable.
“You… where is A-Luan now?” Ye Linghan suppressed the anger in his heart. He had witnessed Duan Jiu’s horror and madness, so he didn’t dare to provoke him for fear that Yao Qingluan wouldn’t be able to withstand his torture. He could only ask patiently to find their location as quickly as possible.
Compared to the three of them, Duan Jiu was very composed. “Aren’t you curious how I know you?”
“Since you put it that way, I really am quite curious,” Ye Linghan said, trying to go along with Duan Jiu’s words as much as possible. “How about you let A-Luan go, and I’ll come find you? What do you say?”
He tried to make a deal with the opponent.
Su Mo stood by, shaking with rage. Sensing this, Ye Linghan gripped Su Mo’s wrist, doing his best to calm him down.
“Ooh, if I don’t let her go, what then? But chatting with you… that, I’m quite interested in.”
Duan Jiu laughed loudly and hung up the phone.