Blood Queen

Dilapidated buildings in demolition areas could never serve as long-term shelter. After obtaining one hundred thousand in cash from Zhong Jing, Xia Yan made a decisive decision and rented a small, old apartment in another nearby old residential complex—one bedroom, one living room, one bathroom.

The quality and living environment of the house were naturally nothing to praise. The only advantage was that after paying more rent and double the deposit, the elderly landlady finally stopped questioning the rental needs of two young girls who couldn't provide identification cards.

Time flew by, and several days had passed since the May Day holiday ended. All Chinese cities had shifted from one kind of bustle to another.

May 9th, Thursday.

In J District of C City, within the riverside demolition old residential complex, roaring construction machinery rampaged about. Ancient red brick walls were pushed down one after another, old buildings collapsed as if their spines had been removed, and dump trucks came and went in an endless stream. Construction site barrier walls, erected for future development, continuously extended along the streets and the edges of the demolition plan.

On the construction site, inside a tall excavator that exuded a rough industrial beauty, a pretty girl in work clothes wearing a safety helmet was operating it with a serious expression.

On the other side of the construction site, a black-haired girl in a white kitchen uniform was carefully moving a large bucket of egg drop soup on a cart toward the dining area.

As siblings who grew up in an orphanage, Xia Yan had successfully enlisted in the military after coming of age, while Gu Yao, who had congenital physical defects, had a much harder time. She had tried all kinds of work and had rich experience as a laborer, especially when working at a hydroelectric station project, where she had learned excavator operation through a combination of observation and hands-on experience.

Although she didn't have a license, Gu Yao's proposed daily wage was so outrageously low that it was hard to refuse—only two hundred yuan per day. Her trial performance was also commendable, and coupled with her pleasant appearance, the cost-conscious small contractor of the demolition site agreed to let her work short-term odd jobs.

Xia Yan, with her more elegant appearance and temperament, lacked any presentable laborer skills and could only serve as logistics support, providing meals for the workers. Her daily wage was a pitiful forty yuan, better than nothing.

The two young women stood out particularly among a crowd of migrant worker men, adding a different atmosphere to this demolition site.

As evening fell and lights began to twinkle, work at the construction site ended. Gu Yao jumped down from the excavator and met up with Xia Yan, who had already finished tidying up, marking the end of their workday.

The small contractor, with his beer belly protruding, walked over with a smile, counting out 240 yuan in cash as he handed it over. He looked meaningfully at Gu Yao, who was removing her safety helmet and pulling off her plastic hair cover, saying: "Xiao Yan, Xiao Yao, there's a beer festival at Huoshui Park today. How about we go watch the shows and have some late-night snacks together?"

"No, thank you for your kind offer, Manager Chen. We have some personal matters to handle tonight, and today is also our last day of odd jobs, as we agreed before."

Gu Yao nonchalantly stepped in front of the silent Xia Yan, showing a cute smile. She had already sensed that Xia Yan's physical condition was somewhat abnormal today.

"Is that so... How about you work a bit longer? We can negotiate the wages!"

The small contractor's mood wasn't good, both disappointed by their refusal of his invitation and regretful that such cheap labor was hard to come by.

Gu Yao just shook her head and supported Xia Yan's arm as they walked toward the construction site exit.

...

...

After casually buying some fast food in the district, the two walked through dim, narrow old streets, turned into an even more decrepit small community, and finally returned to their rented old, small apartment.

As soon as they entered, Gu Yao quickly helped the weakening Xia Yan to the bed and touched her forehead.

"I'm fine, it's just a precursor, not a blood thirst attack yet."

Xia Yan waved her hand with a smile, adjusting her breathing and dismissing the faint aches in her limbs.

Counting from when she drank the last bag of blood, six days had passed, and Xia Yan was only now showing the initial blood thirst reaction.

Different blood servant individuals typically had blood intake dependency intervals ranging from three to seven days. Higher-level individuals could even have intervals exceeding half a month or even a month. By this measure, Xia Yan was already at the top quality level for her tier.

Reducing the intensity and frequency of blood-boiling could effectively extend the blood thirst interval period—a conclusion Xia Yan had already verified through Gu Yao.

That afternoon when they encountered Huang Gu, Gu Yao's major outburst had caused that blood thirst interval to last only one day. In the past week, Gu Yao had also only consumed blood once, which was relatively normal.

"Brother, should I go steal some from the hospital tonight?"

Gu Yao was obviously not as calm as Xia Yan and was ready to use the same old trick again.

"No need, I can still hold on for two days. According to the information Huang Gu gave us, this month's underground shop is tomorrow night, so we'll make it in time. Also, Xiao Yao, unless absolutely necessary, never do anything that increases your risk of exposure—never, never!"

Xia Yan gripped the light blonde girl's hand tightly, emphasizing each word.

"I know, you've said it so many times..."

Gu Yao nodded somewhat impatiently, as if she had developed a psychological stress response to these repeated reminders over the past few days.

"Number 303, express delivery!"

While the two were talking, outside the window, in the night, from the building entrance, came the voice of a delivery person. Soon after, Gu Yao returned to the room carrying a cardboard box.

Looking at the shipping address from the office building where Zhong Jing worked, Xia Yan breathed a long sigh of relief, knowing that the new identity matter had finally been settled.

Two sealed personal file folders, one household registration booklet, two ID cards, two bank cards, and two mobile phone SIM cards fell onto the bed. Xia Yan picked up her own ID card.

The photo was one sent that afternoon when they left Zhong Jing's company, and after background retouching, it had become the official photo on the new ID card.

The black-haired girl's portrait showed her in her teenage years, calm and indifferent, unsmiling.

Looking at the information in the household registration booklet, everything had been modified and confirmed based on Zhong Jing's suggestions. The registered address was somewhere in a suburban area of J District, C City, that had long ago converted from agricultural to non-agricultural status, making it difficult to trace.

Everything they received should have been processed through special channels—both false and absolutely authentic. In Xia Yan's view, they probably couldn't even see a corner of the iceberg that was the vampire world.

"Brother, let me see yours... hehe, I seem to be a bit prettier than you!"

Gu Yao was enthusiastically comparing the two ID cards in her hands, actually focusing on which of their portraits was prettier.

Quietly watching her younger brother's relaxed smile, the last trace of unease in Xia Yan's heart also disappeared. It seemed that under several days of psychological expectation management, Gu Yao had accepted the fact of abandoning their old surname.

From today onward, the world had lost Xia Yan and Gu Yao, and gained Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao.

...

While eating dinner, Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao were still discussing going to the underground shop together tomorrow night.

The phone in her pocket rang. Jiang Yan knew it was Zhong Jing calling and quickly jumped off the bed, heading toward the bathroom.

"Hi, you received everything, right? The bank cards were issued with your new identities at an overseas bank. The password is your birthdays, and theoretically, they can be linked to several domestic online payment platforms."

"Oh, and those two phone cards were issued with out-of-town ID cards, mainly for your daily calls. When you apply for real-name phone cards yourselves, it's best to only use them for functions that require real-name registration and use them as little as possible in daily life."

"Yes, thank you. We received them ten minutes ago."

Jiang Yan quickly expressed her gratitude, very satisfied with Zhong Jing's thoughtful attention to detail.

"Don't mention it. Also, there are some small gifts from our company's anniversary customer appreciation event that were also sent out yesterday. You should receive them by tomorrow at the latest. No need to thank me—customer first."

The call ended, leaving Jiang Yan somewhat bewildered.

What the hell—a shell company operating between normal people and vampires actually had anniversary customer appreciation events... The image of Zhong Jing's face appeared in her mind again—pretending to be mature, cynical, yet unfathomably deep. The more Jiang Yan thought about it, the more absurd it seemed.