Blood Queen

June 17th, Monday.

The past weekend had been the busiest, and businesses like cold cups shops were indeed very exhausting.

But no amount of generous monetary returns could erase physical fatigue. Having closed shop past three AM, their Monday lie-in continued until noon.

Actually, Jiang Yan had woken up over half an hour ago, but there was still a slender leg pressed against her body, leaving her both amused and reluctant to interrupt someone's sweet dreams.

The 1.8-meter double bed should theoretically be more than adequate for Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao's current petite frames, but the latter's intermittent sprawling sleeping posture always managed to back Jiang Yan into a corner.

The current Jiang Yao, with her disheveled pale golden long hair, still wore a deeply sleepy expression. Her hands hugged Jiang Yan's arm while one leg was draped directly over Jiang Yan's body—she was sleeping soundly indeed.

A message notification came through on her phone. Opening it, she saw that the large freezer ordered two days ago had finally arrived and needed to be received at the Snacks shop.

Business was quite good now, and the demand for purchasing and storing ingredients had increased dramatically. The small freezer they'd inherited from the previous owner was clearly insufficient.

"Xiao Yao, get up. After we eat, we need to go to the shop to meet the delivery crew. I'll go to the seafood market to check things out and replenish some ingredients."

Jiang Yan moved Jiang Yao's leg aside, grabbed her clothes, and headed toward the bathroom. In this hot weather, getting up without a shower would be unbearable.

More than ten minutes later, Jiang Yan returned to the bedroom refreshed, only to find Jiang Yao still sleeping deeply with a slightly flushed face, showing no signs of waking up.

"Xiao Yao?"

Sensing something was wrong, Jiang Yan walked over and touched the other's forehead.

There was no need to take warming medicine at home. Blood Clan members' body temperature was normally lower than ordinary people when not in a blood-boiling state, but Jiang Yan felt that Jiang Yao's surface temperature was now almost the same as a normal person's.

As if thinking of something, Jiang Yan grasped the other's wrist. After just over ten seconds, she slowly released her grip. Jiang Yao's pulse was beating at most twenty times per minute.

"She drank my blood again in the early hours yesterday morning. Xiao Yao is starting to break through too..."

Staring blankly at Jiang Yao on the bed who had entered a dormant state, she realized that the other's poor pheromone control was now even more obvious.

Even without activating the more sensitive blood-boiling state, Jiang Yan could feel waves of continuous, ethereal yet deadly aura emanating from the bedroom.

The dormant Jiang Yao was making a sprint toward the Attendant realm, but her unconscious pheromone release at this moment contained intimidating power almost comparable to that aberrant black Blood Clan knight they'd encountered before!

In more extreme terms, if the current Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao were to fight that aberrant black Blood Clan knight again—not considering that the opponent had been in the weakest late stage of blood thirst at the time—it would be much easier and simpler.

Based on Jiang Yan's personal experience, she and Jiang Yao weren't actually much different from ordinary Blood Clan members when not in blood-boiling state, making them easy for higher-level Blood Clan to underestimate. But once they entered blood-boiling state, their strength would surge dramatically—so much so that when they were still just Blood Servants, they could gang up and kill a knight-level black Blood Clan.

Whether from Jiang Yan's own understanding or Shadow Arrow Force internal data, forget two Blood Servants—even ten Blood Servants were nothing before a Blood Clan knight.

"No matter how lightly they phrase their reasons, Wan Yue and Huang Gu are already paying special attention to Xiao Yao and me... What kind of monsters did that strange giant meat ball turn us into?"

With her mind full of questions, Jiang Yan also made a temporary decision.

...

...

At noon, the blazing sun left the entire old street listless, with few pedestrians about.

The auto repair shop and beauty salon on either side of the Snacks shop were deserted, with several shop owners gathered under the shady sidewalk trees, chatting about this and that.

"Oh, it's little Jiang! Preparing for tonight's opening in this heat—so diligent, no wonder business is good!"

Sister Chen from the neighboring beauty salon was a chatty middle-aged woman dressed fashionably in a semi-transparent gauze dress, the allure underneath tantalizingly visible, drawing sideways glances from several young men at the auto repair shop.

"Mm, there's a crew coming to deliver a freezer. By the way, Sister Chen, Brother Zhou, my sister and I have some business to attend to and can't manage the shop, so we'll be closed for a few days. There are still some ingredients in the shop, but I'm afraid they won't stay fresh even stored in the freezer. If you don't mind, please take them home and help me use them up."

Jiang Yan rolled up the shutter door, greeting several shop owners under the tree shade who had gradually become familiar.

"Ah? You've only been in business for less than a month and you're already closing for several days? Listen, little Jiang, in the restaurant business, especially your kind of night market cold drinks, closing shop casually can easily lose return customers. Once people discover new flavors elsewhere, it's hard to get them back!"

Hearing there were free ingredients to take, Sister Chen was the first to dart into the shop, familiarly rummaging through the freezer while earnestly sharing business experience.

“There’s no helping it. This is the only option." Jiang Yan looked helpless, then carried a bag of refrigerated pig's feet toward the auto repair shop owner. "Brother Zhou, take these—they're good braised, marinated, or stewed."

The portly Old Zhou naturally accepted with both hands, grinning from ear to ear: "Ever since the Jiang sisters opened this Snacks & Cold Drinks shop, our usual customer flow has increased by twenty percent, and business has improved considerably! Two young ladies working hard here isn't easy—if you need help with anything, just say the word!"

Several shop owners who came over after hearing the news, carrying refrigerated ingredients that Jiang Yan successively brought out, all offered compliments.

"Hey hey, like you can. The street office has new public welfare publicity that needs everyone's cooperation."

A middle-aged woman in a spotted shirt approached from the distance, holding a stack of colorful flyers.

Jiang Yan recognized this person—Sister Lu from the Yushui Street Office. She'd consulted with her about some matters before opening the Snacks shop, so they were nodding acquaintances. She was older than Sister Chen and probably just a few years from retirement.

"Sister Lu, what's this? Anti-drug propaganda? Does every shop need to post this at their entrance?"

Sister Chen took Sister Lu's flyer with an unhappy expression. It didn't matter for shops like the auto repair shop and Snacks shop, but for a beauty salon, such flyers would somewhat damage the storefront's decorative effect.

"You don't know?!"

Sister Lu was obviously also a gossip enthusiast, lowering her voice mysteriously: "Something strange happened at Taihe Residential Complex the night before last... The man there, surnamed Wei, suddenly went crazy in the middle of the night and bit people in the hallway! They say it was a drug overdose. Several people from the police station came but couldn't subdue him, then somehow he died suddenly with blood flowing from all seven orifices! So the street office received pointed criticism from the district and wants us to increase anti-drug propaganda!"

Jiang Yan listened quietly, then looked at the colorful flyer in her hand as an image suddenly surfaced in her mind.

"Taking drugs and biting people randomly—how terrifying! What about the rest of his family? Are they okay?" Sister Chen also showed a frightened expression.

"Only his second wife was there at the time. She was reportedly bitten and injured, running downstairs covered in blood to hide. This Old Wei's son and daughter-in-law only come back once every month or two, and they still haven't been contacted."

Sister Lu was indeed the street office's know-it-all, describing the entire incident vividly as if she'd been there in person.

"You're... little Jiang, right? Your shop has more young people coming and going, so you need to pay more attention to publicity. Here, take a few more to post up!"

Without further ado, several more flyers were stuffed into Jiang Yan's hands.

Soon, the crew delivering the large freezer arrived. After a busy period, the outdoor temperature had risen to nearly 40 degrees Celsius, and the shop owners under the green shade had disappeared, each retreating to their own shops to enjoy air conditioning.

Jiang Yan bought paper and pen from a nearby stationery store, wrote a notice about temporary closure for a few days, posted it on the shutter door, then planned to return to the rental apartment—after all, there was still a silly girl sleeping deeply in bed there.

"Sister... Sister Tan?"

Sensing a familiar aura appearing behind her, Jiang Yan started and turned around, only to discover that Sister Tan, unseen for ten days, had appeared before her at some point, carrying a bag of groceries with both meat and vegetables.

Her complexion was slightly pale, her expression weary, and her pheromone control clearly showed signs of disruption—somewhat violent, chaotic, and gloomy, mixed with inexplicable panic and tension.

"Little Jiang, mind if I sit in your shop for a bit..." Sister Tan's expression seemed hollow.

"Oh, of course..." Jiang Yan quickly rolled up the shutter door again.

Sister Tan walked into the shop somewhat absent-mindedly and sat down, even forgetting to put down the groceries in her hand, just staring blankly at the floor.

Sensing the other's aura becoming increasingly intense and chaotic, with fever-like flush appearing even on her pale facial skin, Jiang Yan couldn't help glancing outside several times, then quickly pulled down the shutter door, as if afraid this aura might leak out.

It was basically confirmed—Sister Tan was currently in a typical state of blood thirst!

"Sister Tan... are you feeling unwell?" Jiang Yan thought for a moment and could only speak euphemistically.

"Mm... I'm fine, you go about your business..."

Probably due to some concern, Sister Tan turned and walked outside again, just as mysteriously as she had appeared, mysteriously departing quietly.

Watching that slightly trembling back, Jiang Yan suddenly felt a strong sense of unease rise in her heart.