Blood Queen

September 13th, Friday.

The W District Children's Welfare Institute, which had basically become scorched earth, finally had its blockade lifted on the first day of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday.

Except for warning signs outside the main gate, there were no longer any police isolation measures, and the street in front had resumed normal traffic after several days of blockade. Any passerby couldn't help but turn to look several times at the children's welfare institute ravaged by the great fire.

Jiang Yan stood motionless in front of the welfare institute in a denim dress, looking at the ruins before her with a cold expression.

On the distant sidewalk, a tall young man in a crisp suit walked steadily. Spotting the dazed girl not far away, his steps immediately slowed.

"Comrade Xiao Jiang..." Meng Huai slowly walked behind the girl and called out softly.

"Just call me Jiang Yan. 'Comrade' feels a bit awkward. I'll call you Meng Huai too. How's that?"

Jiang Yan looked back and forced out a faint smile, then turned her gaze back toward the depths of the welfare institute, where the old tree she loved climbing as a child had become a bare, awkward black charred statue.

"Mm... Fortunately the children at the welfare institute weren't harmed this time. I heard the city has already decided to allocate funds to designate new land in the western suburbs of W District to build a new children's welfare institute. All sectors of society are also actively donating."

A rare trace of guilt appeared on Meng Huai's face as he slowly crouched beside the gate pillar of the welfare institute, holding a charred copper plate in his hand.

The related news had already been broadcast. For the first time, the municipal government readily allocated land free of charge. With financial support from municipal and district governments plus social donations, the brand new W District Children's Welfare Institute awaited construction. The project budget reached several hundred million yuan, with more comprehensive software and hardware facilities. It could truly be called a phoenix reborn from ashes.

Only Meng Huai knew that the vast majority of these funds actually came from compensation paid by Shadow Arrow headquarters to C City's local government.

"Mm, that's good. You’re quite well-informed too."

Jiang Yan replied expressionlessly, then leaned against a street tree beside the gate, brushing aside hair blown by the wind with one hand, her voice cold: "It isn’t Sunday today, do you have time to continue telling me stories?"

Meng Huai was slightly stunned, then shook his head after a few seconds, a trace of bitterness at the corner of his mouth: "I can't finish them. There are too many, increasing every day..."

Jiang Yan's body trembled, whether from the loss of the home where she'd lived since childhood, or from her unwillingness that led to Zhao Peng's serious injury, or from witnessing that inhuman bloody night massacre firsthand. Her eyes had already begun to redden slightly.

Yes, several days ago, dozens or even hundreds of Shadow Arrow soldiers had perished in dark and bloody corners. No matter how superiors might fabricate reasons for sacrifice and provide generous compensation, it couldn't restore those young lives who bore humiliation and heavy burdens on the secret front.

And she was the instigator of this tragedy, without any joy from escaping. During those two minutes of massacre, she seemed to have felt a sense of liberation from simply perishing there with everything that was Xia Yan.

Now looking back at that initial stubbornness, Jiang Yan suddenly felt everything was so logically clear that she didn't need Wan Yue to explain. Perhaps this had always been a farewell journey with Xia Yan that she had to face.

Now, those two figures running through gunfire and bullets were firmly bound to an inescapable fact. Now, perhaps all of Shadow Arrow would begin paying attention to a certain mysterious Blood Clan force. Hyacinth would sooner or later stand at the forefront of confrontation with Shadow Arrow.

Every person in Hyacinth trusted Sister Wan so much, even daring to attempt the most dangerous missions... What kind of person was Sister Wan exactly? What motivation or obligation did she have to help me uncover the truth?

If she exposed Hyacinth under Shadow Arrow's nose merely to maintain the concept of a big family, to protect me, or to make me wholeheartedly work for Hyacinth, the risk and cost were far too high. A leader shouldn't act this way under any circumstances.

Unless the value of Jiang Yao and myself was far higher than we ourselves imagined.

And those two Engel Family Barons who sent chills down one's spine just thinking about them—they clearly had obtained all of Shadow Arrow's operational deployments and were closely monitoring every move of Xiao Yao and myself.

Jiang Yan felt her mind was in chaos. The more she thought, the more her head ached, even her breathing became considerably irregular.

Just as a new menstrual cycle was about to arrive, strange bodily symptoms gradually appeared. Combined with the inner turmoil and shock of recent days, Jiang Yan felt she had become overly sentimental.

"Xiao Jiang?"

Seeing Jiang Yan somewhat lost in thought, or perhaps already tired of the sorrowful content he had been telling, Meng Huai felt somewhat complicated, his tone also much lower: "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you these things."

"Oh, I'm fine... Meng Huai, this is the second time I've seen you in civilian clothes. How should I put it—actually, they suit you better than your military uniform."

Jiang Yan shook her head to dispel the distracting thoughts, smiled self-mockingly, then started joking about his clothing to shift her emotions and attention.

"Mm, I'll be retiring soon. Maybe in half a year, maybe in a month. It's hard to say." Meng Huai stood up, tidily adjusting his clothes slightly and showing a faint smile. "So, while on leave, I'm getting used to my new identity in advance."

What?! Commander Meng is retiring?!

Jiang Yan was shocked, then seemed to feel her reaction was excessive and quickly turned her head away.

Just as Meng Huai was about to speak, he suddenly felt severe pain in his right rib area, even radiating to his back like a cramp. His entire body couldn't help but curl up, large drops of cold sweat seeping from his forehead, and his mouth began trembling from pain.

"Meng Huai!"

Jiang Yan noticed something was wrong with him and quickly supported his body while looking around.

"I... I'm fine..."

Meng Huai gritted his teeth and uttered a few words, then his body heavily collapsed to the ground, fainting from pain.

…

…

C City First People's Hospital, Internal Medicine Inpatient Department.

"Hey! You two, comrades, the inpatient department requires registration. You can't just go in randomly!"

A man and woman in military uniforms walked quickly toward a certain hospital room, and a nurse couldn't stop them.

Tao Qiao'er directly took out her officer's ID and showed it, then coldly used her hand to move the nurse aside, pushed open the hospital room door, and entered with the lieutenant beside her.

In front of the hospital bed, several machines beeped with weak signal sounds. Meng Huai on the bed was already in hospital clothes, his lower body covered with a quilt, sleeping deeply.

Beside the bed, a black-haired girl sat upright in a chair, staring blankly at the young man on the bed while occasionally looking down at her phone.

"Hehe, we meet again. Thank you for being beside Brother Meng this time!"

Han Jieli first thanked Jiang Yan. Without waiting for her response, he walked several steps to the bedside, bent down, and carefully observed Meng Huai's complexion.

"You... what's your relationship with Commander Meng?"

Tao Qiao'er stared at Jiang Yan's face with a trace of confusion.

"He fainted at the time. I found a phone on him and randomly called a number." Jiang Yan stood up and answered calmly. "That... you should be the one who answered the call, right?"

"Mm, it was me... By the way, I feel like we've met before? You look familiar."

Tao Qiao'er looked up and down at the black-haired girl before her, comparing various bits of information in her memory. "Oh, I remember. Over two months ago, at a shop near Yushui Street, you and another person..."

"Mm, you tested my sister and me then... I've been volunteering at W District Children's Welfare Institute and happened to meet Mr. Meng several times."

Jiang Yan lowered her head slightly, trying her best to play the role of an innocent girl.

"No wonder. Thank you so much. We'll take over here now."

Tao Qiao'er smiled, then turned to several doctors who had hurried in: "I'm Major Meng Huai's colleague. Following instructions from superior leadership, Commander Meng will be transferred to Army General Hospital for treatment. Please cooperate with the related transfer procedures."

"Oh... alright!"

The doctors looked at each other, then quickly nodded with extremely proper attitudes.

"Wait, that's not necessary..."

Suddenly, Meng Huai on the bed opened his eyes and slowly reached to pull off the quilt covering him.

"Brother Meng."

"Commander Meng!"

Han Jieli and Tao Qiao'er quickly gathered around, the latter directly grabbing Meng Huai's arm.

"Let's hear what the doctor says first."

Meng Huai made a motion to sit up, and a nearby nurse quickly came over to raise the head of the bed.

"Oh, it's like this. According to our preliminary diagnosis, Comrade Meng Huai previously experienced acute liver failure. The examination report indicates it should be caused by accumulated drug toxicity. As for which drug's toxic side effects, further examination is needed..."

A middle-aged doctor, apparently Meng Huai's current attending physician, quickly opened the medical records in his hand.

"Can it be treated?" Meng Huai's expression didn't change.

"Mm... it was discovered fairly timely, considered early stage. Currently, you're out of danger and we can consider conservative treatment first—more rest, enhanced nutrition. After further examination, we'll determine if liver transplantation is necessary."

The attending physician answered truthfully.

"Then it can be treated. No transfer."

Meng Huai looked at his two colleagues beside him, speaking almost word by word with a terrifyingly serious expression.

"Commander Meng!"

"You can go back. I'm currently on leave, so don't disturb me. I can be treated anywhere—it doesn't violate organizational confidentiality principles."

Meng Huai waved his hand, issuing an order to leave. Seeming to remember something, he stared at Han Jieli: "You should watch Han Xiao more and don't let her do anything foolish."

After a moment of shock, Han Jieli and Tao Qiao'er could only retreat with helpless expressions.

"Thank you."

Turning to look at the black-haired girl not far from the bed, the coldness on Meng Huai's face slowly receded, showing a trace of smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Do you need me to notify your family?"

Looking at Tao Qiao'er's final departing figure, Jiang Yan lowered her voice.

Meng Huai didn't answer, only turning his head to stare blankly at the ceiling. After a long while, he uttered one word: "None."

Commander Meng had never mentioned his family before. Was he also like herself...

He must have developed stage two or even stage three pathological changes from long-term injection of anti-blood infection immune medication. Did people who joined Shadow Arrow really mostly end up like this?

Looking at the once mighty, cold-faced Xuan Jia Squad commander now weakened to this extent by a sudden illness, Jiang Yan suddenly felt the world's absurdity extended far beyond just herself.

This feeling had nothing to do with identity—it was pure sadness.

"Then... these few days during Mid-Autumn Festival, I'm free, so I'll keep you company..."

Though waves surged in Jiang Yan's heart, her face showed a relaxed, slightly sweet smile.

Before dinner, Meng Huai's condition relapsed several times, even showing slight jaundice on his skin.

But as the attending physician said, it was in the early stage and could be treated conservatively with medication. The important thing was ensuring good rest and nutrition.

Thinking of the Xuan Jia Squad in combat readiness, forget ensuring good rest—even eating and drinking were the boring base mess hall food, and in extreme situations, even the human-and-dog-despised high-energy ration bars.

Although Shadow Arrow's logistics support was absolutely first-rate in the entire military, no matter what, it couldn't withstand the enormous damage to the body from injection after injection of anti-blood infection immune medication.

Dinner was carefully selected by Jiang Yan, directly made and delivered by an outside restaurant, including Meng Huai's favorite roast duck.

"My sister has strong tastes and especially likes the roast duck from this chain restaurant. The flavor is very authentic."

Jiang Yan still used the same excuse to deflect Meng Huai's confused expression.

Usually, whether in the army or at home, Meng Huai never made eating a focus of life. Not starving to death was the minimum requirement. Only occasionally when dining out with comrades would Meng Huai have even a tiny bit of appetite.

Now he was on leave, or rather, superiors had begun investigating internal intelligence leaks in the Western Surveillance District. Meng Huai was given dual preferential treatment of trust and protection by superiors, placed outside the situation.

When he could return to duty was unknown, but Meng Huai knew this time would definitely not be short. Even when he returned, perhaps he would no longer serve as Xuan Jia Squad commander.

The roast duck before him emitted rich, greasy fragrance. Meng Huai remembered the first time he ate roast duck was on his fourth birthday when his mother took him out to eat, and he even got diarrhea from eating too much the first time.

His mother's image became clear in his mind again. As he ate, a tear actually fell down, landing in his rice bowl.

"Meng Huai..."

Jiang Yan was startled—this was truly the first time she'd seen Meng Huai with such a fragile expression.

However, from making contact with Meng Huai in her new identity until now, countless "first times" had occurred. Meng Huai's impression seemed to show slow but clear deviation from the past.

Meng Huai didn't wipe away the tears. Instead, he smiled and looked up, letting several teardrops slide from the corners of his eyes all the way to his chin.

"Do you think soldiers shouldn't cry?"

"Soldiers are human too... As long as the sad things are worth shedding tears over, it's fine."

Jiang Yan avoided Meng Huai's gaze, feeling she didn't dare face this old comrade who had suddenly become much more strange.

"You're stronger than me, Comrade Xiao Jiang... I can only make myself a bit braver when facing the most vicious enemies."

Meng Huai put down his chopsticks and suddenly said something seemingly random.

"How do you know I'm stronger than you?"

Jiang Yan was somewhat puzzled, thinking this man with extremely low emotional intelligence had some strange reasoning again.

"You're very much like a comrade of mine, the martyred hero I told you about before—Xia Yan."

This time Meng Huai directly grabbed a piece of roast duck with his hand, stuffed it in his mouth, and chewed slowly. "He was my best comrade. I know he had obsessions too, but he had no mental demons. His strength didn't need pretense. I think you're the same."

Perhaps Meng Huai's words touched some point in her heart. Jiang Yan quickly stood up, walked to the window, and turned her back to Meng Huai, not wanting him to see her expression at that moment.

The hospital room fell into strange silence as neither spoke anymore.

A phone ringtone sounded from Jiang Yan's pocket.

"Hello... Ah? Xiao Yao she..."

Jiang Yan's expression changed several times, finally becoming surprised joy.

Jiang Yao had awakened. This advancement dormancy lasted twenty-three days total, far less than a normal Knight. Moreover, according to Xiao Ai's subtle description on the phone, Jiang Yao's current realm had reached Mid-tier Knight—a uniquely terrifying achievement.