Chapter 23 The closed hearth
Stepping on tartar sand.
Before Qinqi Zhe came back, Chinatsu went to find Niwa.
At this moment, he was chatting alone with Escher.
Escher said: "The Tatarsha you lead is like a warm gathering place..."
"Technology, blood, dreams...all the craftsmen involved in this industry seek themselves in knives and steel. So you accepted my and Mr. Akagi's proposal."
"It's an honor to be friends with you."
Niyu crossed his arms and said, "But... Mr. Escher, is this really the case?"
Escher: "Sir, what do you mean by this...?"
"Before today, I didn't want to think so...but, what did the new technology give us?" Niyu thought about the report he received, and felt a chill in his heart. "Strange black smoke, and various backlogged... Question… The rate of physical exhaustion and injuries among workers has increased, and the rate of increase is getting faster and faster… Why?”
Niyu said softly: "But...you must not be afraid of anything, right? Otherwise...why are you like this with a smile on your face?"
"What are you waiting for? Is there anything else you're curious about here, Escher?"
Escher walked over.
He said: "Lord Niwa, I am waiting for a moment..."
The short sword hidden behind him quickly struck the unsuspecting Niwa.
But at this critical moment, he was interrupted by Chinatsu who suddenly arrived.
"Stop—" Chinatsu's voice sounded, attracting Niyu's attention, "What are you going to do?! Escher... No, I'm afraid it's just a fake name."
Niyu suddenly distanced himself from him and confronted the mechanic who had no good intentions towards Tatasha: "Who are you?"
Escher said regretfully: "Miss Chinatsu? What a pity, you came at the wrong time."
He finally revealed his true face hidden behind his hypocritical expression: "If it had been a little later... Niwa-sama would have been severely injured by now."
Niyu: "You want to prevent me from entering the heart of the furnace, why?"
Escher thought for a while: "Compared to you, I think there is a more suitable candidate...that...heartless doll?"
"Speaking of which, Miss Chinatsu is not a human, right?"
"I'm really curious, what species are you?"
"Who are you?!" Qianxia asked sharply.
Escher's face changed in an instant, and he chuckled: "You can call me...the executive officer of the Fools, Doctor."
Fools?
Qianxia only knew from records related to Teyvat that this was the power of the Solstice Kingdom.
——With the strength of Zhidong Kingdom, why did Dao Wife come all the way?
The doctor didn't panic at all. He thought for a moment, looked at Qianxia's red eyes that suddenly turned cold, and said with interest: "Interesting. In the first place, I came here because of the doll made by Thor himself. Who would have thought Woolen cloth?"
"One Tatarsha has two surprises."
"Qianxia, do you know how special you are? You are photophobic but have a long lifeline. You can actually obtain energy by sucking blood!"
"It's amazing."
"Lord Niwa, please leave first." Chinatsu said, "I have something to talk to him about alone."
Niwa glanced at her a little worriedly.
"Don't worry," she said, "I'll be fine."
The doctor did not stop Niwa from leaving. He just looked at Qianxia leisurely and asked: "So, what do you want to say to me?"
"These things about me..." Qianxia raised her head, her transparent red pupils collapsed into a thin line, shining with excitement, "How do you know?"
"I like to do all kinds of experiments." The doctor said, "And doing experiments requires the most observation of things. I'm just a little more keen than ordinary people."
Chinatsu took a deep breath.
Reinforcements have not arrived, and the hearth of the furnace has not been closed. The faces of the dead craftsmen are still vivid in my mind.
"You've killed a lot of people and I'm going to kill you," she said.
The little vampire finally received a rare kindness, and actually decided to show his sincerity.
The doctor said: "You can come and try."
A cold smile appeared on his lips, as if he was looking at a test subject.
"Is there a race like yours in the world? Which country were you born in?"
"What can your blood do? Do you have human genes?"
"How long can you live? Will you die if you don't take in energy?"
The doctor's questions kept coming. Chinatsu picked up the dagger, ducked, and suddenly disappeared.
"Oh?" The doctor became interested, "It's interesting. It's a race that's good at hiding... No wonder I've never seen it before."
The room was quiet.
In the doctor's field of vision, she disappeared completely, except for the dagger on the table.
The windows were barely open, and wisps of breeze flowed in from outside.
"Chong-"
A dagger suddenly appeared from behind the doctor. The doctor couldn't block it, so he let the dagger stab straight into his back. The dagger made a clanging sound as if it had hit equally hard metal.
"You're wasting your efforts, Miss Chinatsu," he said.
"If you follow me back to Winter Solstice and become my test subject, I might let that poor puppet go. Isn't that good?"
Chinatsu said nothing.
She was invisible again.
The Doctor has no idea where she is, but he has no fear that she will kill him.
"You can't kill me, why don't you give up? You know it yourself, just with a dagger..."
"H-really?"
In an instant, warm blood splashed out like a river bursting its banks.
Qianxia was very close to him, looking straight at him with her angry scarlet eyes, and said word by word: "Yes, you lost."
At some point, a cut was made on her palm by a dagger. The blood followed the traces of the dagger and pierced the doctor's hard mask. Although it did not pierce his brain, her blood had left traces.
"Now, I order you." A sharp light flashed in her eyes, with a tough attitude that could not be refused, "Go and close the hearth."
The feeling of using blood to forcibly seize control was not pleasant, especially since her opponent had a strong will and strong mental resistance to vampires.
The first command failed.
Qianxia coughed up two mouthfuls of blood and her face turned paler than before. She strengthened her mental control and ordered again: "Go, close the heart of the furnace!"
When Niwa finally returned with his men, only Chinatsu was left lying on the ground with her life and death unknown and bleeding profusely.
He was shocked and ran over to check, only to find that she was just unconscious.
The doctor was nowhere to be found, but when the sun rose from the ground the next day——
The hearth is closed.
Niyu sent people to search for a long time before finding a mask in the ruins of the furnace.