Blood Queen - Chapter 11

Chapter 11: New Life (Part 1)

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The dilapidated building under demolition couldn’t serve as a long-term shelter. After receiving 100,000 in cash from Zhong Jing, Xia Yan decisively rented a small old apartment in another nearby old neighborhood, a one-bedroom with a living room and bathroom.

The quality of the housing and living environment were nothing to boast about. The only advantage was that after paying extra rent and double deposit, the elderly landlady no longer minded renting to two young girls who couldn’t provide ID cards.

Time flew by, and several days had passed since the May Day holiday. All cities in China transitioned from one type of bustling atmosphere to another.

May 9, Thursday.

In the old riverside neighborhood marked for demolition in J District, C City, construction machinery rumbled and crashed about. Old red brick walls were pushed down, old buildings collapsed as if their spines were pulled out, dump trucks came and went endlessly, and construction isolation walls for subsequent development continued to extend along the streets and demolition planning boundaries.

At the construction site, inside a tall excavator exuding a kind of rugged industrial beauty, a pretty girl in work clothes wearing a safety helmet was operating it with serious concentration.

At the other end of the site, a black-haired girl in a white kitchen uniform was carefully moving a large pot of egg drop soup on a flatbed cart toward the dining area.

As siblings who grew up in an orphanage, Xia Yan successfully enlisted in the military after coming of age, while Gu Yao, who had congenital physical defects, had a much harder time. She tried all kinds of work, gaining rich work experience, especially learning to drive excavators through observation and practice while working at a hydroelectric station project.

Although she didn’t have a license, Gu Yao’s proposed daily wage was incredibly low at just 200 yuan per day. Her test performance was also satisfactory, and her attractive appearance finally convinced the cost-conscious demolition site subcontractor to hire her for short-term work.

Meanwhile, Xia Yan, who had a more elegant appearance and temperament, had no marketable skills as a worker and could only serve as logistics support, preparing meals for the workers. Her daily wage was a mere 40 yuan, barely better than nothing.

The two young girls stood out among the crowd of male migrant workers, adding a different atmosphere to the demolition site.

As the lights came on at dusk, Gu Yao jumped down from the excavator and met up with Xia Yan, who had already cleaned up, marking the end of their workday.

The subcontractor, with his beer belly, walked over smiling, counting out 240 yuan in cash while meaningfully saying to Gu Yao, who was removing her safety helmet and plastic hair cover: “Xiao Yan, Xiao Yao, there’s a beer festival at Huishui Park tonight. Why don’t we go watch the show and have some late-night snacks?”

“No thanks, Mr. Chen, that’s kind of you, but we have some personal matters to handle tonight. Today is also our last day of temporary work, as we agreed before.”

Gu Yao casually stood in front of the silent Xia Yan, showing a cute smile. She had already sensed that Xia Yan’s physical condition was somewhat unusual today.

“Is that so… How about working for a longer period? We can negotiate the wages!”

The subcontractor’s mood soured a bit, disappointed both by their rejection and the loss of incredibly cheap labor.

Gu Yao just shook her head and supported Xia Yan’s arm as they walked out of the construction site.

…

…

After buying some quick meals in the neighborhood, the two walked through the dark, narrow old streets, turned into an even older community, and finally returned to their rundown rented apartment.

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

“I’m fine, it’s just the precursor, not a full blood thirst attack yet.”

Xia Yan smiled and waved her hand dismissively, unconcerned about the faint ache in her limbs.

It had been 6 days since she drank the last bag of blood, and Xia Yan was only now showing the initial symptoms of blood thirst.

Different Thrall-level individuals have varying intervals for blood intake dependence, usually ranging from 3 to 7 days. Higher-level individuals can even go beyond half a month or even a month between feedings. Counting this way, Xia Yan was already at the top tier among those of the same rank.

Reducing the intensity and frequency of boiling blood could effectively extend the interval between blood thirst episodes. Xia Yan had already verified this conclusion through Gu Yao.

That afternoon when they met Huang Gu, Gu Yao’s major outburst meant that blood thirst interval only lasted one day. Over the past week, Gu Yao had only consumed blood once, which was relatively normal.

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

Gu Yao was clearly not as calm as Xia Yan and was ready to resort to their old tactics.

“No need, I can hold on for two more days. According to Huang Gu’s information, the underground shop opens tomorrow night, there’s still time. Also, Xiao Yao, unless absolutely necessary, never do anything that increases your risk of exposure, absolutely never!”

Xia Yan tightly gripped the light-haired girl’s hand, emphasizing every word.

“I know, you’ve said it so many times…”

Gu Yao nodded somewhat impatiently, as if already having a psychological response to these repeated reminders over the past few days.

“Delivery for Room 303!”

As they were talking, a delivery person’s voice came from the hallway outside in the night. Soon after, Gu Yao walked back into the room with a paper box.

Seeing the shipping address was from Zhong Jing’s office building, Xia Yan let out a long breath, knowing that the matter of their new identities was finally settled.

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

The photo was taken the afternoon they left Zhong Jing’s company and had been professionally edited to become the ID photo on her new identity card.

The black-haired girl’s portrait showed her in the flower of youth, calm and composed, with a serious expression.

Looking at the information in the household registration book, everything had been modified and confirmed based on Zhong Jing’s suggestions. The household address was in some suburban area of J District, C City that had long since been converted from agricultural to non-agricultural use, making it difficult to trace.

Everything they received must have been processed through special channels, both false and absolutely real. In Xia Yan’s view, they probably couldn’t even see the tip of the iceberg of the vampire world yet.

“Brother, let me see yours… Hehe, I think I look prettier than you!”

Gu Yao was enthusiastically comparing the two ID cards, somehow focusing on which portrait was more attractive.

Quietly watching her little brother’s relaxed smile, the last bit of anxiety in Xia Yan’s heart disappeared. It seemed that after several days of psychological expectation management, Gu Yao had accepted the fact of abandoning their old surnames.

From today on, this 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, and Jiang Yan knew it was Zhong Jing calling, so she quickly jumped off the bed and walked to the bathroom.

“Hi, did you receive everything? The bank cards were opened at an overseas bank using your new identities, the PIN is your birthday, and theoretically can be linked to several domestic online payment platforms.”

“Also, those two phone cards were registered with out-of-town IDs, mainly for your daily calls. It’s best to use your real-name registered SIM cards only for functions that require real-name registration, and try to use them as little as possible in daily life.

“Yes, thank you, we received them 10 minutes ago.”

Jiang Yan quickly expressed her gratitude, very satisfied with Zhong Jing’s thoughtfulness.

“Don’t mention it. Also, there are some small gifts for our company’s anniversary customer feedback that were sent out yesterday. You should receive them tomorrow at the latest, no need to thank me, customer first.”

After hanging up the phone, Jiang Yan was a bit dumbfounded.

What the hell, a shell company that operates between normal people and vampires actually has anniversary celebrations and customer feedback activities… As the image of Zhong Jing’s face pretending to be mature, cynical, yet unfathomable, appeared in her mind again, Jiang Yan found it increasingly absurd the more she thought about it.