Blood Queen - Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Details

***

May 10, Friday.

The night passed without incident. Early in the morning, the young woman busied herself quietly inside and outside the rental apartment, making breakfast, hanging clothes to dry, cleaning, and tidying up the room. Both were awkwardly busy, seemingly avoiding the contentious topic from dawn.

“Room 303, delivery, there are quite a few boxes, come down to get them yourself!”

Downstairs, a small delivery tricycle slowly came to a stop, followed by the courier’s loud call.

Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao exchanged glances before hurrying downstairs. Several boxes of various sizes took two trips to move into the rental apartment.

“Hmm? Computer? Small medical constant temperature blood refrigerator? And phones? This anniversary user feedback activity seems a bit too luxurious…”

As the boxes were opened, large and small items with refined contours appeared before them, all necessities for future life. But for Jiang Yan, the young man called Zhong Jing became increasingly unfathomable.

Perhaps all of these were included in that fee? Jiang Yan could only find such a reason to explain.

“Clear the bedroom desk, I’ll set up the computer. You put the constant temperature refrigerator in the living room and plug it in. Oh, and this afternoon we’ll go to the telecom store to buy SIM cards. Tonight we’ll go together to find that underground shop.”

Jiang Yan didn’t stop working, arranging things in an orderly manner, and Jiang Yao quietly agreed.

As modern life necessities were put in place one by one, seeing the room inside and out settled anew, the two exchanged smiles, reconciled as before.

Soon, they were sitting side by side at the computer, connected to broadband internet.

Jiang Yan was in charge of operation, while Jiang Yao held both their ID cards, reading out the identity information.

As the email registration process progressed step by step, when a routine greeting system email appeared, both clenched their fists in excitement.

The new identities were indeed legal and usable!

Following this, a series of account registrations unfolded one by one. Jiang Yao was even fantasizing about the feeling of freedom of roaming the internet freely once she could use a phone again.

After registration, Jiang Yan immediately sent a confirmation email to Zhong Jing using the new email address.

Within 5 minutes, a reply arrived, containing only a sly smiley face emoticon, but with a sizeable attachment, a video file.

Downloading the attachment with confusion and opening the video, both were slightly startled.

The video showed Jiang Yan’s first entry into Zhong Jing’s company. Though without sound, the young woman’s every move was clearly visible, edited together from different angles and time segments.

“What does he mean? Secretly filming my brother’s video?”

Jiang Yao was completely puzzled, while Jiang Yan slightly furrowed her brow.

It seemed the other party wasn’t joking at the time, every move had been recorded from the moment she entered that room.

However, why would he send it to me? To show off? A warning? Or hinting at something?

It wasn’t until watching the video twice that Jiang Yan had a sudden realization and stood up, pacing in the bedroom, while Jiang Yao still wore an expression of complete bewilderment.

In the video, the black-haired young woman’s movements were steady, her walking and sitting were methodical, emanating a sense of incongruity with her tall, youthful figure and giving off a stereotypical impression.

Although female skeletal anatomical characteristics naturally determine some physical movement characteristics that visually differ from males, in the footage, many of Jiang Yan’s gestures clearly didn’t match the identity definition of a youthful girl.

The other party was clearly hinting that she was different from ordinary women! And it was visibly apparent in her gestures and demeanor.

A few minutes later, Jiang Yan stopped pondering and, with a serious expression, pulled Jiang Yao to sit on the bed.

“Xiao Yao, these days, have you gotten used to it?”

Jiang Yan’s serious expression and calm tone gradually made the room’s atmosphere turn strange.

“It’s… it’s okay…” Jiang Yao moved her lips several times, her eyes a bit uncomfortable.

Probably since the night they sneaked into that small Western-style house in D City’s countryside, the two had entered a state of deliberate avoidance.

Apart from the blood thirst problem hanging over their heads like the Sword of Damocles, neither had directly commented on the changes to their bodies. As for what explorations they might have done during bathing, it remained an unspoken mutual understanding.

Even their clothes were taken from the small Western-style house, and aside from frequent washing, they hadn’t changed them.

“Brother, actually… how should I put it, no one will laugh at my mouth and hands anymore.”

After a few seconds of silence, Jiang Yao turned to look at the full-length mirror on one side of the bedroom, extending her left palm and forcing a smile.

The delicate fair face, rosy lips, the once incongruous cleft lip surgery scars that others had noticed were gone, and the hand that had undergone finger adhesion separation surgery had become delicate and flawless jade fingers.

Following Jiang Yao’s line of sight, Jiang Yan also began to notice details about them both: her own light blue T-shirt, though clean, was wrinkled; Jiang Yao’s once smooth and eye-catching light golden hair was now somewhat messily scattered at the back of her head, the strands no longer silky.

A few seconds later, Jiang Yan, with a hint of determination, suddenly patted the other’s back: “Come on, let’s go buy clothes!”

“Huh? Early in the morning, buying clothes? I still wanted to play some computer games…”

“Stop talking nonsense, hurry up!”

“We can shop online!”

“There’s not a penny in the bank card, how can you shop online?”

“…”

…

…

On the street near the residential area, it was busy and noisy, with breakfast vendors, vegetable sellers, fruit sellers arranged haphazardly, and elderly people coming and going.

Unlike the elegant prosperity of the CBD in the city’s prime location, there were no fashionable men and women strolling here, no leisurely urban white-collar workers; this place was more filled with down-to-earth life’s smoky atmosphere.

Perhaps because it was a workday, or more likely because online shopping had changed the scene consumption habits of most young people, the increasingly declining offline physical stores were finding it harder to do business.

Except for fruit shops, pastry shops, noodle restaurants and the like that still had some popularity, clothing stores and shoe stores were deserted, barely surviving, with clearance sale signs visible everywhere.

Shirt dresses, pleated skirts, one-piece dresses, umbrella skirts, A-line skirts, spaghetti strap dresses, denim skirts…

Chiffon, printed, floral, polka dot, slit, half-length…

European style, Korean style, Chinese style, modern, classical, casual, professional…

The above were just skirts, and had already dazzled Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao, and tired them out from trying them on. However, more than half were denim types that both liked, durable and easy to wash.

These were all unknown common brands, primarily cheap and plentiful. Shopping bags of various colors and sizes occupied every finger of the two women. As for the quality, who knew.

Gradually, the shopping bags in Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao’s hands approached full capacity. Clothes, dresses, shoes, socks… all in all, even though the prices were affordable or on clearance sale, they still spent several thousand yuan.

Through the overly enthusiastic reception and interaction with shop owners, the two finally confirmed their series of body measurements.

For example: Jiang Yan, height 171 centimeters, weight 53 kilograms, tall and elegant; Jiang Yao, height 166 centimeters, weight 49 kilograms, petite and beautiful.

Leaving another clearance sale shoe store, the shop owner behind them smiled particularly brightly. Jiang Yan walked in front, expression unchanged, while Jiang Yao followed behind, already looking a bit pale.

“Brother… let’s go to that noodle restaurant, we haven’t had lunch yet… my feet are about to break.”

Jiang Yao rubbed her stomach, showing a uncomfortable expression.

Another beautifully decorated store appeared ahead, Jiang Yan hesitated, and after an internal struggle, still walked past with her head down.

“Brother, what else do we need to buy? Isn’t this enough!”

Jiang Yao endured her increasingly difficult to suppress impatience, her tone a bit sharp.

“Underwear!”

Jiang Yan’s expression remained unchanged as she entered the door first.

Taking out her recently activated phone to check the time, noon had long passed, and Jiang Yao felt a surge of weakness throughout her body.

…

6 PM, in the rental apartment.

In the living room, on the sofa, Jiang Yan bit into a piece of bread while flipping through various news trending topics on her phone and watching Jiang Yao walk out of the bedroom in a shirt dress.

“We tried everything on in the store, why do I need to try again… wait, why is this a bit too big?”

Jiang Yao frowned, pulling at certain details of the dress, muttering.

“Mm, that light blue one is mine.” Jiang Yan chewed her bread, expression calm, “Go try on the floral dress in the white shopping bag too, that’s also mine.”

“Oh… Ah!? Brother, so for the past hour, I’ve been trying on clothes for you?”

Jiang Yao finally realized, almost crying.

Jiang Yan slightly lowered her head, rubbing her nose to hide the embarrassment on her face: “Well, take them all out, cut off the tags, wash them and wear them tomorrow. Oh, and pay attention to separating the colors, otherwise they’ll bleed.”

Countless shopping bags were thrown in the corner, cut tags scattered on the ground, and a small mountain of colorful clothes piled up on the sofa.

Picking up a cute style bra, Jiang Yan’s face imperceptibly reddened slightly.

As if remembering a few hours ago, she had specifically asked the middle-aged store sister to demonstrate for her, using the excuse of an injured hand and shoulder being inconvenient.

Through observation and experience, Jiang Yan finally understood why since the day she took someone else’s underwear from the small Western-style house, she had been uncomfortable around her chest, ribs, and back – it turned out the fit wasn’t right, even the size and cup type were off.

“Hey, Brother, look at this one of mine… am I really bigger than you?”

Jiang Yao grabbed a bra with more lace than fabric and came closer, deliberately bumping Jiang Yan’s shoulder, with a mysterious expression: “That female store manager said I’m a C, Sister you’re only a B?”

“What, feeling like you’ve finally surpassed me in something? Are you a pervert?”

Jiang Yan put down the bra in her hand with an annoyed tone and picked up a cute, delicate pair of panties to remove the packaging.

“Brother, don’t you think, with so little material, yet still two or three hundred yuan a set? More expensive than outer clothes combined! And all these fancy lace decorations, worn underneath where no one can see, is it necessary?”

Jiang Yao held up the bra in front of her eyes, turning it over and over, even touching and squeezing it.

“That’s because… because…”

Jiang Yan turned to look at Gu Yao, whose behavior was becoming increasingly perverted, and couldn’t “because” out a sentence for a long time.

After more than 10 seconds, the living room was filled with the unrestrained laughter of two young women, and the atmosphere in the dilapidated rental apartment warmed considerably.