Blood Queen - Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Maintaining Distance

***

A day later, Zhong Hai, who had returned from Japan, welcomed another rare family reunion.

The eldest son, Meng Huai, was still in his military uniform, with the same cold and silent expression, only staring at the food in front of him, chewing slowly.

The second son, Zhong Jing, was also in a bad mood today, or rather, he was quite distracted.

“Tomorrow is your grandfather’s death anniversary. The family grave is in the countryside, and the whole family will go to pay respects.”

No matter how much he usually let his two sons do as they pleased, when it came to crucial family matters, Zhong Hai could still be firm, making arrangements that were almost indisputable.

Meng Huai put down his chopsticks, looked up for a moment, then silently resumed eating. Not objecting meant he agreed.

“Sigh! Son, your father is talking to you!”

Seeing her son still lost in thought, the mother hurried over to pat his shoulder lightly, and also touched his forehead: “You’re not sick, are you? Jing’er, what’s wrong with you today?”

“Ah? Okay!”

Zhong Jing finally came to his senses, looking blankly at his family around the dining table. It took several seconds before he understood the situation and nodded embarrassedly.

The TV embedded in the dining room wall was playing local news from C City. A report about a police commendation ceremony for cracking down on drug trafficking gangs was being broadcast. The incident that happened in Yushui Street half a month ago had already spread throughout the city.

“Sigh, it’s been spreading among my old friends for days. These days, some young people are just restless. Why can’t they do something good instead of seeking thrills through drug use and trafficking? It harms others and themselves,” hearing a series of news report data, the wealthy lady patted her chest, with a look of regret. “I heard there was even a woman who, when her drug craving hit, bit her husband to death. It’s truly a sin!”

“By the way, son, don’t you ever touch those things!”

Suddenly remembering something, the wealthy lady hurriedly spoke urgently to her own son, afraid that her precious child might also dabble in these things.

“If he dares to touch them, I’ll be the first to break his dog legs!”

At this moment, Meng Huai suddenly raised his head, staring at his half-brother, unusually stepping out to educate him. His cold gaze made Zhong Jing’s back chill.

“Hmph, he’d better watch his own hands and feet more carefully. I heard when I came back today… From now on, don’t go around bothering female employees of the group… That Assistant Tian, I’m planning to transfer her to the logistics department at the production base.”

Zhong Hai had finished eating and was now holding up a newspaper. While flipping through it, he reminded his second son: “You’re grown up now. If you really think you’ve found someone suitable, then date properly.”

Zhong Jing’s face turned slightly red, not daring to retort, and quickly lowered his head, pretending to drink soup.

Meng Huai, with a trace of disgust on his face, put down his bowl and chopsticks and left the dining room without saying goodbye.

“Hehe, my son is so outstanding, of course he attracts people! But Jing’er, mom has to say seriously, it’s okay to play around a bit and have some connections, but never bring that kind of woman home! Understand?”

“Oh…”

Zhong Jing had a sour face, not knowing how to respond to his parents’ bombardment.

“By the way, I heard from the people at the administrative center that you came to the group headquarters yesterday looking for me, wanting to check some information? Is it for your law firm business?” Zhong Hai put down the newspaper, took off his glasses, looking somewhat pleased, “Tell me about it, maybe I can give you some advice.”

There’s hope! Zhong Jing quickly threw down his napkin and earnestly told the entire fabricated story, adding embellishments here and there.

“Collaboration with a small agricultural company… With a budget of a few million, what can be done.”

Zhong Hai frowned, repeatedly searching in his mind for small ventures from the early development period, showing a difficult expression: “In the early years, the group also did some collaborative research and development on animal pharmaceutical preparations and the like, but these all have very long cycles and cost a lot. Some cooperative projects were about to yield results, but then were abandoned halfway due to funding issues.”

“Is it possible to introduce those early suspended projects to my client, and then continue working on them? It could be like a dead tree coming back to life,” Zhong Jing stroked his chin thoughtfully.

“At that time, the group’s structure was just being built, and information management was relatively backward. A lot of data was still on paper. Later, I’ll give the information center a call, and they’ll cooperate with whatever you need.”

Although a business of a few million was negligible for the current group, Zhong Hai was still prepared to help his son: “If you can revive some projects, no matter big or small, I’ll count it as you making something of yourself!”

Zhong Jing rejoiced inwardly, the hanging stone finally landed, but another inexplicable worry quietly arose.

He raised his red wine glass, nodded slightly to his father Zhong Hai, then drank it all in one gulp. This scene of father and son conquering the business world together made the wealthy lady, who couldn’t join in the conversation, smile with joy.

……

The workload of fully managing the new house was much more than initially anticipated, lasting a full 3 days.

Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao jumped up and down, and it wasn’t until they had thoroughly cleaned the new home with a courtyard and 3 bedrooms and a living room, properly placed all the packed and moved items big and small, and went out to purchase many household items, that they finally finished on Tuesday night.

For some reason, during dinner, Jiang Yan felt an indescribable strangeness in her body. It didn’t seem like blood thirst, nor did it seem like she was stimulated by other vampire auras. In short, she couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was uncomfortable.

Coincidentally, Jiang Yao was also a bit absent-minded. When the two compared their feelings, they were surprisingly similar.

What was more unsolvable was that no matter how they tried to suppress the release of their own pheromones, there was a feeling of leaking everywhere.

Although the intensity of the released fluctuations was within the safe range, it was very uncomfortable. What kind of weird reaction was this?

“Sister, do you think it might be because of this old house? I heard that this was originally Sister Xiao Min’s ancestral home, and the old lady passed away just recently. According to what’s said online, could it be that the soul of the deceased old lady is not at peace…”

Jiang Yao, who had just finished her shower, walked into the master bedroom holding a dry towel and wiping her beautiful light golden long hair, with a mysterious expression.

“Nonsense, what on earth have you been watching online all day…”

Jiang Yan grabbed her bath towel and nightgown, walking towards the living room, while pointing towards the small courtyard: “Remember to bring in the clothes we hung out to dry today before bed, fold them and put them in your own wardrobe. It hasn’t been long, and your housekeeping is already a mess.”

If it weren’t for the blood type issue, Xiao Yao might not have been suitable to be a soldier at all. Since childhood, she had been forgetful, lacking perseverance in doing things, resistant to strangers, and overly dependent on familiar people… In the bathroom, Jiang Yan, who had just taken off her clothes, immediately noticed Jiang Yao’s underwear hanging on the rack, feeling both helpless and embarrassed, once again giving Jiang Yao’s living habits a poor evaluation.

Jiang Yan had long been accustomed to cold showers. Without the stuffy water vapor in the bathroom, even the full-length mirror on one side was very clear, reflecting a soft and graceful youthful girl’s body.

This was probably the first time she had taken a bath in a bathroom with a mirror, and also the first time she had fully seen her body from a third-person perspective.

She seemed to casually glance a few times and then quickly looked away, but then slowly became unable to take her eyes off.

Jiang Yan stretched out her hand, and the black-haired girl in the mirror also stretched out her hand, unequivocally proving the reality of the girl in front of the mirror.

Both Sister Wan and that Sister Xiao Min had seen through her at first glance. Was a woman’s intuition really that terrifying?

Thinking back to her first meeting with Sister Xiao Min a few days ago, those deep and clear eyes seemed to see through her instantly.

She thought that over the past two months, her behavior had no obvious visual differences from those women on TV and internet videos, but why did those two women still see through her flaws?

The more Jiang Yan thought about it, the more incredible it seemed. In a daze, several minutes passed before she realized she hadn’t even washed her hair!

……

Wiping her hair, Jiang Yan walked back to the master bedroom to find Jiang Yao holding her phone, leaning against the headboard, playing enthusiastically.

“Xiao Yao, your bedroom is over there. Now we have two bedrooms, we don’t need to sleep in the same bed.”

Jiang Yan walked to the bedside and patted Jiang Yao’s shoulder, her expression serious: “In the bathroom, I washed your underwear for you. If there’s a next time, I’ll throw it outside!”

“Huh? Separate beds?” Jiang Yao was stunned, slowly sitting up straight. It seemed that sleeping in the same bed for over two months had already become a habit. “Actually, it doesn’t matter, right? When we were in school, we even slept together.”

“That was because the conditions in the orphanage were poor, only a few older sisters had single beds… Why are we talking about this! Get up quickly, go to your room, don’t dawdle!”

Jiang Yan felt she was almost led astray by the other, immediately putting on a cold face and directly pulling Jiang Yao off the bed.

“You’re the brother, you’re older, if you say separate, then separate!”

Jiang Yao pouted, slapping her slippers, left the master bedroom. Soon, the sound of the second bedroom door closing was heard.

Sigh, this Xiao Yao… Lying on the large bed, Jiang Yan spread her arms, and suddenly felt a bit unaccustomed. That girl’s body, which not only sprawled out in the middle of the night but also randomly shifted position, was gone.

She picked up her phone, intending to search online for information about her workplace tomorrow, to see if there was any public information she could learn in advance.

Not knowing how much time had passed, a figure appeared in the corner of her eye. Jiang Yan looked up to find Jiang Yao hugging her own comforter, standing by the bedside again.

“What are you doing? Do you still need me to coax you?”

Jiang Yan put down her phone impatiently, crossed her arms over her chest, looking at Jiang Yao, not knowing what tricks she was up to this time.

“Well… sister… I want to drink blood…”

Jiang Yao grinned mischievously, even pretending to be coy, her cheeks even slightly red.

“Blood thirsty, want to drink blood? With that coy look of yours, I thought you wanted to drink milk!”

Jiang Yan helplessly sat up, reaching into the bedside drawer to look for a small knife and a cup.

This cold joke directly stumped Jiang Yao, and after more than 10 minutes, she sheepishly returned to her own room.