Blood Queen - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: The Flood of Relatives

***

July 19, Saturday, early morning.

Although it was the weekend, it was Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao’s scheduled workday.

In fact, Jiang Yan had woken up before dawn, and soon after, Jiang Yao walked out of her bedroom with an anxious expression on her face.

There was some soreness in the waist, a certain area of the chest was still faintly aching, and the lower abdomen was slightly swollen, feeling as if a volcano that had been suppressed for a long time was inside the body, on the verge of a major eruption.

The self-comfort and hopeful optimism cultivated over the past few days all vanished in the face of these increasingly obvious warning signs.

Never before had they been so sensitive in body and mind. Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao, already wide awake from nervousness, got up and busied themselves with various meaningless tasks around the house after rising, and unusually had no appetite for breakfast.

Jiang Yan sat on the sofa, pretending to read a foreign novel. But only she knew that she hadn’t absorbed a single word on the pages.

Jiang Yao, with a red face from holding it in, even rearranged the heavy stone table and chairs in the small courtyard, going to all lengths to alleviate and divert the anxiety in her heart and the strange discomfort in her body.

“I called the club and took 2 days off… We… should prepare early, it might be today…”

Jiang Yan walked from the inner room to the small courtyard and said softly to Jiang Yao, who was doing military-style calisthenics.

“What… what preparation…”

Jiang Yao avoided the other’s gaze, still a bit in denial.

“Stop fooling yourself, everyone has felt it. If it doesn’t come, we might really be monsters.”

Jiang Yan held a cup in one hand, and with the other, she opened her palm to reveal a black pill, holding it out to Jiang Yao: “Here, the medicine Sister Wan gave us, take it right away!”

“It would be good if we really turned into monsters…”

Glancing at Jiang Yan’s indifferent expression, Jiang Yao reluctantly threw the pill into her mouth and swallowed, while muttering.

“Let’s go, while it’s still early, to buy things, or we won’t have time. Hurry and change your clothes!”

Jiang Yan took down the clothes that had been hung out to dry in the courtyard last night, her expression becoming increasingly serious.

“Buy… buy what?” Jiang Yao was stunned.

“What do you buy when a woman’s period comes? Don’t you read all sorts of nonsense online?”

Jiang Yan held back her anger, almost wanting to kick the other.

“Then… can’t you just go buy it yourself? I still need to wash clothes…”

Jiang Yao’s face changed rapidly, her ears turning red, her gaze avoiding.

“Hehe.”

Jiang Yan smiled without speaking.

An hour later, the two returned home carrying a large bag of daily necessities.

“You said we’d buy together… but in the end, you made me go in alone! Sister, that’s what you call being scheming!”

Arranging the items on the table, Jiang Yao’s face showed strong dissatisfaction, recalling the embarrassing scenes from start to finish in the supermarket just half an hour ago.

…

…

Between 17:00 and 19:00 in the afternoon, as if a death knell had sounded, Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao finally collapsed one after another in the feeling of their bodies breaking down like a dam.

The two, who usually had good appetites, didn’t even eat dinner this time, each retreating to their own bedrooms, closing the doors tightly, refusing all communication and interaction between them.

In the hot weather, even without the air conditioning on, Jiang Yan felt her hands and feet were ice-cold. The pain from her abdomen, though not excruciating, was the most indescribable torture she had experienced in her life, rising and falling relentlessly like riding a roller coaster.

At the worst moments, Jiang Yan almost wanted to pull out her gun and put one in her head to end it all.

Several hours later, Jiang Yan slowly adapted to this physical ordeal and, covered in cold sweat, persevered to get out of bed, intending to go to the living room to get water and take another black pill from Sister Wan.

Walking to the living room and picking up the water cup, she found Jiang Yao’s door tightly closed, silent.

A heavy atmosphere with a hint of absurdity permeated the house, causing Jiang Yan to sigh.

She wondered how Xiao Yao was doing. She had always been poor at dealing with illnesses since childhood, getting sickly over the slightest ailment. Encountering something like this, she probably found it even harder to endure… With concern for a certain someone, dragging her “severely injured” body, Jiang Yan pushed open the door of the second bedroom.

The moment the door opened, it was as if entering a new world.

The room light was bright, and a girl with pale golden long hair, wearing a nightgown, was crouching on the chair in front of the desk, computer on, headphones on, muttering a string of gaming terms into the microphone, already in a killing frenzy!

Beside the computer desk, chips, cookies, and cola were piled into small mountains. Even with both hands occupied with the game, a half-eaten popsicle was placed directly on the corner of the desk, its melted ice water flowing onto the floor.

Surprise, anger, envy, helplessness, grievance… countless thoughts surged into Jiang Yan’s head at this moment.

Feeling as if smoke was about to burst from the top of her head, Jiang Yan, with an ashen face, slowly walked to Jiang Yao’s side and reached out to heavily pat the head wearing headphones.

“Yes, yes! Mid lane, mid lane! Use your ultimate… Eh!? Sister, what’s wrong?”

Rubbing her head in pain, Jiang Yao turned her face dumbfoundedly, her small face full of surprise.

What’s wrong with me, she’s clearly fine, not feeling unwell, isn’t that good, why am I angry… Jiang Yan’s mouth twitched, not knowing what to say.

“Hehe, having fun, aren’t you… I really want to beat you… Ouch, oh no, I can’t!”

Just as she was about to say something sarcastic, she felt a surge from below, and a streak of wetness at the root of her thighs.

Damn it, it’s leaking!

Rushing straight back to the bedroom, grabbing a pack of sanitary products, Jiang Yan then darted into the bathroom.

…

Apart from the initial strong unease and nervousness, as well as the psychological discomfort she couldn’t get over, Jiang Yao finally found that her first menstrual period in life wasn’t as scary as she had imagined. On the contrary, it was Jiang Yan, who had been pretending to face it calmly, who had directly collapsed.

However, this was also relative. Compared to Jiang Yan’s more traditional menstrual discomfort, Jiang Yao had been experiencing bone pain throughout her body since several hours ago. The pain seemed to come from the bone marrow itself, and cold sweat had broken out on her back several times.

Moreover, even after taking Sister Wan’s medicine, the blood thirst intervals after entering the menstrual period still showed significant changes. Just a few hours ago, Jiang Yao had already vaguely felt that familiar premonition.

She had always been in poor health since childhood. Before leaving the orphanage, whenever she had any major or minor illness, apart from Grandma Director, it was Jiang Yan who ran around busy taking care of her.

After experiencing that terrifying night, Jiang Yan had taken on everything even more. Sometimes when she saw the other standing alone, staring blankly at the sky, Jiang Yao felt extremely uncomfortable.

To prevent Jiang Yan from worrying about her, and knowing that the other would inevitably come to check on her condition in the middle of the night, Jiang Yao deliberately staged the scene from earlier.

However, she might have overacted a bit. When Jiang Yan saw her playing games with cola and chips in her room, her mentality probably broke.

Cleaning up the snacks on the computer desk, looking at the time, it was already past midnight. Jiang Yao suddenly remembered that Jiang Yan had barely eaten anything today.

Regarding their appetite after becoming vampires, it had genuinely skyrocketed. Let alone herself now being so hungry that her stomach was touching her back, Jiang Yan, in that state, definitely needed to replenish nutrients even more.

After tidying up her own bedroom, Jiang Yao walked into Jiang Yan’s room. Seeing the pale-faced girl leaning against the headboard, Jiang Yao felt a pang of sadness, but on the surface, she still put on a playful smile.

“Sister, are you feeling better?” Jiang Yao carefully said as she handed over the hot water she was carrying to the expressionless Jiang Yan, “You didn’t eat dinner, should I go make something?”

“You can cook… hehe.”

Jiang Yan gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes, turned her head to look at Jiang Yao’s smiling big eyes, and her expression also relaxed a bit, probably thinking that at least tonight, the two of them didn’t have to suffer so much.

“I’ll go check the kitchen!”

Jiang Yao didn’t care how the other mocked her, she turned around and was about to leave.

“Come back, these days, lunch and dinner were all eaten at the club, there’s not much food at home for you to waste, I’ll go instead…”

Jiang Yan shook her head, looking serious, and was about to get out of bed.

Ah, Brother has always been like this. Once earning a high salary from the Dark Arrow Unit, she rarely spent it on herself, living frugally, and constantly sending money to Grandma Director and me every year… Jiang Yao’s nose somehow felt a bit sour.

“No! I can do it!”

Jiang Yao quickly pressed down on Jiang Yan’s body. Today, no matter what, she couldn’t let the other worry about her again.

Regardless of how much the other distrusted her culinary skills, Jiang Yao directly poured a pot of water, planning to cook a hearty meal of noodles.

After many attempts, the gas stove still wouldn’t light… It was working fine at noon, when did the gas get cut off? Jiang Yao was dumbfounded.

“Gas cut off?”

Jiang Yan struggled to the kitchen door, also somewhat amused and exasperated.

“Don’t get up, I remember there’s a Lanzhou noodle shop at the entrance of the alley, they’re open very late. I’ll go buy a few portions! It’ll take at most half an hour round trip, faster than delivery and cheaper!”

Without giving room for argument, Jiang Yao directly pulled Jiang Yan back to the bedroom bed, and even pulled up the air conditioner blanket to cover the other’s weak body.

“Then… be careful, take the dagger with you.”

After hesitating for a few seconds, Jiang Yan could only nod.

Jiang Yao walked back to the living room, glanced at the medical constant temperature refrigerator in the corner, hesitated for a while, but still went over to open it.

In the refrigerator, apart from the blood bags for Jiang Yan to drink, there were several small packages of special blood. That was the blood Jiang Yan had been trying to save in advance for Jiang Yao, all drawn from Jiang Yan herself.

Brother knows that my blood thirst intervals are shorter, and has been quietly preparing everything for me… Jiang Yao quietly wiped the corner of her eye, took out a bag, and drank it down.

The blood carried the sweet fragrance unique to rare blood types. Jiang Yao squinted her eyes, feeling the gentle smoothness of the blood from her mouth to her stomach. It seemed that the discomfort in her body and the bone pain also began to dissipate, and her whole body felt warm.

Changing into a T-shirt and jeans, putting on a pair of sneakers, Jiang Yao walked out of the courtyard gate.

…

…

Under the night sky, on the dazzling urban jigsaw puzzle, there was an inconspicuous place, an independent quiet little world, completely detached from the surrounding brilliant lights.

This old street district, since becoming C City’s traditional folk culture preservation area, had been managed with increasing flavor. But after prohibiting motor vehicles from entering a few years ago, life here gradually became inconvenient and more and more enclosed.

The former old residents, if not purchasing new commercial housing elsewhere, had moved away following their grown children. Along both sides of the alley stretching several hundred meters deep, the number of households still with people decreased every year, and most were elderly people who were really attached to the old place and couldn’t bear to leave.

Hours ago, the small alley had already quieted down with no sign of people. The sparse small lights in the dark alley dotted with sparse small light clusters, like a broken pearl necklace.

Several dark figures appeared from both ends of the small alley and walked towards each other, finally gathering outside the gate of a certain small courtyard. After about ten seconds, the dark figures dispersed and hid in the darkness.

A bright light from a phone’s flashlight mode appeared at the end of the small alley, accompanied by light footsteps. A girl with pale golden long hair, carrying a large thick paper takeout box, slowly walked into the depths of the small alley.

Whether due to her menstrual period or not, Jiang Yao felt that her body’s sensitivity was much higher than usual. Several unfamiliar, murderous auras quietly emerged from the dark depths of the small alley.

Jiang Yao’s face changed slightly, her footsteps paused, and she quickly retreated to a shadowy position against the wall, put down the food box, and slowly took out the dagger from her waist pack.

“Hehe, quite cautious, aren’t you… Little girl, what are you doing out alone in the middle of the night?”

A thin man wearing a strange black robe with a cape slowly walked out from a dark corner not far away. This mysterious getup reminded Jiang Yao of some ridiculous styles seen online.

“Who are you?”

Jiang Yao lowered her voice, slowly lowering her center of gravity, ready to activate Boiling Blood at any moment. The taboo of female vampires using Boiling Blood during their menstrual period was a stern warning she had received from her female colleagues at the club, but now there was no choice.

“Tsk tsk, such a fragrant scent, is it your period? Today’s luck is really good… We, ah, we are all your relatives!”

The thin man in black robes smiled wickedly, walking closer and closer. The surging waves of aura after activating Boiling Blood continuously impacted the narrow alley, making Jiang Yao feel a strong threat and hostility.

“You are Black Blood Clan!?”

It’s a Black Blood Clan knight about the same level as Brother Zhao!

No, not just one!

Jiang Yao suddenly turned her head, her pupils contracting strongly.

In that dim focused vision, a strong figure had already leapt into the air.