Blood Queen - Chapter 33

Chapter 33: Leaving This World

***

July 21, Sunday morning.

The summer morning was not gentle at all. Just after 7 AM, the scorching sun had already started baking the flowers and plants in the small courtyard, showing off its vigor.

Jiang Yan woke up from her hazy state, with her last memory still lingering on the few minutes after Jiang Yao went out in the middle of the night.

The air conditioner had been turned on at some unknown time, making the indoor temperature very comfortable, light and cool. The physical discomfort that had surged yesterday had now faded to a negligible level. Jiang Yan felt like a cultivator who had escaped a life-and-death ordeal, gaining a rare moment of respite.

The bedroom door was pushed open, and the familiar Zhou Ping entered with two other female club colleagues who looked familiar but hadn’t yet interacted with.

“When did you… did Xiao Yao call you here? Where is she?”

Jiang Yan was somewhat confused, turning her head to look behind the three at the door, but didn’t see Jiang Yao’s figure, even her familiar presence had disappeared.

“Xiao Yan, Xiao Yao’s condition isn’t good… I’m sorry, we were careless at dawn and let the Black Blood Clan sneak in…”

Zhou Ping’s expression was somewhat strange, her eyes slightly red as if she had been crying, her head lowered and voice very soft.

Black Blood Clan!? Jiang Yan’s whole body jolted, probably guessing something, and immediately got out of bed and ran towards Jiang Yao’s room.

In the second bedroom, Zhao Peng was sitting in a chair at the foot of the bed reading a book found in Jiang Yan’s home.

On the bed, Jiang Yao had multiple parts of her body wrapped in gauze bandages, both arms in splints and casts, her eyes tightly closed, expressionless, breathing softly.

Below her collarbone, an IV line was connected, with several bags of blood or serum-like liquid hanging on the IV stand.

“Xiao Yao!”

Jiang Yan’s heart pounded heavily. She took three steps in two and directly bypassed Zhao Peng to crouch at the bedhead, while holding Jiang Yao’s hand and suspiciously looking at the blood bags on the IV stand.

In her knowledge, Jiang Yao could not receive any blood other than her own.

“The dangerous period has passed. With her physical constitution, the recovery of bone and flesh injuries won’t be too slow… Don’t worry, these are just blood substitutes that look like blood, used to maintain blood pressure, compensate for body fluids, and provide nutrition.”

“Although we vampires have blood production abilities several times that of ordinary people, when losing too much blood, we still need to employ some measures.”

Zhao Peng showed a trace of apology, walked to Jiang Yan’s side, and lightly patted her shoulder: “In the middle of the night, several Black Blood Clan knights attacked her. She killed two on the spot, and we dealt with the rest, none escaped. For a long time to come, the Black Blood Clan won’t dare appear here again.”

“Two knights plus two servants, the strongest reached the peak of upper knight level. She had no choice but to activate boiling blood during her menstrual period.”

Zhao Peng briefly recounted to Jiang Yan what happened in the early morning.

Everyone in the room had gloomy expressions, finding it hard to imagine how Jiang Yao had desperately fought back in an isolated situation.

Jiang Yan made no comment, only silently lifting a corner of the air conditioning blanket.

In her view, that body which had already shed its clothing was covered in wounds, with a large medical pad underneath the lower body.

On the highly absorbent pad, a large patch of dried blood was eye-catching, seemingly silently telling of Jiang Yao’s gruesome lone battle in the early morning.

Without any expression, Jiang Yan just lightly touched each bandage-wrapped area on Jiang Yao’s body, her lips trembling slightly.

At this moment, the pale golden-haired girl’s body no longer had that leaking pheromone presence, instead becoming so weak it was almost undetectable, giving the illusion of having returned to being an ordinary person.

“This is the taboo of boiling blood during the menstrual period. Blood proteins are rapidly depleted, leading to partial organ failure. Fortunately, there was no mutation at the time. Now she needs time to recover slowly.”

Zhao Peng pulled Jiang Yan up and pressed her into the chair: “These days, you don’t need to come to work, just take good care of Xiao Yao. I’ll have Xiao Ping stay here too.”

Actually, Zhao Peng had some words unsaid, which were that Jiang Yao’s strength had severely dropped under the menstrual period boiling blood taboo. At the weakest point past 3 AM, she had fallen to the Thrall level for a time.

Logically, this kind of power drop should be irreversible, but after Zhao Peng found Jiang Yan’s blood stored in advance in the refrigerator, Jiang Yao mysteriously recovered to the lower Servant level, and there were signs of continued recovery.

What surprised Zhao Peng even more was that activating boiling blood during the menstrual period and ultimately losing control, Jiang Yao actually didn’t show any body part mutations, which was truly puzzling.

“Thank you everyone, really thank you everyone.”

Jiang Yan raised her head, looking around at the club colleagues in the room, the smile on her face calm and sincere.

Zhao Peng left with most people, leaving only Zhou Ping responsible for watching Jiang Yao. Jiang Yan planned to freshen herself up before going out to buy groceries.

“Xiao Yan, this is what Brother Zhao left for you.”

When Jiang Yan came out of the bathroom and walked back to Jiang Yao’s bedroom, she saw Zhou Ping with a mysterious expression, and at her feet lay a black box.

What is this? Jiang Yan crouched down with suspicion, opened the lid, and before her eyes appeared various gun parts large and small, sights, several magazines, and some loose ammunition.

Looking at the characteristic thick barrel and integral wooden frame stock, Jiang Yan’s expression immediately became colorful.

The latest model of the former Soviet Union’s famous VSS silenced sniper rifle, which was once largely equipped by the former Soviet secret agencies’ vampire hunting troops, and even the Dark Arrow Unit of China had imported and equipped a small batch after entering the new century.

The VSSM silenced sniper rifle uses subsonic ammunition with excellent silencing performance, high accuracy and great power. It can not only perform sniper shots but even fire in bursts, making it a powerful support firepower at medium and close range.

Taking out the magazine and ejecting a bullet, just one look identified it as a silver bullet specifically for dealing with vampires. Jiang Yan’s evaluation of Wan Yue’s capabilities rose another notch.

“Sister Wan can even get such good stuff, thanks.”

Although she had only handled it a few times during the training period, Jiang Yan still skillfully assembled the entire gun and checked other accessories. The whole process was smooth and fluid, leaving Zhou Ping, who had planned to explain some hands-on knowledge, suddenly not knowing what to say.

However, there was an unwritten rule in the club, which was to never actively inquire about each other’s past, so Zhou Ping could only suppress the surprise in her heart.

“Sister Ping, please take care of Xiao Yao, I’m going to buy groceries.”

…

Walking out along the alley, after going about 100 meters, she found the way ahead blocked by many people, mostly elderly residents living here.

Coming closer, she found that a family car had gotten stuck on the alley wall on one side, creating a huge gap in the beautiful ancient wall, with many bricks flying into the courtyard.

Two traffic police officers were taking photos at the scene, and a shabbily dressed middle-aged man was standing behind the police with an embarrassed expression, looking flustered and not knowing where to put his hands.

“You’re something else, this is a pedestrian path, motor vehicles are prohibited. Not only did you drive in at midnight, but you were drunk driving, and after the accident, you could even sleep in the car all night! Fortunately, no one was hurt, otherwise having your license revoked would be getting off lightly!”

The traffic police berated the driver with an extremely stern expression while recording his information.

“Don’t… don’t revoke my license, I’ll pay full compensation for this wall, full compensation! I still need to rely on this for ride-hailing!”

The shabby middle-aged driver immediately became anxious, repeatedly pleading with the police with his hands clasped.

“Begging me is useless, wait here, the street office people will come to assess the wall damage later… Ah, look what you’ve done, even the tow truck can’t get in!”

The elderly people around pointed and commented, the police complained, making the scene quite lively.

In and out of the crowd, Jiang Yan’s gaze met with the shabby middle-aged driver, and a hint of smile flashed in the latter’s eyes before he turned back to plead with the police.

It was Uncle Liang, an inconspicuous security guard at the Golden River Club.

Looking at the ground in the small courtyard again, finding no trace of battle, a warmth suddenly surged in Jiang Yan’s heart.

This was a team friendship different from the Dark Arrow Unit, not simply about huddling together for safety. This collective under Sister Wan’s leadership was just like a big family.

Jiang Yan thought so.

…

…

Dark Arrow Western Surveillance Zone, Black Armor Squad stationed base.

The encirclement operation in J District of C City in early July, although the opponent was just a blood-thirsty, out-of-control upper knight level vampire acting alone, had well integrated the Black Armor Squad which was composed mostly of new members.

The morale that had been severely damaged in the D City operation at the end of April finally recovered somewhat after a small victory, but anyone with eyes could see that without three to five months, the Black Armor Squad still couldn’t execute truly major tasks.

In the base office, Meng Huai was checking some personnel documents when he heard the familiar “report” sound from outside the door.

Tao Qiao’er, now the only veteran of the assault team with nearly 2 years of service, had naturally become Meng Huai’s deputy, replacing Xia Yan. After Xia Yan and many veterans were casualties, Tao Qiao’er’s position could be said to have skyrocketed.

Although each operational squad in the Dark Arrow Unit nominally had a deputy captain, they usually stayed at the base, responsible for logistics support, daily training, and ideological construction and other affairs, and were not combat commanders themselves.

So most of the time, the squad leader’s deputy was served by the most senior member of the assault team, who was also the default next squad leader recognized by most people.

Tao Qiao’er, who had been promoted to Lieutenant, wasn’t wearing the black combat uniform today, but rather a neat regular uniform, holding a file folder in her hand.

“Captain Meng… it’s almost been three months since the D City operation, the follow-up processing documents for Xia Yan and Gu Yao must be confirmed and reported in the next few days.”

After speaking, Tao Qiao’er gently placed two files with photos in front of Meng Huai.

Xia Yan and Gu Yao’s personal files both clearly marked the word “missing”, which was defined according to regular procedures.

Dark Arrow Unit members who fled after suffering blood invasion, if not successfully captured, would usually be defined as missing within three months. Afterwards, it would be changed to sacrifice, officially notified to family members, then reported to headquarters to be included in other secret files.

Once changed to the word sacrifice, it meant Xia Yan and Gu Yao would no longer be recognized as alive in this world, and all their legal information in this world, such as household registration and identity, would be cancelled.

Of course, there was another label, which was “deserter”, and that nature was completely different.

Quietly looking at the portraits of the two young soldiers in the photos, some blurry illusions appeared again in Meng Huai’s vision.

After rubbing his brow hard, he pulled open the drawer and took out two identity tags left by Xia Yan and Gu Yao.

Carefully rubbing the metal pieces, Meng Huai finally let out a slight sigh. Taking up his pen, with a cold expression, he directly heavily wrote the word “sacrifice” on Xia Yan and Gu Yao’s information, and crossed out the word “missing” with one stroke.

“Xiao Tao, next, please trouble you and Secretary Wu to walk through the following procedures, apply for special compensation for Dark Arrow Unit members who died in the line of duty, and notify the families. If the local authorities want to hold a martyr memorial service, please trouble you and Deputy Captain Zhao to attend.”

“Okay…”

Hearing how the other party addressed her, Tao Qiao’er was startled, with a very surprised expression on her face. Because this was the first time she had heard him greet her in such a gentle and intimate way.

“Hmm? Anything else?”

Seeing that she still didn’t seem to be planning to leave, Meng Huai looked up with confusion.

Quickly coming to her senses, Tao Qiao’er hesitantly took out another piece of paper from the folder and handed it to Meng Huai’s desk again: “This is last week’s physical examination report for the entire assault team. A total of three people are listed for key observation, and one person is unqualified. The unqualified one… is Captain Meng’s name.”

“These should all be things Secretary Wu does, how come they’re in your hands?”

Meng Huai casually picked up the document, just glanced at it briefly, his brows immediately furrowed, then he crumpled the document into a ball and threw it into the waste paper basket.

“Secretary Wu didn’t dare to show it to you, so he entrusted me to deliver it… Captain Meng, just in these 2 years since I joined, you’ve participated in every frontline operation without missing one! You can’t inject the blood invasion immunity drug anymore as the adaptability has started to decrease significantly. If it reaches phase three, there will be lifelong sequelae!”

Tao Qiao’er suddenly raised her volume, her face turning red.

“Are you finished? If you’re finished then get out… go handle the things I assigned!”

Staring hard at his subordinate’s eyes, Meng Huai’s face was terrifyingly cold, and there was even a hint of ferocity in his eyes that was not easy to detect.

Silently giving a military salute, Tao Qiao’er turned and pushed the door open to leave.

Sitting in his position lost in thought for a few minutes, Meng Huai bent down and picked up the physical examination report document that had been crumpled into a ball earlier from the waste paper basket. Slowly unfolding it, staring at the several lines of notes under his own name.

He would be turning 28 years old by the end of this year. According to the Dark Arrow Unit’s long-term combat data observations, the closer to 30 years old, or the more accumulated injections of blood invasion immunity drug, the more it would significantly reduce the adaptability to this type of drug, and in serious cases, there could even be reverse effects.

Once reaching the so-called phase two warning, if injections of blood invasion immunity drug were not stopped, most likely the body would develop some lifelong sequelae, forcing retirement from the frontline or even forced retirement altogether. If reaching phase three warning, even living a few more years would depend on luck.

Therefore, among all of China’s frontline Dark Arrow Unit combat members, whether squad leaders or team members, very few were still on duty over the age of 30.

It was only because China had the world’s first or second largest rare blood type population that they could strictly implement such humanitarian standards. In some small countries, directly using up or wearing out precious secret personnel was common, while more countries could only secretly seek help from China’s Dark Arrow Unit.

No, I can’t retreat… I must kill all the monsters… kill them all…

Muttering words that only he could hear, Meng Huai suddenly got up and opened the door, walking towards the shooting range.

…

…

It wasn’t until the third day that Jiang Yao woke up. Seeing everything in the room, she was stunned at first, probably feeling that she had narrowly escaped death, and actually burst into wild laughter in front of Jiang Yan, laughing until tears came out.

Zhou Ping was so frightened that she hurriedly went up to hold down her body, afraid that she would accidentally cause problems with the IV line.

“Wuu wuu… I, I thought I would never see you again…”

Jiang Yao’s laughter turned into crying, a belated fear after a desperate battle making her whole body tremble.

“Xiao Yao, I’m going to make you something good to eat, it will help you recover faster!”

Receiving a look from Jiang Yan, Zhou Ping quickly got up and left the bedroom.

“Well done, you scared them so much that no one will dare come again. Your task now is just to recover well.”

Only the sisters remained in the room. Jiang Yan gently stroked Jiang Yao’s long hair, her expression relaxed, even making a thumbs up to the other in a show of approval, but her eyes were slightly red.

“Sister… I miss Grandma Director… Will she forget about us?”

Suddenly, Jiang Yao turned her head and quietly looked at the black-haired girl in front of her.

“No, she won’t. When you’re feeling better, I’ll go see her.”

Patting her hand, Jiang Yan showed a slight smile.

With Zhou Ping’s help, Jiang Yao ate a little food, changed into clean clothes, and fell into deep sleep again.

Late at night, Jiang Yan, holding the newly acquired VSSM silenced sniper rifle, kept watch on the rooftop.

The distant brilliant and gorgeous lights of the human world continuously alternated flickering in the black-haired girl’s gazing pupils.

In Jiang Yan’s eyes, suddenly there was a feeling that this world was constantly moving away from her, all familiar things were accelerating becoming unfamiliar.