Blood Queen - Chapter 9

Chapter 9: New Identity (Part 1)

***

Another morning, the bright and warm sunlight spread equally over every inch of the city’s land, awakening a new round of hustle and bustle in the modern metropolis.

Gu Yao was busily arranging things in the dilapidated room, embarrassed about the organizing work that should have been done last night.

A large, thick plastic mat served as both bed and seat, and basic living supplies were taken out of the travel bag and placed in order.

Meanwhile, Xia Yan was cooking instant noodles on an alcohol stove. Although she hadn’t slept all night, her face showed little fatigue. While waiting for the water to boil, Xia Yan took out the remaining half bag of blood.

Although she didn’t feel blood thirst now, without a constant temperature refrigeration environment, the blood would be wasted if not consumed soon.

“Brother, should I try again?” Gu Yao walked over, looking solemnly at the blood bag in Xia Yan’s hand.

After silently glancing at her, Xia Yan slowly handed over the blood bag.

She noticed that today’s Gu Yao had subtle changes compared to yesterday. Her already supple face was even smoother and more radiant. Whether it was an illusion from the morning sunlight reflection or not, her soft, light golden hair seemed to have become purer and deeper in color.

Slowly bringing the cut end to her nose, Gu Yao carefully sniffed it.

Soon, the same peculiar fishy smell that was hard to bear yesterday entered her nostrils, involuntarily causing her stomach to churn. With a dry heave, she curled up her body.

“It’s not working… What’s going on, brother? I can’t drink normal human blood? Does this mean I can only drink yours from now on…”

Gu Yao looked down at her own body, her face showing a rare expression of terror.

“I don’t know either. Maybe in the headquarters’ view, frontline members like us shouldn’t know these things, after all, we could be blood invaded at any time…” Xia Yan tilted her head back, squeezing the entire bag of blood into her mouth, also puzzled. “But according to Huang Gu, we can get supplies from the underground shop in the future.”

“But we have no money. Food, clothing, shelter, and transportation will all be troublesome in the future. We can’t just shrink in a place like this every day like beggars, can we? If we’re driven to desperation, we might still have to attack ordinary people… If that’s the case, why bother coming back to C City? Wouldn’t it be better to hide in the countryside?”

Gu Yao put both hands behind her head, lying down on the plastic mat, looking dejected and listless.

Silently looking at the graceful girl lying flat, Xia Yan smiled bitterly: “In places with fewer people, it’s even more inconvenient to find blood. Even the slightest movement would be known to everyone.”

“Alright, don’t worry about money. I’ll figure something out.”

Xia Yan pointed in a certain direction, her tone becoming very relaxed: “After breakfast, I’ll go to the place Huang Gu mentioned to solve our current identity problem first.”

Gu Yao nodded slightly, but her anxious expression was visibly apparent.

Recalling the days when the two were young, Xia Yan felt that this little brother might still be unable to come to terms with her inability to ingest normal blood. In the past, whenever she encountered something she couldn’t solve, she would become depressed or anxious like this.

The military duffel bag and the Dark Arrow combat uniform they had taken off earlier had already been buried for concealment. Xia Yan placed the last few items from the travel bag on the ground, doing a final inventory.

A handgun, ammunition for two magazines, two special daggers, an almost dead tactical flashlight, and a few syringes of adrenaline and painkillers for emergency use. Besides these, there was half a bottle of temperature-raising medicine given by Huang Gu before leaving.

Finally, there was a bank card that she had always kept close to her body.

Excluding the money she had donated to the orphanage over the years, there was still 1 million yuan in the card. All of this was saved from Xia Yan’s high salary and mission allowances while serving in the Dark Arrow Unit.

In this highly information-based modern society, the personal real data implied in a bank card was probably more than ordinary people could imagine. Aware of this, Xia Yan absolutely dared not go to an ATM on the street to withdraw money.

In her memory, 2 years ago, a former member of the Black Armor Squad who had been accidentally blood invaded during a mission and chose to kill his teammates and escape, was identified by the 24/7 identity data collection tracking system of the Dark Arrow intelligence department after being photographed by a machine camera while secretly withdrawing money at an ATM, and was eventually located and dealt with.

After a simple but substantial breakfast of instant noodles, Xia Yan put the travel bag on her back and turned to walk towards the stairway.

“Brother, I don’t want to change my name… I… I don’t want to forget the past like Huang Gu…”

“Brother, I kind of want to go back to the orphanage to see Grandma Jiang again…”

Just as she was about to leave the room, Gu Yao’s murmurs came from behind, and Xia Yan’s steps froze for a few seconds.

……

……

On the bustling street, there was a constant flow of traffic, with crowds surging during the May Day holiday. Men and women, young and old, shuttled back and forth, entering and exiting various beautifully decorated shops and buildings.

Although she had taken the temperature-raising medicine before going out, Xia Yan was still cautious, trying her best to avoid the various surveillance cameras that were now ubiquitous in society.

She knew that in major southwestern provincial capital cities like C City, many surveillance cameras in important areas were equipped with miniature thermal recorders, with data directly linked to the central monitoring system of the Dark Arrow intelligence department.

This was one of the many inconspicuous methods humans used to combat and suppress vampires after the progress of civilization.

Perhaps not every vampire was worth Dark Arrow’s intervention, but every suspicious data collected by the system would be analyzed and recorded in depth.

Holding a business card in her hand, the black-haired girl finally stopped in front of a towering luxury office building. The noisy traffic sounds were in her ears, and before her eyes was a spacious, splendid lobby.

The elevator went straight up to the 27th floor, followed by an even more complex office building corridor. Just when she was about to get dizzy from all the turns, she finally found a room with a sign that read “Shengxiang Investment Consulting Firm” in a corner.

Typical style of a shell company, Xia Yan smiled.

Following the key information provided by Huang Gu, Xia Yan knocked out a rhythmic code on the door, but there was no response even after knocking several times.

Looking at the door handle on the access control and the communication device with flashing signal lights beside it, Xia Yan tried to touch it.

……

Inside the room, most of the visual space was occupied by a luxurious and wide desk right in front.

Two high-end large curved display screens were placed on the desktop, glass cabinets filled with books and files of various sizes were arranged in order on the left and right, while a small guest sofa and matching tea table could only be pitifully squeezed in the corner.

There was also a small room half-closed on the other side, revealing a corner of a bed, seemingly a rest area.

A young man, about 20 years old, was sitting behind the desk, playing some game with a complex expression.

The young man was wearing a formal shirt, with the original suit jacket carelessly hung on the back of the chair, the tie on his chest half pulled out, and several cigarette butts left in the ashtray nearby. Even with a high-power air filter, the room was still filled with the burnt smell of secondhand smoke.

“You’re in the fountain base after just a few minutes! You noob! It’s killing me!”

Seemingly stimulated by some result in the game, the young man suddenly stood up, angrily throwing away the mouse, waving both hands in frustration, his mouth mixed with classic Hitler rage.

The young man wasn’t very handsome, but his features were well-proportioned and handsome, still retaining a boyish liveliness and rebelliousness.

“Ridiculous, public matches are all full of elementary school kids!”

The young man shouted as if venting, then picked up a cigarette from the side. Just as he was about to light it, he realized there was another person in the room.

His eyes lit up, and his hand holding the cigarette actually stopped a few centimeters from his mouth. In front of him, a girl with a bare face, delicate features, and a calm expression was quietly standing just 2 or 3 meters away from him.

She looked to be at most 20 years old, wearing a slightly wrinkled light blue T-shirt and gray-black skinny jeans. She was tall and slender, with slightly unkempt black hair hanging down her back. One hand was holding a travel bag, while the other was behind her back.

The two just stood there looking at each other silently, neither speaking.

After about 10 seconds, the young man slowly stood up straight, put down the cigarette, and fumbled under the desk for a while before slowly pulling out a gun!