May 14th, Tuesday.
In the snow-white single patient room, the air was filled with the faint fragrance of air freshener.
ng Huai, dressed in a hospital gown, leaned against the headboard, still scrolling through a tablet computer. Suddenly, a news item appeared on the local trending searches that made ng Huai's pupils contract.
"...According to Mr. Wang, a resident of N City, a strange deford creature's corpse was discovered in the feed preparation room of his pig farm, with severe damage to the scene."
"...After receiving the report, police determined through footprints at the scene and partial surveillance footage from the surrounding area that this was a man-made prank."
"...According to expert identification, the so-called deford creature corpse was made from special synthetic materials. Following leads, police quickly identified a college student from the nearby N City Film and Arts Academy, who was conducting artistic creativity for his graduation thesis..."
"After criticism and education, the college student has admitted his mistake, promising not to engage in such behavior again, and is willing to compensate Mr. Wang for related losses. Police once again declare: do not believe rumors, do not spread rumors."
Following this were various exaggerated, absurd, or conspiracy theory hot comnts, totaling over a thousand.
ng Huai let out a cold laugh, tossed aside the tablet, pillowed his head with one hand, and fell into deep thought.
A knock ca at the door. ng Huai turned to look and saw Tao Qiao'er supporting herself with a crutch, one leg and one arm still in casts, struggling to enter his room with the help of a nurse.
Only after the nurse left the room did Tao Qiao'er's face show a sweet smile: "Commander ng, you've been lying here for half a month now, everyone's been quite worried."
"Focus on healing your own injuries first, why worry about ... The attending physician has already confird I'm fine. I can be discharged this afternoon, and I'll return to base the day after tomorrow."
ng Huai kept a cold expression, not accepting the other's goodwill.
Tao Qiao'er seed long accustod to her squad leader's attitude. After all, the rule within the Xuan Jia Squad was to maintain cold relationships with each other as much as possible, to avoid deep friendships that would make it difficult to act when blood infection occurred.
"Commander ng, Xia Yan and Gu Yao... did they really escape..."
After brief pleasantries, Tao Qiao'er lowered her head and said softly: "This ti we directly lost twenty-six people, fifteen permanently disabled, and Xia Yan and Gu Yao went missing. Since you hadn't regained consciousness, the Intelligence Company could only analyze through recovered helt recorders and discovered that Xia Yan and Gu Yao had been blood infected..."
"Yes, my physical condition at the ti made it impossible to handle the situation on the spot. I will submit a written report on the relevant mission summary and responsibility issues to my superiors."
ng Huai closed his eyes, and the image of Xia Yan giving him ergency treatnt appeared in his mind again—those pupils that glowed red under the illumination of gunfire and smoke, and that calm smile.
"Um... Commander ng, what exactly was that big at mass that day... When you weren't awake, the higher-ups issued a gag order, and I heard that an investigation team even ca from headquarters."
Tao Qiao'er's face was sowhat pale, as if she hadn't yet erged from the shadow of that desperate, bloody battle.
What caused the heavy casualties to the Xuan Jia Squad wasn't the big at mass, but those vampire knights who clearly charged frantically to protect the at mass still made Tao Qiao'er shudder.
"Since it's classified information, don't inquire about it anymore. A soldier's duty is to obey orders."
ng Huai's mind churned with mory fragnts from that ti. Despite his unwillingness, he could only silently accept the current results.
"Hehe, still not dead, ng Huai!"
The mont the two fell into silence, the door was pushed open, and a heroic-looking female major with a mysterious smile on her face appeared at the doorway.
Behind the female officer, a nurse looked embarrassed, apparently having failed to stop her.
"You go back to your room to rest first, I'll chat with Squad Leader Han."
With that, ng Huai gestured to Tao Qiao'er, then stared coldly at the female officer entering the room.
"After lying down for half a month, you've certainly rested enough. Yo, living quite well here!"
Watching the limping Tao Qiao'er leave through the door, the female major turned to look at the room's conditions and nodded slightly: "I heard that this ti, the veterans of your Xuan Jia Squad were almost completely wiped out, and even the squad leader candidates were blood infected. You're quite tough... Sigh, I was thinking I could select soone from the Embroidered Uniform Squad to be your backup!"
"Everything exists in dreams... Han Xiao, N City is under the Embroidered Uniform Squad's surveillance district, isn't it? How did you let a mutated vampire corpse get exposed?"
Facing the provocation and mockery from the Embroidered Uniform Squad leader, ng Huai remained calm, his emotions unperturbed, and instead threw back a topic that might embarrass the other party.
"Hmph... It's still your fish that got away last ti. Let put it this way: it's been confird to be Tang Zhaowen from Tiantang Agricultural Trading, one of the escapees from your D City operation last ti. Tsk tsk, an upper-class baron. He probably fled to N City after escaping, was followed and ambushed by so unknown Black Blood Clan mbers who saw an opportunity to kick him while he was down, and was found dead in a pig farm on the outskirts of N City the night before last.
"I only arrived at the scene yesterday afternoon. Hehe, a dignified legitimate Blood Clan baron was actually driven to blood thirst collapse by Black Blood Clan mbers. His corpse was as torn up as if gnawed by dogs, and most of his internal organs were removed.
"This ti, I'm just unlucky. Not collecting corpses is the Black Blood Clan's usual style, and I still have to clean up after these disgusting guys! Sotis, I really don't know if they count as our helpers."
Han Xiao didn't care whether ng Huai was listening or not and rattled on with a whole bunch of talk.
"Did you co today just to add this incident to the Xuan Jia Squad's list of responsibilities?" ng Huai sneered.
"I'm just here to notify you that since the Xuan Jia Squad was severely damaged, the task of pursuing Xia Yan and Gu Yao has been assigned to ."
"The Xuan Jia Squad isn't completely dead yet. What's it to you? I'll apply to my superiors for a review."
ng Huai was stunned. He turned his head to stare intently at Han Xiao's half-smiling face, his heart gradually growing heavy.
"I'm wondering, don't you have any regrets about turning the Xuan Jia Squad into this sorry state? In my squad, everyone drinks, dances, and can even fall in love. If soone really gets unlucky, we just tie them up and have the Intelligence Company's security team handle it.
"In the Embroidered Uniform Squad, everyone might be sad about losing comrades, but there's no cruelty of having to act personally, and they can even turn grief into strength."
Han Xiao frowned, seemingly very disgusted with the Xuan Jia Squad's thod of maintaining cold relationships between mbers in regular tis to facilitate personally dealing with blood infections when they occurred.
"Hehe, covering one's ears to steal a bell, trading children to eat... You're no better than , Major Han." (TN: The first part ans to refuse reality, and the second literally ans to trade kids for food.)
ng Huai sneered, the mockery on his face quite obvious.
"You! Forget it, I can't be bothered arguing with a lone commander!"
After Han Xiao finished speaking, she pulled out a notebook and set aside her emotions: "Alright, I won't tease you anymore. I ca today to gather so information on Xia Yan and Gu Yao, which might help with the next phase of pursuit operations."
Seeing the serious expression on the other party's face, ng Huai suddenly felt like laughing.
"Forget it. I'm not interested in discussing these things. Figure it out yourself. Take your ti leaving. I won't see you out."
ng Huai issued an order to leave, and Han Xiao's beautiful face imdiately showed anger: "Hmph, no wonder you're destined to be alone!"
The Embroidered Uniform Squad leader left with strong dissatisfaction, and only then did ng Huai feel sowhat better.
"Nurse, please help remove the IV needle."
...
...
At nightfall, a military-plated SUV drove into a high-end residential community in Q District of C City, stopping outside a central villa building.
ng Huai, in military uniform with major insignia, quickly walked into the main hall on the first floor of the villa.
Having probably received advance notice of ng Huai's discharge, Zhong Hai had the housekeeping team prepare a dinner early to welco his recovering eldest son.
Zhong Jing had also rarely returned ho, but at the dining table, he always wore a mysterious smile, occasionally glancing at his half-brother across from him.
Zhong Jing wore casual business attire, sunny and carefree, while ng Huai was in crisp military uniform, serious and rigid. The two brothers in the dining room presented completely different images and temperants. Zhong Jing was about 180 centiters tall, while ng Huai was at least 185 centiters or taller, and even their facial features didn't share much resemblance.
ng Huai was the product of Zhong Hai's youthful romantic encounter—in plain words, an illegitimate son. He was brought ho by Zhong Hai at age four, and at that ti, Zhong Hai's legitimate wife had just given birth to Zhong Jing.
The atmosphere in the dining room was strange. ng Huai stubbornly focused on a dish in front of him, eating heartily, while Zhong Jing carelessly only drank wine without eating. Zhong Hai and his wife spent most of their ti silently exchanging glances.
"Big brother, what kind of missions do you participate in to get injured so severely? I went to the hospital last ti, but you weren't awake yet."
Zhong Jing held up his wine glass, swirling it, then stood up and bent over to personally pour half a glass for the other party: "You should be in a regular army unit, right? How co you're involved in dostic missions?"
"You want to inquire about military secrets too? Mind your own business and stop fooling around outside all the ti!"
ng Huai frowned and slowly raised his head, his expression gradually becoming serious, a pair of sharp eyes directly eting his brother's gaze.
"Hehe, I just think all Chinese soldiers are great, I admire Big Brother. Co on, here's a toast to you!"
Zhong Jing avoided ng Huai's gaze, smiled awkwardly, and raised his wine glass.
"My wounds haven't completely healed yet, so I won't drink. You all enjoy yourselves, I'm going back to my room to rest. I have to return to my unit for a eting tomorrow."
ng Huai finished the last half bowl of rice in a few bites, then got up and left the dining room, leaving Zhong Hai and his wife sitting at the head of the table with sowhat unpleasant expressions.
"Hmph, see, I told you the eldest wouldn't appreciate it. It's still Xiao Jing who values brotherhood, calling 'big brother' this and 'big brother' that! Forget it, co on, good son, Mom will drink with you!"
Smiling and clinking glasses with the noble lady, Zhong Jing's eyes secretly glanced at his silent father, Zhong Hai.
"Alright, the fact that he can co back shows he still cares about this family in his heart. Seeing that he's fine puts my mind at ease. He's a soldier, protecting the country is his duty. You all shouldn't go asking about it carelessly."
After speaking, Zhong Hai put down his bowl and chopsticks and slowly walked out of the dining room.
"Tch, really good at self-comfort... Oh right, dear son, do you have enough spending money? Mom will transfer so more to you tomorrow."
"Oh! Thanks, Mom!"
Zhong Jing smiled very happily, but in his heart, his doubts grew larger and larger.
...
Compared to Zhong Jing's extravagant living space, ng Huai only had a modest-sized bedroom in the house.
Sitting at the desk, he slowly pulled out an old photo fra from the drawer and quietly looked at the two figures inside, one large and one small.
It was a photo taken by his birth mother on his fourth birthday. The woman in the fra was elegant and beautiful, dressed simply, with a tender little boy beside her who vaguely resembled the woman.
A considerable portion of the photo was stained with dark red, as if it had been retrieved from blood long ago, appearing cruel and unimaginable.
Looking at the photo, the corners of ng Huai's mouth began to twitch, and he finally closed his eyes tightly, groping to put it back in the drawer. Only when the faint friction sound of closing the drawer rang out did his expression relax slightly.
In his mind, the scene that had given him nightmares for over twenty years appeared again—one shortly after his fourth birthday.
His beloved mother lay in a pool of blood, her entire body pierced by strange, long, ice-like blood needles. A terrifying, twisted mutant monster was biting at the main artery in his mother's neck.
Accompanied by eerie sucking sounds, his mother's body went limp on the ground, and those eyes that still held a last trace of clarity stared intently at the little boy hiding under the bed.
Young ng Huai fainted on the spot from fright, and when he woke up, he was already in the hospital.
A few days later, accompanied by an aunt from the street office, when he returned to that small rental apartnt, the bedroom that had flowed with blood in the dark night was as neat and tidy as if ti had reversed, as if that terrifying silent opera had never happened.
ng Huai's birth mother, ng Xiang, was determined to have died of sudden cardiac arrest during the night. During the days when ng Huai was unconscious, she had already been cremated and buried.
The one who arranged the funeral for his mother was a strange man who claid to be his father.
ng Huai was subsequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and all his mories were determined to be severe ntal hallucinations caused by his birth mother's death.
From childhood to adulthood, ng Huai could never prove his experiences to anyone and could only grow up with difficulty under the constant tornt of nightmares.
Then, when he was eighteen, on the day he received his university acceptance letter, a mysterious soldier stopped ng Huai at the high school gate and showed him a letter of acceptance to a military academy.
mories of people and events played repeatedly in his mind. ng Huai didn't know how he had gotten into bed in a daze, and fell asleep groggily with tears streaming down his face.
...
...
A rental apartnt in an old residential complex in J District.
"Ah! Bro, you're awake?"
The morning sunlight stread into the bedroom. Jiang Yao, who had been guarding by the bedside playing gas all night and was about to get up to use the bathroom, saw the black-haired girl on the bed move her arm, and her tightly closed eyelids also showed slight changes.
Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, as if consciousness was returning.
Jiang Yao quickly threw down the mouse, hurried to the bedside, and grasped the other's hand, feeling the other's pulse gradually recover from less than thirty beats per minute to over sixty.
"Mm... I had a very long dream, dreaming that I had retired..."
Opening her eyes just a crack, Jiang Yan adapted to that piercing ray of sunlight that drove away the darkness, murmuring softly.
"You slept for three whole days! If you hadn't shown any other symptoms, I would have thought..."
Jiang Yao completely relaxed, slowly and carefully helping the other sit up.
I slept for three days!?
Jiang Yan was also slightly surprised, but this surprise was quickly dispelled by a certain strange, pleasant feeling in her body.
Jiang Yan only felt an indescribable lightness throughout her body, as if she had eaten and drunk her fill and rested well for a long ti, feeling substantial.
"Bro, these past few days, I felt your aura was very... how should I put it, very powerful! Just like that Huang Gu we first t! Did you have so kind of... what was it called... breakthrough to attendant level?"
Recalling how Jiang Yan on the bed had emanated a sharp aura while sleeping over the past few days, and how her whole body still gave off a faint strange fragrance, Jiang Yao's eyes showed visible envy.
"Hm? You can sense it too?"
Jiang Yan's eyes finally adapted to the light and completely regained control of her body, extending both hands to examine them by turning them back and forth.
Advancing to a new realm was the term used by the Blood Clan for breaking through to a higher level of power, usually involving entering a dormant sleep state to enhance and upgrade various microscopic physiological functions of the body.
For example, Jiang Yan, who had now advanced to attendant level, already possessed night vision capabilities that ordinary people could never achieve.
As realms continued to improve and power grew stronger, the Blood Clan's dormant sleep periods would beco longer and longer. At baron level and above, a single breakthrough sleep could often last years, even ten or twenty years, during which the entire body's tabolism would be at its lowest state, like suspended animation.
Of course, there were also quite a few Blood Clan mbers who died during dormancy due to failed breakthroughs.
"Yes! I know! It must be because you drank that Black Blood Clan knight's blood! I should have gone up to lick a few drops too!"
Jiang Yao showed a trace of regret, as if she had missed out on several hundred million.
A few days ago, she was still just a bottom-tier blood servant, but now she had actually advanced to lower-class attendant? This was another unprecedented phenonon, and it had happened to her.
Actually, wasn't Xiao Yao also an existence that was impossible to fathom?
What exactly did that strange giant at mass monster turn and Xiao Yao into?
Looking at Jiang Yao's face, which showed excitent mixed with traces of worry, Jiang Yan shook her head gently, brushing away those questions that were difficult to answer at this stage. She then patted the other's arm and smiled without speaking.
Oh right, how did I get back to my own ho? And who changed into these pajamas?
Suddenly thinking of sothing, touching her own clean thighs, Jiang Yan turned to look at Jiang Yao's face again, not speaking, just tugging at the pajamas she was wearing.
"Hehe, it was that old witch who brought us back. Oh, I've stored away all the blood and dicine we bought that day... Uh... Bro, you must be hungry, I'll cook so porridge for you! You rest a bit more!"
Jiang Yao probably understood Jiang Yan's expression, spoke halfway through and then changed the subject, then quickly walked out of the bedroom.
Hehe, what am I thinking... Back at the orphanage, didn't we also sleep in the sa bed? If she helped change clothes, it shows she's thoughtful.
Jiang Yan shook her head, a trace of self-mockery appearing at the corners of her mouth.
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