Chapter 67

Translated by boilpoil Edited by boilpoil

Bai Lianhua has recovered the account he used before in this world. He practised for a few days to develop a feel for the stuff while stocking up on materials, then he restarted his comic series.

He thought that with the updates out for more than a year there would have been few people that remembered his little comic. Though, after he ‘resurrects’ he can again see many familiar IDs hanging around. Many people missed him saying that they were waiting for this comic series with the surprising colour schemes to serialise again for them to destress——They might have thought it would be a depressing series but it turns out to be a warm, refreshing healing type in terms of genre after clicking through.

Also, when reading the comic, sometimes it might even feel more comforting than watching cat videos or keeping a virtual dog… Since, no matter how great the meowers and woofers are, they’re still not theirs! Every time this is reminded it gets kind of depressing and hard to smile. They might as well go read the latest adventures in that comic drawn by the guy who thinks he is a scary storyteller, and every single time when he asks them expectantly, they’d chuckle and beat him down telling him they aren’t scared at all.

Everyone’s become used to this cycle of teasing; it suddenly stopping was really hard on them too.

Bai Lianhua “???”

He doesn’t even know if he should smile or cry anymore.

…

Bai Lianhua happily returns to his life as a shut-in. He can’t leave the house during the day anyway, with justification. Meanwhile, Yu Chenqing’s half-vampire syndrome meant that he could do whatever he wants any time he wants, so he takes over many chores about the place.

When Bai Lianhua is idly thinking one day in the rare episodes of consciousness from his addiction to the Internet, he realises he has practically been put into house arrest by Yu Chenqing with the promise of good cuisine.

There’s the regular feeding, of course, and because Yu Chenqing is no longer a normal human, at his insistence, the frequency that was once every three days is now daily. He can go by without hunger anymore.

Other than that, he also doesn’t have any reason to leave either. Yu Chenqing would even help with trivial things like getting the deliveries. At best, he might take a stroll in the community’s public area at night, of course, with Yu Chenqing by his side.

Everything just naturally transpired so that he never felt anything was wrong… It might not be that play involving a little black house, or rather, his comfort is practically at top priority here, but it is true his freedom of movement remains only on paper here.

Since he returned, he has never once left Yu Chenqing’s sights when he is out of the apartment. Rather, Yu Chenqing himself has started working from home to achieve this.

The system is quite impressed, “emm, host, you’ve only realised this now? That’s an achievement in a sense… Come come, tell me what it feels like to be a reared domestic animal?”

Bai Lianhua “…”

He asks the system with a complicated expression, “do you want to know my true feelings?”

The system didn’t expect such a response, “of course. It’s the system here, so you shouldn’t feel like you need to hide or conceal any secrets or feelings towards me.”

Bai Lianhua quietly tells him, “true. Then, in all honesty, I feel fine…”

It’s his most comfortable place to be. There’s everything he could possibly need. There’s a computer and Internet. There’s tasty food delivered to his mouth. He wracks his brains before concluding he needs nothing more——Before, when he told the system he could stay in the system space forever if there are these things, he meant it literally.

System “???” It looks at its host being all ‘what else can I do I’m also depressed here I can’t find anything I don’t like even if I want to’ while feeling ashamed, and has nothing else it could say.

What a low-maintenance little white lotus, this host. It seems the classic trope of you chasing me, me running away from you would be absent in this world… It’s practically an inevitability now.

Eh. It actually feels a bit disappointed for some reason.

…

Of course, there would be times when Yu Chenqing is unable to act promptly enough.

Bai Lianhua had a rather urgent need this time around, and when the delivery is said to already be on his apartment’s doorsteps, and that the sun is already hiding under the horizon, he decides he’d collect it himself.

Yu Chenqing raises his head from his busy work and gently asks him, “I’ll get it for you in a bit, alright?”

Bai Lianhua can’t wait this time around, though, and he is all set on the delivery already outside in his PO box. He pats Yu Chenqing’s shoulders and tells him, “it will be fine… Don’t worry, I won’t leave. I won’t even delay for a second before coming back.”

“You can see I’ve been good, right? Even if you sometimes had to leave I wouldn’t step out of the house at all… You can try to feel more secure about me, ok?”

Yu Chenqing seems shocked, “you knew that… I wanted to keep you here?” Or rather, am dreaming of locking you up?

Bai Lianhua nods with an expression of understanding, “yeah. You’re afraid I’d be gone again.”

“I don’t mind… If you can feel safer at heart this way, that is good as well.”

He looks at Yu Chenqing with this gentle expression, “I want you to be able to feel relaxed like before.”

Yu Chenqing can’t even look at Bai Lianhua in the eyes right now.

He stays quiet there as the little vampire seems to feel like he has convinced him successfully and happily goes out the door. And, five, six minutes later he comes back with this cheerful expression, blinking while looking at him with these puppy eyes like he’s asking for a treat with the meaning of ‘look, I haven’t lied now, have I?’

He’s… such a dear.

He’s so obedient it’s making his chest bitter… Yu Chenqing can’t help but hug him, saying, “it’s my bad.”

He feels like he perhaps shouldn’t have decided to drink Bai Lianhua’s blood… as he would never have wanted to transform him if he could help it.

Bai Lianhua has this dorky expression, going “eh? What’s up all of a sudden? You’re good.”

Yu Chenqing doesn’t say anything.

Right now, Bai Lianhua can already accept biting him on his arms under his encouragement, even if he has yet to succeed biting him on the neck. As he couldn’t bite him on the neck with numerous tries, it practically just ended up being him moving his lips about on his neck like a series of kisses.

And yet, at this feeding session, Yu Chenqing lightly caresses the fuzzy hair of the little vampire who is diligently attempting to do so again as he feeds him, saying, “I won’t force you… Don’t bite if you don’t want to.”

——I keep having you try it with all these excuses even if you don’t want to do it, just so I can feel secure. I’m really a terrible person.

“You can also drink from the glass if you want to like before. Just do it the way you’re most comfortable with.”

——You want me to go back to how I felt the most comfortable with before, then I will also let you choose the distance you’re most comfortable with. I won’t keep trying to force myself closer to you, disrupting your own rhythms.

Bai Lianhua “???” He goes ‘oh’ with a blank face, like he doesn’t understand why Yu Chenqing seems to be so lenient on him today.

“You also don’t have to tell me if you’re heading out. As long as you won’t expose yourself to the sun, then go anywhere you want.”

“I might feel frightened imagining you leave, but I do not have the right to stop you.”

Bai Lianhua then just blurts out the truth like a dummy, “… I don’t feel like I was stopped.” Instead, he’s just having a happy shut-in life every day.

Speaking of which, if you do ask me to go out every now and then I would feel unhappy.

Yu Chenqing shakes his head lightly, though, clearly taking this to be just Bai Lianhua trying to soothe him.

System “…”

Oh wow, the host has done it!

He has achieved the high-class, noble, super white lotus stage of saying stuff casually that would make the other person feel guilty. It’s even an advanced application because the host really does not feel troubled at all genuinely, so it’s the absolute truth… Which ends up making the antagonist feel more guilty than ever.

——The host’s unintentional ultimate flag is still here but its own flag has been snapped so definitely?

So this awkward house arrest arrangement is mysteriously resolved? By a single delivery? With the mission progress jumping forward wildly all of a sudden? And Yu Chenqing is almost completely whitewashed?

What an unexpected development that the pure-hearted vampire could be so utterly lethal in romance.

The system looks at the host examining him while feeling unsure if it’s just its host managing to luck his way with that off screw in his head triggering a white lotus skill or if it’s an explosion of acting talent.

Look at this innocent little expression. Even the system here that knows its host’s personality and mentality well can’t tell its legitimacy.

It felt like asking but then goes never mind. No matter what the result is still the same, which is that the antagonist is completely defeated already… Or if just like in the previous worlds the host would just go surprised_pikachu when it asked and tell him it was his natural reaction then it would join the ranks of the antagonists in the ones puking up blood for this development.

So this is a good time to just cheer for the host, perhaps.

…

After finishing the comics he had on hand, Bai Lianhua feels like drawing a new series as he doesn’t want to be a simple layabout. He is struggling to come up with what to draw though, since he’s already drawn most supernatural things like ghosts and monsters.

Yu Chenqing pokes him on his puffy cheeks, “why not draw a little vampire… You’re the best source of inspiration yourself.”

Bai Lianhua nods, “might be a good idea, that… Would you be interested in reading something like that yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“Great, then it’s decided!”

#The daily life of a dignified and striking vampire#

It takes all that Yu Chenqing could muster to hold himself back from bursting the little vampire’s delusional bubble.

Though when the comic is released, his readers are all spitting their teas out laughing. They happily comment how it’s such a joyous thing for the comic artist to finally realise his own place and decide to tell this cute story that fits with the art style.

Well, yes, yes, of course the vampire in the comic is definitely awesome and not soft or fluffy or easily scared at all.

…

Yu Chenqing would still contact his household every now and then in the beginning.

Though his stepmother seems quite satisfied he is contacting them more and more rarely, but is still seemingly worried he would fight over the inheritance in the future. After discovering he no longer living where he used to, she even tried to investigate where he is currently living, working, how much he’s making and all that. There’s always that implication of him growing impoverished and perhaps needing help from the household to test his reaction in everything she says.

With his stepmother clearly going overboard with her investigation and his father who is uninterested in all this, and with that stepbrother who seems indifferent to it all, Yu Chenqing closes his eyes, and thinks it ought to end there now.

The oddness about him cannot be discovered… Not that it would affect him, but he mustn’t let the little vampire be exposed to potential risk.

This will have to happen eventually anyway. Perhaps it would be fine for a few years, but if his appearance doesn’t change for tens or even dozens of years, it would be grounds for them to suspect and even blackmail them.

It’s time all connections to the person named ‘Yu Chenqing’ is cut.

…

As time passed, while they would miss their easygoing neighbours, but just in case anyone might grow suspicious, they have moved a lot in the latter years of their lives.

Bai Lianhua’s account has long been abandoned and every comic on it is finished now. With how many years he’d been active on it he would have been a ‘grandpa’ in human age if he were still active on it.

Plus, he has to treasure every moment he can spend with Yu Chenqing——That’s right, as Yu Chenqing is no simple vampire here, while he can enjoy benefits like not being restricted by exposure to sunlight, in exchange, his life would not be as long and endless like that of real vampires. At best, he would live a relatively longer life than a normal human’s life expectancy.

Bai Lianhua even tried to feed him more of his own blood… As Yu Chenqing would never bite him, he actually had to cut himself in secret and then lift that limb to where Yu Chenqing is. If he is already bleeding then it would have been a waste.

It’s a shame, though, that Yu Chenqing who is half-transformed didn’t end up fully-transformed with this. When his deadline approached, his body still ended up weakening with a very dramatic pace in a short period of time.

Yu Chenqing doesn’t seem saddened at all, though, and is even cheering Bai Lianhua up, “it’s better this way, that I haven’t grown old at all until the very end, and my blood has never gone stale once. I was always needed by you.”

——That’s good enough. Nor would I have to see… You find a new food bank by your side.

He still worries for him though, “I know blood bags taste bad, but if you need another ‘food bank,’ remember to keep an eye out. Don’t just bring someone home without question like that again.”

Since the silly little vampire is gullible, if he does meet someone smart and not particularly virtuous, they might even be able to trick the little vampire around or use his specialness to benefit themselves greatly at his expense.

Bai Lianhua’s eyes are reddened, “no. There wasn’t any before you, and I won’t have any after you. You will be the only food bank I ever have ever.”

Then he explains in a panic, “No, you’re not just a food bank. You’re the most important person to me. I like you, I like being with you even if I can’t drink your blood.”

Yu Chenqing chuckles, “well, what a happy thing to hear.”

He might sound like he doesn’t mind, but, with how short his life is compared to the little vampire’s… If there truly is reincarnation, then he hopes he can stay the little vampire’s food bank for his next life and his life after that.

——Just like how the little vampire only wants him and him alone, he also wants to be able to stay by the little vampire’s side his life and the next and the next.

He would have to hurry to find him too, since… it would be quite sad to see the little vampire rubbing his tummy in hunger with a long face.

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