Chapter 11

“It’s okay. He didn’t do anything to me,” Xia Yuzhou glanced at his sleeping son, then lowered his voice on the phone, “And I learned news that shook our whole family.”

“The whole family is just the two of us. What’s to be shocked about?” The door was suddenly pushed open, a tall young man wearing a baseball cap and a face mask walked in. His voice merged with the voice on the phone.

Xia Yuzhou bared his teeth, hung up the phone and punched his younger brother in the stomach, “What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t answer even after I tried to call you so many times. I was afraid you’ll be killed by that one surnamed Si.” Zhu Shu skillfully bent over and evaded the blow.

“What a joke. Who is going to kill? It’s this grandpa who will kill him.” Then recalling his glorious moment of almost being boss Jun’s Father, Xia Yuzhou was suddenly injected with 100% concentrated confidence.

Zhou Shu took off his mask which revealed his disbelief.

Xia Yuzhou licked the right side position where the fang ought to have grown. That one section caused the surface to be jagged, “Seriously, it has nothing to do with him.”

“You can continue ‘to be Ah Q!’”1 Zhou Shu unexpectedly didn’t talk about it anymore. He turned his head in ‘nutation’2 to look at the child, “Yo! This is my fresh grown nephew? Not bad. I heard he has a high IQ. Can he inherit my mantle?”

“Shh—” Xia Yuzhou signaled him to lower his voice. Even though he had drunk his fill to satisfaction, a newborn Bloodling is generally weak at this period of their development, and still requires lots of sleep.

All of a sudden, someone knocked on the door. Zhou Shu wasn’t given time to put on his face mask and directly plunged his face on the quilt to bury. His face is the ‘facade’ of the alliance which too many people can recognize.

Xia Yuzhou looked at his younger brother’s series of actions in despair. He suddenly felt there was no hope for their old Xia family.

“Bed seven’s family, the doctor invites you to the office.” The nurse with a sweet voice came in and said to Xia Yuzhou.

“Me?” Xia Yuzhou blinked, and said, “Okay, I”ll go.”

He doesn’t know how Si Jun did it, but the nurse directly acquiesced that he was a family member. It caught Xia Yuzhou off guard. After all, this child has been hospitalized here for so long that everyone should know him by now.

He kicked his brother who’s still pretending to be an ostrich. “I’ll go over for a while. You look after the child. Don’t let anyone carry him away.”3

Zhou Shu suspiciously extended his arm and made a gesture to his big nephew. Then ‘turned’ his head to ask his big brother how someone could carry ‘this’ away, only to see that he had already left. He slowly lifted his lips, revealing a pair of vicious fangs, “He forgot everything as soon as he met that surnamed Si, sooner or later, he’ll really die at his hand.”

He lowered his head and angrily changed his QQ signature: 【Lamenting its misfortune, angering its indisputable!】4

The doctor’s office in the critically-ill ward was much larger than the on duty room.

Two rows of office desks were put together, with all kinds of case data and office equipment on it. People work face to face to discuss treatment plans. It seems that the atmosphere in the office is pretty good.

There was no one present in the room because it’s currently lunch break, not even Si Jun. Xia Yuzhou didn’t have any consciousness as a guest at all, and went in without hesitation. With his hands poised in his back, looking like a leader in an inspection tour. He walked around the room, looking here and there.

There are several pots of succulent on the windowsill, they were green and vibrant. They seem to be well taken care of. On the wall hung various human body diagrams, and there was even an honor roll for the top doctor’s of each quarter. Si Jun was in the list and won the prize for “Night Shift Perfect Attendance” with a bonus of 500 Yuan.5

“Tut, I guessed it.” Xia Yuzhou stared at the number and laughed. The small time doctor who had just passed his medical training really didn’t have much money.

Next to the honor roll, was another list of names in a metal frame with monochrome photos.

”

”

【In commemoration to the heroes who died in the mad disaster.】

The smile on Xia Yuzhou’s face suddenly faltered. He looked at the photos one by one and finally stopped at the middle, where a chubby female doctor with fair face and curved lips can be seen. Even for such a serious photo, she’s able to squeeze out two dimples.

Below it, is a signature “Shui Qingjian.”6

The name of a ‘fair lady’7 with the appearance of a comedian.

“Look at you. If you don’t take a proper ‘solemn’8 picture, you will become a hero.”

“Vampires also want to eat delicious food. What’s the fun of living just by drinking blood. Let’s go. Mom will take you to hot pot!”

Seeing her smile, that noisy voice that he can never hear again, echoed in his ears.

“Creak—” The door of the office was pushed open. Si Jun walked in together with his colleague who was talking to him while carrying a stack of documents. Seeing Xia Yuzhou inside, his voice stopped abruptly.

Xia Yuzhou put his hands in his trouser pocket and looked at the incoming people.

Si Jun came over and slightly pursed his lips, “Sorry to have let you see this.”

Such conventional western style polite greeting.

“It’s not quite right,” Xia Yuzhou chuckled, jutted his chin at the desk under the photo, “My mom likes spicy food. Next time you put a tribute, just place a hotpot or something like that. What you put here is too light.”

Si Jun, “……”

The colleague on the side, “That…it’s not a tribute. It’s my lunch.” After that, he ‘bit the bullet’9 and picked up the lunch box on the table, then went out in ‘deep agony.’10

Xia Yuzhou took off his face mask and grinned.

Si Jun softly sighed, raised his hand and made a “please” gesture, indicating for Xia Yuzhou to sit down. Then he sat across from him and pushed over a test report, “This is Chen Mo’s blood test report this morning.”

Xia Yuzhou took the paper and glanced at it. There are few categories tested in this report, with none of the indicators that can reflect his primary disease symptoms, and were mainly immunological tests.

“His immunity is still at a very low level. Don’t give him unsterilized blood for at least a month.” Si Jun said objectively. His voice was calm, not the least bit carrying a temperament mood.

Xia Yuzhou returned the lab test, and said, “Thank you for what you did today.”

Ever since they met yesterday, neither of them have seated down to talk civilly. Now given the opportunity, although Xia Yuzhou had a bellyful of words to ask, his mouth could only let out dry words of gratitude.

Si Jun didn’t respond. He folded the test lab report neatly, took out an exquisite letter opener from a pen holder, cut the paper into several pieces then threw them into the rubbish bin.

The room then fell into silence.

At that time during their college, the two of them got along well and it was Xia Yuzhou who talked a lot. It didn’t matter if his words were boring because Si Jun would always respond. Even when he would idly shout his name for fun, he would still answer seriously.

“Si Jun.”

“What’s the matter?”

“Junjun.”

“Don’t use such intimate terms in class.”

“Mr. Si.”11

Instead of speaking, he titled his head slightly and made a simplified salute.

Xia Yuzhou was amused by the elegant and perfunctory salute. At that time, he thought, how could there be such a funny fellow. Rigid yet flexible, noble and cute.

And now, this noble gentleman who has never failed to be polite, and always responded to words of gratitude, did not pay attention to his thanks and disdained to even let out a grunt.

Xia Yuzhou smiled and said, “Okay, let’s get down to business. Where can I buy this pasteurized blood?”

Their family have always been drinking homemade blood plasma from the very start. Fresh blood brought from the wet market was added with anticoagulant food additives, and even if unsterilized, it’s better than just nothing. Although they would occasionally have diarrhea after drinking something like this. So Chen Mo’s current condition indeed couldn’t drink this.

But he had never heard of an industrial factory for blood sterilization.

“You can’t buy it on the market.” Si Jun placed the washed empty bottle into a box to put away. There was a water drop logo printed on the box, but that water droplet was red, along with a line “Empty Bottle Recycling” written below it.

Of course, Xia Yuzhou knew that it can’t be bought in the wet market, just like he also knew it won’t be available in the supermarket.12 “How can I buy them? The bloodling black market or something organization, how do I join?”13

Bottled blood with a production date is obviously mass produced. Since there is mass production, then the demand will not be limited to Si Jun’s family. It shows that there are more Bloodlings in this world. Xia Yuzhou had lived for more than 20 years, and only knew it from the first time. However, in front of his ex-boyfriend, he can’t appear to be an ignoramus. So he can only restrain his voice and slowly ask.

“Tell me first, who guided you to give Chen Mo the First Embrace?” Si Jun looked up at him.

“A person from the bone marrow bank called and said that there’s a child who’s a good match with me. So I came to see what kind of child he is.” Xia Yuzhou told the truth.

Not everyone can be transformed to Bloodling. He had yet to fully read his ancestor’s letters but one thing he can guarantee is, a person who can match his bone marrow can definitely be ‘turned’.

Si Jun said, “It’s common sense that the recipient information cannot be revealed to the donor.”

Indeed, this is common sense. But someone revealed it to him, from his name, down to his age and even his life story. “‘Senior’14 was too anxious.”

After saying that, Xia Yuzhou suddenly froze over.

When the bone marrow bank called him, he did inquire about the recipient’s information, “You tell me his name and information so I can decide whether to save or not.” The other party replied that it was illegal and that they could not disclose it. But it didn’t take long before He Yu called him, and he said, “This child is my student. I know it’s very presumptuous but I hope you can save him.”

He Yu said to 'save him”, not “donate his bone marrow”.

Si Jun nodded slightly, “I see.”

Xia Yuzhou, ‘whose luck had brought wisdom, astutely’15 asked, “He Yu is also a Bloodling?”

Si Jun did not refute but tactily agreed with his statement.

“Fuc…I’ve been living my life truly muddled. Two years in university and I never found out about you two!” Xia Yuzhou swallowed his swear words back.16 He was already upset about Si Jun’s concealment, and now he found out that his gentle and approachable Senior is also a liar.

“I didn’t deliberately conceal it nor am I obligated to tell you.” Si Jun said indifferently.

How can there be no obligation? You didn’t tell your partner you’re from a different species when you’re dating, then what’s the difference between it and a ‘deceitful marriage’?17

Xia Yuzhou wanted to scold him, but when he thought about it, he also didn’t inform him at that time, and he suddenly wilted.

“You are a Primordial species,18 entirely different from us, and you can survive independently,” Si Jun explained and ended with the line, 'so there’s no need for you to join the Blood Alliance.”

What?

Xia Yuzhou heard two strange and unfamiliar terms, “Primordial species, vampires are also divided into ghost types?”

Si Jun, “It’s a Bloodling, not a ghost.”

Xia Yuzhou, “That’s what it means anyway. Don’t tell me you’re a modern race?”19

Si Jun, “We don’t call ourselves that, but you can comprehend it that way.”

Xia Yuzhou, “……” There are many of your kind so you don’t need a special title, huh.

Xia Yuzhou, “What is the Blood Alliance?”

Si Jun showed him the blood drop sign on the box, and said, “Blood Alliance. This kind of food can only be obtained by becoming a member of it. Are you sure you want to join?”

Xia Yuzhou was baffled, “Just to buy breakfast milk, I have to join the ‘underworld?’”20