Chapter 108

Translator : Mukyuu

Editor : Mikyuu

Baal reached out a hand and caught the bat. Then he turned and flipped Wang Xiaoming, who had just turned back into a human, under him.

“You said it, once.” Wang Xiaoming bit his lip and looked at Baal.

Baal felt his body stiffen.

Ever since Wang Xiaoming had become a Kindred, there had been slight changes to his physical appearance. The most obvious one was his skin, which turned from its original light-brown shade into a translucent white, which made those black eyes appear more lively.

“Just once.” Wang Xiaoing feared that Baal hadn’t heard him clearly, so he repeated it again.

Baal’s hand gently stroked Wang Xiaoming’s waist and then he gave an evil laugh. “Of course, but…”

As soon as Wang Xiaoming heard “but,” all the hairs on his body stood on their ends.

“If you ask for it yourself, I won’t refuse.”

…

How could he ask for that himself?

Wang Xiaoming’s face was filled with a determined “absolutely not.”

…

An hour later.

“Are-are you done…” Wang Xiaoming’s fingers clutched tightly at Baal’s shoulders. Despite becoming a lot stronger after becoming a Kindred, Baal’s stamina had clearly also increased the same way.

Baal kept his head down and kept working.

…

Two hours later.

“I can’t…” Wang Xiaoming’s hair stuck to his forehead wetly and his being in a continuously aroused state also made him feel extremely exhausted.

Baal continued working hard.

…

Two and a half hours later.

Wang Xiaoming gave in. “Re… rest. Then we do it again.”

Baal’s lips lifted into a satisfied smile and he bent down to press a gentle kiss to Wang Xiaoming’s lips.

He stopped.

The flight finally arrived in Shanghai.

Wang Xiaoming leaned sleepily against Baal’s shoulder as they disembarked.

The flight lasted about 12 hours and Baal had “worked” about 12 hours. From the point of view of a professional, he could be described as having taken full advantage of every second. Intermission had never lasted more than five minutes.

As they walked out from customs, Baal seemed extremely satiated. Even when the customer service employees at the airport greeted him, he returned a rare smile so that the number of pink bubbles in the airport increased.

As they walked out of the airport, they saw Xiang Wenxun run at top-speed toward them. The tightness on his face only eased when he spotted them. “Long time no see, Mr. Baal.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while.” The arm he had around Wang Xiaoming tightened.

Probably because he had heard the sounds of someone talking, Wang Xiaoming opened his eyes and the dazed look in them cleared up as soon as he saw who had arrived “President Xiang.”

“Long time no see.” Xiang Wenxun smiled. “There was a traffic jam on the way here. I hope I didn’t keep you two waiting for too long.”

Wang Xiaoming answered, “No, we just got off the plane.”

Baal side-eyed him. “You actually know we just got off the plane?”

Wang Xiaoming pursed his lips unhappily. “I’m just sleepy, not unconscious.”

Baal looked down at those pursed lips and suddenly bent his head to suck on them; then he started to wreak havoc.

Wang Xiaoming’s eyes flew wide-open.

Round after round of gasps of surprise came from all around them.

Xiang Wenxun adjusted his sleeves and took several steps back, as if he wasn’t part of it, and joined the crowd of onlookers.

Baal only looked up after about half an hour.

Catcalls came from around them, mixed in with sounds of quiet cursing. But once those people finished cursing, they discovered their surroundings had changed. All of them appeared in the middle of an intersection—

“Ah!”

Of course, no matter how loud and clear their shrieks were, they’d never be carried back to the airport.

Though their surroundings had gone quiet in an instant, Wang Xiaoming still felt so embarrassed he felt like digging a hole and hiding himself in there.

Xiang Wenxun looked into the surprised and shocked eyes of a few onlookers and hurriedly said, “Let’s go back first.”

“Yeah.” Wang Xiaoming kept his head low as he rushed forward.

Baal asked leisurely from behind him, “You heading back to France?”

Wang Xiaoming looked up in surprise, only to find that the direction he had been rushing in was the airport.

“…”

Xiang Wenxun had driven here personally. After witnessing what had happened at the airport, he admired himself for his foresight.

Wang Xiaoming remembered the Silver House and felt a sense of familiarity that he hadn’t felt for a long time. He kept asking after the others, even including Tao Le on the list. When he heard that both Tao Le and Xu Yiming had left the Silver House, he couldn’t help but marvel at the passing of time.

After a long round of questioning, the topic of discussion finally turned to Xiang Wenjie.

Xiang Wenxun’s hands tightened on the steering wheel and he said calmly, “He’s starting to adjust to his new identity.”

Wang Xiaoming asked, “Did Edwin help get him an ID?” After his personal experience, he could ask more questions about problems.

Xiang Wenxun nodded. “He’s now Chinese with French citizenship.”

Europe was the turf of the Kindred, so most of the identification cards in Wang Xiaoming’s set were also from Europe. Only one of them was from China, but that one was enough since someone would automatically renew it for him when it was time.

“Is he afraid of sunlight?” Wang Xiaoming remembered that the Kindred who had Embraced Xiang Wenjie first had been a fourteenth generation and had been afraid of sunlight.

Xiang Wenxun answered, “No, not afraid.”

“That’s great then.” Wang Xiaoming signed in relief.

“But he can’t maintain his human form after 8pm.” Xiang Wenxun continued calmly.

Wang Xiaoming paused and then asked in shock after a while, “Can’t maintain human form after 8pm?”

“He turns into a bat until four the next morning.” Xiang Wenxun’s expression was serious. Though he had known about this for quite a while and had passed the initial stage of shock, the impact of the shock was gradually sinking through his heart, piling up and turning itself into a knot that couldn’t be easily removed.

Wang Xiaoming murmured to himself, “Is there no other way?”

…

Baal replied, “You should ask a high ranking Kindred that question.”

Wang Xiaoming’s eyes lit up. “Who?”

“Second generation Kindred…” Baal paused and then slowly said, “Lord Wang.”

…

Wang Xiaoming squeezed himself into a corner of the car and pretended to be dead.

So he was “dead” the entire way back to the Silver House.

Wang Xiaoming instantly came back to life and jumped out of the car agilely. He looked at the building that glinted under the sunlight and emotions stirred uncontrollably in his heart. He finally seemed capable of understanding the hidden meaning behind the line of poetry, “I left home a youngster and returned an old man 1 A poem by Tang dynasty poet He Zhizhang, which describes his feelings as he returned to his hometown. .”

Xiang Wenxun parked the car and led them back to their dorm.

As soon as Wang Xiaoming walked into the dorm, he couldn’t help but stroke everything and repeat, “Nothing changed, nothing changed…”

As Baal watched Wang Xiaoming look at the paper scraps on the floor and still say that nothing had changed, he finally couldn’t help but ask, “Are you sure there were paper scraps when you left?”

Wang Xiaoming said, “I meant the floor under the scraps of paper hasn’t changed.”

Baal said frustratedly, “You’ve only been gone for a month.”

Wang Xiaoming remarked, “It’s actually been an entire month.”

Baal, “…”

Probably because he heard their footsteps, Chu Zhao’s door opened and he stuck half of his body out. When he saw Wang Xiaoming and Baal, caution clearly took over his expression and then he silently backed away and shut the door.

Wang Xiaoming sighed, “That hasn’t changed either.”

Xiang Wenxun took out keys from his pocket and handed them over. “We’ve kept your room.”

Wang Xiaoming’s eyes made his happiness clear. “Really?” He accepted the keys and excitedly opened the door.

The room’s decorations were absolutely still the same as they had been before he left and there was not a speck of dust anywhere; clearly someone had intentionally cleaned it.

“Thank you, President Xiang.” Wang Xiaoming was sincere in his thanks.

Baal walked into the study and checked over his hoop machine, which was still present and accounted for.

Xiang Wenxun stood behind him and said with a smile, “If Mr. Baal has needs, I can have another game machine delivered.”

Baal gave him a look and said, “You don’t need to ask about that kind of thing.”

Xiang Wenxun’s smile didn’t change. “Understood.”

Wang Xiaoming walked into the kitchen and easily poured two drinks. He handed one to Xiang Wenxun and kept the other for himself.

Baal asked beside them with a stormy expression, “What about me?”

Wang Xiaoming paused and suddenly discovered that Baal already had a physical body. It was probably because the memories made in this room were so deeply embedded in him that he had habitually treated Baal as if the guy were still in his original spirit state.

He chuckled in embarrassment and handed the drink in his hand to Baal, and then he poured himself another cup.

One member from each of the three major species sat down.

Wang Xiaoming thought about Xiang Wenjie’s issue and couldn’t help but ask again, “Is there really no other way?”

Xiang Wenxun set the cup down on the coffee table. “After Wenjie’s first turning failed, the Kindred blood in his body couldn’t turn him into a true Kindred. But the human body’s instinct for survival caused the Kindred and human blood to come together in an unpredictable fashion… or rather, like a human disease mutating. Edwin used his blood and other medicine to prevent the mutation from spreading, but they couldn’t get rid of it. So Xiang Wenjie has to turn into a bat every day to strike a balance with the mutation and prevent it from mutating further because they’re suppressing it.”

Wang Xiaoming felt as lost as he would be in fog and asked, “So there’s no way?”

Xiang Wenxun replied, “Right now, yes. As for the future…” He paused and said with a small smile, “He has an infinite future so I won’t give up hope, even until the moment I die.”

Wang Xiaoming heard him talk about death and couldn’t help but be taken by surprise. Though he was already a Kindred, he still couldn’t turn off his mindset as a human. Therefore, to him, Xiang Wenxun was at the prime of his life at his age.

Xiang Wenxun took a breath and said, “I heard that your Embrace was successful and you’ve become a true second generation?”

Wang Xiaoming nodded shyly.

“Congratulations.” Xiang Wenxun offered his hand. He meant that with all of his heart. Though he had wanted to take advantage of Wang Xiaoming, he had promoted the man and gotten close to him not because of that. He had always understood Wang Xiaoming’s personality and truly admired him.

Even up until this moment, he still had plans to use Wang Xiaoming because of Wang Xiaoming’s current identity and relationship with Baal, all of which would benefit Xiang Wenjie in the future. That was the only thing he could do as an older brother with a limited lifespan.

But not everyone could withstand that kind of “use” and not everyone could meet someone who could hold up under the pressure. That had to be built upon a foundation of complete trust, the kind of trust where they’d hold onto the friendship and treasure it even if one of them died.

“Thank you.” Their hands clasped and Wang Xiaoming offered a sincere smile.

1

A poem by Tang dynasty poet He Zhizhang, which describes his feelings as he returned to his hometown.