Chapter 114

Chapter 114

Ning Qiuyan opened the message panel and carefully went through every message he had sent.

All of them were one-sided, sinking into the sea like stones without a single reply.

So… it wasn’t that Guan Heng couldn’t see them.

Was this a punishment?

Or had he failed to express himself clearly during their last call, so badly that even Guan Heng had misunderstood and thought they had already broken up?

Ning Qiuyan called Guan Heng directly.

The ringtone sounded again and again, but Guan Heng did not pick up.

With trembling hands, he threw the phone onto the bed. All his long struggle with himself, all his desperate attempts to keep moving forward, suddenly seemed like a joke.

Guan Heng was clearly awake, yet he had deliberately kept it from him. Ning Qiuyan felt stifled with anger. He refused to believe Guan Heng didn’t know what kind of life he had been living.

Did this mean they had broken up?

Were they just… over?

Anger and anxiety overwhelmed Ning Qiuyan’s reason. He picked up the phone and called again. This wait felt even longer than the last, but still, no one answered.

The phone slipped from his hand.

He couldn’t find Guan Heng anymore.

For a moment, he didn’t know where he was or what he was doing.

The room was very dark. Ning Qiuyan had forgotten to turn on the lights.

In the darkness, his phone screen quietly lit up, and a familiar username appeared on it.

Lu23121873: [Hey, what are you doing?]

The email was from Lu Qianque.

Seeing his message, Ning Qiuyan suddenly realized that he had been so busy this past year that he had barely kept in touch with Lu Qianque either. The last time they had spoken on the phone was half a year ago, when Lu Qianque said he happened to be passing through Sujing and wanted to come see him.

At the time, Ning Qiuyan had been busy helping an upperclassman supervise a public-service animated short film project. It paid almost nothing, but it was an extremely valuable practical opportunity, so he had politely turned Lu Qianque down, saying he didn’t have time. Afterward, he had completely forgotten about it. Now that he thought back on it, even if he had been too busy, it still wasn’t normal for Lu Qianque to have contacted him so rarely.

He couldn’t wait to reply by message and called Lu Qianque instead.

The call was answered quickly. “What is it?”

Ning Qiuyan asked, “Where is sir?”

Lu Qianque did not answer right away.

After two seconds, he said, “You found out, didn’t you?”

So everyone had known Guan Heng’s dormancy period had ended long ago, yet not a single person had told him. For a moment, Ning Qiuyan’s emotions churned violently, his chest so blocked that his breathing grew rapid.

Countless questions battered his reason.

Then he heard Lu Qianque say, “Sir is near the Arctic Circle. Sometimes there’s no signal there. If you can’t get through to him, it’s definitely not because he doesn’t want to answer.”

Ning Qiuyan didn’t fully understand, but the taut string in his heart loosened slightly.

“Do you want to go?” Lu Qianque said suddenly. “I’ll take you to find him.”

A few hours later, Lu Qianque rushed from Luochuan to Sujing.

The last time they had met, it had also been summer, but this time it was during the day, and the temperature was even higher than before. Lu Qianque was dressed in a black cloak, holding a mask in his hand. Even after getting into the car, he kept his sunglasses on, covering himself tightly.

“What an awful season,” Lu Qianque complained. “Why does summer have to exist in this world?”

Ning Qiuyan, who liked every season: “…”

The entire car had been custom-coated with a special layer that blocked ultraviolet light completely.

Ning Qiuyan had only opened the door for an instant when getting in, but even now, he could clearly see the exposed skin on Lu Qianque’s body gradually turning from hard and petrified back to soft.

Vampires were cold-blooded creatures. They feared light and disliked heat. Summer truly did make them uncomfortable.

This was probably also why Guan Heng had chosen to live on Du Island.

Ning Qiuyan had many questions he wanted to ask Lu Qianque, but he didn’t know where to begin, so he waited for Lu Qianque to explain everything from the start.

This temporary trip had been arranged in an enormous hurry. There had been no time to handle documents and procedures. Only after they boarded the private plane that had materialized as soon as it was needed, and entered a specially opened flight route, did Ning Qiuyan truly understand for the first time the mysterious influence that ordinary humans in the mundane world could hardly glimpse.

They planned to fly to Norway first. That was where Guan Heng had last contacted Lu Qianque.

They would begin searching there. If they didn’t find him, they would continue toward Finland and Greenland. At the farthest, they might even circle around to Siberia.

Sitting beside a tightly covered cabin window, Ning Qiuyan asked Lu Qianque across the aisle, “Why did sir go to the Arctic Circle?”

The seats were spacious, and the aisle was wide.

Lu Qianque finally took off his sunglasses. “There’s always been a legend circulating around the Arctic Circle… It says there’s a secret realm there, located above thousand-zhang mountains and beneath ancient black ice. The world’s very first Vampire came from there. That place is the origin of everything.”

Ning Qiuyan: “…”

Seeing his expression, Lu Qianque couldn’t help smiling. “Don’t look like that. Actually, a long time ago, sir and I both felt this legend probably wasn’t entirely baseless. Think about it. Many viruses on Earth existed before humans ever appeared. Maybe beneath those ice layers, there’s a virus that can make people ageless and undying, forcing them to live by drinking blood. Perhaps someone once went there and was lucky enough to survive the harsh environment, but unknowingly brought that virus back with them. It’s very possible there’s a scientific basis for it.”

For the moment, Ning Qiuyan had no interest in this theory.

Whenever the Arctic Circle was mentioned, Ning Qiuyan always thought of that gray-robed figure. “Did sir go looking for the gray-robed figure?”

Lu Qianque said, “No. This time has nothing to do with the gray-robed figure.”

Returning to the subject, Lu Qianque continued, “In short, although a legend is only a legend, aside from the gray-robed figure, there are indeed some older Vampires hidden near the Arctic Circle. They don’t come from an era as distant as the gray-robed figure’s, so relatively speaking, they aren’t as powerful, and they maintain a simpler, friendlier way of life. You could say they’re vegetarians. Apart from how they feed after hunting animals, they’re actually no different from ordinary human tribes. But because their influence isn’t strong enough, and because their own power is always being coveted, they usually hide their tracks like the gray-robed figure. They’re almost impossible to find.”
Ning Qiuyan nodded and waited for Lu Qianque to continue.

Lu Qianque said, “Deshan and Joshua have traveled the world, and they often stay in the Arctic Circle, so they’ve heard a fair number of stories about them. Sir once heard from them that there was a Vampire with special powers in that tribe. He knew a very ancient and cruel method of suppressing the urge to drink human blood. Through repeated training and practice, it allowed the tribe to maintain their current way of life.”

Some Vampires were born with special powers.

Guan Heng, for example, could taste human emotions while feeding and empathize with the person he fed from.

So had Guan Heng gone to find this special Vampire?

Lu Qianque quickly answered, “Yes.”

Ning Qiuyan asked, “What does he want with him?”

Lu Qianque leaned back against the broad chair, his gaze complicated as he looked at Ning Qiuyan. “Sir normally doesn’t drink human blood, and his self-control is terrifying to begin with. There is only one person, and one situation, that can make him lose control. After going through so much trouble, what do you think he’s doing it for? You really can’t guess?”

It seemed to take a very, very long time before Ning Qiuyan finally understood. His eyes flew wide, his expression full of shock.

Immediately after, his heartbeat lurched wildly out of rhythm.

“Which brings us to Qin Weizhi.”

Lu Qianque paused there. Even without him saying more, Ning Qiuyan would never forget that man.

“Qin Weizhi spent hundreds, even thousands, of years searching for the gray-robed figure in the Arctic Circle. During the cleanup operation last time, I discovered he hadn’t come away completely empty-handed after all. He had been to many places and accidentally traced that tribe’s movements. Although he had no interest in them, that information happens to be useful to us.”

Ning Qiuyan remained where he was. Deep in his ears, aside from the pounding of his heart, only the faint roar of the engine remained. “I thought… Why?”

He had thought there was no longer any room for this matter to change, and he had long since accepted the outcome.

Why had Guan Heng changed his mind?

“Probably because he was afraid you’d never wake him again.”

Lu Qianque said it half seriously, half jokingly.

Ning Qiuyan’s face flushed red.

“This time, Sir woke up early on his own. Last summer break, he waited for you for a full two months. Your heart really is hard. You actually didn’t go see him even once.” Lu Qianque said, “Sir waited until December before leaving. He went to Longyearbyen first to meet up with Deshan. The polar night there helped them confirm the tribe’s route. They followed it all the way, and by now they’re almost halfway there.”

Guan Heng was domineering, but he was also forbearing.

The reason he had waited in silence was because he was not certain whether his idea could be realized, and also because he wanted Ning Qiuyan to have enough time to think everything through.

Ning Qiuyan understood him.

“Little Puppy.” Lu Qianque put his sunglasses back on. “If this succeeds, you’ll be the first Golden Blood to be turned by someone bound by the toxin. No one knows what that means. Are you looking forward to it?”
—
The society of the Vampires was vast and far-reaching.

As soon as they landed at the airport, someone came specifically to help them prepare.

They brought over necessities for a human, as well as a vehicle with enormous wheels, built especially for brutal environments. It was the tail end of the polar day, and Lu Qianque was like a dead fish here, so Ning Qiuyan, who had gotten his driver’s license, was in charge of driving.

They did not find Guan Heng at the coordinates along this route.

So they continued on to the next destination.

The geography was different, and at this time the Arctic Circle was about to enter winter. The farther they drove into sparsely populated areas, the colder it became, so Ning Qiuyan had no choice but to put on his winter clothes ahead of time.

Driving through the world of ice and snow, Ning Qiuyan not only didn’t plunge off a cliff or crash into a tree, he also calmly avoided danger several times. He wondered whether Guan Heng would be pleased if he saw it.

Even though they had prepared communication equipment, the signal still came and went.

Lu Qianque could only search by following the marks on the map. After they reached the glacier, they could no longer drive, so Lu Qianque set up a tent and had Ning Qiuyan make camp while he set out alone.

Here, Ning Qiuyan saw the aurora for the first time.

Fluorescent green light swept across the sky, reflected over the icebergs and snowscape, so beautiful it stole his breath.

Was Guan Heng seeing this aurora right now?

He hoped so.

This pursuit felt like a special journey.

It let him follow Guan Heng’s lonely footsteps and see an even more beautiful world.

A week later, they arrived at a new destination and changed vehicles.

When the polar night came, Lu Qianque seemed to come back to life, and Ning Qiuyan was finally able to rest. Once, Lu Qianque managed to get through to Guan Heng’s phone. The static was loud, and Lu Qianque only had time to say a few words before the call cut off again.

Humans were still too fragile. Although it was not as cold here as winter on Du Island, Ning Qiuyan still caught a cold.

Unfortunately, their car also suddenly broke down that afternoon.

Lu Qianque had no choice but to give up on moving forward for the time being and keep Ning Qiuyan in a nearby small town, planning to set out again after they regrouped there.

Ning Qiuyan had a slight fever. Lying on the bed in the little inn, he could no longer tell whether it was day or night. He only vaguely saw someone come in through the door.

It was not Lu Qianque.

A slender, ice-cold hand gently touched his burning forehead.

This person belonged to the night.

Silent and soundless, wrapped in wind and snow.

“Ning Qiuyan.”

Ning Qiuyan’s eyes were rimmed red. He looked up and met a pair of deep-black phoenix eyes, their outer corners lifted slightly.