Chapter 83

Chapter 83

On the map, Du Island was long and narrow.

Frigid winds followed the ocean currents in, and because of the island’s terrain, the mountains blocked them, creating two utterly different landscapes on Du Island.

Along the coast, the cliffs were steep and sheer. Standing at the top, one looked down a dizzying drop to dense clusters of dark gray reefs. The seawater deepened their color until the rocks were almost black. Waves shattered the ice, rolling up fine white foam that crashed against the reefs and made everything seem even colder.

And yet the sea was impossibly vast.

The calm surface, lit by the winter sun, was a muted gray-blue. Sky met the edge of the water, water met the edge of the sky-an awe-inspiring sight.

The wind was fierce, but Ning Qiuyan’s heart was very still.

As he gazed out over that boundless sea, he felt no fear. Standing here, he accepted, with perfect calm, his own insignificance as a human being. He accepted the loneliness he had been experiencing so profoundly all this time.

Because Guan Heng still existed in this world.

Guan Heng had him, and he had Guan Heng.

A weight settled over his shoulders. Ning Qiuyan lowered his eyes and saw Guan Heng’s black coat, as well as Guan Heng’s pale, slender hands wrapping it around him. Before coming here, Ning Qiuyan had deliberately put on his thickest clothes, but even now he was so cold his lips had gone white. He looked at Guan Heng. “Aren’t you cold?”

After draping the coat over Ning Qiuyan, Guan Heng was left with only a thin layer of clothing beneath.

The sea wind lifted Guan Heng’s long hair, sweeping it past his calm brows and eyes.

The cold seemed to have no effect on him at all. He answered naturally, “I don’t really feel anything.”

The senses of Vampires were several times sharper than those of ordinary people, yet in certain respects, they were much duller. They had left sickness and suffering far behind them, and adverse consequences from the external environment rarely affected them. But at times, that was not necessarily a good thing.

They had long since been deprived of the right to feel life.

Just as when they endured sunlight, Vampires were essentially a special kind of stone-or rather, merely a walking shell.

Ning Qiuyan leaned into Guan Heng’s arms, hoping he could block a little of the wind for him. “Do you come here often?”

Because of their difference in height, Guan Heng’s chin was beside Ning Qiuyan’s ear, his voice very close. “Not much anymore. When I first came to Du Island, this was where I stayed.”

Guan Heng had first set foot on Du Island many years ago. So the mansion had been a construction site chosen only later.

Ning Qiuyan thought for a moment, then asked, “Did you build a house here back then too?”

Guan Heng said, “No.”

“Why?” Ning Qiuyan was surprised. “Then where did you all live?”

“There was no ‘all.’ It was just me,” Guan Heng said. “During the day, I stayed in cracks in the ground, or beneath rocks. Later, I found a suitable cave. It only got one hour of sunlight a day, so I stayed there after that.”

The scene from back then was completely different from what Ning Qiuyan had imagined. It sounded primitive. Harsh.

Because he could not see the light, Guan Heng could only hide in the shadows like a creature of the underground during the day, and only at night could he resume moving about.

On that enormous island, there had been only him. There was nothing around him-no trees, no living creatures. Apart from the wind and the sea, there had been no other sounds to hear, no way to communicate with anyone.

That had been Guan Heng’s cruel exile of himself.

Even though hundreds of years had already passed, a sour ache still rose in Ning Qiuyan’s heart.

“This is my first time coming here during the day.” The daylight was dazzling, and Guan Heng narrowed his eyes slightly. “Standing here, you can see farther than at night.”

The two of them stood there for a while like that.

Ning Qiuyan noticed that Guan Heng had grown somewhat quieter. The weight of Guan Heng leaning against him from behind had also become heavier. Suddenly, he remembered something-Vampires were afraid of large bodies of water.

They were too close to the sea here. Even someone as powerful as Guan Heng would feel the powerless weakness it brought.

In front of Ning Qiuyan, Guan Heng made no effort to hide his vulnerability at all. Instead, he simply held him, leaned on him, and spoke in that calm tone. This was a special closeness that Guan Heng gave only to him.

“The wind is so cold.” Ning Qiuyan turned around and burrowed into Guan Heng’s embrace. “Let’s move farther away from here.”

They left the sea-facing cliff behind.

Ning Qiuyan asked, “Can we go see that cave?”

He wanted to see the cave where Guan Heng had once hidden himself.

But Guan Heng held his hand and said mildly, “Next time.”

It was clear that Guan Heng was in a decent mood, and Ning Qiuyan guessed that perhaps he simply wasn’t ready yet to take him on a tour of his private territory. He asked Guan Heng, “Then how did the others come to the island later… I mean, when was the house built?”

“At the time, I only wanted to withdraw from the world. I didn’t have any other plans,” Guan Heng said. “Buying Du Island was also a matter of chance. I found out that someone was going to auction it off, so I used the Blood Supervision Council’s connections and bought it directly.”

The ground was uneven, and they walked with one step high and the next low.

Guan Heng said, “After I lost contact for several decades, the Guan Family still found me through the Blood Supervision Council. They sailed the first ship here, and after that, they never left.”

Du Island’s past slowly unfolded, like the unveiling of an ancient story, and at last it reached the chapter Ning Qiuyan was most curious about.

“They were looking for you all along?” Ning Qiuyan was astonished. Seeing Guan Heng acknowledge it, he asked again, “Could it be that ever since your transformation, you’ve kept in contact with them?”
Guan Heng lowered his eyes, taking in Ning Qiuyan’s expression, and said, “Yes. The Guan Family of today descends from a collateral branch that was lucky enough to survive back then.”

Ning Qiuyan’s steps faltered. He remembered the historical records he had looked up, and for a moment, he didn’t know what to say.

Given the level of feudal autocracy in the Qing Dynasty over a thousand years ago, it should have been almost impossible for the Guan Family to leave anyone alive. It was hard to imagine how they had done it, or how Guan Heng had become what he was now.

But Ning Qiuyan didn’t want to ask. Asking wouldn’t change what had already happened.

Perhaps one day, Guan Heng would bring it up. For now, all they needed was to enjoy the beauty of the present.

“I heard every member of the Guan Family comes here to live for a few years at some point in their life,” Ning Qiuyan said. “Like Guan Ziming.”

“Mm,” Guan Heng said. “They are fulfilling an agreement.”

The cold wind howled. As they spoke, the two of them had already reached the off-road vehicle.

Once inside, Ning Qiuyan immediately felt much warmer. He took off his gloves and blew warm air onto his hands. Guan Heng turned up the heat, and Ning Qiuyan held his hands out toward the vent, his face bright with excitement, his eyes shining.

He was curious where Guan Heng would take him next.

Of course, the trip wasn’t over yet.

Guan Heng started the car again, and they left the seaside, driving around to the other side of the island. This time, Ning Qiuyan clearly noticed the change in terrain. The snow on the ground grew thicker and thicker, and low vegetation began to appear.

Affected by the extreme cold, the vehicle’s performance was slightly compromised. When they climbed a snowy hill, Guan Heng nearly floored the gas pedal, and the engine’s roar startled the birds in the woods into scattering in every direction.

Ahead lay an endless snowy plain. The terrain was flat, with almost no obstacles.

The off-road vehicle sped like the wind, its tires spraying snow and kicking up waves of white mist.

Guan Heng asked Ning Qiuyan if he knew how to drive.

Ning Qiuyan felt a little embarrassed. “No… I haven’t signed up for a driver’s license yet.”

Many people his age had gotten their licenses early. When Ning Qiuyan had come of age, his finances hadn’t allowed it, so the idea of learning to drive had never crossed his mind. Later, he had been busy working part-time jobs, and so even now, he still didn’t know how to drive.

Guan Heng asked, “Do you want to?”

No young man could resist the pleasure of driving. Guan Heng had long since noticed the envy in Ning Qiuyan’s eyes and seen through what he wanted.

Ning Qiuyan hesitated. “Can I?”

Guan Heng stopped the car and said only, “Come here.”

Out here, it didn’t matter if he didn’t have a license. The two of them switched seats. Guan Heng briefly explained the controls, then let Ning Qiuyan start the car. Ning Qiuyan listened carefully and picked it up quickly, but it was his first time touching a steering wheel. When he stepped on the gas, he misjudged the pressure, and the vehicle shot forward with a roar.

Without question, it was a reckless move. Other than Guan Heng, there was probably no one else who would dare to instruct Ning Qiuyan like this, and no one else who would dare ride in a car he was driving.

Guan Heng reminded him, “Ease off the gas a little.”

His tone was as calm as ever.

The off-road vehicle carved an S-shape through the snow before gradually straightening into a steady line.

The snow chains imposed a speed limit, so they weren’t actually going very fast, but for Ning Qiuyan, who was driving for the first time, it was thrilling enough. As the scenery on both sides of his vision kept falling behind, he felt his adrenaline spike, his ears buzzing.

They were going downhill.

The snow was thick and slippery. Ning Qiuyan’s nerves were stretched taut, and the car’s speed picked up again.

A deer suddenly appeared not far ahead. Startled, Ning Qiuyan jerked the steering wheel hard, and the car charged straight off in another direction-

“Step on the brake,” Guan Heng said, still unhurried. “Keep the steering wheel steady.”

It was as if he had cooled Ning Qiuyan’s boiling brain.

Amid the wild momentum, Ning Qiuyan forced himself to calm down. Following Guan Heng’s instructions, he managed to stop the car at the very edge of a drop in the terrain at the last possible second.

“Boom-”

The thick layer of accumulated snow collapsed.

The vehicle suddenly slid forward, half the hood getting caught over the high edge, with a drop of three or four meters below.

His heart pounded wildly.

Ning Qiuyan broke out in a cold sweat, his expression changing. “Sir… what do we do?”

Guan Heng, however, unbuckled Ning Qiuyan’s seat belt and reached out to scoop him over from the driver’s seat. Ning Qiuyan was all long arms and legs, not exactly easy to pull across in such a cramped space, and the two of them were still the weight of two grown men. With Guan Heng’s movement, the car began to rock back and forth, letting out terrifying creaks and groans.

“Exciting?” Guan Heng asked, holding Ning Qiuyan as he brushed aside the sweat-damp hair on his forehead.

Ning Qiuyan nodded. Every hair on his body was standing on end, heat steaming off him.

He looped his arms around Guan Heng’s neck, the back of his head pressed against the roof of the car, and saw a hint of deep red appear in Guan Heng’s pitch-black eyes.

The violently beating heart of a human and the blood rushing faster through his veins were giving off their distinctive fragrance. It mingled with the clean, fresh scent on Ning Qiuyan’s body, invisibly teasing Guan Heng’s nerves.

Guan Heng’s hands were still cold. His heartbeat remained exceedingly slow, his breathing barely there. Like a statue of white jade, he would not be shaken by any danger or accident.

A pool of dead water.

Stirred into ripples by Ning Qiuyan’s existence.

Cold and hot breaths alternated.

Deathly stillness and vibrant life entwined.

Their lips drew close, and inside the precariously swaying car, upon that vast, snow-blanketed wilderness, they shared a long, long kiss.