Chapter 95
Chapter 95
Once the guests had left, only the master of the house remained in the vast mansion.
When Guan Heng came into the room, Ning Qiuyan was sitting cross-legged on the floor with his laptop in his arms.
He did not have much coursework at university, but too many things had happened over the past few days, and Ning Qiuyan had put off several assignments without turning them in. He was looking down at the screen, seemingly very focused. Beneath his sweater, his body was young and slender, the lines of his shoulder blades distinct, already showing the breadth of a young man.
Guan Heng walked closer and saw the blinking cursor on the screen lingering in the same spot for a long time. Ning Qiuyan was not concentrating at all. He was clearly spacing out, so lost in thought that he did not even notice Guan Heng come to his side.
He was probably worried about Lu Qianque.
Guan Heng sat down beside him. Ning Qiuyan snapped back to himself as if startled awake and called, “Sir,” but then asked a rather abrupt question. “A Vampire’s toxin… does it have certain side effects on the human body? For example, adoration, submission, and certain desires-”
“Yes,” Guan Heng answered without the slightest hesitation, as if there was actually nothing worth hiding.
Out of habit, Guan Heng bent one leg, resting his elbow on his knee, his posture lazy and relaxed.
The way the two of them were now was similar to their old question-and-answer sessions in the puzzle room.
“Who told you?” Guan Heng asked.
“Someone I met at that club.” Ning Qiuyan could not quite remember the other person’s name. “The one you said was surnamed Qin.”
“Qin Weizhi.” Guan Heng repeated the name without much emotion, simply looking at Ning Qiuyan. “What about it?”
Ning Qiuyan did not ask why Guan Heng had never mentioned it to him before. He did not show the slightest suspicion or doubt. If he had, Ning Qiuyan would not be reacting like this now.
But several days had already passed since their trip to the club. Ning Qiuyan had not asked before, so why bring it up all of a sudden now?
Ning Qiuyan asked, “When I first came to the island, you told me to entrust myself to you, and you offered me very good terms, far beyond the compensation in the agreement. Back then… were you trying to make it up to me?”
It seemed Ning Qiuyan had already thought about this for some time and had come to a very clear conclusion.
At that time, there had only been a six-month blood donation agreement between them, very simple and straightforward. Ning Qiuyan would never have known the secrets about the Vampires behind it all, and once the agreement ended, he would have left completely.
As for the side effects caused by those toxins, it was only natural that Guan Heng had not told him.
It was also only natural that there had been compensation.
“Yes.” Guan Heng answered frankly as well, his gaze sweeping over Ning Qiuyan’s fingers, which were unconsciously twisting together. “Does that make you uncomfortable?”
Ning Qiuyan shook his head. “No. I think you already handled it very well back then.”
Guan Heng shifted positions and sat up properly.
Ning Qiuyan’s hand was pulled over, and immediately after, his chin was lifted. In Guan Heng’s slightly upturned phoenix eyes was an emotion Ning Qiuyan could not understand. They no longer seemed cold and detached.
“Ning Qiuyan,” Guan Heng asked directly, “do you like me because of my toxin?”
The question came closely on the heels of the last, blunt and straightforward.
Although his tone was cold, and much more serious, there was an unmistakable concern in it, something Ning Qiuyan had never encountered from him before.
“Of course not!” Ning Qiuyan said hurriedly. “I like you, and it has absolutely nothing to do with your toxin.”
Guan Heng’s fingers tightened. “Then what do you like?”
Ning Qiuyan’s chin hurt so much he was close to tears. “Everything. I like everything about you.”
The hand gripping his chin loosened.
The overwhelming, suffocating pressure vanished in an instant as well.
For once, Guan Heng offered an explanation for something he felt was unnecessary to explain. “My control over my toxin is extremely precise. The amount that could have entered your body was negligible. Back then, every time I bit you, Dr. Ling disinfected the wound in time. It couldn’t possibly have caused side effects severe enough to affect you. Even if there had been any, from last May to November, your body should have metabolized them completely.”
Everything that happened afterward had happened after they met again.
Before that, even if Guan Heng had been stirred in some way, he had never done anything that crossed the line.
With Ning Qiuyan, Guan Heng had always been open and honorable, always meticulous and considerate. His kindness was always quiet and unobtrusive, silently filling Ning Qiuyan’s life, so good that Ning Qiuyan did not need to know anything at all, because a human life was too short. All that mattered was that he be happy.
Ning Qiuyan’s eyes were still red, but not because of the pain in his chin, which had already faded.
He looked at Guan Heng and asked hesitantly, “Then… what do you like about me?”
Guan Heng looked at his face and did not answer.
The two of them looked at each other. Ning Qiuyan said, “Miss Sheng told me that older Vampires have the ability to taste emotions. Then did you know I liked you the very first time you drank my blood?”
Even if Ning Qiuyan himself had not realized it back then.
But the human subconscious was strange like that. Perhaps Guan Heng had tasted it from him, and because of that, had accepted this inexperienced human.
“It wasn’t because of that,” Guan Heng said, then reached out and drew Ning Qiuyan into his arms.
The two of them were pressed very close. Ning Qiuyan sat between Guan Heng’s legs, encircled by Guan Heng.
“I don’t know what I like about you.” Guan Heng’s voice was cool in texture, but his actions were gentle. “The first time I drank your blood, all I tasted was loneliness.”
“Loneliness?” Ning Qiuyan’s forehead rested against Guan Heng’s, his hands gripping the arms Guan Heng had wrapped around his waist.
“Mm. Loneliness. There was no adoration, no longing, no greed, and no drive to strive for anything. Aside from loneliness, your emotions were a vast emptiness. There wasn’t a single desire in you.” Guan Heng spoke slowly, unhurriedly. “I found it strange that a human could have such a state of mind. I wondered if it was because of that state of mind that you dared to sign that agreement and come to the island alone.”
Ning Qiuyan’s eyes reddened a little more.
Back then, he had just gone through the greatest upheaval of his life. He had just lost his mother and become an orphan, and that was why he had been bold enough to go to the island-at that time, he no longer had any expectations for life. He had even felt that it would not matter if he simply disappeared.
Ning Qiuyan had never told anyone about any of this. Not even Su Jianzhou. Yet even then, Guan Heng had already noticed it.
“Maybe you were similar to me back then,” Guan Heng said. “So I gave you a little more care.”
People came and went in the mansion. At some point, no one knew exactly what year, ice cream began to appear from the kitchen. When they were in a bad mood, when they were tired, when they were excited-under all kinds of circumstances, people would pester Bai Zhilan for ice cream. Most of them were young humans around Ning Qiuyan’s age.
And so, under Guan Heng’s instructions, Ning Qiuyan had received a serving too.
Humans were creatures easily satisfied, especially when it came to appetite.
Once Ning Qiuyan’s mood improved, he spent half the night downstairs in the bedroom playing Xiaoxiaole, making so much noise that Guan Heng lost sleep.
Hearing this, Ning Qiuyan laughed softly and said, a little embarrassed, “So that’s what happened.” His hand loosened from Guan Heng’s arm, slid down, found Guan Heng’s fingers, hooked around them, and slipped between them. “What about after that?”
Why did you like me after that?
Guan Heng said, “You made me feel alive.”
Ning Qiuyan’s face flushed all at once. More than any “I like you,” those words sounded like a confession.
Coming from Guan Heng’s mouth, they made his heart pound wildly.
“Because… I’m your Golden Blood.” As if entranced, Ning Qiuyan picked up where Guan Heng had left off and supplied the reason for him. “You saw daylight again.”
Guan Heng’s handsome features were deep and defined. He parted his lips and said, “That was part of it.”
After a pause, he added, “But you made me feel alive at night too.”
Those nights they had spent doing puzzles together and taking walks. Those nights they had shared the same room, or stayed one upstairs and one downstairs. And those nights when they had texted back and forth between Wutong and Du Island. Ning Qiuyan had held out a pure heart, testing the waters like a small animal, drawing closer with the utmost caution. All those vivid, lively rises and falls of worry and hope had been like a clean thread of wind slipping through the layers of mist over the sea, making Guan Heng feel alive.
Their fingers tangled together, warm, smooth fingertips brushing over the blue veins on the back of a pale hand.
Tender and intimate, a wordless warmth lingered between them.
Guan Heng asked, “Why are you suddenly asking about this today?”
Ning Qiuyan was sensitive by nature, but in some ways he also seemed as simple as a single-celled organism. Right now, he was already worried about Lu Qianque’s situation and unable to sleep properly through the night. Guan Heng had not expected him to still have the bandwidth to think of these things.
“I talked with Miss Sheng,” Ning Qiuyan said. He did not mention the private matter between Sheng Huan and Professor Yu, only saying, “I suddenly realized… you and I don’t seem to have ever talked about our future.”
He had a lot to say, so Guan Heng listened in silence.
Ning Qiuyan voiced his doubts, listing them one by one for Guan Heng. “You never tell me anything bad, including things like the side effects of the toxin, because you don’t want to trouble me. It’s the same as how you treat the people around you. For example, with Chi Yang’s matter before, you and Lu Qianque kept it from Granny Bai. You just want us to be happy and carefree because our lives are too short…”
He stopped, choosing his words carefully. “A human life is only a few short decades. I can’t be with you forever.”
At this point, Ning Qiuyan could no longer keep guessing. He had to ask Guan Heng directly. “Will you turn me? Like Deshan turned Joshua… so I can be like Lu Qianque and stay by your side forever.”
Ning Qiuyan was not Chi Yang. He did not have that kind of desire for immortality. He was not even twenty yet and had never thought about a life so far in the future. But the moment he thought that they might separate one day like Sheng Huan and Professor Yu, he found it impossible to focus on anything at all.
Ning Qiuyan had only one starting point, and that was Guan Heng.
He hoped Guan Heng would no longer have only Lu Qianque by his side. He hoped Guan Heng could have one more person he could trust completely, someone who would never abandon him.
He would learn from Lu Qianque, whether that meant learning how to become Guan Heng’s assistant or his friend. In any case, he wanted to stay by Guan Heng’s side.
Guan Heng touched Ning Qiuyan’s face. “I won’t turn you.”
Ning Qiuyan visibly trembled. “Why? Is it because of my blood?”
Golden Blood was the temporary antidote of Vampires, granting them the ability to walk beneath the sun again.
Perhaps Professor Yu had been attached to this ability, which was why he had decided not to turn Sheng Huan.
But Ning Qiuyan knew Guan Heng did not care about that at all.
As expected, Guan Heng denied Ning Qiuyan’s words. “No.”
Ning Qiuyan grew anxious. A large tear slipped from his eye before he even realized it. “Then why? You said you’d give me a reward. I don’t want anything else anymore. I only want this!”
Guan Heng said, “Immortality isn’t a reward. It’s a curse.”
Ning Qiuyan insisted, “I’m not afraid. I just want to stay with you forever.”
“I’m not discussing this with you.” Guan Heng touched Ning Qiuyan’s earring, his tone already turning cold. “Don’t bring this up again.”
Ning Qiuyan refused to accept it. For the first time, he turned his face away.
Even Qu Shu noticed the unhappiness between them.
Guan Heng had many urgent matters to deal with and was busy until morning before he returned. His car had only just pulled into the garage of the Black House when Ning Qiuyan was already pushing his bicycle out the door. The road outside sloped downward. The young man swung his long legs over the bike without even saying hello. The bicycle rushed downhill with him on it, so fast that the wind puffed his jacket out behind him.
Ning Qiuyan skipped class and hid in a quiet corner off the street to smoke.
Traffic streamed endlessly down the streets of Sujing, people coming and going, every last soul hurrying toward some future.
He had once been one of them.
The difference was, he had always believed his ending had already been decided.
Human hearts were greedy, and Ning Qiuyan was no exception.
At first, he had never imagined he could be with Guan Heng. He had been perfectly clearheaded; he knew there would be no future for them, so when their agreement ended, he had not even dared to ask to stay. Later, when they met again by chance, he had mustered up his courage, but all he had wanted was to find a way to visit Du Island a few times a year and see Guan Heng. When Guan Heng proposed their arrangement, he had agreed almost immediately, thinking only that he was already willing to give Guan Heng everything-what was being Guan Heng’s Blood Bag on top of that? That was all.
But Guan Heng had given him the right to stand at his side.
He had gained that singular place in Guan Heng’s heart. And once he had Guan Heng, he wanted to have him forever.
He was not satisfied.
Ning Qiuyan stubbed out his cigarette, shouldered his bag, and rode past Sujing Tower, crossing the city until he arrived downstairs at Li Tang’s studio.
Li Tang was surprised to see him and thought there had been news about Lu Qianque.
Ning Qiuyan shook his head, looking dejected. Faced with Li Tang’s concern, however, he refused to say what had happened.
Ning Qiuyan was a little reserved and slow to warm up. Though he was kind and obedient, it was actually very difficult for him to open his heart to anyone. Lu Qianque had gotten into trouble; at a time like this, he should not be stirring up more complications. But he simply could not stop himself from thinking about it.
The two matters piled together, weighing heavily on his heart.
Li Tang was patient and let him sit there. It was not until dusk was falling that he finally learned the reason from Ning Qiuyan’s own mouth.
Li Tang’s eyelid twitched. He had never imagined it would be a problem of this magnitude.
That was Guan Heng they were talking about. He would not dare criticize Guan Heng’s decisions, so he could only try to comfort Ning Qiuyan from another angle.
“Whether Mr. Guan wants to transform you or not, the truth is, this matter isn’t very realistic either way.” Li Tang put an arm around Ning Qiuyan’s shoulders. The perfume on him smelled very nice. “Do you know how difficult it is to transform a human?”
Ning Qiuyan had only heard Lu Qianque explain why Chi Yang had become like that. It seemed to have been because the toxins in his body and the toxins of the one transforming him were incompatible.
But he truly did not know what transformation was actually like.
Seeing him shake his head, Li Tang said, “First, a large amount of Venom has to be injected into the human body, turning the person into an infected individual. Then the owner of the toxin has to feed on them. The bodies of Vampires are like vessels. The large volume of blood from the human body reacts inside the bodies of Vampires, and then the human being transformed has to drink it back. During this process, the human will suffer massive blood loss and must remain conscious the entire time. It’s an enormous test for Vampires. The slightest mistake can cause the human’s death.”
Ning Qiuyan’s face went pale as he listened. He had never imagined the process would be so bloody.
The total amount of blood in a human body was roughly seven to eight percent of body weight. That much blood actually had to circulate between the bodies of two different species.
“It’s very hard for any of the Vampires not to lose control while feeding for such a long time. To put it simply, that much blood is more than enough to make Vampires high,” Li Tang said. “And that’s just an ordinary Blood Contract. In a relationship like yours and Mr. Guan’s… you’re Mr. Guan’s Golden Blood. You should know how tempting your blood is to him.”
Ning Qiuyan stared blankly, his eyes wide.
“Think about all those props I made for you two.” Li Tang coughed. “It’s only because it’s Mr. Guan. If it were anyone else facing their own Golden Blood, who would dare take them to bed? No amount of props could keep things under control.”
After saying that, he could not resist adding in a low, gossipy voice, “People like Professor Yu and the others can only do the Platonic thing.”
Ning Qiuyan suddenly understood something and asked Li Tang, “Then… is it because Mr. Guan doesn’t want to hurt me?”
Li Tang did not dare make wild guesses and only said, “You’ll have to ask Mr. Guan that.”
Ning Qiuyan seemed to come back to life, a bit of light returning to him.
No one knew what kind of wild thoughts had run through his head, but he suddenly said to Li Tang, “Then, if it wasn’t a relationship like Golden Blood-”
“Don’t even think about it,” Li Tang cut in. Having lived for several hundred years, he was sharper than anyone and immediately guessed what Ning Qiuyan was thinking. “Forget that you’re Mr. Guan’s Blood Contract Partner. Even if the two of you ended your relationship one day, I doubt anyone would dare touch you.”
No matter what, the news still made Ning Qiuyan feel much better.
At the very least, it proved that Guan Heng had not refused to transform him because he did not want him.
Li Tang pulled a tape measure along a length of fabric, working as he comforted Ning Qiuyan. “Don’t worry, kid. You can still stay with him for a very long time. With Mr. Guan’s toxin in you, you’ll live a long life. You’ve been to Camellia Night, so you know about Wagner’s Blood Contract Partner, right? He had Wagner’s toxin and lived to be 119. Of course, your situations are different; he simply didn’t want to be transformed. But I’ve met him many times. Even in his nineties, he still looked very healthy.”
Ning Qiuyan’s expression turned complicated as he listened, half fascinated and half unable to accept it.
Good heavens.
He really could not imagine himself, gray-haired and ancient, still sitting in Guan Heng’s lap.