May 24th, Friday, another day for workers to enjoy simple happiness.
As the lights began to come on, "Ling Zui'er Cold Cup" at the old street corner officially opened for business.
In addition to the four tables inside the small shop, an extra seven or eight sets of orange tables and chairs were scattered across half the sidewalk at the street corner.
Without any deliberate shouting or showing off, the pedestrians young and old passing through this street naturally accepted the new store.
Without any ceremonial sense of grand opening, when night occupied the summer sky, Ling Zui'er Cold Cup naturally welcomed its first wave of customers, as if it had always been a natural part of the local street atmosphere.
Shirtless men who no longer cared about their image, laughing and cursing workers, flamboyant young women, carefree and sunny college students—various customers gradually filled every table at Ling Zui'er.
Spicy stir-fried snails, greasy braised pig trotters, salty and fresh sliced sauced duck, foaming beer, emerald green boiled soybeans... various hot and cold dishes with rich aromas mixed with cigarette smoke, body odor, perfume, and cooking fumes, all illuminated by high-powered lighting, adding another greasy layer of halo to the already worn and mottled street.
"Bro—oh, sis, one spicy snail dish, medium spicy, no peppercorns!"
"One braised pig trotter, two boiled soybeans!"
"We're almost out of beer, I'll call the distributor to deliver ten more cases!"
In dark brown T-shirts and blue jeans with single-sided aprons, wearing matching ponytails, Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao had fallen into a busyness different from their military careers.
Between the tables, the light golden-haired girl darted left and right, constantly responding to customer needs, taking orders, settling bills, greeting and seeing off guests.
In the deliberately open kitchen processing area, steam and smoke rose as the black-haired girl's ladle danced elegantly, various recently cut ingredients on the cutting board nearby.
Time flew by rapidly, and soon the wall clock showed 2 AM.
The last table of customers finally paid and left. Looking around, empty beer bottles and various food waste were proudly piled in every gap between tables and chairs—messy and dirty, but full of accomplishment.
All the bustle came to an abrupt halt. Jiang Yao sat quietly in the chair closest to the shop entrance with a blissful smile, flipping through a thick stack of receipts in her hands.
In the kitchen, Jiang Yan wiped the sweat from her forehead while cleaning up the mess before her. The oil-stained single-sided apron had long been abandoned in the hot environment, and the girl's front and back were soaked through, faintly outlining some graceful curves and contours.
"Hey, bro, guess how much we made today?"
Jiang Yao quickly walked into the shop and faced Jiang Yan, who was washing dishes, with a happy expression.
In a good mood and not bothering to correct the other's hard-to-change habit of address, Jiang Yan also smiled and held up three fingers after thinking.
"Over three thousand five hundred yuan!" (TN: $486 dollars at 06/25)
Jiang Yao lowered her voice, quite proud.
Not wanting to debate the calculation of actual costs at this moment, Jiang Yan nodded and slightly stretched her back, extending her tired body while looking at the night sky outside the shop with a pleasant expression.
Let's start this way, our life.
...
...
The opening of Ling Zui'er Cold Cup was deliberately chosen for Friday, taking advantage of the unique weekend traffic at the old street corner to easily achieve a successful opening. Saturday's revenue broke new records again, naturally giving Jiang Yao the illusion of booming business.
With the return of weekdays, even after adding several specialty dishes like crawfish and delivery service, Ling Zui'er's daily average revenue was only just over two thousand yuan. Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao continued to summarize various problems that arose in their operations.
Unknowingly, time entered June. C City's weather became increasingly hot, repeat customers steadily increased, and revenue slowly improved.
On June 8th, a sudden storm not only washed away the city's continuous heat but also caused the usually bustling weekend business at Ling Zui'er to suddenly cool down.
In this stormy weather, estimating that it was unlikely anyone would come to eat and drink, Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao had packed up the outdoor tables and chairs early, and the shop's rolling shutter was half-closed.
Today's business would most likely be ruined, but the two were actually somewhat happy, sitting in the shop browsing their phones and enjoying rare relaxation.
"Sister, I've got the new delivery platform set up!"
Jiang Yao, sitting by the door, suddenly raised her phone and shouted, then quickly walked toward Jiang Yan.
When the girl bounced over in a few steps, her light and graceful gait made Jiang Yan feel somewhat dazed.
Having been open for half a month, Jiang Yao spent most of her time running back and forth between tables. Unknowingly, the inherent characteristics of female skeletal joints were quietly updating Jiang Yao's movements and muscle memory, far more natural and coordinated than previous deliberate imitation training.
Looking at the other's smiling face, Jiang Yan suddenly felt she had been overthinking before.
"Great, thanks for your hard work. I calculated that in this half month, after deducting all costs, we netted over eleven thousand seven hundred yuan. Now that we appear on delivery services, I estimate we'll have at least twenty thousand of net profit per month."
Jiang Yan smiled faintly and handed over a newly opened ice-cold canned soda.
Jiang Yao naturally reached out with her right hand to take the can and brought it to her small mouth. As the soda poured in, the light golden-haired girl's pinky finger holding the can quietly lifted up.
"Xiao Yao..."
Looking in another direction, probably afraid that her next words would break the busy and fulfilling atmosphere of these days, Jiang Yan hesitated, her voice very soft.
"Hmm?"
Jiang Yao tossed aside the can. The carbonation in her stomach made her burp, and her face showed confusion.
"In two more days, it'll be the 10th—time to go to Sister Wan's to buy blood. I plan to close for one day every month on the 10th from now on."
As Jiang Yan spoke, she untied her apron and gently set it aside. Jiang Yao was stunned, the smile on her face gradually fading as an indescribable dejected look appeared.
"Understood, I'll go too."
Right, this kind of life is actually just unavoidable camouflage. We're vampires... Jiang Yao felt a strange discomfort blocking her heart, as if all the life of these days felt intensely fake.
The scene fell into silence, while outside in the dark night, the wind and rain intensified. Large raindrops carried by the gale struck the rolling shutter, creating crisp sounds of varying pitch.
Suddenly, the half-closed rolling shutter was lifted from outside.
A middle-aged woman dressed as an ordinary housewife with a decent figure, holding an umbrella, with a pretty face bearing a mysterious faint smile, bent slightly and ducked into the shop.
The housewife looked around at the shop's decor, then focused on the two girls: "The rain is really heavy tonight... Not planning to stay open? Is the stove still on? Give me one stir-fried snail and one crawfish order, extra spicy with lots of cilantro, to go."
Almost simultaneously, both Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao sensed a weak but powerful pheromone fluctuation appearing in the shop. It was another unfamiliar Blood Clan knight aura—the first since they had fought that blood-thirsty collapsed Black Blood Clan member in the dark night a month ago.
Both girls' faces changed dramatically, and they instinctively stepped back two paces.
Jiang Yan's hand had already moved to her lower back, reaching under her T-shirt. Jiang Yao kept glancing at the checkout counter, her face showing obvious regret because her dagger wasn't on her.
"What? Not planning to do business with me? Or are you more interested in challenging an upper-class knight?"
The housewife sat down casually at any available seat with a smile, organizing her umbrella while watching the two girls' abnormal expressions with interest, as if she had anticipated their reaction.
Not sensing any hostility in the deliberately leaked pheromones, after the initial stress response, Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao slowly relaxed their bodies.
"I've been watching you two for most of the month. This one... should be the older sister, right? You were often wandering around the area before opening the shop..."
The housewife's words were casual, but her expression gradually became serious: "I'm the feudal knight here. You can call me Sister Tan. It looks like you're planning to settle here long-term, so do I need to explain some Blood Clan rules?"
"Sister Tan, we understand. Within your territory, we cannot feed on ordinary people, or it would be deliberate provocation."
Jiang Yan slowly lowered her hand from behind her back, her expression returning to composure. It seemed she and Jiang Yao were quite lucky to encounter a legitimate Blood Clan local boss, and moreover one who was relatively friendly to their kind like Huang Gu.
"Good, that shows whoever guided you here was reliable, otherwise you'd be dead already. Alright, hurry up and start cooking. My husband is still waiting for me to bring late-night snacks home! Hey, he says I don't cook as well as you do—men are really hard to please!"
The housewife laughed with earthly warmth. After restraining her pheromone release, she returned to being an ordinary middle-aged beauty with utterly common temperament.
Flames rose and cooking smoke once again filled the small shop. Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao—one handling the main cooking, the other assisting and organizing ingredients—quickly placed two fragrant spicy late-night snacks in front of Sister Tan. Then the two girls looked at each other, seeming to have something to say.
"That's ninety yuan total, right? Sigh, prices are really expensive now. Over ten years ago, this much would have been thirty yuan at most!"
The housewife casually counted money and placed it on the table while pointing to a nearby chair: "Seeing how you've been these days, you seem genuinely planning to settle down. If you have questions, sit down and talk."
"Hey! Um, sister, you're a legitimate Blood Clan member, right?"
Before Jiang Yan could respond, Jiang Yao, full of curiosity, stepped forward first, serving the other a plate of sunflower seeds like an ordinary customer and even boldly moving her small stool next to the housewife.
"Why, are you interested? However, if you're wandering vampire, the minimum level to join a legitimate family is attendant. Your sister qualifies, but you don't."
The housewife cracked sunflower seeds and actually started chatting with Jiang Yao.
"Sorry, she's too curious... Um, I mean, Sister Tan, you... have family here? Are they ordinary people? How do you usually handle..."
Sending Jiang Yao to clean up the stove in the kitchen, Jiang Yan sat down next to the housewife.
"You little girl, you're quite curious too, and there's meaning behind your words?"
The housewife spat out sunflower seed shells with a nonchalant smile: "I don't mind saying—I've been in this form for almost forty years now. I've almost forgotten what my old home looked like. I've only been settled here for seven or eight years. My current husband is my second since becoming a vampire, and he treats me very well.
"Don't beat around the bush testing me. I'll speak plainly—I never feed on ordinary people in my territory. Although not activating blood-boiling won't cause blood infection in ordinary people, I don't like doing it anyway. I don't treat them as sheep; I just treat my territory as my own peaceful home."
The housewife showed a bitter smile at this point: "The family provides my free monthly blood allowance. If I want more, I feed on my husband's blood—he doesn't know at night, and I keep him well-fed and healthy to supplement his body. When his son and daughter-in-law come home occasionally, I can secretly change flavors.
"These years, I've given up thoughts of continued growth and advancement. It’s all too much, really. I just want to keep this life."
The housewife's face was filled with a kind of plain happiness and a barely perceptible loneliness.
"Then... which family did you join? To get territory, what do you usually manage?"
Jiang Yan gradually steered the conversation toward what she really wanted to understand, but the moment she spoke, she regretted it because the housewife's expression had already begun to change.
Feudal knights enjoyed lying-flat benefits while also being responsible for protecting family assets and security order within their territory—this was the most basic vassal duty of feudal knights.
A seemingly ordinary shop might be real estate belonging to some legitimate Blood Clan family. For every family, this was top secret—even feudal knights within the same family might not know each other's details and wouldn't dare inquire.
"Little girl, trying to get information from me? In the eyes of high-level Blood Clan, not only attendants like you, but even knights like me are basically garbage. As for your sister, she doesn't even count as garbage."
The housewife stood up and took the late-night snacks, walking toward the rolling shutter. Her tone was very different from when she entered—much colder.
"By the way, since you're making a living in my territory, you need to understand the rules. From now on, hand over ten thousand yuan every month. If you can't do it three months in a row, either pack up and leave, or force me to take action..."
Leaving these words behind, the housewife went out the door and disappeared into the rainy night.
Not feeling that Sister Tan's appearance was an accident, watching the direction where she disappeared, Jiang Yan was thoughtful.
It seemed as if there existed a giant mirror between heaven and earth. The normal human world and the Blood Clan world were like the inside and outside of a mirror reflecting each other, imitating each other—both similar and opposite.
Sister Tan tried hard to maintain the normal human side, being a wife to others, immersed in daily necessities and family matters, enjoying false peaceful happiness.
But the cruel and irreversible other side also gave her a lofty position ruling one area, cultivating unknown cold ruthlessness.