August 14th, Wednesday.
Evening, at Golden River Club.
Wan Yue sat at the piano in the first-floor hall wearing an elegant evening gown, playing a soothing melody. That intoxicating dark fragrance once again wafted from her body.
There weren't many guests in the hall today, but each was entranced and mesmerized, as if hypnotized and frozen in their respective positions.
On the second floor, the door to a large private room stood wide open. Elvin leaned against the corridor railing, tasting wine and enjoying the music, while a man and woman behind him stood expressionlessly.
Soon, Wan Yue returned to the second floor with a faint smile. The blonde youth hurried to meet her, once again offering a hand kiss.
"Mr. Elvin, you flew all the way to China just to tour S Province? What place in this country haven't you been to? Yet you ran off to the mountains of D City and disappeared for several days."
Wan Yue accepted a glass of wine from Zhao Peng and smiled at the elegant European aristocratic youth before her, her alluring red lips moving in a string of German.
"Is Miss Wan very concerned about my itinerary? Too bad you won't accept my invitation to travel together... Sixteen years ago in Europe too. The more attentive I was, the more heartless Miss Wan became."
Elvin seemed to already know she had been secretly monitoring his every move. Playing with his wine glass, his smile became even more mysterious.
"I'm not interested in having any stories with a hundred-year-old man, even if he is the heir to an old European Blood Clan family."
Wan Yue rolled her eyes at him and elegantly turned toward the private room, her figure swaying with infinite charm.
With a glance, Zhao Peng personally led the room service staff toward the spiral staircase leading to the first-floor hall.
The private room door closed, and even the people beside Elvin were excluded. Only then did Wan Yue turn back with a serious expression.
"Elvin, what exactly do you want? Ten whole years without any word from you, why suddenly come to China now, and with two Barons... When did the Engel family start caring about a remote mountain area in China?"
Wan Yue's gaze was like a sharp sword, menacingly sweeping back and forth across the blonde youth's face.
"Why? Because I've been sleeping for the past ten years. I only learned about certain things when I woke up." Elvin shrugged.
"You've advanced to Earl!?"
Wan Yue's delicate hand reaching for cigarettes suddenly froze, shock in her eyes.
The heir to the Blood Clan world's most famous Engel family before her was one of the most talented individuals Wan Yue had ever seen, with the fastest growth rate.
Elvin's parents were both from old European Blood Clan noble families. Elvin was born at the rare Attendant level with exceptional aptitude. Advancing to Baron at thirty, to Viscount at sixty, and now only around a hundred years old.
Ordinary Wandering Blood Clan, even with excellent bloodline genes, rare blood types, and unlimited resources, would be considered geniuses if they could advance to Baron within forty years of blood infection. Wan Yue herself was this type of person.
This was the universal law or limit of Blood Clan advancement, at least before Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao appeared, it had been regarded as truth by the vast majority including Wan Yue.
"I'm just luckier than most people. Miss Wan Yue, if I'm not mistaken, you're close to Viscount yourself. Getting blood infected in your twenties, then reaching a level most people can only look up to in just sixty years..."
Elvin smiled and raised his glass in salute.
Gently clinking glasses and taking a sip, the shock in Wan Yue's heart hadn't completely subsided, but her expression had returned to calm: "No need to flatter me to show your old family's breeding. Answer my question–what exactly are you here for this time?"
"For the order of the Blood Clan world!"
A stern glint flashed in Elvin's eyes, like a lord about to judge rebellion in his territory, his tone ice-cold: "Since Miss Wan Yue is so sensitive about my going to D City, that means our goals are the same."
"You think something has appeared in D City that could challenge your Orthodox Blood Clan noble families?"
Wan Yue's expression remained unchanged, but her heart beat faster. She knew the foundation of these underground world's old Blood Clan families–even with the most sealed official information, three months was enough for some rumors and clues to reach their ears.
Orthodox Blood Clans had long integrated with normal human society. They remained behind the scenes, cultivating agents in normal human society, even jointly participating in governance and development at all social levels.
From entire countries down to individual cities, they maintained mysterious presence in both worlds–restrained, cautious, secretive, but absolutely not to be underestimated.
They wouldn't actively challenge normal human society's ruling authority, only binding together for mutual development. If anything appeared on this planet that could harm this symbiotic order, it would be equivalent to challenging the interests of Orthodox Blood Clan families worldwide.
The last wave of Blood Clans attempting to overturn this order had already been annihilated during World War II, reduced to ashes.
Obviously, Wan Yue's decade-plus suspicions about the Tang Family in D City and the Engel family's current attention had converged.
"Would you be willing to share intelligence, Miss Wan Yue? This will be a righteous action that serves the interests of the entire Blood Clan world. Some ambitions exceeding limits must be judged!"
Elvin showed an unquestionable expression of deadly seriousness, like a lion crouching and entering the battlefield, about to enter combat mode.
"Hehe~~~Haha!"
Wan Yue suddenly laughed, laughing so hard she bent forward and backward, her sexy body curves trembling and swaying under the lights.
Over ten seconds passed. Having apparently laughed enough, Wan Yue snapped to light a cigarette, exhaled a smoke ring, and wore a playful expression: "Mr. Elvin, as the heir to an Orthodox Blood Clan old noble family, suddenly being so open with a Wandering Blood Clan like me–Can I believe you?"
"Miss Wan Yue's reputation is quite good in S Province, even after leaving the Hermit Alliance. Oh, there's a gift that can serve as my sincerity for cooperating with Miss Wan Yue."
Elvin smiled and snapped his fingers. His personal assistant Emma retrieved an enlarged photograph from her briefcase and gently placed it before Wan Yue.
In the photo was a young Blood Clan man who had been killed–from his features, he was Chinese.
"Hehe... Cheng Yueshan, good that he's dead!"
Trembling hands touched the photograph. After staring quietly for several minutes, Wan Yue suddenly stood up, tears streaming down her face.
"The person you've always wanted to hunt down has now been executed by the Engel family. Is this gift and sincerity enough?"
Elvin drained his red wine in one gulp, smiling as he watched the somewhat emotionally uncontrolled woman before him.
......
......
Time had passed midnight, but Zhao Peng surprisingly hadn't announced closing time. Everyone, including Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao, could only continue waiting in the first-floor hall.
"Brother Zhao, who's that blonde guy?"
Jiang Yao sidled up to the bar counter and quietly asked Zhao Peng, who was organizing empty glasses inside, while secretly glancing at a luxurious private room on the second floor.
Zhao Peng saw her curious expression and for once looked very serious: "Old European Blood Clan high nobility. Show basic respect... The Engel family member is someone Sister Wan met during her past travels abroad. His strength probably exceeds Sister Wan's!"
Hearing this, Jiang Yao gasped!
She couldn't even gauge Wan Yue's level, the type who could kill with a glare. Now another guy even more terrifying than Sister Wan appeared... She wondered how the Shadow Arrow Force had previously dealt with and suppressed these monsters. Even the entire Xuan Jia Squad probably couldn't stop them, right?
Jiang Yao suddenly felt fortunate. If she were still a Shadow Arrow Force member facing these increasingly terrifying monsters, she truly didn't know if she could survive three years.
The confusion and depression that had been haunting her heart since blood infection was now actually replaced by a sense of luck. A person's life really did depend on where they sat to think, Jiang Yao mused.
However, in the millennia-long secret war between humans and Blood Clans, both sides had long formed a certain balance through confrontation, each possessing different levels of trump cards. Neither could underestimate the other.
Especially after the Second Industrial Revolution, humanity's rapid advancement in war technology had gradually gained comprehensive suppressive advantage over Blood Clans. The capabilities they relied on were probably beyond what Jiang Yao could imagine.
Recalling the instructors' proud and confident demeanor at the Shadow Arrow training center, Jiang Yao suddenly felt conflicted again.
"Xiao Yao, go change clothes."
Jiang Yan walked over and patted the daydreaming light golden-haired girl awake.
At this moment, the second-floor private room door opened. The tall, handsome European blonde youth and the sexy, charming Wan Yue walked out in succession. Everyone in the first-floor hall stopped chatting and their activities.
Elvin slowly walked through the hall, elegantly and politely nodding slightly to the Golden River Club employees standing quietly around, as if appreciating crudely made but still watchable dolls.
"Hmm?"
Passing by the demurely lowered-eyed Jiang Yan, Elvin's pace immediately slowed a beat. Only his head turned slightly at a small angle, but he didn't actually look back or change his forward stride.
This subtle action seemed extremely inconspicuous to others in the hall, but on the second floor, Wan Yue, still leaning against the railing and coldly watching the blonde youth depart, frowned slightly.
Elvin left with his people, and everyone at Golden River Club breathed a sigh of relief, especially Jiang Yan.
In that instant, she seemed to feel a primordial beast-like aura enveloping her, invading bone marrow and penetrating deep into her mind, but it was fleeting.
"Jiang Yan, Jiang Yao, Zhao Peng, come to the second floor. Everyone else can go home."
Wan Yue's cool voice echoed in the spacious, dim hall's dome.
......
In the second-floor private room, the smell of cigarettes hadn't dissipated yet. The ashtray was piled with slender cigarette butts - probably the first time Jiang Yan had indirectly witnessed Wan Yue's smoking volume over just one or two hours since knowing her.
"Your relatives are coming again?"
Just slightly twitching her nose, Wan Yue smiled and sat on the sofa, lighting what must have been her countless cigarette of the day.
Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao looked at each other, then nodded together with embarrassed expressions.
Wan Yue reached into her handbag and a black package flew toward Jiang Yan, who caught it casually with a confused expression.
"These are Great Golden Pills, more effective than Little Golden Pills. But there are too few - only six pills per box. You two discuss how to divide them yourselves."
As Wan Yue tossed the medicine box, she also glanced at the standing Zhao Peng and sighed slightly.
Zhao Peng's heart churned. He knew Great Golden Pills were more precious growth medication than Little Golden Pills, especially for accumulating and sprinting before major realm breakthroughs.
Sister Wan had also provided him with quite a few in the past, but unfortunately, he'd always been stuck at upper-tier Knight peak, earning the title of "half-step Baron" with no further progress.
If he could advance to Baron, he wouldn't have spent these years watching Wan Yue exhaust herself, bearing alone all the burdens he knew and didn't know about.
However, thinking of the unfathomable aspects of the Jiang sisters, who might become Wan Yue's greatest trump card in the future, Zhao Peng suddenly felt relieved.
"Sister Wan, you said we just work for you, and where money should be paid, accounts should be clear. This, plus the two bottles of Little Golden Pills you gave before, and the costs for treating Xiao Yao's injuries... how much total?"
Jiang Yan gathered courage, stepped forward half a step, looking serious.
"Mm, good character... Zhao Peng, how much money do they have left in their account with you?" Wan Yue turned to look at Zhao Peng with an ambiguous smile.
"About less than 400,000 remaining."
After brief consideration, Zhao Peng reported a figure. Jiang Yan nodded slightly in acknowledgment, since over the past month they'd taken quite a bit of internal and external hormone suppressants and such.
"Hehe, you want to settle accounts... Even if you sold yourselves, you couldn't afford it."
Wan Yue exhaled a smoke ring, her playful smile unwavering: "But this isn't a brothel, and I'm not a madam. No need to use these things to force you into prostitution. If you think you can take it, take it. Money can be put on account. If you think it's inappropriate, you can return it to me.
"I just want to know what's happening in this world. You also want to know what happened to yourselves. Perhaps our goals are aligned."
Such an elegant, sexy woman saying these words left Jiang Yan and Jiang Yao unsure what to say.
"Thank you, Sister Wan. I understand. Thank you for giving me and Xiao Yao a new life."
Jiang Yan put the Great Golden Pills package in her shirt pocket. As if finally understanding something, she took a long breath and spoke word by word what the other had probably long awaited: "The Tang Family has a big meat ball."
Wan Yue's pupils contracted sharply, and the cigarette in her hand trembled slightly.
The private room fell deathly silent.
Minutes later, Wan Yue dropped her cigarette and stared intensely into Jiang Yan's eyes, as if trying to drill in to verify truth from lies, her voice pressed very low: "Did you see it with your own eyes, or did you hear about it..."
"Saw it with my own eyes... I can't say anything else."
After speaking, Jiang Yan took Jiang Yao's hand, bowed slightly, and prepared to leave.
From the night Jiang Yao nearly lost her life, Jiang Yan had been thinking for nearly a month. Not until just now, encountering that mysterious European blonde youth and feeling that terrifying, suffocating aura flash by, did she finally make this decision.
She knew that with her and Jiang Yao's abilities, without a truly reliable backing, perhaps just surviving would exhaust everything, even cost their lives, let alone touch the truth of their fate.
Whether it was Zhao Peng's loyalty to Wan Yue or Zhou Ping's gratitude and admiration for Wan Yue, both made Jiang Yan experience something worthy of longing. The confused life after blood infection wouldn't seem so dark.
It was the second time after Grandma Jiang.
"Thank you too. This intelligence is priceless. From today, anything I give you, you deserve. From today, you will be the true sisters of everyone here. Our name is 'Hyacinth.'"
Wan Yue's voice sounded behind them. Jiang Yan led the reluctant-to-leave Jiang Yao gracefully downstairs, their steps steady and elegant.
Hyacinth - forget past sorrows, begin new love.