Chapter 9

Xue Lingqiao has been trying to contact the person who had posted on the forum mentioning how he looked like the person in a painting by her great-grandfather. Yesterday, he received a reply from the other party, and the attached picture was his portrait in the pavilion of his former residence. The paper of the portrait looks old and yellowed, as if it really was something handed down more than a hundred years ago.

Perhaps he would be able to find some information from her great-grandfather.

After some going back and forth, Xue Lingqiao and the other party set a time and place to meet.

He followed the road signs to a recently completed office building near F University. As soon as he entered the elevator, his heart suddenly beat wildly. Xue Lingqiao covered his chest. He didn't know that Tian Jingzhi was cut by a dagger on the set at that moment and was panicking. It was an extremely unpleasant feeling, as if the whole chest was about to burst. It was then, when the elevator door slammed shut and shook. The floor indicator light had turned off as well.

In that moment of confusion, cold air was being sprayed in from the elevator cabin’s roof.

Xue Lingqiao internally yelled: This is bad! How could this be...

The elevator remained still and the cold air was continuously injected. Xue Lingqiao felt that it was getting more and more difficult to breathe. He wanted to open the door, but could not muster the strength. His cell phone had no signal. And the emergency call button was not working.

A layer of white frost slowly began to form on the iron wall of the elevator.

Xue Lingqiao was slowly losing strength and even his thinking became dull. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind*. Since that man can drain his blood, he naturally knew his weakness. He had underestimated his enemy.

(*Idiom - To pursue a narrow gain while neglecting a greater danger.)

Was that rat hiding somewhere while watching him?

Xue Lingqiao looked up at the camera in the corner of the elevator. With his last remaining strength, he crushed it.

He had tripped over the same stone twice.

He may not even have the chance to lie in the museum for a hundred years anymore.

–

After getting out of the taxi, Tian Jingzhi stood on the side of the road and watched for a while. It is relatively quiet near the university. There are hardly any pedestrians and vehicles passing by. The newly built building had yet to be sold, so how can anyone make an appointment here?

Tian Jingzhi touched her chest in confusion. Monster Xue's heartbeat had remained very weak, it affected her breathing and her head was dizzy.

A cold automated voice still answered her calls: “Sorry, the call you dialed is currently unavailable..”

Even without evidence, Tian Jingzhi clearly felt that Xue Lingqiao was in this building. And for no reason, her palms were sweating; she felt the danger. There seemed to be a voice in her mind telling her: Stop! Don’t go!

“Monster Xue...you know how unlucky I am. If even you are in danger, then I must be doomed, so...you can understand..right?”

Tian Jingzhi should have just turned and left, but she stood motionless. She looked at the dark building as if it was a silent monster, one misstep and it would be over.

I don't care. Tian Jingzhi continued to chant in her heart. I will never care.

....

A few minutes later, Tian Jingzhi stood, arms crossed, facing the other side of the building.

Although the entrance was locked, a wall was no match for her flying bat. Ok fine, she had maintained an excellent morality since elementary school. She dared to help old ladies who had fallen on the road, dug wells in Africa, so how could she be afraid of a small office building?

Besides, she was so unlucky that King Yama* would not even accept her. Tian Jingzhi breathed a sigh of relief and looked around carefully. Then with the flashlight on her phone, she looked into the building.

(Pure: King Yama - 阎王爷/King of Hell)

“Where do I even start?!” Tian Jingzhi stomped her feet and found that the sensor light was broken. She pressed the button for the elevator, but it did not respond. The numbers appeared strangely garbled, as if it was stuck.

Tian Jingzhi breathed a sigh of relief and felt the situation a bit absurd, “Is it just stuck? I thought he was kidnapped!”

However, there have been stories of students trapped in elevators after the summer vacation, only to be discovered a few months later, when the new semester started. Tian Jingzhi looked around and found a half-meter-long scrap steel bar in the pile of construction waste that had not been cleaned up by the wall. She ran up the stairs and knocked on the door panel at every floor to see if there was any response from inside. Climbing the stairs was a laborious task. After reaching the fifth floor, Tian Jingzhi’s legs became weak and her hair was a mess. She simply tied a bun on her head and rolled up her sleeves and trousers. If the steel bar in her hands were replaced with a hoe, she could be mistaken for a farmer.

“Monster Xue, where are you?”

When Tian Jingzhi reached the seventh floor, she knew something was wrong and rubbed the goosebumps on her body. “Huh, why is it so cold?” She put her hand on the elevator door and immediately retracted in fright, the elevator door was covered with water droplets, and the ground was wet.

Tian Jingzhi approached the elevator door carefully and called, “Monster Xue, Monster Xue..”

Inside, Xue Lingqiao was sitting in the corner of the elevator. As if in a coma, he was still, with a thin layer of white frost on his face.

“Monster Xue, Monster Xue, are you inside?” Tian Jingzhi pounded on the door desperately, “Anyone there?”

Xue Lingqiao opened his eyes slowly, “....here..” Realizing that the other party couldn't hear him, he raised his hand and knocked on the door panel with all his strength.

Hearing the response, Tian Jingzhi hurriedly used the steel bar to pry open the elevator doors. When she finally made a 10-centimeter gap, cold air rushed out towards her.

Tian Jingzhi was stunned when she looked into the gap between the doors. Was this a scene from a horror movie? The entire cabin had become a freezer. Xue Lingqiao's whole body seemed to be covered in frost as he sat weakly in the corner. The top of the cabin was still spewing out cold air. Tian Jingzhi shivered from the cold.

Tian Jingzhi panicked immediately, “Call the police...just wait, I'll call the police right away!” Tian Jingzhi took out her mobile phone and prepared to call the police, but suddenly stopped, “No wait, I can’t do that, you are a monster.. What do we do? You can’t come out yourself, right?”

Xue Lingqiao shook his head, “It's too cold..”

Tian Jingzhi frowned, “Are you afraid of the cold?”

Xue Lingqiao nodded slightly.

“Then what should I do?” Tian Jingzhi was helpless. At this time, she felt the pain in her palm. When she was trying to pry open the doors, the bandage had slipped off. The wound opened again and blood was seeping out.

Xue Lingqiao looked at her hand: “Blood..”

“What did you say?” Tian Jingzhi looked at Xue Lingqiao before looking at her injured palm again. She remembered that it was her blood that woke up Xue Lingqiao, and muttered to herself, “In addition to warmth, do you need an energy source?” Tian Jingzhi gritted her teeth. She stretched her arm into the cabin, with her palm up, “It’s just going to go to waste otherwise, so you drink it quickly... But don't drink too much, I will die if I lose too much blood, understand?"

Although the gap is only ten centimeters, the warm air from the outside was pouring in, and he was recovering little by little. Xue Lingqiao looked at the hand in front of him. He never thought that after people had found out he had become a monster, someone would lend a hand to him so unguardedly, as if entrusting their life to him.

“Don't hesitate, hurry up!” Tian Jingzhi was scolding him for dawdling when the palm of her hand was touched by soft lips and tongue, and she almost jumped.

In an instant, Tian Jingzhi's face turned gorgeously red.

This feeling is so weird, although she was only just feeding him blood, it felt like she was being kissed on the palm. Xue Lingqiao only took a few sips and let go, Tian Jingzhi immediately retracted her hands. She hid behind the door with a guilty conscience, her heart pounding.

“Are you uncomfortable?” Xue Lingqiao could feel her emotions, “Does it hurt?”

“Yes, it hurts to death.” Tian Jingzhi patted her face and forced herself to calm down, “Then... Do you need me to do anything else?”

“No, it'll be fine after a while.”

“Oh.”

Tian Jingzhi, like a cat whose tongue had been burned, sat outside silently and waited. She didn't speak, so Xue Lingqiao didn't speak either. There was only the sound of water dripping from the melted ice.

“....This was done by your enemy, right?”

“Mhm.”

“Guess there was another monster in this world.”

“....”

“I'm not calling you a monster. I'm just talking about people who have lived a super long time. I didn't expect there were others.”

“I know.”

The two fell into a strange silence again.

“How did you injure your hand?”

“The prop knife was switched with a real one today.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

Tian Jingzhi was going crazy. Why did this feel like an awkward conversation one would have during a blind date? She needed to run out and calm down. At this moment, with a BANG, the elevator door was forcibly opened by Xue Lingqiao.

Tian Jingzhi was startled and looked up. Xue Lingqiao was holding the elevator door with both hands. Although he was completely soaked, the monster was a monster. He recovered quickly and still looked just as handsome.

“Hi.” Tian Jingzhi subconsciously greeted.

Xue Lingqiao closed his eyes and fell on Tian Jingzhi. Tian Jingzhi caught the unconscious Monster Xue and her brain shut down. She was stupefied.