The massive three-story iron bus carrying two hundred people traveled along the empty forest road. Through the window, Liao Tingyan saw the tall cypress forests on both sides of the road, appearing dark green under the dim sky.
The air was humid, having just rained not long ago. Water vapor rose from the ground, and white mist covered the peaks of distant mountains. Even sitting in the bus surrounded by so many people, Liao Tingyan felt a bone-chilling cold. The chill seemed alive, creeping into her thick coat and gripping her limbs, especially her feet, which were so cold they were almost numb.
She glanced at the despair and dejection on the faces of others in the carriage when her peripheral vision suddenly caught a small deer jumping out from the forest. She quickly turned to look. Indeed, it was a small deer—wildlife often crossed such forest roads. She wanted to watch it longer, but the iron bus moved too fast, and soon the lively little deer bouncing on the dark road disappeared.
“You don’t look like someone headed to be blood food. You can still smile at a time like this,” a man sitting in front of her had turned to look at her, his tone somewhat sarcastic. “After you’ve donated blood once, you’ll know exactly what you’re going to suffer.”
Liao Tingyan instinctively put on a social smile: “Hmm, all right, I understand.”
After speaking, she realized she had been a corporate slave for too long, reflexively wanting to say “okay” or “received.” She had almost politely added a “thank you.”
Wake up, you’re no longer that ‘996’ corporate slave working overtime seven days a week without rest. You’re now just a poor adult who has transmigrated to a strange world and finally gotten a good night’s sleep.
She had transmigrated here yesterday, becoming a person named “Liao Tingyan,” living in a messy, five-square-meter can-like small room. Her phone showed she had an enormous unpaid debt and had been blacklisted, requiring her to enter the blood bank for repayment. There was too much information to process. Liao Tingyan hadn’t inherited the original owner’s memories and was completely puzzled. The room had no diary or manual, just a suicide note saying the world was too dark, and the original owner wanted to embrace death, hoping to be wealthy in the next life.
Liao Tingyan: “…” Yeah, who doesn’t want to be rich in their next life? But sister, with you, owing so much money and now bailing out, I’m in quite a predicament!
Since she couldn’t go back, what else could she do but survive for now?
Then this morning, she was taken away by two staff members, a man and a woman, who seemed to be this world’s “civil servants,” specifically responsible for sending those with large unpaid debts to the blood bank to work off their debt.
Perhaps they had never seen someone being sent to the blood bank who wasn’t panicking, despairing, suffering, or struggling, but instead asking them many basic questions as if consulting about a service.
Through these two relatively decent staff members, Liao Tingyan gained a preliminary understanding of this world.
This was District 98, also called the Vampire District, ruled by the Vampire Grand Duke. Compared to the chaotic evil of the adjacent District 97, the Werewolf District, and the xenophobia of District 96, the Mermaid District, the Vampire District was generally more free and open. There was just one catch—its specialty related to the vampire diet. Ordinary civilians living in District 98 would voluntarily donate blood annually, many poor people would choose to sell blood when they couldn’t make ends meet, and ordinary people who failed to repay loans or committed serious crimes would be required to pay with blood.
Liao Tingyan: This is blood debt paid in blood.
And Liao Tingyan owed so much that she was in the most severe category—she was practically the private property of the vampires now. She was being sent to the blood bank, and her future life would likely involve being in that cage-like blood bank, having blood extracted daily to supply the vampire community until she dried up and died. Generally, people like her who entered the blood bank lived at most three years. No wonder the original owner wanted to embrace death—who would want to be a blood bag?
If Liao Tingyan wasn’t afraid of pain and couldn’t bring herself to commit suicide, she would have chosen a quick death too.
However, before dying, she wanted to see what the legendary vampires looked like. She came from a scientific world and hadn’t yet experienced the magical creatures of a fantasy world!
Before seeing the vampires, she first saw the blood bank where she would be living… how to describe it? A huge warehouse complex surrounded by dense forests, large groups of people wearing the same blue uniforms, reminding her of places like livestock farms. She and her bus full of dejected brothers and sisters were arranged in a “warehouse,” where they showered, changed clothes, and ate together.
Everyone seemed to have a poor appetite except for Liao Tingyan, who started eating. She hadn’t expected there would be steak here, which was surprisingly well-grilled, along with roasted pig liver sprinkled with sesame seeds, crisp and flavorful, with milk as a beverage. After eating for a while, she noticed people around her watching, and she returned their strange looks.
She hadn’t eaten for a day, what was wrong with eating something? The dead-faced uncle who distributed the food looked at her clean plate and gave her another piece of roasted pig liver, along with a refill of milk.
After eating her fill, she felt drowsy. Each person was assigned a cubicle, and Liao Tingyan patted the white sheets and blankets inside to make sure there were no unusual smells before lying down and falling asleep.
She didn’t know how much time had passed when someone woke her up. Opening her eyes, Liao Tingyan saw three people: one holding a blood collection device, another carrying dozens of vials of blood, and a middle-aged man with a butler-like appearance wearing gold-rimmed glasses, standing outside like a supervisor.
Liao Tingyan noticed his slightly red eyes and pointed ears.
Ah… so this was a vampire? He didn’t seem particularly special.
The blood-collecting brother also had an expressionless, dead face and didn’t say a word to her. He pulled back her wrist, took a small vial of blood, and quickly left. Liao Tingyan pulled down her sleeve and turned over to continue sleeping.
If she died, she might return to her original world and have to continue working overtime. So during this interval, she would first catch up on sleep here. At least she could relax mentally—her previous overtime work had been too exhausting, constantly revising design proposals until she was nearly dead on the spot.
“Mr. Conan, the collection from this batch of new blood is complete.”
“Hmm, I smell several with good blood quality. Don’t drain them to death in just a few extractions.”
“Yes, sir!”
The middle-aged butler-like man took this batch of new blood and boarded a plane painted with a red rose emblem. They would fly for twenty minutes, over the adjacent high mountain range, to reach the Rose Manor on the other side. The Rose Manor was the estate of the Vampire Grand Duke, ruler of District 98, surrounded by endless dark green forests. The ancient estate, passed down for thousands of years, was devoid of any outside clamor, just as quiet and still as its master.
The blood bank, separated from the Rose Manor by a mountain, was the largest in District 98. It contained blood food that had been screened, with quality reaching medium grade or above, and was also known as the backyard garden of the Rose Manor.
In the strictly hierarchical District 98, the sole Grand Duke of the vampires possessed all blood-drinking rights in his territory. The highest quality fresh blood in the blood bank belonged only to him, so whenever new blood arrived at the blood bank, it would be uniformly sent to the Grand Duke for his selection… However, the vampire Grand Duke suffered from hemophobia and hadn’t drunk blood for many years, so this practice had become a mere formality.
The butler of the inner garden of the Rose Manor received this batch of new blood. He took a light sniff and felt that this time’s fresh blood was slightly better than the previous batch. Just as humans were obsessed with fine wine, the vampires spent their lives pursuing more delicious fresh blood. Following the custom, he walked through the dark corridor, down the spiral underground stairs, past that tall door of thorns.
Deep underground, the Vampire Grand Duke lay in that pitch-black wooden coffin.
“Grand Duke, the new batch of blood has arrived,” the butler respectfully presented those tantalizingly scented blood samples, while mentally counting. He would usually count to ten seconds, then, with no response from the Grand Duke, he would retreat, allowing other high-ranking vampires to select one by one.
He had counted to five when he suddenly heard a slight movement. He couldn’t control his shock as he glanced over, surprisingly finding that the Grand Duke had stirred.
A pale hand rested on the edge of the black coffin, and a slender figure sat up from within. That waterfall-like, seemingly living black long hair flowed sinuously as he rose.
The butler was terrified, involuntarily starting to tremble. He felt the pressure from the bloodline, his spine bending more and more, not daring to look directly at the Grand Duke.
That figure, wrapped in black, passed by like a silent shadow. The butler saw that transparent white hand pick up a vial of bright red blood.
Butler: “!” The Grand Duke, the Grand Duke had blood he was willing to try?!
For so many years, the Grand Duke suffering from hemophobia had shown no interest in tasting not only ordinary human blood but even the blood of high-ranking vampires just below him. Because of this, how many female vampires had been heartbroken?
The butler was excited inside and inadvertently looked up—he saw a handsome, pale face. The Grand Duke slightly tilted his head back, revealing the neck wrapped in a black shirt. He tasted a sip of that fresh blood, his Adam’s apple moving, his red lips becoming even more vivid.
…
Liao Tingyan ate her second meal at the blood bank, with the same arrangement as the previous one. As she ate, she wondered, surely they wouldn’t serve this every day? Even the most delicious food becomes tiresome when eaten daily. But then she thought, those breeding farms generally only feed animals the same food, so it seemed impossible to expect three different meals a day here.
She decided that if they served this again in two days, she would ask the chef’s uncle who distributed the food if they could change the feed… no, change the food flavor.
She found her mindset much better than those of her despairing companions. Perhaps it was because she was used to it. In her world, she often felt like a cow, working diligently and exhaustingly, and here, she was more like a pig, idly eating and waiting to die. It was hard to say which was more unacceptable.
Unfortunately, before she could finish three days of meals here, a plane hurriedly flew over that day. Dozens of armed personnel and more than a dozen maid-dressed sisters, led by three red-eyed butlers, rushed into her small cubicle and transported her onto the plane.
Liao Tingyan: “???”
She was squeezed among a crowd of people or vampires, feeling like she had become a fragile item because they carried her entirely. The butler kept seriously admonishing them to handle her gently, to be careful not to use force that might cause wounds, and so on.
On the plane, she looked down through the wide-open cabin door and saw the cold, wet cypress forests below shrouded in clouds and mist. The sky was dark, and cold winds howled.
So these people were vampires! Could humans sit on a plane with the cabin door wide open in the cold wind?
Shivering with cold, she was carried off the plane in a manner akin to an antique vase and brought into a dark and lifeless manor, where she was handed over to another group of maid sisters. They cleaned her with water, marinated her with cleaning products… Liao Tingyan seemed to hear “A Bite of China” background music in her ears, the kind played when ingredients were being prepared.
Are you preparing to eat me after processing? She tried to talk to the sisters, but they ignored her.
Liao Tingyan: “I think I can wash my butt.”
Still, no one paid attention to her.
As they scrubbed her, she suddenly remembered washing her dog with her roommate in the past. The big dog had struggled like this and might have made such pleas, but she hadn’t paid attention and had scrubbed it hard. This must be karma. Those who wash will be washed in turn.
She was scrubbed squeaky clean by a group of sisters, dressed in a thin silk nightgown, and then carried by these passive-aggressive maids to a room with thick carpeting.
They respectfully withdrew without a word, leaving Liao Tingyan standing barefoot in the spacious room.
The room had only one large bed with dark red curtains hanging from its four corners. It was very dark, perhaps because the curtains were too heavy and had all been lowered. The dark red curtains with black patterns made the room look extremely eerie.
But Liao Tingyan couldn’t feel any of this; she only felt she was about to freeze to death. Everyone here seemed immune to cold and didn’t seem to think others would be cold. Looking around and seeing no one approaching, Liao Tingyan went straight to the large bed in the middle, pulled back the covers, and got in.
There was no other choice; the blanket on this bed was the only thing in the room that could provide warmth.
She finally managed to recover, exhaling a long breath. After her eyes adjusted to the surroundings, she realized there was another person in the room.
That person sat in a high-backed chair in the corner, his appearance unclear, only a pair of red eyes watching her in the darkness.
Liao Tingyan: “Tss—” This is like some terrifying ghost story.
She pulled the blanket over her head, just like when she was a child watching horror movies and being too scared to sleep.
The room was quiet. Huddled in the blanket, Liao Tingyan thought, could I have been seeing things? Why didn’t that vampire react just now? Thinking this, she cautiously peeked out her head and saw those red eyes close by.
Being so close, Liao Tingyan finally saw what this vampire looked like—he resembled Snow White.
Skin as white as snow, hair and eyes like ebony, lips red as blood.
As she looked at him, she suddenly and irrationally felt her heart racing.
His fingers were cold, his lips were cold, he didn’t breathe, but the breath in his mouth was like frost. Her throat was gripped, this vampire of unknown name and identity drew close to her, his nose and lips hovering over her neck. She couldn’t move, her head lifted, and then he buried his face in the side of her neck and suddenly bit down—
It didn’t hurt, just a bit of itchy numbness. Liao Tingyan felt somewhat dazed for a moment. She felt as if she had plunged into a snowy pine forest, her nostrils filled with the crisp scent of snow and the cold fragrance of pine trees, faint and cold, like a pine forest at night, with a bit of night’s tranquility amidst the bone-chilling cold.
She was lost in a trance for a long time. When she came to, she found herself holding the vampire’s head, her hand tightly grasping his hair at the back of his head. He had stopped drinking blood but still leaned against her neck, gently sniffing the warm blood scent through the thin layer of skin.
Liao Tingyan: “…” Um, his hair quality was excellent.
The Snow White with excellent hair quality was the Vampire Grand Duke, the master of the Rose Manor, the ruler of District 98, and a man of the vampire bloodline.
He always wore a black shirt and trousers, draped in a robe, coming and going without a sound.
She inexplicably slept on that bed for a day, and when she woke up, her treatment had changed again. The gazes of a group of butlers and maid sisters looking at her were complex, a mix of envy, jealousy, and awe, which Liao Tingyan couldn’t decode.
She wasn’t sent back to the blood bank. It was said that she had been favored by the Grand Duke and had become his exclusive blood provider. The homophobic Grand Duke had finally found food, and thus Liao Tingyan, this precious ration, received the highest level of care. However, vampires didn’t know how to care for humans; they lacked understanding of humans. For example, the food was too monotonous, and Liao Tingyan was very concerned that eating like this for a long time would cause constipation, so she requested improved meals.
“We are the Grand Duke’s kinsmen! The highest status among vampires! We have lived here for generations, the most loyal servants of the Grand Duke, serving only him!” The brothers and sisters were very proud and refused her request.
Liao Tingyan: Well, fine.
That night, Snow White came to find her, and Liao Tingyan tried to whisper in his ear, “I want to eat some other food, just some snacks, can I?”
As they say, a man is most agreeable after being well-fed. Snow White embraced her, lazily humming in agreement, his voice carrying a hint of intoxication, as if drunk.
Liao Tingyan was held by him, her neck licked for a long time. Seeing how preciously he drank, almost just making a small cut and licking for a while, she felt this brother had been starving for so many years, too pitiful, not daring to eat too much, fearing he would finish it all at once.
Given that she was the food, she wouldn’t encourage him to eat more.
The Grand Duke said one sentence, and the next day Liao Tingyan saw a stream of chefs arriving at the manor, specifically to cook for her. Three meals a day plus afternoon tea and night snacks, all available. She could even order dishes, with an extremely thick menu that could only be opened and flipped through on the table. Detailed descriptions of delicacies from all districts, with illustrations. Unbelievably, they even had preparations for “Rou Jia Mo” (Chinese hamburger) and spicy hot pot.
It was too damp and cold here, permanently gloomy without sunlight. Liao Tingyan couldn’t stand the cold and consulted with the brothers and sisters, “Can electricity be installed here? An air conditioner or floor heating or something? It’s too cold. I’m wearing many clothes and still feel cold.”
They looked at her strangely, almost screaming, “Where do you think this is? This is the ancient and mysterious Rose Manor! It’s been this way for thousands of years!”
Liao Tingyan: “Then should I talk to Snow Whi… to the Grand Duke?”
She saw their faces screaming “this shameless little spirit only knows how to act coquettishly with the Grand Duke, it’s detestable,” and then they reluctantly set up a fireplace for her to warm up.
Liao Tingyan: But I still really want electricity.
These people liked gloomy weather, liked dim light, but she felt that after staying here for a while, her eyes would become nearsighted. The lighting environment was too bad.
So she sneakily spoke to Snow White Grand Duke again.
“Hmm, electric lights?” His voice was lazy and magnetic, making one’s ears tingle.
“Yes, have you seen electric lights? They’re very bright. And air conditioning—I think it would be better to install floor heating in the room so I can walk barefoot. If there’s floor heating, I wouldn’t need to wear such thick clothes here.”
Hearing she wouldn’t wear such thick clothes, the Grand Duke, who lay lazily like a black cat nearby, nodded, “Hmm, not bad.” She was wrapped too tightly for him to smell her scent.
Soon a construction team came to install electricity. The group of vampires looked at Liao Tingyan as if she had killed their parents and defiled their purity, but they could only endure the humiliation.
“You dare! How can the Grand Duke be so indulgent with you!”
Liao Tingyan didn’t know either, but from their first meeting, that man had been very good to her, nodding to whatever she wanted, making her feel quite embarrassed—after all, even her parents hadn’t spoiled her like this.
As everyone knows, humans are greedy. Having one thing, they want more. So after electricity was installed in this Rose Manor, it was also covered with internet. Liao Tingyan’s room could open the heavy curtains and turn on bright lights. She could sprawl on the thick lazy sofa with a tablet, watching online dramas.
“I want some milk tea.”
The milk tea was delivered.
She drank a large cup of happy health milk tea before bed. That man held her, licking her neck, tasting a bit of blood, saying, “A bit sweet.”
Liao Tingyan: “Oh, then I’ll add less sugar to my milk tea next time.”
“You can choose what you like.”
Liao Tingyan stroked his hair, “Then next time I’ll drink some cola, let you taste the happy otaku water.”
The man smiled, deeply, greedily, and obsessively inhaling her scent. Sometimes Liao Tingyan felt he was being too naturally good to her.
He might have been reluctant to drink too much blood but was unsatisfied, often starting to lick other places after licking her neck, such as her lips. After the first time embracing and kissing this man, such things seemed to become natural. Later, he even preferred to directly kiss her lips, then bite her lip during their entanglement, licking the blood on it.
Initially, he only came at night, holding her for a while.
Later, he would appear during the day too. When she sprawled, watching dramas and laughing loudly, he would sit profoundly in a high-backed chair three meters away, watching her with those red eyes. The entire room was very bright, only the corner where he sat had shadows. He looked pitiful, like a little kitten whose nest had been occupied, forced to observe secretly from the corner.
There was a large open space in the manor, and Liao Tingyan’s room directly faced this space.
“Many red roses were once planted there, which is how the Rose Manor got its name originally,” said the butler who had stayed in the manor the longest. “But even I have never seen what the Rose Manor looked like when it last bloomed with roses.”
That night, the Grand Duke suddenly asked her: “Would you like to see rose flowers?”
Liao Tingyan’s eyes brightened, “Yes!” Besides the tall cypress trees, there were few other plants around here. It would be wonderful if the garden had flowers!
When she said she wanted to, all the open spaces in the manor were planted with red roses. When they bloomed, the bright red flowers connected into fields, and the lush floral fragrance permeated the night, making even dreams fragrant.
Liao Tingyan had a dream of this rose fragrance. She dreamed she became a woman from many years ago, also living in this manor. She said to the man in her dream, “Can these red roses be eaten?” Then she walked with him by the wall of red roses, kissing his red eyes.
The dream was continuous; besides this one, there was another where she became yet another woman, but seemingly from an even earlier time. At that time, she always thought about how hard it was without the internet, and there were few food varieties. The Grand Duke asked her what the internet was and what she wanted to eat… The red roses bloomed twice in her dream.
Liao Tingyan ate many foods made from rose flowers—flower cakes, flower tea, flower pastries—until she was filled with rose fragrance. The man seemed to find it a bit unbearable too. When he approached her neck that night, he sneezed, making Liao Tingyan laugh until midnight.
Gradually, all the vampires in the manor knew that the Grand Duke had been enchanted by a human woman, indulging her every wish. Some dissatisfied vampires tried to deal with Liao Tingyan but were torn into pieces by the Grand Duke. That ferocious scene made Liao Tingyan’s life even more leisurely here, as no one dared to provoke her.
…
Later, when she became too weak and was about to die, she saw the man sitting before her and the large patch of rose flowers outside the window behind him.
“How did you recognize me?” she murmured.
“I will always recognize you,” he said, then bent down and took large gulps of the blood in her body.
The rose flowers outside withered overnight. The Grand Duke carried the corpse drained of all blood, walking along the corridor, through the thorn door, and again into the dark underground. The lights along the way dimmed one by one, no longer as bright as before.
The Rose Manor returned to silence once more.
“I know you will come back again.” Perhaps it would be a long time later, but she would eventually return.
(End of the Vampire short story)