You’re lusting after my body

“Haha, how could that be? It must be your imagination,” Lan Ruobing said, her voice sheepish.

At times like these, feigning ignorance was the best strategy for survival.

“Oh, are you saying there’s something wrong with my sense of taste?” Xi Xue smiled, her gaze fixed on Ruobing with keen interest.

‘Feigning ignorance, are we? Very well, then there’s no need for a test. We can just have some fun at home.’

Her heart lurched. Lan Ruobing suddenly realized she had just walked into a death trap.

“No, Miss, please listen to me. My meaning was… uh, well, perhaps it’s… um… I’m sorry!”

After much stammering, Lan Ruobing quickly apologized, practically sitting bolt upright in the bed, filled with apprehension.

“I’m sorry, I misspoke. Please don’t be angry. That was just my subconscious reaction, like chatting with a friend and being modest.”

“Actually, when you complimented my blood’s deliciousness, I was quite happy. Truly, your words made me feel my blood had value, and my life had meaning.”

“If you don’t mind, I’m willing to serve you regularly, to alleviate any dietary concerns you might have.”

She pinched her own soft thigh with a small, forceful hand under the covers, using the pain to make her eyes water, creating a pitiable expression.

At the same time, she feigned a state of flustered self-blame, a tangled mix of guilt and distress, as if overwhelmed by her own culpability in offending her captor.

These two effects, working in tandem and complementing each other, ensured her ‘bitter trick’ would appear more genuine, hoping to earn Xi Xue’s favor.

With such a forlorn and conflicted display of guilt, how could the esteemed Campus Belle Xi not be moved to compassion, silently ache with sympathy, and feel a surge of protectiveness?

In truth, however, her apology was merely an attempt to cover up her true, terrified intentions.

The first words that had spilled from her lips were indeed a subconscious reaction, but not one of modesty.

Praised by a vampire for having delicious blood—could she, as food, truly be so unaware, so delighted that she would lower her stance in a show of humility?

Was there something wrong with her mind?

Her subconscious, immediate utterance stemmed purely from the realization of a truly unsettling possibility.

Xi Xue desired her body permanently.

Almost the instant Xi Xue curled her lips and called her blood delicious, Lan Ruobing considered this possibility.

The disappearance of her parents when she was twelve had brought her not only the grief of losing loved ones—regardless of the truth she was now dimly remembering—but also a harsh lesson in the cold realities of human nature.

Many things were understood but left unsaid; everyone inwardly grasped the underlying logic of survival.

For instance, why would her middle school playmates, then only eleven or twelve, suddenly distance themselves from her without reason?

Was it truly because of the fabricated rumor that her parents, whose bodies were never found in the fiery wreckage, were “murderers” who had fled?

Hmph, without their parents’ commands and the subtle indoctrination they absorbed, how could her eleven- or twelve-year-old playmates abandon her over mere gossip?

It was simply a choice made by adults after weighing the pros and cons, much like in the following scenario:

It’s night. You stand before a sumptuous dinner table, your father beside you, idly puffing on a cigarette, a leather belt in hand, speaking with grave sincerity.

Your mother continuously serves dishes, occasionally interjecting a word or two of support.

You might be stubborn, you might resist, expressing your incomprehension and dissatisfaction with your parents’ excessive decisions and actions.

But your parents refuse to budge.

And so, you dig in your heels.

The moon climbs higher, the night deepens, and you watch the couple calmly eating before you, swallowing hard as your stomach growls with hunger.

They hear your stomach’s surrender, and using the belt and pocket money as leverage, and the rich, delicious food as bait, they finally force you to submit, to make a vow, and then to dine with them.

Of course, this was merely an extreme scenario Lan Ruobing had imagined.

In the six years following her parents’ disappearance, she had experienced too much, slowly coming to understand many things and finding a sense of cynical peace.

She understood those adults.

They endured the hardships of life, and through years of struggle, had lost their sharpness, gradually assimilating into the very society they once despised, becoming the kind of people she had once felt so helpless against.

Dozens of cars collided on that overpass, dozens of lives lost.

Even if her parents had staged the accident to escape the sinister company, and despite Lan Ruobing being only twelve at the time, human hearts are unpredictable.

What if her parents had merely gone missing?

Even in such an accident, it was impossible for ordinary people to survive.

Yet, the victims’ families didn’t want results; they wanted an outlet, a way to vent their pent-up frustration, anger, and grief.

Everyone was unfortunate, everyone had loved ones, everyone had beautiful dreams for the future, and no one wished to see their children die before them, to pluck flowers from the other shore, separated by life and death.

Why did such a thing happen? Why should such a thing happen? And why were the culprits, that couple whose car started it, nowhere to be found?

Why?

They needed a place, a person, to bear the brunt of their endless fury and sorrow!

And so, a twelve-year-old boy entered their view—the orphaned child of that couple.

He stood outside the police tape, gazing at the accident scene, amidst the grieving crowd, subtly accompanied by silent police officers, frantically searching for his missing parents, crying in despair and fear, wiping away tears and snot, his entire body filthy…

He was still just a child, yet he had already lost both parents, becoming a pariah.

People despaired, unsure what to do. Why did it have to be an underage boy?

Their fury had no outlet, leaving only pain and desolation…

Yet, human nature is fickle.

Faced with such a complex situation, who could know whether the sorrow of life’s unpredictability or the devil of suppressed hatred lurked within others’ hearts?

The adults of those playmates naturally understood these principles.

Fearing their children would suffer collateral damage if they continued to play with her, they reluctantly resorted to such isolation measures.

Even with a guilty conscience, even if they would feel remorse for a lifetime, they remained resolute.

They dared not gamble, dared not wager their children’s lives and social standing. They could not afford to lose.

Thus, Lan Ruobing’s six years of profound solitude were predetermined.

It was precisely this solitude, this experience of human indifference, that taught her early on to read people’s expressions and intentions.

However, her observational skills weren’t for career advancement, but rather a painful, involuntary habit born of lonely boredom, utilized to survive.

It was all to avoid causing trouble for others and drawing ire upon herself.

Compared to being sharp-witted, given her background, feigning ignorance made her more approachable and less threatening.

Therefore, her subconscious utterance to Xi Xue was purely because a certain unwelcome conjecture had taken root in her heart.

Xi Xue was an obsessive lesbian vampire.

Her approach might not have been merely to sate her hunger for one night, but to claim Lan Ruobing’s body and blood forever.

Perhaps the initial purpose of her approach was indeed to drink, but it had since evolved into permanent possession.

The specific reasons were unclear, but the various signs at the restaurant, the clothing store, the feelings from their day out, and everything that transpired in the villa last night all hinted at one terrifying possibility:

Xi Xue wanted to possess her permanently, like a caged pet.

Initially at the restaurant, she only found it strange and feigned ignorance.

At the clothing store, she continued to feign ignorance, harboring faint suspicions.

If she still feigned ignorance after a whole night of being devoured, then she was a fool.

Thus, her subsequent stammering and quick apology were merely to avoid blurting out the latter half of her thoughts.

‘Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You desire my body, of course you’d find my blood delicious.’

If she were to say those words aloud, challenging the vampire’s ego, she would absolutely be kneeling in submission.

Of course, if she were to say it, she would frame it as Xi Xue saying so because she found her beautiful.

But wouldn’t the outcome be the same?

It would all imply, ‘I know, you just desire my body and I’m onto you!’

At such a moment of life and death, during such peril, she naturally couldn’t appear too perceptive.

She could only feign complete, compliant ignorance!

She certainly didn’t want to be permanently coveted by a vampire overlord who could voraciously drain and thoroughly ravage her every single night, leaving her body perpetually covered in a tempest of crimson bite marks until she broke.

She would die. She would absolutely be ravished to death!