Chapter 13

Zhou Shu was beaten up by his elder brother, and could only put down the butcher knife. He lay down like a dog with his head wilted as he listlessly hung prone on the handrails of the hospital bedside, and continued to look at his sleeping nephew.

“How can it be that serious? Si Jun that dog just swindled you so that you would go and beg him. I drank this kind of blood when I was a child but I was fine, right? In ancient times, there was no anticoagulant and the ancestors used to drink raw blood. It’s only them modernized ghost1 that have such weak constitution. They are so delicate and squeamish that they have to drink something like pasteurized blood.”

Modern ghosts have a weak constitution.

Xia Yuzhou mulled it over and that indeed seems to be the case.

The first time he realized that Si Jun had poor health was during the time when he was rehearsing in the activity center.

The sword dance program for the Cultural Festival was particularly troublesome. Not only must Xia Yuzhou wield a sword, but also dance with an accompaniment. The troupe leader’s idea meant that he can only be considered a chivalrous hero when he is accompanied by beauties in the Jianghu. So he caught twelve beautiful young ladies from the dance troupe and attired them in flowing sleeves and four pleated skirts2 to accompany him.

Xia Yuzhou expressed a brain sore with this creative idea. Just because he refused the task of dragging Si Jun to participate in the cultural festival so now he became a chivalrous hero. Faced with the fake and wretched crying that the troupe leader was selling caused him to become a good man caught in a difficult circumstance,3 and he could only cope with it in the end.

“Thud!” The prop sword was once again hooked on the long sleeves of the lead dancer. Xia Yuzhou was afraid of hurting her so he could only let go of the sword, causing it to roll three feet away from her.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I bumped into you again.” The lead dancer said apologetically.

“It’s okay,” Xia Yuzhou wiped his face with his sweaty hands, “Let’s take a break then practice again.”

The weather was hot and there was no air conditioning in this dance studio. Xia Yuzhou pulled at his sweat soaked long-sleeved shirt. It was so hot that he didn’t want to say another word. The girls were brimming with energy that they didn’t feel the heat. They came over and chatted with him.

“Xia Yuzhou, you wield the sword so beautifully. Have you ever won an award before?”

“Your level is higher than that of our provincial martial arts team. Do you specialize in sports?”

“No wonder your figure is so good, it turned out to be a bodybuilder.”

Hey? I actually entered through the examination, and half of the points in sports were not even added. How did I become a bodybuilder? This is a humiliation to the vampire who has been studying hard for twelve years.

As soon as you don’t refute then rumors will spread. Xia Yuzhou put the bloodfang in the groove and lazily said, “It’s not my fault that my body is built. Also, that was a martial art handed down in my family.”

He moved his lips while his teeth remained motionless, but what he said became sticky instead and had no deterrent effect at all. Instead of blocking the discussion of the girls, it caused more noise.

“Wow! A martial arts family?”

“Can you do other moves? Let us see.”

“The male protagonist in the recent Xianxia drama came from a family of martial arts and his moves were great.”

The chattering voices4 converged into a piece and under the scorching hot sun it became a song of cicadas screech— it was simply suffocating.

“Okay, okay, my great aunts. I’m going to buy you drinks, what do you want to drink?” Xia Yuzhou stood up and raised his hands to beg for mercy.

“There is a milk tea shop on the second floor of the activity center but their variety is relatively simple. Everyone wants their signature milk tea with ice.” Xia Yuzhou made a sound of agreement, took his wallet and walked to the second floor.

The second floor is air-conditioned and the blowing cool air was refreshing. As soon as he went up the stairs, he heard the piano sound coming from the piano room. The sound of the piano was like a stream from a high mountain, bubbling out from the crevice of the cliff, it was ethereal and smooth.

Xia Yuzhou learned a bit of piano and can hear the superb skills in it. It’s just that this tune is too appropriate for the scene—”Ballad for Adeline” is a tune that was often played in various cafes, western restaurants, and in-flight announcements, so the people in the whole second floor didn’t realize that this piano piece came from the piano room, and not from the milk tea shop stereo.

This person is really interesting. He practiced piano and even played music for the milk tea shop.

Xia Yuzhou was suddenly curious and looked inside the piano room door.

The piano room is set up with a variety of instruments sponsored by the school, and right in the middle is a grand piano. This piano was well regarded by the art troupe as their facade, and it will inevitably be carried to the town if there are large-scale events. Normally, students basically aren’t allowed to use it. They can only use the vertical stand on the corner to practice their piano.

In the troupe leader’s words, “Your paws are not worthy to touch my empress dowager.”

Now, the troupe leader’s empress dowager was being wantonly and frivolously played by a pair of slender big paws. The owner of the paw is the only pianist in this school who is qualified to touch the empress dowager— Si Jun.

Si Jun still wore a white shirt and an exquisite black bow tie. The school piano room was obviously messy but he was dazed by the imagery of a golden music hall grandeur that appeared.

As if he sensed that someone was peeping, Si Jun turned his head and looked over but his hands kept moving and the music never stopped. It just changed from “Ballad for Adeline” to “Summer (Xia)”, and he slightly tipped his head to him.

5

Xia Yuzhou became stunned for a moment then amused by this interesting way of greeting, instead of simply saying hello. He said, “Yo, classmate Si, so you’re here practicing piano. I’m going to buy something to drink. What do you like to drink? I’ll also bring you one.”

Si Jun stopped playing, “Are you going to invite me to drink tea?”

Xia Yuzhou grinned, “Well, you invited me last time so this time I’m inviting you. Mint iced water, lemon iced water, silk milk tea, which one do you want?”

Si Jun, “Jujube tea, thank you.”

Xia Yuzhou bought iced water in this milk tea shop countless times but it was the first time for him to know that there is something so healthy like the hot jujube tea.

“You bought it for your girlfriend, right? That’s so sweet of you, little brother.” The aunt of the milk tea shop said with a smile.

Xia Yuzhou didn’t follow, so it took him a while to react. It turned out that girls like to drink hot jujube tea during that special period. Then he thought of Si Jun’s handsome face and couldn’t help but laugh out loud, “Haha, yes, his body is weak so he needs to drink warm.”6

He merely focused on escaping from the chirping cicadas in the dance studio, and ended up overlooking the actual situation. When thirteen drinks were placed in front of him, Xia Yuzhou became dumbfounded. He only hated he’s not Nezha, he couldn’t transform into three heads and six arms. Two hands are simply not enough to hold these. So he had no choice but to ask Si Jun for help.

Xia Yuzhou stuffed six cups of milk tea with plastic bags on the piano master’s expensive hands, the one and only qualified to touch the empress dowager.

The girls playing around in the dance studio saw Xia Yuzhou come back and they immediately chirped and ran over, then instantly became quiet the moment they saw Si Jun behind him.

“Si…Si Jun?”

The handsome and upright pianist was obviously holding a cheap food-colored milk tea in his hands, but in their eyes he seems to be carrying a dew rose just picked from the garden. Nothing can destroy his noble elegance. The moment he stepped in, the people in the room could feel the temperature drop and the girls who had just been cracking jokes loudly also began to whisper softly.

“Here, take your milk tea.” Xia Yuzhou put down the cups in his hands, then took the ones in Si Jun’s hands and laid them together so that the girls could choose their own.

“Ah, jujube7 tea,” The lead dancer found the one with a distinctive cup and immediately picked it up, “I want to drink this.”

Si Jun pursed his lips slightly then whispered to Xia Yuzhou, “I’m going up first.”

“Hey! Your tea,” Xia Yuzhou called out to him. He turned his head to see that the jujube tea was being held by someone else and stretched out his hand to gently take it away, “Sorry, someone else ordered that.”

“But I want to drink this.” The lead dancer was a little aggrieved and looked at Xia Yuzhou pleadingly.

“I asked for your order just now but you didn’t order it, and now you rob someone else. What kind of conduct is this?” Xia Yuzhou had no pity and gave the hot tea in his hand to Si Jun, “Yours.”

At that moment, Xia Yuzhou was sure that he was very happy when he saw Si Jun’s eyes light up. He assumed that he indeed cannot drink iced beverages but found it embarrassing to fight over with the female student.

A grown man who can’t drink with ice.

From then on, Xia Yuzhou couldn’t help but pay attention to Si Jun’s health condition. Every Tuesday when the class was in session, he would bring an extra breakfast with the hope that it could help his weak and picky classmate Si.

………………

“Modern species are indeed weak,” Xia Yuzhou touched his chin. He supposed that Si Jun would need to scald the bottle of pasteurized blood in warm water to keep it from getting too cold. “But the child is also weak now. I looked at his immune indicators and it’s indeed too low. It’s a bit dangerous for him to drink raw blood.”

“You’re a ‘parent’8 now, you now have to anxiously worry about milk money.”9 Zhou Shu curled his lip and pried open his big nephew’s mouth then pinched the two small canine teeth to see if they were loose.

“Ring, ring, ring—” The phone rang and it showed He Yu calling.

Xia Yuzhou glanced at his younger brother. If Zhou Shu disagreed to join then he would have no choice but to drop the Blood Alliance. However, the relevant issue still needs to be asked clearly, “Senior, I have something to ask you.”

Over there, Chen Mo, who didn’t wake up by any human made movements was awakened by the ringing of the mobile phone. A pair of big black eyes opened and looked at the red-haired young man’s small eyes who were staring at him by the side of the bed.

“Pup, I am your uncle!” Zhou Shu leaned closer and excitedly revealed two sharp fangs. It didn’t look like a greeting at all but was like gearing to eat a child.

Chen Mo looked at him curiously for three seconds, then said, “Tree?”

Tree is Zhou Shu’s game code name. Hearing this familiar name, Zhou Shu was very surprised, “Do you know me?”

He heard that right from the beginning, this kid had been trained as a genius and had participated in various competitions that he simply had no recreation. How could he pay attention to him who played Esports?

He saw that he didn’t seem to be mistaken and Chen Mo was even a little pleased. He sat up and explained, “I have seen your statistics and videos from the last season.”

To be precise, he saw it in the “God’s Brain” game. There was one shorthand in the semifinals. A video clip of the last season’s 32 games were given, which corresponds to the data table for the entire season, and they were required to precisely memorize it within a time limit.

Each game was played between two teams of five players each. That was 32 games, 64 battle team data, and 320 players data. They’re required to remember everything in a short time. As for the question, they were to select one clip of the video game then will be given a designated player, and you have to say all the data of this person in the game.

Chen Mo was still a little excited when he thought of that game, “The question I was asked was you, the game when you played against LR. The data in that game were very special. You usually have the highest kill count, but the assists were even stronger in that game. My opponent remembered it wrong. He stereotyped and thought the more you kill the more it will reverse the numbers.”

When Chen Mo recited the data of the Tree bouts in verbatim, which was even accurate down to the two decimal places, Zhou Shu’s eyes had already overtaken his face.

On the phone, Senior He who talked in a gentle and soft voice was suddenly overwhelmed by a roar.

“Brother, buy. You have to buy the best for the child, the kind that is limited edition luxury!”