[Friendly reminder: Approximately 75% of this chapter consists of dialogue.]
"But Locke, please let me see him one more time. I want to ask him directly and get to the bottom of things."
Locke walked to Ariel's bedside, gently wiped away her tears, and whispered, "Stay here quietly, I'll call him over."
"Um."
But Emperor Xiu clearly wouldn't listen to a vampire; upon seeing an unfamiliar caller ID, he immediately hung up.
It was daytime, and most vampires couldn't travel. Locke sent Layton's human subordinates over, but they couldn't find anyone during the day, and even if they bumped into them at night, they would return empty-handed.
—Leighton, a dutiful son and grandson, said that all his things belonged to Locke, and that he had given all his property to his "father" before he died.
Ariel waited all day but no one came, so she asked Locke for her phone and made a call. Di Xiu answered the call despite being busy.
"Brother Zhong, sob sob, why haven't you come to see me? I miss you so much."
"...I'm busy."
Ariel cried even louder: "I've been missing for so long, could you have been so busy? You don't care about me at all."
"Aren't you with Locke Albert?"
Ariel choked, suddenly lost in thought and speechless.
Seeing her blank expression, her aunt felt exasperated. She leaned closer, cleared her throat, and said gently, "Xiao Yi, it's me, Ariel's aunt... Do you like Ariel? I mean, I mean, romantic feelings between a man and a woman."
"dislike."
"..."
Although her aunt was really looking forward to this answer, she was completely stunned when she heard him say it without hesitation. After all, they had been together for ten years. Didn't he have even the slightest bit of affection for her? And Ariel had been following him around since she was a child. Didn't he waver at all?
"Is there anything else?"
Aunt looked at Ariel: "He already said he doesn't like you, is there anything else you want to ask?"
"Brother Zhong, why don't you like me?"
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, followed by a burst of static and the sound of a door closing, before a voice came through, sounding gentler than before: "Do you know that Locke is a vampire?"
Ariel glanced at Locke instinctively and mumbled a "hmm".
"Ariel, how many times have you been attacked by vampires since you were a child?"
Hearing the question from the other side, Ariel was stunned for a moment, and then many voices rang in her mind: "Close your eyes, I didn't tell you to open them," "Find a place to hide and don't make a sound, remember to close your eyes," "Don't look, cover your ears"... These were the voices of the older brother next door whenever a monster appeared, from childhood to adulthood.
"Including that time at school, that makes 101 times. Oh, right, 100 of those times, I was the one protecting you. Ha. Ariel, do you know why you've been attacked so many times?"
Before Zhong Yi's parents met with their accident, Zhong's father discovered the problem with the little girl next door's blood and secretly sealed it away. However, with his death, the seal loosened and gradually became ineffective. Young Zhong Yi was forced to take action out of a sense of justice.
When Zhong Yi was young, he was very weak. Before his parents passed away, he was still a playful and mischievous child. On his own, he couldn't even handle a thirteenth-generation vampire. To prevent them from accidentally dying in the line of duty and leaving their son to be sought revenge by the vampires, his parents left behind many talismans.
As a result, their son didn't use any of these talismans himself, but he used up almost all of them to protect the little girl next door, and the rest were gradually consumed during the mission.
It can be said that Ariel lost her parents at the age of three and came to live with her aunt. The Zhong family, a blood hunter clan, happened to be next door to her aunt's house. Everything was set up in the timeline so that the world would protect this delicacy in the eyes of the vampires and let her grow up healthily so that she could meet the male protagonist, Locke.
Ariel's aunt was taken aback and looked at her niece, who hadn't heard her mention these things before.
"Why, why?" Ariel asked, following the words on the other end of the phone.
Locke suddenly shouted sternly, "Zhong Yi, shut up! Don't talk nonsense in front of Ariel!"
A soft laugh came from the other end of the phone: "Because they love your blood, Ariel. Even the most discerning third-generation vampire, Locke, couldn't resist your blood. You remember, right? The day he enrolled, you fell down in front of him and hurt your knee."
"Zhong Yi!"
"Lord Locke Albert, a third-generation vampire, are you out of your mind? Don't even think about smashing your phone. That's not in line with your elegant demeanor. It would only make you look flustered and guilty."
Locke froze, and Ariel hesitated. Her intuition told her that it was best not to listen to what he was about to say, but she was completely frozen in place and couldn't move.
"Back to the point, Ariel, you asked me why I don't like you? You've endured so many attacks since you were a child. You looked at my wounds and said you were afraid of and hated vampires. You heard about the war between vampires and humans from me. You've witnessed humans being killed by vampires, yet you still easily switched sides in front of Locke, this powerful, beautiful, elegant, and hypocritical vampire. You are destined to betray humanity. Someone like you doesn't deserve anyone's affection."
"Kroc isn't a bad person..."
"He's not a bad person to you. Oh, I forgot, he's not human. That's an insult to vampires and a disgrace to humans. Do you know why he was injured by the blood hunters that time? I told you, blood hunters are more compliant with the peace treaty than vampires. They only attack vampires who violate the treaty—I mean, those who violate it after it was signed. Your Locke, before biting your neck, had just killed an innocent girl. Before that, there were three others."
"No, you're lying to me, aren't you? How could Locke..."
Suddenly, she was interrupted loudly: "Ariel, you are deceiving yourself. Only third-generation vampires can walk in the sunlight. Vampires over three hundred years old must have the blood of their human brethren on their hands. This is a sin that time cannot wash away. Even if you didn't know before, you know now, yet you are still trying to find excuses for them."
The voice gave a cold snort, full of disdain and contempt: "Ariel, embrace Locke, who has captivated you. When you chose to conceal his identity from us, when you repeatedly deceived yourself and humanity for his sake, you have already lost your right to be human. You are destined to be an ally of darkness and despised by the light."
"For the sake of our ridiculous friendship, here's a message: you say you have no memory before the age of three, but perhaps you could ask your aunt if your parents had two holes in their necks when they died. You know what I mean."
"May you have a beautiful night, Locke Albert, the third-generation vampire, Ariel Albert, the traitor to humanity, and Ms. Huna Gar, who has fallen into the arms of the vampires."
Huna, who is also Ariel's aunt, could theoretically have chosen to take the surname Garr, the "father," after being embraced by the butler, but the butler refused.
The butler felt unworthy to be Locke's elder and refused to let Huna call him father.
When Hu Na heard Zhong Yi mention Ariel's parents, she felt a chill run down her spine. When she heard him utter his last words of greeting, she was even more horrified.
Perhaps she knew she was betraying humanity.
…………
[No prize awarded! Guess who was on the phone with Ariel and the others:]
A: Emperor Xiu
B: 001
C: Emperor Xiu & 001]
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