“...!”

Had her identity been exposed!?

That was Xi Feng’s first thought, but she quickly dismissed it. She was certain Bei Yaoyue had been unconscious at the time. Afterward, she’d been careful to clean up every possible trace. There was no way Bei Yaoyue could know what she’d done!

And there was even less chance that someone passing by had seen her. If anyone had caught her drinking blood, she wouldn’t have had time to stroll home at her leisure. Some do-gooder would’ve dragged her straight to the police station to sit in a cell.

So Bei Yaoyue had to be bluffing... She had to be! She’d just gotten lucky with a wild guess!

Clinging to that reassuring lie, Xi Feng put on an innocent, silly smile, hoping her cuteness would get her off the hook. “What are you talking about? What do you mean, vampire?”

She’d heard that if you were cute, all you had to do in a situation like this was play dumb.

“Confess and you’ll be treated leniently. Resist and you’ll be dealt with harshly.” Bei Yaoyue strolled over to Xi Feng and looked down at her where she sat on the floor. “If you turn yourself in, I might consider going easy on you.”

“What are you even talking about? Turn myself in for what?” Xi Feng tilted her head at Bei Yaoyue, her tiny eyes brimming with confusion.

Then she suddenly seemed to realize something. “Oh, you mean when I accidentally knocked you over earlier?”

She lowered her head and spoke with utmost sincerity, as if she meant every word. “I’m sorry! I’d like to offer you my heartfelt apologies. If you were injured, I’ll cover all your medical expenses and pay you whatever compensation you feel is fair...”

But as she went on, even Xi Feng found it hard to keep talking. Her excuse didn’t make much sense in the first place. She’d knocked someone down, made them pass out, and then run off. Would anyone with a clean conscience do that?

“Still refusing to admit it until you see the evidence?” Bei Yaoyue looked completely relaxed, as if she wasn’t worried in the slightest that Xi Feng would deny everything. “Well, I don’t mind playing along.”

Suppressing the unease that had suddenly stirred inside her, Xi Feng put on a puzzled expression and decided to keep playing dumb.

If you can keep pretending, then pretend for all you’re worth. Just deny everything. There’s no evidence, so what can you do to me?

As if she’d seen right through Xi Feng’s thoughts, Bei Yaoyue pulled a USB drive from her pocket and waved it in front of her. “Do you know what’s on this?”

“?”

“Around this time last year, I installed a security camera outside my front door to stop anyone from breaking in.”

At that, Xi Feng’s expression changed instantly. Her hands clenched together from sheer nerves and fear, and her lips pressed into a tight line.

Those tiny movements gave away her panic completely.

The smoke-free war hadn’t even begun, and she was already at a disadvantage.

Taking in Xi Feng’s reaction without showing it, Bei Yaoyue continued as casually as before. “After I woke up, I was worried someone might do something weird to me while I was unconscious, so I checked the security footage.”

Then she crouched down and looked at the little white-haired girl, whose face had gone deathly pale. With a teasing look, she asked, “Want to guess what I saw on the footage?”

Xi Feng realized the truth was completely out in the open. Keeping up the act would only insult both their intelligence. Like a deflating balloon, she wilted and lowered her head. “...Since you saw it on the footage, there’s nothing left for me to say...”

She couldn’t believe she’d been caught by a security camera. Her lips, pressed tightly together, had gone pale with fear and unease.

The most important thing—and the one thing she absolutely couldn’t let anyone find out—was that she was a vampire.

But this was only her first day as a vampire, and she’d already been caught red-handed. Things couldn’t have gone worse.

The only hopeful sign was that Bei Yaoyue had come to confront her face-to-face instead of calling the police to have them haul her away. At least that meant there was still room for them to talk.

Still, Xi Feng could easily imagine what would happen now that Bei Yaoyue had found such a fatal weakness. She’d have no choice but to give in to whatever demands Bei Yaoyue made. Her future suddenly looked bleak.

“Honestly, if the camera hadn’t caught everything so clearly, I wouldn’t have believed vampires—creatures of fantasy—actually existed.” Bei Yaoyue studied the USB drive in her hand, looking thoughtful. “Vampires...”

My chance!

Yamete!

Bei Yaoyue seemed lost in thought, and the USB drive was lying unguarded in her hand. Without a moment’s hesitation, Xi Feng sprang to her feet and reached for it as fast as she could.

If she could snatch the evidence and destroy it, she might still be able to make this whole crisis disappear!

“Waaah!!!!”

The next instant, just as Xi Feng was about to grab the USB drive, her face changed dramatically. She let out a piercing scream as if she’d seen a ghost, sprang off the floor, and scrambled backward, desperate to put as much distance between herself and Bei Yaoyue as possible.

She hadn’t taken a good look before, but now Xi Feng noticed a silver cross resting on Bei Yaoyue’s chest, hanging from a silver chain around her neck.

The moment Xi Feng’s claws neared the cross, an intense feeling of fear and revulsion rose inside her. Her body’s instinct for self-preservation sent her fleeing from the silver cross.

Bei Yaoyue came out of her daze at Xi Feng’s scream and blinked. After taking a few seconds to process what was happening, she glanced at Xi Feng, trembling in the distance, and murmured, “I didn’t think this thing would actually work.”

She wasn’t stupid enough to face an unknown creature alone without making any preparations. Since the little vampire might attack her, she’d deliberately gone to a jewelry shop beforehand to buy a silver cross, said to have a powerful effect on vampires.

It seemed her precautions had paid off. At least the few hundred yuan she’d spent hadn’t gone to waste.

Still, while there was nothing wrong with being prepared, she’d definitely overthought things this time.

Not every vampire can lift a road roller, and not every vampire can stop time. Given Xi Feng’s physical strength and her absolutely pathetic pain tolerance, even ten of her—or twenty—wouldn’t stand a chance against Bei Yaoyue, who was also an underage girl.

That wasn’t an exaggeration. With Xi Feng’s pain tolerance, Bei Yaoyue only had to punch her on the bridge of the nose to leave her writhing on the floor, unable to get back up for ages.

Bei Yaoyue glanced at Xi Feng, who was huddled like a frightened little rabbit. She casually slipped the USB drive back into her pocket, then took the cross necklace off and held it up. At an unhurried pace, she walked toward Xi Feng.

As Bei Yaoyue closed in, Xi Feng broke into a cold sweat and kept backing away, trying to maintain some distance between them—until her back hit the wall and she had nowhere left to go.

“Don’t come any closer!!!!” Xi Feng cried, her face twisted in misery and her scalp prickling. The tiny cross in front of her made her want to kill herself on the spot.

It was hard to describe. She knew perfectly well that it was just an ordinary silver cross, but she couldn’t stop the fear and dread rising inside her.

Maybe it was like someone with a fear of heights walking across a glass bridge in the sky. They knew they wouldn’t fall, but their legs would still go weak.

“Could you... put the cross away? We can talk this out...” Fighting through her discomfort, Xi Feng forced a weak smile, hoping to win a little sympathy from Bei Yaoyue.

Her pitiful expression, pleading eyes, and impossibly weak voice were downright unfair.

That kind of pathetic appeal was enough to make anyone’s protective instincts surge—but Bei Yaoyue wasn’t falling for it.

“Are you going to try anything again?” Bei Yaoyue ignored Xi Feng’s pleas and kept the cross raised in front of her. Clearly, she hadn’t been happy about Xi Feng trying to snatch the USB drive.

“N-no... I won’t...” Xi Feng gave an awkward little laugh and immediately backed down without a shred of dignity.

When you’re under someone else’s roof, you have to bow your head. Besides, this was already a matter of life and death. If word got out that she was a vampire, she could pretty much say goodbye to her peaceful life.