Blood Queen

October 8th, Tuesday.

Shadow Arrow headquarters, somewhere in an underground base in Beijing, China.

No one would have imagined that beneath the scenic National West Peak Forest Park, deep under those red-leafed mountains, there existed a massive secret base.

Meng Huai had ended his medical observation period yesterday and now wore his crisp military uniform again, sitting straight in an empty conference room, waiting for a classified briefing of unknown content.

Two unfamiliar military officers entered–a male lieutenant colonel and a female captain.

"Comrade Meng Huai, sorry to keep you waiting. Let's begin directly. First, we need to verify your identity."

The opening was as boring and rigid as always, but formalism itself was part of military life. A symbol of high discipline and organization.

Meng Huai calmly cooperated with all their questions, his face showing no emotion.

After exchanging glances with his colleague, the male lieutenant colonel pushed a small stack of medical records toward Meng Huai, his tone light. "Comrade Meng Huai, this is the most comprehensive physical examination you've undergone at headquarters' Medical Support Department. There's also condition analysis at the end. Please take a look."

Looking suspiciously at the male and female officers across from him, Meng Huai slowly reached out and took the medical records, scanning line by line through those familiar and unfamiliar items.

Five minutes, ten minutes, fifteen minutes... Only after turning the last page did Meng Huai look up with surprise. "You're saying my body will repeatedly fluctuate between Stage Two and Stage Three?"

"Yes, whenever you show Stage Three symptom deterioration, your body automatically triggers a self-repair mechanism. Quite remarkable, isn't it? Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to survive injecting over sixty doses of anti-blood infection immune medication and persist until now.

"You have an unusual affinity with the anti-blood infection immune medication, compared to others, at least. This recurring condition will become increasingly severe over time and will eventually irreversibly enter Stage Three completely. Unfortunately, current Stage Three medical treatment methods are basically ineffective for you and can only delay your condition."

"So I'm definitely going to die... Is this why you brought me to headquarters?"

Meng Huai dropped the medical records and leaned back in his chair, showing a trace of mockery on his face. "Just this uniqueness alone, I feel, isn't enough to mobilize the leadership for someone with an inevitable death sentence. Just give enough death benefits, it's not worth all this mystery. So tell me, what secret do you really want to reveal?"

The male and female officers exchanged glances, and the latter pulled out a portable hard drive from her pocket, plugging it into the conference room computer. The room lights dimmed and the wall screen lit up.

"Comrade Meng Huai, I need to show you some content next. These are all headquarters' highest classification materials and your personal classified information. To date, including us two, fewer than ten people have seen these materials."

The male officer clicked the mouse, and the image quickly enlarged. A seemingly ordinary residential bedroom photo showing a bed collapsed halfway, with semi-dried blood clots covering the floor like a blood pool about to dry under scorching sun.

But none of this was the most terrifying part. The most horrifying thing was the dozen or so dark red blood spikes protruding from the blood clots on the floor, like strange plants growing from the bloody ground.

"This is a crime scene photo taken by local police one day after your home was attacked by vampires when you were four, twenty-three years ago. Of course, headquarters ultimately classified everything. Do you know what this represents now?"

The female officer carefully drew a virtual circle with the mouse on the big screen.

Meng Huai's face gradually paled. His body involuntarily stood up slowly, his lips trembling slightly, bloodshot gradually creeping into his eyes.

"Apennine Blood Clan baron, blood transformation. I don't need to explain this, everyone can understand..."

Meng Huai supported himself on the table with both hands, head hanging down, speaking almost word by word.

In his mind appeared the scene of his young self hiding under the bed: spreading blood beneath him, his mother's loving, helpless, and weak gaze after falling, and bloody spikes under the moonlight.

"With your current understanding, do you think a four-year-old child hiding under a bed could escape under an Apennine Blood Clan baron's nose? An Apennine Blood Clan baron's perception ability within their blood domain is much stronger than a spider on its web."

The male officer opened another new photo: A shot taken from a very low angle under the bed, showing a weak little boy unconscious in thick blood clots.

Meng Huai suddenly looked up, his gaze fixed on the photo on the big screen. That was his younger self, unconscious after experiencing unimaginable terror.

"What are you implying with these materials!?"

Meng Huai turned around, straightened his body, his sharp gaze falling on the two headquarters officers' faces, his voice hoarse.

"Comrade Meng Huai, do you know why part of your personal information has headquarters' highest encryption level? Even you don't know many classified details about yourself."

The male officer pulled out another document from his briefcase and handed it to Meng Huai. "Comrade Meng Huai, authorized by headquarters' top leadership, we now declassify to you: You are offspring born from an Apennine Blood Clan and an ordinary person. Your mother, Ms. Meng Xiang, was an Apennine Blood Clan baron whose real name was Tsurumi Miyuka, or Fujiwara Miyuka."

A devastating lightning bolt struck deep in his mind, chewing up his brain matter, scorching his nerves, numbness and horror spreading through his entire body. Meng Huai's face was pale, his eyes blood-red, even suffering splitting headaches, his whole body trembling. Swaying on his feet, his body directly stepped back two paces, knocking over the chair.

"My mother was Japanese!? She was a vampire from Japan's Fujiwara family!? Haha, go... go fuck yourself!"

Meng Huai suddenly lunged forward and, across the conference table, directly grabbed the male officer's collar with both hands, nearly lifting the man's entire body.

"Comrade Meng Huai! Please calm down!"

The female officer beside them quickly came around the conference table and grabbed Meng Huai's arm. "You must stay calm now so we can continue with the rest of the declassification!"

"Fine, continue!"

Roughly pushing the man back, Meng Huai threw off his military cap and unbuttoned his jacket, his bloodshot, predatory eyes scanning back and forth between the two headquarters officers.

After staring at each other for several seconds, the two headquarters officers fearfully returned to their seats and brought up another screen: An analysis report spanning over ten years with extremely detailed subsections, each page almost filling the entire screen.

"This is a later investigation report proving your mother, Ms. Meng Xiang, was indeed Tsurumi Miyuka from the Tsurumi Financial Group secretly controlled by Japan's Fujiwara family. A commercial spy sent to develop the Chinese market twenty-nine years ago.

"Meng Xiang, under the identity of an international student, established a romantic relationship with your father Mr. Zhong Hai for some time, attempting to control your father as a proxy for the Tsurumi Financial Group, and gave birth to you. Domestic tracking and verification technology was still very backward then, so this evidence chain was only gradually completed over many years.

"Your father Zhong Hai also received the Tsurumi Financial Group's first strategic investment during that period. Not a large amount, but enough for the future Zhong Pharmaceuticals Group to rapidly expand from a small workshop into a large pharmaceutical enterprise within a few years.

"The country only became aware five years later, when your mother Ms. Meng Xiang was killed, that Zhong Pharmaceuticals had become foreign Blood Clan capital's commercial layout in China. They had to follow up, and your father became a component and participant in national strategic interests."

The male officer pointed to a complex corporate equity relationship chart, repeatedly indicating with the mouse on several names at the top level.

"Hehe, the country intervened in time. He didn't side with any faction but became a broker, right?"

Meng Huai closed his eyes and slowly shook his head, his face ashen, voice hoarse. "What evidence do you have that my mother was a vampire? Just her identity as a Japanese commercial spy? Not everyone who works for vampire families is a vampire..."

Seeing Meng Huai's almost desperate expression, the male officer smiled bitterly and gently shook his head, moving the mouse to his colleague. The female officer hesitated, then could only grit her teeth and take over.

"Comrade Meng Huai... Ms. Meng Xiang's body had some damage when she was killed, but after autopsy analysis, it was confirmed without doubt.

"Female Blood Clan giving birth severely damages their foundation, but their existing realm doesn't change, they just need a long time to recover. It was during that window period that your mother was ambushed by an unidentified Apennine Blood Clan baron.

"You should know the ability of Apennine Blood Clan barons called 'Phantom Dream.' She should have used her unique pheromones to interfere with the opponent's perception the moment she was ambushed, including but not limited to hearing, vision, and touch, preventing them from noticing you were actually in the room.

"Being able to do this while far weaker than her opponent was already extremely difficult. Very likely, even the scene you saw then was what she let you see under her best control. The actual scene might have been even more terrifying..."

The female officer spoke with feeling. As a woman, she naturally understood that in the most critical moment, a mother's first thought is always of her child.

"So I'm that rare ten to twenty percent chance… normal offspring born from a vampire female and a normal male... So I was born different from others. I can have better affinity with anti-blood infection immune medication than others... So I could survive until now, right?"

Meng Huai covered his face, not letting tears fall, slowly turning away, his tall body trembling slightly like a swaying tower about to collapse.

"Yes, anti-blood infection immune medication, high-dose Yiwen De, contains extracted components from vampire physiological organs in its ingredients. Essentially, the long-term high-dose injection of Yiwen De is actually a slow blood infection process.

"Stage Three terminal is similar to late-stage Blood Clan blood thirst, immune system collapse leading to multiple organ failure. The Medical Support Department has made a final assessment of your body. You basically can't return to frontline duty. With luck, through conservative treatment, you could live another three to five years."

The male officer nodded with many sighs.

Meng Huai turned around and looked blankly at the two headquarters officers, slowly pulling over a chair to sit down. His expression gradually became calm, or rather cold. After a minute, he spoke. "You telling me these top secrets today shouldn't be to comfort me, right? To let me know who I really am before I die?"

"This is a classified document personally signed by headquarters leadership. If you agree, you'll join headquarters' Special Classified Action Group and accept a mission with no retreat. If unwilling, today will just be a proper account of your background, and our conversation never happened."

The female officer pulled out a document and pushed it toward Meng Huai. "Comrade Meng, you have thirty days to consider. Starting now, you resume leave status and gain freedom of movement. I don't need to repeat the relevant confidentiality discipline, do I?"

The classified document had no formatted rules and regulations, only a series of bloody questions:

"Comrade Meng Huai, are you certain of your absolute loyalty to our country and people?

"Even if it means abandoning this world, abandoning everyone you love and who loves you?

"Even if it means bearing endless grievances and discrimination, even paying with your life?"

At the end was a phone number valid for thirty days and a notice to burn after reading.

The male and female officers left the conference room and saw Han Jieli waiting outside. Both had grave expressions, nodded slightly to the young officer, then quickly walked away.

A full hour passed before Meng Huai came out, his eyes showing visible bloodshot and a terrifyingly cold expression.

"Brother Meng, headquarters notified me that your medical observation period is over and you're back to normal leave. Would you like to spend a few days here in Beijing, or should I accompany you back..."

Han Jieli quickly approached with a relaxed smile on his face.

Meng Huai turned his head and quietly looked at the young officer before him, a trace of confusion flashing in his eyes. "Aren't you on assignment at the Western Surveillance District Intelligence Department? How are you here too?"

"It's all because of Sister Xiao. She needs me to access some intelligence resources at headquarters' Intelligence Bureau. She's still interested in that Blood Clan faction that appeared in Operation 907."

Han Jieli nodded embarrassedly and took out Meng Huai's phone from his briefcase. "Look, we just happened to meet. I know those two people from earlier, they're from the Intelligence Bureau. They asked me to return your phone to you. Really, they’re good at ordering people around."

Silently taking the phone and putting it in his pocket, Meng Huai grinned and suddenly looked up, his sharp gaze fixed on Han Jieli's eyes. "Your Han family has many privileges. Do you think that's fair to others?"

"Privileges? Including having almost no one left alive in each generation?" The latest_epɪ_sodes are on_the NoveIＦire.net

Han Jieli didn't avoid the gaze but stared back equally intensely, his mouth showing dismissive self-mockery.

"There's always been a rumor in Shadow Arrow: anyone the Han family takes interest in is either absolutely not allowed to die, or has the value of dying. Which am I?"

Meng Huai slowly put on his military cap and straightened his messy tie, his gaze like torches, his expression like frost. "I know the Han family indeed has the qualifications to judge others.

"Brother Meng, the Han family is no different from all Shadow Arrow comrades. We're all traveling the same path, just a matter of who goes first..."

Han Jieli turned his head away, finally breaking eye contact with Meng Huai, looking toward the depths of the base corridor with a deep sigh.