Trafford's Trading Club

Chapter 891: The Bonds of the Immortals (3)

Neither he nor she told each other their names or surnames, yet there seemed to be a magical sense of understanding between them.

A glance, or perhaps a gesture.

However, she had few expressions, while his were abundant.

The young man didn't fulfill his bold claim of buying the building in one night.

Instead, he spent the night in a smoky bar, the kind where people gamble, playing poker with a group of people looking for entertainment.

Of course, the young man still brought along the woman who had saved his last bit of fortune.

They still hadn’t exchanged names or surnames.

In the crowd, the woman watched the young man's face. He was calm, confident, and his smile was charming. There was a sense of recklessness about him.

His eyes were seductive, a nearly deadly weapon to most women.

From time to time, the young man would laugh softly, his gaze cutting through the crowd to settle on the woman sitting at the bar, resting her chin on her hand, lost in thought.She hadn't touched the drink he’d ordered for her, only twirling the cherry stem with her fingers, slowly stirring the liquid to pass the time.

Aside from being beautiful, she was probably a rather dull woman.

Perhaps also lonely.

Suddenly, the young man lost interest in playing. He tossed his cards away, took a small portion of his winnings, and pushed the rest aside, gaining an easy exit as he stood up.

He glanced at the bar and had the bartender bring him a bottle of red wine. A short while later, he sat beside the beautiful woman.

"Let's play a little game." He swirled the wine in his glass. "Guess what I do."

The woman said nothing, just turned her head slightly, still resting her chin on her hand. She looked at the young man for a while before saying, "What do you do?"

"Isn't it boring to know the answer right away?" The young man spun his chair to face her directly, staring into her eyes.

She shook her head calmly. "Not knowing the answer is the most boring thing. Waiting isn’t."

"Alright." He whispered, taking a sip from his glass before smiling. "My side job is a gambler. You probably guessed that, right?"

"And?" She nodded slightly.

"I'm also a winemaker."

The young man continued slowly, "I'm an orphan, raised in an orphanage. But when I was six, a foreign couple came and adopted me. After that, I became their foster son. My adoptive father owned a vineyard and was a winemaker. He taught me how to make the best wine and how to taste it. But I didn’t inherit it in the end."

"Why not?" The woman grew curious.

He beckoned her closer, leaning in as if he were about to reveal a great secret. She leaned in as well.

They were face-to-face, separated only by a wine glass.

"I lost my sense of taste." He blinked and said, "One day, everything I ate or drank had no flavor to me. So, I could never become a great winemaker."

She didn’t ask why he had lost his sense of taste. Instead, she suddenly smiled and said, "What a coincidence. No matter what I eat, it always tastes the same."

His gaze softened, meeting hers, as if stars in the sky were reflecting on a still lake.

"Only one taste? What taste?"

"The taste of blood."

...

The taste of blood.

She smiled, and it was the most moving smile he had ever seen.

Suddenly, he recalled a saying: beautiful eyes can speak, and her eyes seemed to be saying something.

"Hold out your hand," the young man suddenly said.

She extended her hand. It was cold. He was slightly surprised as he felt the chill in her palm.

The young man placed a 1-mark coin in her hand and said, "Merry Christmas."

The woman chuckled, "A 1-mark Christmas gift? This is the simplest gift I’ve ever received."

"But you should know, this 1-mark coin was once my last piece of wealth. It could have let me own the whole world. You kept it for me, and now it’s in your hands."

Her eyelashes fluttered slightly as she gazed at the coin in her palm. "Do you tell the same sweet words to every woman?"

He smiled faintly. "Not every woman is willing to stop a coin from falling into the drain for me."

It was strange.

You could call it love at first sight, or perhaps just a surge of hormones.

When the clock struck midnight and the bells rang outside, the world went silent. Then the bar erupted in cheers, music, and dancing.

Streamers and confetti twirled down like a colorful snowstorm, and amidst this ‘snow,’ he and she gently bit each other’s lips.

Late into the night, the young man used his winnings to get a quaint hotel. The moment they entered, the flames of passion ignited.

From the hallway to the couch, from the couch to the fireplace, their frenzied kisses knocked over the lamp by the coffee table, along with the nearby coat rack.

They fell onto the soft chiffon bed.

"Why is your body so cold?"

"Then warm it up."

"I will."

The young man kissed her neck fiercely, the heat between their skin slowly warming her body.

They still hadn’t told each other their names or surnames.

...

"Did I wake you?"

The young man sat by the bedside, toying with the 1-mark coin, spinning it and watching it come to a stop, then spinning it again.

The woman adjusted her pillow to rest more comfortably. "I’m just more alert at night."

The young man smiled softly, then leaned in for a kiss. After a brief moment of intimacy, they embraced, the woman resting her head on his chest.

Her fingers traced lightly across his chest, using her nails. "I like the sound of your heartbeat—strong, powerful, alive."

"What does blood taste like?" he suddenly asked, curious.

She lifted her head and looked at him, also giving him a curious glance.

The young man said, “I’m just curious, about the taste of blood, as you mentioned.”

Suddenly, the woman kissed the young man’s collarbone, softly and gently, like a dragonfly touching water, slowly moving up to his neck. As she did so, she spoke, “It’s rich and sweet, or thick, like milk and honey. Sometimes delicate, sometimes spicy, like strong liquor, but it doesn’t taste bitter; instead, it brings a slight burning sensation in your throat, warm…”

Her lips gently sucked on his neck as the young man quietly listened to her description of the taste of fresh blood. It seemed she intended to use every beautiful word in the world.

But he could only feel the softness of her lips.

Suddenly, he interrupted her description, smiling as he said, “If one day I could regain my sense of taste, even if it meant using up my remaining life, I would want to brew a bottle of wine like this, rich and sweet, or thick, like milk and honey…”

He nearly repeated her description of the taste of blood.

What he didn’t realize was that, at that moment, the woman quietly retracted her fangs and gazed deeply into his eyes.

So, the young man gently caressed the woman’s cheek, “…and then, I would give it to you, a wine as beautiful as blood.”

She stared at him in a daze and then asked, “What’s your name?”

“Tu Shenyi, that’s the name I had before I was adopted.”

“Kiss me.”

She opened her arms to him.

…

…

Her palm suddenly covered a 1-mark coin, then grabbed it. Karen Yishel felt a flicker of strength return, and she leaned against the wall to stand up.

Many times, she thought that immortality wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

The short-lived envied the everlasting, while the everlasting yearned for the brilliant moments of the short-lived life, the excitement every moment.

Different races have different perspectives on things.

“They are all unsatisfied beings…”

She chuckled at herself and began to walk forward, leaning against the wall. She needed to go back and retrieve those “Worry-Free” series items, but she didn’t know if she could get the real “Naihe” back from Takizawa in her current state.

In fact, if Viscount Fernandez could kill her, she would feel better. But he let her go, choosing not to strike… Since she couldn’t die, she would at least get them back.

Suddenly, a gust of air surged from the front of the passage, blowing her hair slightly upward. After that, another gust came, lifting her hair again.

It was as if some massive entity was breathing… Karen Yishel instinctively frowned.

At this moment, accompanied by the third gust of air, there was a long, inhuman roar, like a cry of sorrow, filled with pain and hatred.

Karen Yishel even felt a tingle on her scalp… the sound came from the underground laboratory.

She had to quicken her pace, listening to the continuous roar, feeling the gravity of the situation… faintly, she sensed something ominous appearing quietly in her unconsciousness.

Her thoughts were not wrong; this was Karen Yishel’s first reaction when she arrived at the laboratory door and saw what was in front of her.

Even if all ugly adjectives were used, they couldn’t completely describe the ‘thing’ inside the laboratory at that moment; perhaps it could only be described as an ‘ugly monster.’

Karen Yishel had never seen such a creature.

It looked like a mass of cells combined into a huge… like an enlarged, cancerous tumor—but it wasn’t merely a biological entity, for inside its body were various instruments that should belong to the laboratory.

Whether organic or inorganic, this ‘ugly monster’ was currently devouring everything and fusing them into itself.

From this ‘ugly monster’ extended limbs that resembled massive tree roots, constantly contracting and expanding.

Karen Yishel even saw many different characteristics on this ‘ugly monster’—these traits should only exist in those special races.

This monster… had even swallowed the specimens originally placed in the laboratory’s massive containers!

In an instant, Karen Yishel realized this and determined that this monster had the ability to consume species and manifest these special racial traits.

“Jin Wucheng!”

She suddenly recognized Jin Wucheng’s face in that ugly body—this was the only identifiable feature of this monster.

“What have you… done?” Karen Yishel looked at the monster in terror, and vaguely, she could sense a trace of Takizawa’s aura on it.

It had swallowed Takizawa too!

The face of Jin Wucheng on the monster remained wide-eyed, never blinking, and his mouth never closed, like a person who died in fright, his desperate expression forever preserved.

Its body continued to expand, almost reaching the laboratory ceiling, and the massive limbs extending from underneath suddenly exerted force, lifting its huge body up.

It seemed to have discovered Karen Yishel’s presence—its next target to consume was likely the only one still alive, Karen Yishel.

Suddenly, the monster’s body split open with a massive crack, revealing an upside-down mouth filled with sharp, dense teeth. From this terrifying bloodied maw, a long, thick tongue shot out in an instant.

Karen Yishel could even see another terrifying mouth at the end of this tongue—this was Takizawa’s ability.

Karen Yishel inhaled sharply, instinctively turning her hand into a blade to strike out—though the edge of her palm wasn’t sharp, it easily severed the terrifying long tongue.

The severed piece of tongue struggled on the ground, while the wound on the monster’s tongue healed rapidly, restoring itself in the blink of an eye.

Boom—!

Karen couldn’t dodge in time; her injuries hadn’t healed, and that tongue struck her like a massive steel whip, hitting her hard.

She was thrown back, crashing against the wall, and spat out a mouthful of blood… this monster’s strength was far more terrifying than that of a raging werewolf.

“Save… me…”

“Save… me…”

“Save… me…”

Hoarse, pained… that was Jin Wucheng’s face on the monster, his mouth moving slightly at this moment, “Save… me…”

Looking at Jin Wucheng’s painful face, Karen stood up, “I can’t save you… I can’t even save myself… cough cough…”

Suddenly, she tore open her vest, wearing only a thin shirt, and from her palm, a blood-colored patterned long sword slowly emerged.

“You can kill me… but if you want to eat me, dream on.”

In an instant, she swung the sword to meet it.