Chapter 3: The Dawn of a New Reality

At dawn, Qi Lin, dragging a body that felt as if it were laden with dozens of pounds of iron, finally reached his doorstep.

Standing in the hallway, he tremblingly produced his key, turned the lock, opened the door, and then stumbled inside.

With a resounding thud, he slammed the door shut. Qi Lin gasped for breath, his chest heaving, and without a thought for the floor’s cleanliness, he simply slid down the doorframe, collapsing into a crumpled heap.

“Why,” he whispered, his voice hoarse, “why do I suddenly detest, even fear, the sunlight? And… how am I still alive?” Hugging his knees tightly, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the floor, a deeply unsettled Qi Lin began to murmur to himself.

A myriad of questions swirled around him, yet he had no one to confide in or seek answers from. As an orphan, who could possibly help him? His teacher? His classmates? Or perhaps the police? But would they ever believe his outlandish tale?

The answer, he knew, was unequivocally no. If he were to utter a single word of his experience, they would surely dismiss him as insane, or perhaps even accuse him of suffering from some adolescent delusion.

Biting his lip, Qi Lin slowly rose to his feet.

Lingering by the door would solve nothing. The events had transpired, and the precise reason for his continued existence was, for now, irrelevant; life, after all, was preferable to death. His immediate concern was formulating an explanation for his teacher.

For the clock on the wall clearly showed half past seven, signaling that he was undeniably late for school.

‘To think so much time has passed just from zoning out…’

He muttered hoarsely, then dragged his weary, heavy body to the refrigerator, pulling out a bottle of drink. Yet, the moment it touched his tongue, he recoiled, spitting it out instantly.

“What in the world? It’s so bitter!” he rasped, checking the expiration date. It hadn’t even expired!

With a sigh of resignation, he returned the drink to the fridge. Qi Lin then shuffled to the sofa, settling onto it, and retrieved an old model phone from beneath a cushion. Pressing the buttons, he dialed his homeroom teacher’s number.

After a few rings, a voice answered on the other end.

“Hello? Teacher Chen? It’s me, Qi Lin.”

“Hm? Qi Lin? Why aren’t you at school?” asked a middle-aged woman, her brows furrowed as she stood outside the classroom, phone in hand, ready to begin her lesson.

“I’m sorry, Teacher,” Qi Lin rasped, his voice weak and hoarse, “I… I’m sick… so…”

“…You want to take leave? I understand. Get some good rest.” Hearing the voice that sounded as if it were on the verge of giving out from the other end of the line, Teacher Chen pondered for a moment before granting his request. Anyone, after all, would conclude that Qi Lin was genuinely ill upon hearing his utterly raspy voice.

“Alright, Teacher, I won’t keep you then!” With that, Qi Lin ended the call. He stared at his hand gripping the phone for a long moment before finally returning the device to its place beneath the cushion.

A low rumble emanated from his stomach. As he felt the gnawing hunger in his gut, Qi Lin was bewildered by a sudden, intense craving for blood that surged from the depths of his being.

‘What… is happening…’ Clutching his abdomen with both hands, Qi Lin slumped onto the sofa. Exhaustion, drowsiness, and hunger—a trio of overwhelming sensations—enveloped him completely.

His heart began to pound like a war drum, and a violent dizziness surged through Qi Lin’s mind. Almost instantly, he succumbed to unconsciousness.

As midnight approached, Qi Lin shot upright from the sofa, as if a drowning man had suddenly breached the surface and gasped for fresh air.

“It’s this late? The moon is out already…” Qi Lin mumbled, gazing towards the window, then froze. The window was shut tight, and the curtains were drawn. How, then, could he have possibly seen the moon from within the enclosed room?

Rubbing his eyes, Qi Lin looked towards the window once more. ‘Well, no moon this time, that’s good… wait, what the hell is going on?’

Sensing that something was profoundly amiss, Qi Lin furrowed his brows. And whether it was merely his imagination or not, he felt his teeth seemed a little longer than usual. Furthermore, why did his head feel so strangely cold?

In a sudden panic, Qi Lin immediately bolted towards the bathroom.

Inside the bathroom, upon seeing the bald head reflected in the mirror, Qi Lin felt his entire being plummet into disarray.

“What the f**k?!” he exclaimed, utterly dumbfounded. “Where’s my hair? Where did it go?!” Qi Lin, who had initially intended to check if his teeth had truly elongated, was left gaping at the sight of his own bald head in the mirror.

He closed his eyes, offered a silent, desperate prayer, and then opened them again. When the mirror still presented him with the same bald image, he finally resigned himself to his fate.

He had, without a doubt, become completely bald.

Gently touching his head, which felt strangely smooth and almost seemed to glow, Qi Lin realized he needed to conduct a full-body inspection. He feared something might have been added to him, or perhaps even taken away.

No sooner had the thought crossed his mind than he sprang into action, stripping off his clothes and turning to face the mirror.

What he saw, however, was far from fine; a stark abnormality immediately caught his eye.

His skin had become unnaturally pale, almost translucent, and his eyes were now a deep, profound crimson.

When he opened his mouth, he saw fangs, noticeably sharper than any human’s.

After a moment of stunned silence, Qi Lin arrived at a chilling conclusion. To ascertain its truth, he resolved to conduct an experiment.

Extending his wrist to his mouth, Qi Lin bit down.

His sharp fangs effortlessly pierced his skin, and vibrant, dazzling blood was drawn into his mouth. A few drops, however, escaped the corner of his lips, splattering onto the floor.

The pleasure he felt jolted Qi Lin back to reality, and he struggled, a flicker of reluctance in his expression, to release his fangs from his wrist.

As Qi Lin watched, the wound on his wrist slowly began to mend. Within seconds, it had completely healed, leaving no trace as if it had never been bitten.

‘…It seems… that conclusion is true…’ Having confirmed the terrifying truth in his mind, Qi Lin found himself torn between laughter and tears.

Clearly, the test tube those two enigmatic figures had fought over last night contained something that granted superpowers, which explained their fierce struggle. And he, an unwitting outsider, seemed to have emerged as the victor—’even if it meant ‘dying’ once,’ Qi Lin mused internally.

After dressing and meticulously wiping the bloodstains from the floor, Qi Lin emerged from the bathroom, his lips pressed into a tight line.

“So… all things considered, I’ve become a vampire? A bloodline from novels?” he muttered, a wry, almost hysterical laugh escaping him. “This is truly dramatic!” Qi Lin, wanting to weep but finding no tears, felt utterly bewildered by the turn of events.

Since things had come to this, what options remained for him? Could he find someone to reverse the change? That was one path, certainly. Yet, having already glimpsed the world’s hidden side, how could he ever be content to revert to his mundane, ordinary self?

A sudden thought made Qi Lin’s brow furrow. If he, an ordinary individual, could stumble upon the world’s hidden facets, then what about the nation itself? Did it, too, possess a clandestine side? Perhaps like the secret departments often depicted in novels?

Upon this realization, Qi Lin slapped his forehead. ‘Why did I only think of this now!’ If such secret departments truly existed, then he, a vampire, would undoubtedly be taken into custody. Or, perhaps, there might be a way to revert to normal and still continue living an extraordinary life!

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