My Hemophobic Vampire Chapter 5: Checking Pupils By How They React to Light

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

The episode at the subway station ended quickly, and after a pleasant walk with Mr. Wolfman, Doctor Shang finally regretted temporarily resisting the urge to cut another piece of flesh from him for the time being. After saying goodbye to him, he left the station at a fast pace with the crowd.

As an emergency call doctor, there were no days and months, so it had been more than a month since he had last been home. Although he said he was reluctant, Shang HaoJia’s body was honest; he just wanted to run upstairs, ready to give his parents a warm hug full of the smell of sterile water.

Unfortunately, the passionate hug was mercilessly extinguished by the key that couldn’t be inserted.

Shang HaoJia stood in the doorway, looking at the key that had been with him for twenty years and couldn’t be mistaken for the wrong door. Raising his head to look at the door number, he finally fell into a deep thought about life.

No one answered the doorbell, and there was no sound inside the house.

Shang HaoJia spent three seconds deciding whether to call his parents or climb up to the seventh floor with his bare hands, but in the end he fished his cell phone out of his pocket and dialed the number.

For this typical double-cop family, it was obviously a matter of luck to get through to the phone. Although the two elders had reached retirement age, at least from Shang HaoJia’s point of view, it was still a very difficult task to get through to his own parents.

After neither phone calls were answered, Shang HaoJia’s finger hovered for a while on the column marked ‘work phone’, but finally didn’t press it. He was planning to go to the city’s criminal investigation team to find them himself, when the home on the opposite side suddenly opened the door.

“Xiao Jia – how did you get here?” The old man across the door was kind-eyed but hale and hearty. As soon as he saw Shang HaoJia, he greeted him affectionately, “Your parents moved to the city long ago, ah, the house here is being rented out, you didn’t know?”

“…” Shang HaoJia was silent for a moment, and shook his head soberly and decisively.

Seeing his reaction, the old man, however, didn’t feel the least bit surprised – after all, a family that could give a child such a name could do anything, so the neighbors were able to maintain a certain degree of understanding. ¹

“They left me the key and said if anyone comes to rent the house, show them around.”

The old man fished out a key from the box in the foyer and shoved it into his hand, patting him comfortingly on the back, “It’s late now, and making it to the city would be difficult, so you might as well stay here for the night. But there’s not much furniture left inside, and I guess there is nothing left in the refrigerator – have you eaten? If you haven’t eaten, come to our house and ask your aunt to cook a meal for you.”

“No, no – thank you, Uncle Hao. I happen to have an appointment to go out to eat with friends later, so I won’t bother you two.” Shang HaoJia was naturally embarrassed to bother people so much, so he hastily took the keys and sincerely thanked them. The old man smilingly waved his hand and told him to lock the door when at home alone, before finally closing it gently.

Shang HaoJia was left standing alone in front of his house, moved to tears by this great affection. 

Throwing himself on the only hard-paneled bed that didn’t even have a mattress or pillow, Shang HaoJia finally couldn’t resist pulling out his phone, and An MuXi, who was far away in the lab, reported on his bumpy journey to find his family, “Let me tell you – I finally understand now that it was indeed a mistake for me to abandon forensics for clinical, but the pot of this mistake should be carried by myself… To tell you the truth, I think I’m actually starting to wonder if the bed in the morgue would be a little more comfortable than this.”

“You don’t want to sleep in the morgue again – no, your parents didn’t even leave you with air conditioning?”

The other had obviously been long familiar with his habits, as he sympathetically asked. Shang HaoJia looked at the bed with mixed feelings with a faint glow of a flashlight, and sighed full of the hardships of life, “They left the air conditioner, but there’s no electricity…”

“Why don’t I send you a red packet, so you can go out and find a room in a random hotel and stay overnight?”

This year’s summer seemed to be particularly stifling, so after hearing that not only did his best friend not have air conditioning, and actually even the fan was in no condition to be able to be used, An MuXi’s voice was immediately filled with gloating sympathy.

“No, I do have money on me – I just didn’t think that my parents would move without telling me…” Shang HaoJia sighed painfully and leapt up from the bed, intending to at least open the window first to let in some air, “Now they’re not even answering their phone, and I don’t know what case they’ve taken up again…”

“When they are on a case, it’s like they don’t have a son. Haven’t your parents always been like this?” The voice on the other side couldn’t help but laugh, apparently also remembering the past, “Remember when you were a graduate student, stealing rabbits back in the dormitory to raise? The entire campus reported it to the counselor who went to find your parents. It turned out that your parents happened to have a big case on their hands, and actually ordered a rabbit from the Internet to the school by mail to say that it was compensation, and it was actually a lop-eared rabbit…”

“That was a huge injustice – why else would I raise a rabbit? I clearly intended to stew it at night and eat it, who knew that I would suddenly be raided in the afternoon?” With the windows open, it was finally a little cooler, and Shang HaoJia simply lifted his legs and sat on the windowsill, protesting discontentedly, “Besides – what’s wrong with a lop-eared rabbit? Lop-eared rabbits are so cute…”

He had always been accustomed to stirring up trouble with acquaintances. The end of his voice was slightly prolonged, and because of the sultry summer night it was a little nasally, suddenly revealing an inexplicable juvenile-like meaning.

“Ha, ha – don’t do that to me. I don’t want to lecture you about your eating habits. You’re not afraid to make others laugh even when you’re old.” The other side was obviously used to his antics, and he laughed while scolding lightly.

Shang HaoJia yawned and rubbed his eyes, which were vaguely sore from fatigue, and looked out the window in disbelief, “Cut the crap. A loner like me, how could there be…”

He stopped mid-sentence, because he suddenly saw a face outside the window.

In the usual circumstances, it was hard not to feel good when looking at such a pleasant face. It was true that even if it was a little too pale, the nose was high and the eyes were deep, his facial contours were prominent, and the face carried an elegant and gentle smile. But the definition of ‘normally’, in normal circumstances, obviously didn’t mean when the face appeared on the seventh floor window that had no guardrails.

As a science-loving Emergency Department physician, Shang HaoJia wasn’t afraid of ghosts, but he took three seconds to weigh whether or not to smash his phone into that face.

“What’s wrong – you finally fell off the ledge?” Genuine concern came from the other end of the phone.

Shang HaoJia sucked in a cool breath, met the vampire’s gentle gaze, gritted his teeth and spoke in a low voice, “Talk to you later, I’m a little busy now.”

After that, he hung up his phone, casually tucked it into his pocket, and raised his head to look at the uninvited guest in front of him, “Mr. Wei, can you explain your current behavior?”

“I heard my werewolf friend inadvertently mention that he met Doctor Shang on the subway and had a very cordial and friendly conversation with Your Excellency.” Wei Long gazed at him with a smile, his midnight-like pupils drenched with a cordial but not off-putting smile, “Please forgive me for my uncontrollable love, but your scent was so alluring that I was driven by a mysterious impulse within me to seek you all the way here.”

“Being complimented by a vampire on my attractive scent… I don’t know why, but I don’t seem to feel anything worthy of being happy about.” Shang HaoJia shook his head resentfully, pushed the window open wider, and sidled up to him to jump in from outside, “Vampire from the Middle Ages, Your Excellency, I have a small request.”

“In fact, according to our system, I should be addressed as ‘Your Highness’, but these are just inoffensive details – Doctor Shang go ahead. I wonder what I can do for you?” Wei Long leapt lightly through the window, dusted off his straight suit jacket, and gazed at him with a smile.

Shang HaoJia defiantly inclined his head and stood firmly on the ground with one hand on the windowsill, “Just one request – can you be a little plainer in your wording the next time you speak? Every time I talk to you, I feel like I’ve crossed into a novel…”

“Sure.” Wei Long had just taken a breath to reply when he suddenly remembered the other party’s request. Thoughtfully swallowing back the unspoken words, he smiled lightly again and winked at him, “Actually, if I could, I’d rather use my eyes to convey to you what I feel inside – what do you think when you look into my eyes?”

Shang HaoJia silently examined him for a while, then suddenly held his shoulder with one hand, fished out a small flashlight from his pocket, and waved it towards his pupils.

Wei Long looked at his action curiously and raised his hand in front of the waving flashlight beam, waving it, “Please forgive me for being a beginner, but is this a new special etiquette?”

“No, this is a basic examination.” Shang HaoJia shook his head and patted his shoulder, “Your bilateral pupils are dilated, and have no obvious reflex to light – the only thing I can think of is to inform your family and give my condolences.”