“Na, Little Feng Ling, is today’s lunch not to your taste? You’ve been poking at that green pepper stir-fry with your chopsticks for two whole minutes…”
Ling Yue stared at Feng Ling, who was currently stabbing the dish with her chopsticks, and asked with a concerned look.
“Ah? No, no! It’s really delicious!”
Upon hearing that, Feng Ling quickly picked up a big clump and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing a few times before swallowing.
To be honest… she couldn’t really taste anything.
Though it wasn’t completely tasteless.
It just felt much blander than before, as if someone had covered the food with a layer of plastic wrap, trapping most of the flavor inside, with only a tiny bit seeping through.
“Really? But you’ve only eaten half a bowl of rice today. You usually eat two,” Ling Yue said, tilting her head.
“I-I probably ate too much for breakfast! Yeah, I ate way too much for breakfast!”
Feng Ling then scooped a few more mouthfuls of rice and showed her empty bowl to Ling Yue.
“Look, look! I finished it!”
Ling Yue stared at the bowl for a moment, then smiled.
“Mm, if you feel unwell at all, you have to tell your big sister, okay~”
“No, no! I’m perfectly fine! Super healthy! I’ve never felt better!”
As soon as Feng Ling said that, she instantly regretted it.
Because she noticed a slight change in Ling Yue’s eyes afterward.
Feng Ling had become extremely sensitive to these kinds of changes… After all, in the previous loop, it was because she failed to notice these subtle shifts that she ended up with that kind of fate.
“Is that so? That’s wonderful then.”
Ling Yue then cleared the dishes and, as she passed by Feng Ling, casually brushed her fingers across the girl’s neck.
The cool, sharp tip of her fingernail lightly scraped across the skin, causing all the hairs on Feng Ling’s body to stand up, and her body trembled slightly.
“By the way, Little Feng Ling, big sister wants to take a bath with you tonight~”
“Pfft—!”
Feng Ling nearly spat out the half bowl of rice she had just eaten.
“W-What did you just say?!”
“Take a bath together,” Ling Yue repeated with a smile.
“What’s wrong? You don’t want to?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to! It’s just… um… I… you… this, we…”
Feng Ling was so flustered she became incoherent.
“Then it’s decided~” Ling Yue carried the bowls and chopsticks into the kitchen, leaving Feng Ling sitting alone at the dining table, her face burning red like Lord Guan.
Take a bath together?
With that Ling Yue sister?
The same Ling Yue sister who would suck her blood in the middle of the night until she nearly passed out?
The one who would smile while piercing her heart with a finger…?
Feng Ling buried her face in her arms.
I’m doomed, I’m doomed, I’m so doomed…
She wasn’t worried that Ling Yue would kill her in the bathroom.
If she wanted to kill her, she would have done it long ago—no need to wait until bath time.
What she was worried about was… was…
Well, honestly, even she didn’t know exactly what she was worried about.
But right now, she was panicking like crazy.
…
During the afternoon, Feng Ling basically spent the entire time on the sofa.
More accurately, she was pretending to play games on the sofa… while her mind was completely occupied with the “taking a bath together” matter.
Of course, the character on the screen had already died countless times.
“Little Feng Ling, you don’t seem to be doing very well in the game today~”
Ling Yue’s voice suddenly came from beside her.
“Wah! L-Ling Yue sister! When did you sit down?!”
“About ten minutes ago.”
Ling Yue sat at the other end of the sofa with her legs crossed, still holding the cup of blood that never seemed to empty.
“You’ve been spacing out the whole time. You didn’t even notice when your character died~”
Feng Ling looked down at the screen… Sure enough, her character was dead, killed by a beginner tutorial trash mob.
“I-I was researching a new strategy! Yeah, researching a new strategy! It’s not that I can’t beat it!”
Feng Ling still tried to explain.
“Oh? What kind of new strategy requires you to catch every single attack from the mob with your face?”
“…Ling Yue sister, since when did you learn how to roast people?”
“I learned it from Little Feng Ling, of course.”
Ling Yue smiled, took a sip of blood, then set down her cup and beckoned to Feng Ling.
“Come here for a moment.”
Feng Ling hesitated for about 0.3 seconds before obediently scooting over.
She had no choice but to move…
Experience from the previous loop told her that refusing any of Ling Yue sister’s requests was extremely high-risk behavior.
Her current survival strategy was: cooperate whenever possible, act obedient whenever possible, and never give Ling Yue sister any reason to go dark.
Ling Yue reached out, pulled her into her arms, and pressed her lips close to her ear, whispering, “Little Feng Ling, your heart is beating so fast… Are you nervous about something?”
“N-No! My heart always beats this fast!”
“Really? You do know that vampires normally have much slower heartbeats than humans, right? Your heartbeat right now is almost as fast as a human’s~”
“…That’s because you’re too close, Ling Yue sister!”
“Oh? So it’s because of me?”
Ling Yue’s fingers slid from her shoulder to her collarbone, then along the collarbone to her neck, finally stopping at the spot on the side of her neck.
The bite mark there had long since healed, but every time Ling Yue’s fingers touched that spot, Feng Ling still felt a faint stinging pain.
“Little Feng Ling, are you scared of me?”
Ling Yue asked next.
This question made Feng Ling’s breath hitch for a moment.
She quickly replied, “No, no! How could I be scared of Ling Yue sister! Sister is so good to me!”
“Really?”
“Really, really, really, really!”
Ling Yue was silent for a moment, then withdrew her fingers and said, “Alright. If Little Feng Ling says no, then it’s no. Big sister will always believe you.”
After speaking, Ling Yue gave her a kiss on the top of her head before finally letting her go back to the other end of the sofa.
Feng Ling hugged her Switch and continued pretending to play.
No good…
Ling Yue sister definitely noticed…
She definitely knows I’ve been afraid…
But she didn’t say anything.
This feeling was even more unsettling than if she had said it out loud…
It was like the eerie calm before a storm.
You know something bad is coming, but you don’t know when or how bad it will be.
…
At dinner, Feng Ling noticed her sense of taste had deteriorated even further.
This time, she could barely taste the sauce on the braised pork… She could only detect saltiness and a faint sweetness.
The rich aroma of the meat and the layered flavors of the sauce were completely gone.
It was like chewing a piece of rubber soaked in salt water.
Still, she ate two full bowls of rice.
Not only did she eat, but she also praised it enthusiastically while eating: “Wow, this braised pork is amazing! Ling Yue sister, your cooking keeps getting better! At this level, you could open a Michelin restaurant!”
“Really? But I forgot to add soy sauce to the meat today~”
Ling Yue said with a smile.
Feng Ling’s chopsticks paused.
“Huh?”
“Just kidding~ Look how scared you got.”
Ling Yue laughed.
“Ling Yue sister, stop scaring me like that!”
“Because Little Feng Ling’s reactions are just too cute~”
After that, Feng Ling continued eating with an angry pout.
But deep down, she knew very clearly… The look in Ling Yue’s eyes when she said “just kidding” was different from the look before she said “I forgot to add soy sauce.”
Just like before, Ling Yue had definitely noticed something this time too.
…
After dinner, Ling Yue went to the kitchen to wash the dishes, while Feng Ling sat in the living room listening to the sound of running water, her mind racing.
Her sense of taste was disappearing…
She was well aware of it herself.
Ever since the loop, her body had been changing little by little.
At first, she would just feel thirsty occasionally.
Later, every morning she woke up with a throat that felt like it was on fire.
The amount of blood she drank went from half a cup to one cup, then from one cup to one and a half… and now even one and a half cups was barely enough.
Her interest in normal food was also decreasing more and more.
In the past, eating Ling Yue’s braised pork would genuinely move her to tears.
Now she ate it only because she “should eat,” not because she “wanted to.”
Her body was desperately telling her one thing: You no longer need these.
What you need is something else.
“Little Feng Ling, are you ready?”
Ling Yue asked with a smile.
Feng Ling swallowed hard.
“Ready… ready for what?”
“For the bath, of course~ Didn’t we agree on it this afternoon?”
Her face instantly turned red, and she stammered again, “I-I-I’m not ready yet! I mean, um…”
“What do you need to prepare for a bath?”
Ling Yue sister made such a reasonable point… It was just a bath.
There really wasn’t anything to prepare.
But the problem was that this wasn’t just an ordinary bath!
This was taking a bath together with Ye Ling Yue!
With *that* Ye Ling Yue!
“Little Feng Ling, you don’t want to bathe with me?”
Ling Yue asked again.
The moment she heard that tone, every alarm in Feng Ling’s body went off.
In the previous loop, every time Ling Yue spoke in that tone, something not-so-good would happen next.
“No, no! I do! I really want to! I want it so much! I’ll go get my change of clothes right now!”
Feng Ling dashed back to her room in a flash.
The moment she closed the door, she leaned against it, breathing heavily.
It’s over…
This time she was really finished.
She had agreed so readily just now; it was too late to back out.
And honestly, she didn’t dare to refuse…
So she could only open her closet, grab a set of clothes, and then stand in front of the mirror looking at herself.
In the mirror was a vampire loli wearing a light pink nightgown.
Her skin was pale and glowing, her eyes a deep red, her long hair cascading down to her waist, and her cheeks still carried a blush from her earlier frantic run upstairs.
“You’re doomed,” she said to her reflection.
The girl in the mirror mouthed back: *You’re doomed.*