novelzi Chapter 81
Chapter 81
Nie Yinzhi suddenly fell seriously ill for no apparent reason, experiencing alternating chills and fever, with her temperature soaring close to 40 degrees Celsius. After taking medication, her condition temporarily stabilized, but soon the fever returned.
Her fever came in waves, leaving her sometimes lucid and sometimes confused. In the middle of the night, unable to bear it any longer, she called her assistant to come pick her up, planning to go to the hospital.
As she struggled to get up and get dressed, her parents called, sternly warning her not to go to the hospital. Nie Yinzhi wondered how they got the news so quickly, suspecting they might have installed some kind of surveillance on her.
By now, Nie Yinzhi was barely coherent. As she climbed out of bed, she shouted into the phone, "If I don’t go to the hospital, I’m going to die!"
She had finally managed to get a short break, but in a few days, she was scheduled to start filming a period fantasy drama with plenty of action scenes. Her body couldn’t afford to break down now.
Her father’s voice on the other end of the phone was even louder than hers. "You’re not going to die! Listen to your dad. If you die, I’ll be buried with you!"
What kind of father says something like that?
Nie Yinzhi’s head felt like it was splitting. She hung up the phone and, mustering her strength, leaned against the wall as she made her way out, waiting for her assistant to take her to the hospital.
Logically, her parents—one a corporate executive, the other a university professor—were educated people. Yet, for some reason, they harbored a deep prejudice against hospitals. Whenever there was a school health check-up, her parents would anxiously contact the teachers to find out the details of the examination in advance.
Fortunately, Nie Yinzhi had always been in good health. Since childhood, she had rarely even caught a cold, so she had hardly ever needed to visit a hospital.
This time, however, she truly couldn’t hold on any longer.
As Nie Yinzhi crouched to put on her shoes and stood up, her vision spun, and she felt herself falling forward uncontrollably. In her haste, she could only protect her flawless face to avoid smashing it and ending up with a bloody mess.
Whether it was a hallucination from the fever or not, a burst of golden light suddenly exploded before her eyes. Nie Yinzhi’s entire vision was engulfed in a blinding whiteness, and she felt as though she had fallen into something soft.
After that, she remembered nothing.
When she woke up again, Nie Yinzhi opened her eyes to see her parents sitting by her bedside. Her mother helped her sit up and handed her a glass of water. "Yinyin, you’re finally awake."
Nie Yinzhi moistened her dry throat, shocked. "Mom, Dad, how did you get here..." She trailed off as she noticed this wasn’t her apartment. "What’s going on? Is this the old house?"
How had she ended up back at the family’s ancestral home in the blink of an eye?
Nie Yinzhi looked around. She hadn’t been back to the old house in years. The ancestral home was a sprawling, traditional mansion, though it had been empty for a long time. The family hired people to clean it periodically, so it looked tidy, but there was still an unmistakable musty smell in the air.
"Yinyin, do you feel anything unusual about your body?" her father asked, leaning closer.
Nie Yinzhi rolled her eyes. "Dad! Your daughter was burning up with a 40-degree fever, almost dying, and you wouldn’t let me go to the hospital. Are you really my dad?"
Her father didn’t bother arguing. "Feel yourself again."
Nie Yinzhi reached up to touch her forehead and then her face. "The fever’s gone. Fine, I guess my strong willpower pulled me through again."
Her parents exchanged a glance. "Yinyin, is there anything else that feels off?"
"I’m still a little thirsty," Nie Yinzhi said, taking the glass and gulping down several mouthfuls of water. But strangely, the more she drank, the thirstier she became. The dryness wasn’t just in her throat anymore—it felt like a swarm of ants was crawling from her throat through her entire body, an unbearable itch that made her desperate for something other than water...
Something sweet, warm, and crimson.
Nie Yinzhi’s head began to ache again, but she wasn’t feverish. Her body felt as cold as ice, and she couldn’t even feel her own heartbeat. Suddenly, she tilted her head slightly, as if catching something on the breeze. She could hear the distant sounds of vendors hawking their wares in the town several kilometers away from the old house.
The basement was sealed tightly, and by some unknown means, it was preserved even better than the old mansion—neither dry nor damp, spotless, with a faint scent of incense lingering in the air.
The lights inside were old-fashioned carved lamps, casting a dim yellow glow, but they still worked.
The three of them rummaged through the basement for a long time before finally finding something of value—a contract.
It was written in a mysterious vampire script, yet Nie Yinzhi, upon seeing it, somehow understood its contents without ever having learned it.
Her father proudly said, "This is the power of your bloodline. As your bloodline awakens, you will unlock even more abilities."
"Yinzhi, you must control yourself," her mother said with concern, not as blindly optimistic as her father. "You're a public figure now, and every move you make is watched by countless people. If you slip up, it could be disastrous."
Nie Yinzhi nodded, running her fingers over the golden script on the parchment. After carefully reading it, she said, "It's a blood servant contract. It seems our ancestors signed a blood supply agreement with a family—the Gu family."
"There are so many people with the surname Gu..."
"Once the contract is activated, there will be a connection," Nie Yinzhi explained, her eyes gleaming under the light, eager to explore further. She took the parchment aside to study it.
The contract stipulated that the Gu family must provide ten high-quality blood servants to the vampires every year, and each generation of the Gu family must have one direct descendant serve as a blood servant. In exchange, they would receive wealth and riches.
Nie Yinzhi read the incantation at the end of the contract softly under her breath. As she uttered the final words, the parchment suddenly rose into the air, igniting without fire. Golden lines emerged from the ashes, wrapping around her wrist, while the other end vanished into the flames.
An image appeared within the flames.
The figure in the image wore ancient robes with wide sleeves, suspended in mid-air by wires, their long hair and sleeves billowing in the wind.
Filming.
That was the first thought that crossed Nie Yinzhi's mind. Although she was new to the entertainment industry, she could immediately tell it was a film set, shooting a night scene.
Nie Yinzhi looked closer, and in the flickering flames, she finally caught a glimpse of the face of the person suspended in mid-air. Under the moonlight, their features were as exquisite as a painting, cold and ethereal, like a celestial being.
The golden thread from the burning contract shot straight toward the figure suspended in mid-air. None of the crew members around noticed, but he did.
He instinctively tried to dodge, but the wires held him firmly in place. The golden thread wrapped around his wrist, and he looked up in surprise, following the thread with his gaze until his eyes met hers.
Nie Yinzhi's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly raised her hand to cover her face. He saw me!
At that moment, the parchment burned to ash, the flames extinguished, leaving only a handful of dust floating in the air. The image vanished.
Her parents rushed over, nervously checking her over and asking if she was okay.
Nie Yinzhi shook her head in a daze, then suddenly slapped her thigh.
Gu Jiang! In the darkness and with his ancient costume, she had almost failed to recognize him.
Nie Yinzhi had been scouted by a talent agency because of her looks, entering the entertainment industry through a talent show. She was at the peak of her popularity, having recently starred in an idol drama. However, her acting had been ruthlessly mocked, to the point where her name was synonymous with bad acting. People joked that she wasn't acting in a drama but in a PowerPoint presentation.
She admitted that her acting skills were lacking and had since worked hard to improve, studying scripts over and over.
Nie Yinzhi glanced at the contract on her wrist, wondering if drinking Gu Jiang's blood would make her acting skills skyrocket.