After the Early-Deceased White Moonlight of a Wealthy Family Returns (GL) - Chapter 38

Shen Huaijin had already left.

Su Wu looked down at the mess of documents scattered across the table. She gathered them one by one into a folder, her mind replaying the outcome of her negotiation with Shen Huaijin.

Citing the crowd at today’s party, Su Wu had promised Shen Huaijin that as soon as it ended tomorrow, she would find a time for the two sisters to meet. As Shen Huaijin had put it, she would let Shen You’an make her own choice.

The papers were organized in an orderly fashion, and the folder snapped shut with a click. Su Wu stared at the transparent glass teacup; the small green leaf tips were floating and sinking uncertainly. She let out a sigh, closed her eyes, and let her body lean back, her head resting against the back of the chair.

Tomorrow—

Su Wu’s thoughts drifted. She calmed her mind, stood up, grabbed her trench coat, and walked out.

“Have you seen You’an?” she asked Meng Xi, who was chatting with a girl in the corridor.

Meng Xi replied, “She’s in the bistro with my sister. Why are you looking for her? Old Su, today is a day for the youngsters to gather; let’s not join the fun as ‘old fogies,’ shall we?”

“A professor from the Academy of Fine Arts is here. I’m taking You’an to meet her,” Su Wu said.

Meng Xi waved her hand. “Go ahead, go ahead. Remind Meng Dongdong for me not to drink too much.”

Su Wu nodded and headed toward the bistro.

Inside the romantic, atmospheric bistro, Meng Dongdong was playing games with her other friends. Seeing Su Wu, she smiled and waved her over.

“Where is Xiao An?” Su Wu asked.

Meng Dongdong let out an “ah”: “She took two sips of sparkling water and said she was sleepy, so she went back to the lounge to sleep. Sister Su Wu, want a drink?”

Su Wu shook her head. “Your sister asked me to remind you—”

Before she could finish, Meng Dongdong said knowingly, “I know, I know, I won’t drink much. The alcohol content in these isn’t heavy. Sister Su Wu, go find An-jie. I have the room card here, for you.”

Su Wu thanked her, confirmed that the people around Meng Dongdong seemed decent, took a photo to send to Meng Xi, and turned to leave.

Shen You’an’s lounge had been specifically arranged by Su Wu; to allow her time to play with her friends, her room was next to Meng Dongdong’s.

A twin bed.

Standing at the door, she knocked three times.

“You’an.”

There was no answer from inside. Su Wu furrowed her brows, thinking she must be asleep. She turned to leave, but suddenly heard a thud from inside the room.

A subtle instinct made Su Wu immediately check her phone for data, but for today’s gala, Shen You’an hadn’t worn the custom-made watch.

She knocked twice more. “You’an!”

Shen You’an’s voice came out suppressed: “Don’t come in.”

The ocean waves rolled and slapped against the ship one after another, making splashing sounds. The night wind scattered the revelry of the ship, leaving a silent moon hanging in the sky.

Beep.

The key card swiped over the sensor below the handle, and the tightly closed lock clicked open. Su Wu opened only a tiny crack, squeezed inside, and closed the door behind her.

The room was lightless, pitch black. Su Wu instinctively reached out to insert the room card into the empty power slot.

“Don’t!” Shen You’an’s voice was urgent and raspy. “Don’t turn on the light.”

“Okay.” Su Wu slipped the card into her trench coat pocket, touched the wall, and moved forward an inch.

“Don’t come over!” The girl’s voice sounded even more urgent and tense. Her vocal cords were strained, her voice trembling—revealing obvious dread and fear, as well as a layer of endurance that Su Wu didn’t know how to judge.

“I won’t come over.” Su Wu nearly raised her hands in surrender; she tried her best to make her voice gentle and considerate. “You’an, are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?”

“I’m fine,” she said.

Lying, Su Wu thought. That voice did not sound like someone who was fine.

“Sea sick?” Su Wu asked.

Shen You’an replied, “No!”

“A-jie… you should leave.” She forced those few words out with all her might. “I want to be alone for a bit.”

“I’m worried.” Su Wu showed a rare, unquestionable dominance before Shen You’an. “Let me take a look to confirm you’re okay, and then I’ll leave.”

“No…”

A rustling sound followed, the fabric of a skirt brushing against the floor.

Thud.

Some sharp, hard object hit the wall, making a dull sound. Su Wu was truly worried; she moved forward slightly, going against Shen You’an’s wishes. The sheer curtain was blown open by the sea breeze, and the dim moonlight poured down coldly. It stole into the room, illuminating the girl curled up in the corner.

She hunched her back, burying her head into her tightly hugged knees, her hands protecting her front, her mouth constantly saying, “Please… don’t… don’t come over…”

She was trembling.

On her pure white, elegant dress, at the position of her shoulder blades, a pair of eerie bone wings appeared—cold, hard, and discordant—contrasting sharply with her soft skin and the fabric of the dress. The moonlight climbed up from the floor to her ankles inch by inch, then further up to her trembling arms, and finally onto her forbidden bone wings.

The shadows projected a chaotic mess against the wall, flailing in the sea breeze like a restless demon clamoring with the threat of death.

Su Wu’s breathing stopped, fearing that a single small gasp would disturb everything before her. She froze in place.

Shen You’an pleaded, “Please, A-jie, go away.” There was a desperate sob in her voice.

Su Wu didn’t even have time to answer before the bone wings snapped open with a zheng. The moonlight became a blade, slicing through the girl’s skin inch by inch, causing her bones and flesh to begin deforming. The joints beneath her white skin emitted an eerie creaking sound.

Shen You’an clenched her fist and smashed it against the wall; the hard steel dented inward instantly. She bit her lower lip deathly, looking at the woman with exhausted strength: “Su Wu! Go! Leave now!”

Her usually clear, dark pupils were now flickering with a mysterious, predatory crimson.

Like a beast.

After a moment of eye contact, Shen You’an looked away as if struck by lightning. When she cried, what fell from her eyes was bright red.

“Don’t look at me, please, don’t look at me.” She bent down and turned around frantically, trying to hide in the corner. “I’m so ugly, don’t look at me.”

Su Wu’s nose felt sour, and her chest throbbed with pain.

“You’an, you aren’t ugly.” She spoke in a gentle tone, like coaxing a child, fearing she would disturb a dream. “Tell A-jie how I can help you, okay?”

“You can’t help me.” Shen You’an said with total certainty. “Su Wu, no one can help me.”

A sorrowful despair, like a freely growing blade, stabbed out from her beating heart, cutting through blood vessels and piercing bone and flesh, tearing her whole being apart.

“You leaving now is helping me,” Shen You’an said with the last of her reason. She spoke one word at a time; to suppress her surging desires, she had to spend great effort to control her body. “Su Wu, please.”

Su Wu asked calmly, “Does the moonlight affect you?”

Shen You’an remained silent.

Su Wu simply stepped forward and went to the window. The window wasn’t tightly closed; she reached out to pull it.

Suddenly, Su Wu saw a giant shadow cover the glass in front of her. She froze and turned her head cautiously.

The girl who had been curled on the floor had somehow become massive, nearly filling a corner of the room. Little remained of her human body; the rest was a shadow covered by cold, hard bone joints. On the surface of this shadow, red blood condensed into ripples, turning into the texture of muscles that wrapped around her like a smoldering flame.

Soft fingertips were replaced by canine claws. The shadow swayed in the wind but could not be blown away. Giant bone wings half-opened behind her, surrounding her in a protective embrace. A slender, powerful shadow-tail flicked behind her.

The indescribable fear was like a void vortex in her body, enough to make one tremble. She looked like an abyss—or perhaps, she was a living abyss.

Only on that small face, where black shadows crawled upward from her neck like vines, did the blood-colored pupils reveal the last traces of remaining reason.

“Go.”

The girl’s voice was mixed with a surging cacophony, as if ten million lives were screaming in pain, like an echo, or even more like countless blood-stained hands desperately dragging the girl’s body into the deepest part of the night.

Overlapping hums and chaotic murmurs played.

【Want…】

【Eat eat eat…】

【So hungry so hungry…】

【Head, crush, bones, tear, chew, swallow, fuse…】

【A-jie.】

【Go.】

Su Wu saw the monster nearly consumed, and she saw the girl’s desperate effort to restrain herself. Shen You’an even directly snapped off half a bone wing because they were uncontrollably attempting to spread toward Su Wu.

There was no blood; the bone fell to the floor and scattered like charred ash. New bone was growing from the cross-section of the wound.

Clack.

Su Wu closed the window. She quickly pulled the blackout curtains that were scattered on both sides. The moonlight was completely blocked. The clamoring noise weakened, but it did not disappear entirely.

Su Wu looked up at the giant monster before her. She wasn’t short, but before this creature, she was still so small that it felt as if the other could crush her with a single hand.

She walked forward, picked up a small fruit fork from the table, and with a flash of silver, the sharp tip tore a mark across her wrist.

The blood seeped out from there. The woman’s face was calm, her composure unruffled. She didn’t even frown, as if the skin she just broke and the blood flowing out didn’t belong to her.

She held her wrist high, her steady voice hiding an unknown enticement.

“Shen You’an, do you want to eat?”

The red and black figure froze. The monster’s pupils were full of shock. She was still enduring. Only the wildly swaying shadows displayed her inner struggle.

Su Wu looked at the blood droplet that was about to slide off, reached out with her index finger to catch it, brought it to her lips, and took a lick. “The taste is okay.”

The monster let out a low growl.

“Truly not going to eat? It’s about to fall on the floor; it would be a waste if you don’t eat it.”

Su Wu looked directly into the monster’s red eyes and tilted her wrist slightly. The blood droplets were about to fall like pearls to the floor due to the angle.

A silent wind struck violently. In the next second, the shadow-tail had wrapped around Su Wu’s slender waist. The monster’s giant claws cautiously cradled her fair arm. The towering figure crouched down, wings drooping on the floor. Her tongue caught the dripping blood and then licked the fresh wound with a sticky warmth.

The first lick was light; the thick, hot tongue had a few barbs, feeling scalding and tingling as it passed.

Tasting the sweetness.

The second lick was almost a complete envelopment.

“Mmm—”

An uncontrollable soft moan escaped because of the fiery temperature and the absolute control. She felt the shadow-tail tighten around her waist in excitement as it fed.

Su Wu half-closed her eyes, looking down at all of this.

Night sea.

Bright moon.

She was in the monster’s control, yet the monster bowed its head to her.