Chapter 1

Chapter 1

“Monster! Get away from me! Get out—!”

In the rain-lashed night, lightning flashed and thunder roared. A young man huddled helplessly in the corner, arms tightly wrapped around his head, too terrified to look up at the figure standing nearby. His body trembled uncontrollably, like a rattled sieve.

Near the doorway stood a man, drenched by the rain. The semi-transparent fabric clung to his skin, barely concealing a powerfully sculpted physique.

Yet, what was truly horrifying was the face—or rather, the lack of one—atop the man’s slender neck. No, to be precise, there was only a mouth on that blank expanse of skin—a massive, fang-filled maw.

“Ah Shu, didn’t you say you’d love me no matter what I became?”

“So why is it that now, without Xie Guan’s face, you don’t like me anymore?”

The young man seemed not to hear the words, shaking his head helplessly, his eyes brimming with terror.

The man shifted slightly, and like a spooked animal, the young man let out a piercing scream, scrambling backward crab-like in desperation.

The next instant, a cold touch gripped his ankle. Someone had seized him. The young man turned in horror to see a thick, crimson tongue slithering out from the man’s fanged maw, creeping slowly up his leg...

*

“You there? How was work today?”

“I’m not working overtime tomorrow. Do you have time to grab dinner? We haven’t eaten together since we got together.”

Late at night, Lin Xingshu had just finished overtime and was leaving the office.

In the silent darkness, his slender fingers slid across his phone screen, his brow furrowed as he sent message after message to the person on the other end.

The pale glow of the screen illuminated his face. A soft scarf was wrapped around his neck, muffling the lower half of his face and leaving only his high nose bridge and dark eyes visible.

After sending several messages with no response, Lin Xingshu’s frown deepened.

He scrolled up through their chat history—it was entirely a monologue. From beginning to end, the other person had never replied to a single message.

Lin Xingshu took a deep breath, lifting his face from the scarf as he exhaled heavily.

A whole week.

It had been a week since he and his boyfriend had officially gotten together. But ever since his boyfriend's confession, there had been no contact—no replies to his messages, no sightings at the office.

Lin Xingshu couldn’t help but recall the events of a week ago.

At a certain gathering, his alcohol tolerance failed him, and he stumbled out of the private room in a daze, only to run into an exquisitely handsome man.

When he encountered the man, he had also just stepped out of a private room, his brows slightly furrowed.

Amidst the swirling smoke, the man held a cigarette between his fingers, tapping lightly as ash drifted down. He tilted his head back slightly to take a drag, revealing a long, elegant neck, his Adam’s apple bobbing.

Under the dim, flickering lights, the man’s features were strikingly sharp—his downcast eyes, his lips crimson, his face as beautiful as a woman’s. A small mole beneath the corner of his lips only added to his allure.

Lin Xingshu recognized him—his former university classmate, and the only son of the company’s chairman, Xie Guan.

Back in school, Xie Guan had been famous—an outstanding student, humble and polite. Lin Xingshu had seen him a few times and had always been stunned by his looks.

Their eyes met unexpectedly.

Xie Guan’s face was undeniably arresting. When their gazes locked, Lin Xingshu’s heart raced uncontrollably. He quickly lowered his eyes and was about to brush past Xie Guan when the man suddenly stopped and called out to him.

In that instant, his pulse pounded in his ears. Xie Guan stepped in front of him, their eyes meeting once more.

“I know you. You’re Lin Xingshu, right?”

“Y-yes... Chairman Xie, you—”

Before he could finish, Xie Guan cut him off. “Are you seeing anyone?”

The question left him frozen in place. He didn’t understand what Xie Guan meant, and like a fool, he shook his head honestly. “No.”

Xie Guan’s tightly knit brows immediately relaxed, his dark eyes crinkled with amusement. He stubbed out his cigarette and lowered his head slightly to ask:

“Then, would you consider me?”

At the time, he had been shocked. They had only just met—how could they jump straight into a relationship?

He had never been in love before, but Xie Guan was breathtakingly beautiful, a campus legend back in university. In his younger days, Lin Xingshu had even harbored a crush on him. Now, this luminous, flawless man was confessing to him...

Drunk and impulsive, he had agreed to Xie Guan’s request for a relationship.

But the very next day, when they ran into each other at the office, Lin Xingshu had tried to greet him—only for Xie Guan to walk right past, his expression cold, ignoring his friendly overtures entirely.

From that day on, Xie Guan seemed to have vanished into thin air—no replies to his messages, no sightings at work.

Feeling a partner's duty, Lin Xingshu felt he should at least try to nurture this relationship. So he kept initiating conversations, forcing himself into the role of a lovesick puppy.

Now, a full week later, Xie Guan still hadn’t replied to a single message—but he hadn’t blocked him either.

Perhaps it was time to let this sudden romance come to an end.

Lin Xingshu took a deep breath, turned off his phone, and hurried toward the subway station.

It was already 10:10 PM. He had to hurry, or he’d miss the last train.

The winter night was bitterly cold. Only a scattering of people lingered at the subway entrance, and the deeper he went, the fewer there were, an icy wind howled around him.

Once inside the station concourse, Lin Xingshu glanced around. The vast space held only himself and one other young man.

The man stood motionless before the turnstile, his head lowered, his face obscured. He simply stood there, silent, as if lost in thought.

Lin Xingshu pulled out his phone, opening the scan pass interface. The station’s spotty connection was slow, and as he waited for the code to load, his gaze drifted back to the young man.

An icy gust swept through, lifting the hem of the man’s clothes. Lin Xingshu noticed with a start that beneath the fabric, the man’s skin was bare—no layers of warmth.

Wasn’t he cold?

Lin Xingshu found the man odd, but he didn’t dwell on it. He prepared to scan his pass, but the turnstile was sluggish, taking forever to open. Just as he was about to step through, a series of thudding noises echoed in his ears.

Lin Xingshu turned his head—and his eyes widened in shock.

The man was repeatedly slamming his phone against the turnstile, trying to scan through. His screen wasn’t even on. When the turnstile refused to open, he began ramming his body into it, over and over, the impacts reverberating through the station.

His head remained bowed, so Lin Xingshu couldn’t see his expression—only his deathly pale skin and taut mouth.

Lin Xingshu scanned the area, but there were no patrolling security guards in sight. Swallowing hard, he cautiously called out:

“Sir?”

At the sound of his voice, the man slowly raised his head to look at Lin Xingshu. His pitch-black eyes were vacant and lifeless, the irises dull and unnaturally large, dominating his gaze.

His complexion was an unnatural shade of pallor, his hair straw-like. His features were unremarkable, his stare glassy-eyed—his appearance suggested someone with cognitive impairment.

“Do you want to take the subway?”

Lin Xingshu asked softly. The man didn’t respond, just stared blankly at him, clutching his phone.

After a moment of thought, Lin Xingshu realized that on such a cold day, the man was wearing thin clothes, seemingly unaffected by the seasons, and couldn’t even use a smartphone—he was likely developmentally delayed.

Without help, he’d probably be stuck outside all night.

Glancing at the already opened gate, Lin Xingshu chose to step back and asked gently, “Do you need my help?”

He expected no reaction, but the man gave a slight nod.

Lin Xingshu raised an eyebrow. Huh, maybe he wasn’t completely out of it.

“Click—click—”

The man moved, his movements jerky and awkward as he shuffled toward Lin Xingshu. Slowly, he handed over his phone.

Lin Xingshu lowered his head, took the phone, and swiftly navigated the screen.

Standing so close, Lin Xingshu didn’t notice the man tilting his head slightly, like a beast, nostrils flaring as he inhaled the scent emanating from him. The scent coiled into his nostrils, and the man’s gaze grew hazy.

God, he smelled good. Hunger spiked. Eat.

His eyes drifted to the young man’s face—delicate features, a quiet air about him, fair and delicate skin, long lashes casting shadows over dark eyes, a faint red mole beneath one eye adding to his refined beauty. His lips were pale, almost anemic, making him look almost breakable.

Not just his scent—even his face looked delectable.

The man’s pupils dilated, his mouth split into something too wide to be human, revealing a nightmare of jagged, bone-white fangs. His jaw distended grotesquely, consuming his own face as rows of fangs filled the gaping maw.

A serpentine tongue, forked and glistening, flicked out, trembling with hunger at the scent.

Just as he was about to sink his teeth into the young man’s head, Lin Xingshu moved, seemingly about to look up.

The creature flinched back, retracting his monstrous jaws and tongue in an instant.

When Lin Xingshu lifted his gaze, the man was back to blank-faced emptiness.

“All set,” Lin Xingshu said, forcing a smile, handing back the phone. “Now you can scan and enter.”

The man blinked, taking the phone. When their fingers touched, Lin Xingshu recoiled at the unnatural chill.

Jesus, his skin was like freezer burn—was he even alive?

Lin Xingshu glanced up and found the man staring back, those pitch-black eyes, fixed and doll-like, his face eerily stiff—like a plastic mannequin from a 90s department store.

Lin Xingshu’s gut twisted with primal dread. He yanked his hand back like he’d been burned, fumbled with his pass, scanning it in a hurry, and hurried through the gate.

He practically power-walked as he headed straight for Line 3.

The thing watched him flee, then lifted that same hand slowly, the one that had touched Lin Xingshu.

He raised it stiffly, nostrils quivering like a predator’s. The boy’s scent lingered—sweet, warm, edible.

What an intoxicating scent.

He tentatively extended his long tongue and lightly licked his own fingertip—the one that had brushed against Lin Xingshu.

In the next instant, his heart began to race, his breathing grew rapid, and every cell in his body thrummed with excitement, sending tremors through his entire being.

The young man’s scent was sweeter than candy, more thrilling than fresh blood and meat.

He had never encountered such a smell on any human—or even among his own kind.

Unable to control his desire, he frantically licked the hand that had made contact with Lin Xingshu.

His skin was pale, tinged with a sickly gray, yet now, two spots of color flared on his cheeks. His eyes gleamed with hunger, lending a rare vitality to his otherwise lifeless face.

His soft, slender tongue swept over every inch of his fingers, leaving no gap between his fingers unlicked, until the scent was gone. Only then did he slowly regain his composure.

Gazing in the direction the young man had gone, he twitched his nose and, without hesitation, scanned the QR code, chasing after Lin Xingshu onto Metro Line 3.