The Vampire Tycoon Secretly Loves Me - Chapter 14

“You…” Looking at Su Mo, who wore an innocent expression as if none of this concerned him, a nameless fire ignited in Ye Linghan’s heart.

This was beyond ridiculous… Because of Su Mo, Ye Linghan—who was supposed to be a “legitimate” intern—was now being deeply misunderstood.

The police officer standing in front of Ye Linghan looked grim and professional. His entire demeanor radiated an aura that suggested that if Ye Linghan couldn’t explain himself clearly today, he would be handcuffed and hauled away along with the rest.

It was quite the display of righteous indignation.

Having been mistaken for a suspect once before, Ye Linghan naturally had no desire to relive the experience of being interrogated as a criminal. He was forced to drop his smile, his face darkening as he raised his hand and slapped his ID against Su Mo’s chest. “You explain it to him.”

“Oof…” Whether he was faking it or not, Su Mo took half a step back from the impact.

Seeing this, Ye Linghan’s temper flared. He snapped irritably, “Don’t you dare try to play the victim. I may still be an intern, but I am a legal citizen. If you bully me, I can tell the police to arrest you!”

“Alright, alright, alright.”

Su Mo chuckled softly as he took the ID, knowing he was in the wrong. “He truly is our new intern. However, he only passed the interview yesterday and hasn’t officially started yet. This incident happened so suddenly that his proper credentials… well, there wasn’t enough time to get them printed.”

Even Su Mo found it a bit difficult to speak of the crudely hand-drawn ID card.

However, considering he had thought of it and drawn it just a second before heading out the door, he believed he had been quite considerate of the newcomer.

“Fine then.” The officer continued to eye Ye Linghan suspiciously from head to toe. “Don’t let it happen again.”

“Understood.” Ye Linghan watched them leave with a polite smile, but the moment they turned their backs, his expression vanished instantly.

He had originally thought the Investigation Department would be a prestigious organization with a lot of clout. He hadn’t expected that just as he was looking to show off his wits, his enthusiasm would be doused by a bucket of cold water.

The three of them watched the main group depart. The sound of sirens grew distant, and the alternating flashes of red and blue light gradually faded from view. Without the artificial light, the small patch of ground that had been visible sank back into darkness. An eerie, sinister wind occasionally whistled through the alley entrance, making the atmosphere even more ghostly.

“Why do I get the feeling that your Investigation Department doesn’t have much status?” Ye Linghan couldn’t help but complain.

Logically, as a department founded by Blood Hunters, their authority should be quite high. How did they end up so marginalized?

“Sigh, it’s a long story. I’ll tell you slowly in the future.” Su Mo sighed, his voice thick with exhaustion. “Let’s collect the evidence first. If we’re fast, we might be able to get a little more rest back at the office. Once the sun comes up, we’ll be swamped.”

Their life, which had always been peaceful, suddenly felt as if someone was pulling the strings behind the scenes; every day was filled with endless work.

Compared to Ye Linghan, Yao Qingluan was more familiar with the procedure. She took an extra pair of gloves and a mask from her bag and handed them to Ye Linghan, while also taking out several evidence bags.

Although the police had already finished their collection, the Investigation Department had its own protocols, and it never hurt to conduct a more thorough sweep.

Ye Linghan put on the gloves and slowly circled the car, observing it closely. There were no obvious scratches on the body—mostly just minor scuffs from a lack of maintenance—and the glass was intact. Aside from the driver’s side door, there were no visible signs of forced entry.

Ye Linghan pulled the door open. A stench of rot mixed with blood, nicotine, and various other odors rushed at him. Fortunately, the mask filtered some of it out; otherwise, the direct assault on his nostrils would have been agonizing.

The victim was definitely a heavy smoker. Using tweezers, Ye Linghan picked up a cigarette butt that had fallen from the passenger side ashtray. At first glance, it looked identical to the one he had given Zhao Tang, though he didn’t know if the chemical composition was the same.

He placed the butt into an evidence bag. “Where’s the body?”

“The forensic team took it for evidence gathering,” Su Mo replied between flashes, having taken numerous photos with his camera.

“Isn’t that under our jurisdiction?”

Ye Linghan was confused. He had clearly heard the police say the case was being handled by the Investigation Department.

Logically, once a case was assigned to them, the tasks of investigation, sampling, and interviewing should all be handed over. Why wouldn’t they release the body? Furthermore, passing data and files back and forth between departments was a recipe for missing details.

“And how would we handle it? Would you do it?” Su Mo countered.

“Don’t we have specialized personnel for this?”

Su Mo sighed helplessly. “Including you, there are currently only three people in our department…”

“They say it’s under our jurisdiction, but in reality, they just use us for the grunt work.”

What kind of logic was that?

Ye Linghan frowned. While Su Mo’s point about them being understaffed made sense, the division of labor seemed incredibly messy.

“Aren’t the police forbidden from handling cases involving the Vampire Race?”

He had heard rumors during his school days that cases involving vampires were handled differently.

“Times have changed.” Su Mo had finished his evidence collection and began packing his gear, gesturing to Yao Qingluan and Ye Linghan. “Let’s go. I’ll tell you in the car.”

With a thud, the car doors closed. Su Mo drove while Yao Qingluan sat in the passenger seat. Ye Linghan naturally sat in the back, leaning forward between the two front seats, waiting to hear the history.

The car moved with difficulty through the quiet alley. The road was so narrow it could only accommodate a single standard-sized vehicle, and it was so bumpy that the car jolted up and down.

“I’m not entirely clear on the specific reasons myself; I only heard some things from the Clan Head when I was a child.” Because of the winding, uneven road, Su Mo’s voice trembled slightly.

“Clan Head?”

This was the first time Ye Linghan had heard such a formal title.

As the car emerged from the alley, the surroundings brightened. Neon lights flickered through the windows, casting shifting patterns of color inside the cabin.

“It’s normal that you wouldn’t know. The Blood Hunter clan has lived in shadows for thousands of years, rarely appearing unless necessary. So, very few people know the inner workings.”

“However, compared to the Vampire Race, the scale of the Blood Hunter clan is smaller by more than just a little bit. Yet, we can suppress them.”

“Because of the bloodline?”

“You know about that?” Su Mo’s voice was tinged with shock as he glanced at Ye Linghan through the rearview mirror.

“I heard a friend mention it…” Ye Linghan suddenly felt a bit guilty.

Hearing this, Su Mo gave a meaningful smile. “A friend ‘good enough’ to share a bed with?”

“Pfft.” Beside him, Yao Qingluan lowered her head to organize her notes, smiling without a word.

“Is it that obvious?” Ye Linghan rubbed his forehead with a wry smile.

Su Mo didn’t press the topic further. “To answer your previous question, it’s not entirely about that. Within the Blood Hunter clan, only the Ye lineage possesses the Pure Yang Phoenix Blood. In the center of their chest, they have one more bone than an ordinary person. That bone is the key to restraining the Vampire Race.”

“The Ye lineage…” Ye Linghan murmured to himself.

Yao Qingluan looked up at Su Mo, catching his train of thought. “The Ye lineage… Brother, do you think he could be the long-lost orphan the Clan Head has been searching for?”

She glanced sideways at Ye Linghan.

Su Mo looked up through the mirror. “So, why exactly are you staying by the side of a vampire? Where are your parents?”

“I don’t have parents,” Ye Linghan said flatly. Perhaps because he had never known them since childhood, he felt no emotional weight to the statement. Regardless of how people asked, he felt nothing.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up a painful subject,” Yao Qingluan quickly apologized.

Ye Linghan forced a smile. “It’s nothing. He treats me well, so having parents or not doesn’t really matter.”

“Anyway…” Su Mo hurried to change the subject. “Let me continue telling you about the Phoenix Blood.”

Yao Qingluan nodded in agreement.

“Let me think of how to explain it. Take Qingluan and me, and Qingluan for example; although we belong to the Blood Hunter clan, we are only from side branches. We can’t actually kill vampires. We rely on the clan’s magical artifacts to capture them, which still gives us a significant advantage over ordinary people.”

“But the Ye lineage is different. Because of the Pure Yang Phoenix Blood, they are naturally the antithesis of the Vampire Race. That extra bone in their body is called Mingyuan, meaning the Abyss of Hell. It can only be used three times in a lifetime, and every time it appears, a soul must perish.”

“To think it’s that powerful,” Ye Linghan remarked in awe.

Su Mo nodded. “Indeed. But my knowledge is quite shallow, so my explanation might be a bit vague. You’ll have to make do with that.”

“Then what about the situation between you and the police earlier? Why do they seem to resent you so much?”

“Sigh.” Su Mo sighed. They were almost back at the Investigation Department. After a night of work, the sky was beginning to turn a pale white, on the verge of dawn.

“Actually, you can’t blame them,” Yao Qingluan said softly. Seeing that Su Mo was exhausted, she took over the conversation.

“Brother and I only know a little bit about this matter.”

“Is it because the matter itself is complicated?” Ye Linghan asked.

“More than that. It’s because this matter is the old Clan Head’s sore spot. No one dares to mention it.”

It sounded quite serious. If it involved the Clan Head, it was clearly no simple affair, which only piqued Ye Linghan’s curiosity further.

“We only know that the Ye lineage didn’t start as a single succession. But by the time it reached the old Clan Head, there was only one child. According to seniority, we should call her Aunt. But later, for some reason, Aunt became involved with a man from the outside and became pregnant. Unexpectedly, she met with disaster on her way home. Both the child and the father went missing without a trace.”

Ye Linghan was shocked. No wonder the two of them had been suspicious. “Didn’t the old Clan Head investigate?”

Logically, with the Blood Hunters being so powerful, they wouldn’t just sit idly by while their only bloodline successor vanished. Why was there still no trace of them?

“Because there was no way to investigate,” Yao Qingluan said as she organized the samples from the scene, preparing to take them into the office for study.

“How could it be impossible to investigate? With the matchless Phoenix Bloodline, could there be anything to fear?”

“That, we don’t know.” Su Mo finally spoke. “But I do know that since that incident, the old Clan Head ordered the entire clan to go into complete seclusion, turning a deaf ear to the outside world.”

“Over time, some low-tier vampires began to grow increasingly arrogant. Many of them came out to wreak havoc on the human world. Ordinary police had no way to deal with them, and many lives were lost. Consequently, over a long period, they developed a deep resentment toward us.”

“Even though it’s not strictly our fault, their resentment is understandable. And since we’ve only just recently established this department, it’s perfectly normal for them to have an attitude.”

The car pulled up downstairs. Su Mo turned around and extended a hand toward Ye Linghan. “Welcome to the Investigation Department. I hope you’ll have the chance to become a formal colleague~.”

Ye Linghan was so immersed in the information he had just received that the sudden change in topic left him a bit flustered. He hurriedly reached out. “It’s my honor!”

Although the welcoming ceremony was quite haphazard in its timing and location, Ye Linghan felt a genuine sense of relief and happiness.

“But… I still have one thing I want to ask.”

Su Mo raised an eyebrow, dropping his usual brooding look for a trace of a smile. “Ask while there’s still time. Once we go upstairs, it’s strictly business.”

“Why did you recruit me? I don’t believe you had absolutely no reason and just casually agreed to let me join.”

Especially after hearing everything Su Mo had said, he found it even harder to understand why he had been given the chance to join such a rigorous organization.

Yao Qingluan leaned over from the passenger seat as well. “Yeah, Brother, I’m a bit curious too.”

Su Mo was silent for a moment before saying slowly, “If I said it was just a gut feeling, would you believe me?”

Seeing Su Mo looking at him with total sincerity, Ye Linghan shrugged, wearing an expression that clearly said, “Do I look like I believe that?”

Su Mo anticipated that Ye Linghan wouldn’t buy it and explained, “Even if you don’t believe it, it’s the truth. From the first time we met and you saw through our identities, I felt that you weren’t ordinary.”

“Furthermore, as things stand, the Investigation Department isn’t as ‘official’ as you imagine…”

Since they were already talking, Su Mo decided to be entirely open and lay all the cards on the table.

“Everything I said during the day was mostly for show. As you can see, there are only two people in the department—Qingluan and me. We don’t get ‘classified’ cases. We aren’t like the police with their strict screening mechanisms. Here, as long as you’re brave and not afraid of getting hurt, you’re in.”

Although Su Mo’s last sentence was phrased conservatively, Ye Linghan could sense the underlying meaning: the missions would be dangerous and could be life-threatening at any moment.

However, Ye Linghan viewed it quite pragmatically. He had been alone since childhood; rather than just scraping by, he would rather do something meaningful.

“And there is one most important point,” Su Mo added.

“What?”

“No betrayals.”

“Of course.”