Luo Wei gazed at Evelyn's particularly melancholic expression, his mind turning over various thoughts.
In fact, he had long pondered her age. Luo Wei had always felt that if she were truly a thousand years old, she probably wouldn't be so concerned about her age.
So, based on this reasoning, Evelyn might only be slightly older than an ordinary human. That’s why, when compared to her younger colleagues and friends, she felt old...
Combining this with the known information, high-ranking members of the Vampire Clan could easily live up to a thousand years under normal circumstances. Those at the level of a Vampire Clan prince generally lived to around two thousand years old, while their original ancestors were said to be immortal, though they had temporarily fallen into a deep slumber...
A rough calculation suggested that 100 years for a high-ranking vampire was equivalent to 10 human years. Given that Evelyn had just reached adulthood not long ago and always insisted she was "26," she was likely somewhere between 200 and 300 years old.
Luo Wei silently observed Evelyn, feeling that he was close to uncovering the truth.
Evelyn, on the other hand, nervously lowered her head and focused on her meal.
Between bites, she muttered uneasily.
"I knew I shouldn't have told you all this... Ugh, I regret it so much..."
"Ahhh! I don’t want to go home!!"
After placing the final dish on the table, Luo Wei smiled warmly at her, thinking she looked like an adorable ostrich with her head buried in her food.
"Don’t worry, Teacher. If you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t ask."
"But deep down, you do want to go back, don’t you?"
"How about helping me think of a gift for the Duke’s '80th' birthday? If I take you to see him, showing up empty-handed wouldn’t be appropriate, right?"
Evelyn cautiously raised her head and, seeing that Luo Wei's teasing gaze had disappeared, let out a sigh of relief.
"Anything’s fine. He’s lived so long, there’s nothing he hasn’t seen. No matter what you give him, he won’t show dissatisfaction."
"That won’t do..." Luo Wei suddenly felt a little nervous, as if he were about to meet his future father-in-law...
Evelyn noticed his unease and chuckled. "Really, there’s no need to overthink it. As a human, you can’t possibly cater to their tastes. Do you know what those old monsters like most? Would you dare give it to them?"
"What is it?" Luo Wei asked curiously.
"What do vampires like? Human blood, of course!" Evelyn laughed. "Our esteemed Duke has a peculiar preference. He loves drinking the blood of powerful humans, even though it does absolutely nothing to enhance his strength. He just enjoys the meaningless sense of ritual."
Luo Wei silently thought to himself, is this the vampire version of "you are what you eat"? But Evelyn was right—it was utterly pointless, and it seemed the old vampire simply had a taste for it...
Evelyn then shared a story. "Back when he was following his uncle in battles, he loved secretly capturing and keeping powerful enemy mages as prisoners."
"According to him, those were the most memorable and cherished 'vintages' of his life."
"He slowly savored those 'vintage delicacies' for over forty years. The captured mages were treated like livestock, their bodies and minds deteriorating until they couldn’t even speak or walk..."
"But after the empire no longer had major conflicts, he couldn’t continue large-scale slaughter of mages, which he found rather regrettable..."
After hearing this, Helena shivered, and Luo Wei also felt a chill run down his spine.
Images of those "vintages" being kept like livestock flashed through his mind, giving him a glimpse of the atmosphere within the Abraham family.
"You two are quite alike..." he couldn’t help but mutter under his breath. "He picks the strong as food, and you pick the beautiful as food..."
Given how much Evelyn cared about her appearance, it seemed like her own version of "you are what you eat."
"Hmph, I’m nothing like him," Evelyn retorted with a roll of her eyes. "I just have high standards..."
"Well..." Luo Wei continued, "do vampires drink alcohol?"
In his world, bringing a box of Maotai to one’s future father-in-law during holidays was considered a decent gesture...
"They don’t drink ordinary alcohol," Evelyn shook her head. "But they do enjoy a blood-like wine. I’m not sure how it’s made, and they also make similar snacks, though they’re all made with human blood."
Luo Wei felt a wave of nausea, grateful that he had managed to change Evelyn’s diet...
He couldn’t help but entertain the thought of bringing a pound of Northeast blood sausage to the Duke...
He actually knew how to make it, and he was sure the esteemed Duke would enjoy it.
As the table conversation turned to these bizarre vampire customs, a commotion suddenly came from outside.
"Oh? You’re all here."
A carriage stopped outside the inn, and Ophelia hurriedly walked in, taking a seat at the head of the table.
Her arrival immediately shifted the atmosphere. Evelyn stopped complaining about family matters, and Helena tensed up, occasionally glancing at her brother.
"I heard it’s Duke Victor’s birthday?" Ophelia looked at Evelyn with a smile. "Give him my regards. I’ve prepared some gifts—I hope you won’t find them too shabby."
"Not at all," Evelyn replied. "Father will be delighted to receive them."
Luo Wei watched them, knowing that their fathers were on good terms. Even though Charlton II had begun purging the deeply rooted non-human families within the empire, Duke Victor had stood firmly by the emperor’s side, despite strong opposition from his own family and the Vampire Clan of the City of Cain. This loyalty had even sparked discontent among his kin.
Luo Wei wasn’t sure if there were deeper dealings involved, but Duke Victor was indeed fiercely loyal to the emperor.
Ophelia had come to say her goodbyes. Her gaze lingered on Luo Wei. "Father’s people have found me. After I settle matters with our ancestors, I’ll have to report back to him. I might leave Brugge before you."
Luo Wei looked at her travel-worn appearance and handed her a set of utensils with a smile. "You’ve got time to eat before you go."
Ophelia glanced at the table full of dishes, her attention drawn to the feast Luo Wei had meticulously prepared.
"Hmm, not bad! You even prepared this spread knowing I’d be leaving!"
However, her eyes landed on the last remaining golden shrimp ball.
Two forks simultaneously stabbed into the small delicacy, and Evelyn instantly looked up, locking eyes with Ophelia’s light-colored gaze.
"That one’s mine."
When it came to food, especially her favorite dishes, Evelyn wasn’t about to back down.
"Oh..."
Ophelia nodded but made no move to withdraw her fork.
"But I want to try it too... This dish is so popular, it must be the best, right?"
"The others are just as good. Why do you have to take mine?" Evelyn retorted.
Ophelia frowned slightly, surprised by her strong reaction.
But soon, a playful smile spread across her face.
"Well, that's just how I am."
With that, two pairs of sharp eyes turned toward Luo Wei.
Luo Wei broke into a cold sweat.
Seriously, there’s so much good food on the table. Why are you two fighting over this one?
Helena blinked, then cleverly slid her favorite shrimp dumplings closer to herself.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
