My Heart Is Drawn to Jade - Chapter 9

Night had seeped through the entire castle. Heavy purple velvet curtains sealed out the darkness beyond the windows.

Inside, candles flickered softly. Their warm orange glow fell across the black velvet bed, blurring the outlines of our entwined bodies into something intimate and tender.

“Don’t be afraid, Xiangjin.”

He kissed the side of my neck with reverence. I rested obediently in his arms, my back against his warm, firm chest.

Vansern had explained the First Embrace to me. He would drink almost all my blood, bringing me to the brink of death, then infuse me with the essence blood of a pureblood Bloodkin—his own. Once the transformation was complete, I would be a newly made Bloodkin.

I smiled. “I’m not afraid. Go ahead.”

He lowered his head, silver-white hair brushing my cheek.

His fangs emerged and sank into the side of my neck.

As he drank, I could feel the warmth leaving my body. My limbs gradually turned cold. The edges of my vision darkened, and my heartbeat slowed.

At last, my consciousness sank completely into blackness.

…

“Daddy, where’s Mommy? Why do the other kids say I’m a child my mommy didn’t want? They pushed me, too…”

I huddled in my father’s arms, hurt and miserable.

He went rigid. The arm around my back tightened abruptly.

Looking down into my tear-reddened eyes, he said hoarsely, “Jin, how could your mommy not want you? She loves you more than anything.”

He raised a hand to wipe the tears rolling down my cheeks. His fingertips were cold, but so gentle.

He forced the pain and despair out of his eyes, leaving only tenderness and guilt.

Picking up a photograph, he pointed to the lovely, gentle woman in it.

“Mommy did everything she could to bring you into this world. She’s just gone somewhere very, very far away. She can’t come back to be with us yet.”

I touched the photograph, staring at my mother smiling at me.

“Mommy.”

Dad stroked my back, hiding the cold murderousness in his eyes.

“Jin, can you tell Daddy which children said those things to you?”

I pursed my lips and began naming names.

“Lu Xiao, Li Man, Jiang Qihe…”

“All right. Daddy will remember.”

Overnight, every child who’d bullied me disappeared from the kindergarten.

The teacher looked at me with lingering terror in her eyes. Her voice shook as she told me they had all withdrawn.

…

“Grandpa Butler, will Daddy be a little happier when he sees the cake I made?”

Standing on tiptoe, I clumsily beat eggs, mixed cream, and arranged fruit, getting flour all over my hands.

“Of course,” the butler said, smiling as he helped me. “Your father comes back from his business trip this afternoon. You’re the person he misses most, young master. He’ll be delighted to see a cake you made yourself!”

At last, I produced a small, lopsided cake.

“Don’t tell Daddy. I want it to be a surprise!”

Grandpa Butler patted my head.

“All right, all right. Go and give it to him yourself, young master.”

Cradling the still-warm cake, I pattered toward the study, full of eager anticipation.

I wanted to tell Daddy that Jin had made him a cake. He didn’t have to be so sad all the time.

Jin would always be there with him.

But the moment I gently pushed open the study door, I stopped dead.

The thick smell of blood hit me.

In the dim room, photographs of my mother lay scattered across the desk. Dad was slumped over it, utterly still, one wrist hanging down.

Cuts crisscrossed the pale skin. Blood had soaked through his sleeve and stained the carpet red.

A blade lay beside him. White medicine bottles and pills were scattered over the floor.

The little cake slipped from my hands.

Cream, fruit, and icing shattered against the ground.

“Daddy—Daddy!”

…

The hospital room was stark white and cold. The smell of disinfectant seemed heavy enough to suffocate me.

I sat beside the bed, my eyes swollen from crying, calling softly for Dad over and over.

At last, he woke.

He didn’t look at the doctors or his injuries. He looked at me, shaking all over with sobs.

“Daddy…”

He lifted a pale, weak hand and touched my cheek. Cool tears wet his fingertips.

His eyes were full of guilt, self-reproach, and something utterly broken. His hoarse voice trembled as he repeated himself again and again.

“I’m sorry… Jin, I’m so sorry. Daddy was wrong. Daddy frightened you. I just miss your mommy so much. I’ve been a little ill. I promise it won’t happen again…”

I was too young to really understand. I only flung myself against the bed, clutched his hand, and sobbed.

“Daddy… don’t die. You’re all Jin has left…”

…

In an old video, a stranger wore a dark mask. His voice held a cruel, cutting amusement.

“Mr. Huo. Don’t you hate your son? He’s the one who took your beloved wife’s life. And the Huo Group is facing quite a few difficulties right now, isn’t it? Hand him over to us… and every problem you have will disappear.”

“Absolutely not!”

My father’s refusal was immediate, his voice cold and vicious.

“Lay a finger on Jin, and I’ll drag you all to hell with me!”

…

Humiliated and furious, the organization secretly joined forces with the Huo Group’s many enemies to crush it.

Funding dried up. Projects collapsed. Shares plummeted. Public opinion turned against the company.

Overnight, the vast Huo Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy.

With nowhere left to turn, Dad arranged a visa, plane tickets, and a home overseas in a single night. He poured everything he had left into getting me out of the country at once.

…

“I-I’ve brought the young master… Please, let my granddaughter go…”

Grandpa Butler knelt on the floor, sobbing as he begged the masked researchers.

I was pinned down, fighting desperately, my vision blurred with tears as I screamed hoarsely for Dad.

The researchers looked down at me, anger still smoldering behind their cruel, mocking smiles.

“Your daddy? Still thinking of him, young Master Huo? He kept getting in our way, making trouble. Killed plenty of our people, too. We just shot him full of holes. There isn’t much of him left.”

My blood froze. My limbs turned numb with cold.

One thought echoed through my head.

Daddy… was dead?

The daddy who loved me, who cherished me…

Dead?

Someone else spoke.

“Just look at you, young Master Huo. You killed your mother, and now you’ve killed your father. A walking disaster, aren’t you?”

I was…

A disaster.

…

After that, they took me into the organization, and the human experiments began. A hell with no end.

Strapped to an operating table, I opened my eyes in a daze.

Researchers in white coats stood over me, expressionless, adjusting numbers on a panel. One picked up a syringe as though I were a lab mouse waiting to be slaughtered.

“Thirty subjects in this cohort.”

“Begin implantation of the highly pathogenic mutagenic virus immediately.”

“Observe the interaction between viral destruction and human cellular regeneration.”

…

More than a decade later, the organization was blown apart.

Out of tens of thousands of test subjects, only twenty-four survived.

I was one of them.

At last, I was free.

My eyes moved blankly. But was I really… free?

…

“Huo Xiangjin. I never thought you’d still be alive.”

More than ten years had passed. Time had weathered my aunt’s hair and the corners of her eyes.

She’d helped plan the destruction of the organization, using what remained of the Huo Group’s influence.

She looked at me calmly, unable to hide the deep resentment and disgust in her eyes.

I knew she had every reason to hate me.

Because of me, she’d lost her best friend—my mother—and her older brother—my father.

I had only met her once before, when I was five.

She’d been a beautiful, proud woman who didn’t like me. The sight of my face had startled her, but that had quickly turned to impatience and hostility.

After saying something to Dad, she’d left the Huo house.

Now she held a document envelope and spoke coldly.

“These things ought to go back to their rightful owner. Don’t let me see you again. Don’t come looking for me. I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop myself… from killing you.”

“You little jinx.”

…

Photographs of my parents covered the floor around me.

I sat among them, staring.

It was almost as though they’d been with me all these years. As though they’d never left.

A video was playing on the screen: a little record of everyday life while Mom was pregnant with me.

She rested a hand on her swollen belly and leaned against Dad. Her face held all the happy anticipation of meeting her child, of becoming a mother.

“Mr. Huo,” she teased, “what shall we name our baby?”

I lowered my eyes. My fingertips found the cold pistol beside me.

A clear metallic click sounded as I readied it.

On-screen, Dad covered Mom’s hand with his own.

“Xiangjin,” he said gently. “Huo Xiangjin.”

Mom’s eyes lit up. “A heart drawn toward fine jade, holding close a clear jade pendant? What a lovely name!”

Dad blinked, apparently finding that interpretation rather nice, too, but explained, “Yu, your name means fine jade. So does his jin.”

Outside the video, the cold muzzle rested against my forehead.

Inside it, Dad kissed Mom’s cheek and said earnestly, “Huo Yingshi’s heart will always be drawn toward Ning Ruoyu.”

Mom burst out laughing and gave him a little push.

“Oh, Mr. Huo. You’re so embarrassing.”

Then she looked down at her belly, her voice softening.

“Jin, Jin. Mommy and Daddy love you so much. Come out soon and meet us.”

A relieved smile lifted the corners of my mouth.

Mom. Dad.

I’m coming to see you, too.

My finger slowly pulled the trigger.

The gunshot thundered. Warm blood splashed everywhere.

The video, and my consciousness, reached their end.

Silence. Darkness.

At last…

It was over.