When Zhao Jue finished speaking, he regained his silence and stood by the window, looking at Zhan Zhao. The two seemed to be at heads with each other, as the atmosphere was a little tense.
Bai Yutang looked at Zhan Zhao and knew that he was worried. Zhan Zhao had doubted his background before and had been depressed and suffered for a long time. It was because he was well aware of the pain that Zhan Zhao was determined not to let Bai Yutang fall into this kind of predicament. So he was very dissatisfied with Zhao Jue. While Zhao Jue stood there coldly and seemed somewhat relieved, Bai Yutang suddenly felt that Zhao Jue was actually jealous of Zhan Zhao. The two men were pretty similar. They were both intelligent and talented, but Zhao Jue's situation seemed to be more miserable. Zhan Zhao was guarded everywhere, and his parents and friends were unwilling to let him face the heavy pressure of fate. From Zhao Jue's point of view, he would naturally be unhappy... After thinking about it, Bai Yutang shook his head. Apart from Zhan Zhao, Zhao Jue probably resented him as well. They both wholeheartedly did what they wanted to do. They lived freely into their twenties and were never troubled by any past until the appearance of Zhao Jue. However, Zhao Jue was right in saying that fate would come sooner or later, and it was impossible to avoid.
In fact, right now Bai Yutang didn't have that kind of apprehension and anxiety. He didn't even think too much about his life experiences. Instead, Bai Yutang was a lot angrier when Zhao Jue had made Zhan Zhao doubt his background. Zhan Zhao was the same.
Bai Yutang reached out to Zhan Zhao and said, "Cat, let's go back. You haven't finished your book yet."
Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang with his eyes wide open.
Bai Yutang smiled and said, "it's no big deal. Life, fate and other things are not controllable, and it doesn't matter if we don't know anything, or what our background is. It doesn't affect us."
Zhan Zhao was slightly shocked. He looked at Bai Yutang, as the anger immediately disappeared. He changed back to his original gentle and somewhat listless appearance.
Bai Yutang took him by the hand and walked out. He then said to Zhao Jue, "you go to bed. After we finish reading the book, we'll ask you something about the case in the morning, and then we'll leave." With that, he pulled Zhan Zhao and opened the door.
Outside the door, the people from SCI, who had no time to escape, hid their cups and looked to the side, as if they were facing the wall.
Bai Yutang looked at everyone and said, "what are you doing? Go rest if you have collected all the evidence."
Everyone hurriedly sped away. Bai Chi carefully returned the lion cub to Zhan Zhao, then ran away as well.
After returning to the room, Bai Yutang checked the bed and said, "Cat, read on the bed. It's fairly cold."
Zhan Zhao looked up at Bai Yutang and said nothing.
Bai Yutang looked back at him, smiled and said, "come here."
Zhan Zhao walked slowly over. Bai Yutang reached out, took the cub in his hand, put it on the bed, then pulled Zhan Zhao to his body and lowered his head and kissed him.
"Aren't you angry?" Zhan Zhao asked Bai Yutang in a low voice.
"Why would I be?" Bai Yutang asked with a smile.
Zhan Zhao sighed gently and said, "after thinking about it carefully, I realised there is really nothing to be angry about."
"You should be happy." Bai Yutang smiled.
Zhan Zhao looked up at him and asked, "why?"
Bai Yutang thought for a moment and said, "I think we are very lucky. Isn't that something to be happy about?"
Zhan Zhao's brows slowly relaxed. "We don't know anything about our background... You have too big of a heart."
"So what?" Bai Yutang shrugged. "I told you, no matter where we came from, it's no big deal."
Zhan Zhao looked at Bai Yutang for a long time and nodded. "You're right, it's no big deal."
When Bai Yutang saw that Zhan Zhao was much more open-minded, his mood instantly got better.
...........................
Bai Yutang covered Zhan Zhao with a quilt. He took the book and put it in Zhan Zhao's hand to let him continue reading. When Bai Yutang walked out from the glass door, he saw that Zhao Hu had packed all the evidence, and Gong Sun had returned to SCI by car as well. Luo Tian and Bai Chi stayed and waited with Bai Yutang Zhan Zhao.
Before getting in the car, Ma Han looked up and saw Bai Yutang standing behind the fence on the second floor platform to look at them. He waved his hand. "Captain, we're going."
Bai Yutang nodded, watched the car drive away, and roughly examined the surroundings. Bai Yutang discovered a long time ago that the villa was not only located in a remote area, it was also surrounded by surveillance cameras. There were mysterious foreign bodyguards dressed in black to guard the villa closely. That was why Zhao Jue had said it was safe here. However, since there were such safe security measures, Bai Yutang wondered how that man got inside, and why the security guard let him get away. This was so strange that there was only one explanation for it. The man was let in by the security guards because they knew him.
Bai Yutang sighed gently and thought about the man's appearance and what had just happened. He shook his head, as it felt like a dream.
After closing the glass door, he carefully locked it and then closed the curtains. Bai Yutang went to the bedside, lifted the quilt and leaned against Zhan Zhao.
Zhan Zhao glanced at him, as the little lion found a place between the two of them to lie down. It chose a comfortable angle and fell asleep on the pillow. Bai Yutang reached out and pinched its ear. The little cub hummed comfortably and soon fell asleep.
"Cat, it's so cute." Bai Yutang turned over, stared at the little cub and said, "let's ask to keep it tomorrow."
Zhan Zhao turned to Bai Yutang and whispered, "he won't agree."
Bai Yutang said with a smile, "not necessarily. If he doesn't want to give it to you, he wouldn't have taken it out to show you."
"It's because he was angry with me." Zhan Zhao turned a page of the book with dissatisfaction.
Bai Yutang smiled and touched the cub's tail. "How's the book?"
Bai Yutang knew very well that Zhan Zhao read books by flipping through the pages, not by actually reading each word. When a normal person read their book page by page, Zhan Zhao would have already finished reading the book and memorised it... He had superhuman intelligence and memory.
"Well, I'm almost done." Zhan Zhao sighed and said, "Xiao Bai, there is something strange about our case."
"Does it have anything to do with that family?" Bai Yutang asked.
"Mmhmm." Zhan Zhao nodded and said, "this family is actually quite famous. However, because its existence and history are so bloody and evil that it's been erased from history. That's why we can't see anything about them in literature records. Also, it seems this book was banned later, so it's out of print."
Bai Yutang leaned on his arm and asked with interest, "what does it say?"
"This family is the Bathory family." Zhan Zhao said. "It's very old and has existed for centuries. Its ancestors were the most prominent aristocrats in Hungary, accumulated a lot of wealth, and did business for many years. They settled in Germany and were finally wiped out there."
"What did the family do?" Bai Yutang wondered.
"Well... It's said that the family descended from the devil." Zhan Zhao touched his chin and said, "there were many people on the European continent who believed that human beings could achieve eternal life through some kind of power."
"Just like the elixirs that the ancient Chinese emperors used?" Bai Yutang asked amusingly.
"Yep." Zhan Zhao turned the last page of the book, then shook his head and placed the book down. He lay down and covered himself with the quilt, then faced Bai Yutang and said, "Hmm... It's hard to imagine the fanaticism of immortality during ancient Europe, especially those in power. It was mainly divided into two periods. The earlier period had a fascination with ancient alchemy. It's similar to ancient China, where they wanted to rely on medicine or some magical natural factors to achieve eternal life."
Bai Yutang nodded and reached out to Zhan Zhao, then pulled up the quilt. Zhan Zhao pulled the cub who had begun to snore towards him and hugged it in his arms. The cub rubbed against Zhan Zhao's chest and went back to sleep.
"There is another kind, which is more popular in the later period. It's the power of demons, similar to witchcraft." Zhan Zhaod said. "In the Middle Ages, the obsession with vampires was mostly due to the belief that drinking human blood could lead to eternal life."
"Wasn't it a sickness?" Bai Yutang frowned slightly and asked.
"Well, it is porphyria, which is very rare. Patients with severe porphyria will force themselves to suck human blood, which can give them mental relief. Porphyria patients are easily burned by the sun, their faces and fingers are deformed, and then the gums will erode and their teeth will become longer. It's very bloody... Just like the vampires in the novels."
"Hmmm." Bai Yutang nodded. "Did the Bathory family have porphyria?"
"The protagonist of this book, a legendary figure of the Bathory family, Count Bathory, most probably had this sickness." Zhan Zhao roughly told Bai Yutang about the situation of the Count. "It's said that Count Bathory was young and handsome. He took part in the war and did meritorious deeds. He was of aristocratic origin, and was respected by many people. He enjoyed special honors, and had innumerable wealth. He was so afraid of getting old that he was infatuated with the vampire legend that was popular among the aristocracy at that time. He once tried to drink the blood of animals and noticed that he was not repulsed by it... Until one day, after a high fever, he suddenly had a strange psychological change. He began to crave the blood of humans. Afterwards, there was also a strange change in his porphyria."
Bai Yutang raised his eyebrows. "With the level of medicine at that time, he must have thought that he had been turned into a vampire."
"Count Bathory originally hesitated, but afterwards he discovered the old secret of his family," Zhan Zhao said with a smile. "Countess Bathory of Hungary, have you heard of this person?"
"Oh..." Bai Yutang suddenly thought of something. "It sounds familiar. Is she that witch, one of the three vampires with Baron Leith and Count Dracula, who abused and killed five or six hundred young girls in the castle and bathed in blood for eternal youth?"
Zhan Zhao nodded. "Yes, and it is said that there is a man who helped Count Bathory to make up his mind to drink blood."
"Who?" Bai Yutang became even more curious.
"The countess killed the girls with four servants, and then the countess was imprisoned for life and the three servants were killed... However, one of them ran away, and the descendant of the escaped servant happened to be the count's gardener." Zhan Zhao said. "The count got the gardener through his surname and the secret records left behind that year. The gardener told him the legendary art of human blood rejuvenation that was handed down."
"So he started to kill people?" Bai Yutang frowned and asked, "did people not notice?"
"Yep, it went unnoticed at first." Zhan Zhao said. "It's because at that time, vampires were feared, and the church firmly resisted it. Once caught, they would be burned."
"So he started to kill people secretly?" Bai Yutang asked.
"Yes." Zhan Zhao nodded. "There was a thick forest behind the Bathory family's manor, where he dumped the bodies after feeding on their blood. After sucking the blood, he would feel extremely satisfied, so he designated his family as a vampire family. His family had regarded feeding on blood as a need for survival for generations."
Bai Yutang frowned slightly. "What a pervert. What happened later? With the strange illness, did the count not die?"
"It's strange." Zhan Zhao said. "Instead of dying, the count lived to his fifties. He was still as young as he was in his twenties, and it was precisely because of this characteristic that he aroused the suspicion of the people around him back then, and his crime was discovered."
"Huh?" Bai Yutang opened his eyes wide and asked, "why is that?"
Zhan Zhao shook his head and said, "so far no one has figured it out."