Chapter 21: Blood Extraction

It can't be Li Cheng, can it?

It seems like him.

Is it really Li Cheng?

Carrying heavy doubts, the Xue Jingming family followed behind the Bentley in their BMW 7 Series, passing through intersection after intersection, until finally, after both cars drove into the gated community, everything settled.

Wei Caiyan parked the car downstairs; Li Cheng got out, took a folding bicycle from the trunk, parked it under the canopy, and waved goodbye as the car drove off.

As soon as the Bentley drove away, the BMW slowly pulled up. The perplexed uncle rolled down his window, "Xiao Cheng, the car that dropped you off—"

"Oh, a classmate. She saw I didn't have an umbrella and let me ride home in her family's car."

Really just a regular classmate?

Xue Lingyu and Xue Luomeng exchanged a glance, both eyes filled with disbelief—they had noticed how Shao Wangshu looked at Li Cheng, far too warm for ordinary classmates.

The problem is, Li Cheng isn't handsome enough to be breathtaking.

As for other factors—talent, appearance, physique, demeanor, thoughtfulness, or even charm and ability to make girls laugh—there are plenty in school far superior to him.

Like students in Class 15 and 16, most of whom come from wealthy or noble families and have long been preparing to study abroad in Britain, America, and other countries.

Many even hire etiquette tutors from childhood to teach social dancing, foreign languages, art appreciation, and more.

Look at Li Cheng—no matter how you think about it, it's strange.

This confusion followed the Xue Jingming family home; even after Li Cheng finished bathing and went to sleep in his bedroom, Xue Luomeng, still working on homework in the study, couldn't shake his doubts and picked up his phone to chat with a friend.

As a standard, star-studded teenage beauty, Xue Luomeng had far more friends than Li Cheng, spanning from seventh to twelfth grade.

After a few gossip-filled messages, they learned Shao Wangshu was a transfer student—and that she had actively requested to sit next to Li Cheng.

"So… he's been noticed by a gentle, beautiful, incredibly wealthy little tycoon?"

Xue Luomeng squinted, wearing the unmistakable expression of 【subway, elderly, phone】.

"Jealous?"

Xue Lingyu, idly spinning a pen, looked up at his twin sister—he knew that when they were young, Xue Luomeng had been especially clingy to Li Cheng, constantly declaring she'd marry him when she grew up.

But as they got older, she grew shy, and for other reasons, their relationship gradually cooled, until now they were practically strangers.

"Jealous? Don't be ridiculous."

Xue Luomeng lightly tapped Xue Lingyu's head with a test paper and sneered, "I'm just curious—has this Shao Wangshu lost her mind?"

"Shao Wangshu?"

Xue Jingming, holding a goji berry tea cup, paused at the study door, frowning. "Mengmeng, are you sure that girl's surname is Shao?"

"Yeah, my friend found out. Why?"

"Nothing. It just sounds familiar—like I've heard it before."

Xue Jingming looked puzzled, set his tea cup on the coffee table, sank into the sofa, and picked up his Huawei flagship phone wrapped in a leather case to search the family group chat logs.

After a long while, he put down the Huawei, stunned, murmuring, "It really is the Shao family."

"What Shao family?"

Li Zhao, who was taking clothes out of the Siemens dryer, asked casually.

"Remember how every Lunar New Year when you and Lingyu were little, our family returned to the Xue ancestral home in Hangzhou for the clan meeting?"

Li Zhao stopped folding clothes. "I remember. What about it?"

The Xue clan, a family with over two hundred years of lineage, held a clan meeting every Lunar New Year to gather direct and collateral members back to their hometown. If someone lived too far away, they returned only every five or ten years.

Of course, in today's modern society, clans no longer serve the role of grassroots government as in feudal times.

The meetings now mainly serve to strengthen bonds, update the family genealogy, repair the ancestral hall, and distribute a small portion of the family business's profits to each household.

Beyond that, it's no different from ordinary families visiting relatives during the New Year—just a bit more lively.

Xue Jingming said, "For several years, besides the Xue clan, many members of the Shao clan also attended."

Like the Xue clan, the Shao clan is a major family, with their ancestral home in Shanxi Province, two thousand li from Hangzhou—logically, they should have no connection. Yet for some reason, their relationship was unusually close, with direct members frequently meeting.

Xue Jingming had left his hometown early and never entered the family's inner circle, so he didn't know the exact nature of their relationship, but one thing was certain—the Shao family was far richer than the Xue family.

Thinking of this, he picked up his phone again and searched for related information.

Found it: Jincheng Shaoyuan Energy Group Co., Ltd., founded in coal, now involved in power, coke, chemicals, steel, and mining.

Through acquisitions or joint ventures, they hold mining rights in Canada, Australia, Indonesia, South Africa, and more—literally, they have mines at home. Annual revenue nearly ten billion, ranked among China's top 500 enterprises.

The group's patriarch, Shao Yingwu, is low-key, rarely appearing in the spotlight, and fiercely protects his family—almost no photographic records exist.

After searching long, he finally found an old family photo from a banquet long ago.

Beside Shao Yingwu sat three children: a boy and girl around thirteen, expressionless.

The youngest, about six years old, beamed with a smile, facial features faintly familiar.

"No way."

————

"No way."

The same exclamation echoed in the villa bedroom in the eastern part of town.

Shao Wangshu, already in her pajama dress, squeezed a plush blue-tongued skink, her face stunned.

"It is."

Wei Caiyan sighed helplessly, imparting dating advice: "You were so enthusiastic today—giving him a ride home, suddenly presenting a birthday gift—any guy would be startled, maybe even run away. How long have you two known each other?"

Shao Wangshu corrected her: "Not a few days. Ten years."

"He doesn't remember you—that's the same as a few days."

Wei Caiyan sneered: "This kind of thing needs patience. Cast a long line to catch a big fish, understand?"

Ding-ding-ding—

The alarm on the desk suddenly rang; the mistress and maid froze, then turned in unison to look at the calendar on the wall.

Every seven days, a large X was drawn in red pen on the date of the calendar.

The day for blood draw had arrived.

Shao Wangshu silently put her pet back in the incubator, wiped her palms and the backs of her hands with wet wipes, sat back down, and rolled up the sleeve of her nightgown.

Her arms were fair as jade, except at the deltoid of her upper arm, which was covered in scars.

Wei Caiyan pressed her lips tight, took a metal medicine case out of the refrigerated cabinet, and pulled out a set of blood-drawing equipment. "200cc?"

"Draw 400cc this time—take next week's portion too. I made plans with my classmates to go sing karaoke next weekend, and I don't want them to see."

Iodine was swabbed on her upper arm, the needle pierced the skin, and Shao Wangshu's crimson plasma flowed slowly along the tubing into the blood bag, with strands of golden thread swirling within, radiating a burning heat.

And her complexion quickly turned pale.

"All done. Get some sleep early."

After the draw, Wei Caiyan gently carried Shao Wangshu back to bed, then placed the two blood bags into a metal ice box, picked up the iron case, and walked downstairs.

Staff from the Shao Yuan Energy Group had long been waiting downstairs. They took the iron case, turned and walked out of the villa, got into an SUV, and sped off—the two sides exchanged no words at all.

This routine had already continued for seventeen years.

(End of chapter)