The General’s Vampire Omega

There was a moment of silence, and Chu Feng slowly stood up, his eyes cold and stern under his mask. Luo ZhouZhou was dumbfounded as he looked at him, feeling that this person was both familiar and unfamiliar, a Chu Feng he didn’t know.

Luo ZhouZhou was instantly reminded of the first time he saw him, when the cold barrel of a gun was held against his head.

It was not until the cheers started up again that the staff rushed up to the stage and carried the dying Butcher down at great speed. The referee, wearing a black vest, approached Chu Feng warily, trying to grab his hand and declare victory, but Chu Feng jumped out of the ring, put on the black cape he was handed, and walked straight to the stands.

He held out his hand to Luo ZhouZhou, who was standing still, and said, "Let's go."

Luo ZhouZhou, who had not yet recovered from his daze, intuitively put his hand in Chu Feng's palm when he heard his command. The grip gently pulled him, and he stumbled forward a half step, but his waist was held in time.

Before Chu Feng could utter a word of caution, he felt Luo ZhouZhou's body tremble. He was startled at first, but when he saw the fear on Luo ZhouZhou's face, his eyes under the mask became even colder. He withdrew his hand, lowered his eyes, and pursed his lips. He didn't say anything, just turned his head and walked toward the exit passage.

Luo ZhouZhou froze in place, only reacting when Chu Feng was a few steps away and rushed to catch up with him.

Chu Feng strode down the empty passage, his leather boots pounding the ground. The sound of a landslide and tsunami like clamour in the ring was shut out by an iron gate, like the sound of another world.

Luo ZhouZhou jogged behind him, seeing his footsteps getting faster and faster, he couldn't help panting, "Chu Feng… wait for me.”

Chu Feng, unaware of this, didn't slow down at all, so he had to pick up his pace and run faster to catch up.

Back in the break room, Chu Feng reached down and removed the mask from Luo ZhouZhou's face and threw it into a trash can in the corner. He did it so quickly that the trash can shook a few times and almost fell over.

Luo ZhouZhou peeked in and saw his gloomy face, so he didn't dare to say anything and stood straight in the middle of the room, both hands clutching the seam of his pants.

Chu Feng sat on the couch, hung his mask on the wall, and silently took off his shoes. The muffled sound of two heavy leather boots hitting the floor made Luo ZhouZhou tremble twice.

After taking off his shoes, Chu Feng walked barefoot into the bathroom and closed the door without looking at him.

A moment later, there was the sound of water running from the shower head.

Luo ZhouZhou walked gently to the trash can and retrieved the mask. The trash can was clean, but he still blew on the mask, folded it up, and put it in his pants pocket. He sat down on the couch with his hands on his knees and waited for Chu Feng.

After a while, the water stopped running in the bathroom, and Chu Feng came out with a towel, wiping his hair. His naked upper body was covered with water droplets, sliding down the firm, graceful contours of his musculature.

Only his body was frighteningly covered with old scars, both long and short.

The scent of shower gel lingered in the room. Chu Feng looked at the empty trash can and didn't say anything, just opened the closet, taking a shirt out.

"Are you mad at me?" Luo ZhouZhou stared at his own hands and asked.

Chu Feng didn't turn his head back and said in a quiet voice, "No." 

Luo ZhouZhou looked up at his back and whispered, "You're angry.”

His voice trembled slightly, with aggravation and accusation.

Chu Feng paused in his movements, turned around, and said, "I'm really not angry." When he saw Luo ZhouZhou's mouth curving down and his eyes turning red, he sighed, took two steps forward, and squatted in front of him.

"Zhou Zhou, I'm angry with myself." Chu Feng said, "I shouldn't have brought you here and made you watch the fight." He reached out his hand and touched the top of Luo ZhouZhou's hair, saying softly, "Your eyes shouldn't be looking at this."

"You're really not angry with me?" Luo ZhouZhou asked with some doubt.

Chu Feng shook his head, "Of course not."

"You scared me." Luo ZhouZhou's voice got louder as he put his mind at ease.

"I'm sorry." Chu Feng said.

"You were a little unrecognizable and mean at first, but I was only scared a little." Luo ZhouZhou’s index finger and thumb was separated by a millimeter and said, "But you were ignoring me and scaring me a lot." He opened both his arms, putting them a great distance from each other.

"I'm sorry." Chu Feng repeated.

Luo ZhouZhou sat down on the couch and squirmed, saying a little reluctantly, "I forgive you."

"Thank you. Zhou Zhou is very kind." Chu Feng smiled.

Luo ZhouZhou saw that the coldness in his eyes had completely disappeared and that it was his familiar Chu Feng again, and he became more courageous. "Why did you have to punch Butcher at the end?"

Chu Feng thought seriously and said, "Because I am used to dealing with cruel people in a cruel way, so many people will stay away from me, including those in the military. Do you think I have done wrong?"

"I think you did the right thing, he was cruel and deserved the punishment."

"Then why were you afraid of me in the first place?"

"Because I remembered when you pointed a gun at me." Luo ZhouZhou said honestly. He thought for a moment, then asked, "Have you ever killed anyone?"

Chu Feng paused and asked back rhetorically, "What do you think?"

"I don't know." Luo ZhouZhou replied with a bit of a struggle, turning his head to the side.

Chu Feng reached out and cupped his cheek, moved his head so they were looking at each other and asked, "Would you mind if I had killed someone?"

"Should they have been killed?" Luo ZhouZhou was pinned and had to turn his eyes away, mumbling the question.

Chu Feng let go, and pondered before replying, "Some deserved to be killed, and some would have killed me if I didn't kill them."

Luo ZhouZhou turned to look to the side again, and Chu Feng snapped his face back again.

"Look at me and answer," Chu Feng said.

Luo ZhouZhou looked into his light brown eyes as he responded, "I don't mind."

"Really?"

"Really. If they want you to die, then they'll have to die," Luo ZhouZhou said.

"Aren't you afraid of me?"

Luo ZhouZhou considered it for a moment and said, "Don't be so cold to me, and I won't be afraid of you."

Luo ZhouZhou saw Chu Feng smile after he answered this question. It was like ice and snow melting layer by layer, turning into spring water. The smile was so eye-catching that Luo ZhouZhou couldn't help but blush after a momentary lapse of concentration, and evasively lowered his gaze.

Then his attention was drawn to the hideous scars on Chu Feng’s body.

"Does it hurt?" Luo ZhouZhou couldn't help but reach out his hand to touch the scars. He moved very gently, as if he was afraid of hurting him.

Chu Feng looked down at them, "It doesn't hurt, it's been many years.”

Luo ZhouZhou pointed to a long and deep scar that ran across his chest and asked, "How did you get this?”

Chu Feng laughed and casually answered, "This was when I was young. I was too hungry to box at that time, so I went to steal someone's food, and was chased by a dog, then fell down a hill and got cut by an iron bar.”

Luo ZhouZhou's fingers trembled, then slid to another interlocking scar and asked softly, "How about this one?"

"This one…" Chu Feng frowned while trying to recall, "I can't remember, but I probably got it during a boxing match." 

"Did you have no choice but to fight?"

"Yes, there was really nothing else I could do, I only had my life."

Luo ZhouZhou stroked the scars one by one, sliding down his chest to his abdomen and then moving to the side of his waist. His fingertips were sympathetic and careful, like butterfly wings grazing the skin.

"I heard you were very young then." Luo ZhouZhou uttered with downcast eyes.

Chu Feng thought back and said, "I was sixteen."

"And you came to box at sixteen?" Luo ZhouZhou blurted out, "Where were your parents?"

Chu Feng stood up and began to put on his shirt, saying softly, "My parents died when I was very young, and I was alone."

"…How old were you then?"

Chu Feng stopped and recalled, "I think I was seven years old."

"Seven years old? Then how did you survive?" Luo ZhouZhou's heart trembled.

"Sometimes I would be taken by Wang Jun to his house for dinner, and the neighbors would also take care of me."

"…You went hungry the entire time?" Luo ZhouZhou felt that, given his personality, he wouldn't have gone to eat at someone's place if he hadn't been invited.

Chu Feng looked at him and said indifferently, "When I was hungry, I would go to the garbage cans in the middle of the night and grab food from the wild cats. Once I was so hungry that I couldn't stand it any longer, so I wanted to rob the money. And guess what? Only just shouted robbery, passed out, and ended up in the police station, only to eat a full meal. After that, I got a job at a restaurant, but I didn't expect to scratch the customer's limousine while parking it, so I had to fight to pay for it."

Chu Feng seemed to be telling a funny story and laughed afterwards.

Luo ZhouZhou, however, couldn't relax and just sat there in silence, feeling very uncomfortable in his heart.

"What are you thinking about?" Chu Feng noticed the difference in his behavior and asked without moving.

Luo ZhouZhou didn't answer, but after a few seconds' pause, Chu Feng smiled again and said, "Many people look down on me, thinking that I am just a lowly commoner, an orphan who can't afford to eat. I don't have a good family upbringing, and I don't have a family background. I am ruthless and will do anything to climb up the social ladder." 

After saying that, he began to lower his head and button his shirt. When he had changed his boots and put on his windbreaker and jacket, he quietly said, "Zhou Zhou, what they say is actually true. What you heard from others, what you see today, is the real me."

His tone was calm, as usual, but his jawline was clenched tight, "If I make you feel afraid, you can also stay away from me from now on—"

Chu Feng didn't finish his sentence, and it broke off in his mouth. He saw Luo ZhouZhou slowly raise his head, his eyes were red, and his dark eyes were covered with tears, as if he was about to cry at any moment.

"Chu Feng, I wish I had known you earlier. I would have given you lots of food and kept you from raiding the garbage cans with the wild cats." He drew in a thin breath, his voice trembling, "Then you wouldn't have gone boxing and gotten so many injuries. It must have hurt."

Chu Feng closed his eyes and took a deep breath. As if he had finally gotten the answer he wanted, his face showed gratitude and relief.

When he opened his eyes again, they were as serene as the surface of a lake. He walked forward, took Luo ZhouZhou's hand in his, held it close to his heart, and said in a muted voice, "It doesn't hurt at all anymore.”

Luo ZhouZhou felt the firmness and warmth under his palm, as well as the beating of his strong heart, and finally felt a sense of stability. He stared blankly at Chu Feng, and saw that his eyes were like deep pools of water in which he was about to lose himself in.

Knock, knock, knock.

As if breaking a spell, the knocks on the door woke both of them up in an instant.

"Sharp Blade, may I come in?" It was Xiao Feng's voice.

Chu Feng stood up abruptly, took off the mask on the wall, put it on, and then took the other one out of Luo ZhouZhou's pants pocket and put it on him, coldly ordering, "Come in."

Xiao Feng pushed open the door and walked in, flabbergasted when he saw the scene inside. He wasn't sure what had started to happen, but Luo ZhouZhou's eyes were watery, and the corners of his eyes were still red, so he couldn't help but speculate.

Chu Feng's eyes went cold, and Xiao Feng quickly looked away, stuttering, "The owner h-has been expecting you with great difficulty, and asked me to bring a l-letter to invite you to dinner." His voice was getting smaller and smaller, and stiffly added, "The owner knew your Omega is also here, and invited him to join too."

Chu Feng suddenly laughed, his smile cold, "Oh, he deserves to join as well?" 

Xiao Feng sighed and said, "Sharp Blade, although I've never asked you, I know that with your skills, you'll do well, even beyond my imagination. Although I came to deliver the message, I also know that you will not go, I just came over to complete the task of inviting you. I am more than aware that this is the last time you will be fighting, and I have known you for many years, so I came to say goodbye."

Chu Feng was silent for a moment, turned around, walked to the table, took the memo pad and pen from it, wrote a series of numbers quickly, handed it to Xiao Feng and said, "If you have any problems in the future, you can find me. Remember, only once."

"Hey, I understand." Xiao Feng happily took the piece of paper and put it in his pocket without looking at it.

The elevator rose from the ground, and when Luo ZhouZhou stepped out of the small brick building, the sun was already setting in the west, and the sky and the earth were dyed orange by the sunset.

Standing in the abandoned parking lot, Chu Feng took a deep breath, suddenly took off his mask, and threw it at a distant pile of trash. The mask flashed and drew a silvery arc in the air, disappearing from view.

He turned to Luo ZhouZhou again, "Give me the mask, I'll throw it away."

"No." Luo ZhouZhou tucked the mask into his pants pocket, covered it tightly, and said guardedly, "I want to keep it."

Chu Feng looked at him for a moment, but yielded, "Then you keep it."

He got in the car and drove out of the abandoned parking lot.

"Are you hungry?" Chu Feng asked.

Luo ZhouZhou felt his stomach and said, "I'm fine.”

"So you’re hungry." Chu Feng drove up the road, "What do you want to eat?" 

"Tomato noodles." Luo ZhouZhou replied crisply.

Chu Feng raised his right index finger and shook it, "You can't eat tomato noodles two times in a row, and my salary can afford to let you eat something else. Besides, I made a lot of money from boxing today, so you can eat whatever you want."

Luo ZhouZhou tilted his head for a moment and said, "Then we let’s go to Starry Night for ice cream."

"Do you only know tomato noodles and Starry Night?" Chu Feng was a bit helpless.

"Yeah." Luo ZhouZhou responded. From the moment he came into this world, Chu Feng was the only one who had ever taken him out to eat at these two restaurants.

Suddenly he remembered something, and his eyes lit up, "Ah, no, I also know a restaurant where I forgot to bring money on my last blind date. The one where you helped me pay the bill.” ¹

Chu Feng trailed off with an oooh, then continued, "Right, I almost forgot that Zhou Zhou went on a blind date.”

Luo ZhouZhou felt that his tone was not quite right, so he warily shut his mouth.

"How many blind dates has Zhou Zhou been on in total?" Chu Feng asked seemingly offhandedly.

"Just one."

"Well, it's okay, I don't get paid enough to help you pay for more," Chu Feng said, then fell silent.

Luo ZhouZhou didn't say anything either. He hugged the starry sky cushion and kept sneaking glances at him.

"Why are you stealing glances at me?" Chu Feng looked ahead and asked.

"N… nothing."

"By the way, you said before that you were looking for your friend at the Bayard Police Station, may I ask who that friend is?" Chu Feng's tone was like a casual question.

Luo ZhouZhou didn't know if he could say Chen SiHan, and after struggling for a while, he mumbled, "Can I not say it?"

Chu Feng thought it over, then said, "Okay, you can tell me later when you want to."

When the two of them came out from a random restaurant after dinner, it was already dark. When Luo ZhouZhou saw the street lights on both sides of the street, he suddenly felt despondent.

How could this day have ended in the blink of an eye?

Chu Feng glanced at him and, seeing his head hanging listlessly, asked, "Where do you want to go next?"

It was like breathing life back into Luo ZhouZhou, and his whole body was instantly energized.

"Can I still play?" His eyes sparkling at the question.

Chu Feng tossed him a candy, unwrapped one himself and threw it into his mouth, vaguely saying, "As long as you're not afraid of General Luo coming with his soldiers to find you."

"I'm not afraid!!" Luo ZhouZhou was so excited that he almost jumped out of his seat.

Chu Feng made a motion to cover his ears, "I'm going to go deaf by your roar." 

Luo ZhouZhou quickly covered his mouth and whispered, "Okay, okay."

His pair of exposed eyes, curved into a crescent shape.

Chu Feng laughed and asked, "You're not afraid?"

"Not afraid!"

"Mn, I'm sure you're not afraid." Chu Feng nodded his head thoughtfully. Just as Luo ZhouZhou turned happy, he trailed off again in a lazy voice, "But – I'm afraid. When I think of General Luo's fists, I can't help but tremble."

With that, he turned the car onto the road back to Aleisha.

Luo ZhouZhou was angry and didn't want to pay any attention to him, so he looked out the window and started to ask himself questions with the astronaut vampire on the flap. Fearing that Chu Feng would notice, he didn't make any sound, only mouthing the words.

‘Hello, Luo ZhouZhou, may I ask what is the best thing after returning to Earth from space?’

Again, in a pensive, thoughtful manner, ‘I'm glad I can finally eat tomato noodles.’

‘And what's the happiest thing that's happened to you in space?’

‘The happiest thing, I guess, is that there is no General Luo Pei in space.’

… 

Luo ZhouZhou was playing very vigorously, matching his tone of voice, sometimes with a frown, sometimes with a look of surprise, and his facial expressions were very rich. In the midst of his serious congratulatory speech, he swept his eyes over and froze with his mouth open as if he had been struck by lightning.

In the mirror, Chu Feng's deep, light brown eyes were looking at him with great interest.

"Go on, you haven't finished your lines yet." Chu Feng saw him stop, and urged, "It's time to say who to thank."

Luo ZhouZhou turned around slowly and pressed his hot cheek against the car window. Then he heard a muffled laugh from behind him.

The scene around him gradually became familiar, and the SUV stopped at the same spot where he was dropped off last time. Luo ZhouZhou jumped out of the car and leaned over to the window to say goodbye to Chu Feng.

"I'm going home." The window was only partially open, and the closed part covered his mouth causing his voice to be a little distorted.

Chu Feng looked at him, opened his terminal, took a picture of him, and said, "Go, go. If you dilly-dally too much, General Luo will come out carrying a gun.” 

”Oh.” Luo ZhouZhou wanted to say a few more goodbyes, but he didn't lift his head to work on the terminal, so he turned around with resentment.

"Wait." Just a few steps out, Chu Feng suddenly shouted.

"What?" Luo ZhouZhou felt neglected and a little upset, but stopped anyway.

Chu Feng got out of the car, opened the trunk, and took out a large paper bag. It was pink and had a bow tied on it.

"Today Zhou Zhou has been very good, this is a reward for you." He put the paper bag in Luo ZhouZhou's arms.

Confused, Luo ZhouZhou untied the bow, revealing a fluffy brown piece at the opening of the bag.

"What is it?" He didn't take it out directly, but reached out and touched it.

Chu Feng's voice was gentle, "Open it and you'll see."

Luo ZhouZhou carefully peeled off the paper bag, and a small bear appeared in front of him. With a round body and black eyes, it grinned at him.

"Do you like it?" Chu Feng asked.

Luo ZhouZhou did not answer, but buried his head in the bear, unable to stop smiling.

Without waiting for an answer, Chu Feng bent down and looked at his face from the bottom to the top. Luo ZhouZhou raised his hands to cover his face.

"I don't know if it's the same as the one you had when you were little, but I went to a few malls and thought this one might be better." Chu Feng reached out his hand and touched the bear, "It's about the same size as you described."

This bear was very different from the one-eyed bear that Luo ZhouZhou had when he was a child. In his memory, it was bald in several places, with a web-like cloth showing. And it was sitting, and it didn't grin like that.

Still, he buried his face in the soft fur and whispered, "It's exactly the same."

"Well then, it's time for Zhou Zhou to go to bed, good night." Chu Feng said softly, "Good night to the little bear too."

"Ah, Precious." Luo ZhouZhou uttered in a low voice.

"Hmm?"

"His name is Precious."

Chu Feng shook the bear's paw, "Good night, Precious." Chu Feng suddenly said, "Tomorrow I'm going on a trip to the border with President Calgar, and I'll pick you up to play when I get back." 

Luo ZhouZhou looked up abruptly, "How long will it take?"

"It won't take long, it'll be back by the end of the week."

Luo ZhouZhou pouted in disappointment, realized Chu Feng was looking at him, and covered up, "Umm, I was just asking."

"Mn, I know." Chu Feng quirked his lips and his voice was gentle.