Chapter 14: Who Is It?
After opening the door and seeing Anna, Jasmine had a barrage of questions she almost blurted out. She really wanted to ask Anna: How could you be sure that the Blake family’s young mistress would blame a fellow vampire doctor for a human maid’s injury? If this human maid was just an ordinary servant to her, wouldn’t all your efforts be in vain, even harming an innocent human girl?
But Jasmine knew that given a thousand choices, Anna would still do the same. From what she had just heard, from the tone of Anna’s voice, Jasmine understood. This wasn’t a lamb raised by vampires, but someone with a burgeoning self-awareness, someone who was awakening and fighting for her fellow humans. When weighing Jasmine against her fellow human companions, it was clear which side held more weight for Anna.
Even if the human wasn’t Jasmine but someone else, Anna would have used the same method. She was gambling, using Jasmine to gamble against the doctor. If she succeeded, a mountain weighing down on them would be removed.
Although Jasmine wasn’t happy about it, she couldn’t blame Anna. This was the effort a powerless human could make to resist a powerful oppressor. What Jasmine had been doing was cultivating the awakening of human consciousness. Anna, without anyone’s help, had stepped forward, acting as the doctor’s pawn while using him as leverage against other vampires, all the while plotting to take him down. She had done enough.
Seeing Anna standing at the door, Jasmine calmed the turmoil within her and simply asked, “What’s wrong?”
A struggle flashed in Anna’s eyes. Clearly, she was conflicted about using Jasmine as a pawn. She looked at Jasmine’s bandaged arm and asked softly, “How is it? Does it still hurt?”
Jasmine’s wound didn’t hurt at all. If she wanted, she could instantly heal this small cut. However, facing Anna’s question, Jasmine considered how an ordinary human would react and nodded. “A little,” she added, “The doctor said it will heal soon, I just need to go for a dressing change.”
Hearing this, the struggle in Anna’s eyes intensified. She hummed and casually said, “That’s good. I won’t disturb you any longer. Get some rest.” Then she fled in a panic.
Jasmine wanted to grab Anna and make her listen to what she was saying. Get some rest? Impossible! As maids, they definitely had work to do. If Anna truly felt guilty, she could just come and help Jasmine with her work… Jasmine pouted, stayed in her room for a while, changed her clothes, and when the time was almost right, went to the dining hall for dinner. Afterward, she went to Adele’s room to prepare tea.
Her timing was perfect. As Adele returned, her tea was freshly brewed. Jasmine placed the tea on the table just as Adele pushed open the door. A smile was still on her face, and she had just begun to say, “Jasmine…” when the smile vanished abruptly. Adele reached out, grabbed Jasmine’s wrist, and pulled her closer.
With Adele’s strength, if Jasmine didn’t want to move, she wouldn’t budge an inch. But Jasmine didn’t resist and obediently let herself be pulled closer.
Adele held Jasmine’s wrist with one hand and pulled down her sleeve with the other, quickly spotting the bandaged arm. Adele’s scarlet pupils constricted, like a snake preparing to strike when sensing danger. Her voice sounded as if it were squeezed through gritted teeth. “Who did this?!”
Adele’s nose was also quite sharp.
Jasmine thought to herself that several hours had passed since she had been injured, the wound had been treated and bandaged, she had changed clothes, and the room was filled with the scent of black tea. Under such circumstances, even Jasmine herself could barely smell the blood unless she sniffed closely. Yet, Adele had detected the unusual scent the moment she saw her. As the young mistress of the Blake family, she was indeed quite capable.
She didn’t want to betray her fellow human maid, so Jasmine chose to lie. Years of maintaining her persona had made her an expert at lying without changing her expression. “I accidentally hurt myself.”
Hearing Jasmine’s words, Adele’s expression relaxed slightly. She gently tugged at the bandage, slowly unraveling it to reveal Jasmine’s wound. It was a small wound, but it looked like it had been made by a knife. Adele tilted her head. “How could you be so careless? How did you get hurt like this?”
“It was a paper knife. I accidentally cut myself while working.”
Adele seemed to accept Jasmine’s explanation. She no longer appeared ready to attack, and instead, a look of distress appeared on her face. “What a waste, Jasmine’s blood was spilled like this, it’s such a pity…” Her eyes were fixed on the wound, her head unconsciously leaning closer, her mouth slightly open, revealing her fangs.
Miss, if Jasmine remembered correctly, her wound should only smell of disinfectant now. Why was Adele looking at it as if it were delicious blood?
Jasmine pulled her hand back slightly. Adele wasn’t holding on tightly, so Jasmine easily retrieved her hand. She swiftly rewrapped the bandage and pulled down her sleeve, hiding the wound from Adele’s sight.
Adele was still in a daze for a moment before quickly regaining her composure. “Hmph, as my maid, every part of your body belongs to me. I won’t allow you to injure yourself carelessly!”
Jasmine nodded. “Understood.”
Adele also asked who had bandaged Jasmine’s wound. This time, Jasmine didn’t lie and truthfully told her it was the school doctor. Adele nodded, bathed as usual, and then had Jasmine dry her hair.
She slept soundly and only woke up after dark the next day, yawning as she got out of bed. She took off her nightgown, changed into her school uniform, and although her hair wasn’t tangled today, Adele hadn’t slept well. She couldn’t help but feel a strange itch in her heart whenever she thought about Jasmine’s wrist, and she felt a surge of displeasure towards the doctor.
Because… Jasmine must have bled from her wrist, and her sweet blood must have stained her arm. Yet, the doctor had held Jasmine’s arm to clean the bloodstains. Jasmine’s blood was so sweet, even dried blood must be tempting. The doctor, upon seeing Jasmine’s blood, might have even shown the same greedy expression as Adele.
And the cotton swabs used to clean Jasmine’s wound, they must have also been stained with her blood, and those swabs were left in the infirmary… What if the doctor was a pervert and secretly smelled Jasmine’s scent? Adele thought a lot, and these thoughts swirled in her mind, disturbing her sleep.
After Jasmine came to attend to her, Adele finally took her briefcase and went to class. In the classroom corridor, the noble young ladies who usually surrounded her quickly gathered around, sharing some interesting stories.
Adele casually brought up the doctor at the infirmary, simply saying she was a little curious.
“The doctor?”
The noble young ladies didn’t really know much about the doctor. After all, as high-ranking vampire nobles, they had incredibly strong self-healing abilities and rarely needed to go to the infirmary for injuries. However, among the young ladies who followed Adele, there was one who particularly loved gossip. She smiled and said, “I heard from my maid that the doctor has a good reputation among humans. They say he treats human maids equally. So if a human maid is injured, they will go to him for treatment.”
Hearing this, another young lady chimed in, “That’s true. After all, lowly humans are not like us. They don’t have strong self-healing abilities. Without a doctor, they would be in trouble.”
“Treats them equally…” However, Adele’s mind was fixated on these words. She herself found it difficult to truly achieve this. Although she never treated the vampire maids and human maids in her household differently, she had to admit that it was because she saw them all as weaklings. Taking advantage of the weak was something Adele despised; she believed the weak should be protected.
And Jasmine was an exception. Because Jasmine liked her. The weak and adoring Jasmine made things difficult for Adele, and she unconsciously took extra care of her. Moreover, Jasmine had been by her side since childhood, never seeing the outside world. Now that she had brought Jasmine to school, exposing her to different people and things, it would help her grow.
Hearing her friend talk about the doctor like this, Adele became curious. She ignored the slight sting in her heart, pushing aside the small voice in her mind that whispered: What if Jasmine falls for the doctor and no longer likes me?
Adele decided to visit the doctor. On the one hand, she wanted to thank him for helping her maid, and on the other hand, she was curious to see what a vampire who treated maids equally was like.
During lunch break, Adele, unusually, didn’t go for a walk in the rose garden after finishing her meal. Instead, she headed for the small building where the doctor resided. Standing at the entrance of the two-story building, she could smell the scents inside: one vampire, one human. She knocked on the door, and after a short wait, the vampire opened it.
The doctor greeted her with a gentle smile, but there was a hint of panic in his eyes. Although he had been hired as the school doctor, very few students ever came to him. This was due to the vampires’ strong self-healing abilities. Even if there were injuries that couldn’t heal on their own, drinking blood would suffice. The school always had a supply of high-quality human blood, and a direct transfusion could instantly heal even the most severe injuries.
Therefore, the doctor rarely received visits from vampire students. He looked at Adele, wondering why this haughty vampire had come to his humble abode. Was it really just for a human maid…?
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