Chapter Text
Jiang Cheng stumbles into the café feeling entirely exhausted and ready to sleep. It’s almost the end of his first year as a solo Hunter, you’d think he’d be used to the schedule of patrols at night and reports by day, but nope.
He’s been on alert to catch his vampire for the last 3 days and it’s taken a toll on him.
Well. The vampire. That was sighted.
Not his vampire, because the Hunters called it Vampire 43, not Jiang Cheng’s vampire, and because you can’t have dibs on capturing a vampire.
Jiang Cheng shakes himself out of his thoughts as the barista greets him. “Welcome to Hanhan Bibi! Would you like to dine in or take out today?”
He briefly notices that the café has half the lights off, probably to save electricity - though it still beats the dim streetlamps – and raises his head to look at the menu. Then his brain catches up with reality and he does a double take.
“You have dine in at this hour?!” He came in at almost 2am, figured he’d come in for a quick last order before leaving the staff to close up. In fact, he’s surprised the shop is open at all.
“Yes, the café is open 24 hours,” the barista smiles at his shock, and Jiang Cheng does another take. The barista is handsome, unfairly so, all sharp jawline and double eyelids over warm eyes like they were going to smolder any second. He looks like one of those unreal models who can effortlessly look good in a dozen pictures. Consecutively.
Handsome Barista is unaware of Jiang Cheng’s internal thoughts and gestures to the open seats at the bar. “Would you like to dine in?”
Jiang Cheng clears his throat embarrassedly and nods. He takes a look at the menu again. “Is the food menu available as well?”
The barista replies, “Of course. All the items are in stock and available currently.”
God, he sounds like he’s filming a commercial.
But Jiang Cheng, thankfully, keeps his cool and orders something warm – it’s nice to have a proper meal instead of going back to his small apartment and sad microwave meals.
Handsome Barista disappears into the kitchen to prepare his sandwich, though he keeps the door open and Jiang Cheng can see some of the stainless counters. He decides to write his notes while the memory is fresh in his mind, instead of staring at the might-be-model.
Jiang Cheng’s seen glimpses of Vampire 43 in his stationed area – it’s frustrating because he knows it’s close. But the vampire is elusive, slipping through his fingers time and time again.
They have a sketch of what it looks like, a male form, and they have a few notes. Vampire 43 is a frenzied vampire, one that goes crazy over the taste of blood and goes around draining people, more than necessary. It’s not clear what necessary was but there must be some standard, since most of the vampires the Hunters capture are of the frenzied type, and they know there’s more hidden.
Vampire 43 was previously in Suzhou then Shanghai, and now in Hangzhou. It’s drained a human in each previous city, and almost drained Hangzhou victims twice already. Typical frenzied vampire to feed so often. The only odd thing about this case was the Suzhou victim disappearing from the scene, with only traces of their blood and clothes left at the draining site.
It raises suspicion on what Vampire 43 exactly did with the victim.
He’s in the middle of drawing a diagram to remember a store’s position when the food comes. It smells delicious, the bread looking warm and toasted.
“One breakfast sandwich and one large latte,” the barista sets down the order in front of Jiang Cheng.
A glint of something small catches in the light as the man sets down his food – a cufflink? That’s odd… why would someone, presumably a college student or model, be wearing a cufflink? At the graveyard shift.
Jiang Cheng says a quiet thanks and starts eating. The barista sits all the way down at the cashier again, picking up a book.
From what Jiang Cheng can observe, the other looks young, maybe around Jiang Cheng’s age of 22. Which is why he was thinking the man is a college student.
The barista has cropped black hair with bangs swept up with gel, wearing a crisp white shirt, white pants and slim black gloves - an outfit entirely too posh to be a uniform for a small café.
Hmm, maybe not a college student.
Jiang Cheng’s mind wanders as his mouth savors the flavors. He’s nursing the last of his latte and rereading his notes when the incident happens.
In his fumbling to get a pen out of a pocket, Jiang Cheng’s arm knocks against his coffee cup. He reflexively curses, hand stuck in his jacket to really do anything useful.
Contrary to his expectations, there’s no crash of broken ceramic. Instead, the young barista is there, holding an empty cup over a spilled mess.
“Oh, you’re… fast,” Jiang Cheng notes. Fast. Too fast. How did the man get all the way here when he was all the way at the other side? Reading his book – how did he even know that the cup was falling?
“I – uh – I did track back in high school. Yeah, I’m fast,” the other smiles shakily, setting the cup back down on the counter.
Hmm… he should look into this.
“Oh, are you Japanese?”
Jiang Cheng startles at the unexpected follow up question – what?!
“I didn’t mean to pry. I just saw that you,” the barista gestures to the other page, “had some words written in Japanese. Tokyo, Kyoto. Shikoku and something about waiting? Koko de matte hou ga ii?” It’s better to wait here. “Your Mandarin is very good.”
Jiang Cheng glances to the left page where he had scribbled notes from the last time he met with a passing Elder Hunter for reports – the Elder came from Japan because there were a lot of reports about a vampire fleeing Japan to China, but long story short, Jiang Cheng thankfully knew enough Japanese to converse (and take notes) in a mix of both languages.
He flushes at his own carelessness and moves his arm to subtly cover the page. “I'm not, but you know Japanese?” Jiang Cheng carefully questions.
Handsome. Fast reflexes. Extensive knowledge. Those were some of the most common traits of vampires.
The barista nods. “I studied abroad for a year during university. Aside from the katakana, I thought it was quite easy to pick up, at least till conversation level. It’s been a few years though.”
“Oh, you look like you’re still in school though.” Jiang Cheng comments, feeling a bit more at ease.
The other, strangely enough, freezes for a split second – it’s fast, but Jiang Cheng is also trained to look for fast things because vampires have superspeed.
It’s an odd reaction, but Jiang Cheng also tends to say things in the wrong tone of voice so maybe... Jiang Cheng hopes. “I mean, you look pretty young. I didn’t mean anything bad by it.”
“No worries,” the barista smiles reassuringly. “I’ll take that as a compliment. I’m already 28, you know.”
Jiang Cheng smiles back. They weren’t that far off in age then. “Where did you go to school?”
“Oh, um, I’m back in school again, actually,” the barista says, looking somewhat startled again at the question.
“For masters?”
Handsome Barista shakes his head, “For undergraduate. I’m taking online school right now, and I do the night shifts here.”
Jiang Cheng hums in understanding. University can be a confusing time. Not that Jiang Cheng would know - he immediately went into being a full-time Hunter after high school, first in a group then solo. “Where do you go to school currently then?”
“I’m taking online courses for Philosophy in Fudan University,” the barista answers. “What about you? What do you do?”
“I’m taking a gap year from my university to write a novel, so all the notetaking,” Jiang Cheng lies easily. After tracking Vampire 43 with no results and getting asked questions by curious strangers for being in weird places, he has his cover story down perfectly.
The barista lights up at that. “Oh, that sounds exciting! What are you writing about?”
“A murder mystery. A crime thriller. Something of that sort,” Jiang Cheng shrugs.
“Of the supernatural kind?” the barista asks.
“Uh, yes,” Jiang Cheng wants to squash his suspicions but the older is making it really hard. “How did you know?”
The barista sheepishly grins and points to the notebook. “I didn’t mean to look, but I saw that you had a couple notes about vampires. And other stuff.”
“…you must have good eyesight.” Jiang Cheng frowns then slowly asks. “So? Do you believe in that sort of thing?”
The barista freezes.
“Ah, it’s hard to say, isn’t it? I would say… no, but there’s also a lot out there that we don’t know. Either way, I do enjoy reading such stories though,” the barista says carefully, previous excitement gone.
Jiang Cheng bites the inside of his cheek in thought. The way the barista answered the question… his instincts are saying something doesn’t feel normal here. But how could the barista be a vampire when he was talking with Jiang Cheng after making him a sandwich?
Vampires just don’t act like that. They always immediately attack, so they’d have the upper hand with their speed and strength.
“By the way, what’s your name? That way I can be on the lookout when you do publish a book,” the barista is saying brightly, his light tone coming back to his voice. He taps the name tag adorned with English and Chinese, clipped neatly above the breast pocket of his shirt. “I’m Lan Xichen.”
Jiang Cheng closes his notebook and keeps it in his jacket, just in case. He shouldn’t be showing his notes to strangers (who could be a vampire). He shouldn’t be telling the barista his real name either.
“Jiang Wanyin,” he answers.
**
Lan Huan waves goodbye as the café bell jingles on Jiang Wanyin’s way out.
The man had been surprisingly friendly. Lan Huan thought he was (unfortunately) in for a quiet night when Jiang Wanyin came in with an all-black attire, slim jacket and a look that said he’s going to stab the next person who tries to talk to him.
Lan Huan liked talking to him, perhaps Jiang Wanyin will visit again so they can talk some more about stories or something
It’s been lonely after Lan Huan Turned – well, into a vampire that is.
He remembers lying in that quiet park, feeling overheated and suddenly overly sensitive to the smell of grass, bark, the dirt – everything. After the Turn, he was lucky Shufu saw and rescued him. If not, he wasn’t sure where he’d be, perhaps murdering people now – he shudders to even think about it.
Shufu had shown him the alternative to the violent, undead life.
He took Lan Huan back to his hideout, a large but modest house in Jiangsu and gave him blood bags to drink from to regain energy. The Turn, Lan Huan learns, take a lot out of the person.
That was a delirious period of time – he could barely remember what happened, it was all a big blur for a few weeks – and that was also only time he had ever drank human blood.
Following Shufu’s way of life, he switched to animal blood, the vegetarian version of a vampire lifestyle, and never went back. Human blood from blood banks were reserved for emergencies, when they needed more strength to heal, a rare occasion for peaceful vampires, Shufu says.
And Lan Huan doesn’t ever want to go back to human blood either – it could be too tempting to keep drinking human blood once he had a proper taste. He can’t risk that; he doesn’t want to hurt people.
Now, almost a year after the Turn, he’s started a new life under the name Lan Xichen, Lan Huan turning into a dead name only a few remember, if at all. Shufu gave him a little space and money to start a café while he figured out what he wanted to do in his forever-extended life.
He’s thankful, immensely thankful to Shufu – he knows the money was a generous amount freely given, and Lan Huan might even be content with running a small café and keeping Shufu company for his whole immortal life. The man looked like he was lonely too.
But Shufu refused to stay in Hangzhou, extracting a promise that Lan Huan would take the time to really think about what he wanted to do productively and returned to his place in Jiangsu. So here he is, taking Philosophy at a nearby university online during the day, working the night shift at the café and wondering about it all.
The café is small, but the location isn’t bad, situated between a subway station and a high school, so there was a guarantee of customers during the day. It’s a good idea to keep the café open 24-hours, since they do get a large influx of customers before midnight as other cafes close earlier.
Lan Huan usually doesn’t need sleep either – he’ll take a nap or drink an (animal) blood pack once every two weeks. And since he cannot feel temperatures anymore, he can save costs by shutting the air or the heater off, unless a customer comes in.
It’s really the perfect situation.
Quite a few customers trickled in at odd hours, most of them drunk and needing a bathroom, but Lan Huan welcomed them – they were usually nice and funny in their own drunken way and bought something for the trouble. Aside from them, there’s a handful of insomniacs and late-night students who drop by semi-regularly as well.
Lan Huan smiles to himself as he clears the plates and wipes the counter. Something about Jiang Wanyin had made him want to talk to him, and he was glad he did so. The man was a lovely character, easy going but insightful. He hopes he’d come by more often.
Jiang Wanyin had asked a little about the café, and Lan Huan explained that yes, it was open 24 hours, and yes, he’ll be here for the night shifts. He hopes this is a sign that Jiang Wanyin is interested… well, saying interested in Lan Huan might be too forward but Lan Huan can hope.
He even wonders if the other is a vampire as well – the other is definitely attractive enough. Lan Huan’s blemishes disappeared overnight after the Turn, and he suddenly had more defining facial features and muscle contours. Shufu said the changes were according to the best perception of attractiveness, to help their kind lure ‘their prey’ so survival was easier.
The other was roaming around at night, and even questioned about the supernatural, and had all the notes...
Lan Huan hopes he is. Shufu is the only other vampire he knows, and Shufu is definitely old; Lan Huan wouldn’t be surprised if he started from all the way back before imperial China – it’s a little hard to talk to him sometimes. Jiang Wanyin seems like he’d know more about what to do with an immortal life at 28.
**
After his tactical retreat from the café, Jiang Cheng finds himself debating on if the barista - Lan Xichen - was really as suspicious as he thought.
First there was that handsomeness. He really was too pretty to be human, and all the vampires they’ve captured before were always good-looking - Jiang Cheng’s developed somewhat of a radar from case studies and previous group missions.
Not to mention that paleness… was he just pale from taking midnight shifts or because of something else?
He quickly jots down all he can remember about the barista.
- Handsome
- Pale
- Name: Lan Xichen
- Works midnight shifts from 11 pm to 7 am
- Wears cufflinks (and suit?)
- Goes to Fudan University for Philosophy
See, the first few facts were alright. An insomniac with a desire to work shifts for pay could explain the situation.
But number 5 and 6? Definitely weird.
No matter how handsome or mature they were, what college kid wore cufflinks to a barista job? Was Jiang Cheng just missing out on some new trend since he became a full-time Hunter? Or was Lan Xichen actually a rich vampire (usually vampires are rich because they accumulate wealth through all the years) and pretending to be a barista?
And number 6, god, number 6. It didn’t make sense. Why was Lan Xichen taking online classes when Shanghai was only a few hours away from Hangzhou? Jiang Cheng is absolutely sure the man can afford housing for a couple of years, if he can afford the prestigious university and those clothes.
Unless, of course, the man was on the run from a crime or couldn’t go to his day classes for some reason.
Suspicious, truly suspicious.
Jiang Cheng will have to keep going to the café to find out more. This way, he’ll be ready to take action if Lan Xichen goes after a victim.
His parents are going to be so proud.