A Different Kind of Stunning

The campus always brimmed with youthful energy. Not every student had gone through what Mo Fan had — terrifying Demon-Beast encounters barely into college.

Untouched by the terror of Demon-Beasts and uncontaminated by the cynicism of the world beyond, the magical campus held onto a kind of purity, everything still alive with hope and anticipation.

Sitting on a bench carpeted in fallen leaves, Liu Ru found herself envying the students of the magic academy.

She was just an ordinary girl — one who hadn't taken the path of magic, the road that most considered far more prestigious. Watching the students here command extraordinary power, then thinking back to that hideous Vampire and its overwhelming strength, Liu Ru felt a pang of regret for not having pushed harder to test into a magic academy. At least then she wouldn't be as helpless as she was now.

Mo Fan's apartment was at Pearl Academy, and this was Liu Ru's first time visiting a magic academy. She sat there with her melancholy in a world that wasn't quite hers — part of her longing for it, part of her feeling a quiet regret, and above all a deep loneliness that came from not knowing which path to take from here.

She stayed until nightfall. The air grew colder, and a few male students drifted over, drawn by Liu Ru's unmistakable aura and quiet allure. Under normal circumstances she would have been glad to make acquaintances with these promising young Mages. But she had no energy for it now — she simply couldn't bring herself to care. Every time she closed her eyes, the silhouette of a man in a long coat appeared, lurking in dark mist. And every time she snapped them open again, the shadow seemed to linger there still, burned into the air ahead of her.

"Are you done with class?" At last, when she spotted a man she recognized — if not terribly well — walking toward her, a faint smile broke through Liu Ru's pale, sorrowful face.

"I was looking for materials. Pearl Academy's library has a lot of books on Demon-Beasts, but I went through all of them and couldn't find a single thing on Vampires." Mo Fan said with a helpless shrug.

"Let me help. If you're searching alone, the workload will be enormous." Liu Ru said, eager to do something useful.

"That works. I'll take you to the library tomorrow." Mo Fan nodded.

……

Early the next morning, Mo Fan brought Liu Ru to the library — though a small complication arose: Ai Tutu had decided to tag along.

Ai Tutu was furious. The apartment had an explicit rule: you could not bring guests to stay without the other party's permission. Mo Fan had broken it — and not only brought someone over, but let her spend the night.

It wasn't hard to picture the look of horror on Ai Tutu's face that morning. She had shuffled out in her fluffy pajamas, opened her door, and found a woman stepping out of Mo Fan's room with the faint exhaustion of a sleepless night on her face. Ai Tutu was absolutely livid. She went straight to Mu Nujiao and insisted she needed to see Mo Fan for exactly what he was.

Mu Nujiao took it more calmly, though she couldn't fathom why, even if Mo Fan desperately needed female companionship, he would have to bring someone back to the apartment for it.

Mo Fan gave a rough explanation, but the two women remained skeptical — Ai Tutu especially. This time, she had simply decided to follow along and see things for herself.

"Look, Miss High-and-Mighty, I have actual work to do. Don't come here making trouble for me." Mo Fan said to Ai Tutu, dead serious.

Hunter work was dangerous more often than not. When Mo Fan was on a Hunter assignment, he made a rule of not dragging the people around him into it — unless absolutely necessary. And this time, a Vampire lurking in the shadows had its eyes locked on Liu Ru. Mo Fan had already arranged a separate apartment for her first thing that morning and temporarily moved in there himself.

"Who's making trouble? You need to find information on Vampires, right? I can help look. I can even help you catch the thing." Ai Tutu said.

The truth was, Ai Tutu wanted to find out whether Mo Fan and Liu Ru were hiding something. If they were, she could use that to convince her dear Mu-jie to stop pining after a man who didn't deserve it.

"Enough! Stay away from all of this — did you hear me?" Mo Fan's voice went cold and flat, leaving no crack for Ai Tutu to squeeze through.

Ai Tutu froze, staring at him.

After a long, stunned pause, she erupted — fists flying, feet kicking, tears glittering in her eyes as she spun around and stormed away.

Mo Fan watched her go and let out a quiet sigh.

It wasn't that he was worried about her causing trouble. He had known for a long time that Demon-Beasts lurking within human communities were rarely harmless. They held grudges, even over the smallest slight, and from wherever they hid in the dark, they could deliver a lethal blow against a Hunter — or the people close to one — at any moment.

That was why, when working a Hunter assignment, Mo Fan never let the people around him get involved. Never mind that Ai Tutu and Mu Nujiao were both powerful Intermediate-Level Mages — when it came to dealing with the bizarre and cunning creatures concealed among humans, their instincts weren't even a tenth of what Lingling, a Hunter Master, could bring to bear.

Demon-Beasts capable of living within human cities had all learned how to disguise themselves. And that disguise had gotten more than a few powerful but inexperienced Mages killed without leaving so much as a grave.

……

The library was vast, divided into many floors.

The upper floors housed older, more obscure texts, and students were few and far between up here. Mo Fan and Liu Ru settled in and began working their way through the books, while waiting to hear whether Lingling had anything to report.

Lingling had been watching the Northern Club through various means for a while now. But the Vampire had not shown itself again — as though it had sensed something.

Lingling might look like a little girl, and once you set aside that prematurely ancient air of hers and her razor-sharp intellect, she was, in truth, an utterly adorable creature. She could go anywhere and do anything without arousing a flicker of suspicion — even among the Demon-Beasts hidden in plain sight.

After all, who would ever connect a pure, wide-eyed little girl with a seasoned, demon-slaying Hunter Master?

Until Lingling had something to report, Mo Fan could only wait — and use the time to comb through the records for anything on Vampires' weaknesses.

He hadn't forgotten: he'd torn the Vampire's heart clean out last time, and yet before long the wound had simply sealed itself back up on its own. A creature like that wasn't going to fall by ordinary means. He could only hope the old texts held something useful.

……

Mo Fan was working his way along a row of shelves when, through a gap in the stacks, he caught a glimpse of a beautiful, vaguely familiar silhouette.

Dark hair that could make a heart skip — not the common loose style, but flowing out in soft, mermaid-like waves before being gathered partway down with a delicate blue-sparrow hair clasp. There was something difficult to name about the elegance she carried, a quiet, settled serenity. She was absorbed in browsing the shelves, completely unaware of the dark eyes watching her from the other side.

Just from the back, Mo Fan recognized her.

"Ding Yumian," he murmured to himself. "Of all the places to run into her..."

What made this department beauty truly singular was her hairstyle — like how no two women would ever wear the same outfit twice, she brought a different, breathtaking look every single day.