Nothing's Changed

"Call 110! Call 120! Get an ambulance!"

After knocking the attacker to the ground, Xiang Kun hurried over to check on the young couple who'd been stabbed. They were covered in blood, with multiple stab wounds on their torsos and limbs.

Lately, Xiang Kun had read a lot of medical articles and learned quite a bit about first aid. After a quick examination, he confirmed that neither of them had been stabbed in an artery. He told them to press down on their wounds, stay still, and wait for the ambulance.

The police and ambulance arrived soon afterward. Although the attacker—whom Xiang Kun had knocked unconscious with a single punch—still hadn't woken up, the grocery store owner and some neighbors who'd rushed over had tied him up like a dumpling with rope.

Before long, everyone had been taken away by ambulance, including the attacker.

According to the paramedic who'd treated them at the scene, the young couple had been stabbed several times, but fortunately none of the wounds had struck vital areas, and their lives weren't in danger.

As for the attacker, his nose was definitely broken, and he probably had a mild concussion, but his life wasn't in danger either.

Xiang Kun breathed a sigh of relief. After throwing that first punch, he'd honestly been a little surprised—he'd underestimated his own strength. The attacker's entire face had seemed to cave in, and his body had gone limp at once. Xiang Kun's first thought had been that he'd killed him.

Under the circumstances, even if he really had killed the man with one punch, it would undoubtedly have counted as self-defense. After falling, the attacker's first instinct had been to reach for his knife. The grocery store owner and the surveillance camera outside the shop could both prove that.

But if the man had really died, Xiang Kun would inevitably have been caught up in a whole series of problems. His secrets might well have been exposed.

Xiang Kun and the grocery store owner went to the police station to give statements. They were both eyewitnesses, especially Xiang Kun, who had personally taken down the attacker.

In the police car, however, the officer sitting in the front told Xiang Kun not to worry. They'd reviewed the surveillance footage outside the grocery store, and it was clearly a case of self-defense. He'd be fine. Once he'd given his statement, he could go home. The officer also asked whether he was injured and if he wanted to get checked out at a hospital first.

Xiang Kun naturally didn't want to go to the hospital, and he really hadn't been hurt. He'd gone downstairs, landed a flying kick, and followed it up with a punch. That was all it had taken to finish the attacker.

The officer had asked because Xiang Kun was covered in blood—not just on his hands, but on his cheeks and around his mouth as well. At a glance, he seemed to be in worse shape than the three people who'd been taken away by ambulance.

The grocery store owner, seated beside Xiang Kun in the back of the police car, hadn't stopped talking since they got in. One moment he was recounting the attacker's assault to the officer in front, the next he was praising Xiang Kun's moves and asking if he'd trained before.

But from the owner, Xiang Kun also learned that the attacker was the ex-boyfriend of the woman who lived downstairs from him. The man had caused a scene once last month, and they'd nearly come to blows. The woman's current boyfriend had been there with a few friends, though, and they'd pulled the man away before anything happened.

Who would've thought he'd come back today with a knife and attack them?

Xiang Kun gave the officer and the grocery store owner the occasional response, but unless they spoke to him directly, he didn't join in.

At that moment, all his attention was really focused on himself.

Earlier, while subduing the attacker and checking the couple's injuries, Xiang Kun had gotten a lot of blood on himself. Seeing blood had stirred the same urge to drink it.

But perhaps because he'd only just woken up the previous night after sleeping off his last blood-drinking session, his need and craving for blood weren't very strong. He could control the urge easily.

And when no one was looking, Xiang Kun had pretended to wipe sweat from his arm, using the motion to smear the blood there into his mouth.

That experimental "sip" had eased his mind a little. Compared with rabbit blood, human blood didn't make him feel anything special.

He'd been worried for some time that as time went on, he might end up like the vampires in all those stories and have to drink human blood to survive. That was something he would find very difficult to accept.

After giving his statement at the district police station, Xiang Kun was quickly sent home by the officer who'd brought them there.

By the time he got home, it was past eleven at night. He went straight to the cage in the bathroom, took out the rabbit he'd bought that morning, slaughtered it, and drained its blood. Then he poured 50 ml into a measuring cup and drank it.

After checking how he felt, Xiang Kun confirmed once again that human blood and rabbit blood were no different.

Though seeing blood still made him feel somewhat hungry, after drinking 50 ml, Xiang Kun didn't drink the rest of the rabbit's blood. Instead, he packed it up with the rabbit and disposed of it.

For one thing, he didn't want to fall into another twenty-five-hour sleep. For another, he didn't want to indulge his need for blood; he was deliberately keeping it in check.

Sitting down at his computer, Xiang Kun thought for a while, then recorded several things he'd learned that day in a document.

There was another part of the day's unexpected incident that caught Xiang Kun's attention: from the moment he saw the attacker assaulting the couple to the instant he rushed downstairs, kicked him, and swung a punch, he'd stayed completely rational and clearheaded. That was why, after landing the first punch too hard, he'd been able to stop the second one in time.

That wasn't normal for him.

Xiang Kun wasn't a particularly brave person. He'd seen something similar in college, when two young men with knives had chased a student from his school outside the campus gates. The student hadn't been able to get away and had been slashed several times. He'd reportedly spent half a year in the hospital. Fortunately, he hadn't been left with any disabilities, only several long, ugly scars.

At the time, Xiang Kun had been twenty or thirty meters from the altercation, walking with a large group of students from his department. All he could remember was that his hands and feet had gone cold, and he'd instinctively moved aside with the crowd. He hadn't even considered stepping in to stop them. Even after the young men who'd attacked the student were subdued by campus security and the student was taken away by ambulance, Xiang Kun's hands had still been shaking.

Xiang Kun was almost certain that if this had happened before his body changed, he'd have done no more than call the police after seeing what was going on below. He definitely wouldn't have dared to run down and intervene.

But earlier, when Xiang Kun saw the attacker with a knife, he hadn't felt the slightest worry or fear. He'd been absolutely certain the man couldn't threaten him.

It was a physical instinct.

Xiang Kun examined his fist. That punch had smashed the attacker's face in, so the force behind it had clearly been tremendous. Yet his fist and knuckles weren't damaged at all. He hadn't even scraped the skin.

An idea suddenly struck Xiang Kun. He picked up the knife he'd bought specifically for killing rabbits, cleaned it with alcohol, and lightly cut the pad of his finger.