The next day, the sky was overcast.
A light drizzle fell as a young woman in a black trench coat walked down the street.
She looked up at the gray, hazy sun, then instinctively tightened her throat.
"Ah, ah, ah~"
"Still... no good..."
She raised three notes in succession. Her voice was extremely hoarse, and the three notes barely sounded any different.
She returned home and pushed open the door. The room was filled with musical instruments—pianos, guitars, violins.
Various CDs were piled in one corner, while the walls were covered with posters of different singers.
The young woman took off her trench coat, went to the computer, and tried to sing a song.
But her voice was hoarse, and singing a cappella, she sounded dreadful.
She had once been a hugely popular online singer, known by the stage name Xi.
Her voice had been beautiful, ethereal, and utterly unique. No matter what song she sang, it carried a charm no one else could replicate.
But two months ago, her voice had suddenly gone hoarse.
She had always been extremely careful with her voice. She never dared eat overly greasy, salty, spicy, or otherwise irritating food, nor did she smoke or go to places filled with smoke.
Up until two months ago, there had been nothing wrong with her throat.
Then one day two months ago, she fell seriously ill. Not only did she run a high fever for several days straight, but her throat became so dry it felt as though it were about to catch fire.
After recovering from her illness, she was invited onto a television program.
She had shown no abnormalities during the program, but the moment she went onstage to sing, she lost her voice.
Her throat had become incredibly hoarse. By the time she realized it, it was already too late.
She forced herself to finish the song. Many fans who had come specifically to see her were left dumbfounded.
"Is this... the voice kissed by an angel?"
"More like a voice dragged through a chainsaw."
After that, she fell from grace overnight.
No matter how she explained that it was caused by a cold and fever, no one cared.
They only cared whether she could still display that breathtaking voice from before.
She was desperate, but it was as if heaven had played a cruel joke on her. Her voice simply refused to recover.
After another month, unable to withstand the pressure from public opinion and her agency any longer, she took part in a concert.
Knowing that her voice still had not recovered, she planned to lip-sync this time.
She had already discussed it with her agency. They would weather this storm first, then figure out what came next.
But this attempt at lip-syncing, unsurprisingly, still went wrong.
She was exposed on the spot for lip-syncing!
With things having reached this point, she had no choice but to grit her teeth and sing live again.
And then, the name Xi was completely ruined.
This lip-syncing scandal caused even her once-loyal supporters to abandon her.
It could be said that from the moment she lost her voice, she had lost everything.
Because everything she had possessed had been built upon her voice.
After that, she never appeared in the public eye again, and she was quickly forgotten.
The internet's memory was short. New things constantly flooded people's attention, and no one would keep watching a singer who had deceived her fans.
Even now, she still could not produce the voice she once had.
She put on her headphones and listened to the recording of her a cappella singing from earlier.
It was still just as unbearable to hear.
A tear slid down her cheek as she curled up, hugged her knees, and cried softly.
But even her sobs were just as hoarse.
After a long while, she wiped away her tears and went out onto the balcony.
This was the eighth floor.
She walked blankly to the edge of the balcony, closed her eyes, and leaped.
She fell quickly, with none of that so-called life-flashing-before-her-eyes experience.
She plummeted to the ground in an instant.
But the pain she had imagined never came.
She opened her eyes and saw a man in a White Mask standing upside down before her.
No, the man was not upside down. She was.
The man held her ankle in one hand, while the other remained tucked in his pocket.
At that moment, her head was less than a centimeter from the ground, and her hair had already fallen onto the pavement.
Huh?
She blinked, and the masked man in a suit suddenly let go.
Bang!
Her head struck the ground the instant she landed.
Judging from that crisp sound, it was a good head.
She got up, clutching her head with both hands. "Ow, ow, ow... What are you doing?"
Hearing her words, the man tilted his head in confusion.
"What are you doing?"
"Can't you tell? I'm obviously trying to kill myself!"
She held her head, looking as though she were on the verge of tears.
"I thought it was some kind of performance art."
Chen Ye took out a white cloth and wiped his hands, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a vial of dark crimson liquid, red as blood.
"Since you're going to kill yourself anyway, why not assist with my research before you die? At least your death would have some value."
She looked at Chen Ye in confusion. "What research?"
"Research concerning... life."
Chen Ye directly placed Vampire Agent No. 1 into her hand.
"Drink it."
"What is this?"
"You're going to die anyway. Why ask so many questions?"
"Then at least let me die knowing what it is," she said.
Chen Ye remained expressionless. "It's poison."
Poison...
She stared at the liquid in her hand for a moment.
"Will it hurt?"
"Are you dying or not?"
Chen Ye stood with both hands in his pockets. Finding a test subject for free while taking a stroll was certainly worth being happy about, but he did not like curious children.
Faced with Chen Ye's urging, she took a deep breath, then tilted her head back and drank the potion.
Gulp.
The potion tasted fishy upon entering her mouth, like blood.
Once it passed through her throat, her body began convulsing violently.
"Ugh... ah..."
Had the effects begun already? So quickly?
She curled up on the ground in agony. Intense pain erupted from every part of her body, as if all her muscles were being torn apart!
Watching her suffer, Chen Ye began taking notes.
The main ingredients of Vampire Agent No. 1 were human blood, bats, salamanders, and the blood of Deep One Generation 2.
There was only one difference between it and Vampire Agent No. 2.
Vampire Agent No. 2 contained no human blood. The human blood had been replaced with leeches.
Both ingredients involved the concept of blood. Chen Ye wanted to see what effect such a minor material change would have on the potion as a whole.
Soon, scales grew across her body, fins sprouted from her ears, and her long hair turned dark green.
Before Chen Ye could react, her legs suddenly contracted and fused together, forming a fish tail.
This is... a mermaid?
No!
This is a Vampire Potion!
Why did you turn into a mermaid? This isn't just a slight deviation in effect!
Ah, this is troublesome.
The Vampire Potion might have to be scrapped and remade.
Though reluctant, Chen Ye still recorded the girl before him in the files on his phone.
Number 007: Siren.
Number 007: Siren (Sea Demon)