Jin Xueli's latest version of the present

Although the beginning of the story had been changed several times, Jin Xueli's encounter with Anthony had always remained the same:

As summer approached, on a night of soft, warm air and restless hearts, she encountered a venomous creature with a handsome face.

Of course, her gaze could not penetrate Anthony's smooth, beautiful skin and hair to see the twisted, inky-black fluid deep inside his brain-and when someone felt he was getting everything he wanted, one thing after another, he could be very gentle and generous, attentive and considerate.

Especially when they first met.

"...That really scared me just now," Jin Xueli whispered to her friend. "He suddenly lost control, and the car came straight at me. Luckily, all my training paid off. I reacted quickly and threw myself aside in time... Otherwise, I'd be a human pancake between the front of the car and the wall right now."

Amber drew in a sharp breath. "It was that dangerous? Thank goodness you're always going to-"

She suddenly stopped, glanced at Anthony beside them, and corrected herself. "Thank goodness you're always going to the gym."

Amber had short hair and a small, round face, with two ears that poked pointedly out of her straight, short hair like an elf's; she was as bright and quick-witted as she looked.

Jin Xueli often told her that she wished Amber had a passage too, so they could adventure together in the Nest-although she also knew that if Amber had a passage, she would be a hunter for the Morgan Family, making them potential rivals.

"You escaped with your life. You can never go wrong with more exercise."

Anthony suspected nothing. He fussed over Jin Xueli, full of concern, the lingering fright on his face so pronounced that he looked as though he had been the one who nearly died.

In just a minute or two, he displayed a rich and complete range of emotional responses, progressing from worry and relief all the way to righteous indignation. "How was that man driving? Was he drunk? Standing off to the side looking so shifty, not even coming over to apologize! When the police take your statement, you must explain everything in detail."

What would later seem false had been very welcome at the time. Jin Xueli smiled at him and lowered her voice. "He wasn't drunk... He's probably a private bodyguard. I saw his gun just now."

"A bodyguard?" Amber glanced over out of the corner of her eye, then gave an "Oh." "No wonder he kept his hand under his clothes... There's no one else in the car. Did the person he was protecting leave?"

"They left," Jin Xueli replied. "There was a whole convoy ahead of him. As soon as they saw his car get into trouble, they all scattered. I don't know what went wrong with his car, or why it crashed into the door."

At the word "gun," Anthony's face had tightened slightly. He hesitated, but still reached out to draw both women behind the bar's door, saying repeatedly, "It doesn't hurt to be careful... What if he isn't a bodyguard, but some crazy psychopath? Shall we go inside?"

At the time, Jin Xueli had thought he was quite levelheaded and cautious.

"I'd still like to stand here a little longer," Amber said, casting several glances at the figure in a black suit behind the SUV. "I just like watching a commotion. You don't mind, do you?"

Anthony glanced at her, then looked at Jin Xueli.

Amber wasn't there just to watch the commotion. Jin Xueli knew that very well.

Compared to daily life in a Hunter Faction, a car crashing into a door was so dull it wasn't even worth mentioning.

Besides, Amber's gaze was different from that of an ordinary onlooker: a bright glint lingered in her eyes as they shifted from the car to the man, as though she had already used that glint to catch hold of something amid the noise and confusion.

With a large Hunter Faction behind her, Amber was very well informed. The Matthew Effect applied here too: the more information someone knew, the better they knew where to find information, and the better they knew what truly counted as "information."

Unfortunately, Jin Xueli couldn't ask her outright what she had discovered-Anthony was still beside them.

"Then I'll stay with you," she said.

Anthony showed no sign of reluctance.

"Public safety in Blackmoor City really is getting worse and worse. Even the rich must have noticed the changing temperature." Leaning against the wall, he chatted with Jin Xueli. "Ordinary people like us can't afford bodyguards. We can only be careful ourselves... Especially young, pretty girls like you. You're more likely to become a target."

With his heated gaze fixed on her face, Jin Xueli instinctively smoothed her hair and said with a smile, "I'm not really afraid."

"You'd be safer with a boyfriend," Anthony said. "Didn't your boyfriend come with you today?"

"I'm single."

Because she had a good impression of him, Jin Xueli let such an obvious probe slide. After a moment's thought, she added, "I can take responsibility for my own safety too. For one thing, I have a small ladies' handgun at home, and a hunting knife I specially bought from Europe."

Anthony froze.

Something seemed to rise to his throat, only to remain unspoken in his mouth, weighed on his tongue. While he sifted through his choice of words, Amber gave Jin Xueli a light tug and whispered, "One of his colleagues is here."

Jin Xueli looked through the crowd and indeed saw a car that had just pulled in. The driver who got out wore the same sort of black suit and hurried over to the bodyguard who had crashed.

Whatever had caused the bodyguard to crash earlier, the danger had long since vanished from the surroundings, replaced by patrons watching the commotion, the worried-looking person in charge of the bar, and emergency medical personnel who had just arrived... By now, the bodyguard had finally relaxed. He was sitting in the driver's seat with the door wide open, answering questions from two police officers while allowing a medic to examine his pupils.

"Dylan," the newcomer in the black suit called.

"Evan?"

The bodyguard who had crashed looked up at the voice and froze when he saw who had come, even lowering the cotton cloth pressed to the wound at his temple. "Why did they send you?"

The second bodyguard, named Evan, seemed somewhat junior in both rank and experience, and his manner was respectful. "After things went wrong here, the boss felt a little uneasy about picking up the goods and brought in quite a few extra people at short notice. Sister Mi was worried you'd have trouble on your own, so she sent me over to look after you."

For some reason, he spoke a notch more quietly than most people. Jin Xueli was quite certain that Amber, like her, had to strain her ears and move several steps closer just to catch the gist.

Dylan seemed neither particularly enthusiastic nor particularly grateful about this reinforcement.

"Got it." He pressed the cloth back to his wound, looking as though he didn't want to say any more and wanted Evan to shut up too-perhaps because there were police officers right beside them.

"We're still open as usual," a bartender called loudly from the back door, seemingly trying to remind the patrons to hurry back and keep spending money. "Don't worry, everyone. Nothing's been affected!"

"Shall we?" Anthony lowered his head and said very gently to Jin Xueli, "Let's go back and sit down for a proper chat. Let me buy you a drink."

Meeting Anthony tonight had been entirely unexpected; she immediately wavered between "bodyguard car crash" and "male beauty"-until Amber smiled at her, tipped her chin toward the bar's door, and said, "Go on ahead. If anything interesting happens, I'll tell you later."

Jin Xueli could only remind her, "Come find me inside in a bit." Only after getting Amber's assurance did she go into the bar with Anthony.

As she sat down, her thoughts briefly passed over that Evan. He had said something about "the boss picking up the goods," hadn't he? What goods? She wondered whether it had anything to do with Amber's interest in the incident.

But she didn't think any further. Anthony had now sat down beside her too, a lock of hair slipping down, the light in his eyes rippling faintly beneath its shadow, as though she were a precious treasure the world had somehow overlooked.

Later, Jin Xueli had thought that no matter what someone hunted, anyone capable of being a hunter needed a certain amount of intuition-for instance, although she hadn't thought there was anything special about her clothes or appearance, Anthony had still picked her out of all those patrons at a glance.

She was a hunter in the Nest, and prey when she returned to the human world.

"What would you like to drink?" he asked.

"I hate drinking more than anything." Saying this in a bar, Jin Xueli couldn't help laughing herself.

With "not drinking" as their topic, she began chatting with Anthony, and dating him.

Over two or three months, they went from meeting occasionally to growing closer and closer. After Anthony's first visit to her home, he became almost the most perfect boyfriend in the world-although that illusion hadn't lasted long.

On one of their dates, she couldn't remember which, their conversation turned to the black SUV that had crashed into the bar's back door in early May. Only then did Jin Xueli remember that she still hadn't asked Amber what exactly she had discovered that night-perhaps what had happened that night had ultimately not been worth mentioning, so Amber hadn't remembered to tell her either.

"Oh, right. I remember you saying that night that you had a hunting knife you specially bought from Europe." Anthony suddenly took an interest and asked, "They sell hunting knives here too. Is there something special about one bought in Europe? Let me have a look?"

Jin Xueli immediately jumped up from the couch and fetched the hunting knife, talking about everything from its brand and craftsmanship to its value. While she was happily explaining it, Anthony was being tempted.

"I don't want to take your things," he said, still willing to put on an act then, looking rather embarrassed. "Could I borrow it for a while? I have a friend who collects knives. I'd like to show it to him."

Jin Xueli thought it over and decided she probably wouldn't need to enter the Nest again in the next two or three months. Even if she did, she had other weapons and tools. "Sure. Just bring it back when I need it."

...She slowly opened her eyes, momentarily unable to tell whether it was her body or the exhibition hall's floor tiles that were stiff and icy cold. The two had almost fused into one.

Anthony had never returned the hunting knife.

Jin Xueli looked at the two strands of memory in her mind, feeling both bewilderment and dawning understanding.

Without a sound, she turned her head, casting her gaze far across the floor to the enormous candle that stretched across the exhibition hall...

And her own back, as she sat before the candle.

So that was it.

In the second version of history, which had been changed for reasons unknown, Anthony had borrowed the hunting knife and never returned it. Jin Xueli hadn't taken the knife into the Nest, so naturally, she had been unable to plunge it into the resident's throat.

As a result, the resident hadn't made the same wound appear on her throat...

And so she had survived.

The May Day holiday ended today, and I started running around again. I was out for most of the day, so the chapter is a little late... I'm exhausted every day and just want to go home and get some proper sleep...

I'm writing this author's note on an e-ink screen! Buying, returning, buying again-I've already worked my way through to the third one. Will this one survive the seven-day no-questions-asked return period? Let's wait and see... I returned the first two as soon as they arrived.

(Okay, it can't type em dashes. Is this thing trying to kill me?)

(End of chapter)