What It’s Like Being a Vampire

Chapter 14: Hunger

Translator: Atlas Studios

Editor: Atlas Studios

In the evening, Xiang Kun received a WeChat message from Chang Bin asking about the date.

Naturally, he said that they had a good chat and that he would slowly get to know her more.

However, upon learning that Xiang Kun had pushed the timing forward to the afternoon, hadn’t invited Tang Baona to dinner, nor had any follow-up arrangements before leaving at five, Chang Bin couldn’t resist having a huge nagging session.

A while later, Chang Bin sent over another message. According to Wang Han, Xiang Kun had actually left a fairly positive impression. The girl described him as humorous and interesting. She had suggested that they could start as friends.

Chang Bin pointed out that it sounded pretty promising and that Xiang Kun should be more proactive. “Talk more! Ask her out frequently!” He suggested.

Xiang Kun naturally said that he would. However, he honestly felt that it was just a polite rejection on Baona’s side. She probably meant that they would be better off as only friends. Of course, it was exactly what he hoped for.

After that, Xiang Kun didn’t contact Tang Baona for three days. He still spent most of his time in the gym during the day and did cardio and exercises to sharpen his vision at night.

Xiang Kun had drunk blood for the first time on the 14th of July and for the second time on the 17th. It was three days apart.

Now it had been six days since he drank rabbit blood on the 17th. He still didn’t feel sleepy or hungry.

For these six days, he hadn’t ingested anything apart from water while he exercised extensively.

He had no idea when he would want to drink blood again.

For the previous two times, he began to feel a strong sense of hunger after only seeing blood. This time, he hoped to wait until his body actively signaled hunger. This way, he would deduce how long those blood drinks could last him.

By now, the rabbit had been fed so well that it was growing fat. He had even gone to the supermarket just for the rabbit. He was really becoming like a responsible pet owner.

He only hoped to drink blood before moving out of the apartment.

On the evening of the 23rd, when Xiang Kun was training his eyesight, he suddenly received a WeChat message from Baona.

“Saitama-sensei, you there?”

Baona had mentioned “One-punch Man” that day and had jokingly nicknamed him “Saitama-sensei”.

Xiang Kun thought about what to say and replied with a simple word. “Yup”.

“What are you doing? Want to come out and have some barbecue?”

Of course, eating wasn’t possible for him.

Just as he tried to find an excuse, there was a sudden secretion of saliva and a sense of hunger surging from the bottom of his heart.

It was coming!

It was the first time his body had actively signaled hunger! He couldn’t bother to think of any excuses and simply replied, “I’ve got something going on. Sorry! Can’t go!” He then threw his phone aside and sat down at his computer. He opened the document and timer software and began recording.

He wanted to observe how hunger would affect him and whether it would change with time.

The first time he drank blood, he had clearly remained conscious during the whole process of purchasing the chicken in the wet market, but there was a feeling that his body was nudging him into his actions.

On the second time, he felt more in control when enjoying his rabbit blood at home.

He wondered whether it was because it was his first time craving blood, or if he was simply more bloodthirsty, causing him to act more impulsively at the wet market.

He wanted to test it out.

After writing a few lines, Xiang Kun sat down cross-legged on his bed and paid careful attention to his body.

Generally speaking, the feeling of hunger would start from the constriction of stomach muscles as it emptied its contents.

But Xiang Kun’s sense of hunger was from deeper within. It was as if every organ and cell were craving for nutrients.

He didn’t feel weak due to hunger like a normal human being.

It just felt harder to concentrate.

Time ticked by. The hunger had emerged at 9:08 PM. It was now past 3 AM. and the hunger was becoming unbearable.

Xiang Kun started to get up frequently to walk over to the cage where the rabbit was kept in the bathroom. He would always force himself back, and he tried to do other things to distract himself. However, his mind always reverted back to imagining the scene of killing the rabbit and drinking its blood, and to recalling how good it had felt.

At first, Xiang Kun would take a video of himself every half an hour and recite a Tang poem before the camera to test his status.

As dawn drew near, he did it more frequently, at intervals of ten minutes. It was to keep himself busy.

For many instances, Xiang Kun wanted to go out for some fresh air or even go for a jog. However, he had pondered this before. He had concluded that it was not safe for him to go out with a state of mind like this. He might lose control any second.

But to Xiang Kun’s surprise, at about half past five, the hunger and the impulse to drink blood suddenly faded.

It seemed that after sunrise, not only his body functions, but his thirst for blood was also suppressed.

Xiang Kun let out a sigh of relief. While recording what he had observed and experienced, he adjusted his breathing and continued to endure hunger.

It was much better during the day; it wasn’t harder to tolerate as time passed. However, after sunset, the sense of hunger grew stronger again.

At 7:33 PM, Xiang Kun finally gave in after he had almost punched the wall. He quickly slaughtered the rabbit that had been raised for nearly a week. In order to refrain from over-drinking, he decided to drink from measuring cups he had prepared.

He filled four with blood. From the markings on the cups, one could tell that three were filled to 50ml and the last one 20ml.

After gulping down the first cup of 50ml, Xiang Kun could clearly feel that he craved more rabbit blood, and his hunger was still very real.

Nevertheless, he didn’t immediately continue to drink. He timed with his phone and only went for the second cup of 50ml a minute later. He then increased the interval to two minutes before taking the last cup of 50ml.

After the third cup, Xiang Kun was fully aware that the satisfaction he had gained from the blood had decreased slightly.

He was awash with a strong sense of drowsiness. He didn’t sleep, but instead tidied up his place as he waited for the fifth minute after consuming the third cup of blood to drink the last 20ml.

In fact, Xiang Kun could still feel the desire for blood, but the last 20ml hardly helped.

Apparently, the fourth cup had already lost the benefits of the rabbit blood.

This proved Xiang Kun’s previous suspicion that as the blood became less fresh, it would quickly become less appealing to his stomach.

The first two cups weren’t very different. The third cup was obviously less quenching.

It could be inferred that the blood would become less satisfactory after around three minutes from when the rabbit was killed.

After writing down these ideas, Xiang Kun still didn’t lie down to sleep immediately. Instead, he sat on the bed and tried to fight against his sleepiness.

He wanted to see how long he could stay awake after drinking blood.