Blood Neon-Chapter 32

Chapter 32
Drifting Away
After leaving the bar, Lin Ying couldn’t help but glance back at its entrance.
The flashing neon lights on the sign cast a fluorescent orange-red glow over the semi-underground cave-like doorway. Hazy and surreal, it looked just like the gaping maw of some monster.
The scene brought back a childhood memory for Lin Ying—the one and only time she had visited a haunted house. The entrance back then had also been shaped like a monster’s mouth, and the exit... well, it had been cleverly designed to resemble the monster’s anus. She had been tossed in alone by her parents. What the hell was that about?
Silently reminiscing, the girl turned and walked away.
Under the white glow of the streetlights, the road felt especially deserted. The occasional pedestrians hurried by, focused only on getting where they needed to go.
Watching their silhouettes, Lin Ying couldn’t help but think to herself how nice it must be to have a home to return to. But for someone like her—an unwanted child—there was no rush walking through the night.
.
After putting enough distance between herself and the bar, Lin Ying gauged the distance and figured she was far enough to emerge from the shadows again.
After all, moving around in that creeping shadow form always gave her a weird sensation—like she was swallowing herself whole. To put it more vividly, it felt like trying to move forward with a medium-sized figurine in her mouth—one wrong move and she might just end up vomiting out her own body. It was unsettling.
She glanced around as she moved. There were quite a few places without surveillance, so she casually picked an empty alley and slipped inside.
A few seconds later, near a trash bin, the night suddenly deepened. A patch of shadow darker than darkness twisted into an unnatural shape. Then, with a wriggling motion, it dissolved and withdrew, quickly shedding its inky blackness to take on human form. It looked just like a person spontaneously forming out of the night.
From her rough memory, Lin Ying figured her base in the urban village was still quite far from here.
But she had no intention of traveling the rest of the way in shadow form. To be honest, after twisting her way all this distance—and carrying plenty of spoils from her earlier hunt—she was starting to feel a little sick...
The foreign sensation inside her body felt bizarre, almost like motion sickness.
Like holding a mouthful of water without swallowing it. After a while, that urge to gulp it down became unbearable...
Lin Ying rubbed her stomach, frowning as she forced herself to ignore the discomfort.
Just focus on getting home...
.
Just as she was about to exit the alley, something at the side of the road caught her attention.
A small white cat was rummaging through the trash, completely unfazed by the world around it.
Since Lin Ying had just emerged from the shadows, she hadn’t made a sound. The little creature probably hadn’t noticed the change behind it at all.
If it were any other time, Lin Ying might’ve considered snacking on it—just a little bite to fill the cracks between her teeth.
But today was different. The girl smiled faintly.
She had just eaten three people, and hadn’t even fully digested them yet. Right now, Lin Ying felt like someone who had just walked out of a buffet restaurant—completely stuffed. Based on past experience, if she could continue feeding her human body well over the next few days, she could probably coast on this for nearly a month.
She stepped silently onto her shadow, careful not to make the slightest noise as she slowly approached the little cat, stopping a few meters away before crouching down.
"Meow~"
She called out softly.
The cat instantly turned its head, staring behind it with wide, wary eyes.
Lin Ying tried her best to appear harmless, not meeting its gaze directly. Instead, she silently extended her hand, wiggling her fingers to tease and lure the little cat.
Although she had never systematically learned how to charm a stray cat, relying on bits of hearsay and clumsy tricks she had picked up over time, Lin Ying still understood a few basic principles.
For example, she shouldn’t make direct eye contact, or the cat would think she was threatening it. She needed to crouch down so she wouldn’t appear big and intimidating. Conversely, if she ever encountered something like a bear, she should spread her arms wide to make herself look larger.
After a few seconds of this standoff between human and cat, the little white cat actually began inching closer, still wary but gradually approaching.
When it finally stepped into arm’s reach, Lin Ying gently turned her palm sideways and began stroking its back.
The little cat seemed quite cooperative, leaning its body into her hand and allowing the gesture.
Seeing it wasn’t rejecting her, Lin Ying grew bolder. She stroked along its fur to its head, then naturally scratched under its chin.
Her other hand couldn’t remain idle either, so she moved it up to stroke its back.
After being petted for a short while, the cat even lay down on the ground, revealing half of its belly.
Lin Ying didn’t dare go straight for the belly rub, but she did sit down to match its posture, continuing her earlier motions.
After a moment, feeling that the time was right, she gently picked the small cat up with both hands and placed it on her lap.
The little white cat was quite cooperative and didn’t struggle. It simply lay there quietly, allowing Lin Ying to knead and pet it.
Stray cats were usually not very clean, but Lin Ying wasn’t afraid of fleas or anything like that.
Rather, she feared no living creature at all. As long as she wrapped herself in shadow, it didn’t matter what kind of monsters or spirits she encountered—they would all end up doomed.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have survived alone in the ruins for so long. The filth of that environment alone would have driven most people away.
Feeling the warmth of the tiny life resting on her legs, Lin Ying gently stroked its small body. The little cat even let out soft purring sounds from time to time.
This little creature surely couldn’t imagine that if it hadn’t been lucky today—if it hadn’t happened to meet Lin Ying when she was already stuffed full—its life might have ended right here in the hands of the girl currently holding it, petting it with such a satisfied expression.
To be fair, Lin Ying was a genuine cat person. In every lifetime, she was the type who couldn’t walk straight whenever she spotted a kitten.
So, if possible, she truly didn’t want to hurt these cats and dogs...
But she had no choice. Compared to harming innocent humans because she hadn’t eaten enough, she could only choose the lesser of two evils.
The little white cat looked only a few months old—tiny, adorable. It didn’t even mind when Lin Ying gently poked its paw pads.
This kitten clearly hadn’t experienced the cruelty of human society yet.
If it was willing to approach people on its own, it probably had been fed by humans in the past. Otherwise, most strays wouldn’t willingly get close.
Moreover, it wasn’t as though people didn’t lure cats over with sausages only to hurt them.
Were such people awful? By all appearances, yes—they were truly disgusting.
But then again, Lin Ying suddenly wondered: in her current state, didn’t she count as one of them too?
Sneaking up on stray cats and dogs, killing them…
If one looked only at the outcome, there didn’t seem to be much difference.
But a matter couldn’t be judged by outcome alone.
Between Lin Ying and those who abused animals, their intentions were entirely different.
Animal abusers acted out of psychological perversion, turning into brutish men or women in dark corners to vent their suppressed urges. Lin Ying, on the other hand, was forced by survival—she only occasionally ate them because she had no choice.
The goal determined the means, and the means shaped the goal.
So Lin Ying constantly reminded herself: killing people was not—could not be—her purpose.
Only being full was.
Killing was merely a method.