Yang Chenyan hates the color red, because it's the color of blood—and that could easily make him lose control.
He doesn't want to become a monster that lives only to drink blood.
And the Yang family he belongs to? It's not really a family—just a gathering place for monsters. If he had a choice, Yang Chenyan wouldn't even want to stay with the Yang family.
But he doesn't have a choice. He's a monster too.
The outside world would never accept a monster, and he's afraid that one day he'll lose control and start drinking blood.
In the end, the Yang family is the only place he can belong.
Just when Yang Chenyan thought he would drag out this miserable existence, the "god" that the Yang family had been worshipping disappeared—without a sound, without a trace.
For the Yang family, this was bad news. Without the god's power, they would find it harder and harder to control themselves.
As time passed, Yang Chenyan could clearly feel himself slipping further out of control.
Without the god's power, every member of the Yang family—even the strongest among them, the direct bloodline, including him—would eventually turn into mindless monsters.
In the end, it was his "father" who proposed the God-Making Project.
Every year, the Yang family holds a sacrificial ritual to pray for the arrival of a god, or for even greater power. But the sacrifices don't always succeed. Those who fail become mindless monsters.
These monsters are useless to the Yang family, so they are thrown into the mist. Over time, those mindless creatures gathered together and formed one gigantic monster.
That monster's power was immense—no different from the power of the "god" they had lost.
The God-Making Project is built around that monster. The plan is to find a suitable container as a vessel, inject that power into the vessel, and create a new "god."
No one would willingly turn into a mindless monster. Not a single person in the Yang family opposed the plan—including him.
To create a god, of course, a large number of sacrifices are needed. A funeral is the perfect pretense to lure them in.
That's where the Yang family's "Young Masters" come in.
The Yang family has many such "Young Masters"—their purpose is to attract enough sacrifices when the time comes.
It's convenient, saves effort, and means the Yang family doesn't have to go out and kidnap people themselves.
These so-called Young Masters know exactly what their role is. And yet, many are still willing to take on the title.
First, because it guarantees a life of luxury for ten or twenty years. Second, because there's still a chance to become a true member of the Yang family.
After all, once the sacrifice succeeds and one gains the power of a 'god,' they can attain eternal life.
People like that usually don’t marry or have children—but Yang Chenfeng was different.
Yang Chenfeng somehow found out that the gods had already vanished and that the sacrifice would definitely fail. So he tried to get married, hoping to let his wife die in his place.
How naive.
In the Yang family, when have they ever wanted someone dead and failed?
Yang Chenfeng died. The plan proceeded as scheduled, and the guests arrived on time.
They hadn’t invited Yang Chenfeng’s deceived wife, but Yang Chenfeng had somehow fed him some kind of delusional obsession, making him insist on investigating the cause of his death.
Since he was so determined to walk to his death, they weren’t going to stop him.
But after his so-called ‘big sister-in-law’ spent just one night at the Yang residence, it seemed something unexpected had happened without his knowledge.
He then received a call from his second brother, ordering him to go call this ‘big sister-in-law’ downstairs for a meal.
He had never liked Yang Chenjin and couldn’t be bothered to follow his orders.
Yang Chenjin was only ahead of him because he had become a direct-line member of the Yang family first—he wasn’t worthy of giving him orders.
What he didn’t expect was for Yang Chenjin to call again to check on the matter, repeatedly stressing that he should call the 'big sister-in-law' down to eat.
The meal was a pretext; the real message was to tell everyone in the Yang family, under his name, that this ‘big sister-in-law’ was not to be touched.
From his understanding of Yang Chenjin, if he were just some unrelated person, he wouldn’t care about him at all—let alone make a move that was practically meant to protect him.
Something was off.
He had a servant go call him down. When this ‘big sister-in-law’ appeared, he was completely stunned.
Because he was too beautiful.
So beautiful that his heart skipped a beat. He had never seen anyone so lovely.
For the Yang family, their sense of beauty had long been twisted beyond what’s normal. Even the most beautiful people were no different from food in their eyes.
But this young man’s beauty was different. It had little to do with his facial features—it was a kind of beauty filled with deadly allure.
Like a torch in a dark forest, attracting the creatures lurking in the shadows.
At that time, Yang Chenyan didn’t yet understand this. He just felt unusually irritated.
The way the boy ignored him made him even more agitated.
How dare that fool—who was easily fooled by Yang Chenfeng’s sweet words—ignore him?
Yang Chenyan couldn’t help but speak, his tone dripping with sarcasm.
“What? Are you blind? Can’t you see me?”
Though the young man was beautiful, his temper clearly wasn’t great—or perhaps he simply didn’t like the Yang family. One remark from Yang Chenyan was enough to set him off.
But even though he disliked the family, he would swallow his pride for that fool Yang Chenfeng, just so he could stay.
A fool through and through—he’d even help count the money after being sold.
Yang Chenyan hated fools the most.
Probably due to lack of sleep, Yang Chenyan felt an unprecedented irritation. He went straight upstairs to sleep.
But sleep didn’t make him feel much better.
He didn’t know why, but lately he had been constantly irritable, especially whenever he saw his so-called 'big sister-in-law'. An inexplicable anger would rise in his heart.
Anger at being ignored. Anger at seeing him being close with others. Anger at seeing him treat people differently.
Yang Chenyan believed he hated this 'big sister-in-law'—at least, that’s what he thought before the young man got close to him.
But he didn’t know why, the moment he saw the young man approach him, his heart uncontrollably skipped a beat, and a trace of anticipation rose deep within him.
Anticipation?
What was he anticipating?
Yang Chenyan didn’t know, but he was anticipating it nonetheless—so much so that his body went stiff, and he didn’t even know what to do with his hands.
But the young man was only there to get some documents, not to get close to him. In fact, from start to finish, he didn’t spare Yang Chenyan a single glance.
Yang Chenyan’s anger flared up again in an instant. Unable to control himself, he threw the tablet in his hand to the ground.
The sound of the tablet crashing down jolted Yang Chenyan awake. At that moment, he finally understood why he had been so irritable.
Not having fed on blood was part of the reason, but the bigger reason was being ignored.
Being ignored by this 'big sister-in-law'.
He had been longing for his approach, longing for his touch, even longing for things far more inappropriate.
This had never happened before.
It seemed that he had fallen in love with his 'big sister-in-law' at first sight.
Yang Chenyan regretted it. If he had known things would turn out this way, he wouldn’t have made things so difficult between them.
But it was okay—there was still a chance to make amends.
However, before he could find that chance, he saw a spray of red—blood that the boy had coughed up.
For Yang Chenyan, who had never tasted blood before, blood held a fatal allure. But at that moment, he had no desire to drink it—instead, his heart was filled with terror.
He was afraid.
Afraid the boy would die.
That fear was dozens of times stronger than the fear of the boy finding out he was a monster. It was so overwhelming that his body trembled.
Even though they had only known each other for a few days, he already couldn’t accept the boy’s death.
Fortunately, there was still a way.
Surviving in the Yang family wasn’t difficult. If, when the God-Making Plan began, he could pull off a switch and infuse the power of the "god" into the boy’s body, the boy would gain immortality.
So when Yang Chenjin proposed the idea, Yang Chenyan agreed without hesitation.
As for whether the God-Making Plan would fail—why should he care? He had long since grown tired of living in this inhuman state.
In fact, there was even a hint of secret delight in his heart. That way, the boy would become just like him.
He would stay with the Yang family forever, and they would be companions for all eternity.
In that moment, the identity he had always despised suddenly didn’t seem so loathsome.
To pull off the switch during the ritual, the boy had to survive until the day of Yang Chenfeng’s funeral. That wasn’t too hard.
But it also seemed very hard.
The boy was far too delicate—and even more so after falling ill. He would take just a couple of sips of medicine before spitting it out.
Yang Chenyan looked at him refusing to take his medicine and felt like forcing it down his throat. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
So instead, he followed the boy’s wishes and went to find something he wanted to eat.
Fresh vegetables weren’t available in the Yang household, so he had to leave and go buy some.
When he returned with the vegetables, the boy said they weren’t fresh. Yang Chenyan was so exasperated he laughed.
Fresh vegetables, huh? Fine.
Once the fresh vegetables are planted, if he still refuses to take his medicine obediently, he will make him understand the consequences of messing with him.
After that, he and Yang Chenjin worked hard all day just to plant fresh vegetables for the young man.
If it had been anyone else, he would have killed them long ago. But this was the young man.
Even knowing that he wouldn’t die, the sight of his pale face was still heartbreaking, making others want to fulfill his every whim.
He could only be willful for a few more days. Once the plan succeeded, he would have to pay the price for his stubbornness.
But no sooner had the vegetables been planted than their "father" returned.
Neither of them had forgotten that just a day ago, this garden had been full of beautiful flowers. Naturally, they were punished.
Their punishment was to be exposed to the sun.
For the Yang family, being out in the sun was worse than torture—even for the direct bloodline.
The sun would burn their skin, scorch their bodies, as if they were vampires exposed to daylight.
For the sake of the newly planted vegetables, they had no choice but to accept the punishment.
Soon, night fell. And night was extremely dangerous for those attending the funeral, because the Yang family had little control over themselves after dark.
But the loss of a few offerings didn’t matter to the ritual.
Yet somehow, the monsters outside became unusually restless that night, trying to break through the barrier.
If the monsters got in, all the offerings would be devoured. The god-making plan would fail—let alone the scheme to swap the sacrifice.
The direct bloodline of the Yang family had no choice but to stop the monsters.
But they never expected that when they returned to the villa, the young man would be in the study.
In that moment, Yang Chenyan’s heart was filled with fear—fear that his own hideous appearance would scare the young man, fear of seeing terror in his eyes.
He didn’t even dare to look at the young man, vanishing on the spot.
But when he returned, he discovered that their "father" had also taken an interest in the young man.
Their "father" was the first of the direct Yang bloodline and the true head of the family. No one knew just how powerful he was.
Fighting him was hopeless.
The two could only bide their time and wait for an opportunity.
The god-making plan required their "father" to channel his power to guide it—and that would be the best time to kill him.
But then, something unexpected happened. The god-making formation somehow turned into a summoning formation.
The long-vanished "god" had answered the call.
The moment Yang Chenyan saw the "god" choose Yang Chenfeng's body to descend, he understood why the "god" had appeared.
The "god" had returned for the young man. The "god" also coveted him.
To be more precise, the reason they felt their hearts stir for the young man was because the "god" itself was already moved by him.
They had merely inherited this will and instinct—the instinct to love the young man.
Going against their "father" still left a sliver of hope, but going against the "god" left none at all.
Even if all of them joined forces, they would be no match for the "god."
Everyone knew this, yet not one of them left. Each staked everything on the slim chance of an impossible possibility.
But in the end, a "god" is still a "god."
Yang Chenyan lay on the ground, his pupils slowly losing focus.
He felt a trace of unwillingness, though he couldn't say exactly why.
If there was a next life, he wanted to meet the young man again.
This time, it would be just him and him.
