Now that the threat to their lives was resolved, Zhou Jiao began to think about where she and Jiang Lian could stay next.
The small apartment assigned by the Special Bureau was obviously no longer an option, so she had no choice but to take Jiang Lian to a hotel.
The problem was, booking a hotel room required an identity chip—and those chips were manufactured by Biotech. Sleeping in a hotel was equivalent to sleeping under Biotech's watchful eye.
Zhou Jiao had no desire to be rudely awakened mid-slumber by Biotech's security personnel kicking down the door.
…Though, if it could cause Jiang Lian a bit of trouble, she might actually enjoy the idea.
She really was just that wicked.
But then again, wasn't that what he liked about her?
Zhou Jiao was only talking tough in her head. She didn't truly believe Jiang Lian found all her malice appealing.
Yet just as that thought flickered through her mind, Jiang Lian lowered his head and took a deep inhale against the crook of her neck.
Zhou Jiao: "…"
Was this his way of rewarding her?
His breath was cold and damp as it hit her skin, and his voice came low beside her ear: "You…"
She turned her head.
From that angle, she could see the tense lines of his jaw, the rapid bob of his Adam's apple, and a thick vein standing out against the pale skin of his neck.
Maybe it wasn't a vein at all—maybe it was a tentacle writhing beneath his skin, trying to escape out of excitement.
Even though they were in a seemingly intimate position, Zhou Jiao felt her heart skip. Her skin prickled with goosebumps.
Was it because his head was too close to her carotid artery?
After a long pause, Jiang Lian finally lifted his head. His expression was calm, but his breath was not.
"Don't keep releasing that scent," he said, brows drawn together as if searching for the right words. "It's… too tempting. It makes me…"
Zhou Jiao's heart pounded wildly. She was terrified he'd say something outrageous.
Kissing him had already been strange enough. She didn't want their relationship to spiral into something even weirder.
Then she heard him say:
"It makes me very uncomfortable. I want to kill you."
"…Oh."
Oddly enough, Zhou Jiao let out a breath of relief.
Thank god—he just wanted to kill her.
But still, if she could actually control her scent, the first thing she'd do wouldn't be to tone it down. She'd use it to control him and take over the world.
Unfortunately, she couldn't say that out loud.
And even if she did, he probably wouldn't understand.
So Zhou Jiao just flashed a sweet smile. "Okay, I'll try my best."
Jiang Lian straightened, staring at her smile with an unreadable expression.
Maybe agreeing to work with her had been a mistake.
She really did smell too good.
Like a rope wrapped tight around his neck, one he couldn't tear free from.
And he hated being bound.
Murderous rage bubbled up inside him.
A voice deep in his consciousness whispered: Kill her. That way, the rope will disappear.
He'd no longer be tempted. No longer controlled.
Jiang Lian stared at Zhou Jiao without blinking. The look behind his glasses was chilling enough to freeze blood.
Behind him, something cracked open—brief, narrow slits revealing violently twitching, purple-black tentacles steeped in an overwhelming murderous intent.
In that instant—
Zhou Jiao went cold all over. A shiver ran down her spine.
Damn it, this freak really did want to kill her.
He might have agreed to work with her, but he didn't understand concepts like keeping promises. He could break the deal and kill her at any moment.
Zhou Jiao could understand that.
After all, if she had agreed on a whim to cooperate with an ant, she wouldn't actually go through with it, either.
…but that understanding only worked if she wasn't the ant.
Somewhere in the air, an invisible countdown began ticking away. Time passed second by second.
Zhou Jiao's expression didn't change, but her brain was working overtime. Cold sweat beaded on her back, soaking her clothes in moments.
Everything around them seemed still. The temperature hadn't dropped. And yet, Zhou Jiao was absolutely certain—if Jiang Lian decided she no longer needed to live, she would die. Instantly. No last-minute struggle, no second chances.
Trying to talk him out of it wouldn't work. He didn't care what she said.
It wasn't that he didn't understand. He just didn't care.
He was too powerful—so far beyond human comprehension that no shift in circumstances could disturb him.
What did it matter if he was trapped in "Jiang Lian's" body?
He knew nothing in human society could hurt him. That's why, for the past six months, he hadn't bothered figuring out why he'd come to land—or how to return to the ocean. He simply went on living as Jiang Lian.
Only a creature who truly saw itself as superior to humanity could live with that kind of ease.
If she wanted to survive, human logic wouldn't persuade him.
She had only one option…
Gritting her teeth, Zhou Jiao raised her hand, gripped the back of his head, and pressed his face into the side of her neck.
"You want to smell?" she thought. "Then smell all you want."
The air went still. Only the sound of soft rain remained.
Though she had kissed him more times than she could count, this was the first time his face had rested directly on her neck.
She could feel the cold, sharp bridge of his nose, the metal of his glasses, his twitching nostrils… and when she remembered his face could split open like a Venus flytrap, she shuddered uncontrollably.
Zhou Jiao clenched her fists, trying to stay calm.
But the skin on her neck was too thin, too sensitive. Just below it was the wildly pulsing artery.
This position—like a gazelle offering its throat to a predator—was anything but safe.
…How could she not tremble?
She inhaled deeply, willing her heartbeat to slow.
Then, tilting her head, she brushed her cheek gently against his: "I know it's not that you dislike my scent… it's that you hate the feeling of being bound by it. Before inhabiting Jiang Lian's body, you never had a preference for anything. But now, thanks to his genes, you've developed an unnatural craving for me…"
Her lashes lowered as she ran her fingers through his short hair. The gesture seemed calm and affectionate—but if one looked closer, they'd see the cold sweat on her forehead, the subtle tremor in her pupils.
Still, her tone remained steady and soft:
"It's understandable you'd feel uncomfortable. But really, there's no need to worry. After all, I'm so weak…" she repeated her helplessness, her harmlessness. "And I've already made enemies of the 'gods' of human society—Biotech. If I lose your protection, they'll kill me. I'll never be able to bind you."
Freshly leashed beasts always struggle.
Only when the beast deems the rope nonthreatening does it begin to accept its presence.
Eventually, it even forgets the rope is there at all.
But no matter how harmless a leash may seem, it's still a tool used to control monsters. And when necessary, it tightens until they can't breathe.
Zhou Jiao kept holding Jiang Lian's head in place, trying to emit an aura of harmless purity.
…Though she had no idea whether she could actually emit that kind of aura.
The tension thickened. Jiang Lian didn't move.
Zhou Jiao's arms began to go numb.
They were in an almost-embrace now. Jiang Lian's head nestled in the crook of her neck. She could feel the soft brush of his hair, the sharp lines of his face… and the alien chill that had nothing to do with being human.
Her shoulder felt like it was weighed down with ice.
Combined with the life-or-death stakes, her entire right side began to seize up.
She had no idea how much time had passed. Just when her toes started to cramp, a cold gust of air finally passed over her skin.
Jiang Lian spoke: "Okay."
He meant he wouldn't kill her.
Zhou Jiao finally exhaled a long, shaky breath.
Her clothes were soaked through with sweat.
Ever since yesterday, something inside her had been strung taut. She'd expected to feel exhausted—but strangely, she didn't.
In fact, she liked this feeling.
Dangerous. Thrilling. One heartbeat away from death.
This was the life she was meant to live—not something dull and routine, stuck on the same track day after day.
Still, enjoying danger didn't mean she was okay being someone else's pawn. Her life or death hinging on the whims of a monster?
Her lashes lowered as she lightly touched her bruised neck. Her eyes were cold.
One day…
Just then, Jiang Lian finally lifted his head from her shoulder.
Zhou Jiao immediately flashed him a bright smile. "Whatever you want to do next—I'll come with you."
·
Though Zhou Jiao desperately wanted to destroy Biotech today and send Jiang Lian back home tomorrow, that obviously wasn't possible. Even with his power, things needed to be planned carefully.
She couldn't rely too much on his strength—or else, when Biotech fell, she'd lose the rope she had around his neck.
…Though that rope already looked like it might snap at any moment.
First things first: they needed a place to rest.
Fortunately, now that she and Jiang Lian were technically unemployed, they could wander around looking for a hotel.
Along the way, Zhou Jiao's mind was full of heavy thoughts. It wasn't until the light of dawn began to rise that she finally looked up.
And realized—it had been a long time since she'd really looked at this city.
Bathed in the milky light of morning, the city resembled a massive industrial corpse—dark gray smokestacks, pale skyscrapers, slums built of cheap plastic and flickering neon signs. It was dirty, bleak, filled with contradiction and precision in equal measure.
There wasn't a single trace of greenery. Plants didn't exist in industrial zones or the slums. They only existed near company towers.
No matter where you were—no matter the smog, the acid rain, the blinding holograms—you could always spot those corporate towers from anywhere.
If this entire city were a social Darwinist experiment, the towers were the final goal.
And to reach that goal—to stay there—
People here would do anything.
Before Zhou Jiao was transferred to the Special Bureau, she'd worked at a Biotech hospital.
The hospital paid three times as much as the Bureau. But she'd failed Biotech's employee loyalty test and was demoted.
There, she once treated a patient who had overdosed on stimulants.
The patient had come from the slums but somehow climbed the ranks to become a corporate employee—something nearly impossible in Yu City, where moving from the bottom to the middle class was harder than murder.
She'd done it by working 85 hours a day, implanting over a dozen biochemical chips into her brain, and constantly operating at maximum bandwidth.
By the time she was wheeled into the ER, there wasn't a single drop of "normal" blood left in her body. Every drop was filled with stimulants.
Overuse of the chips had dulled her brain to the point where she needed massive doses of drugs just to keep her neurons firing.
But the human body builds tolerance. Sensory thresholds rise. Soon, she needed even stronger stimulants just to function.
Eventually, she died of repeated ventricular fibrillation.
Zhou Jiao remembered that patient so clearly because she was the attending physician that night—the one who pulled the white sheet over the girl's face.
"—Wait."
"Wait!"
Zhou Jiao suddenly looked up, her pupils contracting.
It was as if some long-blocked joint had finally been loosened—she suddenly grasped the cause and effect behind something that had been nagging at her.
That account, When Will BioTech Go Bankrupt, had posted a final blog entry filled with blacked-out words—"■■■". She hadn't ignored them out of disinterest, just hadn't had enough leads to pursue it… until now.
Just now, something clicked.
She knew what "■■" and "■■■" really meant.
Lips pressed tight, Zhou Jiao opened a webpage.
The social media feed appeared in her vision, but from the outside, only a faint silver shimmer flickered across her pupils.
She scrolled to that blog post:
"I can't take it anymore, I'm surrounded by monsters!!! Why am I the only one who sees what they really are? Are you all blind?! That person wants to turn everyone in the world into monsters MONSTERS MONSTERS MONSTERS!!! If you keep going on like this, one day you'll turn into monsters too!!!! I don't get how you're not afraid??? I'm terrified every day!!! Afraid they're poisoning us through ■■■!!! Hahaha bet you didn't expect that, the moment ■■ was invented, the gears of conspiracy started turning!!! Use ■■ long enough and you HAVE to take ■■■, and both ■■ and ■■■ belong to them!!! The world's gonna be theirs hahahaha we're all doomed together!!!!"
At first glance, it was complete gibberish. No one would know what "■■" and "■■■" meant.
But now, thinking back to that patient's story…
Replace "■■" with chip, and "■■■" with stimulant, and suddenly, it all made sense.
"I'm terrified every day!!! Afraid they're poisoning us through stimulants!!! Hahaha bet you didn't expect that, the moment chips were invented, the gears of conspiracy started turning!!! Use chips long enough and you HAVE to take stimulants, and both chips and stimulants belong to them!!! The world's gonna be theirs hahahaha we're all doomed together…"
Zhou Jiao had never feared anything—except Jiang Lian.
But now, her whole body shuddered with a chill that started from her scalp and plunged deep into her bones.
Because this… this was truly insidious.
Inside the company, competition was brutal. To avoid being laid off, people implanted chips to stay ahead.
But the chips had side effects: scattered attention, emotional blunting.
There was only one solution—BioTech's own "inhalable stimulant."
Within six months, resistance developed.
To keep working, to avoid being fired, people had no choice but to up their dosage…
And if BioTech was manipulating the stimulants…
The consequences were unimaginable.
No wonder that blogger had sounded so utterly unhinged.
Anyone would've gone mad if they realized this kind of thing.
At that moment, Zhou Jiao suddenly remembered something and scrolled down—
The final blog post.
She hadn't looked at the comments before—Jiang Lian had interrupted her.
There were 5,000 comments.
What had people said?
She steeled herself and tapped the comments section.
…
[You've finally realized.]
[You've finally realized.]
[You've finally realized.]
[You've finally realized.]
[You've finally realized.]
[You've finally realized.]
All five thousand comments—dense, endless—repeated the same line.
Zhou Jiao's eye twitched. She instinctively took a step back.
Her nerves were strung so tight that she hadn't noticed the steps behind her. Her foot slipped—she was about to fall.
In that split second, a purple-black tendril shot out from behind Jiang Lian, catching her back.
The chill seeped into her skin again—but this time, it wasn't the cold of corporate conspiracy.
It was something far more ancient and unknowable—cold from the deep sea, from a creature beyond human comprehension.
It still made her scalp tingle.
But—she had to admit—it also made her breathe easier.
Just a little.
Just a little bit.