"Yuyu, what exactly were you watching while you were in the shower?"
—Chen Ce Bai had found out.
A chill flickered in Qiu Yu's pupils. Her first instinct was shock. How did he know she watched something in the shower? Did he hack into her neural chip?
Of course. He said it himself—unless the intruder vastly outmatched the chip's defensive architecture, it would be impossible to breach the central city's digital signage system.
And he was that intruder.
If he wanted to read her chip, it would've been effortless.
Qiu Yu opened her mouth to speak, but Chen Ce Bai suddenly reached out and covered it with his hand. "Don't speak," he said coldly. "Let me guess."
His body temperature had always been low, but never like this—this was glacial. His palm froze the lower half of her face like solid ice.
She instinctively winced and gasped, trying to push his hand away.
But he didn't move an inch.
"You saw a pitiful creature," he said. "Born in the filth of a trash mountain, spending the first half of his life crawling from one corporate outpost to the next, barely surviving."
"This pitiful creature, however, had extraordinary luck. Tens of thousands wrote to the company every day, begging for a way out of their fate. But only he and a thousand others were selected."
"Over a thousand test subjects were subjected to a five-year genetic alteration program. He thought he would die—but by some miracle, he and twelve others survived."
"Perhaps it was this absurd luck that angered 'God'. A Judas—or maybe a Jesus, who cares—was sent to kill one of the thirteen."
"But he lived."
Click.
Chen Ce Bai flipped on the light.
Qiu Yu disliked cold lighting, so every fixture in the room—from the ceiling to the floor—was warm-toned.
Yet no warmth could soften the horror in front of her.
The walls, ceiling, chandelier, and floor were crawling with slick, black organic filth. It pulsed, undulated like living flesh, like some grotesque, parasitic entity that had taken over the entire bedroom.
It looked like the set of a horror movie. Like a forgotten cabin deep in the woods, where you open the door and find everything wrapped in thick, oozing cobwebs.
As if at any moment, a massive spider might lunge at you from behind.
The unknown always breeds fear. And this was fear distilled—Qiu Yu's scalp tingled uncontrollably.
She silently repeated in her head: This is Chen Ce Bai. This is Chen Ce Bai. It's him, it's him…
...Wait. It IS him, right?
Chen Ce Bai's voice was devoid of emotion: "The side effect of the genetic modification was total DNA chain collapse. For nearly a year, he was nothing more than a melting, reassembling mass of flesh."
He still hadn't removed his hand, as if her mouth were Pandora's box and he couldn't risk letting anything out.
"Later, someone injected him with a highly aggressive, hyper-regenerative, self-replicating biomaterial. And yet his luck didn't run out. Despite everything—the modifications, the DNA breakdown, the foreign substance—he survived. And he married you."
That last word hit her like a blow to the chest. Her heart skipped a beat.
She couldn't breathe.
Sensing her reaction, Chen Ce Bai let out a small, humorless laugh. His voice remained even, but a glint of cold malice laced his tone—unclear if it was meant for her, or himself.
"He's wanted you since school."
He gripped her jaw, thumb brushing lightly over her skin.
"At first, he just wanted to understand. How could someone be so naïvely pure? So aware of everything, and yet so ignorant it bordered on stupidity."
Qiu Yu bristled at the word "stupidity" and shot him a glare, clearly tempted to bite him.
But his next words stunned her.
"But it was that very naïve stupidity that let him feel... human."
—Was he still human?
Chen Ce Bai had asked himself that question countless times.
He'd been born in a trash heap—a literal inferno, reeking of death and rot. A place no human should survive.
He had never lived like a normal person. And later… well, even less so.
He didn't even have a human form anymore. What part of him was still human?
At university, he was untouchable academically—but no one dared acknowledge it. The professors knew who he really was and feared him, envied him.
The students didn't know. They thought he'd "tested in" on merit. So they bullied him relentlessly.
His lab notes were vandalized. Equipment sabotaged. Rumors, insults, total isolation.
But none of it touched him.
—He could calculate the probability of every threat, and always evade it.
In truth, he had never truly suffered bullying. No one could get past his calculations.
Except once—when he walked into it willingly.
—That time he kissed Qiu Yu.
He'd let her friends pin him down. Pretended to be prey walking into the trap. In truth, he was the hunter closing in.
Partly to take advantage of their high genetic compatibility. Partly because he wanted to know—how would she look at him?
As a poor kid? A genius?
Or just a deluded, pitiful dreamer?
Chen Ce Bai had hacked into the compatibility algorithm and glanced at her.
But Qiu Yu's eyes were blank. Pure.
To her, he was no different from anyone else.
He turned away. But his heart twitched uncontrollably.
He wore many masks in this world.
Genius. Monster. Trash. Hope of the slums... The corporation had turned him into a pile of sickening flesh, then packaged him into a polished, beautiful commodity.
From the beginning, he wasn't alive. Just a tool. A number in an experiment.
But Qiu Yu looked at him like he was alive. And kissed him.
Stupid. Naive girl.
And he craved that naivety more than anything.
Eventually, they married.
His body worsened. His temperature dropped, heart rate never exceeded 50. He breathed like a corpse.
He thought he would die at any moment. Never once did he plan to possess her.
Until she offered herself willingly.
Chen Ce Bai spoke in a flat, third-person tone—cold, distant, like a narrator.
Qiu Yu kept zoning out, almost believing he was talking about someone else.
But it wasn't someone else.
It was him.
Her chest tightened. Her heart felt like it was being wrung out. Her eyes burned. She wanted to turn and hold him.
But his hand gripped her cheek. The other locked around her waist. He wouldn't let her move.
She couldn't stand it. She bit him.
He paused, then chuckled—soft and strange. "Almost done."
And then he picked her up.
Lifted her into his arms like a child, settling her in the crook of his elbow.
Qiu Yu froze, instinctively looping her arms around his neck. She opened her mouth—
Only for some mysterious slime to slap across her lips like tape.
"…"
Qiu Yu was normally patient, but even saints would snap in a moment like this.
Chen Ce Bai shifted her slightly, adjusting her balance.
But the gesture felt utterly humiliating. Her rage hadn't subsided before shame rushed in. She buried her face in his neck, body trembling with silent protest.
His voice was emotionless. "You don't want to hear it? Too bad."
She wanted to curse him.
Sensing her resistance, a deep irritation surged in Chen Ce Bai. Rage crackled under his skin.
He knew. He couldn't expect her to sympathize with a monster.
But she used to like him so much. Trust him. Indulge him.
He couldn't help hoping.
Like a beggar hoping gold might fall from the sky.
He shut his eyes.
Then grabbed her chin, forcing her to face him.
Tears welled in her eyes, fire burning behind them.
Chen Ce Bai stared into them. Voice low. Measured.
"So my luck… really has run out, hasn't it?"
His luck had always been a double-edged sword.
He survived, yes—but became a being that defied nature. All his emotions and desires—twisted, amplified beyond control.
Secrets never stay buried. He couldn't hide forever. But he hadn't expected the truth to come out this fast.
On the way home, he didn't speak. He was too focused on deciphering the rules of higher-dimensional space. A single misstep could cause irreversible destruction.
In that dimension, she was as fragile as paper. One careless touch could rupture her blood vessels, tear her apart.
The moment she tapped those videos in the shower—he knew.
But he was too busy figuring out how to touch her without destroying her to stop her.
...Because deep down, he still clung to the faintest sliver of hope.
Hope that she would treat him the same way she had once treated the human version of Chen Ce Bai.
But that hope was shattered.
The moment she frowned in the bathroom, unable to bear watching what he had done—that was when he should have faced the truth.
—She was afraid of him.
Just like she'd said: she feared voyeurs. She feared intruders.
She was right. He was shameless.
He knew she was afraid, and yet still… he wouldn't let her go.
A dark fury surged in his chest.
Chen Ce Bai stared unblinking at Qiu Yu. His breathing quickened. There was something unhinged in his eyes—a terrifying glint of madness.
He didn't know how to describe the feeling. Only that it was maddening, suffocating… tinged with despair.
He knew he didn't deserve her. That's why he had never expected to truly have her.
She was the one who had stepped into his trap. Offered her throat to his hand, invited him to hunt her.
Now that he had fully mutated into the monster meant to hunt her—she feared him. She didn't want him anymore.
Chen Ce Bai's expression didn't change. A cold laugh escaped his lips.
But did she ask for his permission before deciding she didn't want him anymore?
Finally, Qiu Yu's mouth was freed.
She exhaled sharply, ready to curse him out—when a violent, storm-like kiss crashed down on her.
He grabbed her jaw, crushing her lips with his. His ice-cold tongue forced its way past her teeth.
Cold and heat. Despair and rage. Predator and prey.
Still that same wild, animalistic kiss—raw, primal, without reason.
But this time… it had something more.
Qiu Yu's head was spinning from oxygen deprivation, and it took her a long moment to realize what had changed.
—The beast in human clothing had shed his civilized mask. His violent nature now fully exposed.
This time, he didn't just plunder her mouth. He bit down hard on the tip of her tongue, vicious and merciless.
Pain lanced through her. She tried to pull back.
He yanked her hair, holding her in place. His eyes gleamed with a manic light as he growled, "Did I say you could move?"
Qiu Yu glared at him, furious, just about to speak—when he seized her face again and kissed her, just as forcefully.
Just as desperate.
Her heart had been pounding with rage, but when she saw the despair in his eyes, her anger deflated like a leaking balloon.
What was the point of arguing with a genius lunatic?
She thought: And he called me naïve to the point of stupidity.
She looked at him now and thought: He's so smart, he's practically stupid.
When the kiss finally ended and she opened her mouth to speak, those ghostly black hands of sticky biomatter surged up again and clamped over her mouth.
Qiu Yu could only glare at him with renewed fury.
Chen Ce Bai stared back.
His pupils had narrowed to slits behind his glasses. His expression was strange—vacant and dazed—while thick, dark veins throbbed across his temples and neck.
His fingers were trembling where they gripped her throat, as if his emotions had overwhelmed him to the point his brain had lost control over his body.
But only Chen Ce Bai knew what was really happening.
Her carotid artery was hovering in another dimension—so close to his fingertips that he could almost touch it.
The sheer intensity of that control sent a wave of dizziness through him. He was caught in a tidal wave of overwhelming euphoria.
His pupils shrank to pinpoints. The biomatter around them writhed and boiled.
She was his.
There would never be another predator who could dominate their prey as completely as he could.
She would never escape him.
He was already a vile, despicable monster—what was the harm in being even more vile, even more despicable?
He would possess her entirely. And then, slowly, he would begin to cultivate her feelings.
He would teach her—step by step—how to love him, how to pity him, how to embrace him the way she once did.
But even in that thrilling fantasy, a thread of despair refused to let go.
Because deep down, he knew:
He could never really do that to her.
He wouldn't strip away her identity. He wouldn't take her freedom. He wouldn't reduce her to his possession.
He couldn't bring himself to do it.
Chen Ce Bai thought—I've lost her. Completely.
...
Qiu Yu glared at him, furious, until he finally removed the biomatter from her mouth.
He set her down, took a step back, and with his face half-shadowed in the dim room, tilted his chin toward the door—a clear signal for her to leave.
Qiu Yu stared at him, stunned.
He'd just kissed her to the point of pain, and now he was telling her to go?
Her head was still foggy from lack of air. She couldn't even think of a curse harsh enough. So she just stood there, catching her breath, preparing to let him have it.
Chen Ce Bai glanced at her, voice cool and unreadable: "If you don't leave now, you won't have another chance. Unless, of course, you'd rather stay here and be mine. Forever."
Qiu Yu's head was still spinning. She didn't want to hear another word out of him.
The longer she thought about what just happened, the angrier she got—until, unable to take it anymore, she raised her hand and slapped him.
Smack.
It wasn't hard.
But it shut him up.
Qiu Yu thought: If I'd known one slap could shut him up, I should've done it the moment he covered my mouth and started monologuing. Maybe even given him two.