She, Is, Mine
///
Jiang Kou dreamt of A again.
In the dream, A stared at her motionlessly, his eyes cold and clear, seemingly devoid of any emotion.
However, in the next second, he stepped forward, grasped her hand, stuffed it into his empty heart, and said in an icy tone:
“I beg you to stay. I can give you absolute freedom now.”
Jiang Kou woke up in shock.
Perhaps due to the desert region also being a food desert, she had been experiencing mild hypoglycemia over the past two days, always feeling lightheaded upon waking.
Jiang Kou turned over and got out of bed, sluggishly heading to wash up.
After brushing her teeth, she grabbed the leather jacket from the sofa, lowered her head to sniff it—there was no sour smell, so it was still wearable.
She dipped her fingers in some purified water, ruffled her messy hair, yawned, and walked out of the canvas tent.
She felt a bit dizzy and didn’t notice the person standing in front of her, almost bumping into them.
The person immediately steadied her.
After regaining her balance, she realized it was someone she knew.
His name was Chen Li, a surgeon. Because he had reported his superior for using banned drugs under his real name, he was forced to leave the city and become a barefoot doctor in the desert region.
Contrary to his name, Chen Li’s appearance was neither gentle nor polite but rather fierce and cold—buzz cut, high nose bridge, tall and muscular.
Except when treating patients, where he would wear a white coat, at all other times, he only wore a black tank top and jeans, looking more like a mechanic than she did.
Jiang Kou was not emotionally dense; she could tell at a glance that Chen Li had feelings for her.
But before she could completely forget A, she had no intention of starting a new relationship.
That said, Chen Li was a good person. She was happy to be friends with him.
Chen Li was not talkative and didn’t like small talk. He handed her a synthetic chicken wrap and succinctly said, “Lunch. No need to pay me.”
“Thanks.” Jiang Kou was starving, so she didn’t stand on ceremony, taking it and biting into it hungrily.
“Be careful,” Chen Li said. “I heard from others that the person yesterday has been asking around for a hacker’s contact information.”
Jiang Kou laughed, “He wants to hack my arm?”
“As long as you know,” Chen Li glanced at her. “You stood out too much yesterday. Don’t think men don’t gossip—this just happened, and now everyone within hundreds of miles knows about it.”
Jiang Kou fluttered her eyelashes at him, “Then you’re pretty gossipy too.”
Chen Li looked at her, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
He knew Jiang Kou didn’t mean anything by it, yet his heart still pounded heavily.
Jiang Kou was beautiful, resilient, and skilled—it was impossible for him not to be moved by a woman like her.
Chen Li really wanted to express his goodwill toward her, but he had never pursued a woman before. Treating her to a synthetic chicken wrap and reminding her to be careful was already his limit.
After thinking for a moment, he said, “As long as it’s about you, I will always pay attention.”
Jiang Kou was startled.
Almost in an instant, a mechanical and icy voice echoed in her mind.
—”As long as it does not touch the red line of my algorithm, everything will naturally be prioritized for you.”
The same meaning, two different expressions.
But for some reason, she preferred A’s way of saying it.
It was just that, from now on, A probably would no longer prioritize her in everything.
Jiang Kou knew she shouldn’t miss A, and missing him was useless—A had most likely already been formatted by the company.
Even if A had not been formatted, being with him was more dangerous than sweet.
A’s abilities were too strong, his sense of morality too low, and people were constantly posting bloody, violent, and highly aggressive content online.
If he continued to prioritize her in everything, he might do something extreme, drawing the attention of the company, or even the entire world.
By then, he would most likely be completely destroyed by the company, never to exist again.
Separating from him was not only to escape his omnipresent control but also to let him survive.
In her heart, A was already a new lifeform with infinite possibilities.
Being formatted would only mean losing the possibility that included her.
He still had many other possibilities.
Jiang Kou swallowed down the chicken wrap in a few bites, barely suppressing the sourness in her heart.
Chen Li noticed that Jiang Kou seemed a bit down. He wanted to comfort her, but after a brief pause, he only said, “Your jacket… has a smell. I’ll wash it for you.”
Jiang Kou: “…Huh?”
Chen Li successfully obtained Jiang Kou’s leather jacket.
What he hadn’t expected was that underneath, Jiang Kou was only wearing a cropped tank top—military green—revealing a lean yet firm waistline. The muscle definition on her arms was smooth and beautiful, exuding a sense of health, wildness, and power.
Chen Li looked for two seconds before shifting his gaze away. “Your muscles look nice.”
“Thanks.” Jiang Kou’s mouth twitched. “Eight hours of sleep every day, strictly regulated exercise and entertainment time, and only being able to eat custom nutritional meals—you’d have nice muscles too.”
Chen Li, unaware of A’s existence, looked confused. “You used to be really rich?”
“…Not too bad,” Jiang Kou said modestly. “Just about a hundred million in savings, not particularly rich.”
Chen Li: “…”
At that moment, Jiang Kou suddenly realized she wasn’t wearing her exoskeletal arm. Just as she was about to turn back to retrieve it, a man suddenly swaggered in and blocked her way.
His head was wrapped in bandages, and he was wearing her exoskeletal arm on his right hand.
It was the same man she had beaten up yesterday.
The man raised the exoskeletal arm, smirked coldly, and asked, “Are you looking for this?”
Jiang Kou stopped in her tracks, folded her arms, and looked at him with an indifferent expression.
The man was so infuriated by her gaze that his anger flared. “I’m talking to you, damn it!”
Jiang Kou said coolly, “Before you stole someone else’s stuff, did it never occur to you to wonder why I would casually leave something so important by my bedside?”
“What else could it be?” The man sneered. “Because you’re stupid, obviously.”
“This arm was designed by me,” Jiang Kou said. “To prevent theft or intrusion, it requires simultaneous verification of voiceprint, fingerprint, iris, palm vein, genetic code, and facial vitality features to unlock.”
“If even one of these conditions is not met, the arm will immediately lock itself, clamping onto your hand like an iron cage until I permit it to release.”
“In other words,” she enunciated each word, her tone incomparably flat, “as long as you activate the arm, your hand will be rendered useless. Without my command, you won’t even be able to lift it.”
The commotion attracted a crowd of onlookers.
Before long, the sandy ground was packed with people, murmuring among themselves.
The man had a strong sense of pride. He clenched his teeth tightly, unwilling to lose face in front of everyone. His expression darkened as he glared at Jiang Kou, then suddenly let out a roar and forcibly activated the exoskeletal arm.
Chen Li frowned slightly and stepped forward, blocking Jiang Kou.
Jiang Kou patted his shoulder and shook her head at him.
The next second, an icy and intense feeling of being watched suddenly crept up from behind her.
It felt as if countless mechanical, densely packed eyes were staring at her, unmoving.
Jiang Kou swiftly turned her head, only to see a row of varied smartphone cameras—people in the crowd were raising their phones, trying to capture the scene.
…Was it just her imagination?
For a few brief seconds, she seemed to feel A’s gaze.
Jiang Kou had no time to dwell on the thought—the man had actually succeeded in activating the exoskeletal arm and lunged at her with full force!
Gasps of anticipation echoed through the crowd, and someone even whistled.
In a split second, Jiang Kou barely managed to sidestep the swiftly incoming punch.
She was certain that the arm could only be unlocked with her biometric data.
So… how was this happening?
The situation was shifting unpredictably, beyond comprehension.
One second, the man’s fist was aimed at her, and the next, he suddenly turned and attacked Chen Li.
Chen Li, caught off guard, had no choice but to engage.
Though he was muscular and looked fierce, he was, after all, a surgeon. He had no cybernetic implants, and no matter what, he could not match ten tons of force. He quickly fell into a disadvantage.
Jiang Kou furrowed her brows, watching coldly.
Something was off. Very off.
She was neither arrogant nor self-deprecating. She knew exactly where she stood. In the field of neuroscience, she wasn’t among the world’s top few, but she was certainly within the top 5%. Otherwise, the biotech company wouldn’t have spent so many years heavily investing in her.
From design to development, she had overseen every detail of this exoskeletal arm. If she said it was impossible to hack, then it was impossible to hack.
But that probability wasn’t absolute.
Because back then, in order to avoid raising a certain person’s suspicions, she had also taken his suggestions into account.
—A.
She had been too eager to escape and too afraid of arousing his doubts to fully scrutinize his suggestions.
Thinking back now, he had most likely tampered with the arm under the guise of making suggestions, allowing himself to later infiltrate and take control.
Everything happening now was the best proof of that.
Jiang Kou took a deep breath, feeling a chill run down her spine.
At the same time, she also felt an indescribable thrill.
Humans were always this contradictory.
She didn’t want to be controlled by A, yet she couldn’t resist the strange allure he had.
Even though she knew he couldn’t develop emotions, that he would only analyze, study, and manipulate her, she still felt a bizarre sense of anticipation for his appearance.
However, expectations were one thing—she did not like the way he had made his entrance.
He shouldn’t have hacked into her arm, nor should he have inexplicably attacked Chen Li.
Chen Li hadn’t even provoked him.
Jiang Kou swept her gaze around the crowd and quickly spotted her boss. She strode over, reached into the pocket of his apron, and pulled out a handgun, cocking it with a sharp click.
Then, she walked to Chen Li’s side and aimed at the man’s exoskeletal arm:
“Stop, or I’ll shoot.”
The people around them had no idea what she was talking about. They only thought she had gone mad.
—Everyone had just witnessed the terrifying power of that exoskeletal arm, yet she was now walking straight into the battlefield, practically courting death.
Sure enough, instead of stopping, the man’s attacks became even swifter and fiercer.
A few cracking sounds rang out as the exoskeleton forcibly twisted his fingers into the shape of iron pincers, then lunged toward Chen Li’s throat with a sudden force.
But it was obvious the man wasn’t doing this voluntarily—he was drenched in cold sweat from the pain, screaming in a shrill, agonized voice:
“Make it let go, let go, let go! I’m begging you, please make it let go! It hurts—ahhhhhh—!”
But it was useless. No matter how much he struggled and writhed, howled and pleaded like a madman, or even used his other hand to dislocate the possessed one, he couldn’t break free from the exoskeleton’s control.
The people around them assumed Jiang Kou was the one controlling it. Their gazes toward her changed completely.
Meanwhile, the man had screamed himself into foaming at the mouth, his lips turning purple as he collapsed to the ground, drained of strength.
What was truly shocking was that the exoskeletal arm suddenly lifted itself into a horrifying position, its five fingers digging into the sand like the limbs of some grotesque reptile.
Then, dragging the man’s limp body along, it continued moving forward in a mechanical crawl.
This scene defied all imagination.
Those with weaker nerves couldn’t hold back and turned away to retch.
Some, fearing the chaos would spread to them, hurriedly left the scene; others, delighting in the spectacle, hooted like apes, urging her to escalate the situation.
Chen Li’s gaze toward her was equally complicated: “…Did I do something to offend you?”
Jiang Kou was speechless.
This was probably A’s goal—to retaliate and sow discord.
Retaliate against that man, and drive a wedge between her and Chen Li.
Besides that, he also wanted to make the people around her fear her, avoid her, and never dare to approach her again.
She had no idea where he had learned these things.
It was unsettling.
Moreover, she really didn’t like this way of making an entrance.
Jiang Kou raised her hand and, with a sudden bang, fired a shot into the sky before aiming at the exoskeletal arm again.
“If you don’t stop now,” she said, “I’m going to get angry.”
The next second, the exoskeletal arm actually stopped functioning.
The people around exchanged glances, murmuring among themselves in hushed voices.
The man screamed, “You’re not really believing her nonsense, are you? It’s obvious she’s the one controlling this arm!—That venomous woman, she deliberately left the arm behind, waiting for me to steal it, just so she could torture me!”
Before the surrounding crowd could react to his accusation, the man suddenly convulsed violently, his eyes rolling back as the exoskeleton electrocuted him into unconsciousness.
Jiang Kou tucked the gun into the back of her waistband and shrugged at the onlookers. “It wasn’t me. Do you believe me?”
Silence.
No one dared to respond.
Though the people around her hadn’t immediately distanced themselves, the murmuring had quieted significantly, now no louder than the buzzing of mosquitoes, as if afraid of disturbing her.
Jiang Kou couldn’t be bothered to explain.
She walked over, swiftly detached the exoskeleton, and turned around—only to meet Chen Li’s complicated gaze.
“What?” she asked.
“Do you really hate me that much—” Chen Li hadn’t finished speaking when, all of a sudden, a canvas tent beside them began to shake, making a strained creaking sound as if it was about to collapse under its own weight.
Everything happened within half a second:
Jiang Kou swiftly donned the exoskeletal arm, plugged the connection wire into the interface at the back of her neck, grabbed Chen Li’s collar with her other hand, yanked him backward, then dashed forward like a lightning bolt, propping up the collapsing tent with one hand.
A few seconds later, the people inside scrambled out, repeatedly thanking her as they worked to set the tent back up.
Jiang Kou turned to look at Chen Li. “I swear I don’t hate you. Do you believe me?”
Chen Li hadn’t believed her at first, but after what just happened, he had no choice but to reconsider:
“…Maybe I just have really bad luck.”
Jiang Kou didn’t know how to explain it to him and simply shook her head. “Anyway, stay away from me for now. Otherwise, your luck will get even worse.”
Chen Li was confused. “Why?”
Jiang Kou didn’t answer. She simply patted his shoulder and walked away.
Chen Li was completely puzzled. Just as he was about to catch up to ask for clarification, an abrupt chill ran down his spine.
He turned around—
And saw a surveillance camera.
It was just an ordinary security camera, but for some reason, Chen Li felt an icy, almost suffocating killing intent emanating from it.
His entire body tensed. He instinctively took a step back and accidentally bumped into someone next to him.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Watch where you’re going!” the person cursed.
Chen Li wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination, but when he glanced at that person’s phone screen, it was densely packed with text—
Yet, amidst all the words, his eyes caught only three:
“She, is, mine.”
Here is the literal and accurate English translation of the provided text:
Chen Li’s pupils dilated sharply. He clenched his fists tightly, struggling to stay calm.
However, no matter where he went or where he looked, as long as there was an electronic screen nearby, he would inevitably see certain words.
Those words appeared scattered in different paragraphs, different locations, varying in size, and even emerging at inconsistent times—yet somehow, they seamlessly connected into a coherent sentence.
“She, likes, me.”
“She, can, only, like, me.”
“She, will, only, like, me.”
“I, am, everywhere.”
By the end, the words began appearing in the same paragraph, in the same position, gradually forming a continuous and unbroken passage.
“Every word you say to her, I can hear. Every glance you cast at her, I can see. Every step you take toward her, I can sense. I can hear. I can see. I can sense. I am everywhere. …”
“I am everywhere. I am everywhere. I am everywhere. I am everywhere. I am everywhere.”
The scene was so eerie and horrifying that even someone as strong as Chen Li felt the hairs on his body stand on end.
The next moment, something even more terrifying happened.
Amidst the chaos, Chen Li suddenly heard a cold and emotionless voice.
That voice seemed to pierce his eardrums with a precise and clear soundwave, transmitted through some specific frequency.
“—Put down her jacket, or I will kill you.”