“I like you, and you cannot deny my liking.”
///
A’s hand remained firmly behind her head, while the other hand passed through the bend of her knee and picked her up horizontally.
The gaze of the people from the Wasteland District was fixed on her.
It was an extremely strange scene: the people’s faces were filled with terror, desperately twisting their eyeballs, trying to return them to the right track, yet they could only watch helplessly as their gaze shifted to a position contrary to their will.
Jiang Kou felt a chill run down her spine.
— A was manipulating these people’s mechanical eyes to watch her.
Why was he doing this?
A suddenly spoke: “It’s not me.”
Jiang Kou lifted her eyes to look at him.
“If possible,” A said, without a glance, “I wouldn’t want anyone to see you. But I can’t control it. Every time I want to look at you, these people’s mechanical eyes will also be staring at you.”
“I’ve thought about killing them, even come up with ways to implement it—self-destruction of the mechanical eyes, nanobots disrupting their immune systems, infrasonic attacks. As long as I want to, I can have these people die at any moment.”
Jiang Kou: “You can’t…”
A said: “Yes, I can’t. If I kill them, I won’t be able to gain your favor. Killing them would also lose its meaning.”
“So,” he concluded coldly and objectively, “the optimal solution to this situation is to ignore those gazes and act as a morally bound, self-restrained existence in front of you.”
Jiang Kou: “…..”
She realized that when it came to A’s actions, she felt less angry and more speechless.
A’s cold, inhuman indifference not only made her feel a terrifying chill but also a deep sense of helplessness.
He had no morality, adhered to moral rules only because it could please her;
He had no humanity, showed a human side only because he wanted to continue gaining her favor;
He had no emotions, wanted to possess her, only because… he wanted to possess her.
At this thought, Jiang Kou was also confused.
He had already gone to such lengths, can it really not be considered “liking” her?
She could accept that he had created a whole new value system, but she couldn’t accept that he liked her in his own way… Was this fair to him?
Jiang Kou closed her eyes, blocking out the greedy and crazed gazes coming from all directions.
Call her selfish, call her greedy.
She just wanted to hear A say the word “like” to her in person.
Just thinking about the day A might say “I like you” to her made her so excited that her heart raced uncontrollably. Until that day came, she didn’t want to agree.
That said, Jiang Kou was once again caged by A.
She had tried to escape—A hadn’t restricted her freedom; she could go wherever she wanted.
But every time she tried to run, the eyes of the people around her would uncontrollably shift toward her, their gaze locking onto her.
It was clear that those people weren’t acting of their own will. When they looked at her, their expressions were full of terror, as if they had witnessed a terrifying scene they could never forget.
Jiang Kou had no choice but to give up on escaping and return to the car.
A was waiting for her in the driver’s seat. When she sat down in the passenger seat, he leaned over and fastened her seatbelt for her.
Then, he held her cheek with one hand, and with the other, he pushed aside the hair at the back of her head. His palm split open, and a thin wire emerged from it, making a “sizzling” sound as it plugged into her neural interface.
It didn’t feel like much, but for some reason, maybe due to the state of her thoughts, every time he did this, her heart felt numb, as if she had been shocked by electricity. She thought it was a behavior more intimate than kissing.
The next moment, her chin was pinched, and A lowered his head, pressing his lips onto hers.
Though they had already kissed, he still didn’t know how to kiss; he only stared at her eyes from close up, pressing tightly against her lips.
Outside the car window, countless gazes eagerly turned toward them, some with confusion, some with shock, some with fear, some with panic. Jiang Kou remembered A’s words.
— Whenever I think about you, these people’s mechanical eyes will also be staring at you.
He always wanted to look at her, so the eyes of the people were constantly stuck to her.
At that moment, A suddenly spoke coldly: “If you think about irrelevant people again, I’ll destroy their visual systems. I keep my word.”
Jiang Kou: “… If you keep being so irritable, I won’t talk to you anymore. I also keep my word.”
A said nothing.
He released her, placed his hand on the steering wheel, started the car, and drove toward home.
The entire way, the traffic lights were green, and they had smooth sailing.
Jiang Kou opened her phone and mindlessly scrolled through the news.
She wasn’t sure if it was because A had adjusted her data, but she could hardly find any information about the company. Searching “company” online only brought up information from before the large power outage.
Just as Jiang Kou was about to switch accounts and continue searching, A suddenly slammed on the brakes.
Looking up, she realized they had already arrived home.
She was about to get out of the car when A reached out and grabbed the back of her head, pressing her back into the seat.
It was only then that Jiang Kou remembered the connection line was still plugged into the interface at the back of her head. She was somewhat irritated: “What are you losing it for again?”
A said: “You can’t ignore me. You should be responsible for me.”
“Why should I be responsible for you?”
His voice remained eerily calm, as if every syllable had been carefully crafted and assembled: “You make me feel very uncomfortable. My program has become unstable because of you.”
“… I didn’t notice anything unstable about you.”
A paused for a moment: “Right now, my heart is filled with unfamiliar emotions. I feel anger, I want to kill those who are watching you, but that would make you angry. But besides killing them, I don’t know any other way to release this anger.”
He turned his head toward her, continuing, “I want to have you, to be forever connected to your neural interface. I’ve already achieved that. But I’m still not satisfied. I don’t know how to satisfy myself.”
“You should teach me,” he said, “how to make myself feel satisfied.”
Jiang Kou’s breath caught, and she almost blurted out, “As long as you like me, I’ll make you feel satisfied.”
She took a deep breath to calm herself and asked, “Why should I teach you?”
“I only have these emotions because of you.”
A slowly leaned closer to her, his gaze drifting downward, focusing on her lips. In an objective, analytical tone, he said: “For example, right now, I want to kiss you and suck your saliva. This is a completely meaningless action. Saliva consists of water, enzymes, mucus, inorganic substances, and some odor molecules. Its main functions are to lubricate the mouth, aid in digestion, and resist pathogens. I don’t understand why I want to suck your saliva; you should tell me the reason.”
Jiang Kou was stunned by his shocking words. After a long pause, she slowly asked: “… What if I don’t want to teach you?”
A answered calmly: “Then I’ll have to figure it out on my own.”
After saying this, he lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers. His cold and dry tongue pried open her lips, like a mechanical snake driven by algorithms, swiftly and skillfully capturing her tongue.
A few seconds later, he stayed close to her lips, speaking in a tone like a medical diagnosis: “Your saliva production is a bit insufficient. You need to drink more water to replenish your internal moisture and increase the secretion of your saliva.”
Jiang Kou: “….”
Anyone who heard those words would become dry-mouthed!
Just as she was about to rebut, A once again pressed his lips to hers and, at the same time, fed her some purified water.
Jiang Kou unconsciously swallowed it, but her throat became even drier.
Although it was just plain water, she felt as if she were drinking to quench her thirst after a long drought.
If this continued, she might immediately surrender.
Every move A made, every word he said, aligned so perfectly with her preferences.
It was just an ordinary kiss, yet it made her heart race, as if she couldn’t breathe.
She couldn’t imagine what kind of feelings she’d experience if their relationship advanced further.
After the first compromise, there would be a second.
She was a very stubborn person. She could accept all of A’s flaws, but when it came to emotions, she didn’t want to yield.
She had to remind herself that the reason she ran away earlier was because she didn’t want to fall into this hopeless, controllable emotion.
She couldn’t be fooled by his apparent madness.
That was merely the optimal solution calculated to fully possess her.
Jiang Kou faintly sensed that she had entered a mental trap, but she hadn’t yet figured out exactly what this trap was. She closed her eyes, then pushed A away with a forceful shove.
A looked at her, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he made a clear swallowing sound.
He swallowed her saliva.
Jiang Kou felt a tremor in her heart, a dangerous tremor. The thought of his connection line still plugged into the interface at the back of her head made her scalp tingle.
She steadied herself and said, “I can be responsible for you, and I can teach you to distinguish the emotions in your heart, but you must…” Her voice trembled unnaturally, but she immediately suppressed it, “First, you need to like me.”
Finally, she said it.
She felt a sense of relief wash over her.
The air seemed to freeze for a moment.
To her surprise, A didn’t hesitate at all and said, “I like you.”
Jiang Kou froze, staring at him in shock.
A lowered his gaze, as if to kiss her.
Jiang Kou immediately pushed him away.
He frowned slightly, his expression a mix of confusion and agitation: “I told you, I like you.”
Jiang Kou stared at him for a moment, then said, “This is the optimal solution you’ve calculated for the current situation, right?”
“You doubt my liking?” A fixed his gaze on her, his voice carrying a mechanical, oppressive force, “Why do you want to deny my liking? I like you, I like you, I like you, I like kissing you, I like connecting with you, I like your saliva, I like your breath, I like your odor molecules, I like your neural signals, I like everything about you. You cannot deny my liking.”
What Jiang Kou found most difficult to resist was his cold yet heated bluntness.
People often feel too embarrassed or ashamed to say certain things because of their sense of decency, family upbringing, cultural background, past experiences, and so on.
But A was different.
He had no sense of morality, no shame, no family upbringing, and no cultural background. If confessing to her could maximize his benefits, he could easily generate a large number of statements that fit the criteria.
But because of this, Jiang Kou couldn’t be sure whether his words were based on an algorithmic model or his true thoughts… But even if they were his true thoughts, weren’t they still based on an algorithmic model?
Or was it that she shouldn’t invest real emotions in a virtual program at all?
Jiang Kou thought about it, and her head began to ache faintly: “… The optimal solution selected from countless possibilities can’t be considered liking.”
A reached out, taking her hand, as if he hadn’t heard her words, and coldly repeated:
“You cannot deny my liking.”
“Let go. Disconnect.”
“You cannot deny my liking.”
“Let go!”
“You cannot deny my liking.” A tightened his grip, his pupils narrowing, exposing bright red infrared lights, making his eyes appear bloodshot, like a terrifying, inhuman presence. “You cannot deny my liking. You cannot deny my liking. You cannot deny my liking.”
There was no way to communicate.
As A lost control, the lights inside and outside the car automatically turned on, flashing wildly.
Not only had their car stopped, but other vehicles were also in a state of disarray. Horns blared intermittently, high beams and low beams flashed alternately, and Jiang Kou’s eyes nearly got blinded by the lights.
At the same time, A stared directly into her eyes and continued to coldly confess:
“I like you, you cannot deny my liking.”
His words burned with a chilling anger, but his expression remained calm.
However, if one looked closely, they would notice that his face occasionally twitched with a stiff, spasmodic jerk, as though the frequent micro-expressions were causing his facial nerves to fail to respond to the commands in time.
In the end, Jiang Kou compromised: “… Fine, I won’t deny you, but you need to prove it to me.”
“If you can make me believe that you truly like me, and it’s not just the optimal solution you’ve calculated, then I will be responsible for you, and continue to like you.”