She Doesn’t Want Him!!!
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Two months later.
New Federation, California.
Zhou Jiao stood in front of the mirror, carefully examining her own face.
The effect of the military-grade mask was excellent. She now looked like a completely different person, with no trace of her former appearance in her brows or eyes.
Next, she only needed to undergo one more surgery to reshape and disguise her voiceprint, fingerprints, iris, palm veins, and other identifiers. Then, she could completely rid herself of the identity of “Zhou Jiao.”
Two months ago, she had followed the emergency green light all the way to the end of the escape passage. Just as she climbed into the escape pod, countless black-red flesh tendrils surged in like a tidal wave.
Perhaps they could no longer be called tentacles. They were more like a layer of endlessly fissuring flesh membrane, writhing frantically, expanding, covering everything they could.
In almost the blink of an eye, the escape passage transformed into a horrifying, sticky, fleshy nest.
The escape pod, surrounded by the flesh tendrils, was unable to launch.
She seemed to have no way out—except to submit to Jiang Lian.
Zhou Jiao clenched the electromagnetic gun.
Moments later, she stepped out of the escape pod.
The flesh membrane covering the ground immediately extended several black-red tentacles, twisting around her ankles, wrists, and waist with a frenzy of regained possession.
The moment they touched her, several breathing pores split open on the tentacle’s surface, greedily and urgently inhaling her scent.
Zhou Jiao felt a little curious.
If Jiang Lian had truly fallen for her, why was he still only obsessed with her scent?
Shouldn’t he be infatuated with her beautiful personality instead?
Zhou Jiao mocked herself for a moment, then came to a conclusion.
It should be just as Lu Zehou had said—it was related to the original Jiang Lian.
The original Jiang Lian, as a born antisocial personality, was indifferent, emotionally detached, devoid of empathy, and had never even considered changing these traits.
The Special Bureau had conducted dozens of psychological assessments on him, and he always controlled his scores to an incredibly subtle level—so much so that even AI couldn’t determine whether his response times for each question were abnormal.
On top of that, he lacked the monoamine oxidase A gene and came from a family history filled with cannibals and psychopathic serial killers. These traits, reflected in the current Jiang Lian, had transformed into an insatiable craving for her scent.
Because they didn’t know how to love someone.
They only knew how to plunder and take.
They liked her, but they didn’t want her to die—so all they could do was seize her scent and saliva to satisfy the extreme pathological desire in their hearts.
Lu Zehou was right. This was indeed “two anomalies, overlapping layers of pathological emotions.”
If she were to be captured by him again, her only purpose for the rest of her life would likely be—filling the depths of his twisted, unfathomable possessiveness.
Her only bargaining chip was the fact that “he didn’t want her to die.”
For a moment, Zhou Jiao’s emotions were impossibly complex.
In a way, she and the original Jiang Lian were the same kind of people. The only difference was that her family did not have a terrifying history of crime.
Approximately 4% of the world’s population are antisocial personalities—one in every twenty-five people is an antisocial personality.
Only a very small number, like Jiang Lian’s original family, exhibit a cruel and bloodthirsty side. Most are like her—though they are anomalies, they live like normal people.
It’s just that, from time to time, they inevitably appear out of place among those with ordinary personalities.
They find it difficult to integrate into society, lack a sense of morality, and are highly aggressive; they act impulsively, disregarding both their own safety and that of others.
—The so-called new world was not her new world.
As an anomaly, she seemed destined to stay with Jiang Lian—whether it was the original Jiang Lian or the Jiang Lian of now.
But she refused.
She did not want to be controlled by him.
She would not surrender her personality and fate to him for the sake of some illusory sense of recognition and belonging.
Zhou Jiao waited in place for a while—until Jiang Lian finally arrived.
At this moment, he fully lived up to the title of “He.”
From the outside, he could no longer be considered human. He resembled more a mass of black-red slime desperately maintaining a humanoid shape.
That slime seemed to be some kind of highly active protoplasm. With every step he took, the slime on his body boiled more violently, splitting into thick, slippery tentacles that sealed the exit behind her completely, as if trying to trap her here forever.
When he stood before her, the black-red slime rapidly receded, revealing a cold and strikingly handsome face.
All this time, Zhou Jiao had always felt a strong sense of fragmentation from him.
But never before had his fragmentation felt as severe as it did now.
On his face, she saw both beauty and ugliness, coldness and fervor, purity and filth, and…
Arrogance and humility.
He lowered his head and gazed at her. The black-red slime spread and expanded, surging toward her from all directions like a claustrophobic cage, locking her firmly within.
“Come back with me.”
He said, his voice deep, accompanied by countless faint buzzing vibrations, making the air tremble slightly, filled with a metallic magnetism.
It was obvious that this frequency of soundwaves was harmless to her—pleasant, even—because he did not want to harm her.
If he were to revoke this privilege, the next time she heard his voice, she would be like everyone else—dizzy, nauseous, her internal organs tightening.
To be honest, this privilege satisfied her vanity to some extent.
This was a privilege granted to her by a higher life form, one that placed her above all others. How could she not feel pleased?
But this pleasure lasted only a short while.
Because whether the privilege was granted or not was entirely up to him.
She had neither the right to accept nor the right to refuse.
What she wanted was the thrill of taming a beast, not the charity of a god towering above.
“What if I say no?” she said slowly.
Jiang Lian did not speak.
Yet, a restless and eerie buzzing instantly surrounded her.
In the narrow escape passage, countless fleshy tendrils reached toward her, crawling and wriggling, closing in on her from all directions.
Before the main body, they wanted to be close to her, yet they did not dare to be close to her.
Moreover, her words made them very angry.
Why won’t you go back with him?
We already like you!
Besides staying by his side, where else can you go?
Go back with him, go back with him, go back with him, go back with him, go back with him, go back with him, go back with him…
They approached her ears dangerously, their cold, malicious touch rubbing against her fragile throat bone, leaving behind a slick, mark-laden trail of moisture.
“Go back with him,” they said. “We like you.”
They were just as forceful and domineering as the main body.
Because they liked her, she had to belong to him.
Zhou Jiao tore off the tendril coiling around her neck.
Her expression did not change. She even gently stroked the tendril once.
But she said, “No, I don’t want to go back with you.”
The atmosphere froze into a dead silence.
It felt as though an entire century had passed.
Blood vessels spread densely across the fleshy membrane and tendrils. Everywhere she looked, there were blackish-red appendages. The bioluminescent blue points within them could no longer scatter their glow through the tightly packed network of blood vessels.
The oppressive presence emanating from him was so frigid and sharp that it seemed as if it would slit her throat in the next moment.
Yet, she repeated once more, “I don’t want to go back with you.”
Her tone was so calm, as if she were stating an objective law—just as he had once regarded her with the same detached contempt from the perspective of natural law.
Black-red slime seeped from Jiang Lian’s austere eyes. The humanoid form he had barely managed to maintain began to tremble and destabilize, once again falling into a state of erratic writhing.
From the very beginning, she had been utterly calm.
When he first descended and rejected her, she had calmly stayed away.
When he tried to kill her multiple times, she had calmly devised countermeasures.
Even in the moment of her most extreme emotional turmoil—when she leapt from the rooftop—she had remained calm, with only a trace of madness.
Falling for a human had already driven him to the brink of unbearable agitation.
He and she were not beings of the same dimension, their structures fundamentally different. She could not even withstand his voice.
She was so weak that it made him restless.
So insignificant that it made him restless.
And also… so calm that it made him restless.
How exactly should he treat her?
Catch her.
She will escape.
Imprison her.
She will escape.
Monitor her.
She will still escape.
He could not catch her, could not lock her away, could not deal with her.
In his confrontations with her, he had been retreating step by step, ultimately losing all initiative.
He was sinking deep into the quagmire of desire, while she remained perpetually calm and effortlessly in control.
Jiang Lian’s facial features became even more fractured and unstable.
The cracks on his body continuously tore open and sealed shut, seeping black-red slime outward, only to instantly reform into the shape of a boiling humanoid monster.
“I…” He spoke, one word at a time, with great difficulty and struggle. “Beg you… come back with me.”
This was the most humble phrase he could find within the “Jiang Lian” knowledge system.
He was too afraid of losing her.
If it were only possessiveness, without actual affection, he could have disregarded her will and forcibly taken her back.
But because he liked her, there was also fear.
He did not want to experience that powerless feeling again—of being unable to wake her up.
“I beg you.” He stared at her, his eyes still carrying the invisible oppression of a higher life form toward a human, his voice still resonating at a frequency unbearable for humans, laced with strange and eerie buzzing.
But his plea was sincere.
He could not lose her.
…Don’t go.
Come back with him.
Yet, Zhou Jiao only gently shook her head.
Jiang Lian’s gaze instantly turned terrifying.
In an instant, dozens of tendrils shot up from the ground, approaching her with a dizzying low-frequency hum, as if they wanted to tie her down, lock her up, imprison her.
Anything would do!
She must not leave!!!
She must be his!!!
His expression twisted in agony, his face convulsing, yet he forcibly suppressed this violent impulse.
Two completely opposing emotions tangled, pulled, and clashed within him, causing his heart to feel as if it were being torn apart by unbearable pain.
He no longer cared about appearing humble.
He no longer cared about her fragile and insignificant nature.
All he wanted—was to keep her, keep her, keep her!
Keep her!!!
“I beg you, come back with me.”
He stared at her intently. His deep, magnetic voice trembled slightly, hoarse, yet perhaps it was only an illusion caused by the overwhelming hum. “I won’t lock you up again. I will give you… freedom.”
However, he would still monitor her.
No matter what, she could never leave his sight.
She was his, she was his, she was his!
His possessiveness twisted and swelled, causing his humanoid form to collapse even further.
Yet, aside from enduring it, he had no other choice.
The frustration of being at someone else’s mercy gave birth to a violent, maddening urge to kill.
But Zhou Jiao could not be killed.
If he killed her, he would feel even worse.
His eyes, oozing black-red slime, flickered with a cold, ruthless light.
The only way to relieve this unbearable feeling of being restrained was to slaughter others instead.
Jiang Lian gazed at Zhou Jiao, his expression cold and distorted.
He had already conceded so much. Surely, she would come back with him now.
Yet, her expression remained as calm as ever.
In the midst of his spiraling fury and panic, a malicious thought surfaced—
If he bit through her carotid artery and forced her to watch her own blood spray out, would her composed expression change even a little?
He could not wake her from deep unconsciousness, but he could grant her a powerful self-healing ability. Even if she lost a hand, she could regenerate it.
But as punishment, he would not tell her in advance.
At that moment, Zhou Jiao sighed.
Jiang Lian felt his heart clench.
It was strange—he had always been the one to make others’ hearts tighten.
For the first time, he experienced this bizarre pain.
And then, Zhou Jiao’s next words made his heart ache even more.
She said, “I don’t want to go back with you. No matter what method you use to make me go back, I will always find a way to leave you—I want to leave you. It has nothing to do with you; it’s a law of nature.”
She thought for a moment, then showed a comforting smile. “No prey stays with its predator.”
For the first time in his life, Jiang Lian felt so much pain in his heart that he became dizzy.
He could no longer hear the humming of the tendrils.
Everything around him had fallen into complete stillness.
All he knew was—
She didn’t want him.
Because of the laws of nature.
Before this, he had also ignored her, rejected her, and looked down on her—
Because of the laws of nature.
…She didn’t want him.
She didn’t want him.
She didn’t want him!!!
Kill her. Kill her. Kill her…
His eyes completely morphed into a twisted, manic black-red, and the entire escape passage swelled and trembled in response to his madness, pressing toward her, splitting open into a massive abyssal maw lined with countless teeth and tongues.
“Promise me.”
He commanded coldly, retracting the privilege that made her immune to his influence, attempting to crush her spirit through sheer mental pressure.
A deafening buzz erupted in Zhou Jiao’s head, and a wave of violent nausea surged up her throat.
For the first time, her expression changed slightly. She turned her head and dry-heaved a few times, but only managed to spit out a few strands of transparent acidic liquid.
By all logic, he should have felt pleased at seeing her react this way.
But he still felt furious and restless.
His plea had not moved her.
She had changed expression only because she could not withstand the oscillating frequency of his sound waves.
She rejected everything about him.
She couldn’t even tolerate his voice.
Jiang Lian’s gaze grew darker and more terrifying than ever before.
His killing intent toward her was stronger than it had ever been. He wanted to kill her, to tear her apart.
He never should have woken her up. The unconscious version of her was a hundred times easier to control than the living, breathing one… Maybe from the start, he should never have asked for her opinion. He should have just taken her back. Locked her up. Locked her up. Locked her up.
But—
She didn’t want to go back with him.
She didn’t want him.
And he… couldn’t bear to hurt her.
Liking someone was an infinitely complex emotion. It might have originated from a chemical reaction, but the behaviors it produced could not be deduced as neatly as a chemical formula.
He liked her, begged her, wanted to kill her, wanted to tear her apart—yet he couldn’t bear to lay a single violent finger on her.
Jiang Lian’s unblinking gaze remained fixed on her.
His breathing grew heavier and heavier, and with each breath, the flesh membrane and tendrils covering the escape passage surged violently, as though countless people were gasping in frenzied unison.
It was terrifying.
But in the end, he slowly, bit by bit, withdrew the tendrils blocking the escape route.
He compromised once again.
Not because he was letting her go—
But because he was on the verge of losing control and unleashing his murderous intent.
His desire to protect her overpowered the bottomless abyss of his possessiveness.
He let her leave.
Jiang Lian watched Zhou Jiao with dark, unreadable eyes as she nodded at him, said “thank you,” then turned and boarded the escape pod.
Without hesitation, she started the engine and shot through the waves like an arrow.
She did not look back.
But that didn’t matter.
Every fish was his eye.
They would track her whereabouts for him.
No matter where she fled—
He would find her.