He Must Approach Her and Pursue Her Like a Human
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For the next week, Zhou Jiao went to work as usual.
Unlike before, she began to pay attention—intentionally or unintentionally—to the news about Yucheng.
Yucheng was a highly autonomous city. It did not belong to any country or any race; it only belonged to Biotech.
As a result, hardly any news media would ignore this city.
However, for some unknown reason, there were only a few recent reports about Yucheng, and all of them remained extremely vague regarding the latest situation in Biotech.
A speculation began circulating on social media—some kind of unimaginable crisis had occurred within Biotech.
It was said that the headquarters of Biotech could no longer be seen in Yucheng, and the manufacturing partners had lost contact with the top executives of Biotech two months ago.
Although none of this had spread widely on the internet, the stock price of Biotech continued to plummet, falling at an astonishing rate.
A market analyst pointed out that in this round of decline, the market value of Biotech had evaporated by more than 200 billion yuan.
Many experts expressed concerns, believing that if the stock price continued to drop like this, tens of millions of people could lose their jobs, and many regions might even face a severe food supply crisis.
—Biotech owned multiple patents for synthetic food. If manufacturers could no longer contact them, they might be unable to continue producing these synthetic foods.
For a time, the shelves in supermarkets were emptied of synthetic food, and the price of locust protein supplements skyrocketed from 1 yuan per bar to 50 yuan per bar.
Aside from synthetic food, organic food was also facing a shortage crisis, though overall, it was not as urgent—after all, the wealthy had their own organic food cultivation bases.
Just as everyone was in a state of panic, Biotech suddenly held a press conference.
The spokesperson was Araki Isao.
Two months had passed, and he had aged significantly. His hair had turned completely silver-white, the corners of his eyes drooped, and two deep lines extended from the sides of his nose. He no longer looked as youthful and handsome as he had at twenty, yet compared to ordinary people in their fifties or sixties, the gap remained as vast as a chasm.
The gap between the company’s executives and ordinary people was not something that could be bridged by just two months of stock market decline.
With a hoarse voice, Araki Isao said, “…First of all, we deeply apologize for our silence during this time. The reason the company’s executives have not appeared in public recently is because we were conducting a critical board vote.”
“Now, this vote has reached its final conclusion—the board has decided to dismiss the previous CEO and appoint Mr. Jiang Lian as the new Chief Executive Officer of Biotech.”
As his voice fell, the entire venue erupted in an uproar.
Biotech was a family-owned enterprise, and every previous CEO had come from the Fujiwara family.
Even though there had been rumors that the true power lay elsewhere, on the surface, it had always been the Fujiwara family that led the company’s management and operations.
This was the first time they had appointed an outsider as the company’s CEO.
All the reporters immediately stood up, disregarding the order of the event, bombarding him with questions like machine-gun fire:
“—Jiang Lian?! Mr. Araki, can you give us a detailed introduction to the new CEO?”
“Mr. Jiang Lian seems to have no relevant industry experience… Considering that Biotech’s market value has already evaporated by more than 200 billion yuan, isn’t this kind of absurd decision by the executives likely to trigger a new round of economic crisis?”
“Mr. Araki…”
“Mr. Araki, please give us an answer…”
Araki Isao glanced around the room, and his tone suddenly became extremely firm: “The company has no obligation to explain its decisions to you.”
With that, the press conference came to an end.
The scene shifted, and the reporters’ noisy barrage of questions abruptly ceased.
Zhou Jiao was somewhat surprised but also felt that it was within reason.
Jiang Lian could influence the minds of those around him, and he also possessed the terrifying ability of unlimited fission. This meant that as long as he was willing, let alone becoming the CEO of the company, he could even rule the entire world.
So, the reason she hadn’t seen him for two months was that he had been studying how to control a corporate giant?
Zhou Jiao’s expression remained unchanged, but she inexplicably felt a bit uncomfortable inside.
This feeling of discomfort was extremely unfamiliar to her.
She thought for a moment and attributed it to a sense of disparity—she had always been at the center of Jiang Lian’s gaze. Whether he looked down on her or not, he had no choice but to notice her.
Now, his vision suddenly included a company, and its priority seemed much higher than hers. It was only natural for her to feel uncomfortable.
Moreover, Jiang Lian wasn’t entirely ignorant.
Inside him, there was also a highly intelligent, antisocial personality. It was entirely possible that the reason he hadn’t come to find her for the past two months and had instead made a high-profile announcement on the news about taking over Biotech was that person’s idea—to make her feel a sense of disparity and lure her into his trap.
Thinking of this, Zhou Jiao put Jiang Lian out of her mind and continued working as if she had never seen the press conference.
At the end of the workday, acid rain suddenly poured down from the sky without any warning.
Unlike previous acid rains, the current rain had already reached a level where it could burn skin in a short period. The latest research had even detected a severely excessive amount of Escherichia coli in it, indicating that some hovercars had been recklessly dumping untreated waste. People avoided getting caught in the rain whenever they could.
Zhou Jiao stood in front of the office building, waiting for the rain to stop along with others who didn’t have umbrellas.
At that moment, a tingling sensation surged through the nerve endings of her body—she felt a strong, cold, and familiar presence.
It was like an infinitely stretched slow-motion scene in a movie—time pressed pause at this very moment, the mist of rain stood still, and the falling raindrops suddenly became excruciatingly slow.
The pedestrians who had been hurrying along the street also stopped. Their heads began to turn back inch by inch, their neck bones making eerie, bone-chilling cracking sounds.
A few seconds later, those people, as if by some unspoken agreement, all turned to look at her, their gazes rigid and strange, like soulless walking corpses who had lost all sense of self-awareness.
Zhou Jiao’s heart pounded heavily, and a shiver ran down her spine as goosebumps covered her skin.
—Jiang Lian had arrived.
Yet, this scene did not alarm the people around her—they, too, maintained the same posture, staring straight at her.
A “man” in a formal suit, holding an umbrella, took step after step toward her with an incredibly stiff posture. His voice was mechanical, rigid to the extreme:
“…For you, an umbrella.”
During this time, Zhou Jiao had thought she would never feel excitement again. But at this moment, despite the rapidly dropping temperature, her heart pounded so intensely that it hurt.
The uncontrollable excitement, accompanied by her violent heartbeat, slammed heavily against her eardrums. Half of her chest was already overwhelmed by a numbing sensation, yet her expression remained indifferent.
“Thank you, I don’t need it.”
The “man” remained expressionless, but his breathing suddenly grew heavy. However, he said nothing. Holding the umbrella, he silently stepped aside.
The next second, more “people” holding umbrellas walked toward her.
“For you, an umbrella.”
“For you, an umbrella.”
“For you, an umbrella.”
Everyone had the same posture, the same expression, and the same cold and eerie gaze. No normal person would feel excited in the face of such a scene.
Yet, Zhou Jiao showed her first genuine smile in two months.
But she still said, “Thank you, I don’t need it.”
In an instant, the eyes of all the “people” became chillingly cold and sinister, shooting toward her like sharp arrows.
—She still didn’t want him!
Jiang Lian stood amidst the crowd, tall and upright, dressed in a black coat. Behind the gold-rimmed glasses, his eyes were firmly glued to her.
He knew she didn’t want to see him, so he had tried his best not to appear before her these past few days.
Following the rules of human society, he had given her time to calm down.
At the same time, he had learned from “Jiang Lian’s” knowledge system that to pursue someone, one must possess exceptional looks, good manners, and considerable wealth.
As for appearance, with his ability of unlimited fission, any person in the world could become his avatar—human anatomy was so simple and dull, while he possessed strong, beautiful, and infinitely adaptable limbs.
This was an advantage that other pursuers could never imagine.
As for manners, Jiang Lian automatically disregarded them—he had fallen for Zhou Jiao, not for the entirety of this primitive human society. There was no way he would learn human etiquette.
The only advantage he lacked was financial power.
So, he had spent some time devouring the Biotech Corporation.
The entire process was incredibly simple—he only needed to walk into the company’s headquarters, and the people inside would develop a fanatical admiration for him, worshipping him as their leader.
Even so, he could not take over a multinational corporate giant in a single night. It had taken two full months to complete the procedures and officially become the new CEO.
Jiang Lian had no interest in managing a company.
He had taken over the corporation solely to change Zhou Jiao’s perception of him.
She wanted to leave him because of natural laws.
Then he would show her that natural laws had already changed—
A cold-blooded and ruthless predator had suppressed the instinct to devour his prey, instead choosing to present it with a carefully prepared gift.
She refused him.
At the very least, she should accept his gift.
Yet, she still didn’t want it.
—The umbrella was just an appetizer. He hadn’t even served the main course, and she had already rejected him.
Jiang Lian’s eyes were bloodshot as he stared at her coldly.
In places Zhou Jiao couldn’t see, countless writhing tendrils surged toward her like rapidly spreading mold. They didn’t reveal their original color but instead changed to match the environment, appearing almost invisible.
She was far too ungrateful.
Why was he going to such great lengths to pursue her?
Instead of carefully probing her thoughts, wouldn’t it be easier to simply capture and lock her away?
Now that he had complete control over Biotech Corporation, this time, there was no way she could escape him like before.
The transparent tendrils approached her face, separated from her lips by only a thin veil of air.
The surrounding “people” had all been assimilated by him—they were his puppets.
“They” stood still, holding umbrellas of different colors, casting cold, watchful gazes upon her.
With just a single thought, she would never be able to escape.
But.
But—
Compared to keeping her in permanent captivity, he preferred to court her and ask for a willing kiss.
It had been so long since he last pressed his lips against hers. So long since he had swallowed her saliva.
Just watching her from a distance filled him with a terrifying… hunger.
So hungry.
He wanted to grip her chin, force her to part her jaws, wait until saliva pooled at the root of her tongue, brimming to the point of overflowing—then press close and drain it dry. (🫢 )
Jiang Lian’s pupils gradually narrowed into a thin slit, like a cold-blooded predator entering hunting mode, highly aggressive and ready to strike.
Even though this unbearable hunger was driving him to the brink of madness, he forcibly held himself back, slowly retracting the tendrils that had spread out in all directions.
Just then, Zhou Jiao lifted her head and smiled at the “people” offering her umbrellas.
A gray sky, gray smog, gray misty rain.
Everything was gray—except for her. She was beautiful, vivid, and full of life.
As if unaware, she raised her hand and gently brushed her lips.
In an instant, all the eerie, icy gazes around her turned scorching and bloodshot, locked onto her movement as though ready to tear a piece of raw, bleeding flesh from her lips.
This scene was captured by countless pairs of eyes, recorded with absolute precision, down to every delicate ridge of her full and tender lips.
“They” watched her, breathing in the acrid acid rain and exhaust fumes, yet still catching the sweet, intoxicating scent of her body.
Jiang Lian’s eyes remained fixed on her, completely motionless. Though he had yet to touch her lips, his tongue had already gone numb.
He didn’t know why this was happening—he only knew that his chest ached as if it were about to explode, torn apart by two violently opposing impulses.
Tear her apart.
Keep her captive.
Tear her apart.
Keep her captive.
Tear her apart!
Tear her apart!!
…No. That would mean losing her.
He had to approach her like a human, pursue her like a human, so she wouldn’t reject him.
Jiang Lian closed his eyes, his Adam’s apple rolling as he swallowed, suppressing the violent and destructive urges surging within him.
As he swallowed, the throats of the surrounding “people” also moved up and down in unison.
And then, he heard Zhou Jiao say, “I don’t want an umbrella from a stranger.”
…She thought he was a stranger.
Before this thought had even fully formed in Jiang Lian’s mind, a low, loathsome voice echoed from deep within his consciousness:
“She means for you to deliver it personally, you idiot.”
A terrifying spasm flickered across Jiang Lian’s face. He wanted to torment that human before completely devouring him, but he forcibly suppressed the urge.
Because of Zhou Jiao, he had learned to endure.
—And he had to endure.
He needed this human to explain the nuances of human emotions and social conventions that he could not comprehend.
At this thought, Jiang Lian calmed himself down, stretched out a hand, and opened his palm.
Immediately, one of the “people” handed him an umbrella—its canopy was fluorescent yellow, vibrant and bright, perfectly suited for a couple to share.
Holding the umbrella, Jiang Lian fixed his gaze on Zhou Jiao and took one deliberate step after another toward her.