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[1. Child]
Jiang Lian was not surprised at all by Zhou Jiao’s answer.
If she had agreed, he also had a way to handle it.
He would send all the children on that planet out of the galaxy—as far as possible. In any case, he could never possibly share Zhou Jiao with “them.”
However, in order to demonstrate his unique reproductive ability, he still calmly added, “It’s not you giving birth, it’s me.”
Zhou Jiao: “…I know you’re very capable of giving birth.”
She pressed her twitching brow, feeling that she was being led astray by Jiang Lian. Gritting her teeth, she said, “Regardless of whether you can give birth or not, I don’t want children. Just raising you and this pile of messy junk is already troublesome enough, don’t give me more to deal with.”
She walked into the house and gave a light but firm kick to the tentacle on the floor. “Put it away.”
Jiang Lian was already used to her cold exterior and warm heart. He didn’t mind her using a commanding tone with him, nor did he mind her suddenly kicking him while walking.
She liked him so much, he was willing to indulge her.
Jiang Lian obeyed Zhou Jiao’s order and retracted the tentacle.
On the surface, the tentacle seemed like some kind of cold, sticky black-red substance flowing back into his body, but in reality, it still permeated the entire villa like air.
Jiang Lian watched TV while monitoring Zhou Jiao’s movements.
For some reason, he was becoming increasingly unsatisfied with just hugging and kissing her. The feeling that had once made him unbearably restless surged up again.
Just looking at her once made his heart tighten in an empty, twisting ache. He wanted to… but he couldn’t. She hadn’t said she loved him yet.
Zhou Jiao insisted on going to work and forbade him from following her.
He could only stay at home, passing the time by watching TV shows.
The common sense system in “Jiang Lian” told him that humans had many emotional programs. Excluding those that were mostly false, exaggerated, or staged, he found himself gaining a lot from various television shows.
Today, he saw a host saying that birth rates were declining more and more. Not only was this due to the gradual decrease in fertility caused by pollution, but it was also related to the increasing level of education among women.
The host predicted that in the near future, pregnancy would be replaced by a technology that cultivated babies externally.
By then, women would no longer have to endure the pain of childbirth, and the government would no longer have to worry about the precariously low birth rate.
As soon as these words were spoken, they stirred up an uproar online.
Such statements seemed wonderful on the surface, as if they were truly considering the future of humanity. But upon closer thought, one would find countless flaws.
When a child was still just a fertilized egg, companies could already manipulate their genes. If external cultivation technology were really used, would the child still be the parents’ original child?
Gene editing and gene fabrication surgeries had already become increasingly sophisticated.
Even if genes couldn’t be fabricated, as long as the company said so, they could alter genetic test results with just one sentence. Whether the genes were forged or not, wouldn’t the outcome be the same?
This wasn’t about benefiting humanity—it was using the guise of benefiting humanity to act against humanity.
For a time, online discussions were furious, and almost everyone was cursing the companies and the host.
Jiang Lian didn’t go online, so he only heard the first half of the statement—fertility was gradually declining due to pollution.
Zhou Jiao hadn’t fallen in love with him yet. He had to constantly emphasize his strengths in front of her so that when she eventually wanted to love him, she could easily remember his good points.
Thus, the scene at the beginning came to be.
Although he didn’t like children, he had to let Zhou Jiao know that her lover possessed one of the most outstanding reproductive abilities in the universe.
[2. Illness]
Zhou Jiao had no idea that Jiang Lian was feeling smug about his reproductive capabilities. After finishing her bath, while drying her hair, she suddenly felt an extreme chill to the bone.
This was a rare occurrence. Ever since her body had been modified, she had never fallen ill. Yet at this moment, she felt as if she were experiencing fever chills.
She was somewhat bewildered and carefully recalled everything she had done today.
At 2:30 in the afternoon, she had come into contact with a batch of extraterrestrial organisms in the laboratory… but she had taken strict precautions. There had been thorough disinfection upon entering and exiting, with absolutely no risk of exposure.
Moreover, even if those organisms carried unknown viruses, it wasn’t certain that they could bind to human cell receptors.
Zhou Jiao waited a little longer. When she no longer felt the chills, she put the matter out of her mind.
Who would have thought that by nighttime, the cold sensation would strike again?
She measured her temperature with a thermometer—38.5°C. She had a fever.
—Ever since Jiang Lian took control of Biotech, she had permanently disabled the biological monitoring function of her chip. Otherwise, the moment her temperature hit 37°C, the chip would have alerted her.
Why was she running a fever?
Zhou Jiao was at a loss. After all, if she were truly sick, Jiang Lian should have noticed before she did.
With confusion, Zhou Jiao burrowed into her blanket.
She took fever medicine and drifted in and out of sleep amid the damp heat of sweat and violent chills.
Before she had completely fallen asleep, Jiang Lian climbed into bed.
His body temperature was always as cold as ice, exuding a damp chill. He stretched out his arms and wrapped around her tightly like an octopus.
Zhou Jiao’s scalp instantly tingled. She felt as though she were a skinned rabbit tossed into an ice cellar, with her internal organs completely exposed to the eerie cold.
Strangely enough, she craved this cold.
Even as her bones creaked under the damp chill, she still wished Jiang Lian would hold her even tighter.
Her unusual warmth and enthusiasm caught Jiang Lian’s attention.
He furrowed his brows slightly, pinched her chin, and lifted it.
Zhou Jiao’s eyes were hazy, filled with damp mist, like a white camellia about to be steamed dry.
Jiang Lian used the knuckle of his finger to pry open her teeth and tested the temperature of her soft palate—burning hot, an unhealthy feverish heat.
But she shouldn’t have a fever.
She had consumed his tentacle and, in a way, had already become a part of him.
Under his protection, she wouldn’t fall ill, wouldn’t die, and wouldn’t be contaminated or harmed by any biological agents.
Not even by him.
Yes. Given the immense difference between them, he had imposed a restriction upon himself that forbade harming her.
In human terms, it was called a “restriction,” but in reality, it was a subconscious mind anchor.
With this in place, no matter how much time passed, no matter what happened, no matter if he ever regretted setting this mind anchor—he would never be able to harm her.
In other words, Zhou Jiao had already become an existence above him.
Under such circumstances, how could she possibly have a fever?
Jiang Lian thought of the “wordless book” that had brought him into this body.
After gaining control over Biotech, he had obtained this book with the intention of understanding his past, but he had never opened it—because apart from Zhou Jiao, nothing could arouse his interest, not even his own origins.
Jiang Lian used his icy hand to press against her burning forehead and opened the “wordless book.”
Back then, Lu Zehou had said that this book had no words but could communicate with a person on a conscious level. That wasn’t entirely true. It was simply that the “words” existed in another dimension, while human consciousness happened to belong to a different one.
Jiang Lian found the reason.
Zhou Jiao was not sick.
She had been transformed by him into his… female counterpart.
The origin of his species was extremely complex, something even the book couldn’t fully explain.
But they had the ability to reproduce, which meant they had male and female counterparts—though the distinction was not based on physiological traits, but rather on their partner’s preferences.
The reason he retained the appearance of a male was because Zhou Jiao preferred men.
And because of a certain preference of hers, his jawline was sharper than that of most men, his Adam’s apple was more pronounced, and his fingers were even longer and more defined than most people’s.
As the female counterpart, Zhou Jiao’s appearance wouldn’t change according to his preferences—after all, in nature, it was always the males that used their appearance to attract the females. However, she would be drawn to his pheromones.
Simply put, she was now desperately craving his pheromones.
The thought that Zhou Jiao would crave his pheromones as intensely as he craved her—
Jiang Lian’s heart pounded violently, a tingling sensation spreading from his scalp down to his spine as if electricity had surged through him.
A satiated numbness.
[3. A Few Minutes]
Jiang Lian told Zhou Jiao about this matter. Zhou Jiao fell into silence.
Jiang Lian thought she was unwilling to sniff him or consume his saliva. He pinched her chin, forcing her to lift her head and look at him, and asked coldly:
“Don’t you like me a little? And yet you’re unwilling to do even this?”
Perhaps it was the pheromones, but every one of his movements—his dark gaze, his damp and cold breath, his icy fingers, and even that pair of gold-rimmed glasses on his nose that were purely ornamental—made her heart race.
…She indeed had a strange impulse, akin to the crazed urge of aggressively snuggling a cat.
Zhou Jiao tilted her head and rubbed her burning hot cheek against his icy palm.
Jiang Lian’s fingers trembled slightly.
Zhou Jiao whispered, “I never said I wouldn’t… I was just thinking, wouldn’t it be a bit dull to only consume saliva?”
Jiang Lian paused.
A moment later, he raised his index finger and squeezed out a drop of fresh blood at the edge of her lips.
Zhou Jiao: “…That’s not what I meant. Lower your head!”
But Jiang Lian didn’t move. “You still haven’t answered my question—don’t you like me a little? And yet you won’t even admit it?”
Zhou Jiao shook her head. “I stopped liking you a long time ago.”
Jiang Lian’s fingers instantly tightened, nearly leaving bruises on her jaw.
Zhou Jiao pulled his hand away and murmured, “Even little kids know that this kind of sentence has a dip before a rise… Why are you in such a hurry?”
Jiang Lian stared intently at Zhou Jiao.
Logically, he knew she was about to follow up with how much she liked him. She might even say… that she had fallen in love with him.
But he still felt panic.
If someone truly loved another, it was impossible not to be thrown into disarray by a single sentence from them.
Besides, in this relationship, he was not the one in control.
The rope was in her hands.
As the one being tied, he could only follow her pace.
Jiang Lian turned his hand over and clasped her fingers tightly, as if trying to wedge himself into her flesh. “Say it. I’m not in a hurry.”
But Zhou Jiao could feel that he was on the verge of losing his mind.
She decided not to tease him anymore. Smiling, she said, “There’s something I never told you—only you can stir up all my emotions. Every moment of excitement, every surge of thrill, every heartbeat, and even every fear… they all come from you.”
“Under such circumstances, how could I not fall in love with you?”
She looked at him with those misty, glistening eyes, tilted her head, and kissed the back of his hand.
“…Jiang Lian, I’ve fallen in love with you.”
Jiang Lian wanted to stroke her cheek, but his hand remained frozen in place by her kiss.
An invisible fire ignited from her lips, spreading from his hand to his ears, burning all the way down.
He hadn’t looked in a mirror, but he knew—his ears, his face, his neck must have turned completely red.
She loved him.
She said, how could she not fall in love with him?
It wasn’t a lie, it wasn’t flattery, it wasn’t forced.
She believed she was destined to love him.
Jiang Lian’s expression remained cold and severe, but his heart pounded wildly with excitement.
Thump, thump, thump.
Three hearts beat violently, his frenzied heartbeat echoing throughout the entire villa.
She loves him.
She loves him.
She loves him…
Jiang Lian’s gaze darkened, and he unconsciously clenched her fingers so tightly that they cracked audibly.
Zhou Jiao frowned instinctively. “That hurts!”
Jiang Lian immediately let go. Lowering his head, he leaned to her ear and asked, “Then… does this mean we can mate now?”
Zhou Jiao was truly stunned this time.
She blinked her eyelashes and let out an “Ah” before saying, “So you knew?”
“Knew what?”
Zhou Jiao tilted her head and said nothing.
She reached out with one hand to wrap around his neck, while her other hand remained beneath the blanket.
Jiang Lian’s expression froze.
His extraordinary, all-encompassing perception magnified every insignificant sound.
Her pulse, her breathing, the heat of her skin, the faint rustling of her hair against the silk pillowcase when she tilted her head…
It was a strange sensation—he wanted to focus entirely on feeling it, yet he was forced to divert his attention elsewhere.
One kilometer away, someone was still using the most traditional kind of door lock. The key slid into the keyhole, turned, click, and the latch sprang free.
His senses spread outward.
Ten kilometers away, in the Biotech lab, a venomous snake coiled around a white mouse, strangling it. The prey trembled as it died, and the snake swallowed it whole.
His perception continued to radiate outward.
A fruit stall by the street, a juicer overflowing with fresh fruit nectar; the damp, briny sea breeze; the undulating waves; the filthy slums, where mold thrived in the aftermath of the rain; moths fluttering around a flickering streetlamp.
A moment later, he suddenly opened his eyes, his pupils constricting into fine needles.
The predator had suppressed his nature again and again, refusing to be ruled by instinct.
Yet the prey had deliberately loosened the rope around his neck—allowing him to follow his nature.
To chase.
To capture.
To seize control.
From all directions, countless tentacles surged forward—like countless cold, damp hands grasping her wrists and ankles, greedily absorbing the heat of her skin, pulling her downward.
Downward, together with him.
Falling in love with her had always been a descent.
From the dark, lifeless void of the universe—
Falling into the small, chaotic world of humankind.
For her, he had learned restraint, learned patience, learned guilt, learned panic, learned regret, learned jealousy…
And now, he had learned a certain impure desire.
Ten minutes later.
Zhou Jiao held back a laugh. “…How did it end just as it started?”
Jiang Lian took a moment to process her words before realizing what she meant.
He immediately froze again.
Zhou Jiao said affectionately, “It’s fine. Even a few minutes is impressive.”
Later, Zhou Jiao would regret countless times how careless she had been with her words.
Had she known that every single tentacle was… she would have absolutely told him—a few minutes is the normal duration.
The next day.
Her fever had subsided. But she was barely alive.
Sticky sweat—gritty like sand—clung to her skin, mixed with some unknown fluid. She went downstairs to get a glass of water, only to find that her hands and feet were still restrained by Jiang Lian’s tentacles.
Zhou Jiao: “…Haven’t you had enough?”
Jiang Lian’s expression seemed calm, but the excited veins on his neck were still clearly visible. “I can feel your emotions. You wanted me to hold onto you.”
“…At least let me have a drink of water.”
“I’ll feed you.” Jiang Lian said.
His tentacle slithered downstairs like a snake, poured a glass of water, and brought it to her lips.
Zhou Jiao: “…Fine.”
At the end of the day, she really shouldn’t have mocked him.
Forget it.
She gave up on resisting.
After all… she kind of liked it too.
TL: Sometimes I hate Jinjiang’s (JJWXC) censorship. GIVE ME THE SMUT! (Banging at the author’s door.jpg)
[4. True Feelings]
After his relationship with Zhou Jiao was exposed, no matter where Jiang Lian went, there were always reckless reporters swarming toward him, asking about his relationship with Zhou Jiao.
On one hand, Jiang Lian wanted to crush these reporters who kept saying “Zhou Jiao” with their every breath. On the other, he was immersed in the pleasure of hearing people associate him with Zhou Jiao.
Until one day, Zhou Jiao saw those interview records.
Reporter A: “May I ask what your relationship with Miss Zhou Jiao is?”
Jiang Lian glanced at that reporter.
Reporter A instantly broke into a cold sweat and dry-heaved on the spot.
Reporter B: “Are you and Miss Zhou Jiao really in a romantic relationship?”
On the surface, Jiang Lian’s expression was no different from before, but Zhou Jiao noticed a subtle hint of hidden delight.
He thoroughly enjoyed hearing others say that they were a couple.
Sure enough, Reporter B didn’t dry-heave, but because they had mentioned her name, they still felt a wave of dizziness.
Reporter C asked sharply: “Aside from graduating from a prestigious school and holding the title of CEO of Biotech, your resume is astonishingly unimpressive. Meanwhile, Miss Zhou Jiao, through her own abilities, has become the youngest senior researcher in the field of Biotech… Yet since your graduation, you have not published any articles in influential journals. Don’t you think that you are unworthy of Miss Zhou Jiao?”
Zhou Jiao broke into a cold sweat on behalf of Reporter C.
What surprised her was that Jiang Lian didn’t do anything to this reporter.
He stopped in his tracks, his brows sharp and cold behind his glasses, his gaze thoughtful.
At that moment, Zhou Jiao almost felt that he was no different from a human.
A few seconds later, he answered: “I am unworthy. If I couldn’t offer her a sincere heart, she might never have wanted me.”
His answer was so sincere that even the sharp-tongued Reporter C was at a loss for words. After a long pause, they finally muttered, “…I wish you both happiness.”
Unexpectedly, Jiang Lian stared at him without blinking and responded even more earnestly: “Thank you.”
Reporter C was the only one who hadn’t been mentally overwhelmed by Jiang Lian’s presence—yet still fled as if for their life.
When Zhou Jiao finished watching the interview, she found it both amusing and unexpectedly touching.
That night, as she lay in bed, she recalled the interview and couldn’t help but stroke Jiang Lian’s hair with affection.
She said, “It’s not that I would never want you, just that I would’ve strung you along for a while first. You’re so cute, and you have such a burning, sincere heart—how could I not want you?”
The cute Jiang Lian looked at her for a moment before suddenly saying, “I have three hearts.”
Zhou Jiao: “?”
He wrapped his tentacle around her wrist, pressing it down, and imitated the male lead from some green-themed website:
“Touch one, and the other two hearts are yours as well.”
Zhou Jiao: “…Get lost.”