This Is the Real Me
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However, until the elevator descended to the B1 floor, Chen Cebai did not answer her.
Qiu Yu was not very nervous.
If Chen Cebai’s talent was intelligence far surpassing that of ordinary people, then her talent was being likable.
She could keenly perceive whether others liked or disliked her, whether a sentence she spoke would receive positive feedback.
With this talent, she had hardly ever been rejected.
She rarely confided in Chen Cebai, precisely because she could not sense his attitude.
In front of her, his attitude had always seemed ambiguous.
No matter what she said, he seemed indifferent, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.
But today, he had actually broken his machine-like precision in time perception and arrived two minutes early to pick her up.
For ordinary people, arriving early or late was nothing unusual.
But for someone like Chen Cebai, who was absolutely rational, violating his usual time perception was equivalent to an AI violating its predetermined algorithm, or a predator violating its hunting instinct.
Moreover, in that instant when he met her gaze, the urgency revealed in his eyes, and the act of helping her counter the slander…
Every single detail showed that he was not as indifferent as she had imagined.
However, Qiu Yu had only ever been married; she had never been in love. After pondering for a while, she became uncertain again.
Could it be her illusion?
If it were someone else, Qiu Yu would not have indulged in such wild thoughts.
But the person she was facing was Chen Cebai.
Genius, top student, scientist—these three identities always carried an inherent aura.
And Chen Cebai was at the forefront of all three.
As time passed, Qiu Yu became increasingly doubtful of her own feelings, so much so that she did not even have the mind to pay attention to the prying gazes.
Before this, she had always thought the underground parking lot was too big and easy to get lost in, but at this moment, it felt so small.
In Chen Cebai’s precisely mapped memory, he found the parked car within just a few steps.
Still receiving no response, Qiu Yu felt somewhat frustrated and a little annoyed.
With a bit of emotion, she sat in the passenger seat, fastening her seatbelt with a stiff face.
Before she could finish fastening it, a shadow suddenly loomed over her.
Chen Cebai reached out a hand and helped her buckle the seatbelt.
Qiu Yu thought he was finally going to answer her question in the car, so she turned to look at him. But she saw that he was staring straight ahead, showing no intention of looking at her.
The frustration and annoyance reached their peak, and Qiu Yu could not help but speak in a fit of pique:
“…If you don’t want to be in a relationship with me, you can just say so directly. You don’t have to consider my dignity.”
She had hardly ever been rejected since childhood, yet she always ran into obstacles with Chen Cebai. Her voice carried a hint of grievance and self-deprecation:
“Anyway, I’ve already embarrassed myself enough in front of you.”
Chen Cebai finally spoke:
“What embarrassment?”
Qiu Yu thought, in any case, after he rejected her, they wouldn’t be able to remain husband and wife. Whatever needed to be said, she might as well say it all today in one go.
With this thought, she stiffened her face and continued, “Previously, Pei Xi came to our house…”
Chen Cebai suddenly spoke, “And then?”
Out of the corner of her eye, Qiu Yu saw his long fingers tap on the steering wheel a few times.
He rarely made such small movements—it made him look a little irritable.
Speculating about Chen Cebai’s thoughts had already become a habit for Qiu Yu. After finishing her speculation, she suddenly reacted angrily—why was she trying to guess what he was thinking?
Since they were going to separate anyway, why shouldn’t she just say whatever she wanted?
“What he said in the kitchen was so excessive, yet you didn’t say a single word to refute him.” Qiu Yu spoke stiffly. “Don’t you think this kind of behavior is no different from those people who openly gossiped about us today?”
Chen Cebai continued tapping the steering wheel with his fingers. “What did he say in the kitchen?”
“I don’t believe you don’t remember.”
Chen Cebai ordered coldly, “I want you to say it.”
For a brief moment, his voice actually sounded rough and domineering.
Qiu Yu was provoked, and anger surged in her heart. “He said my cooking was terrible and told you not to eat the food I made.”
“So?”
“Normally, shouldn’t you have refuted him, saying that even if my cooking was bad, you’d still eat it?” Qiu Yu grew more and more enraged. “Besides, what he said was out of line!”
“Is that so?” Chen Cebai said. The light from a car’s headlights ahead reflected faintly off his glasses. “I thought you allowed him to cross the line.”
Qiu Yu cursed, “Allowed my ass!”
As soon as her words fell, Chen Cebai suddenly reached out and grabbed her wrist.
His palm was chillingly cold. When it clamped around her wrist, it was like a dead man’s hand suddenly seizing a living person.
She couldn’t help but shiver, a wave of goosebumps rising on her skin.
Chen Cebai said indifferently, “That day, he held your hand just like this, and you didn’t pull away. Wasn’t that you allowing him to cross the line?”
Qiu Yu snapped angrily, “I wasn’t looking where I was going, and he just steadied me for a moment!”
“The response time of a chip is in microseconds. If he wanted to alert you that I was coming, he only needed to speak.” Chen Cebai’s voice was cold. “Besides, you are my wife. So what if you had fallen straight into my arms?”
Qiu Yu hated her own lack of boundaries when it came to attraction—even at a time like this, she found his words incredibly sexy.
At that moment, Chen Cebai suddenly pulled her toward him.
She fell into him with the motion.
Chen Cebai didn’t drive sports cars or sedans—he preferred off-road vehicles that resembled mechanical beasts, sturdy and robust like light tanks, with bulletproof windows that even the highest-rate submachine guns couldn’t break.
The driver’s seat was also more spacious than a sports car’s. Without even adjusting the seat, he placed her directly onto his lap.
Qiu Yu stiffened slightly, growing even more furious. “What are you doing?”
“You’ve asked your questions. Now, it’s my turn.”
“I didn’t even ask…”
Chen Cebai wrapped one arm around her waist while his other hand gripped her chin, preventing her from turning her head. His voice was eerily calm:
“Other than his hand, where else did he touch you?”
There was a hint of cold malice in his words, completely unlike something he would normally say.
Qiu Yu felt that his emotions were somewhat unstable.
This was almost impossible.
—The smarter a person was, the stronger their brain’s computational power, the more possibilities they could foresee, and the less likely they were to lose control of their emotions.
She had never dared to pursue a romantic relationship with Chen Cebai because, for someone as intelligent as him, there was a high probability that he would predict the outcome of their relationship before she did and rationally reject her.
…But now, why was everything completely opposite to what she had imagined?
Seeing that she didn’t answer, Chen Cebai’s voice took on a chillingly violent edge:
“Speak.”
“I’m just friends with him.”
“You really think he sees you as a friend?” Chen Cebai gripped her chin and turned her face slightly back. “The way he looks at you—it’s like he wants to devour you. Or is it that you actually enjoy being looked at like that by him? Is that why you keep allowing him to cross the line again and again? Even inviting him into our home so I could watch the way he looks at you?”
Qiu Yu was stunned after hearing this.
Because of that, she didn’t notice how, with every word that fell from Chen Cebai’s lips, the gaze of the unseen watcher grew darker and more twisted, as if on the verge of madness.
However, her shock was not due to feeling humiliated—it was because she found it strange.
Chen Cebai’s words had no logic at all. It was as if he was speaking nonsense.
What was wrong with him?
She wanted to turn back and look at him, but his hand suddenly tightened, commanding, “Don’t move.”
Qiu Yu had originally prepared herself for an argument, but his absurd words immediately dispelled her anger.
At this moment, she was caught between curiosity and confusion. “I don’t really understand… what you mean by these words.” She thought for a moment, then pressed her hand against his palm and lowered her head to kiss him lightly. “It doesn’t sound like something you would say.”
Chen Cebai’s fingers trembled slightly, and his grip on her chin loosened.
Qiu Yu immediately tried to break free from his hold.
However, as if her attempt to escape had triggered something, he swiftly caught her chin again, his fingers tightening once more.
Ever since they stepped out of the elevator, Qiu Yu had not met his eyes again.
She could only gauge his emotions through his breathing, heartbeat, and body temperature.
The moment he seized her chin, his breathing seemed to grow heavier for a few seconds.
Qiu Yu decided to calm him down first.
“…I really never thought about it that way. Pei Xi and I grew up together. In elementary school, when he was my deskmate, he cut up my sweater, put snails in my desk drawer… and tricked me into thinking my whole body smelled like snail urine.”
She blinked her eyelashes, her expression completely innocent. “I’ve never thought of him as the opposite sex, and I don’t know why you suddenly brought him up… If you don’t like me being so close to him, or if you dislike certain things he does, you can just tell me directly. I’ll be more mindful of it.”
She did not know that her innocence and sincerity, the genuine sweetness in her tone, only intensified his predatory desire.
Ever since she asked him whether they could be in a relationship, he had felt an indescribable sense of guilt.
Even though he had not looked at her the entire time, he still managed to take in all her subtle expressions.
He saw her smile, frown, hesitate, feel uneasy, sulk, and fasten her seatbelt with a face full of frustration.
Chen Cebai wanted nothing more than to grasp her chin, face her directly, eyes locked onto eyes, and tell her coldly that everything she saw was an illusion.
He was far from being as calm and rational as he appeared.
Just like now, he didn’t merely want her to sit on his lap.
He wanted to tie her down with a belt.
She thought that just because he had spoken a few crude words, it was unlike him.
Did she have any idea how strong his jealousy was?
The moment Pei Xi grabbed her wrist, he hadn’t thought much—only about drawing his gun, aiming, and pulling the trigger.
He was not an emotional person, yet she could easily make him irritable, agitated, and filled with an overwhelming surge of murderous intent.
He was not someone driven by lust, yet he constantly wanted to hold her, kiss her. When she kissed, she liked to close her eyes. But he did not like her gaze hiding in a place he could not reach—he always wanted to force her to open her eyes, to watch as he roughly sucked on her tongue and swallowed her saliva.
Beyond that, he had more than once wanted to use a belt or a tie to bind her hands together.
It felt as though only by doing so could he capture her and satisfy the dark, terrifying possessiveness inside him.
And there were even more absurd, shameless fantasies—ones so disgraceful that he could not even allow himself to think of them in her presence.
She knew nothing. She knew nothing about him.
She did not even realize that he was turning into a beast spiraling out of control.
Under these circumstances… a relationship?
Chen Cebai let go of her and jerked his chin toward the passenger seat, signaling for her to move back.
Qiu Yu, not understanding why, still obediently returned to her seat and tilted her head to look at him.
Her gaze was too clear, too pure, stirring up the base predatory desires lurking within him.
Chen Cebai took off his glasses, casually tossing them aside. He closed his eyes and pressed his fingers against his brow.
It was useless.
Even with his glasses off and his eyes shut, he could still see her.
It was as if a holographic surveillance device had been installed on her body.
Chen Cebai did not know what he was turning into, but he had a vague guess.
Every change in his body seemed to be preparing for one thing—hunting her.
A fierce hunting instinct, an uncontrollable possessiveness, an enhanced ability to monitor her, a sense of smell heightened by hundreds of times, and an insatiable urge to devour her whole.
For three years, he had quietly stayed by her side, without a single improper thought.
As a result, his genes underwent a directed mutation, and two dissimilar DNA sequences recombined, leading to physiological changes that completely defied nature.
They urged him, instigated him.
—To hunt her down, to possess her, to swallow her whole.
Chen Cebai turned to look at Qiu Yu, without his glasses on.
His vision had also been enhanced, as if he had been fitted with two highly precise artificial eyes, capable of breaking down and interpreting even the most minute changes in her expressions.
For an ordinary person, a sudden increase in visual acuity to this degree would cause dizziness, nausea, or even an inability to process images due to the overwhelming amount of information.
But for Chen Cebai, this was not an issue.
Even if the human eye’s frame rate increased to thousands of hertz, his brain could still process such an immense volume of information.
Chen Cebai stared at Qiu Yu for a moment, then suddenly leaned in, took the tip of her tongue into his mouth, and sucked on it forcefully. He didn’t let go until the strain reached the root of her tongue, making it ache. Then, he straightened up and said calmly:
“If I said—this is exactly the kind of thing I would say?”
Qiu Yu was momentarily stunned before realizing—he was responding to her earlier remark: “That doesn’t sound like something you would say.”
Without his glasses, his expression was sharply aggressive. His eyes, long and cold, had deep black irises that seemed to leave a mark on her skin with just a fleeting glance.
“If I said, the one who truly wants to eat you—is me?”
Qiu Yu’s heart skipped a beat, and her first reaction was, “…How would you eat me?”
Chen Cebai propped his forehead with one hand, then suddenly reached out, grabbed her chin, and kissed her roughly and coldly.
He no longer held back.
With those long, piercingly cold eyes wide open, he watched her closely.
Each time she instinctively tried to close her eyes, he would hold her tongue in his mouth and suddenly speak, his voice icy as he ordered: “Keep your eyes open.”
Qiu Yu’s heartbeat skyrocketed to 180.
For the first time, a kiss left her scalp tingling, her teeth chattering.
The confined space of the car only intensified everything.
She was kissed into a daze, and under his unrelenting, razor-sharp gaze, her breath soon became uneven, her hands weak as she feebly clung to his neck.
Chen Cebai seized her face, forcibly pulling away. He caught the strand of saliva that dripped down with his fingers, lightly rubbing it between his thumb and index finger.
Then, he said,
“If I told you—this is the real me, would you still want to be in a relationship with me?”