Do I Really Want to Ask Him for a Divorce?
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Lu Zehou had been researching how to escape the company’s surveillance.
First, he had to deactivate the chip. Any electronic device with network access also had to be disabled.
At first, it was indeed difficult. The internet had infiltrated everyone’s lives. Even prosthetic eyes and limbs had network access, recording your usage habits, packaging the data, and uploading it to the cloud to help big data tailor an information cocoon for you.
Next was the most critical step—severing all ties with friends.
In the internet era, you could only require yourself not to use network services; you couldn’t demand that all your friends isolate themselves from the world like you.
If you continued to interact with friends, then deactivating your chip and electronic devices was meaningless—your friends’ chips could still monitor you.
Therefore, to truly escape the company’s surveillance, one had to become a lonely wanderer, cutting off all contact with others.
Lu Zehou succeeded.
He distanced himself from everyone, silently raising a torch and marching forward alone in the darkness.
Finally, he developed a device resembling a kind of “force field.” Once activated, it could block electromagnetic signals and sound waves of different frequencies, even some biological signals. The drawback was that one couldn’t stay inside for long, or it would cause bioelectric disruption.
Lu Zehou led Qiu Yu to a corner of the warehouse, had her turn her back to Chen Cebai, and then activated this “shielding force field.”
Lu Zehou didn’t know to what extent Chen Cebai had mutated. But since he already possessed the ability of infinite fission, which exceeded natural limits, he must also have sensory abilities beyond natural limits.
Hopefully, the “shielding force field” could block Chen Cebai’s senses.
Lu Zehou succeeded.
As soon as the shielding force field activated, Chen Cebai suddenly lifted his gaze, staring directly in their direction. The look behind his lenses was chillingly cold.
Being stared at by him, Lu Zehou felt a shiver shoot straight to his head. All he could say was, thankfully, Qiu Yu was standing in front of him.
Otherwise, this kid would definitely kill him.
Qiu Yu was completely unaware of all this. She stood beside him, patiently waiting for Lu Zehou to speak.
Lu Zehou pondered for a moment, took two masks from the drawer, put one on, and handed the other to Qiu Yu.
Qiu Yu was startled. “…This is?”
Lu Zehou smiled and said, “The company’s eyes and ears are everywhere. I’m confident our voices won’t be transmitted, but I’m not confident that our lip movements won’t be. Wear the mask, just in case.”
Qiu Yu had no doubts. After all, Lu Zehou was going against the company—being cautious was normal.
Seeing her put on the mask, Lu Zehou finally spoke:
“Miss Qiu, I want to know, have you encountered anything particularly unusual recently?”
“Particularly unusual? What kind of unusual do you mean?”
“Something that has never happened to you before.”
Qiu Yu thought for a moment and hesitantly said:
“I have indeed encountered something particularly unusual… I keep feeling like someone is watching me, but I can’t find ‘his’ gaze, nor do I even know what method he is using to watch me.”
Lu Zehou asked, “Can you still feel his gaze now?”
Qiu Yu closed her eyes, carefully distinguishing the sensation of being watched, then nodded.
Lu Zehou silently let out a breath of relief. Just as he had guessed, Chen Cebai’s senses had also surpassed natural limits. Fortunately, he had prepared in advance by having Qiu Yu wear a mask to prevent Chen Cebai from reading her lip movements.
Lu Zehou glanced at Chen Cebai.
There was not a single expression on Chen Cebai’s face, yet his gaze was cold, fierce, and restless.
He stared at Lu Zehou, forming words with his lips, enunciating each syllable: What exactly are you trying to do?
Lu Zehou chuckled and said to Qiu Yu, “Miss Qiu, don’t you think your husband’s desire to protect you is a bit excessive? We’re standing on the other side of the room talking, yet he already seems unable to tolerate it.”
Qiu Yu turned her head and met Chen Cebai’s gaze just in time.
Chen Cebai had not expected Qiu Yu to turn around, and he had no time to retract his cold and violent expression. His entire body stiffened.
However, Qiu Yu simply smiled at him, her eyes curving sweetly above the mask, adorable and bright.
After smiling, Qiu Yu looked at Lu Zehou, thought for a moment, and said, “I can actually understand why he’s so tense about me. When he was very young, he was selected by the company for a seven-year-long closed-off training. Although he never told me what the training entailed… I can more or less guess how the company treated him.”
Lu Zehou pressed his twitching eyelids, resisting the urge to tell her that Chen Cebai’s protectiveness toward her was far beyond mere “nervousness.”
For him, she was someone he feared would melt if held in his mouth or shatter if cradled in his hands.
It was a murky, distorted, nearly terrifying kind of possessiveness.
Yet the person involved had no objections—she even deeply understood it.
Lu Zehou didn’t know what to say, so he had to change the subject: “Do you have any leads on the identity of the watcher?”
Qiu Yu shook her head.
“What about Dr. Chen?” Lu Zehou asked. “As the smartest person in the world, finding the watcher shouldn’t be difficult for him, right? Or is it that he clearly has the ability to identify the watcher… yet has deliberately delayed taking action?”
Qiu Yu was stunned. Only then did she realize that although Chen Cebai had promised to help her find the watcher, he had… never made a move.
She trusted him too much, almost blindly. No matter what he said, she never doubted him, and she had never scrutinized his actions over the past few days.
Qiu Yu could feel it—Chen Cebai loved her. He loved her deeply, to the point of obsession. And she enjoyed this kind of love.
Yet, despite loving her so much and being so fiercely protective of her, he never seemed to mind the watcher’s presence in the dark.
—Right now, merely because Lu Zehou was speaking to her in the corner, the look Chen Cebai gave Lu Zehou already carried a hint of killing intent.
However, when the watcher had been staring at her so intently, Chen Cebai had only shown jealousy—never the same murderous intent he now directed at Lu Zehou.
…Could it be that Chen Cebai had known the watcher’s identity from the start?
Then why hadn’t he told her?
Qiu Yu didn’t want to doubt Chen Cebai, but the evidence was right in front of her, and she couldn’t ignore it.
Thinking carefully, Chen Cebai’s actions during this period had indeed been extremely strange.
He loved her, and he had personally admitted that he had fallen for her a long time ago. He was intensely focused on everything about her.
Even now, she could still feel the weight of his gaze, as if it had substance.
His gaze overlapped with the watcher’s, almost indistinguishable from one another.
Yet in the beginning, his attitude toward her had been ambiguous—neither accepting nor rejecting, sometimes even refusing her outright.
She had wanted to find out who the watcher was as soon as possible and had offered to draw them out in conversation. He refused. This could barely be explained as jealousy.
She had wanted to learn about his past, but he had outright rejected her. This too could barely be explained as insecurity about his origins.
After all, just last night, he had personally told her that he was not someone who belittled himself—he had only ever felt inferior in front of her.
All these suspicions, she could ignore.
But there was one thing she could not figure out, no matter how hard she tried.
And that was—Chen Cebai had told her that the billboard incident might not have been targeting her.
Out of trust, she had not thought too much about it at the time. Whatever he said, she believed.
But now, looking back, she realized it was full of contradictions.
If the culprit had been a fanatic admirer of Pei Xi, no matter the circumstances, they should not have issued a warning like “Stay away from her.”
At first glance, these four words could be interpreted from two perspectives.
But normal people speak with emphasis.
The shorter the sentence, the less likely it is to emphasize an irrelevant person—especially in such a commanding tone.
So, “Stay away from her”—from beginning to end, had always been directed at her.
Yet when Chen Cebai arrived by her side, he had uncharacteristically spoken at length, dissolving her fear and doubts about the watcher.
…It didn’t feel like reassurance or analysis—it felt more like sophistry.
Later, because she had been preoccupied with Pei Xi, she had stopped paying attention to the watcher’s gaze, and Chen Cebai had never brought it up again.
If it weren’t for Lu Zehou as a comparison, Qiu Yu might never have realized just how strange Chen Cebai’s actions had been at the time.
—Given his attitude toward Lu Zehou, with his vigilance so extreme that he would rather kill by mistake than let someone slip by, it should have been impossible for him to comfort her over the billboard incident, let alone justify the intruder’s actions.
Following this train of thought, the conclusion was already painfully obvious.
Qiu Yu’s breath hitched, and she involuntarily took a step back.
She was too shocked—like someone had struck her over the head, leaving her completely dazed.
She never expected that Chen Cebai had known the watcher’s identity from the very beginning.
Or rather—
—He was the watcher.
Qiu Yu blinked in bewilderment, at a complete loss. Her first thought was to seek confirmation from Chen Cebai.
Even now, she still harbored a blind trust in him, believing he would never harm her. Even after realizing he was the watcher, her only thought was to understand why he had hidden his identity from her.
Lu Zehou saw through her thoughts, the corner of his mouth twitching.
He felt that this girl and Chen Cebai were truly a perfect match.
For someone as cold, paranoid, and almost inhuman as Chen Cebai, what he needed most was precisely this kind of unconditional trust.
And Qiu Yu just so happened to be able to give him that kind of trust.
How well-matched were they?
For most people, discovering that they had been secretly watched by the person closest to and most trusted by them would invoke an immediate reaction of fear.
Yet this girl was merely puzzled and even intended to go directly to Chen Cebai to ask him about it.
If she were allowed to confront Chen Cebai just like that, what would happen?
Once she asked him, Lu Zehou estimated that he would never get another chance to interact with her again in this lifetime.
Lu Zehou’s plan was simple—he wanted to use Chen Cebai’s power to destroy the monopoly company. However, directly inviting Chen Cebai to join this plan was clearly impossible.
His only option was to first use Qiu Yu to provoke Chen Cebai. Once Chen Cebai exposed his inhuman identity and turned against the company, then Lu Zehou could invite him to join his “New Birth Plan.”
If Qiu Yu were allowed to go to Chen Cebai now and they smoothly cleared up their misunderstanding, then with Chen Cebai’s intelligence, he might never expose his inhuman side in front of Qiu Yu or the company in this lifetime.
And that would mean Lu Zehou’s plan would fail completely.
To force Chen Cebai to reveal his identity, there was only one way—convince Qiu Yu to leave him.
And not just leave—leave of her own volition.
Lu Zehou had no intention of breaking up this couple. They didn’t seem like a pair that could be separated anyway.
He only needed to persuade Qiu Yu to pretend to leave Chen Cebai. That should be enough to make Chen Cebai lose control and reveal his true nature.
Wasn’t this a perfect plan that killed two birds with one stone?
Not only could it make this couple truly open up to each other, but it could also destroy the monopoly company and allow this decayed land to be reborn.
With that thought, Lu Zehou immediately called out to Qiu Yu:
“Miss Qiu, you must have already guessed that the one watching you is your husband. I know you two have a good relationship, and I have no intention of sowing discord between you. But there is one thing you must listen to me about—do not go confront your husband!”
Qiu Yu was just about to go find Chen Cebai. Hearing this, she looked up in confusion. “Why?”
“Your husband has been watching you in some way, secretly observing your every move, yet he has never told you the reason. Haven’t you ever wondered why?”
Qiu Yu lowered her gaze. “That’s why I want to ask him.”
“…” Lu Zehou was speechless. “You absolutely must not ask him. He won’t tell you the truth. If my guess is correct, you’ve probably asked him similar questions before, haven’t you?”
Qiu Yu hesitated for a moment before nodding slightly.
“And has he ever given you a clear answer?” Lu Zehou patiently guided her. “I can guarantee that if you go ask him now, his first reaction will be to give you a vague and evasive response.”
“Your husband’s intelligence is already close to the limits of human potential. If you go to him now, all you’ll do is alert him. If he is determined not to tell you the truth, directly confronting him will do nothing but make him more cautious. Once he becomes wary, you may never get another chance to learn the truth in this lifetime.
Do you really want to be locked in a cage of lies forever?”
Qiu Yu didn’t believe that Chen Cebai would deceive her for a lifetime, but he was hiding something from her. And today, he had even fabricated a poorly crafted lie to brush her off.
Why was he unwilling to tell her that he was the watcher?
Why was he watching her?
What hidden secret lay behind all this?
Was it malice that he harbored toward her, or was there an unspeakable reason he couldn’t bring himself to say?
“What do you think I should do?” Qiu Yu asked softly.
She wasn’t asking because she intended to blindly follow Lu Zehou’s advice—she simply wanted to know what kind of suggestion he would give.
“Before I answer you,” Lu Zehou asked, “I want to ask you a question first. Why do you think Dr. Chen has been hiding the watcher’s identity?”
Qiu Yu instinctively wanted to turn around and look at Chen Cebai but forced herself to resist the urge.
Her mind was in chaos, and she answered purely on intuition, “…Maybe he’s afraid I’ll be scared of him. I can’t think of any other reason.”
“So, if you go directly to ask him, he will most likely hide part of the truth to avoid frightening you,” Lu Zehou said. “Personally, I think that if you really want to uncover the whole truth, you have no choice but to push him a little.”
Qiu Yu frowned. “Push him?”
Lu Zehou nodded. “Trust me. This is the only way to get him to be completely honest with you. I don’t know Dr. Chen well, but just from the short time I’ve observed him, I’ve noticed that he doesn’t care about anything—except whether you’re within his sight.”
Qiu Yu was slightly startled.
Lu Zehou gestured for her to turn around. “I activated the shielding force field. He can’t hear our conversation or see our lip movements, which is why he’s so restless.”
“When I say ‘push him,’ I don’t mean actually hurting him. You only need to pretend to ask him for a divorce.”
“Of course, with someone as intelligent as Dr. Chen, you can’t just outright ask for a divorce—he’d figure out your true intentions immediately. You need to gradually distance yourself from him and then bring it up.”
To be honest, using the idea of divorce as a way to force Chen Cebai into revealing the truth went completely against Qiu Yu’s values.
She frowned and was about to refuse when, as if possessed, she turned her head and glanced at Chen Cebai.
She hadn’t been talking to Lu Zehou for long—only about ten minutes—but Chen Cebai’s expression looked as if she had been gone for an entire century. His face was ice-cold and filled with extreme irritation, so much so that even she could see how unusual he was acting.
He had mild mysophobia and obsessive-compulsive tendencies. When he was outside, he would never lean against a wall, nor would he ever unbutton his shirt.
Yet at this moment, he was leaning against the graffiti-covered warehouse wall, violently lighting a cigarette, and for the first time, he had undone the top two buttons of his shirt, revealing his sharply defined collarbones.
Others might not understand what these actions meant, but she knew him well enough to understand exactly what was happening.
—He couldn’t hear her voice, couldn’t see her lips, couldn’t touch her, and it was driving him to the brink of losing control.
If she were to go up to him now and ask why he had been watching her, why he lost control so easily, there was no way he would tell her the truth.
It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him—it was that he had a history of hiding things from her.
In the billboard incident, he had chosen to keep the truth from her.
Lu Zehou’s argument wasn’t entirely unreasonable.
If she wanted to know the full truth, she had no choice but to push him.
But…
Qiu Yu hesitated to speak.
Lu Zehou noticed her hesitation and asked, “What’s holding you back?”
“…I don’t want to hurt him.”
Lu Zehou felt that this girl was being far too kind to Chen Cebai. “He’s been deceiving you for so long, and you don’t want even a little bit of payback? Just think of this as a small punishment, something to make sure he never dares to lie to you again. It’s not like you’re really getting a divorce anyway.”
Qiu Yu closed her eyes briefly before turning to look at Chen Cebai once again.
As if sensing her gaze, Chen Cebai held the cigarette between his lips, lifted his eyelids, and met her eyes.
His face revealed no expression, but his pupils gradually constricted into needle-like slits, like a large beast entering a hunting state.
He seemed completely unaware that he had already exposed his beast-like nature. He stared at her intently, took the cigarette from his mouth, and exhaled a cloud of smoke.
At the same time, the “watcher” also cast a gaze at her.
Two gazes—coming from different identities, different angles, yet belonging to the same person—were like two beasts locked in a deadly struggle, glaring at each other, tearing at each other, clashing against each other, only to eventually stumble and merge into one. Together, they fixed their sharp, aggressive eyes on her.
Qiu Yu wasn’t afraid of Chen Cebai, yet she still shivered—a purely physiological reaction.
It really seemed like he was hiding a lot from her.
And it seemed that the only way she could find out the truth was to follow Lu Zehou’s advice—to push him.
…Did she really have to ask him for a divorce?
Was there any other way to get him to reveal the truth?
It seemed there wasn’t.
Divorce shouldn’t hurt him too much, right? Qiu Yu thought. Not long ago, she had almost asked him for a divorce.
At the time, Chen Cebai hadn’t reacted much—except that the force with which he pinched her cheeks had suddenly intensified, almost bruising her skin.
After she coaxed him with a few words, he had let go.
…Maybe, just as Lu Zehou had said, all she needed to do was gradually distance herself from him, then pretend to ask for a divorce to push him into revealing everything.
If she really made him angry, she could just apologize a few more times and coax him a little more.
He probably wouldn’t really be mad at her—after all, he was the one who deceived her first.
Qiu Yu thought it over again and again before finally nodding with difficulty.
“…I will seriously consider your suggestion.”