What Do You Love About Me?
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For a moment, the room was filled only with silence.
And the indescribable sound of viscous matter writhing.
Qiu Yu belatedly felt her throat was dry. She originally intended to get water herself, but upon seeing the culprit beside her, she immediately ordered unceremoniously, “Go get me a glass of water.”
Chen Cebai lifted his eyes to look at her but didn’t move.
His eyes remained submerged in the shadows, making it impossible to discern his exact expression. Only his glasses seemed to flash faintly for a moment.
Qiu Yu didn’t want to examine his expression closely either. She kicked him lightly with her foot and urged, “Hurry up.”
Chen Cebai paused for a moment but still didn’t move. Instead, the pitch-black substance from all directions dripped down and condensed into a ghostly hand with distinct joints. It floated downstairs, pressed the water dispenser, and retrieved a cup of precisely 37°C warm water before handing it to her.
Qiu Yu was displeased and said, “I wanted ice water.”
Chen Cebai’s voice remained calm. “You haven’t eaten anything tonight. Ice water will irritate your stomach. Just drink this.”
It would have been fine if he hadn’t mentioned it, but the moment he did, Qiu Yu’s suppressed anger flared up again. “Oh, so you do know I haven’t eaten anything!”
Chen Cebai remained silent.
She took a large sip of warm water and glanced around. “Alright, tell me—what the hell is going on?”
That ghostly hand hadn’t left yet; it still lingered in front of her. She reached out and lightly touched it. “This… what is this?”
Chen Cebai was silent for a few seconds before pulling out a cigarette. He lowered his head slightly, held one between his lips, but didn’t reach for a lighter. Instead, a wisp of eerie blue flame ignited at the tip of his index finger, lighting the cigarette as he took a slow drag.
Qiu Yu’s eyes widened.
Chen Cebai looked at her for a moment before finally speaking. “I can now see another dimension. It should be the fourth dimension… or perhaps an even higher one.”
His tone was indifferent and fatigued, as if utterly disinterested in the high-dimensional space that scientists could only dream of.
“Who knows.”
Qiu Yu understood the concept of the fourth dimension. Many science fiction works had speculated about the nature of higher-dimensional spaces.
To give an example, imagine laying out a sheet of white paper and drawing a few circles on it, assuming they represent life forms in a two-dimensional world. Now, suppose these circles come to life and open their eyes. No matter how they shift their perspectives, they can only perceive a series of line segments.
A circle that exists in a two-dimensional world has no way of seeing its full form from its current perspective.
Only when it steps into the third dimension can it realize that it was actually a circle all along.
For higher-dimensional beings, humans are nothing more than thin, simple circles. They can instantly perceive the structure of a human being and effortlessly observe details that humans could never perceive in their entire lifetimes.
A two-dimensional world has only length and width. No matter what, a being living inside it could never look down on its world from height.
Likewise, no matter what, humans could never overlook human society from the fourth dimension.
Whoever achieves that becomes the god of human society.
In other words, Chen Cebai had now become the god of human society.
Qiu Yu let out a soft “Ah.”
Now, all of her questions had been answered.
Why had the steering wheel shattered from the inside?—It was because Cebai had accidentally touched its microscopic structure.
Looking at it this way, this man’s ability to learn was terrifying.
To him, the three-dimensional world was no longer just a piece of paper—it was a piece of paper soaked with water. Even a slightly heavier breath could cause indescribable destruction.
Yet, he had only destroyed a steering wheel. That meant he had already roughly mastered the technique of interacting with lower-dimensional objects from a higher-dimensional space.
Qiu Yu suddenly felt angry again—you’re already this powerful, yet you still lose your temper at me?!
She stiffly responded, “Oh.” Then she asked, “So what did you mean when you said those things to me?”
Chen Cebai held the cigarette between his fingers and stared at the faint glow of the flame.
In another dimension, that wasn’t fire at all—it was a chemical reaction being unfolded and laid bare.
Every vibration of every particle was vividly clear.
If he wanted to, he could randomly capture a single particle and observe infinite details.
For him, one flower, one world; one leaf, one Bodhi was no longer just Zen philosophy—it was an accessible reality.
But it was boring.
Chen Cebai remained expressionless as he took a drag of his cigarette and exhaled a puff of white smoke.
From beginning to end, he only wanted to be the person in Qiu Yu’s eyes, not the god in everyone else’s.
Qiu Yu didn’t want him.
Everything lost its meaning.
Indeed, higher-dimensional space was vast and awe-inspiring.
Even though research suggested that the human brain possessed a multi-dimensional structure, for humans living in a three-dimensional world, the details of higher dimensions were impossible to imagine. They could only prove its existence through analogy, knowing that it was an indescribable realm.
Yet he had entered that mysterious and unfathomable world with effortless ease.
Logically speaking, he should have felt grateful, not weary of everything he had gained.
But to him, it all felt meaningless.
People couldn’t choose their birth. He was not a man full of resentment toward the world. He had no complaints about his origins, calmly accepting the fact of his poverty and facing the consequences brought by fundamental transformation with the same composure.
The only thing he could not accept with indifference—was losing Qiu Yu after falling in love with her.
It was utterly absurd.
In his entire life, he had never aspired to be a genius admired by the world. Even without the company’s genetic modifications, he could have still developed neuro-blocking drugs. Creating medicine didn’t require such immense computational power.
To him, the abilities granted by genetic modification were excessive, unnecessary.
The only thing he truly wanted—was Qiu Yu.
Yet fate kept stuffing him with things he didn’t need, and with them, it pushed Qiu Yu farther and farther away.
Chen Cebai took a deep drag of his cigarette. A few seconds later, he suddenly flicked it heavily to the side.
Qiu Yu found his actions inexplicable and reminded him, “You still haven’t told me—what did you mean by those words?”
Chen Cebai paused for a moment before replying indifferently, “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what you meant?”
Chen Cebai ran a hand through his hair, his tone detached. “It means exactly that—I don’t know. I don’t know what I want to do. Maybe I wanted to hold on to you. Maybe I wanted you to pity me. Maybe I wanted to scare you. Or maybe… I just wanted you to know what kind of person I really am.”
Qiu Yu was even more bewildered. “Hold on to me? Why would you want to hold on to me?”
Chen Cebai lowered his hand and looked down.
At this moment, she finally felt his gaze.
It was an indescribable sensation.
As a lower-dimensional being, she shouldn’t have been able to perceive Chen Cebai’s gaze at all. But since he still existed within the three-dimensional world, a strange paradox emerged—he simultaneously occupied the three-dimensional space while transcending it entirely.
Even his gaze was like that.
It loomed over her completely, as if, in the span of a single second, it had dissected her internal organs, blood vessels, bones, and even the biomolecules composing her body.
“Because you will leave me.” Chen Cebai’s voice was indifferent.
“….”
Qiu Yu couldn’t follow his train of thought. She frowned in confusion. “Leave you? Why would I leave you?”
Chen Cebai looked at her, his tone devoid of hope. “Would you really stay with someone who spies on you, fears you, and holds absolute control over you?”
“Of course not.”
He had long known her answer.
Yet the moment she said it, a terrifying web of bloodshot veins spread across his eyes, thick with cold, murderous intent.
That extreme desire to hunt.
That uncontrollable urge to possess.
It surged once more.
To capture her.
To control her.
To force her.
If hope was shattered—
Then he would simply create another hope.
After all, from the perspective of another dimension, time was no longer the fundamental framework of the world, nor was it the measurement unit for mortal life.
He could turn this space into a fragment of the fourth dimension, projected onto the three-dimensional world—freezing time itself.
Then, within this frozen space—
He could possess her.
Possess her.
Possess her!!!
A chilling, deranged fire burned in Chen Cebai’s eyes.
Qiu Yu had no idea that just a moment ago, Chen Cebai had almost violated her with his gaze—so tangible it was nearly an act of aggression.
It took him a long time before he finally tore his gaze away from her, speaking as emotionlessly as possible. “Then why haven’t you left yet?”
But Qiu Yu said, “No, I’m not leaving.”
Chen Cebai sharply lifted his gaze, staring directly at her.
Qiu Yu found his expression somewhat amusing.
From the moment she had stepped out of the shower, he had been talking to himself, directing and performing his own play, yet he wouldn’t allow her to ask questions or even say a word.
Only just now did she finally figure out what he had been mumbling about.
So—he actually thought that after knowing about his past, she would leave him.
Qiu Yu gripped the cup in her hand tightly, resisting the urge to splash the water on his face to wake him up.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t her style.
She wasn’t some impulsive, reckless genius.
After thinking for a moment, Qiu Yu sat cross-legged on the bed, patted the spot beside her, and said, “Come here.”
Chen Cebai looked at her but didn’t move, remaining hidden in the shadows.
Qiu Yu had been ordering him around all night to no avail, and now she was growing impatient. “I told you to come here, so come here!”
Only then did Chen Cebai step out of the shadows.
He stopped right in front of her, his gaze lowered, locking onto her body, utterly motionless.
Before this, Qiu Yu had always thought that the way he looked at her—with that singular, irreplaceable sense of treasuring her—was just her imagination.
But now, she realized it wasn’t an illusion at all.
He really could only see her.
Qiu Yu’s heart skipped a beat as if she had been struck by an electric current.
H-He had become omniscient and omnipotent, yet he still loved her the same way as before, cherished her the same way, and was even more dependent on her than ever.
She was terrible. She actually liked this feeling.
Not only liked it—she enjoyed it so much that her heart was racing.
Qiu Yu sighed softly, then reached out and hugged him.
She shivered immediately.
If she hadn’t been holding onto him, she wouldn’t have even realized—his body had grown so cold that the icy air radiating from him nearly frostbit her.
He had always been this way—the more intense his emotions, the lower his body temperature.
So, just how much had he been overthinking all by himself?
Qiu Yu really wanted to scold him.
All sorts of sharp words swirled in her mouth, but after a full round, they unexpectedly dissolved into laughter.
Chen Cebai lowered his eyes and lifted her chin. “What are you laughing at?”
Qiu Yu didn’t answer. She swatted his hand away, then lay down on his lap, adjusting herself into a comfortable position before finally speaking. “I’m very angry today.”
Chen Cebai said, “I know.”
His voice was indifferent, fatigued, and lifeless.
Hearing him speak like this irritated Qiu Yu even more. She couldn’t hold back—she elbowed him, and she didn’t hold back her strength either. Whatever, he’s a high-dimensional being now; a little hit shouldn’t hurt.
Chen Cebai paused, as if about to say something.
Qiu Yu immediately cut him off. “Don’t talk. Listen to me!”
Chen Cebai fell silent, watching her.
“You know? You think you know what? You know nothing!” Qiu Yu said, her voice sharp. “Do you think I’m angry just because you underwent genetic modification, became some higher-dimensional entity, and now have the ability to spy on me, intimidate me, and hold absolute control over me?”
“—Although, yes, that does make me angry. But that doesn’t stop me from loving you. What I’m truly angry about is your deception!”
She had originally wanted to say all of this calmly.
But when she saw Chen Cebai’s confused gaze—she endured it, swallowed her irritation again, but in the end, she still couldn’t hold back and asked bluntly, “Did you understand that?”
“I understood.” He stared at her unblinkingly, his pupils constricting to the extreme.
It was completely the gaze of a reptile—unwavering, cold, and focused.
“You love me?”
Qiu Yu almost exploded in fury. —Is that the point here?!
Chen Cebai, however, seemed to hear nothing else. His gaze, locked onto her, grew colder and more fixated.
As his expression became increasingly hollow and terrifying, an eerie shift occurred—
From all directions, countless icy ghostly hands emerged.
They reached toward her, gripping her face, her neck, her wrists, her ankles.
Qiu Yu’s skin prickled with goosebumps.
Chen Cebai’s tone turned chilling, like an interrogation from the depths of hell.
“What exactly do you love about me?”
“What is there about me that’s worth loving?”
Qiu Yu’s mouth twitched slightly.
Qiu Yu couldn’t take it anymore. She tried to kick away those ghostly hands.
But the more she struggled, the tighter they clenched, nearly leaving horrifying bruises in shades of blue and purple.
Furious, she shouted, “Chen Cebai!”
Chen Cebai looked at her. His Adam’s apple bobbed slightly, as if he had heard her voice—yet at the same time, as if he hadn’t.
Before her, he had always been calm, rational, dominant—filled with the hunger of a predator and an overwhelming sense of control.
But at this moment, there was no trace of cold rationality on his face.
His predatory hunger and need for dominance had magnified to an alarming degree.
If she didn’t love him, this would be an utterly terrifying scene.
The viscous substance slithered like damp, crawling creatures, swallowing the glow of the ceiling light. The air was filled with indescribable writhing and dripping sounds.
It felt as if, in the next second, the entire bedroom would collapse and disintegrate under the weight of his bizarre and delirious emotions.
But—she did love him.
And because she loved him, she couldn’t feel afraid.
The realization that he had spiraled into such madness just because of her casual “I love you” stirred something inside her—a subtle, dark satisfaction that she couldn’t suppress.
It fermented. Expanded.
She really was rotten to the core.
From the very beginning, the reason she had married him had stemmed from a twisted, depraved desire to desecrate something untouchable.
She had wanted to see—what would a man as cold as him be like if he ever fell in love?
Now, she knew.
And the way he loved was even more complete, more deranged, more irresistibly sexy than she had imagined.
She thought, No wonder we’re a 100% compatibility match. Even when he’s like this, he somehow still manages to push all my buttons.
Qiu Yu suddenly understood exactly how to handle him.
In a soft voice, she said, “Chen Cebai… your hands are hurting me… Can you loosen them just a little?”
As expected, the moment the words left her lips, the ghostly hands instantly relaxed.
Qiu Yu blinked, then curled her lips into a barely perceptible smirk.
Chen Cebai’s eyes flickered, as if catching that fleeting smile.
His voice carried genuine confusion. “You’re… laughing?”
He sounded baffled, like he couldn’t comprehend how she could be smiling at a moment like this.
He had completely exposed his inhuman nature before her, laid bare an obsession so deep it should have been horrifying—yet she was smiling at him with the same sweet expression as before.
Was it mockery?
Derision?
Or… something else?
Chen Cebai unconsciously leaned down, his gaze behind the lenses nailed to her face, unmoving.
He seemed completely unaware of just how deranged he looked right now.
His stare was like a scalpel, attempting to dissect the texture of her flesh and blood, analyzing every fleeting microexpression with a calm yet utterly insane scientific detachment.
Qiu Yu’s scalp tingled. Her heart pounded wildly.
Unable to endure it, she reached up and removed his glasses, then covered his eyes with her hand.
But his gaze didn’t disappear.
Even without his glasses, she could still feel it, clinging to her like a tangible force.
She had no choice.
With her other hand, she hooked her arm around his neck, tilted her head up, and swiftly pecked his lips.
Then she warned him, “If you keep looking at me like that, I won’t tell you why I love you.”
—The gaze vanished immediately.
Qiu Yu almost laughed again but held it back. “To be honest, I don’t even know why I love you.”
Chen Cebai didn’t respond, but his arms tightened around her instantly.
A chill ran down Qiu Yu’s spine.
She had the distinct feeling that if he squeezed just a little harder, his hands would break through her bones.
She quickly raised her voice, “Can you explain why you love me? Love is something you can’t logically explain!”
Chen Cebai’s hands loosened.
To stop him from making any more dangerous moves, Qiu Yu thought for a moment, then yanked off his tie and, within seconds, tied up his hands.
Chen Cebai glanced at his restrained hands, then lifted his gaze toward her, eyes full of questioning.
Qiu Yu solemnly declared, “Until I finish talking, you’re not allowed to break free, not allowed to speak, and—most importantly—not allowed to touch me with any of your… other hands. Got it? If you understand, nod.”