Two more chapters for this story before it ends!
The Prey is Rushing Toward the Predator with All Its Might
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Qiu Yu’s face was cold, and for once, a trace of aggression appeared between her brows and eyes.
She replied: 【If you don’t want to die, it’s best not to bother me again. Since you’re a good person, when my husband kills you, I’ll try my best to say a few words to stop him.】
After sending the message, Qiu Yu decisively blocked Lu Zehou.
She shut down her chip, then opened the inner wall of her office. Embedded within were various types of weapons, from handguns to sniper rifles, all readily available.
Many company offices had such a weapon wall for emergency situations.
Under the shocked gazes of her female colleagues, Qiu Yu walked over and took down a submachine gun as long as her arm.
Qiu Yu was not short, but because of her sweet appearance and slightly rounded cheeks, even with a sharp chin and upturned almond eyes, she still gave off a petite, adorable impression—someone who needed protection.
At this moment, however, her expression was indifferent. With one hand, she lifted the submachine gun, smoothly attaching the holographic sight and magazine with a crisp “click”.
The scene was so impactful that even colleagues who had been merely watching from a distance gathered around, staring in shock as she picked up the submachine gun and a supply pack before striding out.
Her superior rushed over upon hearing the news, staring in astonishment. “Where are you going?! Haven’t you seen the news? The outside is full of mutants! Your parents asked me to tell you to stay here and not move. They’ll send someone to pick you up soon.”
Qiu Yu didn’t even turn her head, only answering the first question: “To pick someone up.”
Her superior was baffled. “Who are you picking up? The situation outside is like this—who could possibly need you to pick them up? Pei Xi? Pei Xi was already taken away by his family.”
Qiu Yu had already stepped into the hallway, leaving behind one sentence:
“To pick up my husband.”
Her superior’s first reaction was that this was reasonable. In a life-and-death situation, of course, one would go to pick up their family. But in less than a second, he remembered who Qiu Yu’s husband was—Chen Cebai.
—The very culprit behind the mutant crisis.
The others also realized it.
The office exploded like a spark landing in gasoline.
Everyone started discussing Qiu Yu’s relationship with Chen Cebai. Some even speculated whether the true mastermind behind everything was actually Gaoke Corporation—the Nordic monopoly that seemed detached from worldly affairs but had long been eyeing a share of the Asia-Pacific market.
Their speculations weren’t entirely baseless.
After all, in this world, people were no longer independent individuals. They were screws, nuts, bolts, rods, gears, bearings of corporations… Almost no one viewed problems from a personal perspective. It was natural for them to see Qiu Yu as a symbol of Gaoke and Chen Cebai as a symbol of Biotech.
Qiu Yu thought to herself, This way of thinking is the norm—at least, in this world, it is.
What wasn’t normal was her—always wanting to act on emotions in such a world.
Fortunately, someone was willing to respond to her emotions. And not just respond, but with an even more fervent passion.
For this alone, Qiu Yu was determined to protect Chen Cebai.
Even if, between the two of them, the one in greater need of protection was clearly her.
—
Chen Cebai had been in a bad mood all day.
He had occupied too much of Qiu Yu’s time in the Eternal Space, and after being separated from her, he inevitably experienced symptoms of separation anxiety.
Even though he could observe her from afar and even smell her scent, it still couldn’t ease his restless emotions.
The entire morning, he remained cold and silent, speaking little, yet his computational efficiency was frighteningly high—several times, he even outpaced the supercomputer in obtaining results, making it seem as though the extremely expensive machine was merely a verification tool.
After the experiment ended, Chen Cebai took off his protective suit, ignored the surrounding exclamations and flattery, and quickly walked out of the laboratory.
—If he didn’t communicate with Qiu Yu soon, he was going to go insane.
He found it difficult to describe this feeling.
After all, in the first half of his life, he had never possessed someone so intimately.
Qiu Yu was far too indulgent with him.
Even though she knew he was a dangerous monster, possessing unknown and terrifying power, capable of killing her at any moment, she still allowed him to engulf her breath, to place his palm on her fragile carotid artery.
If not for her indulgence, he might have never known that the feeling of completely possessing someone was so… exhilarating.
Even more stimulating to the cerebral cortex than injecting hundreds of doses of stimulants.
Chen Cebai changed his clothes, picked up his tablet, and upon seeing Qiu Yu’s message, his icy expression finally softened a little.
At this moment, a voice came from behind him:
“Dr. Chen, is it Dr. Chen?”
Chen Cebai lifted his gaze slightly and glanced at the person behind him. “What is it?”
“Ah, it really is Dr. Chen, what an honor, what an honor!” The newcomer said excitedly.
He was a young man, about twenty years old, with a scar on his eyelid. He looked simple and honest, yet a twisted malice lurked in his eyes.
He quickly sized up Chen Cebai and spoke rapidly:
“My family member has an incurable disease and urgently needs biotechnology treatment. And since they needed someone unafraid of death to come talk to you, I volunteered.”
Chen Cebai’s voice remained flat. “The probability of biotechnology curing your family member is less than 1%. Go back. You’ve been deceived.”
He raised his hand, palm facing inward, and made a dismissive gesture.
The young man seemed angered by his attitude and let out a cold laugh:
“I knew you would try to sow discord, the honorable, revered Dr. Chen! Before I came here, the company told me everything—including the fact that you’re a monster!”
“How ironic. Everyone treats you as a savior, believing you can develop a cure for chip disease… But it turns out you’re not even human, just a disgusting lump of flesh!”
He seemed to have been injected with some kind of drug by Biotech, as every time he spoke, his facial muscles twitched violently.
“Surprised, aren’t you? Even a small-time thug like me knows your true face, Dr. Chen… And it’s not just me—everyone on the internet knows now! They all know you’re just a wriggling mass of revolting flesh! You’re not the hope of the lower class—you’re a demon who devours people alive! Otherwise, why would you refuse to mass-produce the neural blocking drug? Why?”
“Because you’re a short-lived monster. You want the entire world to be buried with you!” The young man stared at Chen Cebai, his smile growing increasingly eerie and hideous. “I may not be as educated as you, but I know some basic biology. Gene modification that breaks human limits will cause DNA double-strand breaks… It won’t be long before you turn back into a disgusting lump of flesh!”
Sharp accusations, a twisted expression, inexplicable malice.
Chen Cebai was no stranger to this.
Every so often, he would encounter people like this young man.
Limited by their knowledge, they only believed what they could see with their own eyes—unaware that even what they saw could be fabricated.
For example, the matter of the neural blocking drug.
The methods corporations use to dominate public opinion are far more circuitous and complex than ordinary people can imagine.
—First, they spend heavily on sponsored articles, exaggerating his intelligence, academic background, and scientific research achievements, calling him “the hope of the lower-class people.” Once people develop a backlash against such excessive praise, they then send out a few accounts to “expose” his true nature.
From cold, unsmiling, and devoid of human warmth to the truth about his reluctance to mass-produce the neural blocking drug.
They guide public opinion in the direction they most desire to see.
However, this “first elevate, then suppress” tactic only works on the lower-class population with limited education.
His colleagues merely found it boring.
But it was precisely the lower class that was most easily incited.
A few years ago, when the neural blocking drug had just been developed, Chen Cebai had seen far too many such ignorant and furious people who were used to pressure him.
He closed his tablet, just about to change clothes and go pick up Qiu Yu from work.
At that moment, the young man suddenly sneered:
“If I remember correctly, your wife is Qiu Yu, the daughter of a Gaoke executive… Does she know that you’re just a disgusting lump of flesh?”
Chen Cebai paused mid-step.
The young man actually couldn’t discern the meaning behind Chen Cebai’s reaction, but he still continued his mockery with a sarcastic tone:
“Ah, so she knows! Then why hasn’t she divorced you? Don’t tell me she still has hope in you, thinking you’ll make the neural blocking drug available worldwide?”
“If I recall correctly, she’s a rather dull woman—why haven’t you kicked her to the curb yet? Don’t tell me she’s already pregnant? Aren’t you afraid that the child she gives birth to will also be a deformed lump of flesh—”
This was the fantasy that consumed Chen Cebai in his most deranged moments.
Later, he would feel countless waves of remorse for it.
The young man’s sudden mention of it immediately ignited his killing intent.
Having lived as a small-time nobody all his life, the young man had never dealt with someone of Chen Cebai’s caliber before. Yet at this moment, he was mocking and cursing at Chen Cebai without restraint.
The thrill of it made his smile widen further, his eyes filled with deepening malice.
Sensing that Qiu Yu was Chen Cebai’s weak spot, he was about to continue twisting the nature of their relationship—when suddenly, he was overwhelmed by a cold, terrifying, and overwhelmingly powerful aura that made his very bones creak under pressure.
For a moment, it was as if his throat was seized by an invisible force. His eyes bulged like a fish’s, and for several seconds, he couldn’t utter a single word.
Chen Cebai’s expression was chillingly murderous, looking down from above. The hand hanging at his side was silently enveloped in a layer of black liquid metal, morphing into a razor-sharp blade that exuded a bone-chilling presence.
The young man didn’t even have time to beg for mercy before he felt a cold sensation at his throat.
Air rushed into his windpipe.
His eyes widened as he let out a hoarse “hkk-hkk” sound before his gaze became unfocused, and he collapsed backward onto the ground.
The moment he fell, footsteps and screams rang out from behind.
It was obvious—this was a trap.
The goal was to capture footage of him losing control and killing someone.
This young man had either undergone subconscious brainwashing or had been injected with some kind of drug by the corporation—his sole purpose was to provoke Chen Cebai into an uncontrollable state.
Chen Cebai’s sharp and austere face remained expressionless as he yanked off his blood-splattered lab coat and casually tossed it aside. Striding forward, he headed straight out.
—He had countless ways to prevent the scene just now from leaking and just as many ways to completely erase all the negative information about him on the internet.
But he was utterly exhausted and too indifferent to bother with such trivial matters.
Besides, a certain dark thought lingered in his mind.
He wanted to see how Qiu Yu would comfort him.
When time had stood still, he had once bluntly told Qiu Yu just how despicable he was—how he enjoyed tearing open his wounds just to elicit her pity and comfort.
Though she had slapped him in anger the moment the words left his mouth, she had still comforted him for a long time afterward.
That was a feeling far more intoxicating than alcohol.
Drinking could only bring a fleeting sense of exhilaration before the mind dulled, sinking into a swamp-like sluggishness.
But Qiu Yu could keep him in a constant state of exhilaration.
Just like now.
Everything related to the company filled him with extreme weariness—he didn’t want to stay here even a second longer.
Yet, from another angle, he caught sight of Qiu Yu speeding toward the company.
She had always been sweet and radiant when she smiled, but now her face was devoid of expression. In the passenger seat beside her lay a compact submachine gun.
She had almost never touched a gun outside the shooting range, yet for him, she had chosen the most lethal submachine gun and activated the bulletproof mode of the supercar.
—The prey was rushing toward the predator with all its might.
Chen Cebai’s breath hitched for a moment.
He could have reached her side immediately, but driven by a narrow, selfish desire—
He stood where he was, watching as the moon raced toward him.