Zhou Jiao mumbled, "...It's just some kind of disorder."
But Jiang Lian wasn't buying it.
He lowered his head and inhaled deeply at the curve of her neck again. With his face pressed against her skin, his voice came out low and muffled, cold as ice:
"Why would skin… feel hunger?"
Zhou Jiao wanted so badly to hand him a mirror and sincerely say, You should take a good look at yourself and see why.
But she didn't dare.
She could only continue evasively, "Human bodies are fragile. It's not uncommon to develop all sorts of weird conditions… I once knew a guy who drank factory waste water and glowed green in the middle of the night…"
Jiang Lian was silent for a long moment before he slowly nodded.
Humans were fragile.
Ever since he decided not to kill her, he hadn't dared to use too much force. The last time he wrapped a tentacle around her waist, he used only a thousandth of his strength, and even then, her face had gone pale like she was about to die.
The thought that something else could make her turn that pale made his expression grow stormy again.
Why did he even care about such a weak creature?
She couldn't even withstand a fraction of his power—let alone high-temperature alloy rounds exceeding 1,000 degrees Celsius. A bullet wouldn't even need to release the super-cooled fluid; the sheer force of the impact would kill her instantly.
Why did he need such a useless life form? As a subordinate?
Jiang Lian paused, realizing the dull ache in his chest—was it because he wanted her to become his subordinate?
Why would he want a human subordinate all of a sudden?
He had lived for so many years and never had one before. Humans were tiny, weak, short-lived—they couldn't even survive moderate underwater pressure.
What makes her worthy of being his subordinate?
Zhou Jiao, noticing he had stopped asking strange questions, let out a long breath of relief.
She didn't trust the company. There was no way she would hand over her life just based on their promises.
She still had a week left. She intended to dig deeper into whoever was behind "Biotech Corp Will Collapse," and if possible, expose the organization behind him. Best case? She could set up a chaotic, three-sided game of betrayal.
If she got lucky, she might even walk away clean with the money. If not… Zhou Jiao narrowed her eyes, staring coldly into the distance. At the very least, someone was going down with her.
Just then, a sudden chill crept down her back—an overwhelming sense of danger.
She couldn't even describe it, but her instincts were screaming: Run!
Luckily, her years in the Special Bureau had honed her reflexes. At the very last moment, she dodged to the side and grabbed Jiang Lian's tentacle in a flash.
At the tip of it was a long, sharp stinger, gleaming with a cold, deadly light.
This bastard—he was trying to kill her again!
Zhou Jiao clutched the tentacle tightly, her temple throbbing. "What the hell… are you doing?"
Too slow, Jiang Lian thought coldly. Her reflexes are poor too—she only reacted when the stinger was nearly at her brainstem.
What exactly had he seen in her?
He stared at her, eyes sharp as blades, his face shadowed with suppressed rage and frustration.
He hated her fragility and her sluggish awareness.
"..." Zhou Jiao blinked at him, completely confused. What kind of lunatic mood swing was this?!
Jiang Lian stared at her for a long time, then said slowly and coldly:
"If you can escape my pursuit within three days, I'll let you live.
If not… I'll kill you myself."
If she couldn't even survive with him deliberately holding back, then at least dying by his hand would be cleaner than being taken by the filth outside.
Zhou Jiao: "..."
Excuse me, what did I ever do to you??
She couldn't keep up with his logic at all. There was still a week left—she had no intention of playing some idiotic cat-and-mouse death game.
Forcing a polite smile, she tried to ask him what the hell he was even doing.
But Jiang Lian cut her off, spitting out a single icy command:
"Run. Don't make me repeat myself."
…F** your whole bloodline!*
Zhou Jiao had no choice. She grit her teeth and bolted!
If she had still been undecided between choosing the company or Jiang Lian, well—she was 100% sure now.
There was no way in hell she was choosing Jiang Lian.
Yes, the company was evil—every pore of it oozed blood and filth⑴.
But at least the people working for the company were alive.
They had human thoughts, could communicate like humans.
Jiang Lian, on the other hand—what the hell even was he? You couldn't communicate with him at all!
One moment he had his face buried in the crook of her neck, sniffing her like some deranged cat addict—
The next, his expression turned cold, and he wanted to play some deathmatch hide-and-seek with her.
And with his terrifying sense of smell, he could probably sniff her out through the other end of a surveillance camera.
How the hell was she supposed to escape from someone like that?!
Zhou Jiao honestly wanted to just set fire to the methane in the trash heap and blow them both to hell.
That was what she wanted—
What she actually did was put her head down and run.
Trash was piled everywhere: tin cans, plastic bags, instant food containers, broken glass…
The low winter sun hit them all, reflecting cold, blinding flashes of light.
Swarms of green-headed flies buzzed in the air.
Some piles had apparently been left so long they'd spontaneously ignited, releasing thick black smoke that stung her eyes and choked her throat.
She didn't know how long she'd been running, but when she looked back—
Jiang Lian was still there.
This wasn't going to work.
He was only holding back right now.
Once he got bored of this slow chase, he'd catch her in an instant.
She needed a vehicle.
Zhou Jiao skidded to a halt and scanned the area.
Her eyes darted for a rideable object, while she kept half an eye on Jiang Lian's steadily approaching figure.
Her heart pounded wildly—she could practically feel it trying to punch its way out of her throat.
It had been a long, long time since she'd been this scared.
Every hair on her body felt like it was standing on end.
Too intense. If she got caught, it was game over.
The most adrenaline-pumping game of hide-and-seek she'd ever played.
If she weren't the one on the chopping block, she'd probably give it a 10/10.
Jiang Lian was closing in.
Maybe it was because she'd stopped moving, but his expression had turned absolutely glacial.
The purple-black tentacles behind him shimmered in and out of view, emitting a low, droning hum that sent a chill straight into her bones.
No time left.
Zhou Jiao grit her teeth, tore her eyes away from him, and started digging through the trash pile.
She needed a motorcycle that wasn't completely broken.
If they were in the central district, she wouldn't even bother—nothing fixable there.
But this was the junk heap behind a slum.
Here, you could find anything except money.
It felt like a countdown timer had started ticking in her ears.
Seconds passed.
With every tick, the shadow of death loomed closer.
There!
A jolt of hope surged through her.
She dragged a motorcycle out of the pile and checked it quickly.
Luck was on her side—
Just a minor engine issue. Nothing she couldn't fix fast.
In Yu City, it was cheaper to buy a new vehicle than fix an old one.
Most people junked broken rides instead of paying for repairs.
If she had time, she could've restored this bike to showroom condition.
But right now, she had to go nuclear on it just to get it moving.
Zhou Jiao righted the bike, yanked out a connector line from the interface behind her ear, and got ready to plug it into the engine.
Jiang Lian was getting closer.
The surrounding air grew colder and colder, until it felt like ice was forming in her lungs.
For a second, her mind went blank from the sheer cold, and she almost missed the plug-in port.
She finally managed to connect the engine and began priming the ignition.
Each attempt sent a burst of white-hot sparks flying across her vision.
Shit—if this thing doesn't start soon, my brain's gonna fry before the engine does.
Just then, something cold and wet curled around her ankle.
It began slithering slowly up her calf.
Jiang Lian's tentacle.
Zhou Jiao's scalp prickled.
Screw safety—she jammed the ignition again and again, ten times, fifteen—
Then—VROOOOM!
The motorcycle roared to life with a deafening blast!
She tore his tentacle off her leg, swung herself onto the seat, slammed the throttle down—
And shot off like an arrow from a bow!
The second she burst forward—
BOOM!!!
A massive explosion erupted behind her.
Scorching heat blasted out in every direction.
Thick black smoke shot skyward as flames exploded outward, igniting the surrounding methane gas.
One detonation triggered another.
A wall of fire surged out across the garbage mountain.
In the middle of the smoke and fire, Jiang Lian stood motionless.
His expression unreadable behind those golden-rimmed glasses.
He looked at her with a chilling, indifferent gaze.
The kind of look that made Zhou Jiao's entire body go cold.
It was a look that said:
Keep running. Don't stop.
If you stop, I'll kill you.