Zhou Jiao thought she might have gone too far.
Jiang Lian's tentacles, as strong as steel, coiled around her waist and yanked her toward him.
In that instant, she felt as though she had been pulled into a gaping black maw—sight vanished, sound disappeared.
What had happened?
Had Jiang Lian wrapped her up inside his body again?
Zhou Jiao suppressed the panic rising in her chest and tried to activate the night vision function on her implanted chip—but nothing happened.
...Impossible.
The chip was nano-level, embedded directly in her cerebral cortex. Unless her brain suffered major damage, there was no way she couldn't activate it.
If her cortex was damaged, it meant she was in a deep coma—a vegetative state.
So had she gone too far and… literally played herself to death?
Even if she wasn't dead, a body in a persistent vegetative state was basically the same.
Zhou Jiao closed her eyes—she wasn't sure if she could still perform that action, but her consciousness told her it had worked. Then again, it could just be her damaged brain deceiving her.
It wasn't the first time she'd brushed up against death. Her panic lasted only a moment before calm set in.
She'd never been in a vegetative state before, but this didn't quite feel like it… her brain should still be functioning. As for why the chip couldn't be activated—it was probably related to Jiang Lian.
Where exactly had Jiang Lian taken her?
If she was trapped inside his body… was she going to stay there forever?
Would he digest her?
Or worse—assimilate her into another monster?
A thousand questions and speculations tangled through her mind like tight threads, making her temples throb.
And yet, the pain brought a sliver of comfort.
At least she could still think. At least she could still feel pain.
…That meant things weren't completely hopeless.
In the pitch-black void, the very concepts of time and space faded away.
She had no idea how long had passed, no idea where she was.
With no need for food, sleep, or even waste elimination, there were moments when she forgot she was still alive.
Zhou Jiao tried to lighten her own mood, thinking her psychological resilience was quite impressive. Most people would've gone mad in absolute darkness like this, but she remained lucid. Practically gifted.
Then again… maybe Jiang Lian didn't want her to go mad.
He had a very specific goal.
He didn't love her.
But he wanted to possess her.
How does a monster possess a human being?
By keeping her caged inside his own body.
From now on, only he could perceive her existence. Only he could keep her alive.
That was Jiang Lian's twisted desire for exclusivity.
Cold-blooded. Distorted. Terrifying.
Human love is about admiration, protection, and sacrifice.
Even the most obsessive love just refuses to let the other person focus on anyone else.
Jiang Lian had taken this possessiveness to the extreme.
To possess her, he isolated her completely, locked her away in a narrow, sealed, unnatural nest.
Wait—nest?
Zhou Jiao suddenly remembered Jiang Lian once said he could build nests.
She abruptly "sat up" and reached forward with a hand—though she wasn't sure she physically moved, her consciousness told her she did.
She tried to sense what lay ahead, but it felt like a viscous membrane separated thought from sensation. It took her two or three whole minutes to recognize something cold and slick in front of her: a tentacle. A few more minutes passed, and the tentacle wrapped around her, rubbing ecstatically against her fingertip.
Good.
Her brain was still functioning like a normal human's.
Zhou Jiao took a deep breath, forced herself to calm down, and got her mind working again.
She was probably being kept in a nest created by Jiang Lian. The sensory delay she experienced—likely not real, just a misperception from her brain.
She tried to activate the night vision again. This time, she waited.
And sure enough, after a long while, the image slowly came into focus.
…And she immediately regretted it.
It was nothing like the scene in that cheap motel. The tentacles now were thicker, denser, more grotesque.
Like jet-black serpents, slick and glistening, brimming with malevolent intent. They occupied every inch of her vision.
And just as she began to see, she felt all the tentacles suddenly watching her.
Like hundreds of damp, serpentine tongues, their gaze crawled over her body, scanning her like a biometric device.
—Cognitive functions: normal.
—Body temperature, heart rate, respiration, blood pressure: all normal.
—No feeding required.
The caged human was in excellent health.
No need to provide nutrients… for now.
But the tentacles didn't move away.
They had inherited Jiang Lian's terrifying desire for exclusivity.
They had to monitor her constantly.
She was too intoxicating.
Too alluring.
And worst of all—she knew how to use that allure, how to push them into a frenzy.
She was seductive, fragile… and dangerous.
She had to be restrained. Watched. Protected.
For how long?
There was no time limit.
They would keep watching her until she no longer had that terrifying, maddening allure.
Zhou Jiao felt like prey under the gaze of a top-tier predator. The weight of it nearly crushed her.
A word popped into her mind—"Supreme."
To humans, Jiang Lian was a kind of unknowable Supreme Being.
No wonder he wouldn't appear in front of her.
Even just his limbs possessed enough possessiveness to overwhelm her.
If he showed up in person and released his full greed, she might go insane.
She might never return to her original dimension.
Regret?
Zhou Jiao asked herself.
…A little.
But it had been thrilling, hadn't it?
And now, regret wouldn't help.
Time to focus on solutions.
Zhou Jiao attempted to open a web browser.
She stared at the semi-transparent page projected on her retina—never in her life had she wanted any site to load so badly.
Even a scam site would've sufficed.
The atmosphere was suffocating. She slowed her breath and heart rate, doing her best to stay calm beneath all the eldritch stares.
Hopefully, this was just her perception of time breaking down—not actual lag.
She didn't know how long it took, but finally, the page loaded—except it didn't go to a search engine.
It was a hastily set-up chatroom.
[Zhou Jiao, are you there?]
[Zhou Jiao, contact us immediately.]
...
[The one-week deadline is up. You didn't bring Jiang Lian to Dock 7. Are you going back on your word?]
[Opposing the Company is a foolish move. Your every action is monitored. The chip is in your brain. One command—and you're either a corpse or a vegetable. Think carefully. Are you sure you want to fight us?]
Zhou Jiao wasn't surprised they were monitoring her. Decades ago, the PRISM surveillance program was exposed—she'd always expected the Company to carry on that "fine tradition."
To her, their threats seemed almost… panicked.
Clearly, Jiang Lian's "nesting" had disrupted some kind of electromagnetic signal, breaking their surveillance.
Which meant they were desperate enough to invoke the chip.
But she noticed something else—
…She'd been caged for almost five days?!
Jiang Lian was a bastard.
Zhou Jiao massaged her twitching temple, took a deep breath, and replied:
[Something happened to me.]
They replied instantly:
[Zhou Jiao?]
[It's me.]
[Glad you're alive. But unfortunately, you're no longer useful to us. The Company has synthesized your scent. It'll be deployed tomorrow. You're smart—clever enough to escape surveillance—but you're obsolete.]
Zhou Jiao perked up.
If they'd really synthesized her scent, then she might have a shot at escaping Jiang Lian.
Before, her odds of escaping were less than 10%. Now they were closer to 50%.
She knew exactly how advanced the Company's tech was.
One day, humans might be fully modular—brains, skin, organs, even blood, all replaceable.
Some top execs had already extended their lives through bionic organ replacements.
So if they'd created a "better Zhou Jiao," she could walk away clean.
Suppressing her excitement, she replied coolly:
[But you still need me to bring Jiang Lian in.]
[You've lost contact with him. You don't even know where he is. Your multi-billion-dollar surveillance network is down, right?]
Silence.
Yes—Yucheng's surveillance had been down for days.
Though they had cloned Zhou Jiao's scent, they had lost Jiang Lian.
Why else would they be camping in this temp chatroom 24/7, responding to her the moment she appeared?
They didn't tell her, but among the staff, one absurd idea had quietly taken root—
The whole system crash wasn't technical.
It was because Jiang Lian didn't want them to see her.
"He" had isolated her in another world.
Only "he" could see her.
The Company prided itself on being omniscient—like angels in the New Testament, covered in eyes inside and out.
Yet they'd lost her… to the desire of a monster.
That was nearly unthinkable.
Zhou Jiao had once told Jiang Lian the Company was a kind of god. It wasn't a threat—it was the truth.
But Jiang Lian had made her vanish.
Could one woman's scent really drive a monster that mad?
The Company had poured everything into replicating that scent—its concentration now hundreds of times stronger than Zhou Jiao's own.
Even if she slit open her arteries, she couldn't release that much pheromone.
The trap was set.
Now, they only needed her to lead Jiang Lian into it.
But would she?
Would she give up control of Jiang Lian?
They didn't know Zhou Jiao had already realized—Jiang Lian couldn't be controlled.
She had enjoyed taming the beast.
Now it was time to leave and watch from afar as the Company and Jiang Lian tore each other apart.
She waited for their reply.
Time meant nothing anymore.
All she could feel were those slick, cold tentacles coiling endlessly around her feet.
After what felt like the hundredth coil, the message came:
[What do you want?]
The tentacles must've sensed her communication.
Like the hands of the dead, countless limbs stacked and slithered over her body.
They stared at her—cold, jealous, smothering.
Low-frequency vibrations pulsed through her bones:
"Who are you talking to…"
"Who are you trying to reach…"
"Do you want to run away…"
"You belong to him."
"You belong to him."
"You belong to him."
Trying to crush her thoughts of escape, the noise drilled into her auditory bones, bringing a surge of nausea.
Zhou Jiao didn't hesitate—she bit down and tore open her palm.
The scent of blood filled the air.
Instant silence.
She squeezed her wound harder and gagged.
Stupid Jiang Lian…
Go play with the company-manufactured "Zhou Jiao," for all I care!
It took a long moment before Zhou Jiao, panting heavily, could claw her way back to reason. She typed back, one word at a time:
[My demand is simple. I'll bring Jiang Lian to you, and you let me go. If you're worried, you can change my scent. I won't object.]
Maybe because all the tendrils had been lured away by her blood, her perception of time finally returned to normal. This time, the company responded quickly:
[Are you really willing to give up your scent?]
Only the company would think they could control Jiang Lian with scent alone.
Zhou Jiao's expression twisted strangely:
[Yes. Do you need me to sign an online agreement or something?]
After a pause, the company replied:
[We accept your terms. But we don't know where you and Jiang Lian are.]
Zhou Jiao had a method. But it was incredibly dangerous.
She couldn't be sure if the company was trustworthy.
Meanwhile, as if realizing her bleeding was merely a stalling tactic, countless tendrils screamed in rage and surged toward her again.
They were slick like snakes, cold as ice, and heavy as steel.
"You belong to Him."
"You belong to Him."
"You belong to Him."
"What are you thinking?"
"You think you can run?"
"No matter where you go, He can smell you."
"You can never escape His hunt."
The tendrils coiled obsessively around her lips, trembling as if they longed to slip inside, yet were halted by some horrifying restriction. They slithered instead along her neck, wrapping and writhing.
So fragrant. So fragrant. So fragrant. So fragrant. So fragrant. So fragrant.
Stay by His side.
Be watched by Him.
Be protected by Him.
Be smelled by Him.
Be possessed by Him.
Possessed. Possessed. Possessed. Possessed. Possessed. Possessed. Possessed. Possessed. Possessed.
You are forever His.
The cold, violent buzzing nearly shattered her sanity. For a few terrifying seconds, Zhou Jiao almost believed she was Jiang Lian's.
…If she didn't belong to Jiang Lian, then who could she possibly belong to?
She was Jiang Lian's possession.
No identity. No dignity. No soul.
She was born to be smelled by Jiang Lian.
She was meant to remain in his sight, always.
She should even grow scent glands—like livestock—so he could mark her.
That way, everyone would know she was his. She was his. She was his…
The supreme voice was forcibly erasing her mind. Her gaze began to dull, her expression blank, like a blank sheet of paper being written on by something alien.
—Bullshit!
Zhou Jiao's vision snapped back into focus. She clenched her molars so hard her jaw turned rigid, the lines of her face sharpened by tension.
She would never lose her mind, her soul, or her dignity.
No one could take away her sense of self.
Not the company.
Definitely not Jiang Lian.
She was simply at a disadvantage, for now.
As long as she still held Jiang Lian's leash, she had a chance to turn the tables.
It was pure willpower that allowed Zhou Jiao to send two final messages to the company:
[I'm going to use the chip to induce a deep coma.]
[Jiang Lian will bring me to you.]
It was a gamble—an outrageous one.
She was throwing her life onto the table.
If Jiang Lian didn't bring her to the company, then even if she managed to wake herself again through sheer will, she'd still be doomed—her mind wiped by Jiang Lian.
If he did bring her to the company, but ended up controlled by the fake "Zhou Jiao" they created, she might still be discarded once she was no longer useful.
But this wasn't her first time walking a tightrope.
Either way, she was going to die.
And if that was the case—
Rather than becoming a mindless object, no better than a beast, she'd gamble every last chip she had.
She would fool the gods themselves.
Ever since Jiang Lian had revealed his true face, something dark and primal had awakened in her.
Even if her path led into the abyss, she would chase that insane thrill to the very end.
And she knew—
When the time came, Jiang Lian would feel that same rush of madness too.