Chapter 52: The Devil’s Sacrifice (02p1)
The sharp AI, sensing Yu Jiao’s gaze, flashed its blue light. It asked in a gentle tone, “What is it, Madam?”
Yu Jiao couldn’t very well say: I just want to know if you saw me with my secret lover.
So she just shook her head. “It’s nothing.”
Suppressing her annoyance, Yu Jiao asked the system in her mind, “Why is there no memory of the original owner?”
The system paused, then said in a small voice, 【I’m sorry, host. You had a novice protection period in the last arc, which is why you had clues. This time, you’ll have to rely on yourself.】
…So the difficulty has increased.
“What are you thinking about?”
Yu Jiao’s chin was lifted again, and she was forced to meet those demonic eyes.
The black-sclera, white-pupil eyes narrowed slightly.
Her cheap son’s cheeks were puffed out, like a pouting child.
Only then did Yu Jiao realize that he actually had an exceptionally beautiful face. His eyebrows were light, long, and curved, his eyes long and round, his nose high and pert, and his lips were full and a very alluring grapefruit color.
It was completely at odds with his terrifying eyes, teeth, and nails.
Of course, it was also not quite in line with his strong, lean body.
“Hey,” Yuan Cang pinched her cheek. “Now that you’re my mother in name, and the old man is dead, it’ll just be the two of us from now on, mother and son, depending on each other~”
Yu Jiao was speechless. From his eager expression, she couldn’t see a single trace of grief over his father’s death. Instead, he looked as if he were looking forward to playing house.
Just as she’d expected, Yuan Cang narrowed his eyes and suggested with delight:
“Why don’t you take my surname!”
Yu Jiao: “…?”
Yuan Cang gave a hard pull, bringing her even closer. Her hand was pressed against his chest, and as she struggled, her five fingers sank into his resilient pectoral muscles.
His simple, classical black and red robe was already worn improperly, wide open, revealing most of his firm chest, his honey-colored muscles about to burst out.
Now, with Yu Jiao’s pull, it was even more scandalous. The two of them didn’t look like a mother and son, having a pleasant chat at all. And the AI, turning a blind eye, said nothing. It was like a doting parent, indulging a naughty child.
“A single mother and her son having the same surname shows that they’re of one heart and one mind. Besides, the name Yu Jiao is so ugly. It’s so tacky,” Yuan Cang said with a great show of pretense.
“Yuan Jiao—that sounds much better!”
An aggressive presence washed over her. Yuan Cang leaned in with a grin. “Don’t you think so?”
“…”
Yu Jiao smiled faintly. “Alright.”
This unexpected move made Yuan Cang pause.
—This woman was just acting like a chaste martyr. Why the sudden change of heart?
The woman, as if pressing her advantage, leaned against him softly, her once-stiff posture gone. Her slender figure, wrapped in the cheongsam, was pressed tightly against his hard body. One hard, one soft, her presence was both strange and distinct.
“Not only will I take your surname…” Yu Jiao said with a bright smile. “I’ll also hold you while you sleep, burp you, and change your diapers. Hmm? How about that, little baby?”
As she spoke, her slender, pale fingers slid over his bare chest, finally stopping there, ambiguously, and giving a hard pinch.
“Should mommy feed you?”
Her sweet, cloying voice seemed to have a distant echo, and a sensual image came to mind.
—Feed. Feed… Feed…?
“Huh?”
Yuan Cang’s eyes widened slightly.
He looked as if his CPU had just been fried.
The gentle curve of his eyes made them look rounder, dispelling the terrifying feeling of his inverted eyes.
“Is that… allowed?” Yuan Cang actually asked.
Yu Jiao’s face darkened. “Allowed? Why not? It would be best to stuff you back in my womb and start over.”
Yuan Cang slowly moved his gaze from her chest to her abdomen, his interest piqued.
Before he could get a good look, he was suddenly pushed away. Her voice grew even colder as she enunciated each word, “To give you a chance to be a new person, right? You little bastard with no manners.”
As her words fell, her face had already grown cold.
Yu Jiao knew.
This little bastard’s every move just now had been a display of his resentment towards his father. “Flirting” with his stepmother was just a form of rebellion against his father. With his obviously small-capacity brain, he didn’t seem to have a single ounce of worldly cunning.
Yuan Cang wasn’t annoyed. He looked at her with a rather strange expression.
His glistening white pupils seemed to focus, looking her up and down.
As if a bored beast had finally opened its eyes and was beginning to really look at someone, bringing with it an unspeakable pressure.
His interested gaze was like a greedy tongue, licking from her slightly cold eyebrows to her tightly pressed lips.
“I see, I see.”
Yuan Cang slowly broke into a smile and sighed repeatedly. As he spoke, he pressed closer, pinning his defenseless stepmother against the altar.
His dark, ghostly gaze lifted and met the gloomy portrait, a strange, provocative meaning in it.
—In front of the man’s portrait, pressing down on his newly widowed wife.
“I see now why that old man married you.”
Yuan Cang let out a soft hum, with a hint of disdain and contempt.
Yu Jiao crossed her arms and looked at him coldly. Though she was trapped, she was not at a disadvantage.
But in his eyes, compared to a tiger of equal strength, she was more like a small cat, baring its claws.
Yuan Cang chuckled. “A little broken cat, drawing four lines.”
After his muttering, he reached out a long arm and, as if in an embrace, brushed past her and grabbed an apple from the offering table.
Crunch.
A mouthful of sharp teeth bit off a piece of the fruit.
Yuan Cang stared at her, chewing the fruit with a loud crunch, as if he wanted to swallow her whole.
Yu Jiao turned her head away in disgust.
She had the uncomfortable feeling of being stared at by a large predator.
***
After that unreadable remark, Yuan Cang left, biting the apple and humming a song.
Yu Jiao frowned. “What did he mean by that?”
The floating sphere’s blue light flashed. “Madam, I believe the Young Master meant to say ‘drawing a tiger by copying a cat’.”
Yu Jiao paused.
“Please understand, the Young Master is an orphan the Master adopted from the slums.” The loyal AI butler paused, then said tactfully, “Compared to literature, the Young Master is more skilled with a sword.”
Got it.
An illiterate.
Yu Jiao stood up with a blank face and tidied her clothes.
Though the place torn by the illiterate’s nails was not large, the location was awkward. The black fabric and the pale, smooth skin created a seductive, forbidden feeling.
“Does Madam wish to return to your room to change?” the AI butler reminded her considerately. “You still need to receive the guests who have come to pay their respects this afternoon.”
A thought stirred in Yu Jiao’s mind. She agreed.
The silver-white automatic door slid open. The two maids standing at the door bowed their heads. They both had thick, black braids and were wearing the same black robes, a combination of futuristic simplicity and retro elegance.
After they had finished their greeting, Yu Jiao saw their faces, and her heart skipped a beat.
They both had plain faces and calm expressions. But on their seemingly normal faces, some of their features had been replaced by mechanical parts.
One had a mechanical eye, the other a mechanical mouth.
The eye was tightly closed, the mouth tightly shut.
The cold, iron-grey metal was on their faces, but there was no sign of a seam, as if they had been born that way. It was extremely bizarre.
Yu Jiao nonchalantly looked away. Just as she was about to find an excuse to ask someone to lead the way, before she could speak, she saw a familiar blue light at the corner of the silver-white wall.
“Madam, this way, please.”
The AI butler’s voice also had a mechanical, ethereal quality in this silver-white space.
The long, thin blue light was always two steps ahead of Yu Jiao, accurately pointing the way.
Her footsteps suddenly paused. She seemed to feel a strong, unignorable gaze, like two very cold, long nails.
As if by chance, Yu Jiao looked back. The two strange maids were following her, step by step. They were looking down, not speaking, very respectful.
The blue light behind her went out, inch by inch. As she passed through the empty space, Yu Jiao met the eyes of the black and white portrait from a distance. It was as if it were the only blackness in this whiteness.
The automatic door slowly closed, cutting off the misplaced stare.
***