Chapter 74: The Devil’s Sacrifice (24p1)
The wet, red characters slid down, leaving several bloody trails.
It had scorched several fierce, grotesque holes, as if on a snow-covered lotus.
—Dog.
What a piercing and harsh name.
“Well?”
A cunning light flashed in Yu Jiao’s eyes. She blinked curiously. “Do you feel any special desires rising in your heart now?”
Ignoring the other person’s offended displeasure, she asked lightly:
“For example… beastly desire?… A desire to submit?… A desire to please?”
With each word she spoke, Helan Duo’s gentle, spring-breeze-like smile grew a few degrees colder. In the end, it was like the wind of late autumn, cold and chilling, slipping into one’s collar.
“Of course…”
Helan Duo’s voice and smile were still gentle—gentleness seemed to be a program, carved into his bones.
He heard the gentle voice say:
“My teeth are itching right now. I really want to tear something to shreds.”
Yu Jiao’s waist was tightened, and then, her whole body was suddenly in the air, like a fallen leaf, swept up by the autumn wind, at his mercy. The next moment, she was placed on the cold examination table.
She glanced at the long, silver-grey bone tail that was wrapped around her waist. It was like a clean, bloody, cold weapon, and a sinister coldness was transmitted through her clothes.
Yu Jiao’s eyebrow arched slightly.
—Ah, he’s angry.
The cold, hard bone tail was rubbing and tightening on Yu Jiao’s waist, dangerously.
Yu Jiao said deliberately, “Don’t be like that. You’ll make the little baby uncomfortable.”
Helan Duo was unmoved. His voice was soft and slow. “What does that have to do with me?”
A glint flashed in Yu Jiao’s eyes.
—Combined with Helan Duo’s initial reaction to her “pregnancy,” she could basically be sure that he was not the answer to question two.
The test was over.
Although Yu Jiao didn’t think that he would hurt her for such a thing, at such a time, but to save her precarious affection value, she suddenly said:
“Helan Duo, do you know what the double-slit experiment is?”
This was her trump card.
—The term the virtual ‘Helan Duo’ had mentioned before his death.
He was simulated based on the real Helan Duo, which meant that this term was equally important to the one before her.
“The double-slit experiment?”
Helan Duo suddenly smiled.
The sharp tip of his bone tail did not stop. It was already at Yu Jiao’s chin, and a cold light flashed. He hooked the tip of his tail and said, unconcerned, “Why are you suddenly talking about this? This is just a twentieth-century…”
He gradually trailed off.
Perhaps the real Helan Duo was also just a program. After the keyword was entered, he was as if a run key had been pressed, and a sentence immediately appeared in his mind:
—A solitary particle of matter only truly exists when it is observed.
“…”
Helan Duo slowly frowned, and the warm smile on his face was as if it had frozen.
His green eyes were like congealed jade, fixed on Yu Jiao, as if he were analyzing the meaning behind the difficult problem.
“…”
He found the only answer.
Undoubtedly, in her glistening, grey, cat-like eyes, he saw his own clear figure.
Like a mirror, leading to the truth, he seemed to be sucked into this focused gaze.
The boring “real” world was twisted, and her eyes were the only reality.
“…”
His calm heart thumped heavily.
Across an uncrossable time and space, he actually had the same feeling as the virtual ‘Helan Duo’.
—If you don’t look at me, I don’t exist.
…
Fake.
Not real.
Just her trick.
Helan Duo told himself.
He was no longer the foolish boy he once was. Being captured once was enough. To be captured a second time by another person would be too cheap. He already had his own, real moon. He didn’t need a fake, watery moon.
Helan Duo listed them coldly.
The next moment, his cold thoughts paused—he saw Yu Jiao look away. She… she had actually opened the Smart Brain and was starting to check her messages!
How could she!?
His halted thoughts surged even more violently, drowning his reason.
By the time Helan Duo came back to his senses, his tail had already, in a fit of indignation, wrapped tightly around the distracted woman and, with a whoosh, had pulled her into his embrace.
Helan Duo: “…”
Feeling his loss of control, the extremely self-controlled man immediately had his bone tail push Yu Jiao away and then, nonchalantly, he took two steps back, standing a little further away.
“…”
Yu Jiao was unaware of his tortuous inner activity. She was focused on checking the message she had just received.
[Yu Bingci: You’re back? Let’s meet before the ceremony begins. I have something to tell you.]
Yu Jiao had a premonition that what Yu Bingci was about to say was definitely related to Yu Fenghe, and that it might make tonight’s memorial service a little easier for her.
So she replied:
[I’m free now. Should we meet?]
Helan Duo, who had the highest authority and could see other people’s private Smart Brain messages: “…”
He couldn’t believe it: Even though she’s with me right now, she’s not hesitating to go and meet someone else?!
However, the next moment, he felt an even deeper disbelief at his own childish thoughts: …I’m insane.
Despite the turmoil in his heart, Helan Duo’s face grew even more peaceful and quiet.
He heard two dings.
His eyelashes twitched slightly.
[Yu Bingci: No need. You’ve been running around for so long. You should rest. I’ll come and find you then.]
[Yu Jiao: Alright.]
Helan Duo withdrew his gaze, his expression composed.
Yu Jiao put down the Smart Brain and, when she looked up, she paused, her voice dark.
“Lord Helan still says he’s not a little dog.”
“…”
Helan Duo was calm and composed, and he gave her a perfectly timed, questioning look.
“Look,” Yu Jiao lifted her chin. “You’re wagging your tail at me.”
“…”
As expected, the silver-grey tailbone was shaking its head, its tail wagging back and forth.
It looked to be in a very good mood.
Under their gazes, it slowly stopped wagging, and it was frozen in mid-air, like a naughty child who had been caught. With a whoosh, it disappeared—it must have been sternly called home by its embarrassed “parent”—Helan Duo smiled, maintaining what little dignity he had left:
“My apologies.”
He paused and, as if to cover it up, said, “My tail is a biomechanical device that was sewn into my body when I was an experiment at the Apocalypse Cult… Sometimes, it can’t completely follow my brain’s commands.”
He had completely shifted the blame.
Yu Jiao looked at him with a smile and said, as if she were nervous, “Is it serious, Lord Helan? Do you need me to give you a massage?”
She enunciated the words slowly and gently, as if she were biting into a juicy fruit. It sounded very alluring.
“I didn’t know the Madam also knew how to massage. But, no need.”
Helan Duo smiled and refused. He turned around and, in a few moves, packed up the bowl of blood and handed it to Yu Jiao. “The Madam is so intelligent. I’m sure you can complete the purification on your own.”
He was trying to get rid of her.
Yu Jiao didn’t care. Anyway, she had already found out what she wanted to know.
She took the bottle, jumped off the examination table, and stretched. “Then I’ll go back and rest first. See you at the memorial service.”
Because of her exaggerated posture, the hem of her clothes was lifted, revealing a section of her pale white, dazzling skin. Helan Duo paused and quickly looked away.
“Alright, Madam.”
And then he “drove” Yu Jiao out of the infirmary.
—Helan Duo didn’t know what he was afraid of.
Perhaps it was a biological, subconscious act of self-preservation.
In the empty infirmary, he took off his name tag, and the gentle smile on his face completely faded. His beautiful, holy face was a blank canvas, waiting to be painted.
He held the top of the name tag with a blank face and watched as it was slowly shredded and swallowed by a shredder.
…I still need to observe, and then come to a conclusion.
***
Over there.
Under eleven’s guidance, Yu Jiao returned to her long-lost bedroom.
There, a maid in a white robe, with a thick, black braid, was standing at the door. She bowed and lifted a face that was bisected by a mechanical eye.
“Madam, you’re finally back,” Fu Sheng said softly.
Yu Jiao casually nodded and entered the room.
Behind her, Fu Sheng’s command came to eleven: “The Madam is going to rest. I will remind her to prepare before the memorial service begins. You can activate privacy mode and retreat for now.”
A light blue light flashed. “Yes.”
The room was dim yellow.
After being away for so long, and then returning to this room, Yu Jiao actually felt a sense of nostalgia and peace.
The door closed, and Fu Sheng quickly came up to her, her tone no longer as respectful as before, her voice a little cold. “You… you betrayed the sir?”
It was unclear if it was a question or a confirmation.
Yu Jiao fell onto the bed and let out a muffled “hmm.”
Fu Sheng choked. “What am I supposed to say to you!”
“You, you, you!” she pointed at Yu Jiao’s back, her disappointment palpable. “I wanted you to give up on the sir, but I didn’t mean for you to… die so completely.”
Yu Jiao left her a back that was not afraid of boiling water.
Fu Sheng was so angry she was spinning in circles. “Do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me? You rebelled on a whim, and I was repeatedly investigated by my superiors to confirm if I had any intention of rebelling.”
“…”
After pouring out her grievances to the unmoving back, she took a breath, her voice cold. “The sir is still willing to give you another chance. It’s up to you if you can seize it.”
Yu Jiao returned a short syllable. “Hmm?”
What chance?
“You have to meet with the sir. But recently, there are a lot of people in the Apocalypse, and you’ve just escaped from a den of demons. Security has been upgraded, so there’s no way to slip through.”
Fu Sheng took out a small instrument and, with a clatter, placed it on the table, saying concisely, “This is the company’s latest dream device, a portable model. At the old time, you can log in and see the sir.”
Yu Jiao, who was buried in the bed, pouted.
Who wants to see him? she thought.
As if she knew what she was thinking, Fu Sheng curled her lips sarcastically:
“Oh, right. The Apocalypse has made a deal with the sir—after all, to gather your ransom, the sir had to bleed a lot. The company’s [shining gold] stock is more than half gone—so, the memorial service on Earth Sun Day will be held at the Divine Moon Moth. At that time, even if you don’t want to see the sir, you’ll have to.”
She said, one word at a time.
Yu Jiao kicked her legs in protest.
Fu Sheng: “Oh, the sir said that the Divine Moon Moth will always have an ID card for you.”
She placed the so-called ‘ID card’ next to the dream device.
Yu Jiao looked up.
It was a test tube, and in the fluorescent purple, viscous liquid was a biomechanical worm.
“As long as you implant the [larva] in your body, you can freely enter and exit the Divine Moon Moth.”
Yu Jiao buried her face in disgust, a gesture of refusal. A look of wanting to break with the Divine Moon Moth, with Nie Hongshen.
Fu Sheng said coldly, “You should be content. After all, for so many years, you are the only woman who has been by the sir’s side, with the status of a lover.”
—Lover?
Yu Jiao paused.
She had thought that the “lover” note was just the original owner’s wishful thinking. Now it seemed it was “officially” certified.
“…”
Her unusual reaction, in Fu Sheng’s eyes, was a ‘change of heart’, a ‘rekindling of hope’.
Alarm bells immediately went off in Fu Sheng’s mind—this fool had finally given up on the heartless man. How could she have been moved by just a few words!
…This damn mouth!
Her face was cold, and she immediately tried to remedy the situation. “But the sir has never had any intimate contact with you! Who in the Divine Moon Moth doesn’t know that the sir has a serious obsession with cleanliness, with the only exception being Jiao Hongyue? Don’t you dare to think of interfering in such an enviable love!”
Hearing this, Yu Jiao sneered inwardly: Your clean sir has already been defiled by me!
Remembering the shocked expression on Nie Hongshen’s face when she had kissed him, she had to suppress a laugh, and her shoulders trembled slightly.
“…”
This, in Fu Sheng’s eyes, was a ‘deeply hurt’, ‘silently crying’… Fu Sheng frowned and said dryly, “Alright, alright. I… I’ll go first. You get some rest. A few sun hours later, I’ll help you prepare your memorial service clothes for Metal Sun Day.”
Yu Jiao nodded perfunctorily, a brilliant idea flashing through her mind:
I can temporarily put aside the identity of ‘Yu Jiao’, the heartless tool, and instead, choose ‘Miss Butterfly’, the identity that has already left a deep impression on Nie Hongshen…
At that thought, she lifted her face slightly, her gaze on the small dream device, and a thought stirred in her mind.
…But before she entered the dream as ‘Miss Butterfly’, she had to rule out the suspicion of ‘Yu Jiao’.
“…”
Over there, Fu Sheng shook her head and, while sighing, walked out the door.
I really don’t understand this kind of person, who is full of love and hate. If she put this energy into doing missions and making big money, it would be so much better…
Just as she was thinking this, she suddenly heard a cracking sound.
The tube of [larva] biological ID card had been thrown to the ground by Yu Jiao in a fit of pique.
Then, the woman’s slightly hoarse and tired voice sounded, “Go and tell Nie Hongshen that I am no longer a member of the Divine Moon Moth, and I will not go to see him.”
Seeing the [larva], which had been exposed to the air for no more than two seconds, shrivel into a dark black mass. Fu Sheng paused. She should have been angry, but she just said in a cold, hard voice, “I know.”
She silently let out a sigh of relief.
Remembering the boss’s intimidating presence, she hesitated for a moment. “…The dream device is for you. You should tell the sir those life-threatening words yourself.”
***