Love in Cthulhu

Chapter 14 Then Seduction
Jian Xi was grabbed by the collar by Zhou Nan and shoved hard against the blue brick wall of the alley. The huge jolt made her head throb with pain, but instead of getting angry, she laughed and glanced at Zhou Nan sideways.

"You want to do a wall slam first thing in the morning? Are you going to hold my hands down and force a kiss next? Let me tell you, domineering CEOs are so outdated. I'm not some delicate, naive heroine!"

As she spoke, she pretended to push Zhou Nan away, but he actually held her wrists above her head. She tried to resist, but he didn't budge. His strength was astonishing.

"What do you want to do? I'm going to get angry if you keep doing this." She frowned, feeling very unhappy about being treated this way, but there was nothing she could do.

Ultimately, this body still belongs to Jian Xi herself, in terms of strength and physical abilities. Only by using her true self can she unleash extraordinary power, but that would inevitably lead to someone else's death. Based on the feelings she inherited, she wouldn't have any intention of killing him.

Maybe this is just a slightly over-the-top joke? Just like before.

"Don't you know what you've done? That thief didn't deserve to die! I'll just assume you went too far in punishing evil and promoting good, but what about eating the fortune teller now?" Zhou Nan's eyes flashed with a piercing light. "He didn't do anything to wrong you!"

"Come on, wasn't his tone obvious enough?" Jian Xi pouted. "He's someone who can see things, albeit subtly. He probably noticed something special about you and couldn't help but gossip."

"What's so special about it?"

Jian Xi paused for a moment, realizing she had misspoke. She tossed her head, her long hair flying, and said, "Why do you care so much..."

Her response was Zhou Nan's gradually increasing finger strength. He rarely used violence, and his playful fights with Jian Xi usually ended at the level of a pillow fight.

But the current situation is really too bad. The fact that she can eat people in front of him made him realize that she is not just a monster wearing Jian Xi's skin. She is fundamentally different from humans. If this is allowed to continue, the consequences will be unimaginable.

The increasing pain in her wrist made Jian Xi gasp. She wanted to kick the guy away but couldn't, but she refused to give up and stubbornly stared at Zhou Nan.

"You want to die? Don't think I really wouldn't dare to kill you!"

"Do as you please, whether you cower or stick your neck out, it's all the same—it's all the same. Who knows, you might kill me one day if you're unhappy? Anyway, I'm the only one who knows your secret, so killing me will only benefit you." Zhou Nan's dark eyes responded to her, expressionless.

That was the stubborn look in his eyes that only a brat would have; in fact, he had always been that kind of brat.

Jian Xi suddenly remembered a time when Zhou Nan was wrongly accused of stealing two thousand yuan of tuition fees from a student when he was a child. His hand was beaten with a board and was covered in blood, but he still stared and said that he did not steal it.

So the coach calmed him down and said, "It's okay to make a mistake, but you have to be brave enough to admit it! If you can't even admit your mistake and make amends, then you'll be ruined for life! If you admit it, I won't beat you up."

Zhou Nan was silent for a few seconds, then asked, "Will you apologize to me?" The coach said, "Why should I apologize to you?" Zhou Nan said, "Because it wasn't me who stole it." The coach got completely angry and kicked him in the stomach. He got up and still said, "It wasn't me who stole it!"
He's so stubborn, with that head held high and an unyielding air, as if the whole world owes him something.

This kind of person won't surrender easily; if things get deadlocked, he can stay with them forever.

"Okay, okay, will you be angry if I tell you?" Jian Xi suddenly softened, her voice soft and pleading.

She realized she couldn't use force. Just like yesterday, this guy was impervious to both soft and hard tactics, but he fell for her charms. The original owner was very good at this, and she, as the successor, wasn't much different. This body, this skin, was the best tool, and she liked it very much.

"I'm already angry." Zhou Nan's eyes were fierce. When he got angry, he was indeed like a door god, but unfortunately, a door god can only scare away small ghosts, not big ghosts.

“I planted something in you…” Jian Xi hummed, her gaze wandering, “when I was repairing you after I stabbed you.”

As if to confirm what she said, Zhou Nan felt something pop out from between his eyebrows, making gurgling sounds like a baby's scream.

It was a small, deep, shadowy fleshy bud growing inside his body, nourished by his skin. It didn't hurt or feel anything, but he could sense that something was there, with wisps of black mist emanating from it.

"What the hell is that?" Zhou Nan let go and tried to pull the thing out, but his fingers could only pass through it again and again without touching it.

"It's no use. It's part of my body. Once it's planted in your body, it will become one with you."

Jian Xi reached out and patted his forehead, then stuffed the shadow bud back into his body.

"Don't be so nervous. It's just a locator. This way, no matter how far away you are, I can know your location. That old man can't see me, but he can see the part of me that's inside your body, which is why he's trying to talk to you. I'm a bit too advanced for him; he's too incompetent."

She pointed to her head, indicating that she already knew the fortune teller's secret.

"You don't trust me, do you?" Zhou Nan covered his forehead.

“You didn’t trust me either, did you?” Jian Xi shrugged. “We’re all in the same boat.”

The negotiations broke down, and everyone finally admitted that they had ulterior motives. No one would trust the other just because of a name. From the very beginning, they were playing a game of cat and mouse. Jian Xi wanted to take some precautions, and so did Zhou Nan, but he didn't have the convenient methods that the monster had.

The two stared at each other, sparks of tension flying in the air.

"Just because he got close to me, you want to eat him?" Zhou Nan asked coldly.

“I’ve said it before, I want to be Jian Xi, I am Jian Xi. If he gets close to you, he might find out about me. You can’t chat with people like that, otherwise I’ll eat them all.” Jian Xi answered matter-of-factly.

"How is this any different from murder?"

"I only ate him, I didn't kill him, and he's still alive and well, isn't he? He's just lost his soul."

"What you did contradicts what you claimed!" Zhou Nan roared. "You didn't want to be discovered? Then how dare you eat him? How could you possibly be Jian Xi like that?" "It's not contradictory," Jian Xi tilted her head cutely. "Jian Xi is human. When a human kills someone, it's a physical act, but I ate him mentally. In a human's eyes, the old man is still alive, so there won't be any police or anything coming looking for me, right? I'm perfectly safe, and I can still be Jian Xi."

As if to provoke Zhou Nan, Jian Xi deliberately licked the corner of her lips, only to swallow the lip balm she had applied before leaving the house, spitting out saliva indiscriminately.

“When you’re hungry, you have to eat. Everyone does that. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong.” She wiped her mouth and gave him a defiant look.

"Hungry... so you have to eat?" Zhou Nan suddenly realized there seemed to be something wrong with that sentence, and a huge fear exploded in his heart. "Don't tell me that you are using a human body and, in addition to eating daily, your true self needs to eat other people to sustain itself."

"Hey, you're really good at capturing the key points."

Jian Xi smiled sweetly and gave a thumbs up. "You're right, that's exactly it. But this eating is a little different from the eating behavior you understand. I don't necessarily need to eat like this to survive, but simply to taste. As Jian Xi, I live just like a human, but just like you still eat small bread rolls occasionally when you're full, I also need some snacks to adjust my taste and provide a sense of fullness."

"Why weren't you told this before?!" Zhou Nan roared in fury.

He realized that he might have made an irreparable mistake, and that accepting the monster Jianxi could ultimately lead to a huge disaster.

Her cannibalistic behavior is completely imperceptible from a physical perspective. People will only find one person after another becoming an unresponsive vegetable. Just as she said, no one would ever think of using a girl as food. If she wanted to, perhaps the entire city would be her food source.

Just snacks? Only for those who will discover her secret? Even now, are you still going to treat him like a fool? His tolerance is limited. She can fool him once by wearing Jian Xi's skin, but he will never allow her to fool him again!
“You didn’t ask me either~” Jian Xi said innocently. “Whoever might discover my secret, I’ll eat them. I just want to be Jian Xi, I don’t care about anything else.”

She reached out and gently touched his face. Her smile was still so beautiful, as if a frozen river had thawed and all things were reviving, like a child who had seen the most fun thing, but what came out of her mouth were words that sounded like gnashing teeth and sucking blood.

“Alright, I’ll ask you now. Is there anything about you that I don’t know?” Zhou Nan looked directly into Jian Xi’s eyes and said in a low voice.

“That’s all. I don’t like to lie.” She paused. “Well, it’s Jianxi who doesn’t like to lie, you know that. It’s not my fault, it’s because you didn’t ask clearly. If you had asked from the beginning, I would have told you from the beginning.”

After saying that, she half-covered her mouth and smiled smugly, like a cat that had succeeded in playing a prank, or a devil tempting humans.

She had a masterful grasp of how this face could be so devastating. Her expression and tone were enough to make one grit their teeth in hatred, yet one would also feel sorry for her if they slapped her and she cried.

“You’re not Jian Xi, you’re a monster,” Zhou Nan said hoarsely.

"You're wrong! I already ate your girl! Even if I hadn't, she wouldn't be coming back! Your best choice is to accept me, otherwise you'll only lose her forever!"

She turned around, her hair swaying, the tassels on her boots twirling, and she hopped lightly with her hands behind her back.

Although her studies became heavier after entering high school, and she stopped attending dance and other hobby classes, her figure and skills remained excellent. She could dance with elegance and grace in just a few steps, like a swan treading on water.

She took a few steps toward the edge of the alley, then turned back, tilting her head, her hair cascading down like water.

"I know your location anytime, anywhere. Don't even think about asking anyone for help, and don't try to run away. As a reward for keeping this secret, you'll gain more and more superpowers by staying with me. Isn't that a great thing? You can happily be a good student, and I can help you achieve an absolutely wonderful life. First place is yours, scholarships are yours, all the pretty girls and girls in the school are yours. You will be the SuperKing of Yunshan Middle School!"

Her face darkened. "But if you betray me, I won't eat you. As for the things around you, like Zhou Lan, I can't guarantee that."

The fierce threat lasted only a sentence. In the blink of an eye, she was the bright and sunny girl again, walking quickly over, jumping onto his bicycle, patting the back seat at him, and gesturing with her lips.

"Hurry up, didn't we say we were going to the back mountain? I'll help you find out the truth. Don't let this kind of thing strain our relationship. Actually, we can still be the same as before. As long as you treat me as Jian Xi sincerely, nothing will change. Just treat me as Jian Xi."

She repeated the sentence again, this time using those strange syllables that belonged only to her. Although it was spoken in human language, to Zhou Nan it sounded like thousands of insects tearing at his body, and a chill enveloped him.

Zhou Nan stared at her for a long time without moving, unable to describe the feeling he was experiencing.

Sometimes he felt that the person standing there was Jian Xi, the Jian Xi of the past, beautiful and flamboyant, mischievous and playful. No matter how boring the topic was, she could always use her extensive knowledge to join the conversation and make a big difference. She was born to be a likable protagonist.

Sometimes he felt that the one standing there was a demon, using a painted mask to disguise herself as a monster who would wreak havoc on people's hearts. Her purpose in life was to bring disaster to the world. Eating flesh and drinking blood was her greatest pleasure. While others were suffering and struggling, she covered her mouth behind the scenes and let out a disgusting sneer.

Perhaps this story was wrong from the very beginning. He shouldn't have gone up that mountain, shouldn't have tried any resurrection magic, and shouldn't have agreed to treat her as Jian Xi just because he was soft-hearted.

One wrong step leads to another, just like that butterfly in Brazil that flapped its wings and a month later, Texas was destroyed by a hurricane.

If one day this city also falls into such a state, then he will be the greatest sinner, having destroyed his own hometown with his own hands.

Something has to be done; we have to find a way to control her. But what can we do to control her? She is completely immune to any form of violence. Anyone who has even the slightest chance of knowing her secret will be utterly destroyed.

Think about it, Zhou Nan. You know her best. You've been together for so long. You understand her better than her parents. Only you can do that. Everything she has belongs to Jian Xi, so she should like things that Jian Xi would like, and she should react the same way as Jian Xi when things happen. That should be her biggest weakness, and also your only chance!
"Jian Xi".

Just as Jian Xi was about to walk out of the alley, she heard Zhou Nan's voice behind her, and she turned around curiously.

Perhaps feeling that she had been too harsh before, she now wanted to be that cute girl again, and thus became softer than ever before.

"what's wrong?"

Do you still love me?

(End of this chapter)