Su Qing at last saw all the blue seals. There were six of them in all, five male and one female. The woman was that tigress Jiang Lan. Of the men, he had seen three: one was the smiling tiger Chen Lin, one was the square-faced Shi Huizhang, and the third was the “underworld element” who had come to kidnap him, reported to be named Li Gu—Professor Cheng was his little grey. 

He hadn’t seen the other two. One had very long hair and a gloomy look. Cheng Weizhi told him that this was Luo Xiaofeng, a Type 4 Blue Seal like Shi Huizhang. The little greys he used were Type 3s, the fear type. The last one had something wrong with him. He stood in the crowd of blue seals self-consciously occupying a footman’s position. He was short, around a meter sixty-five at a visual estimate, skinny as a monkey and flinching. When he stood next to the stalwart Shi Huizhang, they looked just like Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King—this was the Gui Song whom Chen Lin had mentioned. 

Cheng Weizhi looked up and found at once that Chen Lin was staring at Su Qing with a meaningful smile on his face, so he surreptitiously pulled Su Qing behind himself, struggling to straighten his body and put on an expression of stern righteousness, fearlessly returning the villain Chen Lin’s gaze. 

Each blue seal would choose one little grey to take along. All the grey seals had been herded into the main hall by the armed guards and stood there panicked and uneasy. The blue seals scrutinized them loftily, like butchers choosing an animal fattened and ready for the slaughter. 

Su Qing for the first time in his life felt the power of the food chain—the endless pillaging of one species by another and no way to resist, a cruel and eternal jungle law running from beginning to end, like a brand on every spirit. 

Without any suspense, Chen Lin chose Su Qing. Tian Feng was unluckily chosen by Luo Xiaofeng. Su Qing looked at his expression, despairing and on the point of collapse, and thought he would faint again. Luckily, Luo Xiaofeng glared at him fiercely just then, and Tian Feng took strength from that menacing and disgusted gaze, managing to keep upright and walk towards Luo Xiaofeng. 

Jiang Lan also chose one of her Type 4s, who still had a bruise left over from where Su Qing had hit him with a frying pan. This fiendish person, hearing Jiang Lan pick him out, put on a panicked and helpless expression, instantly shrinking and bleaching from a big tiger to a little sheep. He shuffled over to Jiang Lan’s side like a virtuous girl forced into prostitution. 

Of course, the reason Su Qing was looking all over the place and inwardly mocking everyone in turn was that he was in fact also nervous, so nervous his hands were covered in sweat. His legs shook as he stood. He could only pinch his thigh with a hand in his pocket and shift his attention, attempting to hold back the urge to piss. 

The lucky thing was, Cheng Weizhi wasn’t chosen this time. When they were taken away, Su Qing saw Cheng Weizhi desperately squeeze out of the crowd and stretch out his neck, looking at him, struggling to mouth some words to him as though eager to convey something. 

Chen Lin dropped his hand on Su Qing’s shoulder and practically pushed him forward. Su Qing desperately turned his head and saw Cheng Weizhi, red-faced, finally vanish from his line of sight. He guessed that Cheng Weizhi had been saying “don’t get confused.” 

This was Su Qing’s first time leaving the grey house in over a month. The weather was rotten. It was grey, and the sun seemed to have only one bar of power left, occasionally struggling at death’s door only to stick its head out of the dark clouds. Any moment, it was going to rain. A breeze blew through the thick woods. A row of blue-uniformed people stood in front of them like flagpoles. Su Qing noticed that their sleeves also had “Utopia” printed on them. 

Chen Lin released the hand holding Su Qing’s shoulder and took something like a pen out of his pocket. He pressed down on the “pen cap,” and Su Qing felt as if a steel wire had been strapped around his neck. He couldn’t help reaching up to grab it. A faint crackling came from his fingertips, as if he had been shocked by static electricity. 

It was just a moment, and then there was nothing there. Su Qing rubbed his neck, feeling around, and didn’t find anything. 

Chen Lin put the “pen” away in his pocket. “With this, even if you get lost, I’ll still be able to find you.” 

Su Qing looked at him hatefully, thinking, So this dickwad put a leash on me, and it’s a leash with GPS. 

Chen Lin looked at him and laughed. He seemed to be in a good mood. Then he extended a hand and patted Su Qing’s cheek. The other Blues Seals had gone far up ahead with their little greys. Jiang Lan turned back to look at them called, “Chen Lin, if you want to rut, you can wait until we get back tonight. Hurry up!”  

Chen Lin ignored her. He pulled Su Qing over and said almost inaudibly into his ear, “After we get back, if you haven’t become like…them, you won’t have to stay in the grey house anymore.” 

Su Qing frowned, not understanding what he meant.  

Five minutes later, they arrived in a wide open space. There were some helicopters grounded there. The little greys had their eyes blindfolded and their ears plugged and boarded the helicopters in ignorance. 

Su Qing couldn’t help starting to let his thoughts go astray. Like in murder mysteries, he silently counted, concentrating with all his might on feeling whether the helicopter was heading left or right, attempting to determine its route. But he couldn’t keep it up for two minutes before he was so disoriented he didn’t know which direction was which. 

After flying for an unknown time, Su Qing was put down, and someone helped him into a car. This time, never mind counting, even Su Qing’s basic sense of time was gone. All that remained in his head a line of lyrics going “so long, so long.” 

When his blindfold was removed, the other blue seals and grey seals had all been taken off somewhere, and only Chen Lin was left in front of him, as well as the rock-steady back of the head of a blue-uniformed driver. 

Chen Lin looked at him, opened the car door, and got out. He looked back and saw Su Qing still curled up motionless in the car, then went to the other side of the car like a flash of lightning, opened that door, and lifted Su Qing from inside. 

Chen Lin put on sunglasses and laughed coldly. “What, last time I saw you, weren’t you heroically trying to stab me with a fruit knife? Why so cowardly now?” 

Su Qing avoided his eyes, lowered his head, and didn’t speak. His heart beat faster and faster—this was outside, he told himself. There were people, there were police. He could call for help. He could run. There would be no better chance than this…

As he thought this, all of a sudden, his neck hurt. Su Qing’s scalp bristled. Immediately after, he felt the “collar” seem to sink into his neck, pass right through his skin to strike his nerves. Su Qing subconsciously grabbed at it, but apart from getting a faint static shock to his fingers, he didn’t seize on anything substantial. His nails dug into his flesh, as if he wanted to strangle himself. 

Chen Lin expressionlessly pulled Su Qing’s hand away. “What are you hoping for? Su Qing, stop dreaming. From the moment you were confirmed as a Type 2 Auxiliary Type Blue Seal, the company put a magnetic neckband on you. Only I can control the switch.” 

Su Qing bent over. He abruptly found that he couldn’t make a sound. He could only pluck Chen Lin’s sleeve as if in entreaty. 

Chen Lin sighed and lightly put a hand on his head. His fingertips passed downward through the soft ends of Su Qing’s hair and fell on his earlobe with its black stud earring. He lifted his chin. 

Su Qing’s vision was blurred, tears pouring out nonstop from the stimulus. Chen Lin looked him over for a while, then turned off the magnetic neckband. Su Qing immediately felt the pressure on his neck vanish. He let out a long sigh of relief—while he opened his mouth, he found he still couldn’t make a sound. 

Su Qing first wiped the blood off his neck with the back of his hand, then wiped his tears. He actually didn’t feel there was anything humiliating in this. When he was in his right mind, he believed himself to have a very strong backbone, but when you were in so much pain, who wouldn’t cry? Even that bastard Chen Lin would cry, he staunchly reassured himself. 

Chen Lin pointed at his chest and quietly said, “I can hear the voice in there. Don’t try any futile escape attempts.” 

Su Qing followed him, thinking, You’re just showing off. 

Concerning the topic of whether Chen Lin could read minds, Professor Cheng had issued the conclusion that this ought to be untenable. 

So called “mind-reading” was “knowing what other people were thinking,” being able to perceive the operations of others’ brains. But a person’s brain contained tens of billions of neurons. Each second it had hundreds of thousands of different chemical reactions and dealt with innumerable pieces of information. If Chen Lin really could “read minds,” then he would long ago have been driven mad by the volume of information. 

So Professor Cheng had concluded that this person must have had some sort of sensory nerve optimized through the development of the blue seal energy crystal, which let him sense the emotional trends of people within a certain area around him. 

With one hand, Su Qing held his neck where he had scratched it and ferociously looked at Chen Lin’s back, thinking, There are dogs that have such good noses they can sniff out their owners’ emotions. Doesn’t that mean you have a dog’s nose? What’s so great about that?  

Chen Lin didn’t look back at him, only walked on ahead. The blue uniform sat in the car, showing no intention of following them. Su Qing was following him cautiously, neither close nor far. He could sense Su Qing’s intense emotions. He knew that this beautiful youth was right now desperately forcing down his own unease and fear, revealing loathing, resentment, and subtle disdain. 

But when Su Qing’s gaze wasn’t on him, his attention was easily attracted by the crowds coming and going, by the buildings, and by the cars. At these times, traces of irrepressible “fondness” and “happiness” would well up inside him. 

He missed this place, missed its liveliness…as well as a vivid life, Chen Lin thought, with his hand in his exquisite coat’s pocket constantly stroking the magnetic neckband’s little controller. He was a little lost. This was the human world. It wasn’t his place. 

The crowds coming and going made him feel strange. He thought that his own feelings were increasingly sluggish. Only when he activated the energy crystal’s absorption could he plunder others’ love and hate, remember how he used to be. 

It was as though he had forgotten that some years ago he had still been one of them. 

Chen Lin took Su Qing to a large-scale shopping mall in the city center. There seemed to be some event going on inside. Chen Lin walked right in and made straight for the “off limits to customers” working area, as though this was his own backyard. Su Qing somewhat meanly looked forward to seeing him get put out by security. 

But that didn’t happen. The security guard was very respectful towards Chen Lin, even called him “President Chen.” Chen Lin didn’t even remove his sunglasses. He nodded carelessly and boldly walked into the elevator, waiting for Su Qing, just as if he owned the place. 

Su Qing was dumbfounded for a spell, extremely off balance. He thought, Damn it, you really can cover up murder with philanthropy. The Buddha has even given up and packed it in. What kind of sorry times are we living in? 

He followed Chen Lin into the elevator as though in a dream. They went all the way to the top floor. Chen Lin walked in front of him in silence and took several turns to arrive in a control room. He pulled out a key and opened a little door. After going through the passage inside, he stopped. 

Su Qing stretched out his neck and looked around—it turned out that all the people taking part in the event were at their feet. 

Chen Lin opened a briefcase he had brought with him. An instrument popped out of it. He got out a swab, disinfected the back of his hand and Su Qing’s, then pulled out a needle connected to something or other, stuck it into a vein in the back of Su Qing’s hand, and fixed it in place with tape. 

The moment the needle went in, Su Qing shrank away. Chen Lin looked up at him. Those cold eyes seems to stab painfully into his neck. So he obediently spread out his hand, feeling that he was as stiff as a frozen pig trotter. 

Chen Lin lowered his head and attached a tube to himself as well. Suddenly, he explained, “There’s nothing to worry about. It’s only to make sure you don’t get overloaded.” 

Su Qing looked at him, a little perplexed, but Chen Lin wasn’t looking at him. He laughed quietly and didn’t explain anything else. 

He pressed a red button and closed his eyes. Su Qing couldn’t make a sound. His eyes only rolled this way and that in alarm. Slowly, an indescribable feeling enveloped his whole body.