Encoding 4: One Day Untamed and She Bites?
The kitchen was brightly lit. The soup pot bubbled with steam, and the rich aromas of cream, mushrooms, and roasted meat drifted through the air.
Her fingertip paused on Pei Yuan’s lower lip for a fleeting moment, just as she was about to pull it back, but her wrist was suddenly caught.
Cen Zhixu froze abruptly.
Pei Yuan’s palm was very warm, and the moment it pressed against her, Cen Zhixu felt the pulse beneath the skin of her wrist leap uncontrollably.
That hand was slender and strong, with clear-cut joints, covered in light calluses and old scars. It pressed against the thinnest part of the inner wrist, rubbing and brushing against it, stirring up a delicate, tingling roughness.
Cen Zhixu’s breathing trembled slightly. She bit her lip and applied a bit of force, trying to pull her hand back.
Pei Yuan’s grip was not overbearing, leaving her a tiny bit of space, but the moment she struggled, Pei Yuan would instinctively tighten her hold.
The heat from Pei Yuan’s palm traveled up along her wrist bones, scorching Cen Zhixu until she felt slightly weak.
She raised her eyes, and Pei Yuan was looking right back at her.
Those eyes, which usually carried a smiling, mischievous glint as if up to no good, were suddenly weighted with a deeper stillness.
Pei Yuan lowered her head. The next moment, a warm sensation enveloped Cen Zhixu’s fingertips.
Soft and hot, it slowly grazed along the curve of her finger pad, licking away that sweet and sour fruit jam with deliberate care.
“Wait, wait!”
Cen Zhixu’s eyelashes fluttered violently. The moment her wrist twitched, Pei Yuan tightened her grip by half, cutting off any retreat.
Immediately afterward, Pei Yuan’s teeth closed gently, biting down on her fingertip.
The force was light, hardly a bite at all, resembling more of a kiss planted with the edge of her teeth, a playful and clever retaliation.
Only then did Pei Yuan release her, her outer eye corners lifting as she smiled with exaggerated innocence. “Thank you for the meal.”
She clicked her upper teeth against her tongue, pretending to seriously taste the flavor, and nodded in all earnestness. “It really is a bit sweet. First time making jam, put in way too much sugar.”
Cen Zhixu pursed her lips, looking somewhat angry.
Or rather, very angry.
Her shirt collar was buttoned all the way to the top, severe and proper, yet the exposed expanse of her neck flushed with a bright, delicate red.
Cen Zhixu bit her lip, then released it, her throat rising and falling in a micro-motion. “You really do not know how to behave.”
She leaned in slightly, hooking a strand of Pei Yuan’s dark hair with her fingertip, pulling it tight with a half-smile.
“One day untamed, and you start biting?”
Pei Yuan cried out in mock grievance. “Chief Cen, the Eye of Order is watching! I just lightly brushed against you, I did not use any force at all!”
Before her voice had even faded, Cen Zhixu suddenly stepped forward, pressing in close.
Cen Zhixu had plenty of imposing presence, yet she was still several centimeters shorter than Pei Yuan, which always made Pei Yuan feel she looked rather petite.
Like a haughty, pristine white peacock with its tail feathers raised, Pei Yuan was thinking just that when the top of her foot was suddenly stepped on.
Pei Yuan looked down.
Two fluffy slippers were pressed together. One side of Cen Zhixu’s shoe edge revealed half an ankle, the bone line fine and white against the fuzz, exceptionally eye-catching.
Pei Yuan’s bad habit of running her mouth kicked in immediately.
She raised her head, looking innocent. “Chief, the slippers in your kitchen are softer than clouds. Stepping like this will not hurt at all.”
Cen Zhixu glanced at her. With a soft click, her slipper slipped off her foot.
A bare toe touched the ankle bone, stopping right over the little protruding spot on Pei Yuan’s ankle, and ground down with moderate pressure.
The tips of Pei Yuan’s ears burned instantly, her spine tightening along with them.
“What, did it hurt?”
Cen Zhixu said lazily, her toe grinding against the bone protrusion once more before retracting and stepping back into her slipper.
“Pei Yuan.” She called her name, her fingertip pressing against Pei Yuan’s shoulder to push her back. “Do not push your luck.”
With that, Cen Zhixu turned and walked away, her posture upright and composed, as if the ambiguity from just moments before had never happened.
Pei Yuan leaned against the kitchen doorway, sticking her head out to watch Cen Zhixu disappear around the corner of the stairs.
She muttered softly, “System, did I make Miss Cen angry? Will she fire me and make me pack my bags tomorrow?”
The system replied, “She is likely inclined toward a warning rather than expulsion. Naturally, next time might be different.”
Pei Yuan said, “If Miss Cen refuses to come back, wouldn’t this table of loving, exceptionally delicious dinner have to be eaten by me alone?”
The system said, “Combining factors such as hardened potatoes and burnt mushrooms, your culinary skills can only be classified as barely edible, failing to match the phrase exceptionally delicious.”
Pei Yuan clicked her tongue.
Pei Yuan refused to accept the system’s evaluation, spending her time researching the high-tech oven in the kitchen until three in the morning.
The price she paid was arriving at the company the next morning with heavy dark circles, drifting in like a ghost.
At that moment, Pei Yuan was slumped over her workstation, staring blankly at the cursor on her screen.
“Xiao Pei! Xiao Pei!”
Pei Yuan snapped out of it with a start, flashing an honest and simple smile. “Ah, what is it?”
Her colleague leaned over the partition. “The batch of annotations I submitted last week was sent back by the research institute a few times. If you have time, could you run a quick errand to Level 92 for me?”
Level 92 was the data verification layer.
Annotation data submitted by different floors and teams would be gathered there for random verification. Any tiny error resulted in an unsparing rejection.
The real trouble was that once an annotation was rejected, subsequent revisions had to be completed in person by the annotator under surveillance, with no remote operations allowed.
The colleague sent her employee ID over with a beep. “Just a few images, it will be quick. Thanks, Xiao Pei! I will buy you milk tea next time!”
Next time.
Pei Yuan rolled her eyes internally, obediently getting to her feet and heading toward the cloud ladder.
Outside the glass, the city’s silhouette sank inch by inch. With a ding, the doors slid open.
Before Pei Yuan could take more than half a step out, she was blocked.
“Stop.”
Two guards blocked the entrance of the cloud ladder, bringing up a light screen to scan her face.
“Sector Y-09 data annotator, Pei Yuan,” the guard read off her information. “What are you here for?”
After Pei Yuan gave her explanation, the guard stepped aside half an inch. “Move quickly. Leave immediately once you are done.”
“Understood, understood.”
Pei Yuan nodded repeatedly.
While she answered obediently, a shred of doubt lingered in her mind. Although Level 92 was usually managed strictly, it rarely went so far as to station guards right at the cloud ladder exit.
Clearly, some high-ranking figure had arrived.
Pei Yuan slowed her pace slightly, and sure enough, she saw a large crowd of similarly uniformed guards clustered around confidential cloud ladders 1 through 3.
Faking an interest in her communication ring, Pei Yuan inched two steps closer to the confidential cloud ladders, peering inward through a gap between the guards.
The guards stood too densely, and Pei Yuan only caught a fleeting glimpse of someone stepping out of the cloud ladder, followed by a flash of silver.
It vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Cen Zhixu?
She thought.
Cloud ladder 1 slowly opened, and a woman in a white lab coat stepped out.
She wore narrow-rimmed glasses on her bridge, her dark hair gathered messily at the back into a rough bundle, with loose strands swaying beside her cheekbones.
The woman spotted the people outside the cloud ladder and let out a scoff of laughter. “Well, if it is not the Suppression Councilor, along with that delicate little pet you keep around?”
The Suppression Councilor’s expression darkened instantly.
Standing beside the councilor was a silver-haired woman. She curved her eyes in a smile and bowed with impeccable etiquette.
Cen Zhixu said softly, “Dr. Tung.”
Dr. Tung let out another scoff, her gaze lingering on Cen Zhixu. “What on earth do you want? I am busy and have no time to play house with the council.”
“Play house?”
The Councilor’s expression turned severe as she spoke sharply, “The guard corps recently captured a suspicious Alpha who is highly likely a member of the rebel organization.”
“Why did the Eye of Order fail to identify any anomalies when she entered the city? Doctor, do you not think you owe an explanation?”
Dr. Tung burst out laughing.
“An explanation?” She repeated the word. “The Eye of Order is already precise enough. When the sample size expands to the city level, zero error margin is simply impossible.”
“Besides, over ninety-nine percent of screening, identification, and early warning tasks are handled by the Eye of Order. The remaining cleanup should logically be the guard corps’ responsibility.”
She arched a brow. “What? Unable to handle your own jobs, you come running to question the research institute instead?”
The Councilor’s expression grew even uglier.
Dr. Tung seemed to remember something and said, “Oh, wait. I actually forgot.”
“If you really let that group of barking guard dogs you raised handle city entry clearances, the White Tower’s inner city would have leaked like a sieve ages ago.”
She mocked, “Never mind two rebel organizations, any random scavenger from the outside could stroll straight into the core layer!”
“You!”
The Councilor’s expression plummeted.
Dr. Tung shrugged and turned around. The guards instinctively parted a path, none daring to block her way or utter a sound.
The Councilor stared at her retreating back, drawing a deep breath to forcefully suppress her anger.
She turned to face Cen Zhixu, easing her tone slightly. “Captain Cen, pay no mind to that lunatic.”
“Unreasonable,” the Councilor rubbed her temple. “Captain Cen, go to the city wall inspection zone and add another layer of identity screening.”
Cen Zhixu nodded. “Understood.”
The Councilor added, “Furthermore, the Alpha captured in Sector 6 survived the first round of interrogation without revealing anything.”
Frowning with evident dissatisfaction, she continued, “In a day or two, you will have to interrogate her yourself.”
Cen Zhixu raised her head. Beneath her grey-blue eyes, starry orbits faintly shifted, cold, precise, and mechanically orderly.
A faint, gentle, and harmless smile curved her lips.
“Understood,” she said.
Sector 8 of the White Tower, city entry screening checkpoint.
Guards in silver-grey uniforms patrolled back and forth, intersecting red reconnaissance lasers scanning the area, while monitoring devices turned silently at every passage node.
Deep inside the control center, several young Alpha analysts were lowering their heads to cross-reference data when they suddenly heard the access control lock click open.
Footsteps walked in slowly.
The moment they saw the newcomer, the Alpha analysts stood up in unison, backs straight. “Chief Cen!”
“Hard work,” Cen Zhixu said gently. “I am investigating an anomalous individual and need the footage of B-1174 one hour before and after entry.”
“Understood, right away!”
The Alpha hurried back to the main console, buried her head in a search, and was suddenly interrupted.
She turned back, looking hesitantly at Cen Zhixu.
Cen Zhixu noticed her gaze. “What is it?”
The Alpha swallowed, lowering her voice. “Chief, your pheromones appear to be leaking somewhat.”
Cen Zhixu paused. “Pardon me.”
She turned toward the storage cabinet on the side and pulled open the handle. Row upon row of temporary suppressants were stacked neatly inside.
Clatter.
An empty syringe dropped into the disposal slot.
Clatter. Clatter.
By the fourth syringe, Cen Zhixu’s movements slowed noticeably. Her brow knitted slightly, the knuckles of her fingers turning pale from lack of blood flow, and her hands trembled uncontrollably.
The Alpha froze at the main console.
Suppressants could only ever suppress pheromones, much like piling stones over a rising flood. Every single syringe actually meant borrowing time from the next stabilization period.
The harsher the suppression, the faster and more violent the backlash.
As the fifth syringe bottomed out, Cen Zhixu’s figure wavered. She braced one hand against the edge of the storage cabinet, her knuckles tightening until clear tendons stood out.
After a moment, she slowly exhaled, looked toward the main console, and assumed her usual calm demeanor.
“The footage,” she said.