Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Taste of Love

To be precise, the entire wall was filled with specimen models.

Yangzi majored in biological sciences, and as a researcher in entomology, it was perfectly normal for her laboratory to be filled with a multitude of biological specimens.

I was also quite curious about these specimens, so I followed the wall, examining them one by one. At first, there were brilliantly colored butterfly specimens, organized by category and neatly displayed. Further along were various crustacean insect specimens, each with its own unique posture, truly an eye-opener.

But as the varieties changed, the specimens in the display cabinets became increasingly bizarre.

Rodents… small feline animals… small canine animals…

And at last, human specimens.

For example, infants preserved in formalin, slices of muscle tissue from various parts of the human body cultured in solution, and so forth.

But the one that sent chills down my spine was a piece of human skin.

Why was I so certain at a glance that it was human skin? Because on the scalp, there were unmistakable hair follicles, and below that, empty cavities where the facial features once were.

The skin lay silently in the solution, trapped inside a specimen jar.

The most disturbing thing was that its surface was crisscrossed with deep grooves, ugly beyond description.

And it was actually undulating with the flow of the liquid, rolling up and unfolding as if it were breathing.

Whose skin was this? Why was it kept in this vessel? How could it move on its own? I had no answers. I couldn’t shake the feeling that Yangzi was hiding something from me, and a cold shiver ran down my spine.

I turned around abruptly and was startled to find Yangzi already standing, quietly right behind me.

“Yang… Professor Yangzi, why are you up? Be careful, you don’t want your wound to get infected.”

Her silent movements made me deeply uneasy, as if I was being watched—like prey.

“Oh, I saw you were interested in my specimens and research subjects, so I came over to take a look,” Yangzi explained, her intellectual smile returning to her face.

But I was so unnerved that I didn’t want to stay in the laboratory another minute. I hurriedly said goodbye and left.

Yangzi didn’t try to make me stay, only saying that she’d invite me for tea next time.

I practically fled.

Just as I was about to head down the stairs, I suddenly noticed the laboratory’s lights had dimmed, and the blinds were drawn.

How peculiar—turning off the lights and closing the curtains as soon as a guest leaves, in the middle of the day. What on earth was she doing?

People are truly perverse. Just minutes earlier I was terrified and desperate to escape, but now my curiosity got the better of me again.

Driven by curiosity, I quietly parted the blinds and stealthily peered back into the laboratory.

What I saw made me fall straight to the floor in fright.

Professor Yangzi had taken the piece of human skin from the jar and was pressing it close, kissing it.

Her red lips touched the grotesque, wrinkled surface of the skin, and the whole scene burned itself into my mind like a shadow.

Luckily, Yangzi inside hadn’t noticed me fall outside the door. I slowly got up and peeked again through the blinds.

My God!

What I saw next made me nauseous. That young, beautiful teacher was now gently cradling the piece of human skin—not kissing it anymore, but tearing into it with her teeth.

Yes, tearing—bite by bite, the skin grew smaller and smaller, as Yangzi devoured it all.

I cursed aloud in shock, and in my panic, my backpack fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Instinctively, I crouched down, desperate to grab my bag and run.

Suddenly, a face appeared right in front of mine.

“Boss Zhang… you haven’t left yet?”

I looked up and saw Yangzi’s face twisted and terrifying. I jolted with fright and fell to the ground again—this wasn’t the gentle, refined teacher but the monster who’d just been devouring human skin!

I remembered our first meeting, when there had been a child’s hand in her mouth—now I’d caught her eating human skin! This woman was truly bizarre. Could Yangzi really be a cannibal?

“What did you see?” she asked, her voice gentle but, to me, utterly terrifying and strange.

“N-nothing… I didn’t see anything. I’m leaving now.”

I broke free from her hand, which was supporting me, my only thought to get away. Damn it, if only I’d brought Old Liao along—at least then there’d be someone to back me up.

“I know you saw something. Come in, let’s talk,” Yangzi said, reaching out and grabbing my forearm again.

Like hell I’d go in—with a monster who eats people!

But as I looked at Yangzi’s still twisted face, anxiety gnawed at me. What if I refused—would she do something even more horrifying?

Old Jin’s words echoed in my mind.

The most crucial thing in our line of work is courage and caution.

Courage first! Worst comes to worst, I’d just run for it. I refused to believe a grown man like me would be overpowered by a frail woman.

I followed her back into the laboratory. As soon as I entered, Yangzi locked the door behind us.

Well, I’d walked right into her trap.

“You must have seen me eat that piece of human skin just now,” Yangzi said, her expression gloomy and sinister.

There was no point hiding it now.

I sat down on the sofa, crossed my legs, and leaned back, trying to look fearless.

“Yes, I did see it.”

But inside, I was trembling, terrified she might kill me and eat me next.

Unexpectedly, she walked straight to the jar, placed her hand on the glass, and muttered, “Do you know who he was?”

“Who?”

“The owner of this skin.”

Since we’d come this far, I forced myself to keep talking despite my fear.

“Who?”

“My boyfriend. Not long ago, I ate both his hands.”

That statement struck me like a thunderbolt, leaving my mind blank.

I’d steeled myself for something shocking, but Yangzi’s words still stunned me. So that little hand in her throat…

This woman was terrifying. To eat the one you love—aside from female praying mantises, I couldn’t think of any other creature capable of such a monstrous act.

Suddenly, Yangzi’s eyes turned blood-red. She lunged forward, gripping my arms tightly and shaking me violently.

“You must think I’m terrifying—a lunatic, a monster who eats people, right?”

Her long nails dug into my skin, sending waves of pain through me.

“N-no…” I stammered, forcing a smile in denial, terrified.

“It’s all right, hahaha, it’s all right… Because only this way can he stay with me forever… hahaha, only this way, he will never… never betray me!”

Yangzi’s laughter was maniacal and eerie. I curled up on the sofa, trying to avoid her touch.

Gradually, she calmed down and sat back on the opposite sofa.

“Actually, we were deeply in love.”

Yangzi began to recount her story. Her boyfriend was called Kun.

Kun was a poor child, born in a fishing village. His parents made their living from the sea, but tragically, during one outing, they were swallowed by the raging waves and lost their lives.

With the help of kindhearted people and his own perseverance, Kun achieved remarkable results in the college entrance exam. He survived undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral studies, working and researching relentlessly, and made impressive academic achievements.

Yet, he kept his life completely separate from others. He only spoke to professors and classmates, and among his peers with the same supervisor was Yangzi herself.

Girls at university were always intrigued by mysterious boys, especially those like Kun—handsome and talented.

Yangzi began her relentless pursuit—from bringing him breakfast, to researching together, even spending entire days in the library for the data and materials Kun needed.

At night, she would often wait outside his dorm, bringing him snacks, hand-knitted scarves, and all sorts of little gifts.

Even someone as emotionally frozen as Kun was gradually thawed by Yangzi’s fiery warmth.

Over time, their relationship blossomed, and they eventually became a couple.

After graduation, they started living together. One became a teacher, the other joined a local research institute. With good incomes, they squeezed into a small rented apartment, yet brimmed with hope for the future.

Kun liked his food salty—Yangzi once asked him why.

He mumbled, “The taste of the sea is the taste of my parents.”

Yangzi would quietly hold him, patting his back like comforting a child.

What was wonderful was that Kun’s gloomy, introverted nature was changing. He gradually developed a social circle, learned rituals of daily life, discovered romance and what it meant to live and love.

At that time, Yangzi felt she was the happiest person in the world.

But things didn’t turn out as she’d hoped. One day, she discovered messages from an unknown woman on Kun’s phone. A woman’s sixth sense told her he was cheating.

They endured a cold war—one day, two days, a week—progressing from indifference to heated arguments.

Kun stormed out, and as he stepped onto the road, a truck roared past…

“He betrayed me! I loved him so much, why did he have to leave me… Until, until I met someone—a person who told me that this way of consuming love could bind his soul, so that we would always, always be together.”

“What person?”

“I don’t know. I only know he wore a colorful robe and a mask, dressed like a sorcerer.”

When Sun Xing was murdered, he was with a man in white rubber-soled shoes—a man in a colorful robe!