Super super important T/N: This arc contains mentions of suicide and other content that might be triggering like gore etc. If you struggle with or are having thoughts of self-harm/depression please know that you are not alone. Help can be found in your country: here or here
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Arc 5: 37 Chapters
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Shen Xiuzhe wanted to commit suicide.
He stroked the utility knife with his fingertips and pushed the blade out little by little.
If the blade comes out too long, it will be difficult to control the angle of the cut. It is enough to push out only a small part of it, so that it can easily cut a very deep wound on the wrist.
He tapped his fingers on his skin, searching for his arteries. There was not much time left for him, his suicide attempt cannot be found out.
Shen Xiuzhe couldn’t see, and the blood would interfere with his tactile judgment. He needed to determine the exact place to cut in advance.
He wanted to slit his carotid artery, but he had a collar around his neck which prevented him from doing so.
Shen Xiuzhe held his breath and put the blade against his skin.
Since losing his eyesight, his sense of hearing and touch have become extremely keen. All the small sounds around him will be picked up by his ears.
There were footsteps approaching from far away in the corridor, and Shen Xiuzhe turned slightly sideways to pick up the paintbrush. The footsteps paused for two seconds at his door, and a middle-aged man’s slightly hoarse voice came from outside, with a heavy accent in his words.
“What are you going to have for dinner? Which set meal do you want?”
Shen Xiuzhe stroked the canvas and said coldly, “C.”
“Many people chose C, we didn’t prepare that much.”
“A, change the seafood to a vegetable. I will vomit if I eat fish balls.”
“Boiled cabbage?”
“That can do.”
The man shouted, “Add a single package A for Room 3! By the way, Mr. Shen, do your eyes still hurt?”
The hand holding the paintbrush trembled slightly for a moment, Shen Xiuzhe said in a calm voice: “It doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s good. It seems that the two operations were successful. Mr. Shen, you are a patient now. Please pay more attention in the future and stop running around.”
“Okay.”
The man didn’t stay long, and the sound of footsteps gradually faded away.
Shen Xiuzhe waited for a few more seconds, and after confirming that no one was coming, he put down the brush and picked up the utility knife again.
This is the knife he has picked up in secret, and he only has one chance.
Just as Shen Xiuzhe was about to take action, his ears suddenly picked up a strange sound. It was very small and weak, and seemed to be the sound of electricity.
He tilted his head slightly toward the direction where the sound of electricity came from. He remembered that there was a wooden drawer with some miscellaneous items on it.
The sound of the electricity humming became louder and louder, and finally a man’s voice suddenly came from the silent room.
“Mr. Shen, your knife is too dull and the cutting edge is covered in glue. You may not necessarily die, but your hand will definitely be disabled. You can put the knife down first, sit down and tell me what’s on your mind.”
The male voice was clear and lively, with a subtle hint of a smile as he spoke.
Shen Xiuzhe could tell that he wasn’t smiling intentionally, it was just the tone of his voice.
The man spoke clearly and without an accent, and he forcibly slowed down his speech in an attempt to calm him down.
Shen Xiuzhe sketched the image of the man in his mind.
He shouldn’t be old, maybe a college student. His facial features are soft and non-aggressive, and he should have a smile on his lips.
This is just his imagination, this kind of person will not appear in this place.
It was very strange. Shen Xiuzhe had never heard his voice before.
Seeing that he had no intention of putting down the utility knife, the man persuaded him softly, “Even if you want to commit suicide, you should change the tool. It can’t meet your needs. I can see it. With such a thick layer of glue, it can’t even cut an eraser.”
Shen Xiuzhe was silent for a moment, “I have no intentions of committing suicide.”
“Then what were you…?”
“I was just playing around with it. I’m familiarizing myself with the tools. Go back and tell them that I’m in good spirits and stop sending people to keep an eye on me. I need to work, get out.”
After Shen Xiuzhe finished speaking, he waited for a long time but didn’t hear any footsteps.
He pursed his lips and threw the utility knife in his hand in the direction of the sound. The utility knife fell to the ground and made a few soft thuds.
Not being able to see anything made Shen Xiuzhe very uneasy. He didn’t hear footsteps coming in, but there was a stranger in the room unknowingly.
He didn’t know how the man got in, where he was standing now, or what he was going to do to him.
Shen Xiuzhe tensed up. Shen Xiuzhe crossed his arms and said, “Take the knife. It was left in the tool box by the previous person. It has nothing to do with me.”
“But I…”
“Get out!”
“I want to go out too, but I can’t.”
Shen Xiuzhe crossed his arms, “Why.”
“Because I’m just a little speaker. Have you ever seen a speaker with long legs before?”
“…”
“You don’t believe me? Then I’ll play a song for you.”
After the man finished speaking, melodious piano music sounded in the room.
The music was soothing, but Shen Xiuzhe’s face turned cold. He grabbed a pen and threw it on the ground, bellowing, “Get out!”
The piano music stopped abruptly.
The man sighed aggrievedly, “You will know if you come here and touch me. I really am a little speaker.”
Shen Xiuzhe thought for a long time and cautiously took a step forward.
He identified the direction from which the sound came, reached out and felt among the items, and finally touched a rectangular-shaped hard object.
The size is not too big, slightly larger than an adult’s hand. It’s light and can be easily picked up with one hand.
It feels cold and smooth to the touch, and it is not known what material it is made of. There is a circle of small and dense holes on the side, and a square button on one side, which should be the power button.
As Shen Xiuzhe was feeling carefully through his fingertips, the thing under his hand suddenly vibrated and there came a man’s voice.
“You are touching me! Look, I told you I’m a speaker!”
Shen Xiuzhe froze for a moment.
“You have touched me five times. What do you think? Is my body very smooth and nice to touch? Classic ivory white, limited edition, I am definitely the most handsome speaker among the speakers in this time period. Go a little lower. There is also an exclusive icon on my body.”
The little speaker was still introducing himself. He said his name is Ah Ci and he is the smartest speaker.
While he was talking, Shen Xiuzhe grabbed a long and slender object.
He tried to pull it, and the speaker gave an exclamation, “Hey! That’s my wire, don’t break it! Why haven’t you said anything? What are you thinking?”
Shen Xiuzhe held the plug and said, “I was wondering why you can make sounds if you are not plugged in.”
“I’m solar powered.”
“There’s no sun indoors.”
“I took a look at my internal configuration and found that I have a battery.”
Shen Xiuzhe did not continue to dwell on this problem, slowly felt up the power buttons of the speaker, and pressed the largest button in the middle.
“What are you doing?”
“Press and hold to turn it off.”
“…”
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Chu Shici had encountered suicide attempts before, and he was very confident in himself.
After discovering that he couldn’t turn off the speaker by pressing it for a long time, the male protagonist felt his way back to the table. He sat on the chair, quietly and motionless, as if he were a statue.
He had thrown the utility knife so quickly that he didn’t know where it landed. His eyesight is not good and it will take a lot of time to retrieve it.
It is almost dinner time. He couldn’t continue killing himself today.
The crisis was temporarily averted. Taking advantage of the time, Chu Shici entered the system space and read the original text.
This is a slap-in-the-face novel without CP. It tells the story of Shen Xiuzhe, a boy who came out of an orphanage. He unexpectedly showed his extremely high talent for painting and successfully became the world’s top painter.
The story started with a painter who was going to adopt a child from an orphanage and saw the shadow of genius in him.
His eyes can capture the fleeting beautiful scenery around him, unnoticed by others and is able to capture every single detail in it firmly. His hands can perfectly restore the scene, down to the details of the clouds in the sky and the texture of each leaf.
He is like a living camera, but he has the cognitive abilities and appreciation of beauty that machines don’t have.
The painter adopted Shen Xiuzhe as his adopted son and carefully guided him in painting.
He was admitted to the best art academy in the world, opened his own art exhibition, and each painting sold for sky-high prices.
In the original text, Shen Xiuzhe’s life was smooth sailing. All those who looked down upon him would be severely slapped in the face by him and beg to be his little brother.
The male protagonist is handsome and aloof, like an unattainable god. There are many men and women who have a crush on him, but he doesn’t love anyone.
Looking through the original text, there is no mention of the plot related to the male protagonist’s blindness.
Chu Shici had long been used to it.
The original text of each world looks normal, and the male protagonists live a healthy life. But if his Zhe-ge is to be punished, he will definitely have something different arranged for him.
According to Chu Shici’s experience, most of the punishment plots will only bypass the original plot.
Either it happens before the plot starts or before the original CP comes into contact. This will not only ensure that it does not deviate from the original text, but that Zhe-ge received his punishment.
The original text of this world unfolds from the first-person perspective of the male protagonist, and the plot can be roughly summarized into several parts.
After a new painting was done which amazed everyone, the cannon fodder came out to provoke the male protagonist, and the male protagonist slapped the cannon fodder’s face. Being pursued by all kinds of beauties, the beauty’s admirers come out to cause trouble, and the male protagonist slaps the admirer’s face.
The timeline is very coherent, and the male protagonist’s eyesight is fine until the end.
Chu Shici closed the script and said, ‘Tong-ge, those people who are responsible for putting together the punishment worlds are truly cruel.’
The system wants to get close with the beauty, dive into his arms and rub against him hard.
[What’s wrong?]
‘If my guess is correct, the original plot has ended. The male protagonist reached the top, became famous, and the story is completed. Then the punishment world began and his life took a turn for the worse.’
Chu Shici looked through the window at Shen Xiuzhe who was sitting at the table.
“As a painter, being blinded accidentally is equivalent to falling from the altar overnight. He is a proud person. For him, this is more painful than never being on the altar. He is only twenty-five years old, what should he do in the future?”
Seeing that he was in a bad mood, the system handed him a strawberry: [The vitality value is minus 40, and you can see that he is sad.]
Chu Shici tried to fill in the side task, but the system showed that the submission failed.
‘Blindness is not the main reason?’
[Maybe it’s related to the cause of blindness?]
What the system said made sense. Chu Shici wanted to think about it for a while, but suddenly there was the sound of the door opening from the outside.
He and the system looked out together.
A middle-aged man walked in with a food cart. He was wearing a black vest, overalls and a pair of muddy shoes.
He placed a three-layer stainless steel lunch box on the table, “The set meal you want, in order to save costs, will be changed from one meat and two vegetables to two vegetables and one soup starting today.”
Shen Xiuzhe hummed lightly and sat quietly while drawing. The man stretched his neck and took a few glances, “This painting is really awesome. You are indeed a great painter. You can paint so well even if you are blind. The bell you broke before has been repaired. If you don’t have enough tools, remember to ring the bell and someone will give it to you.”
Chu Shici originally thought that the word “blind” would hit the male protagonist’s nerves. After all, it was just adding salt to his wounds.
But Shen Xiuzhe didn’t react at all. He put down the brush, fumbled to open the lunch box, and took down the dishes one by one.
From Chu Shici’s perspective, one could vaguely see what is in the lunch box.
The first layer is the boiled cabbage ordered by Shen Xiuzhe, the second layer seems to be mashed potatoes, and the third layer is… hot water?
Shen Xiuzhe sniffed each one, tilted his head slightly and said coldly, “There is no staple food.”
The man left a spoon for him and walked out with the cart: “Mashed potatoes will keep you full. You just had surgery and this is all you can eat now.”
The door closed and the room became quiet again.
The system has already prepared dinner, and it beckons: [Ah Ci, let’s have roast duck today. I just learned it, it’s very delicious.]
Chu Shici looked at the roast duck legs on the plate, and then at Zhe-ge who was eating cabbage, and suddenly lost his appetite.
The system patted his shoulder and said, [It’s okay, it will get better in the future.]
Just as Chu Shici was about to nod, Shen Xiuzhe, who was still eating, suddenly bent over and retched.
Under Chu Shici’s surprised gaze, he spit out a dead insect from his mouth.
Shen Xiuzhe couldn’t see it. He just felt that he had eaten something foreign and didn’t know what it was.
Chu Shici saw it, but he felt that telling the truth was too cruel.
Shen Xiuzhe wiped his mouth, wrapped the things in paper towels, threw them into the trash can, picked up the spoon and prepared to continue eating.
Chu Shici couldn’t help but remind him: “Mr. Shen, that rice doesn’t seem very clean.”
Shen Xiuzhe paused and said, “I know.”
“How about you ring the bell and ask them to get a new one?”
As if hearing some joke, Shen Xiuzhe chuckled lightly.
He did not speak and stopped eating. Just sat there quietly, the atmosphere became particularly awkward for a while.
Chu Shici tried to call out: “Mr. Shen?”
Shen Xiuzhe put down his spoon and turned his head in the direction of the speaker.
He seemed to be irritated, and his tone became extremely cold, “Don’t spy on me, take away the thing hidden in the speaker, otherwise I won’t paint again.”
Chu Shici thought for a while, “But I really am a little speaker. I have no legs.”
Shen Xiuzhe picked up the stainless steel lunch box and threw it at the drawer, making a loud bang.
“Do you think it’s funny to play tricks on me because I’m blind? Get out!”
Chu Shici also lost his temper, “You touched me just now, why are you turning your back and accusing me now? If you don’t believe me, touch me again. If I’m lying, I’ll eat upside down…”
The system interrupted him: [That’s enough Ah Ci, there is no need to make this kind of poisonous oath. You are really not a speaker, you are a person at the core.]
‘It’s okay, so long as Zhe-ge doesn’t know, I’m just lying.’
The poisonous oath he swore was useless, and the protagonist didn’t believe him at all.
Shen Xiuzhe walked to the drawer, grabbed the little speaker as well as its charging cable, lifted it up, and stuffed it into the drawer below.
Chu Shici: …
Being locked up in a small dark room.
His eyes suddenly went dark, and Chu Shici gradually calmed down.
In fact, after seeing the background setting and the age of the male protagonist, he also thought about whether he should pretend to be a robot that is a little stupid.
But he couldn’t make any mechanical sounds, and he couldn’t explain why he could still make sounds when he wasn’t plugged in.
Regardless of whether he was pretending or not, Shen Xiuzhe would never believe him. In this case, it’s better not to try.
He figured he will discuss it with the system later and try to come up with a decent story to get through to Shen Xiuzhe.
There was a rustling sound outside. The male protagonist must have finished eating and was getting ready to go to bed.
When the male protagonist threw his lunch box at him just now, he saw it. The clear vegetable soup is watery and there are strands of hair in it.
Shen Xiuzhe couldn’t see it, so he might not feel that queasy.
Chu Shici actually couldn’t understand what was going on with his Zhe-ge now?
The walls inside the room are gray and there are no hospital beds, only a metal frame bed.
It doesn’t look like a hospital, nor can it be his villa in the original text.
The food is poor and the accommodation is terrible. Where is this place?
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Update: Tomorrow~
- After becoming enemies with the lord god
- Blog
- Completed
- Don't talk to me!
- Dropped
- Ghost Marriage
- Hunger Academy
- I opened a safe house in the Infinite Stream
- Notices
- Ongoing
- The Dragon Lord is Weak and Helpless but Has a Big Appetite [Interstellar]
- Want to ascend? Then fall in love.
- What can I do, I'm not human.
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