Recap
“What you are holding now is my plug. I am not a victim, I am not even a human being. My name is Ah Ci, and I am a smart voice speaker. I suddenly came to life today and you are the first person I laid eyes on after I became conscious. From today onwards, I will be your exclusive little speaker.”
After Chu Shici finished speaking, he carefully observed Zhe-ge’s expression.
Shen Xiuzhe caressed his plug repeatedly with his fingers, the cloth on his face covered his eyes.
This made the extremely subtle changes on his face even more difficult to detect.
A few minutes later, Chu Shici saw a very slight arc at the corner of his mouth.
“It’s such a great opportunity, but you didn’t continue on. Should I call you smart or stupid?”
Shen Xiuzhe tapped the power button of the little speaker with his fingertips gently, “Okay, I’ll trust you for once.”
___
Looking at the motionless vitality value, Chu Shici knew that Zhe-ge was just saying it but did not mean anything.
Shen Xiuzhe smiled, and an extremely gentle smile appeared on his handsome face.
He stroked the plug of the little speaker with his fingertips, and said softly in a magnetic voice: “Hello, Ah Ci.”
Chu Shici’s legs momentarily softened.
The system has not yet learned its lesson. It took in a sharp intake of breath and took pictures, shouting while taking pictures: [The beauty smiled at me! I don’t want these pants!]
‘Tong-ge, calm down.’
[He is so good looking when he smiles, what does he want to do?]
‘Bait me and kill me.’
[???]
While they were talking, Shen Xiuzhe suddenly exerted force on his hand, grabbed the charging cable and yanked it out. At the same time, his other hand took out a utility knife from his pocket, he quickly pushed out the blade and stabbed downward.
Chu Shici was about to avoid it, but when he raised his head, he found that the utility knife was falling in the wrong direction.
Shen Xiuzhe lost his vision and could only stab by intuition. He moved fast just now, and when the knife fell, it not only will miss the little speaker, it will scratch the palm holding the charging cable.
Chu Shici subconsciously ran over and cupped Shen Xiuzhe’s hand, trying to push it away.
The hand didn’t move. His wheels were spinning in a panic when he suddenly heard Shen Xiuzhe chuckle.
Chu Shici looked over and saw that the sharp blade of the utility knife was hovering in the air, above him.
Shen Xiuzhe put away the utility knife and poked the little speaker with the handle.
Chu Shici looked at him and then at the knife, and his mind quickly turned.
Damn, this bastard is testing him again.
Chu Shici’s temper wasn’t very good to begin with, but now he was getting more angry.
“You knew exactly what situation you were in, but you still did such a dangerous move. If you had made a mistake just now and the knife missed by just a few centimeters, the knife would have hit your own hand.”
He raised his charger and tapped the man’s pale and slender palm with the plug. “I told you that the knife is very dirty. What if your wound gets infected? This shabby room doesn’t even have iodine. If you get an infection, you will be the one to suffer.”
Shen Xiuzhe put away his gentle and hypocritical smile, expressionless, and said in a cold tone: “If my hand is injured, it’s you people who should worry.”
“It’s not us nor is it them. I’m not the same group as those people. If you can’t trust me, just lock me up.”
While talking, Chu Shici secretly wrapped the charging cord around the utility knife. Then he found the right opportunity and snatched the utility knife over with a swish.
Taking advantage of Shen Xiuzhe’s daze for a few seconds, the little speaker dragged the utility knife under the table, ran to the deepest part and hid.
“I’ll confiscate these dangerous goods first. It’s eleven o’clock in the evening. It’s time for you to go to bed, Zhe-ge.”
Shen Xiuzhe clasped his palms together and pursed his lips, “Why do you call me Zhe-ge?”
Chu Shici thought for a moment, “The bald man called you by your name before, and I remembered it. They all called you Mr. Shen, but I think that since I’m your exclusive little speaker, we should be on a familiar term.”
Shen Xiuzhe said nothing, neither agreeing nor objecting.
He ignored the little speaker, silently picked up the towel and walked to the bathroom not far away.
At the same time, a system prompt sounded in the background.
[The vitality value is increased by 1, and the current vitality value is -39/100.]
The small wheel under the speaker rolled forward a few times. Chu Shici called out in surprise, “Zhe-ge?”
Shen Xiuzhe raised his hand and closed the bathroom door.
After a while, the sound of water running faintly came from the bathroom.
Chu Shici glanced around and found that the bathroom door and walls were made of transparent glass.
Everything the people inside do can be seen from the outside.
Shen Xiuzhe stood under the shower head and wiped his arms carefully. The water droplets slid down his neck, past his collarbone and onto his chest muscles, leaving water trails on his well-proportioned abdominal muscles.
He picked up the soap that was placed and began to wash his hair. During this period, he kept leaning forward slightly to prevent the cloth covering his eyes from getting wet.
It’s not gauze or a bandage, so why does he still cover his eyes when taking a shower?
He didn’t know if it was Chu Shici’s illusion, but he felt that Shen Xiuzhe’s bloodless lips seemed to have turned paler.
Several thoughts flashed through Chu Shici’s mind instantly.
According to the previous bald man’s statement, this room once housed other people, and Shen Xiuzhe moved in later.
In order to monitor that person, three cameras were installed in the house to ensure that there were no blind spots in every corner.
This fully transparent bathroom may also be for the convenience of monitoring the previous person.
Someone was watching even when he was taking a shower and going to the toilet. That person was so miserable, and so was Zhe-ge who came in later.
This thought passed away in a flash, and Chu Shi cursed.
The glass was not fogged up and the bathroom only had cold running water.
The system could only see a full screen mosaic, and it was sending a private message to the host, asking him what was going on outside.
Chu Shici observed Shen Xiuzhe’s movements.
He would lock the bathroom door when he went in and come out only after washing and getting dressed. Judging from his reaction, he had no idea the bathroom was transparent.
No one told him, and he couldn’t see. He thought that as long as he closed the door and locked it, he could relax a little.
Chu Shici took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
According to Zhe-ge’s temperament, in this unsafe environment, he would not go to the bathroom if there were people in the room.
Those people had no intention of monitoring Shen Xiuzhe. After the last person who lived here left, the surveillance was not turned on.
The transparent bathroom would not affect Shen Xiuzhe in a short period of time, so Chu Shici decided not to tell him the truth for the time being.
Zhe-ge’s vitality level is too low, and now a single straw might crush him to death. He was afraid that if he spoke out, Zhe-ge would be driven crazy by the psychological pressure.
That was his husband, and Chu Shici felt so distressed that he cried.
He hid the utility knife and his soul entered the system space. He hugged the system who was eating melon seeds, buried his face in the ball of light and cried loudly, crying and cursing at the same time.
The system could only see the mosaic just now and didn’t know what happened.
It patted Chu Shici’s back while eating melon seeds excitedly.
It can watch two beauties kissing each other, it can hug the little beauty, and it can still make money.
Damn, it loves this job!
___
Shen Xiuzhe wiped his hair simply, put the towel aside, and lay down on the metal frame bed to sleep.
In a blur of consciousness, he felt something rubbing against his head.
He raised his hand and touched an assembled suit. The outer layer is a circle of towels, and the inside is a small plug.
Shen Xiuzhe subconsciously tensed up, he lowered his face and was about to ask, but soon realized that the little speaker wanted to wipe his hair.
He took a deep breath and grabbed the plug: “It’s none of your business, get out of here.”
Before he finished speaking, a man’s crying voice sounded in the silent room.
“You were breathing heavily just now, and there was sweat on your forehead. It seemed like you had a fever. I was scared.”
“It has nothing to do with you.”
“But I’m afraid you’ll die.”
The little speaker was quiet for a few seconds, and the plug was squeezed into his arms.
“Zhe-ge, I just came back to life, and you are the only person I know. I’m afraid that you will die, and I’m also afraid that if you get sick and have no strength, they will bully you even more…”
The soft sounds of crying reached Shen Xiuzhe’s ears. He did not expect that one day he would hear a speaker crying.
He might have gone crazy to imagine that someone cared about him.
Shen Xiuzhe was silent for a long time, then reached down to pick up the little speaker from the ground and put it in his arms.
After that, he took off the towel and dried his still damp hair, and the little speaker finally calmed down.
Shen Xiuzhe didn’t have a fever, he just had a nightmare. Finger caressing the little speaker in his arms, he smiled in a self-deprecating way.
He must be crazy to sleep with a speaker.
The system, who was playing a game in the system space, saw a new notification.
[The vitality value is increased by 1, and the current vitality value is -38/100.]
After confirming that Zhe-ge didn’t have a fever, Chu Shici breathed a sigh of relief.
The system handed him a tissue, [Little cry baby.]
The more Chu Shici thought about it, the angrier he became, and he cried again, ‘My husband has been bullied to this state! When the vitality level reaches eighty, I will turn into a human and kill those fucking beasts!’
[Do you know who should be killed?]
‘I don’t know, but I will kill all those who I saw. Fuck! If Zhe-ge’s prestige is not redeemed, my name will be written backwards! Those idiots have shit in their brains. I’m going to rip off their heads and stuff them all into the toilet!’
[……]
[You cried like a pitiful child in front of the hero just now. Why do you cry so ferociously when you cry with me?]
‘I held back. If I curse like this in front of him, I’m afraid of scaring him away.’
In the later part of the night, Shen Xiuzhe’s body began to tremble again.
Chu Shici was woken up by the system, gently wrapped the charging cable around his arm, and whispered a lullaby in his ear.
The soothing singing voice reached Shen Xiuzhe’s ears, and his breathing gradually calmed down. Those pale hands grasped the thin white thread tightly, as if grasping a life-saving straw in his dream.
The moment his body relaxed, Chu Shici heard the sound of the notification.
[The vitality value is increased by 1, and the current vitality value is -37/100.]
Chu Shici rubbed Shen Xiuzhe’s cheek with the wire, “Zhe-ge, I will definitely take you away. You were protecting me before, but now it’s my turn to protect you. Don’t be afraid, I will always be by your side. “
___
Chu Shici was woken up by a knock on the door, his eyes were filled with darkness.
The system said that after the male protagonist got up, he covered him with a quilt.
Maybe it was thought that he needed to use the bunch of small holes on the side to breathe, so when covering it, one side was specially left open for him to breathe.
A strange man’s voice came from outside the door, “Mr. Shen, what set meal are you having for breakfast today?”
Shen Xiuzhe’s voice was as cold as ever, “C.”
“There are a lot of people ordering for set C, we didn’t prepare that many!”
“A.”
The man shouted, “Room 3, one breakfast set A!”
Just as he was about to leave, Shen Xiuzhe suddenly said: “There was a foreign object in yesterday’s dinner. There was no staple food and the portion was small. I’m very hungry now. If you don’t want me to die. Be more serious about cooking in the future.”
After two seconds of silence outside the door, the man kicked the door, “You’re full of fucking trouble!”
Shen Xiuzhe broke the paintbrush and threw it to the ground, “If you don’t like me, you can kill me. I can’t paint in this environment now.”
The man kept calling him a bitch, a whore and threatened to find a bunch of people to play with him to death.
Shen Xiuzhe said nothing and just knocked over all the paint.
The two of them made a lot of noise, and it didn’t take long for someone to open the door and come in.
Chu Shici looked out from the gap in the quilt.
He was a fat man in a suit and tie, who looked to be in his early thirties.
The man responsible for recording the daily set meal, called Brother Liu, should be in charge here.
Fat Brother Liu smiled kindly. He helped Shen Xiuzhe sit back in the chair and poured him a glass of water.
Chu Shici noticed a trace of suspicion on Zhe-ge’s face.
The fat man’s voice felt strange to him, the person in charge might have been replaced.
Brother Liu smiled and asked, “Mr. Shen’s eyes still hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt.”
“That’s good. It seems that the operation was successful. Mr. Shen can’t see well. Don’t run around again.”
Brother Liu took out a notebook and wrote while talking, “From now on, your breakfast will be a bowl of porridge, three steamed buns and a plate of pickles. For lunch and dinner, one meat and two vegetables, plus 100g of rice. The water in the bathroom will be changed to a suitable hot water for bathing and the bed will be changed to a wooden bed for you, Mr. Shen, what do you think?”
As if he didn’t expect it to go so smoothly, Shen Xiuzhe fell silent for a moment, “I need a hair dryer.”
“OK.”
The fat steward nodded, “Then breakfast will be prepared for you separately, the lunch and dinner will also be made according to the ABC set menu. If you want to add any dishes, just tell me.”
After he finished speaking, he turned around and slapped the man before, “Is this how you treat our Great Painter Shen? He is an artist, so he must eat well and sleep well, otherwise where will the inspiration come from. Don’t you agree? Mr. Shen.”
The words ‘Great Painter Shen’ is said through gritted teeth.
He was beating his subordinates, yet was mocking Shen Xiuzhe.
Breakfast was delivered quickly. Brother Liu arranged the breakfast himself and asked someone to help Shen Xiuzhe change new tools. They said the hot water would be supplied today and beds would be delivered tomorrow.
He asked about the progress of the painting, and Shen Xiuzhe said it would take another three days.
The fat steward looked at it for a while and nodded with satisfaction, “It’s already perfect, this is fine. I’ll take it away. You can start drawing new ones today.”
The door closed again, and Shen Xiuzhe sat motionless on the chair, it is not known what he was thinking about.
The little Speaker couldn’t get up after lying down. Chu Shici shook the white thin wire, hoping that Zhe-ge would help him.
After shaking it for a few times, I remembered that Shen Xiuzhe couldn’t see it.
He greeted, “Zhe-ge! Help me up, I can’t get out!”
Shen Xiuzhe came over, picked up the little speaker with one hand and put it on the table.
He felt around on the wall for a while, found a socket that no one had used for a long time, and inserted the plug into it.
Electric current surged in, and Chu Shici shuddered.
Is this what it feels like to charge a little speaker? He likes it.
After the system sorted out the photo album, it stuck his head out and looked outside.
Shen Xiuzhe was eating steamed buns while the little speaker was charging. They ate their breakfast quietly, no one spoke, and they seemed harmonious.
The room was quiet for a few seconds, then Shen Xiuzhe knocked on the porridge bowl, “Is it clean?”
He heard the sound of wheels rolling on the table. After a while, the little speaker hummed, “No problem, it’s vegetable and shredded pork porridge. I think it will be delicious.”
Shen Xiuzhe took a taste and said, “Okay.”
Before he finished speaking, the lively and clear male voice appeared again.
“Move your spoon one centimeter to the left. There are several shreds of meat there. You ate too little last night. Eat more in the morning to avoid dizziness.”
“I’m saying that with your ability, they will definitely not want to kill you. Make a fuss and improve your living conditions. Only when you are full can you have the strength to escape.”
Shen Xiuzhe’s hand movements paused, and he repeated in a cold tone, “Escape?”
“Yes, aren’t you imprisoned by them? You can’t stay here forever. Let’s escape from here together. Then you can take off the collar around your neck and live freely under the sun, and you will never be harassed or bullied again.”
A mocking smile appeared on Shen Xiuzhe’s lips.
He wasn’t mocking the little speaker, he was laughing at himself.
No one helped him, no one rescued him, so now he conjured up a small talking speaker in his head. So that it will be able to voice out what he has been holding deep in his heart.
Chu Shici was still looking at the porridge bowl when he suddenly heard a slight sound of the intake of breath coming from above his head.
He looked up, and a tear flowed from the gap under the white cloth. There was a shallow tear trail on Shen Xiuzhe’s handsome cheek.
Chu Shici rubbed the cold fingertips in front of him with his wire, “Zhe-ge, don’t be afraid, one day we will definitely be able to leave.”
Shen Xiuzhe pursed his lips, “I’m not so weak that I need illusions to comfort me.”
After he said this, his hand suddenly touched something smooth and cool, and his ears caught a gentle yet firm voice.
The little speaker’s wire arched under his hand, and the thin wire hooked his little finger.
“You are able to touch me, I’m not a hallucination. Zhe-ge, I am your exclusive little speaker, I have a name. I am Chu Shici, but you can call me Ah Ci.”
“We pinky promised that we will leave this place and live a good life together in the future.”
Shen Xiuzhe’s hand subconsciously clenched the thin wire, as if clinging to the hope of living.
He exhaled slowly, and his tense body gradually relaxed.
“Hello, Ah Ci.”
[The vitality value is increased by 3, and the current vitality value is -34/100.]
___
Since the chat at breakfast, Zhe-ge’s attitude towards him has improved a lot, he won’t let him go.
Perhaps because he heard Chu Shici say that he had just come back to life, Shen Xiuzhe mistakenly thought that the little speaker had always been in the room and had never seen the outside world.
When he was painting, he placed the little speaker at his feet.
Chu Shici had previously thought about how Shen Xiuzhe could draw if he could not see, but now he finally saw it.
Shen Xiuzhe slowly stroked the canvas with his hand repeatedly, moving it little by little, trying his best to remember the place where he wanted to paint on.
This process lasted for more than half an hour until his imagination could overlap with the canvas.
He couldn’t adjust the colors based on his aesthetics, he could only use commonly used basic colors, or ones that others had mixed for him.
He needed to use the small words carved next to the paint to imagine what color it should be.
He holds a brush in one hand and moves his other hand back and forth in front of the canvas to feel out the dimensions. As the paint has not dried, he can not touch the canvas casually, so every stroke was very difficult for him.
Shen Xiuzhe needs to rely on memory and feeling to remember where each stroke has landed and where it has not been touched.
The strength of the pen stroke, the amount of paint dipped in, and the depth of color.
Actions that once seemed simple to him now require extreme caution.
Chu Shici didn’t know much about this stuff, so he could only help to see how much paint there was. When the brush is about to land in the wrong place, he will say a word of caution.
In the original text, the male protagonist was like a living printer.
It takes others several years to produce a piece of work, but he mass produces a piece of work in two days.
Now it is visibly much slower.
According to Shen Xiuzhe, it takes him a month or two to paint an ordinary landscape painting.
This was originally a feel-good face-slapping novel featuring the male protagonist, a naturally talented painter. There was a small scene in the original text where the male protagonist is confessed to by a rich man’s daughter, the daughter’s suitor came to provoke him. Looked down on him and said that Shen Xiuzhe is nothing more than a painter and that he is just a pawn.
In order to slap the suitor in the face, the hero drew a painting on the spot with his eyes closed. Using his strength to prove that even if he doesn’t open my eyes, he’s still better than them.
Whether it is oil painting, Chinese painting, watercolor painting, or any other drawings in other mediums, he is a master. He knows everything and is proficient in everything.
Zhe-ge himself is not good at paintings. This is similar to Mingzhe in the second world, he has a temporary halo.
The fat man in charge, Brother Liu, kept his word. Compared with yesterday, today’s lunch was not only cleaner, but also had a much larger portion.
At least enough for a grown man.
While Shen Xiuzhe was eating, the little speaker was charging nearby. Like him, three meals a day.
Shen Xiuzhe is a very cold and aloof person. He has few expressions and the range of changes between each is minimal.
Chu Shici looked at him quietly and suddenly realized something.
Zhe-ge’s vitality value is too low, he has no desire to survive.
Whether it was food with dead bugs, ice-cold water or a shabby bed, it was nothing to him.
He was already numb, so he didn’t care.
It wasn’t until the little speaker cried last night that he was afraid that he would die that he requested those people to improve his quality of living.
Chu Shici was thinking that perhaps Shen Xiuzhe had made a similar request when his vitality had not reached a negative number. But those people saw that he wasn’t desperate yet, so they ignored him.
Shen Xiuzhe looked like he had given up hope, he is like a puppet carefully carved by a master, every part is so perfect that people can’t take their eyes away.
But no matter what expressions he made, there was no trace of anger. It’s as if what is sitting here is just a moving corpse.
Those people realized that something was wrong with him, and they were afraid that all the effort they had put in to get him here would be destroyed, so they agreed to his request.
After lunch, Shen Xiuzhe continued painting.
The little speaker was running around on the low table nearby, helping to hand him tools.
After drawing for a while, Shen Xiuzhe suddenly stopped.
He turned his head in the direction of sound made by the little speaker’s wheels, “This is a mountain.”
Chu Shici leaned over to take a look.
The painting wasn’t finished yet, so he couldn’t see anything, but he still said, “It looks good!”
Shen Xiuzhe smiled mockingly, but his mouth was pressed by the little plug.
Chu Shici tapped the corners of his lips and said, “You haven’t finished the painting yet, but it will look great after it is finished. You are the most outstanding person I have ever seen. Zhe-ge, you are very good. Don’t always laugh at yourself.”
“You’ve only met a few people.”
“I don’t care, in my heart you are the best!”
Shen Xiuzhe put away his smile, turned his head and said calmly: “Play a song, anything is fine.”
The little speaker couldn’t connect to the Internet, so Chu Shici found the system and snatched a memory card from it that was specially used to store songs.
The system swallowed his tears.
A few seconds later, the sound of gurgling water filled the room, mixed with the sounds of birdsong and the gentle crisp sound of wind rustling the leaves.
Shen Xiuzhe was silent for a long time.
He had not heard these sounds for a long time, they were the sounds of nature, and for a moment he thought he was free.
After hearing the notification that the vitality value had increased, Chu Shici ran to the backend to take a look.
Before the song finished, the vitality value slowly increased by 3 points to -31.
Unfortunately, there was no bug, and no matter how long the music played, it was perpetually stuck at -31.
When it came time for dinner, Shen Xiuzhe called it a day and put down his tools.
His method of painting is based entirely on feeling and memory. As a result, it consumes a lot of energy.
After dinner, Shen Xiuzhe sat back on the bed.
He put the little speaker on his lap and gently stroked it back and forth, using tactile sensations to outline the appearance of the speaker in his mind.
Chu Shici looked at the transparent bathroom not far away, wondering whether he should ask Zhe-ge to ask Fatty to get a waterproof curtain or other things to cover it.
But then he thought about it, Zhe-ge was the only one in the room. He couldn’t know that the glass was transparent because he couldn’t see it.
If he opens his mouth to request for a cover, he is letting others know that there is a problem in the room.
The transparent bathroom had no effect on Shen Xiuzhe in this short period of time. At most, it was a psychological discomfort.
The top priority right now is to find out where this place is and what is going on now.
Chu Shici tried to ask Shen Xiuzhe, but Zhe-ge didn’t answer.
It will bring up his scars, a subject he does not have the slightest interest in. His fondness for the little speaker has not reached the level where he can talk to it about everything.
Every world is like this, and Chu Shici is used to it.
He was deep in thought when suddenly there was a sharp and harsh ringing outside.
The sound is loud and sharp, and can be heard clearly in the room.
Then noisy footsteps sounded in the corridor.
Shen Xiuzhe, who had been sitting quietly on the bed, suddenly reacted violently. He didn’t even take off his clothes, just covered himself with the quilt and lay down on the bed.
He covered the little speaker and signaled for him to be silent.
Chu Shici’s mind was filled with questions.
What’s wrong?
Did someone fight their way in, or did someone run out?
___
T/N: This world is very mysterious, idk what’s going on either…
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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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