Recap
“Zhe-ge, when did you just say that the tourist bus exploded?”
“Five years ago.”
“Five years ago?!”
“I confirmed with him that the number of people and the location are correct. There is no mistake.”
“But we obviously heard the news last week!”
Shen Xiuzhe didn’t reply and turned his head away coldly.
When Chu Shici saw Zhe-ge like this, he knew that he was also confused.
He tsked in confusion.
Could it be that the news they overheard had been recorded long ago?
But why do some people get up at 5 o’clock every day just to watch news that was recorded so long ago?
___
Chu Shici couldn’t figure out what happened on the tour bus for the time being. He turned to Shen Xiuzhe and asked, “Zhe-ge, did the news about the discovery of the body of the police officer in the trash bin also come from five years ago?”
He remembered that they first heard that there were bodies hidden in the trash cans, then heard the news mentioning that a tour bus had exploded.
These two news items were broadcasted on the same day.
Shen Xiuzhe shook his head slightly.
“Not five years ago?”
“No, Officer Li doesn’t know. He has never heard about it.”
Chu Shici couldn’t understand.
Since the two news were broadcasted at the same time, why did Officer Li only know about the explosion of the tour bus but not about the bodies hidden in the trash bins?
Because the bodies in the trash bins didn’t cause a public outcry?
But he had already entered the police station that year. As a police officer, why would he be completely unaware of the criminal case that year?
Chu Shici thought for a long time, and a bold conjecture came to his mind.
Since he did not watch the TV directly, but overheard the news through the small program.
Every time the news was broadcasted, the time and date of the news is never mentioned.
Could it be that the person didn’t watch it in chronological order and was actually watching news clips?
Chu Shici quickly denied it.
If the news really is edited, it will definitely have a common subject in mind, the news content will likely be focused on the news that the editor is concerned about.
But the content of the news he overheard varied greatly.
After the murder and supposed bombings were broadcast, neighborhood disputes and daily trivial matters were in line.
This should not be edited.
Then there are only two explanations.
The bodies hidden in the trash bins and the tourist bus explosion both happened five years ago. However, since Officer Li doesn’t pay much attention to the news, he only knows about the cases that have caused a stir across the country, but not the small local cases.
Another possibility is that although Chu Shici heard these two pieces of news on the same day, they did not happen in the same year.
The tourist bus explosion was a case five years ago, while the bodies hidden in the trash bins is a scene that will happen in the future.
Officer Li can only know the past but cannot predict the future, so he has never heard of the news that some bodies identified as belonging to that of police officers are hidden in trash bins.
Chu Shici was shocked by this speculation.
After hearing his conjecture, Shen Xiuzhe’s reaction was blank.
Looking at that cold face, Chu Shici knew that Zhe-ge was confused now.
What a coincidence, he was also confused.
Since they can’t think of it, they should just give up on thinking about it for now.
Chu Shici put aside this messy speculation and began to think about the little animal on the cards.
Zhe-ge already has dogs, monkeys, and mice. He is still short of a chicken to collect all four small animals.
Chu Shici originally thought that the collection card was just a drawn pie, but Mr. Wang, who previously lived in room 10 next door, had already exchanged the entire illustrated collection for the chance to leave.
No one knows whether Lao Wang next door is dead or alive, or whether he has really escaped.
Shen Xiuzhe heard the sound of metal hitting against metal. It was the little speaker pulling out the small metal box.
He fumbled and picked up the metal box, “Officer Li wants to exchange cards with us. He still lacks a dog card.”
Shen Xiuzhe opened the box and handed it to the little speaker.
Chu Shici used his plug and poked it a few times, “We have a lot of stock. We have three dogs. We can give it to him, but how do we do it?”
“Every time the person who delivers food will deliver it to this room first, and then to Room 3 opposite. Officer Li hopes that I can choose an opportunity to put the dog card in the food cart, and then knock on the metal door three times as a reminder. Wait for the person delivering the food. When he gets to Officer Li, Officer Li will try to steal the card.”
“It sounds feasible, but those people captured him because they accepted money from others. In addition, he is still a policeman himself. How can they let him out? After he collects all the illustrations, he will most likely be taken out and killed.”
Shen Xiuzhe hummed, “So I refused.”
He paused for a long time, pursed his lips and said softly: “He is very disappointed in me.”
Chu Shici was stunned, “What?”
“Officer Li repeatedly begged me. He said that the little girl would be violated at any time and hoped that I can help him get out of here quickly.”
Shen Xiuzhe’s handsome face was still expressionless.
But his always straightened back now bent subconsciously.
“After I refused, he was very agitated and said that I would neither open the metal door nor help him collect cards. The child had fallen into the hands of a bunch of criminals and wouldn’t last long. He asked me why I was so capable, but didn’t want to do anything.”
“…Was he interrogating you?”
“No, his tone wasn’t not bad.”
“Then did you explain it to him?”
“Does he need me to explain such a simple truth?”
The more Shen Xiuzhe talked, the uglier his face became.
Seeing that he was about to lose control of his emotions, he got up from the bed and entered the bathroom with a towel.
The cleaner had moved from its original place on the floor while mopping up the blood in the bathroom.
Shen Xiuzhe walked in based on his memory, tripped over the moved dirty clothes basket and fell down.
There was a loud bang in the bathroom and the little speaker on the bed was startled.
He put down the cards he was looking at half-way and turned to look in nervously. Zhe-ge fell very hard this time and did not recover for a long time.
Chu Shici was worried that Zhe-ge had been seriously injured, so he spun around in a hurry.
He tried to throw out the charging cable, wrapped it around the leg of the table not far away, ran to the edge of the bed and free fall.
The speaker swung in an arc in the air and finally landed smoothly on the ground.
Since losing his sight, Shen Xiuzhe has been injured frequently.
No one gave him a white cane, so he bumped into corners and tripped over things. In the beginning, his body was covered in bruises.
Later, as he gradually learned about the locations of the furnishings in the room, this kind of thing rarely happened.
He was in a bad mood just now. He walked too fast and fell hard.
His knees and arms were seriously injured. Shen Xiuzhe tried to get up, but groaned in pain.
Officer Li’s voice echoed in his mind again.
He didn’t mean to blame or question Shen Xiuzhe, he was just disappointed.
It reminded Shen Xiuzhe that he probably shouldn’t have been born.
___
Shen Xiuzhe’s mother became pregnant out of wedlock. His biological father did not want to take responsibility and ran away, completely cutting off all contact with his mother.
His mother believed that if she had not accidentally become pregnant with him, she would not have been abandoned by her beloved man.
Shen Xiuzhe grew up distant and hated by his mother. After his mother committed suicide, he was sent to an orphanage.
Everyone likes cheerful and lively children. However, he doesn’t like to talk and no one will play with him.
He couldn’t integrate into the group and the only times he felt like he belonged was when he was in the woods behind the orphanage, imagining that the leaves rustling was his friends talking to him.
It was at that time that he began to like to paint.
The adults at the orphanage often told him that he had a character defect and that no one will ever like such a withdrawn child. If he doesn’t correct his personality, no one will adopt him.
They were right. Among all the good-looking children, Shen Xiuzhe was the only one that no one wanted.
When those potential couples saw his face, they would come over to him. They would chat with him for a few words and then walk away, disappointed.
So when his adoptive father proposed to adopt him, Shen Xiuzhe was really happy.
As a painter, his adoptive father failed. He never achieved any fame.
But he has a huge fortune and is a successful businessman.
Shen Xiuzhe suddenly became a young master.
His adoptive father had high expectations for him and hoped that he would become a world-famous painter. He is required to have the purest heart and devote his entire life to painting.
No matter how precocious Shen Xiuzhe is, he is still a child. On his birthday, his adoptive father asked him what gift he wanted. He said he wanted an electric toy car, and his adoptive father took out the belt.
‘Have you forgotten what I told you? Tell me again what you want.’
‘A toy car.’
His adoptive father told him to stand still to receive the beating.
Shen Xiuzhe was not stupid. He hid in the utility room, locked the door from the inside, and listened to his adoptive father kicking the door violently.
On his birthday, he received a toy car.
But the adoptive father never came home, the servant said, ‘The master said that it would be better to raise a dog than to raise you. He will never celebrate your birthday again in the future.’
He felt abandoned, and the toy car suddenly does not seem that fun anymore.
Whenever Shen Xiuzhe was playing around, his adoptive father would sneer at him.
Only when his paintings win awards will his adoptive father praise him as a good boy.
When he grew up, Shen Xiuzhe entered the campus and was elected as the school grass*. There is a senior who has been taking care of him and integrated him into the group. They have a good relationship.
*(most handsome guy in school)
Shen Xiuzhe regarded him as a friend. He was very relaxed in front of him and his expressions were much richer.
As a result, on Valentine’s Day, the senior drove a luxury car and confessed to him downstairs below his dormitory holding roses. There were mood candles all over the ground, a crowd of onlookers, and a few violinists playing a melody.
Everyone was energetically encouraging them, asking them to kiss each other, and wishing them a happy marriage.
Shen Xiuzhe didn’t like men, so he didn’t find this confession romantic, only disgusting.
When the senior reached out to hug him, he resisted the urge to hit him, threw away the roses that were forced into his arms, turned around and left.
The senior’s face looked particularly ugly at that time.
From then on, the senior began to use the school forum to portray him as a homosexual who likes to pretend to be cold and innocent to seduce men.
He was said to be having an affair with a man while cheating on a girl who had fallen in love with him. He was a cheating gay scumbag.
Not everyone believed the senior’s lies, but the story spread widely and eventually reached the ears of his adoptive father.
He thought Shen Xiuzhe’s morals were broken, so he called him home and scolded him.
Looking at his adopted son who looked expressionless and like a man made of wood, his adoptive father burned the paintings he brought back.
‘It’s been two years, but you haven’t made any progress in painting, and you’re still playing around with men. The Shen family has been completely disgraced by you! I really regret not listening to the director of the orphanage and adopting someone like you!’
Shen Xiuzhe was kept in his room and locked up for a month and was forced to cut off contact with the outside world. His adoptive father had no intention of helping him suppress the rumors.
By the time he returned to school, his reputation as a gay man had already been established. He went from the campus male idol to a scumbag that everyone yelled at.
It is actually very simple to destroy someone.
Get some fake pictures and take some chat screenshots. Finding a few people and paying them to pretend to be victims is enough to ruin a person for good. The senior was the one who had bribed strangers with enough money and even hired a woman who claimed that he made her pregnant.
The school beauty who once pursued him called him out and asked him if he had really done it.
Shen Xiuzhe said no.
The school beauty asked him to provide evidence.
Shen Xiuzhe showed her his mobile phone. The chat application was clean.
‘Did you reset your phone? Why are there no other applications?’
‘I rarely use my phone.’
‘Then what do you usually do?’
‘Paint.’
The school beauty can’t believe that in this day and age, there are still people who don’t use mobile phones. The excuses in his mouth seemed to others to be lies and full of loopholes.
Shen Xiuzhe sought help from his adoptive father, who asked him to admit his mistakes and apologize publicly and stop making excuses for his actions.
He called the police, and was able to uncover that it was all a false accusation. He also found a lawyer and successfully won the lawsuit and received hundreds of thousands of compensation.
It’s easy to tarnish one’s reputation and incite hate, but it’s difficult to rebuild one’s reputation and cleanse public opinions.
Things have already developed to this point, no one cares about the truth anymore.
When the hype reached its peak, someone opened a voting thread on the school forum.
Shen Xiuzhe didn’t read the forum. He only found out after overhearing school mates that he had been chosen as the ‘most hated person’ by the student body.
Many people slipped letters to him through the cracks in his dormitory door, each one cursing him to death and hoping that a scum like him would disappear soon.
Now, as they wished, Shen Xiuzhe has disappeared from the world.
___
Chu Shici finally opened the bathroom door, only to see Zhe-ge still lying on his side on the ground.
He raised his arms to cover his face, leaving only his pale lips exposed.
The bathroom floor was a bit slippery, so Chu Shici slid all the way over.
Shen Xiuzhe’s skin was already fair, but the bruises on his arms made his skin stand out more.
Chu Shici looked at the purple scars on his skin and felt so distressed that he became teary.
He poked Shen Xiuzhe’s finger, “Zhe-ge…”
Shen Xiuzhe hummed coldly.
“Can you stand up? How about we go to bed and lie down.”
“Are you caring about me?”
“En. Is your arm hurting really badly that you can’t get up?”
Shen Xiuzhe interrupted him, “Why do you care about me?”
Chu Shici squeezed into his arms and said, “You are my Zhe-ge, and I like you. Why do you ask this all of a sudden? Let me see if you have broken anything. Can you move your legs normally?”
Shen Xiuzhe’s expression seemed a bit strange.
He was silent for a while, “But I don’t like you. It’s useless for you to please me.”
“It’s okay, I don’t…”
“Go away.”
Chu Shici was stunned and tilted his head in confusion.
Shen Xiuzhe, who had been motionless just now, suddenly waved his hand and pushed the little speaker aside as if he was angered.
He staggered up while holding on to the sink. When he heard the sound of wheels rolling behind him, he turned his head and shouted sharply: “Go away! Stay away from me!”
Chu Shici was selectively deaf and pretended not to hear.
Shen Xiuzhe walked in front, and the little speaker sauntered behind.
He took a few steps and sneered, “If you are nice to me because you want to do that kind of thing to me, then you’d better stop thinking about it. Even if you are a human and not a speaker, there is no way we can be together.”
Chu Shici was originally very worried, but he laughed out loud after hearing this.
Zhe-ge said no every time, but his body is always very honest. He is always the one taking the initiative to drag him to do exercises every day, causing the system’s sight to be full of mosaics.
From Shen Xiuzhe’s words, Chu Shici was able to pick out key information.
It seems that Zhe-ge was harassed by someone who had pursued him before he was captured. The man became angry and caused a lot of trouble for Zhe-ge.
Shen Xiuzhe ignored the little speaker and went to bed.
Chu Shici couldn’t get up on the bed and was so anxious that he knocked on the ground with his plug.
Shen Xiuzhe turned over irritably, “Be quiet.”
“Zhe-ge?”
“I told you to be quiet and stop annoying me! I told you to get lost, don’t you understand?”
After Shen Xiuzhe finished speaking, the room fell into deathly silence.
He covered the bruises on his arms and covered his head with the quilt.
After a while, Shen Xiuzhe heard a strange sound.
It seemed like something was crawling up the bedpost.
Ten minutes later, something climbed onto the bed and got under his quilt.
The little speaker squeezed into his arms and wrapped the charging cable around his finger.
Shen Xiuzhe heard the familiar voice again.
“Zhe-ge, are you in a bad mood? Do you want me to play a song for you? Playing a more soothing tune will make you feel better.”
It was obviously a very simple sentence, but the knot that had been tightly strung in Shen Xiuzhe’s mind was suddenly disentangled.
He was silent for a long time, hugging the little speaker tightly.
He took a deep breath: “I’m sorry Ah Ci, I won’t do this to you again.”
Chu Shici didn’t know what Zhe-ge was thinking, but if the vitality value was too low, it would indeed make people lose control of their emotions suddenly.
People like Shen Xiuzhe are not good at expressing emotions. Some worries and fears have been suppressed in their hearts for who knows how long, and sooner or later they will explode.
Chu Shici’s vitality value once dropped to 0, he could tell that Shen Xiuzhe didn’t really want to scold him.
Zhe-ge had said ‘get out’, but what he really wanted to say was ‘help me’.
Chu Shici rubbed Shen Xiuzhe’s cheek, “It’s okay, I understand. I know you just lost control. Zhe-ge, if you have something on your mind, I’m here, you can tell me anything.”
Tears wet the white cloth on Shen Xiuzhe’s eyes. He took a deep breath and let out a choked sigh.
At the same time, the system, which was knitting a sweater, saw two notifications pop up in the background.
[Add 10 points to the vitality value, and the current vitality value is 7/100.]
[Add 3 points to the vitality value, and the current vitality value is 83/100.]
Chu Shici coaxed him for a while, and Shen Xiuzhe gradually calmed down.
“Something happened before I graduated from college. Later, someone conducted an anonymous vote. At least 30,000 people expressed their disgust at me and hoped that I would disappear.”
Shen Xiuzhe pressed his cheek against the little speaker, “I have a very ridiculous thought. Is it because too many people want me to disappear that I am imprisoned here?”
___
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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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