Chapter Fifty-Seven: Smile

  "Seems like we're all carrying something on our backs, and the name is similar to ours! Haha!"

  "Alas", if you don't want to laugh, then don't laugh, your laughter sounds really bad!

  "Alas, 'Yao' doesn't like to talk, but when she does, it's always something that gets her scolded..."

  "I laugh, just because I don't want to cry. Or should I say, if I don't laugh, I'll forget how to laugh, right?" I said with a smile.

  "...... Alright."

  After I got a barely audible faint response from him, there was another moment of silence between us.

  Oh! It seems I've said something I shouldn't have, indeed, the art of speaking is truly complicated!

  However, since it was me who caused the silence, I'll resolve it myself!

  I broke the silence and asked a question, or was it a fact? "The 'repeated mistakes' you mentioned, aren't they referring to the two of you? Is that right? And you're afraid of him, extremely afraid of him. Why is that? Aren't you one entity?"

  "Who's with that monster! I am me, not 'Chong Wu'." The rebuttal came quickly.

  "What you said is a bit too much, anyway, after all, we are people living in the same body, it's better to be more tolerant. And have you forgotten? 'Chong Cu' just killed that 'Wei Zhi', aren't you afraid you'll be next?"

  "Kill him? 'Weichi'? 'Weichi' sounds a bit strange. Doesn't seem like a name that would appear in this world."

  "This guy! We're also not too sure about him. He appeared earlier than us and is only smaller than 'Chong Cu' and 'Xun'."

  "Anyway! So, every time "Wei Zhi" appears at night, he's always yelling and screaming, making a racket that we can all hear. What is he saying? 'Yao'."

  "It's just some incoherent phrases like 'Save me', 'The people from my hometown have arrived', 'He is not one of us', 'He wants to leave' and so on, making all of us uneasy and unable to rest properly."

  "Ah, yes! And although each person's personality is a bit different, "Wei Zhi" is really quite strange. Compared to that "Luo", he's even stranger. He actually has thoughts of wanting to leave, which is truly too much. Even if it's something that can't happen, having such thoughts is not right, isn't it? "Yao"."

  "Ah! For us, the only way to leave is death! Unfortunately, it's really too difficult."

  "That 'Wei Zhi' is the third oldest among us, but he's really weak and stupid. After so many days of arguing, 'Chong Cuo' warned 'Wei Zhi' many times and gave him so many chances, yet 'Wei Zhi' still begged for help even more desperately, so Luo..."

  "...... Was the 'heavy mistake' you mentioned killed?" ...... He can even kill himself? I always feel that this sentence I swallowed has a grammatical error, but when it comes to this, the only person who has the right to kill is oneself, isn't it?

  "Yeah, he was killed by 'Revenge' the other day, and indeed he's an idiot! I've always thought he was an idiot anyway, didn't expect him to do something so stupid."

  "I've warned you long ago, but you didn't listen! 'Zhong Chui' has already killed many people, and 'Wei Zhi' isn't unaware of it either. Yet he still dares to provoke, what a moron."

  Is that so? So, the one who made the distress call... "Wei Zhi", is no longer calling out because he's already been killed? By the other... himself inside his body?)

  When I heard that the person who might have had the same experience as me had disappeared, I didn't feel any regret at all. Instead, a sense of sudden enlightenment emerged in my heart, just like... more than four years ago, when I found myself in the night with the maple leaves.

  Listening to their words, it should be that they were locked up by the villagers. However, looking at the color of this chain, the time shouldn't exceed half a year. But for a child, being alone in such a place, maybe they would collapse in just a few days?

  Or perhaps it's just this kid's luck that he has different personalities to talk to, so nothing happens and he can't leave this prison.

  I calm down and think about some things, I feel that my thread is a bit confusing, whether it's the dialogue of multiple personalities, the cause of things, or similar backgrounds, they all give me a sense of ambiguity, that is, what they say is not false, but it seems to hide some facts or reality.

  Finally, there is also... their attitude, which makes me feel very strange.

  For a kid who has been locked up in such a place for a long time, they seem too open and friendly to me, a complete stranger they have never met before.

  Light does not necessarily give birth to light, but darkness must breed darkness. I have always had no doubt about this sentence, so...

  Taking all the talk, attitude and tone into consideration... I have come to a conclusion.

  "Say, if you guys want me to die, I don't mind, but I still have things left undone. Can we just pretend I was never here? Anyway, that voice won't bother me again, my goal has been achieved."

  As for why this child is locked up here, it has nothing to do with me. They didn't mention the word "leave", so I can pretend I didn't see anything.

  "You!"

  "You!"

  "You!"

  "Why are you so surprised? I didn't say anything wrong!" Originally it was just a guess, but after hearing your responses, I also knew the truth.

  But I didn't feel angry or disgusted towards this child. Putting myself in their shoes, our two bodies are very similar, and I also understand why the thought of "killing me" would arise.

  From the very beginning, this child never intended to let me leave alive. My conversation with him was a kind of venting, about his own confinement, darkness and prison life. However, they did not want someone who knew so much to leak their secrets, so the conclusion that "only the dead will not leak secrets" is easily reached.

  "Although I don't know what method you have to kill me?" A child who is restricted in movement can be so confident in killing me, who can move freely. He must have some kind of fatal, long-range, fast and special ability.

  Although I'm quite confident in my own Chakra Armor, I don't want to test it out just to satisfy my curiosity.

  My life isn't just mine! I'll protect it well, at least until it won't implicate Jiu, before resolving the obligations of this body......

  I had just turned to leave when I suddenly thought of a question, and turned back again. "You haven't told me your names yet," I said to the child. "The names you use when talking to each other - can you tell me? Before I go, I think you shouldn't have any ability to stop me from leaving, right?" Otherwise, you wouldn't be stalling like this.

  My tone was extremely gentle, nothing like the attitude towards someone who just wanted to kill themselves.

  "Aren't you angry?"

  "You're really not angry, we just delayed for a while, wanting... wanting..."

  "Kill me." I helped him say the words that wouldn't come out, "And why should I be angry? Did you do something to make me angry?"

  "We want you dead!"

  "What does it have to do with me being angry or not?" I asked, bewildered. And besides, I'm not that easily angered, okay? My emotions don't fluctuate that easily, especially when my own life is at stake.

  “……………”

  “……………”

  We fell into our third silence.

  "Hey, if you're angry, then... when I'm old and about to die, come find me and kill me, how's that?" I proposed a solution, after all, everyone will eventually die anyway, so I don't care how I go.

  "I am 'Dou'." said a loud and clear voice.

  "My name is Yao." said the gentle voice.

  "There's another one who is relatively low-key, called 'Xī', he's quite taciturn and rarely speaks to ordinary people." The loud voice added.

  Now that you've told me your name, it should be that you don't want me to die?

  After all, still just a child, heart is too soft, it's easy to get hurt like this!

  I'm helping the person who wants to kill me get away with it, and I'm still worried about him! If Jiu finds out, he'll definitely scold me again, haha.

  In short, in this situation, a lonely child did not make any gesture to retain me, plus the "delayed time" mentioned earlier, does it mean that their original method of killing me and the timing are related, or is it related to someone who will appear at a certain time?

  However, I have one more thing to say, "Don't you guys look at each other when speaking?" From the beginning of our conversation until now, he has been keeping his head down, completely not looking at me, or should I say, unable to look at me?

  I seem to have noticed some strange places! It's really a deadly habit left over from before!

  I still walked up to him and squatted down, wanting to take a look at this kid's appearance before leaving.

  This child with a surprisingly similar past to mine, I just hope that if I were to meet this child again in the future, it wouldn't be just an empty voice, nothing more.

  But unexpectedly, the child turned his head away, refusing to face me directly, and muttered softly to himself.

  I didn't hear what he said, so I asked: "What did you say?"

  "Hurry! 'He' is waking up!"

  Suddenly a loud roar scared me and I jumped violently.

  "I don't know where you came from, but just leave quickly, get out of this cave! Today is the full moon, 'he' will be rising soon! It's almost midnight, do you want to die?"

  "Go!"

  "It's too late! Close your eyes! Don't look into our eyes!"

  "Huh!? What eyes?"

  Before I could respond, the child let out a mirthless laugh, "Hahahahahahaha!" It was the same kind of laughter as mine from "before", a very familiar sound.

  It reminds me of something my brother and sister once told me:

  Laugh, not just because I don't want to forget how to smile, but also because I couldn't cry.

  Don't want to cry, can't cry, dare not cry, won't cry.