Ordinary Chapter 55: Another Self

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

“Shen Si?” Jian Nian stood by Shen Si’s bedside.

The air seemed to be frozen, no one spoke and Shen Si didn’t open his mouth. After staring at Jian Nian for about ten seconds, Shen Si closed his eyes and lay back on the hospital bed.

Bai JunYi came in from outside, and stood behind Jian Nian, looking at the person on the hospital bed, “Just now, he smiled? Hey, have you ever seen Xiao Si smile?”

“Yes.” Jian Nian looked at Shen Si, who was lying on the bed breathing steadily, “…Of course I have.”

Jian Nian and Shen Si grew up together, and Shen Si rarely smiled since childhood, but he was not a persona of bitterness and hatred. He also had a childhood before his parents passed away, every time he went to the mountains looking at the plants, Jian Nian could see the love in Shen Si’s eyes, his heartfelt smile couldn’t be blocked.

After carefully testing Shen Si’s breathing, Jian Nian looked at Bai JunYi, “He’s asleep.”

“More than sleeping, what was that about just now?” Bai JunYi carefully crouched down, putting his line of sight parallel to Shen Si, “Was that a fragment of the cognitive dummy in Shen Si’s eyes just now?”

Jian Nian looked at Shen Si, after a moment he dragged Bai JunYi up, “You go get He Xin.”

“Is it really okay to talk to him about this? I still think it’s better not to tell the Special Unit about what happened in the playfield.”

“Two different things.” Jian Nian sat back in his chair, “I’ll watch him here, you go get He Xin, no matter what, Shen Si doesn’t look right, the thing in his eyes should be the cause of his sudden strength, and, that thing seems…”

The thing didn’t seem to be afraid of him, and had no animosity towards them, it simply appeared.

But if it was Shen Si’s perceived dummy, it seemed normal.

“I see.” Bai JunYi smiled as he patted Jian Nian’s shoulder from behind, “Don’t worry, Shen Si has never been someone who could be influenced by anything else, although he looks casual, his willpower is so strong that almost nothing can shake his decision.”

Jian Nian nodded, “I know, it’s okay, you go now.”

Turning around and walking out of the ward door, Jian Nian quietly looked at Shen Si.

Shen Si was sleeping peacefully, his eyes were closed, his half-white hair was hanging on the white pillowcase; he looked quiet and peaceful, the bandage on his finger was still dyed red. Jian Nian looked at his fingertips, and only after three seconds did he get up as if he had finally reacted and went to the cabinet to look for new bandages.

After carefully removing the bandage from Shen Si’s hand, Jian Nian carefully treated the wound on his hand and then rewrapped it. After being done with the wound, Jian Nian exhaled and he looked up, only to realize that Shen Si had opened his eyes and was looking at him.

His eyes were black.

“Shen Si you’re awake?” Jian Nian threw the blood-stained bandages into the trash, then put the rest back in the cabinet again.

Shen Si looked at Jian Nian, after a moment he lifted his hand up and looked at the white bandage on his finger, then he sat up from the bed, “It hurts a little because the alcohol touched the wound.”

“Are you still sleepy then? Do you want to sleep some more?”

“No.” Shen Si sat at the head of the bed, his eyes still staring at his fingers, “Jian Nian, do I sleep in a complicated position?”

“No.”

“Then why did the wound split open?” Shen Si looked at Jian Nian in confusion.

He forgot? Surely Shen Si was not conscious at that time. Could it be that Shen Si’s drowsiness all this time was because of this? What was going on? Shen Si couldn’t feel that his body was not right at all?

Jian Nian didn’t answer, Shen Si also didn’t continue to ask, after a moment of silence, Shen Si sat back on the bed, pulled the quilt and wrapped himself up. Only his eyes were looking at the ceiling, the ward was very quiet, no one said a word.

In fact Shen Si had sensed a little something, after all, to say the least, the recent events were a little strange.

Suddenly awakening the ability of time, entering the playfield because of Parasite, seeing a dummy completely different from himself in the playfield, and then, unknowingly leaving from the playfield. But, the rule of that playfield was to break your own cognitive dummy before you could leave from the playfield, so what about him? How did he get out?

His memory ended with being pushed down the stairs by the cognitive dummy, by definition, he didn’t break his own cognitive dummy at all… 

Just then, footsteps came from outside the ward, He Xin and Bai JunYi pushed open the ward door and walked in. They saw the awake Shen Si and faintly froze, then He Xin squatted down and looked at Shen Si.

“How do you feel now?” He Xin asked.

“I don’t feel anything.” Shen Si sat up, he looked at He Xin, “Team Leader He, what happened?”

“Wait for a moment, I’ll look at your eyes, it’s slightly blinding, so bear with it.” He Xin turned on the flashlight, and pointed it at Shen Si. Under the flashlight, they were able to see Shen Si’s eyes, but his eyes were very normal, it looked like the color of ordinary eyes.

He Xin turned the flashlight off, glanced at the value displayed on it, then he shook his head at Bai JunYi, “It’s normal.”

“Really?” Bai JunYi frowned at Shen Si, “It’s back to normal?”

“Back to normal?” Shen Si looked at Bai JunYi, “You mean I just turned into another person?”

Jian Nian came over and he looked at Shen Si, “Shen Si, think about it, what did your cognitive dummy do while you were in the playfield? Just now Bai JunYi and I saw pieces of the cognitive dummy in your eyes, and you smiled at me.”

“Smiled?” Shen Si blinked, and after a moment he thought about it, “I had pieces of the cognitive dummy in my eyes?”

Looking at the silent Shen Si, He Xin walked around the ward, after a moment he looked to a corner, and nodded, “Found it.”

“What is this?”

“Surveillance.” He Xin pointed to the corner, “There is surveillance here, if what Mr. Bai said is true, then we should be able to see it in the surveillance.”

Bai JunYi smiled and nodded, “Then I’ll accompany Team Leader He over. Xiao Si you take a good rest, don’t worry, you will be fine.”

They rushed in, then rushed out just like that. Shen Si looked at the ward door, then looked at Jian Nian who was next to him.

“I never thought there would be a time when I would worry about you, somehow this is a strange feeling.” Jian Nian smiled a little, his smile as always, was filled with a childlike innocence. Although Jian Nian was really paranoid, his smile always looked so sincere, and didn’t make people feel wrong at all.

“About the other person in your body, everyone will definitely figure out what to do. Are you thirsty?” Jian Nian came to Shen Si’s side, “I’ll pour you water to drink?”

Shen Si looked at him, “…I’d rather you stay away from me.”

“Ah, still, I thought we had gotten a little closer to each other.” Jian Nian sat back helplessly, “As it turns out, it’s still the same.”

“That’s a different thing.” Shen Si sighed helplessly, “I can reject you less, but it doesn’t mean I’ll accept you immediately, so you should restrain yourself a little.”

“…I’m already restrained enough now.” Jian Nian helplessly sat back, “All right, I’ll go pour you water and stay away from you for now.”

Watching Jian Nian’s figure disappear, Shen Si stretched out his hand, looked at his bandaged fingertips and narrowed his eyes slightly, “Inside my body, there is another person? Another person.”

On the hospital bed, there was red slowly creeping into Shen Si’s eyes, beautiful shards of glass etched into his eyes. Shen Si looked around, then he got off the bed and slowly left the ward, as shards of glass fell from him with every step, extraordinarily dazzling in the sunlight.

… 

He Xin and Bai JunYi called up the surveillance in the surveillance room, where they managed to see the scene of Shen Si sitting up from the hospital bed, because the surveillance camera was facing the bed and the picture was unusually clear, everything was captured, no matter Shen Si‘s movement or his light red eyes.

“Pale red eyes, and debris.” He Xin looked at the image in the surveillance, after a moment he pulled the surveillance back again, just like this three or four times before he stopped, “What the hell is going on?”

“Is it that playfield’s problem? Did Xiao Si come back with the monster from the playfield?”

“I don’t know.” He Xin denied Bai JunYi’s idea, “This is a special hospital exclusive to the Special Unit, and each ward is equipped with a setting to detect monsters. If it was really something brought out from the playfield, the alarm would have gone off the moment that thing came out, but as you see, the alarm isn’t moving at all.”

Bai JunYi helplessly watched the surveillance screen, “But Shen Si is obviously not okay, and it’s definitely related to the cognitive dummy in that playfield.”

“There are thousands of playfields with all kinds of strange properties, what they are I have not figured out until now, let alone this kind of playfield without much information,” He Xin flipped through the files he carried with him, “In that playfield, the condition to leave is to break the cognitive dummy, so why would Shen Si’s broken fragment of his cognitive dummy appear in his eyes? It’s too strange.”

Looking at He Xin who was studying the files, Bai JunYi didn’t bother him, he just casually turned the surveillance back to the present moment, but just a moment after turning it back, he stood up violently.

“Team Leader He!”

“What?” He Xin looked up, then his eyes snapped open. In the surveillance, Shen Si walked out of the ward barefoot. At the last moment, they saw Shen Si‘s eyes were very pale red.

Cognitive dummy!

He Xin and Bai JunYi immediately rushed out of the surveillance room towards Shen Si’s ward, and just before they reached the ward, they saw Jian Nian who came back with a glass of water.

And the shards of glass that had fallen all the way.

Shen Si walked barefoot on the stairs. Every step there was a piece of glass shard that fell from him. The sound of shards fell on the floor with a crisp and pleasant sound, the sunlight through the window sprinkling on the shards. The broken shards had a kind of broken beauty, so all the way to the roof, just as he was about to push open the door of the rooftop, the sound of footsteps came from behind him.

“Shen Si!” A voice was calling his name.

Shen Si turned his head, and behind him, Jian Nian and the other two caught up. They looked at Shen Si standing on the stairs, but didn’t know what to say.

Pale red eyes, so he’s not Shen Si?

“No need to be so guarded against me, I won’t do anything.” Shen Si suddenly spoke, those red eyes shining with a faint coldness. “He is also me, I will certainly not think of killing myself.”