Chapter 5.1 - A Turn for the Better

Zhou Yun Sheng was sitting in the fitting room, staring at the smartwatch on his wrist. His first-level punishment procedure had just ended, and the countdown on the smartwatch had jumped from 00:00:01 to 00:00:00, that was to say, an hour of severe pain, no more no less.

[T/N: smartwatch- 智脑, what the villain system ZYS has resides in. Means smart brain literally but can refer to almost all futuristic technological devices, a bit like AI?]

However, this was just a facade that the system wanted him to see. In reality, Zhou Yun Sheng's IQ was unbelievably high, his brain's calculating power was definitely not lower than that of the best calculator, even if he wasn't especially paying attention, he could also tell when the hour of punishment should end.

Two seconds less, this punishment was two seconds less, and this seemingly small error hid a huge problem. Since the last time in Xiao Liu Village, after the smartwatch crashed once, he had experienced two first-level punishments. The first time was one second shorter, at that time, he had only thought that it was the system being kind, and did not take it to heart, but this time it was two seconds less.

What did this mean? Why had the punishments become so lenient, and the time shortened without any reason? Could it be said that the system really cut off contact with the Lord God? All the energy required to operate the system came directly from the Lord God's gift after returning to the Lord God's space after each mission. If it knew that it could never go back, it would definitely cut down on the energy used so that it could survive.

That was to say, its control over the host would weaken day by day. After this mission, he may no longer need to go back to the cage-like Lord God space, or need to complete these horrible tasks, but the price was that he could never return to the real world, and could only stay in this virtual space for the rest of his life.

Is it like this? Zhou Yun Sheng thought about many possibilities, but the hope in his heart made him choose the most beautiful one. What if he couldn't return to the real world? There was nothing he cared about there, but here he had a body, a soul, his body could also feel pain. His soul would be free and released, was there a better future than this?

No! So whether I go back or not, it really doesn't matter. Zhou Yun Sheng stared at the working smartwatch and smiled. In the next few days, he would get along well with the smartwatch, and see what exactly was wrong with it.

At the same time, the spiritual power he had secretly entered into the system had broken through the second layer of the defense system. If it entered the third layer, even if there were no problems with the system and the Lord God, he completely believed that getting away from both of them would just be a matter of time.

After sweeping away his overly thick bangs on his forehead from his face, Zhou Yun Sheng leaned against the wall of the fitting room and took a long breath, then took off the new jeans hanging on the clothes rack and slowly wore them.

Xue Zi Xuan's sudden enthusiasm was also a big reason that he was bothered. He even cut his hair short and bought him a bunch of men's clothes, like he was not afraid that after he changed his appearance and returned to the Xue family's old house, that he would be seen by those nearby? You must know that the people who lived nearby were not ordinary people, and their minds had many twist and turns. And due to business interests and competition, the people secretly observing the Xue family were probably not few.

His sudden appearance and sudden disappearance would definitely attract the attention of those interested. If they thought deeply about it, or simply investigated clearly, the Xue family would be in a lot of trouble. Murder was not a trivial matter, if it was exposed it was enough to ruin the Xue family.

Whatever, if Xue Zi Xuan himself was not even worried, then Zhou Yun Sheng as the victim was even more pleased to see such a thing happen. Naturally, the more trouble the Xue family had, the better it was.

After thinking carefully, he changed his clothes and pushed the door open. The salespeople surrounded him with compliments, what kind of flower-like youth, xiao xian rou*, beauty that withstands time, all the cringey phrases that one could think of were all said, causing all his goosebumps to come out.

[*T/N: what kind of flower-like youth, xiao xian rou, beauty that withstands time- 什么花儿一般的少年,小鲜肉,美颜盛世, "small meat, beauty, and prosperity, how to come to him, called him chicken skin picked up" Google translate thumbs up… so xiao xian rou (小鲜肉) literally means fresh meat but it refers to a handsome youth, while 美颜盛世 means a face which is more beautiful than the world basically just very very very very pretty/handsome.]

"Please pack up all the clothes that were tried on, thank you." Xue Zi Xuan's face was a little black, but he still handed over his black credit card politely. After that, he borrowed a pair of scissors from another salesperson and cut the tags on the clothes Huang Yi was wearing.

"You can continue wearing this, there's no need to take it off, it looks very good." He didn't say much, but his tone was very sincere, his dark eyes were full of smiles and gentleness, and his appearance very charming.

Zhou Yun Sheng quickly glanced at him and nodded.

After paying, Xue Zi Xuan carried a huge shopping bag in his left hand, and held the boy's hand in his right, as he walked out of the mall, Xiao Wang also carrying a few big bags as he followed behind.

The Xue family didn't want more people to know of their crime of murdering an innocent boy, so they dismissed the gardeners, servants, cooks, workers, etc., leaving only the loyal Fu Bo and a few other confidants, exactly for this long-awaited heart-changing operation.

The nurse Xiao Deng had cooked some porridge and sent it to the hospital, leaving only the assistant Xiao Zhou at home. A gigantic villa, with only the lights in the living room turned on and the rest of the rooms dark, compared to the brightly-lit residences nearby, it looked more and more cold and lonely.

The car turned onto the gravel path, and from far away, Xue Zi Xuan saw the old house of his memories, and his whole person could not help but drown in dark memories. There, he understood for the first time that the world was colored, understood what it was like to be in love, and realized that other than music, there was something else in this world that could make him love so passionately.

As long as he closed his eyes, the sharp knife that Xue Jing Yi tightly held onto seemed to be just in front of him, and the rich smell of blood seemed to waft over. Xue Zi Xuan immediately shook his head, and shook the unbearable memory out of his mind.