Chapter 1598: Person Chasing the Sun (39)_1

"May I venture to ask how your personality has ended up in such a fragmented state?" Charles asked tentatively.

Shiller sighed and said, "The lack of private resources in my childhood, as you analyzed earlier, did exist, but it wasn't in the orphanage but in the laboratory of the foreign organization that took me away."

"Most of the children adopted by that orphanage were born with congenital diseases, while a small number of healthy children, especially boys, were quickly adopted and left."

Charles immediately caught a key point in his words and raised an eyebrow, "An eastern country?"

Shiller nodded and continued, "Caring for children with congenital defects requires a great deal of patience and the pay is very meager. Most teachers who stay there long-term have a great deal of compassion."

"Aside from a few mischievous children with particularly nasty characters, the rest, while not exactly prosperous, still managed to get by."

"The children had very few toys. The orphanage couldn't afford disposable or easily damaged toys, so the most common ones were wooden blocks; they were cheap enough and even possible to make by hand, and there was an infinite number of ways to play with them."

"The children at that time had a popular game of stacking the blocks as high as possible."

"The teachers seemed to think that this competition and the praise of the winner encouraged social interaction, so they often led the children to play this kind of game, but because of my social difficulties due to autism, I rarely participated."

"But repeatedly watching this game had a certain impact on me, and when I was immersed in my own world, I also began to copy this behavior. I started building a tower of blocks in my own psychic battlefield."

"Later, the teachers seemed to feel that simply building a tower was not enough to develop the children's intelligence. They began painting the blocks with colors, telling them that this represented certain things in daily life. The teachers would say the name and children would stack the designated colored block, this helped children with cognitive impairments develop an understanding of everyday objects as best they could."

"After observing this for a while, I too began to assign meaning to the blocks in my mind. For example, this block represents arithmetic, that memory represents the words I have noted down, and the one next to it represents the way of talking."

"Because I repeated this many times, my abilities seemed to truly become blocks that I stacked, gradually building a high tower in my psychic battlefield."

Charles was fascinated, and it wasn't until Shiller stopped speaking that he came back to reality and said, "Extraordinary. It's the first time I've heard something like this."

"But the peace didn't last long." Shiller pursed his mouth. For the first time, Charles saw a strong emotional fluctuation on his face, possibly sadness or regret.

"When that foreigner wanted to take me away, I had a feeling it would be bad, so I cried and screamed, refusing to go with him. The teachers had no idea what to do with me, and could only persuade the foreigner to stay away for the moment."

"But they had no intention of giving up. When they came for the second time, I hid. I didn't know at the time that those who came this time weren't merely inspectors."

Charles furrowed his brows, seeming to have already anticipated what would happen next.

"They found a group of people, possibly bribed beforehand, or perhaps subordinates recruited after their interest in me. Those people burst into the orphanage, claiming that the dean had kidnapped one of their relative's child - which was me."

"They wanted to take me away using this method, but the teachers and the dean who had been with me all the time had noticed that I had some special ability. I was unwilling to leave to the point of death, and they tried to prevent the group from taking me away, which led to a major conflict."

"And in the end, you were taken away?"

Shiller nodded and said, "Those foreigners gave guns to their men. The teacher and the dean who had always taken care of me died. I don't know what happened afterward, as I was quickly taken out of the country."

Shiller took a deep breath and said, "Witnessing all of this had an immense impact on me. The tower of blocks I had built in my psychic world collapsed completely."

Shiller looked away, adding, "For a long time after that, my thoughts were very chaotic. I remember one thing: if I had been as quiet and unresponsive as usual, and left with that foreigner, none of this would have happened."

"That's why for a long time in the lab, I didn't speak. This also led to my eventual self not speaking."

It took a long time for Charles to say, "...I'm very sorry."

Shiller shook his head, showing that everything was in the past, he sighed lightly and said, "The organization shot itself in the foot. I bound all my abilities to the Tower of Blocks, so when the tower collapsed, I stopped reacting to any external stimulus. The methods they tried to use to control me only left me with memories of manipulative tactics."