Absolute Choice
chapter-557-30041322

"It was because they were fired."

When Speechless said that sentence, he had spoken so softly as though he found it impossible to say it out loud. It was nearly inaudible but due to the silent night, Shi Xiaobai was able to hear it clearly.

Shi Xiaobai was left in a daze for half a second before understanding what the sentence meant. He could not help but draw a gasp.

Speechless said with a self-deprecating smile, "The kindly granny, the magnificent elder brother, the omniscient teacher, and even the pure-minded and adorable girl were all fake. They were actors hired by the boy's family. A happy family was fabricated, and a moving drama was acted out with the boy kept in the dark. They were receiving salary and were only reciting lines that had already been scripted. The granny was willing to risk the freezing of her hands in order to receive large bonuses. The elder brother was thankful and was thanking the boy for being alright in order to keep his job. The teacher was omniscient because there was an entire team behind him. All the lessons were the efforts of a group of people. The teacher was only great at acting. The girl was even more laughable. She had truly immersed herself in her role and truly wanted to marry the boy. However, it had nothing to do with feelings. She was only eyeing the boy's family background and wished to marry into a rich family and lead a worriless life. Everything was faked. The boy's bliss was all fake!"

Speechless became more agitated as he spoke. In the end, he gave a self-deprecatory laugh before suddenly turning silent.

Shi Xiaobai's eyes turned heavy. He remained silent for a long while before asking softly, "You were that boy?"

Speechless nodded and sighed. He said, "Like a fool that was immersed in virtual happiness, I lived a life full of lies. I was lied to for eight years. That was my childhood. The four people had been hired by Tyger Li. On my eighth birthday, he had fired them. It was not because of any incident but it was all part of his plan. Tyger Li only trusts himself and no one else. Therefore, he spent eight years to teach me one lesson. Furthermore, at the end of the lesson, he gave me 'homework'. Guess what the bastard said? He actually said: the actors that were fired were not all of them, nor would it be the final batch. You will live amid lies and be able to distinguish who are the deceivers and find those actors that I have hired with money. This is a test you have to experience for the rest of your life. Also, whether I'm your real father could be the truth or a lie. You have to find the answer yourself. You cannot trust anyone but yourself."

Speechless suddenly laughed out loud but his laughter had a melancholic tone.

"That bastard made an eight-year-old child deeply understand what deceit and betrayal were. He drilled it into the boy to absolutely not trust anyone. He had even planted the seeds of doubt in the boy's heart, making the boy unable to trust anyone."

Speechless gritted his teeth and said, "But I refused to let him get his way. Therefore, I still treated people sincerely. I attempted making real friends. However, what Tyger Li said, he did. He had arranged for countless actors in my life. Friends, classmates, teachers, passers-by on the streets. Even an old man on the street that I help might be one. Perhaps out of carelessness or deliberateness, they would make a mistake and let me discover their identities. In the next five years, I found a total of three hundred plus actors!"

Shi Xiaobai felt his skin tingle. He felt that Tyger Li was a perverse nut case. He had underestimated the craziness that Tyger Li exhibited.

Speechless sighed and said, "As Tyger Li wished, I became someone that could not trust others. I had attempted resisting but every time, I got betrayed after offering my true feelings, time and time again, to the point of me not being able to be suspicious of the goodwill that others showed to me. Finally, I became accustomed to using eyes that 'searched for actors' to look at others. Every sentence said would be for me to infer if it were a lie. I could only use 'I do not trust anybody' as a way to protect myself. As I kept getting hurt, I became weaker. I could not tolerate being betrayed by my friends nor did I dare to give anyone my true feelings. The only person I could trust was my young aunt because she is a titled Psionic Imperial King, someone that Tyger Li cannot control. She is an actress that Tyger Li cannot hire. However, if there comes a day when she tells me that she's also an actress, I would not be surprised at all. I have long made the mental preparations of losing everything. Even if there's only one person that I can believe in."

Shi Xiaobai said with a hushed tone, "Even if there's only one... So the anybody you were referring to was not only This King, Pulp Farmer and the rest, but it includes your sister and mother?"

Speechless smiled wryly and said, "That's right. It includes the two of them. If even a grandmother and elder brother can be actors, it's impossible to exclude my mother and sister. Although my mother has divorced Tyger Li and Lengxi does not appear like an actress, I have no way of believing it. I'm afraid that it's only a complex game of chess that Tyger Li has implanted. Once I believe in it, Tyger Li will attack, letting me fully experience the pain of being deceived and betrayed. Everything is possible. The more genuine it is, the more likely that it is a lie. This is a trick Tyger Li is most adept at. Even though I know it's a trap, there's no solution to it. Shi Xiaobai, this is the real Speechless Li, not some young genius. He's just a pitiful coward that does not even dare trust his sister and mother."

Shi Xiaobai shook his head and said, "It isn't your fault. Furthermore, haven't you tried to beat it? You faked your death to see through everything and tell what is the truth, right?"

Speechless first nodded before shaking his head. He said, "It's not completely so. To a person that lives amid lies, as long as you do not devote your true feelings to anyone, your true feelings will never be hurt because of an act. As for being deceived and betrayed, I am already accustomed to it. I'm not that easily hurt anymore. I did not plan on forcefully changing all of this but something happened in the Nine Revolutions Transcendental Tower that made me want to defeat this mental demon."

Shi Xiaobai asked, "What happened?"

Speechless said, "When you were being trapped in the God Slaughtering Formation, the seven of us had been restrained by Shadow Wraith's Shadow Shackles and were in great peril. I saw through Shadow Shackles's two-layer illusion. However, I could only break through the first layer and was unable to break through the second layer because it was a mental demon illusion. The mental demon of not being able to trust anybody was something I could not defeat. If not for Sunless, it would have been difficult for the seven of us to survive unharmed. I do not wish for such an incident to happen again. I do not wish to be placed in the same perilous situation and being left helpless because of that darn mental demon. I want to protect all of you, even if one or two of you are actors. Perhaps, even if all of you are actors. I will still try my best to protect all of you. I will protect that tiny possibility of truth in this virtual reality. I do not want myself to be unable to only have that bit of determination."

"Therefore, I chose to fake my death. I wanted to defeat the mental demon of not being able to trust anybody!" IChooseDogLeading (我选择狗带) when read in Chinese sounds like I Choose Go Die. It was a meme that resulted from a former member of famous Korean boygroup, EXO, TAO (Huang Zitao). At a concert, there was a part in a rap that where he said "", but due to a mispronunciation, it sounded like he will not easily choose to be led by dogs. This phrase now means 'I'd rather die/I choose death'.