"Similarly, as time passes, this influence on me will keep deepening, and if during this process, I feel fear... Then the influence will deepen further."
"I will be unable to sleep, extremely excited, craving work, and hallucinate when I close my eyes. I was wondering earlier, how could a bestselling author with a desire to create possibly die?"
"Now I understand... he died suddenly."
The fear in Wen Xishu’s heart deepened.
He was ultimately not a monster completely devoid of negative emotions or the ability to perceive fear.
The more he interacted with this building, the more terrifying it became.
"Ah Miao’s neighbor, joy was amplified... it seems like a good thing during this period."
"But if he also dies, it would be sorrow following extreme joy. This fate could very likely happen to Ah Miao as well."
"Then what about Wu Xiangjiao? He is in a better state than me. This guy is simple-minded, his brain isn’t particularly sharp, so he doesn’t feel that anything is wrong."
"But Xiaowu and Venerable Wen’s states are very bad."
Wen Xishu forced himself to close his eyes.
He had already started to feel that closing his eyes made it easy to think of some troubling matters.
For example, the fire that made him lose his adoptive parents.
"It seems this fear is irresistible. I can only delay its effect on me, but cannot stop it."
Wen Xishu opened his eyes and started to imitate Yin Junchi, fetching paper and pen.
He began to draw the structure of this building.
"Don’t rush, don’t rush, my mental state is still fine at the moment, just tired, but my body can hold on."
After all, Wen Xishu was a student of Slaughter Tower Academy, his physical foundation was naturally strong.
"But in two or three days, I might start to have hallucinations like Yin Junchi next door. I must speed up."
"Stay calm, stay calm. Stay calm..."
Wen Xishu chanted softly, accompanied by slow and deep breaths, the unease in his heart gradually dissipated,
his eyes remained open all the time, so he wouldn’t be lost in troubling memories:
"Not bad, craving work and resisting rest, in the short term, can even be considered a positive buff."
"Xiaowu encountered a lawyer, from what we know, this lawyer has severe OCD, and doesn’t want Xiaowu to go because the house is too dirty."
"But Xiaowu also started to want to take a bath very much, as if he has developed OCD."
"Wait a second... Xiaowu mentioned this one line—he should be an excellent lawyer, with many trophies in his room."
"Would an excellent lawyer be self-abased? Xiaowu kept emphasizing that he wants to take a bath..."
"Self-abased, OCD, self-abased, OCD... procrastination, urging for drafts, desire to work, self-abased, OCD..."
Wen Xishu repeated several times, he suddenly squinted his eyes and muttered to himself:
"Perhaps this isn’t OCD, but because Xiaowu feels too dirty, due to self-abasement, he wants to be cleaner before interacting with us!"
"That lawyer is the same! Great, now I fully understand!"
"I finally know the meaning of ’seven’! I finally get it! Why this luxurious building charges such a low rent!"
Wen Xishu completely understood what the seven things "seven" represented.
But the problem now in front of him was—
How to crack it.
...
...
The next morning.
Wen Xishu hadn’t slept all night.
Ah Miao had a beautiful dream, in which she underwent surgery amidst laughter and joy.
The doctor told her that the surgery didn’t go very well, and the cancer cells had spread. She laughed heartily, scaring the doctors. Then she woke up.
Wu Xiangjiao didn’t feel much, he just felt somewhat irritable inside.
Xiaowu’s skin was red and swollen.
He wiped his body frantically with a towel, and only after his skin turned red did he fall asleep, wearing a bathrobe sprayed with disinfectant.
Venerable Wen slapped himself several times in the kitchen.
The meeting was initiated by Ah Miao.
For Ah Miao, action no longer seemed so important, as if wasting action points were insignificant, not worth anxiety.
When four frames appeared in front of Wen Xishu’s eyes...
Wen Xishu found that except for Wu Xiangjiao, the other three had some problems.
It was only the second day.
Indeed, this building had no monsters chasing them, no immediate death rules... but if they couldn’t find the key point, living here would cause them to unconsciously die.
Thinking of this, Wen Xishu ultimately decided to try to save these people as much as possible.
At least, he needed their help before he found the invitation letter.
"Everyone, I wanted to hide this yesterday to slow down the erosion of fear on you..."
"But today, some of you might have already noticed something wrong with yourselves."
When the meeting began, Wen Xishu spoke directly.
"I will first give the conclusion."
"We are in a building closely related to ’seven’. We mentioned earlier that this is a sacrificial ceremony."
"Now the new clues point to the fact that the content of the sacrifice is related to the seven deadly sins."
Wu Xiangjiao was puzzled:
"Seven deadly sins? Wait, do you mean greed, arrogance, wrath, lust, gluttony, sloth, envy? Are those the seven deadly sins you’re talking about?"
"How did you figure that out? These things don’t seem to have anything to do with us or our neighbors!"
Wen Xishu said:
"Don’t rush, let me explain slowly."
"My neighbor is called Yin Junchi, pen name ’Three Days Two Live Banana Armor’."
"He must be a very lazy author. The kind who won’t type a single word as long as he has enough money, maybe his readers even think something happened to him."
"His computer is expensive but has little content, his phone mostly receives calls urging for drafts."
"He’s definitely a very lazy person."
"But you can’t imagine how diligent he is now, literally to death."
Wu Xiangjiao concluded:
"He corresponds to sloth!"
Wen Xishu nodded:
"Then on the 49th floor, I met a mother and son, the mother was very indulgent towards the child, very lenient in everything."
"But according to the child... his mother wasn’t like this before."
"Not long ago, I heard a friend tell a tragic story, her parents sent her to a tutor to study because they were vain and liked to compare her to other children."
"There are many such parents. When other children excel, they feel—"
Wu Xiangjiao interjected:
"Envy!"
Wen Xishu nodded, indeed, as the only one who hadn’t been influenced significantly, Wu Xiangjiao was a good comic relief for the meeting.
"Now, she has completely lost her envy, and it has been twisted into a love without any constraints, so there’s no discipline for the child, only boundless indulgence."
Wen Xishu paused briefly, then said:
"Let’s talk about Xiaowu. According to you, Xiaowu, your neighbor is a lawyer and very excellent, you saw many trophies."
"You might not know, but in the profession of law, true excellence brings confidence from the bones. Confidence is a momentum, how could someone who isn’t confident win cases repeatedly in court?"
"I was misled by the lawyer’s OCD, but in fact, his problem isn’t OCD. Just like Xiaowu, do you now think your problem is OCD?"
Xiaowu hesitated, being addressed by Wen Xishu seemed to free him from a certain state, albeit briefly.
"Due to fear of being judged for having a dirty home... essentially, it’s not OCD, OCD is aversion to dirt, he’s not averse to dirt, he’s afraid of being judged."
"Just like you, Xiaowu."
Wen Xishu looked at Wu Xiangjiao, who went "oh" in understanding:
"It’s self-abasement! He corresponds to arrogance, but now, he’s extremely self-abased!"
Wen Xishu nodded:
"That’s right, congratulations, you got it!"
"Speaking of which, I think you all understand now? Venerable Wen, and Xiaowu, you should understand what has been taken from you."
(Still ten thousand words, continuing tomorrow.)