Chapter 42.2: Manman (15)

12-15 minutes

The witch stiffened all over, suddenly raising ‘her’ head to look at him. ‘Her’ swollen eyes were filled with madness, and ‘her’ eyeballs trembled intensely.

It seemed that ‘she’ remembered something.

‘She’ stared fiercely at him, thinking that ‘she’ would see a different look in Ning Su’s eyes.

‘She’ was accustomed to it, living with it since ‘she’ was young—the disdain, fear, and disgust in people’s eyes.

The little witch had a name.

However, ‘she’ herself was reluctant to mention it again, and the people who knew it in the base didn’t dare to mention it casually either. They all called him the Gu Witch.

‘She’ never mentioned it because ‘her’ name was very feminine.

‘Her’ name was Miao Zhu.

He shared the same character “Zhu” as Shi Tianzhu. Everyone in the game base knew Shi Tianzhu, but very few knew Miao Zhu.

He had such a feminine name because when he was a child, everyone, including himself, thought he was a girl.

He was born in a village that favored boys over girls, and he was the fourth ‘girl’ in his family.

In that village where girls were completely inferior to boys, the only advantage for girls was to learn witchcraft from the witch.

So, his parents gave him to the witch because they couldn’t afford to raise so many children.

He learned witchcraft from the old witch and took care of all the household chores.

The old witch was silent, never speaking except when she taught or commanded him. At most, there was one time when she didn’t speak for a whole week.

Later, he gradually understood why.

In that feudal and superstitious village, when someone fell ill, they would seek the witch, but most of the time, the villagers kept their distance from the witch and whispered various indifferent comments and slanders behind her back.

If someone in a family that was originally healthy suddenly died, it must be because of the witch.

If there was a severe drought this year and the village had a poor harvest, it must be because of the witch.

A man from someone’s family was caught having an affair with another woman. The man cried and claimed that he unknowingly fell under the spell of the witch when he passed by her house. His wife believed him and brought people to the door to scold the witch all day, crying.

It seemed like the village needed someone like her to vent their dissatisfaction and use her as an excuse for all their despicable behavior.

Naturally, he received the same treatment in the village.

When he went to the town’s elementary school, in a place meant for learning, the situation not only didn’t improve but became even more terrible.

He never had a desk mate.

They said he had lice in his hair and bugs on his body.

If someone in the class suddenly fell ill, the parents would cause a commotion in the classroom, forcing him to change classes repeatedly. There wasn’t a single teacher who liked him.

His books were thrown out of the classroom. An uninformed boy passed by and picked them up, and the whole class would rush out, excitedly cheering around him.

“He helped Miao Zhu pick up her textbook. He must have been enchanted by her!“

“He must not mind Miao Zhu being dirty. He probably thinks she’s beautiful and wants to sleep with her!“

“Ah? ~~~“

The boy’s face turned red, and he pointed at him and shouted loudly, “How could I possibly like someone as disgusting as her? I feel like throwing up just looking at her!“

As the boy said that, he turned his back and leaned against a tree trunk, vomiting.

The boy vomited so hard, trying his best to establish his stance and blend into their righteous group.

No boy dared or wanted to come near him.

Just as he arrived at the entrance of the restroom, a girl hurriedly ran out from inside.

As if he were a plague.

He thought that would be the end of it.

His fate couldn’t get any more miserable.

Little did he know, even more tragic and ridiculous things were waiting for him ahead.

He was becoming more and more like a boy, with increasingly prominent male characteristics. Finally, during a physical examination, he ran out of the rural hospital and became the astonishing talk of the town.

Everyone looked at him with a mixture of shock, excitement, and disgust.

The girls in his class crazily threw books and backpacks at him, calling him a pervert.

On his way to the restroom, he was hit by a stone thrown by a girl, while two boys stood excitedly at the entrance of the boys’ restroom, staring at him and gesturing towards his lower region.

People in the village said that he had finally faced the consequences. After engaging in malicious acts for so long, he was finally cursed and turned into a genderless monster.

What he didn’t expect was that the witch became even more furious upon hearing about this incident.

She beat him with a broom while screaming at him, her insults surpassing the total number of words she had spoken in a year.

As he looked into her crazed and twisted eyes, surrounded by wrinkles, he understood that she had finally found her “outlet.”

“Only girls can learn witchcraft. If you, as a man, cultivate it, you will suffer the consequences and be punished by the witch god!” she hoarsely and fiercely shouted.

Listen, their words sounded so similar.

Ironically, he was indeed suffering the consequences, as if he had truly been cursed.

His skin started to decay, his appearance became even more hideous, and a foul stench emanated from his body.

He could no longer attend school, interact with people, or live with the witch.

He lay under a withered tree.

Only crows were willing to perch on that tree, and only insects and snakes came close to him.

If he hadn’t entered the horror game, he might have already died.

Inside the game, everything about his past was concealed.

Until the boy in front of him directly unveiled his twisted past, resembling maggots.

The boy who discovered this unbelievable fact would certainly look at him with the same peculiar gaze as everyone did when they learned about it, if not with disgust.

But he didn’t.

He looked at himself the same way he looked at other people, ghost friends, and everything else. Like they were all just... normal.

He casually chatted, saying, “Ah, you lack 5α-reductase in your body.”

“What, what?”

Even the Gu Witch was momentarily baffled. Hearing such a term in a horror game was like hearing gibberish, or even more bizarre than gibberish.

“Believe me,” the boy said, puffing up his chest. “I studied biology. I entered the youth program at a university at the age of 12 and became a graduate student at 15, researching significant biological topics with my mentor. You should believe me and believe in science.”

“...”

The boy sat cross-legged on the carpet, facing the other boy sitting on the bed, and shared scientific knowledge with him. “In your case, for biological humans, it’s just scratching the surface. The thing I mentioned earlier, in simple terms, is a necessary substance for synthesizing 5α-dihydrotestosterone.”

Silence.

“Just so you know, little geniuses sometimes don’t explain things to others.”

He raised his head slightly and said, “Anyway, it means that the lack of this thing prevents you from producing enough male hormones initially until your body grows to the mature stage.”

“So, when you were a child, you looked like a girl, but as you grew up, the normal secretion of male hormones began, and masculinization occurred.”

“There are many people like you in the world, such as X people, Y people, XXY people, XYY people, etc., scattered across every corner of the world.”

“There’s also an organization called [XY Family] that wants to tell you that you’re not alone. You are a true and bright member of humanity, and you have a warm, big family.”

Ning Su continued to educate him about himself. “As for the influencing factors, there are genetics and there is the use of drugs during pregnancy that could alter the gender of the fetus.”

“Say it again, say it once more...”

The voice was hoarse, seemingly with a trace of sobbing.

The person speaking lowered his head, and his long hair covered his face in the darkness. Faintly, you could see his whole body trembling slightly.

Ning Su pursed his lips and repeated, with a personal bias, “Anyway, it has nothing to do with the child if they turned out like that.”

The room was too quiet.

Quiet to the extent that you could hear the sound of liquid dropping on the fabric.

After an unknown amount of time, Little Gu Witch raised his head and stared at him blankly.

The thick black night sky revealed a hint of pale white.

He could vaguely see the boy sitting on the carpet.

He had soft black hair, skin so pale that it emitted a gentle glow in the dark room. His large peach blossom eyes were watery and clear, and his long eyelashes fluttered like delicate wings when closed.

There was an ugly frog living in a dark world.

He was tormented day after day by darkness and loneliness, always thinking that this soundless dark world was hell, and he was a disgusting and dark creature in hell.

Until one day, a beautiful butterfly flew by from above. The butterfly’s wings were beautiful and delicate, with a magical butterfly effect that lifted the stone above his head.

When the bright sunlight fell upon him, he realized that he wasn’t in hell; he was just in a well.

“You went to university at 12, while I just started middle school at 12,” he turned his head and said.

Ning Su: “I envy you for being able to start middle school at 12.”

“?”

Ning Su: “It’s great to have money to go to middle school. I couldn’t afford to go to school, so I had to skip grades and attend the youth class program.”

“...”

“Anyway, you’re very smart.”

“Ah, yes,” the boy nodded. “After that, I fell ill. A virus attacked my brain, and I became a bit slow.”

The two boys were chatting casually in a dimly lit room, just like ordinary friends.

After some time passed, the boy looked out the window and said, “It’s getting bright outside. I have to go.”

He skillfully climbed out of the window and left.

The little witch sat on the bed for a while, then walked to the wardrobe next to the bed and opened its doors.

The system did not assign the room, and the players could choose their own rooms. Before choosing, they didn’t know if the occupant would be a boy or a girl. So the wardrobe contained clothes for both genders.

For example, the floral pink shirt that Ning Su wore today belonged to a girl, but he might not have known that.

On the right side of the wardrobe, there was a row of exquisite and beautiful dresses for six-year-old girls.

With hands covered in blisters, he gently touched one of the silk organza bubble-sleeved dresses.

Over the years, he had forcibly tried to forget his past, and his memories were truly beginning to blur.

He couldn’t quite remember what he looked like at six years old, but he could confirm that he was a girl at that time.

Perhaps a somewhat pretty girl.

Six years old was probably when a girl first developed a sense of beauty.

Those years were the only time in his life when he would look in the mirror.

He closed the wardrobe door and walked to the door of the children’s room.

He opened the heavy door of the children’s room.

The oil-painted puppet sat on the children’s bed, looking at him.

Just as it did the first time he opened the door for it.

When he first laid eyes on it, covered in dirty, indelible oil paint, it was as if he was looking at himself, and he directly locked it inside the children’s room.

In the restroom, he overheard a player saying that he resembled his ghost friend. The other wished that he wouldn’t bring the puppet to have meals with them because he didn’t want to see it.

The oil-painted wooden puppet jumped off the bed and ran over, hugging him.

The little witch bit his lip hard, holding back something.

The oil-painted wooden puppet hugged him even tighter, pressing closely against him.

Earlier, as the lily vine slid down from the window, the boy with peach blossom eyes held the puppet tightly.

He asked the puppet, “Do you like the feeling of being held like this?”

“Ha... ya...”

“Then you should also hold your companion like this. He will like it too.”