INSIDER Chapter 4

Have you ever imagined losing one of your senses one day, suddenly and without any warning?

The colors you once loved become a chaotic black curtain, the bustling sounds you used to hear suddenly become frighteningly quiet, and your arm, once sensitive to pain, now covered in wounds you are unaware of.

No vision, no hearing… even, no touch.

It feels as if the whole person is isolated in another universe, quiet, ignorant, empty, the darkness deep and vast. You can’t feel the slightest bit of the outside world.

When the connection between soul and body is lost, can one still be considered alive?

How would you react then—despair, confusion, or indifference?

Lu Chu knew.

“They all broke down.”

——

The man was right. It was a contagious disease.

Starting with the first person, more and more people lost their senses. The entire town plunged into panic and chaos. By the second day, the man told him that the game had fully begun.

Lu Chu’s home was on the second floor. Facing the window, although he couldn’t see, he could hear the commotion below.

“Why is this happening?” Even though he knew the man wouldn’t answer, Lu Chu couldn’t help but ask, “Is it because of me?”

After all, he was the only blind person here before; no one else in the town had such symptoms.

The source of infection.

This term immediately came to his mind.

The man’s tone was indifferent, as if it was a matter of course: “No, this was inevitable, and you are just an accident.”

“How can it be fixed?”

“It can’t be fixed,” the man said. “This is the fate of this town.”

“Fate? What is that?”

The man walked to his side, also looking out the window, and said slowly, “Chaos, decay, fear—until destruction.”

Lu Chu turned to face the man, frowning: “Destruction?”

“That’s why you must survive, live until that day.”

——

Overnight, everyone in the town lost some form of sensory perception to varying degrees. Some lost all five senses, while others lost only a few. But without exception, everyone lost their vision.

The fear of not being able to see far surpassed the loss of other senses. Because they couldn’t see, everything was unknown, and the unknown often instills the greatest fear.

.

On the first day, Lu Chu wanted to go downstairs but was stopped by the man. Although Lu Chu was a gentle person, he was also very stubborn at times.

“I need to go out.”

The man’s face didn’t look good, but Lu Chu couldn’t see it. He only heard the man’s cold voice: “Not now.”

Lu Chu closed his eyes, imagining the chaos outside, the cries rising everywhere.

“I need to go out,” he repeated.

“What can you do outside?” the man asked. “No one will listen to you.”

They couldn’t hear, nor had the time to listen.

Lu Chu remained silent, while the radish kept circling around him. The man pursed his lips and then knocked Lu Chu out with a hand chop. The radish growled at the man fiercely but was stopped in its tracks by a single glance from him.

The man swiftly carried Lu Chu into the bedroom and laid him on the bed. He closed the door, shutting out the radish’s barking, and sat by the bed, staring silently at Lu Chu’s sleeping face.

For the next few days, Lu Chu was handcuffed to the bed, confined to the bedroom, unable to move.

Only then did Lu Chu realize that the man could cook. He didn’t know why the man insisted he stay in the room. Outside the bedroom window, the desperate cries and shouts from below occasionally reached his ears, making his heart tremble. Even outside their door, there were frequent sounds of fierce banging.

The forceful banging on the door made Lu Chu feel that the people outside couldn’t feel pain.

One day, two days, three days… Lu Chu counted the days he was confined.

Occasionally, the man would go out and return covered in blood. Even after bathing, the scent of soap couldn’t mask the metallic smell of blood, hinting at the decay and cruelty outside.

On the seventh day, the man unlocked Lu Chu’s handcuffs.

Lu Chu raised his head slightly, his unfocused eyes covered by slightly overgrown hair. After several days, his cheeks had thinned, his face showing a sickly pallor. “Are you letting me go?”

“Not yet. After today, do as you wish.”

Lu Chu chuckled softly. “I find myself constantly asking ‘why, why’ since I met you.”

The man’s voice was calm: “Do you regret letting me in back then?”

Lu Chu shook his head: “There’s nothing to regret. You’re strange, but even if I didn’t let you in, what was meant to happen would still happen. If you wanted to confine me, I wouldn’t be able to resist.”

“What about the radish?” Lu Chu changed the subject.

“In the living room.”

Lu Chu got up: “I’ll go see it.”

“Mm.”

As soon as the radish saw Lu Chu, it joyfully ran over, sniffing him all over. Lu Chu smiled, half-squatting to hug it. “I’m fine.”

That day, Lu Chu was still restricted in his movements, but he was no longer locked up.

On the eighth day of the city’s loss of senses.

When Lu Chu woke up, the man was not sitting by his side as usual, nor was there any hot food on the table. He got up, picked up his walking stick, and walked out of the bedroom.

The radish immediately came up to him. Lu Chu could clearly sense the man’s presence in the living room, breathing steadily. He listened carefully and asked softly, “Are you there?”

No one answered.

Lu Chu frowned. He groped his way to the sofa and reached out, touching the man’s cheek. It was the first time he had touched the man’s face: a high nose bridge, distinct features, probably a handsome man.

The man woke up with a start at the touch and sat up.

Lu Chu asked, “What happened to you?”

Silence.

The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Even the radish had stopped barking. The emptiness of the space, cold and chilling, slowly crept up Lu Chu’s spine.

After a long time, the man took Lu Chu’s hand and wrote slowly with his fingertips.

—I.

—Can’t see.

—Can’t hear.

Author’s note:

Every day, I’m busy picking up packages.