Being a slow-growing eggplant was not the worst the world could have done to him, as Qin Yan was unable to feel pain without neurons or brain receptors. The science fell apart when one questioned that fact he could still have a consciousness while being in a brainless plant, but oh well. Besides remembering what he could about eggplants and Crimson Wisteria Captivates the World there wasn't much to do, so cracking the mystery of the points system was his only brain fodder.

If Qin Yan focused his mind, a bar would now appear near the top of his vision. The points were currently at 0 out of 1,000,000...and there were three separate categories. One for *Frustration*, one for *Humiliation*, and one for *Anger*, each one out of 1,000,000. They were all placed in a single column, and it was as though someone pressed the ‘justify’ button to stretch out the word ‘anger’ and make it match the length of the other two. This was extremely unpleasant on the eyes, but he couldn’t do anything to change the format in which they appeared.

In any case, he would have to find out how easy or difficult it was to get points. Perhaps it was easy to set off an anger barrage. Like if he stole a person's sock…tugged someone’s hair…or called them a pansy. It could be that the sadistic system S meant it in a way that was much grimmer, the killing families and betraying trust kind of way anger, but Qin Yan had no incentive to do that without any threats from the system. He'd always been the peaceful sort who firmly believed in the physics of  'an object in motion stays in motion, an object at rest stays at rest', i.e., himself when he lazed around. He didn’t feel much attachment to this world yet, but since this was his new permanent world, he wouldn't be hurting anyone just for some points.

Besides, he’s a tiny sprout, it’ll take some time before he can do much of anything.

Several more days passed, the firebirds always cackling at dawn. On this particular morning, Qin Yan felt a bit more powerful than before. Focusing all of his demonic eggplant powers, a thin, curly vine tendril lifted and shook, bright yellow-green against the background of the blue sky.

He could move a pebble with it.

This was a big milestone because there were many other vegetables growing around him that he'd need to out-compete. Squash and cucumber were his closest neighbors, some little tendrils creeping over onto his (which was an oddly intimate experience), and white radish and cabbage were growing farther out. It seemed that even Demonic Lord Wangzi liked to eat vegetables. On the other side of the stone path, Qin Yan thought he saw various types of poisons growing, such as monkshood¹, deadly nightshade², and oleander³.

However, the environmental conditions of this place were harsh as the soil was so heavy with demonic energy that even insects could not survive. The other garden plants were hand pollinated, fertilized, and watered every day, but even then remained spindly. Qin Yan, on the other hand, was soaking up the demonic energy like a sponge. He decided that he should probably hide the fact he was sentient to avoid being plucked out early by someone, thus, he kept still when people were nearby. 

There was one pair of scuffed brown boots he saw the most frequently as the days passed.

This was the only person who visited the garden daily. They would water every plant, then leave. It was merely fresh water, but felt the same as when Qin Yan was a seed trapped underground and different from the demonic energy in the soil that was making him grow but also causing his leaves, stems, and roots to carry a faint itch.

Most interesting of all, that person that watered the garden always muttered to himself.

"Carry the water...stir the fire......wash the bones..."

The voice sounded like that of a young boy. It was clear and focused, yet with hints of solemn anxiety, and scratchiness as though he really needed a drink of water.

"...clean the main hall...feed the centipedes..."

What the boy listed off were the weirdest chores Qin Yan ever heard, but it was likely the boy had a lot to lose if he forgot to do any of it.

As the youngster appeared day after day, Qin Yan began to wonder if it was the protagonist, Song Heqing. System S mentioned that he was enslaved here so it wouldn't be a surprise if he came to water this very garden. The most he remembered was the novel art cover was a handsome male with long, dark hair…which is something 90% of the people in this world also have. Helpful. Hm, perhaps there was also something about clear, bright eyes? If it was repeatedly mentioned in the novel that multiple harem girls were distracted and lost in the protagonist’s eyes, they should at least be noticeable, right? The only issue was that Qin Yan could only see two brown boots from this point of view.

Perfect, this can be his first life goal since becoming an eggplant. He was finally getting some longer vines growing, so Qin Yan decided to try growing up on the bleached bone lattice to increase the view of his surroundings. Then he should be able to see the boy’s eye color.

Lo and behold—by the next day, noon, Qin Yan had climbed the lattice. His vision was incredibly detailed, like that of a hawk, and it surely had to do with using his demon eggplant powers to extend his consciousness.

There was an elaborate mansion of red and black tiles in view, human skulls and dark banners with the silver insignia of a phoenix. Many servants, demons, and Demonic Sect members went to and fro. Qin Yan even saw Lord Wangzi saunter down the hall and into a room, dressed in trailing black robes and gold tassels, and twisting horns sprouted from his head.

In the afternoon, a young boy with bright amber eyes—barely visible through messy bangs, trudged down the stone path to Qin Yan's garden. His body was thin, covered in dirt and bruises. The boy muttered his chores as he watered eggplant Qin Yan with lips torn from constant biting and dehydration.

Aw...sort of hard to look at.

Qin Yan assumed the novel only did a brief passage about the majority of the protagonist's enslavement, and that it was the protagonist brutally killing Lord Wangzi or a female harem member that rescued him from Lord Wangzi's enslavement, earning passionate affection. But even if this boy was or wasn't the future scum protagonist, Qin Yan thought he was pitiful right now. 

He wondered what major event at this estate caused Song Heqing to turn so ruthless and bloodthirsty, and the longer he spent trying to think of it, a few vague, probably inaccurate memories of Crimson Wisteria Captivates the World surfaced. It was a deluded effort to come up with an answer. For the most part what he remembered didn't matter, for example, a few details about X and Y harem member who didn't actually help with anything in the plot. 

But he did know that compared to the scum protagonist, Lord Wangzi was a bigger scum. As with most trash web novels, evil characters would be so irredeemable that even the questionable behavior of the protagonist seemed acceptable.

Demonic Lord Wangzi would capture intruding cultivators in his sect's territory then spend time tormenting them in the interrogation room for idle fun, which happened to be across the courtyard from Qin Yan. People were regularly dragged in and out of it. Lord Wangzi liked to pluck out their nails one by one, shave their heads, tickle their flesh with fire, destroy their sense of self-esteem and pride, until they completely lost the sense that they were human. Hence the reason Qin Yan heard those agonizing screams echoing over the garden.

The only consolation was that the Demonic Lord preferred imprisoning and torturing Righteous Sect Cultivators that had something to lose, and as such wouldn’t bother with his servants unless one caused a minor annoyance. At most he’d sleep with them if their looks were good. SO…it was better if the young Song Heqing kept those bangs hanging over his eyes and cheeks muddy, lest he attract his attention.

Just as he thought that...Qin Yan had a horrifying revelation.

What if the trigger of the protagonist escaping Lord Wangzi's mansion and awaking his OP skills was because...rape?! 

He wished he could better remember what happened, but, in the novel… there may have been an insinuation that the innocent, enslaved Song Heqing had been tortured and XXed by Lord Wangzi, to the point that Song Heqing broke into the treasury, stole back his parent's sword, and managed to escape by blood, tooth, and nail. Crimson Rain on Wisteria Captivates the World was pretty dark, and horrific fates were thrown around like candies at a parade, so…

No no no! It can't be that Song Heqing was XXed! He must be jumping to conclusions...

Right?!

Being XXed was usually something that happened to female characters or to male characters that turned extremely evil and twisted, not the protagonist. Qin Yan was twelve when he read this! It couldn’t have been that dark? No no no, precisely because he was younger he didn't filter what he saw on the internet, and may have unwittingly gone through with reading such a dark tale. The world was throwing novels at him and he ate it up without looking.

And yet, considering the trends in novels targeted towards a heterosexual male audience, a stallion male being raped would detract from their masculinity, therefore, they may not be considered a 'stallion' by the readers anymore. That being the case, the chances the author would detract from their stallion protagonist that way should be about nil. On the other hand, the number of novels that had a protagonist rape female characters (often hidden by the guise of ‘dub-con’ or ‘punishment’) were high.

Huh...that was pretty messed up. Qin Yan was perhaps beginning to see why the Goddess hated these kinds of novels so much. 

...but if that didn't happen to the protagonist...was he remembering it wrong, then? Yep. Very likely.

*nervous laughter*

Qin Yan wanted to sigh. Isn't he going on a tangent? Maybe he'd gone deluded when he had nothing better to do than strain his mind and extrapolate about social issues in popular media.

"Aaaa, why did I have to be put into this dark, crappy novel?"