Chapter 2796

Shiler sat in the chair with composure. He would not eat food that others had not finished, but he used a knife and fork to arrange the food on the plate into a specific shape.

Jeremiah thought back fiercely that others would want to run three miles away at the sight of this food, but he was different; three people eating three meals, if he had more candles, one person could eat the entire hotel into bankruptcy.

Jeremiah sat back in his seat. He had to talk to Shiler; he really could not go to the kitchen. There was a difficulty there that he, as an ordinary person, simply could not overcome.

He previously had no reason to go to the kitchen, so naturally, he tricked Shiler into taking the risk. But now he had a reason that he must go, and he still had to trick Shiler into taking him along to take the risk. This difficulty had increased exponentially.

Even taking a step back, even if Shiler were willing to go, there was no need for him to bring a dead weight like himself. Anyone could see that in this situation, bringing an injured ordinary person to explore a dangerous place was basically seeking death.

For the first time in his life, Jeremiah felt like giving up.

It wasn't that he really had no angle for lobbying; he was just afraid that as soon as he opened his mouth, Shiler would start talking again. If he kept his mouth shut and Shiler kept his mouth shut, then he wouldn't say a word from now on.

But Shiler clearly did not intend to let him off that easily.

"Actually, I'm a bit curious about your relationship with the third party." Shiler said, resting his head on his hand, "Do you really hate him that much?"

Jeremiah's complexion was very gloomy, as if he wanted to destroy the whole world just by thinking of this person, but one could also see that he was somewhat self-abandoned and no longer intended to hide his expression.

Shiler didn't intend to press further when he saw him like this. He said, "Fine, let's talk about business. You have also discovered that I am not the type of person who uses conventional means to solve problems. If you think I can solve the trouble in the restaurant, especially help you solve your trouble, then you had better tell me everything."

Jeremiah pursed his lips, but he quickly pushed his lips upward, pulled the corners of his mouth down fiercely, made an expression almost equivalent to swallowing his anger, and then said, "Fine, I can tell you who that person in the kitchen is."

"Wrong, that is precisely the least important question." Shiler shook his head and said, "I am not him. Regarding Cat Getan, I know more than you. I have long known who that person in the kitchen is."

"Impossible." Jeremiah still instinctively denied it.

"Oswald Cobblepot, you call him the Penguin."

Jeremiah's eyes widened in an instant.

Shiler had inquired about this restaurant; every part of this restaurant seemed to be engraved with his name, especially the inferiority and arrogance revealed by that cycle game, his simultaneous fawning and hatred for the upper class, and his yearning for complete self-enclosed satisfaction, all of which were telling the story of how he became the Penguin.

Shiler rested his elbows on the table, shook the fork in his hand gently, and said, "His obsession with the restaurant and his obsession with power are more similar to settling for second best for a wish he can never complete."

"In his eyes, the restaurant, besides feeding the diners, is also feeding himself. He produces and others eat; what this demonstrates is not his spirit of dedication, but his desire to manifest the value he produces, converted into society's recognition of him, and then converted into his recognition of himself. It is he himself feeding himself, without relying on anyone."

"Power is the same. He has a unique understanding of power. Cobblepot is not a person with heavy material desires. Although his family was once wealthy and then fell into decline, the material gap is not the fundamental reason for his such intense desire for power."

"He is mastering the channels of self-affirmation and self-recognition. The affirmation of high-status people toward low-status people provides the most social recognition, and if he himself is the high-status person, then the king in his heart can affirm the pariah in his heart, just like saying to him, 'I have ascended the throne; I have the right to declare my own nobility without needing anyone else to crown me.'"

"If we go deeper, it is not that he insists on self-satisfaction, but that he cannot accept others' recognition. The organ that can accept others' recognition and praise has been removed from his body. Such people are always inferior, but in order to survive, they must have the arrogance of self-affirming everything."

"If one were to say who caused this tragedy, perhaps it was the diners who were once in the restaurant, those upper-class people. Not all of them spoke harshly to the then-weak Cobblepot, but that is precisely the problem."

"If they were all very rude, like some gang bosses who bossed Cobblepot around, beat him, abused him, and even wanted to kill him, it would not have caused Cobblepot to suffer from an identity recognition disorder. On the contrary, most of these upper-class people were quite kind to Cobblepot, at least on the surface, they would not hurt him."

"This is out of the norms of high society, which is that unless the situation is special, one must appear compassionate and generous; pitying the weak makes one's image look very good."

"But Cobblepot is a person who cannot be tamed by compassion. The word engraved on the first line of his genes is ambition, so these compassions would make him feel confused—since the high-status person has affirmed me, why am I still so destitute?"

"At the moment of being affirmed and treated kindly, the satisfaction of being recognized by others would instinctively make him feel happy, even if he knew they were feigning generosity, there would be a feeling of 'at least I have obtained generosity,' especially when he was mixed in a group of low-status people; the chosen one would always feel that he is special."

"But after such satisfaction ends, Cobblepot would have much more emptiness than others, because he has never been willing to live like this. He felt that others affirming him must be because he is special, but turning around, this specialness did not make him any better."

"Are those praises fake? Is the extra preferential treatment for me fake? Then what is real? It is hard for him not to think this way, falling into deep self-doubt, which makes him feel miserable."

"Gradually, the organ for accepting others' recognition was worn away, because as soon as he was recognized by others, he would instinctively think, is this recognition real? Am I the only one who has it? Didn't you choose randomly? Will recognizing me bring you benefits?"

"Thinking about it, it wasn't for me anyway. He began to refuse to accept all of this, because as long as he didn't obtain value satisfaction from others, he could still endure his current life. The bottom-dwellers of Cat Getan always have to learn to endure."

"Later on, this suspicion of others' recognition became a curse that followed him like a shadow. Cobblepot could not sincerely appreciate a person's recognition from the bottom of his heart; there was always a shadow of doubt. In the years when his acting skills were not yet mature, this would make him miss too many opportunities, and even cause him to fall to the bottom."

"What is even more terrible is that he is always suspicious, rather than discarding it like a shoe. If he had accepted it with full expectations from beginning to end, understanding the principle of judging by deeds rather than intentions, then he would certainly not have become a villain. If he had been disappointed early on and completely didn't care about the recognition of any other person, then he would certainly have been the most excellent villain."

"But unfortunately, he cannot go to extremes. When others recognize him, the first reaction is disbelief, the second reaction is that the other party has something to gain, the third reaction is, 'could what he said be true?', and the fourth reaction is, 'he looks so sincere.' He is always disappointed, but always tempted."

"Even seeking self-recognition involves putting layer after layer of the skins of those upper-class people he once saw onto the king in his own heart."

"Even through fantasy self-satisfaction, in order to anchor others' recognition of him, he would not even hesitate to deny his current self, adding many qualities that society considers worthy of recognition to himself, just to convince himself that this time they must be sincere."

Jeremiah's eyes rolled upward; he had long discovered that the nerves on the ceiling were no longer moving.

Jeremiah also felt like he was about to crack.

If his own inner heart were dissected like this and placed on the table for others to taste, he couldn't believe what he would do, and the man opposite him really did it, and that was while the other party was a monster devouring an entire restaurant.

Jeremiah felt waves of cold air from the direction of the kitchen. This was not an adjective, but a physical description; the restaurant was beginning to get colder and colder.

"I don't think the image of a penguin has any special significance for him." Shiler was actually still continuing, "Maybe he looks a bit like a penguin, maybe he walks wobbly, or someone mocked him like that, but that is not important."

"But the imagery of an iceberg is meaningful. Compared to heat, he prefers cold, but I think this is not quite appropriate. Cobblepot's ambition is like a raging fire; perhaps he might want to keep himself calm, which is why he wants to seal himself in an iceberg."

"If his sanity were still clear, then he should understand that keeping himself calm is a tendency toward cowardice and retreat, which cannot solve anyone's mockery. Facing bullying, perhaps it is better to let the other party calm down."

Jeremiah suddenly had a bad premonition.

Shiler snapped his fingers gently. This action always had a frivolity inconsistent with his temperament when he did it, but accompanied by a wisp of flame appearing, the world became completely different.

Shiler stood up, took the cluster of flames in his hand, and walked straight toward the kitchen. Jeremiah hurried to follow, but Shiler stopped in front of the kitchen door. At this time, a layer of ice had already formed on the ground.

Shiler threw the flame directly inside.

This flame was actually very small, slightly larger than a lighter, probably only enough to burn a piece of paper, but the troublesome part was that it could not be extinguished. Jeremiah watched helplessly as the kitchen was freezing, frosting, and raining, yet this cluster of flames remained unmoved.

Shiler leaned against the kitchen door and peeked inside. Before long, he heard the sounds of crackling, popping, and banging.

The ceiling finally had a change.

Those nerves began to twist, gradually no longer arranged according to scientific laws, but becoming somewhat like capillaries under the skin. The entire ceiling seemed to have turned into a person's pale skin.

Several protrusions began to appear on the skin, then gradually turned into a face, as if a living person wanted to struggle to escape from the skin, thus appearing particularly hideous and terrifying.

And Shiler and Jeremiah both saw the striking hooked nose on this face at a glance. Jeremiah turned his head to look at Shiler, silently saying to him with his eyes, "You really are something."

"If you don't study science, the world is full of myths everywhere; not studying psychology is the same." Shiler said quite disdainfully. He walked back to the dining table to sit down again, and it seemed as if he were saying to the face on the ceiling.

"Does my behavior remind you of those old acquaintances? They could never truly hurt you, but just like that cluster of flames, you cannot extinguish it no matter how hard you try."

"It just keeps burning like that, burning until the end of time when even revenge loses its meaning, unable to be destroyed, covered, or forgotten, like an Ouroboros that eats itself for eternity, chopped open from the middle."