The painter thought that there would be no such thing again, but he did not expect that one night in less than three months, he felt his skin burn again. ．

So, he hurriedly went to the small attic secret room in the studio alone, and waited quietly for what this molt would become.

In order not to worry Cynthia, he didn't wake her up to accompany him to the attic secret room, just thinking that if he could solve it, don't embarrass Cynthia, after all, a woman who really loves herself, how can she bear to see herself suffer there.

After closing his eyes, almost shouting hoarsely, and going through a painful process of peeling, the painter fainted.

When he woke up again, he thought that he would turn into snakeskin again, but he was pleasantly surprised to find that although his whole body had shed a layer of skin, the new skin was still normal human skin, not snake skin.

Immediately he was overjoyed, knowing that in the future, he would never have to worry about not being able to see people in snakeskin, let alone the pain of cutting his skin with a knife.

Subsequently, he returned to the bedroom, and wanted to tell Cynthia, who was still asleep, but after thinking about it, he still forgot it, after all, the problem has been solved, and in the future, it will be nothing more than molting every three or four months or so, although the process is painful, he can bear it alone, why bother to let Cynthia know that he will feel guilty again, and he will be unhappy for a long time.

So he decided to keep this secret in his heart forever, and when Cynthia asked about it, he lied and said that it was completely fine, and although it was a deception to Cynthia, it was also a white lie.

Not long after he lay down, he woke up sweating again, because he suddenly felt something moving in his throat, as if a small heart was beating very regularly......

This sudden change also made the painter a little at a loss, so he had to rush into the bathroom again in a panic and look in the mirror.

This look is even more shocking, in the mirror, under the Adam's apple, there is really an egg-sized thing beating very regularly.

With a trembling hand, he slowly placed it on the throbbing part and pressed it down gently.

As soon as I pressed it, this inexplicable thing stopped beating, but as soon as I let go, it jumped again. However, he still vaguely felt that the moment this thing stopped beating, his heart suddenly twitched, as if it was suddenly beating very fast.

But as soon as this thing jumps, my heart seems to be very calm, and I can even feel my heartbeat getting weaker and weaker, and finally I can't feel it at all.

The painter tried to put his hand on his chest again, and closed his eyes to feel it, but he was surprised that he didn't beat!

Obviously, this little thing in the throat has the effect of replacing one's own heart, and when it beats, one's own heart does not beat. And once you press it and don't let it beat, your heart will return to normal.

The painter had to press it down again, and then gently pinched its shape, trying to feel what it was.

After fumbling for a while, he could roughly imagine the shape of this thing in his mind, and it was really something that looked like a heart.

Suddenly, the painter was a little confused, why did a heart come out again! Thinking about it, it suddenly occurred to him that it was very likely that his skin would first become snake skin, and then the organs in his body would also become snakes.

In other words, in time, he will be completely replaced by a snake!

Although for the sake of Cynthia, he will not hesitate to turn into a snake, but it is not his character to sit back and wait, after all, it is the most stupid thing to give up without working hard, just like after the local skin turned into snake skin before, he decisively cut it with a knife and peeled it off, and then it grew out of normal skin again, so it solved the crisis of turning snake skin all over the body.

So can this heart crisis be concocted in the same way? The painter fell into rational analysis, imagined various possibilities in advance, had optimistic ideas, and prepared for the worst.

On the bright side, it is to cut it off, as long as it does not grow longer in the future, it can be regarded as the resolution of the crisis. But the worst plan is that once it is removed, if your original heart does not return to beating in time, it will be equivalent to suicide.

Just as he was struggling with whether to cut or not, he suddenly saw that as the little heart continued to beat, his skin began to slowly change color, and there were signs of turning back into snakeskin.

He finally understood that this little heart must be circulating snake blood, so if he let it beat and supply blood, it would be equivalent to completely replacing the human blood in his body with snake blood.

It seems that this little heart must not remain in the body, otherwise it will only be a matter of time before it turns into a snake. It seems that he is going to have another operation on himself, which is to remove this little heart.

Thinking of this, the painter immediately made a decision, returned to the bedroom again, took one last deep look at Cynthia, kissed her forehead lightly, and went to the secret room without hesitation.

In the secret room, he first wrote a letter to his parents and Cynthia respectively, and put it in the most conspicuous position in the secret room, the purpose of this is that in case he fails the operation and dies, at least he must let his parents and Cynthia know the ins and outs.

In the letter to his parents, the painter naturally hoped that his parents would not be angry with Cynthia because of his death and let her live, so that even if he died, he would be at ease.

In the letter to Cynthia, he once again emphasized that he had no regrets about everything he did, and hoped that Cynthia would never feel guilty for the rest of her life, leave the city, and start a new life. He also left a huge check in the envelope, enough for Cynthia to live the rest of her life without worrying about food and clothing.

After writing the letter, he took out a scalpel, disinfected it with the flame of an oil lamp, looked in the mirror, decisively cut the skin of his throat, and although it hurt, he held back from screaming and did not pass out because of it.

After all, I have suffered from the pain of peeling skin many times, and my own pain tolerance is much stronger than before.

Of course, he avoided the major arteries as much as possible to avoid bleeding and falling unconscious, and the operation could not be continued.

With a small amount of blood flowing out, he lifted his skin little by little, and finally saw the little beating heart.

For the sake of prudence, he did not rashly cut the blood vessels connecting this heart, but first carefully observed for a while, and now there was indeed a thicker blood vessel in this small heart that was connected to the major artery.

It would be dangerous if the removal of the small heart would cause the blood vessel that connects the large arteries to spurt out.

What should we do now? How can we stop the little heart from beating without cutting it off? The painter fell into deep thought again......

During this time, he gently opened his heart with a scalpel to check whether there were other connected blood vessels behind the heart, and accidentally saw a small nerve.

According to common sense, the painter knew that once a nerve was severed, it would cause the organs in the body to lose the function of the organs associated with it.

So, if this nerve is severed, will this little heart stop beating? The more the painter thinks about it, the more likely he is to succeed.

After a moment's hesitation, the painter took a deep breath and took a deep look at the last letter to his parents and Cynthia not far away. Decisively cut that nerve.

At the moment of cutting, he saw that the little heart really stopped slowly, and then he felt that his original heart was stinging and convulsive again, and soon it was about to beat.

He knew he had finally succeeded!

Maybe he was so excited that he forgot that there was still blood in his throat, and he just stared excitedly at the shrinking little heart, and fell into endless joy.

It didn't take long for him to see that the little heart had completely atrophied, and even the blood vessel that connected the major artery had atrophied, and when he saw this scene, he was even more ecstatic, knowing that he had won the crisis.

After confirming that the little heart and those blood vessels were completely atrophied and ineffective, he used a scalpel to cut off the atrophied blood vessels, removed the little heart that had lost its blood, and then sutured the wound with needles and threads, smeared hemostatic medicine, and wrapped gauze, and then lay on the floor of the secret room exhausted, reminiscing about the process of escaping death just now.

If he hadn't been in a hurry to use the knife just now, and had found that tiny nerve, perhaps he would have died of massive bleeding due to the hasty removal of his small heart.

After resting for a while, he sat up, and was about to use an oil lamp to burn the two letters to his parents and Cynthia, but he dispelled this idea again, because he was not sure if something similar would happen in the future, so it was better to stay in the secret room, in case he had an accident in the secret room one day in the future, these two letters would still save Cynthia's life, and also give her security for the rest of her life.

After leaving the secret room and returning to the bedroom, he probably washed the blood stains on his body in the bathroom, changed into clean pajamas, and lay down exhausted and a little dizzy.

The next morning, when Cynthia saw the gauze bandaged around his throat, she woke him up with a worried face, and after learning what had happened, she was moved again and cried for a long time.

She knew that she had fallen in love with this man completely, and this man who would rather suffer so much for her would definitely be worth her to give everything for him to protect this love, even if it was her own life.

After this little heart crisis, the painter never had molting and other snake-related crises again, but he now had a bad habit of feeling itching his arms and something beating in his throat every once in a while.

If he doesn't cut it open and look at it, if he doesn't tear the skin off his arm, he will become very irritable, even very irritable, smashing things and arguing with people for no reason.

Every time he couldn't bear it anymore, he would go to the secret room, scratch his arm with a knife, and then tear off the skin little by little, and then cut his throat without hesitation, lifted the skin and examined it carefully, and then stitched it up again, bandaged it, although it hurt, he felt much more comfortable in his heart.

Over time, he became more and more dependent on this quirk, from once every two months to once a month, and sometimes even as soon as the wound healed, he couldn't help but go to the secret room to cut it open.