What a Beautiful Narcissus

(Updates once a week, on Sundays. Save it and let the chapters build up. Estimated length: 50,000 to 100,000 words.)

(The story is technically complete, but I'll keep updating until it's fully finished. It won't be paywalled or ranked.)

Xu Tian is a young man who is deaf and mute. Hearing impairment, speech impairment, and social impairment: three labels keep him firmly apart from the crowd.

To treat his condition, he is enrolled in a deep-brain neural reconstruction experiment and fitted with an auxiliary personality system to help him regain the ability to speak.

The auxiliary personality, Jia Xiaoduo, is clever, cool, and intensely intimidating. A domineering, controlling mentor-type personality, she takes charge of everything in his mind and even falls in love with him.

"Don't let the fact that I grew out of your brain fool you. I'm the one who can protect you, control you, and love you: Jia Xiaoduo."

For a time, Xu Tian believed she was a real woman. Only when the experimental data collapsed did he learn that all those embraces, kisses, and tender reassurances had come from another personality within himself.

But by then, it was too late.

He loved her.

And she loved him.

Theme: Please hold me