Mu Yiran's voice was cold and highly textured, a kind of soothing, deep, cool, and resonant tone. Listening to him speak, Ke Xun felt like his ears, as a grown man, were about to become pregnant.
"None of us know what really happened. We were all sucked into the painting. The world you're in now is the world depicted in the painting. There's only one way to leave this world: find the 'signature,' and ensure you survive." Mu Yiran's tone was calm, seemingly unfazed by his current situation.
"What's the signature? How do I find it?" Ke Xun asked.
"The artist's signature," Mu Yiran replied. "Some painters will sign their names or initials on their paintings. If it's a Chinese painting, we might need to find the artist's seal. Only by finding the artist's signature or seal can we leave this world within the painting."
"That's too abstract. Searching the whole world for a signature is like looking for a needle in a haystack!" Wei Dong interjected. "What if the signature is under a roof tile? Are we going to have to search every single roof tile in the world?" "The location of the signature is closely related to the content of the painting. By interpreting the painting and obtaining clues, we can find the signature," Mu Yiran said. "…This might take a year or two to find," Wei Dong said, his face blank
. Mu Yiran glanced at him indifferently: "Anyone who can't be found within seven days will die." "Damn!" Ke Xun and Wei Dong were both shocked. "Really?!" "If you don't believe me, then try it," Liu Yufei with the braid sneered from the side. "You can do nothing for these seven days and see if you die after seven days." "No—how will we die? Will we suddenly lie on the ground and die or something?" Wei Dong pressed. Liu Yufei grinned nervously: "There are many ways to die. There's nothing you can't die in." "Holy crap, is anyone in charge or not?!" Wei Dong exclaimed in shock. "Why is this happening?" Ke Xun still found it unbelievable. "Who made these rules? Who has the right to decide our life and death? Who has such bizarre abilities to put living people into paintings? Doraemon?" Mu Yiran glanced at him and said indifferently, "I don't know." "Doraemon! I'm Nobita! Don't you recognize me? Stop your magic and let us go back!" Wei Dong cried out to the sky. "Shut up!" Liu Yufei punched him angrily. "Keep your voice down! If you want to die, go die yourself, don't drag me down with you!" He looked around nervously, as if afraid of disturbing something in the darkness. Wei Dong, who had been punched for no reason, was about to retaliate when he saw Liu Yufei's pale face and shuddered. He also looked around for a while, but the night seemed to be even deeper and thicker than before. A thick gray fog had enveloped the entire village, and in the hazy darkness, something seemed to be crouching there, slowly opening its dark mouth. Wei Dong immediately dared not make a sound, even holding his breath, desperately trying to wink at Ke Xun. However, Ke Xun was not looking at him at all, and was continuing to talk to Mu Yiran with his head tilted to the side. "How did you know all that you just said? For example, that you can only leave if you find a signature or seal, and you will die in seven days if you don't find it. Who told you that?" Ke Xun asked. Mu Yiran didn't even look at him, her gaze calmly fixed on the thick fog ahead: "Nobody told me this is the third painting I've entered. All the known clues are gleaned from the first two." "The third?!" Wei Dong was shocked again. "What do you mean?" " It means that even if you manage to get out of this painting, you'll enter the next one again." Liu Yufei chimed in mockingly, but if you listened closely, there was a hint of despair in his mockery. "Why?!" Wei Dong couldn't help but ask in surprise. "Didn't we just return to the real world from the painting? Why do we have to go back into the painting?" "I don't know," Liu Yufei shrugged, pointing to the sky. "The big boss forces it. You have to go in, or you'll die." "How will I die? Does it even control the real world?" Despair welled up in Wei Dong's eyes. "I don't know, maybe." Liu Yufei's face was numb. "Anyway, whether in the real world or this world in the painting, we are all ants, forever just being played by the forces above, above the level, and above the level above the level. But as the saying goes, even ants try to survive. Even knowing that we can't escape the forces above, most people will still try to find a way to live, right?" "But why me?!" Wei Dong pulled his hair fiercely. "I'm just an ordinary person. I used to live a pretty ordinary life. Why was I chosen to experience such a bizarre thing?!" "Well," Liu Yufei sneered, "you deserve to be unlucky." Wei Dong stopped talking. If he could still make a few sarcastic remarks when he first came in, he had now completely accepted the "reality" before him. He held his head in his hands, desperately pulling at his hair, his eyes and face filled with fear, resentment, and despair. "Dongzi," Ke Xun pulled him close, pressing him firmly against his chest, "It's okay. Didn't we say we could go back to the real world? Don't be nervous, cheer up, we'll definitely get back. Everything has a cause and an effect, and every effect has a cause. I don't believe we can't find the source of this. We didn't play Nintendo games for nothing when we were kids. Beating levels, breaking through barriers, and taking down old men—those are our specialties, aren't they?" "Nonsense! Contra has thirty lives, and Super Mario can even give you a little green mushroom award. Does this have anything to do with it? Does it?" Wei Dong lowered his head dejectedly, but his voice sounded a bit more spirited. "Do you need one?" Ke Xun smiled, "You forgot that I'm the one who can carry you around with just one life, making you look cool and taking you to the top, and beating the entire Contra game." "Fine, at least give me a little life so I can defend myself," Wei Dong said. "Alright, stop overthinking," Ke Xun said. "Even without weapons, we need courage. Even if we're ants, we'll die on the corpse of an elephant." Mu Yiran, walking beside him, glanced at Ke Xun, only to meet Ke Xun's gaze unintentionally. Their eyes met, and Ke Xun smiled at him, a hint of indifference and fearlessness on his lips. All sorts of people enter the painting, but who knows how long they'll live? Mu Yiran calmly shifted his gaze, looking ahead again. In the thick gray night fog, three gnarled old locust trees stood motionless beside a dilapidated courtyard. "We've arrived at the Li family's place," Liu Yufei said, taking a breath, his voice stiff and tense. Ke Xun looked at him suspiciously: "Is something wrong?" Liu Yufei, caught off guard by the question, glanced at him with a flickering gaze, then curled his lips into a smirk: "No, come in." Seeing that he didn't want to talk about it, Ke Xun didn't press further. The courtyard gate was ajar, and Liu Yufei stepped forward and pushed it open, making a creaking sound. However, this jarring noise didn't travel far in the quiet night; it was immediately swallowed up by the thick fog. As soon as they stepped into the courtyard, Ke Xun and Wei Dong were almost startled into exclaiming at the sight before them, and Liu Yufei couldn't help but mutter a curse under his breath.
The Li family's courtyard wasn't small, a traditional courtyard house surrounded by a dilapidated fence. There were houses on all four sides, but the three main rooms on the north side were now draped with white curtains and long banners. Large strings of paper money and paper ingots made of yellow and white paper hung on either side of the door. Two paper figures of a boy and a girl, dressed in brightly colored clothes, with vivid features and smiling faces, were placed at the entrance.
It was clearly a mourning hall.
"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap!" Wei Dong trembled, Liu Yufei's face twitched, and Ke Xun looked left and right. Of the four, only Mu Yiran remained calm, though a hint of seriousness and wariness could still be detected in his eyes.
"No wonder they dressed us in these clothes," Liu Yufei said, looking down at himself.
This was basically mourning clothes. Ke Xun was annoyed, wanting to rip them off and throw them on the ground, but considering there was only a white stripe underneath, he refrained.
"Let's go." Mu Yiran glanced at Ke Xun indifferently.
The person who received the "Central" strip of cloth was to guard the Li family's granary.
Ke Xun looked around and saw a piece of white paper with the character "Grain" written in black on it pasted on the door of the west wing room in the courtyard.
On the door of the south-facing main house in the courtyard, the character "Firewood" was also written in black on white paper. Wei Dong and Liu Yufei, who had drawn the "Gu" strip of cloth, were going to the firewood shed to chop firewood.
Wei Dong muttered curses under his breath—the door of the firewood shed faced the door of the main hall on the north side, and the two paper-mache children were smiling at the door of the firewood shed.
"Dongzi, be very careful." Ke Xun gripped Wei Dong's shoulder, leaned close to his ear, and whispered, "There should be an axe for chopping wood in the woodshed. Take it, stay alert, don't fall asleep. Call me if anything happens, or run outside into the yard if necessary."
"I-I know...you be careful too..." Wei Dong's voice trembled as he reluctantly followed Liu Yufei to the woodshed.
Ke Xun, on the other hand, followed Mu Yiran to the granary in the west wing. Pushing open the door, a mixture of dust and rotten grain wafted into his nostrils, nearly choking him. He pinched his nose and stood still at the doorway.
Mu Yiran, however, seemed oblivious to the smell, walking straight in, taking out his phone from his pocket, turning on the screen, and scanning the room by its light. He saw a dozen or so large and small burlap sacks piled in the corner, the windows made of solid wood and tightly closed, not letting in a single ray of light. Of course, there was even less light at night.
"Come in, close the door." Mu Yiran turned to look at Ke Xun.
"Let's air it out first, even a mouse couldn't survive in this smell." Ke Xun said.
"Come in, close the door." Mu Yiran coldly repeated, unmoved.
"...Are you a reincarnation of a parrot?" Ke Xun sighed, stepped in, and closed the door.
"Lock the door." Mu Yiran continued coldly.
"Handsome, you're not a girl, are you afraid someone will break in and molest you in the middle of the night? If you lock the door, it'll be hard to escape if something happens." Ke Xun tilted his head and looked at him.
"You think there won't be?" Mu Yiran sneered.
Ke Xun was stunned, silently turned around and bolted the door.
Mu Yiran turned off his phone screen, plunging the room into darkness, with only the suffocating dust and stench filling the air.
"What's next?" Ke Xun asked.
"Stay here." Mu Yiran's voice sounded even colder and deeper in the darkness.
"Just...stay here?" Ke Xun took a few steps and found the darkness to be so deep and intense that it felt like being in a void, with each step feeling like an unexpected plunge into an abyss, making him feel extremely uneasy.
He took out his phone from his pocket, swiped the screen, and found Mu Yiran's location. He discovered that Mu Yiran was already sitting on a burlap sack in the corner of the room, leaning against it with his eyes closed, resting.
"Just staying here? Don't you have to do anything?" Ke Xun walked over and asked him.
"You can sleep too." Mu Yiran didn't even open his eyes.
"Shouldn't we look for autographs or seals in this room?" Ke Xun squatted down beside him and shone his phone screen on Mu Yiran's face.
Up close, the man's skin was incredibly smooth, and the light from the screen made his features even more defined and deep, like a finely sculpted work of art.
"If it were that easy to find, no one would have died in this painting." Mu Yiran frowned slightly as Ke Xun shone his phone light on him. "I advise you to conserve your phone battery. Save it for when you need it. There's no place to charge it in this painting, and you'll be here for seven days. Of course, if you die tonight, you can use it as you please."
Ke Xun quickly turned off his phone and plopped down on the sack next to him. "Look at you, what grudge do you hold? Why are you cursing me to die early to extend your lifespan or something?"
Mu Yiran ignored him.
Ke Xun remained silent for a long time. In the pitch-black darkness, he could only hear Mu Yiran's soft breathing, while he heard nothing of the commotion outside the granary.
He really wanted to know who the three people who drew the "civilian" strip of cloth were—according to the old man's arrangement, they were to keep watch tonight.
Since they were to keep watch, they would naturally be in the mourning hall.
In the main room, which was covered with mourning banners and pennants, he wondered if… there was a corpse lying there?