Regarding Xin Beibei's corpse, Ke Xun had already figured out the reason—only living people could have their color extracted. After death, the secretion of color might stop, or the color might become stale. That's why Xin Beibei's blue liquid was taken away, while the useless corpse was left in the bottle.
Zhang Tianwei was alive until he shrank to the size of a fist.
Xin Beibei was also alive until her head was separated from her body, after which she truly died.
Everyone was very puzzled by the situation on the sixth floor. Wei Dong directly thought it was a bug, but he couldn't explain where the purple liquid came from.
"Purple must have other meanings, but we just can't figure out the answer yet." Shi Zhendong looked at the hall where the color was gradually darkening, feeling somewhat depressed.
Qin Ci looked at Mu Yiran's expression and tentatively asked, "Little Mu, do you have a clue?"
"I'm just thinking, when 'painting' bewitches people, is it random or selective?" Mu Yiran took advantage of the fact that it wasn't completely dark before expressing his thoughts—time was getting increasingly tight, and Mu Yiran didn't want some conclusions to become hindsight.
"I think it was selective," Zhu Haowen said. "Especially on the first day, we didn't know that being alone in the hall would lead to being bewitched. There must have been more than one person who had the opportunity to be alone in the hall that day—at least during breaks from work, someone would pass through the hall to go to the restroom. The process of walking from the work area to the restroom can be considered as being alone in the hall."
"And what was the purpose of the painting in choosing these people?" Miao Zipeng asked.
"If I'm not mistaken, the person who was bewitched on the first day should be He Yu," Zhu Haowen said.
Shi Zhendong seemed to have realized something: "Haowen means that the painting specifically targets those with weaker psychological defenses?"
Shi Zhendong also felt that his statement was inaccurate: "Anyway, it targets people with poor psychological defenses, who are easily exploited." Shi Zhendong's voice became somewhat low: "Like a simple girl like Beibei."
Zhu Haowen nodded: "Compared to Zhang Tianwei, He Yu seems more outgoing and impulsive. Now that I think about it, his behavior of rushing into the red room with his hands covered in yellow paint was probably the painting using his impulsiveness, amplifying it, and ultimately turning it into a demon that strangled him and his roommate."
The group tried not to look at Guo Lixia, afraid that she would think of something, but they couldn't help but speculate about this: Although Guo Lixia was not young, she was a very passionate person, and such people were easily exploited for their psychological weaknesses, which is why the painting took advantage of them.
"No matter what, our actions from now on should be like this, everyone try to stay together to avoid being bewitched by the painting," Qin Ci said.
Everyone nodded. By this time, the room was gradually losing its color, but no one wanted to return to their respective bedrooms.
Mu Yiran's voice rang out in the dimly lit hall: "I'm not referring to the choice of people in the paintings. In this world, color is as important as the soul."
Ke Xun tried to follow Mu Yiran's train of thought: "If that's the case, then the order of color selection is: red, blue..." Ke Xun didn't finish his sentence, but Guo Lixia's color was also blue.
Miao Zipeng's voice suddenly rose: "Red and blue together make purple! Zhang Tianwei's red liquid and Xin Beibei's blue liquid mixed together make purple! The purple you saw on the sixth floor must be a mixture of these two liquids!"
Hearing this, everyone suddenly understood. Qin Ci even asked, "But why didn't the clock and the door change accordingly?"
"Because the final color isn't finished yet," Mu Yiran's voice was somewhat cruel. "The sixth floor should be a place where all colors are concentrated. The purple liquid we saw today is about two-fifths full in the glass jar; there's still the capacity for the other three colors left."
"I can understand using red and blue to make purple, but mixing all the other colors together..." Wei Dong hadn't finished speaking when he heard Ke'er coldly say beside him, "It's black. All the colors mixed together are black."
Ke Xun always remembered the news about the three colors in the winter of 2017. At that time, many people changed their profile pictures to the three primary colors, and the boundary between the three colors was precisely the bottomless black.
"Black, black worship, is the color of shadows," Mi Wei's voice trembled.
All colors ultimately follow only one rule: they all become black.
Looking at the now-dark room, everyone felt a profound, overwhelming grief, a sorrow they couldn't quite pinpoint—it seemed to be for themselves, yet also for something else entirely.
"But I don't understand," said Zhu Haowen, "why the third choice overlapped. Logically, the painting should have chosen a different color than before."
The first choice was red for He Yu, the second was blue for Xin Beibei, so the third shouldn't have chosen the same blue color, Guo Lixia.
Mu Yiran: "The painting also acted according to circumstances, and it's quite obvious that its ultimate target is someone else."
Ke Xun instantly understood Mu Yiran's meaning. The painting was merely using Guo Lixia as a springboard; its true target was Mi Wei—the yellow Mi Wei.
If this was the correct interpretation, then the order of red, blue, and yellow would emerge, at least completing the three primary colors, allowing the painting to obtain the desired black ahead of time.
Mu Yiran continued, "Adding purple and green might enhance the effect, but even a painter can be impatient."
Several clever individuals understood Mu Yiran's meaning. Qin Ci said, "If the shadow obtains black, it should possess even greater power. We are currently helpless against it; it's unimaginable what it will be like in the future..."
"Therefore, we cannot allow her to obtain yellow." It was Mi Wei who spoke. As the night deepened, her body was adorned with black and white fan-shaped patterns. If it were daytime, these bright, pale yellow fan-shaped patterns would be visible.
Mi Wei's body was already stained with green sap, meaning the mastermind's plan for tonight had failed.
At least for tonight, only Mi Wei and Guo Lixia met the criteria. Although everyone was discussing the issue, their eyes were all fixed on the cluster of dots unique to Guo Lixia.
"It's getting late, I want to go back to sleep," Ke Xun yawned. "Everyone should go back to sleep too."
"It's best if no one goes out to get up at night tonight. We've placed appropriate containers in each room. In a life-or-death situation, don't worry about the separation of men and women," Qin Ci said.
Guo Lixia seemed a little tired, stretched, and went back to her room to lie down.
Tonight, the blue room was one person short, so Ke Xun simply lay down on another bed.
Xin Beibei's figure covered in diamond patterns seemed still vivid in his mind.
Ke Xun tried his best not to think about Xin Beibei; thinking too much would naturally bring back those extremely unpleasant experiences.
"Team leader, although you were speaking in riddles just now, I basically understood," Guo Lixia on the opposite bed suddenly spoke.
Ke Xun didn't know what to say for a moment.
"You're suspecting me, aren't you? Suspecting I've been bewitched?"
Ke Xun remained silent, which was taken as tacit agreement.
Guo Lixia sighed: "I really regret what happened to that girl Mi Wei today. After your analysis, I also feel that what I did today was really wrong."
"That's why we nailed the windows shut. They're going to nail a plank to our door from the outside in a bit," Ke Xun said.
"Why go through all that trouble? Just tie me up like you did with Mi Wei." Guo Lixia's polka-dot pattern stood out starkly against the black.
"Sister Guo…"
"I'm telling the truth!"
"Right now we're only speculating, not entirely certain."
"That's why I didn't beg you to stain my color too; I'm afraid I'll be wrongly accused."
…Finally, at Guo Lixia's insistence, Ke Xun did tie her up, trying to make it as loose as possible so she wouldn't suffer.
The night seemed exceptionally long; the huge black shadow didn't appear for a long time.
The night seemed exceptionally quiet; without Sister Guo's snoring, the entire night felt even more desolate.
Guo Lixia couldn't sleep either, so she started chatting with Ke Xun in the darkness: "Actually, I don't have any last words. There are no elders left in my family, just me. My son is abroad with his father, and the chances of him coming back are slim. I've lived a meaningless life, I'm quick-tongued and always offend people, and I haven't saved any money. The house I live in now can be left to my son, and after I die, the law will probably just divide it up... The house is valuable now, and my son will definitely come back to China for it... If he can visit my and his grandparents' graves, then I won't have raised him in vain..."
Ke Xun felt increasingly distressed as he listened, but he didn't know how to comfort a dying person.
A large area of darkness arrived amidst Guo Lixia's voice, giving one the feeling of a speeding train suddenly entering a tunnel.
The windows were nailed shut, and the original gray silhouette of the window panes had disappeared, but the darkness was all-pervasive. Ke Xun could even smell the distinctive scent of that shadowy figure again.
Guo Lixia's voice disappeared after the world went dark, replaced by a painful gasp.
Ke Xun, emboldened by the darkness, called out, "Sister Guo? Sister Guo?!"
Ke Xun felt that same helplessness again, as if he had stepped into an endless black space, with no direction or direction.
Guo Lixia's gasps stopped.
The world was as quiet as if it were dead.
Ke Xun unconsciously recalled a saying: death is like water disappearing into water.
When the darkness finally lifted, Ke Xun even wondered if the striking wavy patterns on his body were a hallucination.
This darkness had lasted too long, almost making him afraid of the light.
Only two gray beds and the patterns on Ke Xun's body remained in the room; the rest was black.
Guo Lixia's polka dot pattern had disappeared.
Ke Xun felt a pang of sadness, but he still groped his way to Guo Lixia's bedside. If he could touch Guo's colorless body, perhaps he could restore her breathing through first aid.
Ke Xun had never given up hope; many turning points were driven by a glimmer of hope. Ke
Xun searched the bed opposite him thoroughly, even under the bed, but found nothing.
He then crouched down and searched every inch of the floor, but still nothing.
Where was Sister Guo? If it was like Ye Ningchen's case, there should be a body present. If she was dragged away like Xin Beibei, how did her body manage to slip through those tiny, knife-like gaps in the wooden planks?