They started their search from west to east.
Pushing open the first door, another wave of dust hit them. Fortunately, Ke Xun and Mu Yiran were prepared; they covered their mouths and noses, waved away the dust, and peered into the room.
It was an old-fashioned room. The upper half of the walls were painted white, the lower half green. The paint had peeled off over time, revealing the bricks and cement underneath.
Inside were dilapidated wooden tables and chairs, askew and covered in thick cobwebs. The windows were old-fashioned wooden-framed hinged windows, dusty and making it difficult to see outside.
The three girls hesitated to enter, standing only at the doorway. Ke Xun and Mu Yiran stepped inside and carefully searched the room.
Pulling open a drawer in the wooden table, they found scattered office supplies. Ke Xun rummaged through them but found nothing useful.
They continued searching room by room, each floor containing twenty rooms, all with similar facilities, appearing to be offices. At the end of the corridor, directly opposite the stairs, were two restrooms, the men's on the east and the women's on the west.
There were no noteworthy clues in the restrooms.
Returning to the first-floor lobby, the first two groups had already returned, and Xu Zhen asked everyone what they had found.
"The first floor has a meeting room, warehouse, library, archives, offices, and a small canteen," Qin Ci said. "There were no clues in the meeting room, offices, and canteen. The warehouse, library, and archives were quite cluttered; we didn't have time to search them all and need help."
Xu Zhen said, "The second floor seems to be staff dormitory; all the rooms have single beds and washstands, but we didn't find any suspicious items or signatures. What about the third floor?"
"The third floor is entirely office space; we didn't find anything useful," Ke Xun said.
"Then let's go together and search the warehouse, library, and archives on the first floor," Xu Zhen suggested.
The warehouse wasn't large, and it contained a motley collection of items: spare office supplies, various instruments, daily necessities, and even food.
"By the way—what are we going to eat in here?" Zhang Hanrui suddenly asked. "The food in these freezers is too old; it's definitely inedible."
"Yeah, we're going to stay here for seven days. This is an abandoned building; where are we going to get food?" her two best friends quickly added.
Everyone seemed to have only just realized this problem and exchanged bewildered glances.
"The refrigerators haven't lost power," Mu Yiran's voice rang out calmly and evenly. "The food inside is edible."
"But this is clearly an old facility," Xu Zhen disagreed. "Even if the refrigerators have never lost power, the food inside is long past its expiration date."
Mu Yiran glanced at her indifferently: "I just checked. There's vacuum-packed, well-sealed white rice and beans inside. At temperatures below 4.4 degrees Celsius, white rice can be stored for up to thirty years, and the same goes for the mixed beans. Also, there are several jars of natural pure honey on the shelf. As long as they're properly sealed, anhydrous pure honey is the only food that can be preserved indefinitely."
Xu Zhen was speechless.
"You're really amazing, you know so much!" the three girls exclaimed in admiration.
"Enough talk, let's get started!" Xu Zhen said with displeasure.
The warehouse was a mess, and after everyone had searched through everything, it was already dark outside.
Cai Xiaoyan reached for the light cord hanging by the door, but the light wouldn't turn on. It seemed that apart from the refrigerators, all the electrical equipment was malfunctioning.
"It's obvious the refrigerator works to provide us with food; it's a deliberate design choice by 'The Painting'," Zhu Haowen said expressionlessly. "And the fact that other things can't be used is, of course, to fulfill the setting of what will happen at night."
"What will happen at night?" the girls asked anxiously.
Zhu Haowen's face remained expressionless, devoid of any pity: "There will be deaths that fit the research institute's setting and background."
The girls huddled together in fear.
Qi Qiang, the street-smart guy, finally lost his temper and slammed a thermos to the ground, sending shards flying. He roared, "I don't care anymore! I'm leaving this hellhole! Go to hell!"
With that, he strode out of the warehouse, his footsteps thumping as he ran towards the research institute's main entrance, directly opposite the lobby.
Then, a loud banging on the door echoed quickly. A long while later, he stormed back, his face still showing barely concealed surprise and disbelief: "What happened?! Why can't we open the door?!"
"This is the setting of the drawing," Qin Ci calmly told him, "We can only stay in the research institute until we find the signature." "
What the hell is this bullshit setting?!" Qi Qiang angrily swung several basins at other items on the warehouse shelves.
The girls screamed and huddled together in fear. This screaming only fueled Qi Qiang's irritation. He grabbed Cai Xiaoyan, who was closest to him, and raised his hand to slap her hard across the face.
Before the slap could land, someone grabbed his wrist and forcefully stopped him. Qi Qiang glared and turned to look, seeing it was the tall, arrogant-looking kid. His anger flared, and he shoved aside Cai Xiaoyan, who was pale with fright, and swung his fist at Ke Xun's face, yelling, "You fucking want to die!"
The punch was blocked by Ke Xun's palm, and he slammed his knee into Qi Qiang's stomach. Qi Qiang cried out in pain, doubled over, and began to gag.
Ke Xun released his hands, patted him on the shoulder, and said coldly, "Calm down, you scared the girl."
Qi Qiang couldn't speak for a moment, only clutching his stomach and squatting on the ground.
Ignoring the chaos, Qin Ci was discussing with Mu Yiran: "So far, we've obtained far too few clues. According to past patterns, there should be group settings at night, but we haven't received any such prompts yet. I think we might have overlooked something."
Given the rule that someone dies every night, it's generally impossible for everyone to be in the same enclosed space.
Mu Yiran pondered, "Since the background of the painting is set in a research institute, the focus might be related to the research project here. Through our search of the three floors, we discovered a rather obvious bug in this research institute."
"What bug?" Wei Dong asked.
"Since this is a research institute," Mu Yiran looked up at everyone, "where are the research labs?"
Everyone was startled. Indeed, these three floors had offices, dormitories, meeting rooms, warehouses, and even a canteen, but no research labs! Wasn't that strange?
"Did we miss something?" Xu Zhen frowned, recalling. "No, this building is clearly a flat building; there shouldn't be any corners."
"Could there be some kind of secret room?" Wei Dong said.
Mu Yiran shook his head: "No. Ke Xun and I specifically checked. The distance between the walls and the thickness of the walls in each room, when combined, are equal to the length of the corridor outside. There's no hidden room or mezzanine."
"What about the basement?" Ke Xun pointed to the ground.
The group exchanged glances and turned to leave.
Reaching the staircase at the end of the corridor, they saw that the space between the stairs and the walls was piled with cardboard boxes, tables, chairs, and other miscellaneous items. "We haven't had time to search this area yet," Qin Ci said.
Without a word, the veteran members immediately set to work, moving the mountain of clutter aside. Slowly, a small, dark red iron door appeared at the dark corner of the stairs.
"Damn, it's a combination lock." Ke Xun glanced at the dial lock-like thing next to the doorknob, tried pulling on it, and sure enough, it wouldn't open.
"Is the combination written on it?" Zhu Haowen asked.
Ke Xun pressed his face against it, getting cobwebs all over his face. "I can't see it, it's too dark."
He pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight.
The phone's flashlight, which should have been white, now emitted a dim yellow light, somewhat like an old-fashioned flashlight, casting a dark shadow on the door.
Zhu Haowen, seeing this, also pulled out his phone and turned it on. Seeing the dim yellow light, he shone it together with Ke Xun's phone light, barely managing to make out anything.
The group searched carefully by phone light, but unfortunately, they found nothing; the combination lock's pointer was stuck at 0.
"Check the office desk drawers," Xu Zhen said. "Usually, the password is written in a notebook or under the glass on the desk, or even on the calendar."
Qin Ci turned to look at the sky outside, then at the few newcomers in front of him who were hardly of any help, and said in a deep voice, "I'm afraid it's too late."
"Get out of the way!" Qi Qiang, clutching his stomach, had somehow appeared at the stairwell. He viciously pushed aside Deng Guang, who was blocking his way, and shoved Wei Dong, who was standing by the door. He squeezed to the door, suddenly squatted down, pressed his ear against the door, and turned the combination lock dial with one hand.
"Hey, he's a thief." Wei Dong whispered to Ke Xun.
"I can tell." Ke Xun wasn't surprised at all. "This guy always looks at people suspiciously, and he has a habit of glancing into people's pockets. He's a habitual thief."
Wei Dong subconsciously reached into his pocket, and seeing that his phone was still there, he was relieved. He took it out, turned it on, and glanced at the time. It was already 8:20 p.m.
Seeing Wei Dong take out his phone, Zhang Hanrui quickly pulled out hers as well. Seeing it still showed no signal, she sighed and casually opened each app on her phone, muttering to her friends, "This godforsaken place can't even get a cell phone signal? We can't make calls, we can't access WeChat, everything's useless except for the time and lighting… Well, at least the selfie function still works—Ah—"
This sudden scream startled everyone present. Qi Qiang, who was turning the keypad lock, jumped up and kicked Zhang Hanrui, yelling, "What are you screaming about?!"
The others were too far away to stop her, and Zhang Hanrui was kicked squarely in the waist, falling heavily to the ground.
However, this kick seemed less serious than the cause of Zhang Hanrui's scream. Sitting on the ground, she threw her phone away, clutching her head and continuing to scream desperately, her cries filled with endless fear and terror.
Her two best friends, Li Yaqing and Zhao Youyi, were terrified by her screams and huddled together, too afraid to approach her.
Ke Xun walked to where Zhang Hanrui's phone had fallen, bent down to pick it up, and turned on the screen, only to find that a gesture password was required. He had no choice but to squat down next to Zhang Hanrui and pat her shoulder: "Girl, stop for a second. If you keep screaming like that, you might attract something strange."
Zhang Hanrui immediately stopped screaming and frantically buried her face in Ke Xun's arms, trembling uncontrollably.
Ke Xun held her shoulders and asked her in a gentle voice, "Girl, tell me, what did you see on your phone just now?"
Zhang Hanrui shrank back, her long hair covering half her face, making her eyes appear exceptionally dark. Her lips, which looked grayish in the dim light, trembled as she pointed to the phone in Ke Xun's hand: "You...you turn on the camera...and take a look."