Looking back, Ke Xun felt that everything that day, from the moment he stepped out the door, was eerie.
First, there was Grandpa Li's teddy bear in the neighborhood. When they met by chance, it didn't pounce on him and pound his legs like it usually does.
Next was the middle door on the thirteenth floor of the building behind, with the windows wide open and two gray-white curtains hanging outside, looking like two mourning banners from downstairs.
When Ke Xun looked up, he vaguely felt that someone was also looking at him from the window, but due to the angle, he couldn't see very clearly.
The person was entirely in shadow, with only a pale gray face vaguely visible behind the window, motionless. Combined with the black window frame and two gray-white curtains, it looked like a black-and-white portrait of a deceased person.
What happened next was even stranger.
For example, he scanned a shared bicycle on the street, and as soon as he stepped on it, the seat fell off. He was just one centimeter away from becoming the first man in history to be "sexed" by a shared bicycle.
For example, when meeting Wei Dong at the agreed location, that guy was surprisingly not late as usual.
For example, before the two of them could even start having fun, the clear blue sky and white clouds suddenly turned into a downpour with dark clouds overhead.
"I knew nothing good would come from coming out with you, you little bastard." Ke Xun covered his head and scurried away while looking for a place to take shelter from the rain.
"Wait a minute, I did some calculations last night and today should be an auspicious day, perfect for going out, flirting with girls, and booking a hotel room!" Wei Dong didn't even bother to cover his head and hurriedly wrapped his phone in his coat.
"You're pinching my toes, aren't you!" Ke Xun said irritably.
"What can I do? It's a family ailment of the Wei family. As the eldest grandson of the Wei family, I naturally have to carry forward this unique foot-picking technique." Wei Dong habitually bantered with Ke Xun, then pointed across the street, "There, the art museum."
Starry Sky Art Museum.
This art museum is quite old. The exterior walls are covered with a thick layer of ivy, making it almost impossible to see the windows. The main entrance, however, is quite new, as if it was recently renovated. There is a sign at the entrance that reads "National Tour Exhibition of a Certain Painter".
How many ordinary people truly understand art? Even on weekends, the number of visitors to art museums is very small.
Most of them, like Ke Xunweidong, came in to take shelter from the rain.
A group of people gathered in the lobby, some watching the rain, some playing on their phones, but very few looking at the paintings.
"Since we're here, let's make the best of it and go in and take a look." Wei Dong couldn't stay idle.
The two of them hadn't even decided what to do when they met up today, it was just because Weidong sent them a WeChat message last night: "Want to have some fun tomorrow?"
Ke Xun: "Wandering."
It ran out.
As two single people who huddle together for warmth, their usual weekend routine is to meet up at their usual spot first, and then go wherever they want to go, flirting with girls and gay men, hoping for a soulmate, even if they go bankrupt, they will not be apart.
Ke Xun has never had any artistic talent. Let alone appreciating paintings, even his selfies are distorted and blurry. He can make a peace sign look like he's a six-fingered demon, and even his handsome face can look like he's had a botched plastic surgery.
In this respect, Wei Dong is a hundred times better than Picasso. After all, Wei Dong is also a graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts. Although he ended up working as a graphic designer, one of the "Top Ten Jobs You Most Want to Do to Get a Hand on Your Hairline," and making bizarre designs that kill art every day according to the client's requirements, at least his original intention has not changed, and he still retains some desire to appreciate the works of famous artists.
On a cloudy day, since they had nothing better to do, the two of them shook off the rain and went into the second gate of the art museum.
Looking back, Ke Xun would rather be so idle that he gets hemorrhoids all over his body than step into this art museum.
The first floor of the Starry Sky Art Museum is where the paintings of that certain artist are exhibited.
The second floor houses some of the museum's own paintings, including original works by the artists and reproductions.
The two strolled up to the second floor and lingered in front of several Western nude paintings.
"Full-figured girls are more pleasing to the eye, and they must feel especially good to touch," Wei Dong smacked his lips.
"First, you need a girl." Ke Xun said, one hand in his pocket, casually glancing around.
Wei Dong reluctantly left the painting in front of him, glanced around a few times, and then pointed ahead: "There's another exhibition hall over there. Guess if it's full of erotic paintings?"
"Brother, think back on your life, when have you ever had your wishes come true?" Ke Xun said.
"Damn it, why are you spouting such obvious truths? I'll throw a tantrum and cry for you, believe it or not," Wei Dong said.
The two strolled slowly toward the exhibition hall.
The exhibition hall is not large and has no windows. Only a few dim lights illuminate the room. The paintings are hanging on the walls, and in the dim light, the colors of each painting appear very dark and heavy, and they are also blurry and difficult to distinguish.
"You're right, it really is an erotic picture," Ke Xun sighed, "It's just that the people blew out the lamp during their intimate act."
As soon as he finished speaking, the lights in the exhibition hall flickered a few times and then suddenly went out, plunging everything into darkness.
"...Do you have to be so cooperative with me, turning off the lights just like that?" Ke Xun's voice rang out in the darkness.
"Should we play along and have a little secret?" Wei Dong teased, quite amused. "You'd better be gentle with them later."
"Thanks, but I don't date straight men." Ke Xun said, taking his phone out of his pocket, but he couldn't turn on the screen no matter how many times he pressed the buttons.
"Damn gay." Wei Dong's clothes rustled, as if he was also taking out his phone. "Damn it, he messed up at the crucial moment. I fully charged it before leaving the house, and now it's dead."
Ke Xun: "Wait a minute, have you noticed something's not right?"
Wei Dong: "Now that you mention it... I didn't find anything."
Ke Xun did not respond, and an eerie silence suddenly fell over the dark exhibition hall.
It was unusually quiet, almost deathly still.
"Um..." Wei Dong's voice carried a hint of awkwardness, "Do you think this exhibition hall might be soundproof?"
How can a dilapidated art museum, which can't even afford to clean the ivy covering the exterior walls, afford to make the exhibition hall completely soundproof?
Besides, what kind of soundproofing does an art museum need? Do you want the sounds of erotic paintings making "slap slap slap" noises every night?
Wei Dong shuddered as he heard Ke Xun say, "Absolutely not. Before the lights went out, I could hear someone sneeze outside. Even if there's no one outside now, the empty exhibition hall amplifies all kinds of sound effects, and various noises will come in. But now, there's no sound at all."
Not a single bit.
How is that possible?
Even on a quiet night, in the remote countryside far from the city, the sounds of nature can be heard subtly.
But now, there is absolutely no sound. It's as if you've suddenly been locked in a vacuum, a sealed space, with no sound and no light.
Things are a bit strange.
Silence and darkness are the source of all fear.
"Let's go outside." Ke Xun's voice sounded relatively calm, and he didn't mention that both of their phones had malfunctioned at the same time.
"Okay." Wei Dong tried to keep his tone relaxed, pretending he knew nothing.
It's as if as long as you don't expose it or investigate it closely, you can fool someone in the dark.
The two walked in the dark for a while, but completely lost their sense of direction.
"Something's not right. This exhibition hall isn't that big. At this rate, we should have run into a wall by now." Ke Xun stopped.
"Um... don't say anything..." Wei Dong reached out to grab him, as if afraid he would reveal something.
But what I touched was a cold arm.
"Damn it!" Wei Dong roared and shook off the arm.
Before anything could continue, a beam of white light suddenly flashed in the darkness.
"...Is this light voice-activated?" Ke Xun wondered.
"Ke'er…" Wei Dong's trembling voice sounded beside him, "This light… look where it came from."
Ke Xun didn't say anything.
Because he didn't know where the white light came from.
Without any light source, it appears out of thin air in the darkness, not bright at all, even pale to the point of being almost deathly white.
The beam of white light fell on the wall, and within its illumination hung a painting.
Wei Dong then realized that the cold "arm" he had just pulled was actually a metal barrier pillar placed under the painting, used to separate viewers from the artwork and prevent anyone from touching it.
Annotation plaques are placed between the two isolation pillars to label and describe the paintings.
The two of them subconsciously looked up at the painting.
Like the other paintings I saw before the lights were turned off, the painting was dark and blurry, with only a few vague outlines.
Strangely, as the two stared intently at the painting, the image seemed to become clearer and clearer.
It looks like someone is using Photoshop to adjust the resolution and clarity of the image.
It's getting clearer and clearer, and magnified more and more.
Huh? Zoom in?
Ke Xun blinked suddenly, and the painting seemed to expand infinitely with the movement of his eyes opening and closing. The scene in the painting seemed to rush towards him, and an invisible aura swept over him, making the hairs on his body stand on end as if he were being electrocuted.
The aura vanished in an instant, disappearing into all directions behind them, like a hand unfurling a scroll, spreading out far and wide with the scroll's end.
Ke Xun stared at the scene before him, unable to recover for a long time.
Where—where is this?!
What's going on here?!
The scene depicted in this painting is now so vividly unfolding before my eyes!
"No...no way..." Wei Dong's voice trembled as it sounded beside him, "Really...I must still be dreaming...It must still be last night, I fell asleep after picking my toes, and I haven't woken up yet, I definitely haven't woken up yet...Holy crap, Ke'er! --We've seen a ghost!"
Having failed in his self-deception, Wei Dong cried out in alarm.
Although Ke Xun was a poor student in his school days, he wasn't so confused that he couldn't distinguish between reality and dreams. He clearly realized that the place he and Wei Dong were in at this moment was not a dream or an illusion.
It really is reality.
Looking up, dark gray clouds hung in the thick night sky. The fields were empty, with sparse, waist-high withered grass scattered across the wasteland. The air was filled with the stench of mud and dust. Not far ahead, there was a small, desolate-looking village.
This is exactly a part of the scene depicted in the painting we just saw.
As for the other parts of the painting, Ke Xun hadn't had time to look at them yet—or rather, he subconsciously and deliberately didn't want to, or dared not, look at them.
He only remembered that he seemed to have caught a glimpse of something in the corner of his eye just now... something terrifying, something that shouldn't exist in this world.
"...What should we do?" Wei Dong looked at Ke Xun with a blank expression.
Ke Xun also turned his head to look at him.
The two exchanged a glance and couldn't help but exclaim in unison, "Holy crap!"
The clothes the two men were wearing had somehow changed – now each wore baggy, rough, unrecognizable white linen trousers and jackets, and their shoes had been replaced with straw sandals.
"What the hell?! Where's my Adidas?!" Wei Dong's anger temporarily overcame his fear. He turned around and looked around, wanting to find someone to demand an explanation.
"Shh." Ke Xun gestured for Wei Dong to remain calm, then looked down at himself, raised his hand to take off the clothes that had inexplicably appeared, only to find that his own body was underneath the hemp clothing, and if he took it off, he would be completely naked.
A growing sense of unease and uncertainty washed over Ke Xun. His throat tightened, and he gave up on taking off his clothes. He tugged at Wei Dong and said, "Let's find a way to get out of here quickly."
Wei Dong nodded, trembling, his eyes darting around in panic.
Ke Xun looked back and saw that behind him was also barren land and withered grass, stretching all the way to a dark and blurry area, just like the part of the painting with chaotic colors and low resolution.
Ke Xun wasn't sure where going back would lead, but his intuition was always right—so he felt that going back wasn't a good option. However, standing there and crying with Wei Dong was obviously pointless, so he pointed forward and said, "Let's go check out the village."