The doors and windows of the main house were tightly shut, making it hard to imagine the situation inside. Ke Xun, however, ignored the main house and strode towards the woodshed, pounding on the door: "Dongzi! Dongzi! How are you? Dongzi!"
The more he pounded, the more alarmed he became. There wasn't a sound
from inside the woodshed for a long time. Ke Xun's heart pounded. He shook off Mu Yiran's arm,
who seemed to be trying to stop him, and kicked the woodshed door hard. With a loud crash, the door slammed against the wall inside amidst billowing dust. Ke Xun rushed in and saw Wei Dong and Liu Yufei with the pigtail, each clutching an axe, huddled together in the corner of the woodpile, motionless.
"Dongzi—" Ke Xun called out, his voice trembling without him even realizing it.
Wei Dong smacked his lips a couple of times and shifted his position.
Ke Xun: "..."
Asleep.
This guy is really fearless.
He stepped forward and kicked Wei Dong in the thigh. Wei Dong opened his eyes wide and frantically groped for the axe in his pocket. When he saw it was Ke Xun, he breathed a sigh of relief and shouted, "What's wrong? What are you doing here? Did something happen?"
"What are you shouting for?" Ke Xun kicked him again. "How can you sleep so soundly? I could have wrecked the house outside and still not woken you up."
Wei Dong pulled a wad of cloth from each ear. "What did you say?"
"...Why are you plugging your ears?" Ke Xun was speechless.
"Holy crap, I'm scared!" Wei Dong stood up, his face pale. "Didn't you hear that last night? The screams from that room almost scared the pee out of me. We were too scared to go out, and just listening to those screams was terrifying, so we just plugged our ears. We were going to die anyway, might as well die peacefully."
As he spoke, Liu Yufei woke up beside him, his face also looking terrible. He looked at Mu Yiran standing in the doorway: "How many died?"
Mu Yiran shook his head slightly: "I don't know."
"Go take a look." Liu Yufei threw down the axe and walked out.
"Hey—are you crazy? There might be some kind of ghost in that room, and you still want to go check it out?" Wei Dong grabbed him.
"What did I tell you last night?" Liu Yufei impatiently shook off his hand. "Even in the world of paintings, anomalies still conform to the logic depicted in the paintings. This painting depicts a scene of a funeral in Chinese folk customs, and 'ghosts' in this context usually don't appear during the day."
"…That makes sense," Wei Dong said thoughtfully, looking at Ke Xun. "What do you think?"
"I want to go see it too," Ke Xun said.
Most of people's fear stems from the unknown; the more you know, the less fear you'll likely have.
Coming out of the woodshed, he saw several people also emerging from the room on the east side. Their faces weren't very good; they stood silently in the courtyard, gazing at the mourning hall in front.
Ke Xun saw the pancake stall owner among them, his face as white as paper, his legs trembling uncontrollably. When he approached him, a strong smell of urine wafted from him.
But no one would laugh at him at this moment.
A man in his thirties with a deep voice glanced at everyone and pointed to the main door: "Want to go in and take a look?"
Two or three people nodded; these people were clearly not new to this world of paintings.
The pancake stall owner let out a hoarse groan: "Don't—don't open that door! Are you crazy?! There's a ghost in that door! A ghost! You'll release the ghost! Are you looking for death?! I don't want to die! I don't want to die! Awooo—"
Suddenly, he seemed to collapse, turned and rushed out of the yard, disappearing into the gray morning mist.
"...Will he be alright?" Wei Dong hurriedly tried to pull Liu Yufei back.
He had eaten the owner's pancakes several times; they tasted good and were plentiful, and he really couldn't bear to see anything happen to the owner.
"What did I tell you last night?!" Liu Yufei forcefully shook off Wei Dong's hand, not wanting to talk to him anymore, and followed the man with the deep voice and the others who had nodded earlier, walking towards the main house.
"What did he tell you last night?" Ke Xun asked Wei Dong.
"How could I remember? I was so scared I forgot." Wei Dong frowned. "
Let's go in and see first." Ke Xun pointed to the main house.
As Ke Xun passed the paper effigy of a boy and a girl, he paused.
They were acting as if nothing had happened, a stark contrast to their behavior last night.
Ke Xun quickly glanced at the boy's face; the roughly drawn face was identical to the one that had been pressed against his face last night—the same crescent-shaped eyebrows, the same small red lips, the same lifeless, almond-shaped eyes.
Passing the paper figures, Ke Xun was about to step inside when Mu Yiran, standing at the door, turned and glanced at him: "It's not very interesting inside. Think it over before you go in."
Ke Xun raised an eyebrow and looked at Wei Dong beside him: "Do you want to see it?"
Wei Dong shook his head vigorously: "No! I'm afraid I'll have nightmares."
Ke Xun's lips twitched: "Our current situation isn't much different from a nightmare. If you don't want to see it, get out of the way."
"You want to go in and see it?" Wei Dong asked in surprise.
Ke Xun nodded: "I have to see. Even if I die, I have to die knowing why, otherwise I won't be at peace."
"Then...then how about...I go in with you?" Wei Dong looked like he was willing to risk his life for him.
"No need," Ke Xun pushed him away, "There are several people inside, you should stay away. Did you pee this morning?"
Wei Dong: "...No."
Ke Xun: "Go ahead."
Wei Dong: "Okay."
Watching Wei Dong walk a few steps away, Ke Xun turned back and met Mu Yiran's gaze.
Seeing that he was about to look away, Ke Xun stepped forward and suddenly smiled: "You stopped me from being the first to enter Dongzi's woodshed earlier, were you afraid that I would be shocked by something I couldn't accept? Is this what they call cold on the outside but warm on the inside?"
Mu Yiran ignored him and walked into the house. Ke Xun reached out and patted him lightly on the shoulder: "Thank you."
The last word stopped when he saw the scene inside the house.
The main room was indeed the mourning hall, draped with cloth banners, paper money, and ingots.
In the center was a large white character on a black background: "奠" (meaning "offering sacrifice"). The black coffin sat in the center of the room, with incense, candles, and offerings before it. Two prayer cushions and a copper basin for burning paper offerings were placed before the altar.
The three people with strips of cloth bearing the character "民" (meaning "people")
tied around their waists lay in different positions within the room. Their hemp robes were intact, without tears or visible wounds. However, looking at their faces, each had two bloody holes where their eyes should have been. Thick, dark blood covered their distorted, pale faces. Their mouths were gaping open, whether from fear or screams, revealing dark throats and a set of bluish-white teeth streaked with blood.
Two or three people, startled by the horrific sight, let out a low growl; another turned and fled the main room.
Ke Xun only glanced at the body and didn't want to look at it again, but then he saw the man in his early thirties walk up to the body, squat down and examine it carefully.
Ke Xun's attention was drawn to the coffin.
Although cremation was already common in his city, he had seen coffins on television before. His gaze suddenly paused as he examined it, and he pulled Mu Yiran's arm, whispering in his ear, "Look at this coffin—it's not even nailed in."
Mu Yiran's eyelids twitched, and he walked slowly and discreetly over, circling the coffin halfway around. Out of sight, he even reached out and touched it.
Ke Xun watched him, and when he returned, he asked in a low voice, "So, anything you found?"
Mu Yiran ignored him.
Ke Xun sighed, "If you don't tell me, I'm going to lift the coffin lid."
"You're asking for it," Mu Yiran said coldly.
"To correct you, it's 'fighting for survival.'" Ke Xun curled the corners of his mouth, giving a slight but not genuine smile. "Passively taking a beating is just waiting to die, and that's not my style. I need to find the answer. If there's no answer, I'll find the problem, find the problem, and then solve it. I don't want to die like these three. Did you see that? Their clothes are still relatively neat, and there's no sign that the things in the room have been disturbed. What does that mean?"
Mu Yiran didn't answer, but just looked at him calmly.
"This means these three people died without any resistance, not even a basic one," Ke Xun's voice turned cold. "They did nothing but scream. I don't want to die such a pathetic death. Even if the killing force is completely irresistible, I want to know what that force is before I die, and I want to put up every possible resistance. Even if I can't escape death in the end, at least I can say I've done right by my life."
Mu Yiran met Ke Xun's gaze for a moment before looking away, turning her gaze to the man squatting on the ground examining the corpse, and said in a deep voice, "He's a doctor, let's wait for his autopsy results."
Ke Xun didn't say anything more and stood aside to wait quietly.
Despite being called an autopsy, without the proper tools, only a simple examination could be performed. The doctor stood up after a long pause, glanced at the people in the room, then lowered his eyelids, his deep voice slowly rising: "These three people were scared to death. Their eyes were gouged out with a sharp weapon before they died. This weapon could be a very sharp, narrow dagger, or perhaps… a long, hard fingernail."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone involuntarily looked towards the coffin in the room.
"Let's examine this room more carefully," the doctor said calmly.
No one spoke; they silently dispersed, carefully and cautiously examining every corner of the mourning hall.
After all, they still needed to find the artist's signature or seal on the painting, and even though the scene before them was chilling, they had to grit their teeth and search carefully.
Ke Xun tore down a curtain and covered the faces of the three dead bodies.
Mu Yiran stood by the door, arms crossed, seemingly lost in thought.
Ke Xun searched the house but found no signatures or seals. Just as he was about to step out, he caught sight of the boy and girl by the door and turned back, asking Mu Yiran, "If I burned these two, what do you think would happen?"