"But that old man looks like he's going to eat people—literally, literally eat people!" Wei Dong said, his face filled with lingering fear. "I don't think you'll get any information from him, and you might even become his lunch—speaking of which, I think our lunch might be ruined too. That old man has mutated, and I'm guessing he's forgotten how to cook human food…"
Mu Yiran ignored his rambling: "Even if he's mutated to the point of being unable to answer questions, we still need to go into his inner room to look for clues."
Wei Dong shuddered: "You're practically pulling teeth from a tiger's mouth! It's too dangerous, Ke'er, you should persuade him."
Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran: "Are you really going?"
Mu Yiran didn't answer, only giving him a blank look.
Ke Xun: "I'll go with you."
Wei Dong: "..."
Ma Zhenhua stammered, "I...can I not come? I can continue looking for the seal elsewhere first..."
Zhang Maolin quickly followed, "I'll look for the seal first too, we won't delay each other."
Before the rest of them could respond, Mu Yiran calmly said, "If you're not afraid, you can search the mourning hall at Li's residence more carefully. We've already searched the rest of the village; the mourning hall and the old man's house are the most likely places left. We'll meet back here in an hour."
Ke Xun also pulled Wei Dong aside and whispered to him... "Be careful. If you don't see me by nightfall, I guess I'm dead. You have a key to my house. If you can leave this place, go to my house. My property certificate, all the licenses and documents for the gym, my ID card, and my bank cards are all in the flowerpot with the fake cactus on the balcony. All the passwords for things that require a PIN are the last six digits of my ID card. You can donate my savings for me. Rent out the house, and use the rent to buy new equipment for the gym. All the gym's income will be distributed to my buddies who are partners with me. The 1TB of movies on my computer is yours."
"Get lost! That 1TB you've stored up is all calcium supplements, I don't need it!" Wei Dong cursed, then grabbed Ke Xun's arm worriedly. "You really want to go? Just for him? It can't be that bad, can it? There are plenty of fish in the sea, why risk your life for this one? You've only known him for a few days, and besides, what are the chances he's gay like you? You're losing out by going for a straight guy?"
"What are you thinking? It's for him, and for ourselves. Our physical education department's motto is: you reap what you sow. We can't always expect them to put in the effort while we sit back and wait for the results," Ke Xun said. "Besides, you forgot, my intuition is always very accurate."
"So?" Wei Dong asked, confused.
Ke Xun smiled and turned to walk towards Mu Yiran.
The two groups split up.
Mu Yiran and Ke Xun arrived outside the old man's courtyard. Mu Yiran stopped and looked at Ke Xun: "Are you really going to come in with me?"
"Not only do I want to come in with you, but I also want to come out with you," Ke Xun said.
"I'm afraid not," Mu Yiran said. "If you don't intend to change your mind, then listen to my arrangements."
Ke Xun replied, "Okay, go ahead."
Mu Yiran scrutinized him. "You go first through the courtyard gate, and carefully walk towards the house entrance. If the old man chases after you, try to distract him. I will take the opportunity to enter the house and search his inner room. During this time, I hope you can stall him for as long as possible. Can you do that?"
"I have a question," Ke Xun said. "This old man can't be judged by normal standards. What if he runs faster than me?"
"Since you and Wei Dong were able to escape from his house just now, you will definitely be able to escape this time as well," Mu Yiran said. "In fact, you escaped too quickly just now, getting out of his control, which allowed you to shake him off completely. So this time, you need to be careful not to let him catch up, nor to leave him too far behind. Always maintain a safe distance and lead him out of this courtyard. Try to keep him outside for as long as possible. If I can finish my business ahead of schedule, I will come to find you, and then we will shake him off. So, any other questions?"
"Yes," Ke Xun said. "What's your phone number?"
Mu Yiran replied coldly, "If there's no problem, come in."
Ke Xun stretched his legs and limbs, then gestured to Mu Yiran, "You hide over there by the door. I'll lure the old man out this way."
Mu Yiran obeyed and stood on the other side of the door. Ke Xun strode through the courtyard gate.
Mu Yiran watched his back as he walked towards the door almost without hesitation. His usual carefree and lazy demeanor vanished, replaced by an upright back and a powerful, elastic gait, making him look like a truly sharp character… a physical education graduate.
The sharp-looking Ke Xun reached the doorway.
The door was closed, obscuring the view inside.
Ke Xun didn't want to waste time imagining what was happening, so he pushed the door open.
With a creak, a dim light streamed into the dark room. The old man stood motionless in the middle of the room, like a walking corpse.
The instant he saw Ke Xun, his ashen, lifeless face suddenly split open, his dark gums and mouth widening like a bottomless abyss until it exceeded the limit of a human mouth, and then he lunged at Ke Xun with his gaping maw. Ke Xun
turned and ran, judging the distance between them by the sound of the wind behind him and the old man's footsteps.
This was Ke Xun's specialty; during his school days, he participated in numerous competitions, large and small, where sound-based positioning of opponents was crucial for adjusting game tactics.
Ke Xun controlled the distance between himself and the old man, maintaining about five steps at a time, and ran out of the courtyard gate, one after the other.
Mu Yiran only entered the courtyard quickly after Ke Xun and the old man had disappeared from his sight, heading straight for the old man's inner room.
Ke Xun dared not head towards the locust tree, fearing he would encounter the others, so he led the old man back and forth through the village.
He thought about it and realized that only he could do this job; others wouldn't have his speed or stamina.
His current speed wasn't his maximum, but by ordinary standards, it was already quite fast. If Wei Dong hadn't been held back, the old man would have already overtaken him, let alone maintaining that speed continuously, and possibly running for several tens of minutes to give Mu Yiran ample time. There was
one thing Ke Xun didn't quite understand: if the old man wasn't a real person, but rather one of those "things," its "competitive ability" shouldn't be inferior to a human's.
Mu Yiran had said that if they didn't follow the rules of the painting, they would suffer an irresistible backlash. And the events of the past two nights had proven that those "things" that had appeared before, despite having ways to avoid harm, were simply lucky or by chance. If they had actually encountered them head-on, they would have had no hope of survival.
In other words, the power within the painting, no matter how predictable, could not be directly resisted.
But this old man was different.
This old man couldn't outrun him.
Wasn't that strange?
Ke Xun thought to himself, and couldn't help but turn his head for a glance.
What he saw nearly made him trip over.
He no longer knew what was chasing him. A gaping, black hole covered his entire head, and two withered hands stretched forward, their long, slender fingers joining the thin, bony arms like three gnarled, twisted locust trees.
The most dangerous thing was the old man's abdomen.
Because he was running so fast, his clothes were blown backward by the wind, clinging tightly to his body, clearly outlining a bulge on his abdomen.
It was a face.
Full of features, with a vivid expression.
This face was crying.
Its mouth was wide open, screaming in agony, throbbing and struggling with the old man's running movements.
Ke Xun felt itchy all over and couldn't help but scratch his stomach.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through his mind: itchy… itchy all over… last night's experience…
After running for an unknown amount of time, when he finally saw Mu Yiran's figure appear ahead, Ke Xun shouted, "Boss, this thing—is a deformed creature!"
Mu Yiran made a gesture and disappeared around the corner. Ke Xun quickened his pace and left the old man behind a few minutes later.
Mu Yiran waited on the only road leading to the locust tree. Seeing Ke Xun striding towards them, and noticing that despite running at such a fast pace for so long, the man was only slightly out of breath, looking as if he had just warmed up.
Even Mu Yiran was somewhat envious of such stamina.
"This old man is a deformed child too," Ke Xun stepped forward. "He has an extra face on his stomach, and I suspect he also has an extra brain inside. Even if he can't think, he can still control the expressions on that face. Are there any clues in his house?"
Mu Yiran: "Yes. Cypress wood."
"He made Li Guaiguai's coffin?" Ke Xun was surprised. "Both are deformed children, why are they fighting each other?"
"His name is Li Mazi," Mu Yiran glanced at him. "He's Li Guaiguai's father, and also his…brother."
Ke Xun froze. "I feel like I've learned something terrible."
Mu Yiran was expressionless. "This village, because of its isolation and backwardness, retains many ignorant and perverse customs. Because many people marry close relatives, and the medical level is low, the survival rate of offspring is not high. In addition, there are more men than women. For the sake of reproduction, a system of communal wives gradually emerged with the consensus of the villagers."
"…Isolation and backwardness are terrible." Ke Xun was speechless.
"Actually, the chance of birth defects in babies born from consanguineous marriage is only 4%," Mu Yiran continued. "Many of these deformed children don't even live to adulthood and die prematurely, some even in infancy. People like Li Mazi and Li Guaiguai who grew up to adulthood are probably a minority in this village."
"I wonder if that's lucky or unlucky," Ke Xun said.
"Of course it's not lucky," Mu Yiran looked at him. "Can you imagine what kind of life someone so deformed, almost like a demon, had in the village from childhood to adulthood?"