"What's going on—" Yuan Yuan cried out in terror, "Is it me? Is it going to kill me? Help—help—save me—save me—"
"Yuan'er—Yuan'er—" Dong Dong was anxious and desperately jumped up to reach Yuan Yuan, but the giant bull was too tall, holding Yuan Yuan in mid-air, still several floors above the ground.
"What do we do?! What do we do?! Is there any way? Tell me! Tell me quickly!" Dong Dong frantically grabbed Qin Ci's shoulder, "Save him—please, save him—"
Qin Ci looked at him with pity and helplessness: "There's no way. The gap is too big. We can only try to avoid the power in the painting, but there's no way to confront it head-on."
"No—no—Yuan'er—Yuan'er—" Dong Dong watched Yuan Yuan struggling desperately as the giant bull gripped his neck, his cries heart-wrenching. However, reality left him so powerless and helpless. He could only watch helplessly as he and another person from the painting, carried away by the giant bull, struggled and cried, pitifully making their last effort to save their lives, like ants trying to shake a tree.
The giant bull carried the two away unhurriedly. All the cubicles erupted in chaotic noise. Some were screaming, some were laughing, some were singing, and some were still fighting wildly.
They seemed both accustomed to it all and foolishly unaware of it all. Like a pack of truly domesticated animals, only knowing how to eat, drink, and excrete, oblivious to their fate as predators, they foolishly reveled, foolishly indulged in a life of debauchery, and foolishly only realized the tragedy of their lives at the very last moment.
Dong Dong knelt on the ground, weeping. No one came to comfort him, for no words could console him in his current state.
Wei Dong, his eyes red with sorrow, slowly walked to Ke Xun's side and sat down, whispering, "If I die, you don't need to be so sad. Death is just a matter of a moment; once you're dead, there's no more pain, no more knowledge, nothing to be sad or heartbroken about."
"I can endure the sadness," Ke Xun said, resting his arms on his knees, his gaze gently falling on a void before him, "but I can't endure not missing you."
"You motherfucker..." Wei Dong choked out, pressing his hand to his mouth, refusing to speak further.
As everyone remained silent, someone in the dormitory suddenly shouted, "Look! What are they doing?"
Looking in the direction of the voice, they saw through the fence window the scene outside the farmhouse's courtyard.
The giant bull that had been carrying Yuan Yuan and three or four others who had been carried out earlier had entered the courtyard. Another giant bull, with a huge, narrow-bladed knife tucked into its hoof, came into view. Two more giant bulls had appeared, setting up a large table and chairs and a copper pot burning charcoal in the yard.
Ke Xun suddenly realized something, turned to look at Mu Yiran, and Mu Yiran, receiving his gaze, got up and walked to Dong Dong, who was still sobbing uncontrollably. He reached out and grabbed Dong Dong by the neck, quickly knocking him unconscious.
Several of the other people from the painting gathered at the window, peering out. The window was large enough that even without approaching, they could see the scene outside the courtyard.
A huge lamp was lit, and the giant bulls set up tables and chairs, serving several plates of various vegetables and dipping sauces, and tossing what appeared to be hot pot broth into a copper pot to cook.
On the other side, one giant bull placed a massive wooden tub, gripping a sharp knife. Another bull weighed the humans it was carrying, handing over the fattest one, Yuan Yuan.
Yuan Yuan's terrified screams echoed throughout the courtyard and farmhouse, stirring up a chaotic commotion inside.
The bull wielding the knife moved with leisurely practice, pointing the tip at Yuan Yuan's throat and making a deep cut.
Thick blood gushed into the giant tub beneath him. Yuan Yuan could no longer make a sound, only struggle in agony, unable to move an inch between the bull's hooves.
The bull lifted him upside down, head to toe, to make the blood flow faster and more thoroughly, until Yuan Yuan gradually stopped struggling, hanging motionless on the bull's hooves, bleeding silently.
When the blood in Yuan Yuan's cavity had been drained, the giant bull used the tip of its knife to cut open Yuan Yuan's belly, removing his internal organs and intestines, throwing them into a basin beside the bucket. Then, it rinsed the abdominal cavity clean with water, peeled off the skin, and one of the giant bulls came over, took a specially made knife, and skillfully and deftly sliced Yuan Yuan, leaving only flesh and bone,
into thin slices. The slices were then plated and served to the giant bulls' table. A chopstick picked up a piece, tossed it into the pot, stirred it, and blood foam rose to
the surface. After a few boils, the foam turned into a cloudy white residue, which was skimmed off the side of the pot. When the soup boiled, several pairs of chopsticks reached in, picked up the thin, grayish-pink slices of meat, dipped them in the sauce, and fed them to the giant bulls.
The clinking of bowls, chopsticks, and dishes gradually grew louder, accompanied by the mooing of the giant bulls, which sounded like laughter, clearly carried through the windows into the farmhouse.
Ke Xun heard people saying "It smells so good," "I want to eat more," and "Oh my god, they're dead!" but no one thought about "whether it will be my turn tomorrow."
Wei Dong and Bi Jing were vomiting in the corner, while Qin Ci and Zhu Haowen sat away from the window, their heads turned towards the gate.
Only Mu Yiran stood beside him, his face calm and serene.
Seeing Ke Xun turn to look at him, Mu Yiran looked back and said, "The result was as expected."
"It seems that the positions of humans and cows have been switched in this painting," Ke Xun said. "But don't cows only eat grass?"
"In this painting, you can think of them as carnivores," Mu Yiran said. "To be precise, you can think of them as humans."
"There's nothing more terrifying than thinking of them as humans," Ke Xun said with a sneer. "I hope they don't think about eating hot pot every meal, after all, it's bad for their health—if they have the same bad habits as humans."
The giant cows' dinner lasted until midnight. After a long rest, the cows, full and satisfied, cleaned up the mess on the table and then took hoses into the farmhouse to wash and clean it. They flushed human excrement and leftover garbage into the troughs dug in each compartment, and only left after cleaning it up.
Several people in the painting lay down on the wet ground and fell asleep immediately, while the people outside the painting were still a little uncomfortable and stood up.
Ke Xun was squatting there fiddling with something. Qin Ci leaned over to take a look and saw him fiddling with several Coke bottles. He couldn't help but wonder, "Weren't these washed away by the water?"
"This guy pulled me behind him to block these things. That cow was drunk and didn't notice," Wei Dong said, shaking off the water that had splashed all over him while trying to block the bottles.
"What are you keeping these bottles for?" Bi Jing asked hurriedly.
Ke Xun ignored him and just kept fiddling with his head down. In a short while, he had arranged nine Coke bottles of the same size in three rows and three columns, tightly binding them together with transparent tape he had scraped from other food packaging bags. Then he carried them to Mu Yiran's side, bent down, and placed the bottles upside down next to his legs, saying in a low voice, "Sit down."
Everyone: "..."
Mu Yiran paused, then said, "Thank you." Sure enough, he sat down on the bottle stool, which was surprisingly sturdy.
Despite his heavy heart, Wei Dong couldn't help but mutter to Ke Xun, who was walking back to him with his head down, "How about I reluctantly let you be my temporary boyfriend for a few days? Take care of me a little, okay?"
"Stop fantasizing about me, a good gay man doesn't serve two husbands," Ke Xun said.
Wei Dong: "...You're such a chaste gay man. Sigh...So, is tonight over?"
Ke Xun: "Yeah, looks like it, unless they want an extra midnight snack."
Wei Dong: "I wonder what Dong Dong will be like when he wakes up tomorrow."
Ke Xun: "If I were him, I would pull myself together, try to survive, and then make arrangements for Yuan Yuan's family."
Indeed, Dong Dong was very strong. The next morning, upon waking, he didn't dwell on his friend's death, but sat silently, refusing to touch the breakfast the giant ox offered.
After breakfast, the giant ox opened the gate to the enclosure, letting people move freely on the lawn outside the farmhouse.
Outside the frame, people gathered, consciously moving around to survey the terrain.
However, as Mu Yiran had said, the farm was indeed too large and vast. After spending the entire morning, they still couldn't find the edge of the farm. But behind this farmhouse, they saw another farmhouse in the distance, and on the grass in front of it, dozens of naked women were sitting or lying in small groups.
"My two classmates must be over there!" Bi Jing, unable to see anything clearly, jumped up and down anxiously after hearing everyone's description.
"So, what do you do? Go over there or let them come over?" Ke Xun asked.
"..." Bi Jing stopped jumping and muttered listlessly, "I...I just wanted a companion..."
"You don't consider us companions, do you?" Wei Dong sneered from the side.
"No, no..." Bi Jing stopped talking and backed away, but accidentally stepped on the foot of one of the figures in the painting.
The person shoved him hard and said coldly, "Are you blind?! Are you looking for death?!"
Bi Jing was so scared that he quickly apologized, but the person was not satisfied and grabbed Bi Jing's hair, trying to slam his head against his knee.
Dong Dong suddenly sprang up, rushed forward and punched the person to the ground, then followed without saying a word, pinning the person down and beating him to death with a desperate stance.
Bi Jing was frightened by Dong Dong, and stammered as he backed away and dodged. Ke Xun stepped forward to try to stop Dong Dong, but was pushed away by him and was unable to stop him.
Dong Dong, like a madman, relentlessly pounded the man's head with his fists, leaving the man's skin torn and blood streaming down his face, yet Dong Dong still wouldn't stop.
Perhaps Yuan Yuan's death had deeply shocked and irritated him; he seemed to want to vent all the grief and resentment caused by this shock through violence.
Ke Xun wanted to step forward to stop him again, but was blocked by a group of people from the painting who suddenly surged forward, shouting and blocking his way. The group surrounded Dong Dong and the man from the painting who was being beaten, some jeering, some cursing, and some even taking the opportunity to help with the underhanded fighting, but no one stepped forward to stop them.
Just as the commotion reached its peak, someone suddenly shouted, and the group fell silent. They saw a man named Mo Mou slowly approaching, surrounded by a group of people. The crowd immediately parted to make way for him.
Mo Mou walked up to Dong Dong, who was still throwing punches, and kicked him in the shoulder, sending the 1.9-meter-tall man flying six or seven meters.
Dong Dong got up and charged at Mo Mou, fists swung, but Mo Mou, like a rooster, was arrogant, cold, sharp, and coldly staring at Dong Dong.
Dong Dong pounced, throwing punches and kicks, but Mo Mou dodged them all. Mo Mou's counterattacks were swift and powerful, each punch landing hard and causing Dong Dong to stagger.
Ke Xun finally managed to squeeze into the inner circle from the outside and was about to stop Dong Dong's renewed attack when he heard a cow moo in the distance: "Moo—"
Mo Mou suddenly turned around and walked towards the direction of the cow's moo.
Wei Dong sidled up to Ke Xun, watching Mo Mou's retreating figure: "No wonder he's called Mo Mou, that moo from the cow just now sounded like 'Mo Mou'..."
It turned out this was the nickname the giant bull gave to its "animals"...
Ke Xun gazed into the distance as a giant bull strode towards them. People scattered in panic, peering furtively at the bull.
The bull approached, glanced at the man Dong Dong had beaten to the ground, then at Dong Dong, Ke Xun, and Wei Dong standing together. After a moment's consideration, it finally extended its massive hoof, grabbed Dong Dong, and, carrying the struggling man, headed towards a distant farmhouse.