"What's the use of crying!" Ke Xun was also exasperated. He shouted and grabbed the women, but their legs were already weak with fear. They stumbled every three steps and collapsed every five, barely managing to get very far.
"My God—" Ke Xun tugged at his hair. "It was right that I was gay, it was right—sisters, if we don't run, we'll die. Stop crying, run! If we run, we can live! The autograph is right ahead, I've seen it! Run! If we get ahead, we can live!"
These words gave the girls hope. They struggled and stumbled, desperately running after him.
However, the sound of giant hooves thundered from behind, mixed with a couple of barks.
"Listen! If the dog catches up, don't hide, just pounce on it!" Ke Xun shouted, "The dog is the autograph. Pounce on it and you can leave the painting, understand?"
No one had time to answer him; the girls were panting heavily.
The sounds of hooves and barking grew closer. Ke Xun couldn't be sure whether it would be cows or dogs first. If it was a dog, they would live; if it was a cow, they would die. He dared not gamble with the lives of these girls.
Unfortunately, they couldn't climb trees, otherwise it would be immediately clear whether it was a dog or a cow.
Thinking this, Ke Xun turned and climbed a tree: "Keep running! Listen to my signal! If it's a dog first, stop running! If it's a cow, keep running!"
Ke Xun climbed to the top of the tree as fast as he could and looked in the direction of the sound. He saw a large, short-haired golden dog charging towards them ahead of several giant cows!
"Stop running!—The dog is here! The autographs are here! Stop running!" Ke Xun shouted at the girls who had run ahead.
But, whether they were too frightened to hear him or refused to believe Ke Xun's claim that the dog was the autographs, the girls continued to run desperately forward, scattered by the dense trees, fleeing in different directions.
Ke Xun watched, gritting his teeth and shaking his head with a sigh.
There was no way around it; these girls were all newcomers to the painting studio. If they were veteran members, they would have stopped at his command.
Unfortunately, they weren't. They couldn't believe this absurd idea, process, and outcome. Even Bi Jing and Dong Dong might not have listened to him.
After all, the dog's barking sounded incredibly fierce, as if it wanted to tear anyone it caught to shreds.
This was a smokescreen, a trick to confuse those outside the painting studio.
Ke Xun sighed helplessly, watching the girls' retreating figures, then fixed his gaze on the approaching golden dog.
It was a Labrador Retriever, said to be the most loyal breed to humans.
Ke Xun thought that perhaps the painter, Lex, owned a Labrador.
The dog was almost upon them. Ke Xun prepared himself, and the instant the dog swept past the tree, he leaped down and mounted its back.
The large dog carried him forward, like a divine hound with savior powers, carrying humanity, mired in sorrow and suffering, towards a dazzling golden light shining in the forest.
On the way to the golden light, Ke Xun seemed to see scattered images flashing past on either side.
They were horrifying scenes: dogs beaten until they were covered in blood, dogs poisoned until they foamed at the mouth, dogs with their tails, limbs, and eyes gouged out, dogs covered in countless cigarette burns, dogs that had been killed shortly after birth by being thrown to the ground, strangled, drowned, disemboweled, or even skinned.
And then there were the dogs repeatedly abused and abandoned by their owners, yet each time they returned to their owners' door, silently waiting.
Deep within the golden light, a picture frame adorned with cartoon dog heads emerged. Ke Xun, dragged along by the Labrador beneath him, rushed inside: "Holy crap! Wait—Mu Yi—"
He tumbled and scrambled onto the exhibition hall floor. Without a second thought, Ke Xun leaped up and lunged at the painting on the wall. However, at this moment, the painting was merely a painting, hanging there quietly and coldly, displaying its bizarre and grotesque imagery.
Ke Xun saw a cat in the distance of the painting, dressed in a strange and ridiculous office lady outfit, with a pair of bright red high heels on its paws.
However, the sharp heel of one of the high heels was viciously piercing the mouth of a thin human, penetrating directly through his skull, gushing out with blood.
The human's body was almost entirely devoid of intact skin; besides cigarette burns, there were marks of being doused with boiling water and having his skin torn off.
The human's fingernails had been removed, leaving his fingertips a bloody mess. But the most gruesome sight was his genitals, castrated without any medical intervention, blood gushing out in torrents.
Ke Xun looked at the human's face and saw it was Bi Jing.
He had been carried away by the cow, changing hands several times before ending up in the hands of this cat—or rather, a glamorous and elegant white-collar worker.
Ke Xun didn't want to look anymore, but he was forced to continue searching the painting. He wasn't looking for Mu Yiran and Wei Dong; he hoped no one else would appear in the painting.
But unfortunately, he saw the faces of the four girls. One was heavily pregnant, made into a kebab dish; another was placed in the center of a specially made table, her head wedged into the surface, her skull opened to reveal a bright red human brain, a pot of hot oil being poured over it, causing her expression to contort in agony. Clearly, she wasn't completely dead yet.
This seemed to be the legendary practice of eating monkey brains alive.
Ke Xun turned his head away, panting heavily.
He had no time to think about why the girl had suddenly become pregnant, nor did he want to examine how the remaining two girls had been "drawn." He didn't even have the courage to check the rest of the drawing to confirm that Mu Yiran and the others were safe.
Ke Xun thought of the famous manga "The Black Chapter," and he felt like Sensui Shinobu on the verge of turning evil, not wanting to be human, but only wanting to become a demon.
Just as he was in this daze, a force suddenly struck him from the drawing, knocking him backward and onto the ground. Immediately afterward, he felt a series of heavy objects pressing down on him.
"Damn it... this human pyramid is too rough..." Ke Xun groaned in pain as he lay at the bottom. "Get up, all of you... just lie down, it's fine."
Looking at Mu Yiran, who was pressed against him, Ke Xun thought, what's the point of becoming a demon? It's better to be human.
Because in the human world, there is Mu Yiran.
Before leaving the exhibition hall, everyone couldn't help but look back at the intense and extreme "Animal World."
The golden Labrador seemed out of place in the overall composition.
It wasn't a dog kept by giant cows; its presence was one of equality and harmony with both cows and humans.
It existed outside the frame, yet was embedded within this world, guarding the edge of the forest, always ready to help any creature in need or distress.
Its bark was fierce, but its eyes were kind.
Those who trusted and treated it kindly found redemption. Those who misunderstood or rejected it pushed themselves away from its help, cutting off their own path to survival within the painting.
The label below the painting read the artist's self-introduction:
Lex, an intense and extreme dog owner.
This painting is dedicated to my loyal friend, Bobbie.
"Bobbie was his dog. He was stolen and found dead by a trash can two months later, having suffered cruel abuse before his death." Mu Yiran's voice message rang in the "Jin Hua Lun" WeChat group. "In fact, the name Bobbie is based on a famous dog in history. That dog, also named Bobbie, got lost from his owner while traveling a long distance. After a six-month journey, walking four million meters, with severely injured toes and exposed bones, he still persevered in finding his owner and their home."
"Perhaps Lex, after his own dog went missing, also hoped day and night for it to be found. Unfortunately, this isn't 'Animal World'." Zhu Haowen's calm and indifferent voice concluded the painting's adventure.
Ke Xun hadn't appeared in the group for many days, hadn't called any group members, and hadn't even left the house.
When Wei Dong came looking for him, he was curled up in a beanbag chair, like a half-dead dog.
"Are you in seclusion meditating?" Wei Dong kicked him. "We guys asked you to go out for some skewers and drinks and you wouldn't go. I called you and you didn't answer. I had to come all this way to see if you'd died at home."
Ke Xun rolled over on the sofa, listless. "I think I might be a little depressed."
"Depressed my ass," Wei Dong cursed. "Everyone in the world is depressed and you wouldn't be. Stop whining and get up and come out and have some fun with me."
"Even dogs can get depression, why can't I?" Ke Xun closed his eyes, still half-dead.
Wei Dong looked at the man's rounder, plumper buttocks, which were even fuller than a Corgi's, and sneered, "Then why don't we take advantage of the remaining ten days or so and go to S City to visit Boss Mu?"
The Corgi wiggled its butt and sprang up from the sofa, "Let's go! You go home and pack your things, I'll buy the tickets."
Wei Dong: "...Are you depressed?"
"Depression my ass," Ke Xun said, "I'm meditating, what do I know?"
Wei Dong: "Then please tell me what kind of meditation you're meditating on first."
Ke Xun: "Joyful meditation."
Wei Dong: "Heh."
However, the two of them couldn't go to S City. Wei Dong still had to go to work—their family was just an ordinary family, and if he didn't work, the financial pressure would be greater. Besides, these past few times he had to go to the painting studio, he couldn't always catch the weekend. Sometimes he had to go to the local area a day in advance to find a hotel to stay overnight. In total, he had already taken several days off and could only use overtime during the week to avoid the crisis of his boss firing him.
Ke Xun finally overcame his "depression," went to his own gym twice, took a walk alone, watched a movie, played some billiards, went to the supermarket, bought various ingredients, and then stayed home, cooking for himself, surfing the internet, and occasionally chatting with the members of the "Jinhua Lun" group.
Mu Yiran was very busy; nine out of ten times when Ke Xun tried to contact her on WeChat, she was unavailable, and the last time she gave Ke Xun a rather unfriendly look.
Corgi: [Selfie.jpg]
Corgi: Yiran, Yiran, look! Even the mark I left on my face while sleeping is the shape of a heart.
Mooney: ...
Mooney: What's this?
Corgi: The heart-shaped mark left on my face by my pillow.
Mooney: Ke Xun, I'm busy. Don't bother me unless it's important.
Corgi: I have something very important to tell you.
Mooney: Go ahead.
Corgi: Mu Yiran, let's date.
Mooney: ...
Mooney: [Selfie.jpg]
Corgi: What's this?
Mooney: The mark left by a heavy punch to the sandbag.
Corgi: ...
Mooney: Stop bothering me.
Corgi: Okay. [What else can I do? I chose this little tyrant, I have to spoil him even if I have to cry.jpg]