After bracing the door shut, Wei Dong felt a surge of unease. Looking at the two cans of paint already stored, he suddenly lost the will to continue.
He went to the window, which was secured from the inside, so it should be relatively safe.
Soon, Ke Xun came into view, and Wei Dong stared intently as Ke Xun ran into the maze.
Just then, Shi Zhendong's voice came from the doorway: "Is Ke Xun alright? Why did he suddenly run out? Xiao Miao? What are you doing? Xiao Miao! Xiao Miao!!"
Miao Zipei's voice was a mix of excitement and pain: "Don't stop me! I never force anyone! But don't hinder my freedom! I'm willing to sacrifice for this painting! I'm willing to contribute my colors!"
Wei Dong hesitated, but trusted Ke Xun's words more, so he didn't move or speak.
Soon, Wei Dong saw Miao Zipei rushing past the window, and Shi Zhendong chasing after him, disappointed and unable to catch up.
Wei Dong hesitated, but dared not act rashly.
Finally, Ke Xun and Mu Yiran arrived from the maze. Wei Dong breathed a sigh of relief, moved the tables and chairs blocking the door, and prepared to leave.
But then he heard Qin Ci urgently say, "Everyone hurry to the colorless room in the middle! The signature is in that room!"
Wei Dong didn't know who to believe for a moment. The door opened slightly, and Mu Yiran returned to the purple room, gestured for Wei Dong to come out, and then turned and left.
Soon, the sound of nailing planks echoed in the hall, quite loudly. When Wei Dong went out to see what was happening, he saw the entire group nailing planks to the door of the middle room—this room, which should have been red, had turned colorless because Zhang Tianwei and He Yu had left at the same time.
From inside the room came Shi Zhendong's voice: "What are you doing?! Why are you locking me up?! We need to get Xiao Miao back! He's going to hand over his yellow color to Shadow! Xiao Miao has been bewitched, and what we need to do is save him!"
Mu Yiran and Qin Ci were in charge of nailing the door shut. A moment later, Zhu Haowen and Ke Xun came in from outside, carrying tools like hammers: "The windows are nailed shut from the outside too, no one can get out."
"Nonsense! What are you trying to do!" Shi Zhendong finally lost his temper and shouted from inside, "We should stop Xiao Miao now! Let me out right now!"
Standing outside the door were five old members who had gone through many paintings together. At this moment, everyone was silent.
Shi Zhendong roared from inside, seemingly frightened: "Is anyone there? Where are they? Where did you all go?!"
Ke Xun stared at the nailed-up wooden door, a complex expression on his face: "Brother Shi, you didn't say that about Xiao Miao just now. You said that if he really did something like suicidal, color-polluting, we probably wouldn't be able to stop him."
"I..." Shi Zhendong pounded on the door again, "That's no reason for you to lock me up! I'm afraid that history, like when Xiao Guo hurt Mi Wei, will repeat itself! If Xiao Miao takes advantage of someone's inattention and hurts any of us, that's something no one wants to see!" "
Right now, Shadow desperately needs the color yellow. I'm afraid Miao Zipei isn't in the mood to hurt anyone," Ke Xun said.
Wei Dong nodded vigorously beside him, "I just heard Xiao Miao say that he was willing to sacrifice himself for this painting and would never force anyone else."
The room fell silent, and Shi Zhendong's voice slowly regained its previous rationality: "What exactly is your purpose? Why are you controlling my movements?"
Ke Xun looked around the hall. The reflective glass cabinet doors had been temporarily blocked with wooden boards. "When someone is alone in the hall, they are easily influenced by shadows. Besides our shadows on the floor, this includes all reflective objects, such as mirrors, glass, and even our own reflections in our eyes."
Shi Zhendong remained silent inside.
Ke Xun continued, "I was almost bewitched this morning. The shadow that bewitched me came from the reflection on the glass cabinet door. I couldn't understand how I could be sitting at such an awkward angle, facing the glass cabinet door directly. You know, putting the chair in that position is actually quite awkward.
"When you and Miao Zipei came out of the bathroom, I already noticed that Miao Zipei was bewitched. You pulled out a chair and asked me to sit down to talk about this. I noticed that the chair was in the exact same position as this morning, perfectly reflecting my image onto the glass cabinet door. I became suspicious then. Thinking back, it was you who invited me to sit down for breakfast this morning. You led me to that dangerous seat."
"Because of my past experiences, I tried to avoid looking at the glass cabinet door, but when I looked into your eyes while speaking, and saw my own reflection in them, I almost fell for it again. —Three coincidences, are they really all just coincidences?
"Just now you kept emphasizing to me to find a way to protect myself and not to make unnecessary sacrifices to stop Miao Zipei — actually you were buying time for Miao Zipei, and you foresaw that Miao Zipei's sacrifice would be suicidal, perhaps he was influenced by your suggestion."
Shi Zhendong's laughter came from inside the door: "Xiao Ke, you're really joking, I don't have that kind of ability, stop thinking nonsense, open the door quickly, we don't have much time!"
Mu Yiran spoke again: "I've always had doubts about Guo Lixia being influenced. Yesterday morning, you were in a bad mood because of Xin Beibei, and you went down from the fourth floor to the second floor alone. About two minutes later, Guo Lixia was worried about you, so she came downstairs to check on you. About two or three minutes later, we all went downstairs together, and we saw Guo Lixia talking to you on the second floor."
"Based on that timeframe, Guo Lixia had almost no time to be alone in the second-floor lobby, while you had two minutes alone there. During that time, you were bewitched, and then immediately bewitched Guo Lixia, who came to enlighten you."
Shi Zhendong chuckled, "You make me sound like the mastermind behind it all. Tell me, how did I bewitch Guo Lixia?"
"Because I couldn't figure this out before, I couldn't make a judgment. After listening to Ke Xun's words today, I understand that you used your eyes back then," Mu Yiran said slowly.
"Then why didn't the clock change? Every person who is bewitched will cause the clock face to change color," Shi Zhendong argued confidently.
"That's a misunderstanding," Mu Yiran said. "The clock will only change when people accidentally wander into other rooms or actually contaminate the colors—and you, you've only been following the prompts the image gave you, without actually contaminating the colors. Therefore, you won't be suspected by anyone, nor will you be swallowed by the shadows—because you haven't violated the conditions for death.
"All those who are bewitched will not become strangers; they will retain their original personalities, only becoming more extreme in certain aspects. Similarly, these people will be limited by their own intelligence and emotional intelligence, creating events with different styles."
"Mr. Shi, you are much smarter than the previous ones. You are very good at lying in wait. More than 24 hours have passed since yesterday morning, yet you have been patiently searching for the right target and opportunity. Your action today is to use Ke Xun to cover up Miao Zipei—your main target today is Miao Zipei, because the shadow desperately needs the color yellow."
Ke Xun had not thought of this: "You mean…"
The person who answered him was Zhu Haowen: "Once he successfully bewitches you, he will push you into the limelight, attracting everyone's attention to you, thus providing cover for Miao Zipei."
Suddenly, Shi Zhendong's laughter echoed from the room: "You young folks are quite something, but it's too late now! Even I don't know where Miao Zipei went. He went straight into that group of black buildings! You have no chance of finding him!"
Silence followed Shi Zhendong's reply, as if no one was outside anymore.
Indeed, the outer hall was empty. The group quietly left through the main gate, first checking the first three floors of the circular building, but finding no trace of Miao Zipei, they went directly to the building in the very center of the castle.
"Is it the middle window on the third floor?" Qin Ci looked up, estimating the distance.
Everyone nodded. Earlier in the maze, Mu Yiran had discovered a mystery through observation—
when standing at the northeast corner of the maze looking towards the castle, a bright light reflected from a glass window. Because there was no sunlight in this world, this reflected light was very strange, and should be a sign.
"Did you check this room when you came here yesterday?" Wei Dong asked.
"The buildings here are all pitch black. It was practically impossible to move around inside. Even with our cell phone lights, we couldn't see anything. We barely made it to two rooms before we had to grope our way out." Qin Ci tried climbing the protruding rocks on the building's exterior and found that reaching the third floor wasn't impossible.
Zhu Haowen followed Ke Xun up, saying, "Hopefully, there's a bright world inside this window."
The five veteran members, some faster, some slower, all reached the third floor. Ke Xun was about to use the prepared stone to break the glass window when he discovered it wasn't latched. With a gentle pull from the outside, the window opened completely.
True to Zhu Haowen's good wishes, the room was indeed very bright. When they
first entered, it was so bright it was almost blinding. But
once their eyes adjusted and they could finally see clearly, they were all astonished.
The ceiling, floor, and faceted walls of the room were all made of mirrors. Walking in was like entering the interior of a diamond, with everyone's image refracted hundreds and thousands of times in every corner.
Ke Xun looked at the room full of "people" and felt a little dizzy.
"Everyone, be careful not to be fooled by your own reflections," Zhu Haowen said.
"This... this is hard not to be fooled!" Wei Dong rubbed his eyes, looking at the crowded people in the mirror, unable to even see himself.
Qin Ci cautiously stopped in his tracks: "I feel something's wrong. These people in the mirror aren't just us."
Wei Dong let out a low shout and took two steps back: "That one over there, that's Zhang Tianwei!"
Ke Xun looked over there and saw Xin Beibei peeking out and smiling at him in a mirror on the ceiling. The smile was somewhat narcissistic, as if the girl was taking a selfie with her phone.
"Should we still go in?" Qin Ci hesitated, then saw He Yu looking up at everyone in a mirror on the floor. Suddenly, he leaned his whole face in and started drawing bright red patterns on the mirror with his hand dipped in paint.
"Miao Zipei! Are you there?!" Ke Xun suddenly shouted.