The red character for "rain" was written with great difficulty, especially the last stroke, the second dot on the right, which seemed to slide down completely.
One could imagine Yu Ji's state while writing it, perhaps even near the end, when he was already beyond saving.
"Yu Ji's internal organs were ruptured, yet he still insisted on finishing this character," Ke Xun examined the area around the character again. There were no other markings, only this solitary "rain." "I don't think this is a last will and testament; it's more like a signal. Yu Ji was in too much pain to wake Qin Ci, so he could only use blood to leave a message on the wall?"
"They were in a room last night. If Yu Ji wanted to say something, he would have said it last night," Mu Yiran tried to examine the character "rain" from multiple angles but shook her head slightly. "Yu Ji, however, struggled to write it in his last moments; it seems more like a response to an emergency."
"You mean, Yu Ji saw something before he died, or perhaps he received a phone call before he died?" Ke Xun's thoughts followed Mu Yiran closely.
Mu Yiran went over to check the phone in the room. This phone was much more advanced than the one in the police dormitory; at least it could track caller ID. There were no fingerprints or DNA tests on the painting, but Mu Yiran still put on gloves and pressed the search button: "This phone only received two calls last night, both from our dormitory number. One was from you at 11:00 PM last night, and the other was from Qin Ci when we called the hospital for help at 4:00 AM."
Indeed, Ke Xun had called Qin Ci last night to talk about finding the autograph. Thinking of this, Ke Xun's brows gradually relaxed, and he went back to Yu Ji's bedside to examine the character "rain."
"Yiran, look, the way this character 'rain' is written is a bit different from what we usually do. We usually write the four dots inside as slanted dots, but the dots here are all horizontal. I thought it was his style as a painter, but actually…" Ke Xun repeatedly wrote the character in his palm, "Don't you think the character is a little short overall?"
Mu Yiran looked at Ke Xun with admiration in his eyes: "It seems this isn't a standalone character, it's a prefix."
This character "rain"—is the prefix of the surname of the artist Yu Beiguo, the author of this painting.
Ke Xun couldn't believe he'd offered such important advice regarding the text… "If this name had been included in Luo Wei's long list of painter signatures last night, we might have been able to guess it much faster."
"Actually, Luo Wei wrote this name, but I don't know if the pen ran out of ink or if the character was censored. I only vaguely saw the strokes of the character, but no color." Mu Yiran speculated, "This name is crucial; the people behind it are doing everything they can to censor it."
"If Yu Ji had written the character completely before he died, it might have been censored again." Ke Xun still couldn't understand why Yu Ji would have written this name before. "I already called Qin Ci last night to remind him, and he said he would notify the hospital staff. Yu Ji should already know, so there's no need to write the name out again to remind everyone."
"Unless, the name Yu Beiguo has some other important meaning for Yu Ji." Mu Yiran fell into deep thought.
"On the night the painting was first created, both Yu Ji and Su Benxin mentioned Yu Beiguo, but both said they weren't familiar with him. I remember Yu Ji even said he had just returned to China and didn't know Yu Beiguo at all." Ke Xun remembered clearly that the two of them only mentioned Yu Beiguo's death from depression at this point in their conversation.
"Perhaps at that time, Heart City had already begun to slowly take effect. Some people had begun to forget people from their own world, just like when we first got our temporary residence permits, we all ignored Luo Wei's existence."
Making people gradually integrate into this city, gradually recognizing a foreign land as their hometown—this is perhaps the most terrifying aspect of this painting.
"Perhaps Qin Ci can provide us with more answers," Mu Yiran said.
Qin Ci must have seen this word, and perhaps even connected it to something, which is why he secretly gave the key to Mu Yiran and instructed Mu Yiran and Ke Xun to come to the dormitory.
"Is Qin Ci wary of someone?" Ke Xun's first thought was this.
"Let's keep it a secret for now and talk about it when Qin Ci gets back."
...
After a long four-hour surgery, Qin Ci finally emerged from the operating room. He was so exhausted that no one dared to immediately ask about the animal's condition.
After showering and changing, Qin Ci met with everyone in his office.
"The nurses said this surgery would take a long time, so we divided up and went for a walk around downstairs," Wei Dong said.
Qin Ci rubbed his temples, his voice weary: "Did anyone find anything?"
"We just wandered around; we couldn't possibly find autographs on the street," Wei Dong glanced at Zhao Yanbao. "Little Zhao seems to have seen something unusual."
Zhao Yanbao, clearly not having had a chance to share her experience, chimed in: "I went a little further, to the university area. I think in a relatively closed-off city without internet, the most progressive information can only be found in universities."
On this point, everyone admired the psychologist.
"I arrived at a very opportune time. There was a demonstration taking place at the university gate. Perhaps the students' movements were restricted, so they had to hold the event at the school gate."
"What kind of event was it?" Qin Ci asked curiously.
"Anti-the trade of beasts, anti-the killing of souls." Zhao Yanbao pronounced the slogan word by word. "These students believe that beasts are part of the human soul; if the beast is removed, the soul of the dead is no longer complete."
"Then what do they plan to do with the beasts? Some beasts… don't even need to be removed; they just come out on their own," Su Benxin said.
"The beast is then released back into the deceased's body to restore its integrity."
Su Benxin slowly shook his head. "These college students' opinions are far too superstitious."
Zhao Yanbao ignored Su Benxin's words and continued, "Actually, the medical books and government newspapers we see contain rather one-sided views. Currently, a considerable number of people in this city advocate 'the beast returning to its original body, the soul remaining intact.' Some philanthropists even collect beasts, then hire experts to perform rituals to release them, find the graves of the beasts' hosts, and burn the beasts in front of the graves to allow them to return to their origin."
Everyone's expressions varied upon hearing this.
Ke Xun felt that since the "breakthrough" last night, the city itself was slowly revealing its true nature, as if everything was awakening.
Su Benxin sighed softly, "This world presents us with nothing but difficult problems. Should we look for the beasts first or the signatures? We can't completely trust what those college students say; sometimes, overly avant-garde behavior doesn't equate to progress. It's best to temporarily store the beasts belonging to our members until we find the final answer."
Su Benxin seemed to remember something else, "So, the 'beast-for-beast' exchange we proposed last night can be put on hold for now. Once our friends' beasts are exchanged, they'll never come back."
Zhu Haowen seemed a little impatient and directly asked Qin Ci, "What's the situation with Yu Ji? What about Lion? What we need to do now is avoid death and find the signatures."
Qin Ci put down the water glass he had just finished drinking, his expression somewhat heavy, "Because Yu Ji's beast is still under repair, it can't be shown to everyone for the time being. The beast's condition is unprecedented; its shape has deviated from that of a living organism."
Everyone's attention was focused on Qin Ci's face, eager to know what it would be like to be detached from a living being.
"It was a huge picture frame, a large square picture frame made up of four hard horizontal bars, which appeared straight into his body, piercing his internal organs at the four corners, causing his death."
This event once again shattered everyone's worldview, to the point that people didn't know how to express their opinions.
After a long pause, Ke Xun said, "Perhaps it's related to Yu Ji's profession. He's a painter, so maybe he has some kind of deep-seated obsession with painting."
"What a huge obsession!" Wei Dong exclaimed in disbelief, "Such a huge picture frame grew inside me... Will I end up with a giant monitor displaying all the graphic design software I use?"
Zhu Haowen asked, "So, is there anything inside that picture frame? Is it empty?"
Qin Ci's expression was complicated: "It's just a big picture frame, with no paper or design in the middle."
"That's terrifying, absolutely terrifying," Su Benxin felt as if his internal organs were being stabbed by a sharp weapon. "This picture frame must have appeared suddenly, or suddenly enlarged, just like Lion's... pufferfish beast, which suddenly appeared and took its owner's life."
Qin Ci continued, "Yu Ji's beast and Lion's combined weigh exactly 2000 grams, no more, no less."
This number reminded everyone again that only by offering up the beasts inside each person could they reach 13 kilograms.
Zhu Haowen glanced at Luo Wei sitting beside him and said to everyone, "Find autographs. Don't forget our goal is to find autographs. This task is different from the paint-making task in 'Shadow.' That time, we were required to complete a certain amount every day. This time, we've been given six and a half days. We just need to finish the painting before the deadline. There's no need to obsess over finding the beast."
Everyone nodded, and the invisible beast weighing on their hearts seemed to lighten slightly.
"By the way, how is Xiao Qinxian?" Luo Wei asked Qin Ci.
"She... was too frightened and needs rest," Qin Ci replied.
Luo Wei seemed thoughtful but didn't continue the topic. "Then let's divide into groups as soon as possible. Time waits for no one; we need to find autographs quickly."