Without further ado, everyone decided to split into four groups, searching for signatures in the four directions of the city, centered on the hospital.
Qin Ci smiled and said first, "I'll stick with my old partner Dongzi. Hopefully, we'll have a good haul this time."
Wei Dong, though confused as to why Qin Ci chose him, still chuckled and came to Qin Ci's side, saying, "Brother Qin, you had surgery for over four hours. I was really worried you couldn't handle it."
Qin Ci said, "Then let's head south. If we get tired, we can sit at that Reading Time Cafe. They have lots of newspapers and magazines there. We can flip through the newspapers and read the news; maybe we can get some valuable information."
Ke Xun quickly added, "Then Yi Ran and I will head east. Yesterday..." " We're planning to check out the animal market over there; maybe we'll find something new."
Zhao Yanbao glanced at Su Benxin, the only other woman present besides herself, and was about to invite her to join her group when Su Benxin turned to look at Luo Wei: "If you don't say anything, everyone will forget about you again~ How about we two form a group?"
Luo Wei nodded: "Haowen and Xiao Zhao can continue to the university town in the west, so let's go to the north of the city."
Su Benxin readily agreed, but before setting off, she still asked Qin Ci: "How is Xiao Qinxian doing? Should we go check on her?"
"She needs to rest now and is currently asleep," Qin Ci said. "I believe she won't blame us for being impolite if we go to get her autograph now."
"Alright then, getting her autograph is the most important thing right now." Su Benxin smiled.
So, the four groups left the hospital and each headed in their own direction.
Wei Dong and Qin Ci walked south for about two stops before Wei Dong couldn't help but ask, "Old Qin, are you holding something back?"
Qin Ci smiled faintly and pointed to a shop nearby, saying, "We're here, Reading Time Cafe."
He then pulled Wei Dong into the cafe.
"It's not good for us to be so lazy..." Wei Dong's words were cut short when he spotted two familiar figures sitting in an inconspicuous corner—Ke Xun and Mu Yiran.
"Damn, when did you three make this arrangement behind my back?" Wei Dong and Qin Ci approached Ke Xun and Mu Yiran, casually pulling down the curtain to separate them, making it harder for outsiders to notice their presence.
Qin Ci sat down and got straight to the point: "Let's get down to business first. We'll inform Haowen and Luo Wei later."
Wei Dong's expression also turned serious.
"Let's talk about Yu Ji first." Qin Ci was somewhat tired, but his eyes were bright, a look completely different from the composure and ease he had shown a few days ago. It was as if he had just regained the alertness he should have had in the painting.
The other three listened to Qin Ci's narration and felt even more that Yu Ji's story was not so simple.
"…That's all Yu Ji told me last night." Qin Ci finished his long narration and took a sip of coffee.
"You explained it very thoroughly, which is very helpful for the analysis," Mu Yiran couldn't help but give Qin Ci a big thumbs up. "If I'm not mistaken, Yu Beiguo should be a very important person to Yu Ji."
"Holy crap, Yu Beiguo?" Wei Dong made a strange expression. "Beiguo, Beiguo, why does that sound so familiar?"
Ke Xun couldn't help but snap his fingers at Wei Dong's forehead: "He's the painter of this painting, and the signature we're looking for is his."
"Holy crap... that character is pronounced 'yu'?" Wei Dong scratched his head embarrassedly. "I always thought it was pronounced 'kui'..."
"...There's a 'yu' character on top, so of course it's pronounced 'yu'."
"And there's a 'kui' character below..."
Ke Xun took a swig of ice water and began to explain his point of view: "I think Yu Ji's description of his lover is particularly vague. Regarding this lover, we only know that he studied art abroad, later returned to China, and committed suicide because of love. We know nothing else. Yu Ji's description of him is actually less than his description of Liang Chan, and even less than his description of Su Benxin."
"And from his description, I don't think he hates that 'two-timing' that much; he even seems to have a love-hate relationship with him."
Qin Ci nodded thoughtfully, still able to recall Yu Ji's expression last night when he talked about that 'two-timing'—that slightly bewildered chuckle—"I've already met that person; curly hair, quite handsome...very artistically talented, and his smile has a naturally wicked charm, quite alluring."
Ke Xun continued, "In Yu Ji's tone, it seemed as if all his hatred was directed at Su Benxin. Logically speaking, Su Benxin has absolutely no direct connection to Yu Ji in this complicated love triangle; if anyone should hate someone, it should be the 'two-timing' who stole his lover."
"In fact, Yu Ji's purpose in going to the Benxin Art Museum to see the art exhibition was to see what Su Benxin was really like. If there wasn't a direct personal grudge, I think he wouldn't have gone to such lengths."
Mu Yiran nodded slightly: "Yu Ji himself studied oil painting abroad. From his description, his lover also studied art abroad, and he mentioned that Liang Chan also had extremely high artistic talent. We might as well boldly infer that his so-called lover and that so-called Liang Chan are actually the same person, that person is Yu Beiguo.
"However, because this painting has strict confidentiality measures regarding this name, Yu Ji forgot his lover's name until he suddenly remembered it before his death." Hearing this, Ke
Xun felt a pang of sadness. This was perhaps the cruelest aspect of the painting; it could make you ignore and forget the most important person in your life, allowing you to easily dismiss them with disdain.
Qin Ci nodded slightly, seemingly agreeing with Mu Yiran's assessment.
Only Wei Dong still couldn't understand: "Why didn't he just say it directly? Even if Yu Beiguo's name was censored at the time, he could have simply said he had a lover. Why split one person into two?"
"He wasn't being deliberately mysterious," Mu Yiran said. "He just subconsciously didn't want his lover to be too close to Su Benxin. Although in reality, his lover was indeed taken away by Su Benxin, he couldn't accept it psychologically—so he fabricated this so-called 'two-person separation,' as if this person's existence invisibly separated Yu Beiguo and Su Benxin." "
Isn't this just self-deception…" Wei Dong said nothing more, already understanding the extent of the damage this had done to Yu Ji.
"At the hospital just now, Hao Wen'er told me something," Ke Xun recalled, "according to Zhao Yanbao's observation, Yu Ji seems to be a patient with mild to moderate depression."
"How did she figure that out?"
"Professionals probably have their own methods of observation."
Qin Ci said, "I remember that Yu Beiguo also committed suicide because of depression. Could it be that Yu Ji and Yu Beiguo, this couple, both had depression?"
"Depression is currently impossible to diagnose, but I think the picture frame-shaped beast inside Yu Ji's body is a very strong obsession." Mu Yiran said.
Qin Ci couldn't help but raise his voice: "Regarding that beast, I didn't actually finish what I was saying earlier. Strictly speaking, there is a pattern in that picture frame."
"What?!" Ke Xun and Wei Dong asked in unison.
"The very center of that picture frame is Yu Ji's heart."
Everyone fell silent, listening intently to Qin Ci's words.
"His heart isn't actually the same anymore. Its surface is covered by wispy, tubular beasts, which are connected to the painting frame. If I remember correctly, the painting inside Yu Ji's body is exactly the same work from the Yu Bei Kingdom we saw before—'The Scarlet Beast.'"
Because the content was so bizarre, the three of them were momentarily speechless.
Wei Dong, after a long pause, kept gasping for breath: "Holy crap… is there a signature in that frame?"
Ke Xun couldn't help but admire Wei Dong's pragmatism; he could still think of a signature immediately at a time like this.
Qin Ci shook his head and sighed, "The reason I underwent such a long 'operation' was to find a signature, but unfortunately there wasn't one—only a painting, a three-dimensional painting using Yu Ji's heart as a specimen."
Mu Yiran said, "Yu Ji actually wanted to add a signature, but in the end he couldn't complete it. He only wrote the first character of his surname, which was on the wall before he died."
Although the topic was heavy, no one had time to express their feelings now; they could only grit their teeth and get down to business.
Ke Xun said, "If our previous speculation holds true, then Yu Ji's story should go like this: Yu Ji and Yu Beiguo were lovers when they studied painting together abroad. When Yu Beiguo returned to his hometown, he fell in love with Su Benxin. 'The Scarlet Beast' was Yu Beiguo's painting before his death. Perhaps Yu Ji had seen this painting before, or perhaps it was the first time he saw it at the art exhibition that day. But that painting was of extraordinary significance to him, even striking his heart, forming an unshakable knot in his soul."
"But why would they lie? The night we arrived, both of them said they weren't familiar with Yu Beiguo," Wei Dong questioned.
Ke Xun: "That's what I'm wondering about too. Even if the shielding force made them forget their lover's name, it wouldn't make them forget the whole thing. So, since Yu Ji could remember this so clearly, I don't think Su Benxin could forget it so easily. In fact, after we revealed the signature incident, Su Benxin should have recalled even more things."
Su Benxin, like Xiao Qinxian, became a mystery.
"To be honest, the reason I called everyone out separately was to keep an eye on Su Benxin, because I don't know anything about her," Qin Ci said.
Mu Yiran nodded: "Su Benxin couldn't possibly have forgotten this. When she recited the contents of the title page of the book 'The Scarlet Beast' as if she were reciting it from memory, I guessed that she was involved in the whole thing."