The café was stuffy. Ke Xun rolled up his sleeves, revealing his muscular forearms with bruises from pinching. It was too late to cover them up, so he could only explain, "Every time I have the thought of 'staying in this city for the rest of my life,' I pinch myself hard."
Wei Dong looked at the marks on Ke Xun's forearms and cursed, "This city is a trap, a trap to lure us all in! Ke'er, at least you know how to remind yourself. Before the 'revealing the secret,' I had no such awareness; my mind was only on finding the beast. —Even now, I have to force myself to 'sign' this in my head." "The two words shone like light bulbs!"
Ke Xun lowered the sleeve of his left arm, not wanting everyone's attention to be on him: "Actually, the person who is suffering the most is Luo Wei. He is the only one who is sober, but he has unspeakable suffering. We were just talking about Su Benxin, and now I'm a little worried about Luo Wei's relationship with her. -- I always felt that Lion's death was not simple. Last night, after leaving the restaurant, he talked with Su Benxin for a long time."
Although Su Benxin later explained this - "When night fell, I was really too scared, so I wanted to chat with an old friend. We comforted each other at the time. Although neither of us had the beast mark, we were still afraid.
" "I was also a little worried about Luo Wei before, but the communication between people from outside the city and people from inside the city will be blocked for certain sensitive content. This may be a kind of protection for Luo Wei. Moreover, when we were divided into groups, I exchanged glances with Luo Wei. He is a very smart person and will be wary of Su Benxin." Mu Yiran placed his right hand on Ke Xun's hanging left arm, as if gently stroking the scars.
Qin Ci had finished his coffee. "Let's talk about Xiao Qinxian. Her test results surprised me."
Wei Dong choked on his water, not expecting Qin Ci to hold back this bombshell. "Pfft—cough cough, what happened to Xiao Qinxian?" "
Xiao Qinxian was brought into the examination room at four in the morning. She was initially panicked, then extremely uncooperative, even manic. The medical staff had to give her a sedative to calm her down. At that time, her condition could be described as schizophrenia," Qin Ci said.
Wei Dong said seriously, "I believe that. That woman seemed a bit abnormal during the day."
Mu Yiran jotted down some notes in his notebook, then asked, "Were there any further tests?" "
The subsequent tests were also surprising. Xiao Qinxian has a ten-year history of smoking, and also a history of drug use," Qin Ci said. "She also has many self-inflicted scars on her body."
Wei Dong's eyes widened. Although Xiao Qinxian was quite unpopular, he really hadn't realized she was a marginalized woman. Drug use? "—Isn't she a wedding dress designer? I remember she works at a famous wedding dress shop in S City. She mentioned it at lunch yesterday, saying she was going back to her hometown to visit relatives... She's unlucky."
Qin Ci shook his head: "But the medical examination won't be wrong, and those physical injuries won't be wrong either. —If it's not self-harm, then it's long-term abuse."
Ke Xun filled everyone's cups with cold water, then took a sip to refresh himself: "It's really a mess. It feels like eating a multi-layered dessert, with cakes, cookies, and lots of wafers and cream, all sorts of random stuff."
Wei Dong: "Don't call it foreign, that's called 'Napoleon'..." Wei Dong ultimately didn't continue his joking decompression, because mentioning 'foreigner' reminded him of Lion, that sunny-smiling foreign photographer who always made a point of pronouncing "Oh my, you guys" loudly, and would talk at length about his adventurous photography experiences...
Mu Yiran took a sip of ice water. Shui, after two sleepless nights, had a light stubble on his face, but he didn't look disheveled at all; instead, he exuded a refined and unpretentious air. "Different paths lead to the same destination. Although Su Benxin and Xiao Qinxian's situations seem troublesome, they will eventually converge into a main storyline."
Wei Dong nodded. Ever since he thought about the "signature," he hadn't forgotten the central theme and had been wholeheartedly preparing for the painting's release. "Finding a signature on the street is like finding a needle in a haystack. The only clue this painting gives us is 'beast.' I think the signature must be related to the beast!"
Everyone agreed with this. Qin Ci said, "Xiao Mu mentioned Su Benxin reciting the title page of 'The Scarlet Beast.' I remember it mentioned something about the Book of Revelation, and the woman riding the beast in it had words on her forehead. I was wondering if the words on that woman's forehead could be related to the signature?"
Qin Ci's analysis made Ke Xun and Wei Dong raise their eyebrows and give a thumbs up. Then everyone waited for Mu Yiran to analyze it.
Mu Yiran: "I've also made this assumption in my mind, even imagined who this woman might be... But, after all, the woman in the Book of Revelation is the embodiment of a cult, and the words on her forehead are very evil. If these words can be equated with the author's name..."
Ke Xun's eyes lit up, and the others seemed to have thought of something as well—"The author actually did the opposite. He didn't paint this picture to condemn the Scarlet Beast, but to praise it! That's why in this Heart City, the beast within people is enshrined on a pedestal!"
Mu Yiran nodded: "But this morning, Zhao Yanbao brought back different voices from the university town, and these voices have already formed a certain scale in this city. —The painter's original intention is becoming increasingly difficult to guess."
The beast returns to its original form, the soul is complete.
At this moment, these eight characters are printed on the wall of the coffee shop, in an avant-garde slogan style.
...
At lunchtime, everyone returned to the hospital and gathered in the cafeteria to eat, just like yesterday.
It was still the same private room as yesterday, but there were three fewer people, making it feel oppressive and dull.
"By the way, how is Xiao Qinxian? What about her lunch?" Zhao Yanbao asked.
"She's eating a nutritious meal, but her emotions are still quite unstable. We'll go see her after lunch," Qin Ci said.
Zhao Yanbao looked at the delicious food on the table but had no appetite, only drinking some orange juice: "People in the university town are against animal stripping surgery and animal exchange. We learned from them that some people in society are buying mentally ill patients at high prices and raising them, even feeding them drugs that worsen their condition. It's said that the chances of such people having animals inside them are relatively high, and if properly raised, the animals can become rarer."
Zhao Yanbao looked at the glass full of bright orange juice: "It's truly inhumane."
Everyone gradually felt the decay beneath the city's gilded exterior, and the clearer they saw this, the more they wanted to escape.
"We seem to be seeing this painting more and more clearly. The painter himself is probably full of contradictions," Zhu Haowen said.
Regarding the analysis of Yu Beiguo, they hadn't had time to tell Zhu Haowen and Luo Wei yet, and it wasn't appropriate to say more at this moment.
Wei Dong, who had eaten about half his fill, looked up and said, "We don't have any valuable clues here. We only know that surgeons are highly respected in this city. Today, we even got a free meal at the coffee shop because of Dr. Qin's work badge."
Su Benxin glanced at her 'colleague' Qin Ci and smiled, "It seems Dr. Qin is really suited to this place. Many of his colleagues at the hospital speak highly of him."
Qin Ci smiled faintly and remained silent.
"The sweet and sour pork wasn't done well today; it was too sweet," Ke Xun naturally changed the subject, looking at Luo Wei, "I haven't heard you speak all day. How was it? Did you find anything on your trip?"
Luo Wei's expression was calm, unlike his distress yesterday. He took a sip of soup before saying, "We headed north today. It's near the train station, so there are all sorts of people there."
"A train station?" In Ke Xun's mind, trains were usually a means of transportation connecting cities. If Heart City had a train, it must lead to the outside world.
"Yes, the train leads to the outside world," Luo Wei said. "People's train tickets also need to be specially stamped. Some people plan to leave the city forever, while others are on business trips or traveling for work. These people cannot leave the city's borders; they can only talk business and make transactions there."
Su Benxin, who was traveling with Luo Wei, added, "Yes, those who leave Heart City can never come back. Other outsiders who want to settle in the city need to undergo some special treatment, I feel like it's something like memory erasure."
Luo Wei gave a wry smile: "So, I've been wondering what the significance is of me, an outsider, being placed in the city for the painter."
The entire Heart City was full of contradictions—contradictions between the inside and outside of the city, and contradictions about opposing views on beasts.
Luo Wei continued, "However, we met a remarkable person at the train station today."
"A remarkable person?"
"Yes, an old lady who sets up a fortune-telling stall at the train station." Luo Wei's eyes gleamed with a rare light as he spoke of her. "This old lady could tell at a glance that we were outsiders."
"You two?" Wei Dong looked at Su Benxin sitting over there. "How did she define 'outsider'?"
Luo Wei said, "I also found it strange. When she first saw me, she said in a strange dialect, 'What's a stranger like you doing here?' I thought she could tell I was from outside the New City area, but then she saw Su Benxin and said, 'A stranger with a stranger woman.'"
Everyone else found it strange too. Su Benxin said, "That old lady was very mysterious, and her appearance was also peculiar, even a bit odd. Her two eyes were different colors. However, she was really quite skilled; she could actually tell that Luo Wei and I were from outside the painting."
"Did she mention the painting?" Mu Yiran suddenly asked.
"No, but she said we were both outsiders, isn't that strange? According to the initial division, only Luo Wei was an outsider among us," Su Benxin said.
Luo Wei continued, "That's why she's considered a master. She seems to be able to see things we can't, including this painting, and maybe even the signature."