After an unknown amount of time, the sounds and the feeling of drowning finally faded away. Ke Xun collapsed to the ground, exhausted and panting heavily.
"Someone's fallen into the water—help! Someone's drowning!"
Suddenly, a cry of alarm rang out again in the cold, endless darkness. The sounds of water, ice shards crashing, and people's cries all rushed in.
"—Help!" The familiar voice shouted again, and footsteps thumped away into the distance.
Ke Xun was slightly stunned at first, followed by an endless, multiplying surge of anger, pain, torment, and sorrow—
"Help! Help—he sank! He sank!"
"The rescuer is dying! He's dying... The rescuer... The rescuer is dead..."
"Xiao Xun... Daddy is in so much pain... Water is choking me, it hurts so much... Do you remember what Daddy looked like when he was pulled out of the water? His nose, mouth, and ears were full of mud... Daddy was so miserable... When Daddy was struggling in the water, he wished someone could save him... But no one did... Daddy felt so lonely..."
Ke Xun desperately covered his head, his throat filled with hoarse, uncontrollable sobs.
He never wanted to recall the scene of witnessing his father's last moments. He lay on the cold, muddy ground by the river, his face still bearing the pain of death. His eyes were half-open, half-closed, his pupils clouded, no longer able to see the world he knew, no longer able to see all his loved ones, no longer able to see his mentally challenged son crying his heart out beside him.
Those were memories he had buried deep in his heart, memories he couldn't bear to recall or touch. But now, those cruel and vicious hallucinations were repeating, repeating, and repeating that memory again and again, constantly switching between his father's and his own first-person perspectives, alternately inflicting the most painful memories and visceral feelings of both men upon Ke Xun, cruelly and relentlessly tormenting him.
That memory had caused Ke Xun unbearable pain day and night, had caused him to suffer from mild depression, and had even led him to contemplate suicide.
It took him a long time, exhausting all his willpower, to finally emerge from the darkness and return to the light.
But this hallucination, at this very moment, was replaying his darkest moment, trying to drag him back into the abyss of depression, forcing him to collapse once more beyond redemption…
Ke Xun lay on the ground, his body curled up tightly, the recurring hallucination still piercing his soul with the sound of his loved ones' deaths.
Until, amidst his beast-like sobs, Ke Xun couldn't suppress a thought: Since the rest of his life is so painful, why should he continue to live on alone? …
"Xiao Xun… come with Daddy, from now on you will never be in so much pain again… son, Daddy's good boy… come, come, you just need to move forward a little, and all of this will be over… come… just move a little…"
Ke Xun wearily loosened his arms that were tightly hugging him, and slowly reached out his hand into the void.
In his hand was a phone, his fingertips pressing on the slightly raised pattern on the phone case, where a string of English cursive words was written:
Corgi and Mooney.
…
The dawn light streamed into the central hall. Mu Yiran opened his eyes to find his companions sprawled on the floor.
Last night's hallucinations, themed around "sorrow" among the seven emotions, had likely had the least psychological and emotional impact on Mu Yiran compared to the previous nights. He had even managed a short nap in the latter half of the night—the hallucinations hadn't even managed to wake him.
Before entering the world of art, Mu Yiran's life had been relatively fortunate. He had a complete and normal family, his relatives were open-minded and understanding, and his life was peaceful and smooth. Even after he entered the business world, his connection to art mitigated many of the storms and setbacks.
Therefore, emotions like "sorrow" had rarely occurred in his life, and naturally, they hadn't caused
him much damage. But clearly, his companions weren't as lucky. They lay sprawled on the floor, their faces etched with exhaustion and dejection.
Sorrow is greater than a broken heart; it's evident that "sorrow," compared to the other emotions, is more likely to destroy a person's spirit.
Chen Xin'ai's "disappearance" confirmed this.
The remaining people sat up one after another, gradually shaking off the emotional effects of last night, their faces showing relief at surviving. Shao Ling got up to open the door, letting the heavy sea breeze blow in. Qin Ci pinched his brow; for him, who had lost his lover, last night must have been anything but pleasant.
Zhu Haowen calmly counted the number of people in the room. Wei Dong and Luo Yi each huddled up, wiping away the remaining tears on their faces with their sleeves.
Ke Xun curled up in the corner, his arms tightly wrapped around his head, motionless.
Mu Yiran strode over, squatted down beside him, reached out and held his shoulder, softly calling him, "Ke Xun?"
Ke Xun quickly looked up at him, a lazy smile spreading across his face: "Good morning."
His voice was hoarse.
Mu Yiran looked at the bloodshot in his eyes, then reached out and pulled him into his arms. Ke Xun let him hold him, remaining silent.
It wasn't until Shao Ling approached and said in a deep voice, "Fang Fei... is gone,"
that Ke Xun, about to sit up straight, was stopped by Mu Yiran patting the back of his head. Mu Yiran took the bamboo scroll Shao Ling handed him, unfolded it, and examined it closely with Ke Xun.
"This is information Fang Fei left on the ground," Shao Ling said, his tone slightly strange, "It might surprise you."
Mu Yiran's gaze fell on the bamboo scroll, where a symbol was drawn—one of the different meanings he and Fang Fei had agreed upon yesterday.
It seemed that because the meaning of this symbol was so unexpected, to avoid suspicion that she had drawn it incorrectly, Fang Fei had deliberately drawn it perfectly, so precisely that it left no room for interpretation. This symbol
was a perfect checkmark.
It meant that what Fang Fei saw after lighting the rhinoceros horn last night was a real chicken.
"...Why?" Qin Ci, who had also gathered around to look at the bamboo scroll, found it hard to understand.
Why would a chicken appear on a lone ship on the vast ocean? Even a duck would make more sense.
Even in a painting, the plot must conform to common sense and logic, unless the painting itself is absurd and fantastical.
However, "Burning the Rhinoceros Horn at Sea" is a very proper ancient painting, unlikely to contain such a conventional error.
"Could it be that they brought live chickens on board when they set sail?" Wei Dong, who had also joined in, guessed.
"It's not hard to understand," Luo Yu said from the side. "On a long sea voyage, raw or cooked meat spoils easily, so it's better to bring live chickens and ducks, raise them while sailing, and kill them when needed."
"Putting aside the fact that we didn't see any other live poultry or livestock on this ship," Zhu Haowen said, "the fact that this chicken was only seen after the rhinoceros horn was burned proves that this chicken is definitely not an ordinary chicken."
"Then where did it come from? Did it fly over from the shore?" Wei Dong thought it was ridiculous. "What kind of chicken can fly that far? The painter of this painting has no common sense."
"No matter how bizarre and unbelievable the clues are," Shao Ling said, "now that it's clearly a 'chicken,' we can only start from that point. Are you all going to take a break, or start discussing the clues now?"
"Let's rest first." It was Mu Yiran who spoke, one hand still resting on Ke Xun's back.
"Okay," Shao Ling nodded, "Last night was really exhausting."
Just as everyone was about to get up and move around, Ke Xun suddenly said, "Where's Fang Fei's bow and arrows?"
"Holy crap—what's wrong with your voice?!" Wei Dong exclaimed in surprise, forgetting everything else, staring at Ke Xun and asking.
"Maybe it's puberty voice change," Ke Xun said.
Wei Dong: "…"
"Brother, I have some throat lozenges…" Luo Yi said, rummaging through his clothes.
Ke Xun ignored him for the moment, stepping out the door with Mu Yiran. On the empty deck lay the bow Ke Xun had given Fang Fei yesterday, with several arrows lying beside it.
"One arrow is missing," Ke Xun said hoarsely. "There are only four on the ground. I gave her five yesterday."
"Over there," Mu Yiran pointed to the front of the deck. A fifth arrow was nailed to the gunwale beside the ship, and a long feather was embedded where the arrowhead was embedded.
The group quickly walked over, and Ke Xun pulled the arrow out, showing everyone the feather.
"What an amazing girl," Qin Ci said softly.
It was quite obvious that last night, after seeing that strange chicken, Fang Fei not only didn't flinch out of fear, but even dared to raise her bow and attack it.
Unfortunately, she failed to hit the chicken's body, only managing to shoot off one of its feathers.
"Is this a feather from that chicken?" Wei Dong gestured with his hand, comparing the length of the feather. "What kind of chicken has feathers that long?!"
"A pheasant, or rather, a wild pheasant," Shao Ling said.
Even if it was a pheasant, its appearance at sea was still an incredible and bizarre event. The group exchanged glances, while Mu Yiran stared thoughtfully at the long feather in Ke Xun's hand.
Ke Xun didn't disturb him, turning his head to gaze at the endless, vast sea beside him.
The morning air on the sea was heavy with moisture, and a gray mist rose in the distance, making the world seem ethereal and unreal.
Ke Xun was somewhat lost in thought when he suddenly heard Luo Jin's voice beside him: "Holy crap... how did my throat lozenges turn into this mess? What the hell is this stuff?"
Turning his head, he saw Luo Jin holding several brownish-yellow things that looked like the stems of dried fruit or flowers.
"It's degenerated," Wei Dong glanced over as well. "Things from outside the painting enter the painting, and if the painting is old, these things will degenerate into things that match the era depicted in the painting. Once, I brought chocolate into a painting, and after entering, the chocolate degenerated and transformed into cheese because it didn't fit the era and social context…"
"Then chewing gum should degenerate into sugar too," Luo Yu looked at the ugly-colored unidentified object in his hand. "And what the hell are these things?"
Qin Ci walked closer, looked at them for a few moments, picked one up, examined it closely, smelled it, and then said knowingly, "Oh, these are dried cloves. No wonder—cloves were used by the ancients to get rid of bad breath, so you could call them the ancients' chewing gum. It's not surprising that your chewing gum degenerated into this."
"So this is the degenerated version of chewing gum," Luo Yu picked up a dried clove and carelessly tossed it into his mouth before Qin Ci could stop him. "Ugh—it's awful! It's spicy and stings my tongue," Luo Yu grimaced as he spat the flower out. "Things that have evolved over thousands of years are still better…"
"Evolution, thousands of years…" Mu Yiran, deep in thought, suddenly spoke up, raising his clear eyes to look at everyone. "I think I know what that chicken is."