The oppressive darkness dissipated quickly like billowing smoke, and the surroundings returned to normal daylight, though it was still night. A few scattered stars were close overhead, the seawater was dark and murky, and the salty, foul air rose from the depths beneath the surface, which was surprisingly invigorating—the illusion had vanished.
Ke Xun quickly turned to look at Mu Yiran, who had also turned to look at him. Mu Yiran reached out and cupped the back of Ke Xun's neck, ruffling the ends of his fluffy hair, and said in a deep voice, "Well done."
Ke Xun flashed a big smile: "Of course, otherwise how could I be worthy of someone as outstanding as you?"
Mu Yiran's gaze lingered on Ke Xun's face for a few moments. Seeing that the fragile vulnerability and melancholy that had been so painedly concealed were no longer visible in those clear, black and white eyes, he felt a sense of relief, pulled Ke Xun into his arms, gave him a tight hug, and turned back to look for the others.
The others, who had vanished into the darkness when the illusion appeared, reappeared as it faded, sprawled on the floor, their faces filled with terror.
"How are you?" Ke Xun asked as he approached.
Qin Ci wiped the cold sweat from his face. "...Tonight's illusion was 'fear,' probably the most terrifying thing I've ever seen in my life."
Ke Xun reached out to pull Wei Dong, who was still paralyzed with fear on the deck, and asked Qin Ci, "Oh? What was in your illusion?"
Before Qin Ci could answer, Ke Xun found himself grasping at empty air when he tried to grab Wei Dong's hand.
Ke Xun paused, then reached for Wei Dong's arm again, only to find his hand passing through Wei Dong's skin as if it were water, unable to hold him. Wei Dong's body enveloped him like water, rippling around his arm.
Ke Xun stood frozen in place, while Wei Dong seemed oblivious, slumped on the deck, struggling to lift his head to look at Ke Xun. However, his gaze seemed to pass right through Ke Xun, looking towards a more distant direction.
"How are Ke'er and the others?" Ke Xun heard Wei Dong say.
—Wei Dong couldn't see him!
"Dongzi?" Ke Xun called tentatively.
Wei Dong didn't hear him at all, struggling to get up from the deck.
Ke Xun suddenly turned to look at Qin Ci beside him. He had just answered him—"Brother Qin, can you hear me?"
"How is everyone?" Qin Ci turned to ask the others.
"Thank goodness," Shao Ling's hair was also a little messy. "I once thought I couldn't feel the so-called horror elements in those horror movies at all, but it seems I was wrong. You don't know you have things you're afraid of until you experience them yourself."
"I have to thank my brother," Luo Yu wiped the snot and tears from his face. "It was my brother's dirty jokes that saved me. Last night, when that 'thing' grabbed my ankle, I remembered my brother dressed up as Sadako and grabbed my foot, telling me that joke about using feet to do *that*…"
Ke Xun frowned. It seemed that Qin Ci's "answer" just now wasn't an answer to his question, but just talking to the people next to him.
These people couldn't see him!
Ke Xun turned to look at Mu Yiran. Fortunately, he was still with him. He said he would be with him, so now he really was still here.
"It seems we are still in different spaces from them," Ke Xun said. "Why? Wasn't that pheasant already dead? Is there more than one?"
Mu Yiran turned around: "I'll go check if it's still alive."
How could it still be alive after being pierced through the head by an arrow? However, the world depicted in this painting cannot be understood by common sense.
Ke Xun went over with him and saw the strange creature, larger than an ordinary pheasant, lying on the side of the boat. The arrow Ke Xun had shot was still stuck in its head, the tip protruding from the other side, covered in blood and bits of flesh. Its narrow, seemingly smiling eye was already unfocused, the pupil floating to the upper eyelid, revealing a large expanse of pale white eyeball below.
Such eyes were not those of a normal bird. Of course, whether it was a bird or a demon, it was undeniably dead.
Ke Xun peered into the sea, trying to see if there was another of these strange creatures, but the sea was dark and murky, like an oil field, making it impossible to see anything beneath the surface.
Just as he was straining to keep his eyes on the sea, he suddenly heard Wei Dong's heart-wrenching cry behind him: "Ke'er—you fucking come back here—"
Ke Xun quickly turned around and saw Wei Dong sobbing uncontrollably where he and Mu Yiran had stood.
The rhinoceros horn had burned completely with the pheasant's death, leaving not a trace of ash.
They couldn't see him and Mu Yiran; they assumed they, like Li Yi, Xue Ge, and Fang Fei, had surely died by lighting the rhinoceros horn.
Shao Ling and Qin Ci remained silent, Luo Yi wept beside Wei Dong, and Zhu Haowen stared blankly at them, standing motionless at the far end.
No one noticed that Ke Xun and Mu Yiran were still alive, standing right beside them at this very moment.
"So," Ke Xun laboriously withdrew his gaze from Wei Dong's writhing body, which was lying on the ground in agony, and looked at Mu Yiran, the only one still by his side, "are we… dead?"
Mu Yiran pursed his lips, and after a long while shook his head slightly: "No, we can't be sure yet. The night isn't over yet, and we haven't been hurt. Maybe there's still a chance. We still have time."
"That's right," Ke Xun quickly cheered up, "Hurry up! Let me think—did Li Yixue and Fang Fei also end up like us before? Even if they weren't killed by the pheasants after lighting the rhinoceros horn, they would still be like this now, able to see us but unable to interact with us at all?"
At that time, none of them could have imagined that their companions were actually still alive, even right beside them, but they were crying out to heaven and earth without anyone answering.
"But according to the rule in the painting that someone dies every night, even if they were still alive then, they wouldn't have lived to see dawn," Mu Yiran was more rational than the emotional Ke Xun. "So you and I must find a way out of this predicament before daybreak."
"I'll go down into the sea and take a look!" Ke Xun said. "Maybe there's something underwater that's the key to breaking the deadlock."
"You can't go down into the sea," Mu Yiran rejected him. "You can't go down into the sea before dawn."
"But if we wait until dawn, we're both finished," Ke Xun said. "Did you hear the sounds underwater then? Lots of noise, all sorts of strange things. I think there's definitely more than just one pheasant underwater, maybe many more, or something else."
"If there is, we'll lure them up with a rhinoceros horn. Going down into the sea in the dark like this is a recipe for disaster," Mu Yiran said coldly.
The two had their first argument.
But given his boyfriend's undeniable charisma, Ke Xun quickly backed down: "Fine, you're handsome, so you decide. But we seem to be out of that space now, so we probably won't be able to pick up the rhinoceros horn."
"Let's try first." Mu Yiran strode towards the central hall where the rhinoceros horn was stored, and Ke Xun hurriedly followed.
He couldn't bear to stay on the deck any longer; Wei Dong's crying made his chest ache.
However, just as Ke Xun had guessed, the two of them couldn't pick up the rhinoceros horn. Whenever they touched a solid object, their hands or limbs would pass right through it as if through liquid.
"This is practically the most realistic depiction of being separated by life and death." Ke Xun shook his head, then reached out to stroke Mu Yiran's face, finding it still warm.
"Separated by Yin and Yang…" Mu Yiran grasped Ke Xun's hand, his eyes flashing. "Your reminder is timely—the Burning Rhinoceros Horn is the bridge connecting the Yin and Yang realms. The rhinoceros horn we borrowed tonight burned out, so we're stuck in this space. Perhaps, if we can ignite another rhinoceros horn, we can reconnect the two realms and return to the other side."
"That makes sense," Ke Xun shook Mu Yiran's hand, as if praising him. "But our current problem is how to ignite this unattainable rhinoceros horn… How about I try blowing up another phone?"
"Sure." Mu Yiran nodded.
Ke Xun had been carrying the bag containing his phone on his back. He took one out and threw it at the rhinoceros horn, but the phone passed right through it, as if thrown into water.
"So everything on us is the same as ours, and we're in another dimension?" Ke Xun wondered as he used another phone as a tool, wrapping his hands in his clothes to prevent injury from the explosion, to smash and detonate the phone's battery. A flash of fire erupted, but when it touched the rhinoceros horn, the horn strangely transformed into ripples, swirling around the flames.
"No, we're completely cut off from that dimension," Ke Xun scratched his head, turning to Mu Yiran. "We...can't go back?"
Mu Yiran pursed his lips, his gaze fixed on the pile of rhinoceros horns on the ground. Ke Xun didn't disturb his thoughts, walking to the side to stare at the dark sea.
Suddenly, they heard Luo Yi's short cry from the deck. Looking in the direction of the sound, they saw Wei Dong unconscious on the ground, Qin Ci's hand withdrawing from the back of his neck.
"..." Ke Xun walked towards them. Although Qin Ci was a doctor, he never did this kind of work; now, he probably couldn't bear to see Wei Dong so heartbroken, so he had no choice but to intervene.
Luo Yu thought Qin Ci was about to lose his temper, so he stopped crying and looked back and forth between Qin Ci and Wei Dong, feeling lost and helpless.
Qin Ci ignored him and said to Zhu Haowen and Shao Ling in a calm voice, "Now is not the time to be sad. We must come up with a way to break this deadlock immediately."
Shao Ling frowned and fell into deep thought, while Zhu Haowen remained silent.
Qin Ci patted Zhu Haowen's shoulder, his voice gentle and deep: "Haowen, our safe departure from this painting is the best comfort for them. I know you're upset, but..."
"No," Zhu Haowen suddenly interrupted him, his gaze falling on the faintly lit night sky, "There's still some time before dawn, but the previous nights, after the intense darkness faded, it was light very quickly. That's not right—something must have happened in the first half of the night. Ke Xun and Mu Yiran wouldn't have been able to leave without doing anything—"
Zhu Haowen stopped abruptly, walking towards the end of the deck. The light was dim, visibility low. Qin Ci knew Zhu Haowen wanted to look for clues left by Ke Xun and Mu Yiran, so he followed him.
Zhu Haowen turned on his phone, trying to activate the flashlight function, and found it actually worked.
Ke Xun speculated that because he killed the pheasant, all the lighting equipment had regained its effectiveness at night.
Bright light shone on the deck within a few meters in front of him. He slowly walked forward, carefully staring at the deck as he went, seemingly trying to find any last trace of Ke Xun left in this world.
Then, in the light of his phone, he saw a pheasant with an arrow piercing its skull.
"They shot it dead!" Qin Ci exclaimed.
"They can see it!" Ke Xun's eyes lit up, and he turned to call
out to Mu Yiran, "Yiran, I have a way!"
—This pheasant was the only thing that could be seen and touched by people from both dimensions!