"Oh my god, brother-in-law, are you saying this dog is my Xinchun?" Luo Cheng was practically leaping onto Ke Xun. Mu Yiran cleared his throat and politely pulled him away. "Otherwise, where's your motion-sensing car?"
Luo Cheng calmed down a bit and looked down at the white dog. The dog was staring at him with those pitiful, canine eyes. Luo Cheng stared back at it for a moment. "That's right, she is Xinchun."
Everyone: "..."
"Come here, Xinchun, come to Daddy." Luo Cheng's attitude did a complete 180-degree turn. The white dog wasn't big, and Luo Cheng could easily pick it up. "It really is her! She even has a tag around her neck! It's the platinum diamond-encrusted tag I hung on the motion-sensing car!"
"..."
"I think we need to check the items we brought." Shao Ling opened his backpack, which had now turned into a large, coarse cloth slingback. "The flashlight has turned into several large candles, the food has turned into dried noodles, the compass... the compass is gone. I clearly remember putting it in my bag."
"My watch also has a compass." Fang Fei looked at her wristwatch, which had somehow transformed into a strangely shaped earthenware bracelet.
"My Casio has turned into a tattered rope." Luo Cheng hugged Xin Chun, on the verge of tears.
Among the newcomers, only Mai Peng was wearing a watch, but he was now unrecognizable. He looked at his partner Xi Shengnan: "Didn't you bring a set of knives?"
Xi Shengnan opened her satchel: "Although the box has changed, the contents should still be there," she said, opening the wooden box in her hand. "My name is even on this box, so it seems they use Chinese characters here too."
Mai Peng seemed more concerned about the knives in the box, craning his neck to look: "Several commonly used knives are still there, although they look different, it doesn't affect their use. Some tools seem to have changed beyond recognition... But, are a few things missing?"
Xi Shengnan nodded: "Perhaps they are things that this world can't recognize. A new type of knife is missing, and a scraper is also missing."
"I just want to ask, why did you bring so many knives to see a photography exhibition?" Wei Dong couldn't help but interject.
Xi Shengnan explained, "We've been on this trip for over two months, mainly for photography. Sometimes we need to camp in certain places for a few days to capture a specific shot. Last month, we camped in the wild for almost a week. Naturally, we need to carry some knives when we're out in the wild. — I brought a set of ceramic knives with me, but I forgot to take them to the art museum. I didn't expect them to pass through security. It seems the museum's security equipment needs fixing."
Bringing knives into the paintings is incredible, and it makes one think of that mysterious force, as if it's wrestling with the paintings.
"I never expected you guys to have wilderness survival skills!" Luo Yi couldn't help but praise.
The veteran members looked at the newcomers with newfound respect. They had initially thought these people were just amateur street photographers, but they were actually quite experienced photographers with some wilderness survival skills.
Wei Dong: That scraper I mentioned earlier, it's probably used for scaling fish after catching them…
"Have all your cameras changed? Can you still take pictures normally?" Mu Yiran asked the newcomers.
The newcomers each took out their cameras. Xi Shengnan shook his head: "Mine's is an old-fashioned, beginner-level domestic camera from the 80s or 90s."
The other cameras had undergone similar changes; they were all very old-fashioned and still contained old-style film.
"Let's see if it can still take pictures?" Mu Yiran looked at Mai Peng, who had already skillfully held up his camera.
Mai Peng looked at everyone through the camera viewfinder, clicked the film, and said, "I've used old cameras before; this one can take pictures without any problem."
Mai Peng's camera lens swept around, then suddenly stopped at the deep staircase. Mai Peng's eyes left the camera, staring at a point in the darkness with some confusion.
This action reminded the veteran members of their experience with the painting "Anthropology," where things invisible to the naked eye often appeared on a phone screen.
Qin Ci couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Is there a problem?"
Mai Peng's expression remained calm: "That place in front is too dark. I'm wondering if it's appropriate to take pictures of that spot—if we do, we'll have to use the flash."
The question didn't receive an immediate answer. The surrounding light seemed slightly brighter than before, but it was still a faint, nightlight-like brightness, and no one could clearly see the full extent of their location.
"Something's unusual; the dawn is breaking too slowly," Shao Ling couldn't help but say. "I suspect this might not be natural light. We might be in a sealed room, and this light might be artificial light or something else."
Mai Peng still held her camera, her eyes peering through the viewfinder.
The other newcomers didn't have the courage to raise their cameras, as if afraid of seeing something they shouldn't see through the viewfinder.
"Don't worry too much about the surroundings," Mu Yiran said after staring at Mai Peng for a long time. "Just shoot as you normally would."
As soon as Mu Yiran finished speaking, Mai Peng pressed the shutter. The flash in the darkness was like a ghastly white beam, illuminating everyone as pale as stone statues.
The flash didn't clear their surroundings; the sudden, intense light even caused temporary blindness.
Mai Peng stopped holding his camera, letting it hang on his chest, his eyes intently fixed on the stairs at the end of the corridor, taking two steps in that direction.
Zhu Haowen stopped him just in time: "What did you see?"
Mai Peng looked at the expressionless man before him, then down at his camera: "The camera settings for that photo were set to maximize depth of field. When I pressed the shutter, I think I saw someone walking up the stairs."
Everyone subconsciously moved closer to their companions, an instinctive self-preservation. Cao Youning's breathing was particularly heavy in the darkness: "I can't take it anymore. Are we going to be trapped in this little wooden building forever? Several hours have passed, and it's still not dawn! Are we just going to wait like this?"
Cao Youning's sweat dripped onto the floor, casting blurry shadows of everyone, a mixture of fear and reassurance—at least those shadows were people.
Mu Yiran didn't join the group, but stayed closest to the stairs, seemingly listening intently.
Ke Xun quietly approached and said in a very low voice, "It sounds like someone is really coming upstairs."
Mu Yiran stopped Ke Xun's advance: "Don't step into the unknown darkness."
Ke Xun didn't speak: I just want to stand by you.
Mu Yiran also stopped speaking, and tightened his grip on Ke Xun's hand in the darkness.
Just when the newcomers were almost on the verge of collapse, a warm light illuminated the corridor, accompanied by light, steady footsteps.
Everyone remained silent, their eyes fixed on the direction of the light, which was indeed slowly moving up the stairs.
The light gradually brightened, its orange-yellow color feeling warm, and the whole world gradually came into clear view: it was an enormous wooden building, larger than Pigsty Alley in "Kung Fu Hustle," larger than the bathhouse in "Spirited Away," larger than the Ring Tower in "Big Fish & Begonia," so large it was like a small society.
Lanterns were lit floor by floor, revealing the vast courtyard enclosed by the surrounding corridors, with another adjacent courtyard in front, their lights reflecting off the others. The courtyards connected on all sides, resembling a city of buildings, or perhaps a kingdom of buildings. A
lantern bearer in an old cotton robe walked up to the floor, nodded slightly to the group, and used a long, stick-shaped lantern-lighting tool to light the lanterns one by one.
"You're all up so early?" the lantern bearer's voice was polite and gentle. "Did you hear the commotion downstairs?"
The newlyweds stared at this incredibly realistic NPC, not daring to look directly at him, observing him discreetly in the candlelight.
The lantern bearer didn't seem to mind, focusing intently on lighting the lanterns around them. "Many people have gone down to see what's going on."
Qin Ci asked casually, "What happened downstairs?"
"Xia Yu is dead." The lantern bearer's expression was filled with sorrow.
Xi Shengnan frowned slightly upon hearing this. Everyone remained silent, wondering what kind of story was about to unfold.
The lamplighter sighed, "I don't know who she offended, but she was killed last night."
Everyone had many questions, but didn't know where to begin: What exactly is this wooden building? Who lives here? Who is the deceased, Xia Yu? Does this have anything to do with our search for autographs? …
Mu Yiran glanced downstairs: "Let's go down and take a look too."
Hearing this, the lantern-lighter stepped to the bottom of the stairs, then said something that surprised everyone: "It's good to go take a look, Master Mu. But be careful, one of the steps down is a bit unstable."
Hearing the NPC address him by his surname, Mu Yiran couldn't maintain his usual composure. He looked at the lantern-lighter with some curiosity, then politely nodded: "Thank you for the reminder."
Everyone followed Mu Yiran towards the stairs. When Luo Cheng passed the lantern-lighter, he suddenly heard him say, "Master Luo, what does Xin Chun want for dinner today? Minced meat porridge again?"
Luo Cheng was stunned, his mouth agape for a moment before he finally said, "Okay, either way is fine."
They walked down the stairs somewhat stiffly. The NPC knowing their surnames was something unheard of in previous paintings.
Although the previous NPCs were all sorts of oddities—some as mechanical as a broken record, some as realistic as someone you know, and some so eerie that you could only hear their voices but never see them—these NPCs never knew or inquired about the members' true origins. Perhaps, to them, these people were outside the picture, and that alone was enough.
"I really wanted to ask the person who lit the lantern, what exactly is our setting in this world? I feel like this is an old game, and we each have our own identities and different character settings," Lu Heng said to the group as he walked downstairs.
"It's best not to say too much at times like this. The older members are more experienced than us; they probably have their own ideas," Xi Shengnan's words carried some weight among the new members, and Lu Heng quickly shut up.
The task of explaining fell to Qin Ci again. Qin Ci slowed his pace, walking among the newcomers: "The fact that the NPCs can call us by our surnames is something that has never happened in previous paintings. We haven't figured out the r
ules of this world yet, so it's best not to act rashly. Perhaps this world is still asleep, and one of our words might wake them up."