Just then, Xiao Kai suddenly convulsed, his back snapping as if it had broken, and he fell forward, crashing headfirst into Tian Yang's chest. He then vomited a massive amount of thick, black blood, like tar, which gushed from his mouth and nose.
"—Xiao Kai!" Tian Yang cried out hoarsely, trying to help Xiao Kai up. But as soon as he grasped Xiao Kai's arm, he was horrified to find that Xiao Kai's black outer shirt was soaked with blood. He instinctively looked down and saw blood dripping from Xiao Kai's exposed ankles.
"—What happened to him?—What happened to him?" Tian Yang, his hands covered in blood, held the still-convulsing Xiao Kai, turned to Qin Ci, and asked in a broken, grief-stricken, and helpless voice.
Qin Ci, however, remained intently focused on Xiao Kai's bluish-black face, his brow furrowed. The condition of his face was utterly bizarre; the subcutaneous connective tissue seemed to have lost its adhesive and binding properties, causing the skin to hang precariously from the skull. Between the skin and skull lay liquefied matter—more precisely, blood and dissolved subcutaneous tissue.
At this moment, blood gushed from Xiao Kai's eyes, nose, ears, mouth, and every pore on his body. He convulsed and collapsed onto the sofa, his entire body a blood-soaked mess.
Tian Yang tried to help him up, but Xiao Kai's body seemed to have melted into a limp, mushy mass. Caught off guard, Tian Yang lost his balance and fell onto the sofa.
Without Tian Yang standing in front of Xiao Kai, everyone standing at the coffee table saw Xiao Kai's horrific state. He Tang, Wu You, Gu Qingqing, and Luo Yi were so shocked by the sight that they cried out several times. Mu Yiran suddenly shouted, "Watch out! Don't get blood on your exposed skin!"
Everyone snapped out of their daze and hurriedly tried to protect their exposed skin. Tian Yang, however, was already distraught, covered in blood, like a soulless shell, sitting blankly beside Xiao Kai, staring at him in a daze.
Suddenly, Xiao Kai, lying on the sofa, convulsed violently, his limbs flailing involuntarily. A large gush of thick blood spurted from his anus, splashing onto the sofa back, Tian Yang's body, and even onto the door, walls, and ceiling.
The blood even contained fragments of internal organs.
Several girls and Luo Yi were so terrified by the scene that their screams became distorted, and He Tang even fainted on Shao Ling's back.
The other men, though not screaming, were also stunned speechless by the sight.
Xiao Kai's blood gushed for a long time, soaking the entire sofa in crimson. When he finally stopped, he lay sprawled on the sofa like a pool of dissolved blood.
The foul blood seeping in through the cracks in the door and windows continued to slowly accumulate, only seemingly stopping as dawn broke. The pool of blood was only a centimeter or two away from submerging the coffee table, and everyone on the table was already drenched in sweat—a result of shock, heat, and exhaustion.
In fact, everyone's nerves had been stretched too tight all night; they were numb, barely able to recall how they had spent the night, their bodily functions seemingly ceasing.
"We..." Ke Xun finally spoke first, his voice hoarse, "How do we get out of here?"
The blood had stopped pooling, but it hadn't disappeared, staining the coffee table, sofa, door, and windows. Anyone wanting to leave the room would have to get their hands on the thick, dark blood.
"Maybe...we should wait and see if it leaks out through the cracks in the door again?" Wei Dong said hoarsely.
"That would be too much of a waste of time," Shao Ling's sweat-soaked hair hung over his forehead, dripping continuously. "We must seize every moment to find clues to the painting during the day; not a minute can be wasted."
Xiao Kai's death was too gruesome; no one wanted to be next.
"Then, what do we do..." Wei Dong's legs trembled violently. "I can't stand anymore..."
He had carried Fang Fei all night; even someone as physically strong as Ke Xun was exhausted. Wei Dong had actually performed exceptionally well this time.
"Put me down," Fang Fei said. "I'll carry you."
"…Brother Fei, I know you're strong," Wei Dong said weakly, "but I have to save face too…"
"How about I wrap my legs in my clothes and wade through the blood to open the door?" Ke Xun said. "Men, take off your clothes and lend me yours. I can get there quickly, and my clothes shouldn't be soaked."
"Impossible," Mu Yiran said. "Everyone is only wearing thin clothes. No matter how much you wrap yourself, your clothes will be soaked. Besides, you not only have to get there, but you also have to push the sofa aside and open the door."
"So, we really can only wait for the blood to slowly drain out before we can move?" Luo Yi also said weakly.
"I doubt it. By the time the blood stops flowing, it might be dark again," Zhu Haowen said.
While everyone was discussing a solution, there was a sudden movement on the sofa.
Tian Yang had remained slumped on the sofa all night without moving, and only now did he slowly stand up and take a step to get off the sofa.
"Don't get off!" Ke Xun shouted.
Tian Yang turned his head stiffly to look at him, his face splattered with horrifying black blood spots. His voice was hoarse and weak: "It's no use... Ke'er, it's no use..."
As he spoke, he stepped into the knee-deep pool of blood under the sofa.
"—Hey! Don't go in—" Several voices cried out urgently, one after another, but they were powerless to stop him.
Tian Yang waded through the blood, pushed the sofa aside, and then opened the door.
The human skin and unidentified objects he had seen last night were gone. The blood in the room gushed out like a floodgate had been opened, and it quickly drained to the bottom.
Tian Yang went outside, carried a few chairs from the dining room, and arranged them from the coffee table to the door. He then pushed the sofa from the central hall over to cover them, so that the people on the coffee table could step on them and avoid touching the bloodstains on the floor. He walked all the way to the outside of the house.
"Tian Yang, there'll be a way. You wait here, we'll go find the autographs right now, hang in there!" Ke Xun looked at Tian Yang, who was slumped on the ground, half-covered in blood, and was overwhelmed with mixed feelings.
Tian Yang stared blankly at his feet, which were soaked in black blood, as if he hadn't heard anything.
"What do we do now?" Wu You looked at the people who could make decisions.
"He Tang looks terrible." Qin Ci reached out to check her forehead temperature. He Tang stared at him with wide eyes in horror, afraid that she would hear something more terrifying than being diagnosed with a terminal illness.
"It's probably due to dehydration and lack of sleep," Qin Ci said calmly. "Finding water and food is still one of the main tasks today. I think we should split up. Given last night's situation, I believe that if we still can't find the signature today, we need to prepare in advance. We should find another house and turn one of the rooms into a completely impenetrable secret room, or a mechanism to prevent the blood from flowing in. During the day, those things shouldn't do anything, so the residential area is relatively safe. I think it would be better if the four girls stayed behind. Fang Fei, you take them to find a suitable house and room, clean up a bit, and then let them catch up on some sleep, okay?"
"No problem." Fang Fei replied, calling Wu You, He Tang, and Gu Qingqing, and headed towards a house next door.
After the four girls had gone some distance, Qin Ci turned back and said in a low voice to everyone, "He Tang's condition is not good; she has started to have a low-grade fever."
Everyone gasped in shock. Luo Jin's eyes reddened. "What do we do... Where's the signature? We have absolutely no clue. All the clues are scattered and disorganized. Where are we supposed to look?"
"Brother Qin, take Luo Bo and Dongzi to find water," Ke Xun said, gripping Luo Jin's shoulder and turning to Qin Ci. "The four of us will look for the signature. We'll meet back here at noon."
"Okay." Qin Ci didn't delay and led Luo Jin and Wei Dong towards the forest.
"You guys discuss the clues first. I'll be right back," Ke Xun said to the remaining three. Then he turned and ran towards a nearby house. He came out shortly after, carrying several pieces of clothing and towels.
"Wipe the blood off yourself and change into clean clothes," Ke Xun placed the items next to Tian Yang. "Tian Yang, there's still time. Don't give up until the very last moment. Think of your wife and children at home."
Tian Yang, lost in thought, only snapped out of his daze when he heard the last four words. He looked up at Ke Xun, slowly reached for a towel, and began wiping his face.
Ke Xun walked back to Mu Yiran and the others, looking at them: "So, any ideas?"
"Not at all." Zhu Haowen maintained his usual calm. "Climate, bloodshed, the blurred era, disordered vegetation, infrasound—what do these have to do with the theme of 'reboot'? Only by figuring this out can we possibly find a way to get the signature."
"We have many clues now, but that's it. We're stuck, unable to break through the bottleneck." After Shao Ling finished speaking, he looked at Mu Yiran.
This person was even younger than him, but his extensive knowledge, clear logic, meticulous thinking, and calm rationality far surpassed anyone else here. Even he, who was usually somewhat arrogant and confident, couldn't help but admire him, and even...a little bit dependent on him.
Truly, there are heavens beyond heavens, and people beyond people. Shao Ling sighed inwardly.
"We seem to have many clues, but we seem to be missing a few crucial links," Mu Yiran said calmly. "It's like we have several PVC conduits, but no connectors to connect them together, so we can't form a complete, interconnected conduit system.
"The bottleneck Shao Ling mentioned does exist. We've thought of everything we can think of. If we still can't find the 'connectors,' then there can only be one reason—the 'connectors' are right next to us, but we've overlooked them."
"So now let's think about what we've overlooked. We've checked every house here, and we've been to the forest, but the forest is vast, and the area we can reach is limited. There are still large areas we haven't checked, and even if we wanted to thoroughly search the entire forest, seven days wouldn't be enough. If the signature is in the forest, it's obviously meaningless if it's too far away, and we've already explored the areas too close without finding anything.
"Therefore, I think that even if the signature is in the forest, since we haven't found the crucial 'connector,' haven't deciphered the core meaning of this painting, even if the signature appears before us, we might not see it, recognize it, or even touch it, and it wouldn't serve any purpose.
"And if the signature is in this residential area, we would similarly miss it without realizing it for the same reasons.
"The forest and the residential area, seemingly two completely independent and uninterrupted areas, must have an inherent connection since they both belong to the main body of this painting. They might be complementary, or they might be mutually causal."
"Consider the content of this painting. The main subject is a human hand. Regardless of whether it's merely symbolic, since the artist used a human hand to express the painting's message, the element of 'human' is crucial.
"Think about the near-death experience we faced last night. The force behind the painting has transformed human skin and blood into a means to kill us, unlike previous paintings which featured gods, ghosts, witches, or monsters. This time, the executioner is 'human,' further highlighting the importance of the 'human' element in this painting.
"Therefore, I believe that among the two parallel themes of the forest and the residential area, the residential area, filled with 'human' elements, might hold the key to solving the mystery. Regardless of whether the signature is in the forest or the residential area, the crucial clue must lie in the residential area.
"We checked all the houses in the residential area—inside and outside, in open spaces, for food, and for items that might seem to hold clues—but found nothing. This means we must have overlooked something, or checked something but didn't pay enough attention to it."
"So I think what we need to do next is to check every room here again, focusing on those things that seem unimportant and easily overlooked."