Paintings of Terror

Chapter 178: Outsiders

It was a little hot in the cafe. Ke Xun rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, revealing his strong forearms. There were some bruised pinch marks on one of his arms, and it was too late for him to cover it up so he had to explain, “Everytime I begin to think about spending the rest of my life in this city, I will pinch myself really hard.”

Wei Dong looked at the marks on Ke Xun’s forearm and couldn’t help cursing. “This city is a trap, a trap that wants to trick us all in. Ke’er, you also know to remind yourself. I was completely unaware before the ‘secret’ was revealed, and all I could think about was to look for a beast. Even now, I have to force myself to let the word ‘signature’ come into my head. It’s like having to turn on a lightbulb.”

Ke Xun pulled down the sleeve of his left arm, not wanting everyone’s attention to be focused on himself. “Actually, the most uncomfortable person must be Luo Wei. He’s the only person that’s awake, and that makes him suffer more. We talked about Su Benxin just now, and now I’m a little worried about Luo Wei being with her. I always felt that Lion’s death was suspicious. When we came out of the restaurant last night, he talked for a long time with Su Benxin.”

Although Su Benxin later explained this, saying ‘When night fell, I became really scared and so I wanted to chat with an old friend. We were kind-of comforting each other at the time, because although we both don’t have any beast marks, we were still afraid.’

“I was a little worried about Luo Wei before, but the communication of sensitive contents between people outside and inside the city would be blocked, which may provide Luo Wei with a kind of protection. Moreover, I talked to Luo Wei while we were grouping. He’s a very smart person and he will take precautions against Su Benxin.” Mu Yiran put his right hand on Ke Xun’s left arm, seeming to be gently stroking the bruises.

Qin Ci finished drinking his coffee and said, “Let’s talk about Xiao Qinxian again. The results of her examination surprised me.”

Wei Dong choked on the water in his mouth, but he managed to hold it back and didn’t fire it like a cannon at Qin Ci. “Pff-cough. What happened to Xiao Qinxian?”

“Xiao Qinxian was sent to the examination room at 4 in the morning. She was simply panicked at first, but she became extremely uncooperative, and could even be considered manic. The medical staff had to give her tranquilizer. At the time, she was undergoing a schizophrenic episode,” Qin Ci said.

Wei Dong’s face was serious. “I believe this. That woman doesn’t seem normal during the day.”

Mu Yiran wrote down some things in his notebook and then asked, “Is there anything else?”

“Her physical examination is also surprising. Xiao Qinxian had a history of smoking for at least ten years, as well as a history of drug abuse,” Qin Ci said. “There are many scars on her body that point to drug abuse.”

Wei Dong’s eyes widened. Although Xiao Qinxian was quite unpopular, he would never imagine that she was this kind of woman with a history of drug addiction. “Isn’t she a wedding dress designer? I remember that she was still doing design in a famous wedding dress shop in S City. At lunch yesterday, she said that she came back to her hometown to visit relatives…Such bad luck.”

Qin Ci shook his head. “But there’s nothing wrong with her medical examination, and there’s nothing wrong with those physical wounds. If it’s not self-harm, then it’s long-term abuse.”

Ke Xun refilled everyone’s cup with cold water and took a drink to refresh himself. “It’s really messy. I feel like this entire thing is like eating a snack with several layers, like cakes, biscuits, and wafers with a lot of cream, and so on.”

Wei Dong said, “It’s called Napoleon…”

But he didn’t continue his ridiculed decompression. Because, when the word ‘outsider’ was mentioned, he couldn’t help but be reminded of Lion, the foreign photographer with the sunny smile, who would pay special attention to his words every time and mispronounce I and you, and who would talk about his adventures in photography…

Mu Yiran took a sip of iced water. After these two nights, there were already some slight stubbles on his face. They didn’t make him look bad, but instead added a little extravagance. “The same goal will be achieved through different means. Although the situations with Su Benxin and Xiao Qinxian seem difficult, they will fall in line.”

Wei Dong nodded. Ever since he was reminded of the signature, he no longer forgot this central thought, which was to leave the painting. “Looking for the signature on the street is like looking for a needle in a haystack. The only clue the painting gave us is ‘beast.’ I think the signature must have something to do with the beasts!”

Everyone agreed with this point. Qin Ci said, “Just now, when Xiao Mu mentioned Su Benxin’s recitation of the title page of The Scarlet Beast, I recall that The Revelations of St. John the Divine had mentioned the woman with the mark on her forehead. I was wondering, could the characters on the woman’s forehead be related to the characters in the signature?”

Qin Ci’s analysis caused both Ke Xun and Wei Dong to raise their eyebrows and give thumbs up. Afterward, everyone waited for Mu Yiran to analyze.

Mu Yiran said, “I also made this assumption, and even imagined who this woman might be…But, after all, the woman in Revelations is the incarnation of a cult, and the words on her forehead are also 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 the same thing. “The painter actually did the opposite. He didn’t paint this to condemn the scarlet beast but to praise it! That’s why, in his Heart City, the beasts in people’s bodies will be enshrined on the altar!”

Mu Yiran nodded. “However, this morning, Zhao Yanbao brought back a voice from the university, and this voice had grown to a certain scale in this city, making the original intentions of the painter more and more difficult to guess.”

Return the beast to its original body and complete the soul.

This progressive slogan was printed on the walls of the cafe.

…………

At lunchtime, everyone went back to the hospital and gathered in the cafeteria to eat like yesterday.

It was the same single room as yesterday, but there were three fewer people, which was depressing.

“By the way, how’s Xiao Qinxian? How will her lunch be resolved?” Zhao Yanbao asked.

“She’s being fed nutritious meals. Her mood is still unstable, but we can go see her after lunch.” Qin Ci said.

Zhao Yanbao looked at the food on the table but had no appetite. She only drank some orange juice and said, “The people in the university town are against the beast stripping operation and the exchanging of beasts. From them, I found out that some people in society who specialized in beast husbandry are buying mentally ill patients at a high price, raising them, and even feeding them medicines to make their conditions worse, so as to increase the chance of them developing a beast in their bodies. Feeding them appropriately can make their beasts more rare.”

Zhao Yanbao looked at the glass cup filled with bright orange juice. “It’s really inhumane.”

Everyone gradually felt the rot hiding under the city’s golden jade exterior. The more they saw this, the more they wanted to escape.

“We are now able to see this painting more and more clearly. The painter himself is probably full of contradictions,” Zhu Haowen said.

Regarding their analysis of Yu Beiguo, the veteran members still hadn’t had time to talk to Zhu Haowen and Luo Wei yet, and it was inconvenient to say more at this time.

Wei Dong was half full. Raising his head, he said, “We don’t have any valuable clues here, only that in this city, surgeons are very respected. Today, in the coffee shop, because of Dr. Qin’s work card, he didn’t have to pay his bill.”

Su Benxin looked at her ‘colleague’ Qin Ci and smiled. “It seemed that Dr. Qin is really suitable for this place. Many of the colleagues in the hospital are full of praises for Dr. Qin.”

Qin Ci let out a faint smile but didn’t speak.

“Today’s sweet and sour pork wasn’t very good; it was too sweet.” Ke Xun naturally changed the subject and looked at Luo Wei. “I haven’t heard you speak today. How was your trip?”

Luo Wei’s expression was calm, not as pained as it was yesterday. He took a sip of his soup and said, “We went north today and saw a train station there. It was full of all kinds of people.”

“The train station?” In his impression, trains are often means of transportation connecting cities. If there was a train in Heart City, it should lead outside.

“Yes, the train goes out of the city,” Luo Wei said. “The train tickets also need a special stamp. Some people plan to leave the city forever, while others are just planning to go on business. If it’s for business, these people wouldn’t be able to leave the city boundary, and can only talk to the people there and make deals with them.”

Su Benxin also added, “Yes, those who left Heart City can never come back, and outsiders who want to settle in this city will need to undergo a special treatment. I think it’s to erase their memory or something.”

Luo Wei smiled bitterly. “So, I’ve been trying to figure it out. What is the painter’s meaning of placing an outsider inside the city limits?”

The whole city was full of contradictions, contradictions inside and outside the city, contradictions between opposing views about the beast.

Luo Wei continued, “However, we met an oracle at the train station today.”

“An oracle?”

“Yes. It’s an old lady who runs a stall at the train station, a fortune telling stall.” When Luo Wei talked about this person, there was a rare energetic look in his eyes. “This old lady can tell at a glance that the two of us are outsiders.”

“Both of you?” Wei Dong looked at Su Benxin. “What does this mean?”

Luo Wei said, “I also found it very strange. When she saw me for the first time, she said in a strange dialect: How did an outsider come here? I thought that maybe she saw that I am an outsider of Heart City, but after seeing Su Benxin, she said: The outsider also brought an outsider woman.”

Everyone thought that it was strange. Su Benxin said, “That old lady is very mysterious. She looked very strange, even a little weird. Her eyes are different colors, but she has such good eyesight that she could actually see that Luo Wei and I are from outside the painting.”

“Did she mention the painting?” Mu Yiran asked suddenly.

“No, but she said that both of us are outsiders. Isn’t that strange? According to how we were divided, only Luo Wei is an outsider,” Su Benxin said.

Luo Wei added, “So she is an oracle. She seems to be able to see things we can’t see, including this painting and maybe the signature.”

——————–

Xida: Interesting. I wonder if Su Benxin is a different kind of outsider than Luo Wei and she’s trying to hide it by suggesting that the oracle meant outsider of the painting?