Ke Xun and Mu Yiran did not stay for too long in front of Xin Beibei's body, but hurried up the copper stairs to the sixth floor.
The layout of the sixth floor is the same as that of the other rooms in the entire circular building, still a semicircular hall. Pushing open the wooden door on the diameter wall, there should also be an empty glass jar inside.
But what surprised the two people was that the glass jar in the room was not empty. There was probably at least half a bottle of pure purple liquid in it.
Ke Xun subconsciously looked back at the door. It was clearly the original wooden color that represented safety, and the clock hanging on the wall in the hall also had a pure white face.
"What's going on with this purple liquid? Could it be Xiao Ye..." Ke Xun was naturally puzzled. The first person he thought of at this moment was Ye Ningchen, the sacrifice representing purple.
Mu Yiran couldn't figure out the reason for a moment: "I think this purple is related to Ye Ningchenyi. The appearance of purple here must have its special meaning."
Ke Xun felt a little regretful: "I should have come up and taken a look this morning."
"You've tried your best," Mu Yiran's expression suddenly became a little strange, "Let's go back first."
The reason why no one was in the mood to go to the sixth floor in the morning was because Ke Xun accidentally pulled off Xin Beibei's head while rescuing her... Everyone present was terrified, and secretly calculating Ke Xun's psychological trauma... Mu Yiran was no exception.
When the two returned to the second-floor hall, they found that the windows of the yellow bedroom had been nailed with wooden boards as a focal point.
Qin Ci held the tools in his hand and asked, "Which room should I nail next?"
Ke Xun scratched his head and said, "I'm timid, let's nail our house first."
Several old members looked at each other and immediately understood that the Blue Room was the top priority tonight.
There is strength in numbers, so everyone divided into two groups and soon nailed all the windows of the four rooms shut before dinner.
The light in this world has always been very strange. Even when all the windows are blocked, the room is still very "bright" and all the furnishings are so colorful that they can be seen at a glance.
"Why are the other buildings we visited so dark?" Shi Zhendong was puzzled. "Where is the light source in this world?"
Miao Zipei answered him: "Fauvism does not pay much attention to refraction and perspective, so the painter deliberately avoided the light source. He probably hoped that all the images in his paintings could shine through themselves like stars."
"But he himself is a shadow worshiper," Mi Wei was still tied up and was moved to the second floor. "The only thing that can make people feel the endless darkness in this world is that huge shadow."
Qin Ci glanced at Zhu Haowen unconsciously: "This is similar to what Haowen said. The other buildings are probably the habitats of shadows and are controlled by shadows."
"Don't you think this painter is very contradictory?" Miao Zipei said, "Just like what the three of us discussed this afternoon: in this painting, the shadow should be the master, and the body is the shadow's vassal! - This is in great contradiction with the artist's own worship of color."
"That's why he went through the maze to carry out the replacement." Mu Yiran said.
"Replacement?" Many people asked this question.
"I don't know if the wording is accurate, but the maze should be the core of this world, not the castle as we previously believed." Mu Yiran also felt that he was a little impatient. Before he could fully think of the answer, he spoke out his speculation first -
"A maze should be a place where bodies and shadows exchange, connect, and even sublimate. The reason why the painter used a maze to represent this important place may be the contradiction in the painter's heart - the biggest feature of a maze is that it makes people lost. In the painter's mind, this thing may have always been a maze-like existence."
"You mean, the painter himself is also confused about this?" Shi Zhendong asked with a frown.
Guo Lixia only understood half of what he said, and finally couldn't help asking: "I don't understand. What exactly is the painter confused about? He needs to build a maze to commemorate it."
Shi Zhendong answered patiently: "It is the question that everyone was confused about just now: which one should be the dominant one between shadow and color? What does the painter pay more attention to? I think this is probably related to the painter's creative process."
Wei Dong couldn't help but ask Miao Zipei: "What do you know about this painter? Whether it is related to this painting or not, you can tell us. It may be helpful to us!"
Miao Zipei fell into deep recollection: "In fact, this painter named Rongrang has always been a bit mysterious. There is very little information about his life at every art exhibition, only his birthplace and the university he graduated from, and the rest is his obsessive worship of Fauvist paintings."
"I remember that this painter is from Tongzhou," Ke Xun also recalled the label on the painting from the few fragments of memory, "The author is Rong Rang, born in 1993, his ancestral home is Tongzhou..."
Miao Zipei nodded: "He is indeed from Tongzhou, and it seems that he is from a very remote mountain village in Tongzhou. It is also said that this painter is an orphan, but the whole village took good care of him. Their place is very poor, and it is said that the initial cost of attending the Academy of Fine Arts was raised by the whole village."
"The people in that place are really simple and helpful." Shi Zhendong couldn't help but sigh.
"What other works does he have? Can you tell me all the ones you can remember?" Mu Yiran looked at Miao Zipei and also at Mi Wei.
"Most of his works are from the Fauvist series, with many colorful figures, still lifes, and scenery... Miao Zipei said he also created some black and white prints," Mi Wei recalled.
Miao Zipei nodded and said, "In the past, when there was a campus exhibition at the A University Art Museum, there was an exhibition hall that exhibited his prints. They were very ethnic and completely different from the current style."
"National characteristics refer to..." Mu Yiran asked.
"It probably reflects the working and living scenes of the people in my hometown. I still remember the name of that series of prints, called "Son of the Cave God." Miao Zipei said with certainty.
"Cave God?" Everyone was puzzled, and some even wanted to ask further, which "Cave" it was.
"Tongzhou has many mountains and caves, so there are many mountain gods and cave gods worshipped there." Mu Yiran fell into deep thought, "In the traditions of some Tongzhou people, mountains, trees, caves and rocks can all become gods, and buffaloes, flying eagles, swallows and swimming fish can all become monsters."
Shi Zhendong seemed to have thought of something: "When I traveled to Tongzhou before, I heard about the legend of the Luohua Cave Girl there. Is the cave god here related to the Luohua Cave Girl?"
Some people have heard of it, while others have not. Wei Dong asked directly, "What's the story behind Luohuadongnu?"
"There is a legend in Tongzhou that some girls are chosen by mountain gods and cave gods as brides. Such girls do not eat or drink in the caves, and will slowly die after returning. This phenomenon is called 'falling into the cave' locally."
Wei Dong felt that these fallen cave girls were pitiful: "Can these girls marry the cave gods after they die?"
"Yes, these women wore wedding clothes after they died, and their funerals were also held according to wedding ceremonies." Shi Zhendong lowered his eyes. "According to later scientific studies, these girls actually suffered from some kind of depression."
Mu Yiran suddenly interrupted Shi Zhendong, looked at Miao Zipei and said, "You just said that Rongrang's print series is called "Son of the Cave God"? "
Miao Zipei nodded: "At first I thought it was the worship of gods there, just like the descendants of the dragon or the sons of the east..."
"The girl from Luohua Cave will never marry a mortal in her life, let alone have children." Shi Zhendong seemed to have guessed Mu Yiran's thoughts.
Mu Yiran shook his head slightly. "I once lived in Tongzhou for a while, and I have heard a lot of local rumors. There was a village where a cave girl got pregnant in a cave. Such a child was called the child of the cave god. When the mother left, such a child would be protected by the whole village, and such children were often gifted."
No one had the nerve to analyze the story of the conception. Considering that Rongrang was an "orphan" and the whole village raised funds to send him to college, it was very likely that Rongrang was the legendary "Son of the Cave God."
"No wonder Rong Rang has such a high talent for art, he turns out to be the son of the cave god." Miao Zipei couldn't help but sigh, "But, what does this have to do with the contradictions in his works? Especially about the shadows..."
"In some particularly remote villages in Tongzhou, there is an extremely devout worship of cave gods, and the villagers there also worship the color black." Mu Yiran spoke the truth in one sentence.
"You mean, Rong Rang was very likely born in a village like that?" Qin Ci said, "The cave god is their totem, and black is their auspicious color."
Everyone seemed to gradually grasp the truth of the matter.
Miao Zipei never hesitates to mobilize all his brain cells when it comes to painting: "Coming from an ethnic village that worships black, and being the son of a cave god that is the focus of the whole village, it is natural that I see black as different from other colors. But such a person, after being exposed to the outside world of painting, fell in love with the Fauvism that used the most bold colors. This is simply a complete tearing apart of a person's color concept!"
“That’s why there are contradictions and confusions, and that’s why things like mazes appear,” Zhu Haowen summarized.
After seeing the truth of the matter, everyone fell silent.
The annoying NPC started urging everyone to go downstairs for dinner. Mu Yiran made arrangements directly: "Four people will be responsible for going downstairs to serve dinner. Let's eat on the second floor."
Everyone agreed, so dinner was hastily served on the second floor.
Miao Zipei wanted to untie Mi Wei and let her eat, but Mi Wei shook her head: "I can't eat."
Night was slowly falling, but the signature had not been found yet. Mi Wei, who had been sentenced to death, could not eat anything.
"The answer is very clear. The signature must be in the maze." The speaker was Ke Xun.
Everyone agreed on this answer, because the maze is the intersection of the flesh and the shadow, and it is also the replacement point of black and color.
Mi Wei sighed deeply: "But the night is still here... I wish you all the best tomorrow."
Everyone was sad, but couldn't say anything.
No one dared to go into the maze at night, as shadows dominated the night, and everyone nailed the windows shut to keep out the shadows.
"What did you find when you went to the sixth floor?" Zhu Haowen asked then.
Ke Xun then remembered to inform: "The sixth floor is very strange. There is a glass jar filled with purple liquid, but the door is wooden in color and the clock on the wall is white."
As for the fact that the two of them saw Xin Beibei's body, Ke Xun did not say anything to avoid making everyone feel uncomfortable.