The first volume of the funeral Chapter 10 Death Becomes a Mosaic
Ke Xun and Wei Dong stopped in shock and stared at Mu Yiran in disbelief.
Mu Yiran also stopped, turned around and looked at the two of them deeply: "To put it more directly, the world in the painting does not allow a day without death. However, due to the randomness of the development of things in this world, it often causes the phenomenon of zero death. In this case, the world in the painting requires that one person must die to fill the vacancy of zero death on the previous day. And the place of this death will be voted by the survivors."
Ke Xun's mind was still in a state of complete blankness due to the extreme shock caused by this incident. He asked in a somewhat floating voice: "What happens after the selection?"
"This person will die within a minute, in a manner consistent with the style of the content of this painting." Mu Yiran's tone was calm, almost cruel.
Ke Xun knew that this cruelty was just to remind him that this world was far more cruel than he had imagined.
What kind of fear does it feel like to be voted by everyone to die?
"So what do you think that old man wanted us to do at his house at 8 o'clock this morning?" Mu Yiran glanced at him, and his tone softened slightly. "If no one died last night, then our first activity at his house just now would not be to have breakfast, but to vote for someone. Only after the election would we have food."
"...and...and still give me food, how inhumane..." Wei Dong cursed with a sad face.
Ke Xun exhaled and looked up at Mu Yiran: "It is quite cruel. So what you mean is that if we team up with everyone, it is very likely that we will be partners one day and kill each other the next day? When I think about it this way, there is really nothing more fucked up than this."
Mu Yiran suddenly smiled again, although there was no smile in his eyes: "You are still too naive. If everyone votes to elect one person to die, who can guarantee that they will not be chosen by the majority?"
"...So?" Ke Xun's eyelids twitched.
"You have to know that human nature is the most difficult subject in the world to understand." Mu looked into Ke Xun's eyes, "--some people are afraid of being chosen, so they take the initiative to kill people in advance."
Ke Xun took a deep breath and spoke after a while: "That is to say, whether it is voting or killing people one by one, as long as someone dies, it can be regarded as filling the gap of zero deaths on the previous day. If people are killed one by one before the election, then there will be no voting on the same day, right?"
"Yes." Mu answered happily.
"So, some people, fearing that they will be voted out by the majority in an election, will take the initiative to kill someone in order to avoid the risk of death." Ke Xun finally understood Mu Yiran's intention.
No wonder there was a weird atmosphere among those people who didn't look like novices. In addition to indifference and numbness, there was also alienation and wariness of each other.
This also means that in this world of the painting, you cannot make close friends with other people. No one can guarantee that when faced with a life or death decision, who will stand beside the other person and your own humanity is an angel or a devil.
Mu Yiran looked at the person in front of him calmly.
After telling him the rules of the painting, he quietly observed the changes in the man's expression and mentality.
This person was not the first one to seek cooperation with him, and all those who had wanted to cooperate with him before, without exception, chose to be on guard, alert, and immediately distance themselves after he described the rules in the painting.
If the person in front of him made the same choice, Mu Yiran would not be angry.
After all, that's human nature.
"I agree to your terms." Mu Yiran heard him say this, "Although I'm not very smart, I'm not stupid enough to think of exchanging sincerity with others in this environment."
Mu Yiran continued to look at him calmly, waiting for his next words.
"But I also have something to say in advance," Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran with clear eyes, "Whether you believe it or not, I can promise that I will not betray you. If the time comes to vote for someone to die, I will definitely not vote for you. But - if it comes to a life-and-death moment, and I need to choose between you and Dongzi to live and the other to die, I will choose Dongzi to live. I declare this in advance, and I hope you can understand. Of course, if you choose to save yourself and sacrifice both of us at the critical moment of life and death, I will definitely not blame you. What do you think? If you can't accept it, just pretend I didn't say it, and we'll go our separate ways."
Mu Yiran's eyes moved slightly and he nodded slightly: "I accept."
"Deal." Ke Xun stretched out his hand.
However, Mu Yiran did not do him the honor of shaking hands, and walked away with a noble and cold look.
Ke Xun: “…”
Wei Dong: "Ke'er, you are so good to me. I really want to hug your thighs and cry. You are worthy of being my childhood friend. From now on, my dad is your dad, my mom is your mom, my son is your son, and my wife is your sister-in-law."
Ke Xun: "...get out of here. It's nice to let me help you support your father, mother and son. Why don't you let me help you support your wife?"
Wei Dong: "You are a man and you like men, I will give you my wife, do you want it?"
Ke Xun: "First of all, you have to have a wife. You are still single, so don't think too much."
Wei Dong sighed: "You can't think too much. If you encounter such a bad thing, you don't know if you can get out alive. What's the point of a bicycle?"
"Don't be too pessimistic," Ke Xun put his arm around his shoulders tightly, "Once you give up hope, hope will also give up on you. Do you believe in my intuition? I have a feeling that we can definitely get out."
Wei Dong forced a tearful smile on his face: "How can you be so straight as to be gay like Abe... But sometimes you are too straight. You shouldn't have said those words just now. Even if you really think my life is more important than his, you can't tell him. Who would be happy to hear that?"
"Don't worry, he won't mind." Ke Xun smiled.
"How do you know?" Wei Dong didn't believe it.
"If a person is willing to give up his best brother just to cling to someone powerful for survival, is such a person trustworthy?" Ke Xun said as he strode forward.
Walking side by side with Mu Yiran, Ke Xun tilted his head and looked at him: "Can we officially be considered a team now? Isn't it time to tell us about the clues you got?"
Mu Yiran said calmly: "It's not a clue, it's just my personal idea, which needs to be verified. However, the only way to verify it is to continue waiting for death, which is too costly."
"Don't feel pressured, just talk about it first, maybe we can help." Ke Xun soothed in a gentle voice.
Mu Yiran glanced at him, then looked away: "The first thing that puzzles me is why the five people who died last night died in different ways."
Ke Xun thought for a moment: "Because they were killed by different 'things'?"
Mu Yiran sneered: "Whatever this 'thing' is, isn't it an unnatural 'thing'? Why were the three people guarding the body scared to death and then had their eyes gouged out, while the two people digging the grave were..."
Wei Dong quickly covered his ears: "Don't say it, don't say it!"
Ke Xun thought about it again: "Because the 'things' we encountered were different kinds?"
Mu Yiran said: "This can certainly be used as an explanation, but I am more concerned about the way these two groups of people died, whether it was having their eyes gouged out or being..."
Weidong covered his ears: "Artificial mosaic, artificial mosaic, artificial mosaic..."
Mu Yiran: "...after death, the body still retains its original outline. Both of these ways of dying are very formal, or in other words, they have a certain ritual and symbolic nature."
Ke Xun: "Having said that, I still don't see how this can inspire us."
Mu Yiran looked at him calmly: "You said you were a student of physical education, it seems you didn't lie."
Ke Xun: "...Although you mocked me, I am not angry."
Mu Yiran closed his eyes and continued in a cold voice: "If there is a sports stadium with hurdles on the track, shot put on the grass, mats for high jump, and sand pits for long jump, and a group of students come in at this time."
Ke Xun replied very cleverly: "Then the teacher will assign events to these students. Some will run hurdles, some will practice shot put, some will do high jump, and some will do long jump."
Mu Yiran continued: "So on this field, students doing each project will show different sports states."
Ke Xun suddenly realized: "This is just like our current situation. Last night, some people were responsible for keeping vigil, some were in the woodshed, some were in the granary, and some were digging the grave."
Mu Yiran's eyes were cold and solemn. "The people who were keeping vigil had their eyes gouged out, and the people digging the grave..." He glanced at Wei Dong, "They were turned into mosaics of death, just like the hurdlers are running, the high jumpers are jumping, and the shot putters are throwing."
Ke Xunweidong: "..."
Mu Yiran: “The key point is that the athletes, the track, the leap, the hurdles, as well as the athletes, the turf, the throw, and the shot put are the four elements of the hurdles and shot put, namely: people, places, movement states, and signs that define the athlete’s movement form.
“To transform into the current situation, the same four elements are required:
“Characters – Five people who died last night;
“Location – mourning hall, wasteland;
"Death (motion) state - scared to death, then gouged out eyes and..."
Ke Xun Weidong: "Death into a mosaic."
Mu Yiran: "…Then the question is, what is the symbol that defines the death of the person (athlete) and the form of death (sports)?"
Ke Xun suddenly turned his head and looked at Mu Yiran.
Mu Yiran also looked at him, speaking in a calm and steady voice: "If we find the 'shot put' and 'hurdles' from the two death games last night, perhaps we are not far from the moment when we open this painting."
What determined the death status of the five people who died last night?
"I already have a guess." Mu Yiran said lightly.
