The first volume of the funeral Chapter 17 Ke Xun's Analysis
After hearing Mu Yiran's words, everyone was in shock for a long time.
I never expected that these so-called "beautiful words" that I had been chanted and praised in the classroom since childhood actually had such horrible and cruel original meanings.
"No wonder you asked me to hide my head in my clothes last night..." Wei Dong murmured.
"Just like a crow can't tell whether a scarecrow is a fake or a real person, I think that kind of 'thing' may not be able to tell the difference between a head hidden and no head at all." Mu Yiran said calmly.
"So when that 'thing' saw a headless 'corpse' lying on the ground, it thought I was dead and would not chop off my head again. That's how I escaped." Wei Dong suddenly realized, and then became curious, "How can you be sure that that thing won't see through that this headless man of mine is fake?"
Mu Yiran continued calmly: "I'm not sure, I just let you try. If it doesn't work, you will die."
Wei Dong: “…”
Ke Xun asked, "Didn't you just say that the original meaning of the word gu is to behead or cut in half? Last night you only asked Dongzi to hide his head. What if that thing actually wanted to cut him in half?"
Mu Yiran said calmly×3: "It's just his bad luck. He has no choice but to die."
Ke Xun Weidong: “…” It turns out that the big boss had no confidence at all last night.
The doctor said, "I think that after seeing the headless body on the ground, the creature thought that the person was dead, so it would not cut him in half again. Even if it had intended to cut him in half, it would not cut him in half again after seeing that there was already a dead person on the ground."
Wei Dong opened his mouth: "Why do I feel that this 'thing' is a little... retarded?"
The doctor smiled and said, "To be superstitious, the world of ghosts and gods is different from the human world. They each have their own rules and limitations."
"You, a doctor, actually believe in ghosts and gods?" Wei Dong said.
"Under the current situation, I can't help but believe it." The doctor laughed at himself, "But if you want to hear a scientific explanation, it's not impossible. This is equivalent to creatures in two dimensions. The creatures in the three-dimensional world cannot see the creatures in the two-dimensional world, but the creatures in the two-dimensional world can only feel the projection of the three-dimensional world."
"Is it really okay for us to discuss scientific issues in a world of ghosts and gods?" Wei Dong scratched his head.
Ke Xun's mind was moved, and he asked Xiang Muyiran: "Then what is the original meaning of our word 'Yang'?"
Mu Yiran: "Hanging."
Ke Xun touched his neck and pointed at Ma Zhenhua and Zhang Maolin: "Where is the word '歹' on their strips?"
Mu Yiran's voice was somewhat eerie: "Flesh-cutting torture."
Ma Zhenhua and Zhang Maolin were so frightened that they trembled all over and almost collapsed to the ground.
"How did you two escape last night?" Ke Xun was curious.
The two of them just shook their heads and were speechless for a long time.
"Death is random," Mu Yiran said, "It doesn't mean that everyone will be in danger of death at the same time. Otherwise, why would they give us a seven-day deadline? We could be wiped out on the first night we enter the painting."
Ke Xun stopped asking questions, and suddenly heard Wei Dong say happily: "Now that we have cracked the rules of death, we don't have to be afraid of that thing anymore!"
Mu Yiran looked at him coldly: "Then we will be faced with voting for someone to die every morning."
Wei Dong was suddenly speechless.
"In order to avoid being elected, let's try to find the seal." Ke Xun stretched out his arm and put his arm on Mu Yiran's shoulder. "Do you have any clues about where the seal is?"
Mu Yiran slapped his arm away and said, "I think we should start with the content of the painting."
The doctor said, "We didn't finish checking those three locust trees yesterday. Let's hurry up and continue now."
Mu Yiran glanced at Ke Xun and said, "For the ghost face on the locust tree, it's just speculation at the moment. We shouldn't get hung up on one place. I suggest we split into three groups One group will continue to check the ghost face on the tree, and the other two groups will go to other places in the village to look for clues."
Ke Xun: "Agreed, the boss and I will check the locust tree, and the rest of you can go to the village."
Mu Yiran: "Ke Xunweidong will check the locust tree, and the others will go to the village."
Ke Xun: "I'll listen to you."
Wei Dong: “…”
Without wasting any more time, everyone immediately split up and took action.
Ke Xun and Wei Dong came under the three locust trees and looked up at the ghost faces on the tree trunks. Against the backdrop of the gloomy and gray sky, these thousands of ghost faces looked even more hideous and abrupt, protruding from the cracked tree trunks, as if they were struggling to break away from the trunks.
Wei Dong shuddered: "Why do I feel that these faces are more prominent than yesterday?"
Ke Xun frowned. "Yes, the facial expressions are more realistic. I think that as the days go by, these faces will become more and more prominent and realistic, until..."
Wei Dong: "Shut up! Go find it quickly, I'll keep watch for you."
Ke Xun: "Sound the whistle, work together, hurry up."
Wei Dong had no choice but to carefully pick up a dead branch and poke it into the ghost face's mouth one by one like he did yesterday.
"By the way, let me ask you something," Wei Dong was trying to find something to talk about in order to give himself courage. "Why did you abstain from voting? I think Liu Yufei's words really made us hate each other. Abstaining from voting is equivalent to pushing the burden of killing onto others. It actually makes sense. With Liu Yufei's help, if no one survives tonight, I think when we vote tomorrow, everyone will think of this and might vent their anger on us."
Ke Xun climbed up the tree and looked down. "Because everyone knows that we are in the same group, and we are hanging out with Mu Yiran. Mu Yiran is a capable person in the eyes of everyone. If there are ten people hanging out with him, nine of them will listen to him. In the eyes of others, if there is a vote, the three of us will definitely vote for the same person. Don't you think that's right?"
Wei Dong looked up: "So?"
Ke Xun's eyes flickered. "So for them, our small group of three is a considerable threat. No matter who we elect, that person will suddenly have three votes. Now that there are eight of us left, it doesn't mean much. But later when there are fewer and fewer people, these three votes will have a lot of weight."
Wei Dong looked serious: "You mean..."
"When the number of people is decreasing, our three votes will have the largest proportion. It can be said that whoever we vote for will die. Everyone knows Mu Yiran's ability. The worst-case scenario is that our group can survive under Mu Yiran's leadership, while the number of others will decrease. If we encounter a vote again in the future, the only ones who will be voted to death will be others. Are you afraid of such a group?"
Wei Dong was shocked: "Scared, very scared."
"Under this situation, 'others' will easily put the three of us on the opposite side." Ke Xun turned the dead branch in his hand, "For long-term considerations, we must not let the three of us survive to the end, otherwise the others will all be lambs to be slaughtered. While there are still many people, our three votes do not account for a large proportion, so it is better to destroy our gang first. If one of us is killed, the remaining two will be powerless."
Wei Dong: “Fuck!”
Ke Xun knocked the tree trunk with a dead branch: "At that time, Liu Yufei and the pancake boss had already surrendered to Mu Yiran, and the best opportunity to destroy our gang had appeared.
“Among the remaining three people, even if only one of them chooses Mu Yiran, even if the three of us choose someone at the same time, that person can at least get the same number of votes as Mu Yiran, and this person still has a chance to break through.
"And what if two of the remaining three people choose Mu Yiran? Mu Yiran will definitely be the one to die. From a proportional point of view, Mu Yiran will suffer more, which means that the others are more likely to survive.
“The reason for this consequence is that our small group of three put a lot of pressure on others, which eventually prompted them to unite for their own sake and attack the three of us.
"So I chose to abstain, and I know you will follow suit. This way, the psychological pressure on them will be much less, and they will no longer regard us as a thorn in their side that they want to get rid of as soon as possible.
“Plus, Mu Yiran is capable, and they are counting on him to lead them out of the painting. As long as they can save their own lives, they will not easily surrender to him and die.
"So choosing to give up is to turn offense into defense, in order to save your life, right?"
Wei Dong was dumbfounded, his brain digested it for a long time, and finally raised his head: "...you said so much, it turns out you just wanted to save Mu Yiran's life!"
Ke Xun: "Save his life, isn't it saving our lives?"
Wei Dong: "...Okay, I'll pretend that what you said makes sense. By the way, Mu Yiran has told everyone all the clues. What if the seal is not found today and there is a vote tomorrow? Do you think he will be voted out? After all, he is of no use now..."
Ke Xun shook his head: "Do you think he is stupid? Why do you think he left us here and took others to the village to look for clues?"
Weidong: “Why?”
"Of course it's to show those people that he deserves to live to the end." Ke Xun looked towards the center of the village shrouded in gray fog.
After climbing up and down the tree for most of the morning and still finding nothing, Ke Xun jumped down from the tree to take a rest and sat under the tree with Wei Dong to think about it.
"I doubt the seal is on these faces." Ke Xun said as he pondered, "These faces are too obvious. According to common sense, everyone would suspect that the seal is hidden in such a weird place. Isn't this the same as putting up a sign to tell you where to go to the toilet?"
"That makes sense," Wei Dong said weakly, "Then where do you think the seal will be?"
Ke Xun glanced at him and said, "Aren't you an artist? This is your specialty. You raise a dog for a thousand days but only use it for a moment. Can you give me some help?"
Wei Dong: "Artist, I'm here to tell you, I studied design, not Chinese painting or oil painting!" He sighed, "Whatever I learned is useless. When I think about all the hard years of studying and taking exams, I finally made it, but I'm going to die inexplicably in this crappy painting. All the efforts I made in the past have been in vain. I feel that my life is full of irony and tragedy."
Ke Xun didn't say anything.
Weidong is different from him. He is alone. Although he is afraid of death, he has no worries even if he dies unfortunately.
But Weidong still has parents and relatives. Even if they don't rely on him as their only son to support them in their old age, he will have to spend the rest of his life immersed in the endless pain of losing his son.
Having no one to attend a funeral or having one's parents to attend a funeral both sounds quite pitiful.
"I remember the doctor said that everyone in this village has the surname Li, right?" Ke Xun suddenly said.
" Yes, they probably have the same ancestor, maybe they are not even within the five generations." Wei Dong said.
"Then if the villagers in this village marry each other, wouldn't that be considered consanguineous marriage?" Ke Xun said.
Weidong: "Why would a gay like you worry about this?"
Ke Xun looked at him and said, "Marriage between close relatives is likely to result in deformed children."
Weidong: "Thank you for the reminder, I don't have any cousins."
Ke Xun: "The thing that crawled out of the coffin last night was a deformity."
Wei Dong was shocked: "You mean - it might be the product of inbreeding in that family?"
Ke Xun: "Although its deformity is a bit exaggerated, it is not surprising in the world of the painting. Besides, art is exaggerated, right?"
Wei Dong nodded: "Yes, works of art often use exaggeration to embellish the picture or highlight the theme."
Ke Xun stroked his chin and thought: "The protagonist of this funeral is a deformed child. What theme does this painting want to express? I think the painter's thinking is very strange."
Wei Dong asked: "Who is the artist of this painting?"
Ke Xun thought for a moment and said, "Mu Yiran said it was... Shit!"
Wei Dong: “Ah?”
Ke Xun turned and looked at him: "This painter's surname is also Li."
