Volume 1 Faith Chapter 4: The Intuition of Bend People
Mu Yiran, Ke Xun, Wei Dong, and Qin Ci did not object to what the girl with glasses said.
Qin Ci nodded slightly at the girl with glasses, his voice gentle but calm: "Okay, but I still have to say something in advance. Even those of us who have entered the painting before can't guarantee that we can survive tonight. I hope you know that the power in this painting cannot be resisted by our courage and strength. Most of the time, survival depends entirely on luck. The role of these few people is at best to tell you about our previous experience. If you want us to protect you, I'm afraid that's too much to ask."
The girl with glasses trembled and said hurriedly: "Thank you even if it's like this!"
Qin Ci looked at the newcomers and asked, "Who do you want to follow?"
Ma Zhenhua interrupted and shouted, "I - even if I'm not a newcomer, it won't work! I don't know anything, I can't do anything, I have children at home, I don't want to die , I want to follow him -" while pointing at Mu Yiran.
"How can you be so selfish!" The young man among the newcomers couldn't stand it anymore. He yelled and grabbed Ma Zhenhua's collar. "I have parents at home! Who wants to die?! Selfish people like you will never have a good ending, you know!"
Weidong also disliked Ma Zhenhua. Ke Xun later told him about what he did to the private enterprise boss Zhang Maolin when he left the painting, so he also interjected: "It has been decided that one old will lead the new. Comrade Ma, you should obey the majority."
After saying that, he turned to look at the long-haired beauty and said, "Girl, who do you want to be with? I've been in a painting before, and I've escaped death several times."
Ke Xun: “…”
The long-haired beauty looked at everyone's faces in panic and helplessness, then pointed at Mu Yiran and said, "I, I choose him."
Ke Xun: “…”
Wei Dong: “…”
Qin Ci asked the girl with glasses next to her: "What about you?"
The girl with glasses scanned everyone's faces and pointed at Ke Xun: "I want to choose him."
Wei Dong: “…” Are you choosing between a sense of security or a boyfriend?
Ke Xun looked at the girl with glasses and said, "Let's get to know each other first. My name is Ke Xun, and this is my buddy. How about you, girl?"
The girl with glasses replied: "My name is Sha Liu, she and I are classmates." She pointed at the long-haired beauty.
Ke Xun glanced at the long-haired beauty and said, "Oh, so her name is Haloxylon ammodendron?"
Everyone: “…”
The long-haired beauty said angrily, "My name is Zi Ling!"
Ke Xun put his hands in his pockets and tilted his head towards Mu Yiran: "Zi Ling? That's a pity, his name is not Fei Yunfan."
Everyone: “…”
Qin Ci asked the remaining people: "What do you choose?"
Zhou Bin frowned: "You guys are all men, you can't let my girlfriend live in the same tent with you."
The young man just now said, "Then you two can have yourselves a tent. They don't have enough experienced people anyway."
"Why? This is unfair," Zhou Bin refused. "Wouldn't it be very dangerous for both of us?"
"We have to make decisions in an emergency," Qin Ci said, "If you are worried, you two can only share one tent."
Zhou Bin thought for a moment, pointed at Qin Ci, and said to his girlfriend, "You can share a tent with him." He then pointed at Wei Dong and said, "You and I can share a tent."
The young man shouted: "Why do you get to choose whoever you want? I don't want to share a tent with this person!" and pointed at Ma Zhenhua.
The remaining family of three were silent and anxious.
The group became a mess.
Weidong quietly pulled Ke Xun over here and said, "You just acted like a jealous little bitch."
"Stop talking nonsense and do better," Ke Xun said, "People and trees don't even glance at you. When you go out, don't tell others that I raised you."
"You make it sound as if Boss Mu likes to glance at you." Wei Dong said.
As the two were talking, a conclusion had already been reached over there.
Since Ma Zhenhua strongly believed that even those who had been in the painting might not be better at adapting and responding than the newcomers, and since no one wanted to be the one left out and had to stay in one tent, and since the young man, named Tan Zheng, said that if an old person led a newcomer, the person left out could only be the newcomer, and that was not fair to the newcomers, so, for the sake of fairness, everyone decided to draw lots to form groups regardless of whether they were old or new.
The girl with glasses brought paper and pen, and made two sets of lots with numbers from 1 to 6. People who drew the same number shared a tent, and people who drew number 0 had their own tent.
After the paper signs were folded, Ke Xun was not in a hurry to take them. When he saw Mu Yiran unfolding one, he leaned over to look at the number on his paper. Seeing that it was 3, he turned back and stared at the remaining folded paper signs carefully for a few times . Then, he took one based on his intuition, unfolded it and looked at it, then looked up at Mu Yiran with regret.
Mu Yiran glanced at him without saying anything. After everyone had drawn their slips and presented them to the public, he saw a 3 written on Ke Xun's paper.
Mu Yiran: "..."
Ke Xun smiled at him, with his eyes curved in distinct arcs at the corners and ends. Mu suddenly remembered the eyes on his previous WeChat profile picture.
The eye came from a photo of Ke Xun in middle school. Mu Yiran had seen this photo in the closet in his home. Due to his professional habit, he always observed works of art or pictures carefully and had an excellent memory.
I remember the boy in the photo, wearing a sky blue and white school uniform, with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows and one of his trouser legs rolled up, revealing a slender part of his calves. He was wearing white sneakers, exuding infinite youthful vitality, jumping high in the autumn light with ginkgo leaves scattered around, his hair flying, his smile bright, and his neat, white teeth showing.
The eyes on a smiling face look like this.
Eyelids as thin as sunlight, sharp and clear eyeliner, clean and simple shape, clear boundaries between black and white, and clear and pure gaze.
This person's eyes have not changed since he was a teenager.
Mu Yiran looked away and heard someone wailing, followed by angry cursing.
It was Tan Zheng, and he drew the paper with the number 0 written on it.
“I don’t want to die—please—Brother Mu, I want to share a tent with you—” Ma Zhenhua was not satisfied with the companion he had drawn. He rushed over and knelt in front of Mu Yiran, tightly grabbing his robe, “Please, please be in the same tent with me, I don’t want to die, I have children at home—”
Everyone looked at him acting like this and no one said anything.
Mu Yiran looked down at Ma Zhenhua, who was crying with snot and tears, and said calmly: "Ma Zhenhua, no one wants to die. I'm sorry to say that for the sake of my own safety, I asked someone to inquire about your family background.
“You were indeed married and you did have a child, but when you divorced, the court awarded your child to your ex-wife. So in fact, since the divorce, you have never raised your child. Not only did you not pay child support, you even refused to see your child.
"The elders above you passed away five years ago. You have been living alone for the past few years and have an improper relationship with a ."
Ma Zhenhua was stunned on the spot.
Mu Yiran pulled herself out of his clutches and finally said to him calmly, "In the world of the painting, if you want to survive to the end, you have to rely more on luck. I wish you good luck."
After saying that, he turned and walked towards the tent not far away.
Everyone also walked towards the tent according to their groups, and no one paid any attention to Ma Zhenhua who was lying on the ground.
The person Weidong drew was Zhou Bin's girlfriend, Zhao Dan. This made him feel a little embarrassed, so he whispered to Ke Xun, "I think even if I can survive tonight, Zhou Bin will kill me tomorrow."
"Why don't you switch with him?" Ke Xun said.
The girl Zhou Bin drew was Sha Liu, a girl with glasses.
"Forget it, since he didn't mention it, I won't meddle with it," Wei Dong said, "If I change, I'm afraid everyone will change as well. Everyone wants to sleep with Boss Mu."
Ke Xun: "Please be careful with your words."
Wei Dong glanced at Mu Yiran who was walking in front, then looked at Ke Xun: "Tell me, what did you do to be in the same group with them by such a coincidence?"
Ke Xun: "Didn't I tell you a long time ago that my intuition is always right, I draw the lot based on my intuition."
Wei Dong: "Fuck, if I knew you were so accurate, why didn't I buy a lottery ticket?!"
Ke Xun: "I'm not short of money. And I think intuition is like luck. If you use it too much and too often, it's easy to overdraw. You have to use it sparingly, otherwise it will run out at the critical moment."
Wei Dong: "Okay, after hearing your first sentence I'm too lazy to pay attention to you. See you later."
Ke Xun: "Be careful at night. If necessary, cover your head and hide in a place where those things can't easily see you."
Wei Dong: "I see. Although I think this time the way he died might not be the same as last time..."
Ke Xun: "Dongzi."
Weidong: “Yeah.”
Ke Xun: "See you tomorrow."
Weidong: "Okay, I'll try to see you tomorrow."
After watching Wei Dong enter one of the tents, Ke Xun walked towards the tent that Mu Yiran entered. The distance between these tents was not close, and the farthest one was even a hundred meters away.
I opened the tent doors and stepped inside, and saw that these tents were indeed not very big, barely enough for two people to lie side by side. There was a worn-out felt blanket on the floor, and nothing else.
Mu Yiran sat cross-legged on the felt carpet with his eyelids drooping as if he was thinking.
Ke Xun sat down opposite him and did not disturb him. He just rested his elbows on his knees and looked at him with his chin in his hand.
After looking for a while, Mu Yiran finally raised his eyelids and stared at him coldly.
Ke Xun asked him calmly, "There is no written cloth this time. What kind of death do you think we will encounter?"
Mu Yiran lowered his eyes slightly and said in a cold tone: "Having no rules is more terrifying than having rules."
Ke Xun nodded: "That's right, I see that the clothes we are wearing are similar, at least from the outside, there should be no difference between us. Does this mean that the target and method of death this time are very likely to be random?"
"It's too early to judge now." Mu Yiran said, "This time is not like the last time. We don't have any clues at hand now."
Ke Xun asked, "What is this painting about? I tried hard to see it clearly before entering the painting, but I couldn't see anything clearly. I didn't even have time to see the title of the painting or the artist's name."
Mu Yiran glanced at the top of the tent and saw colorful and complicated patterns painted on it, but it seemed to be very old, faded and dirty, and it was impossible to recognize what kind of patterns were painted: "The name of this painting is "Faith", and the painter is Qiu Jian, a religious art painter."
"What sect does he belong to?" Ke Xun asked.
"He studied various sects and had a strong interest and enthusiasm for religious art," Mu Yiran said. "In the years before his death, he was madly obsessed with a sect's culture and became a devout believer of that sect. From then until his death, all his works reflected the cultural characteristics of that sect . The painting we are in is one of them, and it is also his last work before his death."
Ke Xun looked at the robe he was wearing and had some vague guesses, but he still asked, "What sect is this?"
