“That really comes down to luck…” said Gu Qingqing, pushing up her glasses and speaking as if reciting from a book, “Willow trees generally only grow in the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere. There are fewer of them in the cold zones and even less in the subtropical and tropical regions. And where we are now, I don’t know if it’s the Southern or Northern Hemisphere, but judging by the vegetation in this forest, it seems somewhat like a subtropical or tropical area.”
“Even if it’s down to luck, we should try our best,” Qin Ci was a doctor. Saving patients was an instinct deeply ingrained in his bones.
“In that case, let’s continue to divide our tasks,” Shao Ling said, “Dr. Qin, take Xiao Kai, Tian Yang, and the few girls back to the residential area first. See if there are any usable medical supplies in the clinic.”
“Girls, please help prepare some daily necessities and process the moss, vines, and bird eggs we just collected earlier. Also, pick a house for us to shelter in at night, tidy it up a bit, and if possible, gather some firewood at the edge of the forest for starting a fire.”
“The rest of us will stay in the forest to find willow trees. We’ll definitely return before dark, but if we can’t make it back, you don’t need to wait for us. Just lock the doors and windows and protect yourselves.”
Everyone agreed to this arrangement and immediately set off.
This time, the people remaining in the forest paid particular attention to the types of trees. They discovered hundreds of trees, some with known names and others unknown. It was a treasure trove of natural resources.
While searching for willow trees, everyone didn’t forget to continue to collect moss, vines, and edible items. Ke Xun even found several more nests of bird eggs until Zhu Haowen called a halt.
“Don’t forget, our most important task is to find clues related to the signature,” Zhu Haowen remained rational and calm, almost to a callous extent, “Although Xiao Kai’s safety is also important, there’s not much time left until nightfall, and who knows how many more people will be affected tonight. So far, we haven’t even had a clue.”
Shao Ling seemed to have been pondering the issue of clues all along. When Zhu Haowen mentioned it, he spoke up, “It seems that in the previous paintings, we never faced difficulties in finding water or food. Especially in the previous one, even basic physiological needs like sleep and relieving oneself didn’t even arise. But this painting seems different, seemingly emphasizing sensory experiences such as heat, thirst, hunger, and even illness. I suspect that this may be the challenge of this painting.”
“Heat, thirst, hunger, illness… Why does it sound a bit like wilderness survival?” Luo Bu said, “Those wealthy friends of mine, who don’t need to work and have nothing but time on their hands, love seeking thrills when they’re free to pass time. They formed a club specifically for wilderness survival. They often set a time to get everybody together and roam all over the world, especially in wild uninhabited areas. They bring along basic equipment, sometimes they even stay there for one or two months. But I’m too scared. I don’t dare to go to places that are too dangerous. They just took me to a few relatively safe and simple places. What Brother Shao mentioned just now sounds a lot like the challenges often encountered in wilderness survival.”
“By that logic, could it be that this painting is testing us on wilderness survival?” Wei Dong said.
“It makes sense,” Shao Ling said, “In this painting, we have lost all readily available resources. We need to obtain food, water, and medicine on our own. It feels like we’re in a dilemma, and it’s a primitive dilemma that requires relatively primitive means to solve our most basic needs.”
“I think your line of thought is skewed, President Shao,” Ke Xun spoke, “The so-called primitive dilemma we’re facing now may indeed be a clue, but I think it’s only a supplementary clue. The important clues lie in those blood-filled houses in the residential area and what caused these bizarre incidents.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Qtja P olcv ragjcuf lr atja atf ecrbinfv mief bo atf yibbv-oliifv tberfr lc atf gfrlvfcalji jgfj jcv atf qglwlalnf vlifwwj kf jgf ojmlcu cbk rffw ab tjnf jyrbieafis cb mbccfmalbc. Ktfs’gf ilxf akb qjgjiifi ilcfr, fjmt ublcu lar bkc kjs, klat cb lcafgrfmalbc, ilxf akb lcvfqfcvfca fnfcar.
“P atlcx, lo kf mjc olcv atf lcafgrfmalbc bo atfrf akb miefr, kf klii yf ajxlcu j ylu rafq obgkjgv lc rbinlcu atf wsrafgs.”
Ke Xun’s words left everyone lost in thought, but they didn’t stop their work until they finally, very fortunately, found an old willow tree in a lowland.
Following Qin Ci’s instructions, they managed to gather quite a bit of bark and collected many willow leaves, then swiftly returned to the residential area.
The few girls had already cleaned up the atrium of one of the houses to use as a temporary resting place.
Normally, these houses would be filled with the horrible and disgusting bloodstains, making it better to stay outside. However, at the moment, the temperature outside was extremely high and it was easy to get a heatstroke. There were also no tall plants in the residential area to provide shade, and there might be poisonous insects and snakes lurking at the edge of the forest. They had no choice but to find a relatively clean atrium.
The dust on the floor was swept away, and sofa covers with thick layers of dust were also removed. They replaced them with relatively clean spare sofa covers found in the cupboard. The coffee table was wiped clean, and there were several bowls placed, cleaned with leaves of plants rich in moisture and filled with water squeezed from moss and vines.
“We’ve all drunk, you guys should drink some to quench your thirst too,” Wu You said to Ke Xun and the others who just came in, “The taste is okay, with a slight bit of plant odor.”
They went straight for it. After putting down what they were holding, they each took a bowl and gulped it down.
“Where’s Brother Qin and Xiao Kai?” Ke Xun didn’t see the two in the atrium.
“They’re in the adjacent living room,” Wu You said, “Brother Qin is afraid that Xiao Kai might infect us, so he moved him there alone.”
Ke Xun walked over, pushed open the door of the living room, and looked inside. He saw that it had also been cleaned up. In the dim light, Xiao Kai was lying on the sofa. Ke Xun was uncertain if he was already asleep. He was breathing heavily and appearing very uncomfortable.
Qin Ci wore a mask on his face and was sitting on the side, searching through a box full of medicine.
“How’s his condition?” Ke Xun only stuck his head in and asked.
“Not good,” Qin Ci’s voice was muffled by the mask, sounding heavy, “His temperature is very high. Fortunately, I found some alcohol in the clinic just now and I can cool him down physically. But these medicines are probably unusable. Although I can’t see the production date, judging from the condition of the packaging, they should have expired a long time ago.”
The clinic was even more horrible than the interiors of these houses, with blood from countless people and some unidentifiable strange things covering the walls, floor, and ceiling. It was like a human slaughterhouse, reminding Ke Xun of the scenes he had experienced in the painting “Animal World.”
It must have been tough for Qin Ci to find many potentially useful things in such an environment — of course, the results were regrettable, and the only useful items were probably medical masks and alcohol.
“Do you need help?” Ke Xun asked.
Qin Ci said, “Help me wipe him down with alcohol.”
Ke Xun paused and said, “I’m not suitable for this task. Let me introduce you to someone who can help.” Then he turned and called out to the person sitting in the corner of the atrium, “Tian Yang, come over here.”
Qin Ci looked somewhat puzzled and asked, “Is there a reason?”
“They are a couple, didn’t you notice?” The corner of Ke Xun’s mouth curled up, his expression somewhat peculiar.
Qin Ci: “……” I really didn’t notice. How did you figure that out? Can your group of people determine each other’s sexual orientations just by smell?
As if reading Qin Ci’s puzzled thoughts, Ke Xun gave him a strange smile before leaving, “Because Tian Yang is my ex-boyfriend.”
Qin Ci was stunned for a while.
Ke Xun left the living room and saw that Luo Bu was coming out of the kitchen with a large pot, while Wei Dong was breaking some dry branches he had picked up and throwing them into the pot. Then Luo Bu took out a lighter and lit the fire.
After the fire was lit, they put a smaller pot on top and boiled the juice squeezed from the moss and vines. Then they cleaned the willow leaves and bark they had found and put them in the pot to boil.
It was already past four in the afternoon, and there wasn’t much time left until dark. Yet so far, they had collected very few clues to solve the mystery of this painting.
Everyone sat on the sofa, brainstorming.
“I still don’t see how all this relates to the title ‘Restart,'” Wei Dong gestured with his hands towards the house and everything outside the window, “Some houses do have computers, but without electricity, they’re useless.”
“What’s with computers?” Luo Bu didn’t understand.
“Computers can be restarted,” Wei Dong said, “Maybe restarting the computers could give us a clue.”
“Your thinking is too straightforward and crude,” Ke Xun said, “According to your logic, we’d have to make our hands rotten before we could press the restart key to make that work.”
“Then I have no ideas. My head is filled with bits and pieces of things that I don’t know can be counted as clues. It’s like having a jigsaw puzzle with only a few pieces that don’t connect. We’re missing the pieces that could link them together,” Wei Dong spread his hands.
“In this situation…” Gu Qingqing raised her hand, “We can write it down with a pen to help us organize and summarize our thoughts more systematically and clearly.”
“Right,” Shao Ling nodded, “How about this, each of us writes down the clues and ideas we thought of, and then we gather them together. Sometimes, independent thinking can lead to things others might not think of. Write down anything that you feel suspicious about, no matter how common or inconspicuous they seem. Don’t overlook anything.”
“Good idea, who has paper and pen?” Ke Xun asked.
Gu Qingqing raised her hand again, took out a notebook and a few pens from her bag, then tore out pages from the notebook one by one and gave it to everyone.
“I understand bringing a notebook, but why so many pens?” Luo Bu asked curiously.
“These pens have different colors,” Gu Qingqing explained, “I bring them every time I go to the library to take various notes. Plus, there are also backups in case the pen runs out of ink halfway.”
What a studious person… The study slackers thought with shame.
Thanks for the chapter 😊
Top student pressure , ahahah
Thank you for your translation 💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙💙