Everyone took paper and pens, thinking about the clues in their minds. Since there weren’t enough pens for everyone, they shared them. Whoever thought of something would write it down first.
Midway through, Tian Yang came out of the living room to fetch the water boiled with willow bark, while Ke Xun cooked a pot of moss and vines’ juice, then put the bird eggs they found into it. After they were cooked, everyone managed to eat a few to fill their stomachs, leaving some for Qin Ci, Tian Yang, and Xiao Kai.
It took about half an hour for everyone to finish writing.
“Let’s go through what we’ve written one by one,” Shao Ling said. “People who haven’t had their turn to read, pay attention if someone else has already mentioned what you’ve written, cross it out. There’s no need to repeat it, so as to not disrupt our thoughts and waste time. If you have additional details or more clues to add to what the current person is reading out, feel free to do so any time. Then, I’ll start.”
With that, he picked up his paper and read slowly and clearly, “I think places that could be clues are: firstly, the blood incidents that occurred in every house in the residential area, let’s call them ‘blood cases.’ What caused these blood cases in every house?
“Secondly, the question regarding the dates. Anything that would display the year has the year blurred out. I think this is a means by which the ‘painting’ wants to conceal clues. If we can find a way to determine the years, we might make a breakthrough in the clues.
“Thirdly, the issue and difficulties of survival. After entering the painting, we face the most primitive survival challenge: obtaining food, water, and dealing with illness. Is this also a hint related to the clues?
“These are the three areas I’m particularly concerned about. Now, please continue to add.”
“I’m more concerned about the climate,” Zhu Haowen chimed in. Perhaps the three points that Shao Ling summarized had already mentioned almost all the clues that everyone obtained so far, so Zhu Haowen only added one extra point. “I feel the presence of the climate in this painting is too strong, and heat might be one of the clues.”
“I’ve thought of something, not sure if it counts as a clue,” Luo Bu unusually offered his own independent insight. “I just feel that finding such water-rich vines in the forest is an unexpected surprise. Originally, I had little hope, but of course, it’s normal to find such vines in the forest. But I just feel… how should I say it, it’s so lucky, I didn’t expect the ‘painting’ to be so cooperative with us this time… that’s all, I’m done.”
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.
“You do have some reasonable grounds for saying that,” Wei Dong said, pointing to Gu Qingqing, who was currently writing something in her notebook. “Another similar situation is finding the willow tree. Didn’t this girl say that willows are rarely seen in subtropical or tropical regions? Yet we were so lucky and found one. In previous paintings, this kind of luck is unimaginable. It feels like the ‘painting’ has unexpectedly given us a helping hand, so I also find this very suspicious.
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“But if you call this luck or golden finger, I cannot agree. If it weren’t for someone among us knowing that moss and vines can provide sufficient water, and someone else knowing that willow bark can be used as medicine to treat colds and fevers, then this way to survive would have been a dead end for us.
“So, I don’t think this is an incredible stroke of luck or the ‘painting’ intentionally making it easy for us. It’s achieved through our own individual capabilities, and we don’t necessarily need to consider the painting’s intentions in this regard. What we should consider is why this forest, like the residential area, can be the main part of the limited area in this painting.”
“Very reasonable,” Wei Dong gave her a thumbs up.
“You’ve all said what could be said,” Wu You said, “I can’t think of anything else, but the thing that puzzles me the most is why there is no water in the water supply system here and no electricity in the power supply system?”
“If this residential area has an independent water and power supply, then we haven’t seen any facilities for power and water supply, which means that the facilities are elsewhere, not in this area.
“And if they are not in this area, then it means that those facilities not only supply water and electricity to this residential area, right? It’s very likely that several areas share the same facilities for power and water. So why did other residential areas not do anything when it stopped supplying power and water? Did they just let it stay like that?
“Although other areas are not included in this painting, didn’t you say that even in the paintings—except for super abstract ones like ‘Schrodinger’s Cat’—the world runs under a normal and logical system? So, under normal circumstances, there must be a place supplying water and electricity to this area and other areas. But now that water and electricity are cut off, does that prove…”
“—that other places, like here, have also experienced ‘blood cases’!” Wu You’s words jolted everyone awake, and they all uttered similar sentiments at the same time.
“This is terrifying…” Wei Dong and Luo Bu exchanged a frightened look.
“Wu You’s idea is indeed a new discovery,” Shao Ling’s expression became serious. “If similar ‘blood cases’ have occurred in other places in this world, then perhaps this event cannot be summarized with just the phrase ‘blood cases’. It could very well be a large-scale event involving multiple locations.”
“Could this world really be a world of zombies?” Luo Bu said with fear.
“I don’t think so,” Ke Xun said, “if it were a world of zombies, there would at least be corpses, right? Here, apart from blood, we can’t even see a single limb. Unless everyone turned into zombies overnight, and since the same kind doesn’t eat each other, there are no bodies or limbs left behind. But this doesn’t explain the bloodstains in every room. Do zombies bleed profusely after turning? I’ve never seen any movie depicting it like that, unless the zombies described in the painting are different from those on TV.”
The discovery of this new clue somewhat shook everyone, and after a period of silence, Shao Ling spoke up again, “Let’s continue. Does anyone else have new clues or discoveries?”
Only Ke Xun, Mu Yiran, He Tang, and Gu Qingqing didn’t speak yet. Gu Qingqing had been writing something on paper the whole time, while He Tang had seemed somewhat nervous from the beginning, sitting in a corner of the sofa and occasionally seemed to be listening to something intently.
Seeing that Ke Xun didn’t seem to have anything to say for the time being, Mu Yiran spoke, “The clues we’ve discovered so far are basically the ones we talked about just now. I don’t have any more clues to provide, so I’ll just talk about what I’m particularly concerned about.
“I’m concerned about Xiao Kai’s illness, which came on so suddenly and had severe symptoms. Tian Yang said he rarely gets sick to such an extent, which means his physical condition is good and his resistance to disease is not low. So how was this illness triggered?
“If it was without reason, just the painting at work, then what are the rules that the painting used to select people? Did Xiao Kai get sick suddenly because he fulfilled certain conditions?
“If it’s not the painting at work, but just a natural cause leading to a cold and fever, then what’s the cause? I think it’s necessary for us to figure out this question to prevent more people from getting infected with this disease. That’s all for now.”
Ke Xun took over the conversation, “You’ve all covered the clues I could think of, and I don’t have any new clues to provide. So, I’ll also share my personal thoughts.
“I’ve always felt that the blood cases and the survival dilemma have no connection at all. But if we combine them with the clues Wu You just mentioned, the problem becomes easier to explain.
“If the blood cases have a wide scope, for example, people have suffered the same tragedy in other places in this world, then all those involved in production activities and resource provision must have died or no longer exist in this world. The primitive survival dilemma we face now becomes inevitable.
“It’s precisely because of the widespread death or disappearance of humans that those of us who survive are forced to confront this primitive dilemma. Thus, these two clues can merge into one: because of the cases, the production and resource provision activities of human society have stagnated, and those who survive can only rely on primitive means if they want to continue living.
“Another question is what Fang Fei mentioned: why was that forest also included in the main areas of this painting?
“If the main clue to decipher this painting is the blood cases, then what’s the connection with that forest? Does the forest exist just to provide us with a way to survive, to prevent us from dying of thirst or starvation?
“If that’s the case, then this clue can also be integrated into the clues about the blood cases and the primitive survival dilemma. In other words, because the blood cases created the survival problem, and because of the survival problem, a forest is provided to us to find a way to survive.
“After combining these three clues, the focus is now only on one: the blood cases.
“What kind of consequences did these blood cases lead to? What was the situation at the time? What was the cause of the blood cases? I think as long as we can solve these questions, we can also decipher the meaning of this painting’s main theme, ‘Restart’.”
“Nicely summarized,” Zhu Haowen said, “you’ve blended several seemingly disparate clues together. So now we’re left with the most important issues: the blood cases, the blurred dates, the overwhelming presence of the hot climate, and the cause of Xiao Kai’s illness. Anything else?”
The only ones left who didn’t speak were He Tang and Gu Qingqing. Seeing everyone’s gaze shift towards them, He Tang seemed hesitant to speak. She bit her lips and was about to speak, but she noticed Gu Qingqing had already put down her pen and was holding up her notebook to show everyone.
