Throughout the entire morning, the group rummaged through the houses in the residential area, conducting a thorough search.
However, with limited manpower, even after Fang Fei, Gu Qingqing, and Wu You joined in later, the progress remained slow.
By noon, Qin Ci, Wei Dong, and Luo Bu returned with some water-containing plants and two rabbits. “The rabbits were caught by Radish,” Wei Dong handed the rabbits which were still moving and struggling to Ke Xun. “This kid is quite skilled. He’s very professional in setting hunting traps. We’ll go back into the forest in the afternoon. There are still several traps we haven’t checked. Maybe they caught some other animals. We came back early because we don’t want you all to get worried.”
“People are good at different skills.” Hearing this, Shao Ling praised Luo Bu, who was wiping sweat on the side. “Each person has their place where they shine.”
Ke Xun took the rabbits to process them. He skinned them, drained the blood, and removed the innards. Meanwhile, Luo Bu and Wei Dong had already set up a fire outside. Ke Xun took the meat over to roast.
“The blood on the meat can’t be washed off, so it might taste quite gamey,” Ke Xun crouched by the fire, sweating so much his clothes were soaked, so he took off his shirt and went bare chested.
The others didn’t like the heat and stayed far. Some were squeezing water from the plants into containers, some were inspecting suspicious items brought out from the houses, and some were using bedsheets and branches to build a makeshift awning from the sun — considering the tragic events of last night, nobody wanted to stay indoors, even if it was hot outside.
Tian Yang was still sitting in a daze outside the house from last night, and Wei Dong brought him a cup of plant juice, looking at his face with complex emotions.
He was covered in that black blood, and no one knew what the consequences might be. But no one dared to take the risk of letting him come into contact with everyone else, so he was just silently and tacitly excluded… but what else could be done?
Wei Dong felt this painting was exceptionally cruel.
It wasn’t just the method of death, but the feelings of loneliness, helplessness, and abandonment caused by his companions avoiding him, were even worse than death itself.
To even have to suffer such psychological torment even before death.
“Let me help you build an awning,” Wei Dong tried to make his tone sound normal, as to treat Tian Yang the same as he treated everyone else.
Tian Yang slowly raised his head to look at him, then smiled bitterly. “I’m not worthy of your pity… You still hate me…”
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.
“At that time, you hurt Ke Er quite a lot” Wei Dong said. “Everyone called Ke Er all sorts of things, thinking he was the one pestering and stalking you, ‘a straight guy’. And a dozen or so idiots spontaneously organized to block Ke Er after school, saying they would beat him until he couldn’t have any descendants, since he was gay anyway.
“You know, Ke Er was beaten so badly back then, he couldn’t even get up from the ground, but he never once revealed that you were also gay. At that time, I really hated you, hated you to death. But, how do I put it now, ever since we’ve experienced the paintings, I feel like all that hatred and complaints have become meaningless. I don’t even know how long I’ll live, how do I even have the time and energy to keep dwelling on those unpleasant things and people?
“Dfrlvfr, cbk atja sbe’gf tfgf abb, kf’gf jii lc atf rjwf ybja. Cqjga ogbw ilof jcv vfjat, pera atlcx bo fnfgsatlcu firf yfobgf jr j ojga. Pa’r vbcf joafg la’r bea. Eluta cbk, sbe mjc bcis ibbx obgkjgv ilxf atf gfra bo er. Rfnfg fnfg ibbx yjmx. Wljb Bjl lr jigfjvs vfjv, cb wjaafg tbk qjlcoei jcv rjv sbe jgf, la kbc’a mtjcuf jcsatlcu. Obbx obgkjgv, ags fnfgs wfjcr ab regnlnf jcv ufa bea jilnf.
“You know, what keeps me going is my parents. Every time I think about if I die, how would my old folks manage in their remaining years? How painful it would be for them. Who would take care of them? Who would be there to bring them joy in their twilight years? I…”
At this point, Wei Dong’s voice choked up a bit. He took a deep breath before continuing, “But you’re not Ke Er, your life doesn’t only revolve around Xiao Kai, right? What about your parents? What about your wife and children? Are you going to be half-dead here just because of Xiao Kai’s death? Is Xiao Kai more important than they are? If he’s really that important, why didn’t you divorce your wife and be with Xiao Kai? Alright, I won’t give you any more motivational speeches. Anyway, I’ve said what I had to say. You figure it out. If you want to blame us for isolating you, then blame us. Because in the hearts of us people, there’s only one goal, and that’s to live, to get out alive.”
Tian Yang looked at him, his lips trembling for a moment. He took a slow breath and murmured in a hoarse voice, “Your motivational speech is good… very good… In a place like this… without motivational speeches, where would the faith to survive come from…” ……”
Saying this, he picked up the cup and gulped down the plant juice inside, wiped his mouth, and looked up at Wei Dong. “Can you help me build an awning? I don’t have much strength right now… I won’t come over and join you guys. I don’t want to burden you.”
“Sure, wait a moment,” Wei Dong turned and walked away, then returned shortly after with Ke Xun, carrying some things. Ke Xun even had a roasted rabbit leg in his hand.
“Here, eat, don’t picky about the flavor.” Ke Xun handed the rabbit leg to Tian Yang, then helped Wei Dong set up an awning for him.
“If you need any help, just give me some tasks too,” Tian Yang said to Ke Xun. “Having one more person can save some time.”
“Okay,” Ke Xun thought for a moment. “We found some books from these houses in the morning. Help me check them and see if there’s any clues in the books.”
The were numerous books found in the house, probably hundreds of them. Although everyone discovered these books yesterday while searching for clues in the houses, time was limited, so they only briefly glanced at the titles and didn’t have time to search them thoroughly. This time, everyone moved all the books outside, preparing to spend the afternoon taking a chance to see if there were any traces related to the signature in these books.
Ke Xun brought over dozens of books and placed them next to Tian Yang, then poured him another cup of plant juice. “Let us know if you have any questions.”
The rest of the group gathered not too far away, sitting under the shade. Each person had a large pile of books in front of them and began to flip through them urgently.
The books were of various types, including both Chinese and foreign books, some familiar to everyone and some unheard of.
It was a very time-consuming and energy-draining task, but nobody dared to slack off.
In the late afternoon, around three o’clock, Qin Ci, Wei Dong and Luo Bu prepared to enter the forest again to fetch some water-containing plants and the catch from the traps. Meanwhile, Ke Xun threw the books he had been holding aside and gathered the rest of the people for a meeting.
“We don’t have much time until it gets dark,” he said. “We need to prepare for tonight’s situation now. I thought about it, it’s better to stay inside the houses rather than outside. If we’re outside, there’s no barrier against those skins and blood, and we could be surrounded and overwhelmed wherever we go. We need to find a relatively sealed room and block the cracks in the doors and windows.”
“Say, can we stand on the roofs of the houses?” Wu You pointed to the nearby houses. “You see, the roofs are sloped, and no matter how much blood there is, they couldn’t possibly get up there.”
“But you need to consider those human skin and unidentified matters,” Ke Xun said. “Although the blood can’t accumulate that high, those unidentified matters can. If they pile up higher and higher around the houses, they can still reach the roofs.”
“Makes sense,” Wu You nodded. “Then… then let’s stay inside the houses.”
The terrifying situation from last night had actually left everyone with a deep psychological trauma and resistance to staying in enclosed rooms in the houses.
“I remember there’s a relatively clean room in that house over there,” Shao Ling pointed to a certain house. “Given the amount of blood seeping into the house last night, I think we can prepare a few high tables and stack them up for everyone to stay on.”
“Let’s do it as we think.” Ke Xun stood up and glanced at He Tang lying next to Fang Fei. “How is she?”
Fang Fei shook her head slightly. “She’s burning up. I don’t know if she’s asleep or unconscious now. It’s a bit like what happened to Xiao Kai yesterday.”
Everyone fell silent for a moment. Ke Xun turned to look at Tian Yang not far away and saw that he was already lying on the ground, using several books as a pillow, his face pale, still struggling to flip through the remaining books.
“It’s strange,” Zhu Haowen said. “He Tang didn’t get any blood on her, so why is she in this condition? If it’s not really related to the blood, then we may need to reconsider the criteria for death.”
The group left He Tang where she was and went to the house pointed out by Shao Ling. Then they brought several high tables from other houses and almost filled the entire room.
Zhu Haowen also collected several raincoats and distributed them to everyone. “Just in case.”
Everyone understood the implications behind these three words. Although they sounded cruel, there was nothing they could do about it.
Seeing the raincoats, Ke Xun had an idea. He found a hammer, nails, and tape and stuck the raincoats on the outside of the windows, nailing them tightly. He also nailed another layer inside the windows.
“For the rest, let’s wait until everyone has entered the house before dark, we’ll seal the doors and try to block as much as possible.” Ke Xun said.
With the preparations almost complete, everyone came out of the house. However, they saw He Tang still asleep, and Tian Yang was curling on the ground, clutching his head.
“Tian Yang,” Ke Xun walked over. “How are you?”
But deep down, he knew it was pointless to ask. No matter what condition he was in now, nobody could help him.
“It hurts…” Tian Yang raised his face from between his arms, his face terrifyingly pale, just like Xiao Kai yesterday.
“Where does it hurt?” Ke Xun asked.
“Be-behind my eyes… it hurts so much…” Tian Yang groaned in pain.
“Don’t worry about these books anymore,” Ke Xun crouched down. “If you agree, I’ll knock you out, and maybe it’ll be a little better.”
Tian Yang shook his head. “I know… I don’t have much time left… I don’t want to die, Ke Er. I’m scared of death… I’m really really scared… You don’t know, you can’t understand how I feel right now… I… I wish I could live a little longer… Ke Er, don’t knock me out. I only have this tiny bit of time left to live…”
Tian Yang’s words were somewhat incoherent, and he could hardly suppress himself from choking up.
Ke Xun watched him in silence. In such a situation, any words of comfort would seem pale and powerless.
“Ke Er… I’m sorry… ” Tian Yang’s voice trembled. “That time, I shouldn’t have… ”
“It’s all in the past,” Ke Xun said calmly. “Who didn’t do a few stupid things we regret deeply when we were young? It’s quite ridiculous to think about it now. Don’t think about it anymore. While you still have time, you… should record any messages you want to leave for your family on your phone—just in case.”
I really find this arc unsettling. While the other is creepy at least the time of dead is fast (you woke up, the other player is dead or the monster get you etc) but this makes me having a flashback I just dislike it.
what a kind person ke xun is, thanks for the chapter!! <33
I am becoming more and more afraid that Haowen or Radish might not make it all the way to the end, especially Haowen… he got the makings of a tragic sacrifice 😖
Me: scared of horror movies
Also my book’s choices:
Thank you for your translation 💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖
Death in the painting is becoming more creative and torturous 🫣