Paintings of Terror

"If we destroy these machines, what do you think will happen?" Wei Dong said.

"I guess there will be backlash." Ke Xun said.

"Is modifying the photo considered a form of destruction?" Wei Dong worriedly pointed to the photo that had been altered beyond recognition in Ke Xun's hand.

"It shouldn't be counted," Ke Xun said, "I haven't changed its shape, at best I just put a layer of something on it, which can be wiped off with a single wipe, see."

"Okay," Wei Dong sighed, "I'm just worried about you. The other three labs have ways to deal with it. Only this lab..."

"Listen Dongzi, if I also become a vegetable, don't hesitate to kill me directly, and don't let me suffer alive." Ke Xun said.

Wei Dong felt sad when he heard it, and nodded indiscriminately.

Ke Xun didn't want to see Wei Dong feel sorry for him, so he got up and went over to put the photo back where it was, then stood next to Mu Yiran, watching him check the documents in his hand.

Mu Yiran turned his head and glanced at him: "You seem to have discovered something?"

Ke Xun recounted the analysis just now, and then asked him: "What do you think these photos taken from other places are used for?"

Mu Yiran put down the document in his hand, lowered his eyes to think for a while, and said lightly: "If you don't speculate on the content of the experiment, but just start from the photos themselves, what will your reaction be when you see these photos?"

Ke Xun turned his head to look at him: "You really want me to tell?"

Mu Yi still didn't answer, and didn't look at him, just lowered his eyelids.

"You can guess it without telling me," Ke Xun said, "but the problem is, I react like this, but others don't. I mean those with a normal orientation, um... maybe not including rotten girls. "

Mu Yiran suddenly raised his eyes to look at him: "On the first night, Cai Xiaoyan, who was normal, was unscathed; on the second night, Qin Ci, who was normal, was unscathed, but Zhang Hanrui, who is a rotten girl, became a test subject."

Ke Xun's eyes flashed: "You mean, the experiments in this laboratory are aimed at homosexuals and rotten women?"

"Or the rotten women can be interpreted as a group that approves or supports homosexuality," Mu Yiran added, "to further generalize, the experiments in this laboratory are aimed at groups with heretical tendencies in sexual orientation, and the term 'heresy' here , refers to the category under the background of that era.”

"What if all the participants in the painting are staunch heterosexuals? Wouldn't this laboratory be abolished?" Ke Xun said.

"Actually, isn't the B laboratory now equivalent to abolished?" Mu Yiran said, "The setting of 'Painting' will never leave us with a dead end, and not necessarily every difficulty is for those of us who are involved in the painting. Tailor-made, if you are lucky, one person may be able to pass the test without loss, but if you are unlucky, everyone may not be able to survive the first day. Remember what I told you when you entered the first painting? Even if it is a painting ', there will also be BUG, ​​what does this mean?"

"It explains that the 'painting' is not tailor-made for us, it is set in advance and will not be changed by the attributes of the painter itself," Ke Xun replied, "so every difficulty is a death penalty for us people. Whether the round is still alive depends entirely on luck, of course, most of the difficulties are rounds of narrow escapes."

Mu Yi nodded.

Ke Xun sighed, and then smiled again: "Then we are very unfortunate, why did you and I happen to be in this D laboratory? It's just in the arms of 'Hua'."

Mu Yiran's face froze slightly, and he picked up the document in his hand again to look through it.

Ke Xun looked at him, leaned closer and spoke in a low voice: "Yi Ran, do you have anything you want to say to me?"

Without raising his eyelids, Mu Yiran said calmly, "What do you think I should tell you?"

Ke Xun suddenly raised his hand to take the flashlight in Mu Yiran's hand, turned off the light, and the place where the two of them were was suddenly plunged into hazy darkness.

Mu Yiran felt a sudden warmth in his ears, and Ke Xunnuan's warm voice was sent into the earholes in a low voice: "If we have a frontal lobotomy tonight, maybe tomorrow morning, we will never recognize each other again. Of course, I think that life is too short, especially those of us who are painters, who have today and no tomorrow, so we should talk and do what we want, live as we please, and die without regrets. However, if we miss the good time when we are still together, we will really regret it for the rest of our lives."

Mu Yiran was silent in the dark, and Ke Xun waited patiently for him. After an unknown amount of time, Ke Xun began to feel sorry for him. He sighed secretly, thinking that he should not embarrass him, and was about to open his mouth to find a topic Turning this matter aside, I heard Mu Yiran's short and quiet voice: "Ke Xun."

"Yeah." Ke Xun was suddenly a little nervous, and just as he licked his dry lips, he felt Mu Yi's hand approach from behind, and then... landed on the back of his head.

...He stroked his shaggy hair like a dog's head, and said in a gentle tone: "You talk too much, hurry up."

Ke Xun: "..."

Returning the flashlight to Mu Yiran, Ke Xun walked around and caught a glimpse of Wei Dong staring at his phone with a black screen with a depressed face: "The battery is running out... I have to bring a power bank next time I go to the painting." .”

Ke Xun reached into his pocket, touched his cell phone which was dead, and suddenly remembered something, walked back to Mu Yiran, and said, "There is something strange to me, last night I verbally unified the four of us. My action of letting go of the wire end was blocked in a short time. After that, we relied on the stopwatch on my mobile phone. Something as bright as the screen of the mobile phone stood in front of us. You said those 'things' Why not turn it off like gagging my mouth? Just let the phone stay on until it runs out of power. If I plug in a charging treasure on my phone, wouldn’t it be able to use it until dawn in one go? It’s so obvious Cheater, why wasn't it banned?"

Mu Yiran raised his eyes to look at him, nodded slightly: "This is a bit strange."

"Could it be that these 'things' can't see the light?" Ke Xun said.

"It shouldn't be the reason," Mu Yiran gestured to the projector on another desk with his chin, "If you can't see the light, you won't use this kind of equipment."

"Is it because the background of this painting is a long time ago, when there were no mobile phones, so these 'things' don't know mobile phones?" Ke Xun said.

Mu Yiran thought for a while: "This may be one of the reasons, and I have another speculation about it."

Ke Xun: "Tell me."

Mu Yiran: "In this institute, all the research projects are related to people. To use an inappropriate word to sum it up, it is people-oriented. What they study is the most primitive, authentic, and natural things of people, not by human beings. Human-created, transformed industrial products, technological products, etc. So can we infer that these 'things' are only sensitive to humans, and are not interested in other non-human substances other than the laboratory's own equipment?"

"If that's the case," Ke Xun's eyes lit up, and Mu Yiran stared at him intently, "I suddenly had an idea. Doctor Qin, come here!"

Qin Ci came over: "Have you found anything?"

Ke Xun put Qin Ci on the shoulders, pulled him closer and lowered his voice: "Tonight you will be attacked by noise in laboratory A. Yiran and I speculated just now that these things may not be sensitive to technological products, so I thought about it. Maybe something that can help you resist the noise, but I don't know if it will work."

As he spoke, he took out a pair of earphones from his pocket and stuffed them into Qin Ci's hands: "My pair of earphones are very sound-proof, so you can wear them when the time comes. Do you have music in your phone?"

Qin Ci looked at him in admiration: "Xiao Ke, your brain is spinning faster and faster. There are a few songs in my mobile phone, all of which are slow-paced music."

"That's right," Ke Xun said, "I don't know if it can block the noise, but even if it can't, as long as there is music in the middle, it can buffer the harsh and monotonous sound. If those things are not sensitive to technology products, they shouldn't stop you. Turn on the music. Do you have enough battery on your phone?"

Qin Ci took it out and took a look: "There is still 70% left. If you only listen to music, the power consumption should not be too fast."

"It really doesn't work, let Deng Guang and the others use it." Ke Xun said.

Qin Ci nodded: "To be on the safe side, I'd better prepare it, and the little girl surnamed Li, she may also need to prepare one more."

Qin Ci left to get the phone, Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran again: "I have another idea. Since those things are not sensitive to technology products, let's take a photo with the phone camera at night, maybe we can see something Come on, what do you say?"

Mu Yi nodded.

Ke Xun stretched out his hand in front of him: "Lend me your phone."

Mu Yiran took it out and unlocked it and handed it to him. Ke Xun pulled out the camera and took a picture of the laboratory. It was just like what he saw on the first day. There were several gray figures in the room. It is also dry and dry, with dull eyes without any emotion, but with a mouth like a black hole, two arms outstretched, five fingers bent, as if trying to break free from something, or trying to escape from something.

"You said these 'people', could they be the victims of the failed experiments mentioned in the experiment log?" Ke Xun said.

"Yes." Mu Yiran said, "I compared the numbers on their clothes with the numbers of the test items mentioned in the diary, some of them were correct, some were not in the diary, but I think these people should all yes."

Ke Xun took photos for a while, and suddenly said: "I'm going to the bathroom." He strode out of the laboratory.

Mu Yiran put down the document in his hand, looked at somewhere in the darkness and meditated, and suddenly heard Zhu Haowen's voice beside him: "Homosexuality was considered a kind of mental illness in the past."

"That's why they underwent surgery to remove the frontal lobe in an attempt to cure these 'mentally ill patients'." Mu Yiran continued in a cold tone.

"The person who drew this picture may be an anti-gay person." Zhu Haowen said, "That's why I painted the D laboratory in the most detail to express my inner disgust towards homosexuals."

"Maybe they are homosexuals." Mu Yiran said, "Use paintings to expose and criticize."

"But I think that the background of this painting was in that era. It is impossible for homosexuals to dare to blatantly speak out for the same kind. Only those who may be anti-gay would dare to paint like this." Zhu Haowen said.

"In any era, there is no shortage of fearless heretics." Mu Yiran looked at Ke Xun who was stepping through the door, and the corners of his lips moved slightly in the darkness.