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Chapter 155: Strange City

“I have a ticket worth 30 yuan, and unexpectedly, I feel like I’ve made a profit.” Wei Dong found that he’d fallen in the painting’s trap and couldn’t extricate himself–just like someone starting to get Stockholm Syndrome.

The design on the ticket was very simple and looked more like a ready-made greeting card that was just branded with the seal of Benxin Art Gallery and a digital date stamp.

Qin Ci looked at the art gallery, which was getting busier and busier as the day went on. Today was the weekend, and there were twice as many visitors as usual.

Ke Xun had already walked to the door. Looking at his companions behind him, he tilted his head, as if to say, Come on, let’s go in and practice marimba.

Zhu Haowen was infected by Ke Xun, and a subconscious smile stretched across his face. It wasn’t clear how many times he’d smiled like this, with the corners of his mouth curled up uncontrollably. Before he knew Ke Xun, this had always been something that was rare.

He secretly cleared his throat, pasted on his usual expressionless face, and followed Wei Dong into the art gallery.

The art gallery was decorated in the popular “impoverished style,” with terrazzo walls, unmodified log tables and chairs, and naked light tubes hanging from the high ceiling. It looked like a factory workshop from the 1980s. The “workshop” was decorated everywhere with wilderness-like withered vines, giving it a certain air of artistic originality.

“Good wabi-sabi style, ah!” a girl wearing a Mori shawl exclaimed in admiration.

Wei Dong looked at the simplistic walls and whispered, “It’s pretty bad (wabi-sabi), ah.”

Zhu Haowen’s mouth parted slightly when he heard his words, but in the end, he didn’t say anything.

The Mori girl’s companion, a tall, young man wearing a slim-fit shirt, pushed up his thin glasses and said, “Plain and quiet, with a little Zen.”

Wei Dong walked past him and was shocked to realize that this “young man” was actually a girl, and then he heard the teenage girl say, “I didn’t expect that there would be so many avant-garde artworks.”

Today’s artworks were indeed very avant-garde.

They stepped over a pile of distorted root carvings on the ground, only to find a label stating that the work was named “Connected” and that the price was “12,000 yuan.”

In front of it was another pile of wool balls with a few peculiarly shaped light bulbs inside and a label that read “Cat’s Love”, priced at “9,4000 yuan.”

The money was also very good.

In the end, Wei Dong didn’t say these words out loud. After all, he was still inside the territory of this group of avant-garde artists.

Wei Dong couldn’t help but pat Ke Xun, who was in front of him, on the shoulder. “It’s a pity that we didn’t bring a few works along with us. If we could earn a bit, maybe it would pay for our travel expenses.”

“I think we can nail a bunch of large and small picture frames together, just like a perspective drawing.” Ke Xun looked at the various artworks in the museum and couldn’t help but open his mind.

“That’s considered a work of art, right?” Ke Xun asked Mu Yiran beside him.

“It could be.” Mu Yiran let out a small smile.

“I think the name of an artwork is very important. What should we call a bunch of picture frames?” Ke Xun looked at the piece of leather displayed on the wall with two weird tattoo-like patterns on it. The name of this work was “Old Huan.”

Ke Xun looked away from these uncomfortable artworks and was about to tell Mu Yiran that the artwork he’d just conceived would be called Encounter,” when Zhu Haowen grabbed it first. “Call it Nirvana.”

“What is Nirvana?” Wei Dong said. “I think it should be called Misfortune.”

Qin Ci, who was walking behind them, had already spoken to the two young girls, and the Mori girl pointed to the exhibition hall around the corner. “That large room is mainly for the exhibition of paintings and is worth checking out.”

Qin Ci thanked her and looked at the pale white light streaming out from the corner of the concrete wall. “It turns out that the exhibition is over there.”

The others looked in that direction. The forced levity just moments ago sank under the start to a new life-threatening journey.

The exhibition hall where the paintings were displayed was still depressing and barren, with various paintings hanging on the mottled concrete walls. In the center was a long birch bark table with large thick Porcelain teapots and a tall stack of blue-rimmed thick porcelain cups.

Although the guests were immersed in this depressive and destitute style, many of them preferred drinking tea in disposable paper cups, and so those thick china cups remained mostly untouched.

This group of 6 men weren’t in the mood to drink tea. They had entered many paintings, which had sharpened their eyes. At this moment, 6 pairs of eyes were scanning the paintings on the wall cautiously and sharply.

But, although the “novice” Luo Wei was the least experienced, his eyes were the sharpest.

There were many paintings in the room, and mixed in among these was a lead-color painting. The youthful brush strokes outlined a woman wearing a wedding dress. The words next to it read: Xiao Qinxian, Painting at 7 years old, year 2002.

“It’s still priced at 600 yuan?” Wei Dong frowned and studied it. “My paintings as a 7 year old are much better than this.”

Nearby, a girl with a mushroom hair-cut gave him a cold look and then stubbornly stuck her chin out away from him.

Wei Dong shrugged and followed his companions to the place where the crowd had gathered.

There weren’t many people in this exhibition hall, but there were about six to seven people gathered in front of a painting, discussing it.

The painting was very large and was nearly one person tall. It wasn’t like an oil painting but was more like a gouache style painting. The colors were very simple, with only deep and light red on the white paper background. The patterns formed were very abstract, rendered with slaps and messy lines.

“Is this a close-up of a pink leaf?” the Mori girl asked.

“I think it looks like a cross section of a building?” said the young man with curly hair standing next to her.

No one in the group of 6 men said a word, but they all stopped at this spot, as if a unified sixth sense had been formed.

The unfriendly girl with the mushroom hairstyle also said, “I feel like it’s a piece of internal organ dripping blood.”

It did really seem a bit like that.

The “teen girl” added, “It’s probably a beating heart.”

Wei Dong tilted his head and looked at the painting, feeling that these people were too dramatic. The painting was too abstract, so much so that it was even possible to say it was a thermo.

The label below the painting read: The Scarlet Beast, Not for sale, Author: Yu Beiguo.

Perhaps it was the words “Not for sale” that was very eye-catching, making people linger around it even longer.

There were more people in the exhibition hall now, and three to four elderly guests walked in, dressed for the occasion and looking like artists.

The 6-member group exchanged slightly pitying looks, and even thought of trying to persuade them to leave.

Fortunately, they only made a short stop and went out again.

A few people dressed like students entered. Mu Yiran looked at the time that seemed to have passed without them realizing it and felt that the painting was taking a long time.

“What’s the time?” Ke Xun asked next to him.

“It’s been 47 minutes.” Mu Yiran sidestepped the question, but his answer was still relevant.

It’d been 47 minutes since everyone entered this exhibition hall. Guests entered and left, changing wave after wave, but the room never entered the usual darkness.

The few people guarding the painting in front had not moved. Luo Wei couldn’t help pacing back and forth in the open space of the exhibition hall. Although everyone was reluctant to enter the painting, the wait was even more difficult.

Luo Wei counted and saw that the number of people in the exhibition hall was currently 11. They still need two more people.

The rusty copper pointer on the log clock hung on the wall was already pointing to 10 o’clock at night. The door to the exhibition hall pushed open again. This time, a tall and strong-looking man with mixed-race features entered. Next to him was a woman with long, messy hair draped over one shoulder, holding a bouquet of flowers in her arms.

The lights went out.

Only the lingering, pale white light above the painting was on, clearly illuminating the irregular red composition of the painting and turning the name on the label even more striking: Scarlet Beast.

This piece that looked like foliage, like an internal organ, and even like the pattern of a section of a building, suddenly had an explanation–This was a beast, an irregular body with a blurred face and hidden claws and teeth, a beast.

What would the world of beasts be like? The veteran members who had experienced the painting Animal World were reluctant to think too much.

After a period of suffocating darkness, everyone saw a different world.

There was clearly a city in front of them, a fashionable city overcast and drenched in rain.

Well-dressed men and women walked the city streets, looking indifferent and holding black, red, or transparent umbrellas.

The 13 people stood on the side of the street in the rain at dusk. The silver needle-like rain fell lightly on their faces, as if to remind them all that this wasn’t a dream.

This was probably the most receptive team they’ve ever had. When Qin Ci explained the matter of “entering the painting,” a look of surprise flashed across the newcomers’ faces, but they quickly accepted this magical fact.

The curly-haired youth was the first to speak. “So, what next?”

“There should be an NPC who will pick us up. If you don’t want to wait for that person, you can only try to find clues yourself,” Qin Ci said.

“Let’s get to know each other first,” the woman holding the bouquet said. She tied her long, messy hair into a bun and smoothed down her long, bohemian-style sackcloth dress so she wouldn’t feel too cold. Then she bowed to everyone and said, “I’m very sorry that the art exhibition brought so much trouble to everyone. I’m Su Benxin.”

Su Benxin, the owner of Benxin Art Museum.

Everyone looked at the attractive woman whose age was hard to determine and nodded slightly to her. No one blamed her for “this disaster.”

Su Benxin pointed to the mixed-race man beside her and said, “This is Lion,” then she apologized softly to Lion.

Lion smiled lightly. “Perhaps this will be an interesting trip.”

Even though everyone was trying to stay calm, it was impossible to return his knowing smile. Many people turned their attention to Mu Yiran. This “veteran” seemed to be the most reliable.

Mu Yiran briefly introduced himself, and several of the veteran members followed by also reporting their names.

Before the newcomers could say more, a man in a police uniform suddenly appeared on the street. “Please show your documents.”

Just as the newcomers were searching for documents in their pockets, Mu Yiran smiled at the NPC and said, “Mr. Police Officer, we are new here.”