Paintings of Terror

Chapter 181: Beast Blocks

Xiao Qinxian signed a voluntary application for beast removal from a living body, and was finally pushed into the operating room under general anesthesia.

It was now past 5 in the afternoon, and Qin Ci had to finish the operation before night fell.

No one was in the mood for dinner, and so they all gathered in the hallway of the operating room. Everyone had waited here too many times since they’d come to this city.

This operation was a real operation, because the patient’s life must be prioritized. Therefore, they waited in front of the operating room, hoping to see a living Xiao Qinxian in a few hours.

“This operation is so nerve-wrecking.” Su Benxin slowly paced the hallway and finally stopped by Luo Wei’s side. “I’m curious. Since you can see everyone’s beast marks, why can’t you see Xiao Qinxian’s?”

Luo Wei’s state was more relaxed today than yesterday, but there was no expression on his face. “According to the fortune teller, the beast does not belong to Xiao Qinxian.”

“Do you believe this? I think that this statement is more like fantasy.” Su Benxin’s expression was incredulous.”

Wei Dong couldn’t help but interject. “It’s already the biggest fantasy in the world that we can enter the painting. Compared with this incident, what the fortune teller said is more like an incident of scientific common sense…”

Zhao Yanbao couldn’t bear it anymore, and so she smiled and joined the discussion. “At first, I also thought that what the fortune teller said was a bit bizarre, until I saw Xiao Qinxian’s test results. In the second test, her blood type was type B, and this morning, it was type O. I don’t think this is the hospital’s mistake.”

“That’s what I can’t wrap my head around. Her sister’s soul resides in her body, resulting in a physical manifestation. This is just outrageous.” Su Benxin still expressed her doubts.

“I think that this should be a phenomenon unique to Heart City. It’s impossible for this kind of thing to happen in the real world,” Zhao Yanbao said.

Luo Wei looked over at Mu Yiran, who was sitting nearby. Ever since he’d heard Ke Xun’s reiteration of today’s events, he had been silent, including on the matter of Xiao Qinxian’s surgery to remove the beast, opting to respect her choice.

Earlier, Luo Wei and Mu Yiran had taken the train to the border of Heart City, where the checkpoints were strictly managed and everyone who entered and exited the city had solemn expressions. It wasn’t like going out of the city or going abroad at all. To exaggerate, it was more crossing the Naihe Bridge to drink Meng Po’s soup.

Ke Xun sat next to Mu Yiran and asked in a low voice, “Yiran, what are you thinking?”

“I think I’ve figured it out,” Mu Yiran said.

“What did you figure out?”

“Why Xiao Qinxian received a strange phone call on the first night, what she and Luo Wei have in common, and why they only received this phone call?”

“Do you think this matter is related to Xiao Qinxian? Does it have anything to do with the two souls in her body?”

“Xiao Qinxian at night is already another person. That is to say, her sister was actually the person who answered the phone.” Mu Yiran knew that it was a little confusing, but he was certain that Ke Xun would definitely understand.

“You mean, Xiao Qinxian’s sister and Luo Wei have something in common…” Ke Xun seemed to understand. “If you add Xiao Qinxian’s sister, in fact, there are 14 people in our group. Among us, Luo Wei is designated as the outsider. But there’s another outsider, and that is Xian Qinxian’s sister, right?”

Mu Yiran silently nodded. This was the result of his inner analysis just now.

“How exactly are outsiders differentiated? Shouldn’t they all have square badges?” Ke Xun was trying to prove the reliability of this conclusion.

Mu Yiran asked back, “How are the people in the city differentiated? Shouldn’t they all have round badges?”

Xiao Qinxian’s sister, who had neither a round badge nor a square badge, was she considered a local or an outsider?

“Today, what Luo Wei and I saw at the city border was that all those who can’t show a city residence permit will be forcibly expelled from the city.”

This time, Ke Xun understood. “In other words, people with ambiguous identities are all classified as outsiders of the city.”

If this was the case, then in principle, everyone inside the city borders should have complied with this requirement. Those with no proof of identity, or those whose identities were unclear, would then be excluded.

Therefore, even as a ghost, Xiao Qinxian’s sister was an outsider and so her identity was similar to that of Luo Wei.

That would fully explain why only these two people were able to receive that mysterious call.

“But I still don’t understand. What is the purpose of the call? Is it a reminder? Is it leaking information? Or is it a technical loophole, the kind that can only be heard by outsiders?” Ke Xun stated a lot of conjectures, but they all felt lacking in weight.

“I’m afraid I can’t make assumptions about the real reason, but those calls must have their purpose.” Mu Yiran looked at Luo Wei, who was sitting. “I have already agreed with Luo Wei. No matter what happens tonight, if possible, he needs to find a way to get more clues from the caller.”

Ke Xun nodded slowly, but his thoughts diverged. “If this operation is successful, the beast will be taken out. Will Xiao Qinxian’s sister receive a call tonight? Would she still be considered a normal outsider?”

Mu Yiran couldn’t provide an answer to this question. “She had never been a normal outsider. Besides, if she left her younger sister’s body, it would be impossible for her to leave the city.”

“Out of the city?” Ke Xun frowned. “Can Luo Wei leave the city with the square badge?”

“We dare not take the risk, for fear that Luo Wei would be forced out of the city. However, one thing is certain, the ID of the people leaving the city don’t have a square stamp. The square stamp is only applied once they have determined to leave the city.”

“So, if that’s the case, then Luo Wei is a complete outsider,” Ke Xun said, feeling a very ominous premonition in his heart. He didn’t know how to explain this feeling.

Luo Wei was a person who was never supposed to be within the city walls, but yet he appeared here.

In the past, Ke Xun had believed that Luo Wei’s identity was more like a “puzzle solver” who could see more clearly from the sidelines, but now it seemed that this wasn’t entirely the case.

The operating room’s door suddenly opened, and two nurses hurried out into the beast research lab next to it.

After a while, the two pushed out a relatively large glass jar, filled with nutrient solution, and returned to the operating room again.

It wasn’t easy for everyone to interrupt the nurse, so they all stood up and gathered at the door of the operating room to wait.

A quarter of an hour later, Qin Ci came out. In fact, the operation time wasn’t long, just over an hour.

For the first time, Qin Ci was smiling after the beast stripping operation. “The operation is a complete success and the patient is in good condition.”

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“The situation of the beast is a bit strange. You will know once it comes out.”? Qin Ci’s words aroused everyone’s curiosity.

After a while, two nurses came out with a cart, pushing a glass jar with something soaking in it.

Wei Dong dared not look at it directly. He merely squinted from a distance and tried to make it out. “Why are there so many pieces? How many beasts are there?”

Qin Ci also had a hard time explaining. “In the medical history of this city, there has never been a beast shaped like bricks…Some bricks are wide and some are narrow. Among them, there are four small pieces of the same size, and there is one that is much longer than the rest.”

There was no need for Qin Ci to speak more. The people standing next to him could clearly see that this brick-like beast was arranged neatly. The beast was suspended in the upper part of the glass water tank, and it was made up of four small bricks at the top and one long strip at the bottom.

No one can understand this strange neatness.

The glass water tank was temporarily pushed into the beast research lab, and then Xiao Qinxian was pushed out of the operating room.

Xiao Qinxian’s condition wasn’t bad, and although the general anesthesia hadn’t worn off yet, her complexion looked healthy.

“She explained before the anesthesia that she didn’t want to see the beast, and she didn’t want to hear anything at all about the beast,” Qin Ci told everyone.

They all nodded and noted it down. They could empathize with this matter.

Luo Wei watched Xiao Qinxian being wheeled away with a complicated expression.

Mu Yiran stepped forward and asked in a low voice, “Is there something wrong?”

“She has a beast mark,” Luo Wei said. “It’s right in the middle of her forehead, and it’s quite big.”

The beast that was just removed wasn’t hers. She and her sister had their own beasts.

Mu Yiran turned his face away from the window. “This result isn’t what she wanted. It’s better not to tell her.”

………..

Special circumstances required special treatment. Xiao Qinxian must stay in the hospital tonight, so it shouldn’t be a violation of the rules.

The other eight returned to their residences after dinner.

No one mentioned Xiao Qinxian’s sister’s beast, and no one seemed to care about her inner world. Right now, nearly half of the time allotted by the time had been used, and every hour was like suffering. If it had nothing to do with the signature, then no one cared.

Ke Xun and a few people returned to the police dormitory. Now there are only four left: Ke Xun, Mu Yiran, Wei Dong, and Luo Wei.

Tonight, they decided that all of them should stay in the same room. In the event that Luo Wei received another mysterious phone call tonight, maybe through the “leaks” provided by the caller, they could rescue their companions as soon as possible.

“I also got a clue today, but I haven’t had a chance to say it.” Finding that he could speak freely now, Luo Wei’s mood became much more relaxed.

“What clue?” the others asked.

“When Su Benxin met the old woman for the first time this morning, perhaps because the old woman’s red eye was too scary, she tried to avoid her. At the time, I asked the old woman a question that particularly concerned me, which was ‘Would a beast’s official value still remain the same after it was put to rest’?”

No one expected that Luo Wei would actually be concerned about such a question.

“Although we are now focusing on finding the signature, the 13-kilogram beast is also a task given to us, after all. Maybe after completing this task, we will be closer to the truth. Therefore, I hope that if the beast could be put to rest, then at least it would be better for the deceased.” Luo Wei didn’t understand why he became so hypocritical. It was probably because he felt a little empathy when faced with the death of his companions. He couldn’t help but think of his girlfriend in the last painting, and what a painful experience that was.

“Can a beast that has undergone the Soul Appeasement Ceremony still be used?” Wei Dong asked.

“The old woman said that it doesn’t affect the value of the beast at all, as long as it doesn’t damage the beast’s body,” Luo Wei said, his brows stretching a little. “The old woman also gave me another piece of information. Every weekend, an expert with a higher spiritual understanding will appear at the hospital door. This person has a lot of beasts on hand so he could only give them away and not sell them.”