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Chapter 44: People Who Are Going Into Painting Theory

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Ke Xun and Wei Dong escorted the sleeping Mu Yiran to a hotel. They didn’t leave immediately after either. No one had been able to? sleep well during these last few days in the painting so they decided that they might as well reserve a room too. Each in their own bed, they both fell into deep slumbers.

When Ke Xun woke up and went to visit Mu Yiran in the room next door, he discovered that the boss was still sleeping.

Ke Xun thought that it made sense. Mu Yiran was a highly cautious person. He had probably slept the least out of them all during their time in the painting. He had exhausted every last bit of brain power in the end as well. Although he had looked calm and steady, Ke Xun thought that her must have also been extremely nervous. After all, he had held seven lives in the palms of his hand. Anyone else would have caved under the pressure. Meanwhile, Mu Yiran had silently taken on this burden and even led them to success in the end.

It would be weird if he didn’t sleep like a log once his tense nerves had finally relaxed.

Ke Xun thus chose to return to his own room and take a shower. He didn’t wake Wei Dong, who was still sleeping in their room, either. After his shower, he paid Mu Yiran another visit. He was afraid the boss would slip away silently when he woke up.

For once, Mu Yiran had woken up naturally. It was already evening when he woke up. He had no clue as to how many days he had slept.

Mu Yiran lay on his bed motionlessly, staring out the window.

He was rather astonished at how off-guard he was.

He had actually handed himself over to Ke Xun’s care. He actually trusted the other so much, to the point of believing that the other would be capable of completing all necessary arrangements while he was out.

Mu Yiran had never been one to indulge in resting. And yet, he had actually slept so…easily and relaxed while under Ke Xun’s watch.

Clearly, this fellow was the person he should be most guarded against!

As soon as Mu Yiran thought of Ke Xun, his expression turned rigid. He reached a hand downwards and discovered that he was still wearing his jacket. His shirt and pants were also untouched.

When he realized that he was actually having those kinds of thoughts, his expression turned ugly. He pushed his comforter off and sat up. Right at that moment, the door to his room was pushed open and the face he didn’t want to see most appeared right before his eyes.

“Have you slept enough?” Ke Xun greeted him, appearing completely clueless. He pulled out a dining cart from behind him. “Perfect timing. I just ordered this from the hotel. I thought that you’d wake up around this time. How about washing up and eating something now?”

Mu Yiran’s ‘get out’ instantly clogged in his throat.

He stood up and headed to the bathroom to take a shower. When he came out, he saw that Ke Xun had already set the table and was now calling Wei Dong, who was next door, to wake him up.

There were three trays of prawn dumplings, four plates of vegetables, and three bowls of shiitake and corn congee.

“They’re all vegetables. Where’s the meat?” Wei Dong came over from next door, still drowsy. He expressed his discontent as he took his spot at the table.

“Aren’t there meat in prawn dumplings?” Ke Xun handed Mu Yiran a pair of chopsticks. “Besides, we just left the painting. Can you really stomach having meat right now?”

Wei Dong froze. “No, no, I can’t. Don’t remind me.” He promptly picked up his bowl of congee and took a sip from it.

Night had fallen by the time they had finished their meal. The city lights shone into the hotel room. However, to the three people who had just left the world inside a painting, everything seemed unreal.

After kicking Wei Dong back to the room next door to take a shower, Ke Xun settled down in Mu Yiran’s room.

“Are you leaving tomorrow?” Ke Xun asked him.

“Mn.”

“So, is the next time we meet going to be when we enter the next painting?”

Mu Yiran ignored him.

“Hey.” Ke Xun walked over to him and sat next to him, his elbows planted on his knees. Head tilted, Ke Xun asked, “Do you have a boyfriend?”

Mu Yiran’s gaze sharpened. He glared at him coldly. “Ke Xun, I won’t continue to tolerate your harassment.”

“I’m being serious here.” Ke Xun held a hand up and pledged. “You don’t have to accept me. I’m not scheming against you or anything. It’s pure curiosity.

“I know that we’re people from different worlds. You’re a big shot. The people around you must all be elites and geniuses. You probably led a life I could never even fathom in my dreams.

“As for me…I’m a super ordinary citizen of a small city. I’m like a frog at the bottom of a well. Aside from holding vain delusions about a swan like you, who I can only ever see and never touch, I don’t have any other abilities or assets. I would never be able to enter your world.

“I just…wanted to know what kind of person you would like. I want to know just how outstanding the person you like would be. After that, I’ll probably just envy them secretly.

“Forget it. Pretend I never asked. I’m heading back to the other room. I probably won’t see you tomorrow so let me wish you a safe journey now. See you in the next painting.”

After saying this, Ke Xun flashed Mu Yiran a smile and gave him a wave before shutting the door behind him.

The next morning, Mu Yiran had decided to leave first. He had also planned on paying for all of their rooms. However, upon reaching the front desk, the employee informed him that the account had already been settled. Two young men had already paid the entire bill and left early this morning.

Mu Yiran had stood there in the middle of the lobby for a while. He had then left the hotel with long strides.

Upon returning to Z City, Wei Dong returned home to his parents and Ke Xun returned home to an empty apartment.

As reality has proven it, the paintings were like a series of terrifying nightmares. Once you were drawn in, there was no escape. You had no choice but to continue entering paintings. You could beg for release but there was no way of knowing when it would end.

Ke Xun had already accepted this hopeless reality. Luckily, since he had become all alone in this world, he had become very open-minded. After escaping death in those two paintings, his attitude towards death had become much more mild.

Everything seemed to have become even more meaningless.

Ke Xun rested for two days. He went to watch a movie and had also gone out to eat a few skewers with Wei Dong at the night market. He also met up with a few buddies that worked at his gym for a few meals. As usual, he ate, drank, karaoked and flirted with guys. No one sensed anything different about him.

One day, his phone suddenly sounded as he received a notification. Ke Xun unlocked his phone and saw that it was a VChat friend request from someone named ‘With Courage and Wit’. The message attached said: I am Qin Ci.

Ke Xun accepted his request.

Corgi：【Hi, since it’s our first meeting, I don’t know what to say so how about we kiss first.jpg】

With Courage and Wit: ….

With Courage and Wit: Ke Xun, I’ve made a group. Come join.

Corgi：【OK.jpg】

The group was called ‘People Who Are Going Into Paintings.” When Ke Xun looked at the members list, he saw that Sha Liu was also in the group. Soon after, Wei Dong joined. Mu Yiran was the last to enter.

He had no idea when everyone had swapped phone numbers and VChat information.

With Courage and Wit: We can’t sit here and wait for death like this. Everyone, let’s get together and try to think of a way to stop this. We can discuss clues or share information about paintings. In any case, anything is better than nothing. Maybe the next painting we enter will be one we’ve discussed.

A Gentle and Soft Green: This kind of feels like predicting what questions will appear on an exam. But if we were to talk about painting knowledge, I think Mu ge has the most authority on this.

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow: Fuck! We have a group chat now?【Badass, badass.jpg】We should probably change the group name though. Let’s add ‘Theory’ to the end to make it sound more cool. ‘People Who Go Into Painting Theory’, doesn’t that sound really cool?

Corgi：【Are you an idiot.jpg】

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow：【You damned gay.jpg】

Corgi：【Watch it, Laozi will He Mi Gua you to death.jpg】

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow：【What are you being so mean for, I’ll just leave.jpg】

With Courage and Wit: ….

A Gentle and Soft Green: ….

Corgi: What about the Geng Family?

With Courage and Wit: I’ve sent them an invite. They haven’t responded. We can talk in the meantime.

A Gentle and Soft Green: Mu ge, are you busy right now?

Mooney：.

Corgi：【Don’t let me see you. Every time I see you I fall in love again.jpg】

With Courage and Wit:….

A Gentle and Soft Green:….

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow：【Inciting trouble on morality’s bottom line.jpg】

Corgi：【Good kitty.jpg】

With Courage and Wit: I propose that we all look up information regarding the Rhino and Elephant Art Gallery. That’s the next location. Regardless of whether it’s information or clues, please share them with the group.

A Gentle and Soft Green: Okay.

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow：【I know nothing about his stuff.jpg】

Corgi：【At a complete loss but I’ll give you a small okay sign anyway.jpg】

Mooney: All right.

Ke Xun put his phone down and headed to his study. He turned on his computer that hadn’t been touched in a long time and searched for ‘the Rhino and Elephant Art Gallery’.

The Rhino and Elephant Art Gallery had the art exhibition that would be held on the day of their visit printed on the ticket. Their visit was on the first day of the exhibition. The exhibition included the works of eighteen painters, domestic and international. But even after making thousands of searches in the search engine, Ke Xun was still unable to find any more detailed descriptions of any of the paintings. The most he could find was the fact that there would be three hundred or so works on display. He was also able to find out the names of the five most famous paintings.

Ke Xun sent all his clues to the ‘People Who Go Into Painting Theory’ group.

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow: Three hundred or so paintings? We only have like ten days left. How are we going to research all of them?!

A Gentle and Soft Green: The exhibition probably wouldn’t have every painting by every painter. That means that we have no way of knowing which painting of which painter will be on display. That means we would have to research way more than three hundred paintings. We’d have to look into all the paintings by all eighteen painters.

With Courage and Wit: This is a huge undertaking. But then again, anything is better than nothing. It’s better to make preparations than to go in completely unprepared.

Corgi：【Everyone, stop. Listen to me: I’m about to embarrass myself.jpg】

With Courage and Wit: ….

A Gentle and Soft Green: ,,,,

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow：【My smile gradually stiffens.jpg】

Corgi: It doesn’t matter that there are too many paintings. We should figure out a way to get electronic copies of them and save them in our phones. Can’t we just search through them once we’re in the painting? What do you guys think?

Mooney: Putting aside the fact that many painters have copyright protection (which means their works are not floating around on the internet), according to what I know, the exhibition this time contains many works that are being publicly unveiled for the first time. There’s no way we’ll be able to receive descriptions or photos in advance.

Corgi：『You’re right || VChat?red pocket』

Corgi：『You’re right || VChat red pocket』

Corgi：『You’re right || VChat red pocket』

Corgi：『You’re right || VChat red pocket』

……

With Courage and Wit: ….

A Gentle and Soft Green: …..

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow: Can I secretly take one? Just one.

Corgi：【If I don’t manage to beat the shit out of you, it’s probably because your asshole is too tight.jpg】

The Odes of Wei_A Fellow：【Wronged.jpg】【You’ve changed.jpg】

With Courage and Wit: I also have some bad news. I can’t get into touch with Mrs. and Mr. Geng. No one is picking up my calls. They didn’t reply to me on VChat either. I don’t know what’s happened to them.

Mooney: Did they take their son to get therapy?

With Courage and Wit: No. My psychiatrist colleague said that they’ve never gone to see him.

Corgi: @With Courage and Wit, What’s their address? Send it to me and I’ll go take a look.

With Courage and Wit: Mr. Geng didn’t leave their address with me. I only have their phone number and VChat information.

Mooney: Give me their phone number. I’ll ask a friend to search up their address.

Corgi：【As expected from the guy I fell for.jpg】

What his friend found out was not good news, however.

The Geng Family had disappeared. Although their relatives have reported them missing, they were still not found.

Qin Ci had already told them what the consequences of speaking about what had happened in the painting would be. Evidently, this was the Geng couple’s ultimate decision.

Time continued to move on. In a blink of an eye, it was time to enter the next painting.

Eve: Aw, my heart aches for Ke Xun who feels like his feelings would never be reciprocated because they’re not on the same level. Dw, the person Yiran will fall for is indeed very outstanding. And he will fall relatively fast. There isn’t a lot of angst in this novel. The relationship is mostly fluffy.