Everyone fell silent, turning their attention to this person whose presence was subtle yet impossible to ignore.
The yellow-skinned man's voice wasn't a magnetic one, but rather the husky hoarseness of an old smoker, tinged with the deep tone of a hawk.
He had barely uttered a sound since entering the painting, let alone interacted with anyone. His sudden outburst, especially addressing everyone, drew their attention.
Seeing everyone staring at him, the yellow-skinned man's expression remained blank, only his triangular eyes fixed on Qin Ci: "Draw lots." For
someone who never offered opinions to suddenly give instructions at this moment, there must be a reason.
Qin Ci considered it and didn't object.
Drawing lots to determine the order of drawing lots was inevitable; it didn't matter if it was sooner or later. Causing a rift with the yellow-skinned man over this would only create more trouble.
So, he cut the leftover paper from yesterday into nine pieces and wrote numbers on them.
Huang Pi pushed the container of paper slips to the center of the table. He reached in and drew a slip, but didn't open it, simply tossing it on the table before staring at everyone menacingly.
After everyone had drawn their slips, Qin Ci placed the last one in the container on the empty seat next to him, representing Zhang Hanrui.
Although she was practically in a vegetative state, she was still alive. If she wasn't allowed into the basement tonight, she would surely die.
As the saying goes, it's better to live a miserable life than to die a good death. As long as you're alive, there's still hope… even if that hope is incredibly slim.
Everyone opened their slips, showing the numbers on their slips.
Li Yaqing drew number 1, which meant she would be in Laboratory A tonight.
Qin Ci drew number 2, followed by Ke Xun, Qi Qiang, Xu Zhen… This time, they were very unlucky; the last three numbers were Zhu Haowen, Wei Dong, and Mu Yiran.
So it was also confirmed that, at least Mu Yiran, would be in Laboratory D tonight—the perverted laboratory that performed the lobotomy on Zhang Hanrui.
Ke Xun glanced at him and Wei Dong, but didn't speak.
Breakfast was prepared by Qin Ci, who heated up the extra porridge Ke Xun had cooked the day before. They ate it with the leftover mixed beans, barely managing to fill their stomachs.
Cai Xiaoyan's death and Zhang Hanrui's ordeal left everyone in the mood for idle chatter. Qin Ci called Zhu Haowen and Wei Dong, went to the archives, and brought back all the documents. The group then sat around a table in the cafeteria and began searching through the files.
Ke Xun drifted off to sleep while flipping through the files, until he was vaguely awakened: "Get up, eat something."
Struggling to lift his heavy eyelids, he met Mu Yiran's gaze, who was looking down at him. Ke Xun's lips twitched: "Ha, it's you, Gong Xin."
...Damn, he'd slept so much his tongue was stiff.
"What are you saying?" Mu Yiran's usually expressionless face remained blank, but his voice wasn't as cool as usual; it was calm, devoid of emotion.
"Speak," Ke Xun wiped his face and struggled to sit up straight, "You still care about me. What time is it?"
"One o'clock in the afternoon." Mu Yiran placed a bowl of porridge in front of him.
"Why are you eating so late?" Ke Xun looked at the bowl of white rice porridge that looked freshly cooked, then smelled a burnt smell.
"Ahem," Qin Ci replied, a little embarrassed, "It's my first time cooking porridge, I didn't get the heat right, but have some."
"Not bad, Dr. Qin, much better than the first time I cooked porridge," Ke Xun picked up the bowl and drank almost half of it in one gulp, "The first time I cooked porridge, it turned into burnt rice."
Qin Ci smiled slightly self-deprecatingly: "Thank you, your words have effectively comforted me. I see that your cooking skills are very proficient, which is not common in families with boys. When did you start learning to cook?"
Ke Xun also laughed: "Dr. Qin, you're still living in the last century. Nowadays, it's all men who can cook. Girls are only responsible for being beautiful and eating."
"It seems that your father cooks in your family?" Qin Ci asked with a smile.
"My wife and I used to cook together, now I do it." Ke Xun didn't explain much, just finished his porridge in a few bites, put down his chopsticks, and asked the others, "What clues have you found this morning?"
Qin Ci shook his head: "There's no one named Kang Lai in the institute's employee files." Ke
Xun thought for a moment: "What about the files of the people who were test subjects? Have you looked for them?"
Zhu Haowen chimed in: "We didn't find the test subject files, but we found a few pieces of burnt remnant documents in the toilet. One piece of paper had half a black and white one-inch ID photo on it. We suspect it might be related to the files because this piece of paper is clearly the upper right corner of a page. Usually, only archival documents require ID photos to be pasted in the upper left or upper right corner."
"Oh? Where is it? Let me see." Ke Xun reached out.
Zhu Haowen looked at his hand, then looked up at his eyes: "On the toilet stall wall. You can take it if you want."
"…" Ke Xun withdrew his hand and ruffled his hair.
The toilets at this research institute were the old-fashioned kind—a pit with partitions in the middle, the pit itself connected, like a trench. When flushing, water flowed from one end to the other, eventually ending up in the sewer.
These pits were extremely unsanitary; filth accumulated where the water couldn't reach, making them particularly disgusting.
"Who's so clever as to find even scraps of paper in the pit?" Ke Xun couldn't help but ask.
Wei Dong across from him raised his hand: "The graphic designer's eyes are sharp."
"We suspect the institute's abandonment was sudden," Mu Yiran said. "The institute's personnel evacuated in a very rushed manner, unable to take more important documents, or rather, unable to take important documents out of the institute, so they had no choice but to burn the most dangerous items.
"If all of these informal research activities at the institute were exposed, not to mention the researchers facing legal sanctions and public criticism, the families of those chosen as test subjects would probably not let it go easily."
"Therefore, for researchers, the most fatal thing is the test subject's file. Destroying the file means destroying the evidence of harm to the subject.
"Besides that, the experimental logs are also important. Of the four experimental areas below, only Laboratory D retains a portion of the experimental logs. I guess they weren't destroyed in time. We couldn't find any paper records in the other three laboratories. They were probably burned or flushed down the toilet, just like the test subject's file."
"So, it seems that the painter, Kang Lai, is very likely a test subject?" Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran.
"It could also be an outsider who knows everything," Zhu Haowen interjected, "like the person in charge of handling this matter."
"Whether it's a test subject or the person in charge," Xu Zhen suddenly grabbed her hair, staring at the group in despair, "We have no way to get any information about them anymore, do we?! How are we supposed to find the signature? Are we just supposed to sit here and wait to die?!"
"'The painting' won't create an unsolvable dead end for us," Mu Yiran said calmly, "So, there must be a way to find the signature."
"How?!" "Xu Zhen yelled, "Does this mean we have to crawl into the sewers to collect fragments of documents?!"
No one answered her, and the room fell silent for a moment. Suddenly, Qi Qiang slammed his fist on the table, gritting his teeth and growling, "Find her! Find her even in the sewers! You!" He pointed at Xu Zhen, "You go find her!"
Xu Zhen was shocked: "Why do I have to go?!"
"Just go, stop talking nonsense, or I'll kill you!" Qi Qiang's face was fierce. He stepped forward, grabbed Xu Zhen's collar, lifted her from the chair, and dragged her out.
"What are you doing! Let me go!" Xu Zhen screamed, kicking and hitting Qi Qiang desperately. Qi Qiang slapped her across the face, and a broken tooth flew out of her mouth.
"Stop." Ke Xun stood up from the chair, stepped in front of Qi Qiang, and looked at him coldly.
"Kid, I'm warning you, don't fucking get in my way, or my knife won't have eyes." Qi Qiang said, revealing a knife in his other hand.
That was a canteen knife, narrow-bladed and sharp, he'd somehow found it and was carrying it.
Ke Xun acted as if he hadn't seen the knife in his hand, only coldly staring at his menacing eyes: "The drain is too small, no one can get through. Letting her search is useless, let her go."
"She's thin, she can squeeze through, you fucking get out of my way!" Qi Qiang said, brandishing the knife, pretending to slash Ke Xun's neck.
This was just a threat; the blade was actually two or three inches away from Ke Xun's skin. Qi Qiang wanted to make Ke Xun back down, but unexpectedly, this kid didn't follow the usual path, without even a test or detour, grabbing his wrist, and then somehow pulling and tugging, Qi Qiang felt his wrist instantly lose its grip, the knife falling from his weak hand, his whole hand hanging on his arm like a fake.
Ke Xun's actions hadn't stopped. He reached out and struck the tendon on Qi Qiang's elbow where he was holding Xu Zhen. In the instant Qi Qiang lost his grip, Ke Xun pulled Xu Zhen free from his hold.
After pushing Xu Zhen to a safe distance, he kicked the knife on the ground away. Only then did Ke Xun look at the horrified Qi Qiang: "Give me your hand, I'll put it back in."
Qi Qiang then realized that this kid had dislocated his hand. He wanted to kill him outright, but looking at the kid's physique—a head taller, stronger, faster, and more agile—he realized he might not have the upper hand in a fight and had to hold back for now.
Qin Ci watched the whole process and couldn't help but say, "Xiao Ke's technique is almost on par with a professional osteopath."
"They're athletes, dislocations and fractures are commonplace, they become experts through repeated injuries," Wei Dong chimed in. "Plus, those beasts in their sports department are always fighting with other schools, they're ruthless and vicious. If they can treat dislocations, they can create them. They've all honed this skill to perfection." Zhu Haowen
watched silently for a few moments: "I didn't realize Ke Xun used to be a school bully."
"You've misunderstood him," Wei Dong said. "Ke'er never causes trouble, but we're all in the same school and department, we see each other all the time. When other schools come looking for trouble, you can't just leave your classmates and brothers behind. He usually just goes along to lend a hand, to make a show of things, unless someone actually hits him... Sigh."
Wei Dong sighed, but didn't say anything more.
Qin Ci and Zhu Haowen didn't ask any more questions. The meaning behind that sigh was perfectly clear to everyone.
The lives of ordinary people are long gone from them. Now, those memories that were once considered boring, childish, dull, or meaningless seem so precious, peaceful, and beautiful.