Relieved, Ke Xun glanced at his watch. A few minutes before midnight, he walked over to Mu Yiran and sat down, leaning against his shoulder.
"Boss," Ke Xun said, "you're so arrogant. I gave you a chance to speak your mind, but you wouldn't... Don't end up like me, missing that chance and never having another to tell them what you truly want to say... Okay, I'll leave you with a smile; you figure it out yourself."
He swiped Mu Yiran's phone to the selfie mode, tilted his head to touch Mu Yiran's, and flashed a wide smile at the camera, pinching a heart shape between their cheeks with two fingers.
The phone's time jumped to midnight.
The sound of hurried footsteps echoed in the hallway outside.
Ke Xun quickly switched Zhu Haowen's phone to the camera mode and turned on the flashlight. He then walked a few steps to the phone stand, propped up Zhu Haowen's phone, adjusted the angle, and returned to his own position. He rested his neck against the mop handle, grabbed Mu Yiran's phone, and activated the camera.
He didn't rush to knock himself out. He wanted to first see through the camera lens what kind of "people" were coming in from outside. Perhaps he could find an important clue about the signature.
Footsteps approached the door, followed by the sound of a card being swiped. The lab door was pushed open.
Through the phone's camera lens, several gray figures walked in, making sounds of surprise. Then, two figures went to the flashlight and turned it off.
The flashlight was a product of the research institute, so it could be recognized by these figures. The phone, however, confirmed Ke Xun and Mu Yiran's guess—it was a modern technological product, unrecognizable to the "people" here, so it remained lit and ignored.
Without the flashlight's illumination, the room was almost pitch black. Ke Xun could no longer see anything through the phone's camera lens.
The phone's light was too weak, only illuminating what was in front of him.
Fortunately, Zhu Haowen's phone, which was fixed near the desk, should be able to record something.
Ke Xun turned off Mu Yiran's phone and used the mop handle to locate the acupoints on his neck.
Perhaps, as Qin Ci said, he possessed an innate sensitivity to force and precise control. The pressure he felt on his neck was just right, and it didn't take long before dizziness hit him. Ke Xun's body swayed, and he collapsed to the ground beside him.
In the few days since entering the painting world, Ke Xun had never had such a full night's sleep.
He only opened his eyes groggily when he felt someone calling him.
"You succeeded," Zhu Haowen said, standing beside him, looking down at him. "However, my phone battery is dead, so I can't access the video you took last night."
Ke Xun stretched on the ground before sitting up, looking up at him with a smile and winking: "Call me 'brother,' and I'll tell you the solution."
Zhu Haowen felt this guy was like a cheerful husky squatting in front of him, suddenly giving him an urge to pet his head.
"You'd better deal with this right now," Mu Yiran's cold voice suddenly came from the side. "Otherwise, you might be the one getting dealt with."
Ke Xun figured the boss might want revenge for being knocked unconscious by him last night, so he quickly got up and took the phone from Zhu Haowen, which was already dead from lack of battery, and took out the SD card: "I changed the storage path."
Zhu Haowen: "..." Why does this guy always have so many... actually normal ideas that others often wouldn't think of?
He handed the SD card to Mu Yiran, who put it in his own phone and opened the photo album. The first thing he saw was a picture of himself and Ke Xun, their faces taking up the entire cover of the folder.
Mu Yiran: "..."
Zhu Haowen, who was watching from the side: "..."
Ke Xun: "...Don't worry about the details, just quickly open the video from last night and take a look."
He opened the video, and the camera shook for a moment, showing Ke Xun running to the desk with his phone. Then the image stabilized, and a few seconds later, a muffled thud was heard not far away.
"I fainted on the ground," Ke Xun explained.
Then, the image remained fixed on a pitch-black background, showing a desk and lab equipment under dim light. Close-up shots revealed swirling, chaotic dust particles. From the speaker, footsteps moved back and forth at a leisurely pace, accompanied by indistinct voices, the soft rustling of fabric, and the occasional turning of paper documents—like someone just starting work, getting into the swing of things.
Suddenly, a pale, gray face appeared on the screen. Its eyes, reflecting the phone's light too closely, glowed fluorescently. Its mouth was dry and ashen, stiffly open, revealing a gaping, black cavity.
Ke Xun and Zhu Haowen, caught off guard, instinctively leaned back. Mu Yiran, who had been holding the phone, remained calm and tapped pause.
After carefully examining the face, she compared it to a photocopy of the half-face Ke Xun had taken the day before, finding no resemblance, and then continued playing the video.
The face only flashed in front of the camera for a few seconds before disappearing, and the scene returned to its initial static state. A few minutes later, six or seven grayish-white figures appeared in the dusty field of vision.
They lingered around the desks and experimental equipment, but made no real move, seemingly bored by the lack of test subjects, aimlessly wandering back and forth in the laboratory.
Mu Yiran repeatedly tapped the screen to pause the video, carefully observing the faces of these ghostly figures and comparing them to the photocopied photograph. However, the results were unsatisfactory; due to the dim lighting, it was difficult to see clearly unless one was very close to the lens.
Just as the important clips were playing over and over again, Wei Dong was heard knocking on the door outside the lab: "Ke'er! Ke'er! How are you? Open the door! Open the door!"
Ke Xun went over and opened the door. When Wei Dong saw that he was still "alive and well," he breathed a sigh of relief, then sighed again: "Even if I'm lucky enough to survive, living in fear every day will definitely shorten my lifespan a lot—hey, what are you doing?"
Ke Xun grabbed Wei Dong by the back of the neck, pulled him inside, and threw him next to Mu Yiran: "Yiran, let Dongzi take a look. Their graphic designer has a sharp eye."
Wei Dong was confused when he saw Mu Yiran hold his phone screen up to his face. On the screen was a gray-white face with a pair of black eyes that almost filled the entire eye socket, staring at the camera with a deathly cold gaze.
"Holy crap!" Wei Dong jumped back in surprise, clutching his chest as he looked at the expressionless Mu Yiran. "...Boss, you should have told me beforehand! You can't be so mischievous..."
"See if there's a face that resembles the one in the photo." Boss Mu wasn't in the mood for teasing him and said calmly.
Wei Dong tremblingly took the phone, mentally preparing himself before daring to look.
The other three in the room didn't disturb him, just stood quietly beside him.
Wei Dong looked very carefully. Although he was initially horrified, he became immune to it after a while. His professional habits as a graphic designer slowly emerged, and his expression became even more focused.
Until one time, after pausing the screen and observing for a long time, Wei Dong suddenly looked up: "It's this person! The photo of half a face in the latrine is his!"
Ke Xun, Mu Yiran, and Zhu Haowen gathered around to look at the phone. Seeing that the face on the screen was still blurry, it was difficult to tell if it was really the same person as the other half of the photo.
Zhu Haowen looked at Wei Dong cautiously: "Are you sure it's this person?"
"I'm sure, it's true, trust me!" Wei Dong gestured confidently across the face on the screen. "The contours of this person's face and the area around their ears and temples are at least 95% similar to the person in the photo."
Ke Xun took the phone, pressed play, and the video continued. The face on the screen slowly slid across the screen, then reappeared a little further away, aimlessly wandering from the desk at one end to the experimental equipment at the other, before finally stopping there.
"He is test subject number 282," Ke Xun suddenly said.
Mu Yiran's gaze sharpened upon hearing this, looking at the spot Ke Xun was pointing to. It was on the person's chest, where three numbers were faintly visible on the gray-white shirt, but the numbers were too small and blurry, like three tiny mosaics, making it difficult to identify which three numbers they were.
"How did you determine that?" Zhu Haowen's voice rang out from the side.
"First," Ke Xun pointed to the three tiny numbers, barely more than a few pixels in size, "the shapes of the numbers at both ends are similar. Second, I'm very familiar with the shape of the 8 in the middle. I have a photo from a competition where I was wearing number 384. It was a blurry photo taken by a clumsy member of the team, and the shape of the 8 in it is similar to this. However, all of the above are my subjective judgments. The most important point is that my intuition tells me that he is number 282."
Zhu Haowen: "…"
Wei Dong: "…Your intuition is the most subjective thing, okay?"
Ke Xun's finger lightly traced the face on the screen that he had guessed was test subject number 282: "I think the look in his eyes when he stands next to these instruments is different from other 'people'."
Wei Dong stared at the screen for a few moments: "…May I ask where you see that he has a look in his eyes?"
"Whether you believe it or not," Ke Xun raised his eyes, but looked at Mu Yiran, "that's just how I feel."
Mu Yiran looked at him and nodded slightly.
"This number 282 seems to be the only person in the experimental log who successfully underwent a lobotomy and survived," Zhu Haowen said. "He also underwent that ET experiment whose details are unknown, but the outcome is still unknown."
"The key to finding the signature might lie with him." Mu Yiran's voice was somewhat calm. "Tonight, I'm staying in Lab D and staying conscious."
When he said the last four words, he gave Ke Xun a cold look.
Ke Xun put his two front paws together in a New Year's greeting gesture and shot Mu Yiran puppy eyes: "Boss, I was wrong, please take me with you tonight."
"We'd better count the number of people who survived today," Zhu Haowen said calmly from the side. "If only six people survive, Lab D might close down, thus cutting off our path to finding the signature."
Wei Dong was shocked and counted on his fingers: "Lab C needs at least four people, so Labs A and B each need one… then we won't be able to get the access card to Lab D! I'm going to check on Dr. Qin!"
He said and ran out of Lab D.
Ke Xun shook his head, watching Wei Dong's retreating figure. He turned back, put his hands in his pockets, and looked at Zhu Haowen: "Haowen, did I accidentally pinch you and cause some kind of aftereffect last night? If you want to be able to enter Laboratory D tonight, there's a pretty simple way."
Zhu Haowen: "...What way?"
Ke Xun raised an eyebrow: "We just need to stay in the underground experimental area all day, right?"