Paintings of Terror

Chapter 114: Whoever Lets Go First Will Live

No one could predict what would happen, but it was better than just waiting to die.

.

At one minute to eleven, the timer on the wall began to count down. The four people in Laboratory C sat against the wall, waiting for the night to decide whether they would live or die.

Ke Xun and Mu Yiran sat further away from Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan. In the darkness, Ke Xun put his mouth close to Mu Yiran’s ear and spoke in a low whisper, “…Actually, my method isn’t reliable at all.”

“Mmn.” Mu Yiran felt the heat of Ke Xun’s breath on his ear, but he didn’t move away.

“A brother in my university dormitory was electrocuted,” Ke Xun said, trying his best to use a volume that Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan wouldn’t hear. “He said that his whole consciousness felt blurred during the electrocution process, and it was impossible to think, let alone stare at a timer and wait for five seconds.”

This unreliable method was just as a means of comforting the two girls.

“I know,” Mu Yiran finally said. With his cold voice lowered, he emitted a kind of sexy self-restraint. “But if the purpose of this experiment is to test human nature or human will, then I think that this machine will produce an electric current at a controlled voltage that will allow people to remain conscious. It wouldn’t only make people suffer extreme pain, but also keep people awake long enough to think about the trade-offs. This is a very cruel setting.”

“That said, maybe we can really try it,” Ke Xun said. Suddenly, he tilted his head and sneezed.

“Cold?” Mu Yiran asked.

“No.” Ke Xun rubbed his nose and turned his face back, without saying that it was because Mu Yiran’s hair was scratching his nose. If he said it, this person would probably refuse to allow him to get so close.

“Although we can try your method, the possibility of success is unlikely,” Mu Yiran continued to say in a low voice, completely unaware. “If we take out everyone’s reaction speed, even if the first few times were successful flukes, I don’t think the researchers would allow this experiment to have problems. They will eliminate the problem in time so that the experiment can proceed smoothly.”

“So it’s likely that they’ll destroy the phone?” Ke Xun asked thoughtfully. “Then we just need to count to five or we won’t need to count at all. One person could call to let go, and then we’ll all let go together.”

“We still have the same problem. People’s reaction speed can be fast or slow, and whether they’ll succeed will depend on luck,” Mu Yiran said.

Ke Xun didn’t say anymore, and they fell into a long silence.

After a long period of time, Ke Xun spoke again, telling Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan of the remedial plan to shout let go. Finally, he added, “Unfortunately, if our mouths are blocked, our voices will be blocked. If you can hum, do so. But if you can’t speak, just count to five in your head. Although it might not work, at least we will have tried our best to survive and wouldn’t die within one second.”

Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan whimpered in the darkness.

Ke Xun’s voice had a smile in it. “Student Xiao Li, you can think about it this way. Maybe you will really transmigrate this time. You’ll transmigrate into a beautiful lady, and when you grow up, there will be a domineering prince who will love you to death and various types of beautiful boys will clamor everyday to marry you. Then, your life will really have reached the peak, right?”

Li Yaqing snorted twice through her nose and said vaguely, “I don’t want to transmigrate…or have a rebirth…”

Ke Xun smiled. He raised his head against the wall behind him, tilted his face, and asked Mu Yiran, who was close at hand but whose face he could not see. “Do you have any last words to confess?”

Mu Yiran didn’t speak, and Ke Xun no longer asked. The laboratory fell into the terrible silence that often came before death.

Time passed, and death approached step by step.

Finally, there was a torrent of footsteps in the corridor, unhurriedly walking towards the door of the laboratories.

Ke Xun stretched out his hand and accurately found Mu Yiran’s hand in the darkness. He held him tightly, tilted his head close to his ear, and whispered: “Yiran, I don’t regret entering the painting at all.”

How could I have met you if I hadn’t entered the painting?

This was…his last words? Mu Yiran’s hand tightened over Ke Xun’s. He didn’t know whether it was him or Ke Xun who was holding on too tightly.

Immediately before the lab’s door was opened, Ke Xun turned on the phone screen and placed it in front of the two machines.

The faint light was engulfed in darkness, barely shining more than half a meter away, and so it was impossible to see anything coming in through the door. They could only hear the sounds of clattering footsteps, accompanied by vague dialogues that seemed both near and far. It sounded very busy.

Ke Xun stared in the direction of the sounds but couldn’t see anything.

Suddenly, he had a flash of inspiration. He wanted to take out his phone to turn on the camera, only to remember that he’d turned on the phone’s screen and placed it in front of the machines.

Just as he was about to signal Mu Yiran to turn on his phone, he heard the tone of one of the faint voices suddenly rise a few decibels, and then the sound of footsteps clattered toward their directions.

Ke Xun turned around and suddenly threw his arms tightly around Mu Yiran.

Mu Yiran paused, and his brows furrowed slightly—This kid Ke Xun normally wouldn’t act like this at a time like this. He must have a purpose in doing this—What was he thinking, could it be—?

And then Mu Yiran was no longer allowed to think about it anymore. An irresistible force pulled him and Ke Xun from the ground and pushed them toward the two machines.

The machines were already powered on, and the red, yellow and green indicator lights glowed in the dark. With the help of the faint light, Mu Yiran saw Ke Xun forced onto the chair on the other side of the same machine as his. A few belt-like things were buckled on them, firmly securing their bodies and limbs in place.

Some “people” moved their heads so that they could look at the long electronic screens on the machine. A line of instructions were displayed on the screen.

If one party lets go, the other party will die.

When he could finally move his head, Mu Yiran saw Ke Xun turn his head to face him. He smiled at him, winked, and mouthed a word to him: Goodbye.

Mu Yiran became apprehensive.

Ke Xun did it intentionally! The reason why he hugged him under the nose of the researchers was because he must have guessed that, of the four people assigned to Laboratory C, the closer their relationship, the higher the value of testing their humanity and willpower. This was why Li Yaqing was assigned to her best friend last night. Therefore, if these researchers thought that he and Ke Xun had a lover relationship, the probability of them being assigned to the same machine would be higher.

Why would Ke Xun want to be grouped with him in this experiment where survival meant killing the other?

Mu Yiran didn’t need to guess carefully. He knew Ke Xun—he didn’t even know when it started, but he knew this person—Ke Xun didn’t want him to die. If he was grouped with one of the other twos, he would most likely die.

So Ke Xun wanted to be with him, because he wanted to protect him. He wanted to personally force him to live.

Even if he died, he would die in Mu Yiran’s hands.

This fool. Mu Yiran stared coldly at the cell phone screen not far away from him. The timer had already started. He and Ke Xun both had to look at the time the moment the machine started and let go after waiting five seconds. What a foolish method. Only a fool would think of such a foolish idea.

The idea was so stupid that he wanted to beat him up.

Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan still couldn’t resist the fear in their hearts. They were so frightened that they were crying, but their sobs could not cover up the beep that sounded when the power was turned on.

Beep–

An invisible current that resembled electricity but was not quite electricity instantly rushed out from the end of the wire they were holding, instantly penetrating their whole body.

As Mu Yiran had expected, this electric current wasn’t enough to cause confusion, but the pain it produced in the human body happened to be stuck between “unbearable” and “pained to death.”

It wouldn’t kill you, but you wouldn’t be able to stand it either.

This kind of pain made the whole body felt like it was being hammered, burned, and acutely pierced by needles and bitten by ants. The flesh swelled in pins and needles, stinging, giving the sensation of thousands of ants eating at the skin, and the bones seemed to be fragmenting under the repeated blows.

Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan screamed sorrowfully, and Mu Yiran heard Ke Xun roar, “When I call let go, then we’ll all let go! One! Two! Let go!”

Mu Yiran knew why Ke Xun had to yell. Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan were crying so much that they could hardly see the screen of the phone and let go in time. From their screams, if there was no one to guide them, they would immediately let go without hesitation.

Immediately after Ke Xun spoke, Mu Yiran let go. For a moment, he actually hesitated, fearing that Ke Xun wouldn’t let go, fearing that this guy would act stupid again.

But after another thought, he felt that, instead of dying in his own hands, what this stupid guy hoped most was to live with him.

It turned out that he was right. Although Ke Xun was occasionally impulsive, he was never reckless. He was actually a very thoughtful person.

Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan continued to weep. But contrary to expectations, an excellent phenomenon occurred. They all let go at the same time and so they all luckily survived.

But immediately after, that force once again squeezed the wire heads into their hands, and the current once again shot through their bodies. Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan both screamed again.

“Let go when I call let go,” Ke Xun shouted again. “One! Two! Let go!”

Once again, four people survived by chance.

The foolish idea was stupid, but it really worked.

But Mu Yiran wasn’t optimistic that this method would last all night.

It turned out that this method worked for less than ten minutes. The “researchers” seemed to have discovered the problem, and so they sealed all four of their mouths.

Not only could Ke Xun no longer speak, he couldn’t even make a sound in his throat.

The spot where Li Yaqing and Cai Xiaoyan were had become extremely quiet, and the sounds of sobbing no longer sounded out.

The moment the current came back on, Mu Yiran stared at the timer on the screen.

This method was actually very risky. If they look at the watch one second slower, when they let go, someone would instantly die due to the other being one second slower.

But now, Mu Yiran had no time to think about whether Ke Xun might be a second slow or fast. He could only choose to believe in him. They could only meet each other, or he could kill him head-on, or be killed by him.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

5 seconds.

Let go!

He couldn’t hear anything next to him, and he wondered if Ke Xun was dead or alive.

After a short pause, the current was switched on again–Ke Xun was still alive, and so the experiment continued!

1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

5 seconds, let go.

After a short pause, the current came back on.

Another countdown. Let go. Pause. Current on.

Time and time again, in a room without any sounds, the cold and cruel process was repeated again and again.

Countdown. Let go. Pause. Current on.

Mu Yiran could not hear or see Ke Xun in the darkness, let alone imagine what he looked like at this moment.

But he knew that Ke Xun was working hard, struggling hard to live with him.