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Chapter 20: Painter: Li Haojing

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Ke Xun paused. “Because I used to be taller than my classmates as a kid, they used to make fun of me, calling me a dumb giant. Except for Dong zi, no one else had been willing to play with me. So I understand what Li Mazi must have felt when he was younger. Of course, he had it way worse than I did.”

“With that, we can imagine just why Li Mazi is both Li Guaiguai’s brother and father,” Mu Yiran said.

The expression on Ke Xun’s face was complicated. “It’s because someone like Li Mazi wouldn’t be able to find a wife. Therefore, he could only….”

Mu Yiran’s expression was calm. “As a result, Li Mazi’s son was also unfortunately born with deformities. His deformities are even more extreme than Li Mazi’s. Therefore, we can imagine that Li Mazi’s life only took a turn for the worse after the birth of his son.”

Ke Xun cast his gaze over to Mu Yiran. “And yet, Li Mazi became the last remaining survivor of this village. How?”

“The reason for that…” Mu Yiran unfolded his fist, revealing a paint brush in his hand. “…is that Li Mazi is Li Haojing.”

Ke Xun wordlessly looked at the old paint brush that was stained with a colour that was either red or black.

Li Mazi, who had been born with deformities, had suffered while growing up. The villagers had looked at him like he was a monster and talked badly of him behind his back. This kind of horrifying psychological blow and mental pressure must have peaked after his son/brother was born with deformities as well. Everything had come together to finally snap his last strand of patience he had tried so hard to preserve.

Li Mazi could not endure it. After Li Guaiguai was born, he escaped from this terrifying village.

“Consanguineous marriages—the probability of a child being born with a deformity, intellectual disability, or dying of premature death is 4%. However, there’s also a chance that this child will be gifted.” Mu Yiran picked the brush up and examined it. “For example, the notorious Adolf Hitler, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein…and the closest example to us, Li Mazi.”

Ke Xun realized what the other was getting at. “Li Mazi has a talent for painting.”

Mu Yiran nodded. “After escaping the Li village, Li Mazi came into contact with the outside world. He worked hard to support himself while learning painting skills. As for who taught him, he was probably self-taught. There’s no need to doubt that. After working hard for many years, he became a famous painter.”

Ke Xun turned to look at the still, sparse village behind them. “Since Li Mazi managed to paint this painting, that means he must have come back to the Li village after attaining success at some point. But why did he construct a pure cedar coffin for his son? Did he do it intentionally or unintentionally?”

“I think that it was done intentionally.” Mu Yiran threw the paint brush onto the ground.” Judging by this painting, it was obvious that Li Mazi had strong resentment with regards to his time living in this village. His hatred had not weakened despite his success or the passage of time. Instead, his grievances only piled up. He was not been able to relax or feel happy.

“The three Chinese Scholar trees in this painting—these never existed in the village. But Li Mazi chose to put them in the painting as a symbol. It symbolizes his hatred and rancour. It is a symbol of the curse he put on this village.”

“I think that the people Li Mazi hates the most are probably his parents. If it weren’t because his parents married their close relatives, a deformed person like himself would not have been born. He had been ridiculed, mocked and treated coldly in his childhood. All of this created an inextinguishable psychological shadow in his heart. That’s why he placed these three Chinese Scholar trees—which represents a curse—in the courtyard of his own home.

“Furthermore, he also hates his own son/brother. This is because Li Guaiguai’s existence is evidence that Li Mazi had made the same mistake as his forefathers had. He had committed the same ignorant and terrifying folly. This was probably an unbearable memory to Li Mazi, who has been exposed to the science and progressive thinking of the outside world.

“He had no way of severing his current self from his ignorant past self. This became a stain in his past and a demon that haunted him for the rest of his life. Li Guaiguai’s existence also made him unable to forget about his miserable, pitiful past. He made those humiliating and painful memories continue to continue. These memories were like a whip coated in salt water, whipping against his body. They caused him to be perpetually drowned in pain, humiliation and hatred.

“I think that this is the reason for why he hates Li Guaiguai. It is likely out of a need to vent his resentment, for the sake of burying those memories. He created a pure cedar coffin for Li Guaiguai out of hatred and anger. He wanted Li Guaiguai to be split by lightning, to be annihilated. He wanted the other to disappear without a trace, as if by doing this, his unbearable past will also cease to exist.

“As for this dead village, it’s obviously also a target of Li Mazi’s resentment. He hates the entire backward and ignorant village. He hates the ignorant offspring of his ancestor. He probably wished for this village to die out, to vanish from the world.

“Regardless of whether it was out of his personal hatred for the village or out of his criticism of this kind of feudalistic, tumour-like system, Li Mazi’s painting is filled with rancour and desolation. Furthermore, the reason he put himself into this painting, starring as the last survivor, is because he had desired to witness the destruction of this family.

“All of this is mere speculation. However, I think that it’s likely true.”

Ke Xun quietly listened to Mu Yiran’s analysis. He then sighed. “No wonder that old man—Li Mazi couldn’t catch up to me. The reason he wasn’t like those other things was because he’s the painter….Wait, that’s not quite right. He’s not the painter, he’s the projection of the painter within this painting. He’s not human, but he’s not one of those things either.”

Mu Yiran nodded. “The Li Mazi in this painting is nothing but a reflection of the painter’s hatred. His curse and rancour has already been dispersed throughout the other things and this environment.”

Ke Xun’s eyes lit up. “If that old man is Li Mazi’s projection, do you think that the signature is on him?”

Mu Yiran shook his head. “The signature is a life-saving device to us. It cannot also possess the ability to harm us. That old man will chase you around and try to kill you.”

Ke Xun asked, “Did you find the signature in his house?”

Mu Yiran: “No.”

Ke Xun scratched his head. “The sky’s already getting dark. Do you think that the old man will assign us tasks tonight?”

Mu Yiran’s eyes darkened. “It would be extremely dangerous if he doesn’t.”

Ke Xun recalled last night. Even though Mu Yiran and he had hidden themselves well, it hadn’t been enough to protect them from the weird sound Li Guaiguai emitted. They had nearly lost their lives last night. He couldn’t help but scratch his arms in memory of what had happened. “We still have some time. Let’s call the others and continue searching.”

The two of them returned to the Chinese Scholar trees. They found Wei Dong and the others already waiting there. When the doctor saw that they were both unharmed, he asked about their discoveries at the old man’s house.

Mu Yiran gave them a simple summary. Everyone was rendered dumbfounded by it.

“Fuck…” Wei Dong took a long time to process this. He didn’t know what to say. “When I go back, I’m going to ask my parents if there were any consanguineous marriages in the last dozen or more generations in our family.”

Ke Xun: “…Are you hoping that there is one or that there aren’t any?”

Wei Dong: “I have a suspicion that there must have been one. Otherwise, where did my foot stench come from? It must be the result of an abnormality in our genes.”

Ke Xun: “…How about we bet on whether your dad will make a pure cedar coffin for you after you ask that?”

The doctor, who was standing off to the side, asked Mu Yiran, “We now know everything behind this painting. But I still can’t think of where the signature might be. Xiao Mu, do you have any suggestions?”

Mu Yiran shook his head slightly: “I can’t think of anything right now.”

“Then what should we do…?” Ma Zhenhua was so anxious his eyes had turned bloodshot. “It’s getting dark. Look, it’s almost night time….”

Zhang Maolin was also worried. He pulled the cloth strip free from his waist and turned to glance at Wei Dong and the jianbing vendor. All of a sudden, he charged over to the jianbing vendor and said, “Buddy, let’s talk. How about we trade cloth strips? I’ll pay you, however much you want. How about five hundred thousand? A million? I’ll give you anything, okay?”

Wei Dong couldn’t keep watching. He said to Zhang Maolin, “It’s useless. If we could trade, I would have traded a long time ago. If you trade it, you might be punished by the painting. If you don’t believe me, ask Boss Mu and Dr. Qin.”

Zhang Maolin sobbed. “I don’t want to die a death by a thousand cuts! I don’t want to die…I don’t want to die….”

“What, do you think we want to die?” Wei Dong replied in a bad mood. “Accept your fate. It’s your bad luck that let you get that character.”

“Why—why….” Zhang Maolin had a mental breakdown. “Why does it have to be this character? Why did a good character like this become so demonic….”

No one replied to him.

There were no clues or leads to follow. Everybody felt anxious and gloomy. Even Mu Yiran frowned.

Time kept ticking. The sky continued to darken.

Everyone fell silent. Some people racked their brains while others fell into despair.

Ke Xun absentmindedly stared at the deformed ‘dai’ character that was being wrung in Zhang Maolin’s hands. He then glanced at Wei Dong’s ‘gu’ character. In the end, he looked down at his own ‘yang’ character tied around his waist.

Suddenly, an idea popped up in his head.

He walked over to grab hold of Mu Yiran’s arm. He pulled him closer and gazed into his eyes. He asked, “The cloth strips were all given to us by the old man, right? The old man is Li Mazi, right? Li Mazi is Li Haojing, right? Li Haojing knew the original meaning of these characters, right?”

Mu Yiran met with the bright black eyes of the person in front of him. Under the dark, dense clouds of the night sky, the other’s eyes were bright as stars.

For the first time, he didn’t throw off the other’s hold. Mu Yiran pursed his lips, bearing into Ke Xun’s eyes. “The original meaning of ‘hao’ refers to the rapid flow of a large river, the sound of water rushing. The original meaning of ‘jing’ refers to a tower.”

“—Tower!”

“—Large river!”

Ma Zhenhua and Zhang Maolin simultaneously shouted out loud.

“There’s a dried up river bank in the village’s south side. There’s also a fire lookout tower there.” The doctor said, “We passed by it while searching for clues in the village.”

“What are we waiting for then?! Quickly, the sky’s getting dark!” Wei Dong couldn’t wait. He started to sprint towards the village’s south side.

Everyone hastily followed suit. At this moment, they realized that the sky had already completely darkened. The night wind blew against their face before spiralling behind them and coming at them again from behind. They could hear howling of men, women, the elderly and the young, all mixed into the roar of the wind. There was also a very familiar voice, shouting at them shrilly: “Die—you should all die—”

It was Liu Yufei’s voice!

When they heard this voice, no one could resist turning around to look behind them. What they saw caused the jianbing vendor and Ma Zhenhua’s legs to go soft and their inevitable collapse onto the ground.