When Jiu’er woke up again,
the portrait had been completed without her noticing.
"I am really grateful, Aie. Co... take a look at the painting I did for you."
Amos’s warm and confident voice suddenly rang out beside Jiu’er.
The holess person was startled and looked around.
But she found Amos had appeared behind her at so point... tucking the painting back in its original place.
The other parts of the painting were covered by a red cloth. Only this small section was left uncovered for Jiu’er to see for herself.
Jiu’er looked intently and realized Amos hadn’t included the prop stand in the painting.
She saw a disheveled, ragged holess person, with one hand reaching forward as if grasping at the air, and the other hand timidly curled under their rib. Confusion and ferocity were mixed in their eyes; the gaunt ribs and sunken belly revealed their hunger and malnutrition.
Just standing there, hunched over... it evoked the image of a standing, starving wolf.
His eyeballs even appeared to be green!
Jiu’er saw herself holding onto the painting, as though she might step out of it at any mont... Even though it was, in theory, a painting of herself, she couldn’t help but feel a chill run down her spine.
She even thought she saw the eyes of the holess person in the painting twitch slightly!
It was like walking alone in a dark alley, only to notice with your shadow cast by a streetlight that a strange man was following closely behind you.
It wasn’t fear of ghosts,
—but fear of people.
Unaccountably, Jiu’er suddenly felt a wave of fear—
She almost scread out loud.
But she managed to suppress it with the last of her reasoning.
Jiu’er just laughed awkwardly, "I don’t know why, I just feel a bit... a bit scared..."
"That’s right, Aie,"
Amos smiled confidently, "This is exactly the kind of feeling I wanted. Your painting will be displayed alongside the others... This is a series of paintings, through which I aim to portray the hunger and helplessness of the holess like you. I’m sure this will also call for people to pay more attention to the rights of vagrants... and certainly, it will be a great help to your future life."
—How is this hunger and helplessness?
It’s clearly horror, malice, and untrustworthiness!
Jiu’er almost blurted out loud.
But after thinking it through, since she was not actually Aie, there was no need to take this seriously with Amos...
"...Yes, you’re right,"
Jiu’er bowed her head in humiliation, expressing a voice of submission: "This is indeed a remarkable masterpiece..."
Even though she was inwardly ranting, what she typed out on the keyboard was still "Sorry, my mistake."
This might be the essence of humility.
Amos was clearly very satisfied with this answer.
He asked Jiu’er, "Would you like to try looking at the complete set of paintings at the sa ti? You see, the painting you saw earlier was always missing a part, unable to fully express the emotions I want to convey in this series. And your painting is the last one of the eighteen."
"...No, no, thank you."
This is harmful to one’s health.
Jiu’er imdiately refused.
Her instincts had just been frantically warning her.
Jiu’er’s keen intuition told her that if she really looked at the completed series "Feast of the Famished," she might very well end up dead or mad right there...
Suddenly she rembered sothing.
She respectfully asked, "Master... could you tell what ti it is now?"
"Hmm..."
Amos glanced at the clock in the room and pointed with his chin, "It’s five ten in the afternoon. Are you hungry?
"Shall I go and get sothing for you to eat?"
He was addressing the three holess n in white beside her.
Then Amos smiled at Jiu’er and said, "Why don’t you go take a bath first? The bathroom is over there — there are clean clothes inside."
Having said that, he didn’t wait for Jiu’er’s response and walked away.
"Ehh..."
Jiu’er clicked her tongue with a hint of disgust.
Was she really expected to take a bath?
To wash the filthy, stinking body of this holess person?
Even the comnters expressed that they didn’t want to see this:
"——I’m taking my leave now."
"——Guys, rember to post a notice after she finishes her bath!"
"——What a pity. If I could send the footage from here outside, I would record a ’Female Anchor Rice Wine Balls Bathing Video’ and upload it to the internet. The mont they click play, they’d realize it’s a video of an old vagrant scrubbing dead skin, with a 360-degree view, animated 4K ultra HD..."
"——I’ve called the police on the guy above!"
"——The pervert above that, who the hell are you? Stand out! Don’t just send bullet comnts, have the guts to make a post on the forum!"
Without waiting for Jiu’er to fret over the situation on the spot.
The three n in white robes, after noticing Amos leave, quickly ran over to Jiu’er.
"Uncle Aie! You’re here too!"
The speaker was the youngest among the three.
Of course... being the youngest, he was still around twenty to thirty years old.
"——Amazing, one can still bump into acquaintances here?"
"——It’s quite normal; these are all vagrants from Frostwater Harbor. The place isn’t that big, and it’s quite normal for them to know each other..."
Jiu’er stayed silent for a while, not replying—of course, she couldn’t reply, for she didn’t even know the man’s na. At that mont, the oldest vagrant among them nervously grabbed Aie’s shoulder and asked in a hushed tone, "Do you feel sothing’s not right?
"Did you just... feel completely unable to move?"
"...You too?"
Jiu’er was shocked.
She had just thought she was in a CG.
Could it be that others felt the sa?
"...I did feel sothing was off."
The old man sternly advised in a low voice, "Don’t eat... don’t eat too much of what’s offered tonight. Rember to stay alert and not sleep too deeply."
He initially intended to say "don’t eat."
But he hesitated for a mont and changed it to "don’t eat too much."
Because he was also fully aware of Aie’s destituteness...
They hadn’t had a full al in a long ti.
If soone bluntly told them they could have good food and drinks for three days before they died, perhaps so vagrants would agree after a long hesitation...
After all, they were all "useless people."
The youngest vagrant didn’t seem to care at all: "Why are you so timid? I’ve been here for three days already, eating and drinking well, about to leave... Did you see anything happen to ?
"You’re quite old yet so cowardly... Let ask you, if Master Amos really wanted to harm us, do you think we could escape? Or that the police would believe us if we got out?
"Do you think our lives are worthless, or is it Master’s life that’s cheap?"
The young man’s words were sharp.
But since he was telling the truth, it made it hard to refute...
After a brief silence, the last person spoke, "What the old man said makes sense, it’s better for us to be cautious."
This was a vagrant in his forties or fifties, his face haggard, speaking with a strange accent, seemingly from a different place.
Among the four people, including Aie, he looked the most normal. Dressed in a white nightgown, he resembled not so much a vagrant but a very tired office worker.
The young man shook his head indifferently.
"It’s just three days, do as you wish... Forget it, I’m going to use the bathroom. Uncle Aie, don’t take them too seriously..."
Saying so, he was the first to leave the room.
The bathroom trip was fake; not wanting to chat with the three people was real.
Jiu’er was also sowhat taken aback.
That young man’s actions didn’t quite resemble those of a vagrant...
Or to be precise, none of the four present really seed like vagrants.
Jiu’er stayed silent for a mont, then tentatively asked in a low voice:
"At this point, we can only work together...
"Tell , what exactly are your identities? Don’t lie to ... You should have all realized by now."
No sooner had Jiu’er finished speaking than a sudden silence ensued.
The middle-aged man began slowly, "Since you’re asking... I’ll start first.
"——I am a... murderer."
Upon hearing this, the old man suddenly froze.
He looked up at the middle-aged man, then at Jiu’er.
After a long silence, he also spoke, "I... have also been a murderer."
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