*realistic meaning representing reality in this case
Chapter 26
Zhou Xiangzhe didn’t know that Shen Wang’s words choked speechless the bird in the cage. He had already gone up to the second floor.
He and Shen Wang had already explored the second floor. At that time, the environment on the second floor was similar to that on the first floor: it had a living room and several empty rooms. There were no special items in the rooms besides that bird cages were still everywhere.
This time, Zhou Xiangzhe immediately saw the portrait hanging on the wall.
The portrait was not big, just a little bigger than an A4 paper. It showed a woman wearing a moon-white dress sitting on a chair. She was holding a bird cage in her arms and smiling strangely at him. Zhou Xiangzhe approached and found that there were two painted birds in the birdcage. The birds were blurred and their shapes could not be seen clearly.
The portrait had no frame. It looked like it had just been painted. The paint had not dried yet and it gave a strong pungent smell.
The woman in the painting seemed to be alive. Her smile grew bigger and more twisted, and her eyes were full of malice.
Her hands pinched the cage in her arms, as if she wanted to pinch the person in front of the painting.
“It should be this painting.”
Zhou Xiangzhe would certainly not be scared by a painting. There was almost nothing in this world that could scare him.
He reached out to touch the painting, but his fingers were pricked the moment he touched the portrait, and he subconsciously retracted his hand.
But it was not the woman in the painting that stabbed him, but the thorns that stretched out from the painting. There was a drop of his blood on one small part of the thorns, and each thorn was bared in front of Zhou Xiangzhe.
“Blood thorns?”
The thorns retracted in an instant, looking afraid but greedy.They neatly dragged away the painting the moment Zhou Xiangzhe hesitated.
‘This is our prey! ‘
‘Scary delicious human being who wants to steal our prey! ’
‘Oh, come here, go to Master!’
‘Give it to Master! Come and eat it!’
The thorns were so fast that they rolled up the painting, and in the blink of an eye they had already reached the ceiling. Zhou Xiangzhe looked up and saw them escaping with the painting through the door.
Zhou Xiangzhe hurriedly chased after them, but with a bang, the last thorns did not forget to close the door and even locked it.
Zhou Xiangzhe pulled the door hard to make sure it was really locked and frowned slightly.
To this day, Zhou Xiangzhe is still surprised at the human-like actions of the blood thorns. If even such a small piece of parasitic pollutants have a strategic mind, then what would Blood Thorn look like?
Zhou Xiangzhe had only seen Blood Thorn once in person, and that was in the Class C pollution source. The other party didn’t seem to want to fight with him, so after a glance, it disappeared and never appeared again since then. Only these pollutant parts continued to show around.
Zhou Xiangzhe thought: Blood Thorn should be rated more dangerous.
He took out his gun and pointed it at the locked door. The bullet hit the lock and broke it. Zhou Xiangzhe chased them down and found that the door at the staircase was also locked.
Cunning pollutants who even lock the door!
At the same time, Shen Wang was still sitting on the sofa downstairs, fighting wits and courage with the caged bird behind him.
The caged bird was so angry that he was about to vomit blood.
The candy in his mouth tasted strong. Shen Wang was thinking whether he should go to the dentist if he continued to eat like this. Then he continued to refuse the request of the caged bird, “No need to waste time, let him die.”
“Are you the pollutant or is that woman the pollutant!” The caged bird was furious, “He is your companion, and you want to let him die!”
“Yes.” Shen Wang said confidently, “People are sometimes more terrible than pollutants, and it’s really insulting to me that you say I’m a pollutant. I can sue you for defamation.”
The caged bird was so angry that it flapped its wings and a some feathers fell off, “Then let me out, I will help you kill him!”
“No.” Shen Wang replied calmly: “How will he destroy the painting if you kill him? It’s more cost-effective to let him die after he destroys the painting.”
“Then let me out, I will help him destroy the painting, and then I will help you kill him!”
“That’s too much trouble. I don’t like to owe people favors.”
The caged bird: …
It was so angry that its mouth twisted.
At this moment, a loud noise came from the second floor. The collision made Shen Wang and the bird in the cage turn their heads to face the stairs on the second floor.
Shen Wang watched helplessly as a group of thorns with a rolled up painting rushed down from above.
Shen Wang: …
This familiar feeling.
The thorns rushed as if they were running for their lives, and then stuffed quickly the painting into his arms, as anxious as if a ghost was chasing them.
‘Master, eat quickly! ’
‘Hurry up! It’s going to be snatched away! ’
‘Hungry, eat! ’
Bang!
There was a second loud noise coming from the second floor. Shen Wang was very familiar with this sound because it’s the sound of something he has also used. It was the gun issued to them by the Pollution Control Center. Now Shen Wang knew who these little guys were hiding from so anxiously.
They were so capable that they actually snatched things from Zhou Xiangzhe. The last time they saw him, they seemed to be avoiding him.
After two firing sounds, Shen Wang found something wrong.
If the actions of the blood thorns are following the consciousness of the main body, then it means that he was wary of Zhou Xiangzhe before, but now he’s psychologically comfortable around him.
Damn…
Shen Wang silently ignored this problem and took the painting off the thorns. He unfolded the painting while Zhou Xiangzhe wasn’t here. The next moment, he saw the woman with a weird smile on the scroll.
It was a self-portrait of a female pollutant.
Before Shen Wang could think about how to deal with this thing, the bird in the cage made a sharp sound.
The bird in the cage shouted in fear, “What?! Why did the painting appear here!”
“Run! She must not find me!”
Shen Wang raised his eyebrows slightly, “You are afraid of this painting.”
He now knew where to put this painting.
The thorns froze for a moment, waving their arms in the air to refuse, but this was the intention of the main body, so they had to reluctantly take the painting from Shen Wang, and stuff the prey they had just snatched into the cage of the talking bird.
The screams of the caged bird became louder.
“No! Let me out!” It began to hit the cage.
Bang! Another gunshot, this time very close, hitting the corridor door on the first floor.
When Zhou Xiangzhe kicked the door open, the poor little thorns fled spontaneously, even if they were sad, they remembered to quickly avoid this terrible human.
The screams of the caged bird were enough to attract everyone’s attention, and Zhou Xiangzhe was the same. He first looked at the screaming bird, and then saw that the portrait was snatched by the blood thorns inside the birdcage. Shen Wang was watching the scene standing three meters away from the birdcage.
“What happened?” Zhou Xiangzhe asked.
“I’m not very sure. I suddenly heard it cry, and when I looked at it, I saw something extra in the birdcage.” Shen Wang pretended to be puzzled and asked, “What is this? A portrait?”
“Blood Thorn suddenly appeared and dragged the painting away.” Zhou Xiangzhe changed the gun’s magazine while walking towards him, “But it’s okay this way.”
The gun loading sound reached the ears of the bird in the cage.
After changing the magazine, Zhou Xiangzhe pointed the muzzle of the gun at the bird in the cage and at the painting in the cage.
The sound of the safety bolt being pulled open was loud enough.
I don’t have enough gun knowledge to know if this is right lmao
“What are you going to do?!” The bird in the cage fluttered quickly.
“Of course, destroy this painting.” Zhou Xiangzhe did not pull the trigger immediately. His voice had returned to his usual calmness with a cold tone, “You said that as long as we destroy this painting, we won’t be polluted and we’ll be able to leave. Of course, I’m doing what you told us.”
“But if you shoot, I will be hit too!”
“What’s the big deal.” Zhou Xiangzhe’s tone was calm, and because he was too calm, it made people feel cold in their hearts.
“You can’t recover anyway. The Pollution Control Center has determined that the treatment of completely distorted people is to kill them. Even if you can leave here, how many days can you stay in the S district in this state?”
“It’s glorious for you to die doing the right thing.”
The bird in the cage was so scared that even its voice trembled.
Shen Wang, who was watching nearby: …
It is said that Zhou Xiangzhe is the strongest mutant in Central City. He was even capable of moving freely after fusing with [Deer God]. But he didn’t get so many privileges through just pure kindness. His strength was the source of privileges, and this wasn’t limited to his status as S-level mutant.
“Everything that should be explained has been explained. We can now say goodbye.” Zhou Xiangzhe deliberately lowered his voice.
“No, no! I lied to you!” The bird in the cage was terrified, “You can’t destroy the painting! If you destroy this painting, you will never be able to leave again!”
Zhou Xiangzhe fired directly, and the bullet grazed the bird’s body and hit the edge of the painting without damaging it.
“Sorry, I’m not a good shooter.”
“I’m telling the truth this time!” The caged bird anxiously said, “That painting is really the key item!”
Zhou Xiangzhe said, “Do you think I’ll trust you again?”
“Why?” The caged bird was still in a state of panic. He didn’t understand why the person who trusted him so much before suddenly wanted to kill him.
What’s going on? ! Wasn’t he fooled by him?1
“You made two fatal mistakes.” Zhou Xiangzhe said, “The first one is that the manual does have Kong Zehua’s name, but he’s not a member of the dispatch team, but a member of the guard team. The dispatch team and the guard team are both affiliated with the Pollution Control Center, but their duties are completely different.”
“You actually forgot ‘your’ profession.”
“Moreover, Kong Zehua is not a B-level mutant, he is just an ordinary D-level mutant.”
The caged bird froze. He didn’t expect Zhou Xiangzhe to not only know the manual, but also memorize all of its contents.
“You are not Kong Zehua at all.” Zhou Xiangzhe said, “Then who on earth are you?”
Shen Wang spoke from the side, his voice mocking, “No matter what it is, since it’s not a human, of course it must be cleaned up. This is the rule of the Pollution Control Center.”
“You are right.” Zhou Xiangzhe nodded.
“You can’t do this!” The caged bird hit its head against the cage, “You should save me! You are members of the dispatch team, you should save me! I’m a victim!”
“I’m a victim! You have to save me!”
“Kong Zehua is the same! I asked him for help, begging him to help me open the cage, as long as I open the cage I can leave here, but he said that I am not a human, he said that all pollutants should die, I clearly did nothing! So he soon died, he became a bird like me, his eyes dug out and strangled to death by a woman!”
“Hahaha! Good death! He deserves it, he deserves it!”
“Who told him not to save me!”
“You too, you will die too!”
Strong pollution surged from the caged bird. Shen Wang, during his onset period, was sensitive to pollutants and immediately felt that the pollution level of the caged bird was rising.
D level? No, it should be C level.
Distorted pollutants with a certain degree of intelligence, restricted by the gallery rules, restricted here by [Hundred Eyes] to become one of her chess pieces.
It’s not the polluted ability of the ‘mother’ pollutant that turns people into a bird, but its!
Shen Wang quickly looked at Zhou Xiangzhe, who was still holding the gun. His golden eyes reflected the figure of the bird in the cage. He seemed to feel Shen Wang’s gaze so he turned his head and stared at Shen Wang for a while.
White-gold feathers emerged from his collar and cuffs.
Those long and smooth feathers piled up little by little, expanding his combat uniform, but Zhou Xiangzhe’s expression did not change at all.
He seemed to realize that Shen Wang was worried about him, so he unbuttoned the two buttons on his collar and let the feathers on his neck fluff out.
“I’m going to turn you into a bird! Go to hell! Go to hell!”
“All those who don’t save me will turn into birds like me!”
“Don’t worry.” Zhou Xiangzhe’s eyes were still calm, “Although my ability is not [Pollution Immunity], I will be affected by pollution, but no pollutant can completely pollute me.”
Because his body is not owned by just him, there is also a terrible monster who lives in it.
S-level pollutant [Deer God]’s pollution.
It and Zhou Xiangzhe reached an incredible balance. Zhou Xiangzhe couldn’t digest it and showed the characteristics of being polluted; at the same time [Deer God] couldn’t completely pollute Zhou Xiangzhe and could only remain in his body.
It’s impossible for a mere C-level pollutant to replace the pollution of [Deer God].
Getting the message of “it’s all right” from Zhou Xiangzhe’s eyes, Shen Wang retracted his gaze from the platinum feathers on his body.
“It’s very afraid of that painting.” Shen Wang started to fill in the clues that he hadn’t had time to say before, “It screamed after the painting appeared.”
“He said previously that the woman would abuse and kill birds, which should be true.” Zhou Xiangzhe put away the gun, “Whether this painting can be destroyed or not, it has a lot to do with that woman. The bird is afraid of her and also afraid of her portrait.”
As soon as his sentence ended, Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe saw the portrait tremble.
It didn’t move because of the movements of the bird jumping inside the cage, it was the painting itself moving. . It moved little by little, and a hand stretched out from it at a very fast speed.
The arm was wearing a moon-white cuff, the pale and slender wrist a familiar bracelet and her nails were covered with residual red nail polish.
She grabbed the wings of the bird in the cage, and because it was strong too, the fingertips were turning white.
“No!” The bird in the cage kept struggling, “Save me, save me!”
“I don’t want to die, I’m sorry I was wrong! Save me!”
The hand didn’t hesitate at all. She dragged the bird in the cage hard and pulled it slowly but without hesitation into the painting. The bird struggled and screamed, and when it entered the painting, it made a sticky sound as if being crushed, and the bird’s cry became a scream.
When the hand finally pulled the bird into the painting, the room was finally quiet. The disappearance of the overly sharp sound made Shen Wang feel empty for a moment.
“Confirm that the C-level pollutant has disappeared.”
Zhou Xiangzhe whispered the official closing remarks.
The white-gold feathers on his body faded and soon returned to human skin.
“Is he a pollutant part of [Hundred Eyes], or a primary pollutant after being polluted?” Shen Wang asked Zhou Xiangzhe.
“It doesn’t matter, they’re all pollutants anyway.”
Zhou Xiangzhe buttoned up his collar and covered his exposed neck again. However, Shen Wang had already seen that he was wearing a chain around his neck. The style of the chain was exquisite and didn’t look ordinary. It was unknown whether it was Zhou Xiangzhe’s own accessory or a customized pollution suppressor.
He was really good at tidying himself up.
After tidying up all his clothes, Zhou Xiangzhe said again: “Kong Zehua was a member of the guard team. He once asked to join the dispatch team, but was not accepted because his mutation level was too low.”
“He supports the complete elimination of pollutants and believes that all pollutants in the world deserve to die.”
Believers of the complete elimination of pollutants are a new viewpoint that emerged after the apocalypse. It’s a hot topic on the imperfect network, and Shen Wang has seen it mentioned often.
They believe that pollutants are extremely evil and there are no exceptions. As long as they exist, they need to be eliminated immediately. Even if occasionally, the Pollution Control Center delays the elimination, preferring to control pollution, the believers will attack anyway..
Because they caused some incidents, the Pollution Control Center was very troubled by them.
“He was a member of the guard team, so it’s normal for him to have such thoughts.” Shen Wang said.
“Not only that.” Zhou Xiangzhe shook his head, “In fact, he’s a survivor of a pollution incident just like you. All five members of his family died in the pollution incident, including his 3-month-old daughter.”
“Since then, he has been a believer.”
He hated all the pollutants in the world and wanted to kill these monsters that caused countless tragedies with his own hands.
However, he wasn’t talented enough and couldn’t join the dispatch team.
His poor mental state made him choose to leave the Pollution Control Center and go out of the city alone for revenge. Unexpectedly, he strayed into the gallery of [Hundred Eyes] and d*ed here.
/
The bird in the cage died, and soon the painting in the cage disappeared.
After a while, the resurrected female pollutant came down from upstairs again. She seemed to have forgotten that she had died again and turned around in front of Shen Wang, asking him if the skirt was beautiful.
Shen Wang and Zhou Xiangzhe observed the female pollutant together.
“Since the bird transformation was not caused by her, and she’s a special pollutant that can resurrect continuously, then what is the meaning of her existence here?”
After finishing the candy in his mouth, Shen Wang took out a candy, peeled it and put it in his mouth, so he spoke a little vaguely.
Zhou Xiangzhe stood beside him and sighed softly when he heard his words.
“We should have overlooked something.”
“What do you think it is?”
“Where is her child?” Zhou Xiangzhe thought, “This painting is obviously the painting of a family. A cowardly mother didn’t dare to resist his husband, so she vented her resentment on the weak bird and her child. Now the bird is there, the mother is there, but where is the child?”
Shen Wang looked at him strangely, “Isn’t it me?”
“But you are not affected by the pollution.” Zhou Xiangzhe pointed to the chain on his ankle, “This woman will treat her child as the birds in cages, so if it’s her child, it will definitely be locked up, just like the first room we saw.”
Shen Wang recalled the room where he first came in.
The closed room was full of scattered paintings, windows sealed by red bricks, and lights that couldn’t be turned on.
“Let’s go and take a look.”
Shen Wang pulled Zhou Xiangzhe to the room where he first appeared. Zhou Xiangzhe was now used to being led by him, and he was no longer stiff as he was at the beginning. He followed him naturally.
They came to the room, and the screwdriver for prying the door was still inserted in the keyhole. Shen Wang pushed the door lightly and it opened.
The floor was full of paintings, simple sketches that Shen Wang had never looked at carefully.
Zhou Xiangzhe walked in, he bent down to pick up the paintings on the floor, and found that these paintings were all portraits.
Men and women, adults and children, bird cages and birds.
“How is it? Is there a signature?”
“No, but the feeling of this painting is different from the first one.” Zhou Xiangzhe looked at the scattered sketches, “I remember the first one being more like a fantasy and weird style, but these are innocent children’s paintings. Can one person have multiple styles?”
“I don’t know much about painting.” Shen Wang spread his hands, “But I also think this isn’t drawn by the same person.”
Zhou Xiangzhe held up the painting under the light. His golden eyes were even more dazzling under the light.
“After we got the news about [Hundred Eyes], we investigated for a while. I also told you that we didn’t find a painter named [Bai Mu]2.” Zhou Xiangzhe said, “Mingguang said that this was because a lot of information of the old times was lost. Painters are not a profession that all people are exposed to, so it’s normal that there is no information.”
“But I doubt whether there is really a painter named [Bai Mu].”
Zhou Xiangzhe put down the painting, “Perhaps there has never been a famous painter in the old times, and this is just a place born from desire.”
Shen Wang raised his eyebrows slightly. He still remembered that Lily’s story was drawn after she emphasized the pollutant, but he could also understand what Zhou Xiangzhe meant.
Human beings’ strong desires combined with pollution will create completely different pollutants. Because they want eyes, they grow many eyes. Because they want to make money, they live in gold mines. Because they still miss going to work, they keep wandering on the way to work… Pollutants are changeable and simple.
If [Bai Mu] becomes a pollutant and believes that she is a great painter, then Lily, who emphasises with her, will naturally think that she was a great painter.
Of course, these are all speculations, and it’s not certain that it’s the same as Mingguang said. They just haven’t found out the truth yet.
Zhou Xiangzhe walked towards the window again, and he looked at the window sealed by red bricks.
“Why seal the window?”
Shen Wang thought for a while and replied: “What can’t be seen outside?”
Zhou Xiangzhe raised his head suddenly, and his golden eyes were suddenly enlightened. Yes, these red bricks were built from the inside. In other words, the people inside sealed the windows because there was something outside they were afraid of!
“Tear them down now.” Zhou Xiangzhe rolled up his sleeves.
Shen Wang shrugged casually with candy in his mouth, and then went to help Zhou Xiangzhe tear down the wall.
He thought: The candies are about to run out.
He can’t go out of control and chew pollutants in front of Zhou Xiangzhe, he’ll be seen by Zhou Xiangzhe.
It’s really embarrassing.
It was like he had been bribed by 3 pieces of candy and now he didn’t want Zhou Xiangzhe to know his secret.
After peeling off the layer of red bricks while having wild thoughts, Shen Wang narrowed his eyes slightly. He felt the light projected from outside, but it was not sunlight, it was the same incandescent light as in the living room.
Through the window, they could see steel bars as thick as fingers, forming a rectangular metal cage.
They had seen such cages, right in the rooms, in the living room, and now in front of their eyes.
Those countless bird cages hanging above their heads with dead birds inside them.
Lying on the bird cage was a woman so huge that her face could not be seen, she put her hand on the bird cage. Her slender and pale arms wore moon-white cuffs and her wrists were wearing a beautiful bracelet.
Her posture was so familiar that it made people feel cold from the heart.
Zhou Xiangzhe did not expect to see such a scene, and felt speechless for a while.
Finally, Shen Wang spoke.
“That’s why the bird said that the painting is important.”
Shen Wang stared at the woman’s hand, “…turns out that the painting is realistic.”
And they are the two birds in the woman’s cage, real birds in a cage.
The woman seemed to hear the sound, she moved, she squatted slowly, her moon-white long skirt piled on the ground. Shen Wang saw her leaning over little by little, her black eyes as big as the window were staring intently at the window they just opened.
“Hehe.” She laughed.
“It’s two little birds.”
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