The Nine Painters
Absurd Deduction Game
Yu Xing ignored the words that made him look short. Although he cursed inwardly, he remained calm on the surface. He led Zhao Yijiu up to the second floor with elegant steps, just like a confident spectator who had bought a ticket.
An NPC was standing at the top of the stairs on the second floor. It wasn't the one who greeted the painter at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor, but rather an introducer.
The introducer frowned in confusion when he saw Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu. His eyes, like those of a venomous snake, were fixed on their faces, sending a chill down their spines.
However, he ultimately said nothing, since he didn't remember all the guests' faces, and it would be wrong to go up and disturb them.
Yu Xing walked past the introducer with an air of arrogance, just like the other onlookers, despite his very ordinary attire.
His clothes even had specks of blood on them, left at Kraun's general store. But in fact, there were quite a few visitors in the art museum with bloodstains on their clothes. Yu Xing had just seen a woman in the lobby on the first floor whose upper body was soaked in blood-red clothes, with a drop of blood dripping with every step she took.
It looks very bad. If there were more blood and the woman was more beautiful, she could have played Bloody Mary.
In short, judging from the behavior of the introducers at the stairwell, they could indeed blend in with the guests.
Yu Xing and Zhao Yijiu arrived at the second floor, where they found a spacious exhibition hall. It was square, with two or three paintings hanging on each side. These paintings seemed to have a more prestigious status than the oil paintings in the corridor, and even the frames were carved from gold and were larger in size.
Instead of heading directly to one of the corridors connecting to the exhibition hall, he stopped here. In front of each of these oil paintings, there was a raised barrier that kept visitors two meters away. At this moment, many gaudy ghosts were commenting on these oil paintings, mostly praising and extolling them.
"As expected of Mr. Claire's masterpiece, this hellish scene is simply breathtaking. I can't wait to immerse myself in it. How wonderful it would be if I could live in such a beautiful hell!"
"Ms. Linda's depiction of the skeleton enhances the atmosphere even more; it's a pinnacle of imagination and artistic skill. I can't believe Ms. Linda isn't even 30 years old this year."
Upon hearing the name Linda, Yu Xing turned her gaze to the Female Ghost who had spoken. This visitor was wearing a deep red long dress that narrowed at the bottom and flared out at the top, making her look exactly like a talking wine glass.
The painting in front of the lady with the wine glass is a large oil painting in blue tones. Visitors need to look up to see the whole painting. It is taller than the two-meter-tall visitors. In the lower middle part of the painting, skeletons without a trace of skin or flesh are piled up to form the top of a bone mound.
A gray spear was stuck in the middle of the pile of bones, with a fresher corpse impaled on its tip. The corpse was visibly decaying, maintaining the posture it had been in at the time of death, with one arm outstretched towards the sky, fingers spread, as if asking something from the gray clouds.
Yu Xing went over with interest. This painting was much more exquisite than the ones in the corridor. It seemed that Miss Linda, who was late, might have been slightly better than the other painters in terms of artistic skill.
Whether it's the composition of the image, or the lighting and color, it has transcended vulgar tastes, but the subject matter remains so simple and straightforward.
But this exquisiteness was only in comparison to the paintings displayed by other painters in the corridor; for Yu Xing, it was still a disaster.
Leaving aside the fact that it cannot be compared with the art of that era in the real world, even the paintings he created when he studied abroad in later years are far better than this.
After looking at this painting, he looked at the other paintings in the exhibition hall and found that they were generally more beautiful than those in the corridor, as if the organizer of the exhibition had gathered all the painters' most prized works in this exhibition hall.
He looked at each one in turn, and saw the names of the painters that had been mentioned by the visitors when he first arrived at the museum: André, Crodir, Mond...
Each painting has a nameplate at the bottom.
Among them were those skilled in portraiture, those skilled in landscape painting, those in abstract art, those in realism, and those skilled in group portraits or details. Yu Xing's smile widened. He wondered if the exhibition organizer really liked him, as they had presented him with such a time-saving gift.
He wanted to use a second method to identify forgeries. Originally, he would have needed to walk around each corridor more often and compare a painter's works to determine his painting style. This would not only be time-consuming, but it would also be difficult to determine how many painters were invited to the entire exhibition.
Therefore, he was confident that even if it took this much time, he could still identify fakes faster than others using the first method. Of course, saving time was always the best option. Now, he only needed to memorize the painting methods of the paintings in this exhibition hall and match them with the artists. After that, he could directly determine whether the style of a painting was correct when he saw it in the corridor.
Yu Xing walked around the small exhibition hall, stopping to observe each painting.
To other visitors, this gesture appeared as a sign of his intense focus on the paintings; the way he gazed at them was enough to convince anyone that he was a die-hard fan of the artist.
Zhao Yijiu also tried to take a look, but he heard Yu Xing muttering something about lines, brushstroke habits, the breadth of artistic thinking, and the degree of distortion of spatial imagination. In the end, he sighed and gave up.
Leave it to the professionals; he's not qualified.
Why come to the art museum? Here, he can only remain so passive.
Oh, he chose the location himself, then it's alright.
Yu Xing had no idea what his teammates were thinking. He observed them for about 20 minutes, looking at each painter's "masterpiece." There were nine different painters in total, each with their own unique style, which made his identification a little easier.
"Let's go to Area A," Yu Xing said.
Area A is a landscape painting, a place they didn't pass through on their way down. Yu Xing planned to go there first. The first reason was to open the map and improve their visual understanding of the second floor. The second reason was that the two artists who specialize in landscape painting have quite distinct painting styles.
The painter Crodir, when compared across all his painting techniques, excels in his control of color. In contrast, his lines are not so good. The regional landscape painting in the exhibition hall is highly praised because he exploited a loophole in the painting, transforming his poor control of lines into a distorted vision of hell.
Logically speaking, to create a beautifully distorted painting, one should have a stronger control over lines, which is indeed the case. Therefore, Yu Xing could easily spot the distorted effect created by exploiting loopholes. However, Crodir used his color and shading to largely conceal the unattractiveness and stiffness of the lines.
The painter Shirley, on the other hand, has excellent lines. Her painting depicts a tranquil lakeside devoid of any living creatures, only rows of large, sprawling trees. The trees are intertwined and interwoven, achieving a very rigorous yet bizarre spatial structure, making it a rather skillful painting.
However, it is obvious that she is not sensitive to color. In order to cover up the flaws and shortcomings, the whole painting uses very bright colors, while there are almost no similar colors.
Yu Xing couldn't help but wonder if Shirley was colorblind, and that she didn't even dare to adjust the shades.
At the same time, he also memorized the two painters' habitual brushstrokes. As someone who was more skilled in painting than them, he was confident that he could identify which painting was not theirs.
Nine painters and five paintings—most likely, those five paintings are by different painters. Of course, it's also possible that neither of the two landscape painters has a spot, but that doesn't matter. Even if the forgery isn't in the two painters' home turf, it's still not a loss. Yu Xing has already figured out how to entice the experience testers she encounters.
There were quite a few people in the corridor of Area A.
The entire A area is a circular corridor. The corridor is spacious, but each painting must be separated from the visitor by one meter, leaving only about two meters of space for the visitor. This is why the group of more than 20 people felt extremely crowded.
There were no tour groups required, so everyone was scattered in the corridor. Yu Xing arrived at corridor number one in area A and immediately spotted two "short people".
There were two experience testers standing there at the same time, seemingly companions. They were whispering to each other in front of a dark-toned ancient tomb painting, and it was unclear what they were talking about.
Yu Xing didn't want to confront them immediately, so he quietly gave Zhao Yijiu a hand signal, intending to go to Corridor 4 from the other side of the circular corridor first. As soon as he stepped into Corridor 4, he saw a young experience tester with gray hair in the crowd.
"Why are they all in Area A?" Zhao Yijiu was also puzzled; they had encountered three people in just two corridors.
"... Perhaps they feel that landscape paintings are safer than portraits?" Yu Xing tried to put herself in the other person's shoes and guessed, "After all, portraits look too eerie. That pale face and dark eyes are just staring at you. Even if it's not a fake, it's still creepy. Unlike landscape paintings, even if it depicts hell, you're still observing from an outsider's perspective, so the psychological pressure is less."
"I understand," Zhao Yijiu said.
He looked at the gray-haired young man, calculating the probability of him passing by silently. But as soon as his gaze fell on the young man's profile, the young man seemed to sense something and turned his head away alertly.
As if receiving some kind of alarm, the young man almost instantly locked onto Zhao Yijiu, who was separated from the ghost visitors. When their eyes met, the other man's gaze sharpened, and his fingers unconsciously touched his side. But he quickly realized what was happening and warily looked at Zhao Yijiu and Yu Xing, who was standing right next to Zhao Yijiu.
Zhao Yijiu lowered her voice and whispered to Yu Xing, "His senses are so sharp."
"Ah, he probably has some kind of powerful senses, or maybe he's just naturally good at sensing things." Yu Xing didn't take it seriously, and after answering Zhao Yijiu, she took the initiative to step forward.
The gray-haired young man involuntarily took a step back, seemingly wary of the stranger who had suddenly appeared. However, Yu Xing was delighted to find that the other man's leg muscles were already tense, and that seemingly casual retreat was actually a way of adjusting his lower body into an offensive stance that was perfect for a lunge.
The young man wasn't afraid; he was merely feigning fear, ready to tear him apart like a beast at any moment.
"How interesting, "Yu Xing thought.
This combat skill of being able to choose a plan to lure the enemy in an instant is truly rare, because this skill is not very effective against ghosts; it is clearly a plan to deal with its own kind.
This gray-haired young man must have been quite ruthless in his beating.
Thinking of this, Yu Xing couldn't help but worry. What if this young man punched him without saying a word? Would his physical strength be able to withstand the pain of such a cataclysmic event?
Sigh, I hope I can get away with this, and hopefully, let the other person calm down as well.
So he spoke first, "Hey friend, do you like this painting?"
In front of the young man is a dark-toned oil painting of an ancient courtyard. Interestingly, the courtyard is actually Chinese in style, with two blood-red lanterns hanging under the eaves, seemingly swaying slightly in the wind.
This oil painting does indeed have a mysterious and eerie feel to it. Yu Xing squinted at the nameplate "Crodir" below the painting.
Before he could even begin to trace the lines of the painting, the gray-haired old woman answered him, "I love it! Mr. Crodir's architecture is always so beautifully drawn, so I've been admiring it for a long time. And what about you?"
The young man perfectly mimicked the exaggerated tone of the other ghostly viewers, and smoothly gained the approval of one of them who was standing nearby. He pursed his lips, still playing the role of someone who was wary. "You also like this painting. Would you like to admire it with me?"
"No, this painting is a bit small. If someone is standing next to it, it won't be able to appreciate it properly." Yu Xing smiled, but showed no intention of backing down. Combined with his words, it was easy to think that he was threatening the other person to leave, and that he wanted to keep the painting for himself.
Sure enough, the young man wanted to sneer when he heard that answer.
The young man said, "I see. If a handsome guy like you wants to admire them, of course I'm happy to let you. But... you look a bit unfamiliar. I really didn't expect that I, who always enjoys looking at handsome men and beautiful women, wouldn't have noticed you before. Hmm, and the gentleman next to you, you two really kept it well hidden."
His words immediately attracted the attention of the surrounding ghosts.
Yu Xing remained completely calm. He replied, "No, we're both short, so it's normal that you didn't notice us. We were in the same viewing group as the player, and he didn't notice us either. He was quite surprised when he saw us just now."
He didn't mention the player in order to establish a connection.
After all, how could the ghosts know who the chess player was? The word "short" was enough to fool them into not pursuing the matter further, unless the gray-haired youth, Grandma, raised objections again.
He wanted to probe the young man's identity; Ning Feng had mentioned that they had another teammate.
I don't know if this is the person in front of me. If he is, he would at least calm down upon hearing the words "chess player" and wouldn't rashly use the topic to his advantage. If he isn't, he has left himself plenty of room to maneuver. The claim that the chess player was surprised to see us is hard to say whether it's a form of boasting or a threat.