The Art Exhibition Begins

At last, the day of the Art Exhibition arrived.

Early that morning, the man returned the Varnish to Li Xian as promised. After taking it, Li Xian turned the bottle once in his palm and gave him a meaningful look.

The exhibition hall doors, which had always stood open, were locked tight. The Mistress was nowhere to be seen, and no one had prepared lunch.

The four of them stood outside the exhibition hall, quietly waiting for noon.

Liang Pei paced uneasily in front of the doors, while Song Qingzhang occasionally glanced around. The other two leaned against the wall beside the doors with their arms folded, as motionless as statues.

Time ticked by. Every so often, an unsettling thud, thud came from inside the exhibition hall, as though the Mistress was arranging something within.

Finally, at noon sharp, the Mistress opened the doors right on time.

As she welcomed them, the corners of her red lips kept curling upward. Her eyes shone with excitement, as though the day she had been waiting for had finally arrived.

"Welcome to Miss Dolly's Portrait Gallery!"

The Mistress stepped aside, revealing the entire exhibition hall.

Paintings.

An entire wall packed with paintings.

Although they had already known that the nail-covered wall would be hung with a matching number of portraits, they still drew sharp breaths when they actually saw the wall filled with faces.

Li Xian was the first to cross the threshold. The instant he stepped into the exhibition hall, hundreds of pairs of eyes on the wall shifted toward him in unison.

An uncontrollable chill of horror crept over him.

On the surface, these portraits looked no different from those in the corridor, but the moment Li Xian looked at them, he sensed the difference.

They felt far too "human."

If the portraits in the corridor had only faint pulses, allowing people to sense their "vitality" only occasionally, then the portraits here were like living, beating hearts, their presence impossible to ignore.

Their emotions were distinct. The instant they saw Li Xian, admiration appeared on their faces, and as he moved, their eyes turned with him, keeping their gazes fixed tightly on his body.

Li Xian even caught glimpses of several familiar faces among them.

Song Qingzhang and Liang Pei followed Li Xian into the exhibition hall one after the other. Hundreds of gazes suddenly changed targets, locking onto their faces.

That single instant of pressure was enough to make Liang Pei's legs tremble uncontrollably, and even his steps became unsteady.

The last to enter was "Mr. Zhang."

The portraits all turned their eyes toward him in the same way. Yet less than half a second later, as though they had sensed something, they hastily averted their gazes.

Their eyes began wandering between Li Xian, Liang Pei, and Song Qingzhang before finally settling on Li Xian in unison.

Since the man had entered last, no one noticed how urgently the portraits avoided him. Only the Mistress vaguely sensed that something was wrong and frowned slightly, but she soon dismissed that feeling of unease and clapped her hands happily.

"Please take your seats here."

Four chairs stood in the very center of the exhibition hall, clearly prepared for the four people who had survived until now. The only comfort was that the chairs were positioned sideways to the wall of portraits, sparing them from having to face those horrifying gazes directly.

Under the scrutiny of every portrait, Li Xian walked to a chair, step by step, and sat down.

He deliberately directed his gaze toward the opposite wall. Compared with the wall packed with portraits, this one was remarkably bare. Just as they had seen at the beginning, there were only five frames on it, all now covered with black cloth.

The remaining three took their seats in turn. The Mistress smiled in satisfaction and walked slowly toward the covered portraits.

The gazes that had weighed on Li Xian like an immense burden finally shifted away from him and settled beside the Mistress.

Her red lips parted slightly, and her words rang out clearly:

"Thank you all so much for attending this Art Exhibition. Having so many guests visit is both surprising and delightful."

Apparently, she counted the entire wall of portraits among the guests as well.

Li Xian glanced to his side out of the corner of his eye. The portraits were listening to the Mistress with complete concentration, the very picture of a model audience.

"Today is September 9, 2002, and also my twenty-second birthday. I would like to take this opportunity to tell you all a story through this Art Exhibition."

Under everyone's gaze, the Mistress began her tale.

"On September 9, 1980, a pair of twins was born."

She lifted the black cloth covering the first painting. It depicted two swaddled infants, sleeping soundly.

Li Xian studied the painting for a while but found nothing unusual about it.

It should just be an ordinary oil painting.

"Their parents adored both children. They named the older sister Du Sha and the younger sister Dolly. From childhood, the sisters were close and inseparable."

The Mistress unveiled the second painting. It showed two little girls holding hands, around five or six years old, wearing identical purple dresses.

"The two girls gradually grew up in this affluent, loving family. The only thing that troubled their parents was how similar they looked. Sometimes, even their parents struggled to tell them apart."

The third painting was revealed to everyone. The twins in it had grown a few years older, but their faces were still so alike that they seemed to be the same person.

The Mistress told her story in a matter-of-fact manner, and everything she said matched what the photographs had shown. Li Xian realized that even these first three paintings had been based on certain photographs in the album.

He turned his gaze toward the last two covered paintings and quietly waited to hear how the Mistress would tell the rest of the story.

"Du Sha and Dolly had thought they would remain happy like this forever. Even as they grew older and their interests and personalities gradually diverged, their hearts remained connected."

At this point, the Mistress pressed both hands against her chest and lowered her head slightly, as though praying devoutly for something. Her once light, bright voice grew hoarse:

"Until the day they turned eighteen."

The fourth painting was unveiled, revealing a composition Li Xian had never seen in the photographs. It still depicted the two sisters. Dolly stood straight in a blue dress, while behind her, Du Sha, dressed in red, was bending down to pick up her handbag, as though preparing to go out.

"Their birthday gifts were individual portraits. Their mother invited the finest painter in Town, who began drafting them a month in advance. By their birthday, both portraits were nearly finished."

"The painter finished Du Sha's portrait first. Dolly's would probably take another afternoon, so the older sister, Du Sha, went out ahead of her, planning to browse the mall."

"But she was caught in a terrible fire and nearly lost her life."

The Mistress took a handkerchief from her clothes and dabbed the tears from the corners of her eyes.

The atmosphere around them changed abruptly. Li Xian turned his head slightly and discovered that every portrait on the wall wore the same sorrowful expression as the Mistress, as though lamenting why fate was so unfair as to subject an innocent girl to such torment.

Just then, the Mistress lowered her handkerchief to the corner of her mouth, concealing her faint smile:

"When Du Sha woke up in the hospital, several days had already passed. Her once beautiful face had become... like this!"

The Mistress abruptly whipped the cloth off the final painting, exposing an all-too-familiar, burn-scarred face before Li Xian's eyes!