Paintings of Terror

Chapter 111: Frontal Lobotomy

There was a pot of steaming hot and fragrant white rice bean porridge on the rectangular dining table, and Ke Xun was standing by the table, holding a pair of chopsticks and skillfully mixing the small bowl of cold, mixed beans salad in his hand. The sour scent of vinegar and the aroma of cooked beans was like a warm wind after a midsummer rain, instantly opening everyone’s taste buds.

“Let’s eat first.” Ke Xun raised his head, met Mu Yiran’s quiet and clear gaze, and gave him a warm smile.

Good food was good medicine for adjusting the mood. Perhaps it was because the color and the fragrance of the food had the ability to make people feel the freshness and warmth of life, because after a full meal, hope finally gained the upper hand over despair.

“Then, let’s discuss the number selection now.” Xu Zhen’s tone of frustration had eased significantly when compared to last time. She sat on a chair in the canteen, looking at everyone.

They all fell silent. This was a sensitive topic. No one wanted to die, and so everyone wanted to select an experimental lab that would increase their chance of survival. This was a matter of life and death, and no one wanted to be modest.

“I’ll declare it in advance,” Xu Zhen said. “I won’t give anyone the chance to survive over myself. Of course, I hope everyone can survive, but don’t try to make me humbly consider the young or the weak when it comes to survival. Everyone is equal, and my life isn’t lower than theirs.”

As she spoke, she glanced pointedly at the three young girls.

The girls didn’t say anything, Zhang Hanrui’s tears rolled down silently. Li Yaqing seemed to have become tired of crying, and so she just bowed her head in a daze. Cai Xiaoyan bit her lip and tugged at her clothes, her nervous action displaying her fear and distress.

“If this is the case, then let’s be fair,” Zhu Haowen said. This person was almost always ruthless in his use of logic. “Let’s decide by drawing lots.”

After some hesitation, Xu Zhen nodded in agreement. “This is the fairest method. Whether the outcome is good or bad, we can only blame our luck.”

The others had no objections. Qin Ci got up and went to the office next door to find paper and a pen. When he came back, he cut the paper into pieces and wrote numbers on the strips. Because he wasn’t sure how many people could enter each experimental area today, he could only write sequential numbers.

After folding the pieces of paper, he put them into a chopstick tube, shook it, and put the tube on the table. “Take one.”

Xu Zhen was the first to reach out and pull a piece of paper out. When she opened it, the expression on her face brightened. “Number 1!”

The first number would most definitely get a number card in Laboratory A. For those who had experienced the painful torture of Laboratory B, the experiment being run in Laboratory A seemed like an improvement.

So, many people actually hoped to be able to enter Laboratory A.

The rest of the people also took out a paper stick one at a time. Ke Xun drew after Mu Yiran. He stayed in the chopstick holder for a while, stirred the remaining paper sticks with his fingers. He looked at the number 7 on Mu Yiran’s paper, then blinked at him and said, “Do you believe in me? My instinct is really accurate.”

Mu Yiran looked at him and replied in a gentle voice. “Pick one.”

For a moment, Ke Xun was stunned by that sound, and he felt as if a mushy electric current had generated from the back of his head and shot down to the tips of his fingers that was inside the chopsticks holder.

With his fingertips, he clamped down one of the paper sticks, took it out, unfolded it, and saw that it was a number 8.

After showing the numbers on the paper to Mu Yiran, Ke Xun’s lips curled up.

If their numbers were next to each other, the probability of getting into the same research lab would increase.

After everyone had drawn the lottery, they realized that Qi Qiang and Huang Pi hadn’t drawn. Qin Ci looked at the two of them. “What’s wrong?”

Qi Qiang impatiently took out a card from his pocket and slapped it on the table. “I have already taken a number card!”

This entry card to the basement was printed with an A-195.

Xu Zhen reacted, staring at Qi Qiang and Huang Pi, daring to be angry but not daring to speak.

Huang Pi hadn’t drawn lots either. He’d obviously done the same as Qi Qiang. Earlier, when everyone had walked out of the room with the iron gated door, the two of them had stayed behind and drawn their cards in advance. They knew that Laboratory A would be given out first and they refused to wait and discuss with the others.

The matter was over, and it was useless to say more. Everyone got up, went to the small room with the iron gated door leading to the basement, and took numbers one by one in the order determined by the lottery.

This time, the people who got the A cards were Qi Qiang, Huang Pi, and Xu Zhen.

The people who got the B cards were Wei Dong and Zhu Haowen.

The people who got the C cards were Li Yaqing, Cai Xiaoyan, Mu Yiran, and Ke Xun.

The people who got the D cards were Qin Ci and Zhang Hanrui.

Li Yaqing, who had drawn Laboratory C once more, collapsed on the spot. She sat on the ground, crying.

In everyone’s eyes, only the experiment in Laboratory C was lethal. Therefore, if one got a C card, it was like having one foot in the yellow springs.

“There is still time,” Ke Xun squatted down and shook Li Yaqing’s shoulder. “Crying won’t solve the problem. Let’s find the signature first. We can leave after finding the signature.”

Still crying, Li Yaqing nodded. She struggled to get up and then followed everyone down to the underground experimental area.

This time they carefully searched through every experimental lab, inch by inch, not letting go of even a single brick.

Several of the more experienced members were concentrated in Laboratory D. Their inspection was interrupted halfway through yesterday and so they wanted to continue today.

“There’s still one question,” Qin Ci said as he searched, “What is the central meaning of this painting? Find out the meaning and it won’t be far from finding the signature.”

“If all the experiments are based on primarily studying people,” Zhu Haowen said, “then the meaning of this painting should be closely related to people. Remember the words written on the wall in the hall: Reveal the essence of consciousness, discover the power of life, guide severance back to nature, and help the lost regain their inherent self.”

“Consciousness, physiology, psychology, and ideology,” Mu Yiran summed it up. “It includes all the products that can be produced by individuals like ‘human’, subjective, objective, substantial, and non-substantial.”

“Then you guys, will the signature be on a person’s body this time?” Wei Dong said, “Like in the painting ‘Animal World’, where the signature was on a dog. But this time, it’s a human instead.”

“In the entire institute, we are the only humans in the painting,” Zhu Haowen said. “I don’t think there will be people in the painting coming in from outside halfway through.”

“I suggest that we take a closer look at these research materials,” Qin Ci said. “Maybe we can find out the true intent behind these experiments.”

Ke Xun looked at the stack of photos in his hand. They’d seen this in Laboratory D last night. He handed them to Qin Ci. “Might this be considered research data?”

Qin Ci took them and the moment he saw the contents of the pictures, his face stiffened. With a cough, he handed the photo back to Ke Xun. “This may be…um, an office pastime.”

“It’s like one of those old little yellow books, but nowadays, people just look at those bad websites on their cell phones instead, right?” Ke Xun put the photos back in the drawer. “But the researchers at this institute are also very bold. They even took photos directly to work. Did a little yellow book no longer satisfy them anymore?”

“What are you talking about?” Wei Dong was confused. He walked over and flipped through the drawers, “What little yellow—Fuck!”

Holding onto the photos, he looked at Ke Xun in surprise. “There’s something like this? This is too bold. Fuck…I’ll check if there’s anything suspicious in the photos.”

Ke Xun: “Haha.”

Wei Dong flipped through a few photos and said in a weird tone, “Wait. Why are there only naked males?papa in here? Is it possible that the researchers in this laboratory are all women? Are they all fujoshis?”

“They may also be gay,” Ke Xun said.

Wei Dong glanced at him. “You seemed to have accidentally exposed your personal collection hobby.”

“Stop spouting nonsense. When did that ever happen? Put them back if you don’t read them,” Ke Xun said. He turned around and walked to Mu Yiran’s side. Seeing that he was holding a stack of documents and looking at them closely, Ke Xun immediately held up his phone to light them for him.

“On April 13th, after the whole group had discussed and arrived at a decision, it was unanimously approved to perform a frontal lobotomy on Subject 213 seven days later,” Ke Xun read the words out loud. Then he raised his head and asked Qin Ci, “Dr. Qin, what is frontal lobotomy?”

Qin Ci’s expression became more serious. “The human brain is divided into four lobes, and the frontal lobe is the largest. Once it was excised, a person will lose a lot of body functions, including a large part of his personality. This is an extremely inhumane operation…”

Wei Dong said, “What kind of monstrous operation is this? Why does a person need this kind of operation?”

Qin Ci explained, “In the mid-19th century, some Western medical scholars believed that this kind of surgery could prevent schizophrenic patients from emotional distress, thereby turning them quiet and obedient. It was said that patients with violent or suicidal tendencies did indeed become quiet after the operation. Moniz, the inventor of this operation, won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this. Henceforth, during that time period, frontal lobotomy became an important method for treating mental illness, to the extent that it became quite fashionable.”

“Does this… really work?” Wei Dong asked.

Qin Ci smiled sarcastically. “I’ll explain the procedure, and you’ll know that it won’t work.”

“The process is very simple. First, the doctor uses local anesthesia to keep the patient awake to a certain extent, because the doctor needs to inform the patient of the next step in the operation. If the patient becomes unresponsive, the doctor will use electric shock to wake the patient.”

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“Next, the doctor will insert a steel pointed cone about 18 centimeters long into the bone under the eyelid, facing the eye socket. He’ll tap the bottom of the steel cone with a small hammer, and the steel cone will penetrate the bone at the bridge of the nose into the brain.”

“Once the pointed cone has entered about 5 cm into the frontal lobe of the brain, the doctor will rotate the pointed cone to cut off the white matter that connects the prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain.”

“In the words of a certain doctor, this was actually inserting the cone into the head and mixing the brain up. The whole process takes less than 10 minutes. 10 minutes and the patient would probably no longer be the same as before.”

“F….ucking…hell…” Wei Dong cursed dumbfoundedly. “Is this like fucking stirring the brain into porridge? Is this doctor a monster?!”

“The mortality rate for this type of operation was a high as 14%, but at the time, there were still quite a lot of doctors with a nearly pathological obsession with using it,” Qin Ci said.

“Obsess…There are people who are obsessed with this kind of abnormal surgery?” Wei Dong clutched his forehead.

“The prefrontal cortex plays a key role in helping people make decisions and in shaping and maintaining their personality,” Qin Ci said. “So some medical experts at that time believed that this kind of surgery was an operation on the soul, which would allow them to reshape a person into someone more acceptable to society.”

“It seems that the key lies here,” Ke Xun said. “If Laboratory A, B, and C are focused on studying people, then the purpose of Laboratory D is to transform people.”