I am a full-level celestial master, you let me enter the strange talk of rules?

Upon hearing this, the melancholy and eerie creature finally reacted.

He took the earphones out of his ears and looked at Zhang Yangqing with a melancholy gaze, as if to say: You continue, I'm listening.

Removing his headphones meant he was very interested in Zhang Yangqing's topic.

Zhang Yangqing pointed to the abstract, chaotic, and dimly colored painting on the wall.

"This painting depicts the process of you killing that man in your past life. Look at the colors and the imagery; it's like dismembering him into eight pieces and then chopping him into all sorts of strange things. I suppose the paint was taken from that man."

He nodded with a melancholic and enigmatic air, as if to say, "So that's how it is."

Actually, this hurdle isn't difficult. The melancholic and eerie creature isn't very aggressive; just answer his questions and resolve his doubts.

He was melancholic because he had no memory of his previous life.

The strange thing is that it possesses the original owner's abilities.

After Zhang Yangqing entered, he observed that these paintings must have been painted by the melancholic and eerie man during his lifetime.

His melancholy stemmed from his inability to understand what the previous owner of this body had done.

The melancholic and enigmatic owner of this body harbors a persistent love for the woman in the painting. His melancholy stems from confusion, a bewilderment at why he feels drawn to the faceless woman in the painting.

So he tried drawing a few pictures, but the faces he drew were all wrong. Just by looking at the crumpled pieces of paper scattered on the ground, he knew they were failures.

This is why the melancholy and eerie person is drinking alone and listening to music here.

Zhang Yangqing judged it to be heartbreak, which was actually quite simple. He observed from multiple angles: first, it was definitely the painting; second, the songs in the headphones were all love songs; and finally, the melancholy and eerie demeanor was too obvious.

At this moment, the melancholy figure stood up and looked at the portrait with a puzzled expression. "You mean, the reason my body didn't have a face painted on it when I was alive wasn't because he forgot what she looked like, but because he couldn't bear to see her. If he hadn't let go back then, the woman he loved wouldn't have died."

Zhang Yangqing was silent for a moment: "Do you want me to tell the truth?"

Melancholy and enigmatic: "Speak freely."

Zhang Yangqing said in a serious tone: "Actually, your predecessor was just a simp. You can tell from the lines and feeling of the drawing that he was in unrequited love. Even if he confessed, the woman would not accept him. So he could not draw the look in her eyes or her face that expressed her love for him. He was immersed in the world of his deep love for that woman."

After he said that, the room remained quiet for a long time.

The melancholy and eerie figure slowly turned its head to look at Zhang Yangqing.

There was no anger, no murderous intent, and no desire to attack in those red eyes.

There was only one indescribable feeling, like both exhaustion and relief.

The screen in front of the Dragon Kingdom exploded with comments.

Holy crap! Master Zhang is amazing! Did he really not read the script?

Are you all stupid? Don't forget Zhang Tianshi's profession: Taoist priest, fortune teller. This is his professional field. For him, face reading and divination are basic skills. Predicting the life of a dead person is not something he can do with ease.

No way, that's incredibly accurate! Zhang Tianshi just looked at a few paintings and took a sip of beer, and he told people their whole life stories?
So you can't be a Taoist priest. People look at the details in the painting, smell the aroma on the wine bottle, and listen to the music coming from the headphones. Those are all clues.

Melancholy and eerie: I've been in this studio for ten years, and nobody knows why I'm here. This guy came in, took a sip of his drink, and then told me my story.

In the world of ghost stories, the melancholy and eerie continued to look at the paintings, his gaze lingering for a long time on the blank faces.

His fingers gently caressed the edge of the picture frame, as if touching something distant.

Then he turned to Zhang Yangqing and said, "Can you help me find that woman's photo?"

These are the conditions for passing the gallery test. Help the melancholic and eerie man paint a picture, paint the woman's face, so that he will no longer be lost, no longer confused, no longer trapped in this studio.

Once he draws that face, his obsession will dissipate, allowing you to fix the camera and possibly even do more for you.

If it were any other chosen one, they would definitely have gone out to look for clues.

The nearby rooms, the closets in the hallway, the corner of the stairs—these might hold what he wants.

A photograph, a love letter, a pen—anything related to her would do.

If you bring it back and show it to him, he can draw that face.

This step isn't difficult, it just takes time.

But Zhang Yangqing said, "You are not him, you don't need to become him. Those deep feelings don't belong to you. If you insist on them, they will become your shackles. Take these paintings down, keep them safe, go out and travel, find inspiration, and paint a studio that belongs to you. Wouldn't that be better?"

This sentence gave the melancholy and eerie a sudden insight.

His eyes were no longer purely blood red, but had a glimmer of light, a light that only a living person would have.

He lowered his head in a melancholy and eerie way, looking at his hands, hands that had painted countless pictures, but never one of himself.

He suddenly realized that Zhang Yangqing's words made sense.

He was a mystery; he didn't know when he appeared here, why he possessed the memories and obsessions of this body, or why he felt something for that faceless woman.

The melancholic and enigmatic man had never experienced those things, never loved that person, and those deep feelings did not belong to him.

He merely inherited a corpse, and the corpse's regrets.

Melancholy and eeriness allow one to accept those regrets as one's own, remaining trapped in this studio, painting faceless women day after day.

You can also return those regrets to the person who no longer exists, and then go out and find what belongs to you.

This was Zhang Yangqing's reflection after encountering the strange Qin Ming in the real world.

When the enigmatic Qin Ming left, he was also expressing envy for humans having their own experiences and bonds.

He is not human, he doesn't understand those things, but he wants to.

He tried to understand, tried to integrate, and tried to become a person.

Although the strange Qin Ming ultimately failed, at least he tried.

The melancholy man suddenly understood, and a smile appeared on his perpetually melancholic face: "You're right, I've awakened now, and I'm going to find my own life. These paintings are in the past."

He turned around and began to tidy up the paintings.

He took the paintings down from the wall, carefully stacked them together, wrapped them in a clean cloth, and put them in a safe in the corner.

The safe was old-fashioned, with a rotary dial. He spun it a few times, opened the door, put the painting inside, closed it, and spun it a few more times.

The melancholy, eerie movements were slow and gentle, as if burying an old friend.

Zhang Yangqing walked under the camera, looked up, and said, "I'm fixing a security camera, you don't mind, do you?"

Without turning his head, he said in a melancholic and enigmatic tone, "Do as you please."

After repairing the camera, Zhang Yangqing didn't leave immediately. He casually asked, "Has anyone else come to repair it before?" (End of Chapter)