Chapter 3 The second chapter visits the mysterious "Infernal Hell"

The newly completed art exhibition hall is magnificent and known as a new miracle on the earth.It is impossible and unnecessary to introduce the entire exhibition hall in detail—the "Introduction to the Museum" printed by the museum is as long as 230 pages, and indeed, it is just an "introduction". But since the story of "Infernal Hell" started in this exhibition hall, it cannot be completely ignored, so let's use the simplest method to briefly introduce it.The entire exhibition hall is composed of many main and attached buildings. It was built by the world-class wealthy Dow Group and many other consortiums. It is dedicated to various types of art works for exhibition purposes.

This style of using money to promote works of art has existed in China since ancient times.Back then, if some salt merchants in Yangzhou hadn’t been extravagant and arty, they wouldn’t have produced so many artistic eccentrics in the area around Yangzhou alone—the so-called Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou. In modern times, the relationship between money and art is naturally closer, and a large art exhibition hall is the best example. Without it, many works of art would not even have the chance to be exposed to viewers! Let me talk about the size of this exhibition hall first, how big is it?

Some people have calculated that at a normal speed of one step per second, with a distance of 60 centimeters per step, if one wants to go to all the exhibition venues without stopping to appreciate them carefully, it will take one hundred and seventy centimeters. sky. And if you stop for a while to appreciate each exhibit, the time spent may be in units of "years"! Besides, it contains a wide range of works of art, from ancient to modern, from China to foreign countries, in various forms, all-encompassing. For example, on the fifty-sixth floor of the No. 1 main hall, traditional Chinese paintings, boneless flowers, splash-ink landscapes, etc. are being exhibited.In the lobby of the No. 3 main hall, the latest electronic art is exhibited—five crabs made of stainless steel are crawling all over the ground, and the title is very strange: "Qiu Si".

When the exhibits are first exhibited, there will be publicity of small models: advertisements on some media are generally not sensational, only truthful introductions, and those who are interested will naturally visit. The exhibition hall is It is open 24 hours a day, all visitors are welcome, and the management is perfect. Since it is supported by more than ten large consortiums, it has sufficient funds. Moreover, there is a regulation in the exhibition hall, which is very beneficial to artists—artists can decide whether to visit the exhibition for free or for a fee, and they can also set the charging standard.

Of course, everyone knows that the higher the fee, the fewer visitors.Therefore, when Yuan Zhenxia accidentally saw the advertisement, he thought it was a mistake in the newspaper! Yuan Zhenxia indeed saw the ad by accident.That day, he got up very early—he has always woken up very early since he came back from the "observation zone". He likes to stand on the balcony in the early morning light and look at the distant sky.Before sunrise, there will be dense clouds in the sky, if there are any, he imagines that it is the "observation zone"!Then, he naturally thought of Ma Xian, who left together with more than ten groups of Eros computers to roam the unfathomable universe, and felt very disappointed and helpless.He often asks himself: If he is really with Ma Xian, from now on for a long time, he will never see another person except being with Ma Xian, will such a life be bitter or happy?He couldn't answer this question, but he was sure of one thing: he couldn't live such a life, which is why he chose to return to the earth. Much better than rigidity and no change.Because I wake up early, I naturally go to bed early at night.

After a day of heavy work, the first thing he did when he returned to his residence was naturally to bend over and pick up the newspaper that had been stuffed in through the crack of the door. In most cases, he had read the newspaper in the office, but this One day, just not. Moreover, when picking up the newspaper, the middle stack fell down, and when he picked it up for the second time, he saw the advertisement. It is not big, surrounded by lace, and the largest line of words is: "The admission fee for this exhibit is one thousand dollars." It was this line of words that attracted Yuan Zhenxia—the entrance fee of 1,000 US dollars to visit the artwork is too high.

Before Yuan Zhenxia went to the wine cabinet and picked up the bottle, he had already finished watching the full-page advertisement. The entire ad is as follows: In large print: The admission fee for this exhibit is one thousand dollars. Small print: The title of this exhibit is "Infernal Hell", which uses the latest artistic techniques to express the theme. It is basically a three-dimensional movable sculpture. The exhibit is extremely huge, with an area of ​​300 square meters, to express a shocking artistic effect.Visitors can stay in any corner of the exhibition site at will, and the time is not limited.The museum pointed out that this exhibit is truly unprecedented.

Italics: The author of "Infernal Hell" is Ms. Catkins. Yuan Zhenxia put down the newspaper, took a sip of wine - he had given up the habit of alcoholism, but he never ruled out that drinking a little wine can improve physical and mental happiness, and then sat down. He knew what "three-dimensional movable sculpture" is, not long ago, it was a party, and some people were discussing this art, and he learned common sense from listening.Traditional sculptures use various materials, such as stone, bronze, steel, and wood, but they are always inactive. A sculpture, placed there, will not wander around, so idioms also have " Clay sculpture and wood carving" to describe its immobility.

But "moving sculpture" is quite different - the artwork is moving!This is of course thanks to the advanced electronic technology, which can be said to be a combination of science, technology and art. And this kind of art has developed to the point of being combined with computers.For example, if the sculpture of a hawk is input with the data of the hawk's activities, the hawk will have the same movements as the real hawk.The range of motion depends on the data entered by the computer. Therefore, for a sculpture titled "A Kissing Man and Woman", no matter what material it is made of, they will really keep kissing, not only with movements, but also with sounds.

Naturally, such active works of art, like any new form of art, will be criticized and criticized by traditional forces, but they must also survive.Yuan Zhenxia didn't particularly like this kind of art work, nor did he dislike it.He closed his eyes for a while, imagining what this extremely huge "Infernal Hell" sculpture would be like. Come to think of it, it must be a scene of a soul that has done many evil things, struggling and moaning in endless pain, which may have a warning effect. What caught Yuan Zhenxia's attention was the name of the sculptor: Liu Xu. Liuxu is a very special name, and it means that it is a female name, which makes Yuan Zhenxia have a certain association.

The first name Yuan Zhenxia thought of was Haitang.The surname is Hai, the first name is Tang, and Begonia is also the name of a kind of flower. Yuan Zhenxia thinks of another beauty, he has never seen it, only heard of it, her name is Fengxian. Impatiens is a very common flower. The flowers can be used to dye nails. Its characteristic is that when its seeds mature, the pods will pop open very powerfully, and the seeds will be shot far away. It looks very heroic. Both Haitang and Fengxian belong to an extremely well-organized and extremely powerful spy system.They are all spy elites who have received strict training since they were born. It is said that among the tens of thousands of baby girls who have been trained, only twelve are named in the same way—don’t think that a name like “Rose” is also the same. It will be one of the twelve, no, because there is no one with the surname "Mei". And Liu Xu, the name, is exactly in line with this naming method! Could this catkin be the same kind as Haitang and the others? Yuan Zhenxia couldn't help laughing when he thought of this, because he thought that his thoughts were too fanciful, such possibilities are really rare, of course fantasy is very romantic, but the truth is so boring! Yuan Zhenxia shook his head vigorously, trying to let go of the idea just now, but he couldn't take his eyes off the advertisement while drinking, and wanted to verify whether the female artist named Liu Xu had the same idea as Haitang , but more and more intense. Finally, he put down his wine glass, picked up his coat, strode out, boarded the car, and drove straight to the exhibition hall. The exhibition hall, which occupies a huge area, is built on a piece of flat land quite far from the urban area, at least five kilometers away, and one of the main halls, a 37-story building, has sprung up. There is a flickering light on the top floor, which is also a masterpiece of an artist. At this time, it was nine o'clock in the evening, and the car drove into the gate of the exhibition hall and parked in the huge parking lot. Yuan Zhenxia got out of the car and saw that there were only about ten cars in the parking lot that could park at least a thousand cars. The closest to his car is a bright white sports car. Even Yuan Zhenxia saw it, and he whistled naturally, because he knew that this kind of car is the pinnacle of human craftsmanship . When he passed the car, he patted the car body lightly to express his sincere appreciation for the car. Under the dim light of the parking lot, he saw the strange color of the car. The car is white, a very tender white, but it is not uniform, some darker white is mixed in it, so if you stare at it for a long time, visually, it will have a dreamlike effect. Yuan Zhenxia looked sideways for a while, and made several guesses, but he couldn't guess what kind of person the owner of the car was. He had already heard about the existence of this large exhibition hall, but he never expected that it would be so deserted! After leaving the parking lot, Yuan Zhenxia stayed for a few minutes in front of a large sign.The signage is controlled by a computer with a keyboard with English characters and numbers. As long as you type on the keyboard which exhibition you want to visit, an electric car will drive over. The electric car driving over has already set the driving route by the computer, and the visitors only need to sit on it and they will reach their destination.Even Yuan Zhenxia was puzzled by the novelty of this advanced equipment.When Yuan Zhenxia got into the car and passed by, he didn't meet anyone, as if he had entered a dead city. This situation is quite strange and strange, one building after another has its own style, some are towering into the sky, some are entrenched like monsters, the lighting is obviously carefully designed and arranged, everything is so modern, but there is a person alone No, moreover, it is extremely quiet - when the electric car is driving, there is no noise. Yuan Zhenxia took a deep breath, he remembered the fairy tale, as if he had entered the sleeping city! The car stopped in front of a circular building, which was the lowest building in the entire exhibition hall, only about ten meters high, but occupied a huge area. Cannot see the other side of the building. At the entrance of the building, there is a rather large screen, which is typing: "Welcome to visit, this museum is exhibiting the movable sculpture 'Infernal Hell', author Liu Xu." Yuan Zhenxia walked in, but he still couldn't see anyone—he knew that such a huge exhibition hall didn't need many staff, because everything was managed by the computer!He came to a door, and beside the door, there was a robot that looked clumsy, but the sound made by this robot was very clear, and it was by no means weird like ordinary robots. The melodious female voice from the robot said, "Please pay the entrance fee, credit cards are welcome!" Then, the screen on the robot's chest showed instructions to put in the credit card. Yuan Zhenxia took out the credit card and stuffed the credit card in a gap. In less than thirty seconds, the robot said: "Please take back your credit card, Mr. Yuan Zhenxia!" Yuan Zhenxia took back his credit card and couldn't help raising his eyebrows.The robot knew his name, of course, because the computer read his name on the credit card.Yuan Zhenxia knew Kang Wei, the three-crystal star robot. He was a robot that already had life (the second form of life in the universe). Naturally, he wouldn't make a big fuss about the difference, but it was just that he was called out by his name suddenly, and he felt a little strange. The robot said again: "You can choose to hear the sound or not to hear the sound. I want to remind you that the listening art itself is already extremely shocking. If you add the sound, the visitor must be aware of his own. Mental state, have a correct estimate!" When Yuan Zhenxia heard this, he couldn't help laughing, stretched out his hand on the robot, patted it, and said: "There are so many words, open the door and let me in!" But the robot is still talking: "If you choose to have sound, please press the red button, and a pair of earphones will appear. The advanced wireless sound transmission earphones will provide a completely intact sound." Yuan Zhenxia sighed, stretched out his hand and pressed a red button on the robot, a pair of delicate earphones stretched out, Yuan Zhenxia took the cake without putting it on. At this time, the door in front of him opened, and Yuan Zhenxia walked in.He was thinking at the time: he might be the only visitor in the entire exhibition hall.However, the artist should be there, this is the convention of the exhibition.However, with a 24-hour opening, is it possible for an artist to be there 24 hours a day? He naturally thought that as soon as he entered the door, he could see the artwork titled "Infernal Hell"! However, after entering, the door closed automatically behind him, and his first confusion was: Quiet! It was so quiet that he could almost hear his own heartbeat!Moreover, the situation in the field is extremely strange! The field is huge, and the entire circular space is bigger than a football field. But what can be seen is that there is no artwork, only a cubic object, black, about five meters high (that is, as high as a two-story building) in the middle of the field, almost touching the top of the field . Each side of this square object is nearly 20 meters long. For a while, I can’t see what material it is made of. No matter what material it is, it doesn’t matter. Yuan Zhenxia naturally couldn't understand what kind of artwork! Such a black square is big enough, but if it is a sculpture titled "Infernal Hell", Yuan Zhenxia laughed instead of anger, because it is so ridiculous! He really laughed, turned around, and was ready to leave. At the same time, he was also ready to tell others about his ridiculous experience, so that more people could know what kind of things in the world can be achieved when things in the world are absurd. degree! However, before he took a step, the robot's voice sounded again - if he hadn't laughed out loud first, breaking the extreme silence, the robot's voice would have startled him. The voice of the robot is still the very melodious, gentle female voice: "Due to the pursuit of special artistic effects, the author of this exhibit requires the cooperation of visitors. To appreciate this exhibit, you must take a special angle. Please approach the exhibit. At the bottom, for close observation, visitors must lie down on the ground, and of course, they can also point their heads upside down!" Yuan Zhenxia was patient, and after listening to the robot's words, he naturally looked at the bottom of the black square object. He found that at the bottom of the black square object, there was a strip of about fifteen centimeters sticking to the ground, which seemed to surround the entire bottom of the square object. It was so black that it glowed, and it looked like a kind of crystal. Afterwards, Yuan Zhenxia described it to others. He said: "At that time, seeing this situation, it was difficult to describe - words are not as direct as images to describe some uncommon or outside the scope of knowledge. Later , I just remembered that that black crystal is like the observation window of a steelmaking furnace, through which one can see the molten steel churning in the furnace!" Yuan Zhenxia saw something strange at the bottom, so he actually thought about it seriously, whether to bend down to look at it, or to look at it from an upside-down posture.As a result, he approached the black cubic object, crouched down, and clinging to the black crystal band—he immediately discovered that it was black glass, quite thick, and usually, to filter out extremely strong light, one would use To this black thick glass, for example to observe the sun directly.At this time, Yuan Zhenxia moved close to the black glass, opened his eyes wide and looked at it. The strange images he saw made it difficult for him to fully accept them for a while, but the order of seeing them was a messy impression first. Then, the activity of his brain cells can bring together those messy impressions and turn them into complete impressions, but that doesn't mean that he already understands what he sees at this time. His brain cells still need to go through further activities before he can gradually understand what he sees. Indeed, he gradually understood—just like a photo immersed in developing solution, gradually, the activity of his brain cells finally completed the task, making him know what he saw! Yuan Zhenkuai leaned closer to the black glass, and what he saw was only a tumbling dark red. The dark red in front of his eyes was all tumbling, and then he saw that it was a restless sea, but the sea was not made of water. It formed, it seemed, molten iron.Because it is separated by a thick layer of black glass, it looks dark red. If you observe it directly, it must be white and bright, or bright red! There was indeed an artistic shock, and Yuan Zhenxia even immediately felt an unbearable scorching heat. Then, he saw the bodies of those people immersed in the molten steel—this is the only way to say it, because he couldn't see the whole people, only parts of their limbs, floating on the dark red, tumbling on top of molten steel.Those limbs account for quite a lot of hands and arms stretching upwards. Judging from the stretching of the fingers, it can be seen that the owner of the hands is enduring quite severe pain, and some of them are the headlids exposed from the red molten juice. , almost without exception, they all yelled at Zhang Ri with painful expressions. This scene is naturally the artist's attempt to express the endless pain of the soul in the endless hell. Yuan Zhenxia watched for about two minutes, then naturally shook his head.At this time, what he thought of was: this form of art, I'm afraid it's a little crazy, it looks great, and maybe it can play a sensational role, but it's really quite superficial—the pain in the endless hell Of course, Yuan Zhenxia couldn't say what it was like, but isn't it too formulaic for the human body to sink and float in the molten liquid? Yuan Zhenxia wanted to see it this way, so he straightened up. At this moment, he heard the female voice again, coming from a column not far behind him, through the loudspeaker: "This group of works of art is supported by sound, Your Excellency If you want to hear the call from hell, you can use earphones." After hearing such a proposal, Yuan Zhenxia naturally replied: "No need!" He said as he walked out, but when he took two steps, the female voice suddenly sounded again: "Why did you refuse to accept my proposal? It's because this artwork doesn't resonate with you at all?" Yuan Zhen Xia was stunned for a moment—he always thought that the county girl's voice was a fixed recording, but he never thought that he could talk to him! If you can talk to him like him, then there must be someone there, and this person is hiding somewhere, you can see him, but he can't see this person! This situation made Yuan Zhenxia a little unhappy, so he said coldly: "If you don't hide from people, I can discuss my feelings about this artwork with you!" After he finished speaking, he stood with his head held high, waiting for an answer. At the same time, Yuan Zhenxia looked around, but he couldn't see anyone within his line of sight. This woman could see him and hear his voice. Yuan Zhenxia probably passed through the closed-circuit television, which made him feel even more unhappy. It was a matter of accepting surveillance by closed-circuit television when he came to visit the artwork. Something ridiculous and unreasonable. At the same time, Yuan Zhenxia also thought that this woman is most likely the author of this group of movable sculptures "Infernal Hell", Liu Xu.Because just now, after Yuan Zhenxia expressed that she didn't want to listen to "The Call of Hell", there was obvious disappointment in her voice, and if it wasn't for the author herself, she wouldn't have such emotions. Yuan Zhenxia waited for about half a minute before he got an answer. What he heard was the same female voice, but the voice was different from before, and he could hear it with a certain degree of sadness: "Why do we have to meet? Now Can't we talk to each other?" Yuan Zhenxia sneered, the woman's voice was quite pleasant, and with the addition of a sad tone, it was even more charming, but Yuan Zhenxia really didn't like this kind of situation, so he didn't soften his heart.He said: "I'm not used to talking to an invisible person, or someone who can't see!" As he said that, he had already walked out, not very fast, and not particularly slow. When he reached the door, it took about twenty seconds, and he heard the woman's voice behind him again: " My work is only worth two minutes of silent appreciation?" Although it was the same voice, Yuan Zhenxia could hear it once he put it in his ears, the sound was not coming from a mechanical device!In other words, the woman has appeared! Before Yuan Zhenxia turned around, what he thought in his mind was: This woman's movements are so light, she didn't even make a sound, she came out of nowhere! The exhibition hall was very quiet, and Yuan Zhenxia was a person with a very sensitive sense. The slight sound of footsteps would also attract his attention, but he did not hear any sound just now.This made Yuan Zhenxia's heart tremble - his life is full of adventures, and no one who lives an adventurous life would like to have such a situation.Because this means that if someone wants to attack from behind, there is no precaution in advance!Therefore, Yuan Zhenxia turned around quickly, which came from the natural vigilance of a person who lives an adventurous life.As soon as he turned around, he saw the woman in white.