Paintings of Terror

Mu Yiran, Ke Xun, Wei Dong and Qin Ci—none of them objected to what the glasses girl said.

Qin Ci nodded his head slightly at the glasses girl. His voice was warm, gentle and calm. “We can do that. However, there is something I have to say. Even though we’ve entered a painting before, there is no guarantee we will all be able to survive tonight. The painting’s powers are not something that one can fight off with just courage. Most of the time, our survival will completely hinge on our luck. All we can do is tell you what we’ve learned from our experiences. Unfortunately, we cannot protect you.”

The glasses girl promptly spoke up with a trembling voice: “Even so, this is enough. Thank you!”

Qin Ci looked at the newcomers. “Who do you guys want to go with?”

Ma Zhenhua immediately interrupted: “I—even if I’m not new, can’t do it! I don’t understand anything. I can’t do anything. I still have a child at home. I don’t want to die. I want to go with him—”

He pointed at Mu Yiran.

“How can you be so selfish!” A young man from within the newcomers’ group couldn’t accept this. He walked over with a shout to grab hold of Ma Zhenhua’s lapel. “My parents are waiting for me at home too! Who would ever want to die?! A selfish person like you is fated to have a bad ending, you know?!”

Wei Dong also frowned upon Ma Zhenhua. Ke Xun had told him about what he had done to the entrepreneur, Zhang Maolin, after they had left the painting. That’s why he decided to speak up: “We’ve already decided that each veteran will take on a newcomer. Old Ma, majority rules.”

After saying this, Wei Dong turned to look at the long-haired beauty. “Hey, who do you want to go with? I’ve been in a painting before and managed to escape death a few times.”

Ke Xun: “….”

The long-haired beauty’s panicked and helpless gaze swept over everyone’s faces a few times. She then pointed to Mu Yiran: “I—I choose him.”

Ke Xun: “….”

Wei Dong: “….”

Qin Ci then asked the glasses girl beside her, “What about you?”

The glasses girl also looked around for a bit. She then pointed to Ke Xun: “I want to choose him.”

Wei Dong: “….” Are they choosing who can give them a sense of security or are they choosing boyfriends here?!

Ke Xun turned to the glasses girl. “Let me introduce myself. I’m Ke Xun. That’s my buddy over there. What’s your name?”

The glasses girl replied, “My name is Sha Liu. We’re classmates.” She pointed to the long-haired beauty.

Ke Xun glanced at the long-haired beauty. “Oh, then is her name Saxaul?”

Everyone: “….”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

The long-haired beauty’s pale face twisted in fury: “My name is Zi Ling!”

Ke Xun crossed his arms and then looked at Mu Yiran. “Zi Ling? Too bad. His name isn’t Fei Yunfan.”

“Why? That’s not fair.” Zhou Bin didn’t accept it. “Then we’ll be in danger!”

“When in dire situations, one must be able to adapt,” Qin Ci said, “If you’re unwilling to let her stay with one of us, then the only choice you have is for the two of you to be in one tent.”

Zhou Bin thought about it. He then pointed to Qin Ci and spoke to his girlfriend, “Stay in the same tent as him.” He then pointed to Wei Dong: “I’ll stay with you.”

The young man screamed: “Why do you get to choose who you want? I don’t want to share a tent with him!” He pointed to Ma Zhenhua.

The family of three stood in silent worry.

Just like that, chaos ensued.

Wei Dong tugged on Ke Xun gently. “You were acting like a jealous boyfriend just now.”

“Spend less time uttering nonsense and more time on improving yourself,” Ke Xun said, “That Saxaul girl won’t even give you a single glance. Don’t tell people that I was the one to raise you from now on.”

“As if Boss Mu ever looks at you,” Wei Dong said.

The two of them chattered for a while in order to alleviate their nervousness from entering the painting as usual. As they did this, the rest of the group appeared to have come up with a resolution.

In the end, they had decided to scrap the idea of pairing the newcomers with the experienced veterans and draw straws instead for three reasons: firstly, Ma Zhenhua insisted that he was no better than the newcomers despite his experience. Secondly, no one wanted to be the person forced to sleep in a tent alone. Lastly, the young man named Tan Zheng expressed that it would be unfair to the new people as this method of splitting off would guarantee that the person left alone would be a newcomer.

The glasses girl had brought paper and pencils with her. On the slips of paper, she wrote the numbers 1-6 twice and the number 0 once. The people who drew the same number would share a tent and the person who drew a 0 would stay in a tent on their own.

Ke Xun was in no hurry to pick a slip of paper. After he saw Mu Yiran pick one, he went over to look at the other’s number. Upon seeing the number 3, he went to look at the remaining slips of paper for a while. He then used his intuition to pick one. After opening it, he looked towards Mu Yiran with an expression that seemed to express ‘what a pity’.

Mu Yiran glanced at him but didn’t speak. After everyone picked their slips of paper and revealed their numbers, he saw that Ke Xun also had the number 3.

Mu Yiran: “….”

Ke Xun smiled at him, his eyes curved in a very noticeable arc. Mu Yiran recalled the eye in the other’s Vchat display picture.

That zoomed in picture had come from a photo that had been taken when Ke Xun had been in middle school. Mu Yiran had seen that photo inside Ke Xun’s closet. Because of his work, he had a habit of thoroughly examining any work of art or photos he saw. His memory with regards to these was also very good.

He remembered that the teenager in the photo had been wearing a sky-blue and white striped school uniform. His sleeves had been rolled up to his elbows and one of his pants legs had been rolled up to his knee, revealing his calf. The teenager had been wearing white sneakers and looked like he was filled with the inexhaustible energy characteristic of youth. Under the autumn light that had filtered through the leaves of the gingko trees, he had jumped high up into the air. His hair had lifted up and his smile had been brilliant. Two rows of snow-white teeth could be seen.

The eyes on that smiling face was exactly like the pair before him right now.

Thin eyelids, a sharp and clear eye line, a pure and clean shape, a distinctive contrast between the white and black of his eyes, a limpid and pure gaze.

This person’s eyes had not changed since he had been a young teenager.

Mu Yiran averted his gaze. He heard someone howl in grief. Following that, he also heard someone curse in anger.

It was Tan Zheng. He had drawn the slip with zero.

“I don’t want to die—please—Mu xiaoge, I want to be in the same tent as you—” Ma Zhenhua was also dissatisfied with his tent-mate. He ran over and knelt at Mu Yiran’s feet, putting a deathly tight grip onto Mu Yiran’s clothes. “Please, form a team with me. I don’t want to die. I have a child at home….”

Everyone stared at him but no one spoke.

Mu Yiran looked down at Ma Zhenhua, whose face was covered in snot and tears. In a flat voice, he said, “Ma Zhenhua, no one wants to die. However, I owe you an apology. Out of consideration for my own safety, I’ve done a background check on you.

“Indeed, you’ve been married and even have a child. However, the court had granted custody of your child to your ex-wife when you two divorced. Since the divorce, you’ve never helped raise your child, nor have you paid child support. You’ve never even been willing to see your child.

“Your parents died five years ago. You’ve been living on your own this whole time. You’re also having an illicit affair with a married coworker.”

Ma Zhenhua was stunned.

Mu Yiran pulled his clothes out of the other’s hold. He then added on coolly, “Luck is the strongest determining factor in whether one survives in the painting. I wish you good luck.”

After saying this, he turned around and headed into a nearby tent.

Everyone went off to their assigned tent. No one bothered with Ma Zhenhua who was paralyzed on the floor.

Wei Dong had gotten Zhou Bin’s girlfriend, Zhao Dan. This made him feel a bit awkward. He whispered to Ke Xun: “I feel like even if I make it through tonight, Zhou Bin’s gonna kill me tomorrow.”

“Do you want to switch with him?” Ke Xun said.

Zhou Bin had gotten the glasses girl, Sha Liu.

“Forget it. He didn’t even bring it up. I’m not gonna bother.” Wei Dong said, “If I switch, everyone’s going to want to switch. Who doesn’t want to sleep with Boss Mu?”

Ke Xun: “Watch your wording.”

Wei Dong looked at Mu Yiran who was walking in front of them. He then glanced at Ke Xun. “Hey, did you do something? How did you manage to get so lucky?”

Ke Xun: “Didn’t I tell you? My intuition has always been accurate. I just trusted my intuition.”

Wei Dong: “Fuck, why haven’t you bought a lottery tickey yet then?!”

Ke Xun: “It’s not like I need money. Besides, I feel like intuition is like luck—it’ll eventually run out. I thought it’d be best to use it sparingly, to prevent it from running out at a crucial point in time.”

Wei Dong: “All right. I stopped listening after your first sentence. Bye.”

Ke Xun: “Be careful at night. If nothing else, cover your head up. Hide somewhere the thing can’t see you.”

Wei Dong: “Got it. But I don’t think that the method of death is going to be the same as last time….”

Ke Xun: “Dong zi.”

Wei Dong: “Yeah?”

Ke Xun: “See you tomorrow.”

Wei Dong: “Okay. I’ll try my best to see you tomorrow.”

After watching Wei Dong enter his tent, Ke Xun followed Mu Yiran into another one. The tents weren’t close together. The furthest tent from them was over a hundred metres away.

After walking into the tent, Ke Xun noticed that the tent was indeed quite small. It was just big enough to accommodate two people lying side-by-side. There were shabby fur rugs laid on the floor. Aside from those, there was nothing else inside.

Mu Yiran sat down on the rugs cross-legged. His gaze was lowered. He seemed to be thinking.

Ke Xun sat down in front of him. He didn’t disturb the other’s thoughts. He simply propped his elbow onto his knee and rested his chin onto his hand as he watched Mu Yiran silently.

Shortly after, Mu Yiran looked up and glared at him coldly.

Ke Xun asked him in a calm and composed voice, “There aren’t any slips of cloth with characters written on them this time. How do you think we’ll die this time?”

Mu Yiran’s gaze lowered slightly. His voice was frigid. “Having no rules is more frightening than having rules.”

Ke Xun nodded. “Yeah. It looks like everyone’s wearing similar clothing. Based on appearances, it seems like there isn’t much difference between us. Does this mean that the person who’s going to die, and the method of death are all going to be random?”

“It’s too early to say.” Mu Yiran said, “This time is different from last time. We have no clues.”

Ke Xun asked, “What’s this a painting of? I tried to look at it while entering the painting but I couldn’t make anything out. I didn’t even have time to read the painting’s name or the painter’s name.”

Mu Yiran’s gaze shifted to the top of the tent. He looked at the complicated, multi-coloured pattern. It was just that the tent appeared old. The colour had already faded and changed, so it was difficult to see what was drawn on it clearly. “This painting’s called ‘Faith’. The painter is named Qiu Jian. He creates religious art.”

“Of which religion?” Ke Xun asked.

“He’s researched all kinds of religions. He’s extremely passionate and deeply interested in religious art.” Mu Yiran said, “The last few years before he died, he had become infatuated with a certain religion’s culture and had even become a devout follower. All of his works after that leading up to his death pertained to this religion. The painting we are currently in is one of those paintings. It is also the last painting he created before he died.”

Ke Xun looked at the robe he was wearing. He had a guess in mind but still asked, “Which religion?”

Eve: Gonna put the disclaimer now, it’s not a real religion (as far as I know).