Paintings of Terror

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Ke Xun’s heart filled with fear and trepidation. He threw off Mu Yiran’s hold and kicked against the door to the firewood room heavily.

A loud bang, and the door opened, slamming against the interior wall as dust scattered into the air. Ke Xun barged in with long strides and found Wei Dong and Pigtail—Liu Yufei— inside, each holding a hatchet in their arms. They were both curled up against the corner of the room, heads burrowed together, motionless.

“Dong zi—” Ke Xun cried out. He didn’t notice that his voice had been trembling.

Wei Dong smacked his lips twice and then shifted his body into another position.

Ke Xun: “….”

He was asleep.

This fellow seemed really fricking unperturbed.

Ke Xun walked over and kicked Wei Dong’s leg. Wei Dong opened his eyes and felt for the hatchet in his arms in a flurry. When he realized that it was just Ke Xun, he sighed in heavy relief and shouted, “What? Why’d you come over? Did something happen?”

“What are you yelling for?” Ke Xun kicked the other again, the fear still in his system. “Why were you in such a deep sleep? You didn’t even wake up even though I was pounding so hard against the door.”

Wei Dong pulled out rolled up pieces of cloth from his ears. “What did you say?”

“…Why did you stick those into your ears?” Ke Xun was speechless.

“Fuck, I was scared, ah!” Wei Dong stood up, a furious expression on his face. “Didn’t you hear it last night? I nearly pissed my pants listening to those screams last night. Neither or us dared to go outside. We were scared shitless just from listening to their cries. If we’re going to have to die anyway, then we might as well die in peace.”

As he spoke, Liu Yufei beside him also woke up. His complexion looked terrible. He then glanced at Mu Yiran, who was standing at the door. “How many died?”

Mu Yiran shook his head. “Don’t know.”

“Let’s go see.” Liu Yufei dumped his axe and headed outside.

“Hey—are you crazy? Isn’t there some kind of hell-spawn in there? You want to go take a look?”? Wei Dong pulled him back.

“What did I tell you last night?” Liu Yufei flung off Wei Dong’s hold, losing his patience. “Even though this is a world inside a painting, supernatural occurrences still have to be in accordance to the painting’s logic. This is a painting of some kind of Chinese funeral. Under this kind of setting, the ‘hell-spawn’ typically won’t appear during the day.”

“…Makes sense.” Wei Dong looked pensive. He then gazed at Ke Xun, “What do you think?”

“I also want to go take a look,” Ke Xun said.

Human fear mostly stemmed from the unknown. The more one learned about something, the less one would fear it.

When they exited the firewood room, they saw several people come out from the eastern rooms. None of their expressions were good as they silently stood in the courtyard, gazes fixed on the mourning hall before them.

Ke Xun saw that the old jianbing vendor was amongst them. The other’s face was as pale as a sheet of blank paper and his legs were trembling uncontrollably. When Ke Xun got close, he realized that there was the scent of urine around the old man.

However, no one laughed at him.

A man who appeared to be in his thirties scanned through the crowd and then pointed at the central building’s door. His voice was rich and mellow as he asked, “Shall we go in and take a look?”

Only two of three people nodded. It was obvious that it was not the first time these people had entered paintings.

A raspy wail escaped from the throat of the jianbing vendor. “Don’t—don’t open that door! Have you gone insane?! There’s a ghost in there! A ghost! You’ll let the ghost out! Do you want to die?! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Ahh—”

The old man seemed to fall apart. He turned around and rushed out of the courtyard, disappearing into the grey, early morning fog.

“…Will he be okay?” Wei Dong asked Liu Yufei.

He had eaten jianbing from that old vendor many times before. The jianbing was tasty and the serving size was sizable. He didn’t want anything to happen to the vendor.

“What did I tell you yesterday?!” Liu Yufei glared at Wei Dong. He didn’t want to pay him any attention. He simply walked into the central building with the mellow-voiced man and the others who had nodded earlier.

“What did he say to you yesterday?” Ke Xun asked Wei Dong.

“How would I remember? I forgot a long time ago.” Wei Dong made a pained expression. There was a layer of cold sweat on his forehead.

“Let’s go inside first.” Ke Xun pointed to the central building’s room.

When he passed the paper doll boy and girl, Ke Xun’s steps halted.

Right now, they seemed inconsequential, but that wasn’t how they were last night.

Ke Xun quickly swept his gaze over the paper doll boy. The crudely drawn face was the same exact? face that had been millimetres away from his own the previous night. It was the same curved crescent eyebrows, little red lips curled in a smile and almond-shaped lifeless? eyes.

After passing the paper dolls, Ke Xun was about to take a step through the door when he saw Mu Yiran, who was standing at the entrance, turn to look at him. “It’s not a pretty sight inside. Think it over before coming in.”

Ke Xun raised a brow and then turned to Wei Dong beside him. “Do you want to see it?”

Wei Dong shook his head vehemently. “No! I’m scared I’ll have nightmares.”

The corner of Ke Xun’s lips rose. “We’re basically stuck in a nightmare right now. If you’re not going to go look at it, go stand over there.”

“You’re going to go look?” Wei Dong was surprised. 𝒷𝓮𝒹𝓃ℴ𝓿𝓮𝓁.𝓬𝓸𝓂

Ke Xun nodded. “I have to see it. I have to know why they and how they died. Otherwise, I won’t be able to put it down.”

“Then…do…you want me to go in with you?” Wei Dong looked miserable but willing to accompany him.

“No,” Ke Xun shoved him, “There’s a lot of people inside anyway. Get a bit further away. Did you pee yet?”

Wei Dong: “…No.”

Ke Xun: “Go pee then.”

Wei Dong: “Okay.”

When he saw Wei Dong was a few metres away, Ke Xun turned his head back around and ended up meeting Mu Yiran’s gaze.

Seeing that the other didn’t look away, Ke Xun walked forward and smiled. “The reason you stopped me from entering the firewood room that Dong zi and Liu Yufei were in was because you were afraid that I’d be upset from seeing something I couldn’t accept, right? Is this what they called being ‘cold on the outside and warm on the inside?’”

Mu Yiran didn’t answer him and walked into the room. Ke Xun went over and reached out to pat the other on the shoulder. “Thanks.”

His voice abruptly cut off when he saw the situation in the room.

The central building indeed held the mourning hall in which the wake was taking place. All over the room, one could see hanging curtains, banners, and paper ingots and money. In the middle was a white character written on a black background—in large font, the character ‘dian’.

A coffin that had been painted black was placed in the centre of the room. There were no incense or offerings placed in front of the coffin. In front of the altar, there were two praying mats placed on the floor. There was also a copper basin used for burning paper offerings.

The three people who had cloth strips with the character min tied around their waists were all in different positions.

Their clothes were untouched, completely undamaged. There didn’t seem to be any wounds on their body, until you looked at their faces. Where there were supposed to be eyes, there were only two bloody holes. Dark blood slid down their deathly white faces that had all been twisted into grotesque expressions. Their mouths were also opened wide—although it was unknown if they were opened out of fear or because they had been screaming—revealing the dark hole that was their throat and white, blood-soaked teeth.

A few people were so startled by these terrifying faces that they couldn’t help but let out hushed cries. One person even turned around and left the building.

Ke Xun didn’t want to look at the corpses anymore after one glance. In contrast, he saw that the thirty-something year old man had walked over the corpses. He squatted down to carefully examine them.

Ke Xun’s attention was on the coffin.

Although the city in which he resided in the real world now used cremation, he had seen coffins on TV. He suddenly paused while examining the coffin and went to tug on Mu Yiran’s arm. He whispered into the other’s ear, “Look at the coffin. It’s not nailed shut.”

Mu Yiran’s gaze shifted and he walked over to the coffin, revealing neither his emotions or intentions on his face. He walked in a half-circle around the coffin and touched it from an angle that made it so no one else in the room could see his action.

Ke Xun looked at him and waited for the other to come back. He then asked quietly, “How is it? Did you discover anything?”

Mu Yiran didn’t answer him.

Ke Xun sighed, “If you’re not gonna tell me, I’m going to go open up that coffin.”

“Do you want to die?” Mu Yiran looked at him coldly.

“Correction, I’m trying to live.” Ke Xun’s lips curled up into a smile void of any amusement. “Being passive means death. I’m not the type to do that. I look for answers. If there’s no answers, I look for problems. If I find problems, I’ll solve them. I don’t want to die like these three. Did you see? Their clothes were fully intact and there were no signs of anything being moved in this room. What do you think that means?”

Mu Yiran didn’t respond. He only looked at Ke Xun indifferently.

“It means that they died without retaliating. They didn’t try to fight back at all.” Ke Xun’s voice turned cold. “Aside from screaming, they didn’t do a thing. I don’t want to die such a cowardly death. Even if what’s doing the killing is a force no human can resist, I still want to know what that force is before I die. I want to do everything I can do to fight it. Even if I can’t escape death in the end, I want to at least be able to say that I tried my best.”

Mu Yiran looked Ke Xun in the eye. A moment later, he looked away, gaze falling on the man who was currently squatting down and examining the corpse. In his deep voice, he said, “He’s a doctor. Let’s wait for him to finish the autopsy.”

Ke Xun didn’t say anything. He waited quietly off to the side.

Although he called it an autopsy, the doctor could only perform a simple examination as he didn’t have any tools with him. A long time later, he stood up and glanced at the surrounding people. He then looked to the floor, his rich and mellow voice quietly ringing through the room. “These three died of fright. Their eyes were dug out before they died with some sharp tool. The sharp weapon in question may be some sharp, narrow dagger, or…long, hard nails.”

As soon as they heard what he said, everyone couldn’t help but look at the coffin.

“Let’s examine this room thoroughly again,” the doctor said calmly.

No one spoke. They broke up in silence and carefully inspected every nook and cranny.

After all, they still had to find the painter’s seal or signature. Even though the scene before them made them tremble in fear, they had no choice but to brace themselves and search carefully.

Ke Xun pulled down a curtain to cover the faces of the three deceased.

Mu Yiran stood at the door, arms crossed over his chest, seemingly lost in his thoughts.

Ke Xun circled the room but didn’t find any seals of signatures. He was about to exit the room when he caught sight of the paper boy and girl situated at the entrance. He took a step back and asked Mu Yiran, “If I burned these two things, what do you think would happen?