Paintings of Terror

Chapter 100: R.R.

“Night is coming. Death awaits you,” the man in the colorful robes finally spoke for the first time.

“As long as we haven’t violated the death conditions, we still have four nights,” Mu Yiran coldly replied.

Wei Dong’s voice floated in from the distance, “Boss Mu, we’re both purple. If we add both our colors together, will we also become condensed little people…?” Wei Dong’s distant voice sounded miserable.

“The colors are just symbolic.” Mu Yiran gazed at the shadowless person in front of him. “We can contribute a few drops of blood, only a few drops.”

The man sneered. “I can take them from all of you at will.”

“What happens if you’re separated from your shadow for too long?” Mu Yiran suddenly asked.

The man’s expression turned ugly, making him look somewhat angry.

The four members exchanged brief looks. Perhaps because they had broken through many paintings together, everyone had a rare tacit understanding.

“We have many ways to destroy the mirror house,” Qin Ci said with the rigor of a doctor, which gave him a kind of scientific conviction. “At the very least, we’ll make it so the person looking in the mirror won’t be able to see his own reflection.”

“We also have many ways to destroy the glass jar on the sixth floor of the round building.” Zhu Haowen showed the serious expression of the type of gamer rarely seen. “At least, we can make it impossible for the lids to open.”

“Our patience is limited. We don’t want to spend another night here, not even an hour.” This time, Ke Xun turned into a bad-tempered street fighter.

After the three of them had said their pieces, Mu Yiran didn’t add any words but instead assumed a cold front.

Wei Dong’s shout came from a distance. “Just do it. We’ll shed a few drops of blood and you give us the signature. It’s a win-win—“

Wei Dong’s tone sounded entirely like one of those merchant hawkers trying to force a purchase.

The man seemed to be thinking about this seemingly domineering proposal.

Zhu Haowen secretly looked at the green pattern on his body. Right now, the color that this man lacked, aside from purple, was green.

It was unknown what had happened to the bewitched Shi Zhendong, who was the same green as himself.

At this time, it was almost noon, and the whole maze had a kind of shining vitality. The whole castle also glowed with bright and charming colors.

Shi Zhendong was pacing angrily in the room nailed shut by wooden boards. The other members had not returned since they left. Perhaps they had already found the signature, or perhaps they were in danger.

If these people really found the signature, Shi Zhendong refused to believe that they would outright abandon him. He might have been bewitched by the painting, but he was still alive. As long as he walked out of the painting with everyone else, he could still live.

If they abandoned him, it was tantamount to killing him.

Thinking this, Shi Zhendong calmed down and put himself in the other’s position. If he were Ke Xun or one of the others, what would he do with “Shi Zhendong”? They would definitely try to stay away from him, for fear of being bewitched. But once they found the signature, they wouldn’t abandon him. Was there any way to do both?

Once Shi Zhendong figured this out, he began to search the room. Those people must have left a way out for him.

Sure enough, he found an axe in the gap between the furniture and the wall. This axe was rusty and very unsuitable for use. If he tried to cut down the wooden boards across the door or the windows, it would take a few hours. Buying time—if they failed and had to return, they would find a way to shackle him again; if they found the signature as expected, he could leave before darkness fell, just one step behind them.

Thinking of this, Shi Zhendong picked up the rusty axe and swung it at the wooden board across the window…

At this time, in the maze, the shadowless person in a large robe walked toward the person closest to him—the expressionless Zhu Haowen.

Zhu Haowen took a deep breath. Feeling that his friends were slowly surrounding him from all directions, he gradually gained some confidence in his heart.

But then, the pattern on the person in front of him suddenly changed. In the red, yellow, blue, purple and orange pattern, long green lines suddenly appeared. The change caught them off guard, and Zhu Haowen couldn’t help but shudder.

These green lines were exactly Shi Zhendong’s pattern.

Meanwhile, the purple pattern on the robe originated from the few drops of blood that Mu Yiran and Wei Dong had contributed moments ago.

All eyes were focused on those green lines, and the man expressionlessly said, “Your partner wasn’t able to get rid of his demons in the end; he’d made too many deals with me. He’s already part of the painting and can’t leave.”

Unexpectedly, this person would now attack Shi Zhendong. Did this mean that they would soon be able to leave the painting?

Everyone silently watched as the man quietly walked toward the hall of green plants. He groped for a while among the plants with his lanky hands and then pulled open an invisible door.

The man walked through the door, his back desolate.

The moment he walked through, the door automatically closed behind him.

Everyone pushed aside the plants covering the door, gradually restoring the true face of this ancient wooden door.

On the mottled wall of the wooden door, there were two distinct letters, dark and heavy: R.R.

The handwriting was rather casual with a very artistic flair. Just like the signature reflection in the mirror room, each R was slightly inclined to the lower right.

As for the man who had just left, whether or not he had finally defeated his own demon, no one could tell.

Although he wore brightly colorful clothes, the written letters were as dark as a Tongzhou cave.

The signature on the door radiated a dazzling light, and a huge picture frame appeared in front of them.

Even though they had already anticipated this, they still felt a sense of disbelief when they were finally faced with the frame.

This was the first time they were leaving the painting so calmly, and all five old companions were still alive. They should be rejoicing, but they felt sorrowful instead.

The five men walked through the darkness and saw the light again. But they didn’t feel that the light was too dazzling. In fact, compared to the painting, the colors of the real world looked dull and monotonous.

The painting in front of them was composed of many gorgeous colors. Though irregular, the round rhombus-shaped lines and other patterns had extraordinary meanings to them.

These patterns formed something that resembled a maze. It was rare to see an author’s signature in the center of a painting and the signature was the black letters of Rong Rang’s initials: R.R.

At the moment, they were the only people in the exhibition hall, where the walls were filled with many brightly colored Fauvist paintings.

“Let’s go,” Qin Ci reminded them.

Everyone silently turned to walk out of the exhibition, but when they opened the door, they unexpectedly ran into a huge oil painting.

The oil on the painting hadn’t yet dried, and all five men were stained with colors.

Wei Dong looked at his terrible-looking T-shirt, but he was full of emotions of another kind. “Shit, I was scared to death just now. I thought I was entering a painting again!”

Two volunteers quickly walked out from behind the oil painting. “I’m so sorry. Just now, I thought I saw that there was no one in this exhibition hall, so we just pushed the work forward!”

It was Yening Chenyi who was speaking, and Miao Zipei stood beside her.

Both of them expressed infinite apologies and insisted on compensating them for their clothes, but they declined, particularly Ke Xun, who was quite firm.

Yening Chenyi wanted to say something more, but they suddenly heard someone shouting from outside. “Mi Wei fainted! Call an ambulance!”

When the two heard this, they hurried over to see.

Only then did Ke Xun and the rest leave the exhibition hall. They first went to the bathroom to wash the oil paint from their arms and faces, but they still left the art gallery stained with various colors.

“Mi Wei and the others, how long do they have left to live?” Zhu Haowen asked.

“One week if more. If less, then immediately,” Qin Ci replied, touching his pants pocket. He found that there was already a ticket there. “Next stop, Square Box Art Gallery.”

Right now, the world in the painting had already passed, and none of them had anything more to say to those people in the painting. Regardless of whether they bid farewell or not, despite the many partings between life and death, they could not completely become numb to it.

“Let’s change our clothes first. These clothes are too eye-catching.” Wei Dong looked at his colorful companions. “Those pedestrians thought we were doing body art.”

This university art gallery was located on a youth street behind the university, and there were shops selling clothes along the street.

So they all walked into a shop selling casual clothes.

The store was small, and the walls were covered with all kinds of T-shirts. The printing style was too avant-garde, to the point of gaudiness–such as the bright, pink hand with its middle finger raised; the mustard green shirt with six pairs of breastfeeding banshees; a giant foot with multicolored ointments on its sole.

The other wall was full of cuteness, with various fruits and food printed on the T-shirts.

“I’ll have a banana.” Ke Xun directly chose one with a banana design, and at the same time, he also picked one with a pineapple print. “Yiran, come here.”

The pineapple wasn’t just a pineapple; it had a small heart cut into it. Mu Yiran frowned and chose a T-shirt with a couple of thick and strong sugar canes printed on it.

“…”

Zhu Haowen chose a cream-yellow t-shirt printed with a few bright green watermelons, which had an inexplicable 80s small town style.

Qin Ci chose the most inconspicuous white T-shirt with a few green olives on it.

“I’ll take this one, I loved to eat Mylikes.” Wei Dong immediately put on the new T-shirt, which was sky-blue and had a print of a chocolate colored ball with half of its snow white pulp exposed.

Zhu Haowen looked at it. “That’s not Mylikes.”

“It’s a coconut! Coco is coco, nut is nut–” Wei Dong sometimes really admired his own translation comprehension ability. “This is exactly a kind of Mylikes with nuts–”

Zhu Haowen wanted to say something, but he still swallowed it alive. Mylikes was Mylikes. They had been in and out of various paintings so many times, it didn’t matter whether it was a coconut or a Mylikes.

As a result, five big men collectively walked on the street wearing fruit T-shirts, with an indescribable contrast.

“Are you going back to S city directly? I’ll go with you,” Zhu Haowen said. “In two days, my cousin will be getting married in S city.”

“Hey, it’ll be lively this time.” Before Wei Dong could respond, he heard Qin Ci say, “I also happened to have a one-week medical exchange meeting in S city.”

Ke Xun, who was wearing a banana T-shirt, tilted his head to look at Mu Yiran, who was wearing a sugarcane T-shirt. “How about it? The five of us gather at my place to celebrate our new lease on life?”

Mu Yiran didn’t have a cold face this time. Despite wearing a fruit T-shirt, he was still like a jade tree overlooking the wind, with the sugar canes on his clothes only giving him a certain purple bamboo effect. “I’ll be busy these next two days, so I’ll have to arrange some time.”

Qin Ci smiled and said, “Then we’ll wait for you to make arrangements. We’ve been on the brink of life and death together for so long, and we haven’t even sat down and eaten a meal together yet. It’s really unreasonable.”

“Yes, yes. Let’s not go to the restaurant. Let’s just go to Ke’er’s house! Let him make a table full of food for us!” Wei Dong had the look of someone acting as a host.

“Yes, you all come over!” Ke Xun also smiled.