Paintings of Terror

Chapter 103: When Fujoshis Entered a Painting

The final three that came were the three girls who took pictures of Ke Xun just moments ago. The excitement still hadn’t abated from their faces. They looked around hesitantly, but when they saw Ke Xun, they became excited again.

“Little Brother, what a coincidence. You’re here too!” The beautiful girl waved at Ke Xun, but the look on her face revealed that it was no coincidence that she met Ke Xun here.

“These three girls didn’t just follow you in, right?” Wei Dong whispered to Ke Xun.

For a while, Ke Xun didn’t know whether to sigh or to be exasperated. “It turns out that aesthetes aren’t lucky either.”

“…Are you indirectly scolding people?” Wei Dong asked.

With thirteen people gathered, the scene became chaotic.

Qin Ci had to, one again, tirelessly explain the rules of the painting to the newcomers. Finally, he looked at the shocked newcomers and said, “So please believe that we are in a painting and that this is the world of the painting. This is not a variety show gimmick organized to trick passersby. This is a different dimension created by a phenomenon with power beyond the explanation of science. We need to find clues according to the setting of the painting. This will guide us to the artist’s signature, which we will need to find in order to leave—Whether you believe it or not, this is the reality we are facing now.”

For a long time, the newcomers were speechless, and even the street thug looked dumbfounded.

Even if he refused to believe it, the weird scenery in front of him and the fact that he could only run back and forth in circles no matter how he ran, all showed that what he saw and was experiencing was absolutely unusual.

In the panic and silence, one of the three girls suddenly said in anticipation, “So we’ve…transmigrated?”

The other two girls came back to their senses and nodded again and again. “It appears so! Transmigrated! Look at this place! How could we have reached another place as soon as we closed our eyes? This absolutely is transmigration!”

“Wow—” The three girls suddenly became excited, screaming and hugging each other.

The old members: “….” Have we been entering paintings all wrong?

“Don’t take this as a joke,” Qin Ci had no choice but to emphasize. “It really will kill people, and it won’t be a natural death. The method of death might be extremely desperate and painful.”

“It’s okay. If the worst comes to worst, we can just transmigrate back,” one of the girls said with a big grin.

Qin Cin couldn’t help but pinch his eyebrows.

As they were trying to come up with ways to make these silly girls fully understand the severity of their situation, Mu Yiran’s cold voice sounded, “It’s getting late. Let’s go in.”

As he spoke, he took the first step through the large iron gate and walked toward the dilapidated building.

The three girls whispered behind him, “This little brother is so handsome too! He looks so sophisticated.”

“Yeah, yeah, so cold and restrained!”

“His legs must be 1.8 meters long!”

“Follow him, follow him!”

Everyone: “…”

Ke Xun, who was walking at the back of the group, took the opportunity to look at everyone’s clothes. Although the clothes they were wearing had also changed this time, it wasn’t as exaggerated as it’d been in previous paintings. For example, he was originally wearing a T-shirt, pants, and sports shoes. Now, he was still wearing a T-shirt, pants, and sports shoes, but the styles and patterns on his T-shirt had changed and became very outdated. His sports shoes had also changed from trendy shoes to particularly old-fashioned back shoes.

When they pushed open the door of the institute, a strong smell of dust puffed out toward them, making a few people choke, cough, and sneeze.

The entrance opened into a foyer covered with a thick layer of ash. In front of them was a dark wall, and on the wall was a line of characters written in dark red: Reveal the essence of consciousness, discover the power of life, guide severance back to nature, and help the lost regain their inherent self.

On opposite sides of the hall were narrow corridors covered in dust and cobwebs. Doors lined the walls on each side of the corridors, and a small window hung at the very end, transmitting an extremely dim light.

“Will the signature you mentioned be in here?” asked a capable looking middle-aged female newcomer dressed in a white shirt and pencil skirt.

“Yes.” Qin Ci nodded.

Since it was a limited type painting, the signature or seal would definitely be within the limited range.

“So in the next seven days, the only thing we have to do is to find a signature?” the woman asked again.

“We must try to find the signature as soon as possible, and everyone must pay attention when night falls, so as to keep your life,” Qin Ci reminded them.

“Then can you tell us, based on your experience, where the signature usually appears?” The middle-aged woman was very calm and looked at Qin Ci without rushing.

Qin Ci said in a deep voice, “Our previous experience is almost useless, because the signature or seal of each painting is usually reflected in different ways. The only thing that I can tell you is to use your brains more and be more observant. Only by piecing together the clues will we be able to discover the deep meaning of the painting, figure out the artist’s intention, and finally locate the signature.”

“Okay.” The middle-aged woman didn’t seem to believe Qin Ci’s words completely, but she didn’t flaunt it. She just glanced at everyone and said, “Then let’s hurry up and search for signatures from room to room as soon as possible. I suggest splitting into smaller groups. Before entering, I took a look at the building from the outside. It’s three stories tall, and each floor had ten rooms on each side, making it 20 rooms total per floor. We can divide into three groups, with one group per floor. Try as best as you can to find the signature. If you can’t, we’ll switch floors so that there are at least two groups covering each floor, so as to catch any areas that might have been overlooked. What do you think?”

This middle-aged woman was probably a leader in her unit. The arrangement that she blurted out seemed very organized, and everyone had no objection.

“Then let’s get to know each other first.” The middle-aged woman took charge.. “My name is Xu Zhen.”

The street thug said with a grim face, “Qi Qiang.”

The man who came in with him had a coarse, yellow face, triangular eyes, tattooed arms, and an aura of unstoppable ferocity. He didn’t speak much from start to finish, and he always stood some distance away, watching everyone. When it was his turn to introduce himself, he only uttered two words, “Huang Pi.”

This obviously wasn’t his real name, but no one intended to pursue it. Asking for names was only for the sake of convenience in addressing one another.

Next was the young man and woman who entered the painting together. One was 27 years old and the other was 18. The man wasn’t tall at about 1.72 meters, and he smelled of sweat. His name was Deng Guang. The woman wore a pair of pink-framed glasses. She had two pink hairpins in her hair, and she wore knee-length shorts that revealed rather thick legs. Her name was Cai Xiaoyan.

The three girls were younger. The beautiful-looking girl was Zhang Hanrui, and her two girlfriends were chubby Li Yaqing and tall and thin Zhao Youyi.

The veteran members also reported their names, and so the next objective was to separate into groups.

“I suggest that those of you with experience should split up and take us newcomers. The combination of new and old is more efficient,” the middle-aged office lady Xu Zhen said. “Also, let me ask, Deng Guang and Cai Xiaoyan, are you two a couple?”

Cai Xiaoyan’s face turned a bit awkward. “No, we’re not…”

Deng Guang’s face was stern. “We just met today. Our family introduced us as blind dates.”

Xu Zhen turned to Qi Qiang and asked, “Are you and Huang Pi together?”

Qi Qiang and Huang Pi’s gazes collided and then quickly shifted away. Huang Pi didn’t say anything but Qi Qiang became a little impatient. “I don’t know him. I came by myself.”

“Then let’s assign it like this.” Xu Zhen didn’t mind everyone’s attitude, but made arrangements decisively and simply. “Each group should have old and new members, male and female, and older and younger, and know each other as much as possible. Stay in a group so that you can help each other when there’s danger. Gentlemen, please take care of the ladies as much as possible, and the older ones, please take care of the younger ones.”

Seeing that everyone had no objections, Xu Zhen continued, “Deng Guang and Cai Xiaoyan, since they’re here as blind dates, let’s put them in a group. In this same group, we’ll add Huang Pi and Mr. Qin. Mr. Qin will lead the team to search the first floor. The second group will consist of Ke Xun, Zhang Hanrui, Qi Qiang, and me…”

“I’m sorry.” Ke Xun raised his hand, “I’ll be with him.” He pointed a finger at Mu Yiran.

Xu Zhen raised her thin eyebrows and was about to speak when Zhang Hanrui also raised her hand.

“I want to be with them too,” she said, pointing to her two girlfriends. “We came here together, so we have to stay together. I don’t want to be separated from them!”

The girlfriends nodded quickly. “Yes, we can’t separate!”

Xu Zhen said coldly, “This isn’t like taking a walk in the park! With thirteen people divided into three groups, there will be two four-person groups and one five-person group. If you three are in a group, if something dangerous happens, it’ll be hard for the man to help you!”

“Regardless, we won’t be separated!” the three girls insisted.

“Whatever you want.” Xu Zhen turned her head coldly and looked at the few remaining people. “Then who of you would like to be with the three of them?”

Wei Dong raised his hand in frustration.

Xu Zhen looked over at him. “Then Wei Dong and Zhu Haowen will be with the three of them, and Qi Qiang and I will be together with Ke Xun and Mu Yiran.”

“No, we have to go with the little brother!” Zhang Hanrui said hurriedly, and the two girlfriends nodded quickly.

Xu Zhen couldn’t hide the disgust on her face. She looked at Ke Xun and Mu Yiran. “Then do you two have any objections?

Ke Xun shrugged. “It doesn’t matter.”

“Then it’s decided. Let’s not waste any more time,” Xu Zhen said coldly. “Wei Dong, Zhu Haowen, Qi Qiang, and I are in charge of the second floor, and the five of you are in charge of the third floor. We’ll meet here when we’re done.”

The groups of people were so troubled by the three girls that they broke up quickly and began to search the room separately.

The stairs were located at both ends of the corridor. The second group went up from the east stairs, while Ke Xun and Mu Yiran took the three girls from the west stairs to the third floor.

“Little brother, are there ghosts here?” The three girls gathered around Ke Xun, their voices more curious than frightened.

“Usually not during the day. I’m not sure after eleven o’clock in the evening,” Ke Xun said.

“Really? There are really ghosts?” The girls exclaimed, “Little brother, have you ever seen a ghost before? What did the ghost look like? Was it a male or a female ghost? A Chinese ghosts or a Japanese ghosts? Is there any way to deal with ghosts?”

Ke Xun: My brain hurts.

“Little brother,” Zhang Hanrui made eyes at him and siddled closer, “Does your boyfriend know about you entering the painting?”

The two girlfriends were also busy looking at Ke Xun.

“He knows.” Ke Xun smiled and lifted his chin to the side. “He’s here too.”

The girls turned their heads to look at Mu Yiran in surprise, and at the next moment, they uttered a meaningful scream.

Mu Yiran:…

Ke Xun: I think I just went deaf.

The two groups on the first floor and the second floor raised their heads and looked up:.…..