Paintings of Terror

Chapter 106: They’re All Monsters

“Could it be that the numbers are connected? Let’s try another one.” Qin Ci turned his head and looked at the newcomers behind him. “Who wants to go next?”

None of the newcomers came forward. Xu Zhen looked at Mu Yiran and Ke Xun. “Since it’s been confirmed that the numbers are arranged in sequential order, I don’t think it’s necessary to try again. It’s better to use these two first and see what they do.”

Ke Xun glanced at Xu Zhen with the corners of his mouth hooked up.

This woman’s thoughts were quite deep. Earlier, she suggested that old and new members should each take a number. But it was just to fool others into taking the number cards first for experimental purposes. Once the result was obtained, she immediately stepped back, refusing to participate.

“There’s only two numbers. It’s not enough to verify the rule of number selection,” Zhu Haowen said expressionlessly.

“But the reason why we have to take a number is to find a way to open the iron door, right?” Xu Zhen reasoned. “I think our main purpose should be to open the door first and see what’s down there.”

Zhu Haowen seemed too lazy to respond to her. Instead, he reached out and took a number.

A-184.

“Sure enough, they are connected.” The old members looked at each other.

“Don’t press anymore.” Seeing that the numbers of the three old members were connected, Xu Zhen frowned. “Why don’t you see if it could open the door first?!”

None of them paid attention to her. Ke Xun took his number card and turned to the iron door. Finally, he found something similar to a punch card machine on the wall next to the door.

“Should we go down and take a look?” He turned to look at Mu Yiran.

“Yes.” Mu Yiran looked at Qin Ci. “You stay behind for now.”

Qin Ci understood his intentions and nodded.

Ke Xun inserted his number card into the punch card machine. There was a “click” as the iron fence door unlocked. He pushed at the door and it swung open with a rusty “creak.”

Upon seeing this, Xu Zhen asked, “In this case, can we enter through the door without taking a card?”

“Then do you want to come in?” Ke Xun looked back at her with a smile and made a gesture as if inviting her to enter.

Xu Zhen’s mouth snapped shut.

Although the iron door was open, indicating that anyone could enter at will, Mu Yiran still inserted his number card into the punch card machine. There was another “click” sound, as if his number was recognized and confirmed.

Zhu Haowen didn’t speak but punched his card in the same way. Then he followed Ke Xun and Mu Yiran through the iron door. The moment he entered, the door shut behind him, as if blown by a gust of wind.

The three people who’d just entered turned their heads in unison. Everyone outside looked at them with complicated expressions. Xu Zhen was even looking at them like she was looking at three dead men.

Separated by a fenced door, the two groups of people inside and outside suddenly seemed to be isolated in two separate worlds, but it was unclear which group was in the human and which was in the underworld.

The three people inside didn’t say much. They simply turned and, without hesitation or retreat, calmly and resolutely walked down the narrow and cramped staircase into the deep darkness.

The stairs were indeed very narrow. They were all tall and could only walk down single file. Ke Xun was first, followed by Mu Yiran, while Zhu Haowen held up the rear.

Ke Xun used his mobile phone to illuminate the path in front of him. In the dim light, he could see less than one meter away in front of him, and countless dust particles and microbes floated under the light, like specks on an old black-and-white TV with no signal.

This kind of visibility made the darkness around them appear all the more suffocating and dense. The walls on both sides seemed to be closing in on them, and with every step forward, the darkness rushed toward their faces, so thick that they could feel its tangible touch on their body.

The stairs were narrow and steep, and the cement steps were somewhat uneven, making it difficult to walk smoothly. With every few steps, the stairs would turn, spiralling downward. For the person in front, it was like being blocked by brick walls, suffocating and oppressive.

Such a narrow and cramped space was really quite uncomfortable for someone with long arms and legs like Ke Xun. This feeling of being unable to stretch out his limbs made him feel as if he was locked in by iron hoops. After a while of being unable to flex his muscles or bones, his entire body began to ache in protest.

Stifled in, Ke Xun thought that Mu Yiran, who certainly wasn’t shorter than him, probably wasn’t feeling any better than him. He was about to stop and slow down, but he suddenly heard Mu Yiran say in a deep voice, “Stop for a moment. There’s something written on the wall.”

Ke Xun stopped, and they all held up their phones to look at the wall.

The old-fashioned wall was made of red bricks. A thin layer of cement was painted over it, but due to age, large pieces of the cement had fallen off, exposing the faded red bricks inside.

In areas where the cement was still intact, there were some dark and hasty scribbles. The strokes were very thick, and the colors were very dark, though the ends of each stroke were rather faded.

It was difficult to distinguish the color of the ink in the dim light, but it looked either like an earthy brown or a dark brown.

–Monster! All monsters! They’re all monsters!

–Let me die let me die let me die.

–Help me! Help me!

–Don’t come in, don’t come in, don’t come in…

–Kill you! I want to kill you! You’re all dead! Dead!

For a long time, no one said a word. Finally, Mu Yiran broke the silence. “These words were all written with fingers. As for the paint, I think it’s blood.”

After speaking, he pointed to an area beneath the handwriting.

Ke Xun and Zhu Haowen moved the light on their phones over and saw that it was densely packed with handprints.

These handprints ranged from large to small, fat to thin. The smallest ones were only the size of a baby’s palm, and the thin ones were obviously from elderly women with craggy skin.

Each handprint looked wet, as if pressed there after dipping in thick paint.

“This feels like entering a prison camp,” Zhu Haowen said quietly. “The wall is covered in pain and resentment.”

“I want to know why this kind of baby’s handprints were left here.” Ke Xun stared at the tiny handprints with a blank face.

“We must continue,” Mu Yiran said calmly. “Hurry up.”

Ke Xun continued to lead, accelerating the speed of their descent so that they were now moving faster. After walking for a full half hour, the soles of his feet finally landed on flat ground.

Because they had been walking on a narrow stairway, the oxygen supply in the air wasn’t enough. When they finally reached the ground, their ears were ringing, accompanied by a faint headache. Zhu Haowen was worse. His physical condition wasn’t as good as Ke Xun’s or Mu Yiran’s, and after walking down such long, steep stairs, his legs had gone rubbery. He supported his waist, panting.

“Hao Wen’er, your body isn’t good enough.” Ke Xun patted him on the back. “Why don’t you wait here and Yiran and I will continue on.”

Zhu Haowen raised his head and looked at the path ahead with the light of his phone.

They were now in a long and narrow corridor. The walls on both sides had rooms with doors facing one another. On the door of the rooms were words like “Laboratory A” and “Laboratory B.”

“You can go and check the rooms. I’ll keep watch in the corridor here. I’ll call out if something’s wrong. When you hear me, don’t dawdle. Immediately rush out,” Zhu Haowen said.

“If there are any issues, just shout and run. Don’t wait for us,” Ke Xun added.

“Yes.” Zhu Haowen glanced at him. “I’m not you. I actually cherish my life.”

Ke Xun laughed, winked at him, and walked forward along the corridor with his phone lighting the way.

There was also a punch card machine outside the door of each laboratory. Ke Xun inserted his card into the machine, but there was no reaction. He took it out and re-inserted it but there was still no movement. He tried to push the door, but it refused to budge.

“What’s going on?” He looked at Mu Yiran.

Mu Yiran looked at the sign on the door and pointed his chin to the door on the side. “This is Laboratory B. Try the door for Laboratory A.”

Ke Xun went over and inserted his number card. This was quickly followed by a “click” sound.

Zhu Haowen stood at the foot of the stairs, catching his breath. He looked at Ke Xun, who was surrounded by the dim light of his phone. In such thick darkness, his face was strangely very clear. His thin eyelids were swept downward, his thick eyelashes casting a crescent-shaped shadow on the wall beside him.

The vast majority of people couldn’t have light shining up from below their faces, because the light and shadows would cause uneven contours, making their faces look like ghost masks.

But it wasn’t the case for this person.

The light from the phone lit him from below, flowing smoothly across his cheeks, drawing fluid shadows along the contours of his lips, his nose, his eyes.

It made him looked a bit…like a husky.

Zhu Haowen clicked on the Wechat app on his phone. Although there wasn’t any signal, he ought to still be able to change the Wechat name.

After changing “Corgi” in his friend’s list to “Husky,” Zhu Haowen spontaneously clicked on the camera app.

On the screen, Ke Xun and Mu Yiran were opening the door of Laboratory A and stepping in through the entrance. At the foot of the door, a gray baby hand stretched out and grabbed onto Ke Xun’s pant legs.

Ke Xun and Mu Yiran didn’t stay long in Laboratory A. When they walked out, they saw Zhu Haowen holding his phone up to the wall, looking for clues.

“What did you find?” he asked.

“A weird room.” Ke Xun motioned as he talked, and the three of them began to walk back up the stairs. “It looks like a baby’s room with a few cribs in it, and the storage cabinets are filled with baby products. But the strange thing is that there are also small cages in the room.”

“For the babies?” Zhu Haowen asked.

“No.” Ke Xun shook his head. “The cages are very small, only large enough to hold hamsters. The largest one could probably hold a rabbit. In addition, there are also various tools, such as whistles, awls, and hammers. All these things put together doesn’t bode well.”

“Indeed.” Zhu Haowen pondered for a moment and said, “Small cages, hardware tools, and baby supplies. It’s very conflicting for these three things to appear in the same room together. Since the room is called Laboratory A, what experiments can be done with these things?”

“I can’t think of what they could be doing,” Ke Xun said. “If it weren’t for the fact that there weren’t tools such as swords and axes, I would have even thought that they were doing heartless, unconscionable things like dismembering babies. But there’s no blood in that room.”

“I think,” Mu Yiran suddenly said, “that if you want to know the connection between these things and the content of these experiments, you can only get more clues by opening all the test areas.”

Ke Xun looked up.

That meant that the remaining people upstairs must also each get a number card, go down to the test areas, and open the corresponding door.

What was terrible was that the number cards were issued in the sequence of consecutive serial numbers. In other words, only after all the number cards for Laboratory A were issued would the number cards for Laboratory B come out.

Therefore, they couldn’t expect that the number cards would be issued out of order, which meant that it would take more than a few people to open all the rooms. No one would be able to avoid taking a number.

If they want to gather all the clues, they must enter all the test areas. To enter the test areas, they must get the number cards for all the rooms.

Ke Xun felt that, if his assumption was correct, in order to ensure that everyone had to take a number card, the number card for the last experimental area would only appear in the hands of the last person to take a card.

In other words, the last person would have to work alone.