Paintings of Terror

Chapter 136: Cat, Mouse, and Paper Person

“This room is circular, and there are doors at intervals, meow.” Ke Xun had softened bonelessly on Mu Yiran’s thighs, lazily looking at the six doors on the wall, “But why is it that the distance between each door is different, meow? The painting isn’t very orderly or neat, meow. Fortunately, I’m not obsessive-compulsive. Or, do you think there’s a mystery in this, meow?”

“Maybe.” Mu Yiran’s eyes fell on those doors, seemingly thoughtful, but before he could think much on it, he felt Ke Xun suddenly stretched out an arm and hooked it around his neck.

“Yiran meow~” Ke Xun’s voice was as soft as a cat. “Play with me for a bit, meow~”

“..….” Mu Yiran looked down at him. “What do you want to play?”

Ke Xun turned over belly up and looked at him. “Lick me, meow~”

“.…..”

“Then I will lick you, meow meow~”

“………………”

Ke Xun had become particularly playful due to his body’s abnormal transformation into a cat. Mu Yiran raised head and swept his gaze over at the melon-eaters watching them from the shadows. They looked away very naturally, all of them with superb acting.

“Ke Xun,” Mu Yiran tilted his head slightly, and gently spoke in a deep voice into Ke Xun’s ears. “Honestly, I really don’t want to train you in a painting.”

At this moment, Ke Xun felt that his whole person was meowing. The word “train” came out of the big boss’ mouth. It was simply too momentous not to meow!

Meow, he really wanted to leave the paint as quickly as possible.

Ke Xun turned over and sat up, his eyes gleaming in the dark. He said, “Everyone, don’t sit down. Hurry up and think about the clues, and your mind will also stand up and start moving.”

Everyone: “……” Why did this feel like receiving the devil’s teachings in a concentration camp…?

Ke Xun got up and walked around the room twice. Wei Dong noticed that he was still walking with a special catwalk. Ke Xun stopped in front of Zhu Haowen, and the cat ears on his head flicked. “Haowen’er, the props you got is a cat’s whisker. Why didn’t you put it on your face?”

Zhu Haowen was expressionless. “Why do I have to put it on my face?”

“…Don’t a cat’s whisker go on the face?” Ke Xun asked.

Zhu Haowen said, “Which cat has only one whisker on its face?”

Ke Xun paused. “…You’re right. Cough, so although you and I got cat-related items, there is a difference. Meow, my item will gradually change me into a cat, and your prop doesn’t require being worn but it will cause color blindness and your eyesight to decrease. Why do you think this is? How is this connected to a cat’s whisker?”

.

Zhu Haowen took out the cat’s whisker from his pocket. It wasn’t because he was refusing to wear the whisker on his face, but because he couldn’t put it on his face at all. It was clear that the painting wasn’t requiring that he wear this whisker, only that he keep it on his body. So, what was the function of the whisker? What was the connection between him and cat whiskers?

Cats weren’t short-sighted, nor were they colorblind. He wasn’t transforming into a cat like Ke Xun but was deprived of his five senses. If the rules of the painting was to, as Mu Yiran had speculated, destroy the characteristics and attributes that made them human, then what was bad eyesight and color blindness?

No, it wasn’t a “thing” but an animal. Only animals that had the attributes of “short-sightedness” and “color blindness.”

In addition to humans, what animals have poor eyesight, are color blind, and have cat whiskers—or were they even cats?

“Haowen.”

While Zhu Haowen was thinking about it, he suddenly heard Mu Yiran calling him. He lifted his gaze and looked over. This person seemed to have some insight, because he raised his finger to Ke Xun. “Are you afraid of him?”

Zhu Haowen was startled. What kind of weird question was this? Why should he be afraid of Ke Xun? He feared that he would never be afraid of him. Even if Ke Xun hurt him or killed him one day, he wouldn’t be afraid.

Zhu Haowen didn’t want to answer this question, but Mu Yiran didn’t care. He turned to call Ke Xun over, and Ke Xun jumped up to him with a “meow.” Squatting in front of Mu Yiran, he listened to his instructions spoken in a low voice. After a few words, Ke Xun said that he understood with a “meow”, then got up and silently walked toward Zhu Haowen.

“What are you doing?” Zhu Haowen looked up at Ke Xun.

Ke Xun didn’t answer but continued to stare at Zhu Haowen coldly, approaching him slowly step by step.

Zhu Haowen suddenly felt a chill uncontrollably rising from the bottom of his heart, making him almost subconsciously want to escape Ke Xun’s stare.

—What was going on?

He firmly believed that he would never be afraid of him, so how could he suddenly have such an uncontrollable sense of fear?!

Ke Xun walked forward step by step and suddenly rushed towards Zhu Haowen. Zhu Haowen subconsciously screamed and scrambled to the side pitiably, but he couldn’t escape at all. Ke Xun stretched out his hands and slammed them on the ground. Zhu Haowen was so petrified, he felt the strength drained out of him. He couldn’t even make a single move, and a cold sweat instantly soaked his clothes.

“Why…” Zhu Haowen found that even his voice was trembling.

This was impossible. He had never screamed so awkwardly before, let alone be frightened into collapse by Ke Xun’s actions. All these reactions were like instincts implanted in his bones, which he could not overcome at all.

Ke Xun let go of Zhu Haowen and stood up, his face also incredulous. “Am I so terrifying, meow? Haowen, you must have misunderstood me.”

Zhu Haowen’s voice still had a trace of a tremor, and he looked at Mu Yiran, who was looking back at him solemnly. He said, “It seems that you have already thought of the reason.”

Mu Yiran was silent for a moment before he slowly said, “Mice usually have poor eyesights, and they are color blind.”

After hearing this, everyone fell momentarily silent.

A long moment later, Zhu Haowen was the first to restore his calm. He sat up and looked at Mu Yiran, and then he looked at Ke Xun, his gaze still wide-eyed with petrification. “So, I am transforming into a mouse, which has a natural fear of their enemy, the cats.”

He was truly a lucky person. Why did Ke Xun unexpectedly, unpleasantly become a cat, and why did he unexpectedly, unpleasantly became a mouse?

Ke Xun stepped back and turned to look at Mu Yiran. “Maybe there are other animals with poor eyesight and color blindness? Also, these days, fewer and fewer mice are afraid of cats. Some cats are even getting more and more squeamish, running in fright whenever they see a mouse…”

Zhu Haowen looked at the back of Ke Xun’s head full of hair and suddenly smiled.

Was this guy afraid of eating him once he’d turned into a mouse?

“Myopia, color blindness, and a fear of cats. From the above three known traits, Haowen is most likely transforming into a mouse.” Mu Yiran was always calm and sensible. “The painting is different from reality, after all. Rats are afraid of cats. This may be one of the absolute rules in the painting.”

Hearing this, Ke Xun took a few steps back until he reached the wall across from Zhu Haowen. He said, “Haowen’er, stay away from me. Dongzi, meow, I’ll leave Haowen’er to you. If you find that I have bad intentions toward him, immediately take him away and don’t let me see him, meow.”

Zhu Haowen: “…”

Wei Dong exclaimed, “You dare to have an errant thought right in front of the big boss’ face?!”

Ke Xun ignored this sentence and looked at Mu Yiran. “Why does Haowen’er have cat whiskers, but he’s transforming into a mouse? What is the causal relationship between these?”

Mu Yiran looked down and fell into deep thoughts once more. Ke Xun didn’t bother him, but also didn’t dare to go to Zhu Haowen’s side. Instead, he looked at Qin Ci and said, “Speaking of which, meow, the three of you entered the two-dimensional paper-cut world. But there were no changes to your body. What could be the reason?”

“Maybe it’s because Mr. Qin hit the world right,” Luo Wei said.

Ke Xun gave a meow. “According to our previous classification, the fishing rod and the two-dimensional paper-cut world are connected together. Dr. Qin’s prop is the fishing rod, so maybe it’s really because he entered the right world! But why haven’t you and Xiao Li changed?”

Luo Wei fell into silence, until he suddenly heard Mu Yiran say indifferently, “You just said that Dr. Qin hit the right world, not that you three hit the right world. I hope you’ll understand that any clues discovered may be crucial to sustaining our lives, including Li Yaqing’s life. So it would serve you better not to conceal anything. When putting together a puzzle, a single missing piece can result in failure.”

After listening to him, Luo Wei lowered his eyes. Then he lifted his gaze and said calmly, “Sorry, I did hide something, but it was only because I didn’t want Yaqing to worry about me. In fact, my body has also changed.”

Li Yaqing was shocked, and she looked at him with teary eyes. “Luo Wei–You–”

Luo Wei gently squeezed her trembling hand, and calmly told everyone, “I discovered that my body…is becoming paper-like.”

The moment he said this, everyone was stunned into silence. They looked at him in shock as they quickly digested his words.

“Paper-like…” Wei Dong murmured these words and shivered involuntarily.

Ke Xun took a closer look at Luo Wei, but didn’t see any changes, so he asked him, “What changed?”

Luo Wei was silent for a moment, and then he slowly stood up.

This time, no one spoke, because they all heard the sound of paper crinkling as Luo Wei stood up.

Li Yaqing began to cry bitterly.

Turning a flesh and blood person into a living paper person, what kind of cruel and inhumane killing method was this?

While everyone became frightened by Luo Wei’s future plight, Mu Yiran remained calm and sober. He asked the crying Li Yaqing, “Are there any changes to your body?”

Li Yaqing just shook her head, unable to say anything for a long time. Ke Xun walked over and patted her shoulder. “Don’t cry anymore. Luo Wei is now afraid of water. Aren’t you worried about hurting him? To save him, quickly become strong and work with us to find a way. If We ask you, please try to answer, meow. Time doesn’t wait for anyone.”

After she heard these words, Li Yaqing desperately suppressed her tears. After thinking hard for a moment, she sobbed and said, “Nothing has changed in me, just…I don’t know if it’s an illusion but I think that the copper pot engraved with flowers s-seem to be getting bigger and heavier.”

Li Yaqing’s copper pot was originally about the size of a small soup pot. When entering the world behind the door, Li Yaqing had put it in her small backpack, and when she put it in, there was still plenty of space left.

Ke Xun asked her to take out the pot, only to find that it had grown large enough to stretch the backpack.