Paintings of Terror

Chapter 139: Devilish Mouse

Qin Ci was also surprised. “Indeed! Hailibu’s story happened on the prairie. There is no prairie in these six worlds!”

Mu Yiran lowered his eyes. He really didn’t know much about cartoons, so he was passive when it came to coming up with clues.

“Does Mr. Mu’s prop really belong to Hailibu’s story?” Luo Wei questioned.

They were young and so it was uncommon for them to have watched old cartoons from the 70s and 80s. Moreover, Luo Wei had been a top student since he was child, and so he spent most of his spare time studying and participating in various tutoring sessions as a hobby. Therefore, he didn’t have much time to watch cartoons, and so he could not provide much assistance.

“No, his prop must belong to Hailibu’s story.” Although Ke Xun wasn’t much older than him, as a slacker, his home life had been very rich since he was a child, and his memory was reserved for quite a few cartoons. “He ate the fruit and his body is slowly petrifying. This is proof, meow! The problem here is why isn’t Helibu’s world among these six worlds?!”

Everyone looked at each other, but Mu Yiran was still calm. He glanced at Ke Xun’s cat head, with hair bristling in anxiety. He placed his hand on the back of Ke Xun’s head and calmed him down quietly, “The explanation for this might be that there may be hidden worlds we haven’t noticed inside these six worlds.”

“It’s like a hidden map in a game?!” Wei Dong had an epiphany.

“Then what are we going to do?” Luo Wei stared at Mu Yiran from behind his glasses.

“Every next choice may determine your life or death,” Mu Yiran glanced lightly at Luo Wei, Li Yaqing, Qi Qiang, and Huangpi. “I can only provide options. The final choice is yours to make.”

“The rule of the painting is that someone will die every night. The fact that all of us survived last night means that someone of the four newcomers had died. But since none of them returned last night, we can’t be sure that all of them have died.”

“Last night, if a person was randomly chosen for death, then it might not be safe to stay in this room. Perhaps only those who have found their corresponding world wouldn’t be selected by death. If this is the case, we should hurry up and find our corresponding world.”

“So, whether to stay in this room, or to find your own world before night falls, you decide for yourself after some consideration.”

After discussing it with Li Yaqing, Luo Wei and Li Yaqing decided that she would stay in the initial room while he would go and look for the worlds that correspond to them. Li Yaqing’s copper pot with the flower engravings was becoming bigger and bigger, and it would be difficult for her to hold it while traveling long distances.

Both Qi Qiang and Huang Pi decided to find their corresponding world. Qi Qiang chose the ancient world with the ocean and the faraway city. Since his prop was a sword, this world might correspond to him.

Huang Pi still chose the world of Ma Liang’s Divine Brush. His prop was a Confucian scarf, and any of the ancient worlds could be his.

“What about Haowen’er, meow?” Ke Xun looked at Zhu Haowen.

“Tell me, Hao Wen’er shouldn’t be…” Wei Dong coughed dryly, “That One Ear, right?”

“Then his cat whisker prop, does it belong to the Black Cat Sheriff, meow?” Ke Xun said.

“No…No, it’s not the Black Cat Sheriff!” Wei Dong thought about it for a moment, and decisively denied it. “I know Black Cat Sheriff. I had watched it several times when I was a child. I even taught us how to draw it. I remember it very clearly. Black Cat Sheriff has two whiskers, one on the left and the other on the right. If someone pulls one out, can you still see it? Not even One Ear would have this great ability!”

“Meow? Black Cat Sheriff only has two whiskers?” Ke Xun was surprised, “Fuck, meow, I finally know that truth today.”

“So this whisker isn’t from Black Cat Sheriff.” Wei Dong was confident. “Maybe it’s Tom?”

Zhu Haowen: “……”

“The cat’s Tom, so Haowen’er is Jerry?” Ke Xun wondered.

Zhu Haowen: “……”

Wei Dong scratched his head. “It’s not Jerry either. Jerry’s eyes are good and he’s not colorblind.”

Qin Ci said, “Moreover, this painting doesn’t seem to have old foreign cartoons.”

Wei Dong smacked his lips. “Which old Chinese cartoon is related to mice and cats? Since Black Cat Sheriff is ruled out, then… Shuke and Beita?”

Ke Xun shook his head. “These two mice flew a plane and a tank, can they be myopic?”

Wei Dong thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up. “Calabash Baby! Isn’t the snake demon’s subordinate a mouse?”

Ke Xun also pondered for a moment. “I can’t remember it clearly, meow. Besides, even if there’s a mouse, there are no cats. So where did the cat whisker come from, meow?”

“This cat whisker is really troublesome…” Wei Dong looked at Zhu Haowen. “But when it comes to mice, I remembered an old cartoon. There was a mouse that was carrying an eggshell while singing a wacky song. How did that song go?”

After saying this, he looked at Ke Xun. Ke Xun tried to recall, and so did Wei Dong. The two of them sang in unison, “You little eggshell, don’t you cry, be good and follow me, follow me home!…”

Zhu Haowen: “…”

Everyone: “…”

Ke Xun exclaimed, “There are no cats in there!”

Wei Dong spread his hands. “I can’t think of anything else. The only cartoons I know with cats and rats are these. It’s just that in the cartoon with the eggshell, I vaguely remembered the plot due to the singing rat…”

“Meow!” Ke Xun’s eyes widened. “Mouse sings a song! Devilish, meow! Dongzi, don’t you remember that there was a cartoon with a devilish mouse? I remember, meow…Meow! Something like ‘Mouse is afraid of cats, that’s just a rumor. What’s so scary about a kitten? Be brave and defeat the cat. The stereotype of the ages must be overthrown’–Is this it?”

Wei Dong and Qin Ci, who had been listening for a while, immediately said in unison, “That’s it!”

Qin Ci continued in an affirmative tone, “I remember that this cartoon is called Good Kitty. It should be Haowen’er’s corresponding world. It has a plot where a mouse pulls off one of the kitty’s whiskers–Yes.”

“This once again proves the possibility of hidden worlds, meow,” Ke Xun said, “There’s no Good Kitty’s world among the six known worlds.

“It’s not too late yet. While there’s still some time left before 11 o’clock arrives, we can hurriedly enter the doors to find clues,” Qin Ci said.

There were no longer any delays. Everyone pushed open a door and entered the worlds they wanted to enter.

Ke Xun re-entered the mountain forest of Tiger Learns a Skill, and as he ran, he tried to recall the cartoon’s complete plot. He remembered that the tiger lost the game because he didn’t learn how to climb trees, and so the tiger fell into the water and the cat won.

Since he needed to advance the plot in order to get clues, did that mean that he had to lead the tiger out and then get it into the river?

Ke Xun looked around but couldn’t find any traces of the tiger. So, he raised his head and meowed a few times. Not long after, he heard someone yelling from the treetop, “Auntie Cat! Auntie Cat!”

Ke Xun: “….”

Ke Xun said, “Monkey, come down. This auntie won’t kill you.”

The monkey jumped down recklessly and asked Ke Xun, “Auntie Cat, are you looking for the child?”

…Child? Ke Xun really couldn’t remember this plot in the cartoon, so he asked the monkey tentatively, “Do you know who my child is?”

“I know. It’s Kitty,” said the monkey.

“…Oh, do you know where it is?” Ke Xun asked.

“I don’t know,” said the monkey.

“…Then you just said XX.” Ke Xun was speechless.

Unexpectedly, the cat in this cartoon was a mother cat, and the mother cat had a child…The old cartoon was really well-made, and every detail brimmed with warmth and humanity. He just didn’t know how the painter Mi Lun had used his own memory of the cartoon to express his own thoughts and feelings. What kind of psychology did the man behind this painting have, playing with and turning the beautiful things in this cartoon cruel?

Ke Xun no longer wasted time with the monkey. He continued to run toward the depths of the forest. He asked all the animals he encountered along the way whether they had seen the tiger. When he met a panda, he took the opportunity to go up and pat the panda’s head–This special bear was a national treasure in the real world and could only be viewed from a distance, not played with. It was satisfying to pat its head at least once, even if it was just in the painting.

The giant panda watched Ke Xun run away with a sullen expression. Suddenly, he saw the tiger Awu sneaking out of the forest, stalking closely after Ke Xun toward the upper reaches of the river.

Ke Xun scrambled up the tree in a terrified manner, and managed to climb only half an inch out of reach before the tiger swiped at his legs. But, hiding would not advance the plot; he had to get the tiger into the river.

He took a deep breath and looked down at the tiger stalking the foot of the tree.

This tiger did not look like a cartoon at all. From the perspective of the world in this painting, it looked no different from a tiger in reality. It was huge and fierce, and from its mouth and nose came the fishy rotten stench of an uncompromising carnivore.

If he wasn’t careful, he would be torn apart and eaten by this tiger.

This was the preparations the painting had made for Ke Xun’s death.

Ke Xun suddenly thought that if he didn’t return to the room by 11 o’clock, or if he failed to get the tiger into the river, maybe the painting would pull him down from the tree so that the tiger could tear into him and devour him anyway.

No more delay!

He took a deep breath, summoned his courage, gathered all the strength in his entire body, grabbed the branch in his hands, and allowed his body to hang in mid-air.

Upon seeing this, the tiger under the tree leaped up, stretching out its giant claw to slap at Ke Xun. Using the muscle strength of his waist and abdomen, Ke Xun lifted himself up so that he was back on the branch again. The tiger continued to growl under the tree, trying to climb up.

Ke Xun visually inspected the distance between the tree and the river. It was a little bit far away. Even if the tiger pounced at him from underneath the tree, it would be difficult to make the tiger fall into the river.

So…he would have to change trees.

Ke Xun scanned the area and spotted a tree in the perfect location. This tree was hanging over the river. It was just that it would be a big risk to run from one tree to another. Since the tiger was guarding the foot of the tree, if he climbed down, he would be caught at once.

Ke Xun gritted his teeth. This was the only way. He could either die now, wait until 11 and still die anyway, or…desperately try to survive. He must take this chance, even if it might result in death.

Ke Xun returned to the trunk of the tree and carved a few words into the trunk with the stone he’d been using to mark trees: Yiran, meow love you.

“……” Fuck. He obviously wanted to write the word “I” but why did it say “Meow” instead?! Meow!

Ke Xun made up his mind and no longer hesitated. Taking another deep breath, he watched the tiger carefully for signs of distractions. Then, he made a desperate jump from the tall tree. Upon landing, he rolled to minimize the impact and sprung up, rushing toward the other tree.