Paintings of Terror

Chapter 62: An Encounter in a Dream

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Ke Xun found himself in a deep dream. In his dream, he walked nonstop. No matter how long he walked, he couldn’t exit a lovely, verdant bamboo forest.

Mu Yiran was not far in front of him but regardless of what Ke Xun did, he could not reach the other. He wanted to call the other’s name but every time he tried, his voice would transform into a silent cool breeze….

Whe Ke Xun opened his eyes, he was met with Wei Dong’s ridiculously close face. Ke Xun’s hand came slashing over, as if he was trying to call for help. “Stop darting your eyes side-to-side. It reminds me of Wangfu’s owner….”

“Looks like you’re awake.” Wei Dong’s face moved away. It was finally back to normal size.

Ke Xun woke up fully. His entire body ached and he felt weak all over. Only now did he realize he was in a hospital room. He faintly recalled being exhausted after exiting the painting. He had then happily fallen into a slumber on Mu Yiran’s back….

Maybe it was because of Mu Yiran, but it seemed like he didn’t care about being a ‘top’ as much anymore….

Ke Xun smacked himself on the head. He had nearly fallen…. This wouldn’t do. The gong! He had to be the gong! he could not fall!

Crunch crunch crunch. Wei Dong was eating.

Ke Xun looked at Wei Dong, who was eating potato chips next to him. “Hurry up and set my bed to the sitting position. Don’t just sit there! Peel an apple for me! What kind of bedside treatment is this? Hurry up! I want to drink water! I want to eat a peeled apple!”

“Where am I going to buy you apples in the summer? Do you want a refrigerated red Fuji apple? People usually only buy that when pregnant women specifically crave it….”

Wei Dong started to chatter on after he stopped munching on the chips. He then helped Ke Xun move the bed so that he could sit up.

.

“Aren’t we supposed to peel apples in a hospital room….” Ke Xun’s upper body slowly moved into an upright position. The smile on his face was elegant and poised. “You, hurry up. I’m thirsty.”

Wei Dong handed him a large thick mug.

“Aren’t you supposed to give me a straw or something? How can you let a patient drink straight out of a cup?! Can’t you be more meticulous?!” Ke Xun finally made out that he was in a large hospital room. There were six beds here. Including the visitors, there were about twenty people in the room.

Out of the six patients, only Ke Xun didn’t have a cast. Ke Xun moved his foot from under the blanket. It moved quite nimbly. He then bent his knee. There was nothing wrong with it. “Dong zi, how’s my leg? Were there any fractures?”

Wei Dong carefully thought about it. “I don’t really remember…. Everyone brought you to the hospital together. The x-rays showed no issues. They said the injuries were superficial. The doctor wanted us to discharge you this morning but I couldn’t bear to wake you up. So I let you sleep for another three hours.”

Ke Xun did a few exercises on the beg. His right calf hurt a bit so he pulled his pants leg up. There was a large bruise on his calf but the muscles seemed fine. The bone was fully intact.

“We all found it strange. It seems like our injuries are made less severe upon leaving.” Wei Dong couldn’t mention the paintings in front of outsiders, even if the other people probably couldn’t hear their words.

“How benevolent of Mr. Instigator….” Ke Xun directly shortened “painting instigator” to Mr. Instigator.

“We thought that the reason for this is so that we will heal faster. That means we can prepare for the next painting sooner….” Wei Dong spat out the cruel truth.

“….” Ke Xun laid against the window to do some high level leg stretches, scaring the patient in the bed next to him. The other patient thought that this youngster had come to cause trouble.

“Bed number 84, hurry up and file the paperwork for your discharge!” A callous-looking nurse walked in to write down the last note on his report. “Also, someone asked where you were. Probably came to visit you.”

Ke Xun retracted his leg and straightened out the white and blue hospital gown on his body. “How do I look? Am I presentable? Do I look sickly?”

Wei Dong thought that the other looked healthier than he did. He didn’t look like a patient at all. “As awe-inspiring as always.”

“I’ve never gotten a bouquet from anyone while in the hospital….” Ke Xun got back into his bed at a lightning fast speed. He pulled the cover over himself and leaned against his pillow.

Wei Dong was just about to say: Mu Yiran already went back to S City. Even Qin Ci has returned to X City….

The hospital room door was pushed open. The person who walked in was unexpectedly Zhu Haowen. He had a small fruit basket in his hand. Inside were red Fuji apples….

“Haowen er’s from B City. He lives nearby so he couldn’t not visit you.” Wei Dong went to pull a chair over for Zhu Haowen to sit on.

Zhu Haowen decided to stand, however. He placed the small fruit basket on the table by the bed. “I asked around about the art gallery during the last two days. The Spring Bamboo Apartments previously stood where the gallery now stands. The developer had expelled all the residents back then and had used foul methods to do so….”

Since they were talking about things that were related to the painting, Wei Dong kept the curtain around the hospital bed drawn. To outsiders, it probably looked like they were helping the patient change clothes or helping him relieve himself….

“There was a lot of news coverage on the developer’s violent evacuation of the residents back then. Later on, it seems like the developer sealed off all information. I also learned a few things from people who lived in the vicinity, on land that also belonged to that developer. Apparently, the land was cursed by the residents of the Spring Bamboo Dormitory. The Hong Kong developer was a very superstitious person. As such, he hired a feng shui master to take a look. In the end, they built rhinoceros and elephant statues to subdue the curse. Because of this, they also decided to name the gallery the Rhino and Elephant Art Gallery.” Zhu Haowen said all of this with his characteristic lack of expression.

“I also looked up rumours about the Rhino and Elephant Art Gallery, particularly those about the popular restaurant beneath it. Many people say that they see strange things at night when they go for late night snacks.” Wei Dong pulled out his phone and tapped on it. “Unexpectedly, the more rumours there were, the most popular the restaurant became.”

“Strange things?” Ke Xun asked.

“The most common report is that they see flickering figures. The figure usually wears red clothing.” Wei Dong clicked on an article and read it out loud.

Zhu Haowen said, “What I want to know is whether your previous experiences were like this.”

Ke Xun mulled over this. “This time, things seemed particularly life-like. Before, it felt a lot more like a game. The NPCs were a lot more robotic too. I think that the setting of this painting was the crucial part. Reality and the world inside the painting coincided. This probably caused the location to feel extremely realistic.”

Ke Xun looked at the thin curtain surrounding his bed. “I can’t tell you anything more. We can talk about it in the chatroom instead.”

Zhu Haowen seemed interested in the worlds inside paintings. “I’m a man of logic and rules. As long as a world wasn’t randomly formed, then I think its existence can be rationalized.”

Wei Dong looked at Zhu Haowen. He was really glad they were no longer roommates. If it wasn’t because they had gone through a life-and-death experience together in the painting, he would have thought he was a NPC….

Wei Dong then looked at the ‘lively’ Ke Xun. He was currently chugging water from the large cup. Suddenly, he felt happiness, as if he was being tightly enveloped by reality.

“Can you friggin’ stop looking at me with that shifty gaze?” Ke Xun managed to glance at Wei Dong while drinking water. It was quite a talent.

“Including the other two, there’s five of us in total. See you next time.” Zhu Haowen said flatly. He sounded like he was a grim homeroom teacher speaking to his new class. Everyone, let’s get to know each other.

……

After Zhu Haowen left, Ke Xun completed his discharge paperwork and took a train with Wei Dong back to their home, Z City.

Z City was pretty close to B City. It only took them two hours to get home. There were very few people on the train so there weren’t any other people sitting around them.

Wei Dong leaned against his seat, napping. When he opened his eyes, he saw Ke Xun smiling stupidly at his phone.

“What’s making you this happy?” Wei Dong rubbed his eyes.

Ke Xun chuckled but his eyes didn’t leave his screen. “Have you ever thought about what the people in our group are like after leaving the paintings? How the others are doing in their efforts? in assimilating back to regular life?”

“What, can your omniscient cell phone tell you that?” Wei Dong unlocked his phone out of habit to play a game. “Phone, phone, in my hand, can you tell me who’s the lewdest man in this land?”

Ke Xun ignored Wei Dong’s latter utterances. “Yesterday, Dr. Qin said that he had a major surgery the day he returned to X City. He’s the hospital’s chief surgeon so the surgery went very smoothly.”

“Dr. Qin’s used to stuff like that. A little blood isn’t going to make his hands shake.” Wei Dong cleared a line of red balls. He felt good. It kind of felt like he was silently opposing the painting’s actions.

“There’s also him.” When Ke Xun mentioned him, it was like he had lost control of his eyes. Happiness that seemed to come from the heart burst out of his eyes and gradually scattered to the corner of his eyes and the space between his eyebrows.

Wei Dong rarely saw Ke Xun look like this. Although Ke Xun had never acted as depressed as he had in the past, and had seemed happy hanging out with their friends, Wei Dong always felt like Ke Xun was holding back a piece of him. He thought that the piece he held back was the real him. Ever since Ke Xun’s parents had died, he had never again seen the other’s carefree smile from their youth.

Although the life Mu Yiran lived in Z City was an international legend that they could only dream about, if it could make his friend happy, then Wei Dong hoped that the immortal-like man could stay in the mortal realm for just a little longer. Even if all that came out of this was a few more smiles from his best friend, it was enough.

“Did you hear me? You just had an entire KFC bucket. Are you still hungry?” Ke Xun tugged Wei Dong’s head.

“Whose family’s stabbing me?”

“……”

Wei Dong blinked hard, trying to force his tears back. “Mn. I didn’t hear you just now. What about the boss?”

Ke Xun patiently repeated himself. “Two hours after leaving B City, he appeared at a painting auction in Hong Kong.”

“In two hours? Doesn’t it take three hours just to fly from B city to Guangzhou? How did he get to Hong Kong in just two hours?” Wei Dong thought he was pretty smart sometimes.

Ke Xun hadn’t thought about this issue much. In his imagination, Mu Yiran is always whisked away by some mysterious characters after leaving the galleries. He imagined that they were all dressed like the characters from the Matrix….

“He probably took a private jet to Hong Kong.” Wei Dong once again realized the distance between the boss and ordinary people such as themselves. He couldn’t help but mutter, “Ke er, I still think that the boss is way out of our league… Actually, there are a lot of good people around us. For example, Haowen er.”

“Haowen er who?” Ke Xun looked up with a befuddled look in his eyes.

“Pretend I said nothing.”

Eve: That’s a wrap~ The next world is another one of my faves but it’s also one that scarred me quite a bit. It’s called “Animal World.” I’ll put a more detailed spoiler in potentially scarring chapters. But in general, there are some very gory scenes. It is related to animal cruelty, especially with regards to pitting animals against each other for sport, inhumane treatment in farms, etc. If you’ve ever watched a documentary about the conditions of farms by animal advocacy groups, this arc will probably make you feel similar emotions.