Paintings of Terror

Chapter 230: Ear

Four different negative films, four styles of horror.

The first photo: Lu Heng took it on the second floor where the corpse was. The crowd and the corpse disappeared, only the figure of a strange woman was photographed, walking much slower than ordinary people.

The second photo: Mai Peng took the photo in the room where everyone was staying. No one appeared in the photo. There was only an animal, invisible to the naked eyes, with glowing eyes by the window.

The third photo: another photo taken by Mai Peng at the same time and place, but a large group of people with unknown identities gathered to eat. One of them was holding a large object which appeared to be a bit strange.

The fourth photo: a shot of the dark corridor taken by Mai Peng through the crack of the door. There was an approaching black shadow, who was carrying an animal with glowing eyes.

Because the content of the photos was so bizarre, no one could even start a discussion. There was only silence.

This kind of fear was not so much born from the heart, it was more appropriate to say that it came from both external and internal. Something invisible seemed to exist, covering everyone’s pores, and it might have even overlapped with someone in the room.

That fear tormented everyone’s skin and nerves, as if it could crush people into pieces at any time — and these pieces would be shards of cold iron. Wherever the lodestone of terror appeared, these shards would immediately stand up sharply and be controlled and toyed with like fools.

After who knew how long, Du Lingyu said faintly: “Did we lit incense in our room? I can vaguely smell incense just now.”

“I lit it,” Mu Yiran said. “If we stay here too long, everyone’s biological clock will deviate. In order to figure out the time here, we need something to measure the time.”

“Is it a joss stick?” Du Lingyu asked.

“Yes, we have a type of long and thin incense in our goods. The smell is faint and it’s very durable. I lit one after lunch and it hasn’t burned out yet.” There was no trace of panic in Mu Yiran’s voice. He was still as calm as ever, which made people feel somewhat at ease.

Qin Ci also spoke: “I have already checked the effect of that incense. It is said to keep people refreshed. It’s safe and non-toxic.”

Hearing this, Du Lingyu even had an infinitely pessimistic thought: If everyone fell asleep and was poisoned to death in their sleep by the scent of chronic poison, they wouldn’t have to suffer anymore.

Someone yawned. As if to respond, many others couldn’t help but yawn too.

“Some people have already started to feel sleepy, but I think it’s only five o’clock in the afternoon.” Qin Ci said.

Lu Heng: “Cao Youning has fallen asleep.”

“Why don’t we feel hungry even though we haven’t had dinner?” Luo Bu leaned against the bed, and Koharu was lying beside him. Her eyes were no longer as bright as when the lights just went off.

“If you’re sleepy, get ready to sleep.” Mu Yiran stood up. Using the light from his phone, he came over to the corner next to the cabinet. “This incense will burn out soon.”

Shao Ling: “After lunch, it was about one o’clock in the afternoon, and now it is about five o’clock. The burning time of the incense for this length is about four hours.”

Mu Yiran lit a second stick of incense, this time five times as long as the previous one. Twenty hours, this amount of time plus the burning time of the previous stick, was exactly twenty-four hours.

“I still can’t figure out why those lights go off one by one in order. It’s more organized than voice-activated lights.” said Luo Bu. “Could it be that this Lantern Inn really has some magical power.”

“I think it’s because of the lantern oil.” Zhu Haowen didn’t seem to be sleepy either. “When the lantern oil burns out, the lantern will go out. The lantern-lighter cleverly calculated the amount of lantern oil in each lantern, so that these lanterns extinguished gradually.”

“Oh~ That makes sense,” Luo Bu came to a sudden realization, “It’s not so scary now you said that.”

“I always feel that the things here are not as crazy as we imagined. We have experienced so many paintings, and each painting has its own source of terror. But once we figure out the reason behind it, there is nothing to fear.” Zhu Haowen said.

“Yes, it’s actually not that scary, everyone, don’t scare yourself.” Luo Bu hugged his dog. He found a place on the communal bed and lay down with his clothes on. Although his body was already chilling from fright, his tone remained casual. “Eat and sleep as you should. We have to gather enough energy to find the signature!”

Although those words were for Luo Bu to encourage himself, it still motivated everyone a little. Many people were lying on the communal bed and getting ready to sleep.

Xi Shengnan said: “We don’t want to sleep on the other side of the folding screen. After a;; it feels a bit…”

They were still a bit scared.

“Everyone, let’s squeeze a bit. Anyway, this communal bed is big enough to accommodate the three of you girls.” It was Lu Heng who spoke.

After a while, everyone was lying on the bed.

Maybe drowsiness was really contagious. After about half an hour, most people fell asleep.

Koharu also closed her eyes and fell asleep, bringing away the only light in the room.

Mu Yiran was lying on the bed. Although he felt extremely drowsy, he still tried his best to stay awake. Today’s matter was very complicated, but it was not without a trace. As long as they found a gap and used enough strength, they would be able to pry the whole thing apart.

Mu Yiran was lying on the farthest side of the bed, with Ke Xun beside him.

“Go to sleep.” Mu Yi suddenly turned over and placed his hands on Ke Xun.

“Was it a mistake to open the door to take a picture just now?” Ke Xun said after a while.

Among the four photos, the fourth one probably caused the greatest amount of panic among everyone, the mysterious figure blocking the door trying to break in. Maybe that thing got in through the crack of the door at that time.

It was Ke Xun who proposed to open the door to take a picture of the corridor, but he was unable to pay the consequences for the panic caused by this matter.

“Are you afraid? The man standing at the door holding the dog.” Mu Yiran said.

Although Ke Xun was wearing a cotton robe, he seemed to be able to feel the warmth of Mu Yiran’s hand on his body. The temperature was reassuring. Ke Xun said: “The man who was holding the dog… After you describe it like this, it doesn’t feel scary at all.”

Ke Xun felt that Mu Yiran’s hand moved up slowly. It stayed by his ear and slowly traced the shape of the helix of Ke Xun’s ear with his index finger. Ke Xun felt itchy, shook his head slightly, and held the hand that was on his ear. He held tightly and was not letting it do that again.

“Maybe the man holding the dog will be a breakthrough.” Mu Yiran said.

“You stared at that negative for half an hour.” Ke Xun said. In the situation just now, no one wanted to take a second look after seeing or learning from others the content of the few negatives. Only Mu Yiran unfolded the film to the last half picture and looked at it alone for a long time with the light of his phone.

Ke Xun: “Any new discoveries?”

“Hm.”

“But this discovery is a bit insane and doesn’t make sense?”

“Hm.”

“Are you planning to talk to me about it or are you just going to hold it in.”

Mu Yiran lay on his back, his black eyes looking at the thick ink-like darkness in the room: “I still can’t figure out the problem of time in this world. It stands to reason that no matter how disordered the time is, it can’t all be in a mess. There must be potential rules.”

“Although day and night are deliberately blurred in this world, the habit of lighting on and putting off lanterns is still preserved, making it hard to tell whether the people here ignore time or value time.” Ke Xun said.

“We need to think of a way to enlarge those negatives. There are many clues hidden in them.” Mu Yiran felt the slight cold in the darkness. At the same time he nestled against the most important person to him and couldn’t tell whether it was warm or cold for a while, “I was going to make a simple projector and have already found a suitable box. All I need is the phone with the best lighting and a magnifying glass.”

“A simple projector?” In Ke Xun’s mind, making things such as projectors was not simple.

“Yes, completely handmade, but it can have a magnifying effect.”

Ke Xun was thinking that the only device he could make by hand was probably just a tin can phone: “Boss, you are quite awesome. If we can’t get a magnifying glass tomorrow at the toy store, I will try my luck with that fat uncle. As for the phone with the best lighting, I think it would be Radish’s. His phone’s screen was obviously brighter and bigger than others’. It seems that the nouveau riche gold phone is quite extraordinary, especially the long battery life.”

“You are nouveau riche gold… This young master came from a noble family with a royal bloodline!” Luo Bu tried his best to clear his relationship with nouveau riche in his dream. Koharu suddenly woke up. Its eyes lit up and gradually closed. It snuggled into the arms of its owner, made sounds of “woo woo…” as if sleep-talking and fell asleep.

Ke Xun turned over and lay down facing Mu Yiran: “Are you really going to sleep and hold it in? What clues do those films have?”

Mu Yi smiled silently: “The breakthrough I found was in the last picture, the ear in the man holding the dog.”

“Human ear or dog ear?”

“Human ear.”

“Now that I think about it, it feels weird. What about that man’s ears?” Ke Xun and Mu Yiran seemed to be not afraid of anything when they were together, and they didn’t care whether this mysterious man was really lurking in the room and eavesdropping.

“I am familiar with the outline of that person’s ear.” Mu Yiran said.

“Um?”

“The arc is round, and the earlobe forms a slightly sharp bend.” Mu Yiran said slowly.

“What the…whose ears did you observe so carefully, I’m going to fight him…” Ke Xun felt Mu Yiran’s hand caressing his ear as he spoke and something in his heart moved: “Could it be… how is it possible? I was clearly standing behind the door and holding against the door, and even if the camera could turn around, it wouldn’t be able to capture me.”

“So I think time is causing it.”

“You mean, the man in the last photo is me? Still holding the dog? Koharu?”

“It’s very possible. You did stand at the door with Koharu in your arms today.” Mu Yiran emphasized, “I carefully observed the outline of that half figure. Whether it was the ears, the head, the shoulders and the neckline, I can be sure, that is your figure.”

Ke Xun felt his hairs stand up and fall again, so he calmed down and recalled carefully: “We came back from a walk today and suddenly the lights went off. Radish grabbed our hands, and Koharu was squatting on his shoulders. Later I held Koharu, and I stopped in front of the door, because I was afraid that the people in the room would be frightened by Koharu’s eyes, so I covered its eyes before entering.”