Paintings of Terror

Chapter 248: Time, the Thief

Everyone had their belongings packed and ate the cold-resistant Shaman medicine. When they pushed open the door and stepped into the corridor, the Lantern Inn was still like the lights interwoven in a dreamy film. As they silently walked through the corridor, their eyes couldn’t help but linger on the seven vertical lines on the wall.

“The first three lines are drawn very straight and with much force. I feel like they are from the same person…” Wei Dong didn’t even finish his words as a voice of “lights-off” came from inside the Lantern Inn. Soon, the lights on each floor went off in succession, and everything returned to the familiar darkness.

Everyone instinctively turned on their phones. They also brought the piece of fluorite with them: since there wasn’t enough time to bid farewell to the Master Shaman who provided the stone, they left all their valuable items to her.

Guided by the light of the fluorite, they successfully reached the top floor.

“Thinking about leaving through the window where Sister Xi and Lu Hen’s burials occurred, I don’t feel comfortable…” Mai Peng’s emotions were complex: both the joy of finding the exit and a certain inexplicable sense of loss.

“There’s no other way. The time they left for themselves was too little.” Zhu Haowen knew his words might sound heartless, but the things that needed to be said had to be said, “Some decisions are made in an instant, but just like the butterfly effect, they can result in earth-shattering changes.”

Mai Peng stopped talking. Certain decisions were determined within a very short time. If they could have gritted their teeth and endured a little longer at that moment, they might have changed their fate.

The darkness on the top floor was slightly thinner, perhaps because of the reflection of the surrounding glass windows. Outside the windows was the snowy world.

Everyone silently approached the familiar window. Ke Xun opened it, and a fierce gust of wind, accompanied by snowflakes and ice crystals, rushed in. The sudden coldness took their breath away.

“I didn’t expect the weather outside to be so harsh. Is this a snowstorm?” Cao Youning shrank his neck. Though they had taken the cold-resistant Shaman medicine, it was not as if they could not feel the cold at all: the medicine merely mitigated the cold to a bearable level.

Du Lingyu stood at the back, her expression somewhat timid.

Fang Fei still wore her white mask. She stood by the window and looked for a while: “The passage is right here. I can see it clearly. The snowstorm might actually help us get to the Cold Night Inn faster.”

Fang Fei turned to look at Du Lingyu. “On the day we attended the funeral for Xi Shengnan, did you stick your head out of the window?”

“I don’t remember if I stuck my head out completely, but I did lean out and experience a hallucination…” Du Lingyu moved closer to the window step by step. “Actually, they weren’t hallucinations. The twelve coffins I saw were not hallucinations at all.”

Those twelve coffins held the members of the other timeline who had sacrificed themselves.

This thought left everyone uncomfortable.

They were going to gain a new life from the place where “they” were buried. How ironic, going towards death to seek life. This path of life was built using the bodies of their other selves as a bridge!

Fang Fei’s tone remained calm. “I brought some incense. I want to offer them a tribute here before we leave.”

No one objected. They silently watched Fang Fei light the incense and insert them into the solid snow outside the window.

Each person clasped their hands together to pray for solace to the souls of their other selves in the afterlife.

The strong wind quickly burned the incense, and it burned out within a few minutes.

“Koharu, get ready.” Fang Fei patted Koharu’s head. Koharu stared with bright eyes and nodded seriously.

Luo Bu had an urge to pick up Koharu again. “What, get ready what? What’s Koharu going to do?”

“Koharu has the instincts of a spirit dog. It knows what it needs to do.”

Suddenly, Koharu leaped up, like a streak of white light drawing a beautiful arc, and jumped out of the window.

“Koharu——my Koharu——” Luo Bu almost went crazy, leaning on the window. If not for Wei Dong and others holding him back, he probably would’ve fallen out.

“Can you see Koharu?” Wei Dong was also concerned.

“Why does it feel like the ground outside has risen? It’s a big snowfield outside the window!” Luo Bu stared at the scene outside, “Where’s Koharu? Why can’t I find Koharu!”

“That snowfield is Koharu’s back,” Fang Fei said.

“What, what, what? What are you saying? It’s Koharu’s what?”

“It’s Koharu’s back.”

“Woof, woof, woof——” A series of barking resounded through the world.

Luo Bu felt dizzy and weakly grabbed Wei Dong’s hand. His voice was slightly choked, “Really, Brother Dong, even if my future son gets into Tsinghua, I wouldn’t be this excited… Really, my Koharu… I’ve never felt this proud in my life…”

“Understand, understand.” Wei Dong said beside him.

“I understand, I understand,” Wei Dong said beside him.

“Woof, woof, woof!” Koharu responded as if frolicking in joy to Luo Bu.

“Strange, why can Koharu suddenly bark?” Qin Ci asked.

“Because the tunnel is outside the four Inns, so time is normal.” Fang Fei explained.

Luo Bu immediately took out his phone and held it outside the window: “It’s here, it’s here! There’s time now! 10:40, it’s 10:40 now!”

Everyone was quite amazed. The next step was to fasten their bags and prepare to enter the tunnel.

Fang Fei walked towards Du Lingyu and extended her right hand: “Hold my hand tightly. I’ll try to see if I can bring you through the window.”

“Through the window?” Du Lingyu was a bit scared.

Fang Fei’s voice was very serious, “Because your twin-born phenomenon occurred in the Lantern Inn, I’m afraid you might be trapped within it and unable to leave.”

Everyone’s hearts sank upon hearing this. However, Du Lingyu, upon hearing these words, gained some courage. This was their last attempt, and if she managed to break free, there might still be hope.

Fang Fei and Du Lingyu held each other’s hands tightly. Their hair was blown by the snowstorm like black flags. Fang Fei pulled Du Lingyu forward and leaned out the window: “Follow me!”

Du Lingyu followed Fang Fei and climbed onto the windowsill, closed her eyes, and jumped out together.

With a terrible scream, everyone watched as Du Lingyu was flung back by an invisible force, flying back quite a distance.

What surprised them even more was that Du Lingyu was no longer just herself. There were two of her now.

On the ground lay two identical Du Lingyus, two completely identical Du Lingyus.

The only difference was that one of them looked as she normally did, while the other was covered in blood.

Fang Fei climbed back along the windowsill again. Despite wearing the cold, rigid white mask, it seemed that her disappointment was palpable even through it.

Everyone present was greatly astonished, but none more so than Du Lingyu herself.

At this moment, the two Du Lingyus stared at each other in complete astonishment. One of the Du Lingyus turned to the other who was covered in blood, and said, “You are… you are the other me? The me from the false timeline?”

The blood-covered Du Lingyu sobbed sadly, her crying filled with boundless regret, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry… I didn’t have the courage to face death. I had no confidence in everything that happened. I thought I was the real, living me, not some imaginary character from a false timeline… I didn’t want to die, and I didn’t dare to die… I’m so sorry.”

Meanwhile, the other Du Lingyu stood up and slowly walked over. She embraced her other self who was stained with blood. “You are me, and I am you. No one understands you better than I do…What you don’t dare to do, I don’t dare either. This is our personality, and this is our destiny.”

The bloodied Du Lingyu wiped her face, now cleansed of blood by her tears. “In fact, in the end, I summoned a lot of courage. After killing Xiayu, I drew the seventh line on the wall. I was prepared to jump from the ninth floor… The corridor was so dark at that time, and I only had the dim light of my phone to guide me. I was groping to climb over the railing. Who knew that suddenly, someone hit the top of my head with a great force, and then I don’t know what happened afterwards.”

Du Lingyu was crying herself but wiped the tears for her other self. “That was the moment we entered the painting. The twin-born phenomenon occurred. The passing Shaman hit us on our heads and merged us into one.”

“Why did you kill Xiayu?” Shao Ling couldn’t help but ask.

The other Du Lingyu tried to adjust her emotions so she wouldn’t sound so choked up. “She traveled with us all along and knew too many secrets. But her ultimate goal was different from ours. She wanted to find the door to eternal life.”

“The door to eternal life? Does this place really have the door to eternal life as written in the book?” Du Lingyu asked.

“Fang Fei said, once the door to eternal life is opened, everything in this world will come to a stop. Time won’t be chaotic, nor will it be orderly. Instead, it will forever stay still. We will never be able to find the signature again,” the other Du Lingyu said with a bleak expression. “We only discovered her true purpose in the last two days. Originally, Sister Xi was planning to confront her with me, but she ended up consuming the poison hidden by Lu Heng and left us like that.”

“Lu Heng’s poison? What exactly happened?”

“After everyone left one by one, Lu Heng and Sister Xi agreed to die together. The poison was prepared by Lu Heng according to a formula in a medical book. Sister Xi couldn’t bring herself to kill herself, so she asked Lu Heng to find a way to end her life without her knowing. Lu Heng used the poison to kill himself and then secretly put the remaining poison in the hot sauce Sister Xi usually ate…”

“Sister Xi left her knife to me before she died and urged me to do whatever it takes to stop Xiayu. In case Xiayu succeeded, what everyone has done would be in vain,” the other Du Lingyu spoke firmly. “So I secretly followed Xiayu until she was about to open the hidden door behind the waterfall near the rockery on the second floor… I didn’t know what to do, so I had no choice but to kill her…Even though I stabbed her numerous times, she wouldn’t die…” Du Lingyu chuckled sarcastically, “I had the courage to kill other…but why am I so afraid to kill myself…”

Ke Xun grew anxious and asked Fang Fei, “Is it really impossible for Xiao Du to leave? Is she going to stay in the Lantern Inn forever?!”

Fang Fei’s voice couldn’t hide her sorrow: “I’m afraid she won’t even be able to stay in the Lantern Inn. She, has already seen her.”

“What do you mean?”

“The living Du Lingyu has seen the other living Du Lingyu. This is the most taboo of the twin-born.” Fang Fei sighed, “The ultimate outcome, is probably to disappear forever.”

The two Du Lingyus, both with tear-streaked faces, lifted their heads simultaneously, their voices sounding in unison, “Disappear forever? Disappear forever…”

Their bodies slowly began to fade at a speed that could be seen by the naked eye. Fang Fei walked forward and pressed the crown of their heads together, “Maybe you can last longer this way…”

Du Lingyu, now fused as one, had a sliver of peace amidst the despair in her eyes, as if she had seen through everything after losing all hope. “I never thought, I would leave in this way…Right, there’s one most important thing I haven’t told you. The signature is on the white fish. At the end of the water source in the Cold Night Inn, there’s an exit. The white fish there are different from those in other places. The signature is on the white fish there. We marked it back then. You’ll know when you go.”

Ke Xun felt his vision blur. He had only spent two days with Du Lingyu, but she had talked the most with him.

He stepped forward and gently helped the semi-transparent Du Lingyu to her feet. “If there’s anything unfinished you want me to do, tell me.”

“There’s nothing,” Du Lingyu smiled faintly, her smile as light as a feather. “Ke Xun, if I had met you a few days earlier, I would have trusted you without hesitation. You are truly a person worth trusting and entrusting.”

Ke Xun watched as his hands slowly passed through Du Lingyu’s body, as helpless as melting snow in the warm spring sun.

Du Lingyu smiled again, even lighter this time, like a bubble about to burst. “I smell it. I smell the fragrance. It’s my ‘Voleur de Roses’. It smells so good. I once watched a movie called 'Time, the Thief'‘. Ha, time really is like a thief.”