Paintings of Terror

Chapter 55: Elephant and Rhinoceros

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Everyone was shocked by Mu Yiran’s words, including Ke Xun.”

“Released?” Qiu Lu, out of her mind from fear, turned to look at Sha Liu. “Did you let that monster out?!”

Sha Liu was frightened by Qiu Lu who had suddenly gotten into her face. “As if!” She then sent Mu Yiran a pleading look,” Mu ge, can you straighten things out!”

“I think that Yafen was invited out by the person who knocked on her door.” Mu Yiran continued.

Qiu Lu let go of Sha Liu. Sha Liu thought that Mu Yiran had done this on purpose. This person was probably somewhat discontent with her….

Everyone pondered over his words. Ke Xun’s peeled egg was already cold so he threw it into his hot congee. “So what Yiran is saying is that someone knocked on 410’s door and that the knocking served as an invitation to the resentful spirit?”

Xin Miao shivered in fear: “Who was it? Who knocked on their door?”

Wei Dong looked at her: “The two girls who lived in your room.”

That’s right. Two nights ago, Tina and Luo Han had gone against the prohibition on visiting after lights out. They had knocked on 410’s door.

Qin Ci added to the discussion: “In other words, not only did the two girls break the rule and ended up punished with fire by their own room, they also released Yafen of Room 410 by knocking on the door?”

Mu Yiran’s gaze fell on Sha Liu coldly. “Didn’t you hear the door open and close twice two nights ago? That was probably Yafen leaving the room and coming back in.”

“But why didn’t Yafen do anything the night before?”

“Perhaps there’s another rule that states that a resentful spirit can only act the night after they are released.” Mu Yiran told them his conjecture.

“The reasoning sounds solid,” Zhu Haowen said, “But this second type of death has only occurred once, so we cannot come to any conclusions just yet.”

Mu Yiran’s expression didn’t change. He cast his gaze over to Qin Ci: “Did anything strange happen in your room last night? Aside from the sound. Did you see anything?”

Qin Ci was astonished. “Mu xiao ge, how did you know?”

Ke Xun felt a baffling sense of excitement. The boss was about to blow their minds.

Wei Dong, who was sitting next to Qin Ci, asked, “Dr. Qin, did you really see something last night?”

“Yes…. We saw something unusual.” Qin Ci and Old Man Li Taiyong exchanged glances. “We both saw it. There was a man holding a porcelain pot. He seemed to be mixing something, like stuffing or what not.”

When everyone heard the word ‘stuffing,’ they felt their scalps go numb.

“We couldn’t make him out very clearly in the darkness. That person had a hunchback and would occasionally cough. He was probably quite old.” Old Man Li Taiyong added.

Everyone’s appetite disappeared. Xin Miao quietly said: “That person isn’t going to make human meat dumplings, right…?”

Wei Dong comforted him: “Probably not. Wasn’t there something already inside his pot…?”

Sha Liu asked Mu Yiran: “How did you know that Dr. Qin saw something last night?”

Ke Xun answered on his boss’ behalf: “Because Zhi Shao knocked on the door of 307 last night. He released the resentful spirit inside.”

Sha Liu’s brows were furrowed tightly. “After the girls knocked on our door two nights ago, the snow-white woman appeared…. That means that the person holding the pot full of stuffing appeared after Zhi Shao knocked? Is this apparition an omen of sorts?”

“Yeah, it can be considered a prediction.” Zhu Haowen agreed. He looked at Mu Yiran and looked impressed for once.

Old Man Li Taiyong had already finished his meal. “Going off of that, this means that the person that will appear in the hallway tonight is going to be the person from our room, right? It should be fine if no one opens the door for him.”

After the subject of opening doors was raised, Xin Miao spoke up. “Dr. Qin and Grandpa Li opened the door for Zhi Shao last night. Doesn’t that count as allowing someone to visit…?”

Old Man Li Taiyong hastily corrected: “It’s not Xiao Qin’s fault. I opened the door without consulting him. If anyone should be punished, it should be me alone. It has nothing to do with Xiao Qin.”

At this moment, Ke Xun was finishing his bowl of congee. He was moved by the kindhearted old man. He said, “A violation to the rule would have been punished on the same night it occurred. Since you two came out unscathed, this means that the one who is visited isn’t considered to be a rule-breaker. So they won’t be punished.”

Everyone thought that this made sense. They then heard Ke Xun add: “But others shouldn’t emulate them! What if a resentful ghost pretends to be one of us? What if they knock on our doors while in disguise? We’d have no way to guard against this!”

Old Man Li Taiyong quickly joined in, nodding. “Yes, Xiao Ke er is right. No one should take such risks again in the future.” As he spoke, he swept a gaze over the group. “Let’s all finish eating first. We’ll only have the energy to search if we eat our fill.”

Everyone forced themselves to take a few more bites. They then heard Mu Yiran ask, “Did anyone notice any changes in their rooms since last night?”

Probably because they had been too shaken up by the events from last night, but most people hadn’t noticed if anything in their rooms had changed.

Only Zhu Haowen said, “Our room changed shape again. The angle of the room is even more acute. It’s not just that, either—the hallway and railing has started to bend inwards as well.”

“I’ll take a look around the sixth floor later,” Mu Yiran said.

“I’ll come t—”

Before Ke Xun could finish, Wei Dong shot back: “Ke er, you got your pills ready?”

Ke Xun recalled the dizzy spell he experienced yesterday and had no choice but to abandon that thought. “I guess I won’t be going with you, Yiran.”

Mu Yiran looked at Ke Xun. He heard the other say, “Eat this egg or else you won’t have the energy to go up to the sixth floor.”

Old Man Li Taiyong also said, “That’s right, eat this egg. In any case, it’ll fill you up with nutrients.”

Ke Xun really wanted to shake hands with Grandpa Li.

“Grandpa Li,” Sha Liu suddenly spoke up. “Can you ask Uncle Zhang about Room 307 when you play chess with him today?”

If they could find out about the death in Room 307 in advance, they might be able to prevent things from happening.

Old Man Li Taiyong nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too. I’ll try to get as much as I can out of him. I’ll go play chess with him in a bit.”

Upon hearing that, everyone felt like they had finally gained some hope.

After that, everyone split up. Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen went up to the sixth floor. On the way, they also searched the fifth and sixth floor while they were at it. Ke Xun and Wei Dong inspected the third and fourth floor while Xin Miao and Qiu Lu were tasked with the second floor. Meanwhile, Sha Liu and Qin Ci were in charge of the commercial district on the first floor and the atrium.

Ke Xun narrowed his eyes as he watched Mu Yiran and Zhu Haowen head upstairs. Both of them exuded an aura that kept others at a distance. He didn’t want to admit it, but they complemented each other well.

“Stop acting jealous. Let’s hurry up and get down to business. Otherwise, someone’s gonna dip their dumplings into you tonight!” Wei Dong dragged Ke Xun around the corner and onto the third floor.

“I feel like he’s….” Ke Xun had a suspicious look on his face.

“Haowen er? Impossible.” Wei Dong looked certain. “My arms were exposed last night and he didn’t even look at me.”

“……”

“Really, not even a glance. What are you looking at me like that for? He didn’t look at me at all, for real.”

“We eat meat. If you bring him a bowl of gruel, he obviously won’t so much as glance at it.”

“Who are you calling a bowl of gruel?” Wei Dong patted his own face. He thought it was firm and robust.

“……”

“You said ‘we eat meat’…who’s included in the ‘we’…?” Wei Dong felt like that was a really loaded comment. “Just who are you interested in? Aren’t you being too fickle? You better not wrong the boss!”

Ke Xun suddenly stopped in front of a section of the wall in the hallway. He stared at it with a frown for a long time.

Wei Dong also turned to take a look. He identified it: “It’s a small erotic picture.”

“How did you come up with that?”

“Isn’t that a dick?”

“….” Ke Xun hastily corrected him. “It’s bamboo!”

“I was wondering why there were so many layers of skin on top….”

“……”

Wei Dong carefully examined the simple drawing of a stalk of bamboo. “This is just graffiti carved into the wall with a small knife. A kid probably did this.”

Ke Xun glanced at the room closest to the graffiti. It was Room 309, where the two male poets had stayed. He then decided to check the walls near each door. As expected, he found another indistinct carving of bamboo near Room 307.

No other rooms on the third floor had a similar drawing beside it aside from these two.

Wei Dong also found this odd. “Do these bamboo drawings have anything to do with the Spring Bamboo Apartments?”

Ke Xun leaned against the railing, supporting his head up with his hand as he gazed outwards. “We should take a look at the fourth floor.”

As he said this, he looked upwards. Completely out-of-the-blue, a wave of vertigo crashed into him. “Fuck….”

Ke Xun rubbed his temples. He then tried to look up again. “Dong zi, have you noticed that this tube-shaped apartment seems to have changed?”

Wei Dong looked upwards but didn’t sense anything.

Ke Xun endured the dizziness and urge to vomit. He narrowed his eyes and tried his best to focus on the opening above the atrium. “Have you noticed that the opening seems to have become smaller?”

“Did it?” Wei Dong had not noticed this at all.

“Let’s go see if there are any bamboo drawings on the fourth floor.” Ke Xun moved to head upstairs.

After investigating, they found out that the fourth floor was indeed the same. There were bamboo drawings on the outer wall of each room that housed people from the external world. Some were carved deeply while others were so faint you had to examine the wall carefully to find it.

At noon, they all gathered downstairs and shared what they had found during their morning investigation.

“It’s not just the sixth floor—the fifth floor has changed slightly as well. The entire top portion of the tube-shaped apartment is slowly moving inwards.” Mu Yiran was the first to share their findings.

Zhu Haowen didn’t say a thing. He leaned against the wall and played on his phone.

Everyone looked up to the sky. Except for Ke Xun, no one else seemed to notice anything different.

Ke Xun talked about the bamboo drawings. Wei Dong had purposely gone to the sixth floor to test their hypothesis. As expected, he had found a similar bamboo drawing near Room 616.

“These drawings are very mysterious. Coincidentally, they are also related to the Spring Bamboo Apartments name.” Sha Liu’s expression was solemn. “I think that we should be able to find the signature once we uncover the drawings’ secret.”

No one else’s investigation had turned up with anything, including Old Man Li Taiyong. Apparently, as soon as he mentioned the room, the other would go completely silent.

But Old Man Li Taiyong had still managed to get some information. “Because so many things had happened in the Spring Bamboo Dormitory, the Hong Kong Developer had been concerned. He even specifically got someone to sculpt stone statues of an elephant and a rhinoceros. The statues were placed outside the building. Apparently, they can ward off evil.”

“An elephant and rhinoceros?” Xin Miao didn’t get it. “I haven’t heard of anyone using these to ward off evil. Usually, people get things in the shape of dragons, tigers, qilins, or whatever….”

“I did ask about that. Old Zhang said that it was because elephants and rhinoceroses are vegetarian.” Li Taiyong still didn’t really get it either.

Eve: I love Zhu Haowen and Li Taiyong.