Paintings of Terror

Chapter 126: Corgi Is a Stray Dog

After helping Kang Lai and his lover reunite in the grave, due to Li Yaqing’s begging, Ke Xun accompanied her to visit Li Yaqing and Zhao Youyi’s home. By the time these were all completed, it was already a week later. Once Ke Xun returned to his home in Z City, he slept for an entire day.

After waking up, he started cleaning.

Yes, life had to go on, right?

His empty house wasn’t difficult to clean up. The large pieces of furniture consisted of only a bed, a dining table, a computer desk, and a set of lazy couches. The wardrobe was wall-mounted. After wiping the cabinet doors, the tables, the glass windows, and the doors, he dragged a rag over the floors in all the rooms. Afterward, he removed the curtains and sofa covers and threw them into the washing machine.

Then, he went to the supermarket, bought various items, and went back home to cook.

Sweet and sour short ribs, black pepper meat, kung pao shrimps, eight-treasure tofu, fresh bamboo shoots with butter, peaches in soy sauce, and a soup.

After setting up a table full of dishes, he sent Wei Dong a Wechat message, “Come out and eat.”

“Fuck.” Wei Dong responded quickly. “You should have told me half an hour ago, and I’ll be sitting at your table right now! But now I’m at my grandma’s place, and the food’s already on the table. It won’t look good if I leave. I’ll eat with you tomorrow. You can prepare a meal fit for royalties for me.”

Ke Xun put down the phone, feeling confused. Before cooking, he should have sent a message to Wei Dong. Everything was ready now. Even if Wei Dong could come over, by the time he got here, the food would be cold.

Scratching his head, he filled a bowl full of rice and sat down at the table.

Clean white tabletops, clean white bowls and dishes, clean white hot meals, and empty clean white rooms.

Ke Xun served himself some vegetables. There were six different dishes and one soup, creating an array of red, green and yellow. The intense colors in some plates made the clean white all the more apparent.

After eating, he tidied up and played on his phone on the sofa.

His last Weibo post was published before he’d entered the last painting. Behind the work-related post Wei Dong had shared was a photo of the Square Box Art Gallery and a single sentence: I’m going in. Good bye.

Fortunately, this sentence didn’t become the last message of his life. The timeline of his Weibo could continue to extend…for a while longer.

Ke Xun called up the camera, snapped a photo of the sunlight on the clean wooden floor, and uploaded it to Weibo.

Corgi is a stray dog: The world is stable, and the years are peaceful.[smile]

Very soon after it was sent, it garnered more than a dozen comments.

At first, Ke Xun thought that he’d read it wrong. Usually his post would only result in one or two replies from friends he knew in reality. Aside from this, most of his posts had 0 comments, just like all the posts made by transparent, ordinary people on the internet.

When he clicked on it, he saw that the first comment came from “Defending_masses.”

Defending_Masses: It’s already 8012. Your ancient chicken soup has already gotten stale, right?

.

The next one was from a gym buddy.

Exercising makes me abnormal: Brother, since you have time to hide at home and talk nonsense, come and take a look at this place.

Next were comments from people he didn’t know.

Piapiapia: Oh my god, the little brother updated his blog. Requesting a picture.

Did the idol marry me today: Since you’re fine, then the day is full of sunshine.[Dog head]

A Mouthful of Tenderness: Little brother, you’re so handsome. Requesting a mutual follow~

Too handsome to close his legs: Handsome, where’s your boyfriend? [Smiling quietly]

Everyone I follow is handsome: From the angle and the height of the photo, the person taking the picture should be lying in bed or on the sofa, and judging from the brightness of the sunlight on the floor, the person taking the picture should be in a very good mood. The combination of the smoothness of the floor and the angle of the sunlight echoed the photographer’s state of laziness, satisfaction, happiness, and contentment. Therefore, we know that the poster and his boyfriend are resting mid-way. [Dog head]

The next reply:

They both barked: Puf–very talented!

It’s a pear: A godly reply [Chinese praise]

Crossing the ocean to you: Hahahahaha, resting mid-way, huh?

Classmate Tian: After a 90 minutes battle, the final score is 1 and 0. [smile]

…

Ke Xun: “…”

Where did these people come from?

How did they know whether he was male or gay?

How did they know he was handsome?…

Ke Xun clicked on the Weibo of a person called “A Mouthful of Tenderness.” Judging from the tone and content of this person’s message, she should know what he looked like.

Ke Xun had never posted a picture of himself on the Internet before, so perhaps this person knew him in real life?

Looking at this person’s Weibo, he speculated that she ought to be a girl and a fujoshi. Eight of the ten Weibo posts on her page were very enthusiastically sprouting male CPs of various dimensions.

Until he turned to her Weibo a week ago.

These articles were all forwards, and the original posts were all from the same person whose ID was called “The sun lusts after the vapours of dust”:

—“Online graphic livestream: This poster met a very handsome little brother on the main road. Getting ready to summon the courage to go up and give it a go. Hope this poster will have good luck. Please wait for my followup!”

—“Mom, the little brother is so nice, he agreed to take a photo with this poster! I’ll post the picture later! Wait for me!”

—“Ahhhhhhh! He is so tall! A visual inspection determines that he’s close to 1.9 meters! His figure is perfect! Below his neck are all legs! The little brother looks more handsome at close range! His skin is super good! His eyes are very beautiful, especially when he smiles, full of sunshine and warmth but with a little bit of wickedness~Ahhh, this old man’s girlish heart~~~”

—“Oh god! Oh god! I can’t breathe. Guess what the little brother said!!! He said! He! Has! A! Boy! Friend!!!! Ahhh, so cute! So handsome! Only a man is worthy of this little brother!”

—“The little brother is going into the art gallery, and so this poster and her friends have decided to quietly follow…Anyway, we’re idle so why not watch the handsome guys have a date and fall in love. Forgot to mention that the little brother’s boyfriend also entered the art gallery too. Just looking at his back, we can tell that he’s also very handsome~”

—“Here’s the little brother’s photo~Isn’t he handsome? This poster has already made some progress with friends. If there are any [interesting] photos in the future, this poster will put it up. Wait for my good news!”

Below this Weibo post was a photo of him. The background behind him was the door of the Square Box Art Gallery. He and a girl were standing in front of the door. The girl looked happy and lovely.

The blogger “The sun lusts after the vapours of dust” was Zhang Hanrui.

Ke Xun’s gaze lingered for a long time on her last Weibo post.

After the “Wait for my good news,” there were no more updates.

Zhang Hanrui had more than 20,000 fans and was a certified beauty blogger on Weibo. The beauty blogger was probably self-styled, and the 20,000 might as well be ten thousands. Only a few hundred fans were responsive. Most of these people might just be paying attention due to her face, and some of them, like her, were probably fujoshis.

Obviously, “A mouthful of tenderness” was like this. She reposted a few Weibo posts and left comments with great interest.

Ke Xun clicked on Zhang Hanrui’s Weibo. The number of comments on her Weibo ranged from 80 to 90, with some climbing to 100. On the post with the picture of Ke Xun, there were more than 1000 comments, and the number of forwards were 1023.

Ke Xun looked at the comments on this Weibo post. Most of the comments praised him for being handsome, full of the wolf howls of fujoshis. The most liked comment was made by “Beautiful Men Locator.”

“The little brother’s ID: Corgi is a stray dog. Take it, and don’t mention it.”

There were hundreds of replies below this comment, such as “Thank you” and “May good people live peaceful lives.”

Ke Xun let out a “Fuck” and clicked back to his own Weibo. The notification page showed that there were more than 400 comments, and the number of new fans had reached 3,000 and still climbing.

After switching back to his personal homepage, he saw that there were now dozens or even hundreds of comments on his previous posts, either praising him for being handsome or asking him to post a picture of himself…

“Fuck, fuck.” Ke Xun stared at the screen of the phone in his hand.

What kind of disaster was this…How did that “Beautiful Men Locator” know his ID?

Ke Xun clicked on this person’s homepage. It was full of images of handsome guys, beautiful men, and ambiguous images of two-dimensional characters. Ke Xun privately sent a message to this person: This expert, can I ask how you found my ID?

“Beautiful Men Locator” quickly responded back: Ahhhh! Handsome guy!!! How do you know me?! Ahhhh! The handsome guy talked to me!!! I’m so happy, my head’s going to fall off!!!

Corgi is a stray dog:…Hold your head and answer my question first!

Beautiful Men Locator: Coincidence, coincidence, no, it was luck! I was very lucky. I saw that the background of the photo was Square Box Art Gallery, and so I searched for the city where the art gallery was located. When I clicked on the city’s Weibo page, and clicked on the name of the city, I saw that the city has a local official blog with posts from the locals themselves!

Corgi is a stray dog: Wait…I’m not a local. I just happened to be there that day.

Beautiful Men Locator: But didn’t you also post to Weibo that day? You took a photo of the Square Box Art Gallery and tagged the location. Handsome guy, you are so cute. Hahaha, so cute~

Corgi is a stray dog:…

Corgi is a stray dog: Goodbye.

Beautiful Men Locator: Don’t go, handsome guy! I love you. I’m your face fan! Begging for milk and sugar.

Corgi is a stray dog: You’ve been blacklisted and will never see me again.

Beautiful Men Locator: Don’t~~~~Tell me your boyfriend’s Weibo ID! Are you the gong or the shou?

Ke Xun ignored her. This person was probably a rotten idiot (female). Normal people wouldn’t dive so deeply into other people’s information just based on a single photo!

As he thought so, he flicked his hand and cautiously opened up his own Weibo again. Sure enough, under some of his posts were messages from “Beautiful Men Locator”…

Ke Xun: “…”

He didn’t know if this was the after effects of having spent too much time in the paintings, but this real-world painting style was making him a little uncomfortable.

He clicked on the post with the picture of the Square Box Art Gallery, and not surprisingly, saw a few messages from “Beautiful Men Locator”: Handsome guy, are you in the art industry? I found that you often hang out in art galleries in various cities?

A picture was attached to the comment.

It was a digital map with the word “art gallery” entered into the search bar. On the screen of the map were dense red marks representing the position of the galleries. Each red marks had blue lines that pointed to screenshots of various museums: the Eternal River Art Gallery, the Rhino Elephant Art Gallery, the Big Nose Art Gallery, the Great T Art Gallery, and the Square Box Art Gallery.

Except for the first time, when he went to the Starry Sky Art Gallery, Ke Xun would take a picture of the gallery’s front door and post it on Weibo before entering a painting.

Maybe it was to leave one last mark on the world, or maybe it was to leave clues about the painting world that people didn’t know about. Even if they couldn’t decipher it, who knew whether there would be future geniuses who could crack the paintings and save the later generations?

As a result, the savior he’d waited for hadn’t come. Instead, what came was an idiotic fujoshi who dug into his information to this extent.

Speechless, Ke Xun stared at this screenshot for a long time.

He was about to close the picture and quit Weibo when he made a sudden discovery that may or may not be a coincidence—