Paintings of Terror

Chapter 57: The Whistle-Blowing Old Man

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

At ten o’clock at night, the group members all felt restless in their rooms so they decided to cool off in the hallways.

Ever since they found out that the top of the tube-shaped apartment was gradually squeezing together, everyone started to notice that the opening above the atrium was indeed getting smaller. Everytime they looked up, they began to feel suffocated.

Sha Liu, Qiu Lu and Xin Miao gathered together by the railings. They seemed to be discussing something with nervous expressions.

“I feel like there’s something off about Sha Liu.” Ke Xun waved his palm-leaf fan and stared at the nearby girls.

“Speaking of which, she’s lived through a painting already. Even if she’s nervous, so is everyone else. But she didn’t used to be like this.” Wei Dong regarded her coldly. He had always thought that she was scary.

As they say, a leopard can’t change its spots. When humans are faced with terrifying things, they will always reveal their true selves. Sha Liu had not lost her head in fear while faced with Heishitian. She had displayed a steadiness few young women possessed. She had also done everything she could to stay alive.

But when everyone was discussing the matter of the ‘bamboo shooting out of the ground’, she had lost control of herself. She had become even more erratic upon hearing the NPC’s hint. They didn’t know if she had discovered something or if she had a motive or sorts.

Sha Liu’s gaze was trained on Ke Xun’s group right now but her lips moved non-stop. “In summary, if we completely break through the ground, we’ll all die.”

Qiu Lu was panicking. “We’ve already discussed this during dinner. what I want to ask is if you have any other information.”

Sha Liu looked like she was hesitant to speak. “I didn’t hide this from you guys on purpose. After all, we haven’t come up with a solution yet. I didn’t want to scare you guys.”

“We should share all information! That’s only fair.” Qiu Lu said hastily. Xin Miao also nodded.

Sha Liu looked up at the opening above the atrium, as if gathering her courage. “Do you guys remember how the staircases disappeared the two nights ago?”

As they heard this, both of them felt fear as they glanced at the stairs.

“Mu ge thinks that the opening shrinking is related to what will happen tonight.” Sha Liu leaned against the railing, hand trembling slightly. It was obvious that she was terrified.

Xin Miao was alarmed. “W-what you’re saying is that the change in the opening is related to the disappearances of the stairs?”

Sha Liu nodded. “That’s what Mu ge thinks. But he only mentioned that off-handedly. He didn’t say much about that.”

Xin Miao’s face was white as a sheet. “Mu ge’s always right…. What should we do? The entire building is trying to kill us!”

Qiu Lu was so scared she couldn’t speak. A long item later, she spoke up. “If the tube-shaped apartment closes off, then we’ll become easy pickings for those monsters.”

“We don’t know how the ghost from 307 will kill us either! It’s not going to cut us up and turn us into meat stuffing, is it?!” Xin Miao started to imagine some horrifying possibilities.

“Maybe it’s not as simple as we think. Like the snow-white woman from last night…. Who would have imagined that Shou Zhu would die like that…?” Sha Liu struggled to think about last night’s events.

Xin Miao started to tremble in fear. “I’m all alone in Room 402. I don’t want to die. If I have to die like Shou Zhu did, I’d rather kill myself first!”

“But we shouldn’t go against the NPC’s rules. Otherwise, we’ll die like Tina and Zhi Shao and them.” Sha Liu said.

The two other women thought that she was right. They also felt that Sha Liu was the smartest amongst them. Qiu Lu thus asked, “Do you have any ideas?”

Sha Liu sighed. “The only thing I can think of is really foolish. Honestly, if anything else, we can try to jump out the window…. After all, there’s a cement wall in the way so it technically wouldn’t count as us escaping to the outside world…. Furthermore, we’re on the fourth floor. We might not die at this height….”

The two women silently processed this. Qiu Lu’s eyes lit up slightly. “The NPC’s original words were literally: don’t go out through the doors. Leaving through the window could be considered a loophole, right?”

Sha Liu looked at Qiu Lu. “That makes sense. The gatekeeper uncle only said to not leave through the doors. He didn’t say we couldn’t jump out the window.”

Xin Miao was still afraid. “But then we’d be stuck between the building’s wall and the cement wall!”

Sha Liu and Qiu Lu seemed calm, however. “We checked out the main entrance in the afternoon. Every day at five in the evening, it will open for one hour so that the people who went out to work or buy groceries can come back inside. The space between the building’s wall and cement wall is empty. There’s probably a path that connects outside.”

“But….”

“This is our last result. If we end up in a situation similar to what Shou Zhu faced, or something even worse…” Shou Zhu frowned, “Then we might as well jump out the window. If we die, we die. If we live, we live.”

Xin Miao also nodded, faced with Qiu Lu’s decisiveness.

Sha Liu didn’t say anything else.

The gatekeeper uncle’s voice came from the atrium downstairs. “Return to your rooms! It’s time for the electricity to cut off!”

Everyone returned to their respective rooms to face the darkness and the unknown.

After returning to Room 411, Ke Xun suddenly realized that the curtain over the small window was gone. “Who removed the curtain?”

Mu Yiran’s voice was unflustered. “None of the rooms have curtains anymore. The NPCs probably did it.”

Ke Xun stared at the bucket set in the corner of the bedroom. The NPC had probably removed their curtain when placing the buckets inside each room.

To avoid any awkward situations, Ke Xun had abstained from drinking liquids. He had drunk very little congee at dinner. Mu Yiran had simply skipped it.

The two of them had slept their fill at noon. They were currently sitting on the bed.

“Will the person tonight be like Yafen and walk according to some sort of pattern?” Ke Xun recalled Yafen from last night. Regardless of what floor she was on, she always walked in a counter-clockwise direction.

“Perhaps there is a rule it follows as well.” Mu Yiran looked at the completely uncovered window. The moon was very bright tonight. They could even make out the railings in the hallway through the window.

Ke Xun really liked to hear Mu Yiran speak in the dark. The other always spoke at a moderate pace. His voice was chilly but also rich and mellow. “According to last night’s rule, Yafen would not knock on 410’s door. Tonight should be the same.”

Ke Xun had not thought of that. “Seems like the ghost of 307 won’t be knocking on the door it comes out of. It will head straight for another unit. The key to 309, where Shou Zhu lived, has already been taken back. It’s an empty room right now. That means that the spirit of Room 307 will head straight for the fourth floor.”

There was no way they couldn’t be nervous, talking about such things while on the fourth floor. However, Ke Xun felt inexplicably at ease sitting here next to Mu Yiran.

Mu Yiran’s voice sounded in the room again. “If the spirit of 307 also moves in a counter-clockwise direction, it will climb up from the staircase between Rooms 304 and 305. The first room it will reach after coming to the fourth floor is Room 402.”

Ke Xun then said, “If that spirit walks in a clockwise direction, it will come up from the staircase between 308 and 309. That means that the first Room it will reach is 410.”

In any case, 411 would not be the first.

It sounded cruel, but this meant that they could learn what the spirit from 307 would do to people of their group. They would be able to learn if it would knock politely like Yafen from last night or not.

A series of coughs suddenly came from outside. It sounded like it came from an old person.

“Wangfu—” All of a sudden, someone shouted, startling everyone.

Mu Yiran and Ke Xun both hopped off the bed without consulting each other. They each found a suitable corner to peer out the window. This way, they could look through the window without having to be at the window.

A tottering old man appeared in the hallway of the fourth floor. It seemed like he was limping. He was hunched over and holding a pot in one of his hands. With his other hand, he stiffed whatever was inside the pot.

This person looked exactly as Qin Ci described.

“Wangfu—Wangfu—come home—” The old man’s voice sounded raspy but he shouted with all his might. It sounded like he was calling for a child who had yet to return home.

The old man staggered down the hallway in a counter-clockwise direction. He started to use the thing in one of his hands to knock against the pot. Bang bang bang. “Wangfu—it’s time to eat—come home—”

The old man pulled something out from his chest and a sharp sound emitted in the air. It looked like he was blowing into a whistle hanging around his neck. The whistle sounds followed a certain rhythm. It sounded like it was calling out ‘Wangfu’ while dragging out the name.

The old man finally stopped in front of Room 402. He stopped? blowing into the window. He also ceased his hoarse shouting. He simply stood there silently while in front of Room 402.

This pause gave everyone an indescribable, stifling feeling.

In the end, it was the old man himself who broke the silence. He started to beat the pot in his hand again. The beating grew increasingly mad and angry. Bang bang bang—they sounded like a curse in the night. It was like he was trying to summon some ferocious beast.

“Wangfu! Come out! Come out quickly!” The old man’s voice sounded anxious. He leaned completely against 402’s window and then started to slam the thing in his hand against the window. “Come out Wangfu!”

This neurotic banging and howling lasted about ten minutes before it slowly ended.

Completely unexpected, Xin Miao, who stayed in 402 on her own, managed to make it through the pressure.

The old man seemed to grow weary of shouting. He continued to move in a counter-clockwise direction, dragging his heavy feet. Every step, he banged the object in his hand against the pot and blew into his whistle.

A while later, the shouts continued. “Wangfu—Wangfu—come home—”

Judging by the direction he was moving in, 411 was the next room he was going to stop at.

“Don’t get too close.” Mu Yiran returned to the bed and sat down. Ke Xun also sat down quietly.

The two of them sat in a corner diagonal from the window. It would be difficult for anyone to see them from the outside.

“Wangfu, don’t be naughty. Come out!” The old man’s voice came through the window of their room, sounding like a nightmare.

The old man smacked the window hard. Bang bang bang. It sounded furious.

Ke Xun could faintly make out the object in the old man’s hand. It was a large iron ladle.

The banging lasted a very long time. It sounded like the window would shatter with every hit. Somehow, it managed to stay intact.

“Wangfu! Wangfu!! Wangfu!!!” The old man’s voice grew increasingly agitated. When his emotions peaked, he started to sob. “Come home—”

As he sobbed, the picture on the other side of the window changed.

Ke Xun could feel Mu Yiran stiffen beside him. A giant face filled the window. The face belonged to the old man. Wrinkles lined his face and his beard was completely unkempt.

What made them even more uncomfortable was the expression on this person’s face. His eyes were full of tears and unbearable sorrow. He was biting down hard on his lips and his face trembled non-stop….

“Wangfu! Come home!” The giant face pleaded with a sobbing tone. Suffering seeped out of his haggard face.

Ke Xun and Mu Yiran sat there motionlessly.

The giant face went silent but came even closer. The muddy eyes tried its best to peer into the room. The slightly greyed eyes flickered back and forth in an attempt to scan every corner of the room.

The giant face with constantly roving eyes and the heavy breathing brought with it intense pressure and horror.

Ke Xun looked away from the giant face at the window and then closed his eyes. He pretended to be a piece of furniture or rock.

A long, long time later, the old man finally started to blow his whistle again. He then went to bang against the window of 410 with his iron ladle….

Mu Yiran discretely made his way to the window and watched for some time.

The old man acted the same as he had in front of the other rooms. When his emotions reached their peak, his banging became erratic and he started to howl, sob and curse….

When that ended, the old man staggered upstairs.

Mu Yiran then walked back to the bed. It seems like that person’s body hasn’t undergone any changes. The giant face we saw in the window just now was likely just an illusion or….”

“Just magic realism’s painting style,” Ke Xun summarized.

Mu Yiran nodded. “That makes sense.”