Paintings of Terror

Chapter 87: Open Window at Midnight

It was already 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and night was about to fall in two or three hours. For the sake of caution, everyone didn’t split into too many groups.

“Why don’t we go outside to check? Obviously the fountain and maze are the most eye-catching objects in the whole picture!” Xin Beibei questioned.

Shi Zhendong sincerely replied: “As of right now, these two things aren’t suspicious. We’d better concentrate on searching the rooms in the castle.”

Xin Beibei showed a regretful expression, but didn’t say anymore.

The remaining people were divided into two groups, and they searched the other buildings of the castle one by one before they had to return to the lobby at 6:30 for dinner.

The two hours passed very quickly, the two groups of people didn’t dare to waste time outside, and they all returned before dinner.

Qin Ci’s team was in charge of the circular building: “The building has six floors, so it should be the tallest structure in the castle. The first and third floors can be reached from a staircase, and the layout is exactly the same as the fourth floor: one side is a semicircular hall while the other side is a semicircular room with tightly closed doors. The doors are the building’s original color, and inside the rooms are empty… empty large glass bottles, each around two meters tall.”

Everyone’s hearts felt heavy, it was as if those empty bottles were waiting for someone to fill them up.

“You said the circular building has six floors?” Zhu Haowen asked, “As of now, we’re been split into five color groups, so then what’s the other floor for?”

Qin Ci naturally didn’t know: “The fourth, fifth, and sixth floors are separated from the others, and we can only reach the fourth floor through our connecting corridor. If we want to go up to the fifth and sixth floors, then we’ll have to use the copper ladder on the outside. I was thinking little brother Ke is very agile…”

Ke Xun understood: “I’ll go check it out tomorrow.”

Yening Chenyi couldn’t help but ask: “How’s the situation with Senior Zhang?”

Qin Ci’s expression turned gloomy: “The red liquid is no longer spilling out, and the thing inside the bottle has already become the size of a fist. If you aren’t looking carefully, you’ll most likely miss it.”

Everyone seemed to feel numb regarding the decreasing size of Zhang Tianwei’s body. After so much shrinkage, it’s no doubt that everything would be completely squeezed dry.

“What about Haowen’s group? What did you find?” Shi Zhendong looked at Zhu Haowen.

Xin Beibei’s expression was a little unhappy, and she immediately glanced at Ke Xun: “Are there any new discoveries in team leader’s group?”

Ke Xun felt like Xin Beibei was a little laughable, but his group really didn’t manage to find anything, so he wasn’t able to smile even a little: “We went to the centermost building, but the main entrance was locked, and without a key it can’t be opened. The two buildings next to it were the same, so we ended up going outside to see the fountain and the maze.”

“You guys went to the maze?!” Xin Beibei was astonished.

“You seem to be very interested in the maze.” Mu Yiran’s gaze seemed to hide some sharpness.

“I’ve always wanted to go into a maze, I’ve only ever seen them on TV.” Xin Beibei felt wronged, “Were there any new discoveries inside the maze?”

“The structure of the maze is very complex, so we just looked around the outside, but we weren’t able to find anything just yet.”

Zhu Haowen: “If possible, tomorrow, we should stand somewhere where we can look down at the maze and draw a map of its route so it’ll be easier to see where we’re going.”

Xin Beibei looked at Zhu Haowen: “In other words, your group has found nothing.”

Zhu Haowen was too lazy to look at the woman, instead looking directly at her boyfriend: “We found something wrong with the pool, the coins inside have changed.”

“The coins have changed? Is it different from what you saw this morning?” Shi Zhendong asked.

Ke Xun nodded: “We weren’t as careful this morning, especially since there was an incident that interrupted our observations. We remember that at the time, there were coins inside the fountain that had a corresponding pattern to Zhang Tianwei, as for He Yu’s Jing pattern, at the time no one really saw anything.”

“What happened to the coins?” Someone asked.

“The moon patterned coins have all disappeared.” Ke Xun answered, “Furthermore, we looked through the entire fountain, and there were no coins with the Jing pattern.”

“What does this mean? After a person dies, the coins with their pattern inscribed disappear?” Shi Zhendong didn’t understand the mystery. “But you clearly saw the moon-shaped pattern this morning. Could it be that… Zhang Tianwei wasn’t dead at the time?”

Zhang Tianwei was already immersed in the blood-red bottle by then. It was unimaginable that he wasn’t already dead at the time.

There was complete silence at the dinner table.

It was Yening Chenyi who broke the silence: “If the same thing happens to me, please do everything you can to kill me.”

What could they even do?

Although the dinner itself was sumptuous, everyone could only regard it as a necessity for filling their stomachs. After barely finishing the meal, they all walked upstairs with heavy steps.

The colors in the hall were gradually darkening, and the world’s night was coming.

“Be extra careful tonight.” Mu Yiran, like last night, did not rush to leave the first floor.

“It’s me who should be saying that.” Ke Xun stood beside Mu Yiran, “The one who’s most likely to have an incident tonight is the Yening Chenyi in your room.”

“A danger that can be predicted is not necessarily the greatest one.”

“You mean…”

Mu Yiran looked at the darkening indigo pattern on the clock: “Indigo is in the light, and cyan is in the dark.”

“That’s true, regardless of which color it is, our blue room is unable to escape.” Ke Xun lifted his arm, “According to color theory, regarding the cyan, aside from our rooms, the green room is also in danger.”

If there were two corpses the next morning, one of them should be Yening Chenyi, while the other one could be anyone from the blue or green room.

“I’m just wondering if the person who caused the cyan color knows what really happened.” Mu Yiran’s words were filled with meaning.

“If they know then why wouldn’t they say it out loud? Everyone could find a way to help.”

“It’s hard to tell, maybe they’re scared of being rejected, or maybe it’s because of something else.” Mu Yiran looked at the grayed fountain and maze outside the window, “No matter what, the danger tonight can’t be resisted, so don’t act rashly.”

“Yiran, you really care about me.” Ke Xun’s voice suddenly sounded relaxed — after experiencing so much life and death, it was nice to experience things that weren’t related to them.

Mu Yiran didn’t speak anymore, the shadow of the night made the curly patterns on his clothes become even more distinct, and the whole person seemed to turn into a carefully crafted print.

The two went upstairs one after another, returning to the lobby on the second floor.

.

Although it was night, everything still had clear silhouettes, such as the light gray stairs, the dark gray tables and chairs, as well the black and seemingly bottomless floors and walls.

Ke Xun returned to his own room, where everything was the same as last night; the patterns belonging to the two ladies lying on different beds.

“Group leader, we were just talking about what happened last night. Why didn’t anyone call for help?” The polka dot pattern belonging to Guo Lixia turned over and looked towards Ke Xun, “If there’s another accident tonight, will it still be silent?”

“Even if someone calls for help, it’s impossible for us to go to another room to help.” Xin Beibei’s body looked like a narrow strip, and the small rhombus patterns all over made people feel dizzy.

Ke Xun didn’t say anything, instead laying down next to Guo Lixia like last night.

Facing the two women in the blue room, he felt a bit complicated. After all, the blue color that polluted Yening Chenyi’s skirt could have only been brought out of the blue workroom. Ke Xun firmly believed that he wouldn’t have been able to do this, so the only suspects were the two women in front of him.

“Say, what secrets do you guys think are hidden in that maze?” Ke Xun suddenly asked such a question.

“It’s unlikely for the signature to be hidden in there.” Xin Beibei replied.

“How would we know?”

“The only things inside are green plants, nothing else. Unless the signature is on one of the leaves, and in that case, how would we even find it?”

“En.” Ke Xun yawned and stopped making any sounds.

Perhaps everyone was tired, and Guo Lixia’s snoring soon filled the room.

Ke Xun was not sleepy, instead staring unblinkingly at the silhouetted window and night outside that hung like black cloth.

If one looked closely, the window lattice was really like what Miao Zipei described, filled with lilies of different shapes, but because of the composition, it was almost impossible to distinguish the original appearance.

About two hours later, Guo Lixia was already in a deep sleep, and Xin Beibei was silent. Just as Ke Xun was fighting to keep his lids open, the whole room suddenly entered darkness.

All sleepiness immediately disappeared, and Ke Xun silently kept his eyes open, trying to see anything hidden in the darkness.

If, as previously guessed, this darkness belonged to a certain shadow, just how much surface area did this shadow cover? And where was the original entity from which the shadow originated?

When people find themselves in extreme danger, they often develop something similar to a sixth sense. Ke Xun at the moment was in this situation, and he felt that the shadow was passing by his own window without any confirmation. However, once the darkness gradually left, Ke Xun almost screamed.

All of the Morris patterns on the window were gone!

That meant the windows of the room were fully opened.

Who did it? Was it someone outside or someone inside?

Ke Xun remained motionless, listening to Guo Lixia’s snoring next to his ears as his eyes spun around the room. He suddenly found that Xin Beibei, at some point, had changed her position, and was now sitting on the opposite bed.

Ke Xun said nothing, trying to make the other party think that he was still asleep.

The diamond pattern belonging to Xin Beibei stayed sitting on the bed. Because of the darkness, it made people wonder what she was looking at so seriously.

Was she looking out the window? Or was she sizing up the people on the other bed?

Xin Beibei stayed sitting for a few minutes before lying back on the bed.

Ke Xun gazed at the open window and found that he had no strength to get up and close it — His whole person seemed to be stuck to the bed. When the shadow descended last night, he felt a similar feeling.

Who opened the window? It should be Xin Beibei.

It could only be Xin Beibei, because the latches on the windows were located inside the room, and it was impossible to open them from outside.

What did Xin Beibei want to do?

Was Xin Beibei still Xin Beibei?

Did He Yu and Zhang Tianwei open their windows last night in the same way?

Could it be that the shadow could only use its power to make the people inside the room open the windows? Was that darkness really a shadow or was it an entity in itself?

Ke Xun looked at the empty gray window frame. The whole window was like an open door, inviting anything outside to come in.

—

A: This is getting freakyyyyy

H: omg im spooked *huddles pillow*

Shoutout to @sleepy avis on Discord for helping us figure out that one line!