Paintings of Terror

Chapter 39: I Like You

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Father Geng was prepared to run outside as he said this but Qin Ci managed to press him down. “You won’t make it in time. You can’t go outside. They’re too far away. You won’t make it back here!”

Father Geng growled while trying to throw Qin Ci off him in a fit of rage. Ke Xun heard the young boy beside him let out an involuntary sob.

Ke Xun sat up. “I’m a fast runner. I’ll throw their offerings away.” As he spoke, he walked through his tent’s flaps.

“You won’t make it.” Mu Yiran reached out to grab him.

“Let me try.” Ke Xun looked at him. “Even if that thing comes, I’ll be able to save at least one person. Dr. Qin had carried Zhao Dan over to my tent when Zhou Bin had been killed. I don’t think that thing will be in any mind to pay attention to anything else while in the middle of a kill. So, let me give it a try.”

“But if you do that, there will only be two people in your tent. What if that thing chooses your tent instead? What should we do then?” Father Geng was worried about both his wife and son.

Ke Xun sensed Mu Yiran’s grip lighten. He pulled his arm out at once and yelled out: “Yiran, stay at the tents. Play it by ear. Try switching back and forth between the two tents!”

He then made a mad dash for the distant third tent.

‘Yiran?’….Mu Yiran stared at Ke Xun’s back coldly.

“Don’t worry, he’ll be fine.” Qin Ci comforted him while still holding down the anxious Father Geng.

Mu Yiran turned to face Qin Ci: “Do I look worried?”

Qin Ci: “….” What are you getting into a huff about?

Ke Xun sprinted as fast as he could to Mother Geng’s tent. He ripped the tent flaps open and asked Sha Liu: “Where are? the offerings? Throw them away!”

Sha Liu was terrified. “We can’t throw them away. We’ll die. Don’t screw us over….”

Ke Xun sneered. “Mu Yiran said that keeping these offerings will put you in danger!”

Sha Liu panicked and shouted: “He also said that it was up to us! You have no right to meddle!”

“Is this the choice of your group or your own choice?” Ke Xun forced his way into the crowded tent and looked for the offerings.

Sha Liu pounced over to a corner of the tent and blocked a heap of items with her body. She shrieked in fear and anger: “What right do you have to do this?! You’re going to kill us. You’re going to get us all killed. You’re a murderer!”

Ke Xun paused. He ignored Sha Liu and spoke to Mother Geng, who was at her wits end. “Geng dage is worried about you. He doesn’t think you should keep the offerings in your tent. What do you think?”

Before Mother Geng could reply, Sha Liu ran over to grab her shoulders and said in an anxious tone: “Ma’am, think about it. Geng dage doesn’t have any offerings. It doesn’t matter whether these offerings save us or get us killed—what’s important is that at least one of you survives. But if we throw these offerings away and that thing decides to choose people who don’t have offerings, both of you might end up chosen. It’s better for one person to survive. Think about it, ma’am! Think of your child, if not for you and your husband!”

Mother Geng had been hesitant. When she heard Sha Liu’s words, she finally made up her mind. She looked at Ke Xun with tears in her eyes. “Young man, leave me be and hurry back to your own tent. Tell my husband that he must protect our son….”

Ke Xun frowned. Noticing this, Sha Liu promptly shoved him towards the exit. “Hurry and leave! Don’t force others to do something they don’t want to do! You’re going to get us killed by staying here because we’ll have too many people. Leave quickly!”

Mother Geng also ushered him away, eyes teary. “Go on, young man. My son…if there’s not enough people in your tent, he’ll be in danger. Please, please, consider it an act of my own selfishness. Please hurry back for the sake of my son!”

Ke Xun gnashed his teeth and left. There was something different about the scenery now, although nothing visible had changed. There was no longer any wind. It was like everything was? frozen in time. The light reflected off the snow on the mountains had become whiter and it felt like the sky was covered in a thick layer of ink. It felt heavy, like it would fall at any moment.

Ke Xun sprinted madly as the dense ink that covered the sky continued to press down on them. It suddenly became hard to breathe—he couldn’t breath. He covered his nose and mouth at once but Mu Yiran’s method failed to work this time. He found it harder and harder to breathe. It felt like something was filling his chest, bringing about an intense pain.

A giant black blob gradually descended from the sky. Two thick legs sprouted from the blob upon landing. Then, it grew a torso, an arm, another arm, and another. Gradually, it transformed. The arms started to wave in the air in a dance-like fashion.

This thing looked even more robust than the previous night. Its skin was pitch-black and rough. There were lines all over its body, making it look like spells had been etched all over its skin. Looking at it made goosebumps erupt all over Ke Xun’s skin.

But Ke Xun had no time to think about goosebumps. While suffering from the pain of asphyxiation, he continued to use all his energy to run towards his own tent. His chest felt increasingly full and his heart raced increasingly fast. The longer he ran, the closer his legs got to giving up.

A few metres from his tent, he saw Mu Yiran swiftly run out of his tent. The other dashed towards him, grabbed his collar, and dragged him into a tent.

Ke Xun lied in his own tent, gasping heavily for air.

Although the scent in the air was unpleasant, it was still air.

Only then did Ke Xun realize that these tents seemed to act like barriers. It wasn’t that Heishitian couldn’t pay attention to people outside the tents while killing someone, it was that it didn’t need to. Outside the tents, one would die of suffocation.

Ke Xun filled his lungs with air and stared outside through the flaps of the tent. That giant shadow was cast over the wall of his tent. That thing’s legs were bent and it was gradually walking over to Ke Xun’s tent.

Did it choose the tents without offerings?

Ke Xun wanted to evoke his psychic powers but it wasn’t like he was a protagonist in a novel or tv show. He was also dizzy from the lack of oxygen just now. He couldn’t concentrate at all.

He watched helplessly as the giant shadow advanced towards their tents. Its giant head slowly pressed down against the top of his tent. Its eight arms twisted in the air like they were Medusa’s snakes.

Ke Xun stared at the ceiling and saw the giant shadow reach a hand over to the tent next to his.

Ke Xun clenched his fist tightly and then relaxed it. He stuck the hand closest to the tent entrance into the other tent.

Mu Yiran was also lying near the entrance. As soon as Ke Xun reached out, he met the other’s arm.

His fingers slid down Mu Yiran’s arm and then clasped tightly around the other’s hand.

Mu Yiran’s body tensed and he shifted his hand. But Ke Xun didn’t want to let go. He clenched his hand tightly. He thought, if that giant shadow picked Mu Yiran up, he could continue to hold onto his hand and get picked up with him.

Ke Xun was startled by his own thought.

Whatever happened…to only admiring the other? To just being his fan?

The giant shadow bent over Mu Yiran’s tent, its slow breaths circulating through the air as it observed it for a long period of time. Suddenly, it shifted and began to peer down Ke Xun’s tent.

This time, one of its hands hovered over the top of the tent. Its fingers spread out, the fingernails scraping alongside the material of the tent. It sounded like it was scraping against bone. It made one’s heart tremble.

——Had it finally decided on their tent?

The boy lying in-between Ke Xun and Wei Dong started to cry but he tried to hold it to the best of his abilities. His thin body shook uncontrollably.

Ke Xun wrapped his other arm around the boy and pressed the other’s head into his chest.

Suddenly, he couldn’t remember when the last time he was held like this in his father’s arms was. It could have been when he was seven or eight, or even as young as three or four.

He and his father had a relationship typical? of many Chinese father-son pairs. They were never ones to show their affection overtly. And the older he got, the more embarrassing it became to express his affection.

But now, Ke Xun regretted it.

He regretted never telling the person he loved the most ‘I love you’ while the other had still been alive.

Some regrets could be made-up while others would remain a regret for the rest of one’s life.

More than anyone else, Ke Xun detested having regrets.

Even though he had one arm tightly around the boy, he still held onto Mu Yiran’s hand.

The back of Mu Yiran’s hand had originally been cool, but it had now warmed up from being held by Ke Xun’s hand.

Ke Xun’s hands were warm all year long. Even if he was nervous, afraid, heart-broken or facing death, they never cooled down.

Ke Xun used his thumb to write on the back on Mu Yiran’s hand.

The scraping sound made by the giant shadow came closer and closer. It became increasingly sharp, like its fingernails would tear through the tent at any time. Like it would eviscerate this reckless human with its sharp nails in the next second.

Death was imminent.

【I like you.】

Ke Xun wrote.

Mu Yiran, who was in the tent next door, didn’t move. It seemed like he was ignoring him.

The reckless human smiled and continued to write with his finger.

【I know that you also like men.】

At this moment, Ke Xun felt Mu Yiran’s body stiffen nearly imperceptibly.

Ke Xun had always said that his intuition has been very accurate.

Besides, people were even more sensitive to others of their own kind.

Ke Xun stopped writing. He stared up at the monstrous sight before him at the top of the tent. Suddenly, he felt calm and relaxed for some baffling reason.

Since his faith was in liberty and doing as he pleased, he should be magnanimous and happy while alive. When facing death, he should be fervently unbridled.

It felt like time had slowed down to 0.1x speed. The giant shadow continued to pick at the tent as it pressed its enormous face against the material. It was sizing up the inhabitants.

Ke Xun stared back. The light reflected off of the snow flickered against the darkness brought by the giant shadow. The scene above him was like an old, silent black-and-white film.

Why was there no source of light during the day? The light always seemed to come from all directions.

.

It was only at night that there seemed to be a source. The light was reflected off of the snowy mountains. The light shone against the tents at an angle, which was why they could see shadows. That was why Ke Xun could see the silhouette of Mu Yiran’s perfect profile and the disgusting shadow of the eight-armed monstrosity.

An idea abruptly popped up in Ke Xun’s mind: light and darkness…. There are no shadows during the day because the light is too scattered and is emitted from all directions. They don’t even have shadows beneath their feet. This was unscientific, which was expected considering they were in a painting. The only thing was…why were their shadows at night?

Was this…a hint?

Eve: Y’all, I told you our boy Ke Xun falls hella fast. But I mean, who wouldn’t like MYR. He’s a damn catch hehe.