Paintings of Terror

Chapter 52: The Woman in Red

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Ke Xun was watching with his arms folded as Mu Yiran personally placed the red slippers back under the bed. “Did you have the same concern Sha Liu had for Qiu Ku? Did you think that I’d make a scene because I would be scared? Was that why you hid the matter with the ghost from me?”

Mu Yiran put the slippers down and then looked at Ke Xun with a mildly chilly expression. He was about to reply when he saw Ke Xunhand him the cool bar of soap: “You should wash your hands.”

“….”

After Mu Yiran left, Ke Xun squatted down to look at the pair of red slippers at the foot of the bed. It looked pretty domestic. Intimate, really.

Ke Xun thought of his childhood. His mom had a pair of red slippers and his father had a pair of slippers in a shade of warm brown. His own had been sky blue in colour. Every slipper had on a picture of a little bear. All together, they were ‘the Three Bears’….

As this memory drifted into his mind, the strange atmosphere dissipated. Ke Xun got up and walked over to the desk. He stroked the deeply engraved ‘return’ character. He didn’t know who the owner of the red slippers was waiting for.

Everyone spent the afternoon searching for the signature.

Because of the lack of clues, everyone had no choice but to comb the building while using the clumsiest of methods. They couldn’t enter the units belonging to non-group members at will and the signature was probably not in non-group member apartments either. Therefore, they focused on blanket searching the corridors, staircases and communal washrooms.

Night eventually fell and nothing had turned up.

The newcomers were especially disappointed. Only Shou Zhu had something to say. “There were many good poems written on the walls of one of the communal washrooms on the fourth floor. Most of them were original works.”

No one paid attention to him aside from Qiu Lu. She asked, “Are you talking about the washroom to the west of 409?”

Shou Zhu fanned himself with the folding fan in his hand, “That’s right.”

“The women’s washroom was also filled with poems!” Qiu Lu turned to look at Sha Liu. Since that was the washroom closest to 410, the two of them usually used that one.

Sha Liu furrowed her brows. She had also seen those vulgar poems. She didn’t think that there was a connection between these poems and the signature. She also thought that these poets were useless.

Shou Zhu didn’t pay her expression any mind and started to recite: “Transparent as spring water, sharp as a knife, vast and sparkling….”

“The same poem was in the female washroom!” Qiu Lu interrupted Shou Zhu. “Did the same person write it?”

Shou Zhu seemed to be thinking seriously for the first time. He flipped his fan closed. “No wonder the style and hand-writing seemed a bit feminine.”

“Even if it was written by the same person, what does it prove? That a woman snuck into the male washroom to write a poem?” Sha Liu thought that this was disgusting. In contrast, it was exactly something an immoral person like Shou Zhu enjoyed.

“I think that’s pretty weird,” Xin Miao said in a very quiet voice.

Sha Liu didn’t want to waste time on this, however. “We need to search for the signature.”

Everyone was congregating at the restaurant’s exit. Some were earnestly listening to the others while others were lost in thought. Only Zhu Haowen was leaning against the wall, his head lowered as he played games on his phone.

Ke Xun pushed the bamboo curtain hanging over the door to one side for Wu Mei, who was holding a basket of vegetables. “Let’s go in and eat. We can talk while we have dinner.”

The small restaurant felt stuffy so Wu Mei decided to bring a collapsible table to the atrium: “Let’s eat outside. It’s nice and cool!”

“Good idea!” Ke Xun walked over to carry the table for Wu Mei. “I’ll do it! You guys shouldn’t just stand around either. Everyone, bring your own chair! Haowen er, don’t play on your phone. Bring a chair over!”

Zhu Haowen looked up, gaze drifting in Ke Xun’s direction. He then walked into the restaurant and carried a chair out.

Qiu Lu and Xin Miao were still thinking about the poems in the washroom. They were really dissatisfied with Sha Liu’s pejorative attitude just now. Xin Miao walked over to Mu Yiran. “Mu ge, don’t you think that the poems are weird? This person went into the male and female washrooms. Is this person a he or she? They live on the fourth floor with us!”

Mu Yiran: “Let’s go take a look after dinner. If it’s the same handwriting, we can all search our respective rooms and try to find matching samples of writing. Perhaps we’ll uncover some clues.”

Sha Liu looked at Mu Yiran. She then took off her glasses and cleaned them with her shirt.

Wu Mei turned on the light in front of the restaurant. The atrium lit up. The group didn’t have much to say and many people had small appetites. After all, night would soon fall.

“Eat as much as you can. You’ll only have energy if you eat.” Old Man Li Taiyong advised.

“The old sir’s right,” Ke Xun used his chopsticks to pick up some shredded pickled radish and chewed on them. “You have to keep up your strength if you want to have the energy to escape!”

Everyone thought that this sounded reasonable. They then lowered their heads and focused on eating.

Mu Yiran took in Ke Xun’s friendly appearance. He couldn’t help but stare a bit. It was rare to see someone like Ke Xun, who had an inherent ability to draw you in and feel comfortable around him, in his normal life.

Old Man Li Taiyong smiled. He really liked the child named Ke Xun. “While you all were searching for clues upstairs, I played a few rounds of Chinese chess with Old Zhang.”

“Old Zhang? Are you referring to the gatekeeper uncle?” Only now did Ke Xun find out that the elderly gentleman’s last name was Zhang.

“Yes. I took the chance to ask him about the situation here.” Old Man Li Taiyong said calmly.

Sha Liu was worked up upon hearing this. “Did you ask about the deaths that happened here?”

Old Man Li Taiyong shook his head. “That’s not how one should start a conversation. One has to take it step by step.”

Sha Liu lowered her head and twisted the steamed twisted bread roll in her hand. “What did you talk about then?”

Everyone slowly ate as they attentively listened to Old Man Li Taiyong speak.

“This building is old. It was built at the beginning of the eighties. It belongs to a factory. In other words, it was a dormitory for the factory workers.” Although Old Man Li Taiyong was old, his speech was very clear and his pace was unhurried. “Two years ago, the factory was listed on the stock market. Factory Director Liao owns the most shares. Along with a few other shareholders, he decided to sell the land the Spring Bamboo Dormitory is located on.”

“Sell? But people are still living here, aren’t they?” Wei Dong asked.

“Apparently, the factory had started to expel people from the dormitory before the selling took place. The employees that had their own homes or were very honest moved out. However, most people refused to leave. The factory director thus decided to just call it the Spring Bamboo Apartments and left it open for renting for a year or two. Later on, he began negotiations with a developer from Hong Kong. As a result, they ended up signing a contract. He sold the land to the developer.”

Qin Ci asked, “If the people living here are employees of the factory, the factory should resolve the living situation for them.”

“The factory did give them a solution. They suggested the employees buy one of the new houses near the factory. Once they bought it, it would be theirs to keep. But it was expensive,costing about 100,000 yuan in full. The factory had been in a slump for many years at that point, so few could afford that.”

Indeed, the concepts of down payments or paying in installments did not exist back then. If you wanted to buy a house, you had to pay the entire sum at once.

“Later on, the factory director and developer started to shoo people away together. It’s illegal to go straight into someone’s home and force them out, so they thought up foul methods. They erected a tall cement wall around the outside of the tube-shaped apartment. The wall reached the fourth floor. There was also a giant iron gate installed. They trapped the residents inside most of the time, only allowing them to come and go at fixed times during the day.

Everyone started to frown upon hearing this. These people were ruthless.

Ke Xun now understood who had written ‘there are ghosts’ on the wall outside in that sinister red font. It had to have been done by the factory director and developer.

“That’s how the Spring Bamboo Apartments came to be like this.” Li Taiyong finished his story and then picked up his bowl to take a sip of his rice congee.

“I think that this should be the Spring Bamboo Apartments’ backdrop. It might have something to do with the painting’s main idea.”

The hair salon was located next door to the restaurant. The beautiful female owner, who was wearing a red skirt, walked out. She headed towards their table with a smile on her face. She placed a box of Marlboro cigarettes in front of Shou Zhu: “The smokes you wanted.”

Shou Zhu had always been defenceless around beautiful women. A smile blossomed on his face. “I’ve troubled you! Xiao Sang, have you eaten yet? I’ll order a few more dishes. How about you drink with us?”

Zhi Shao elbowed his companion. He didn’t think it was an appropriate time to try and pick up girls.

Everyone else also didn’t like the fact that Shou Zhu was inviting an outsider to sit with them.

Xiao Sang was very perceptive, however. She gave Shou Zhu a ‘come hither’ gesture and said, “How about you come to my place? The family next door just moved away and the unit’s been free for a long time now. We’re planning on having a disco party there!”

Qiu Lu’s expression turned ugly. She raised her chin slightly and wiped her mouth with a napkin.

“Sure, sure, sure!” Shou Zhu couldn’t withstand the temptation. He hastily got up to follow Xiao Sang away.

Zhi Shao was concerned and shouted: “You have to return to the room before ten o’clock! Don’t wait until lights out!”

Shou Zhu waved a hand. He fanned himself with his folding fan while chatting with Xiao Sang.

After dinner, everyone went to investigate the washroom on the west side of the fourth floor. For many, it was the first time they had entered this washroom. Their expressions were tense.

Wei Dong was dumbfounded. “These obscene…poems…are too explicit!”

Ke Xun then said, “A woman wrote this.”

“Ke er, you’ve looked into poems written by women before?”

“Look.” Ke Xun pointed to one of the phrases. Written in red, it said: My cavern is waiting for you to drown inside of it….

After comparing the handwriting in the male and female washrooms, they concluded that it was indeed from the same person. Unfortunately, they could not find any matching writing samples in their rooms.

Qiu Lu was alarmed. “I think that it has something to do with our room. Although we didn’t find any matching handwriting samples…someone circled explicit paragraphs in the romance novels with a red pen.”

Everyone: “….”

Sha Liu also thought that this was weird. “We’ll keep an eye out tonight. Let’s sleep near the door so that we can run to the corridor for help at any sign of movement.”

“Okay.” Qiu Lu nodded apprehensively.

It was already past ten o’clock at night. Zhi Shao had personally gone downstairs to drag Shou Zhu from the disco party. Everyone returned to their own rooms to prepare to rest.

Very soon after, the lights went out. The entire building was dark. Only the four communal washrooms emitted a dusky yellow light.

“Say, do you think she’ll continue to search for the shoes tonight?” Ke Xun lied down on the bed and stared at the dark ceiling.

The shoes were put back into their original places. There was no reason for her to search for them anymore. Now, the question was, what would the person do after putting on the shoes?

“Sleep. We’ll play it by ear.” Mu Yiran was tired. He hadn’t slept much last night.

Ke Xun suddenly flipped over. He stretched an arm out and Mu Yiran grabbed his wrist. Their hands froze in place in midair.

“Ow ow ow, that hurts!” Ke Xun tried to free his hand. “I’m trying to grab the fan next to you! The palm-leaf fan is next to your pillow!”

Mu Yiran let go, turned over to grab the fan, and then threw it to Ke Xun.

Ke Xun caught it and started to fan himself. A cool breeze fell over the two people. Mu Yiran also thought it felt nice.

The other’s voice then drifted over with the cool breeze, his words well articulated: “On a midsummer’s night, a cool breeze brings relief~”

Mu Yiran decided to just go to sleep.

Ke Xun continued to fan them. He thought about what had happened during the day and started to feel sleepy. He had just shut his eyes when he heard the sounds of unhurried footsteps from the hall.

It was the sound of high heels clacking against the floor. The person was walking very slowly, sounding almost rhythmical. They took a few steps before pausing, only to walk again.

None of the women in their group were wearing high heels. As such, who was the woman outside? Was it one of the neighbours?

Mu Yiran had woken up. His voice was very quiet. “It’s on our floor.”

The two of them tried to quiet their breathing as much as possible until the sound of high heels clicking against the floor grew distant.

“Should we take a look?” Ke Xun pointed to the small window that peered into the hallway.

Mu Yiran nodded. The two of them got off the bed quietly and each took one side of the small window. They lifted the window curtain slightly and looked outside.

There was a person walking down the fourth floor’s hallway as expected. That person was wearing a red dress. Judging by the hair style, it was obvious that this person was the Xiao Sang from the hair salon.

Xiao Sang walked slowly. Every time she passed one of the doors, she would pause briefly. She would then continue onwards.

A person in red clothes was particularly striking against the darkness of the night.

In the end, she stopped in front of one door and knocked on it.

Eve: …Bro, you really gonna pick up chicks after two people died…??? Also the poem reminds me of cringey fanfiction terms used to describe genitals. There’s a whole list for alternative words to use in place of ‘dick’ on tumblr somewhere.