Paintings of Terror

Chapter 105: The Institute Was Packed with People

Ke Xun stood up. He tapped on his phone and turned the camera on.

The camera defaulted to selfie mode, and the first thing he saw was his own face. Perhaps due to the dim light, his face appeared bluish-grey, and the color of his eyes appeared very dark, nearly covering all the whites, making his eyes looked like dark holes. His lips were very pale, like a dehydrated patient whose lips had dried up for a long time, all gray and wrinkled.

Ke Xun switched the camera around, so that it was facing in the same direction that he was, and then, with a “fuck, fuck,” the phone flew out with a flick of his hand. Mu Yiran, who was only a few steps away, was startled by this. He caught the phone, held it in a shooting position, and glanced at the screen.

“What, what’s wrong?” Wei Dong asked Ke Xun anxiously.

“…It’s fine.” Ke Xun rubbed his hands on his pants, rubbing away the cold sweat. “I just looked too handsome.”

Hearing this, Wei Dong dared not ask anymore.

Next to him, Qin Ci and Zhu Haowen silently turned their phone camera on. Despite the lessons from Zhang Hanrui and Ke Xun, their hands still shook uncontrollably when they saw what was on the screen, and they silently put their phones back into their pockets.

But the newcomers obviously didn’t have this level of restraint. Xu Zhen had also taken out her phone, and after looking at it, she screamed wildly and dropped the phone to the ground.

“What was that?! What was that?!” The office lady, no matter how calm she had been before, could not remain calm now when seeing such a scene with her own eyes. She turned to Mu Yiran, who was closest to her, and grabbed his arm, her fingers cold with fright.

“Exactly what you saw.” Mu Yiran expressionlessly avoided her scrabbling fingers. He walked over to Ke Xun and handed the phone back to him.

The camera was still on, the dim screen still showing the scene in front of him.

The corridor, the opposite room, this staircase corner filled with messy junks, all of which were empty when viewed with the naked-eye, were now full of people when viewed through the camera. These people were all pale and thin, and their faces were blank.

They wore loose gray and white clothes, and they stood at every corner and every spot, staring expressionlessly in the area where everyone was. Their faces were gray and gaunt, their skin like dry, cracked bark. Their lips were pale and peeling with dead skin, and their black, hole-like eyes looked at everyone indifferently. They were like standing blocks of human tombstones.

However, when Ke Xun gazed away from the phone and looked straight ahead with his naked-eye, he could see that there was nothing there. It was only with the camera could he see those gray and silent spectators.

Ke Xun retracted his gaze from the phone and held Wei Dong’s hand.

Because, through the camera, there was a person standing right in front of him, dark, hollow eyes staring directly at him.

The newcomers were frightened. Even Qi Qiang looked away from the screen of his phone awkwardly. He shifted his gaze to the old members and said, “What the fuck…What should I do?”

At this moment, Qi Qiang was finally willing to believe Qin Ci, and the muscles on his face twitched uncontrollably.

“Continue to open the door.”

Mu Yiran’s calm, composed voice gave Qi Qiang a measure of composure. He pressed himself out the door, trying to figure out the passcode.

Before Ke Xun could turn off the camera, he saw that there were seven to eight white figures standing by the iron door, watching Qi Qiang.

Qin Ci walked to Mu Yiran’s side and said in a low voice, “What do you think these people are doing? Why are they here?”

Mu Yiran raised his gaze and looked at the empty space, as if looking at those “people” who only existed in the dark. “Maybe they’re the staff of the institute. They were all wearing the same clothes.”

“No, their clothes aren’t exactly the same,” Ke Xun said. Mu Yiran looked over and saw him pointing to his left chest. “There’s a set of numbers here on their shirt. Each person’s number is different.”

Mu Yiran’s gaze shifted slightly. “Are you sure?”

“Trust me, my eyesight is very good,” Ke Xun said.

Qin Ci wanted to say that if he wasn’t sure, he could turn on the phone camera. But Mu Yiran seemed to have easily believed in Ke Xun’s words and had no intentions of verifying it.

“What do these numbers represent? A job number?” Zhu Haowen looked at Ke Xun.

“Maybe,” Ke Xun said. “These numbers are composed of letters starting with a combination of horizontal bars and numbers, such as A-013. I just glanced at it. The initials have A, B, C and D. Maybe there are more, but I didn’t take a closer look.”

“Are these numbers a clue?” Xu Zhen had tried her best to calm her shock, but her voice still trembled.

Qin Ci nodded. “I think so, but the specific direction of this clue needs further verification.”

After he spoke, they heard a low growl from Qi Qiang. “Got it!”

The iron door made a “click” sound, as if a huge finger had bent and popped back up, like a fingernail scratching their heart.

Qi Qiang didn’t open the door immediately. He just stood up and looked at the older members with an unreadable expression. “What now? Go in or not?”

“In,” Mu Yiran answered without hesitation.

As he was about to step over, Ke Xun grabbed his arm and said, “Hold on, let me take a look first.” He raised his phone and turned on the camera again.

Through the screen, several gray figures were still standing by the door, motionless.

Ke Xun suddenly felt that these people weren’t staring at them, the outsiders that had broken in. In fact, what they were staring at so motionlessly was the door.

Mu Yiran walked over and grabbed the door handle. Some of the girls were so scared that they screamed. Because Ke Xun was holding his mobile phone and Qin Ci and Zhu Haowen were standing by the door, the girls swarmed over Wei Dong and hugged him, this old member who was standing idly.

Wei Dong:…The peach blossoms came too fast, like a tornado, but I am not moved nor do I dare to move at this moment.

Mu Yiran pulled the thick and cold iron door open.

The screen on Ke Xun’s phone was suddenly filled with a dense layer of gray and thin faces. The small opening on the other side was crowded with people.

In other words, it was packed.

From the top to the bottom, every gap of the door was covered with so many faces that their bodies were barely visible. They seemed to be scrambling to escape, falling and climbing over one another. The knuckle bones on their gray, skeletal fingers were protruding due to the strength of their grip, as if right on the verge of breaking through the thin skin.

Ke Xun’s scalp went numb.

It wasn’t because of the faces crowding the door frame. Rather, it was the wide-open mouths on these faces, like bottomless black holes opened too impossibly wide and large for normal human mouths. Inside the black holes of their mouths, their teeth and tongues were like endless darkness, screaming so hard that it seemed to take on substance.

Ke Xun moved the phone away, took a deep breath, and switched to view the corridor behind him.

Before, those ash-colored spectres on every nook and corner had been indifferent as they looked at the door; but now, on the screen, they looked like those people inside the door, their mouths desperately open, as if this kind of mouth was embedded on their gray and expressionless face. It filled all the dusty corners of the building, making it seem more vivid, more dark, more terrifying.

Ke Xun was frightened by these black holes. Rubbing the goosebumps that had suddenly appeared on his arms, he followed Mu Yiran through the iron door.

There was no one blocking the door that they could visibly see. By the entrance was a counter similar to a front desk, and next to the counter was a narrow staircase leading underground. The entrance of the staircase was blocked by an iron fence door. Through the fence, the steps gradually descended downward, slowly sinking into the deep darkness and making it impossible for them to see the end of the stairs.

Mu Yiran turned on phone’s flashlight and searched the iron fence door, but he couldn’t find a manual or code lock. It wouldn’t open no matter how he pushed or pulled at the door.

“The door is either controlled electronically or with some sort of mechanism.” Mu Yiran turned his head and searched the counter. Qin Ci, Zhu Haowen, and Ke Xun stepped forward to help. Among the newcomers, only Qi Qiang and Xu Zhen came forward to help them. Huang Pi stood outside the door, staring at the people inside with a gloomy expression.

Also outside the door, Wei Dong was captured by the girls and was being hugged immobile, while Deng Guang shrank even more, nearly burying himself in the pile of debris next to him.

It didn’t take the people inside the room long to find a dusty, cobweb-covered machine in the corner of the counter. On the diamond-shaped metal plate were the words “Take-A-Number Machine.”

“Numbers.” Ke Xun looked at the others, and they all exchanged glances.

“Don’t rush to take a number. We need to make arrangements first.” Qin Ci looked at Mu Yiran. “What does Xiao Mu think of this number machine?”

“We’re not sure how the numbers will be assigned to us.” Mu Yiran looked down at the machine. “We can only try it out with four people first and look at the numbering rules on those first four numbers.”

“Then which four will go first?” Qin Ci asked.

“I don’t recommend that all the old members go first,” Xu Zhen couldn’t help but answer. “It’s best to have a mix of old and new members, men and women, so that we can try more patterns.”

“I agree,” Qin Ci said. “Then, which old member wants to go first?”

“I’ll do it.” Ke Xun walked over, and before anyone could respond, he reached out and pressed the button on the number machine. There was a “click” and a business-like card popped out from the mouth at the top of the machine. Ke Xun held the card in his hand and glanced at it under the light of his phone. It said: A-182.

Seeing that the others were looking at him silently, Ke Xun raised his eyebrows. “What?”

Zhu Haowen looked at him and calmly said, “Even when you’re unsure of the risk, you still always rush ahead.”

“…So,” Ke Xun put his hand on Zhu Haowen’s shoulder, “are you complimenting me on my bravery?”

Zu Haowen lowered his gaze and didn’t answer.

Qin Ci suddenly smiled. “Compared to you, us more cautious, more hesitant people look timid and selfish.”

“Don’t think that way. I don’t have such a high level of consciousness.” Ke Xun flipped the card between the two fingers on his hand. “I’m just used to it. Whenever I participate in competitions, the first person to start is usually under the most pressure. But as the captain, I’ve always been placed in this position.”

Mu Yiran suddenly said, “We need to hurry.”

He stretched out his hand. Ke Xun couldn’t stop him and could only watch as his slender finger pressed down on the button of the number machine.

A-183. Mu Yiran’s card was connected to Ke Xun’s.