Paintings of Terror

Chapter 159: Red Tear Mole

Su Benxin’s voice continued, “…When Etsuko killed Saburo with a hoe, she said: He tormented me, and this end is the inevitable retribution for his torment of me. No one is allowed to torment me; no one can torment me.”

With Su Benxin’s words, two more lights went out in the dining room, giving the atmosphere the effect of being lit by candlelight.

It was an unpleasant story.

Wei Dong said, “After talking for so long, we haven’t even discussed the painting. What does this have to do with the painting?”

“What does the scarlet beast in the book refer to? If it is representative of Etsuko’s heart, then there seems to be an explanation for that huge red mass on the canvas, looking like an internal organ,” Zhao Yanbao said.

“But where do we find such a heart? A heart that’s 13,000 grams.” Zhi Chun looked at Qin Ci. “A normal person’s heart is only 250 grams.”

Everyone grew quiet, until Luo Wei slowly got up. “It’s 10 o’clock. It’s bedtime.”

Since matter had already been discussed to this stage, relying solely on imagination and speculation made out of thin air would lead to nothing.

Everyone stood up reluctantly, as if the dim dining table in front of them was the safest place in the city.

“If there is a real danger, how should we handle it?” Yu Ji, the painter, asked with some hesitation.

“We’ll wait for the right moment to beat it at its own game,” Qin Ci responded.

These words might seem effective at any dangerous moments, but in a city being slowly swallowed by night, any advice seemed like scripted, empty words.

They all reluctantly walked out of the restaurant one after another and went to their own residences.

The street in the middle of the night was filled with the faint fragrance of flowers. Ke Xun looked at the snow-white flowered tree on the side of the street and said, “The temperature here is similar to that outside the painting so I always thought that it was still autumn, but I didn’t expect it to be spring in the painting.”

Looking at the snow-white flowers on the tree, it looked like spring magnolia. The blossoming white flowers were particularly gorgeous in the dark night.

This blossoming tree was a surprise in the painting.

Ke Xun stood under the tree, not moving. However, Mu Yiran didn’t insist on going forward either; it seemed that he wanted to stay and enjoy the flowers together.

The hospital and the detective office were a little bit further away, and so two groups of people walked out along the street, the staggered street lamps turning their shadows messy.

Wei Dong, Luo Wei, and Lion weren’t in the mood to enjoy flowers, and so they went back to the police dormitory first. However, Xiao Qinxian did not rush back; instead, she lit up a cigarette in front of the police station.

It was said that women who smoke often had stories to tell, but the story of Etsuko they’d heard about earlier had made the stories of the woman next to them seem warm and ordinary in comparison.

Mu Yiran and Ke Xun stood under the magnolia tree, not caring if this woman had anything to say.

“This time is different from the past,” Mu Yiran opened his hand and caught a large snow-white petal in his palm. “Before, whether it was a village, a farm, or a bungalow, there was a clear range. But this time, there was no focus.”

13 people were scattered into three residences, which was something that had never happened before.

“The characters in the whole city all seemed very real, whether it is the policeman in the police station or the waiter in the restaurant earlier.” Ke Xun thought back carefully to the paintings he’d experienced in the past. “If you consider it deeply, only those people in the Spring Bamboo Apartment have this same kind of realism.”

“Like this, there are probably only two possibilities. One is that the painting has jumped a rank, thus gradually increasing in complexity and difficulty. This unusualness might possibly be concerning.”

Ke Xun listened to Mu Yiran’s words and thought for a moment. “In the Spring Bamboo Apartment, the Elephant Art Museum was built directly on the ruins of the tube building. Under the influence of the painting, it was possible that some kind of ‘field’ was created. But this time, the city in front of us is obviously different from the third-tier old city where the Benxin Art Gallery is located.”

Ke Xun looked at Xiao Qinxian standing nearby, her thin figure looking a little lonely with the cigarettes at her fingertips lingering in the backlight of the street lamp.

“The difficulty of the painting is increasing,” Ke Xun concluded.

“As soon as I entered Benxin Art Gallery, I felt that something was a little off.” This was something that Mu Yiran wasn’t entirely certain about, and before meeting Ke Xun, admitting such things was absolutely impossible. “In previous art museums, people were drawn in batches, all with strong randomness.”

Indeed, at the beginning, it was this unfortunate randomness that resulted in Ke Xun and Wei Dong being chosen. Since there were two people missing in the painting, the two people who happened to walk into the hall were immediately added.

“Yiran, do you mean that this time, the painting is selecting people?” Ke Xun asked.

“Except for Su Benxin and Lion, both of whom came last, the remaining 11 people were already in front of the painting The Scarlet Beast for a long time.”

“Could it be that the painting was only looking for people interested in it?” Ke Xun felt as if the painting’s ability was improving. This time, its behavior was undoubtedly that of a predator selecting its prey.

“Or perhaps there is a certain type of people that it is more interested in.” Mu Yiran looked at Xiao Qinxian’s solitary figure and watched as she stamped out the cigarette butt and walked back into the police station by herself.

Although there were street lights, the street still revealed a boundless darkness that was like a cosmic void.

The detective office and the central hospital weren’t far from the police station, a mere 10-minute walk.

“Let’s go in as well. After 11 o’clock, things can become hard to handle.” Ke Xun brushed off the large petals that had fallen on his head and tilted his head to look at Mu Yiran. “It’s not like our dormitory offers hot water 24 hours.”

Mu Yiran narrowed his eyes and walked back side by side with Ke Xun.

“What did you observe from Luo Wei?” Ke Xun suddenly asked.

Mu Yiran was silent for a moment, and then slowly said, “Luo Wei has done some things that aren’t normal.”

Ke Xun recalled carefully. “You mean, taking the initiative to borrow a pen and paper from the restaurant’s service desk? And taking the initiative to help everyone turn on a lot of lights for illumination? He’s being too proactive and thoughtful?”

Now that he thought about it, it was true.

Before Li Yaqing’s death, Luo Wei wasn’t the kind of person that would try to handle everything. Although he had the meticulous logic unique to top students, he wasn’t good at these detailed considerations. After Li Yaqing’s death, he was more quiet. This kind of Luo Wei would be even less likely to serve everyone so comprehensively.

Mu Yiran affirmed Ke Xun’s statement. “In addition to this, he was also carefully observing everyone’s expressions, which was really uncharacteristic of him.”

Ke Xun felt that this didn’t seem to bode well at all, but he didn’t know where to start in trying to understand the whole thing. “Do you think that Luo Wei’s abnormality is passive or active?

Although everyone’s lives were equal, Ke Xun didn’t want anything to happen to a veteran member–Luo Wei and the others had already experienced near-death once, and so they were already brothers.

Mu Yiran’s expression was light, but he patted Ke Xun’s shoulder lightly and said, “Dr. Qin said to wait for the right moment to beat it at its own game.”

“Mmn.”

No one was using the bathroom at the moment, so Ke Xun told Mu Yiran to wash first and went to Wei Dong’s room next door.

Luo Wei was sitting on the edge of the bed, wiping his hair with a towel. Meanwhile, Wei Dong had pulled Lion into a conversation– “…Don’t go into art design…Really, no matter how I searched on Baidu, I was pigeon headed so many times. That raptor’s eyes, the grip. At that time, I bit the corner of the towel and endured it for three hours…In the end, the client chose to use Adolf Hitler’s painting on the signboard…Don’t be an art designer. Listen, buddy, open a gym instead and stay home. Don’t do art design!”

Ke Xun stepped forward, crossed the broad body of his international friend, and directly touched Wei Dong’s forehead. “It’s okay. Seems like he’s just drunk.”

Lion smiled kindly. “Dongzi is really drunk this time…He tasted half a glass of cocktail in the restaurant.”

“Not that much. Although Dongzi’s tolerance for alcohol isn’t too large, it’s not a problem for him to drink 42 to 52 percent white wine.”

“I called the hospital apartment just now. That painter named Yu Ji drank a beer and is now drunk.” Luo Wei stood up shirtless and closed the window. Because he had no change of clothes, such as work clothes, he could only wrap a white bath towel around his waist.

.

“When you guys are done, I’ll come over for a bit,” Luo Wei told Ke Xun.

“Sure, but put on pants first.”

“Okay.”

……

Although the dormitory was simple, it was still clean and tidy.

After bathing, there were no pajamas to change into, so Ke Xun and Mu Yiran ended up putting on their police uniform pants for the time being. Meanwhile, Luo Wei had to pitifully change back to his daytime clothes.

“Is everyone asleep?” Ke Xun asked.

“The two in my room are asleep. The light in the girl’s room next door is still on.” As Luo Wei spoke, his eyes were fixed on the two companions in front of him. “Can you see the tear mole at the corner of her eye?”

“Who?” Ke Xun asked rhetorically.

“The girl next door, Xiao Qinxian,” Luo Wei raised his voice.

“Tear mole? I didn’t notice it, did you?” Ke Xun looked at Mu Yiran, who was sitting across from the bed and saw the denial in his expression.

Luo Wei gestured toward his own face with his hand. “Just under the corner of the right eye. It’s about the size of a red soybean.”

Mu Yiran said with certainty. “I didn’t see it.”

A tear mole the size of a soybean ought to be quite obvious.

Luo Wei sat on the edge of Ke Xun’s bed with his elbows on his knees. He gently touched his forehead with his hand. “Not only Xiao Qinxian, many people have it.”

This sentence, when said in the middle of the night, made people feel a little creepy. Ke Xun’s heart tightened. “You mean tear mole? Who has it? Did you see it?”

“Not only tear mole, but some people have other red marks on their faces, like birthmarks, and most of them are on the forehead.” Luo Wei’s hand moved to a spot on his forehead above his right eyebrow. “For example, in this position, there is a red birthmark the size of a bean.”

“You saw this?” Mu Yiran asked.

“Yes, in the dining room earlier.”

“You turned on all the lights as an excuse to see these clearly?”

“Yes.” Luo Wei wasn’t surprised that Mu Yiran saw through him. “When I turned on the lights, I was able to see more clearly that there were all kinds of red marks on those people’s faces.”

At this moment, Ke Xun, who was close to Luo Wei, couldn’t help but ask, “Is there also something on my face?”

Xida:?I’ve been pretty busy lately and will be even more so this weekend and for most of next week. Therefore, I’ll be taking a week-long break. Hopefully, I’ll be back to posting normally again by next weekend.