Paintings of Terror

Chapter 162: Suicide

Zhao Yanbao looked at the Corpse Handling Determination documents on the table and was silent for a long time. Her entire figure was like a relief made out of a piece of bluestone. Half of her thoughts were hidden within the depths of the stone, while the other half protruded coldly. She seemed to have a kind of paradoxical loss of soul in a state of lucidity.

Everyone had their own thoughts, but with the dead Chi Lei’s cold body still upstairs, they were all too embarrassed to immediately express their opinions.

As Chi Lei’s closest person, Zhao Yanbao had the most moral grounds to speak.

Wei Dong felt uncomfortable. Although he had experienced many deaths in his previous paintings, every time he saw fresh life disappear in an instant, he still felt a sense of despair.

What made it even more confusing was that the crimson beast that everyone needed to find was actually in the body of the deceased. According to Chinese traditions, this was a great disrespect to the deceased. —If it were me, I would definitely not want others to do anything to the remains of close relatives and friends.

Mu Yiran broke the silence. “Although the cause of death has been determined to be a heart attack, we as the criminal police still have to investigate the scene. This is also the task given to us by the police station.”

The tense and awkward atmosphere seemed to have been buffered. Zhao Yanbao whispered, “Go on.”

Mu Yiran and Ke Xun entered Chi Lei’s dormitory, and the people waiting outside relaxed a little. Zhu Haowen whispered to his companions, “What would you like something to drink? Maybe there’s coffee downstairs?”

Several people stood up almost at the same time, only Zhao Yanbao was still standing there, lost in thoughts. It would be inconvenient if they disturbed her, and so they all went downstairs with light steps.

No one was in the mood to drink at this time, so Zhu Haowen immediately called Qin Ci. He asked what was going on over there on Qin Ci’s end and then briefly explained what was going on at his end before hanging up the phone.

Everyone’s attention was on Zhu Haowen, and Wei Dong couldn’t help but ask first, “You said that Zhi Chun committed suicide?”

“Qin Ci said that he cut his wrist with a scalpel, and the time of death was between 1:00 and 3:00 in the morning.” Zhu Haowen didn’t think this similar time of death was a coincidence.

“How was it determined a suicide? I remember that Zhi Chun and the painter lived in the same dormitory?” Luo Wei suddenly said.

“The forensic doctor and the criminal police had already been to the hospital, and the cause of death was confirmed to be a suicide.” Zhu Haowen poured a glass of water for everyone present. “He said that this person’s mood was normal before going to bed. Although he panicked about the unknown night, he did not show any feelings of despair or world-weariness.”

Zhi Chun and Chi Lei, one committed suicide with a scalpel while the other died of a heart attack, and they both died at about the same time.

Whether suicide or death from illness, these seemed to have nothing to do with external forces—the veteran members had never experienced such “natural” deaths in their previous paintings.

“There must be something going on here, and it’s just that we can’t guess it.” Wei Dong put his elbows on his knees and interlocked his fingers. “At dinner last night, these two people seemed quite normal.”

“Weren’t you drunk last night?” Luo Wei asked.

“It would be strange if I got drunk. When I was in the restaurant, I didn’t feel anything. But the moment I came out, I started to feel dizzy. I guess it must be because it’s spring. I have pollen allergies.” Wei Dong didn’t think he was drunk.

“Qin Ci said on the phone just now that Yu Ji was also drunk and fell asleep early last night, so he didn’t notice anything unusual at night,” Zhu Haowen said.

“I think it’s useless to analyze these now,” Xiao Qinxian finally couldn’t help but say. She looked at Zhu Haowen with inquiring eyes. “Did Dr. Qin mention beasts on the phone just now? Did a red mark appear on Zhi Chun’s face? A beast spot like Chi Lei? Has the forensic doctor issued Corpse Handling Determination documents?”

Everyone’s gaze was fixed on Zhu Haowen, as if Xiao Qinxian had just asked what they were all too embarrassed to say out loud.

Zhu Haowen was still expressionless as always. “Zhi Chun’s situation was similar to Chi Lei. Qin Ci and the others are waiting for all of us to meet so we can all discuss the solution.”

Xiao Qinxian’s eyes flashed again. “In other words, he also has a beast in his body. This Zhi Chun came alone, right? He shouldn’t have any companions.”

Xiao Qinxian’s naked expression was like a beast ready to snatch the corpses of her companions at any time.

She then said, “Forensic Dr. Zhao also said earlier that we only need to follow the principle of the minority obeying the majority. Since we are in this city, we should abide by the rules of this city. Everyone can temporarily forget the social norms of our world.”

Lion also expressed his position. “I don’t think it’s disrespectful to the dead. The beast in the body should be removed. I don’t think leaving it is a good thing.”

No one said anything, and to Lion, it seemed as if they were silently affirming his statement.

Lion continued, “If this kind of thing happened to me, I would donate the beast without hesitation. I believe you will do the same, right?”

Lion looked at Xiao Qinxian beside him.

Xiao Qinxian didn’t know what expression to use for a while. After all, this kind of assumption itself was very unlucky.

A strange noise suddenly sounded from upstairs, and everyone carefully identified it, only to realize that it was actually Zhao Yanbao crying.

Zhu Haowen was the first to get up and make his way to second floor, and everyone followed suit. Zhao Yanbao was someone who could bear things. Something must have happened just now to cause her to lose control so much.

Only Xiao Qinxian sat still, her expression a little irritable.

In the living room on the second floor, Zhao Yanbao was leaning on the sofa, still whimpering in a low voice. Ke Xun took a look around before taking out a tissue from under the coffee table and handing it to her.

“I don’t believe that she would have committed suicide. There must be a conspiracy in it! This must be a conspiracy of the painting! It’s the painting that killed her!” Zhao Yanbao’s eyes were red with hatred.

Luo Wei frowned and looked at Zhao Yanbao, but did not speak.

Ke Xun explained to everyone, “We found Chi Lei’s suicide note in the drawer when we checked the dormitory.’

“Suicide note?” Everyone was startled. “So it wasn’t due to Chi Lei’s heart disease…?”

Ke Xun nodded slowly. “From the content of the suicide note, the deceased seemed to have commited suicide.”

The suicide note had originally been placed in the table, but the entire paper was now in a transparent isolation bag, presumably to protect against fingerprints.

.

There were only a few lines on the suicide note, and it was written in a very delicate style.

Yanbao, please forgive my willfulness. I just wanted to seal myself in the most beautiful and in the best of times, just like amber.

It was signed with four words: Chi Lei, last words.

“Was this her handwriting?” Mu Yiran also sat down on the sofa beside Zhao Yanbao.

Zhao Yanbao nodded. “That was her handwriting. She had struggled out from within the grasps of deaths several times and had never given up easily. I don’t believe she would end her life hastily like this, and in such a place, in such an unfamiliar world.”

“If this really is the doing of the painting, could it be by bewitching the soul?” Wei Dong was glad that he’d become drunk last night. With such a weak will like his, he would have been easily bewitched.

“But why choose these two people? There should be some death conditions. As the difficulty increases, it is unlikely that the painting would arbitrarily arrange deaths like this,” said Zhu Haowen, who paid the most attention to the rules. “If it is the rule of bewitching the soul as you said, then the ones chosen to die would have weak willpower. But this itself is difficult to determine.”

Zhao Yanbao wiped away her tears with a tissue. Raising her head, she said in a very firm tone, “I have never thought that Chi Lei is a person with a weak will. She had been fighting against her disease for a long time. At the very least, her willpower was much stronger than mine.”

Mu Yiran took out a pen and paper to record her words. After waiting a bit for Zhao Yanbao’s mood to stabilize, he continued to ask, “How was Chi Lei’s condition before going to bed last night? Did she say anything that left an impression on you?”

Zhao Yanbao thought back carefully. “When the three of us walked back here last night, Chi Lei was the one who spoke the most. She said that, although this world is weird, she liked spring here very much.”

Zhu Haowen nodded as a witness.

“After returning here, the three of us had a brief chat on the sofa, mainly to express our opinions on the crimson beast.” Zhao Yanbao wiped her eyes with a tissue. “Chi Lei also said that although she was a little scared, she was very curious about the upcoming mystery of the game, and she really wanted to last all the way to the end, so that she could see the entire chessboard.”

In other words, Chi Lei had no reason to commit suicide.

Since Mu Yiran was silently taking notes, Ke Xun frowned slightly and continued to ask in a non-professional detective manner, “What did Chi Lei talk about specifically when mentioning the crimson beast?”

“At the time, we weren’t paying attention. I just remember Chi Lei saying that she could sometimes understand what the heroine Etsuko did…After that, we went off topic a little and talked about women’s rights,” Zhao Yanbao said.

Ke Xun looked at Zhu Haowen.

Zhu Haowen said, “Yes, I believe in women’s rights and have always advocated for gender equality…”

“How did you go from Etsuko to women’s rights? What brought on this change of topic?” Mu Yiran asked.

Zhao Yaobao and Zhu Haowen thought for a moment in silence, then Zhao Yanbao bit her lip and said, “I remember we were talking about how The Crimson Beast was similar to A’Ying, and we were saying that if these protagonists had changed from women to men, the story would have been very different.”

As Ke Xun was wondering how A’Ying came about, he heard Mu Yiran ask, “Why did you suddenly think of A’Ying? How did you make that connection?”

“Chi Lei said that the opening parts of these two works were very similar, depicting women’s humiliation due to their gender.” Zhao Yanbao looked at Zhu Haowen. “It seems that the title page of The Scarlet Beast also mentioned something similar?”

Zhu Haowen recalled, “Yes. Chi Lei said that there were some strange words on the title page of that book. She said there was a woman riding on a red beast, and she thought it was an abstract description of the heroine’s lifetime of love, but it later morphed more and more into a symbol of female humiliation.”

“Is there such a beast in the book A’Ying?” Wei Dong interjected with a question.

“A’Ying is a movie. At the beginning of the movie, A’Ying’s mother was executed by being made to ride a wooden donkey as punishment for the crime of adultery. The executioner was A’Ying’s father,” Zhu Haowen explained.

Wei Dong: “…..”

“This was just an association we made last night, because both of these works showed women’s deep sense of powerlessness, and so their resistance became fanciful and unreal,” Zhao Yanbao added. “Whether it is the crimson beast or the punishment of riding a wooden donkey, it seems to be alluding to torturing women for the sin of sexuality.”

“Let’s put aside this other work and focus on The Scarlet Beast. Only the people who had read this book knew what was originally written in the title page,” Mu Yiran said.

Therefore, when Xiao Qinxian slowly walked upstairs, everyone turned their gaze to stare at her.