Paintings of Terror

Chapter 218: Photographer

When the eight of them walked into the next hall, they found that it was completely dark inside.

Hearing the door slowly close behind them, everyone’s mood sank.

The few newbies were quite calm. One of them asked if there was a power outage and asked everyone to turn on their phone flashlights…

Before he finished speaking, a beam of white light shot straight down on a painting. The veterans quickly approached it, trying to remember the content and the artist of the picture clearly in the shortest possible time.

The five young people stared dumbfounded at the visitors who suddenly approached. One of them tightly covered the expensive camera he had just bought from Japan…

Gradually, the newcomers felt something was wrong, as if the only things left in this dark world were this ray of light, these people, and this painting on the wall.

The veterans’ gazes were all fixated on the painting. It was a painting that was mixed with black and white photography works in the hall. The painting was black and white. It was not made from ink, but more like a sketch drawn with black charcoal pencil. Probably to make a visual impact, the artist drew a large circle on a square piece of paper. The scenery was hidden inside the circle, adding an artistic sense to the picture.

The composition of the picture was very simple. There was only a simple house and its slanting shadow cast by the illuminating sun. The author’s signature was written outside the circle. The handwriting was sloppy: Inn by Bi Di in Spring 1995.

The white light only existed for more than a dozen seconds, and the veterans already had a tacit assignment of tasks. Wei Dong and Zhu Haowen focused on memorizing the picture. Ke Xun and Qin Ci focused more on memorizing words, and Mu Yiran looked at the whole thing.

Shao Ling observed the composition ratio of the picture in his own way. Fang Fei noticed differences in the brushes. The picture was drawn in charcoal. The author’s signature and the big circle seemed to be in pencil. Luo Bu took a few photos of the picture…

When the world became completely dark, the five newcomers finally let out a terrified scream: Where is this place?! What exactly is going on? Who are you people?!　　

Luo Bu’s voice slowly filled the air: “The misfortune has fallen upon all of us. Let’s hope that we are lucky.”

Soon, everyone fell silent, and the darkness was gradually thickening, as if it were a secret realm that could not be dissolved. One could only melt into it after passing through a suffocating voidness.

Luo Bu didn’t know how long it lasted. He only knew that he was holding Ke Xun and Wei Dong’s hands tightly, and his legs were squeezing his electric scooter Koharu. When he got the chance to talk later, he would certainly tell everyone what he was feeling. It felt like swimming in asphalt…

The “asphalt” was not hot but at room temperature. It is gradually cooling down, getting colder and colder, as if it wanted to condense people into thousand-year-old ambers.

In the chaos, no one knew how much time had passed before their feet finally stepped onto the flat ground and could breathe freely. Luo Bu greedily breathed in the cold air and heard Wei Dong say: “I felt like I had swum through a whole preserved egg.”

Everyone, inadvertently compared to “ginger juice and soy sauce” by Wei Dong, was now adjusting themselves to face the new environment.

Even though everyone was still in the dark, they could feel it was indoors. Below their feet was a solid wooden floor, which was not clean and seemed to be covered in dust.

After experiencing the indescribable “preserved egg”-like sensation just now, the five newcomers also gradually calmed down, wrapped the old cotton robes that did not belong to them tightly around, and listened to Qin Ci’s talk about entering the paintings that sounded like some ancient myths.

“It’s really cold here,” Ke Xun had already turned on his phone, “What the hell, is my phone broken?”

The screen of Ke Xun’s phone was bright, but there was nothing on it. It was like the dim light of a phone screen when it was just turned on, or the short blank when changing the lens of an early film. The whole screen was full of empty white light.

Soon a few more patches of white light appeared, and everyone’s phones lost all functions except to illuminate.

“I can’t even see how much battery there is.” Wei Dong stared at the rectangular white light on his phone. Was it a waste to charge it to 100% before coming here?

“That is to say, phones are useless in this painting?” An unfamiliar voice rang out, and it came from a boy among the newcomers. The boy imitated Shao Ling in the dim light and touched the wall behind him. Soon he felt clear scratches carved on the wooden wall.

“My Ricoh camera has also changed. It has become a purely mechanical old-fashioned camera!” This time the one who spoke was the one who covered the camera for fear of being robbed.

Qin Ci introduced the veterans to the newcomers. One of the older ones among the newcomers, a short-haired girl, took the initiative and said: “My name is Xi Shengnan. I’m the owner of the WeChat group ‘Sculpting Time Hobbyist Photographers”. A few of us organized this activity to study local culture, and City A is the last stop of our trip…” Xi Shengnan’s voice waned.

After the introduction, everyone got acquainted with the newcomers. Besides Xi Shengnan, there was another good-looking girl named Du Lingyu. The boy with a Japanese Ricoh camera was Lu Heng, and the slightly chubby boy was Cao Youning. The one who spoke first and looked for clues near the wall was Mai Peng.

“So, if we find the photographer’s signature, we will definitely be able to get out?” Du Lingyu’s voice trembled slightly.

“The artist.” Cao Youning corrected her.

“Bi Di is a photographer.”

“We are now in his painting.”

Du Lingyu went silent, and her cell phone also went dark at the same time, as if it wanted to save its stamina with her master.

The surroundings seemed to become slightly brighter, but the light was strange, very different from the normal break of dawn.

“Turn off the phone first.” Mu Yiran, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly spoke.

Perhaps it was because Mu Yiran’s unique temperament was so convincing that several newcomers turned off their phones at the same time. At this time, the darkness was gradually thinning, and the surroundings were filled with inexplicable lights, like night lights with cool colors.

“Before ‘dawn’ comes, let’s talk about this painting and its artist first. I hope everyone shares everything they know.” With the help of the dim light, Mu Yiran could barely see where they were—it was a wide corridor of a wooden building. There was a wooden door not far from them, which probably leads to another room. On the other side, there was a deep staircase, connected to the bottomless darkness.

It was like the scene of a horror movie, with imminent dangers brewing all around.

“You just said that Bi Di is a photographer?” Qin Ci asked Xi Shengnan.

Xi Shengnan nodded: “We came to the art gallery today to look at Bi Di’s photography works. In truth, his photography exhibition won’t be open until next month, but we could not stay in City A for a month. We predicted that the exhibition would be prepared beforehand, so we begged the staff member to open the door for us.”

“If I had known it earlier, I wouldn’t have gone to any photography exhibition even if you kill me.” Cao Youning muttered in a low voice. He remembered what his grandmother said when he was a kid: literally driven by a ghost.

“Bi Di is a very famous photographer?” Shao Ling asked.

“He is well-known in the industry, but not nationally famous,” Xi Shengnan replied, “This exhibition in City A is his first photography exhibition, because City A is his hometown. The exhibition can also be regarded as a commemoration of this artist after his death.”

Bi Di was already dead. Several old members looked at each other in silence. This once again matched with the situation of the previous artists. Every artist of the paintings that they entered was already dead.

“As a photographer, does Bi Di occasionally draw?” Shao Ling continued to ask.

“It’s really hard to say. Bi Di changed his photography style after he turned forty. First, he stopped producing color photographs and turned to black and white. In terms of form, he almost stopped capturing and snapping.” Xi Shengnan said.

Hearing this, Mu Yiran cast his gaze over. Shao Ling continued to ask: “If you give up capturing and snapping, you lose the true meaning of photography. Why did he…”

“He brewed a photo just like brewing a book or a movie.” said Mai Peng, “For a photo, he might have to line dozens of drafts. After the finished photo came out, these drafts would be burned. Only a few of them are still left in this world. The work we are in is one of those precious drafts.”

“The name of this draft is ‘Inn’. Have you ever seen the finished photo of ‘Inn’? Can you tell me about the photo?” Shao Ling turned his attention to Mai Peng. It was obvious he knew more about the artist.

Mai Peng shook his head regretfully: “I have seen all the photography works that were published by Bi Di, and I remember almost all the contents. But I have never seen a photo called ‘Inn’. This is the first time I have seen this draft as well.”

Qin Ci looked at the other newcomers: “Has no one seen the photo of ‘Inn’?”

Everyone shook their heads. Cao Youning said: “I didn’t even see what was clearly drawn in the draft, let alone the photo. I was too scared back then.”

Luo Bu looked at his almost useless phone disappointedly: “I even took a few pictures. I think when we first came in… Ah— Ahhh— Ahhhhhh—”

Luo Bu’s sudden screams scared the newcomers. Wei Dong also panicked and tried to calm down: “What’s the matter? You hungry?”

“There’s a hairy thing rubbing against my feettt!” Luo Bu was so scared that he forgot to stay away. He was sweating and only knew to clutch onto Wei Dong who was closest to him.

Now everyone was not calm anymore and looked towards Luo Bu’s feet with the help of the dim light. There really was a furry thing moving around. Du Lingyu screamed: “Oh my God, what is that thing?! Do these kinds of strange things often appear in paintings…”

Ke Xun lit up his phone and pointed to Luo Bu’s feet: “It’s a dog.”

“Ah?! What the hell, this is so weird!” Luo Bu moved towards Ke Xun slowly. He was too afraid to lower his head to look, but the dog followed him. “Oh God, is this a strange type of NPC…Holy, its color is so weird, why is it so white…”

“When did this dog sneak in? Why did it come so silently? I don’t remember that there was a dog in the picture.” The one who spoke was Lu Heng, who was also terrified.

“I don’t think it’s part of the picture.” Mu Yiran remained calm, “Radish, where is your electric scooter?”