Paintings of Terror

Chapter 223: Three-legged Golden Crow

In this dimly lit room, the contrasting color of the snow-white mask induced fear in people’s heart.

Apart from the mask, there was nothing else in the bag.

“This may be mine.” Fang Fei said.

While everyone was surprised, Fang Fei took off her bracelet and showed it to Mu Yiran.

Everyone kept silent, not knowing what fate this strange mask would bring to this girl.

Mu Yiran carefully looked at the bracelet, from the outer side to the inner side, missing no spots.

“We also have a Master Shaman in our team. That’s reassuring.” Wei Dong’s voice drifted into Fang Fei’s ears.

“This bracelet belongs to the Light Inn. Perhaps you were given the status of a shaman when you stepped into this world.” Mu Yiran returned the bracelet to Fang Fei and wrapped the snow-white mask back up. “You put it away first. This mask may be useful for us.”

Fang Fei nodded and picked up her bag.

“Why doesn’t she have anything of her own in her bag, but only a mask?” Cao Youning looked at the various-sized candies in his bag. It was because of these candies that Cao Youning recognized it immediately, “Our luggage contains things that represent our own attributes, along with a bunch of miscellaneous things…” Cao Youning quickly put away his bag after finding two large coarse-clothed shorts.

Cao Youning’s casual remark caught the attention of the veterans: everyone’s luggage contained a lot of daily necessities, and there were one or two things related to themselves, while Fang Fei only had a mask alone.

After the experience they had in previous paintings, they didn’t dare to think deeply about this.

Wei Dong picked up the charcoal pencil in his bag and had already sketched out the layout of the room in his notebook. He raised his head: “Master Shaman must be different from us ordinary business travelers, and they certainly cannot bring so many mundane things with them as to rid themselves of worldly worries.”

“Oh, Brother Dong, when did you become so philosophical~” Luo Bu came over to watch Wei Dong draw, and even held the dog in front of Wei Dong, “Draw a close-up of our Koharu.”

Wei Dong looked at the dog’s face that was so close to him: “You bark a few times. Be loud, else I won’t draw.”

“Woo…Woo…” Koharu tried its best, but still couldn’t make a standard bark. It was so anxious that its eyes were filled with tears.

A hand gently patted Koharu’s head. It was Fang Fei. Her movements were very gentle, which was quite different from her usual character.

“We also discussed about this dog just now.” It was Shao Ling who spoke. “First, why did an electric scooter turn into a dog. Second, why can’t this dog bark.”

By this time, everyone had recognized their own luggage and checked its contents.

“The reason why Radish brought the electric scooter in was hoping that it could become a means of transportation. In the best case, it would turn into a car.” Ke Xun looked at a wooden duck in his bag. He shook it and it made a clicking sound. This was a toy from his childhood left by his father. It was said that his grandfather made it for his father.

Luo Bu nodded desperately: “That’s right, preferably a car, or a carriage, or even a horse…”

“Woo…” Koharu looked at its master innocently, as if hating itself for not being a horse.

“…Dogs are fine too…” Luo Bu comforted his dog, “Aren’t dogs used as transportation in some places?”

Everyone’s eyes shot at Luo Bu. They couldn’t believe that this guy planned to use the puppy as a mount.

“Yes, that’s what we analyzed too.” Shao Ling said.

“Huh??” It was particularly spectacular when a lot of people said “Huh?” at the same time.

“The electric scooter did not turn into a dog for no reason. Based on our experience in previous paintings and the current one, items that came from the outside world usually do not lose their fundamental properties. For example, food will become dry bread, watches will become bracelets, and cameras will change from modern to retro. As for phones, even if they can only illuminate, they still retain the basic appearance of phones.” Shao Ling analyzed carefully, “However, the electric scooter turning into a dog does not make sense in theory.”

Mai Peng frowned: “You mean, in this world, dogs are vehicles?”

This statement was very ridiculous, but Cao Youning still said seriously: “I watched a video before, the owner took their golden retriever for a vaccine. The golden retriever was very scared, so the owner leaned their whole body on the golden retriever. But during the injection, the golden retriever burst out a great force, jumped up and ran away with the owner on his back, and the owner was carried away by the dog like he was riding a dog hahahahaha…”

“Hahahaha!” Luo Bu also laughed.

Cao Youning continued to laugh until he realized it was a bit untimely. He shut up and put his bag into the cabinet.

After a while, Shao Ling said: “So we speculate that the world outside the Inns must be extremely cold. Maybe it is covered with ice and snow, and there are many uneven hillside roads and forests.”

Qin Ci suddenly realized: “Could it be that dogs are used for pulling sleds like the Eskimos?”

Du Lingyu: “I heard that it is very cruel to use dogs for sledding.”

Qin Ci: “The center of gravity of a horse is relatively high, hence horses are not flexible enough to walk on forest roads or go up and downhill in the snow. If the cargo is not too heavy, some people will choose to use dogs for transportations. Sled dogs are also more cold-resistant. In a tribe of Eskimos called the Malamute, their dogs can endure the severe cold of negative seventy degrees Celsius to pull sleds to transport goods.”

Koharu stared with its round eyes and listened very carefully.

Luo Bu tightly hugged his dog: “Our Koharu isn’t a sledding dog…”

Koharu shook its fur and kept looking at Qin Ci.

Qin Ci couldn’t help but smile: “You’re still young. We won’t let you pull sleds.” He then looked at the misty gray colors outside the window, “Besides, we may not have the chance to go out.”

Everyone was silent for a while. Some arranged their bags, some whispered, and some just sat there in a daze…

Xi Shengnan and Lu Heng sat a little far away from everyone and kept talking in low voices. Lu Heng seemed to be comforting her. Xi Shengnan nodded slightly, but her expression was still not pretty.

Ke Xun’s gaze swept across the crowd, and finally settled on Mu Yiran, who was standing by the window and looking at him too, with a slight smile in his eyes.

Ke Xun walked over and showed Mu Yiran the wooden duck in his bag: “How do you know it’s mine? Huh?”

Mu Yiran: “You have long legs.”

Ke Xun: “You also have long legs.”

Ke Xun couldn’t believe that Mu Yiran would take out the clothes inside the luggage to check the length of the pants.

Mu Yi remained silent and took out his luggage from the cabinet. He opened it and there was a wooden duck that was almost the same as Ke Xun’s.

Ke Xun was stunned. He picked it up and looked at it for a long time in disbelief. Shaking it, the duck’s mouth made a rattling sound: “Even the sound is the same, what is…”

.

What is going on?! This is so unexpected and pleasantly surprising!

Mu Yiran’s voice was calm but serious: “This is a toy I used when I was a child. My grandfather bought it from a craftsman for my mother. Because of its good workmanship, it has been passed down to me. Since it wasn’t broken, I’ve kept it.” Ke Xun listened carefully to this unreasonable and wonderful crossing of fate. He wanted to say something but couldn’t. He laughed for a long time, and finally felt that his laughter was a bit sad: it’s so nice, all of this is so nice. If they weren’t in the painting, it would have been even better.

Mu Yiran patted the wooden duck in Ke Xun’s hand: “It’s nice no matter where we are.”

The large gauze lamp in the room glowed with a hazy yellow halo, dyeing everyone in a warm tone.

“By the way, regarding Fang Fei’s bracelet, how did you know that it belongs to the Light Inn?” Ke Xun returned to the “real topic”.

“There are patterns on the bracelet, which are very coarse and abstract, but I can still recognize the circles, birds and flowers.” Mu Yiran replied, looking at the veil of the lamp. There was a big circle with a dotted line in the center drawn on it, but the flowers and birds were drawn in solid lines, “If I’m not wrong, the bird should be a crow.”

“Damn, I’m right again!” Wei Dong burst out in excitement.

Ke Xun: You are eavesdropping on us.

Wei Dong: You two started talking about the “real topic”, okay? Everyone should be involved in this!

Ke Xun: Fine fine.

Wei Dong spoke up: “So it’s really a crow? Why is there a crow painted on it! Why isn’t this crow black?”

“It should be a three-legged golden crow. If you look carefully, it has three legs.” Mu Yiran pointed to the bird on the lampshade, and everyone looked curiously. Surely enough, there was a slightly bent foot next to the two feet.

“This is the three-legged golden crow that lives in the sun, right? Shouldn’t the golden crow be golden?” Du Lingyu asked curiously.

“The golden crow is also called the sun crow. People in ancient times discovered the phenomenon of sunspots through observation, which looked like a crow. So later generations often use the term ‘golden crow’ to describe the sun.” Shao Ling explained, “It is called the golden crow because this black crow is crouching in the center of the golden sun, but it itself is black.”

“That’s right, sunspots are black,” Du Lingyu looked at the bird drawn on the gauze cover. Without it being painted black, it was almost impossible to tell it was a crow. Looking at the patterns on her cotton robe, she discovered the same type of birds. “Why aren’t these crows black?”

Shao Ling frowned slightly: “I can’t figure this out either. Black color and three legs should be the symbol of the three-legged golden crow. I always feel that this colorless crow must have something to do with the peculiarities of this world.”

Mu Yiran couldn’t figure it out either and had listed this as one of the clues for deciphering this painting.

Then, Ke Xun briefly told everyone about Xiayu, and intentionally left out the parts about Xiayu’s disfigurement and severed fingers. Lu Heng, who was sitting in the distance, smiled gratefully at Ke Xun.

When Mai Peng heard about Lu Heng taking pictures, he couldn’t help saying: “I also took a few pictures in the building just now, but it seems like there’s no film printing technology in this world, so I can’t see what I took.”

Zhu Haowen, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, suddenly said: “I think, since cameras and film are preserved in this world, there must be a way to develop photos.”

Everyone nodded thoughtfully. Qin Ci said, “Photos are also clues. Apart from looking for signatures, we also need to pay attention to whether there is a film printing shop here. This kind of shop may have another name in this world.”

Xi Shengnan whispered to Lu Heng who was next to her: “What do you think you have captured in your photo?”

“It’s nothing, it’s mainly the scene, and Xiao Hu. After all, that person is the male protagonist of the , so I just wanted to take a picture.” Lu Heng smiled.

“I really can’t believe that this world actually arranged the male lead to kill the female lead.” Xi Shengnan muttered to herself.

“No, Master Shaman has already said it. It might have been that female side character.”

“Alas.” Xi Shengnan seemed to not want to listen and sighed slightly.

“Right, what’s in your bag? Only you haven’t gone through it carefully.” Lu Heng pointed at the bag in front of Xi Shengnan. When everyone was checking their bag just now, only she was in no mood to touch it. She figured out that it was her bag from the character ‘Xi’ on a purse.

Hearing that, Xi Shengnan opened her bag again. In addition to clothes and everyday items, there was also a black jar.