Paintings of Terror

Chapter 79: Highly Saturated Color

Among the college students, there was a tall glasses-wearing boy who was slightly older than the rest. Acting as their representative, he proceeded to introduce everyone: “My name is Zhang Tianwei, a graduate student at the Academy of Fine Arts, and several of us decided to volunteer for this exhibition. He Yu and Miao Zipei are juniors at the academy, Mi Wei and Xin Beibei are sophomores, and Yening Chenyi is the youngest, our freshman meimei.”

As art students at a prestigious university with comparatively steady minds and high quality volunteers, several of them seemed to have accepted the facts of the situation.

Yening Chenyi nodded towards Ke Xun’s group: “We meet again. Now I know why you guys wanted me to leave in the first place.”

Facing a girl, Wei Dong was much more proactive: “Our main purpose is to find the seal or signature of the artist. Since you helped explain the paintings in Hall K to us, you should be familiar with these paintings right?”

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Yening Chenyi glanced at the unnatural scenery in front of her: “I was panicked just now, so I didn’t see which painting it was. But based on my experience, what we should be looking for is an autograph — today’s exhibitions are all oil paintings, so the artist most likely didn’t use a seal.”

“The name of the painting is 【Shadow】, and the author’s name is Rong Rang.” Ke Xun told everyone what he’d seen.

The college students looked at each other and nodded. Zhang Tianwei took the lead as their representative to say: “Rong Rang is a big fan of Fauvism. As a young painter who just graduated from graduate school, he’s also gained some fame within the circle. There are five of his works in circulation, each of which is priced at more than 50,000 yuan, especially 【Shadow】, which is worth 120,000 yuan. This is considered a high price within the exhibition.”

The group continued discussing as they walked towards the building ahead. Zhu Haowen put away his phone and asked Zhang Tianwei, “What was this painting trying to express?”

Ke Xun looked at Zhu Haowen who had suddenly spoken, and felt like this person who had no sense of existence would often suddenly appear.

Zhang Tianwei seemed to be stumped, looking around at the wonderful world in the painting: “I feel, the colors used in the painting should be trying to express this.”

“Express what?” Several people asked simultaneously, one of them being the voice of the middle-aged woman.

“This carefree use of color, those rich and lively spots of streaks, can be used to constitute everything in this world!” Zhang Tianwei’s voice was filled with excitement, “This is truly a worthy tribute!”

A skinny, long-haired boy standing next to him carefully analyzed his theory, and his expression also showed some excitement: “This is probably what Matisse described to be the transparent yet delicate sunlight of the soul. These free and easy colors bear the weight of his spirit! They have the ability to become 【Luxury, Serenity, Pleasure】, or they could become the painting we are currently in,【Shadow】!”

Everyone looked at the two beaming students. Only the other students from the Academy of Fine arts nodded in agreement, while the others all had varying expressions, and the middle-aged woman Guo Lixia directly said: “You definitely shouldn’t let your kids become artists. After they learn, they’ll eventually become crazy.”

Mu Yiran didn’t pay attention to what the others were saying, instead focusing on the building in front of him. After the group of people slowly approached, the grandeur of the structure gradually became apparent.

“Is this a castle?” Xin Beibei stopped sobbing and looked in astonishment at the dreamy castle made of bright pastel colors.

As their vision got closer, the building was no longer as brightly colored as before, and gradually presented itself in more muted tones: dusty rose, navy blues, pine greens, mustard yellows…

Ke Xun had already sidled up to Mu Yiran: “Whether or not this really is a castle, it definitely has a lot of rooms. If I had to guess, there should be approximately a hundred of them, and they are probably related to the death conditions.”

No matter what environment you’re in, no matter how confusing the circumstances, the first task in these paintings will never change — analyzing how one might die.

“Perhaps it’ll be a maze.” Mu Yiran’s gaze flickered towards the garden in front of the castle, inside which coincidentally had a small maze enveloped by greenery. Next to it, a round pond suddenly sprayed out a tall fountain of water, the droplets falling like diamonds onto everyone’s bodies.

Everyone was shocked by the sudden appearance of the fountain, but after their initial reaction, the girls were a little excited. Xin Beibei even turned to Mi Wei who was next to her: “Do you think that’s a wishing pool?”

Mi Wei shook her head: “It’s best not to make a wish in front of this unknown thing, perhaps the other party will directly make you exchange your life or soul.”

Xin Beibei felt like Mi Wei was deliberately frightening her, but she was still scared and took the initiative to stay away from the beautiful pool.

Elegant music suddenly rang out, complementing the beautiful surroundings, and a sweet-sounding female voice reached everyone’s ears: “Welcome everyone, please gather in the entrance hall.”

This was the first time everyone had heard such a gentle and sweet NPC.

The group of thirteen walked into the castle’s hall one after another. The decorations inside weren’t lavish, more accurately, it was simple yet beautiful: Wood tables and chairs with stoneware utensils, some flowers and fruits placed here and there like in still life paintings, and the handmade clocks on the walls seemed to bring people into a world of fairytales.

Because the entire world inside the painting shone brightly, everyone couldn’t quite tell where the light source was coming from. Even now they were stunned, seeing the rich colors that made up the shadows casted by the fruit, saturated with dark purples and lime greens that were no less bright than the fruits themselves.

“Oh my god,” the thin boy with long hair exclaimed: “This whole room is a rare work of art! We could even turn this place into a studio!”

Mi Wei glanced at him: “He Yu, stop saying such unrealistic things. What we have to do now is leave here as soon as possible.”

Guo Lixia put down the classical jug in her hand onto the table and sat down on a wooden chair: “I’m so exhausted, it’s so heavy!”

She leaned on the chair, looking at the surroundings and the fruits on the table, glancing at everyone quickly, before finally fixing her gaze on Ke Xun’s face: “How long are we able to stay here?”

Ke Xun didn’t understand why this elder sister was staring at him: “The maximum is a week, after that we’ll all die.”

In fact, Guo Lixia felt that Ke Xun was the nicest of the bunch, and immediately asked a few more questions: “When we leave, will we be charged for food and lodging? Will we just be freeloading these next few days?”

Ke Xun felt like it was basically impossible to communicate with this woman: “Yes, we can freeload, but we might even have to use our life in exchange.”

Guo Lixia heard that they didn’t need to pay, and it seemed like a huge weight had been taken off her shoulders. Without any courtesy, she picked up a large peach from the fruit bowl and gnawed on it: “I’ve been thirsty.”

Everyone was inexplicably not disgusted by this middle-aged woman, it was as if all the anger towards the painting world was taken up by this elder sister.

As the familiar music sounded again, the sweet female voice came back: “I hope everyone will enjoy their time here. Please separate into five groups according to the pattern and color on your clothes, then find the room where you’ll reside during your stay. Experience the beauty that hard work and toil brings us.”

Ke Xun looked at the pattern on his body. It was a sea-blue water ripple, while Mu Yiran had grape-purple curled grass-like patterns on his clothes — this was the first time that he couldn’t be in the same group as him.

Xin Beibei looked at the sky blue pattern on her own clothes, and then at the dark green stripes on her partner Shi Zhendong, and came directly up to Ke Xun: “This brother, can you change clothes with him? You are also blue. I… really don’t want to be separated from him.”

“I also want to exchange clothes with someone, but this world won’t allow it.” Ke Xun glanced at Wei Dong and Yening Chenyi who had slowly gathered around Mu Yiran. These three people were all in the ‘purple group’.

Xin Beibei wanted to continue talking, but Shi Zhendong patted his girlfriend on the shoulder: “We’d better not violate the rules here.”

“Okay.” Xin Beibei was still very obedient when it came to her boyfriend, and slowly walked toward Ke Xun, “Who else is on our team?”

Guo Lixia, whose dress was covered with royal blue circles, came over with peaches in hand…

Everyone quickly divided into their respective groups. Under the guidance of the sweet NPC voice, they entered their respective ‘work rooms’ from the lobby, before coming face to face with mountains of beautiful fruit. Everyone was stunned.

“Remove the leaves from the fruit inside the room, take out the cores, rinse the fruit thoroughly, and store them in the glass jars.” That sweet voice suddenly changed its tone, “Whatever you do, don’t bring the color from your room to another room! You cannot let these colors mix!”

Mi Wei and Miao Zipei looked at the yellow tomato-like berries and heard Qin Ci from the same group say: “What the NPC means to say is that we definitely cannot enter the other rooms freely. Everyone needs to remember these words clearly. This is the most fundamental death condition for this painting.”

Mi Wei picked up a small yellow fruit and smelled it, the scent was very refreshing: “Doctor Qin, before you said that the deaths happen at night. How come the NPC asked us to abide by rules during the day.”

“This is indeed a bit unusual, but we’d better do as it says. It’s possible the boss is screening us throughout the day to find a target to kill at night.” Qin Ci rolled up his sleeves, washed his hands in the sink, and then sat down to process the fruits.

The other two college students also followed along, washing their hands and sitting next to Qin Ci, starting the day’s work.

“Have NPCs appeared like this every time?” Mi Wei had more questions.

“No, it’s the first time that an NPC has appeared only as a voice.” Qin Ci looked at the yellow fruits and their peacock blue shadows that casted on the ground. The feeling of being inside a painting was truly amplified…

Qin Ci subconsciously glanced at his own shadow. It was also a beautiful peacock blue without any trace of blurring, tightly bundled up under his feet.

At the same time, Ke Xun was also looking down at his shadow. The golden shadow gleamed like sand, and under the blue berries on the ground, there were such golden ‘puddles’ as well.

Guo Lixia worked very efficiently, and her workload was more than Ke Xun and Xin Beibei combined. Her mouth wasn’t very idle either: “Do you guys think these blue fruits can be eaten? Could they mutant blueberries? If we eat some, the ones above shouldn’t care right?”

“My god, Auntie Guo, aren’t you afraid of being poisoned?” Xin Beibei began making a fuss.

“Call me Sister Guo!” Guo Lixia glared at Xin Beibei, “Your boyfriend is older than me!”

Xin Beibei was still thinking of something when she heard Guo Lixia say: “He wasn’t born after ‘75 was he? Jiejie here is a proper post-75 baby!”

Xin Beibei’s arrogance suddenly weakened, her face alternating between going red and white, and she heard Guo Lixia continue: “Is he divorced? You’re with him under ambiguous circumstances, probably thinking that you’ve managed to catch a big fish, but in the end the one who will suffer the most is you!”

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A: WAIT XBB is a sophomore… SO SHE’S ONLY 19/20 SDAASDBGDNL

H: holy crap this new batch of people are getting on my nerves… “post-75 baby” pLS stop trying to eat everything you see!!

Thank you cherries for the typo correction!