Paintings of Terror

Chapter 8: The Coffin

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

“I don’t know what will happen.” Mu Yiran gave him an indifferent glance, “But the last person to do something similar ended up facing an exceptionally painful backlash.”

“Okay, I won’t burn them.” Ke Xun spread out his hands, “Then what if I drew tortoises or goats on their faces?”

Mu Yiran looked at him like he was stupid. “Regardless of whether it’s a ghost or a god, they should not be disrespected according to Chinese traditions.”

“But gods and ghosts can humiliate people?” Ke Xun felt helpless.

After everyone finished their investigation, no one found anything that would help raise morale. Looking at the sky, although it was overcast and grey, they knew that morning had already come. Therefore, they shut the door to the central building and headed to the courtyard.

Ke Xun recalled what the old man had said to them last night. He had said that they were to reconvene at his place at eight o’clock the next morning. Therefore, he hollered at Wei Dong. who had been waiting outside.

As soon as they exited through the courtyard’s gate, they saw the jianbing vendor sitting on the ground outside. He looked decrepit and like he’d already broken down. His face was wet, although they couldn’t tell if it was from tears or sweat.

Wei Dong finally remembered what Liu Yufei had told him last night. He went to pull the jianbing vendor up. “Don’t bother. It’s pointless. You can’t run from here. No matter where you run to, you’ll always end up back in the same spot. You might as well follow the rest of us. Maybe we’ll find a way back today.”

The jianbing vendor stood up in a daze. He followed after everyone like a wooden doll.

Ke Xun asked Wei Dong, “What did you mean when you said ‘no matter where you run to, you’ll always end up back in the same spot?’”

Wei Dong pointed into the foggy distance. “Liu Yufei said that, no matter what direction you run in, you’ll always end up back in the spot you had started. It’s like if there was a painting set in front of you. When the person in the painting runs past the left edge of the frame, they’ll reappear from the right side of the frame. Therefore, they’ll end up in the same spot they had started at if they keep running. Do you get it? In any case, no matter how hard you run, you won’t be able to run out of the frame.”

“…That’s really despairing.” Ke Xun sighed.

“What did you see in that room?” Wei Dong asked.

Ke Xun gave it to him simply. He then looked up at Mu Yiran, who was walking ahead of him. He quickened his pace to catch up with the other and asked him, “Xiao Mu ge, say, what did you find out in the mourning hall?”

Mu Yiran shut his eyes. Ke Xun could see a hint of helplessness in his face that was cold and stern like an iceberg. His eyes softened subconsciously and he didn’t push the other. He only tilted his head as he stared at Mu Yiran, waiting quietly.

Mu Yiran opened his eyes and saw Ke Xun’s face before him. The other’s disheveled short hair made him look rather languid and a bit unruly. However, his eyes beneath those brash and beautiful brows were especially pure and earnest. His pupils were especially stark against the white of his eyes. When he looked into them, it looked like there was a pure light flickering inside of them.

You really couldn’t tell that this person was actually a shameless idiot just by looking at his face.

Pressing his lips into a straight line, Mu Yiran looked away and quietly said, “There’s an issue with the material the coffin is made out of. Usually, coffins are made out of Chinese cedar wood, paulownia wood, or from a mix of fir and cypress. But the coffin inside that mourning hall was created purely out of cypress. It wasn’t mixed with any other wood.”

“So?” Ke Xun looked at him.

“In some parts of China, according to their funeral traditions, it is prohibited to make coffins out of pure willow or cypress.” Mu Yiran’s voice was quiet, “According to passed down traditions, the reason why they cannot use willow is because willows do not produce seeds. Therefore, if you were to use willow wood to make a coffin, it would lead to the extinction of the family. On the other hand, if you use pure cypress, the coffin will be struck by the sky.”

“Struck by the sky?” Ke Xun raised a brow, “Struck by lightning and split into two?”

Mu Yiran nodded slightly. “You can say it like that. Therefore, it is a taboo to use purely willow or cypress in making coffins. In places that have these customs, they would typically never make such a mistake.”

Ke Xun turned to look at the Li residence that was already far off in the distance. “But the people of this family did make that mistake. That means….”

“It means that it was done on purpose.” Mu Yiran also turned to look at the residence, a thoughtful look in his eyes. “Whoever did this knew what consequences it would bring. There is likely only one possibility: to utilize the taboo as a curse.”

Ke Xun: “…A curse? Damn. But why?”

Mu Yiran looked down, appearing to be mulling over this. “Even if this is a painting, everything must still adhere to logic, especially if this a realistic painting. As soon as we enter the paintings, we take on roles within the painting. In this case, the roles are those tasked keeping vigil, those tasked with chopping firewood, those tasked with guarding the granary, those tasked with guarding the storeroom, those tasked with digging the grave….”

“It feels like we’re missing something.” Ke Xun looked at the people walking in front of them.

Mu Yiran’s eyes flickered. “We’re missing the other protagonists of the funeral.”

“Who?” Ke Xun looked at him.

Mu Yiran’s gaze shifted to his face. “The family of the deceased.”

Ke Xun had a sudden realization. “You’re right. Except for us, there was no one else in the residence last night. Wait a second, could it be that the three people who died were the deceased’s family members?”

“No.” Mu Yiran gestured to the people in front with his chin. “We’re all dressed the same. If they were the family of the deceased, they would be in mourning dress. Even if they weren’t, they shouldn’t dress the same as us. Based on how we were ‘given arrangements’ in that old man’s house last night, we are probably ‘villagers.’”

“Why are the villagers the ones holding the vigil?”

“In a village with a small population, the entire village will need to help out when a family holds a funeral,” Mu Yiran replied.

Ke Xun thus asked, “Are you from a small village, Xiao Mu ge?”

Mu Yiran looked at him coldly. “I read a lot.”

“I majored in physical education.” There was no shame in terrible student Ke Xun’s face. “Can books teach you about coffin materials?”

Mu Yiran didn’t look like he wanted to respond to that question very much, but it was probably because he didn’t want Ke Xun to keep pestering him that he reluctantly said, “I have a friend obsessed with woodworking.”

“Obsessed” was a good word that explained a lot. Usually, those that had an obsession would recommend or try to share their obsession with others like crazy. Ke Xun could imagine that the other had frequently been told many things about wood.

“Then why hasn’t the family of the deceased appeared?” Ke Xun rubbed his chin in thought. “Does the family not care that someone is using a pure cypress coffin to cure the deceased? And just who was it that made the coffin?”

Mu Yiran said in a low voice, “When you find out the answers to those questions, you’ll probably be able to leave.”

As they spoke, they arrived at the old man’s house from yesterday. When they walked through the door, they found buns, congee, bowls and chopsticks. The old man’s dead gaze swept over everyone. “Everyone worked hard last night. Eat first. There’s no work to be done during the day so everyone can rest. Come back here when night falls. I will assign everyone their work for the night then.”

When he finished speaking, the old man went into a back room.

Ke Xun had been wondering whether the food was poisoned when he saw several people walk over and begin to eat. Ke Xun glanced at Mu Yiran and saw that, albeit that the other’s expression was a bit heavy, he also walked over to the table and scooped himself a bowl of congee.

“Is this really fine?” Ke Xun sat beside him. He watched as the other spooned congee gracefully? into his mouth.

Liu Yufei sneered, “Don’t worry and just eat it. If the food was poisoned, there would be no need to torture us with so many mysteries. They could just throw us into a building and starve us for a month. No one could survive that.”

Ke Xun was still looking at Mu Yiran. “Then what’s with your expression? Are you a picky eater?”

Mu Yiran glared at him icily, “If you want to die in the next second, I’ll help you do it.”

Ke Xun immediately recalled how powerless he had been when this big shot had pressed him down against the floor last night. He grabbed two buns and handed one over to Boss Mu, kissing up to the other. The boss didn’t pay him any attention and so the bun was taken by Wei Dong.

Liu Yufei scooped up the thin and tasteless congee with disgust on his face while continuing to speak to Ke Xun. “The reason his expression is ugly is probably because the people who went to dig the grave died.”

Ke Xun paused. He counted the people in the room and discovered that they were indeed missing the two who went to dig yesterday. “How do you know they’re dead?”

“Because that old man didn’t wait for those two people to come before letting us start breakfast.” Liu Yufei pointed to the back room. “If they were alive, the old man would have waited until everyone arrived to say his lines.”

“Fuck.” Wei Dong cursed under his breath. “Five people died in one night. At this rate, how many of us will be left tomorrow?”

No one replied. Everyone ate quietly. Some people looked numbed, some people looked pensive and some looked dazed.

There were no words to describe the taste of the food. The congee was cold, the buns were hard and there were white hairs on the stems of the salted vegetables. No one knew what the filling inside the buns were either but it tasted like grass. It also smelt like horse dung.

But even if it didn’t taste good, they had to eat it. Otherwise, who knew how long their strength would last?

After the disgusting meal was over, Mu Yiran stood up and headed outside.

Ke Xun pulled Wei Dong with him and followed along. “Where are you going?”

“To look for clues outside.” Mu Yiran said in his deep voice.

“Can we walk around as we please? Aren’t you scared of encountering something?”

“According to what we know about the painting, nothing should happen during the day,” Mu Yiran said, “Moreover, the old man didn’t tell us that we couldn’t go outside just now. So it should be fine.”

“We’ll go with you.” Ke Xun decided to grab onto this big shot’s big thigh and never let go.

Mu Yiran didn’t bother with him. He walked out of the house with large strides and headed directly towards the area north of the village.

The north of the village was nothing but wasteland. The area even further away was nothing but an endless, chaotic fuzziness.

Up in the sky, crows cawed. The birds spiralled around several times in the sky before landing beside a mound.

Ke Xun and Wei Dong followed Mu Yiran over. Next to the mound, they found two corpses.

Wei Dong screamed and fell onto his butt. He scrambled backwards seven/eight metres before he stopped and pointed at the corpse with a trembling finger.

“Close your eyes and duck to the side.” Ke Xun stood in front of him, blocking his view. He didn’t really want to see the state of these corpses but he saw Mu Yiran walk towards them. The other lowered his head and carefully examined the corpses. Therefore, Ke Xun bore with the discomfort and headed over as well to look at the bodies.

As soon as he saw the full state of the bodies, he vomited on the spot.

Eve: Anyone want to put out their own guesses on what the state of these corpses are?

EB: ..Peaceful deaths?