Paintings of Terror

Chapter 80: Into the Night

The music once again came on, and the sweet NPC reminded everyone: “It’s time for afternoon tea, please come to the lobby to rest~” The intensity of the voice increased, “Be sure to wash the berry juice off your hands, you cannot pollute the colors!”

There were several round tables in the hall, both large and small and covered with white lace tablecloths. Most people chose to sit at the largest round table, while Xin Beibei and Shi Zhendong hovered around a smaller table before Shi Zhendong brought his girlfriend over to join everyone.

“Which 1970’s year were you born?” Guo Lixia abruptly asked Shi Zhendong.

Shi Zhendong’s expression was a little embarrassed: “I’m a tiger.”

“I’m a rabbit, so you’re one year older than me!” Guo Lixia praised herself for her correct guess.

“That’s enough Sister Guo, let’s talk about the problem at hand!” Ke Xun directly interrupted the troublesome eldest sister.

Guo Lixia nodded readily: “Okay okay I’ll stop, I’ll listen to our team leader! Don’t look at how young he is, he’s extremely smart and convincing!”

Mu Yiran looked at Ke Xun who was sitting next to him, and a faint smile crossed his face.

Qin Ci was the first to ask everyone: “Did you see anything unusual just now when we were all in our respective rooms?”

Everyone had just become familiar with the environment and hadn’t had any time to carefully observe everything.

He Yu, with his long and untamed hair, said: “I found that this world is very much in compliance with the Fauvist style. First of all, the composition isn’t very proportional. For example, the distance between the green maze and the circular pool outside the castle to our current rooms was very long, but when you look out of a window, you can still see them clearly. This kind of clarity should only be achievable at close range, and would be completely impossible in real life.”

Mu Yiran nodded slightly; it seemed like he had also discovered this quirk.

He Yu continued: “Fauvism doesn’t pay attention to perspective and shading. It’s a flat composition that breaks traditional Western painting styles. The color of the object itself and its shadow form a strong contrast, and the painting method itself is far from realistic. The painter instead pays attention to subjective feelings, which is in line with what Fauvists often say: painting is not purely technical, rather a manifestation of feelings!”

This was the reason why Ke Xun doubted the three-dimensional aspect of the painting upon first entering.

“But the NPC always reminds us to not pollute the colors,” Mi Wei brought up, “We all know that the colors of Fauvism are free and unrestrained. In Matisse’s famous 【Woman with a Hat】, a portrait of his wife, he boldly used greens, reds, yellows, and blues on her face, interweaving all of these colors.”

Guo Lixia was also seriously participating in the meeting, paying close attention to Mi Wei’s every word. She let out a sigh: “Can you even look at that face then…”

Mi Wei gave Guo Lixia a short smile: “On the contrary, those colors on Mrs. Matisse’s face brought about a feeling of harmony, and were also pleasing to the eye.”

Guo Lixia rubbed her eyes and didn’t quite understand..

Shi Zhendong nodded: “What the students said just now is very valuable information, especially about the pool and the maze. Since they can be observed clearly from any direction, are these two things what the artist wants to highlight?”

The few painting-hopping-veterans all looked at Shi Zhendong with admiration, and Qin Ci said: “We can try and focus on these two places. Maybe the artist’s signature is nearby.”

Zhu Haowen also suddenly spoke: “The name of this painting is 【Shadow】, and the shadows in this world are indeed different. It’s better to observe carefully- there could be a signature hidden in the shadows, or even a fatal danger.”

This topic was a bit heavy. Everyone subconsciously looked at the shadows under their feet. In the lobby, everyone’s shadows were a uniform dark purple with lime green borders.

Qin Ci stood up and poured some tea from the teapot for everyone: “Everyone should try and eat something. We don’t know when dinner will be arranged.”

Ke Xun and Wei Dong were basically full, and Wei Dong drank a sip of tea with some sugar and milk added in. He felt that it would be enough for his stomach until night time came: “The problem now is that our day time schedule is arranged by the NPC. We can only be shut in the rooms to work, and at some point come out to eat and rest. When will we have time to go explore outside to find the signature? It can’t be that we can only go out at night.”

Everyone went quiet, this was indeed a matter that needed to be solved urgently.

Ke Xun said: “Since we’re supposed to work, there will definitely be a certain load required, but the NPC just hasn’t said it yet. Once the daily workload is determined, we can arrange tasks according to our roles. Some people will stay and work, while others can go out and look for the signature!”

Wei Dong followed up and said: “Although the NPC won’t allow us to exchange rooms and ‘pollute the colors’, it doesn’t restrict us from going out, or at least it hasn’t said so yet! As long as we ensure that our workload is complete, we should be able to go outside!”

Everyone thought it made sense, and after their tea break was over, they went back to their rooms to work, striving to complete the task as soon as possible in order to get free time.

The NPC’s voice sounded again, and it really did outline everyone’s workload requirements: “Before dinner, each room must finish storing three large jars of berries. Hopefully you all can work faster, and savor the joy that hard work brings!”

The red room only had two people inside, He Yu and Zhang Tianwei, but the two boys’ hand skills weren’t bad, and they soon finished their required three jars.

The people in the yellow room were also working hard, when Mi Wei suddenly stopped: “Have you guys noticed that the color of these berries isn’t as bright as before?”

Miao Zipei, who didn’t talk much, also said, “I noticed as well, not just the berries, but the shadows and colors around the room have darkened.” As he talked, he looked down at the patterns on his clothes again, “These embroidered colors are getting darker as well.”

The door of the room was suddenly pushed open, and Zhang Tianwei and He Yu walked in. He Yu excitedly said: “Did you notice? This world uses color changes to distinguish day and night! There’s no refraction of light or shadow at all!”

The several students were caught up in the excitement of discovering new knowledge: “It’s hard to imagine how night will be expressed here!”

Qin Ci kept his face calm, and said sharply to He Yu, “Why didn’t you wash your hands!”

Everyone was taken aback by the sudden harshness from Doctor Qin, turning to look at He Yu’s hand which was still stained with obvious red juice.

He Yu rubbed his hands: “I… I didn’t pollute any colors…”

“Go back to your room and wash your hands!” Mi Wei urged He Yu.

Perhaps it was because these youths had yet to experience the horrifying deaths in this world, so they didn’t realize the fatal danger brought about by this behavior. Zhang Tianwei also came to comfort Qin Ci: “I’m sorry, He Yu is this kind of informal person, usually his hands are full of paint, and he often just washes his hands carelessly, so it’s not uncommon for his hands to be colorful.”

When Qin Ci saw Zhang Tianwei’s clean hands, he calmed down a bit: “Student Zhang, I advise you to leave this room first. We currently still don’t understand what the NPC meant by ‘don’t bring colors to other rooms’ —? If the conditions are harsh, we might not even be able to enter other rooms even if we wash our hands.”

Zhang Tianwei’s expression was a bit awkward: “Alright, I’ll go out first, we’ll talk in the hall.”

Once everyone had completed their tasks and arrived in the lobby, they found that the color of the room had noticeably darkened, the fruits and bread on the table had almost turned gray, and everyone’s shadows were slowly turning black.

“Please have dinner together!” The NPC’s voice sounded enthusiastic, “After dinner, you can go to the bedrooms on the second floor to rest. The colors are still divided accordingly, so please keep your own colors in mind! Don’t pollute the colors!”

When everyone heard about the mistake He Yu and Zhang Tianwei made, they were speechless for a while. Several students comforted them, the reason being: Technically they didn’t touch any of the yellow fruit with the red juice, so it shouldn’t be considered polluting colors.

The few veterans looked at each other tacitly, and carried out a cruel analysis in their hearts: He Yu and Zhang Tianwei had committed two different levels of mistakes. One had entered another room without washing another color off their hands. The second had entered another room after washing their hands. Both results didn’t cause visible pollution to the color inside the rooms, but it was unknown if that was enough to escape punishment.

If one or both end up avoiding death, it would prove that their behavior didn’t constitute a death condition, and everyone could follow suit the next day.

Shi Zhendong subconsciously looked at the pool outside the window, and found that the fountain had stopped spraying water at some point, while the green labyrinth had turned grayish-green, as if it had suddenly lost all vitality.

“It’s gotten dark, everyone should go back and rest early.” Ke Xun raised his head and looked at the ceiling. There was no trace of any light, perhaps the world would be completely black once night came.

Everyone started walking up the stairs to the second floor one after another, but Mu Yiran walked to a window to observe outside, and found that the key objects, the fountain and the maze, outside had become pure black. In order to distinguish them from the environment, the lawn and other areas had become varying shades of gray.

“Looking from this point of view, this painting seems very strict with its colors.” Ke Xun stood beside Mu Yiran and looked at the print-like scenery outside the window. Even the grays were pure in their tones. “The colors in this world don’t have any transition shades, a bit similar to a child’s painting.”

“The Fauvists do try to retain childlike innocence in their works,” Mu Yiran’s eyes were still looking out at the ever-darkening scenery outside, and his voice suddenly lowered: “It’s better to be cautious the first night and not go outside.”

Ke Xun felt a bit of happiness at being reminded, but this time he was very obedient and made a low “un”.

The two people followed the shadowy stairs up to the second floor.

The layout of the second floor was exactly the same as that of the first floor. The large hall’s original five brightly colored doors were now gray. Ke Xun could only knock on the originally blue door according to his memory: “Sister Guo, are you in there?”

There was a quick response from inside: “The leader is back!”

The door opened from inside, Guo Lixia’s skirt was now covered with black and white circular patterns, which looked very eerie at night.

Ke Xun still uneasily knocked on the door next to him. According to his memory, this should be Mu Yiran’s purple room: “Dong zi, are you inside?”

“F*ck me, Ke’er, stop messing around, don’t come in!” Wei Dong’s voice rang from inside.

Mu Yiran nodded to Ke Xun and pushed the door open.

“Good night!” Ke Xun returned to his room afterwards, and found two wooden beds in the dark room.

“Group leader, she doesn’t want to sleep on the same bed as me, and I don’t want to be with her either!” Guo Lixia’s voice rang out in the dark, and her whole person moved around in the room like black dots on a white background.

Ke Xun’s pattern consisted of black waves on a similar white canvas. At this moment, the waves trembled a little: “W-what is Sister Guo thinking?”

“You choose, are you sleeping with me or with her?” Guo Lixia asked frankly.

“……”

The black dots lay directly onto a bed: “Regardless, each of us are currently occupying a bed. You can sleep wherever you want.”

On the other bed was a thin black rhombus, and the pattern with Xin Beibei’s voice spoke up: “No way, I’m not used to sleeping with strangers. Besides, the group leader is still a man.”

“You finally understand that I’m a man.” The wave pattern cried without tears.

The rhombus pattern rolled over and seemed to fall asleep.

Suddenly the whole room went completely dark, as if covered by a huge black cloth, and all three patterns disappeared from view.

—

A: Oh shittt, it begins

H: It’s weirdly eerie ;w;