Paintings of Terror

Chapter 89: Xin Beibei

“Yening Chenyi’s method of death is exactly the same as He Yu’s. Both of them were stained with abnormal colors, or brought their own colors into the room where they shouldn’t have,” Mi Wei analyzed. “Can we infer that the people who were contaminated by other colors were not just dragged away as corpses but were killed on the spot?”

.

Ke Xun had a sudden realization. “Maybe those who were dragged away were not corpses yet, but were still living bodies—Xin Beibei might still be alive.”

Everyone recalled the coins in the pool. When Zhang Tianwei was found immersed in a large glass jar, the pool still had coins that belonged to his moon pattern.

Presumably, Zhang Tianwei wasn’t dead yet at the time.

In this way, Xin Beibei was also very likely not dead.

Shi Zhendong wanted to go upstairs. “I’m going to check the inside of that round building. Maybe Beibei still hasn’t been put in a glass jar yet!”

At this moment, no one was in the mood to eat breakfast, so they all went upstairs with Shi Zhendong.

When they came to the familiar open corridor on the fourth floor, the door of the circular building was still open. The red door inside was also open, but the glass jar that Zhang Tianwei had been soaked in had disappeared without a trace.

The ground was as clean as new, as if those red liquids had never been there.

“What floor will Xin Beibei likely be on?” Mi Wei looked up at the copper ladder leading to the fifth and sixth floors.

“This way. I’ll climb up the ladder to take a look.” Ke Xun took the initiative to speak. Yesterday, he also had this same plan.

The copper ladder was very strong, and so Ke Xun was quickly able to climb up to the fifth floor. Looking back, he found that Mu Yiran was also following close behind him.

Ke Xun smiled slightly. “Do you care about me or do you care about me?”

Mu Yiran moved quickly to the fifth floor. “I just don’t want anyone to be alone.”

They pushed open the wooden door of the fifth floor hall and were quickly attracted by the eye-catching blue clock on the wall.

“It should be right here.” Ke Xun looked at the hidden blue door and immediately shouted to everyone waiting in the corridor on the fourth floor, “It’s the fifth floor!”

Shi Zhendong and Zhu Haowen quickly climbed up. Seeing that Qin Ci was coming up too, Ke Xun hurriedly shouted, “Not too many people. Try not to be alone!”

Qin Ci understood that, according to Mu Yiran’s analysis today, it was very dangerous to “stand alone” or even stay with a very small number of people.

In their future actions, it is best that they maintain a body count of more than three people, so as not to end up meeting with some terrible enchantment.

The few people who came to the fifth floor used yesterday’s method to force the blue door to open by “creating wind.”

Although everyone had already expected to see the scene behind the door, when they actually saw the big blue glass jar with their own eyes, they couldn’t help but step back again and again.

There was a two meters high glass jar half filled with blue liquid. Xin Beibei’s entire body was immersed in the liquid, revealing only a head suspended in the water.

Seeing his girlfriend’s situation, Shi Zhendong couldn’t hold himself back; he began to tremble violently. “This person…is she really Beibei? Beibei, Beibei! Can you hear me?”

Xin Beibei’s eyes were open, but her gaze was vacant, like that of a statue.

“I’ll call Sister Guo to come up and help!” After Ke Xun said this, he took the ladder back down to the fourth floor.

“Sister Guo? Xiao Guo?” Shi Zhendong was a little dazed.

Zhu Haowen said, “Sister Guo and Ke Xun are both in the blue team. They should be qualified to walk into this room.”

Soon, Guo Lixia came up, “protected” by Wei Dong and Ke Xun. “That young lady is still alive? How do we save her? We…”

Guo Lixia’s words abruptly stopped when she saw the scene in front of her. This was the first time Guo Lixia saw a person stored in a glass jar. Although she didn’t scream, she still couldn’t help but feel scared. “Mother of God…”

Mu Yiran looked at Ke Xun, “What are you going to do?”

“I may have to wrong Sister Guo.” Ke Xun unhesitantly walked into the room and looked at the glass jar as tall as himself. “Sister Guo can support me from underneath, while I go up to see if I can pull her out.”

The glass jar was slippery, with no clear foothold at all, making it very difficult for him to directly climb up by himself.

Guo Lixia didn’t hesitate too much. “I’ll lower myself down here. You can step on my shoulders. No problem at all! I’m just afraid that this glass jar is too big and you, group leader, might fall in.”

“Fuck, Sister Guo, don’t scare people!” Ke Xun smiled. Seeing that Mu Yiran was looking at him with some concern, he smiled again.

“All right. I’ll try my best to hold your feet.” Guo Lixia was also a person who dared to put words to action, and she followed Ke Xun into the room.

“Wait a minute,” Mu Yiran said. It was unknown when a bundle of rope had appeared in his hands. “This was just discovered behind the wooden door. Tie this around your waist so that it’s safer.”

“What a great idea!” Guo Lixia was the first to throw a like. “Even if the group leader really fell in, we can all work together to pull him out! Brother Mu, you can start.”

Mu Yiran gave an imperceptible nod. Wei Dong also quickly grabbed onto the rope, fearing that Ke Xun might meet with a mishap.

Shi Zhendong also came over. “With everyone pulling together, it’s bound to be safe.”

Thereupon, Ke Xun, with a rope tied around his waist, soon stood on Guo Lixia’s shoulders, grabbed the mouth of the glass jar, and stuck his head inside.

The surface of the blue water was like a small sea, and Xin Beibei’s long black hair was floating on that surface like seaweed.

“Xin Beibei? Can you hear me?” Ke Xun called tentatively.

But there was no response.

Ke Xun leaned over until half of his body was nearly in the glass jar. He stretched out his long arm, and his hand finally grazed across the other person’s hair. The sensation of coolness and dampness across his fingers was disconcerting.

Without dwelling on it too much, Ke Xun grabbed Xin Beibei by the hair and tried to pull her up.

Ke Xun didn’t put too much strength into it. At first, he felt some resistance, but then there was a sudden give.

A loud shriek came from outside the room, and soon there was another shriller scream from Guo Lixia at his feet.

The few people standing outside the blue door saw this indelible scene that they would remember for the rest of their lives: Xin Beibei’s head snapped off very easily, with blue liquid gushing out from her broken neck. Even the five orifices on her head were leaking blue liquid.

“Splash—” The head returned to the water again, floating freely on the water’s surface.

Ke Xun blankly opened his hand.

“Ke Xun! Quickly, come out!” Mu Yiran pulled on the rope, calling the blank-minded Ke Xun’s soul back.

Guo Lixia was so frightened that she collapsed to the ground, causing Ke Xun to tumble down.

Even though Ke Xun’s legs were also soft, he supported Guo Lixia, and they both staggered out of that terrible blue room. No one looked back.

They all stared at each other speechlessly. Ke Xun looked at Shi Zhendong, whose face had gone gray, and finally squeezed three words out from his throat, “I’m sorry…”

Shi Zhendong looked like a puppet with its strings cut off. After a long time, he finally raised his head to look at Ke Xun. “I don’t blame you…”

Zhu Haowen was still calm. He looked at the blue liquid on Ke Xun’s hands and said, “You have to wash your hands quickly.”

“Okay…” Ke Xun walked into the bathroom in the hall without a thought, and directly washed his hands.

To avoid suspicion, Guo Lixia went to the bathroom to wash her hands as well.

After Ke Xun had washed his hands, he walked out of the bathroom and found Zhu Haowen standing at the door, still expressionless as usual. “Just now, if she wasn’t already dead, what you did would be considered as relieving her of her suffering.”

“I would rather that she was already dead.” Ke Xun felt as if he’d just killed someone.

“You tried your best,” Mu Yiran said. “You must have also tried your best to save her last night, but your opponent’s strength was just too strong.”

Ke Xun glanced at Mu Yiran. “It was her own shadow that dragged her away last night, and I couldn’t compete with it. Her neck seemed to be pinched tightly by a pair of invisible hands.”

Mu Yiran frowned, unable to figure it out.

They all returned to the fourth floor using the ladder. When the other people saw their expressions, they didn’t ask very many questions.

The group walked back to their own building, and Ke Xun washed his hands once more in the bathroom on the fourth floor.

“What the heck happened?” Mi Wei asked Wei Dong.

Wei Dong sighed. “Xin Beibei is dead?”

“Like Zhang Tianwei?”

“Just about.”

As Shi Zhendong staggered downstairs, Guo Lixia, as a peer, expressed sympathy. “I’ll go down to keep an eye on him, so that nothing goes wrong.”

A familiar music sounded, and the voice of the NPC appeared, still as sweet as ever. “A new day has arrived. The castle has prepared a delicious breakfast for everyone. Everyone is invited to go to the lobby on the first floor for a taste. Our task today is still three jars of canned berries. Remember not to contaminate the colors!”

Miao Zipei looked up at the clock on the wall that was still covered with indigo patterns. “Let’s go downstairs. There are still many tasks to be done today.”

Indeed, although their workload hadn’t changed, the number of people was slowly decreasing, which meant that the workload was not only gradually increasing but the time they could spend looking for the signature was also decreasing.

“Xin Beibei actually gave us some clues,” Zhu Haowen suddenly said.

“Are you talking about the maze?” Mu Yiran asked.

“She had shown a lot of interest in the maze. Furthermore, she really wanted to enter the maze herself,” Zhu Haowen analyzed. “I think this shouldn’t be her original intention. There seemed to be something fishy about it.”

Qin Ci nodded. “Let’s go back to eat first, and then we can assign somes workers to work on the tasks so that others can focus on searching the maze. Just like yesterday’s plan.” Qin Ci stretched his head toward the window, his gaze on the maze below.? “We can look down at the maze from here and draw its paths.”

Ke Xun’s face improved slightly. “We can still use the rope.”

Mu Yiran looked at the rope bundle in his hand. “When Theseus escaped the Minotaur’s labyrinth, he used a ball of thread.”

Wei Dong was at a loss when he heard this. “What are those things?”

“That is the earliest labyrinth in the world, probably built in 1600 BC, dating back to the Mycenaen period. lt is located on the Island of Crete in ancient Greece,” Mu Yiran explained.

Ke Xun recalled the scene he saw last night. “Regarding the maze, will there be a maze guard?”

“Perhaps. When King Minos built a labyrinth for the Minotaur, the person who guarded the labyrinth was the Minotaur himself.”

Ke Xun frowned. “I saw a person from the window last night, standing at the northeast corner of the maze. At that time, Xin Beibei had just been dragged away by the shadow. The person had stood there for a few minutes before walking into the maze.”

Xida: I’ll be translating POT from here on out. Hopefully, 3rd time’s the charm and I’ll be able to work on this to the very end (rolls up sleeves, ready to work hard). Also, double updates.