Paintings of Terror

Chapter 22: Once a Sunshine-Like Youth

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

“Fuck!” Wei Dong threw the ticket onto the ground and stomped on it a few times. “Can I tear it apart?! Can I?!”

Dr. Qin shook his head. “If you destroy it, you’ll die in real life. And your death will be tragic, abnormal, and/or extremely painful.”

Wei Dong bent down to pick the ticket back up, chuckling nervously. A sense of despair and helplessness trickled through his voice.

Ke Xun slipped his ticket back into his pockets and turned to look at Mu Yiran.

He then realized that this big boss was wearing an elegant, trim suit jacket. However, he was only wearing a pair of briefs on the bottom.

Ke Xun: “….” He did pull the other’s pants off before leaving the painting.

No wonder the other was glaring at him like he wanted to swallow him alive.

“Cough.” Ke Xun walked over. “Boss, I was wrong. How about you use your jacket to cover yourself up. I’ll go call a cab for you at the back door. Dong zi and I’ll escort you into the car after. Do you live in this city?”

Boss Mu continued to glare at him.

“You’re not from this city? How about you come to my place first, then? My house is really close to this place. You can change into my clothes, okay?” Ke Xun gave Wei Dong a look as he said this.

Wei Dong promptly nodded. “That’s right. Boss, you can’t head to a hotel like this. There’s people everywhere. It’s not convenient to go to my place because my parents are home. Ke er lives on his own so there’s no one else at home. Therefore, there’s no risk of being seen there. It’ll be very convenient to wash up and get a change of clothes at his place. We’ve been in that painting for so long, crawling around everywhere. Our bodies must be filthy. Boss, you look like someone who’s particular about cleanliness. You probably wouldn’t be able to bear with waiting until you get home to wash up, right?”

These words had probably struck a chord in Mu Yiran. As expected, his brows furrowed up. He didn’t refute Wei Dong.

Ke Xun heaved a sigh of relief. He then turned to Dr. Qin. “What do you plan on going? Do you also want to come to my place?”

Dr. Qin smiled while shaking his head. “No, I want to go home. I don’t live in this city either. However, I can still make it home before night falls if I buy a ticket now. So I won’t stay over today. In any case, we’ll see each other again in the future. Stay safe.”

After he said this, he was the first to exit the exhibition hall with tired steps.

The jianbing vendor and Ma Zhenhua were paralyzed on the floor. The stench of urine emanated from both of them.

“Jianbing Boss, things have already come to this. You might as well accept it.” Wei Dong dragged the jianbing vendor to his feet. “Go home, wash up and rest up. Don’t do anything stupid. We were lucky this time but we might not be able to make it out safely next time. It all depends on our own efforts. Go home.”

The jianbing vendor was like a marionette. He would do whatever someone told him. Just like that, he left the exhibition hall in a daze.

No one paid any attention to Ma Zhenhua. Ke Xun pulled Mu Yiran by the arm, but Mu Yiran threw his hold off. The other took off his suit jacket with a cold expression and used it to cover his lower half.

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Ke Xun had Wei Dong go outside to call for a cab. The three of them then exited through the art gallery’s back door secretly.

As soon as they left the building, they discovered that it was raining. Wei Dong found it odd. “It had been raining when we entered the painting. Why is it still raining now? Mister, has it been raining for the last few days non-stop?”

The taxi driver looked at him strangely. “Buddy, are you from out-of-town? Today’s the only day we’ve gotten rain in a few days.”

“Huh?” Wei Dong was about to dispute this but Ke Xun reached out to press against him. Wei Dong immediately shut up.

Ke Xun pulled his phone out. He discovered that he once again had a signal. The date and time at the top was the same as it had been when they had entered the painting.

Ke Xun whispered to Mu Yiran: “Does time flow differently in the painting?”

Mu Yiran didn’t pay him any attention.

Ke Xun nodded in understanding. “Or, rather, time stopped in reality the moment we entered the painting.”

As he said this, he pulled the ticket out again and looked at the time printed on it once more.

The next time they had to enter a painting was thirteen days from now.

Ke Xun’s home was a new building built in a residential area downtown two years ago. He had purchased it after having sold the house his parents had left behind.

Ke Xun lived on the top floor. His apartment wasn’t big and he didn’t have a lot of furniture. The largest thing in his house was the double bed in his bedroom. There were three pillows on top of the metallic blue bed and his comforter wasn’t folded—it was carelessly shoved to the end of his bed.

Ke Xun pulled out a change of clothes from his closet and handed it over to Mu Yiran. “Make do with this for now. All of my clothes are athletic wear or casual. I don’t have any formal clothing.”

Luckily, Mu Yiran didn’t seem to disdain his clothes. He accepted the clothes, no expression on his face. He then coldly said, “Go outside.”

“Do you want to shower first?” Ke Xun asked.

Mu Yiran paused. As expected, he wordlessly headed towards the bathroom.

After hearing the slam of the bathroom door, Ke Xun scratched his head. He then stretched his arms towards the ceiling.

Ke Xun surveyed his simple, empty apartment. Everything felt surreal at the moment.

Actually, since he had gone from an ordinary child with a beautiful family to a lonely orphan, he had felt like his life was an unreal dream.

Everything in this dream was the same as the apartment he lived in — empty, vacuous, monotonous and cold.

Ke Xun chuckled and then headed to the kitchen.

After coming out of the bathroom, Mu Yiran discovered that the clothes he had hung outside had disappeared. Even his underwear had gone missing. His eyebrows furrowed and the vein in his forehead started bulging.

He suppressed his anger and reluctantly put on the clothes Ke Xun had given him. The top was a white t-shirt. He was also given a pair of light grey joggers. They were a cosy but relaxed fit and the length was just right. However, the reflection he got back in the mirror was unfamiliar to him.

Mu Yiran had never worn this kind of clothing before. The person in the reflection felt like someone else. Wearing these clothes, it felt like a lot of his sharpness and self-control had disappeared. He looked a lot more relaxed.

Mu Yiran combed his wet hair back with his fingers as he continued to look at himself through the mirror.

It felt like something was off.

Was it because the white t-shirt made him look like an innocent university student?

Mu Yiran made his gaze more intense.

No, that wasn’t it.

He continued to look at himself, brows knitting.

A long time later, he realized what it was.

The bold, black text was very eye-catching. In English, it spelled out ‘hctiB A mA I’ through the reflection.

He felt like he could hear the veins in his forehead rupture.

Mu Yiran walked out of the bathroom with an expression covered in thick frost. He swept a gaze over the empty living room. The only thing he saw in this room were several beanbags that resembled their owner very much laying on the white wooden floor.

Sound came from the kitchen. Mu Yiran thus headed over there. Through the black-framed glass door, he could see Ke Xun stirring something in a pot, his other hand in his pocket.

This person could cook?

As if he could sense Mu Yiran’s gaze, Ke Xun turned around. At first, he seemed taken aback. Shortly after, he smiled. The combination of this iceberg-like expression and these youthful clothes was really too cute.

Seeing that Mu Yiran’s expression didn’t look good, Ke Xun very tactfully put on a proper expression. He ran over to open the door and flashed an innocent smile. “Are you hungry? I made coconut curry fried rice. It’ll be done soon. You can rest first. The water in the water dispenser was changed yesterday so you can drink it.”

Noticing that Mu Yiran was still looking at him like he was a dead man, Ke Xun mulled over it for a moment before adding, “If you don’t like to drink plain water, there’s also instant coffee and bagged milk tea beneath the water dispenser. There’s also coke and green tea in the fridge. If you don’t like any of those, I can go buy you Nutri-Express at the convenience store downstairs?”

The vein in Mu Yiran’s forehead began to throb again.

Ke Xun tried to read the other’s body language. He promptly shut the glass door. “There’s a lot of smoke in the kitchen. How about you head to the living room for now?”

“Clothes.” Mu Yiran coldly squeezed these words from between his teeth.

“Oh, I put your clothes in clothes bags. I was going to bring them to the dry-cleaners. You wore them in the painting for several days. It would be good to wash away any bad luck.” Door shut, Ke Xun headed back to the stove to continue frying the rice.

Mu Yiran didn’t want to continue talking nonsense with him. He headed to the bedroom.

He opened up the white in-wall closet. Articles of clothing of all colours hung inside. He flipped through all of them and realized that they were indeed all athletic or casual wear. Most of the closest was taken up by t-shirts, joggers, and hoodies.

Mu Yiran picked a white t-shirt that only had a brand logo on the front and changed into it. He then stuck the one he had been wearing before into the closet. He was about to shut the closet door when he noticed several crooked photos stuck against the closet’s inner wall.

He glanced over them. Most of the photos were of Ke Xun.

There were photos of an ostentatious, unruly Ke Xun in his adolescence, photos of a young, pretty baby Ke Xun, and photos of an ignorant and adorable Ke Xun in his childhood.

The other people in the pictures were his parents or friends. Sometimes, there were also his cats and dogs. Every photo was filled with life and a happy, worry-less atmosphere.

It was completely different to the apartment he currently lived in.

Mu Yiran stared at the photos that contained Ke Xun’s parents.

Ke Xun’s appearance was a mix of his parents’ good points. His eyes were bright and his contours were well-defined. When he had been a child, he had been adorable. As a teenager, he had been pretty. As a young adult, he was handsome.

Mu Yiran also found a photo of Ke Xun wearing a silly smile with a medal hanging around his neck. It was like these photos were meant to support his previous thoughts.

In pen, a caption was written on the photo. ?I am me, a guy whose good looks are gold medal-worthy.— The Ke Xun Question

“….” Mu Yiran shut his eyes that had been forced to see that atrocious sight.

He had just been about to shut the closet door when he had the misfortune of seeing the caption on a photo of Ke Xun doing the horse stance: The world is really miraculous to actually have been able to create a handsome creature like me— The Ke Xun Question.

The moment Handsome Creature Ke brought out two bowls of coconut curry fried rice from the kitchen, he saw Mu Yiran staring out the french windows.

The cloudy sky was beautiful. Thin rays of golden light broke through the grey clouds. Rain fell down from beneath the clouds and rainbows had already started to form all over the city. The rain gave the silver buildings of the city a hipster-ish feeling.

“The view’s not bad.” Ke Xun stretched out a leg and pulled the low table out from behind the beanbags and set the plates down. “I chose to live on the highest level because it offered the best view. Come eat.” He then pulled out the bottles of green tea he had been holding under his arms out and put them down too.

Mu Yiran turned to face him.

Ke Xun was afraid that the other would keep putting on ears. He pointed to the fried rice and said, “Every grain was painstakingly picked. If you don’t eat it, I’ll throw all of it out.”

Mu Yiran walked over expressionlessly. As soon as his butt hit the surface of the bean bag, he sunk all the way in. In a second, he went from sitting up straight to lying down.It was a very proper ‘Beijing slouch’.

Mu Yiran: “….”

When he saw the boss’ expression turn cold, Ke Xun immediately smiled and tried to placate him. “It’s because I don’t get guests often. My friends always flop onto the ground and lay there paralyze as soon as they walk in. I’m so lazy that I hate the fact that I can’t pee while lying down so I’ve never bought a proper sofa. Just make do for now. Usually, if it’s just me, I won’t even bother with the beanbags, I’d just sit on the ground.”

Mu Yiran forced himself to bear with it. With much difficulty, he managed to sit up straight on the beanbags. With a dark expression on his face, he picked up the spoon in his bowl.

Shrimp, cod, dried scallop, green pepper, red pepper were all mixed in with the golden coconut curry. The bowl was half-filled with the curry and the other half was rice. It looked and smelled appetizing.

“How is it? Is it yummy?” Ke Xun, who sat in front of him, beamed.

A long time later, Mu Yiran said, “Mn.”

The author has something to say:

hctib A mA I is the reflected image.

Eve: LOL “I am a bitch” is what’s written on the shirt. Dkm. It was originally written in English.