Paintings of Terror

Chapter 30: Someone’s Broken Down

Translated by Eve

Edited by EB

Qin Ci said, “We’ve collected the five Dews of Wisdom, five tribute meats, libation wine, and the lantern. We still need to get a sacrificial cup and the items that go by terms from the local language. Unfortunately, when I went to ask around in the morning, I discovered that the village-folk only speak the local language. There’s no way to communicate with them.”

“Yeah,” Sha Liu nodded in agreement. “We wasted a lot of time while collecting the five Dews of Wisdom. We had to completely rely on gestures.”

Everyone put the objects into the tent. The five tribute meats were pieces of all sorts of not-so-fresh meat—there was beef, mutton, horse meat, bird meat, fish meat, donkey meat, dog meat, and even wolf meat.

“Although we don’t know which five meats constitute the five tribute meats, we have a lot of different kinds. We must have gotten all five,” Qin Ci said.

Sha Liu seemed to want to say something. Qin Ci noticed this and asked her what she wanted to say. Sha Liu hesitated for a moment but still said, “I’m a bit worried that the five tribute meats might…include…human flesh.”

Everyone was startled by her words. Qin Ci looked at her. “Why do you think that?”

Sha Liu said, “The meat within the rumour regarding the five Dews of Wisdom refers to human flesh. So there’s reason to suggest that one of the meats within the five tribute meats is also human flesh.”

Upon hearing this, everyone fell silent.

Zhou Bin’s expression was ugly. “I think that it’s very likely that human flesh is one of them. Look at what the five Dews of Wisdom are. They’re all related to humans. And from what I know, people used to perform human sacrifices here back when slavery was still implemented.”

“But where are we going to get human flesh?!” Ma Zhenhua took a few steps back, panicked.

Everyone fell silent.

A long time later, Zhou Bin suddenly asked Qin Ci: “You told us that only we are people from the real world, right?”

No one knew what he wanted to say. They all watched him cautiously. Qin Ci slowly nodded.

A decisive, ruthless glint flashed through Zhou Bin’s eyes. He grit his teeth and pointed towards the village. “In other words, those aren’t real people. So if we need human flesh, we can use them. In any case, they’re considered ‘humans’ in this painting so their flesh would count as human flesh too. Even if we kill them, it’s not like we’re actually killing ‘real’ people. This is like a holographic game. All we’d be doing is killing fictional characters that seem realistic. They’re not actually real people. Therefore, there’s no reason to feel bad about it. What do you guys think?”

Everyone exchanged glances. The mother of the family of three covered her child’s ears. She couldn’t help but jump in: “But…we’re currently within this painting. They’re real living people of this world….”

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“This is a painting, not reality,” Zhou Bin said. He was a bit angry at the group for their lack of ambition. “Should we all die just because you want to act like a saint?!”

The father, Papa Geng, frowned. “Watch your words!”

Zhou Bin glared at him. “What? Am I wrong? I don’t care if you and the rest of your family’s scared. Just don’t drag the rest of us down. If you think that your ‘saintly’ conscience can’t handle this, don’t use the human flesh we’re going to go get. We’ll go our separate ways!”

Papa Geng was about to say something but Mama Geng tugged on his arm. Therefore, he pursed his lips and remained silent.

Zhou Bin looked at the rest of the group. With a low voice, he asked, “What do you guys think? Do you want to go get human flesh? State your stance!”

When he saw that no one was speaking up, Zhou Bin started to ask each person in sequence. He started with Ma Zhenhua. “What do you think? Should we go get human flesh? If so, we’ll team up. If not, you won’t be able to finish the mission and leave the painting. Don’t make a decision you will regret. I won’t share the human flesh I get with anyone.”

Ma Zhenhua’s lips trembled for a long time before he finally squeezed out: “Yes….”

Zhou Bin asked again, “You want to team up with me to get it?”

Ma Zhenhua was conflicted but eventually nodded.

Zhou Bin didn’t want to interrogate the girls so he asked Wei Dong next. “What about you?”

Wei Dong replied very quickly. “I’ll do whatever he does.”

Zhou Bin looked at Ke Xun.

He had a bad impression of this fellow. The other looked unruly and licentious. Except for the Wei guy and Mu guy, he was cold and estranged from everyone else. Occasionally, he’d get a bit annoying. He wanted to beat him up.

Zhou Bin asked him coldly, “What about you?”

Ke Xun still had his kind of unruly, kind of indifferent, kind of irritating appearance on. “You do you.”

Zhou Bin replied coldly. “Then you better remember that I won’t share the flesh I get with anyone else.”

Ke Xun shrugged nonchalantly. He called for Wei Dong: “Dong zi, let’s go. Let’s not waste time.”

After saying this, he left.

Wei Dong followed after. He then turned to look into the tent. “You’re not going to wait for your male god? What if he chooses to go with Zhou Bin…?”

“He won’t.” Ke Xun paused and sat down on a large rock. He gazed towards the tent, his gaze certain. “Even if we do need human flesh, I believe that he wouldn’t kill someone for it.”

Wei Dong watched as Mu Yiran walked out of the tent at an unhurried pace. He then kicked Ke Xun in the calves. “Do you think he’d be so touched he’d go gay for you if he knew about your blind trust in him?”

Ke Xun smiled and then stood up to wave at Mu Yiran.

Mu Yiran looked in their direction expressionlessly. He then turned around and left in the other direction.

Wei Dong: “….”

Wei Dong looked at his pitiful gay buddy. This fellow was completely unaffected. He even ran over to the other man excitedly while hollering for Wei Dong. “Dong zi, come on.”

How sad, Wei Dong thought. Being a gay fan was harder than being a straight fan.

The three of them headed to the village at the bottom of the slope. Ke Xun asked Mu Yiran, “Did the rest of them agree to go kill for human flesh with Zhou Bin?”

“Well, it’s very likely that human flesh is included in the five tribute meats,” Mu Yiran said in a flat voice, “What people will do for the sake of survival exceeds your imagination.”

“Did Ziling agree?” Wei Dong couldn’t believe it.

Mu Yiran couldn’t be bothered to answer that. He picked a temple to walk into.

Mu Yiran stayed outside during the morning. When he walked in this time, he headed to someone who looked like a practitioner. He greeted the practitioner and then said, “Duomu, gala, dangka?”

These were the offerings the middle-aged man had told them they had to prepare.

They sounded like transliterations when Mu Yiran said them, as his pronunciation wasn’t very good. Mu Yiran repeated himself a few times and the practitioner finally seemed to understand what he was saying. The practitioner shook his head and said something in the local language. He then pointed north.

Mu Yiran made a ‘thanks’ gesture and exited the temple. The three of them then headed north.

The northern side was characterized by a steep, rugged mountain cliff. They couldn’t see the bottom of the mountain from where they stood. Staring off into the distance from these heights, Mu Yiran’s gaze became grave. “We don’t have enough time today. We have to leave in the morning to make it back in time. We should head back before it gets dark.”

It was already afternoon. If they were to head north now, they wouldn’t be able to make it back before the sky darkened. If they couldn’t make it back, they would die.

Wei Dong shivered. “In other words, there’s no way we’ll be able to collect all of the offerings by tonight. That means that…tonight…one of us…will be killed by that monster?”

They didn’t head straight back. On their way, they continued to look for clues and ask around. They also surveyed the nearby village for hints.

Although they called it a village, it was just a group of temples, short mud dwellings and tents.

There were more Sahism temples than there were residences. Every three steps, you could find a small temple. Every five steps, you’d find a large temple. As far as the eye could see, aside from the practitioners, thin, malnourished and sickly-looking villagers wearing tattered clothes would also enter the temples. It didn’t matter if one was male, female, old, young, rich or poor. Here, everyone was a devout believer of Sahism.

“Faith is probably the strongest source of mental strength in this world.” Mu Yiran suddenly said.

“Oh? Well, what do you believe in?” Ke Xun turned to look at him.

Mu Yiran didn’t respond.

Ke Xun used his index fingers and thumbs to mime a painting’s frame: “Art?”

Mu Yiran looked at him. With no expression on his face, he threw out one word: “Money.”

“What a coincidence.” Ke Xun’s index fingers and thumbs fell together and he rubbed them together to make the money gesture. “I also believe in money.”

‘What a coincidence’ my ass. Wei Dong’s mouth twitched as he overheard their conversation. You visit the gym you open up once every ten days or fifteen days. You don’t care how much money you make. You don’t even look at the accounts. Whenever someone needs money, they come to you. You’ll easily give out two thousand, and occasionally thirty or forty thousand. You’ve almost used up everything your old man’s left you.

The three of them made it back to the large tent before night fell. Everyone had already arrived but their complexions were white as sheets. There was fear and uncertainty in their eyes.

Ke Xun swept a glance over them. He saw drops of fresh blood on the shabby carpet. His eyes followed the trail of blood and landed on an earthen jar.

The earthen jar was streaked with thick lines of blood on the outside. It was tightly shut but he could still guess what was inside.

“Congratulations on getting it.” Ke Xun said to Zhou Bin expressionlessly.

Zhou Bin didn’t speak. He was squatting on the ground, his head hidden in his arms. He was tugging at his hair forcefully. Zhao Dan, next to him, had swollen red eyes. Her body was shaking uncontrollably.

No one spoke. The tent was filled with a deathly silence.

Only Ke Xun, Wei Dong, Mu Yiran and Qin Ci ate dinner. No one else took so much as a single bite. Li Ziling had even ran outside to throw up twice.

After dinner, the middle-aged man walked into the tent and said: “Three people to each tent tonight. Don’t run around outside. Remember, there must be three people to each tent.”

After saying that, he turned to leave but Ke Xun stopped him. “Can I ask you a question? What’s ‘gala?’”

“Gala is gala. Why are you asking this?” The middle-aged man stared at Ke Xun with his eyes that held tiny pupils. “Who are you? How do you not know what gala is? Who are you?! Are you an evil spirit sent to spy on us?!”

Ke Xun finally realized that in every painting, the characters in the painting would think that they were also beings that belonged to this world. But if you were to ask something you shouldn’t, it would immediately incur their suspicions.

It was like there was some terrifying thing infiltrating their group with the help of a smoke screen. If you were to see through it or expose it, it would immediately explode and do something terrifying to you.

“Oh, don’t get the wrong idea.” Ke Xun dodged the bullet without batting an eye. “I was just trying to strike a conversation with you.”

“Nonsense!” The middle-aged man glared at him fiercely. “You better get your act together! Otherwise, I’ll report you to the practitioners!”

He then stormed out of the tent, furious.