Trapped in the Artist's Nightmare Chapter 7

Nathan Ke was frightened and shook off the arm of Adrian Mu who was trying to stop him, then raised his foot and kicked hard on the door of the woodshed.

With a loud "bang", the door was slammed against the wall in the air, and Nathan Ke strode in, and saw Owen Wei and that pigtailed Tristan Liu, each holding an axe in their arms, sitting huddled in the firewood pile in the corner, head to head, not moving.

"Dongzi---" Nathan Ke called out, and there was a tremor in his voice that he himself didn't even notice.

Owen Wei smacked his lips twice and changed his posture.

Nathan Ke: ...

Asleep.

This guy is so careless.

He walked up and kicked Owen Wei in the thigh. Owen Wei opened his eyes and frantically fumbled for the axe in his arms. He looked closely and saw that it was Nathan Ke. He breathed a sigh of relief and shouted, "What's wrong? Why are you here? Is there an accident?"

"What are you yelling for?" Nathan Ke kicked him again in fear. "Why are you sleeping so soundly? I almost broke down the house outside but couldn't wake you up."

Owen Wei pulled out a piece of cloth from each ear: "What did you say?"

"...Why are you plugging your ears?" Nathan Ke was speechless.

"Fcuk, I'm scared!" Owen Wei stood up with a pale face, "Didn't you hear me last night? The screams in that room almost scared me to death, and we didn't dare to go out. We were terrified just listening to the screams, so we simply blocked our ears. We were going to die anyway, so we might as well die in peace."

As he was talking, Tristan Liu beside him woke up, looking very badly. He looked at Adrian Mu standing at the door and asked, "How many people died?"

Adrian Mu shook his head calmly: "I don't know."

"Go and take a look." Tristan Liu threw down the axe and walked out.

"Hey---are you crazy? There might be some weird stuff in that room, do you still want to go and take a look?" Owen Wei grabbed him.

"What did I tell you last night?" Tristan Liu shook his hand off impatiently. "Even in the world of paintings, abnormal phenomena are consistent with the logic of the painting. This painting depicts a certain scene of a funeral in Chinese folk. Ghosts in this context usually do not appear during the day."

"...That makes sense," Owen Wei thought, looking at Nathan Ke, "What do you think?"

"I want to go and see it too." said Nathan Ke.

Most people's fears come from the unknown. The more you know, the less fear you will probably have.

Coming out of the woodshed, I saw a few people coming out of the room to the east. They all looked unhappy. They stood silently in the yard, looking at the mourning hall in front of them.

Nathan Ke saw that the pancake stall owner was among them. His face was as white as paper and his legs were shaking. When he approached him, a smell of urine emanated from him.

But no one would laugh at him at this time.

A man in his thirties with a mellow voice looked at everyone and pointed at the door: "Want to go in and take a look?"

Two or three people nodded. It was obvious that this was not the first time for these people to enter this world in the painting.

The pancake stand owner let out a hoarse moan from his throat: "Don't -- don't open that door! Are you crazy?! There is a ghost in that door! There is a ghost! You will let the ghost out! Are you looking for death?! I don't want to die! I don't want to die! Aa ...

Suddenly, he seemed to collapse, turned around and rushed out of the yard, disappearing into the gray morning mist.

"...Is he going to be okay?" Owen Wei asked Tristan Liu hurriedly.

He had eaten pancakes from that boss several times. They tasted good and the quantity was large. He really couldn't bear to see anything happen to the boss.

"What did I tell you last night?!" Tristan Liu glared at Owen Wei fiercely, not wanting to pay any more attention to him. He followed the man with the mellow voice and the few people who had nodded before, and walked towards the main house.

"What did he say to you last night?" Nathan Ke asked Owen Wei.

"How could I remember? I forgot it so quickly because I was so scared." Owen Wei had a bitter face, with cold sweat still on his forehead.

"Let's go in and take a look first." Nathan Ke pointed to the main house.

When passing by the paper-made boy and girl, Nathan Ke paused.

Now they are pretending as if nothing happened, but they did not behave like that last night.

Nathan Ke quickly glanced at the boy's face. This roughly painted face was exactly the same as the face that was in front of him last night. It still had the same crescent-shaped eyebrows, the same smiling little red mouth, and the same pair of lifeless and dull almond-shaped eyes.

Passing the pair of paper figures, Nathan Ke was about to step into the door, but he saw Adrian Mu standing at the door and glanced at him: "It's not very nice inside, think before you go in."

Nathan Ke raised his eyebrows slightly and looked at Owen Wei beside him: "Do you want to see it?"

Owen Wei shook his head desperately: "No! I'm afraid of having a nightmare."

Nathan Ke twitched his lips: "Our current situation is not much different from a nightmare. Don't look away."

"You want to go in and take a look?" Owen Wei was surprised.

Nathan Ke nodded: "I have to see it. Even if I die, I have to die clearly, otherwise I will not be willing."

"Then...how about...I should accompany you in?" Owen Wei had a miserable look on his face as if he was willing to risk his life to accompany a gentleman.

"No need," Nathan Ke pushed him away, "There are several people inside, stay away. Did you pee early?"

Owen Wei: "...No."

Nathan Ke: "Go ahead and spread it."

Owen Wei: "Oh."

After watching Owen Wei walk a few steps away, Nathan Ke turned back and caught Adrian Mu's gaze on him.

Seeing that he was about to look away, Nathan Ke stepped forward and suddenly smiled: "Just now you stopped me from being the first to enter Dongzi's woodshed. Are you afraid that I would suddenly see something that I can't accept and get upset? This is probably what they call a cold face but a warm heart?"

Adrian Mu ignored him and walked into the house. Nathan Ke stretched out his arm and patted him on the shoulder: "Thank you."

The end of his words stopped abruptly when he saw the situation in the house.

The main room was indeed the mourning hall, hung with curtains, banners, and paper money and ingots. In the middle was a large word "甸" written in white on a black background.

The black lacquered coffin was placed in the center of the room. In front of the coffin were incense and candles, two cushions in front of the altar, and a copper basin for burning paper and offering sacrifices.

The three men with cloth strips with the word "Min" written on them tied around their waists fell in different places in the room.

The linen robes on the three men were intact, without any damage or injuries. However, looking at their faces, there were two bloody holes where the eyes should have been. Thick dark blood covered their pale faces with twisted and hideous muscles. Their mouths were opened to the extreme, perhaps out of fear or screaming, revealing dark throats and a mouthful of blue-white teeth stained with blood.

Two or three people were so frightened by such a terrifying face that they let out a low growl, and one even turned around and walked out of the front door.

Nathan Ke didn't want to look at it anymore after just one look, but he saw the man in his early thirties walk closer to the body, squat down and examine it carefully.

Nathan Ke's attention was on the coffin.

Although in the real world, the city where he lived had already implemented cremation, he had seen coffins on TV. He paused as he looked at them, pulled Adrian Mu's arm, and whispered in his ear, "Look at this coffin - there are no nails on it."

Adrian Mu's eyelids twitched, and he walked over slowly and silently, walked around the coffin half a circle, and even reached out and touched the coffin at an angle where no one could see.

Nathan Ke looked at him, waited for him to come back, and asked in a low voice: "How is it, did you find anything?"

Adrian Mu ignored him.

Nathan Ke sighed: "If you don't tell me, I will go over and open the coffin lid."

"You're looking for death." Adrian Mu looked at him coldly.

"Correction, it's surviving from death." Nathan Ke raised the corner of his mouth and smiled slightly without any smile, "Passively taking a beating is waiting to die. This is not my habit. I have to find the answer. If there is no answer, I will find the problem. I will solve the problem after finding it. I don't want to die like these three people. Did you see that the clothes on these three people are still neat, and there is no sign that these things in the room have been touched. What does this mean?"

Mu Yi Ran didn't answer, but just looked at him indifferently.

"It means that these three people died without any ability to fight back, without even the most basic resistance," Nathan Ke's voice was cold, "They did nothing but scream. I don't want to die so pathetically. Even if the force that killed people is a completely irresistible force, I want to know what this force is before I die, and I will do everything I can to resist. Even if I can't escape death in the end, at least I have lived up to my life."

Adrian Mu met Nathan Ke's gaze, and looked away after a moment. He cast his eyes on the man squatting on the ground examining the body, and said in a deep voice: "He is a doctor. Let's wait for his autopsy results first."

Nathan Ke didn't say anything more and just stood aside and waited.

It was called an autopsy, but without any tools, only a simple examination could be done. The doctor stood up after a long while, glanced at the people in the room, and then lowered his eyelids. A mellow bass voice slowly sounded: "These three people were frightened to death. Their eyes were gouged out by a sharp weapon before they died. This weapon could be a very sharp and narrow dagger, or it could be... a hard long fingernail."

As soon as the words fell, everyone couldn't help but look at the coffin in the room.

"Take another close look at the room," said the doctor calmly.

Everyone was silent, but quietly dispersed, carefully and cautiously checking every corner of the mourning hall.

After all, I still have to find the signature or seal of the author of this painting. Even if the situation in front of me is chilling, I have to bite the bullet and look carefully.

Nathan Ke pulled down a curtain and covered the faces of the three dead people.

Mu stood at the door with his arms folded, seemingly lost in thought.

Nathan Ke searched the room but didn't find any signature or seal. He was about to step out of the door, but when he saw the boy and girl at the door, he stepped back and asked Adrian Mu: "If I burn these two, what do you think will happen?"