Chapter 156
Chapter 156
The hidden room had nearly the same layout as the studio outside. It was essentially a miniature version of it.
It also contained many easels. Red, white, and black oil paints had hardened into solid lumps on the palettes.
Peng Sheng trembled in the dim room, eyes wide. Every painting in here depicted that terrifying woman.
Yun Su showed no fear, but her brow furrowed slightly and her expression turned grave.
“What’s wrong, Sister Yun Su?” Peng Sheng stood frozen, afraid to move, but he could see her hesitation.
“These paints are very old.” Yun Su’s voice was so soft that Peng Sheng had to strain to hear her.
“Very old?” Peng Sheng craned his neck toward the paint beside him. She was right. Many of the tubes had completely dried out.
“That makes sense. With Yuko as sick as she is now, she probably can’t paint anymore.”
Yun Su did not answer. Given the storage conditions in the hidden room, the paints would have to remain unused for at least several years to reach this state.
But Kojima had clearly said Yuko only became ill in the last few days.
Yun Su looked around without daring to touch the paintings, then turned toward the exit. “Let’s go. There’s nothing else here.”
Suddenly, intuition told Yun Su something was wrong. She looked back.
Nothing seemed amiss. No easels were missing, and no extra ghost had appeared.
Was it her imagination?
She took another few steps, but the strange feeling followed her like a shadow. Just as she began to feel at a loss, Peng Sheng’s trembling voice spoke up. “Sister Yun Su, don’t you think… these paintings are closer to us than they were before?”
In a flash, Yun Su understood what was wrong.
The paintings were scattered throughout the hidden room, but they had roughly left an open area where people could stand and walk.
Now, for some unknown reason, the paintings were slowly closing in on the two intruders.
Because all the easels were moving together and their points of reference did not change, neither of them had noticed at first.
In the moment they stood distracted, the paintings moved closer still.
Yun Su had to raise her hands slightly to keep from touching the canvases around her.
Peng Sheng stood ahead of Yun Su, frozen in a daze. One painting beside him had already reached his waist.
Yun Su’s gaze tightened. They could not delay any longer.
There was only one path back. If Peng Sheng became surrounded, she would be unable to leave either.
“Get out, now!” Yun Su ordered in a low voice. Without stopping, she moved carefully but quickly toward Peng Sheng, who stood not far from the door.
Peng Sheng was on the verge of tears. “How are we supposed to move? We can’t get out! We’re going to die trapped in here!”
In truth, Peng Sheng could have escaped if he risked it. No one knew what would happen if he avoided touching a painting directly. Perhaps nothing would happen if only his clothes or pants brushed against one.
But Peng Sheng did not dare try.
Like an ostrich burying its head in the sand, he knew inwardly that freezing would accomplish nothing, yet his body no longer obeyed him.
Yun Su raised her right hand and touched the bracelet on her left wrist. Determination flashed through her eyes.
She was going to make it out alive. She had to!
Yun Su strode up beside Peng Sheng, who remained rigidly in place, then shoved him viciously.
“Ah!”
It happened too suddenly. Peng Sheng fell backward under the force of Yun Su’s push, knocking several paintings over with him.
His body struck the paintings, and so did his hands. Lying in the pile of canvases, everywhere he looked he saw the terrifying woman.
Peng Sheng stared at Yun Su in disbelief. He wanted to curse her. He wanted to call for help.
But the muscles in his throat were too tight. All he could produce were choking, gasping sounds.
Yun Su did not even glance his way. Using the path cleared by his fall, she dashed past. Her clothes scraped some of the canvases too, but she did not care.
As she neared the door, Yun Su pushed off with her toes and hurled herself through the opening, rolling across the floor.
She scrambled to her feet and looked back into the hidden room. Paintings densely blocked the route inside. If she had been even a little slower, she would definitely have been sealed in.
There were so many paintings that sheets of painted paper were even drifting down from the ceiling. No one could guarantee they would avoid touching them.
Yun Su heard Peng Sheng scream in terror from inside, as though he had witnessed something incomparably horrific. Then the room fell silent.
Standing at the hidden room’s entrance, Yun Su turned her bracelet around her wrist twice, then turned and left.
“What happened? I heard someone scream.” Gu Fan, who had been searching nearby, followed the sound and happened to meet Yun Su emerging with dust on her face.
“What happened to you?” Yun Su had always seemed calm and unhurried. Seeing her in such a disheveled state genuinely startled Gu Fan.
Looking at the players who had gathered after hearing the disturbance, Yun Su fixed her eyes on Cheng Miao among the crowd. “Peng Sheng and I found a hidden room. It’s where Yuko painted the image displayed throughout the castle.”
“All the paint inside dried out long ago. It looks like no one has used the room for years.”
Cheng Miao was somewhat surprised that Yun Su would share the clue with her.
She nodded, then asked, “Where’s Peng Sheng?”
Yun Su raised her sleeve to wipe her face, her expression unchanged. “When we tried to leave, the paintings moved. He didn’t make it out.”
The group fell silent. No one wanted to inspect a room now packed with those terrifying paintings, and in the end they could not even recover Peng Sheng’s corpse.
As the players silently mourned, Kojima’s voice sounded. “Guests, it’s almost time for dinner. If you’re finished looking around, I’ll lock the door.”
The studio was different from the doll workshop. Its owner, Yuko, could not receive guests for long, so it was unrealistic to leave the studio open for the players to explore indefinitely.
Fortunately, Yun Su had told everyone about the hidden room, so they did not leave completely empty-handed.
Cheng Miao followed the crowd out. An artist whose style had changed completely, an artist who had not painted in years. Something must have happened to Yuko.
But the affection between her and Kojima did not seem false, so the problem probably did not lie with him.
Cheng Miao still could not make sense of it. Only two days remained.
Other than understanding the rules of death, they had discovered almost nothing. Cheng Miao could not help growing restless.
Before going to sleep that night, Cheng Miao looked at Qiudong, who had naturally climbed onto her bed and settled on top of the covers, and the corner of her mouth twitched. “Why are you sleeping in my bed?”
Qiudong looked baffled. “I’m sleeping on top of the covers. Strictly speaking, I’m not sleeping with you.”
Cheng Miao rubbed her forehead helplessly. “I know, but you have a bed of your own.”
Qiudong’s expression remained cold, revealing no other emotion. “Because you can’t sleep. I’d only have to get up in the middle of the night to keep you company, so I might as well sleep here.”
Remembering how Qiudong had soothed her to sleep the night before, Cheng Miao flushed. Still, she argued stubbornly, “That was before. It won’t happen tonight!”
Qiudong closed his eyes to rest and simply refused to argue.
Cheng Miao fidgeted for a while, then wondered why she was picking a fight with a cat. Casting aside her unnecessary thoughts, she climbed into bed.
Lying in the darkness, Cheng Miao did not know whether it was the novelty of having someone beside her or Qiudong’s faint, cool fragrance, but her restless heart gradually settled.
“Tomorrow, I plan to use my buff.”