Paintings of Terror

ons.

“Why are you talking nonsense with me?” Huang Pi asked him. 

“Meow, I think that you may know some clues that people like us don’t know,” Ke Xun said bluntly.

“What makes you think so?” Huang Pi was noncommittal.

“Just by relying on two very vague clues, the scarf of an ancient scholar and the body’s transformation into a puppet, you can guess that the world you correspond to is Laoshan Taoist, meow.
This gives meow the idea that you might have a bashfully irascible intuition,” Ke Xun said.
A naughty expression appeared on his face and he added, “Brother Pi, you must have been a cartoonist when you were a kid, right, meow?”

“Fuck your meow XX,” Huang Pi cursed in a hoarse voice.
Although he had a fierce look on his face, he didn’t plan on killing Ke Xun at once. 

“Since you’ve guessed the world you correspond to, why don’t you think of a way to trigger it?” Ke Xun asked.

The world of the Laoshan Taoist, which corresponded to Huang Pi, was a hidden world, which needed to be triggered through one of the worlds behind the six doors.

 

“It’s none of your business,” Huang Pi said harshly.

“My guess is that you don’t want to go back to the real world, you want to die here.” Ke Xun looked into his eyes. 

“Scram, dickhead.
Don’t talk drivel in front of me.” Huang Pi was expressionless, but he looked at him with a cold gaze.

However, Ke Xun didn’t retreat.
Instead, he hunkered down in front of Huang Pi, his tail smoothly wrapped around his hip and thigh.

Sponsored Content

“I’m very familiar with this kind of state, so don’t pretend,” Ke Xun said.
“Meow, in the first few months when I became an orphan, my daily mentality was just like yours now.
I had no desire for food or water.
Meow, on the surface, my emotions seemed stable, but there was one sentence that kept repeating in my heart: Just die like this.
What’s the use of living? It’s better to just die.”

“Meow, in those first few months, the thing that I did the most was to look at old photos.
I looked at every photo I’d taken with my family since I was a child.
I studied every one of them, meow, or I just watched old cartoons and old TV shows on the internet, because…” 

“I was pretending to be a little child again, meow.
Old photos, old cartoons, old TV shows, all of them represented the most carefree and the best memories I had with my family as a child, meow.”

“Meow, when I was suffering the most, when I was the most desperate, the most depressed, meow, I always thought that it was better in my childhood.
Every day, when I was happily watching cartoons, my whole family was around me, neat and tidy.
How nice it was.”

“Your state now was the same as me at that time, meow.
My guess is that you’re bored with life, meow.
Is it easy to become bored after having spent such a long time on the path you’re on?”

“So there’s nothing wrong with dying while surrounded by your best childhood memory, right, meow?” 

Huang Pi didn’t respond, only lowered his eyelids, revealing a shallow scar.
He stared down at his hands that were covered with the dirtiest things in the world.

Many years ago, he’d been a little boy who’d sat on his own chair and watched cartoons on TV, happily and unblinkingly.
Never would he have imagined that, when he grew up, he would become a scum who was like a cancerous tumor.

But who would have imagined this for themselves?

All happy childhoods were similar, but complicated and hard lives were all different. 

No wonder the author of this painting set up such a theme.

Maybe he also had a life of failure, and so he missed his carefree childhood.

“Brother Pi, in your opinion, which cartoon behind these six doors is more likely to trigger the hidden world of Hailibu?”

The man in front of Huang Pi brazenly asked him this, as if he wasn’t an outsider at all.
What gave him the gall to think that he would tell him? 

“You go to Ma Liang’s Divine Brush,” With a frown, Huang Pi threw out these words in disgust.

Yes, he ought to hate this kid.
As a man, he wanted to engage in relationship with another man, so fucking nausiating.

 

“Meow? Why Ma Liang’s Divine Brush?” The disgusting kid continued to ask shamelessly.

–Why the fuck would I tell you?! 

Sponsored Content

“Are you stupid?” Huang Pi glared at him fiercely.
“Black Cat Sheriff, Tiger Learns a Skill, and The Snow Child are all animal worlds, and Nezha and the fish child aren’t even ordinary mortals.
Ma Liang’s divine brush was given by the gods, and the fruit that Hailibu ate to allow him to understand animals was also given by the gods.
These two films are similar!”

“…” Ke Xun’s tail swayed lightly.
“Big Brother, you analyzed these cartoons so fiercely.
You must get along well with your subordinates, meow?”

“…You fucking want to die,” Huang Pi said harsely between gritted teeth and made as if to get up.

Ke Xun jumped up from the ground, tails flicking, and rushed to the door of Ma Liang’s world.
He let out a meow and, without looking back, said, “Thank you! I’ll keep your cute performance just now a secret!” 

“…Fuck,” Huang Pi cussed, veins popping along his neck.

Ke Xun ran into Ma Liang’s world and thought about the similarities this world shared with Hailibu’s world.

Ma Liang’s cartoon had cattle, sheep, chickens and rabbits that looked as if they were painted on stone.

Could it be an ox? Ma Liang was a cattle-herding baby and didn’t the old master tell Ma Liang, who was watching him from outside the window, to go home and herd the cattle? 

Ke Xun rushed to the location of the county government seat, and he saw Wei Dong being mocked by the old master.

Since the plot would reset every night, Wei Dong had to start the script all over again.

“Dongzi, don’t bother about him!” Ke Xun stepped forward and pulled Wei Dong into a run.

Wei Dong was shocked.
“What are you doing here?! Aren’t you afraid of changing even more?!” 

Ke Xun dragged him toward Ma Liang’s residence and said, “Hurry up! We need to go back to search your house, meow!”

“Look for what?” Wei Dong asked hurriedly.

“For meow meow!” Ke Xun yelled angrily.

“Why the fuck do you keep saying ‘meow’? I have no idea what you’re even saying!” Wei Dong was also startled and anxious. 

“Meow–” Ke Xun wanted to learn how to emulate the sound of an ox, but what came out was the sound of a cat.

Shit, Ke Xun thought to himself.
Because he entered a world that wasn’t his own, his anomalies were intensifying, and he was now almost…unable to speak.