MOF Chapter 50

Chapter 50: Painting within a Painting, Entering the Painting to See the Painted Woman

Xie Yiling said with certainty, “This…”

Nangong Ci walked to the painting and reached out to touch the darker soil covering the ground in the painting. “The scene we entered in the painting was a burial. And there is a distinct smell of blood in the soil.”

Xie Yiling remembered the smell that filled his nose and mouth, and couldn’t help but show a hint of disgust. Combining it with the predicament they were in at the time, he suddenly realized, “So the black stones in the painting aren’t actually stones, but human heads!”

Nangong Ci hummed in agreement. “Gu Third Master said he heard people crying and laughing. If it wasn’t done intentionally by the painter, then it was the resentment of the souls who died unjustly in the painting.”

Gu Huanzhi was surprised at the painter’s boldness, but also puzzled. “But in that case, wouldn’t the guests who entered the painting and were unharmed be terrified when they woke up and never come again? They might even spread the word, and the reputation of the tavern would plummet.”

“That’s the key point. Judging from the number of guests at the tavern, most people don’t know about this at all, or,” Xie Yiling slowed down his speech, his tone sounding much more serious, “what they see when they enter the painting is different from what we see.”

The window in the room was pushed open halfway, and a gust of cold night wind blew in, making Xie Yiling and Gu Huanzhi shiver. “I took a look when I came up,” Nangong Ci stood by the window, looking down. It was midnight, but people were still coming and going.

“There are more guests staying at this tavern than coming to eat. Normally, most of the guests staying are from out of town, and no matter how famous Jianchun Tavern is, there wouldn’t be a large number of out-of-towners coming specifically to stay every day.”

“So there must be many local Wei City residents among them,” Xie Yiling picked up his words and continued, “But local residents have places to live in Wei City, so why do they have to come to Jianchun Tavern to stay?”

Gu Huanzhi blurted out, “Bewitched!”

“Not bad.” Xie Yiling nodded, giving him an appreciative look. “From the moment we entered Jianchun Tavern, we were targeted by the painter hiding behind the scenes. So the dream we entered is different from those of other guests.”

“Does that mean our identities have been exposed?” Gu Huanzhi was immediately horrified. “But the enemy is in the dark and we are in the light, so how are we going to deal with them? We don’t even know who he is.”

“Even if we can’t remember clearly, Gu Third Master shouldn’t forget,” Nangong Ci closed the window and turned around. “After all, you were the one who told us that rumor.”

Gu Huanzhi carefully pondered Nangong Ci’s words, recalling the content of the rumor, but he couldn’t figure it out.

A Si beside him sighed three times, “Alas! Alas! Alas! Even a child knows this, how can you not think of it? Can a copy be the same as the original?”

Gu Huanzhi was stunned for two seconds after hearing this, and couldn’t help but support his forehead after figuring it out, smiling helplessly, “A Si is still the smartest.”

A Si tilted his feet and swayed a few times, “I’m so smart, do you want to recognize me as your master?”

Xie Yiling raised his hand to knock his head, “You still want to be someone’s master? Your spells come with you, who can learn them?”

A Si happily received the knock, with a rather smug expression. Seeing Gu Huanzhi looking at him, he pretended to sigh again, “It’s not that I don’t want to teach, it’s that you can’t learn it at all.”

Xie Yiling didn’t continue to tease A Si, but turned to look at Nangong Ci, “Master, then let’s go find the original painting now.”

They couldn’t sleep anyway, and if they fell asleep, they might enter the painting again.

Nangong Ci nodded and said, “The original is very likely in the tavern owner’s room.”

Xie Yiling immediately said, “If I remember correctly, the waiter mentioned that the owner’s surname is Fan. Let’s take advantage of the night to find this Boss Fan’s room first.”

No sooner said than done, Xie Yiling didn’t delay at all, pushed the door open and walked out first. Who knew that he would have a bad start as soon as he left the corridor, bumping into a passing guest.

“Young master, be careful,” the person who was bumped into was not angry, but instead said to Xie Yiling with concern, “The corridor is dark, you can’t see the road clearly, young master, please walk slowly.”

The guest’s voice was as slow as the cold water of a stream, one gentle and one cold, blended together, indescribably strange.

Xie Yiling looked up and saw that the other person had a face that made it very easy for people to lower their guard, but his first impression of this person was not very good. He cupped his hands in salute and thanked him with a shallow smile, “Thank you for the reminder, it was my fault for bumping into you, I apologize to you here.”

Nangong Ci walked out of the room and stood beside him, “Are you okay?” Gu Huanzhi followed with A Si.

“I’m fine.” Xie Yiling turned back and smiled at him, “I just don’t know if this young master was injured by me?”

“I’m fine, young master, don’t worry.” The man took a step forward, a smile hanging on his handsome face, “My name is Bai Zhe, I felt hungry after waking up just now, so I came out to eat something, are you also? Want to join me?”

The other party’s attitude was open, so Xie Yiling had no choice but to tell him his name and treat it as an acquaintance. Hearing about eating, A Si was about to speak when Gu Huanzhi covered his mouth.

“No, no,” Xie Yiling waved his hand, “We’re just… feeling too stuffy in the room, so we came out for a walk. Young Master Bai, you go eat first.”

The four of them stepped aside, making way for him, and watched Bai Zhe go downstairs until his back disappeared at the stairs.

“What’s that smell?” A Si suddenly complained, “It’s so strange, so awful!”

Xie Yiling noticed this and asked him, “A Si, what are you talking about?”

“There’s a smell.” A Si’s small face was wrinkled into a ball, pinching his nose and saying, “When that big brother walked past just now, there was a smell on him.”

At this time, Xie Yiling naturally wouldn’t think it was some kind of body odor, he said seriously, “A Si, can you tell me, what kind of smell is it?”

A Si’s two short, thick eyebrows were twisted together, he thought for a while and said, “After smelling it, I feel stuffy in my heart, it’s like, like being buried in the ground and unable to breathe.”

Buried in the ground, unable to breathe, wasn’t that what he and Nangong Ci had experienced in the “live burial”?

Xie Yiling said with certainty, “This Young Master Bai is related to the painting.”

Nangong Ci said, “I’ll ask about where Boss Fan’s room is.”

Xie Yiling looked at him and said, “Who are you going to ask?”

Nangong Ci quickly drew a talisman in the air and said to him, “The last talisman was ‘Inspect’, this one is called ‘Question’.”

After saying that, he tapped his finger, and a wisp of his spiritual power was attached to the talisman, and it immediately flew away.

Nangong Ci closed his eyes, and the scene passed by the talisman was simultaneously transmitted to his mind. It found the waiter who brought them upstairs today and gently stuck it behind his waist. The waiter was busy without noticing, he put two plates of exquisite snacks on a tray. He also took out candied fruit specially bought from the preserved fruit shop and put it in, before carrying it upstairs.

Jianchun Tavern has three floors, and it is also the only tavern in Wei City with three floors. The waiter went up to the third floor, walked to the innermost room, raised his hand and shook a string of bells hanging at the door.

After the bell rang, he shook it again, repeating it three times in a row before footsteps came from inside.

After the door opened, the waiter lowered his head, held the tray in both hands and raised it forward, his tone respectful. “Boss Fan, here’s what you wanted.”

The tray was taken away by the person inside, only to see him wave his hand and the waiter left.

The moment Nangong Ci opened his eyes, the talisman on the waiter’s body disappeared instantly and returned to his hand. He handed the talisman, as if throwing away some small toy, to Xie Yiling, who had been watching for a long time, and said, “I asked, let’s go.”

Xie Yiling curiously pinched the talisman standing on his hand, the touch was soft and fluffy. Hearing Nangong Ci say to leave, he put the talisman away.

Xie Yiling leaned close to Nangong Ci and said softly, “Master, you can’t use spiritual power to enter a counterfeit painting, the original shouldn’t be the same, right?”

Nangong Ci said, “Maybe not.”

The group quickly went up to the third floor and found Boss Fan’s room. Nangong Ci repeated the waiter’s steps completely as he had seen them.

*

Jianchun Tavern’s owner, Fan Qiujin, placed the prepared snacks and candied fruit in front of the painting as usual. After a while, a slender figure appeared in the painting. Fan Qiujin’s eyes lit up, he showed a flattering smile, rubbed his trembling hands, “Rain Flower Goddess, these are the candied fruits you specified, I brought them to you. I also hope that the Goddess will continue to bless my tavern to be prosperous and make a lot of money every day.”

The figure in the painting moved, and a puff of white smoke floated out of the painting, like a gauze dress being blown by the wind, wrapped around the candied fruit and snacks on the plate. Fan Qiujin glanced at it and was relieved to see that the things in the tray were gone.

Xie Yiling and the others waited quietly at the door, waiting for the rabbit, and sure enough, after three bell sounds, footsteps soon sounded in the room. Almost the moment the door opened, Xie Yiling took out a pre-prepared spiritual curse and immediately controlled the person. Then he pushed Fan Qiujin, and Nangong Ci and Gu Huanzhi entered the room one after another.

After carefully closing the door, Gu Huanzhi said softly, “Are we going to enter the painting now? What if someone comes in the middle?”

Xie Yiling said concisely, “A Si.”

A Si was looking at the empty tray in disappointment, wondering why he smelled the fragrance but didn’t see the food, muttering, “How did they eat it all?”

Nangong Ci set up a barrier outside the door and said to Xie Yiling, “I’ll go in and take a look first, if I don’t come out in half an hour…”

“No.” Xie Yiling had just placed Fan Qiujin steadily on the bed, worried that the talisman would fail, and added another one. Before he could finish listening to Nangong Ci’s words, he interrupted, “I don’t agree.”

Nangong Ci paused, “Alright, then we’ll go in together.”

Fan Qiujin’s room was larger than the average guest’s, and Xie Yiling chose an open space and sat down cross-legged with Nangong Ci.

Gu Huanzhi patted A Si’s shoulder, and earnestly instructed him again, “A Si, you must guard the door, don’t let anyone else in, understand?”

A Si was not confused on serious matters, he nodded and waved to Gu Huanzhi, assuring him, “I know, don’t worry.”

The three of them slowly slowed their breathing, gradually becoming oblivious to everything else. Xie Yiling quietly waited for the moment to enter the painting, but found that he couldn’t fall asleep.

The sound of Nangong Ci and Gu Huanzhi’s breathing beside him had gone from light and slow to completely inaudible, and Xie Yiling couldn’t help but feel doubt in his heart. His legs began to feel sore and numb, and just a slight movement felt like the rough fur of some animal, allzhā jìn stabbing into the flesh.