Paintings of Terror

Chapter 228: Film

“Lights off—”

The voice was not loud, but everyone in the Lantern Inn heard it clearly.

Unlike needing a lantern-lighter for lighting the lanterns, it was much easier to put out the lights. All the lanterns seem to have received the command “lights off” and extinguished one by one from the ground floor to the upper floor.

This ritual-like feeling of sacredness made everyone fall silent. They watched the light gradually disappear from their feet to the top of their heads and experienced the entire process of being shrouded in darkness.

After who knows how long, Luo Bu said with a stammer: “Brother, brother-in-law, are you guys still there?”

Before Ke Xun had time to respond, a warm hand quickly grabbed him: “You are both here, that’s great!” He could imagine that this guy’s other hand had already grabbed “brother-in-law”.

The strange thing was that although the surroundings were dark, they were not completely invisible, as if there was a faint light to illuminate.

“Koharu…Wah…Ahhhhhhh…” Luo Bu yelled out of control.

Not knowing what was going on, Koharu lay on its master’s shoulder pitifully, about to fall at any time. Its eyes were shining like jewels.

Ke Xun picked Koharu up and carefully looked at its eyes: “Are the eyes of dogs always so bright at night?”

“This is not normal.” Mu Yiran also came over to look. One of his hands was still tightly held by Luo Bu. A weak voice appeared: “I thought Koharu had turned into a monster…”

“Let’s go back to the room first.” Mu Yiran saw that the entire Lantern Inn plunged into darkness. The only two light sources were from Koharu and were extremely eye-catching.

The three of them returned to the room with the aid of the light from the dog’s eyes.

When Ke Xun entered the room, he covered Koharu’s eyes: “Everyone, be prepared, Koharu’s eyes glow at night.”

Even though they were notified in advance, everyone in the room still let out low exclamations when they saw Koharu’s eyes.

Koharu was placed on the table and acted as a dog-shaped night light.

Although the dog’s eyes were bright, they couldn’t compare with real lights after all. At present, they were only slightly brighter than everyone’s phones.

“Strange, why the dog’s eyes weren’t so bright when we first arrived here, they were obviously black at that time.” Shao Ling sat at the table, studying Koharu’s eyes, “Could it be like some kind of stone that emits light at night only after it absorbs enough light?”

Everyone was quite convinced by this explanation, and then Zhu Haowen changed the subject without beating around the bush: “There are two questions now. First, when do the lights go off here and why is the lights-on time so short. Second, how were the lights put out and why were they off by themselves.”

This was exactly where everyone was most confused about. Zhu Haowen continued to ask: “What time do you all think it is? Guess it based on your intuition. Everyone has a biological clock in their bodies. We have not been here for a long time, so we shouldn’t be assimilated too quickly.”

Assimilated—this word made everyone startled. Wei Dong looked around in the dim light, and then touched his stomach: “I think it was about one o’clock in the noon when I ate. It’s about two o’clock now.”

Qin Ci nodded: “I think so too. We entered the art gallery at 9:10. I looked at my watch at the time. The time we entered the painting was about 9:30 to 9:50. If we calculate according to that time, It’s almost two o’clock in the afternoon now.”

“But is the time outside the painting the same as inside the painting?” Du Lingyu asked, “What was your previous experience like?”

Qin Ci: “It’s not necessarily the same. We usually enter the painting in the morning, but in the painting, it may be afternoon or even dusk.”

“It is very necessary for us to figure out the time. Calculating it based on the time outside, if we arrived at the painting at ten o’clock, according to the digestion time of the human body, we almost all felt hungry after twelve o’clock. Lunch was at approximately one o’clock and the lights turned off at no more than one hour after the meal, hence two o’clock.”

“From ten o’clock in the morning to two o’clock in the afternoon, a total of four hours, from lights-on to lights-off, a total of only four hours.”

Everyone fell silent for a while.

Koharu blinked, and the whole world flickered.

“Why is a day in this world so short?” Xi Shengnan sighed. She was sitting leaning against a folding screen, a little listless, “If a day is less than twenty-four hours, is our time limit here still seven days? Doesn’t that mean we have less time to look for the signature?”

After hearing this, everyone’s nerves were tense.

“According to how it usually goes, the passage of time in the painting is the same as outside. A day is also twenty-four hours.” Shao Ling said, “It’s just that if the daytime here is only four hours, it means that the night will be extended. We will experience twenty hours of long night. What’s worse, the dangers in the painting all happen at night.”

“Th-this is too difficult.” Du Lingyu turned her face to the dark, and gently wiped away her tears.

Cao Youning yawned untimely: “Sorry, sorry, I tend to get sleepy after I get full, and I also have the habit of taking a lunch nap. I really hope that the lights-off this time is just for everyone to take a nap, and maybe it will be turned on again in two hours. ”

Mu Yiran lowered his eyes slightly and had no choice but to speak out about his discovery: “The sky is already dark.”

“Sky?” Cao Youning was taken aback.

“Can’t you feel that it’s pitch black outside the window?” Shao Ling couldn’t help but say, “When we first arrived, the sky was slowly getting brighter. Although it was still gray at its brightest, it’s evident that daylight existed. It’s completely dark now.”

Although Cao Youning was afraid, he couldn’t resist and yawned: “I’m sorry, I’m just like this. When the room gets dark, I get sleepy easily.”

“If you are sleepy, you can take a nap. We will wake you up in about an hour,” Shao Ling said. “Everyone else, pull yourself together. It’s two o’clock in the afternoon. Please remember this time. Don’t be assimilated by this world.”

Ke Xun: “We can’t just sit still. It’s not a good time now to go out to find the signature. We can’t get a magnifying glass for now, but we can do something else.”

“Develop films!” It was Mai Peng who spoke. His voice sounded funny because of the bad cold, “We have water and a kettle now. These are enough for developing films.”

Hearing this, everyone was a little excited, so they started working on it. Lu Heng had already taken out the developing tank from the cabinet: “Turn on your phones so it’ll be bright enough. We’ll have to prepare developing and fixing solutions later.”

Mu Yiran asked: “If using the developing tank, does the film have to be a full roll? How many photos have you all taken in your current cameras?”

Mai Peng hesitated for a moment, obviously forgetting this problem because of his excitement: “My camera has a display for winding films. I probably only took less than ten pictures. If I take it out now, the remaining twenty or so pieces of film will be rendered useless. Maybe we will still need to take pictures with films in the next few days.”

Lu Heng also went to get his camera: “How about you guys, who have taken pictures in this world?”

“I didn’t dare to take pictures,” Du Lingyu said. “The roll in my camera is still new, probably because I transferred all the photos in the camera to the computer last night and it becomes new when it’s emptied.”

“I also didn’t take any.” Xi Shengnan said, “The camera has rolled over a dozen shots. They are probably the pictures of the scenery I took at the entrance of the art gallery, along with some works in the gallery.”

Cao Youning yawned and laid down with his clothes on: “I didn’t dare to take pictures…”

“Then use my roll.” It was Lu Heng who spoke, “I have taken thirty-three pictures for this roll of film. It’s good enough.”

“What do you mean by thirty-three?” Luo Bu interrupted and asked.

“A roll of film generally has thirty-six sheets. If a roll is taken out and developed after only taking a few shots, the remaining unused films are wasted.” Lu Heng explained, “I have thirty-six sheets in this roll, and I have finished shooting thirty-three. It’s fine to waste just three pieces.”

“Then why waste it? We can shoot and finish the roll.” Luo Bu admitted that he had the blood of a businessman. Sometimes he was very good at using resources.

Wei Dong nodded after hearing that: “Luo Bu is right, use those three pieces.”

Lu Heng’s voice trembled slightly: “Wh-where to shoot?”

Taking pictures was particularly creepy in the middle of the night, as if it was destined that something invisible to the human eye would appear in the lens.

Luo Bu, who had always been timid, said calmly at this time: “When I was young, I heard from my grandma that cats and dogs can sense that kind of thing. If there is something in our room, Koharu can definitely feel it and will not be so quiet like a chicken.”

“Woo…” Koharu was not very happy with being compared to a chicken.

“Okay, quiet like a maiden.”

Koharu lay down on the table. It looked like it was not in the mood to respond to its master.

Lu Heng seemed to try to embolden himself and said: “Our hometown also has this kind of saying about dogs. It is said that if a dog barks suddenly in the middle of the night, you can tell ‘who’ passed by how fast it barks. I think it was “fast barks are humans, slow barks are gods, in-between are ghosts.”

The more Lu Heng talked, the more afraid he became.

“Let’s shoot. We want to use the camera to capture some clues that are invisible to the naked eyes. If what we capture is just an ordinary night scene, then it’s meaningless.” Mai Peng was much calmer than Lu Heng, “Shoot.”

Lu Heng picked up the camera, his hands trembling slightly.

Seeing this, Mai Peng said: “Are you willing to lend me your Ricoh?”

This was exactly what Lu Heng wanted: “Yes yes, God Mai, you should shoot!”

Mai Peng took Lu Heng’s camera, stared at the viewfinder first, and adjusted the lens very professionally. He picked several angles in the room, and everyone who was “gazed” upon by the camera lens turned away their faces unnaturally, seemingly as if they didn’t want to be photographed.

“I’m going to use the flash. Everyone, be careful not to blind your eyes.” After Mai Peng reminded them, he took a picture on the spot, and then took another picture from a different angle. The clicking sound seemed to be a little longer than just now.

It took a long time for Mai Peng to reveal his face from behind the camera: “Strange, it seems that the scene in the viewfinder has changed at the moment of shooting just now.”

Everyone was suddenly nervous. Shao Ling asked: “What has it changed into? Did you see clearly?”

“I couldn’t see clearly. It was already dark, and the flash was too bright, but I feel that the dog’s position seems to have changed.” Mai Peng said.

“What…” Luo Bu hugged Koharu tightly in fright.

“Obviously it was on the table, but the moment I pressed the shutter just now, I saw that it was on the other side by the window… Because its eyes are very bright, I don’t think I’m wrong about that. There were two bright spots by the window.” Mai Peng was very sure.

“Could it be… There is also a dog by the window?” Du Lingyu muttered, “Or…something else.”