IWBL: Chapter 168

The reincarnators present—except for Ye Zeqing and Zheng Yi, had no special knowledge of Xiao Li’s drawing skills. After seeing the ghost, they thought that Hercule’s drawing skills were good. They thought that he really had enough skill to impress ghosts so they didn’t understand why this bigshot was walking out of the gallery so quickly. Looking closely, he was in such a hurry…

However, as someone who knew everything, Xiao Li d definitely didn’t want to stay to see his masterpiece. Bloody Mary was the one who loved to watch. As a normal person, he didn’t have this strange hobby. Therefore, he almost ran out of the painting gallery.

Due to the agreement, the door this time had changed from canvas to reality and they walked out with ease. It was just in time. Xiao Li hadn’t gone far away when he heard the painting ghost’s angry roar behind him. “Ahhhhhhh—Hercule!”

There were also a few vague curses mixed in because he was too angry about being cheated.

The others, “……?”

What was going on? Didn’t Hercule paint something for the ghost? What did he paint that made the ghost cry out so miserably? Xiao Li was already used to this and he was blind to the other people’s suspicious eyes. He just stood on the spot and touched his chin. Why did he feel like this scene was a bit familiar? Was it the same background sound as the first few exhibition halls?

This wasn’t very good. He had to pay attention in the future. He was clearly a good and upright young man but now he seemed to have become a big villain.

Xiao Li shook his head and continued forward while unrolling the painting given to him. Ye Zeqing and the others immediately responded when they saw the situation. They formed a circle and used their mobile phones or flashlights to shine it on the painting in Xiao Li’s hand.

The hint to life given by the ghost was clearly displayed in front of everyone. The white canvas was dotted with transparent drops of water and in the centre was a person. It might be far-fetched to call it a person. They looked very strange. It was unknown if they were a man or a woman from the facial features. There was no hair in the painting, only a dry face. The face was distinctly half and half. The left half was smiling while the right half was crying. It looked like Buddha and a demon at the same time.

It was obviously just a painting but due to the artist’s vivid craftsmanship, it looked lifelike. At first glance, it was like this person was standing in front of them.

Zheng Yi was the first to express his opinion. “…Just this? What does this broken painting mean?

“Even if there aren’t many words, it is better to write down a few words. What can we guess from this type of broken painting?”

Ye Zeqing first glanced at Zheng Yi with disdainful eyes, as if being with this person had reduced his own left. Then he touched his chest with one hand and spoke coldly, “Why don’t you say it is better to write the answer and send it to you directly?” He paused before continuing, “Could this be a metaphor? For example, this Paradise is a normal amusement park during the day and a haunted place at night? Therefore, day and night have different forms.”

“There is this possibility.” Fu Guangbo’s eyes lit up when he heard Ye Zeqing’s words. He immediately rubbed his hands together with excitement. He tried to touch the painting and found that the paint had completely dried. He thought for a moment before saying, “However, it doesn’t make sense. As night guards, our duty is to patrol at night. Don’t we have to obey?”

Chen Jinghan, who wasn’t very talkative, glanced at the people in front of her and suddenly interrupted. “Could it be the actual meaning and not a metaphor? A person has two twos and we are all possessed by ghosts? Or is it President Sun? He is possessed by ghosts so half of him is crying while the other half is smiling. In fact, a ghost is occupying his body and it is the source of danger at night?”

Fu Guangbo frowned as he tried to clarify the logic. “However, didn’t President Sun tell us to go to work as quickly as possible during the day? Isn’t this a contradiction?”

“Perhaps it is possible that time doesn’t matter at all to President Sun. The one we see is President Sun who is always possessed by the ghost?” Chen Jinghan speculated hesitantly.

Fu Guangbo was silent for a moment before nodding. “It isn’t unreasonable…”

At this time, he noticed that Xiao Li was standing by silently and not participating in the heated discussion. He was only staring at the painting and Fu Guangbo couldn’t help asking, “Hercule, what do you think?”

Xiao Li looked up at him and casually took the painting from Zheng Yi’s arms. “Not enough.”

Fu Guangbo wondered, “Not enough what?”

Xiao Li put away his phone and turned in the direction of the security guards’ dormitory, leaving only these words behind. “…Not enough clues. I don’t like to express opinions when there aren’t enough clues—

“In other words, once I say something, it is absolutely correct in my eyes.”

He didn’t accept things lightly but once he chose something, he would hold it tightly in his hand.

Shen Chenzhi heard this sentence and his expression changed. He stared at Xiao Li thoughtfully and followed him.

***

The night passed quickly.

Back in the staff dormitory, the reincarnators were quite tired but Fu Guangbo and the others were still studying the painting to find a way to live. They examined it from every angle and every light. It was a 360 degree examination without any dead ends. The various suggestions put forward were really imaginative.

From entering the dormitory to debating until the early morning, these people couldn’t bear to sleep until the first ray of sunlight came.

Before going to bed, Fu Guangbo thought happily, ‘Fortunately, the haunted location isn’t the dormitory. Otherwise, we will have to take turns to stand on guard and wouldn’t be able to have a good night’s sleep. Then it really would be better to die than to live.’

It was a busy night and everyone was so exhausted that they didn’t dream. This lasted until the secretary Annie came to wake them up. Annie didn’t knock on the door at first. She wanted to open it only to find that the door was locked. Her mouth opened slightly in surprise and she leaned against the door to listen to the movements inside. Then her hand formed a fist and she knocked tentatively. “Is anyone there?”

Xiao Li opened one eye quickly. His eye was clear but he didn’t move.

The doll leaning on his pillow also straightened her upper body, hair shaking as she stared directly at the door of the room. Ye Zeqing saw that Xiao Li didn’t move so he also didn’t move. It was the same for Zheng Yi.

Finally, Fu Guangbo opened the door with a complicated expression.

Miss Annie was standing at the door, her polite smile filled with surprise that couldn’t be concealed. Her eyes covered in delicate make-up swept across the reincarnators in the dormitory. “Everyone, last night… how was it?”

“Hehe.” Fu Guangbo laughed. “It was good. Don’t thank us. This is our duty.”

He was taunting her but Annie thought for a while before saying, “That’s true.”

Fu Guangbo, “…”

It was her.

Annie and Fu Guangbo briefly exchanged a few words. Then Annie couldn’t help asking, “Mr Fu, if it is convenient to ask, how did you… survive? What about Gao Yao and the others?”

She asked so simply that Fu Guangbo was taken aback. An ordinary company wouldn’t ask this type of question, even if the mortality rate was high. Shouldn’t she be careful about them trying to leave? However, looking at her face, this secretary was really curious.

Fu Guangbo looked back at the others and laughed. “We just survived. We went in for a while before going out. Well, Gao Yao and the others weren’t careful and didn’t have experience like us.”

Annie said, “Oh.” At this time, her mobile phone in her pocket vibrated a few times. She took out her mobile phone, unlocked it and opened the communication interface. Then she straightened up and told them, “Congratulations, you have passed your first night safely. You can have a good rest. At 4:00 this afternoon, I will take you to President Sun’s office to explain your tasks this evening.”

Fu Guangbo inquired, “Our task tonight isn’t to patrol the exhibition halls?”

Annie replied, “President Sun will explain.”

The secretary turned and left. After turning her back to Fu Guangbo, her formulaic smile disappeared and turned into complete shock. Her reaction was the same as President Sun’s reaction when he first learned about it. How could this be? Wasn’t it clearly impossible? Every one of the exhibition halls was deadly. It was absolutely impossible for anyone to survive the whole night after entering continuously!

However, the facts were in front of them. They had to believe it.

This morning, President Sun and his friends left the office together as usual and went to the various exhibition halls to clean up the ‘aftermath.’ Due to the large number of reincarnators, they brought more hands to carry the corpses.

Then when he walked into the first exhibition hall, PResident Sun pushed open the door and didn’t see the familiar blood stains and scattered limbs. Instead, there was broken glass and electrocuted fish with their white bellies turned over. The smell was very fragrant.

President Sun who gulped instinctively, “?”

In the second exhibition hall, he didn’t see corpses that had committed suicide after being played into a trance. Instead, he saw silicone dummies that had various holes in it from sulfuric acid. A monster was also using a dummy that had been corroded into a spherical object like an egg.

President Sun, “??”

The third exhibition was just an empty specimen exhibition hall.

President Sun, “???”

In the fourth exhibition hall, he saw the anger of the painting ghost that had smashed the entire studio. He even dared to throw a brush at Bloody Mary’s face last night. The old man was very angry and had a bad temper. He had torn up most of his once treasured paintings. Now that he saw Mr Sun, he grabbed an easel and hit him in the face.

President Sun, “????”

What about his exhibition halls? He had so many well-designed and crafted exhibition halls.

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The author has something to say:

@Say it to Hercule bot, no anonymous submission. I’m the painting ghost!

How old am I? You come to judge. Is this still human? Doesn’t a human’s education teach them to respect the elderly and children? Is Hercule a human? He is a ghost! His painting skills really force this old man to swear dirty words *%&&. He stained my eyes. I paid a lot of money for a pair of eyes that hasn’t seen Hercule’s painting!

[Comment 1: Wait a minute, I want to see how ugly it is…]

[Comment 2: You have aroused my curiosity. The next time I meet him, I will ask him for a painting.]