Chapter 0380 – The Third Man
”The person who drew this painting was quite thoughtful, creating it from the perspective of a corpse.” Ma Ying looked at the painting in her hands, she seemed to be infected by the emotions in the painting, and had a bit of a hard time.
”I do think it’s quite awkward, a living person substituting for a dead person’s perspective, it feels weird to look at.” Liu Xianxian took a look at it and lost interest, “I always feel that this painting is for the dead, maybe this painting was painted by Mr. Big Body.”
”Don’t talk nonsense.” Ma Ying put the painting to the side, and was about to look at the second painting when her fingers brushed against the paper, and her fingertips were stained with a small piece of paint, “It’s not dry yet?”
She froze in place, her head confused for a moment.
”This painting seems to have been painted recently, someone else must have come in the warehouse, but why would he paint here? And paint it in such a different way?”
Ma Ying thought of the incident Liu Xianxian had said before entering the building, a student had seen someone waving inside the west area as they passed by at night, only to enter and realize it was a badly damaged corpse.
”The painting was really a big body teacher?” A terrifying thought surfaced in her mind, Ma Ying couldn’t control herself as she took a step back, wanting to get away from that cabinet but curious about the other paintings.
Eventually curiosity overcame fear, and Ma Ying stood in front of the cabinet and looked at the second painting.
It was an oil painting, the colors chosen by the author made it look depressing, the grey sky pressed overhead, black crows pecking at the ghastly white flesh, and a soon to be rotting hand struggling to reach out to the ground.
”A very pessimistic and despairing world, without any colors.”
Ma Ying looked at the third painting again, which showed a little girl holding an apple.
This painting was the complete opposite of the previous one, the girl was dressed in cute and brightly colored clothes, standing under neon lights, the apple in her hand was tantalizingly colored.
From the background to the clothing, it was full of color and light, but the painting still made people feel uncomfortable.
The reason lies in the little girl in the center, who does not fit in with the whole painting, her exposed skin showing an abnormal grayish-white color, holding an apple in her hand to eat it, but she seems to know very well in her heart that even if she bites into it, she will not be able to eat the taste of the apple.
The pretty little face showed a very simple thirst, she wanted to know the flavor of the apple.
Putting down the third painting, Ma Ying looked towards the last painting.
It was a realistic painting of a person whose body had been torn apart.
The picture in front of her eyes, which was hard to accept for ordinary people, did not seem uncomfortable to Ma Ying.
During her first anatomy class, she had understood one thing, that dead people were different from living people, they were now just a cold machine, a machine with complex parts constructed into it, which could no longer be put back into operation.
The disassembled man in the painting is staring at his body, perhaps he is also pondering whether he can still be called a human being.
Staring at the portrait in that last painting, Ma Ying looked at it for a long time, and suddenly seemed to have thought of something.
She took out her cell phone and clicked on the video that her sister had sent her before she disappeared, and she pressed the pause button when the video played to the twelfth second.
At that time, the camera happened to capture the window there, and there was a woman with her hands grasping the window sill, revealing half of her face.
Comparing the faces in the paintings, Ma Ying suddenly realized that the woman’s skin color was very similar to the color of the portraits in these paintings!
”What’s going on? One is a video shot and real, and one is just painted and fictionalized.”
Her arm involuntarily trembled as she felt that the woman in the middle of the cell phone screen and those portraits in the paintings were both looking at her.
The feeling disappeared only after she raised her hand and put a few paintings into the cabinet and closed the door.
”The main characters in the paintings all seem to be big body teachers, so if you think about it, the woman lying on the window in the video is actually a corpse too? But how could a corpse be lying on the window?”
The video was paused at the last second, the woman lying on the window in the picture looked at the filmmaker, and through the screen Ma Ying felt as if the woman was staring at herself.
”There seems to be a complex emotion embedded in her eyes, this is definitely not something a corpse can do.” Ma Ying turned off the video, old looking at the woman, she was also a bit scared, “My sister’s disappearance is definitely related to this woman, these paintings are also considered clues.”
Hands pressed on the cabinet door, Ma Ying touched the sticky cabinet door, feeling more and more strange: “There is formalin residue on the cabinet door, the paintings in the cabinet are created from the perspective of the teacher of the big body, my sister also disappeared when she saw a monster that resembles a dead body, could it be that the dead people are really ‘resurrected’? ”
”Xiao Ying!” Liu Xianxian’s voice came from behind her, the very timid girl seemed to have run into the depths of the warehouse alone.
”Where are you?” Ma Ying could only hear Liu Xianxian’s voice but couldn’t see anyone, there was too much clutter in the warehouse, obscuring her vision.
”Ying!” Liu Xianxian shouted again, still only calling out Ma Ying’s name.
Ma Ying, who had just been startled by the video and the painting, was on high alert as she grabbed a broken chair next to her and headed towards where the sound came from.
Passing through the shelves, she saw a straight figure standing in some very inconspicuous corner of the warehouse.
”Liu Xianxian?” Holding the chair in one hand, Ma Ying raised her cell phone, and before the bright light could illuminate the figure, her shoulder was suddenly tapped.
”Who!”
With her arm shaking, Ma Ying grabbed the chair and slammed it behind her, and only when the chair was about to touch the person behind her did she see the other person clearly and forcefully stop.
The chair grazed the person behind her and slashed through, smashing into the shelves with a loud noise.
Stiffly withdrawing her arm, Liu Xianxian didn’t expect Ma Ying to have such a big reaction, and she was taken aback, “Xiao Ying, why are you feeling a bit strange tonight?”
Putting down her chair, Ma Ying took a deep breath, “I’m strange? Suddenly tapping my shoulder in this place, are you trying to scare me to death?”
”We’ve been to this place a few times, there’s nothing to be scared of.” Liu Xianxian had actually felt that Ma Ying’s face was a bit hideous in that moment just now.
”It’s not the same, I’m now certain that someone has come in before we came!” Ma Ying said this and suddenly remembered something, she picked up her cell phone and shone it towards the corner she was ready to look at earlier!
”Where is the person?”
It was empty, not a single figure there.
”Ying, don’t scare me, where is there anyone else here besides us?” Liu Xianxian stood behind Ma Ying, “Even if someone had come in before us, then he may not still be in this warehouse now.”
”That person didn’t leave, I just saw him with my own eyes!” Ma Ying simply couldn’t imagine that just when she and Liu Xianxian were searching with confidence and boldness, there was actually another person standing in this warehouse.
”Leave immediately, I have a very bad premonition.” Ma Ying re-picked up the chair on the floor and wanted to persuade Liu Xian to leave.
”No, you can’t leave now.” Liu Xianxian stood in place with a firm attitude, she grabbed Ma Ying’s arm with a death grip, “I just found that statue on the other side of the warehouse.”