The first volume of the funeral Chapter 6 Paper Figures
The paper boy dressed in colorful clothes climbed slowly into the house by climbing onto the windowsill, making a crackling sound of paper rubbing against each other.
Ke Xun didn't dare to move, his eyes fixed on the darkness not far in front of him.
I could hear the sound of paper rubbing against each other getting closer and closer, accompanied by a chilly wind blowing in from the window.
The sound was getting closer, the chill that penetrated the bones was getting stronger, and suddenly I could smell a strong smell of ash in my mouth and nose.
It was not cigarette ash, nor was it candle ash. It smelled like tar, decay, and... the choking smell of a corpse turning to ashes.
Ke Xun's trachea constricted and he nearly coughed, but he bit his tongue hard to hold the cough back. His body inevitably trembled slightly, and the next moment, a pair of colorful paper pants appeared within his sight.
Ke Xun heard the rustling of paper above his head, which was getting closer and louder. The cold air and the smell of cigarette ash pressed down on him as if something was substantial, making his chest feel stuffy. It seemed as if something was filling up under his skin, and his whole body felt swollen and about to burst.
The room was eerily quiet; only the noise made by the paper man seemed strange and eerie.
Ke Xun felt that Mu Yiran beside him was as motionless as a stone. For a moment, he suddenly felt that he and Mu Yiran were abandoned by the whole world. At this moment, no one could come to save him and him, no one could help them. They were so lonely and helpless, watching helplessly, waiting for the horrible death to come.
The sound of the paper man was approaching above Ke Xun's head. Ke Xun didn't know what this thing wanted to do, but he knew that he had absolutely no power to resist it.
In the corner of his sight, the paper figurine's mouth painted bright red slowly appeared, followed by a nose outlined with ink. Just as those two almond-like eyes were about to meet Ke Xun's gaze, Ke Xun suddenly remembered what Mu Yiran had just said and quickly held his breath.
The entire face of the paper man appeared in his field of vision, with red cheeks painted with bright pink, a blood-red dot between the thin and curved eyebrows, and two eyes drawn with ink pens right in front of Ke Xun. The dark pupils were no different from the usual scribblings with a black pen, but at this moment, being stared at by such a pair of paper-drawn eyes, Ke Xun felt that all the bones in his body were frozen to the point that his skin and flesh were about to burst.
The paper figures stared at Ke Xun almost face to face, and the room fell into deathly silence again, as if there were no living people in the darkness and silence, and only three motionless paper figures were left.
--paper man?
I see!
Ke Xun suddenly understood what Mu Yiran meant.
If they didn't move or breathe, wouldn't they be just like paper figures? So the paper figure in front of him couldn't tell whether they were living people or the same kind, and that's why he didn't do anything unimaginable to them.
However, the breath that Ke Xun had just held was about to run out. Even though his lung capacity was larger than that of an average person, he couldn't hold it for too long. He just hoped that the paper man would go away quickly, otherwise...
He finished his breath, but the paper figurine still stood motionless in front of his eyes, its two lifeless black eyes staring at his face.
It’s no use... Ke Xun was in great pain, his brain was dizzy from lack of oxygen, and the blood vessels on his forehead were about to burst.
Experts say it is impossible for a person to suffocate himself to death by holding his breath.
Ke Xun said the experts were right.
No matter how strong your willpower is, it cannot defeat your physiological functions.
Just before Ke Xun's will was about to lose to his physiological functions, he suddenly heard a heart-wrenching scream coming from the direction of the main room in the north, followed by two or three screams from different people. The sound was so shrill that it did not seem like the sound that a human could make, and it made people get goose bumps in the flesh under their skin.
The paper figure in front of Ke Xun straightened up the moment the scream sounded, and the face painted with ink disappeared from Ke Xun's sight. Then there was a sound of paper, and the colorful pants moved, step by step into the darkness.
Judging from the direction of the sound, the paper man seemed to crawl out of the window, and then all the movements were covered by the miserable screams coming from the main room.
Ke Xun was sweating all over and gasping for breath.
It was still hard to believe that just now, I had actually faced that weird supernatural thing, and was really, almost killed by it.
This time, he really believed it.
Realizing that Mu Yiran was looking down at him, Ke Xun raised his hand with a heavy breath and made an OK sign.
Mu Yiran glanced at him as if he were a magical species.
I almost died just now, but now I still have the mind to tell others "I'm OK, don't worry".
I don't know if it's because I lack the fear of death or if I'm just too careless.
Ignoring him, Mu stood up happily.
Ke Xun also got up from the ground and looked outside the window cautiously.
The yard outside was still pitch black, but the outline of the main room could be vaguely seen. Right in front of the door, a pair of paper-made boys and girls were standing with their backs to each other, facing the door, as if listening to the movements inside.
The heart-pounding screams in the main room had gradually died down. Ke Xun remembered that there were three people holding cloth strips with the word "Min" written on them. One was a middle-aged uncle with a beer belly and a bloated look, like a successful and wealthy man. Another was a young man in his twenties, with a look of resigned silence. The third was one of the three people who entered the painting later than him and Wei Dong, and he had been in a very panic-stricken and fearful mood.
Judging from the severity of their screams, it can be inferred that these three people are most likely in great danger.
Ke Xun didn't know what to feel for a moment. Three people who were still alive a few hours ago were now in that terrible house just a few steps away, deprived of their right to survive by some abnormal, inexplicable terrifying force.
It's not like Ke Xun had never seen death before, but this kind of death without any reason and controlled by unnatural forces made him feel very uncomfortable.
It’s hard to tell whether this is reluctance, anger, fear, or confusion.
Mu Yiran stood by and looked coldly at this newcomer who was entering the painting for the first time.
In the previous painting, a newlywed who was frightened by the death of someone else collapsed and cried loudly, almost causing his own death.
There was also a newcomer who simply chose to commit suicide to escape.
Apart from this, there are many people who are frightened silly, scared crazy, and who think they can overcome everything and rush out recklessly and lose their lives.
The emotions displayed by the person in front of him at this moment were no different from those of the newcomers who had just entered the painting.
In the world of painting, being fragile and timid means certain death.
Mu Yiran was about to look away with cold eyes, but he saw this man suddenly raised his hand and wiped his face, then calmed down as quickly as possible, licked the corners of his mouth which was naturally a little casual, and a bit of toughness appeared in his slightly unruly eyes.
Some people are not afraid of death, but even if they die, they would rather die as an ant on the corpse of an elephant.
Mu Yiran withdrew his gaze, but saw Ke Xun retreating to his side and talking to him in a low voice: "When there is no sound in the mourning hall in a while, do you think those two paper figures will come back?"
If he were asked to hold his breath again, he might not have the same luck as before.
Mu Yiran was silent for a moment, as if thinking, and then he lowered his voice: "From what I saw just now, my idea should be correct. As long as we don't move or breathe, the paper people won't attack us. In addition, maybe they can't see us, so they won't come in front of us to test us."
Ke Xun thought it made sense. At first, the paper man was just walking slowly outside, walked to the window and looked inside, and started scratching the window after meeting his gaze. It was not until the sound of a sack falling that the paper man really went berserk and smashed the window and climbed in.
So, if we don’t let them see the “shape” of a “human” in the house, will they not come into the house?
"Let's move the sack in the corner and hide behind it." Mu Yiran's voice rang softly beside his ears. "Be careful, move gently and try not to make any noise."
"good."
The two men groped in the dark, moving quietly and gently towards the corner of the house. Fortunately, the distance was not far. Then they bent down and fumbled to pick up the sack, and moved carefully.
There were not enough sacks to build a fortress that could cover two people sitting side by side. The two tried several arrangements, and finally they could only lie side by side to barely cover their heads to feet, and even the upper part of their bodies could be covered with sacks.
Although this block can completely block the paper man's sight, it will also cover all the gaps for the two people to peek outside, making it impossible to monitor the paper man's movements. In this way, once the paper man launches an attack outside the sack, the two people will have no way to resist or avoid it in advance.
But if there is any gap at all, it might become a breakthrough point for the paper man.
The two people finally decided to fight to the death. If this method couldn't stop the paper man, then other methods would be useless as well. It would be death either way, so they had to accept their fate.
The two men lay sideways in the small fortress made of sacks.
The space was small, and even lying sideways was quite crowded. Mu Yiran refused to lie face to face with Ke Xun, so he turned around and faced outwards. Ke Xun didn't care about anything and stuck close to Mu Yiran's back.
The barrier made of sacks divides the world into two. Although the two people's small world is crowded, it also gives them a sense of security because of this crowding.
However, after the outside world fell into silence again, the two worlds suddenly merged into one, and even the only sense of security disappeared.
The two of them lay on their sides motionless, trying to breathe as lightly as possible. After a moment, all the sounds in the darkness began to gradually become clearer, the sound of the thick fog surging in the middle of the night, the sound of the wind groaning and sobbing, and the sound of paper rustling everywhere.
Ke Xun didn't know how he managed to get through the night.
He even felt that he fell asleep in the second half of the night not because he was sleepy, but because his nerves were overly tense and he lost consciousness.
When I walked out of the granary in the gloomy and gray morning light of dawn, the situation at the main door was no different from when I came yesterday. The paper-made boy and girl stood back in their original positions, facing the yard with happy smiles.
