Dimensional Store: Welcome to the Apocalypse Apartment - Chapter 195

Chapter 195

The canvas on the easel was the skin torn from Wang Junru while he was still alive. The Female Painter used a brush made of hair and bone to dip into the palette of brownish blood. She then raised her hand, leaving a heavy, vivid stroke on the canvas before her.

She was currently painting the Library Inferno Painting.

Gu Huaiwei looked at Wang Junru, who was wailing underground, his original form now unrecognizable. She felt a bit troubled; there was no longer a single spot on his body left to hold onto.

“Kill… kill me…” Wang Junru twitched in agonizing pain, broken sounds escaping his throat, his eyes vacant.

He only wanted to die quickly now, but that terrifying Female Painter didn’t seem to allow him such a death. Before he was skinned, he had heard a voice that seemed to come from Hell.

That damned Female Painter had said that only the blood of the living could create beautiful artwork.

Death would cause the pain to vanish along with it.

Paint created that way would be lifeless and dull, not vivid enough.

Gu Huaiwei looked at the beyond-saving Wang Junru and sighed inwardly at the fact that she was about to lose a customer. Deciding quickly, she pulled out a dagger, prepared to slit his throat.

But at that moment, a pale hand tightly gripped Gu Huaiwei’s dagger.

The Female Painter had stood up from her seat at some point. She trailed a snow-white dress, with paint spilled across her hem like mottled, blooming flowers.

“Amateur,” the Female Painter’s voice rang out slowly, a hint of madness hidden beneath her calm. “Please do not touch my paint.”

The Female Painter’s lifeless eyes stared fixedly at Gu Huaiwei. She slowly reached out her hand, intending to pull the knife from Gu Huaiwei’s grasp.

Gu Huaiwei flipped her wrist, pinning the other woman’s hand down. The corners of her lips curled slightly. “Madam, please do not touch my knife, either.”

The Female Painter’s gaze moved from the dagger to Gu Huaiwei’s face.

“So beautiful,” the Female Painter murmured, staring at Gu Huaiwei’s moving red lips.

She let go of the knife. The wound the dagger had sliced into her pale palm healed instantly.

Before Gu Huaiwei could react, the Female Painter reached out again, attempting to touch those lips that were as red as cinnabar.

Gu Huaiwei tilted her head to dodge.

“What a beautiful color…” Her voice was intoxicated with madness, her smile sickly. “This is the color of the sunset I imagined.

Are you willing to kiss my painting? If you are willing to be the sunset in my painting, I can take you to admire my work.”

If an ordinary Trial-taker entered the Female Painter’s Painting Studio, it would be a certain-death trap.

Wang Junru’s fingers twitched slightly on the floor.

He wanted to speak up and warn her, to tell her never to touch that Anomaly canvas.

But Wang Junru truly had no strength left.

If Gu Huaiwei kissed that canvas, her lips would be glued to it.

Although Wang Junru was a cowardly Poor Student, he was quite loyal. Gu Huaiwei had given him bandages and medicine back in the Newspaper Reading Hall, and he wanted to repay that debt before he died.

Gu Huaiwei noticed Wang Junru’s small movements.

The Female Painter in front of her was clearly not someone to be trifled with.

“Madam, I’m sorry, but I have no interest in art.”

“It doesn’t matter. I will cultivate your interest.”

The Female Painter reached out again, this time with an exaggerated smile on her face, clawing her nails toward Gu Huaiwei’s mouth with predatory intent.

*Clap-*

Looking at those sharp nails, Gu Huaiwei blocked her hand once more.

“How did you… *crack, crack, crack*… do it?” The Female Painter lowered her head and bit the nail of her thumb. Her state was unstable, and she fell into a state of extreme agitation. “But you’ve already broken in! You should enter the painting! You rejected me, so you must become my paint!”
The Female Painter had already met the conditions necessary to harm a Trial-taker.

However, she was unaware that Gu Huaiwei did not belong to this Dimension and was therefore exempt from the constraints of the Rules.

It was as if a bug had appeared in a game, and the internal NPCs were unable to handle such an unforeseen circumstance.

Taking advantage of the Female Painter’s descent into madness, Gu Huaiwei swiftly cut Wang Junru’s throat. She then snapped a photo of his corpse to make explaining things easier once she returned.

“Don’t go!” Seeing Gu Huaiwei preparing to leave, the Female Painter reached out with both hands. The hem of her snow-white dress was soaked through with blood as she stumbled forward. “My sunset… my sunset burning fiercely in the fire… I’m almost finished with my masterpiece… *Cackle, cackle*… Don’t go, don’t leave me…”

Gu Huaiwei grabbed Bai Miemie and quickly fled the room, leaving the Female Painter behind to scream in a state of total collapse.

As she retraced her steps, she encountered Han Zhusheng halfway back.

“Did you find Wang Jizhe?”

“You haven’t left yet?” Gu Huaiwei saw him waiting in the pitch-black Corridor. When he spoke, the sound-activated lights didn’t turn on; it wasn’t until she spoke that the dim, yellow light finally illuminated the hallway.

“Yes, I was waiting for you here.” Light and shadow played across half of Han Zhusheng’s face as he leaned against the wall. “Is Mother’s masterpiece finished?”

“No, she’s still lacking a bit of inspiration.”

Gu Huaiwei had already knocked out two of his sister’s teeth, and now she had overturned his mother’s “palette.”

She felt that the possibility of her succeeding in the Eerie Business was becoming increasingly slim.

Han Zhusheng cast a somber look toward the basement. “It seems Mother is still unwilling to leave the Painting Studio.”

“It’s good that she has her own hobbies.” Under the circumstances, Gu Huaiwei hadn’t had any chance to persuade the Female Painter to leave the studio.

“By the way, I also need to find a girl wearing a yellow sweater. Her name is Bai Yuzhen, and…” Gu Huaiwei paused. Following the local customs, she explained using the Trial-takers’ identities within the Instance, gesturing with her hands. “She is one of the four Reporters who arrived with us. Do you know where she is?”

Han Zhusheng’s voice was dark and cold. “I don’t know any Reporter Bai, but Father recently hired a new Secretary from outside. That Secretary also wears a yellow sweater. Do you want to go see her?”

This Secretary was likely Bai Yuzhen, who was currently following her own plotline.

“Can you lead the way?”

Han Zhusheng refused. “Father is in poor health and does not easily receive guests.”

It seemed that finding Bai Yuzhen wouldn’t be as simple as finding Wang Junru.

“I see.” Gu Huaiwei’s eyes darted around. Since she couldn’t meet her openly, she would have to search under the cover of night.

From Han Zhusheng, Gu Huaiwei learned that the Library Director and the Female Painter had lived apart for many years. He suffered from an illness that had grown increasingly severe over the last few years, and he resided permanently in his study.

Because his health had recently taken a turn for the worse, he had hired a Secretary to handle his work on his behalf.

After gathering this information, Gu Huaiwei informed Fang Zhao about Wang Junru’s death and the news regarding Bai Yuzhen.

Upon hearing about the immense agony Wang Junru suffered before he died, the Sports Committee Member, Xia Wenxin, suddenly burst into tears.

Wang Junru was her brother; they were related by blood.

“Could your medicine not save him?” she asked, her voice filled with a sense of unwilling loss.

“Your burns were only on the surface, but his entire body had been flayed. Several of his bones had been removed and ground into powder. He was in a state worse than death.”

Xia Wenxin’s salty tears stung the tender new flesh that had just grown back. She opened her mouth, finally murmuring in a low whisper, “It’s better that he’s dead… Now that he’s dead, he won’t have to be afraid anymore…”