chsdbacks Chapter 3: Red Dress, Little Bear
Chapter 3: Red Dress, Little Bear
"Xiao Zhou, Mom is entertaining guests."
"Okay, go to sleep now. I'll take you to KFC tomorrow."
Madam Zhou sent Xiao Zhou back to his bedroom.
Then he brewed a pot of tea for Zhang Ze.
Zhang Ze had the image of the bear from the drawing in his mind. After a few seconds, he asked, "Is he your son?"
"Yes, Xiao Zhou is in second grade this year."
"I thought the one crying so hard outside was your child."
"I hired them to wail at funerals," Mrs. Zhou said awkwardly. "We don't have any relatives in Hanjiang City. These days, you can find any kind of business. As long as you pay, they'll wail even more heartbrokenly than your own family."
Ok.
Zhang Ze misunderstood.
Since Xiao Zhou is the biological son.
Zhang Ze still remembered the system notification.
[Murderous Painting: Scream Factor 2 Stars]
A gifted artist had her hands chopped off by her parents. She completed her final painting with her own blood, only to have it used by her parents to inflate its value and sell at exorbitant prices. Strangely, every buyer died shortly afterward. Some say the painting connects to another world…
Xiao Zhou said that his older sister teaches him to draw every night.
Clearly, the ghost is in the painting.
And it also appears to be related to "watching cartoons"...
Zhang Ze estimated that it might be something like the world depicted in the painting.
In a child's eyes, it's just a cartoon.
"Ignore him. If you want to take this painting, you can take it now."
Mrs. Zhou continued.
After thinking about it, Zhang Ze gave up on the idea of bringing it back to his own haunted house; at least for now, there was no rush.
He always found Xiao Zhou's reaction strange.
As a time traveler, Zhang Ze knew very well that the children in this world were all extraordinary, far more powerful than Conan next door.
Except for the weakest red-clad person in the third ward who can't beat anyone.
Almost every child has something amazing about them.
With this in mind, Zhang Ze decided to give Xiao Zhou some respect.
He first booked a hotel on his phone, deciding to spend the night in the western suburbs. Zhang Ze then continued to inquire:
"Did Lao Zhou leave any belongings behind?"
"His belongings are all in the attic, and I've finished sorting them out," Madam Zhou said.
We chatted for a few more minutes.
The tea is still warm.
More people came to the mourning tent outside to pay their respects, so Madam Zhou temporarily left the living room to greet the guests.
Zhang Ze then went into the attic.
Examine Lao Zhou's belongings.
As it turned out, he actually found something unusual.
It was a diary.
The owner of the diary is naturally Lao Zhou, as can be seen from his handwriting. However, the contents are very short, and it is more like a small notebook or memo book than a diary.
The preceding narrative was quite normal.
About a month ago, strange words started appearing.
3 month 24 day.
"I recently read a pretty good supernatural novel. The protagonist is a detective. At first, I thought it would be hard to read, since there's no such thing as a detective in China."
"Later I discovered that this book... was surprisingly good? The protagonist is a detective on the surface, but he's actually a paranormal news anchor who films real paranormal events."
"Speaking of which, everyone in my circle likes horror elements, just like me. This is probably what they mean by 'birds of a feather flock together.'"
"I saw a cursed oil painting at an auction house. The artist is said to be dead. I'm going to buy it and see how terrible it is."
3 month 28 day.
"I bought the oil painting. It looks a bit creepy, but that's about it. For someone as experienced as me who has appreciated a lot of horror works, it's not anything special."
"As for the TV, I was watching the children's channel with my son, and it seemed like they were showing that cartoon again, I think it was called... Boonie Bears."
"Because of his withdrawn personality, Xiao Zhou's grades have never been very good. Every day after I finish my errands and come home, Xiao Zhou is playing with a model chainsaw and imitating the short, ugly bald man on TV."
"Didn't the other children around him think that Xiong Da and Xiong Er's faces looked rather dull?"
April 1st, April Fool's Day.
"Xiao Zhou is fascinated by that cartoon. Whenever he sees the yellow bear-man with a beehive on his head, he laughs uncontrollably and is speechless."
"Why can't Xiao Zhou learn from his father and have a more refined sense of aesthetics?"
"However, what's encouraging is that Xiao Zhou seems to have become a bit more talkative these past few days. Could it be thanks to the cartoons? He seems to prefer staying in his bedroom rather than in the living room with the TV."
"If Xiao Zhou could be a little more cheerful, I think my opinion on this idiotic, childish, and utterly worthless cartoon would change a bit."
4 month 7 day.
"I've been paying a little too much attention to this anime lately."
"I discovered that Xiao Zhou has actually learned to draw. This is a remarkable improvement. When he was in kindergarten, he could never draw and was often bullied by other children."
"I should encourage him more. Although what he draws is still that stupid bear from 'Bear in the Woods,' at least it has some positive effect."
"But... Zhou has been staying home from school all this time, so who taught him to draw?"
4 month 11 day.
"I found some of Xiao Zhou's paintings in his room. Some of them puzzled me. The paintings were not without rules, but rather they contained some kind of narrative."
"Is this really a plot allowed in animated films?"
"I saw... he drew Bald Qiang luring Xiong Da and Xiong Er to put their hands into the bottle, but they got stuck in the bottle, and in the end, in order to break the bottle, both of the bears' hands were cut off."
"If such gory scenes appeared in an animated film, the censors should all be shot."
4 month 21 day.
"A new character has appeared in Xiao Zhou's painting."
"Is it just my imagination?"
"She was a woman in red. I feel like I've seen her somewhere before, but definitely not in a cartoon..."
This concludes my diary entry.
Zhang Ze was stunned.
Judging from Lao Zhou's handwriting, the influence of the murderous paintings on them began with Xiao Zhou's paintings.
Xiao Zhou was the first person to be affected.
But Xiao Zhou did not die.
It was Old Zhou who died.
This was not Zhang Ze's main concern.
The key point is that Lao Zhou wrote that it was a woman in red, and combined with the painting Chen Yi just saw in the bedroom, the woman in the painting was dressed in a blood-red dress.
Unlike Xu Yin's style, which gradually dyes her clothes red.
She looks more like Zhang Ya.
She's dressed in red right from the start!
Holy crap, that scared me to tears!
Zhang Ze's scalp instantly blew out.
I didn't expect to encounter a complete red-clad character right at the start of the game. This is way too difficult!
Even Chen Ge had to go through a series of trials before he was qualified to participate in other venues with red-clad figures, after taking a shortcut to get Zhang Ya into the shadows.
Zhang Ze is completely out of the loop now.
A female ghost in red appeared right at the beginning?
"wrong."
"If they really were in red, this whole family should have been wiped out long ago."
"But only Old Zhou has died in all this time. There must be some conditions or limitations to this red-clothed killer. If we can figure out the pattern, there might still be a way."
Zhang Ze immediately realized what was happening.
Even if it's red.
As long as it doesn't start with some kind of massacre.
This means there is still room for maneuver.
My starting point wasn't exactly a doomsday situation.