"Damn, why me?" I jumped like my butt was on fire.
"Do you have a girlfriend?" Li Yang suddenly asked a weird question.
"Nope."
"How long's it been since you jerked off?" Li Yang pressed.
"Man, what the hell? Can we not play games, big bro?" I was dumbfounded.
"Look at my face. Dead serious. Just answer," Li Yang said.
"Since I left school and started work, I quit."
Copper Lock grinned sleazily. "Old Liu, you're a legend. Holding it in like that? You're practically a monk."
Li Yang broke it down for me. "Look, Old Liu, I've got a girlfriend, and Copper Lock's the nightclub prince. Out of us three, you've got the most yang energy. If you don't take down the painting, who will?"
"Bullshit. What does taking down a painting have to do with yang energy?"
"You don't get it." Li Yang pointed at the landscape painting on the wall. "This piece, judging by its style, is from a Song Dynasty artist. The brushstrokes are wild, the tones dark and murky. Paintings like this easily form a yin-sha pattern. Something this sinister needs someone with your level of yang energy to handle. Don't worry, worst case, you get possessed. Dying's not that easy."
Copper Lock gestured for me to go. They were united, and I was outvoted. I dragged my feet over. The painting was hung in a damn inconvenient spot—right above the bed's headboard. To get it, I'd have to climb onto the bed. Staring at the bright red quilt, all I could think of were cockroaches crawling everywhere. My stomach churned.
The two stood nearby, rushing me. "Hurry up, hurry up."
I took a deep breath, stepped onto the quilt, and climbed up. The mattress was soft, a springy one. I carefully avoided the red quilt, feeling it was ominous, not wanting anything unclean to touch me.
At the painting, I held the flashlight in my mouth and reached out with both hands. Up close, the light hit the scroll, and the river in the painting seemed to shimmer with mist, giving it a cinematic flow. I got lost in it, slowly moving my head, letting the flashlight's beam trace the image.
As Li Yang said, the colors were dark—deep yellows and ochre reds, like dried, cracked blood. The interplay of light and shadow made the landscape feel dreamlike, almost like a surreal montage. My eyes were suddenly drawn to a mountain in the painting.
Halfway up, there was an ancient-looking mountain god temple.
What caught me wasn't just the temple—it was something truly chilling. The temple wasn't large in the painting, but its halls and towers were crystal clear: yellow walls, red tiles, flying eaves. The craftsmanship was so fine that even the wind chimes hanging under the eaves were vivid, each one delicate and lifelike.
That alone wouldn't have fazed me. But in the temple's hall, I saw two figures from behind.
One was kneeling, likely a woman, with a graceful figure, dressed in clothes from some unknown era, her hair in a bun, hands pressed together as if in prayer. The other stood, a man in ancient attire, hands clasped behind him. Though I couldn't see his face, he seemed lost, confused.
That man's silhouette was unmistakably Li Damin, who'd been missing for ages.
The two behind me got impatient. Copper Lock kept nagging, "Old Liu, you dumb or what? Take the painting already!"
My teeth chattered as I stared at the temple's figures. I knew Li Damin too well. The guy had a hunchback, always slouching when he walked, and this silhouette was exactly that. I was 100% sure it was him.
This wasn't some horror flick. How could a living person end up in a painting?
I shook my head hard. No way. Too bizarre. As my head moved, the flashlight's beam swayed, and something seemed to flash across the river in the painting. I steadied myself, slowly scanning with the light. What I saw nearly scared the crap out of me.
In the river's colors, a pattern faintly emerged, only visible under strong light.
It was identical to the talisman we found in the voodoo doll's belly!
I stumbled back, lost my footing, and fell onto the bed. Remembering the cockroaches, I screamed, scrambling off, dropping the flashlight somewhere. The light flickered, and the walls seemed to crawl with black shadows.
"Holy shit, holy shit!" Li Yang and Copper Lock were freaking out, cursing nonstop.
Li Yang grabbed my shoulders. Seeing my dazed look, he didn't hold back and slapped me hard, stars exploding in my vision. It took a while to snap out of it. Pointing at the painting, I shivered, my bones icy. "I…"
"What's wrong? See a ghost?" Copper Lock's eyes bulged.
"I… I saw Li… Li Damin in the painting."
"Holy shit!" Li Yang climbed onto the bed, grabbed the painting's edges, and yanked it off the wall. The three of us huddled on the floor, the painting in the center. Copper Lock shone his flashlight. "Where? Where?"
"Damn, don't wave it around, you're blinding me!" Li Yang asked, "Old Liu, where's Li Damin?"
"In… in the mountain god temple." I pointed at the mountainside.
Li Yang carefully aimed the flashlight. The painting reflected light, his face glowing green in the dark room, looking ghostly and terrifying.
"Damn, where?" Copper Lock searched. "There's nothing there. You're freaking us out for no reason!"
I snapped to, grabbed his flashlight, and shone it at the temple's hall. It was empty. The two figures were gone.
"This… this…" I was horrified beyond words. I trusted my eyes. I hadn't been mistaken.
"Damn, let's take it back and study it." Li Yang knew I was cautious and wouldn't joke about this.
Just then, Copper Lock's sharp eyes caught something. "There's something behind the painting!"
Under the flashlight, there was indeed something taped tightly to the back of the scroll.
It looked like a square object, maybe a book. Copper Lock reached to tear the tape, but Li Yang stopped him. He wanted to take the painting and whatever was behind it back for study. He thought it through—nerves were frayed in the dark, and rushing could make us miss crucial clues.
We searched the room again, finding nothing suspicious, even checking the wardrobe. But the longer we stayed, the heavier the yin energy felt. The temperature dropped, like we were in the open wilderness.
As we prepared to leave, Copper Lock suggested taking the laptop. He had a buddy at the electronics market with tech-savvy workers who could crack a system password easily. Li Yang thought it over but nixed it. Taking the laptop could draw attention, and if the police got involved, it'd cause unnecessary trouble.
Leaving the bedroom, I checked my phone. It was past 1 a.m. No trace of sleepiness, my mind a chaotic mess.
Copper Lock scratched his crotch. "Hold up, I gotta hit the bathroom." He headed for the door.
"Can't you hold it?" Li Yang snapped. "We're almost home."
"Man, I'm bursting. You want me to screw up my kidneys?" Copper Lock grumbled. "Relax, no one's here at night. Just us lunatics poking around a haunted house."
Humming a tune, he turned off his flashlight, tucked it into his waistband, and shuffled into the bathroom, hands on his crotch.
Li Yang and I exchanged looks, silent. The room grew colder, the yin energy overwhelming. I stood shivering, hugging myself and stomping to stay warm.
Li Yang, with the painting under his arm, grew impatient. "Lazy ass, taking forever."
Before he finished, a blood-curdling scream came from the bathroom, like a pack of slaughtered pigs. No exaggeration—it was deafening.
Li Yang's face paled. He kicked open the bathroom door and rushed in. I followed close behind.
The bathroom was spacious. A messy sink with toiletries greeted us. A curtain hid what was probably a bathtub. Copper Lock stood by the toilet, pants half-up, flashlight in hand, frozen in shock. I'd never seen someone's mouth gape so wide, his face contorted. Following his flashlight's beam, I saw an entire wall covered in a massive Taoist talisman, painted in black dye from top to bottom.
The ink had dripped heavily, the strokes raw and forceful, like the artist had poured their life's fury into it, each line seething with rage. The talisman radiated malevolence, its patterns and characters morphing into a snarling, black-haired crone, leering at us from the wall.
No wonder Copper Lock screamed like that. Even the bravest couldn't handle this.
"My God, what the hell is this…" Copper Lock trembled. "I'm… I'm done."
I had to hand it to Li Yang. The guy had guts. He calmed down fast, didn't panic, and even stepped closer, studying the characters with his flashlight.
The talisman on the wall was different from the one in the voodoo doll. Both started with "Edict" and "Command," but the rest was a tangle of writhing, unreadable script, like tadpoles or worms.
Copper Lock stammered, "Bros, you're my family now. Let's get out. I'm scared shitless. Thank God I didn't turn on the light while pissing, or I'd have wet my pants."
Li Yang didn't look back. "Want to leave? Go. No one's stopping you."
"You're my boss, okay?" Copper Lock was near tears. "I can't move without you two."