Kaleidoscope of Death

Compared to adults, the cruelty of children were often more straightforward, because they were oblivious to the consequences that their actions would bring. They only knew how to express their despise at people or things they didn’t like with extreme methods—this was how the younger versions of them were.

In this case, Sachiko was the person they happened to despise.

“When she was in our class, she was bullied tragically.” Ko Shinobu said, “Everyone hated her and behaved as though she did not exist.”

“The people in your class did not even include her when they took the class photo?” Lin Qiushi recalled the missing person in the photo that he’d seen in the archive room earlier.

“Yes…” Although Ko Shinobu initially hesitated confirming the others suspicions, he eventually answered Lin Qiushi’s question in the end, “Although there are thirty-four names in the namelist, our class announced to the outside that we only have thirty-three.”

The students of that class had completely and thoroughly erased Sachiko from their class. They refused to speak with her, and were unwilling to have a group photo taken with her. None of them would speak to her, as if treating her like thin air.

“What happened afterwards?” Li Dongyuan insisted on getting to the bottom of this issue.

“After that, an accident happened…” Ko Shinobu’s voice grew increasingly strained, almost as if there was this unspoken and hard to swallow fear in his voice, “And she died.”

Both of them waited quietly for Ko Shinobu to tell the tale.

“An accident befell her and she died.” Ko Shinobu said, “Thinking back now, it was a little over the line. After she died, the people in our class didn’t show any grief. In fact,they had even…”

“They had even written a song.” Li Dongyuan finished on behalf of Ko Shinobu.

“How did you know?” Ko Shinobu was taken aback, he didn’t expect them to know in such great detail.

“As I’ve stated: we know a lot of things.” Li Dongyuan looked at him, and lightly smiled, “Continue.”

“You people already have a general idea of all that happened after that.” Ko Shinobu laughed bitterly, “That song is cursed. Anyone who sings it will die.”

Finally, it came to matter he was interested in, and so Lin Qiushi asked, “Haven’t you sung it?” 

“No.” Ko Shinobu’s tone was gravely firm, “I felt what they did was crossing the line, so I did not sing…”

“That student you were speaking to just now and yourself both haven’t sung it?” Li Dongyuan asked.

“No.” Ko Shinobu said, “Both of us are very good friends, so I told him not to sing it.”

“Such a good friend you are.” Li Dongyuan gave a half-smile.

Slightly intimidated by Li Dongyuan’s expression, Ko Shinobu frantically explained, “I only know so much. Let me go home. It’s going to be dark soon, I need to be back.”

Lin Qiushi gave Li Dongyuan a look, the latter nodded his head, meaning that Ko Shinobu could leave.

Ko Shinobu let out a breath of relief. He grabbed his bag and eagerly dashed to freedom. Li Dongyuan watched him from behind, and said, “What do you think?”

Lin Qiushi: “Nothing much.”Although Ko Shinobu’s confession had no flaws, his instincts told him that this person was lying.

“Oh, how so?” Li Dongyuan asked.

“You should know this better than me.” Having hung out together for a few days, Lin Qiushi knew that Li Dongyuan was a brilliant individual. If anything out of the ordinary happened, Li Dongyuan would know how to analyze it better than himself. As he’d expected, Li Dongyuan smiled with a gaze that seemed to imply something between the lines as he looked at Lin Qiushi: “Is everyone in Obsidian so interesting?”

Lin Qiushi: “No, I am the most uninteresting one.”

Li Dongyuan said, “Ko Shinobu is definitely lying for reasons we don’t know; however, we do not know what exactly he is lying about. Do you recall what he said to us the first time we met?”

Of course Lin Qiushi remembered. He furrowed his brows: “Sachiko is someone who shouldn’t exist?”

Li Dongyuan: “That is correct.”

Lin Qiushi’s mind clicked. “I see.”

Li Dongyuan: “Clever… I’ve always liked working with clever people. Let us go and reunite with Zhu Meng and the others.”

Li Dongyuan’s words had no complicated meaning to them—Sachiko is a person who shouldn’t exist; if Ko Shinobu truly knew his wrongs, then he would not find it right to have said these words. Sachiko, who was obviously the victim, had turned into someone who shouldn’t exist in his words. Even if a few years had passed, even if so many incidents have happened, Ko Shinobu had no intentions of repenting. To think he had even said something so atrocious; in his fear, there was an unconcealable hatred.

Of course, these were all just their theories, and they would still need to search for proof. There was a detail among these all that was difficult to understand: If Ko Shinobu hated Sachiko, then why didn’t he sing the song that mocked her? Could it be that his conscience has finally awakened? 

With these questions in mind, Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu once again reunited.

No one knew what happened between Ruan Nanzhu and Xia Rubei when they were alone together. Xia Rubei’s eyes were full of tears as she leaned in close to Li Dongyuann when he came and called him “Big brother Meng” in a voice filled with grievance.

“What happened?” Li Dongyuan asked her.

Xia Rubei hatefully glared at Ruan Nanzhu whose face was filled with an innocent look. “She scared me…”

Ruan Nanzhu: “｡･ﾟヾ(✦థ ｪ థ)ﾉ｡ﾟ･｡¹, get it straight! I’m also very timid, how would I scare you?”

Xia Rubei: “Obviously, you were telling ghost stories just now!”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Proof?”

Xia Rubei: “…What proof is needed?”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Big brother Linlin, she wants to accuse me without proof—”

Headaches haunted Lin Qiushi and Li Dongyuan. Finally, Li Dongyuan could no longer stand it. He made a gesture, and said: Mengmeng ah, can we not harass the little ladies?

Ruan Nanzhu: “What do you mean? Do you mean that I’m not a little lady?”

Li Dongyuan’s will to live was still very strong, and he instantly corrected, “No, no, no, of course not. What I mean is that you are a beautiful goddess!”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Tch.”

Lin Qiushi immediately changed the subject and told Ruan Nanzhu about everything they’d learned from Ko Shinobu earlier. After listening to the conversation, Ruan Nanzhu came to the same conclusion as they did, and thought that something was definitely very wrong with Ko Shinobu, although they were temporarily unable to tell what exactly was wrong with him.

“Let us go, the sky is almost dark. We will speak again after we return.” It was already after school hours to begin with; after a little dallying, the colour of the sky slowly darkened.

They spoke as they walked, in a hurry to get back to their living quarters before the sky was completely submerged in blackness.

By the time they reached the dormitory, it was already dark outside. A blanket of darkness had already enveloped the quiet school grounds.

Lin Qiushi stood at the corridor to smoke. He turned abruptly the moment someone placed a hand on his shoulder, only to be greeted by the sight of Li Dongyuan.

“Give me a light.” Li Dongyuan said.

Lin Qiushi nodded and watched as Li Dongyuan leaned in close, using the fire sparks in his cigarette to light his own.

“What are you thinking about?” asked Li Dongyuan.

Lin Qiushi shook his head, expressing that he wasn’t thinking about anything. He was a little tired today, so he didn’t have the desire to speak too much.

“When did you join Obsidian?” Li Dongyuan had a melodious voice; gentle and captivating, like he was rocking a baby to sleep, “How long have you been there?”

“Not very long. A few months.” Lin Qiushi puffed out some smoke.

“Who brought you in?” Li Dongyuan continued to ask.

“Ruan Nanzhu.” Lin Qiushi felt his mind click all of a sudden. It was a very intriguing state; he felt like he was standing on the caressing softness of floating clouds, so warm and snug, inexplicably making him feel at ease.

“What about Zhu Meng. Do you know her?” Li Dongyuan’s question ventured deeper.

“Yes.” Lin Qiushi felt something was wrong. He wanted to struggle free from this state.

Li Dongyuan could also feel Lin Qiushi’s struggles. He reached out with a hand to place it lightly on Lin Qiushi’s shoulder. “Don’t be nervous, I won’t ask questions that cross the line.” He leaned in close to Lin Qiushi’s ear and asked in a hushed whisper, “Who in the world is Zhu Meng?”

Lin Qiushi’s lips parted against his will, and just as he felt that he’d lost complete control and was about to say that answer, Ruan Nanzhu’s cold and indifferent voice came, “Li Dongyuan, is this how you treat one of my people?”

Li Dongyuan withdrew his hand and gave a smile.

Lin Qiushi woke up abruptly and realized the odd state he was in a while ago. He tossed away the cigarette in his hand and for the first time in a while, he was pissed as hell. “Li Dongyuan, what the hell was that just now?!”

Li Dongyuan shrugged innocently, the cigarette still clamped between his lips.

Ruan Nanzhu started clapping. “How amazing; living up to the name of the leader of White Deer. If these skills were applied inside the door, I fear we would have already made it out by now.”

Li Dongyuan: “Aw, Mengmeng, don’t be so angry.”

“Let us leave, Linlin.” Ruan Nanzhu was incredibly displeased. He swiveled on his heels to walk away, “Stay far away from this person in the future.”

Lin Qiushi nodded his head as he turned around and walked next to Ruan Nanzhu.

Ruan Nanzhu reached out with a hand to pat on Lin Qiushi’s shoulder, as if there was something dirty on it—this was the very same spot Li Dongyuan had touched just now.

Li Dongyuan wasn’t mad about it; instead, he was smiling.

After patting it clean, Ruan Nanzhu brought Lin Qiushi back to their room to sleep. The entire time, he had refused to speak to Li Dongyuan.

The sky was dark, the lights were blown out; the room had fallen into silence, the only thing audible was the steady breaths and soft snores  from people who were asleep.

Lin Qiushi was a little bit tired. He thought that he would have fallen asleep quickly, but even after twisting and turning for a long time, he still could not drift into sleep.

It wasn’t easy to fall asleep; but even so, halfway through the night he was woken up by a voice.

Having been started awake, Lin Qiushi quickly searched for the source of the voice—it came from his upper bunk.

Creak, creak. It was as thoughRuan Nanzhu was rolling around on top as if he too couldn’t fall asleep. Just when Lin Qiushi wanted to call out to him in a whisper, those creaking noises stopped.

From the spot above Lin Qiushi, separated only by a mattress, someone sang a song: Satchan’s name is actually Sachiko. But she’s called herself Satchan ever since she was little. Oh, how funny! Satchan really loves bananas. But she can only eat half of her favourite bananas. Oh, how pitiful! Satchan has left for a faraway place. And she’ll soon forget about me. Oh, how lonely, Satchan!... 

It was a female’s voice, one that was supposedly quite young, at that; and yet, the lyrics of the song made one feel their entire body grow cold.

Lin Qiushi dared not to move. He shut his eyes and turned towards the wall.

That voice slowly descended from above, growing louder and louder, as if the one who was singing was climbing down from the bed.

“Satchan’s name is actually Sachiko. But she’s called herself Satchan ever since she was little. Oh, how funny!…” The song was now playing from behind Lin Qiushi. He felt his body turn cold, as if the thin blanket on him had lost all ability to keep him warm.

Thump…Thump…Thump… The thing behind him began to jump on the ground, gradually approaching Lin Qiushi.

At long last, Lin Qiushi couldn’t stand it any longer. His eyes flew open, and he sat up, before turning around and leaning against the wall behind him. However, he realized something was wrong. Borrowing the gleam of light from the moon, he saw that the wall behind him was covered in scribbles of all kinds of malicious curses; and the one that stuck out the most was the name ‘Sachiko’ written in red ink.

Lin Qiushi finally laid eyes on the person standing before his bed.

No, perhaps that couldn’t be called a person at all.

It was a young girl with disheveled hair, donning a school uniform. Her body was crooked at a strange angle. She only had one leg, and where the other leg should’ve been was nothing. As of this moment, she was jumping on the ground with her only leg, singing that song…

She originally had her back facing Lin Qiushi, but after hearingLin Qiushi sit up, her head turned a whole 180 degrees to look at him.

“Can you hear it?” She asked.

Lin Qiushi felt his body grow cold. He didn’t know whether he should answer her.

“Can you hear it?” She repeated.

“Hear what? Your song?” Lin Qiushi forced himself to calm down. The whole room was still fast asleep; he was the only one who had woken up by the voice.

“Her cries. She was crying.” She said, “She had cried so pitifully, yet why didn’t anyone hear her?”

Lin Qiushi: “Who is she? Is she you?”

The thing in front of him didn’t answer. She only said, “She had done no wrong. Why did they treat her that way?”

After she finished, the sound of someone crying did indeed fill Lin Qiushi’s ears. These cries came from outside the window in incredibly pitiful waves. They wailed mournfully, as if they belonged to someone who was heavily injured.

“It hurts! It hurts! I beg of you to save me, I beg of you…” Amid the crying, there was miserable  begging, a wretched plea, “Don’t go. Don’t go, please!”

Lin Qiushi’s eyes widened upon hearing these words. Finally, he understood.

Sure enough,, in that very next moment, he heard a familiar voice. “Let’s go, let’s go quickly! Don’t pay her any attention. She’s already a lost cause, she’s beyond any help!”

“But…” Another person was hesitating.

“Save me, save me—” The girl heard their conversation and begged with even more desperation, “Don’t go. I don’t want to die. I don’t want to die!”

“Let’s leave!! We would be arrested if someone found out. Do you want to spend the rest of your life in prison?” The owner of the voice was growing more anxious, “If so, you can stay here alone, I’ll be leaving!”

“Alright then. Alright.” His companion finally agreed. There were sounds of hurried footsteps, as if both of them had left.

“Wuwuwu, wuwuwuwu…” The girl who was abandoned cried loudly as pain and death held her in their grasp. Her cries became despairingly louder, as well as weaker, and finally, her voice stopped.

When he had finished listening to the entire dialogue, Lin Qiushi’s back was drenched in cold sweat. The voice that said those words belonged to Ko Shinobu and his friend whom they met in the morning.

“It hurts.” Satchan in front of him said, “It really hurts… Can you hear it…”

Lin Qiushi didn’t know whether he should answer if he’d heard it or not. If he answered wrongly, would he immediately be brought away by this thing?

“It hurts, can you hear it?” She was still repeating this one statement; she reached out towards Lin Qiushi with a hand. Just when she was about to touch Lin Qiushi, something seemed to have stopped her. She let out a sharp cry and vanished before Lin Qiushi’s eyes.

Lin Qiushi felt his chest heaving like thundering drums; he discovered a group photo after Satchan left. At a glance, everyone in the group photo were students from the Class 2 of Third-Years. This time, Satchan stood in the center of the photo, facing the camera with a brilliant smile. As he was examining the photo, Lin Qiushi caught a whiff of smoke in the air, as if something was burning. He lowered his head to look beneath the bed, and realized that the paper talismans under his bed had burst into flames. It seemed like these messy talismans had hindered Satchan who wanted to attack him just now.

The scent of smoke also woke up everyone else in the room.

Ruan Nanzhu was the first one awake. He said: “Linlin, what happened?”

Cold sweat was dripping down Lin Qiushi’s face, but thankfully, nothing happened to him. He calmly replied, “Nothing. Satchan paid a visit just now.”

Xia Rubei also woke up. At Lin Qiushi’s words, she fretfully stammered,: “W-What paid a visit?”

“Satchan.” Lin Qiushi, “Everything’s over. You can continue to sleep.”

Xia Rubei: “…” How could she still go back to sleep?

Before Xia Rubei could speak, Ruan Nanzhu snatched her lines and, with such a delicate and fragile voice, he sniveled, “Linlin, I’m so scared, come accompany me to sleep~”

Lin Qiushi: “…”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Linlin, why aren’t you saying anything? Don’t you love me?”

Beside them, Li Dongyuan enjoyed the show. “Mengmeng ah, you should know thatI love you.”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Did you hear that! There’s even some strange creature speaking in this room. Quickly, come on up.”

Li Dongyuan: “…”

Lin Qiushi’s face revealed how helpless he was currently feeling; nevertheless, he truly did have something to tell Ruan Nanzhu privately. There was no such chance during the day, so this wasn’t a bad opportunity.

And so after a while, Lin Qiushi climbed up into Ruan Nanzhu’s bed.

This bed was a little narrow, and so both of them could only squeeze in together. Ruan Nanzhu very naturally invited himself into Lin Qiushi’s arms, snuggling deeply into the other’s chest and constantly rubbing his face against the other.

Lin Qiushi whispered: “Stop that.”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Nuh-uheverrro. Make me.”

Lin Qiushi: “…” Does being naughty bring you such joy? Forget it, he’s probably really happy right now.

As the both of them intertwined their limbs together, Lin Qiushi leaned in closer to Ruan Nanzhu’s ears to whisper everything that happened just now, before passing the photo to him.

Ruan Nanzhu fell into silence after listening to it for a while. He kept the picture and said, “All right, I understand. Go to sleep. Tomorrow we will discuss this in detail.”

Lin Qiushi: “En…” 

It was a little hot the last few days. Considering two big men were squeezing together into one small bed, the air right now  should have been both tight and stuffy, filled with the thick odour of sweat. However, Ruan Nanzhu gave off a faint sweet scent. This scent wasn’t in the least feminine; it was instead quite fresh and cool; it was the first time Lin Qiushi had smelled such a fragrance.

He couldn’t stop himself from uttering, “Mengmeng, you smell so good.”

Ruan Nanzhu: “This might be…”

Lin Qiushi: “Hm?”

Ruan Nanzhu: “The sweet scent of a virgin.”

Lin Qiushi: “…” If it wasn’t for the fact that you can whip out something even bigger than mine, I really would have believed it. Sweet scent of a virgin, my fucking ass. 

In the end, Lin Qiushi never figured out what the scent on Ruan Nanzhu’s body was. After all, a drug is a drug; as long as he lied next to Ruan Nanzhu, Lin Qiushi could sleep soundly. He didn’t open his eyes once until dawn arrived. 

Because of the incident from last night, no one had a good night’s rest. Among them, Xia Rubei had it the worst. This lady wore two dark circles on her eyes, looking like a panda.

Ruan Nanzhu wanted to poke at her and rile her up. He said something along the lines of: Oh, what’s this? Looks like someone didn’t sleep well, huh? Which loverboy were you thinking of?

Xie Rubei angrily hissed, “What loverboy? From where would I get a loverboy?!”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Don’t you have a crush on Li Dongyuan?”

Xia Rubei’s face immediately turned red. She never would have thought that Ruan Nanzhu would so straightforwardly say those words. Her tears practically fell down.

“Don’t speak nonsense! That’s not it. I don’t… How dare you say that of me. Don’t you like Yu Linlin?!”

She originally thought that she could deflect the attack and return it to Ruan Nanzhu, but who could have guessed that shameless Ruan Nanzhu would simply nod his head eagerly and admit, “That’s right. I do like Linlin. Look at how cute Linlin is! Who wouldn’t like him?”

Xia Rubei: “…”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Don’t dare you fall for Linlin.”

Xia Rubei: “…” She finally had to acknowledge that she and Ruan Nanzhu sadly were not in the same league. And so she lowered her head, and dare not say anything else.

Ruan Nanzhu gave her a look that said: Oh, how boring it is to score an easy victory!

Liu Qiushi knew about his love for drama, so he paid Ruan Nanzhu no attention. Li Dongyuan could also see through Ruan Nanzhu’s intentions, and so the both of them ate their breakfast quietly. Because of what Li Dongyuan did to Lin Qiushi yesterday, Lin Qiushi gave him no face. Li Dongyuan, however, shamelessly said:

“Linlin, are you still angry?”

Lin Qiushi: “Mister Li, I believe we aren’t that close, yes?”

Li Dongyuan: “Gosh, I will apologize for my behaviour yesterday, alright? Isn’t it just because Mengmeng refused me attention? I just wanted to know more about her…”

Ruan Nanzhu impolitely said from the side, “Li Dongyuan, I am just sitting next to you. You can just ask me whatever you want to know.”

Li Dongyuan: “I’m afraid you won’t tell me.”

Ruan Nanzhu: “If you haven’t asked, how will you know I won’t tell you?”

Li Dongyuan: “Then what is your name in the real world?”

Ruan Nanzhu: “Not telling you.”

Li Dongyuan: “…”

Lin Qiushi nearly burst into laughter right then and there.

However, Lin Qiushi acknowledged that Li Dongyuan was not his match. Ruan Nanzhu was an absolute expert at messing around with people like Li Dongyuan who were a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Each time, he would somehow render Li Dongyuan speechless.

“Right, didn’t Satchan come yesterday? Is there anything new?” wondered Li Dongyuan after he finished eating; he was very interested in what happened yesterday.

“There is.” Ruan Nanzhu immediately fished out the picture Satchan had left behind with Lin Qiushi, “She dropped this.”

Li Dongyuan scrutinized the picture.

Ruan Nanzhu propped his chin on his palm: “You notice anything?”

Li Dongyuan: “Yeah.”

Xie Rubei looked at the picture from the side, feeling a little lost at their conversation. “What do you people mean… Is something wrong with this picture?” She picked the picture up and didn’t find anything afoot with it.

She wasn’t to be blamed. If one couldn’t remember how the original class photo looked, it was very difficult to find the differences. Lin Qiushi realized his memory had improved drastically ever since. There was no need to compare, and he could already recall clearly how the original photo from the files looked like.

Ruan Nanzhu immediately took out the picture he’d stolen from the archive, and held it out for them to see. Xia Rubei let out a gasp when she saw it, “There’s an additional person…”

“That’s right,” said Ruan Nanzhu, “Aside from an additional person,two others are missing.”

Xia Rubei: “Two missing…. Right…” After some meticulous searching, her eyes widened in realization, “It’s Ko Shinobu and his friend?”

Ruan Nanzhu gave her a pitiful look: “How smart you are.”

Xia Rubei: “…” Why did it feel like this person was mocking her?

[1] 嘤嘤嘤 [ying ying ying]: Mentioned in Ch2 before, its an onomatopoeia apparently referring to the cute cry of a girl that makes people’s heart wrench. After hours of searching nothing could compare to the vibe of 嘤嘤嘤 but in all earnest I think the emoji really gives an accurate visual of how someone looks like when they ying yingying-

Author’s Comment:

Translator’s Comment:

Behind the scenes:

Dust Bunny: Taida, when you see this emoji, don’t obliterate me. xD

Taida: I approve of this!

Translated by Dust Bunny

Edited by Taida