Kaleidoscope of Death

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu

Going to the dean’s office now was actually quite risky. But sometimes, without taking any risks, it was hard to earn the hints.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu meandered up the staircases, quickly coming to the floor where the dean’s office was located.

It was nearing 12AM. The entire sanitarium was steeped in darkness, with only the room on the top floor emanating a spot of light, grabbing all attention.

The sounds of the nurse jumping had continued in sporadic thumps of a great weight hitting the ground. It was really quite haunting.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu didn’t go straight for the dean’s office. Instead, they found a hidden spot first to observe.

The lock on the dean’s office had been broken off, so anyone who wanted to could get in. Watching the window, Lin Qiushi could vaguely see a silhouette moving inside the office.

“It’s a person, right?” Lin Qiushi spoke quietly to Ruan Nanzhu.

“Probably,” Ruan Nanzhu responded.

If it wasn’t a person, it likely wouldn’t have a shadow.

Since it was a person, what were they doing so late in the dean’s office? Lin Qiushi was just thinking this when he saw the office door push open.

A person he’d never anticipated came out from within. It was the girl they’d met once during the day, Hu Die. Her expression was cool, and her skin, under the white lights, appeared even more devastatingly pale. In her arms was a parcel, with something seemingly placed inside…

Before Lin Qiushi could respond, Ruan Nanzhu, who’d been behind him up until this point, took a sudden step forward, calling out: “Hu Die.”

Hu Die’s steps halted. When she heard the call for her, Lin Qiushi could clearly see her expression turn to horror.

“What did you bring out?” Ruan Nanzhu asked softly.

Peering once at them, Hu Die immediately turned and ran. Fortunately, Ruan Nanzhu was prepared, striding forward the few steps to stop Hu Die on the run, taking her by an arm with a firm grip.

Lin Qiushi followed quickly, watching as Ruan Nanzhu smiled coolly in Hu Die’s face.

“Why are you running?”

Hu Die didn’t respond, staring at Ruan Nanzhu with fear and resentment as she said, “it’s none of your business. What I’m doing has nothing to do with you—”

Ruan Nanzhu completely ignored her and made a grab for her bag.

Hu Die held on with her life, but in the end, she was a woman—her strength couldn’t be compared to a man’s. The package in her arms ended up in Ruan Nanzhu’s possession.

When Ruan Nanzhu opened the bag and saw what was inside, his brows furrowed, expression going sour.

Lin Qiushi got close as well—and saw that the bag was, in fact, a piece of cloth wrapped around the baby’s corpse. It had obviously been fetched fresh from the dean’s office. He glanced at Hu Die, and found her shaking all over.

“Let me go—” Hu Die said. “Let me go, she’s coming back, and when she sees the child missing, we’re all dead!!”

Ruan Nanzhu watched Hu Die, tone icy: “She? You’re talking about the nurse? So why did you steal her baby?”

Hu Die replied, “I wasn’t stealing, I just thought this thing was important! Maybe the key is inside… So I was just taking it back to have a look.” Or so she claimed

It was obvious that Hu Die wanted them to trust her, but her excuse simply had too many holes. Even Lin Qiushi had a hard time believing it.

“This thing can only be taken out at night…” Hu Die was getting more and more frantic, like she was scared of something. “If it’s moved during the day, it cries!”

Ruan Nanzhu quirked a brow. “Alright, we’ll go back first.”

Hu Die reacted like she’d gotten a pardon from death itself.

But Ruan Nanzhu wasn’t planning on letting her go. He kept Hu Die in his grip, and let Lin Qiushi take the bag beside him.

The three began creeping downstairs.

Just before they got to the stairs, Lin Qiushi heard another noise, one that made all his hair stand up on end—high heels striking against floorboards. That building-jumping nurse had returned!

The situation was dire enough that Lin Qiushi couldn’t care about exposing his identity, and so spoke lowly to Ruan Nanzhu: “She’s coming!”

When she heard a man’s voice, Hu Die looked on in shock, so surprised that her mouth gaped open: “You're— You’re a man??”

Ruan Nanzhu ignored her, speaking only to Lin Qiushi: “From where?”

Lin Qiushi closely scrutinized the sound. “From the fourth floor.” He glanced up, and pointed at a flight of stairs that led to the roof. “I think it’s coming from there!”

“Come on, we’ll head back from here,” Ruan Nanzhu said.

Hu Die’s expression seemed lost, like the fact that Lin Qiushi was a man had left a great impact on her. Lin Qiushi thought this was quite strange. He didn’t know Hu Die, after all; even if he were a man, why should Hu Die look so disoriented? It didn’t matter that much, did it? Whether he was male or female?

Just as they got to the sixth floor, they heard a woman’s chilling wail from the dean’s office. That cry was ear-piercing, and sent shivers all up and down the body.

Lin Qiushi felt, oddly, that the dead baby in his hold had gotten harder to handle.

But it was at this moment that Hu Die’s gaze fell on Lin Qiushi. She spoke softly: “I’ll hold the corpse. That thing is dangerous.”

At this, Ruan Nanzhu shot her a look, but took instead the bag from Lin Qiushi’s arms himself. “No, I got it.”

Hu Die looked awfully pale, and like she wanted to say something more, but Ruan Nanzhu ignored her, speeding up his steps instead.

Descending from the sixth floor, they didn’t dare dawdle on the floors in between, sprinting in one breath to the fourth floor. But as they cleared the stairwell and caught a glimpse of the hallway’s end, the air stopped in their lungs.

The nurse stood right at the end of the hall. More than half of the bones had broken in her body, and she was propped up, twisted, on the other side of the walkway. In her hand was a bloody knife, and that terrifying face was smiling queerly at them.

The three turned immediately and raced up the stairs.

But the nurse was faster, taking only a moment to appear in front of them.

Lin Qiushi didn’t have enough time to react before the nurse raised the long blade in her hands. An overripe scent filled his nostrils—and in this moment, it smelled an awful lot like death.

The blade fell. The nurse, surprisingly, attacked Hu Die first.

Ruan Nanzhu’s expression was odd. He seemed to be waiting for something. Lin Qiushi clasped his sleeve, pulling at him to leave—but instead, Ruan Nanzhu flipped their grips and took him by the wrist.

Ruan Nanzhu lifted a finger, making a gesture to shush.

Lin Qiushi paused, and glanced at Hu Die, who was being attacked.

Hu Die had been knifed in the stomach. Her expression, however, was peculiar. It was like she wasn’t scared of her incoming death at all, and instead was watching Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu.

It was the sort of gaze that held malice, like an audience beneath the stage awaiting a good show.

With plunge after plunge, the nurse knifed Hu Die into veritable pulp.

Hu Die’s body collapsed stiffly to the floor. Eyes closing, she died just like that.

The nurse looked up, and saw Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu in the corner. The blade in her hand was still dripping with blood.

Ruan Nanzhu pulled the two leftover Russian nesting dolls from his pocket, picking out the innermost doll and tossing it before the nurse.

“We found him.”

The nurse’s steps stalled.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “he’s right behind you.”

The nurse didn’t move anymore, seemingly contemplating Ruan Nanzhu’s words.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “we can get rid of him the final time for you. He ought to have died anyhow.” He delivered the dead baby parcel in his hands over to the nurse.

After he said this, the nurse took what was offered, turned, and genuinely left.

Lin Qiushi was shocked beyond words. Ruan Nanzhu beside him let out a long sigh of relief, laughing humorlessly, “good thing it worked.”

Lin Qiushi, “you could communicate with her?” This was the most shocking thing to him.

Ruan Nanzhu shook his head and spoke nothing else, skipping ahead like he wanted to discuss the matter no further.

Hu Die’s corpse was right before them, hacked to messy pieces by the nurse. It was difficult to tell if it was even human still.

Lin Qiushi said, “shall we go back?”

Ruan Nanzhu replied, “no, we’ll stand watch here.”

“What are we watching for?” Lin Qiushi was a bit confused.

Ruan Nanzhu pointed at Hu Die’s corpse.

“For him to come out, of course,” he laughed. “Didn’t we promise the nurse?”

Lin Qiushi blinked.

So the two stood where they were, as time ticked on bit by bit. Around three in the morning, the corpse before them began a strange transformation. Lin Qiushi heard the sound of something writhing. He glanced at Hu Die’s corpse, but found the body twisting about. The eyes that had once been closed were now open.

Lin Qiushi was just about to back up, when Ruan Nanzhu caught him by the waist and said, “don’t be scared.”

And it was like Lin Qiushi really wasn’t scared anymore. To be honest, whenever Ruan Nanzhu was beside him, Lin Qiushi felt a sense of security and safety, like everything they did was within control, and nothing would go wrong.

Of course, Lin Qiushi knew this feeling was wrong. He couldn’t be overly dependent on Ruan Nanzhu. They would have to separate someday.

At this, Lin Qiushi felt, for some reason, a sense of loss.

But this minor sort of emotion was quickly smothered, because the scene before them was getting more and more frightening. Hu Die had gotten up off the ground; the lethal wounds had seemingly no effect on her, and she’d revived. It was just that her body was in pieces, prone to collapse with every couple of steps. And in the pair of eyes that had opened again, there was a thicket of gluttony, watching Ruan Nanzhu before her.

“Help…” Hu Die spoke, at first slowly, but very quickly reverting to a normal cadence. She pleaded directly with Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu, “help… Please come, help me out, I’m not dead yet…”

Both Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu stood unmoved—on Lin Qiushi’s face was an expression of consideration, while Ruan Nanzhu didn’t have any expression on at all.

Hu Die came more and more conscious, and seemed to remember something. Her expression went twisted, as she spoke, in a low, poisoned tone, “why?? Why aren’t you dead?!”

Ruan Nanzhu answered, “did you think we’d die like Xue Zhiyun and them?”

Hu Die didn’t reply.

“What a shame,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “She let us go, because we can help her get rid of you.” Here he began to laugh. “As long as we don’t let you find a new body. Isn’t that right, Jiang Yingrui?”

Hu Die’s breath stared coming short and fast, as she said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about—”

“No matter.” Watching the person before him, Ruan Nanzhu took on a more piteous tone. “Hey, take a guess why she attacked you first.”

Hu Die startled.

“What an idiot,” Ruan Nanzhu began to laugh. “Of course it’s because I put the 502 room tag in your pocket.”

Hu Die was so angry that she shook all over. She reached down, and as expected, pulled out the 502 card from her pocket. Most likely, Ruan Nanzhu had tossed it into her pocket when he’d caught hold of her before. Hu Die had thought that when she woke at dawn, she’d find their corpses hacked to pieces. Unexpected, Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi appeared before her, perfectly fine—that bitch had let them be![1]

Hu Die’s expression was filled with vitriol. She threw the door tag to the ground, shaking from sheer rage. Lin Qiushi, who stood watching from the side, was absolutely certain that if Hu Die had any sort of weapon in hand at this moment, she would swing it their way without any care in the world.

Holding onto the wall, Hu Die turned and made to leave.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “where are you going?”

“None of your business—” Hu Die replied coolly.

“Of course it’s my business.” Ruan Nanzhu approached Hu Die, and with a kick, socked Hu Die back onto the ground. He didn’t go easy on her at all, and when Hu Die was once again on the floor, he held her down with a foot on her back. “You really think I’d let you go to find some other body?”

Panic shot across Hu Die’s expression. She said, “What the hell are you talking about…”

But Ruan Nanzhu didn’t speak, instead gestured at Lin Qiushi. “What time is it?”

Lin Qiushi glanced at his phone: “Three-forty.”

It was almost dawn. And right before dawn, was the darkest hour.

There weren’t any lights where they were, just the faintest moonlight that barely illuminated the view before them.

Hu Die, beneath Ruan Nanzhu’s foot, began to struggle. Hard. She screamed, trying to get up off the floor.

Ruan Nanzhu was ruthless, aiming another kick at Hu Die, almost knocking her right out.

Lin Qiushi had picked out what was happening from Ruan Nanzhu’s words: Hu Die wasn’t Hu Die. Or rather, she who’d used to be Hu Die was no longer.

The three remained in stalemate.

When six o'clock came, dawnlight flooded the sky.

People started trickling out of the living quarters, headed for breakfast in the cafeteria. Hu Die, collapsed on the ground, seemed to have given up.

Ruan Nanzhu kept watching her. Never once did his gaze let up.

His vigilance paid off, because just as the sun was rising, Hu Die, who’d seemed on her last breath, began another violent bout of struggling, lunging for Lin Qiushi standing in the corner.

Lin Qiushi was caught off-guard. Luckily, Ruan Nanzhu had been prepared, catching Hu Die by the hand and throwing her backward, to slam her body back against the wall—

BAM. Hu Die’s body hit the wall hard, with a loud noise. Hu Die seemed to finally understand that she didn’t stand a chance, and began to wail.

Normally, Lin Qiushi might’ve pitied the girl before him. But after knowing Hu Die’s true identity, there was only calm in his heart.

Had Ruan Nanzhu not been so clever, they might’ve already croaked, thanks to Hu Die. Going easy on the enemy wasn’t a smart move at all. Lin Qiushi didn’t speak, just silently watched. His expression in the moment was quite like Ruan Nanzhu’s.

“Let me go, I don’t want to die—” Hu Die was sobbing. “I haven’t done anything! I don’t want to die…”

Ruan Nanzhu’s expression was strange, like he couldn’t comprehend what Hu Die was saying.

“You haven’t done anything? Are you sure about that?”

Hu Die went silent.

Ruan Nanzhu, “do you not know what you’ve done?”

Slowly turning her head, Hu Die glanced at Ruan Nanzhu before she said, “I don’t know anything.”

And then her body began to mutate. Her stomach slowly started to bloat, looking like she was a few months pregnant. Hu Die twisted, and struggled, as if she’d become one large pupa.

Then came the sound of tearing flesh. Lin Qiushi could clearly see something ripping apart Hu Die’s abdomen, crawling out from within. At first Lin Qiushi thought it would be a kid or something—but when the thing finally came out, he saw a face that really wasn’t all that unfamiliar.

He’d seen this face before in the dean’s office, with its mop of pretty, golden hair and handsome face—it was the dean of medicine himself.

In that moment, every one of Ruan Nanzhu’s suppositions was proven true.

The dean indeed hadn’t been in the sanitarium, but resided instead in other people’s bodies. The bodies of others was the medium through which he escaped nightly from the nurse who plotted to kill him.

But what Lin Qiushi wanted to know most was, those whose bodies he occupied—where they people from inside the door, or outside? Jiang Yingrui and Hu Die, did they actually exist?

Because of Ruan Nanzhu’s sabotage, the dean had lost his opportunity to find a new body. He seemed quite weak, collapsing on the floor and unmoving for the longest time.

Ruan Nanzhu didn’t get closer, instead watched from afar this strange and truly quite absurd scene.

Lin Qiushi asked, “what else do we have to do?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “nothing else, I don’t think. We just have to wait until evening.” Without the protection of other bodies, the dean would be easily killed by the nurse.

It was likely that, from their background research, the dead baby that this person had attempted to remove was the nurse’s aborted infant. And the blond man before them was the baby’s father.

The blond man began to curse at them. In his curses was a tone of self-defeat. Lin Qiushi simply pretended like he’d heard nothing at all.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “come on. Feng Yongle’s waited up for us the whole night.”

Lin Qiushi nodded.

And so they completely ignored the blond man, and turned to leave.

Lin Qiushi followed behind Ruan Nanzhu, steps a bit slow. He said, “Hu Die and Jiang Yingrui—are they from outside or inside the door?”

Ruan Nanzhu replied, “likely from outside.”

Lin Qiushi, “…” So they were from the outside, huh.

Ruan Nanzhu, “there were only two matryoshka dolls left, so he should’ve only been able to switch bodies one more time. Unfortunately, he bumped into us.” Coolly, he continued, “nah. There wasn’t even a single switch left for him.”

The thing had resided in Jiang Yingrui’s body, then switched over to Hu Die’s body. Lin Qiushi was still a bit wary: “But why did Jiang Yingrui try to keep it a secret for him?”

“Why wouldn’t he keep it a secret?” Ruan Nanzhu said. “If he told, it’s another matter altogether who’d believe him. And even if they did believe him, there’s no benefit for Jiang Yingrui at all. They’d just avoid him.”

Lin Qiushi, “…”

“As for that dean,” Ruan Nanzhu said, “he hides in the bodies of outsiders. If the nurse wants to kill him, she’s got to follow the rules; she can’t just kill whenever she wants.”

And as for that dean, he clearly wanted everybody else dead as soon as possible, because with everyone else dead, the odds of Jiang Yingrui being the last survivor went up drastically.

But it wasn’t to be; Jiang Yingrui couldn’t outplay Ruan Nanzhu in the end. Of course, had it been anybody else, the outcome wouldn’t be so certain.

The two came to their room door, opening it to find Feng Yongle anxiously pacing circles inside. When he saw them, he let out a loud sigh of relief, exclaiming, “you’re finally back! Hell, I was so scared! I thought something had happened to you two!”

Ruan Nanzhu gave a nod. “Nothing happened.”

“So what is it, did you find the tunnel?” Feng Yongle asked.

“We found it. The key will likely appear tonight,” Ruan Nanzhu said.

“Wow, and you two found the key?” Feng Yongle was quite excited, his pacing turning to excited circling. “Excellent. So we’ll be out soon then?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “if nothing unexpected happens.”

The dean, without the protection of someone else’s flesh, was utterly at the nurse’s mercy. If she wanted to kill him, she only had to wait until evening of the next day.

The empty frame in the dean’s office could finally be filled.

But Lin Qiushi remembered something else. He typed: Oh yeah, I just remembered. Why did Hu Die steal the dead baby last night? Could the corpse have some kind of use?

Ruan Nanzhu gave the matter some thought, before shaking his head and going silent.

But this was certainly a possibility. They couldn’t prove it though, could only hypothesize.

Feng Yongle didn’t know what had happened, and asked, mystified, “what? Hu Die stole a dead baby? What the hell happened last night?”

The questions were starting up again. After Feng Yongle started speaking, Ruan Nanzhu just shot him a look, but didn’t bother answering a single word.

Feng Yongle felt a bit wronged by Ruan Nanzhu’s look: “I’m just a normie…”

Ruan Nanzhu, “so I’m not normal?”

Feng Yongle, “of course you’re not normal. It’s like damn sign language, the way you talk—can’t you just speak plainly for me to understand?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “no.”

Feng Yongle, “…” How come you can reject me so firmly.

Lin Qiushi giddily played the mute on the side.

And so in the end, Feng Yongle still didn’t know what happened last night, and so gave up on finding out the truth.

During the day, the three of them checked out the tunnel they’d found last night, and confirmed it did indeed lead outside. The tunnel was packed full of those black body bags on the inside. It was chilling just to look in; had it not been an exit, nobody would dare enter.

After getting a look in, Feng Yongle rubbed at his own arms, chanting for Buddha.

Ruan Nanzhu frowned, and said, “this is a Western world. What use will Buddha be?”

Feng Yongle, “should I say hallelujah then?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “…”

Lin Qiushi, “…” He thought that it’d be a hundred times more reliable to chant Ruan Nanzhu banzai! After all, this was a god right at their sides; he could come any moment, and was truly quite useful.

Ruan Nanzhu peered at Lin Qiushi, looking as if he knew exactly what Lin Qiushi was thinking.

With an awkward smile, Lin Qiushi rushed to pretend nothing had happened. He was honestly still wondering if Ruan Nanzhu could read minds—or else how could it be that at any given moment, Ruan Nanzhu could guess exactly what he was thinking?

Author’s Note:

/head scratches, I don’t understand everybody’s scary points. I don’t think this world is very scary at all… Why has everyone’s reactions been so huge… /puzzled

Translator’s Note:

1. I can’t seem to find a Chinese version that didn’t have the two words in this sentence missing… So I went with vibes, please let me know if you know the original
2. Multi-meaning title again!
3. Translator doesn’t endorse the gender essentialist views expressed in the text…