Kaleidoscope of Death

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu

Though Ruan Nanzhu mocked him about it, Luo Qianshan really didn’t dare to ‘know this good thing.’

Bottom line was, anyone who could get to this door and still seem leisurely about it, no matter how harmless they may look, was surely no saint. Just like this beautiful woman who called herself Zhu Meng before him—she was not somebody to be trifled with.

“Go on, say what you actually came to discuss with us,” Ruan Nanzhu spoke.

“It’s about the key,” Luo Qianshan said. “We found where it is, but…” His tone went a bit strained. “But we can’t get our hands on it.”

Ruan Nanzhu, “what do you mean by can’t?”

Luo Qianshan, straight-forwardly, “we’re not skilled enough.”

At this, Ruan Nanzhu’s expression was inscrutable. “Not skilled enough? I think you two siblings are actually pretty good at this.”

Luo Qianshan didn’t make any excuses, just flipped up his palms in a what can you do gesture.

“Continue.” Ruan Nanzhu knew there was more Luo Qianshan wanted to say.

Luo Qianshan said, “so I wanted to come and make a deal. I’ll tell you the clue to the key…”

Here, he paused.

Ruan Nanzhu waited for him to go on. There was no such thing as a free lunch in this world, after all.

“But when you leave here, you have to bring along me and Qianshui,” was Luo Qianshan’s condition.

“That’s it?” A look of assessment appeared in Ruan Nanzhu’s eyes, as if he was trying to determine how much Luo Qianshan was lying about.

“That’s it,” Luo Qianshan spoke staunchly.

Ruan Nanzhu nodded. “Tell us.”

He took the deal.

“The key is in that burning room,” Luo Qianshan said. “But the condition to getting the key is particular. You have to go in at night…”

At this, Lin Qiushi questioned, “you two have gone inside?”

Luo Qianshan shook his head. “No. We only saw the key from the door. We haven’t gone in.”

“Then how do you know the key’s inside?” Though Luo Qianshan seemed very earnest, Lin Qiushi kept sensing something off about him. The role of the key inside the door was far too important; this man was so easily giving them its location, so were things truly as he said, or did he have some other motive?

“We saw it,” Luo Qianshan said. “The door was open at the time…”

Ruan Nanzhu said, “if the door was open why couldn’t you go in?”

Luo Qianshan’s expression went a bit awkward.

“Because that mother and child were in there.”

Silence.

Ruan Nanzhu spoke: “So you came to tell us because you want us to go in?” He asked, “didn’t you see the placard on our door?”

Luo Qianshan frowned.

Ruan Nanzhu, “didn’t you see the number on it? Our room’s the last one. Even if this whole floor burns, we’re going to be the last to die.”

Luo Qianshan sighed. “I’m not trying to send you on a suicide mission. If you’re willing, we can work together.”

Ruan Nanzhu, “how?”

Luo Qianshan, “we’ll be responsible for luring the mother and daughter elsewhere, and you guys will be responsible for getting the key.”

At this, Ruan Nanzhu lifted a brow. “You’re certain?”

Luo Qianshan, “I’m certain.”

“I don’t believe you,” was Ruan Nanzhu’s reply. “Unless you give us a demonstration first, and show yourselves to be sincere.”

Luo Qianshan was silent for a while. “It’s too dangerous to do, we can’t give a demonstration.”

Ruan Nanzhu, “sorry then.”

Luo Qianshan met Ruan Nanzhu’s eyes, and each saw in the other’s gazes an unchangeable obstinacy. He sighed without further attempts at persuasion, and got up from his chair. He went to the door, and just as he was leaving, he glanced back at Ruan Nanzhu.

“I just want to let you know, if it really comes down to it, the last ones standing will definitely be me and Qianshui.”

Ruan Nanzhu stared at him in icy silence.

“See you.” Luo Qianshan smiled, and left.

Ruan Nanzhu watched him go, eyebrows furrowing.

Lin Qiushi, “where’s he getting that confidence from?” When Luo Qianshan and Ruan Nanzhu were speaking just now, he’d also used the bronze mirror to look at Luo Qianshan’s feet, confirming he was a live human.

Ruan Nanzhu shook his head, answering lowly, “if Luo Qianshan can say that, then he definitely has his own trump card.”

Lin Qiushi didn’t reply.

Ruan Nanzhu, thoughtfully, “if we get the chance tonight, let’s go take a look inside that room.”

Lin Qiushi nodded. During their conversation, Cheng Yixie didn’t speak at all. Here though, his lips lightly parted: “There’s that burnt smell on Luo Qianshan too.”

“What?” Lin Qiushi startled.

“It’s on him too, though it’s faint,” Cheng Yixie said. “But I really did smell it.”

With this revelation, both Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi went silent.

There was the burnt smell on Luo Qianshan too? Did he have something to do with those people burnt to death then? But Luo Qianshan was definitely human. Why would that smell be on a living person?

“Was it there yesterday?” Ruan Nanzhu asked Cheng Yixie.

Cheng Yixie shook his head, and answered with certainty, “no.”

This was very odd indeed.

Ruan Nanzhu’s expression was ambiguous: “Maybe Luo Qianshan is telling the truth.”

Lin Qiushi, “hm?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “he really is guaranteed to be the last survivor.”

They just didn’t know yet what that guarantee was.

As the day ended, another evening alighted.

On their way back to their room, Lin Qiushi noticed that Xia-jie standing in the hallway, facing a wall and muttering under her breath with an expression so strained as to be scary.

Though she was quiet, Lin Qiushi still heard what she was murmuring. It was one phrase she kept repeating: don’t kill me, don’t kill me, don’t kill me, don’t kill me—

Lin Qiushi recalled Xiao Mian, who’d died in an accident by Xia-jie’s hands that morning. According to the rules inside the door, it was unlikely that Xia-jie would live through the night.

As he thought this, Lin Qiushi refrained from looking back at Xia-jie, turning and entering his own room.

The darker the night got, the quieter the city went. The darkness was like a canopy, looming over and covering everybody.

Around nine PM, Lin Qiushi heard the sound of glass shattering in the corridor. He glanced at Ruan Nanzhu and Cheng Yixie, but neither of them seemed to have heard it.

After a brief hesitation, Lin Qiushi asked, “did you guys hear that?”

Ruan Nanzhu shook his head. “Hear what?”

Lin Qiushi, “the sound of glass breaking. Should I go take a look?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “go ahead.”

So Lin Qiushi got up, approached the peephole, and looked outside.

Because of the angle, he could only see Xia-jie.

Xia-jie was still standing where she had been, but she wasn’t muttering anymore. Her eyes stared straight forward, eyeballs bulging so much they seemed ready to pop out of their sockets. Lin Qiushi couldn’t see what Xia-jie was seeing, but he did see a pair of hands—a pair of hands slowly descending from the mirror on the ceiling.

Those hands were dripping with fresh blood. They descended behind Xia-jie just like that, and, from the back, clasped Xia-jie’s head.

Xia-jie’s whole body spasmed. She seemed to want to scream, but the sound gagged in her throat. She wanted to turn to see what had gotten a hold of her head, but as her body tried to swivel backward, her head was kept looking ahead.

Crack. Lin Qiushi heard a crisp crunch—the sound of bones breaking.

The long thin arms coming from the ceiling had taken hold of Xia-jie’s head, and then twisted, viciously, counterclockwise. Just like that they’d torn Xia-jie’s head from her body.

All this happened in absolute silence. Lin Qiushi held his breath tightly in.

That pair of hands slowly retracted. As he stared, Lin Qiushi seemed to hear the soft giggle of a young woman.

Xia-jie died like that, body toppling onto the floor. Blood gushed out and soaked the carpet.

It was at this moment that Lin Qiushi’s body suddenly froze. He felt a cool gaze casted down from above his head. Lin Qiushi slowly looked up, and saw that, at some point, a figure holding Xia-jie’s head had appeared in the mirror above him. From her appearance, it was the girl who’d died that day, Xiao Mian…

Xiao Mian was inside the mirror, Lin Qiushi outside.

Through that thin pane of glass, the two watched each other in silence.

Lin Qiushi saw a touch of malice coagulate in Xiao Mian’s eyes. She slowly loosened her grip, and Xia-jie’s head fell straight out of the mirror and onto Lin Qiushi’s body.

Then, her figure disappeared from that side of the mirror.

Thunk! It was the sound of a heavy object hitting the floor.

Ruan Nanzhu and Cheng Yixie looked toward Lin Qiushi, finding him half-drenched in blood with a human head beside him, its eyes still open in death.

Face stony, Lin Qiushi turned to look at Ruan Nanzhu.

“What do I do?”

Ruan Nanzhu came to stand in front of Lin Qiushi. When he saw the bloody head, he cocked his own head in contemplation.

“Throw it out?”

Lin Qiushi, “I… don’t want to touch it with my hands.”

Ruan Nanzhu, “oh. Then we’ll kick it out.”

As he spoke he pulled the door open a gap, and then socked the human head on the floor right out. He managed all this in a fluid motion, like he’d done this many times before.

Lin Qiushi cleared his throat. “She won’t try to come get revenge on us, right?”

“Revenge for what?” Ruan Nanzhu replied indifferently. “We’re not the ones who killed her. And to do something like this and still be scared of dying?” He was talking about how Xia-jie intentionally brought newbies inside, testing the death conditions with the newbies’ lives.

Lin Qiushi let out a breath, and eyed the mirror above his head. “Those things seem to be able to travel through the mirrors…”

Ruan Nanzhu also looked at the mirror, but didn’t reply.

Xia-jie died as per their expectations. And in a particularly awful way as well. Likely because he’d been psychologically prepared, Lin Qiushi didn’t feel particularly shocked either… That was, until Xiao Mian threw the head on top of him.

Just as they spoke, that anxious scent of something burning started up outside again. As they’d hypothesized, the scope of burning rooms had extended further out today.

Lin Qiushi opened the door a crack, and saw at the end of the hallway a smother of scorched black, with flashes of fire licking through the building structure.

Behind the embers, the burnt mother and child were still standing—a bit further forward this time.

People from other rooms also opened their doors at the same time. Lin Qiushi saw Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui come out of their rooms as well.

“There’s not much time left,” Luo Qianshan suddenly said.

After he said this, Lin Qiushi realized the rooms in front were rapidly blackening—it wasn’t just one room burning tonight.

“Hack, hack.” Cheng Yixie was once again choked into coughing.

“I hope you can seriously consider our offer,” Luo Qianshan spoke lightly.

Ruan Nanzhu replied, “we’ve considered.” He and Luo Qianshan were looking in the same direction—at that mother-daughter pair, silently standing at the end of the hall. “You two prove you’re sincere, and we’ll take the risk.”

Luo Qianshan was about to say something, but Luo Qianshui reached out an arm and stopped him.

Lin Qiushi thought that, based on Luo Qianshui’s personality, she’d say something provocative. But instead, she nodded coolly.

“Okay, I’ll show you we’re sincere.”

She stepped up to a mirror framed on the side of the corridor and extended a hand.

Something incredible occurred. Luo Qianshui’s hand, without any obstruction, reached into the mirror in front of her—she could traverse between the world inside the mirrors and the world outside!

Lin Qiushi looked on, shocked, and even Ruan Nanzhu seemed a bit surprised.

But Luo Qianshui very quickly retracted her hand, saying, “but I’ can’t stay inside for long.” She glanced at the burnt mother and child at the end of the hall. “That world belongs to them. If I stay inside for too long, I won’t be able to come back out.”

Ruan Nanzhu cocked his head. “If you can lure them away on your own, why doesn’t your brother go get the key?”

“I need his help to enter the mirror, he doesn’t have time to go get the key.” Luo Qianshui seemed somewhat impatient with the explanation. “Will you do it or not?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “we’ll think about it.” He didn’t agree immediately.

Luo Qianshui scoffed. Then she pulled Luo Qianshan back inside their room.

Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi returned to their room as well.

Ruan Nanzhu asked, “what do you think?”

Lin Qiushi thought about it. “I think we can take it.” If the key really was in that room, taking this risk would be worth it.

“I think so too.” Cheng Yixie clearly hated this world; with his sensitive nose, staying in this smokey high rise was indescribably torturous.

But Ruan Nanzhu seemed to be contemplating something.

“Let’s sleep first.” In the end though, Ruan Nanzhu didn’t say anything, just: “It’s late.”

Lin Qiushi didn’t force the matter either. After washing up, he got into bed.

Before sleeping however, Lin Qiushi’s hand went to his pocket, in which that pretty bronze mirror was placed. He thought of something, eyes darkening slightly. Quickly though, they closed, and he fell to sleep.

The next morning, Lin Qiushi bumped into Luo Qianshan in the restaurant.

At breakfast each morning, group attendance was at its max. Lin Qiushi sat in a distant corner and began checking over everybody with the bronze mirror.

Ruan Nanzhu sat beside him, eating a hard-boiled egg. He mumbled around the egg, “how is it?”

Lin Qiushi, “…not great.” There were a total of seventeen people in the group. Confirmed deaths were: Xiao Yan who’d burned to death, Wenjing who’d broken the mirrors and died, Xiao Mian who was killed by Xia-jie, and Xia-jie whom Xiao Mian had gotten revenge on. There ought to be thirteen people left alive.

But after using the mirror on everyone around him, Lin Qiushi discovered there weren’t as many survivors as he’d thought.

Of the thirteen, at least four had redirected feet—heels in the front, toes pointing back. The way they walked was no different from everyone else, but it was precisely their normal appearances that sent a chill up the spine.

Cheng Yixie’s brows pinched. “No wonder it stinks worse.” The smell really was getting harder to bear.

As they were speaking, Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui happened to come in from outside.

Realizing something, Lin Qiushi guided the bronze mirror in his hand to where Luo Qianshui stood. What it reflected though, made Lin Qiushi freeze.

He even rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn’t seeing things wrong.

Two figures ought to have appeared on the mirror surface, but there was only Luo Qianshan’s silhouette. His head was turned to the side, and he was smiling warmly, speaking lowly to thin air.

Lin Qiushi, “…” Luo Qianshui couldn’t show up in the bronze mirror. What did that mean? She wasn’t human?

Lin Qiushi didn’t speak. He reached out and handed the mirror to Ruan Nanzhu, then gestured with a tilt of his chin at Luo Qianshui, indicating that Ruan Nanzhu should look at the reflection in the mirror.

Ruan Nanzhu took the mirror, and saw too the empty space beside Luo Qianshan. He murmured lowly, “interesting.”

Cheng Yixie saw the oddity about Luo Qianshui as well, and his brows puckered. “She’s not human?”

Lin Qiushi thought that he couldn’t say.

If Luo Qianshui wasn’t human, then was she a special case? Everyone else had flipped feet, but she couldn’t be seen at all.

So what was her relationship to the human Luo Qianshan then? Could they both be NPCs from inside this door? Though this thought came to mind, Lin Qiushi still felt there was something wrong.

With their previous questions unresolved, new problems were arising.

Lin Qiushi rubbed at the bronze mirror’s smooth surface, sighing lightly in his heart.

Ruan Nanzhu though, got up, and walked right on over to Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui.

Lin Qiushi startled, getting up to follow, but Ruan Nanzhu said lightly, “you guys stay here. I’ll go have a talk with them.”

Lin Qiushi could only agree.

Cheng Yixie nodded.

Ruan Nanzhu came to Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui’s table. Luo Qianshui had never liked Ruan Nanzhu, and this time was no exception; seeing him, she said unpleasantly, “what? You’ve thought it through? If you got something to say just keep standing there. I’m still hungry you know.”

Ruan Nanzhu didn’t reply. He just watched Luo Qianshui silently.

“Is something wrong?” Luo Qianshan asked compassionately. In terms of personality, Luo Qianshan seemed a lot friendlier than Luo Qianshui. But Lin Qiushi actually preferred dealing with someone like Luo Qianshui, whose feelings were all clearly written across her face.

Ruan Nanzhu still wasn’t speaking.

Luo Qianshui was evidently a bit spooked by Ruan Nanzhu’s gaze, and snapped, “there’s something wrong with you. Why are you staring at me…” She seemed to think of something, and so declared, “my brother already has a girlfriend, so don’t even think about it!”

Luo Qianshan looked on from the side, exasperated.

Lin Qiushi wanted to laugh for some reason.

All of a sudden Cheng Yixie whispered, “what are they saying?”

Lin Qiushi blinked, before realizing that with a normal person’s hearing, Ruan Nanzhu’s conversation wasn’t audible from this far away.

“Lin Qiushi told Ruan Nanzhu that her brother has a girlfriend,” Lin Qiushi explained to Cheng Yixie, holding back laughter.

At this, humor too surfaced in Cheng Yixie’s eyes.

“Well aren’t you full of yourself,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “What don’t you get about my taste in men?”

Luo Qianshui slammed her hand onto the table. “The hell do you mean! My brother’s incredible, how dare you not like him!”

Ruan Nanzhu said, “but I already have someone I like.”

Luo Qianshui, “who? Who do you like?!”

Luo Qianshan looked as if a headache was coming on. “Pardon me… What is it that you came to speak to us about? Qianshui, stop talking.”

Luo Qianshui clearly wanted to keep talking, but after Luo Qianshan gripped her by the arm, she ceased with a mutinous expression. But it was obvious from her gaze—deep down in her heart, she already had countless objections to Ruan Nanzhu’s person.

“I just came to chat about your offer yesterday.” Ruan Nanzhu pulled out a chair, sitting down in front of Luo Qianshan like it was the most natural thing to do. “I think we can work together.”

Luo Qianshan’s eyes lit up.

“But, the hint from this door has to be ours.” As he spoke, Ruan Nanzhu watched Luo Qianshui’s expression from his periphery. “Will that be a problem?”

“No,” Luo Qianshan said. “We can agree on this point.”

Ruan Nanzhu tilted his head. “Are you actually related?”

“Yeah, why?” Luo Qianshan smiled. “Don’t we look it?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “no.”

Luo Qianshui’s brows furrowed. “How are we not alike…”

But before she was even finished talking, she heard Ruan Nanzhu say, light as anything: “How could the dead and living be alike?”

The air seemed to congeal in an instant. Luo Qianshui’s eyes were wide with shock, while Luo Qianshan’s gaze, like nightfall, completely dimmed. He asked, “what are you saying?”

“Exactly what I said,” Ruan Nanzhu answered. “Which door did your sister die in?”

Luo Qianshan shot up from his chair and roared, “shut up!”

But Ruan Nanzhu had already gotten the answer he wanted from that reaction. He nodded. “Don’t be nervous, I won’t use it against you. There’s just something I wanted to confirm.”

Luo Qianshui watched Ruan Nanzhu, brows pinched.

“Looking forward to working with you.”

Ruan Nanzhu got up and left. It seemed these two really did come from outside the door, and weren’t NPCs from the inside. If the answer had been the latter, then there would have been no need for their group and Luo Qianshan to work together.

Author’s Note:

Halfway through typing up the chapter today, my cat shut off my computer. I could only type it all up again with tears in my eyes QAQ Woe really be me.