Kaleidoscope of Death

Lin Qiushi was quite shocked by the revelation that Luo Qianshui wasn’t human. But upon observation, neither Ruan Nanzhu nor Cheng Yixie seemed particularly stunned, as if they were more than used to this kind of thing.

Ruan Nanzhu returned to their side and reported, “we chatted a bit, and it won’t be a problem. Luo Qianshui died in another door.”

Lin Qiushi looked at him and asked, “this sort of thing is common?”

Ruan Nanzhu replied placidly, “of course it’s uncommon.”

Lin Qiushi, “but if Luo Qianshui died in another door why can she…”

Ruan Nanzhu cut him off, tone gone cool as if he didn’t want Lin Qiushi to linger on the subject, and it was better not to ask at all: “that isn’t important—at least, not while we’re in this door.”

At this Lin Qiushi could only nod, though he thought Ruan Nanzhu’s attitude quite odd. But it wasn’t like Ruan Nanzhu didn’t have a point; Luo Qianshui really did have nothing to do with this door.

After confirming Luo Qianshui’s identity, Ruan Nanzhu agreed to working together. They began discussing how to find the key that night.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “we can’t all go in. You two wait out here.”

Lin Qiushi did not agree with the suggestion. “I think it’s better if I go.” He paused for a moment, then spoke from the heart. “After all, we still don’t know if Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui are actually on our side. If something happens to me in there, you could do something.”

But if something happened to Ruan Nanzhu, he was afraid that he and Cheng Yixie would be helpless.

Ruan Nanzhu fell into reluctant silence.

Cheng Yixie said evenly, “Ruan-ge, you can’t protect Qiushi forever.”

At this, Lin Qiushi started, and peered over at Cheng Yixie. There seemed to be a second meaning to his words.

Ruan Nanzhu’s face was stony: “how do you know I can’t?”

Cheng Yixie didn’t reply.

With the atmosphere gone tense between the two, Lin Qiushi could only say, “Nanzhu, let me go. It’ll be fine.”

Finger tapping at the table, Ruan Nanzhu finally agreed to Lin Qiushi’s plan to be the one to enter the room and grab the key. He and Cheng Yixie would guard Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui outside to keep any surprises from happening.

It had only taken a few short days for a good number of people in their group to die.

The thing different about this door from any other was that without the right prop, you had no way of discerning if the people beside you were dead or alive. Even the person sharing your bed could have already been dead for days.

Around three in the afternoon, Ruan Nanzhu spoke to Luo Qianshan again to discuss the details of fetching the key.

“When the time comes I’ll enter the mirrors and lure the mother and daughter away from the door. I can keep them away for about five minutes.” Luo Qianshui seemed calm about the fact of her own death, and spoke with composure. “So that’s your time limit. You have to be out before the five minutes are up.”

“Mh.” Ruan Nanzhu asked, “have you found the door yet?”

“Not yet.” Ever since the morning when Ruan Nanzhu discovered Luo Qianshui’s death, Luo Qianshan’s warm manners had completely disappeared. What replaced it was the indifference of someone who could no longer be bothered to pretend. He continued, “but it’s definitely on the thirty-fourth story.”

Ruan Nanzhu seemed to be contemplating something.

“How about your side? Who’s going in?” Luo Qianshan asked.

“I am,” Lin Qiushi reported the results of their discussion.

“You? Who decided that? Your friend?” Upon hearing Lin Qiushi’s answer, Luo Qianshan’s gaze moved to Ruan Nanzhu.

Lin Qiushi said, “no, it was my idea. Is that a problem?”

Luo Qianshan seemed a bit shocked by Lin Qiushi’s reply—rightfully so, because who would put himself in danger like that? Something else came into his eyes. “You’re not scared?”

Lin Qiushi asked, “of what?”

Luo Qianshan laughed, “dying, of course.”

Lin Qiushi thought his question odd. “Surely everyone’s scared of dying.”

Luo Qianshan shook his head. “No, you just haven’t seen someone who’s truly scared of dying.”

Those who were truly scared of dying were beaten down by their fear. Some even did things they could never take back out of fear inside their very first door. But of course, this wasn’t something Luo Qianshan bothered explaining to Lin Qiushi. It was just that this man called Yu Linlin before him, he felt, was something special.

And so the matter was settled, and the five waited quietly for night to come.

At eight PM, that thick and anxious scent of burning appeared in the hallway again.

Lin Qiushi walked into the hallway as planned, and saw Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui already waiting.

Luo Qianshan lifted a hand and glanced at his watch. “At 8:40 Luo Qianshui will enter the mirror and lure them away. You have to be out by 8:45. The key is hanging right on the center wall, it’s very easy to find.”

Ruan Nanzhu asked, “Luo Qianshui saw this through the mirror?”

Luo Qianshan looked at Ruan Nanzhu, and nodded.

As expected, they’d lied about the door being open before; the siblings had only been able to see the key’s location because Luo Qianshui could travel through the mirrors.

There were still three minutes until 8:40. Ruan Nanzhu passed a blood red bracelet to Lin Qiushi.

Without saying a word, Lin Qiushi took the bracelet in understanding and slipped it over his wrist.

“Prioritize your life and safety.” Ruan Nanzhu kept his voice light, “if you can’t get the key, forget it. Come out no matter what.”

Lin Qiushi nodded.

Another beat, and it was 8:40. Luo Qianshui turned to the mirror beside her. Lin Qiushi noticed on her wrist what seemed to be a thin red thread, linking her body to Luo Qianshan’s.

The burnt mother and daughter, standing silently at the end of the hall, reacted. After turning to the mirror beside them, they really did as Luo Qianshui said and entered into the glass.

Lin Qiushi ran for it, sprinting to the burned room at the furthest end of the hall as fast as he could.

The thick burnt smell flooded his nose, and with one hand holding a wet towel over his face, he opened the heat-warped door with the other.

The room before him already looked nothing like it did during the day.

It had gone entirely black; from the furniture to the wall, everything was warped and charred by the extreme heat. But what stood out against it all were the mirrors—the mirrors upon mirrors that hung from every surface.

These weren’t damaged at all. Practically every corner of the room was reflected in the mirrors.

Lin Qiushi knew better than to dawdle, and entered quickly. He scanned the room for the wall with the key on it that Luo Qianshan described.

One sweep around yielded nothing, and it wasn’t until he entered the bedroom on the left that Lin Qiushi found what he was looking for.

“Fuck.” After seeing what was in the bedroom, Lin Qiushi had to let out a rare swear.

The walls in the bedroom were completely covered with keys, and every single one looked exactly the same—green copper, to open the door.

At a rough glance, there were at least one or two hundred.

Lin Qiushi glanced at his watch. He had three and a half minutes left—how was he supposed to find the one key he needed out of all these? As beads of sweat began to dot his forehead, Lin Qiushi forced himself to calm down.

Clack… But as Lin Qiushi was contemplating the problem, there came from behind him a sudden sound of impact against glass. Lin Qiushi turned, and saw to his shock a person in the mirror. Though the outfit had changed, and half the body had been burned black, Lin Qiushi could still recognize him as the bellman from the hotel.

Standing inside the mirror, he was glowering in contempt at Lin Qiushi.

It scared Lin Qiushi into an instinctive step back.

Clack, clack… The man in the mirror banged the glass in front of him with force, and cracks spread clear across it, as if it could shatter any minute.

The man walked to the edge of the mirror and pressed his half-cooked face against it, snarling curses.

Lin Qiushi met his eyes.

His black pupils were so at odds with his hideous appearance. They were like deep lakewater, utterly tranquil as they reflected a dark light.

Watching those eyes, Lin Qiushi suddenly became a bit enthralled. He thought he could hear a woman weeping and a child bawling.

There was also a man shouting, and the sound of mirrors being smashed.

“Get out then, get out, don’t ever come back,” the woman was saying. “I hate you, I hate you—”

“You hate me? You hate me?” the man replied. “Who the hell do you think you are!”

“Aaah!” Something shattered, and red flames started licking their way out.

The woman let out an awful, wretched wail, but the sound began to dissipate with the cracking of the glass.

The child’s crying followed thus, as if something was taking away their ability to scream and yell… No, as if something was taking away their lives altogether.

Then there was the slam of a door and stumbling footsteps.

Still entranced, Lin Qiushi thought the scene shifted. He saw a single large mirror reflecting the man in his entirety, and just as the man turned to lurch away, a pair of hands burned charcoal black slowly emerged from a corner of the mirror. They stretched until they caught hold of his legs, and then forcibly dragged the man right back into the mirror.

It was then that Lin Qiushi felt a sudden sharp pain in his wrist. He went cold when he realized he’d somehow made his way in front of the mirror—one step more, and he’d be touching it.

And in the mirror was the man with that hateful look in his eyes.

Hacking up a few coughs, Lin Qiushi finally pulled himself out of the illusion, and looked at his watch. 8:44—he only had a minute left!

Key, key, key, which was the real key?

Lin Qiushi felt for a moment as if he were really in a sea of flames. With his sharp ears, Lin Qiushi heard soft steps from within the mirrors… Time was almost up, the mother and child were coming back!

Times of crisis actually left Lin Qiushi’s head clearer. His mind conjured up the three lines from their hint: with bronze as mirror, one can right their apparel; with history as mirror, one can understand the tides of fortune; with people as mirror, one can gain from loss.

They’d found the bronze mirror and the history mirror. So what about the human mirror?

What did “with people as mirrors, one can gain from loss” actually mean?

Staring at the man in the mirror, Lin Qiushi abruptly remembered Ruan Nanzhu’s words, that the doors had rules, and that they really were about rebirth, not death—there were rarely true dead ends.

So perhaps the man trapped in the mirror had some other purpose?

Lin Qiushi approached the man and began examining him.

He stood in the mirror, watching Lin Qiushi hatefully. Lin Qiushi watched him back, then noticed something—a little image in his pupils.

That image wasn’t a reflection of the room, but of something else entirely.

It was a headboard shelf, on which was a photo of the family of three. Lin Qiushi finally understood.

He spun around and sprinted for the bed, flipping over the burned family portrait and found, behind the photo, a beautiful green copper key.

Lin Qiushi finally comprehended the meaning of “to gain from loss.”

With only moments left, Lin Qiushi grabbed the key and ran for it, afraid to wait a second longer.

Five seconds, four, three… With the door in sight, Lin Qiushi began to smile. But that smile immediately froze as two people came into sight.

One tall, one short. The tall one holding the short one’s hand. Bodies wholly cooked black. The tall one held her child with one hand and the door with the other, and her smile for Lin Qiushi was twisted.

She was shutting the door—Lin Qiushi reacted instantly, and flung the key past the threshold.

And with a click, the door locked heavily shut.

Lin Qiushi fell to his knees and began hacking loudly.

The temperature inside the room was spiking, along with the concentration of noxious smoke. Lin Qiushi felt his consciousness slipping away, and knew with clarity that he was about to die.

Faced with death, Lin Qiushi was able to maintain an indescribable inner calm. His cheek was pressed to the ground, and he was staring at the blackened walls; in his mind a reel of endless scenes was playing.

There was him, and Chestnut, and his friends. And… Ruan Nanzhu.

Ah, the Ruan Nanzhu in his mind sure was good-looking. Before he closed his eyes, Lin Qiushi thought himself rather pathetic, to lay dying like this and be thinking of a man…

Darkness descended on Lin Qiushi, and he felt his body go.

……

Drip, drop. He could hear water.

Lin Qiushi felt an intense thirst, and he parted his lips, barely managing to croak out the single word: “Water…”

Then something wet and soft brushed against his lips. Lin Qiushi slowly opened his eyes, feeling the faint light.

“You’re awake?” came a voice.

Lin Qiushi coughed violently a few times before the person sitting in front of him finally came into view. It was Cheng Yixie.

In Cheng Yixie’s hand was a cotton swab soaked in water.

“Yixie?” Seeing him, Lin Qiushi was dumbfounded. “I, I didn’t die?” He still remembered everything from before he passed out.

Logically, from that point on, there should have been no other route but death.

“I’m Qianli.” This twin looked at him with big beguiling eyes. “Qiushi, I can’t believe you didn’t recognize me. You only have my brother on your mind.”

Lin Qiushi, “.…” Why did a perfectly normal occurrence sound so odd coming from you?

“I got out?” Every inch of his body ached, and even his voice was quite weak. “I really thought I’d died…”

“Not you,” Cheng Qianli said. “It was Ruan-ge who almost died.”

Lin Qiushi started, and immediately sat up on the bed. “What?!”

Cheng Qianli said, “yeah… But he’s fine now. Don’t worry, as long as it’s not immediate death, our bodies revive pretty quickly.”

Lin Qiushi, “no no no, why did something happen to Nanzhu?” He remembered throwing the key outside, after all.

Cheng Qianli, “that I don’t know. He’s still passed out.”

Lin Qiushi rubbed his head. “How long as it been?”

Cheng Qianli, “two days.”

Lin Qiushi exhaled. “And your brother? Is he alright?”

“He’s good,” Cheng Qianli said. “He’ll be here at noon, you can ask him yourself then.”

Lin Qiushi nodded his understanding.

Around noon, Cheng Yixie arrived with food for Cheng Qianli.

“You’re up?” Cheng Yixie asked. “How do you feel?”

Lying on the bed, Lin Qiushi eyed the IV drip in his arm. “Alright. What’s wrong with me?”

Cheng Yixie replied, “same as Ruan-ge, major blood loss.”

Lin Qiushi, “oh.” Despite the blood loss, Lin Qiushi wasn’t in any pain. In fact, beside the overwhelming fatigue, nothing felt actually wrong with him.

“Is Nanzhu alright?” Lin Qiushi was still very worried. “How did I even get out…”

Cheng Yixie said, “he’s fine. He’ll probably be discharged after a few days of rest.” He paused for a bit, then continued more quietly, “it’s because Ruan-ge opened the door again, and got you out.”

“Opened the door again?” Lin Qiushi said. “But weren’t the mother and child guarding it?”

Cheng Yixie, “it’s a long story.”

Lin Qiushi, “take your time, I’m in no hurry.”

Cheng Yixie nodded, and retold the harrowing incident in neat and concise words. After seeing the mother and daughter close the door early, Ruan Nanzhu went crazy. He didn’t hesitate at all to take Luo Qianshan hostage with a weapon and force Luo Qianshui back in the mirrors. And when the mother and daughter were lured away again, he dashed in to get Lin Qiushi out.

The entire hallway had been burning at the time. When he brought Lin Qiushi back, Ruan Nanzhu was more fire than man, with more than half his skin burned away.

Fortunately these were wounds from inside the doors, or they’d really have lost him.

Then the fire had continued to spread. Before they could burn to death, they’d found the exit door and left the world using the key.

Of course, Ruan Nanzhu’s actions meant their accord with the Luo siblings was immediately annulled. Cheng Yixie only scoffed at this, and declared that inside the doors there were no permanent friends, only interests.

Hearing this Lin Qiushi smiled, “then are we permanent friends?”

Cheng Yixie stilled, and though there was little expression on his face he still managed to seem exasperated. Then he very lightly nodded.

Lin Qiushi felt like he was teasing a child, and began to laugh.

Around nightfall, Ruan Nanzhu also woke up. Though he was hospitalized for blood loss like Lin Qiushi, he had actual physical wounds that looked like he’d been cut by someone with pieces of a mirror. The doctors even asked if he wanted to call the police.

Cheng Yixie pushed Lin Qiushi over in a wheelchair to visit Ruan Nanzhu.

Ruan Nanzhu lied on the bed; there was no blood in his pretty face, and he’d even been intubated. He looked entirely, exceedingly fragile. But his dark eyes were bright enough to frighten, like the night sky filled with stars, capable of swallowing up whole souls.

Lin Qiushi called, “Nanzhu.”

Lips slightly parting, Ruan Nanzhu mh’d.

Lin Qiushi said, “thank you.” But saying that didn’t feel right. Everybody said that true grace couldn’t be thanked (大恩不言謝), and if it weren’t for Ruan Nanzhu, he would not have been able to escape this door. Outside, he’d have already leapt off a building, or otherwise found another way to die.

“It should be me thanking you.” Ruan Nanzhu’s voice was incredibly light, like down afloat in midair.

Lin Qiushi said, “don’t speak anymore. Rest up, we’ll wait for you to be discharged.” Ruan Nanzhu was so weak right now that just a few words had exhausted all his energy.

Lin Qiushi’s gaze caught on Ruan Nanzhu’s hand. Ruan Nanzhu had beautiful hands, with white, slender fingers. At rest on the bed, all his bones and tendons were neatly defined. But these beautiful hands were currently bandaged. It seemed only like the illusion of a wound on Ruan Nanzhu; it was hard to imagine how many more of such wounds were hidden under that hospital gown.

Lin Qiushi looked away, and let Cheng Yixie push him from the room.

Behind him, Ruan Nanzhu’s breathing slowly evened out. He seemed to have fallen asleep once more.

Lin Qiushi listened for a while at the door, before all of a sudden asking lowly, “was it worth it?”

Cheng Yixie stood just behind Lin Qiushi. And though the words came out of the blue, he still understood what Lin Qiushi was asking.

He said, “as long as he wanted to, it was worth it.”

Lin Qiushi smiled, “you’re right.”

“Let’s go,” Cheng Yixie said. “You have to take care too, and get better quickly.

Lin Qiushi nodded, and Cheng Yixie pushed him back to his hospital room.

Translator’s Note:

1. From the Book of Tang