Kaleidoscope of Death

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu

Ai Wenrui’s words brought looks of hesitation to all three of their faces.

Lin Qiushi said, “I’ll go take a look.”

He walked over to the sculpture and cautiously took hold of a corner of the white cloth. Then, very lightly, he lifted it up.

The white cloth fell, revealing the item wrapped up inside—a beautifully sculpted statue. The statue was of a woman looking down and lightly smiling. She was seated on a chair and clothed in a long dress. With her long hair draped over a shoulder, her lines were elegant and lively, as if she could truly come to life at any moment.

Though Gu Longming had little understanding of the art form, he was still caught by this sculpture, and exclaimed: “It’s beautiful…”

But after seeing the statue, Ai Wenrui’s expression completely changed. He took a couple of unconscious steps back, stammering, “no…It’s wrong!”

“What’s wrong with it?” Lin Qiushi looked over at him.

“The sculpture wasn’t like this before!!” Clearly terrified by the sculpture’s appearance, Ai Wenrui spoke rapidly: “When we saw it before this sculpture was only a head, where did the body come from?!”

“What do you mean?” Gu Longming’s eyes went wide. “You mean this sculpture grew??”

“Yes, there’s an additional body part—” Ai Wenrui said. “When we came to make the wish before, I’m certain that this sculpture, that this sculpture only had a head!”

But now, she had a body. Not only did she have a body, but she also looked more and more like a living person.

Thanks to Ai Wenrui, what was at first a beautiful statue now seemed touched with eeriness. Even the gentle smile on her face had become strange and oddly hair-raising.

“What was the initial situation? Explain it in detail.” Lin Qiushi kept thinking Ai Wenrui was still hiding something.

Ai Wenrui warily eyed the sculpture. He seemed a bit scared.

“Is it okay if we don’t talk about it here?”

“Alright,” Lin Qiushi agreed. He too thought the sculpture was discomforting.

So the three left the room, locking the door behind them.

What they didn’t notice was, after they left the room and locked the door, the gentle smile on the sculpted woman’s face gradually disappeared into cool impassivity. Those plaster eyes too slowly blinked.

Lin Qiushi and Ai Wenrui returned to the activity room.

Rubbing his arm, Ai Wenrui was still caught up in the feelings of fright; his eyes kept darting toward the storage room, clearly afraid of the now-altered sculpture.

“What was the ritual you guys did?” Lin Qiushi asked him.

“Xuejie taught us!” Ai Wenrui said. “She gave us each a small wooden doll and had us drip blood on top of the doll. Then we made the wish to the sculpture…”

“Xuejie?” Lin Qiushi asked. “Where is she now?”

Ai Wenrui looked at the time and said, “right now, she’s probably still in class.”

“Nothing happened to her?” Gu Longming seemed incredulous. “Don’t the first ones to propose the suicidal plans usually die first in this sort of plot?”

Ai Wenrui didn’t know how to respond to Gu Longming’s forthright proclamation.

“After everything that happened, you didn’t even go talk to her?” Lin Qiushi thought something was off. “She must know something, right?”

“We were all scared to death. We were too afraid to even meet.” With a pained laugh, Ai Wenrui continued, “if Xiao He and the other guys weren’t in the same class as me, I wouldn’t have even wanted to see their faces.”

At the mention of Xiao He, Ai Wenrui’s spirit dimmed again. He seemed to have linked Xiao He’s death to his own future.

If they didn’t take care of this matter quickly, Ai Wenrui’s death too was only a matter of time.

“Let’s go look for her,” Lin Qiushi said. “She must be a key character. Also…” He pulled the group photo from his pocket. “Do you know the people in the picture?”

“Sure,” Ai Wenrui answered after a glance. “They…They were the first three to bleed on the dolls.”

“This last person didn’t play along?” Lin Qiushi recalled there was a lucky survivor among the group.

“He didn’t.” At this, Ai Wenrui seemed to sense something was odd as well. “That’s not right…He was the person closest to Xuejie. He was there too, but why didn’t he play?” He scratched his head in confusion. “And I didn’t even notice…”

Lin Qiushi looked at the time. The last class of the day was about to end, and evening was upon them. At night, they weren’t going anywhere. So Lin Qiushi said, “take us to find this Xuejie. I want to talk to her.”

Ai Wenrui nodded.

Xuejie, like them, was a sculpting major. She was in her fourth year. This class was hosted right beside the exercise field, and they got there without much walking.

Outside the classroom, Lin Qiushi heard the school bell go off. Then, students began to pour outside.

Ai Wenrui stuck his head out to peer inside, but after a while, still could not find whom he was looking for. A bit puzzled, he muttered, “is she skipping class? Or did something happen…”

Lin Qiushi said, “find a student to ask.”

“Mh.” With a nod, Ai Wenrui stopped a student heading out. “Hey, do you know Zhu Ruyuan?”

Zhu Ruyuan was Xuejie’s name.

“Who?” The student looked completely clueless. “I don’t know.”

Ai Wenrui startled.

“You don’t know her?”

With an ominous feeling, he rushed to stop the next student, asking whether or not he knew Zhu Ruyuan.

But, after asking four students, five students who were exiting the room, every single one of them shook their heads to Ai Wenrui’s question. They indicated that in their class, there wasn’t a female student named Zhu Ruyuan at all.

This got Ai Wenrui completely frazzled, goosebumps appearing all over his body. He seemed a bit wrecked: “What—How could they not know her, she’s been in class with these people!”

Lin Qiushi gave this some thought, then walked inside the classroom to stop the teacher. He asked if the teacher knew Zhu Ruyuan.

At the mention of the name, however, the teacher’s expression changed. He asked, “who are you people? Coming to our school and asking questions like this, what do you want!”

“We were hired by the school to investigate the deaths on campus,” Lin Qiushi explained. The identities given to them by the NPC sure was helpful at times like this. “You know who Zhu Ruyuan is, correct? Will you tell us what happened with her?”

The teacher looked hesitant, saying, “she… What happened to her was actually…pretty well-known on campus. But because of the class turnovers, people just gradually stopped knowing.”

Ai Wenrui had already heard the meaning inside the teacher’s words. He choked, “you mean Zhu Ruyuan is already—”

“Yeah, she’s already dead,” the teacher said. “She’s been dead for over five years now.”

Ai Wenrui began to shake.

Scared that he’d start to cry again, Gu Longming hurriedly pressed a hand on his shoulder and said, “it’s fine, don’t worry. We’re still here.”

Ai Wenrui confirmed this with a nasally mh.

“What happened to her?” Lin Qiushi asked.

“She’s a sculpting student,” the teacher said. “I think she participated in a competition hosted outside the school or something, and not getting a good score really hit her hard. She committed suicide.”

The teacher’s explanation was simple, but judging by his expression, the situation definitely wasn’t. His face as he spoke, after all, housed a touch of terror, like he didn’t really want to discuss the topic.

“Suicide? How did she commit suicide?” Lin Qiushi wasn’t planning on letting the matter go just like that. “Can you give us more details please?”

The teacher said, “I’m not sure either…”

He really didn’t want to talk about it.

“If we don’t take care of this, more students may get hurt,” Lin Qiushi said. “Do you really not know? All these kids are only in their twenties, if they’re left to die like this…”

He glanced over at Ai Wenrui, who had started to quietly sob again.

Maybe it was Lin Qiushi’s words, or maybe it was Ai Wenrui’s tears, but the teacher gave up in the end. He said, “she killed herself inside the school.”

“Inside the school?” Lin Qiushi was a bit stunned.

“Yes, inside the school. And the method…was strange,” the teacher said. “Not getting a prize was a huge blow to her, so she cut her wrist and bled all over her own project…By the time they found her, she was already gone.”

At the mention of a project, Lin Qiushi immediately thought of that sculpture. He asked in a rush, “have you seen her project?”

“I’ve seen it once,” the teacher said. “It’s a statue of a woman. Quite lovely, but it was lacking in soul. It makes sense that it didn’t place for a prize.”

He sighed, and spoke with some regret. “She had a lot of promise. To just be gone like that, it’s truly such a shame.” Then, he glanced at his watch. “I have to go.”

“Thank you sir,” Lin Qiushi gave his gratitude.

The teacher gave him a nod, grabbed his work bag, and left the classroom.

Ever since learning that Xuejie wasn’t human, Ai Wenrui had been stunned into a dummy. Once the teacher left Gu Longming slapped a palm soundly on his back.

“Hey bro, you alright?”

“I’m not alright…” Ai Wenrui said.

“How long was she with you guys?” Lin Qiushi asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t remember,” Ai Wenrui said. “I think, I think from the beginning she’s been in the club’s activity room. We even joked back then that Xuejie’s basically made the activity room her home…” He shivered. “Oh right, she’s not even human. It’s only natural she made that place her home, right?”

Lin Qiushi didn’t know what to say. He glanced at the sky.

“Let’s go have dinner first. We’ll talk more about this after.”

The three went to the cafeteria and took care of dinner.

The whole time over Ai Wenrui seemed to want to say something, but it wasn’t until they’d finished eating that he mumbled, “um, so, where are you guys staying tonight?”

“School dorms.” Understanding Ai Wenrui’s meaning, Gu Longming said, “what is it? You’re not asking to stay with us, are you?”

“Can’t I?” Ai Wenrui said. “You can’t just use me during the day, then toss me away at night when you have no more use for me. You won’t be so cruel, right?”

He said this with particular intensity of emotion, prompting the students around them to toss over odd glances.

This was an arts school after all—both gays and lesbians were quite commonplace, so of course everybody’s trains of thought went out just a bit further.

Gu Longming, “I don’t not need you…” After he said this he thought it could be misunderstood, so quickly explained, “if you’re willing, you can totally squeeze in with us!”

“That’s perfect,” Ai Wenrui said. “I’ll just have to squeeze in with you guys then.”

Lin Qiushi looked at Gu Longming’s mistreated expression and kind of wanted to laugh.

After dinner, they returned to the dormitory. Others in their group also gradually came back. Some returned to their rooms, some stood resting in the hallway.

Judging from everybody’s expressions, no one made very successful progress today.

But Lin Qiushi thought they were doing alright, because they’d at least found a key character—a fourth year Xuejie who shouldn’t have existed at all.

“Oh, who’s this?” The pretty young lady that Lin Qiushi had some recollection of, Zuo Sisi, asked in curiosity when she spotted Ai Wenrui accompanying them. “You went and brought an N…a student over?”

She likely was about to say NPC, but took the word back when it was at the tip of her tongue.

“Mh,” Lin Qiushi said. “Gu Longming took a liking.”

Gu Longming, “???”

“Oh, a leisurely spirit, that’s nice.” Zuo Sisi peered once at Gu Longming. “Best take care of your body, young man.”

Speechless, Gu Longming could only shoot Ai Wenrui a glare. Completely innocent, Ai Wenrui wanted to explain himself, but wilted in maltreatment under Gu Longming’s continued glower.

After the three returned to the room and Lin Qiushi washed up, they began combing out the clues from today.

That Fourth Year wasn’t human. She’d infiltrated Ai Wenrui’s sculpting club and guided the students to make a wish to a strange sculpture. And the students’ wishes did all come true. It was just that for the wishes to be granted, a heavy price had to be paid—they were all now dead.

There were four beds in this room. Ai Wenrui sat in the bunk above Gu Longming, leaning against the comforter looking like he was about to asphyxiate.

Gu Longming had fished a tomato out from somewhere. He munched at it as he said, “so what was it that you wished for back then?”

“Me?” Ai Wenrui said. “My wish was the same as theirs…”

“The same?” Gu Longming said. “So did you also win the award like they did?”

“No,” Ai Wenrui answered honestly.

“You didn’t?” Gu Longming couldn’t believe it. “What, even supernatural forces couldn’t help you win? How bad’s your sculpting dude?”

“It’s not bad,” Ai Wenrui exclaimed in anger. “It’s that I didn’t even enter!” He sighed. “Or do you think I’d be sitting here talking to you right now?”

One after another, those who’d won the award had died, each from a cause worse than the last. Had Ai Wenrui entered the competition, he couldn’t have possibly made it to the second semester.

However, though his wish didn’t come true, that thing’s power seemed to be slowly growing. It still tried to make its move on him.

Lin Qiushi was still inspecting that photo with his head bowed. He said, “the lucky survivor in this photo is named Zhou Hanshan, correct?” He’d seen this person’s information in the file from the library.

“Yes,” Ai Wenrui nodded. “The four of them were really close. Who’d have thought this sort of thing would happen?”

He thought for a moment. “But, there really is something weird about what happened then.”

“What is it?” Lin Qiushi asked.

“He didn’t participate in the game.” Ai Wenrui had already mentioned this before, but spoke more in detail this time. “Looking back on it now, it really is weird, because he was the one who brought up this game in the first place.”

“So where is he now?” Gu Longming asked.

“Still on campus I guess,” Ai Wenrui said. “We’re in our third year. We gotta start graduation planning soon, and we also have to look for jobs. Everybody’s busy as heck. They should all still be on campus.”

“He must know something,” Lin Qiushi said. “This person might have something to do with Zhu Ruyuan.”

Ai Wenrui nodded.

“Speaking of which, Xuejie’s not going to come look for me now, is she…”

Neither Gu Longming nor Lin Qiushi replied to Ai Wenrui. Clearly, none of them could be sure of this.

Evening fell, enveloping the whole school in darkness.

Ai Wenrui had tucked himself in early on, and was tossing and turning in sleeplessness. Truth was, Lin Qiushi couldn’t really fall asleep either. He just didn’t like moving around even if he couldn’t sleep because moving only gave him more energy.

While the two of them couldn’t sleep, Gu Longming wasn’t affected at all; very soon the room was filled with the sound of his steady breathing.

“Are you asleep?” Ai Wenrui asked quietly.

After a beat of silence, Lin Qiushi replied, “no.”

Ai Wenrui, “I can’t sleep. What do I do…”

Lin Qiushi, “close your eyes and stop playing on your phone. You’ll fall asleep soon.”

“But I’m scared,” Ai Wenrui said. “I’m scared she’ll come for me.”

Lin Qiushi, “so if you don’t sleep she won’t come for you?”

Ai Wenrui, “…” That actually made some sense.

“Sleep,” Lin Qiushi said. “Blessings or misfortune—whatever has to come will come.”

Perhaps Lin Qiushi’s words really did calm Ai Wenrui; after a few more turns, he quieted down, and seemed to have fallen asleep.

Lin Qiushi kept his eyes fractionally open, half-asleep and half-awake. In this state he could come awake at the slightest of sounds.

Thump thump. The soft noise woke Lin Qiushi. He opened his eyes in the dark and looked toward the source of the noise… It was the ceiling.

There seemed to be a wall between them and this noise, so it shouldn’t be taken too seriously. Had this been the first floor though, it would have been fine, since it could be people walking about on the second floor. But they were currently on the second floor, which meant that above their ceiling…there were no people.

Thump thump. The knocking from the ceiling continued.

Listening to the noise, Lin Qiushi had a bad feeling, because it sounded a lot like somebody was lying on the ceiling and knocking, as if in search of something.

In a moment of recall, Lin Qiushi immediately crawled out of bed. He came to Ai Wenrui’s side and patted him awake.

Surfacing dazedly from a dream, Ai Wenrui saw first thing Lin Qiushi’s face right next to his. He started to scream, but Lin Qiushi put a hand over his mouth.

“Get up off the bed,” Lin Qiushi spoke quietly into his ear. “Don’t talk, don’t make any sound.”

Ai Wenrui nodded emphatically. He had heard the weird knocks above his head as well. This sound definitely did not come from a human, and if it wasn’t a human… Ai Wenrui scampered up and hurriedly got off the bed.

The moment he cleared the mattress, there came a loud bang! from the ceiling. Lin Qiushi looked up and saw that the ceiling had been smashed completely open by a giant statue—a sculpted half bust. It had fallen directly onto Ai Wenrui’s bed, denting the metal headboard completely out of shape.

It was easy to see that had Ai Wenrui still been lying in bed, he’d have been met with misfortune.

“Fucking hell!” Gu Longming had also been woken up by this sound, opening his eyes to ask, “what’s going on!”

Lin Qiushi said, “get up quickly—something’s happened.”

Gu Longming rushed off the bed and saw the new hole in their ceiling. The hole wasn’t the scariest thing though; the scariest thing was that from inside the hole, he clearly saw a pair of big black eyes emerge. Those eyes did not have sclera, only dark pupils, and they surveyed the inside of the room with malicious intent.

The eyes looked, but did not seem to find what they were looking for. Some degree of rage appeared in their gaze before they disappeared into the evening.

Nobody in the room wanted to talk. Gu Longming stared at that hole, silent for a long moment, before finally squeezing out: “Fuck, can we still sleep like this?”

“I can’t sleep anymore—” Ai Wenrui was wanting to cry again.

“Let’s switch a room.” Lin Qiushi peered at Ai Wenrui. “It’s almost morning.”

Fortunately there were lots of extra rooms. The three gathered up their stuff in silence and switched to another. Of course, before leaving, Lin Qiushi went and inspected the sculpture that had smashed up Ai Wenrui’s bed. He discovered that this sculpture was practically identical to the ones in the library…

Lin Qiushi thought that this ghost didn’t have an easy job either. It had to haul a statue over from so far away just to kill somebody.

The three changed rooms and couldn’t sleep at all.

Ai Wenrui sat by the window, quietly staring outside.

Gu Longming asked what he was thinking about.

“I’m thinking, if only I had wished for something else,” Ai Wenrui said. “Say, if I’d wished to live forever back then…”

Gu Longming, “…”

“Wouldn’t I be winning big now?” Ai Wenrui was filled with regret.

“Oh sure,” Gu Longming hummed. “But haven’t you thought of the fact that there’s lots of ways to live? Aren’t people in comas still technically living?”

Ai Wenrui, “…right.” He was sad again. “Then I shouldn’t have done this at all. In a horror film, even the main character doesn’t get too good an ending.”

Gu Longming patted his shoulder. “And you might not even be the main character.”

Ai Wenrui, “I am going to cry.”

Gu Longming hurriedly added, “even if you aren’t the main character, you’re still the most important secondary male lead!”

Ai Wenrui, “…” But don’t secondary leads in horror films all die in ways more motherfucking terrible than the last?!

Translator’s Note:

It’s worth noting that LQS uses the formal register of “you”（您）when speaking to the teacher.

Names in this chapter

• Zhū Rúyuàn / Zhu(1) Ru(2) Yuan(4) / 朱如媛