Kaleidoscope of Death

But the thing showed up for only a moment, disappearing quickly before their eyes and leaving only a silent darkness inside the door.

Gu Longming swallowed. “What, what the hell is that?” It definitely wasn’t human; no human had yellow eyes like that.

“I don’t know,” Lin Qiushi said. “I didn’t manage to see.”

He looked to Ruan Nanzhu, but found Ruan Nanzhu frowning.

“It was a humanoid creature with scales all over its body,” he said. “Its eyes were yellow…”

“Could it be a mermaid?” Gu Longming thought that if that was the case, there was at least some comfort to be had.

“It could be mermaid.” Ruan Nanzhu smiled at him. “Just the type where it’s the head that becomes a fish.”

Gu Longming shivered at the image that Ruan Nanzhu gave him.

Though there was a crack in the door before them, their desire to explore was utterly gone. They chose to leave instead. Before leaving, Ruan Nanzhu even closed the door behind him.

“Without knowing the situation, let’s not touch whatever’s inside just yet.”

After that, the three took the time to explore other locations on the ship. They discovered that the ship was actually quite large, capable of housing hundreds. There were even cannons hidden beneath the deck, though they didn’t see ammunition anywhere.

As they moved through the ship gathering intel, there came a commotion on the top deck. It seemed that something had happened to someone.

When Lin Qiushi rushed up to deck, he saw the girl who’d cried the most miserably yesterday sitting on the only lifeboat on this ship. There was a man with her, and both of them had oars in hand. Plenty of fresh water and food were stacked beside them—clearly, they wanted to escape from the ship and row themselves away.

“Come back! You’ll die!” Watching these two, the crowd was growing noisy. There was a kindly veteran among them already reminding the two of the rules, waving his arms and yelling: “You can’t go anywhere else! You really will die! Come back already—”

“Don’t lie to me!” the girl screamed, glaring hatefully at the ship full of people. “Like hell I’m going with you, you’re definitely taking me somewhere scary! I’m going alone!”

She finished, thinking that veteran would continue to coax her, but then found that the air had gone oddly silent. Everyone was staring at the seawater beneath the lifeboat she sat in, an unnamable terror in their eyes.

“What? What are you all looking at?” The girl seemed to have sensed something as well. Her throat bobbed, and with a stiff expression, she slowly turned to look at the water beside her.

Though the surface of the ocean was calm, its color seemed a bit off; a deep black enveloped the ocean underneath her, as if something…was lurking right there beside her.

“Ah…” The girl shivered, looking at her companion. “Let’s hurry up and go.”

The companion’s hand holding the oar also shook as he nodded at the girl in a panic. The two began to row in an attempt to leave this endless expanse of sea.

When the oars in their hands made contact with the ocean, the water beneath their tiny boat rippled out in thin waves. And in that moment, the girl heard the sound of something speeding through the sea. Before she could react, a giant fishtail leaped out of the sea and smacked hard into that little boat of hers.

The boat shattered upon impact, and the two people on it fell into the water. That was when she caught a glimpse of what the giant fish before her looked like.

It was a sight difficult to describe. Jam-packed teeth were each as sharp as a needle, and its giant gaping mouth could eat a small boat in a single swallow. The body of the fish was a faint dark green. As for how big the fish was, she couldn’t tell. All she knew was that to that thing, she wouldn’t even be a fitting appetizer.

When they saw the lifeboat capsized just like that, everybody’s breathing stopped.

Lin Qiushi reacted the fastest; the moment that the ship went down, he grabbed a nearby lifesaver and tossed it toward the location of the girl and her friend.

Tumbling through the water, the girl expended the last of her strength to catch hold of the lifesaver, while Lin Qiushi quickly took hold of the rope and pulled backwards, yelling, “hang on—”

They had the high ground, and so could see the entirety of the fish in the water. Judging by its silhouette, this fish seemed at least as big as the ship they were on. It didn’t seem intent on attacking, however, and was just giving the escaping girl a warning.

The others also came around. They tossed another lifesaver out at the other person, and then dropped a rope ladder to help the two out of the ocean.

The girl trembled all over as she climbed, but she made it. Once on the deck, she collapsed slack onto the ground, utterly speechless.

“I told you not to go.” Lin Qiushi recalled that the person speaking was called Song Yongning, and was one of the better-tempered veterans. He said to the girl: “hurry and go get changed. Take a break.”

“What, what is that thing?” The quivering girl recalled that giant fish and spoke in a weak voice. “It’s just hovering around the ship? Will it attack?”

Nobody knew the answer, and could only watch her in silence.

The girl was unnerved by these looks, but there was nothing for her to do. She could only wipe her tears away and leave with her companion. The situation this time was, fortunately, only a scare. It seemed to have been just a lesson for newbies who didn’t understand the rules.

Lin Qiushi looked out once again at the dark waters, and saw that the giant fish too had disappeared.

Seeing that everything had calmed down, the crowd standing on the deck dispersed.

“Let’s go,” Ruan Nanzhu said.

Lin Qiushi nodded.

This incident seemed to have been only an insignificant interlude. It didn’t have much impact on this door at all.

At lunch, the food was still that nauseating pile of dead fish. The three didn’t eat any fish, only took some noodles to mix with Lao Gan Ma.

When people saw that they’d brought Lao Gan Ma with them, they all tossed over looks of envy.

One of the young men, even, couldn’t stand it any longer and came over to brazenly beg for a spoonful. Ruan Nanzhu took a look at him, and actually did grant him a scoop.

“Thank you, thank you,” the man said. “I’m Shen Juexin, if there’s anything you ever need help with just let me know!”

He didn’t look all that good—his skin looked waxy and yellow, as if he suffered from some major disease.

But Lin Qiushi remembered him. He was the guy who got most severely seasick. He’d spent the entirety of yesterday lying in bed, so for him to have pulled it together and gotten up now was actually pretty impressive.

Gu Longming’s gaze wandered the dining room as he ate. And as if he’d recalled something, his expression went solemn.

When lunch ended, he announced that he had a thought.

It just so happened that Lin Qiushi had to go to the bathroom, and so had them talk on their own, saying he’d be back in a bit.

The two of them found a hidden corner in the hallways of the ship and began to talk quietly.

“Mengmeng,” Gu Longming said. “Remember the sacrifice to the minotaur that the hint mentioned?”

“I do,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Why?”

“In the myth, it said the sacrifice was seven boys and seven girls, and don’t we have fourteen people now?” He paused for a moment before speaking in a somber tone: “I counted up the people in the dining room just now, and we have seven men and seven women exactly!”

After hearing Gu Longming’s deduction, however, Ruan Nanzhu was silent for a moment.

“Seven men and seven women…including me?”

Gu Longming was bewildered. “Of course including you.”

Ruan Nanzhu leaned against the railing, not speaking.

Gu Longming scratched at his head. “How come you’re not saying anything?”

Ruan Nanzhu thought for a while before beckoning Gu Longming over.

“Come here. Let me show you something real precious.”

Gu Longming was still baffled, and what’s worse, the moment he got close, he saw Ruan Nanzhu lift up his own skirt.

“Oh fuck!!” Gu Longming went red in an instant. “What the hell are you—hang on.” He noticed an abnormal bulge, his gaze draining of life. “What’s that?”

Ruan Nanzhu smiled brilliantly. Sidling up to Gu Longming’s ear, he stopped using his false voice. Instead, he spoke in that deep and magnetic timbre, that voice that definitely belonged to a man: “Tell you a secret, I’m not actually Yu Linlin’s girlfriend—I’m his man.”

Gu Longming: “…” Thunderstruck would be underselling the expression on his face; he looked terrified, watching Ruan Nanzhu like he was watching the end of the world.

“So it’s not seven men and seven women,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Of course, that’s not factoring in women dressed as men.”

Gu Longming didn’t respond. He still wasn’t back after that blow.

Ruan Nanzhu patted his shoulder in sympathy: “hey guy, don’t rush it. Take it easy, you’ll work through it.”

Gu Longming was silent for a long while yet, before he finally voiced his grievance:

“And he had the nerve to complain about me dressing like a high school girl. Hmph. Jerk.”

Ruan Nanzhu: “…” He took in Gu Longming’s body type and considered for a moment what this person would look like in drag. He thought that Chen Fei and Gu Longming would have something in common to talk about.

Lin Qiushi had no idea what happened on Ruan Nanzhu’s side of things. After he came out of the bathroom, all he saw was Gu Longming’s dispirited expression, asking in an odd voice, "what is it? Did something else happen?”

“No,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “I just told him a tiny little truth.”

Lin Qiushi: “…” If nothing happened, then what was up with Gu Longming’s grimace?

“Right, what did you want to say earlier?” Lin Qiushi asked.

“Oh nothing,” Gu Longming said. “It’s nothing now.”

Lin Qiushi was completely confounded. He made to ask further, but then heard a terrified scream coming from the dining room one deck underneath. The three exchanged a look and promptly rushed over. They found a person standing in the dining room, spinning about like a headless fly.

“What happened?” Lin Qiushi asked.

“It’s gone it’s gone it’s gone—” There was nothing but terror in that person’s eyes, and he kept repeated the same phrase: “It’s gone. It was right here, it was right here—”

“Calm down,” Lin Qiushi coaxed. “What happened? Tell us in detail and may be we can help!”

That person glanced at Lin Qiushi before stammering, “room’s gone, our room is gone.”

Ruan Nanzhu: “What do you mean?”

Then he seemed to understand something, saying, “come on, let’s go have a look.”

Ruan Nanzhu turned in a hurry, leaving the dining room. Seeing the rooms around them, they finally understood what the person’s words meant—aside from the dining room, the location of every other room had changed. The room that was supposed to be at the end of the cabin had now appeared nearby the dining room, while the room that had been right beside the dining room was nowhere to be seen, likely moved elsewhere.

Seeing a change like this, one word appeared immediately in Lin Qiushi’s mind: Labyrinth.

“That’s what that means,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “How surprising.”

“But why didn’t the dining room move?” Gu Longming thought this was strange.

“Every maze needs a starting point.” Lin Qiushi was straightening his own thoughts. “The dining room is probably the starting point of this labyrinth.”

“So where’s the end?” Gu Longming said.

“The end is where the minotaur is, naturally,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Of course, we don’t know what minotaur actually means inside this door just yet.”

Everybody else rushed to gather as well. The more sensitive people discovered their changed surroundings before they’d even reached the dining room.

“Where did my room go? My bag is still inside!” Some people panicked immediately upon discovering the situation, spinning around and running off. “I have to find my bag!”

That person rushed off in the direction of where his bedroom had been, but as for whether or not he could find it, that was another matter altogether.

However, in so short a time, the room numbers around them had changed again. First, a thin layer of mist appeared over the doors. Then, the door numbers outside would change—it was obvious that the time it took for the change to happen was very short. Lin Qiushi watched the clock and counted that the doors changed every five minutes or so.

Fortunately, they were used to carrying their things on them, or they might be panicking as much as that other person right now.

It also seemed that anybody inside the rooms wouldn’t be harmed. They knew this because after this round of swaps, someone came out of the room in front of them.

That person looked completely confused too, saying, “wasn’t I on the top deck?” He looked to his right and left, discovering that he was now beside the dining room. “How did I end up here?”

Nobody answered him because all their attention was on the endlessly changing rooms. A stifling silence spread among the crowd like a plague.

Lin Qiushi watched the shifting maze before him, but was actually thinking about the content of the hint, and what “minotaur” actually meant.

Because of such a sudden development, everybody fell into panic. Some, though, quickly readjusted and began investigating again.

It was times like these that made the difference between people’s mental fortitudes most stark. Those who could quickly calm down at least had a chance at survival.

Lin Qiushi’s group also attempted to look for the room they’d stayed in, but couldn’t find it at all. The rooms changed every five minutes, and every time they changed, every room moved from their original positions. It was basically impossible to survey all the rooms in such a short amount of time.

And so most people gave up, exhausted.

Lin Qiushi was a bit tired from running as well and stood resting on the deck, watching the ocean.

As the sky grew dark, the water surface was blown into crashing waves by the howling sea wind. The dim, dense cloud layer pressed down from above.

Gu Longming was standing right next to Lin Qiushi. He asked, “where are we going to sleep tonight?” The key from yesterday was completely useless now—and he’d even gone through the trouble of getting it exchanged so shamelessly.

“Any room works,” Lin Qiushi said. “As long as there’s a bed.”

As Lin Qiushi was speaking, there came the sound of footsteps behind them. He turned to look and found that it was the newbie who’d tried to escape earlier that day. She was standing a bit far from Lin Qiushi with hesitation in her eyes.

“Um…Yu Linlin…”

“Can I help you with something?” Lin Qiushi asked.

She glanced quickly at Ruan Nanzhu before looking away again, looking uncomfortable.

“There’s something I’d like to talk to you about alone, is that okay?”

Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nanzhu.

“Mengmeng?” He’d respect Ruan Nanzhu’s opinion on this.

“Go head.” Ruan Nanzhu’s expression was serene and not worried at all. He waved a casual hand. “Hurry back.”

With a nod, Lin Qiushi then left with that girl.

Gu Longming stood grinning beside him: “Aren’t you worried?”

“Worried about what?” Ruan Nanzhu replied.

“Worried someone else hooks up with Yu Linlin, of course.”

“Who do you think is better looking, me or her?” Ruan Nanzhu asked.

Gu Longming was honest: “You.” Even though you have a huge dick.

Ruan Nanzhu: “Who do you think is more clever, me or her?”

Gu Longming: “You…”

Ruan Nanzhu shrugged. “It’s not like Yu Linlin’s blind, so what do I have to worry about?”

He wasn’t some pubescent girl desperate for a sense of security. They were all adults here—why bother with such childish jealousy?

Gu Longming flashed Ruan Nanzhu a thumbs-up of respect.

On Lin Qiushi’s side, he and that girl crossed the deck to the other side. She kept glancing over her shoulders, looking uneasy.

Lin Qiushi didn’t rush to ask either, and when they were far enough away from Ruan Nanzhu, the girl finally opened her mouth.

“Um, excuse me, I just wanted to ask, are you and that girl together?”

Lin Qiushi nodded, admitting: “She’s my lover. What’s your name?”

“Call me Xiao Mo,” Xiao Mo said. “It’s my first time in a door. So you can bring others along, huh?”

“Yes,” Lin Qiushi said. “Can I help you with something?”

Xiao Mo swallowed, and began slowly: “I…I saw your girlfriend, she and that man next to her…”

Lin Qiushi blinked. He knew Xiao Mo was talking about Gu Longming.

“What about them?”

“They’re cheating on you!!” Xiao Mo said in a rush. “This afternoon, right, I was just passing by upstairs, and you weren’t around, but I saw her lift up her skirt for that man with my own eyes!”

Lin Qiushi: “…”

After hearing what Xiao Mo had to say, he sank into a long silence. No one knew better than he did what was underneath Ruan Nanzhu’s skirt.

“I’m not lying to you!” Lin Qiushi’s silence seemed to have given Xiao Mo a misconception, and she rushed to explain herself: “After she pulled up her skirt she even went and whispered something in his ear!”

“…”

Lin Qiushi had every reason to believe that drama llama Ruan Nanzhu would, after lifting his skirt, get up all excited-like and ask if Gu Longming thought he was big.

So that was why Gu Longming looked so out of it all afternoon; he’d looked like he had something to say to Lin Qiushi this whole time. It seemed that he had indeed suffered a nuclear blow to his psyche.

“Yu Linlin don’t be upset…you’re a good guy,” Xiao Mo said with a sigh. “if you hadn’t tossed me that lifesaver today, I might be dead already.”

It seemed that she’d approached Lin Qiushi and told him this in order to repay him for saving her life that morning.

Lin Qiushi wanted to say something, but he didn’t know what would be appropriate. In the end he only said, “I got it. Thank you.”

Xiao Mo: “What…will you do?”

Lin Qiushi was silent for a moment, before saying, “what else can I do? Of course I’ll choose to forgive her.”

Xiao Mo: “…” The moment Lin Qiushi spoke, she seemed to see the top of his head glow with faint green light.

“I love her, after all.” Loved him, and so tolerated his wildest dramatics. Lin Qiushi thanked Xiao Mo again; he turned around, waved, and left with great flourish.

And Xiao Mo’s face spasmed. It took her longer than a minute to come back around. With a reaction like his, this was clearly not the first time such a thing happened, which in turn meant Yu Linlin was used to being cheated on…After coming to such a conclusion, Xiao Mo’s feelings were quite complex. In the end, when she finally left the deck, her features were still all twisted up.

“What did she say to you?” Ruan Nanzhu asked immediately after Lin Qiushi returned. Lin Qiushi shot him a look.

“You.”

“Me?”

“What did you and Gu Longming do together this afternoon, hm?”

Ruan Nanzhu and Gu Longming exchanged a glance, and Gu Longming couldn’t help himself:

“Yu Linlin, why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“Tell you what?”

“That your lover’s a man!”

“Does the gender matter?”

“Like I guess not…” Gu Longming mumbled.

“Then isn’t it the same thing, whether I told you or not?” Lin Qiushi said. “It’s getting dark. Come on, let’s head to bed.”

Ruan Nanzhu looped an arm through Lin Qiushi’s and leaned his head against Lin Qiushi’s shoulder. And then he flashed Gu Longming a very specific smile.

Gu Longming: “…” Zhu Meng please stop smiling, you’re smiling like one of those dynasty-destroying concubines, and Lin Qiushi’s a hundred precent the emperor gone fatuous with obsession.

On Lin Qiushi’s end, he shot Ruan Nanzhu a look, communicating through eye contact alone: Having fun?

Ruan Nanzhu: So much fun.

Lin Qiushi: Go on then, have at it.

Ruan Nanzhu: Aw babe, I love you so much.

With the extra audience, Drama Sprite Ruan Nanzhu had utterly lost himself within the script; self-extrication was no longer possible.

Translator’s Note

• The term that RNZ is consistently called is 戲精, or “drama sprite/spirit.” It’s close enough in meaning to drama queen, but with less of the eye-rolling connotations. I chose to use multiple translations throughout this chapter, landing on “drama sprite” at the end because I think it best sets up just using “drama sprite” going forward.

Names in this chapter

• Sòng Yǒngníng / Song(4) Yong(3) Ning(2) / 宋永寧
• Xiǎo Mò / Xiao(3) Mo(4) / 小沫
• Her name means foam