Kaleidoscope of Death

Content Warning: suicide, wrist-cutting

His girlfriend’s death obviously dealt a serious blow to Wu Qi.

Lin Qiushi was afraid for him, so frequently kept in contact. But Wu Qi remained mostly indifferent to Lin Qiushi’s attention, heart obviously fixed wholly on his girlfriend’s death. He looked more and more haggard by the day; even Lin Qiushi, who’d seen him only a few days ago on a visit, was startled by his appearance.

“Are you okay? Wu Qi?” Lin Qiushi asked him in concern.

Wu Qi sat on the sofa, staring at the phone in his hand. Against Lin Qiushi’s questions he was distant. Only a while later did he slowly shake his head.

Lin Qiushi said, “Wu Qi…” He didn’t know how to comfort this friend who’d just lost a loved one.

When Lin Qiushi first came to this city all alone, he’d pretty much left his past completely behind. He had a distant personality, and there were no especially good friends around him. Only Wu Qi. Lin Qiushi still remembered when he’d passed out in his home with a fever. It was Wu Qi who’d discovered he hadn’t gone to work, personally came over, and took him to the hospital.

All these little things, Lin Qiushi had kept in mind. So his relationship with Wu Qi got better and better. But he didn’t ever think Wu Qi would be met with a situation like this.

Ruan Nanzhu’s side of the investigation had continued as well. The scope was primarily hospitals—normally, those who knew they were about to die had severe illnesses, and any patient diagnosed with a severe illness experiencing a sudden recovery was odd, anyway you looked at it.

But, as Lin Qiushi waited for the results from Ruan Nanzhu’s investigations, he received a call from Wu Qi one evening.

Over the phone, Wu Qi’s voice was very excited. He said, “Lin Qiushi, I figured it out, I figured it out!”

Hearing his tone, Lin Qiushi was startled. “Wu Qi, what did you figure out?”

Wu Qi, “I figured out why she jumped— it’s the door, the door!” He seemed afraid that Lin Qiushi wouldn’t understand, and kept repeating himself. “If I’m near death, I can go in!”

A chill instantly went down Lin Qiushi’s back. He understood Wu Qi’s meaning, and said, “Wu Qi, calm down for a second!!”

But it was too late. Wu Qi had hung up.

When Lin Qiushi called him back, his phone was turned off.

It was nearing dawn, and Lin Qiushi was still in his pajamas in bed. But he couldn’t care about that at all, getting out of bed and running straight out. He called 110 on the way and said his friend was going to commit suicide.

An hour’s car ride had never seemed so long. By the time Lin Qiushi got to Wu Qi’s house, the police were already there. There were even a few rubbernecking neighbors at the door, chattering away in the hall. Lin Qiushi dashed through them, panting.

He was breathing hard, running right into Wu Qi’s house without rest. And there he saw everything.

In Wu Qi’s living room, there was blood everywhere. Wu Qi lied on the sofa, completely motionless. Lin Qiushi heard someone calling him, but he seemed as if in a trance. He walked in front of Wu Qi, reached out, and tested under Wu Qi’s nose for breathing.

There was none. Wu Qi was dead.

Once he knew this, Lin Qiushi became all of a sudden bewildered. He didn’t even know what kind of reaction he should be having. This was the second time Lin Qiushi witnessed the death of someone close to him. The first was Li Dongyuan, whom he hadn’t known that well, and so didn’t feel so close to. This time it was Wu Qi, his good friend of many years. And, he didn’t even seem to have died in the doors, but had died in a foolish attempt to enter the doors via suicide.

Lin Qiushi slowly backed up. He felt a rush of dizziness.

“Excuse me, but who are you?” someone’s voice came to his ears. It seemed to be the cops, who’d gotten here first, asking him something.

“I’m the one who called the police.” Lin Qiushi heard his own voice as well, but it sounded far away—so far away he couldn’t even be sure he’d been the one who said it. “I’m his friend…”

Then the scene was blockaded off, and the police began investigating cause of death.

Wu Qi had slit his wrist. When he called Lin Qiushi, he’d already been near death. Wrist-cutting was a painful way to die. The cut had to be deep, and if the blood coagulated, you might even have to add a cut or two.

Lin Qiushi didn’t know how long he stood outside that house, just that Ruan Nanzhu came too.

The moment he got there, he had a hand pressed on Lin Qiushi’s shoulder. Lin Qiushi looked over, and saw that lovely face.

“Are you okay? Lin Qiushi?” There was a tone of concern in Ruan Nanzhu’s voice.

“Fine, I’m fine.” Lin Qiushi shook his head. “I didn’t think he’d actually do something like that.”

Ruan Nanzhu didn’t speak, just lightly rubbed at Lin Qiushi’s back with his palm, wanting to offer some comfort.

Lin Qiushi’s head drooped. He laughed bitterly, “I want a smoke.”

After some silence, Ruan Nanzhu fished a candy out of his pocket, unwrapped it, and popped it in Lin Qiushi’s mouth. “Have a candy. It’s better than smoking.”

The sweet fruity taste melted apart in Lin Qiushi’s mouth, and he exhaled long and deep. “I think, someone set Wu Qi up.” From what he knew of Wu Qi, Wu Qi was not someone who’d easily kill himself.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “we’ll know.”

Lin Qiushi rubbed at the corner of his eye. If the death of Wu Qi’s girlfriend gave him a distaste for those people, then Wu Qi’s suicide turned that distaste into an indescribable fury.

That night, Lin Qiushi returned very late. Once he was back he still tossed and turned sleeplessly in bed.

In the end he got up and got in front of his computer. Turned it on. Someone had sent him a DM in the forum—it was Gu Longming, whom he’d brought through the last door.

Gu Longming: Xiao-gege, up so late at night?

Lin Qiushi read this xiao-gege, and immediately recalled Gu Longming the muscleman. He sent back a string of ellipses.

Gu Longming: Xiao-gege, why aren’t you speaking? He even added a shy face at the end.

Lin Qiushi: Speak human.

Gu Longming: Wassup tho bro? Whats goin on w you?

Lin Qiushi: … Why didn’t this scene seem quite right.

Gu Longming wrote: how’s the wound healing up? After I got cut by that woman inside, I was in the hospital for a whole month. I only got out a few days ago.

Lin Qiushi said he healed up well enough. He’d passed through more doors than Gu Longming, so his healing was naturally stronger. Though his injury had been more serious than Gu Longming’s, he’d gotten out of the hospital quite quickly.

Gu Longming: Good thing you’re healed, I was pretty worried about you.

Lin Qiushi: Just say what you want to say.

Gu Longming: Well so… My next door, can I still come to you?

Lin Qiushi read Gu Longming’s words in silence for a bit. Then wrote: We’ll see when the time comes.

That Lin Qiushi didn’t immediately turn him down was already a good thing. Also, Gu Longming was a funny guy—he blathered on about some messy happening or another, with Lin Qiushi replying to him off and on. They kept up chatting until around six in the morning, when Ruan Nanzhu came over and knocked on his door.

When the door opened, Ruan Nanzhu’s first words were, “found it.”

Lin Qiushi immediately got up from his chair. “What happened?”

Ruan Nanzhu waved Lin Qiushi over. “Come.”

Lin Qiushi followed Ruan Nanzhu to his bedroom, only to find that Ruan Nanzhu had somehow gotten his hands on Wu Qi’s computer.

Ruan Nanzhu pointed at the screen and said, “take a look.”

Lin Qiushi bent down and saw what was on the screen.

It was a very familiar sight: the direct messages on a forum… He’d just been using it. The DMs themselves was a conversation between Wu Qi and someone else. That person told Wu Qi about the mechanism of the doors, then added at the end, dying people can enter.

Wu Qi wrote: is that true???

That person wrote: Of course it’s true. Your girlfriend was killed by someone inside the door.

Wu Qi: thank you, I got it. Thank you.

On any other day, Wu Qi wouldn’t have believed this person. But the death of his girlfriend had clearly been a huge blow—he hadn’t even the slightest suspicions, and believed them just like that.

Lin Qiushi read the chat logs as his hand tightened into a fist at his side. He spoke lowly, “why did they do this…” It wasn’t enough to kill Wu Qi’s girlfriend, they had to come after Wu Qi too?

Ruan Nanzhu, “lives aren’t worth anything in their hands.” He added, “Lin Qiushi, calm down.”

Lin Qiushi glanced at Ruan Nanzhu. The truth was, he was calm. He thought he’d never been more calm in his life. He said, “I want to know who the hell they are.”

Ruan Nanzhu nodded. “Nearly there. We just need a bit more time.” Though it was easy to sort hospital records, it wasn’t so easy to pluck out people with insider connections to the hospital.

But Ruan Nanzhu was confident he’d find it. He just needed enough time.

Lin Qiushi looked at the chat logs and said, “can I have this computer?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “take it.”

It was left behind by Lin Qiushi’s good friend after all. Lin Qiushi picked up the laptop, turned, and left.

Ruan Nanzhu watched Lin Qiushi’s back, concern bleeding into his gaze. Since the beginning he’d thought that Lin Qiushi was a bit out of the ordinary. With the Wu Qi situation, the nature of this extraordinariness was completely exposed.

Lin Qiushi was furious, but he was still terrifyingly calm. He’d even gotten a handle on his emotions in very short order. In all honesty, had it been Ruan Nanzhu faced with something like this, he might not be faring as well as Lin Qiushi.

A few days later, Lin Qiushi attended Wu Qi’s funeral.

The funeral was ordinary. Lin Qiushi saw his parents sobbing their hearts out at the rites. His first thought was suddenly of his own death—if he died, would there be people crying like that?

Ruan Nanzhu was in attendance with Lin Qiushi, and seemed to see through Lin Qiushi’s thoughts. He pressed a hand on Lin Qiushi’s shoulder and said, “we’re here.” His voice was gentle. “Even if I’m not, there’s Cheng Qianli, and if Cheng Qianli’s not, there’s Chen Fei…”

“There will be someone to cry for you,” was what Ruan Nanzhu declared.

Lin Qiushi’s shoulders loosened a little. He replied, “mh.”

After the funeral, Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu left together. At the door, Lin Qiushi’s footsteps suddenly paused. He looked out over the crowd, expression wary.

Ruan Nanzhu asked, “what’s wrong?”

Lin Qiushi, “someone gave me a very familiar feeling just now…” His gaze sifted through the crowd. “Like, I’ve seen them before.”

Ruan Nanzhu frowned. “A friend of Wu Qi’s?”

“If they’re at the funeral, they must be friends.” Lin Qiushi couldn’t recall the source of this familiarity for a while. It wasn’t until they were in the car that he realized all of a sudden, “I think I met that person at Wu Qi’s girlfriend’s birthday party. We’ve eaten together as well. But Wu Qi told me in private that he didn’t like this person.” Because that man had behaved too closely with Wu Qi’s girlfriend.

Ruan Nanzhu’s expression went instantly solemn. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure,” Lin Qiushi said. “It was like that, yes.”

Ruan Nanzhu nodded his understanding. Seeing Lin Qiushi’s solemn face, he couldn’t help himself—he had to reach out and pinched the tip of Lin Qiushi’s ear.

For no reason at all, Lin Qiushi was pinched, and his ear couldn’t help twitching in response. And then Ruan Nanzhu couldn’t resist this sight either, and kept pinching. By the time his ear tip was all red, Lin Qiushi, exasperated, “Ruan Nanzhu, what kind of bad habit is this!” He couldn’t dodge no matter how he tried.

But Ruan Nanzhu just self-righteously declared, “well your ear’s just too cute, isn’t it.”

Lin Qiushi thought never mind, never mind. You can’t protest normal things with this person.

Lin Qiushi’s discovery gave Ruan Nanzhu a new path of thought. Progress with the search too sped up.

One afternoon three days later, Ruan Nanzhu brought a stack of files into Lin Qiushi’s room. Lin Qiushi was reading the forum when he tossed the stack before Lin Qiushi, and said, “found it.”

Lin Qiushi’s breath stalled—then he pulled the files close and began to speedily flip through them. On it he saw an unfamiliar name: Cue Xueyi.

Inside contained Cue Xueyi’s life records, most important of which was his medical records for a certain period of time.

Cue Xueyi had lung cancer. When he was diagnosed, the doctor said things didn’t look good—the cells had metastasized, and he had at most three months.

But in the past few days, Cue Xueyi’s physical condition suddenly took a turn for the better. As if his body had been injected with some kind of cure-all, late-stage lung cancer had turned early-stage.

This kind of thing Lin Qiushi had experienced himself. He stared at the file and asked, “he lied to He Shuangya?” He Shuangya was Wu Qi’s girlfriend.

“Not everybody’s lucky enough,” Ruan Nanzhu said, “to meet an organization that they fit in with. Some people actually muddle their ways through their fifth or sixth doors—they don’t know the rules inside the doors, they don’t even know the forum exists.”

Lin Qiushi was able to so quickly adjust to the doors because he had Ruan Nanzhu guiding his way. Meeting Ruan Nanzhu was Lin Qiushi’s good fortune. But as for He Shuangya, her fortune was not so good.

“Since He Shuangya could say that much, she at least knows about door-robbing,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “But Cue Xueyi clearly came prepared.”

Ruan Nanzhu continued, “we can reasonably guess that he lied to He Shuangya. Normal people, once they know you can’t kill inside the doors, will let down their guard around their own kind. Perhaps Cue Xueyi used this kind of psychology against He Shuangya…”

Lin Qiushi asked, “and he got in touch with Wu Qi afterwards?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “killing someone’s girlfriend makes the guilty conscience act up. Might as well cut the problem off at the root.” He scoffed, “seems this Cue Xueyi is a ruthless character as well.”

Lin Qiushi’s fingers were pressed on top of Cue Xueyi’s photo, his eyes practically glaring a hole through it. He said, “is there some way to…”

Though Lin Qiushi didn’t finish, Ruan Nanzhu understood Lin Qiushi’s meaning. He replied, “of course there is.” Then he pointed at the computer open before Lin Qiushi. “This forum is the insiders’ home base. If Cue Xueyi’s org needs newcomers, they’ll look for targets on the forum. We only have to lie in wait.”

Lin Qiushi exhaled a breath, and said, “okay.”

Because of what happened with Wu Qi, the atmosphere around the mansion had been heavy for a few days. Lin Qiushi went down stairs and immediately saw Zhuo Feiquan and Cheng Qianli arguing.

Zhuo Feiquan was the one with the sister, Luo Qianshan, from Cheng Yixie’s ninth door. His expression was dark as he glared at Cheng Qianli: “I’m asking you a question, why aren’t you answering!”

Cheng Qianli, “what do you want me to say?” He was still holding Toast in his arms; he had no interest in what Zhuo Feiquan was going on about.

Zhuo Feiquan, “did you jack my client! What the hell do you want!”

Cheng Qianli, “I’ve already told you, I’m not Cheng Yixie, I’m Cheng Qianli!”

Zhuo Feiquan, “stop fucking pretending, you’re obviously Cheng Yixie!”

Cheng Qianli, “…” This again? He hadn’t been mistaken for his brother in a long while.

Lin Qiushi watched from the side, truly amused. He spoke at a distance, “that really is Cheng Qianli.”

Zhuo Feiquan peered at him in suspicion, clearly still disbelieving.

“Really, he’s Cheng Yixie,” Lin Qiushi said. “Cheng Yixie went out this morning, and he hasn’t come back yet.”

Zhuo Feiquan said, “what the fuck, and he said he’d wait for me in the mansion, that bastard!”

Lin Qiushi, “the two of them really are very different. You really can’t tell?”

Zhuo Feiquan muttered, “they’re identical, aren’t they.”

Lin Qiushi couldn’t help a snicker. Cheng Qianli gave his buddy Toast’s butt a slap in frustration, and Toast glanced mournfully back at him, as if to say why did you hit me? That hurts you know.

So—after Cheng Yixie dug up Zhuo Feiquan’s identity, he’d kept up messing with Zhuo Feiquan. Zhuo Feiquan even became a regular at the mansion for a while. In the end even Ruan Nanzhu couldn’t take it anymore, and gave Cheng Yixie a sedated talking-to that finally resolved the situation.

But today, it seemed Cheng Yixie was in a bad mood, and so screwed Zhuo Feiquan over again.

After Zhuo Feiquan left, Cheng Qianli was mumbling, wondering why his brother kept messing with Zhuo Feiquan, was there something special about him?

Hearing this, Lin Qiushi recalled the necklace, inlaid with his sister’s photo, hanging from Zhuo Feiquan’s neck. He thought that in some ways, Zhuo Feiquan actually was special.

And after confirming the plan with Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu began to fish on the forum.

He registered an account, and started pretending on the forum to be a newcomer to the doors. Of course, there was an art to faking a newcomer. It wasn’t as easy as a simple statement. The style of Ruan Nanzhu’s account was low-key, replying sometimes to posts with a few basic questions. There was amateurishness both in his actions and between the lines, all insisting that the person underneath was no old pro.

As he was doing all this, Lin Qiushi could only watch from the sidelines. He asked, “will this really work?”

“Of course it’ll work,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “How else do you think Gu Longming pulled one over you?”

Lin Qiushi, “…” He was silent for a bit, thinking isn’t that just ‘cause he was naive?

“If they’ve taken notice of me, they’ll definitely investigate,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “But that’s alright, I’ve arranged a real identity under this account. Even if they really dig in, it won’t matter too much.”

“Then how will we trick them when we enter the door?” Lin Qiushi asked. He and Ruan Nanzhu were both at high-level doors; once inside, they’d be immediately exposed.

Ruan Nanzhu, “we don’t have to trick them. When the time comes, we’ll definitely be going into their door.”

Lin Qiushi startled. After careful thought, this was true. In order to hook the newbies, there had to be a pro’s promise to get them through. And even more attractive was a pro’s promise to skip doors, like Xia-jie’s case from the People as Mirrors door. Newbies were by and large all tricked in.

Ruan Nanzhu was just like a seasoned hunter; waiting for his prey to bite, he wasn’t impatient or skittish at all. He only set up some tantalizing bait and, very soon, attracted the attention of interested parties.

Lin Qiushi watched on in awe, and sighed, “Ruan Nanzhu, if you ever turn to cyber fraud you’d seriously make a fortune.”

Ruan Nanzhu shot back, “didn’t I already make a fortune without turning to cyber fraud?”

Lin Qiushi asked, “they really don’t suspect you?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “of course they’ll suspect me, but even so, they’ll bite.” He evenly continued, “there’s no rush. We’ll take it slow.”

Lin Qiushi was honestly very impressed.

The conversations continued slowly. The group, it seemed, was assured after they looked into Ruan Nanzhu’s true identity, and began revealing some information. Such as the fact that they could take Ruan Nanzhu through a door that, once passed, meant he’d skipped many more dangerous doors in between.

Ruan Nanzhu behaved with some initial wariness. This was a normal reaction, because nobody so easily believed people they met over the internet.

He kept this up until the person on the other end gave lots of examples of taking people through doors, and even attempted to meet Ruan Nanzhu in person.

In Ruan Nanzhu’s file, he was a white collar office worker, overly cautious and skittish; he was somebody who utterly lacked presence.

That kind of person was the organization’s favorite target.

Lin Qiushi gazed at Ruan Nanzhu, and said, “but you’re not a white collar wallflower no matter how I look at you.” Ruan Nanzhu’s features were stunning, and attracted attention anywhere.

But Lin Qiushi didn’t think Ruan Nanzhu would suddenly fix him with a peculiar smile, then softly part his mouth: “Lin Qiushi, how’s your falsetto coming along?”

Lin Qiushi, “…” He suddenly had a very bad feeling about this.

Author’s Note:

After careful thought I edited the last bit, and deleted the part where Lin Qiushi wanted revenge. The plot makes more sense this way. Vengeance must be taken, but it still needs an important catalyst… And that catalyst was Wu Qi’s death! Everybody’s brains went too big for this one!

Names in this chapter:

• Hé Shuāngyǎ / He(2) Shuang(1) Ya(3) / 何霜雅
• Cuē Xuéyì / Cue(1) Xue(2) Yi(4) / 崔學義