Kaleidoscope of Death

With yesterday’s event as cushioning, everybody was less affected today upon seeing the teru teru bōzu.

Lin Xingping had originally wanted to do as they did yesterday, and have someone get the doll down. However, she was stopped by a young woman, who seemed to be named Xiao Cha, and counted among the more clear-minded of the newbies. She seemed critical of Lin Xingping bossing everyone around, saying, “don’t. We don’t know what this doll does at all. What if the person who takes it down gets cursed?”

Lin Xingping defended herself, “the person who took it down yesterday is just fine, isn’t he?”

Xiao Cha scoffed, “who knows about that. What if it just hasn’t gotten to him yet? Might happen in a couple of days.”

Lin Xingping, “how can you say that…” She put on a moue of offense at being so maligned. “Why are you making my good intentions out to be bad?”

Xiao Cha wasn’t having it at all. “Then how about I grab you a stool and you take it down yourself, if you want to be the good guy here?”

As Lin Xingping continued to argue, Cue Xueyi saw the situation going south and hastened to play peacemaker, saying alright already, stop arguing, we’re all a team here, why make things so unpleasant? So we won’t take it down, they’re dead anyways, it’s fine to leave them hanging.

Lin Xingping played angry, spun around, and left.

Xiao Cha spat at the ground and cursed; her feistiness definitely had the glory Ruan Baijie from way back when. After the argument, Xiao Cha seemed to notice Lin Qiushi staring. She rolled her eyes quite aggressively at Lin Qiushi, hissing, “the hell are you looking at? Never seen a beauty before?” Then immediately left.

Ruan Nanzhu, beside Lin Qiushi, said with absolute schadenfreude, “wow, is this your first time being treated like this then.”

Lin Qiushi, “…” It seemed to be, yes.

Ruan Nanzhu looked over at Lin Qiushi, before sighing nice and long. “It’s this face of yours; it’s completely to blame.”

Lin Qiushi, “…” Enough already, how many times do you have to say it? How ugly could he actually be?

The bathroom in this world had no mirrors, after all. They’d been here for two days and he still didn’t know what he looked like.

Seeing Lin Qiushi’s clueless expression, Ruan Nanzhu gave the matter some thought before fishing out the phone from Lin Qiushi’s pocket. Then he turned on the front camera. “I mean. Have a look.”

Lin Qiushi took the phone, and found in the camera a face that was very difficult to describe—the simple adjective “ugly” was completely inadequate. Sufficed to say that after Lin Qiushi saw his own face, he closed the camera immediately, and he now completely understood everybody’s looks of utter disgust.

Wordlessly, Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nanzhu.

Ruan Nanzhu’s palms flipped skyward. “I didn’t know you’d become so ugly inside either.”

Lin Qiushi, “I’ve wronged your eyes.” This was a serious hit on his vision.

Ruan Nanzhu laughed. “Come on, let’s go have some breakfast, and hurry out to look for clues before the sky goes dark.”

“Okay,” Lin Qiushi nodded.

The two had breakfast at the dining hall—well, call it breakfast, but the time was nearing eleven.

Lin Qiushi had something small, then left the hall with Ruan Nanzhu.

Today, Lin Xingping enthusiastically invited Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu along, saying that they’d discovered a bamboo forest in the mountains around town, and that there was a stone path through the forest, though they didn’t know where it led…

Ruan Nanzhu listened, but told them smiling that they wanted to take a spin around the courtyard first.

“What more is there to see?” Cue Xueyi said impatiently. “We’ve scoped out most of it already, you guys should go with us…”

“But walking is so tiring.” Ruan Nanzhu leaned against Lin Qiushi’s side, voice pitched saccharine and doughy as he intentionally cooed: “I don’t want to walk at all.” Had it been a slightly prettier girl saying this, perhaps it could be fondly looked upon. But in this world, Ruan Nanzhu couldn’t be called pretty, and so there was obvious distaste in Cue Xueyi’s eyes.

“Oh come on, you must overcome.” Lin Xingping wasn’t giving up.

“Sorry, but there’s no forcing my little princess.” Lin Qiushi was now enlightened to the miracle of his appearance. He lifted Ruan Nanzhu’s chin, pitched his voice gentle, and spoke words of love right into Ruan Nanzhu’s face. “Since making my little princess walk too much will hurt me too.”

Clearly, Lin Qiushi saying those words with that face was powerful; he clearly saw Cue Xueyi and Lin Xingping’s expressions go black, and their throats bobbing as if they were forcing back a nauseated gag.

“You two understand, right?” Lin Qiushi, mean humor adopted, continued to gross them out.

Lin Xingping just barely managed a smile. Lin Qiushi suspected she couldn’t last much longer.

He planned to continue, but Cue Xueyi spun right around and left, unable to take anymore. So Lin Xingping and Gu Yuansi followed after him. Though this Gu Yuansi was the employer, he rarely spoke ever; he had very little presence, and it was only when he left that Lin Qiushi really noticed this person had been standing there.

At the edge of the courtyard, Cue Xueyi likely thought they couldn’t hear any longer, and so hissed at Lin Xingping, “why did you pick such a disgusting person?”

“How was I supposed to know?” Lin Xingping was complaining too. “She was normal in the data. Who knew her boyfriend would be so repulsive.”

“Fuck,” Cue Xueyi spat. “Just talking to him makes me want to vomit.”

Lin Xingping, “me too, a bit…”

As the two talked on and left, Lin Qiushi listened in nearing laughter. He didn’t think Ruan Nanzhu’s makeup would have this effect too. It completely managed to dissuade Lin Xingping from hassling them, saving them quite a lot of trouble.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “let’s head out later. There’s something I want to confirm.”

“What is it?” He and Lin Qiushi found a stone bench in the yard and sat.

“Remember what I saw last night?” Ruan Nanzhu’s gaze swept the courtyard.

“The person with the umbrella?” Lin Qiushi remembered what Ruan Nanzhu had said, but hadn’t been able to see it with his vision.

“Yes,” Ruan Nanzhu nodded. “I think this umbrella is the key.” After some deliberation, “I want to try to find it.”

“That’s right—last night, how come you said that?” Lin Qiushi was suddenly remembering the young ghost picking up her basketball last night, and what Ruan Nanzhu said. “That she was getting the floor wet…”

But Ruan Nanzhu only laughed, “I was only saying. I didn’t know it’d actually work.”

“You were only saying?” Lin Qiushi didn’t quite believe him.

“Really,” Ruan Nanzhu replied languidly. “It was just a sudden inspiration from that person with the umbrella.” He tilted his head. “When I saw him, I thought he really looked like a parent, watching over kids doing homework…”

Lin Qiushi, “…”

“And parents, well, they don’t like it when kids don’t follow the rules,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Especially not getting the floor wet…”

As they were speaking, the yard had mostly cleared of people.

The courtyard emptied. Without the splash of rain, the wind chimes were brushed to clanging rings by a breeze. Ruan Nanzhu got up from the bench, and started toward one of the rooms.

“Haven’t we looked there already?” Lin Qiushi remembered they’d inspected this room on the first day.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “c'mon, one more look.”

So Lin Qiushi didn’t try to dissuade him further, and followed Ruan Nanzhu to the room door.

This room belonged to the estate owner. Its layout was similar to theirs, with one bed and a few drawers, and no excess in decoration.

Ruan Nanzhu entered the room and began looking around.

Lin Qiushi stood at the door. Just as he remembered the scene from last night, he suddenly felt something touch his calf. He glanced down, and all his hairs instantly stood on end. There was a dirty basketball slowly rolling by his feet.

Lin Qiushi’s gaze followed the ball until he saw, in the gap of the crawl space, a pair of dark black eyes.

This building’s floors were all hollow underneath, without wooden boards to seal them away. One could easily crawl in through the gaps along the sides… Of course, people wouldn’t normally do that.

The pair of eyes flashed, and when Lin Qiushi looked again, they were already gone.

“Nanzhu—” Lin Qiushi called out. “I think there’s something underneath.”

Ruan Nanzhu came out of the room, and asked, “what?”

Lin Qiushi pointed at his feet. “There seems to be something under the floorboards.”

Ruan Nanzhu, “what kind of thing?”

Lin Qiushi, “a pair of eyes…” Though most things inside the doors wanted to kill him, there were actually still some sensible creatures. Like the one beneath his feet now. He felt for some reason it was suggesting something to him. “I want to look under the floor.”

“Let me,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “I’ll look.”

He took Lin Qiushi’s phone, turned on the flashlight, and prepared to enter the crawl space. Lin Qiushi was still apprehensive, and said let’s look together, if something happened down there you wouldn’t be able to run at all.

But Ruan Nanzhu declined. He said, “no, that umbrella must be around here, it’s only the crawl space left to search.”

Lin Qiushi still wanted to say something, but Ruan Nanzhu just crawled on in with a firm attitude.

It was dark under the floorboards. He could only look around by the dim light source.

Lin Qiushi crouched outside, expression filled with tension as he watched Ruan Nanzhu, afraid of an accident.

Then Ruan Nanzhu’s crawling suddenly halted. He seemed to have found something. Moments later, there came from inside: “Found it.”

Lin Qiushi called from the outside, “what did you find? The umbrella?”

“Mh… The umbrella, and maybe something else,” Ruan Nanzhu replied. “Let me get it out first…”

He continued to crawl with great difficulty, and dragged out the thing he found underneath the floorboards. It was a black cloth bag. At the side of the bag was a very simple oil-paper umbrella. The umbrella looked very old, and was even patched up in a few places with cloth.

Lin Qiushi reached out and helped Ruan Nanzhu up, asking, “what’s in the bag?”

Ruan Nanzhu shook his head. “I don’t know, open it.” He paused. “It’s probably nothing good.”

Hidden away here, of course it wasn’t anything good.

Lin Qiushi bent down and opened the black bag, finding the inside full of crushed and broken bones. From the bone structure, Lin Qiushi could tell this had been human, and it could have belonged to a kid…

“It’s children’s bones.” Ruan Nanzhu’s words confirmed Lin Qiushi’s guess—he seemed more experienced in distinguishing these things than Lin Qiushi, and conducted a general inspection. “Not just one set.”

“Not just one set?” Lin Qiushi looked at these bones, and for some reason recalled the children singing the caged bird song in the yard last night. Could these bones have something to do with them? He contemplated for a moment, then said, “there doesn’t seem to be any skulls…”

“You’re right, there aren’t any skulls,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Only bones from the rest of the body.”

“What do we do? Bury them?” Lin Qiushi asked.

“At peace in the soil[1].” Ruan Nanzhu set the bag down. “Though it feels like the most important parts aren’t here.” As he spoke, he looked up at the teru teru bōzu hanging at the end of the hallway.

It was still that too-large doll, hanging by a cotton string in the hall. It swayed with the breeze, and had they not known what was wrapped inside, they might have thought this atmosphere tranquil. But the moment Lin Qiushi remembered that water-steeped, white-skinned human head, his stomach began to ache.

Lin Qiushi found a shovel in a corner of the yard to bury the black bag with.

Ruan Nanzhu’s body was too feeble; Lin Qiushi couldn’t bear making him labor, and so told him to sit off to the side. The hole was quickly dug. When Lin Qiushi buried the bones, he kept feeling like there was something watching, but even after looking carefully around, he still couldn’t find the source.

Ruan Nanzhu sat not far from Lin Qiushi. He had his head bowed, inspecting the oil-paper umbrella in his hands.

This umbrella was quite ordinary, with a structure made of bamboo. The whole thing was tinged faintly white, like it had been in use for a very long time. With the patches on the paper, every part of the umbrella exuded antiquity.

Ruan Nanzhu opened the umbrella and spotted remnant water inside. He said, “this umbrella was likely used recently, or even… just last night?”

Lin Qiushi was filling the hole, and replied at this, “was it what you saw last night?”

“It might be,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “This umbrella is probably very useful, we need an opportunity to test it.”

Lin Qiushi, “how do we do that?”

Ruan Nanzhu peered up at the sky. “Well umbrellas, they’re only useful in the rain.” The day was starting to go grey again. After yesterday’s experience, everybody ought to know that very soon, it was definitely going to rain. And if you got caught in the rain, one evening later you became the teru teru bōzu in the hallway.

Lin Qiushi tamped the soil down and returned the shovel to its spot. He said, “come on. They should be back soon.”

“Let’s go,” Ruan Nanzhu said.

The two returned inside the building, and very soon heard conversation coming from the yard. It was Lin Xingping and company returning from their search outside.

The content of their hushed discussion—Lin Qiushi heard it all.

Lin Xingping went with Cue Xueyi this afternoon once again to that path they found in the bamboo woods. They’d followed the path up, but hadn’t been able to get to the end. They’d seen most of the day pass by, and though they hadn’t gotten to their destination, the three of them still treasured their lives and chose to return, since if the rain came down midway, they were screwed.

Of course, once they discovered Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu inside the building, they instantly stopped talking.

Lin Xingping said, “oh, you guys stayed inside all day?”

Ruan Nanzhu was currently wrapped up in Lin Qiushi’s arms, voice mushy as she hummed, “yeah, I wasn’t feeling well, so my darling stayed with me the entire day.”

“Ah, alright,” Lin Xingping said. “Well we made a big discovery outside.” As she said this, she smiled. “If you’re feeling better by tomorrow, we can split up and take a look.”

“Oh? What discovery?” Lin Qiushi asked.

“Didn’t I tell you guys about the path we found in the bamboo?” Lin Xingping’s smile looked very earnest, as if she was really a team leader caring for newbies. “We just came back from there, and there really was something to be found.”

“What is it?” Ruan Nanzhu acted curious.

“A yard.” Then Lin Xingping sighed. “It’s too bad that it was too late by the time we got there. We came back before we could check it over fully. If you guys head out tomorrow morning, and get there earlier, you might be able to find some other hints in the yard.”

Cue Xueyi spoke up beside her. “Why the hell are you telling them? They just stay inside all day, don’t they just want to sit cushy and wait for our results? People like this—and you’re still so nice to them!”

Lin Xingping said, “don’t say that. We’re teammates, after all.”

One played good cop, one played bad—the two actually acted quite well together. If Lin Qiushi hadn’t already heard their conversation he might really have believed them.

Lin Qiushi looked down at Ruan Nanzhu.

Ruan Nanzhu whimpered, “Lin-jie, don’t be angry. I just didn’t feel well today, I’m sure I’ll be fine tomorrow. You said a yard, right? I’ll go check it out tomorrow with my boyfriend, and see if we can find anything.”

“Mh, alright,” Lin Xingping said. “There’s actually still a few places we haven’t looked, we’ll go check those out tomorrow. There’s strength in numbers after all, right? Only with everybody’s help can we get out of here sooner.”

Lin Qiushi nodded in response, face full of earnestness.

After this speech, Lin Xingping left again with Cue Xueyi and the other one.

Ruan Nanzhu shot Lin Qiushi a look, and the two left the common room, returning to their private room.

So Lin Xingping really was starting to set them up. There was nothing on that path, after all. If they foolishly believed what Lin Xingping said and continued down that way, they might not ever make it back before the rain came down. Then, with the wrong timing and getting soaked outside, day two would likely see them hung in the hall as teru teru bōzu.

And Lin Xingping was clearly an old hand at this. She wouldn’t have done it herself—Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu would’ve been killed by the ghosts, and wouldn’t have been able to become vengeful spirits to get revenge.

“She’s really a piece of work,” Ruan Nanzhu laughed coldly. “But as for what’s at the end of that path, I really am a bit interested.”

Lin Qiushi heard the sound of rain striking the ground outside again. What was only a pitter-patter at first quickly became a shower. He glanced outside, and saw the yard once again shrouded in a curtain of rain. The sky was now grey, and the whole world was mired in that rhythmic noisy static.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “let’s go take a look tomorrow.”

Lin Qiushi, “that path?”

“Mh.” Ruan Nanzhu began his analysis. “This town is small. We’ve checked over almost the entire thing, and there was no place special. The end of the path they found, maybe it really is something important.”

Lin Qiushi found Ruan Nanzhu’s words quite logical, and nodded his agreement.

The two sat in the room, quietly waiting for night to come.

By nine or so, it was completely dark outside. The few lanterns hanging in the hall were of no use at all; under the smother of the rain, they were mere firefly glows.

Lights in the other room went out one after the other. Everybody was getting ready to turn in.

Ruan Nanzhu took out the umbrella and stood up.

Lin Qiushi held him back, saying, “I’ll do it this time.”

But Ruan Nanzhu just grinned. “I wouldn’t take unnecessary risks. I have backup.”

Lin Qiushi bit his lip. “But…”

Ruan Nanzhu waved him off, stopping Lin Qiushi’s next words. His dark eyes gazed gently at Lin Qiushi. “Relax. I know what I’m doing.” He halted, before laughing softly, “I won’t make my boyfriend a widower.”

Lin Qiushi, “…” You’re still joking at a time like this?

As he was speaking, Ruan Nanzhu had already walked out into the hallway. He opened that oil-paper umbrella, and cautiously walked out into the rain.

Watching him, Lin Qiushi was so nervous he stopped breathing. But as Ruan Nanzhu reached the middle of the yard, something miraculous was happening. All the raindrops around him was being repelled by some invisible force; with Ruan Nanzhu at its center, there formed a vacuum where no drop of water could reach.

“It really is useful.” Ruan Nanzhu stood there in the rain and tossed Lin Qiushi a grin.

Lin Qiushi saw his smile, and released a huge internal breath… Luckily, nothing happened.

Ruan Nanzhu stood in the rain for a while, then returned to the hallway and put the umbrella away. He flicked the water on the umbrella casually off to the side, then used a towel he’d prepared to wipe the oil-paper down. He only entered the room once he was sure no water droplets would fall on the floorboards.

This umbrella was clearly important. Though they hadn’t figured out its use or why it was vital, they had just gained a critical backing… Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu could go out when it rained.

Translator’s Note:

1. 入土為安: the Chinese here is a general sentiment/belief that those buried in the soil are at peace. So RNZ is agreeing here.

Names in this chapter:

• Xiǎo Chá / Xiao(3) Cha(2) / 小茶