Kaleidoscope of Death

After confirming the umbrella’s usage, Ruan Nanzhu hid it away in a drawer in the room. Then he burrowed his way into Lin Qiushi’s bedding. After coming into this door, his body had felt consistently cold, seemingly an aftereffect of his injuries. Lin Qiushi let Ruan Nanzhu burrow into his arms, half-shut his eyes, and drifted into a light sleep.

The rain outside was much too loud, but Lin Qiushi didn’t want to stuff his ears with paper for fear of missing something. So he wasn’t exactly sleeping well. Most of the nights, he remained only half-asleep.

Tonight was no exception. Curled up in Lin Qiushi’s arms, Ruan Nanzhu was quick to sleep. But just as Lin Qiushi felt he was going to sleep as well, he was jolted up by an awful scream.

“What happened?” In Lin Qiushi’s arms, Ruan Nanzhu opened his eyes as well. He clearly also heard the scream from outside, and asked his question.

“Someone’s in trouble,” Lin Qiushi said. Actually, he didn’t only hear the scream. He also heard something rolling down the hallway, clunking along. It sounded at first like the basketball that hit their door last night, but it also sounded heavier.

Ruan Nanzhu got up, went to the door, and very lightly pulled open a crack.

Lin Qiushi, following at his side, peeked out. It was in a corner at the end of the hallway that he saw the source of the scream.

It was the teru teru bōzu. Its string, tied to the hallway ceiling, had broken for some reason. It had fallen to the ground, and was endlessly rolling ahead. The crude-drawn features twisted up ghoulishly and the mouth gaped wide, letting out a miserable wail: “It hurts, help me, help… somebody help me…”

Lin Qiushi had heard this voice before. Upon careful thought, he realized it was the group member who’d gone missing on day two. In other words, it was the victim who’d had his head cut off yesterday and gotten turned into a teru teru bōzu.

“Help, help…” The teru teru bōzu was still rolling in the hall when once again, the song started in the yard. Children appeared in the dark holding hands, once again singing that chilling rhyme: “Wicker hole, wicker hole, the bird in the cage, when oh when will it come out, in the night of dawn, the crane and turtle slipped…”

They spun on, surrounding that person in the center. Their young voices made the rainy night all the more fearsome.

It seemed others had also been woken by the screaming—at any rate, Lin Qiushi heard at least three or four times the sound of doors being softly pulled open.

That teru teru bōzu rolled staunchly on. Just before it could reach them, Ruan Nanzhu, reacting swiftly, immediately shut the door. Moments later that awful cry came from right outside: “help me, help me, where’s my body, where’s my body…”

Lin Qiushi really wanted to answer, your body’s in the courtyard. But he didn’t dare—who knew what would happen if he did.

The teru teru bōzu, just like that, rolled on and on, until it seemed to hit something. Then all the noises disappeared. When Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu once again carefully opened the door, all traces of him were gone from the hall, and all that was left were the kids happily playing their game in the rain.

Lin Qiushi said, “someone was walking in the hall just now.” He’d clearly heard, after the teru teru bōzu’s cries stopped, footsteps from the hall.

Ruan Nanzhu asked, “where was it headed?”

Lin Qiushi answered, “toward the estate owner’s room.” Good thing he was so sensitive to sound, so without looking, he could know more than other bystanders.

“Ah. Got it,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Let’s sleep.”

Saying it was one thing, actually sleeping was another. Lin Qiushi kept thinking about the teru teru bōzu’s connection with this courtyard, and this umbrella, and the children playing that game outside.

It wasn’t until nearing daybreak that he managed a little doze, until he heard Ruan Nanzhu getting up.

“Didn’t sleep?” Ruan Nanzhu asked him.

“Mh,” Lin Qiushi said. “Couldn’t quite manage.” But he felt energetic enough. After a wash with cold water in the bathroom he felt fairly revived. “Are we going into the bamboo forest today?”

“Do you still remember how the song went?” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Wicker hole, wicker hole[1]…” He cocked his head. “Actually, in the original song, the first line isn’t wicker hole, it’s ‘the caged bird.’ But this song actually has a lot of possible translations. I’d thought this was just a difference in translation, but now, maybe it isn't…”

“It’s a hint instead?” Lin Qiushi finished Ruan Nanzhu’s thought.

“Yeah, a hint,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “In the whole town, there’s only that bamboo forest that has wicker. We have to go take a look today.” He gestured at the umbrella in his hand. “Since we have the umbrella, it’s fine if we get back a little late.”

Lin Qiushi nodded his agreement. “Let’s go together.”

He’d seen yesterday that the vacuum created by this umbrella could completely contain two people. He wasn’t comfortable letting Ruan Nanzhu go alone anyways. With company, if anything really happened, they could at least take care of each other.

“Sure.” Ruan Nanzhu nodded, consenting to Lin Qiushi’s suggestion.

The two went to the dining hall for a simple breakfast. Out in the hall they saw hanging at its end a new teru teru bōzu… How did they know it was new? Because those crude-drawn features were slightly different, as if they were deliberately being told the doll had been switched out.

The noises last night had been far too loud—everybody had obviously heard it, because the atmosphere in the dining hall was frighteningly heavy.

Though Lin Xingping managed to great them with her usual enthusiasm.

Lin Qiushi greeted her back off-handedly.

“Is that a new doll? Who’s next? Is it that everybody who gets rained on becomes a sacrifice inside the dolls?” Among the group, everybody was discussing this. Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi, on the other hand, didn’t want to talk at all; these two people, with their two ugly faces, fed each other their meals with aplomb, cheerily grossing out everybody else.

Of course, the key part of “everybody else” was Lin Xingping and co.

“Oh, my love, you have rice on your lips.” Ruan Nanzhu scooted close, and pecked the corner of Lin Qiushi’s mouth. “You’re so careless.”

Lin Qiushi said, “yes baby, without you to take care of me, I wouldn’t even know how to live.”

Lin Xingping likely couldn’t stand anymore, and forcefully pried up a new topic: “Last night, did you guys hear anything?”

“I did.” Ruan Nanzhu put on an expression of shock and fear. “What was that screaming? It was so scary… I couldn’t sleep for the rest of the night.”

In reality, for the rest of the night Ruan Nanzhu had perfectly maintained his dog-like sleep-ability.

“I opened the door a bit to see, and saw that good weather doll had fallen to the ground. It was screaming and rolling about, and in the end I don’t know where it went,” Lin Xingping said. “You two must be careful, and stay away from that thing…”

“Yes, yes, thank you Lin-jie for the reminder,” Ruan Nanzhu thanked her gratefully.

“Also, we’re going to keep looking for clues today. Are you two coming with us, or going to the bamboo forest?”

Right after Lin Xingping said this, Cue Xueyi added at the side, “why bring them along? They haven’t done anything. If it’s like this I’m damn well never bring them along again—they’re useless. Lin-jie, stop trying to persuade me. You’ve been the good guy long enough. You can’t keep shielding them like this.”

He sounded sensible enough. A normal newbie might feel shame at this, and thus agree to check out the bamboo forest.

Lin Qiushi had to applaud their methods.

“Alright, I’ll go with my sweetheart to check out the forest,” Ruan Nanzhu said meekly, ingratiating herself to Lin Xingping. “Lin-jie don’t be mad, we’ll definitely work hard. You have to take me with you next time.”

Lin Xingping smiled. “As long as you guys work hard enough, we won’t give up on you.”

So Ruan Nanzhu smiled in satisfaction.

Lin Qiushi sat beside him in shame-faced silence, eating his breakfast.

Xiao Cha, the one who’d criticized Lin Xingping yesterday, seemed to have heard their conversation, and watched Lin Xingping like she had something to say. But in the end she said nothing, only lightly sighed.

Which made sense. The world of the doors was stocked full with danger; surviving on your own was hard enough, who had the heart to go care for others?

After eating, a few of them left together. Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu agreed to scope out the bamboo forest, and under Lin Xingping’s watchful eye, they hoisted their bags and followed that path into the woods.

“Hah, hopefully they’ll never come back.” Cue Xueyi watched the two from the back, and said such a hateful thing.

“Yeah, hope they don’t come back.” Lin Xingping glanced over at Gu Yuansi, who’d been like a terrified quail ever since they came through the door. “You should hurry and get used to what goes on inside the doors. You can still get help in low-level doors, but in high-level ones you can only count on yourself.”

At this, Gu Yuansi managed two humorless huffs of laughter, nodded, but didn’t speak.

Lin Xingping didn’t keep up the advice either. It wasn’t like every door robber joined their organization. People like Gu Yuansi, for example, were purely employers.

Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi were continuing down the small path, surrounded by the thick forest of bamboo.

The path was inclined. Heading along it, they seemed to be climbing toward the mountaintop.

Ruan Nanzhu was still feeble, and got tired after a little bit. So Lin Qiushi picked him up and continued onward. Ruan Nanzhu tucked his chin over Lin Qiushi’s shoulder, asking, “am I heavy?”

“No.” Lin Qiushi’s head was lifted as he looked ahead. “Light as a feather. If a wind blows by, you might really get blown away.”

Ruan Nanzhu laughed.

Their walk on this path seemed to be endless; the surrounding scenery was practically identical, to the point where Lin Qiushi felt like they were walking in circles. But Ruan Nanzhu’s ability of observation for his surroundings were incredible, and he could confidently declare, “we’re not going in circles. We’re moving forward, though it looks pretty much the same around us…”

“How much longer 'til we get there?” Lin Qiushi looked up at the sky. The sun was almost at its peak—they’d been walking the entire morning.

“Dunno,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “But we have the umbrella, so don’t worry.”

Fortunately Lin Qiushi had passed so many doors that his physicality had become extraordinary, or else such a long mountain path would surely be exhausting. Now though, even with Ruan Nanzhu on his back, he wasn’t feeling very tired at all.

The two kept walking. And walking. They chatted while they walked, until all conversation topics were nearly exhausted, and Ruan Nanzhu was complaining that if they didn’t get there soon, he’d have to start on his kindergarten stories. It was then that finally, they saw some different scenery—the path beneath their feet took a turn.

“We’re finally here!” Ruan Nanzhu sighed, saying, “or I was really about to start telling the story about fighting a kid for candy in kindergarten and getting scolded by the teacher.”

Lin Qiushi thought, I actually kind of want to hear that… But he didn’t say it aloud. Following the path around the turn revealed, unexpectedly, a run-down shrine.

From appearances alone, this shrine seemed to have been out of commission for a long while. It was utterly dilapidated, with a well at its side that looked to be untouched for many years, likely already dried up.

Lin Qiushi walked to the entrance and gave the shrine doors a light push.

Clack. The doors opened, revealing the dim display inside. Lin Qiushi glanced up, and couldn’t help a sharp inhale.

Because, on the ceiling of the shrine was hung a thicket of teru teru bōzu. These dolls swayed in the wind, countless heads hung on the ceiling, smiling peculiarly at Lin Qiushi with those crude-drawn mouths.

Lin Qiushi wanted to lie to himself, and say these were all regular good weather dolls. But, judging by their sizes, it was impossible that these were normal teru teru bōzu. They were likely the same kind as those in their courtyard—all made from human heads.

“Tsk.” Ruan Nanzhu, at Lin Qiushi’s side, slowly walked into the room. “With this many dolls, it’s still raining?”

Lin Qiushi replied, “maybe the dolls are affective for one day only? After use… they lose their power…” This would explain the lack of time limit in this door—there actually was one. It was just hidden.

In this door, every teru teru bōzu meant a life. If they wanted it to be sunny, they had to make a doll from a dead person’s head. If they couldn’t find the umbrella, and the weather couldn’t clear, then didn’t that mean they’d never make it to this shrine…? Until only one lucky survivor remained inside the door.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu went deeper into the shrine, and saw a statue placed on the altar.

That statue was old and battered, but it didn’t have a head.

Lin Qiushi observed the statue, finding a trough in front of it that was meant for incense, and that the statue was dressed a bit like an ancient monk—at a glance, all quite normal.

Ruan Nanzhu said, “the head’s gone.”

Lin Qiushi, “think it’s in the shrine?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “let’s look around.”

The shrine wasn’t large. One lap around later, Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi couldn’t find the missing head. Then Ruan Nanzhu eyed that statue and suddenly said, “how about we grab a random head and stick it on?”

Lin Qiushi, “…are you serious?” Right after, he added, “okay I know you’re kidding.”

Before the words could even leave Ruan Nanzhu’s mouth, Lin Qiushi had stolen them. So the unhappy Ruan Nanzhu shot Lin Qiushi an aggrieved glare.

Lin Qiushi shrugged, indicating he didn’t do it on purpose.

Ruan Nanzhu lamented, “Linlin, you’ve gone bad.”

Lin Qiushi, “…”

Ruan Nanzhu, “but even if you’re a bad boy now, I still like it.”

Lin Qiushi, “…” He stared at Ruan Nanzhu’s face, and actually began to miss Ruan Nanzhu’s outside appearance…

The two exited the shrine and continued inspecting the surroundings. Lin Qiushi noted the well beside the shrine, and approached. He didn’t dare get too close, first just poking his head over.

But the dried-up well was too dark inside, he couldn’t see anything. After squinting for a while, Lin Qiushi turned his phone flashlight on and shined it in.

But when the light beam fell, and Lin Qiushi clearly saw what was at the bottom of the well, he jolted so hard that his phone nearly dropped in.

“Oh fuck,” Lin Qiushi swore lowly, turning and calling to Ruan Nanzhu, “come here and look!”

Ruan Nanzhu, “what is it?” He came to Lin Qiushi’s side and looked inside too—and had the same conclusion: “Oh fuck.”

The bottom of the well was entirely covered with a thick carpet of corpses. These corpses had long-since turned into skeletons, but without exception, they all lacked a head.

The thing that shook Lin Qiushi the most was the corpses’ positions.

By normal logic, corpses thrown into a well ought to be crumpled on the ground. But these bodies were practically all plastered to the well walls, reaching up with their hands—they looked as if they could crawl out of the well at any moment. Without a doubt, when these corpses were thrown in, they were still capable of moving…

Lin Qiushi huffed a humorless laugh. “They won’t reanimate, right?”

Ruan Nanzhu rubbed his chin and coolly analyzed, “don’t worry, even if they did, they won’t have much fight. It’s just a bunch of skeletons, they’ll crumble with a kick.”

Just as he finished speaking, there came a clatter from inside the well. Lin Qiushi saw with his own eyes a skeleton that had been on the wall scattering down onto the well floor.

Lin Qiushi, “…shush. That one heard you.”

Ruan Nanzhu, “they can hear me all they like. If they had the ability, they would’ve already gotten revenge for themselves—like they’d have the time to be scaring us.”

Lin Qiushi really had to admire Ruan Nanzhu’s logic… Flawless, absolutely without fault.

Lin Qiushi glanced at the sky, and asked, “can we make it back tonight?”

“We have to. Who knows what happens if we spend the night here? It’s not safe,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Give me your phone.”

Lin Qiushi handed the phone over, unclear what he wanted to do. He watched Ruan Nanzhu open the camera, and snap a few shots of the shrine.

“Why are you taking pictures?” Lin Qiushi couldn’t understand.

“To find us a few more dolls, of course.” Ruan Nanzhu began to smile. “Come on, let’s head back.”

“Alright.” Lin Qiushi nodded.

So the two headed back on the path once more.

As Ruan Nanzhu guessed, by the time they were a little more than halfway back, the sky was dark. The two got out the umbrella, and not long after, pea-sized drops of rain began to fell from the sky, landing on the oil-paper. The umbrella opened up a vacuum around it. Ruan Nanzhu lied on Lin Qiushi’s back, holding it up. Lin Qiushi continued steadily forward.

Around eight or so, the two returned to the estate.

Without question, Lin Xingping must have been giddy enough to sprout flowers when she saw that Lin Qiushi’s group hadn’t come back. Who knew how far their jaws were going to drop tomorrow morning, when they saw Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi’s unscathed forms?

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu returned to the room, simply washed up, then got into bed, waiting for tomorrow to come.

That night too they heard the screaming of the teru teru bōzu. They’d been ready from the day before though, so weren’t too shocked.

The next day, Ruan Nanzhu fetched a notebook from his bag before they went to the dining room. He ripped a sheet of paper apart into small slips, then wrote on them a few words: it’ll rain during the day today, don’t leave the courtyard.

Lin Qiushi had some questions at first, but combined with the pictures Ruan Nanzhu took yesterday he understood. He complimented, “very clever.”

Ruan Nanzhu replied, “oh please—bronze medal, at best. Won’t you give me a prize?”

Lin Qiushi, “what kind of prize?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “a kiss or something?”

Lin Qiushi stared at Ruan Nanzhu, then pointed a finger at his face. “You sure you want me to kiss you with this face?”

Ruan Nanzhu looked at Lin Qiushi, and actually went silent, before he finally said, “fine, never mind then. Make it up to me when we’re outside.”

The two took the paper slips and went to the dining hall. When she saw them, Lin Xingping smiled, though Gu Yuansi’s expression went a bit nervous. Lin Xingping said, “you guys are here! How did it go yesterday?”

“Pretty good! We made a big discovery,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “We’ll tell you later!”

Then Ruan Nanzhu cheerfully ate his food, went to the bathroom a couple of times, and chatted up a few of the others.

By the time Ruan Nanzhu returned, the paper slips in his pocket seemed to be all gone—at any rate, Lin Qiushi didn’t see how he did it.

After the meal, the group found a quieter place. Ruan Nanzhu appeared eager as he said, “we really did find something at the end of the path yesterday!”

A thread of surprise surfaced in Lin Xingping’s gaze, but she quickly covered over it. She said, “yeah! We told you that there was something at that end of the forest.”

“Yeah, and we even took pictures.” Ruan Nanzhu’s tone was joyous. “Thank god you guys told us about this, you really are great people!”

Lin Qiushi clearly saw, when Ruan Nanzhu said this, Cue Xueyi’s expression twitch.