Kaleidoscope of Death

As he spoke, Ruan Nanzhu fished the phone out of his pocket, and opened up the pictures they took in the shrine. He handed it over to Lin Xingping: “Look, we even took a few pictures… But Lin-jie, we really did find something inside the shrine!”

Experienced as she was, Lin Xingping’s expression gave nothing away at Ruan Nanzhu’s words. After a noise of acknowledgement, she asked, “oh? You found something in the shrine? What did you find?”

“Wasn’t it dark already when we got back yesterday? I really thought I was going to die then.” Ruan Nanzhu said. “But we discovered that after praying at the shrine… the rain water doesn’t get on your body!”

“What?” Cue Xueyi’s eyes went wide. “Is that true?”

“Of course it’s true.” Ruan Nanzhu looked up at the sky. “How about, when it rains tonight, we’ll give you a demonstration?”

“Sure,” Lin Xingping smiled. “Around what time did you get to the shrine?”

“Eleven or so,” Ruan Nanzhu replied, a bit embarrassed. “I’m weak, and walk kind of slow. When we got there it was too late. We really thought we weren’t gonna make it.”

“You could’ve made it,” Lin Xingping lied with a smile. “We made it back, didn’t we?”

“Should we go tell everyone about this?” Ruan Nanzhu asked. “Tell everyone go pray, so we don’t have to worry about getting rained on anymore? Then we can go look for clues on rainy days!”

“Not yet,” Lin Xingping rushed to stop. “We’ll go take a look today first, just to make sure you haven’t gotten it wrong. If you’re wrong it’ll cost a lot of people their lives.” Then she asked again, “and you’re sure you don’t get rained on now?”

“I’m sure,” Ruan Nanzhu nodded in confirmation.

“Okay. Got it, I’ll go check it out immediately,” Lin Xingping said.

They were clearly very interested in that shrine, though they still harbored suspicions. After Lin Xingping and Cue Xueyi left for the door, they continued to converse quietly.

“Are they really telling the truth?” Cue Xueyi said. “If they’re lying, it’ll be tomorrow until they die.”

“They’re probably telling the truth. Did you see the pictures on their phone?” Lin Xingping said. “We can’t wait until tomorrow. The people who got rained on have pretty much died off. There might not be a doll tomorrow. If it continues to rain during the day tomorrow, we’ll be trapped in the courtyard.”

Cue Xueyi clearly thought this logical, so silently agreed to go check out the shrine per Lin Xingping’s suggestion.

“We have to go see,” Lin Xingping said. “That shrine, it’s important…”

“But it’s too dangerous to go like this. What if we don’t make it back before it rains?” Cue Xueyi was still a bit worried about safety.

“The past two days, it’s never rained before 5:30. As long as we get back before 5:30, we’ll be fine.” Lin Xingping was confident about this point. “They got there at eleven yesterday, we’re sure to get there earlier… If we don’t manage, then it’ll be obvious they’re lying.” Indeed, in their eyes, they were stronger than the weakling Ruan Nanzhu no matter what.

“As long as we don’t waste too much time there, we’ll definitely make it back in time,” was Lin Xingping’s analysis. “In the doors, you have to take some risks.”

After hearing Lin Xingping’s argument, Cue Xueyi didn’t say more, clearly convinced by her logic.

It was Gu Yuansi who looked like he wanted to say something. When Lin Xingping noted this, she spoke to him, “if you don’t want to go, then stay. You’re not fit enough to keep up anyways, you’ll just end up slowing us down.”

“Okay okay, I won’t go then.” Gu Yuansi could’ve begged for this; his feet stopped immediately. “Hurry back.”

Lin Xingping scoffed, then turned and left with Cue Xueyi.

Only after the two left the yard did Lin Qiushi stop listening in on their conversation. He saw Gu Yuansi trudge back into the yard and flash them both a terse smile.

Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi both ignored him. Clearly unwelcomed, he returned to his room.

“You got the paper slips out?” Lin Qiushi asked Ruan Nanzhu.

“Mh,” Ruan Nanzhu confirmed.

“Did you give them out directly or slip them into people’s pockets?” Lin Qiushi was more curious about the other people’s reactions.

“Pockets,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “But they should’ve all seen the slips by now.” Chin in hand, he cocked his head eyeing the teru teru bōzu hanging in the hallway. “It’s about time.”

“Yeah.” Lin Qiushi got up, stood underneath the teru teru bōzu, and reached up to take it down. The doll was heavy, and through the thin white cloth, he could feel facial features. This uncomfortable sensation, plus the memory of the awful wailing this head would do at night, made Lin Qiushi quietly set it aside.

“I’m starting,” Ruan Nanzhu said.

Lin Qiushi nodded.

Ruan Nanzhu’s thin lips parted, and he read out a nursery rhyme: “Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu, make tomorrow a sunny day. Like the sky in my dream, if it’s sunny I’ll give you a golden bell. Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu, make tomorrow a sunny day. If you make my wish come true, we’ll drink lots of sweet sake. Teru-teru-bozu, teru bozu, make tomorrow a sunny day. But if the clouds are still crying tomorrow, I’ll cut off your head…”

The moment his words fell, so did the expected rain—in bucketfuls. Black storm clouds instantly swaddled the sky, as pea-sized raindrops smashed onto the ground.

Hammering. The piercing shower engulfed Lin Qiushi’s hearing. The two didn’t speak, just silently waited.

A few minutes later, two haggard and soaked figures appeared in the doorway of the courtyard. When he saw the two return, Lin Qiushi quickly hung the doll back up.

Once the teru teru bōzu was back up in the hallway, the sky instantly cleared. The transition between the two weather events was practically seamless.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck—” Drenched from head to toe in rainwater, Cue Xueyi looked like a drowned rat stumbling back to the courtyard, trying to get himself dry. “Why, why did it suddenly rain—”

As he said this, he just happened to see Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi standing in the hall, and grew vicious. “Was it you two? Did you two do this—” Fear seemed to have gotten to his head, as he rolled up his sleeves and prepared to make a move on Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu.

Like Lin Qiushi would let him. As he moved forward to intercept however, Lin Qiushi heard Ruan Nanzhu say, with tears in his voice, “Cue-ge, hurry to the shrine with Lin-jie—maybe you can still be saved! It also suddenly rained on our first day here, I didn’t think it’d happen today as well!!”

Both Cue Xueyi and Lin Xingping’s faces, gone whiter than paper, smoothed a bit at Ruan Nanzhu’s words. Just barely, Lin Xingping managed a smile. “Y-yeah… Maybe, we still, have hope.”

Cue Xueyi was shaking all over, both angry and afraid. He glared viciously at Ruan Nanzhu, and said, “you better not be lying to me, or I’ll kill you when I get back tonight. Come on Xingping, we’re going to the shrine.” He seemed overly frantic, to have called out Lin Xingping’s true name right there inside the door.

But Lin Xingping didn’t notice this either, leaving the room in a rush with Cue Xueyi.

Ruan Nanzhu watched their figures disappear out the door, and lightly tsk’d: “Is that all they got?”

Lin Qiushi replied, “it’s not that they don’t got enough, you’re just too good.” Lin Xingping was a pretty clever person; even if she believed there was a shrine deep in the forest, she would never risk going all the way. But no matter how cautious she was, she couldn’t have predicted this flash shower.

Now, the two had likely put their last hopes in the shrine at the end of the woods.

Without any unexpected incidents, the two were bound for death. Wu Qi and Wu Qi’s girlfriends deaths were avenged. But Lin Qiushi just couldn’t make himself cheer up.

He remembered the sight of Wu Qi before him, tutting about watching his health and resigning sooner—and let out a light sigh, wanting to release the knot of pent-up breath in his chest.

This rain shower came suddenly, and also went suddenly—but because of the paper slips from Ruan Nanzhu earlier, the others in the group didn’t go out. Though they’d had their doubts, they watched in the courtyard when the storm came. This rain washed away their suspicions and confirmed the truth of the slips.

Though the sky cleared up right after, nobody dared to walk outside, instead choosing to stay in the hall to see what would happen.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu began to discuss the matter of the shrine.

“Why don’t we go see the shrine on a rainy day,” Ruan Nanzhu said.

“Sure,” Lin Qiushi replied. “But after seeing that statue, I was reminded of the teru teru bōzu origin story you mentioned.”

From that statue’s clothing, it looked like a monk. Could it be the monk that was beheaded in the story?

“Mh…” Ruan Nanzhu said. “I had that hypothesis as well.” Chin in hand, he watched the sky outside. “It’s still a low-level door—the death conditions are still pretty stringent. We don’t have to rush.” Plus, they’d been provided with a useful prop—though of course, whether or not they could’ve found the prop was entirely a matter of skill.

Lin Qiushi nodded.

As the two were speaking, that Xiao Cha, who’d argued with Lin Xingping before, approached. The first words out of her mouth were, “I saw you two take down and open the doll.”

Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi turned to look at her.

“And I thought you two were the ones getting screwed over,” Xiao Cha laughed with self-awareness. “But still waters run deep, huh?”

“Xiao Yu doesn’t understand what you’re saying at all.”[1] Ruan Nanzhu had returned to his disgust-and-conquer routine, leaning into Lin Qiushi’s arms and whining in a goosebumps-inducing tone of voice, “sweetie, this person’s saying some really strange stuff~”

Xiao Cha, “can’t you talk like a normal person?”

Ruan Nanzhu, “this is how Xiao Yu usually talks.”

Xiao Cha, “…what kind of normal person talks like that??”

Ruan Nanzhu began to whine.

Lin Qiushi listened to him whine as he watched the cherry blossom tree in the yard, and a random verse came to mind: Beside the lake, beneath the trees / Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. / Continuous as the stars that whine…[2]

Xiao Cha was put off enough to choke, but managed to stifle her desire to simply turn and walk away. She said, “how many hints have you guys found? If you really find the door, mind letting me know ahead of time? I have a hint about the key!”

“We haven’t found that.” Ruan Nanzhu batted his eyes and continued messing with the poor girl. “The door is scary, Xiao Yu doesn’t want to find it.”

Xiao Cha got pissed, and brought out the truth: “the slip of paper’s from you, right?”

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu put on perfectly innocent faces.

In the end Xiao Cha really couldn’t take it anymore, getting up to storm off.

It was only then that Ruan Nanzhu said: “we’ll let you know ahead of time. If we do find it.”

“Thanks.” Xiao Cha wasn’t dumb either, and knew that Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi possessed skills beyond the ordinary, even though neither were especially pleasing to look at. Lin Qiushi in particular counted among the offensively ugly—to tell the truth, without the need to, she’d really rather not speak to Lin Qiushi.

“Seems the Miss doesn’t care for you at all,” Ruan Nanzhu was quipping on in Lin Qiushi’s arms. “She wouldn’t spare you a single glance…”

Lin Qiushi, “…” Ruan Nanzhu, I caution you be kind…

Because of this sudden shower, nobody dared to leave the house all day.

In order to not seem the mavericks, Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi didn’t run about on their own either.

Around five in the afternoon, the weather began to darken. The timing was about as Lin Xingping predicted; the sky went once again from sunny to cloudy, preparing to rain.

But when raindrops began hitting the earth, Lin Xingping and Cue Xueyi had still not returned. This wasn’t baffling. They’d already been rained on in the daytime after all, one more time didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Plus, if the two didn’t find a solution by tonight, the heads hanging in the hallway tomorrow were likely to be theirs.

Around eight in the evening, Lin Qiushi finally heard rushed footsteps coming from the courtyard door. They were interspersed with harsh panting, like that person had encountered something extremely terrifying.

Lin Qiushi pulled the door open a crack, and saw Lin Xingping standing at the door, face pale as a bloated corpse. Cue Xueyi, who was always beside her, was nowhere to be seen. Her eyes fell on the crack in Lin Qiushi’s door, and met Lin Qiushi’s squarely.

Lin Qiushi very calmly pretended not to see, and quietly closed the door. He glanced toward Ruan Nanzhu. “She’s back.”

“Oh,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Block the door. Don’t let her in.”

Lin Qiushi nodded.

Moments later, thumps came from outside the door. Lin Xingping’s voice was rough, sounding coal-charred. She banged on the door as she shouted, “Xiao Xiaoyu, get your ass out here! How dare you, how dare you lie to me. Say it. Say it! You’re the ones who did it, aren’t you!”

Ruan Nanzhu spoke neither sharply nor plainly: “Lin-jie, what are you saying? How did we lie to you? Was there no shrine at the end of the grove?”

“So what if there’s a shrine?” Lin Xingping snapped. “I prayed there, but the rain still fell on me!”

“Well I don’t know then,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “Since we didn’t get wet when we went there. You two had already gotten rained on by the time you went, I didn’t know what would happen. Why don’t you tell me?”

Lin Xingping began to loudly curse them out, damning them in rough words, repeating that Ruan Nanzhu lied to her.

“How did I lie to you?” Ruan Nanzhu said. “You’re the ones who told us about the shrine. We only went to check it out like you told us too, Lin-jie. I mean, there’s no way you didn’t know there was a shrine deep in the woods, right?”

By this point, Lin Xingping would have to be stupid to not realize that Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Xingping were wolves in sheep’s clothing. She shouted for a while still, with Ruan Nanzhu ignoring her. In the end she collapsed right outside their door, and began to weep loudly.

Had it been anybody else crying so pathetically, Lin Qiushi might have developed some pity. But against Lin Xingping, he had no sympathy at all.

This group of people never had any decency from start to finish. They had countless lives on their hands—only when the same things fell upon their heads did they know what the feeling was like.

Lin Qiushi said quietly, “I want to ask her a few questions.”

“Go for it,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “If you don’t ask now, there won’t be a chance later.”

“Do you know He Shuangya?” Lin Qiushi spoke at Lin Xingping through the door.

The moment Lin Xingping heard that name, her sobbing stopped, and she sank into a queer silence.

“You know her, right?” Lin Qiushi said. “Not only do you know He Shuangya, but you also know Wu Qi. Lin Xingping, do you still feel that your death is unjust?”

It took Lin Xingping a while to speak again, like she’d been muzzled by Lin Qiushi’s question. In the end, she forced out of her throat: “That’s because she was stupid. She deserved to die!”

“Yeah,” Ruan Nanzhu picked up, smiling. “So you’re stupid, you also deserve to die.”

Lin Xingping went silent. Then the hitching cries began outside once more, as she said, “I’m begging you, please save me. I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…”

“Who wants to die?” Lin Qiushi’s tone was very calm. “Before she died, maybe He Shuangya thought the same thing. Let’s just call this recompense, hm?”

But, however much rationale they gave, it was all extraneous to a person doomed to death.

Lin Xingping’s crying continued to midnight, until it was gradually swallowed up by the showering rain. Lin Qiushi sat by the door not sleeping. By the time he heard the children’s rhyme coming from outside, Lin Xingping’s figure had disappeared from their doorway.

Lin Qiushi lightly pulled the door open a crack, until he could see in the courtyard the children from where the noises came. There were some headless bodies amid them.

The children held each other’s hands, encircling Lin Xingping, who kneeled in the middle. They asked the final question of the rhyme: “who is behind you now?”

Whatever Lin Xingping answered, Lin Qiushi did not hear. He only saw Lin Xingping’s neck go sideways, then her head falling with a thunk. It rolled around the floor in a couple of circles before going motionless.

The teru teru bōzu hung in the hallway yesterday once again began to scream. The entire yard was full of an uncanny atmosphere that was difficult to describe.

It was only after he confirmed Lin Xingping’s death that Lin Qiushi returned to bed.

He stared at the ceiling, expression momentarily dazed, until Ruan Nanzhu burrowed into his arms.

“What is it?” Ruan Nanzhu asked him.

“I didn’t think Wu Qi would get involved in this.” Lin Qiushi thought that there was no need to hide from Ruan Nanzhu what was on his mind. “He… was a good person. Cheerful and kind, or he wouldn’t have befriended someone who’s so slow to warm.”

“Mh.” Ruan Nanzhu listened quietly, knowing Lin Qiushi didn’t need him to speak.

“I don’t think I was a good friend,” Lin Qiushi said. “When something happened to me, I didn’t think to tell him. When something happened to him, I didn’t think to ask.”

“It’s not your fault,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “You can’t protect everyone.”

Lin Qiushi looked over at Ruan Nanzhu. “How about you? Can you protect everyone?”

“Me?” Ruan Nanzhu went quiet for a while. “I can’t protect them either.” His gaze dipped, and his voice dropped low as well. “I went in my tenth door with a friend. I came out. He didn’t.”

Lin Qiushi remembered what Ruan Nanzhu had been like when he’d first came out of his tenth door—like he’d been utterly gutted. Even after a few months of hospitalization, even after leaving the hospital—he didn’t return to normal for a long while.

“You’ve already done so well,” Lin Qiushi said. “Without you, I might not have even passed my first door.”

Ruan Nanzhu, exasperated, “aren’t I comforting you? How come you’re the one comforting me now.”

Lin Qiushi couldn’t help but laugh.

Like they were ever this emotional normally; this was just a fortuitous divulgence. After they get a night’s sleep, they had to get up the next day filled with the energy to deal with the matters inside the door.

The two lied in the bedding, this one speaking, then the other. And just like that, they trailed off to sleep.

The next day was nice and sunny. The teru teru bōzu in the hallway once again got a new look.

To be certain, Ruan Nanzhu took down the teru teru bōzu, opened it, and looked at the head wrapped inside.

It was indeed Lin Xingping, who’d died last night. Her head was separated from her body, with her eyes still open, looking unsatisfied unto death.

It was just a shame she didn’t know how that rain shower happened even after she died, not to mention what Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu did, so had no opportunity of becoming a vengeful ghost, and could only die so discontented.

He Shuangya likely experienced exactly what she did; she’d known someone was robbing her of her door, but didn’t know where she’d fallen into the trap.

“Let’s go to the shrine today,” Ruan Nanzhu said. “While it’s raining.”

“Okay.” Lin Qiushi nodded his agreement.

Ruan Nanzhu wrapped Lin Xingping’s head back in the white cloth, and once again recited that lengthy children’s rhyme.

After the rhyme, it began pouring again. Ruan Nanzhu fetched the oil-paper umbrella from his bag, opened it, and handed it to Lin Qiushi, smiling. “Let’s go.”

Lin Qiushi took the umbrella, and began walking with Ruan Nanzhu toward the bamboo grove.

Author’s Note:

Saw a comment yesterday that said they read while they were pooping, and were so scared the poop wouldn’t come out. Cackling.jpg

Translator’s Note:

1. The third-person self-referent RNZ uses isn’t actually him saying his own name (or his pseudonym in this case). He says “人家” which has very uwu vibes.
2. Okay I went a bit tits out with this transposition, because the original included a) RNZ’s whining being transliterated as “ying ying ying,” and b) a pun from a phrase based off of that, “落嚶繽紛” or “luo ying bin fen,” a poetic phrase meaning “ a lush fall of cherry blossoms,” since ying in another character is cherry blossom. In lieu of all that, I went with, less concisely, lines from Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” and a pun on shine/whine. IT’S FAR FROM PERFECT. Send suggestions…