Kaleidoscope of Death

After connecting with Tan Jujube, Ruan Nam Candle quickly identified a clue about Tan Jujube.

It was the third door of Tan Zao Zao, not very difficult overall, but still, one had to be careful enough. This time, the clue was only four words - the woman in the rain.

Ruan Nancandle had done his homework before giving the clue, and briefly told Lin Qiushi the general information about the woman in the rain. The woman's eyes were closed and the rain was dripping down her cheeks and hat brim.

The woman in the painting had her eyes closed, but if you looked closely, you would have the illusion that she had her eyes open. The tone of the entire picture was very dark, with a dampness of rainwater.

The background of this painting is also quite unique, as it has gone through three buyers, all of whom have chosen to buy it. They all said that after they bought the painting, they were followed by a woman in black, even in their dreams.

The lady began to get closer and closer to them, and they eventually began to get fed up with the situation and returned the scroll to the painter in a panic.

The painting was indeed not very pleasing to the eye, and Lin Qiushi closed the webpage after reading it.

Sitting next to him, Ruan Nanzhu handed him the silver bracelet and instructed him to wear it on his wrist for the next few days, but there was one thing that needed to be taken care of, and that was to remember to remove the bracelet at the first opportunity once they were inside the door so that no one else could see it.

"Is it in case the rest of the group finds it?" Lin Qiushi asked.

"Hmm." Ruan Nanzhu Dao, "That's one of the reasons, but there's actually another reason."

Lin Qiushi Dao, "What?"

Ruan Nan Candle looked at the bracelet: "Because this bracelet is something that is cursed."

Lin Qiushi: "........"

Ruan Nan Candle: "Oh, right, actually, your earrings too, just not as potent."

Lin Qiushi reflexively touched the earring on his ear, it had little to no existence after being forcefully nailed to his ear by Ruan Nan Candle, he usually didn't even notice it, he was only a little surprised when he heard Ruan Nan Candle say that, "Cursed thing?"

Ruan Nan Candle: "Well, but don't worry, it's basically useless, it's usually only used to find people."

When Ruan Nan Candle said that, Lin Qiushi nodded reassuringly.

But speaking of cursed things, the notebook that Ruan Nan Candle brought out from inside the door, Lin Qiushi still hadn't found a way to use it, the only thing he could be sure of was that the notebook couldn't record its contents because anything written on it would disappear for no reason.

Ruan Nan Candle said, "You don't have to rush, you can slowly figure out the use of that notebook."

Lin Qiushi said good.

In the next few days, Lin Qiushi's energy was focused on clues, but there weren't many clues about the Lady in the Rain, and now the painting had been banned from display, on the grounds that many viewers had experienced mood swings and even hallucinatory vision when the painting was displayed. The author of the original painting also developed serious mental problems, but of course, the official story is that the author of the original painting used raw materials and canvas contaminated with chemicals - no one knows the answer as to whether this is really the case or not.

Now where the painting is exactly is also a mystery, but presumably it's sealed up.

Tan Zao Zao also learns about her door, and she is very relaxed, a far cry from Xu Xiao Orange, who is crying inside the door at the slightest hint of trouble.

Tan Zao Zao's explanation for this was her own acting skills, and Ruan Nan Candle snickered after hearing it.

"What are you laughing at?" Tan Zao Zao was a little annoyed.

Ruan Nam Candle said, "What, you don't even allow people to laugh anymore?"

Tan Zao Zao grunted, "You're still wearing women's clothes this time?"

Ruan Nan Candle: "Don't wear it."

Tan Zao Zao: "Why don't you wear it..." she seemed quite disappointed.

Ruan Nan Candle: "There's no why."

As they exchanged words, Lin Qiushi was secretly digging for ice cream to eat, and Tan Zao Zao shifted her gaze to him and spilled her guts: "Lin Lin, persuade him ah, let him continue to wear women's clothes."

Lin Qiushi: "...What's the point of wearing this or not?"

Tan Zao Zao sighed, "Oh, what a pity that such a good bottom doesn't wear women's clothes."

Lin Qiushi: "..." how he felt that Tan Zao Zao had something else in mind.

Soon, the time to enter the door would be up, because it was only the third door, and Tan Zaizao's control of time was not particularly good. So one night Lin Qiushi was sleeping on his bed, he suddenly woke up, he felt a kind of panic, as if the original familiar bedroom had become somewhere else.

As expected, as soon as Lin Qiushi opened his eyes, he saw that he was no longer surrounded by walls, but twelve doors had appeared, which formed a circle and surrounded him with him at the center.

Lin Qiushi climbed up from the bed, quickly changed his clothes, found the third door, and then took a deep breath and pulled the handle of the door.

The scene switched instantly.

After a moment of dizziness, everything around him changed.

Before Lin Qiushi's eyes appeared a tall ancient castle, which seemed to be somewhat old, standing in a dense thicket of shrubs surrounded by a dense iron fence that enclosed the entire castle.

Lin Qiushi stood next to the shrubs and there was no one around. After entering, he didn't forget Ruan Nan Candle's instructions and the first thing he did was to take off the bracelet that was placed on his wrist.

This was the first time he was alone after entering the door, so it was good that nothing too terrifying would happen just after entering the door, so Lin Qiushi observed the surrounding scenery while walking towards the inside of the castle.

The environment here was very desolate, the bushes hadn't been trimmed for a long time and were dense and lush, some vines were beginning to block one's view. The iron fence surface was a dense fog that could not be seen to the end, the fog seemed to be a warning to people, making them want to stay away.

Lin Qiushi reached the entrance of the castle, and before he even entered, he heard howls coming from inside.

"Help, help-" it was the voice of a young girl who seemed to have completely broken down emotionally, crying in a miserable and hoarse voice.

"Will you stop crying, you've been crying for over an hour." Someone was trying to persuade her in a very impatient manner, "If you really don't believe me, just go out and see for yourself if you can get out of here."

Lin Qiushi instantly knew the situation inside when he heard this, this was probably another newcomer session that was bound to appear every time.

People who had just arrived in this world would always be a little uncomfortable, and the thousand and one strange reactions were understandable.

Lin Qiushi thought so, pushed open the castle's door and walked in.

At this time, there were already five people gathered in the door, either standing or sitting in the hall on the first floor of the castle, and when they saw Lin Qiushi enter, they didn't greet him, their looks were mostly indifferent and suspicious.

Lin Qiushi casually found a place to sit down, so he also began to observe the surroundings, and soon, he found what he was looking for in the crowd.

In the corner of the crowd, there was a beautiful man wearing a t-shirt and cowboy, and although that man was sitting in the corner, he was also very eye-catching because his looks were just too beautiful, especially the tear mole in the corner of his eye, which added a bit of style. Although he looked cold and distant and looked very unapproachable, the people around him still couldn't help but cast their eyes on him.

Lin Qiushi vaguely understood yet another reason why Ruan Nan Candle wanted to dress up as a woman, beautiful women were often seen, but a man so beautiful could easily receive attention from others, even to the point of attracting attention that shouldn't be there.

Ruan Nan Candle also noticed his gaze, and he averted his eyes with a cold glance at Lin Qiushi.

The howling girl was obviously new, she had just arrived in this world and was temporarily unable to accept this strange scene, so she could only express her fearful heart at this time by crying.

She sat on the sofa with tears streaming down her face, and from time to time looked at the people around her with fearful and suspicious eyes, "Where the hell is this place, will you guys let me go? Is this a TV show? I don't want to play, please -"

"I've said it's not a TV show, you're fucking annoying, you're crying when you get here, your brain is going to explode." A young man finally couldn't stand the girl's crying method and was very irritated, "If you want to cry go cry, go anywhere, it's your business, don't bother us here!"

The girl was yelled at for crying, and she looked at the man's fierce appearance, hard enough to hold back her cry, her whole face reddening.

In the face of such a scene, the others all tacitly pretended not to see. In fact, it was wise to accept the reality earlier, but unfortunately, in the face of the drastic change in the environment, most of them had a hard time adapting quickly.

The door of the castle was opened by someone, and people came in one after another.

Tan Zao Zao was the last one to come in, wearing a long orange dress with a white corsage on her chest, her expression was pitiful, and she sobbed twice from time to time. It's a pity that at this time there are people occupying her role, the new girl has been crying for more than an hour, but still did not stop, after being yelled at by a man for up to five minutes, began to sob again, Lin Qiushi's ears were numb from the cries she gave.

There were a total of ten people in the castle, half men and half women, among them there were two newcomers, one was a tearful girl who had cried for two hours and was still able to continue, and the other was a black-haired teenager who came in and hid in the corner shivering.

Once everyone had arrived, a dull bell rang in the castle, and a man in a black butler's uniform appeared at the corner of the stairs.

The man walked up to them, smiled kindly at them and said, "Everyone is finally here, my master has been waiting for a long time, please."

After he said that, he turned around and walked towards the second floor.

Everyone with experience knew that this was about to release a clue and followed closely, the two newcomers didn't know what was going on, but they didn't dare to break away from the main group, so they also mixed in with the crowd and headed towards the second floor.

This castle is very large, just the stairs up to the second floor is extraordinarily long, after the long stairs, there are long narrow corridors, the top of the corridor is dimly lit, only hung with some faint oil lamps. And behind the oil lamps, there was a peculiarly painted painting.

Why do I say peculiar style of painting, because these paintings can hardly see the subject in the picture, like scenery or people, the colors on the canvas, forming a kind of distorted posture, giving people a very uncomfortable feeling.

The thick carpet on the floor eliminated the sound of people's footsteps, and the entire corridor was silent, with only flickering light.

At the end of the corridor there was a half-hidden wooden door, the butler walked up to the wooden door, bent down and pulled it open, making an inviting gesture.

Ruan Nanzhu walked in front of it, he took a step and entered the house.

Lin Qiushi followed closely behind and also saw the house.

It turned out to be a dining room, and in the very center of the house was a huge dining table, on which all kinds of food had been set up. At the end of the table, sat the owner of the housekeeper's mouth - a woman wearing a black hat and a long black dress, with a long, thin face. Her face was very white, white almost like paper, but her black eyes were a little too large, as if they looked like two deep black holes in the dark light, and her lips were covered in red lipstick, and she was now grinning slightly, smiling at them - if that could really be called a smile.

It was a really uncomfortable image, and everyone quieted down, even the new girl who had been crying and stopped sobbing a little fearfully.

"Please." The butler's voice came back, "Enjoy your beautiful meal, everyone."

Ruan Nanzhu was still the first to move, he found a chair and sat down, then picked up the wet towel he had prepared and wiped his hands.

Lin Qiushi sat next to him.

The others began to sit down one after another, and after everyone was seated, the hostess picked up the bell and shook it, announcing the start of the meal. She didn't speak from start to finish, not even her expression changed, she silently picked up her knife and fork and began to slowly eat the food on the table.

Lin Qiushi observed her with his afterglow, he noticed that the woman's hands seemed to be overly large, her knuckles protruding, her nails showing a dull grayish white, those huge hands, carefully squeezing the cold cutlery, finely cutting the steak with blood on the plate, and then forking the steak into the bloody mouth.

The image was so uncomfortable that Lin Qiushi looked at it for a moment, and a sense of doubt even arose as to whether the hostess was human or not. He withdrew his gaze, but noticed that the Tan Zao Zao sitting beside him had also started to stare at his mistress... as if he was possessed.

Lin Qiushi gave a low cough, catching Zaizao Tan's attention back.

"Let's eat." Lin Qiushi whispered.

"Mm." Zaizao Tan also noticed that something was wrong with her, and after nodding, she didn't dare to look any further and started cutting the steak with her head down.

The taste of this meal was actually quite good, whether it was the appetizer main course or the dessert, the taste was very authentic. It's just that in such an environment, people really didn't have much desire to taste the food.

Ruan Nan Candle, however, was always big-hearted, and he showed no discomfort from start to finish, eating all the food, even the fruit.

He didn't feel uncomfortable, wiping his mouth after finishing the food before putting down his knife and fork.

After the last person stopped to eat, the hostess stood up and headed out the door.

The butler said, "Please everyone, the master is going to show you what you have been waiting to see."

The crowd hurriedly followed and followed the mistress up the winding staircase.

There was no telling how many floors this castle had, Lin Qiushi counted the floors as he climbed upwards, and the mistress led them to eventually stop at the seventh floor.

She reached the end of the corridor on the seventh floor, opened a door and walked in.

No one dared to go straight in, instead choosing to observe the doorway for a moment.

The room in front of them was supposed to be a drawing room with many tools to be used for painting, but the one that caught people's eyes the most was a painting placed in the middle of the room covered with a white cloth. The butler's voice sounded behind them at the right time, he said, "There are still a few days left, the painting that you are all most looking forward to is about to be completed, in the remaining days, please hold back your excitement for now and enjoy the other scenery in the castle, when the master finishes the painting, he will definitely give you a good tasting."

When Lin Qiushi heard this, he sort of understood their identities. They had roughly appeared as admirers of that Mistress's painting skills, while they would need to stay here for a few days until the Mistress's painting was completed. And from the information so far, it seemed that the key to go out could also be related to the Mistress' final painting.

"Gentlemen, do not disturb my Mistress from continuing her work." The butler said, "It's already late today, please return to your respective rooms early to rest."

He said and brought everyone back downstairs.

They lived on the third floor, one room per person, the room keys were randomly assigned, the numbers on them corresponded to their respective rooms.

Lin Qiushi was lucky enough to be right across the hall from Ruan Nanzhu, but Xu Xiao Orange was rather unlucky to be assigned a room in a corner, and she squeezed the key and muttered unsatisfactorily for a while.

The room was large, and the decor was beautiful. But whether it was the astonishingly large bed or the complicated style of the dressing table, it all breathed the atmosphere of the era.

The owner of the castle was very fond of painting, and there was even a painting hanging in the center of the room. The painting was of what appeared to be a castle under a curtain of rain, and the color palette was very dark, so Lin Qiushi took a look at it and took it down from the wall and covered it on the floor.

Because the clue was the beauty in the rain, Lin Qiushi always felt that the accident must have something to do with the painting.

After washing up, he went to bed, and checked his phone as usual before going to bed, and unsurprisingly saw that there was no signal on it.

He lay on the bed for a while, and when the time was almost up, he climbed up and went to knock quietly on the door.

There was a soft creak and Ruan Nan Candle opened the door for Lin Qiushi.

"Nan Candle." When Lin Qiushi entered, he noticed that there was also a painting in Ruan Nam Candle's room, which seemed to depict the bushes at the entrance of the castle, and the weather was still rainy.

"Hmm." Ruan Nam Candle seemed to have just washed his hair, and his hair was damp as he wiped it, "What did you find?"

"She looks so much like the Lady in the Rain," Lin Qiushi said, "It's almost like she came out of a painting."

Ruan Nan Candle nodded, "Indeed."

Lin Qiushi was talking about the mistress, as long as one saw that painting of the Lady in the Rain and then saw the mistress of the castle, they would definitely both connect the two of them together.

Ruan Nan Candle pointed to the painting hanging on the wall, "You have it in your room too?"

Lin Qiushi nodded, "Yes, the content is different, it's a painted castle."

"Take it down." Ruan Nan Candle.

"It's already taken." Lin Qiushi said, "How's it going over there with Tan Zao Zao?"

Ruan Nanzhu said, "I'll go over there later and take a look, but if I can't, I'll bring her over to stay."

Lin Qiushi hmmed.

Ruan Nan Candle said, "You don't have anything you want to say?"

Lin Qiushi thought that Ruan Nanzhu was asking him for clues and he shook his head, saying that he hadn't found out more and would have to look again tomorrow.

Ruan Nan Candle: "...Never mind, it's nothing."

In fact, if he could, Lin Qiushi would naturally be most willing to live with Ruan Nan Candle, because then both of them would have something to look after. But nay, there was still a Tan Zao Zao that needed to be taken care of this time, so Lin Qiushi would just have to make do with it.

After talking to Ruan Nan Candle for a while, Lin Qiushi went back to his room.

As a result, he was stunned as soon as he entered the room, only to see that the painting that he had just taken off the wall had actually returned to the wall....

Lin Qiushi: "..." he was silent for a moment and went up to take the painting down again.

This time he didn't put it in the corner, but opened the drawer and put the painting inside, and used the stool to hold the drawer against it again.

As night fell and the wind began to blow outside the window, Lin Qiushi lay on his bed and heard the breeze rustling through the treetops.

There was a beautiful crystal lamp hanging from the ceiling of the bedroom, and Lin Qiushi began to stare at it. He knew he should sleep, but couldn't sleep anyhow, trying to forcefully empty his mind, but his spirit was becoming more and more awake.

The more the wind blew, the stronger Lin Qiushi smelled a fishy smell that belonged to rainwater, the unique stench of water on the dry earth, the smell should have been faint, but now it was getting stronger and stronger, even making Lin Qiushi's nasal passages, all of them began to fill with that dampness.

Lin Qiushi, who had been looking at the ceiling, suddenly froze, and at some point, a distinct water stain began to appear on the top of his head, which was so prominent on the white walls. He rubbed his eyes hard, and the water stain was indeed still there...it wasn't a mistake on his part.

But wasn't his roof supposed to be a room? How did it leak? Lin Qiushi felt that something was not good, the water stains were becoming more and more obvious, a black mass, like a writhing change. He didn't dare to lie on the bed anymore and quickly got up to turn on the light.

When the light came on, Lin Qiushi looked at the ceiling again, but found that there was nothing above the ceiling... nothing at all.

Was this an illusion? Or maybe a hint? Lin Qiushi experimentally turned off the light, and as expected, after the light was turned off, the black water stain appeared again, and compared to earlier, the water stain was larger and began to show a strange pattern, like the side of a... woman's face.

Lin Qiushi turned the light on again.

Looking around, he got up and walked over to the window, pulling it over and then pulling down the plug to lock it.

It had started to rain outside, the rain wasn't much but the sound was very clear, the rain pattered on the leaves and made a crisp rhythm.

Lin Qiushi looked towards the window and he saw the garden in the rain curtain.

In the deepest part of the garden, there seemed to be a black figure, wearing a raincoat and a black round hat, standing quietly in the bushes, gazing at the castle in front of him, as if it were a visitor, or a returning person.

But when Lin Qiushi took a second look, the silhouette turned well into the shadow of a tree again, but it was an illusion of his excessive nervousness.