Kaleidoscope of Death

Next, they went to two other missing children.

After some questioning, they quickly found what all three children had in common - they had all stated that they had been stalked prior to their disappearance, although none of the parents took the children's statements seriously.

The mother of one of the missing children was sobbing and crying, repenting: "I'm so sorry, if I had believed her, she wouldn't have disappeared, it's all my fault, it's all my fault... I'm not a good mother.... ..."

Ruan Nan Candle warmly consoled a few words and said, "Then may I ask if you have any clues about her disappearance? If there is a clue, can you tell us, perhaps we can use the clue to find your child sooner."

The mother was silent for a moment and whispered, "A clue... there are rumors of a monster hiding in the outskirts of our town... but of course, it's just a rumor and no one has ever personally encountered it. "

Ruan Nam Candle: "Monster? What kind of monster?"

"I don't know." Mother said, "and we don't know what the creature looked like, except that there were rumors that the thing seemed to be very large..."

That's all the information the mother knew.

But after Ruan Nam Candle's questioning, they also learned that this child liked to run around the cannery to play, and that she often went there secretly even though the parents had told her many times. The location of this disappearance seems to be the cannery that has been sealed off....

It seemed that the cannery was indeed an important location.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nam Candle reached an agreement and decided to have a simple lunch and visit the cannery in the afternoon.

The taste of lunch was still bad, several dishes on the table had something to do with fish, giving off a strong fishy smell. In the middle of the table, there were a few open cans of fish, which looked quite tasty among all the food on the table.

Because of this, several people had their hands on the canned fish and said that it tasted good.

Thanks to his status as a mute woman in this world, no one came to talk to him, they all treated him like air.

Lin Qiushi was also happy to be free.

It was the second day after entering the gate, and there were still people attempting to come to find Ruan Nanzhu to form a team, and in their words, they were all disliking Lin Qiushi.

Some were quite tactful in their words, while others were very blunt, saying that this girl was dumb and couldn't even call out when something happened, so why waste time on her, it would be better to team up with someone else.

The first thing you need to do is to take a look at the person's face, and then you'll be able to see the person's face.

So as if moved by his weakness, Ruan Nam Candle declined the others' invitation.

But Ruan Nam Candle also seemed to be a bit annoyed by the harassment and grabbed Lin Qiushi and left the restaurant quickly.

"Why do they like finding you so much? Is it because you're good-looking?" Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nam Candle were actually a bit strange as they headed to the cannery.

"People will tend to avoid harm." Ruan Nam Candle said, "In a place where you can lose your life if you're not careful, you'll always find a way to get closer when you meet someone stronger than you are."

When they got close enough to the cannery, they smelled a strong smell of fish.

This fishy smell was very uncomfortable, and if it was put on someone who didn't like fish, they would probably feel like vomiting even after two sniffs.

The cannery is at the very edge of the town, this side doesn't seem to have any traces of human habitation, there are no buildings beside the road, only some sparse trees and thick bushes, after the trees is a dense fog, reminding them not to cross the border.

According to the mayor, the cannery had been shut down a few years ago and was in a state of silence. Ruan Nan Candle pulled out his tools and easily opened the rusted gate at the entrance of the cannery, and the two of them fishtailed in through the entrance.

"This cannery is pretty big." Lin Qiushi looked around, the first thing he entered was a huge courtyard surrounded by meter high weeds, and it was obvious that no one had been here for a long time. There were also a few tall dead trees in the courtyard, on top of the dead trees listened to black feathered birds, at first glance they looked like crows, but upon closer inspection, they seemed to be a lot bigger than crows....

"Well." Ruan Nan Candle walked in front.

Lin Qiushi said, "Could they all have disappeared here? Or maybe it was brought here after disappearing."

Ruan Nan Candle: "I don't know, let's look around for any clues first."

Lin Qiushi nodded.

The two of them went forward, and just as they were about to enter the factory area, Lin Qiushi suddenly made a discovery.

The discovery was an accident, Lin Qiushi tripped over a rock and stumbled several steps, he lowered his head reflexively and saw the rock that tripped him as well as something else.

"What's this?" Lin Qiushi called out as he bent down to crouch and scrutinize the muddy ground, "...is this a fingerprint?"

Ruan Nan Candle heard Lin Qiushi's voice and also looked towards where he was looking.

Only to see the top of the soil, covered with dense palm prints, these palm prints at first glance look like irregular roughly printed on, but upon closer inspection will find that the palm prints are more like a distress signal - someone was dragged away from the soil, in the process of being dragged away, he tried to grab something beside him, so panic death grip on the soil beneath him, leaving an imprint on the map.

Lin Qiushi followed the imprint carefully, and Ruan Nan Candle followed behind him, observing the situation nearby.

Soon, Lin Qiushi discovered what was at the end of the handprint, it was a huge dead tree, at least two meters in diameter, it looked like it had been dead for a long time, Lin Qiushi tapped on the outside of the trunk and frowned, "It's empty inside, could there be something?"

Ruan Nan Candle looked at the dead tree: "It's possible." After all, the handprint disappeared in front of this tree.

Ruan Nan Candle pulled out a small knife from his pocket and began to slowly chisel the trunk of the tree, the tree was already somewhat rotten and the sharp knife was easily inserted.

However, when Ruan Nan Candle pulled the knife out, Lin Qiushi sucked in a breath of cold air.

On Ruan Nan Candle's blade, there was actually a smear of red blood.

"Fuck." Lin Qiushi didn't hold back from swearing and his expression was a bit embarrassed, "...You wouldn't stab the clue to death, would you."

Ruan Nanzhu: "..." he was silent for a moment and calmly said, "I didn't do it on purpose."

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

Ruan Nam Candle: "But if a normal person stuck it in, it would definitely make a sound, and besides, the tree doesn't have a hole, so how could a normal person get in?"

That's true, Lin Qiushi licked his somewhat dry lips, "Then chisel it open and take a look."

Ruan Nan Candle nodded his head, this time he didn't dare to stick the knife in too deeply, instead he stuck it in and started pushing towards the surrounding area, quickly chiseling out an opening in the tree trunk, revealing the contents inside.

After seeing what was inside the tree trunk, Lin Qiushi involuntarily took a step backwards, his expression ugly.

Only inside the tree trunk, there was a child embedded in it, and it was as if the child had become one with the ancient tree, with almost all of his body embedded in the trunk. But the most striking thing was that his abdomen had been opened up with a huge gash, and although he couldn't see any blood or anything, Lin Qiushi understood that he was definitely not in a surviving state.

Ruan Nan Candle tilted his head: "There seems to be a plastic bag behind him."

This would have been unknown to anyone who hadn't read the clues, but Lin Qiushi had understood the clues to the door before he came in, so he understood almost instantly what the plastic bag meant - the child's innards had been emptied and put into that plastic bag.

That was exactly what the long, thin ghostly figure liked to do.

"I think the remaining kids are all in mortal danger." Lin Qiushi sighed.

Ruan Nam Candle: "Probability." He was used to death and was now observing the corpses in the tree trunk in front of him with a cold expression, trying to find more clues.

As Lin Qiushi looked around, he had a feeling that the remaining two children that were thrown away were also in the cannery, but he didn't know where they were hidden.

Just as Lin Qiushi was thinking this, Ruan Nanzhu suddenly took a step backwards, his footsteps a bit too fast, as if he had seen something strange.

"What?" Lin Qiushi was stunned.

Ruan Nan Candle was silent for a moment, didn't speak, and pointed at the corpse in front of him.

Lin Qiushi raised his eyes and then made the same reaction as Ruan Nan Candle - the child's eyes had opened at some point, and was now looking at them with a heavy, deadly indifference.

Lin Qiushi got goosebumps as he laughed dryly, "It's not going to be a fraudulent corpse, is it?"

Ruan Nan Candle: "That's not likely." He looked up at the sky, "It's almost dark, we'd better stop looking, let's talk about it tomorrow, let's go back today."

"Mm." Lin Qiushi agreed with Ruan Nanzhu's suggestion, after all, the world within the Gate was dangerous at night.

"Let's go, tell the town about the kid tomorrow." Ruan Nam Candle said, "I'd like to see how they'll react."

The cannery was actually a bit far from where they were staying, so Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nam Candle hurried back to the inn before it got dark.

Everyone gathered in the dining room and ate their dinner in silence, occasionally someone talked about getting clues today.

Lin Qiushi was eating one thing at a time, but suddenly, there was a commotion in the crowd, he looked up, but saw a man with a nosebleed.

"Oh my, why is there a sudden nosebleed." The man's companion said, "Quickly get a paper to wipe it."

"I don't know what happened." The man said, "It flowed while eating..."

He got up and went to the bathroom, but Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nan Candle looked at each other and saw certain emotions in each other's eyes.

After stalking an adult target, slender ghostly figures would have some signs appear, nightmares, hallucinations, and one item was a nosebleed or coughing up blood.

The man in front of him suddenly had a nosebleed, and it wasn't clear if it was an accident or a sign.

The man went away quickly and came back quickly, and the nosebleed had stopped by the time he returned, and he was now cursing and talking about the terrible food in the hotel.

When Lin Qiushi saw that nothing had happened, he got up and planned to leave, and Ruan Nanzhu followed him back to his room.

When he returned to his room, Lin Qiushi was lying on his bed with his phone thinking about the clues.

Sitting next to him, Ruanan Candle read Lauren's diary again.

"There doesn't seem to be anything left, there aren't enough clues." After the sky darkened, Lin Qiushi was a little sleepy, he said, "Let's sleep."

Ruan Nan Candle said, "Okay."

Lin Qiushi shuffled and climbed into bed, watching the fog begin to thicken outside the window.

Ruan Nan Candle lay next to Lin Qiushi, and without speaking for a while there was the sound of steady breathing... it seemed like he was asleep.

Lin Qiushi also closed his eyes, but the slightest sound in the silent night also seemed very harsh, Lin Qiushi's hearing was already keen, and he lay on the bed and caught a sound that didn't belong here.

It was the sound of someone moving through the grass, and that person seemed to be dragging some heavy object, occasionally crushing a branch or two.

Lin Qiushi immediately thought of the child he had seen in the tree trunk during the day, and his godless, hooded, horrible white pupils.

He felt a little cold, so he slowly turned over.

Ruan Nanzhu, who should have been sleeping, opened her eyes and looked at him with a burning gaze, "Little dumb girl, can't sleep?"

Lin Qiushi stared at him, but before he uttered a word Ruan Nan Candle got up, then moved naturally to lie down next to him and hugged his waist.

Lin Qiushi was about to say something, but Ruan Nan Candle gently pressed his lips with her thumb: "Shh, be good."

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

While Lin Qiushi was dazed, the two men had slept on the same bed. Fortunately, the bed was big enough for two men to sleep together, but it wasn't too crowded. Lin Qiushi originally wanted to refuse, but before refusing, he thought of Ruan Nanzhu's Sleeping Pill Essence identity, and hesitantly, he didn't say anything.

The things in the bushes outside the house were still walking around, as if looking for some opportunity.

Lin Qiushi listened nervously at first, but then was infected by Ruan Nam Candle's calm atmosphere and closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

The sleep came the next day.

The next morning, there was nothing happened overnight.

Fourteen people showed up at the restaurant as usual.

It had been two days since they had come, but there were still no dead people, this was very rare. Lin Qiushi was thinking this, but he saw a person walking past him. This person seemed to be the one who suddenly had a nosebleed during yesterday's meal, he was mediocre looking and should not have attracted much attention, but Lin Qiushi frowned after taking a look at him.

Compared to yesterday, this person had an additional black hat on top of his head.

The hat was out of place with the casual clothes he was wearing, but the others seemed as if they hadn't noticed and didn't even mention a word about it.

"What are you looking at?" Ruanan Candle asked him suddenly.

"This hat on his head looks so strange." Lin Qiushi replied, "Didn't you see it yesterday?"

Ruan Nan Candle frowned slightly at the words, his gaze shifted to the man and gazed at him for a moment, "Strange indeed."

"But everyone thinks it's normal," Lin Qiushi said.

"To be honest." Ruan Nan Candle put down the glass of milk in her hand, "I also felt normal before you didn't mention this."

Lin Qiushi: "Huh?"

Ruanan Candle, "How shall I describe the feeling to you, as if he should have been wearing such a hat." He propped up his chin and looked at the man with his afterglow without moving, "It's not awkward or strange."

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

But it was, in fact, a very strange hat indeed.

Apparently you only wear a black hat like that when you're in formal wear. But the man was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, and he seemed to be the only one in the entire room who noticed something was wrong.

Ruan Nam Candle said softly, "I think he's going to die."

Lin Qiushi: "...I think so too."

The two of them were in agreement on this matter though.

The man didn't seem to feel that there was anything wrong with him at all, and ate his breakfast very pleasantly with the man. The process of eating also told his companion that he had a dream yesterday.

With Lin Qiushi's hearing, it was easy to catch what he was talking about.

"In the dream, someone gave me a hat and told me to be sure to wear it." He chuckled, "I thought it was just a dream at the time, but who knew that the next day I actually found a hat hanging from a tree branch outside the window."

"That's a nice hat." His companion actually said, "It fits you well in it too."

How these words sounded like perfunctory under normal circumstances, but the speaker's tone was so sincere that Lin Qiushi could tell that he was serious. He was seriously thinking that the hat was beautiful and suitable for his companion, and even wanted to try it on himself.

Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nan Candle.

Ruan Nam Candle seemed to understand what he meant, he nodded, stood up and walked towards the man wearing the hat.

"Isn't there something wrong with your hat." Ruanan Candle said, "Don't be something cursed."

The words were already obvious, but the man listened with a wary expression, he said, "I don't think so, what if the clue to the key is in the hat."

Ruan Nan Candle spread his hands, "What if it's not?"

The man said, "It's fine if you're not there, it's just a hat."

Ruan Nan Candle stopped talking and turned around, if it wasn't for Lin Qiushi, he wouldn't have said such a superfluous sentence, since this person was stubborn and wouldn't listen, he was already as benevolent as he could be.

Lin Qiushi looked helpless, carefully typing on his phone: if I'm nightmared by this thing, you must wake me up.

Ruan Nan Candle seemingly smiled: "Don't worry, I will wake you up in a way that won't hurt you."

Lin Qiushi: ".......Why does that smile of yours look odd.

The man in the black bowler hat went out with his companion after breakfast, looking at Ruan Nam Candle's rather regretful expression.

Lin Qiushi initially thought that Ruan Nan Candle was regretting that the man might die just like him, but then he realized that Ruan Nan Candle's goods were simply regretting not seeing how he actually died.

"Seeing can always brush up on your experience a bit more." Ruan Nan Candle pulled out a candy from his pocket, ate one for himself, and slipped one to Lin Qiushi.

"What kind of candy is this?" Lin Qiushi tasted this flavor of candy for the first time.

"Cheng Yicher made it, who knows what flavor it is." Ruan Nan Candle handed Lin Qiushi a handful, "Eat it, little dumb girl."

Lin Qiushi took it and stuffed it into his pocket.

The two of them had seen the corpse yesterday and had planned to go and speak to the mayor, however, halfway across the square, they found that the original three search notices from yesterday had actually added another one. After carefully reading the content of the missing person's notice, they discovered that the town had actually lost another child yesterday, a child they still knew, and it was that Lauren's sister.

"How could they lose a child again." Lin Qiushi frowned.

Ruan Nan Candle: "I don't feel very good, there are only eight children in the town.

Lin Qiushi: "...So, there's actually a death limit?"

Ruan Nan Candle nodded.

At first glance, there was no time limit on the quest the PCs gave them this time, but this sudden search gave them a bad feeling.

What would happen if all the children in the town disappeared, Lin Qiushi felt that he didn't want to know the answer to this question.

Ruan Nan Candle said, "Let's go, let's find the town mayor first."

They crossed the square and found the town mayor in the back row of old buildings, then briefly told the mayor about the bodies they found yesterday.

The Mayor's expression was very serious after hearing that, but Lin Qiushi could see a bit of panic in his serious expression...as if he knew what was going on.

"Oh, thank you, we'll bring someone over there to take a look." The mayor said as if to say, "It's inside the cannery, right?"

"Yes, under a dead tree in the cannery." Nguyen Nam Candle, "Mr. Mayor, we'd love to help you find the child, but if you know anything but won't give us any clues, it adds a lot of difficulty to our work." He pointed in the direction of the square, "We've seen another child missing."

In the meantime, the Mayor was silent.

"Are you going to wait until all the children are missing before you are willing to give us more information?" Nguyen Nam Candle said.

The mayor rubbed his hands, still refusing to speak.

Ruan Nan Candle narrowed his eyes, and with Lin Qiushi's knowledge of him, he knew that he was being impatient by showing this expression.

Ruan Nan Candle's temper was already bad, and he had probably put up with the town mayor's light words.

"Actually, we can't say well." I don't know if it was Ruan Nam Candle's eyes that put pressure on the mayor, but he finally spoke up, "Actually, this kind of thing happens a few times a year..."

Ruan Nan Candle instantly restrained his expression and smiled gently again, "Oh? What do you mean it happens a few times a year?"

"It means that there are strange things in our town that always seem to want to take our children away," The mayor said, "That's why we take a holiday this time of year and let our children stay home."

Ruan Nam Candle, "And do the townspeople know about these things?"

The Mayor shook his head awkwardly.

"They don't know?" Ruan Nan Candle was incredulous, "And what excuse did you use to keep the children at home?"

The mayor said, "Always find an excuse, that's not the point, the point is, there was an accident this year."

Before he spoke, Nguyen Nam Candle took over: "The accident was that even though the children stayed at home, they still disappeared?"

The mayor nodded, his tone sounding very dull, "Of the four children currently missing, two of them are missing from their homes, and two more have escaped somehow..."

Lin Qiushi remembered the corpse in the cannery where the kid seemed to have been caught by the thing.

"So, we don't know what went wrong," The mayor said, "was it the kids that didn't listen, or was it the thing..."

Ruan Nan Candle said, "It's still that thing's power that's getting stronger."

The mayor nodded somewhat painfully.

Lin Qiushi listened to his words, but immediately remembered the black hat he saw this morning... This hat was obviously inseparable from what the mayor was talking about, but I just didn't know if there was a connection with the children's disappearance.