Kaleidoscope of Death

After telling the mayor about the discovery of the child's body, the three of them went to the cannery again.

But when they arrived at the place where they saw the corpse yesterday, Lin Qiushi found that the place where there should have been a corpse was empty, and only the hollowed out tree trunk was left to tell Lin Qiushi that they were indeed not hallucinating yesterday, but that everything had really happened.

When Ruan Nanzhu saw this scene, he was about to explain, but the mayor seemed to have expected it and said with a sigh: "In fact, we usually can't find...." In the meantime, he couldn't find the person or the body, and the lost child just vanished into thin air. It had disappeared into the town and would never appear again, so it wasn't surprising even if the body disappeared, and besides, it was now one night since yesterday.

Ruan Nam Candle looked at the stake and pondered.

After the mayor left, Ruan Nam Candle still had no intention of leaving, Lin Qiushi knew he wanted to check inside the cannery again, so he waited quietly beside him.

"Why do you think this noodle man has suddenly turned sex." Ruan Nam Candle said, "Did he really become stronger?"

Lin Qiushi shook his head to indicate that he couldn't say.

"Let's go, go inside and take a look." Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi entered the inside of the cannery through the side door.

The cannery had been out of production for a long time.

After checking the machines, Lin Qiushi confirmed that the electricity had been cut off and neither the machines nor the lighting equipment were working.

Ruan Nanzhu's eyes were on the canning machine, Lin Qiushi followed his gaze, but he saw nothing. However, he felt as if Ruan Nan Candle had noticed some details, and Ruan Nan Candle lifted his steps to the machine and said, "This machine has been used by someone just in the past few days."

Lin Qiushi: "...sure? But it's still got rust on it."

Ruan Nam Candle: "I wonder what he used it for." He looked around, and uttered, "It's really uncomfortable."

It was indeed uncomfortable, as soon as Lin Qiushi entered, he felt that someone was staring at him, but couldn't pinpoint the exact source of the gaze.

Ruan Nanzhu seemed to recall something: "What do you think is going to happen to that man in the bowler hat?"

Lin Qiushi: "Maybe it's missing? Maybe die?"

Ruan Nan Candle smiled at the news but did not reply.

Lin Qiushi thought he was just laughing casually at the time, but who knew that when he saw the man in the bowler hat again in the afternoon, he understood what Ruan Nan Candle was laughing at.

There was a very strange change in the man wearing the black bowler hat.

His arms and legs began to grow slender and long, his height began to grow taller, and the features on his face, while still present, gave him a very fuzzy feeling and even made him a bit hard to see.

If it were anyone else without a clue, seeing such a scene might only feel weird and horrifying, but both Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nan Candle knew exactly what the changes on the man's body meant - his body was starting to transform towards a thin and long ghostly figure.

The hands and feet were as soft and slender as a snake, getting taller and taller, and finally the face turned a white color, with all the features seemingly embedded into the human skin.

Within a day, there was such a change on this person's body that it really made one's scalp numb.

Lin Qiushi also saw this scene and he silently averted his eyes.

Who knew that Ruan Nan Candle, however, suddenly stood up and wiped his mouth with a tissue and walked directly in front of the man in the bowler hat.

The man saw Ruan Nan Candle and didn't speak, raising his almost invisible eyes to stare at him.

Ruan Nan Candle's next move scared Lin Qiushi, only to see him smile and suddenly reach out and grab the black hat, then pull-...

"Ah!!!" The sharp scream came from the man's mouth, Lin Qiushi was dumbfounded, he even suspected that he was mistaken, the cap had actually connected with the flesh and blood on the man's head, Ruan Nanzhu's action to the man was to rip off one of his organs, no wonder he let out such a miserable scream.

The man seemed to be in extreme pain from the tug, his eyes showing anger.

Ruan Nan Candle directly released the hat and calmly apologized, "I'm sorry, I just thought your hat was so pretty that I couldn't help but want to take a closer look at it."

The man was complimented, which calmed his anger, and his mouth vaguely said, "I... also think... it's pretty."

Ruan Nan Candle turned around and left.

Other people in the restaurant saw the scene, and finally some people broke free from their nightmarish state, no longer feeling that the man in the bowler hat was a normal situation, and began to take fear into their eyes as they looked at him.

The man ate his food and left the restaurant, the crowd watching his back and falling into noisy whispers.

"What's wrong with him, what's happening to him? How did it get to be this way..."

"Why is it only now that he's not right...is he turning into a monster...?"

"So scary, this is simply unpreventable."

There were countless comments like that, but it was Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nam Candle who seemed calm.

Lin Qiushi typed a chop to Ruan Nan Candle: Won't we go out and take a look?

Ruan Nanzhu thought, "You wait here, I'll go out and take a look."

Lin Qiushi: chant together.

Ruan Nan Candle reached out and just pinched Lin Qiushi's face: "I told you to wait here, just wait, little dumb girl obey."

Ruan Nan Candle's attitude was resolute, so Lin Qiushi had to nod his head to show that he agreed.

Ruan Nan Candle stood up and walked out, and should have gone after the man's trail.

Lin Qiushi didn't have the appetite to continue eating, so he got up and planned to go back to his room, but who knew that when he reached the door, his arm was grabbed by someone. Lin Qiushi turned his head and saw Wang Tianxin.

Wang Tianxin squinted at him with very bad eyes and said, "Yo, little dumb girl, your friend isn't here."

Lin Qiushi's expression was indifferent as he looked at the restaurant, pondering how he was going to round things out after beating up Wang Tianxin here.

It was good that he hadn't thought of a solution yet, but Wang Tianxin was very conscious and pulled Lin Qiushi and started to slip into the corner.

Lin Qiushi pretended to be powerless as he pulled him along, and was also very cooperative with his frightened and scared expression.

"Don't be afraid, this kind of thing is fun." Wang Tianxin smiled very wickedly, he looked at Lin Qiushi's frightened face and instead found it even more exciting.

The man in front of her wouldn't talk anyway, no matter what he did to her....

"Did he fuck you already?" Wang Tianxin said, "I guarantee I'm better than him..." incomparably vulgar words came out of his mouth.

Lin Qiushi looked around to make sure there was no one around, and then he smiled at Wang Tianxin.

Wang Tianxin thought he was willing, and was about to reach out and peel off Lin Qiushi's jacket when he heard the thin lips of the pitiful little mute girl in front of him spit out, "Awesome my ass, I'll get you killed."

This voice belonged to a man, and the moment Wang Tianxin heard it, his expression stagnated.

But this stagnation was only instantaneous, as he soon discovered that he was actually no match for the man in front of him.

Lin Qiushi didn't fight much, but in the end, he was a grown man, and when faced with someone like Wang Tianxin, whose body was hollowed out by alcohol, he easily dried him up.

Wang Tianxin was beaten up by Lin Qiushi and trembled as he was stepped on by Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi said, "Didn't you say you were stronger than him? That's it? Rubbish, get up-"

Wang Tianxin almost cried out, he had felt that Lin Qiushi was pitifully weak and helpless before, only now did he realize that the pitiful young and helpless person was actually himself. He actually wasn't the dumb girl in front of him at all...yuck! A rival to this ladies' man!

Wang Tianxin said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was wrong... Brother, I was wrong!" He was begging for mercy with a face full of pleading.

Lin Qiushi: "Who the hell is your brother, Wang Tianxin, remember this, if you dare to harass me again, or tell anyone about what happened today, I'll kill you." He bent down and said coldly in Wang Tianxin's ear, "It's not illegal to kill someone here anyway."

Wang Tianxin shivered and nodded heavily to show that he knew.

Lin Qiushi spat out a breath of turbid air, collected his feet and tidied his clothes, and a moment later turned into that pitiful, weak little mute girl again.

He glared at Wang Tianxin and turned to walk away.

Wang Tianxin looked at his back, looking incomparably trance-like.

When Lin Qiushi returned to the restaurant, Ruan Nan Candle had already returned, and when he saw him walk in, he asked, "Where did you go?"

Lin Qiushi typed: just now that Wang Tianxin attempted to plot against me and was beaten up by me.

Ruan Nanzhu looked at the words, the corner of his mouth hooked: "Awesome."

The eyes of the others, however, were a bit subtle, and I don't know if they were looking at Lin Qiushi's slightly messy clothes and thinking of some other image.

The good thing was that there were still people in the team who couldn't see past it and carefully came over to tell Ruan Nam Candle about Lin Qiushi being taken out.

Ruan Nan Candle this product is probably the drama again, after hearing this a slap on the table, angry: "My people he also dare to touch!!!" Then angrily left the table, and soon outside came Wang Tianxin's ghostly cry, along with an incomparably miserable plea for mercy.

Lin Qiushi took a sip of the water in front of him and pretended not to hear.

The man in the bowler hat who went out just now completely disappeared, but in just a few moments he disappeared into the town, I'm afraid that it's more or less dangerous.

Lin Qiushi had been mentally prepared for this and wasn't surprised, but in the evening after the day ended, he encountered something.

Ruan Nan Candle was taking a shower in the bathroom at the time, and Lin Qiushi was standing by the window, looking out at the woods and the fog.

The night had just fallen and there was still some faint light, the woods were shrouded in a gloomy fog and you could only barely see the scenery inside.

Lin Qiushi saw a tall figure appear in the depths of the fog.

The figure was at least as tall as two people, standing quietly in the sparse woods, seemingly watching in the direction Lin Qiushi was. Its arms and legs weren't even of normal human proportions, but were frighteningly long like a spider, and its entire body was set off by these slender arms that were both tall and thin, and at first glance it simply looked like a withered tree.

Lin Qiushi was going to withdraw his eyes after seeing this thing, but he noticed that it seemed to have made a new move.

It slowly approached towards the window, step by step, aiming at exactly where Lin Qiushi was.

Lin Qiushi was shocked, his first reaction was to close the curtains, however when his hand touched the curtains, it felt like the texture of the curtains was wrong, it wasn't a hotel curtain.

Lin Qiushi was surprised, he turned around, but the view of the hotel that should have appeared turned out to be another place - his home.

That's right, it was the place where Lin Qiushi used to live.

The same living room, the same decor, the same cat.

Chestnut was standing in the middle of the living room, meowing at Lin Qiushi.

It should have been a warming scene, but Lin Qiushi looked chilled all over. Because there was a person sitting in the center of the living room's sofa, who looked exactly like him, and at this time his body was tilted down on the sofa, even if he didn't get close and could only watch from afar, Lin Qiushi could be sure that this person was dead.

This person, who looked exactly like him, had been dead for a long time. After the catalyst of time, his skin had begun to swell and green water was coming out all over his body. Chestnut jumped on top of the corpse, rubbing and mewing as he tried to wake his master up.

But how could the dead wake up, so the chestnut began to nibble on Lin Qiushi's face. It seemed to want to wake its master up with pain, but it didn't control its strength and gnawed a hole out of the corpse in front of it until the bones were exposed.

Lin Qiushi knew what this was, it was something that he feared deep inside.

He feared the death of a person, he feared that even if he died in his home, no one would find out he was dead.

It might take a week, or even a month, before the neighbors smelled the stench from his decomposing corpse before his body was discovered.

Seeing his corpse being gnawed by a cat was really not a comfortable thing to do. But Lin Qiushi quickly snapped out of the scene in front of him and remembered what the clue had said about the Noodlemen, monsters that seemed to be very good at exploiting human fears.

It knew what humans feared the most, and what they feared wasn't actually the ghosts, but the hidden meaning after the ghosts... death.

Few people were not afraid of death, and Lin Qiushi was not exempt.

But the scene behind him now was unable to touch the deepest part of Lin Qiushi's heart, he turned back to the shadow standing outside the window and said softly, "Sorry, should I tell you that I've moved."

The ghostly shadow stopped in its tracks.

Lin Qiushi said, "I have a lot of friends around me now, and if I die, they'll find out." He thought about it and added, "Maybe we can call 120 and save them."

The ghostly figure stood quietly in front of Lin Qiushi, and the face without features gave Lin Qiushi the feeling of being gazed at, despite the fog through it.

"So I'm not very afraid." Lin Qiushi's tone was calm, not forcibly calm, "Or else you'll be scared by someone else?"

"Bar." Something fell down from the treetops, and Lin Qiushi fixed his eyes to see that it was a black bowler hat.

When he saw the hat, he immediately remembered the person wearing the hat on their team... that person seemed to be in mortal danger.

Ghost Shadow slowly bent over and picked up the bowler hat.

Lin Qiushi had expected him to turn around and walk away, but who knew that he was actually holding the bowler hat in his hand and curtsied to Lin Qiushi - giving a gentleman's salute. Before turning around and disappearing into the fog.

Lin Qiushi looked at his back and was in a trance. Until a pair of hands pressed and patted on Lin Qiushi's shoulder, Lin Qiushi was trembling with fright and turned his head to see Ruan Nan Candle.

"What are you looking at?" Ruan Nan Candle asked him.

Lin Qiushi pointed to the forest in front of him, "Just saw that thing."

Ruan Nan Candle raised his eyebrows: "The noodle man?"

Lin Qiushi nodded, "I saw the illusion he created."

Ruan Nan Candle said, "What illusion."

Lin Qiushi said, "I died at home and my face was chewed by a cat." His tone was faint, as if he was describing some matter-of-fact story, "Now that I think about it, Chestnut disliked me so much, and I don't know if I'm willing to..."

Ruan Nan Candle: "..." he despaired at the extent of Lin Qiushi's cat slave.

But regardless of the process, Lin Qiushi was still not compelled by the thing, and he guessed that if he was compelled, he would be the next person to wear the bowler hat.

"Nan Candle, what is the thing you fear the most?" Lin Qiushi asked him.

Ruan Nan Candle said, "I'm not afraid of anything."

Lin Qiushi: "Really?"

Ruan Nan Candle smiled, his fingers tangled in Lin Qiushi's black hair, gently rubbing his fingertips, his voice low and deep "Really. I'm the same as you." His tone of voice was sure, not at all like a show of strength.

Lin Qiushi then also believed.

"I found out at the first door." Ruan Nan Candle said, "Lin Qiushi, you're very actually... very suitable for this place."

Lin Qiushi raised his eyebrows, "What do you mean?"

Ruan Nan Candle: "Literally, you have a very good ability to adapt." One could even say overly well, after Ruan Nan Candle went out to investigate that Lin Qiushi was indeed the first to enter the Gate, he knew that Lin Qiushi was someone who fit in well with the world within the Gate, and it wasn't easy to find someone like that.

Ruan Nan Candle thought carelessly, good thing he was lucky enough.

The night passed like this, windless and quiet and calm.

The next day, only eleven people showed up at the restaurant - just this one night, two more went missing.

The two missing, both girls, were said to be fine before going to bed last night, but by the time they woke up, they were gone.

Someone in the same room as her indicated that someone had been in their room, and that the window against the woods had been opened.

"She must have been taken by that thing." Someone said, "Bad luck."

The others didn't say anything, but were actually thinking similarly to this person.

Lin Qiushi thought about the ghostly figure that appeared outside the window last night, and he didn't want to speculate what would have happened if he hadn't calmly rejected the hallucination. Would it have been just like this girl, who suddenly disappeared into the silent night.

Before Lin Qiushi could come up with an answer, they made an even worse discovery - another child was missing.

"There are only eight children in the town," Nguyen Nam Candle said, "I think there's some connection between the missing people in our team and these kids."

Lin Qiushi thought so too, and he said, "Why don't we go look for the remaining kids and see if there are any clues?"

Ruan Nam Candle: "I want to go back to the cannery." They looked at each other for a moment and then they had their answer, "Troops?"

Ruan Nanzhu: "That's fine, but it would be inconvenient if you can't talk."

Lin Qiushi was fine with it: "Just bring your phone."

Ruan Nam Candle: "Fine, if you can't find out anything, go back to the restaurant and we'll meet there."

Lin Qiushi nodded.

Then they split up on the street and went to their respective places.

The place Lin Qiushi went to was a dilapidated grocery store in town, the grocery store owner's son was said to be a seven year old boy, after he arrived there and explained his intentions, the owner's attitude was very resistant.

"My son doesn't see strangers now," The owner said, "I'm not sure you can keep him safe."

Lin Qiushi advised patiently, "I understand what you mean, but you should know that the thing is getting stronger and stronger, and if you don't find its lair early enough to destroy it, your son may be the next one to go missing. The other children were also hidden in the house, but they are still missing.

When the boss saw these words, his attitude slightly loosened.

After persuading Lin Qiushi for a while longer, the boss finally agreed for Lin Qiushi to talk to his son, but not for too long.

Lin Qiushi was relieved, and when he entered the house, he saw a little boy sitting on the sofa with his head down playing a game.

Lin Qiushi went up to him and greeted him with his mobile phone.

The little boy looked at him and didn't seem too willing to talk, he answered all the questions Lin Qiushi asked him with a single answer, until... Lin Qiushi mentioned the hat.

"Hat, you mean that black hat?" A hint of panic appeared on the child's face, he seemed to think of something and swallowed heavily, "I think I've seen..."

Lin Qiushi brightened up: you've seen it?

The boy's eyes were unusually frightened and moved to a staircase.

According to the owner, the building had two floors, one for selling groceries and the boy's room was on the second floor where the family lived.

"I've seen..." that thing was hanging in the corner of the stairs, the little boy was shaking all over, and his words were intermittent and illogical, but Lin Qiushi at least understood what he meant, the little boy said: ten days ago a black top hat suddenly appeared upstairs in his house, everyone didn't think there was anything wrong with the top hat, so they left it upstairs, and no one bothered with it.

Lin Qiushi: The top hat was upstairs? Can you show me?

The little boy nodded his head after a moment of hesitation.

Lin Qiushi and the little boy walked together towards the stairs, they followed the stairs up and soon saw the second floor, and the black hat that the little boy was talking about hanging in the corner of the second floor. The moment he saw the bowler hat, Lin Qiushi suddenly felt something was wrong and he paused, his expression filled with suspicion, "Are you saying that this hat was in your house more than ten days ago? You...didn't encounter anything else strange besides this hat?" He didn't believe that the lanky ghostly figure would have the patience to wait quietly for ten days in the little boy's home.

The boy's footsteps also stopped, he turned his head with a blank expression and looked at Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi was shocked by his expression and was about to speak, but then he saw the little boy tilt his head and then his head fell straight down to the ground.

Even though Lin Qiushi had already encountered many such scenes, he was still shocked by the scene and his breath caught. The child's head fell off and rolled all the way downstairs.

The white arm stretched out longer and longer as if it was looking for something, and finally determined Lin Qiushi's location and came running towards him.

Lin Qiushi turned and ran and was almost caught by that hand, he rushed downstairs and saw the head that had rolled down the stairs with a goofy thud, standing on the ground, grinning brightly at him.

Lin Qiushi: "...Mom's head fell off and you're still smiling so happily, are you brainless!