Kaleidoscope of Death

I'm used to this kind of scene, but I have to say that it's a nerve-wracking experience every time I see it.

The hostess heated up the pot in front of her, and then put the meat in her hand into the hot pot. When the meat touched the hot pot, it made a sizzling sound, followed by a smell of cooked meat. This smell soon turned into a burnt stench, Gu Longming's expression was very complicated, in the end, in his heart secretly relieved - the hostess did this, at least it means that the food they eat is not human flesh.

The meat tumbled inside the pot, the fatty layer overflowing with abundant grease, while the parts of the meat turned charred black and were fished out by the woman with a spatula in her hand.

Lin Qiushi looked at the furnishings in the room and the woman's actions, and instantly understood what the woman was doing - she was boiling oil with the corpse. She was boiling oil with the corpses. And it seemed that she was boiling the oil from the lamps in the house.

As a matter of fact, when the transparent hot oil overflowed the iron pot, the woman turned around and picked up the lamp beside her, and then put the hot oil and the wick into the small lamp.

Lin Qiushi remembered the oil lamp in their house, it was exactly the same as the one in the woman's hand, no doubt, the method of making the oil lamp was similar.

While the woman was filling the oil lamp, the sound of a child crying came from the house.

When Lin Qiushi was stunned, he saw her turn around and go back to the back room. A moment later, she brought out a tiny baby wrapped in red swaddling clothes.

Because of the angle, Lin Qiushi couldn't quite see the child's face, but he saw the child's outstretched hands, and saw that the skin tone of those modest hands was pale with a strange blue tint, and they didn't look like the hands of a normal child by any means.

"No crying no crying." The woman shook the child, soothing the child in her arms with a gentle voice.

Lin Qiushi didn't dare to go too far over, afraid that the woman would see him from the window.

The woman paced around the grease-smelling room, her tone and demeanor were extremely gentle, her body slowly deflected so that Lin Qiushi could just see the child in her arms.

As Lin Qiushi had guessed, it wasn't a living child.

The face was puffy and pale as if it had been soaked for a long time, the eyes were narrowed into a line and the pupils were almost invisible, the huge blood-red mouth was open and wailing, and Lin Qiushi could clearly see the fine teeth in that mouth - no human being would have such teeth. And the child's cheeks were covered with blue meridians, further revealing his non-human status.

Lin Qiushi felt his arm being firmly grasped by Gu Longming, and turned his head to see that Gu Longming was terrified of this product.

Lin Qiushi was about to tell him to stop holding on so tightly when he saw that his mistress was actually coming towards the door. He quickly turned around, pulling Gu Longming with him to hide in the corner. It wasn't until they saw the mistress leaving the courtyard with the child in her arms that they both let out a sigh of relief.

"Want to go in and take a look?" Although Gu Longming looked quite scared, he still made the proposal.

Lin Qiushi looked at the door and said, "Let's go."

Gu Longming said, "That... can I look out for you at the door?"

Lin Qiushi said, "That's fine." He didn't force Gu Longming to go in with him.

Who knew that Gu Longming struggled for a while, but still decided to go into the house with Lin Qiushi to check for clues, saying that if she really came back, it seemed like there was no use in looking out for her, and it was safer to turn around and run.

The two of them entered the house through the half-open door and began to quickly search the house for clues.

Since the mistress might return at any moment, Lin Qiushi didn't dare to delay for too long, Gu Longming was checking outside while Lin Qiushi went into the back room.

There was a very small crib in the back room, but what was very strange was that there was a shelf next to the crib, and on the shelf were densely packed oil lamps, and although it was daytime now, they were all burning.

Lin Qiushi was about to continue looking, but he heard tiny footsteps coming from the doorway, and he knew it must be the mistress returning, and turning around he grabbed Gu Longming's arm and motioned for him to leave.

Gu Longming understood and left the house quickly with Lin Qiushi.

As soon as the two of them reached the corner, the mistress pushed open the courtyard door, and the baby in her arms had stopped crying, but Lin Qiushi could clearly see that there was an extra red mark around the baby's mouth, as if it was left after gnawing on something....

"Good boy, good boy." The woman went back to her room, and after she returned to her room, she looked around, and a little suspicious look appeared on her face.

Lin Qiushi saw something bad and said to Gu Longming, "Go!"

They then followed the wall and went straight to the exit of the courtyard.

It was a good thing that they slipped away quickly, because just about a minute after they left the house, their mistress came to the door, and put a large, heavy lock on the courtyard's door. If they had been a little slower, they would definitely have been locked up in the courtyard.

Even Lin Qiushi, who was calm, was relieved.

"Let's go back." Gu Longming said, "It's almost noon..."

Lin Qiushi had a look at him, "You can still eat like this?" Didn't you just look like you were going to vomit.

Gu Longming said, "Man is iron, rice is steel, and you're hungry if you don't eat a meal. Besides, it's not human flesh to eat anyway, so it seems like it's okay to eat some..."

Lin Qiushi was helpless: "Alright."

Saying that the two of them walked towards the place where they were eating.

By the time the two of them arrived, the others had almost finished eating, Yan Shihe was sitting next to them chatting with Xiao Shallow, and Lin Qiushi heard their chat, probably about the customs inside the small town.

It seemed that Gu Longming was really hungry, and started to eat with a big mouthful after hitting a bowl of rice.

Yan Shihe looked at the two of them, got up and walked to Lin Qiushi's side and said, "Coming to eat so late, the rice is getting cold."

Lin Qiushi said, "Well, up late."

Yan Shihe's eyes flashed, clearly not believing Lin Qiushi's excuse, and yes, it was simply impossible to oversleep with a big heart in a world like this.

But Lin Qiushi didn't care if he believed it or not, even if Yan Shihe didn't believe it, so what could he do?

"We've found a new lead, can we exchange it with you?" Yan Shihe sat down next to Lin Qiushi, "We were never enemies..."

Lin Qiushi looked at him, "What kind of clue?"

Yan Shihe said, "A clue about the river god."

Lin Qiushi Dao put down the chopsticks in his hand, "What do you want to know?"

Yan Shihe said, "I want to know where you just went and what you saw."

Lin Qiushi looked at him and didn't say anything.

Yan Shihe smiled, "Well, it was actually Xiao Shallow who saw you guys heading towards the place where Mistress lives, you guys have managed to get in, right? I just want to know what's in the house..."

"You go first." Lin Qiushi said frankly, "If you only take some nonsense to pacify me, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you to get the clues you want."

Yan Shihe said, "Alright, let's find a remote place." He looked at Gu Longming who was still trying to dig up rice, "It seems that what you saw inside the door wasn't very scary." It could still be so appetizing.

Lin Qiushi looked at Gu Longming and didn't know what to say.

Gu Longming finally shaved the rice clean and wiped his mouth righteously, "It can't be wasted!"

Lin Qiushi: "Are you full yet?" This product has already eaten three big bowls of rice.

Gu Longming gritted his teeth, "Count it as full!"

Lin Qiushi: ".......it's really aggravating.

The four of them then found a secluded room in the courtyard and went inside and started exchanging clues.

"I remember you guys also entered the shrine right?" Yan Shihe said, "Do you see those children's plaques up there?"

Lin Qiushi said, "I see." He heard this and immediately reacted, "You mean those children are the river gods?"

"Smart." Yan Shihe said, "Under normal circumstances, a child who dies cannot enter a shrine to be worshipped. But they're different, they're no longer children, but gods."

And because of this, their plaques were placed even higher than some of the elders' positions inside the small town. It suddenly dawned on Lin Qiushi that this was the reason.

"There's another plaque that I don't know if you've noticed." Yan Shihe said, "The name on top of the plaque is Yu Caizhe."

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming both shook their heads, indicating that they didn't know.

Yan Shihe smiled at the sight and said, "You guys first tell me what you saw in the house, then I'll tell you about Yu Caizhe, after all, both sides have to show some sincerity, right?"

Lin Qiushi took a moment and said, "We saw the mistress here in the courtyard frying the corpses in a pan - that is, using the corpses of the two people who disappeared last night."

Yan Shihe sat up straight: "Frying? What's she frying a corpse for?"

Shallow next to him looked ugly, "It's not going to be for us to eat!"

It was indeed easy for ordinary people to think wrongly if they didn't see the oil lamp and heard this passage.

Lin Qiushi laughed and didn't explain, but asked rhetorically, "Who is Yu Caizhe?"

Yan Shihe knew that he had met an opponent, although the person in front of him seemed gentle and non-aggressive, he didn't seem to be an easy target to pin down, he slowly said, "Did you know that the male master of this courtyard is also surnamed Yu."

Gu Longming didn't understand: "This is his brand name?"

"No." Yan Shihe said, "It's his son's tablet." He spread his hands, "I found the genealogy of their family in one of the rooms in the courtyard."

"It's the mistress' son? So the Mistress' son became a river god too?" Speaking of sons, Lin Qiushi remembered the pale baby with sharp teeth in the mistress' arms, could that baby be the Yu Caizhe that Yan Shihe was talking about? But how had he, who had become a river god, come back to his mistress's side?

In the meantime, Lin Qiushi was feeling a bit confused.

"Where's the frying of the corpse? What is the Mistress doing frying a corpse?" Yan Shihe laughed, "I'm not going to believe that we're eating corpses."

"Why don't you believe it." Gu Longming was beside himself with no good feelings, "Have you ever eaten a real corpse?"

Yan Shihe looked at Gu Longming and said indifferently, "Of course not."

For some reason, Lin Qiushi actually had the feeling that he was lying, but of course, he didn't say this feeling out loud, instead he said, "We saw her boil the oil from the corpse and make it into an oil lamp."

Yan Shihe frowned, "Oil lamp? The kind we usually use?"

"Right." Lin Qiushi affirmed Yan Shihe's question, "It's the kind we usually use."

Yan Shihe fell silent for a brief moment, then spoke again, "So what exactly is the purpose of that oil lamp?"

Lin Qiushi shook his head, indicating that he didn't know.

Yan Shihe got the information he wanted and stood up to say goodbye to Lin Qiushi, "We'll be leaving first then." He looked at Gu Longming with a bit more sarcasm in his eyes, "If you're feeling hungry, you can still go back and continue eating."

Gu Longming didn't take any words and reached out, jerking his sleeve up to reveal his muscle-filled arms and sneering.

Yan Shihe turned around and walked away, his back looking slightly panicked.

Lin Qiushi was actually a bit amused at the situation.

"Damn this man is a retard, isn't he." Gu Longming spat, "Just knows how to bully a poor, weak and helpless high school girl like me."

Lin Qiushi silently averted his gaze from Gu Longming's muscular arms.

The information exchanged with Yan Shihe was very useful, at least Lin Qiushi now had a clear understanding of the so-called River God, yet while they were still pondering what that oil lamp had to do with the River God, they discovered that Yan Shihe had actually told everyone about the oil lamp.

Yan Shihe had said it during dinner, and his tone was very flat.

Most people stopped their chopsticks because of his words, and one of the two newcomers rushed straight to the outside of the doorway and started vomiting, not knowing what came to mind.

"All the oil lamps are made from the oil inside the corpses." Yan Shihe said, "Although I still don't know exactly what this oil lamp does, I still think it's more appropriate to tell everyone about it."

Gu Longming was very unhappy with Yan Shihe's behavior of spreading their clues like this and kept his face pale. Lin Qiushi also had no expression on his face and was just quietly eating the food in front of him.

Some of the other people who had heard the news directly got up and hurriedly left, looking like they should have wanted to just throw that oil lamp away.

When Lin Qiushi looked at Yan Shihe, he was right in line with Yan Shihe's gaze, and Yan Shihe smiled at Lin Qiushi, so he restrained his eyes.

"What does he want to do?" On the way back Gu Longming's dissatisfaction with Yan Shihe reached its peak, "He actually told us about this just like that?!"

Lin Qiushi had already figured out Yan Shihe's intentions, "He just wants to know what the oil lamp is for."

Gu Longming: "What do you mean?"

Lin Qiushi said, "Actually, to put it simply, the oil lamp will only have two uses, good or bad, so Yan Shihe needs someone to try it out."

Gu Longming also understood the meaning of Lin Qiushi's words in a flash: "You mean he deliberately made those people throw away their oil lamps out of fear?"

Lin Qiushi: "Right."

Gu Longming: "But what if... what if the oil lamp is what attracts the ghosts?"

Lin Qiushi said, "Do you remember the room we inspected this morning?"

Gu Longming said, "Remember..." the room they checked was the room of the two people who disappeared last night.

Lin Qiushi said, "The oil lamp in that room, it was empty."

Gu Longming stared at it, he hadn't remembered this detail at all.

"Yan Shihe remembered this, so he pressed the treasure on the other side." Lin Qiushi slowly pushed the door open, "The world within the door was originally a gamble, throwing or not throwing the oil lamp both ways was a fifty percent chance of death, he wanted to find out the right answer, so he tried it with other people's lives." He said this, and a little bit of boredom appeared in his expression.

Gu Longming: "Then why don't we tell them..."

Lin Qiushi tilted his head, a bit helpless, "Because we don't know the right answer either ah, what if leaving the oil lamp is the wrong one?"

There was nothing to say.

They both walked into the house and the first thing their eyes fell on was the oil lamp on their table.

Gu Longming walked up to the oil lamp and muttered, "So we're keeping this?" He reached for the oil lamp and suddenly froze, "Wait, have our oil lamps been changed?"

Lin Qiushi: "Changed?" Lin Qiushi looked at the oil lamp and didn't notice anything unusual.

"Yeah, it's been changed." Gu Longming was very sure, "I'll show you if you don't believe me." After he said this, he reached into his pocket and pulled out an object. And when Lin Qiushi saw what he pulled out clearly, he revealed a startled look, "Wait, you shouldn't have done that when we walked in..."

"Yeah." Gu Longming said, "Come all."

Only Gu Longming's hand had an extra oil lamp that was well made, the lamp oil inside had solidified to present a milky white paste. Without a doubt, this oil lamp was secretly taken out by Gu Longming from his mistress's living room when they first entered the courtyard, Lin Qiushi stared at the oil lamp, not really knowing what to say for a moment.

"Hehehe, good thing I have foresight." Gu Longming was quite happy, "Come and see if the color of our oil lamp is different from this kind of oil lamp?"

Lin Qiushi leaned over and found that there was indeed a difference in color. Only the difference was very small, the color of the oil lamp in their house was only slightly lighter, and without comparing them together, Lin Qiushi couldn't really see the tiny difference between the two.

"Right, right?" Gu Longming said, "Did I read that right?"

"Looking down is not wrong." Lin Qiushi took the lamp from Gu Longming's hand, "I want to go to the other room."

He wanted to compare the other oil lamps.

Gu Longming said, "Let's go together."

Once they left the house, but they saw the mistress in the red dress standing quietly in the middle of the courtyard again at some point, with her back to their room.

Gu Longming felt a little guilty and didn't dare to look.

But Lin Qiushi noticed that she was holding another small red blanket in her arms, the same swaddling blanket she had used to wrap that baby in the daytime. Only now the swaddling blanket was empty inside....

Lin Qiushi and Gu Longming went to the other room and made a discovery after comparing the lamp oil.

The lamp oil in the room where the infant wreck was crying was exactly the same as the lamp oil in their house, which was different from the lamp Gu Longming had stolen from the mistress's room.

And if we go by the incident that happened last night, this kind of lamp oil would obviously invite disaster, but instead, lamp oil made from human body boiling is safe.

But despite coming to such a reasoning, it still made one feel very uncomfortable, after all, to use the oil inside the body of one's own kind to illuminate....

So that night, neither Gu Longming nor Lin Qiushi lit the lights, they went to bed early and lay in bed chatting.

Gu Longming was quite talkative and good at bragging about the interesting things he had encountered in the real world, which Lin Qiushi listened to with great interest.

But before falling asleep, Lin Qiushi still got up and looked at the window.

Only two rooms were lit up, one was Yan Shihe's room and the other belonged to a pair of old people. The other rooms were pitch black, it was obvious that either the owner of the room had thrown away the lamp oil or left it on without lighting it up.

Lin Qiushi returned to his bed and slowly closed his eyes trying to fall into a deep sleep. The sound of tiny footsteps outside the window woke Lin Qiushi up from his shallow sleep.

When Lin Qiushi opened his eyes, he saw a house full of darkness, with only the pale moonlight throwing in through the window, casting a white light on the ground.

Lin Qiushi saw a row of figures through the paper on the window. These figures were short, and judging from their height and shape, they seemed to belong to children, and when he saw these voices, he couldn't help but think of those children who appeared in the corridor last night, walking slowly forward with their shoulders on their shoulders.

And worst of all, Lin Qiushi heard that kind of sound of fingers rubbing on top of the window again.

Because the woman poked a hole in the window last night, Lin Qiushi even deliberately used glue to patch up the hole during the day.

The sound lasted for a long time, and finally stopped, as if something outside had discovered that the window paper was unbreakable, and moved slowly towards the other room.

And Yan Shihe's experiments had also yielded results, the lamp oil that the human body boiled down to really wasn't harmful, but rather a tool to protect them.

However, as Lin Qiushi lay on the bed and was about to relax, he glanced out of the remaining light and saw another tall figure outside the window - it was the mistress of the courtyard, who stood very tall and just gazed at the house through a thin layer of glass.

Lin Qiushi held his breath, but he was suddenly reminded of the oil lamp that had suddenly come on last night.

Why did the oil lamp suddenly light up, was there some other hidden death condition other than the oil lamp? As Lin Qiushi was thinking this, the oil lamp on the table actually suddenly lit up brightly once again-!