Kaleidoscope of Death

Ruan Nanzhu looked serious, not like he was joking at all, he slowly put the clear sky doll in his hand on top of the stone stool beside him, and then untied the cotton thread wrapped around the white cloth. Once the cotton threads were untied, what was wrapped inside the white cloth was revealed - Lin Qiushi saw a white head that was soaked in water.

The head seemed to have been in the water for a long time, its skin soaked to a pale white like a dead fish, its eyes wide open, showing fear and disbelief, and its eyeballs protruding as if they were about to fall out of their sockets.

As soon as Ruan Nanzhu let go, the head rolled from the bench to the wall with a thud and stopped.

Lin Qiushi looked at the head, and said, "Someone died?"

"Maybe." Ruan Nam Candle said, "have you heard the legend of the Clear Sky Doll?"

Lin Qiushi said, "I've heard of it, but not much." He knew that both Japanese and Chinese folklore had legends about this kind of thing, but the Chinese clear sky doll was called the Sweeping Clear Lady and the Japanese clear sky doll seemed different.

Ruan Nan Candle spoke slowly: "In Japan, there is a legend about a clear sky doll, it's about a certain monk passing through a village who said he could make the rain stop, but after chanting a sutra, the rain didn't stop, so the angry villagers cut off his head, wrapped it in a white cloth and hung it up high... Afterwards And the rain stopped."

Lin Qiushi fell silent as he looked at the head that was foamed with water.

"There's also a Japanese folk rhyme about a clear sky doll..." the voice of Ruan Nam Candle was soft, "O clear sky doll, please let tomorrow's weather be clear. Just like the sky in my dream, if it's clear, I'll give you a golden bell. Sunny Doll, please let tomorrow's weather be sunny. If you obey my wish, I'll give you sweet wine to drink. O Sunny Doll, please let the weather be sunny tomorrow. If so, if it's still gloomy and rainy tomorrow, I'll cut off your head."

After Ruan Nan Candle finished reading the nursery rhyme, Lin Qiushi heard crackling sounds, but when he looked towards the courtyard, he saw pea-sized drops of rain smashing down from the sky. The rain was like a curtain, completely separating the courtyard from the entire human world.

"This head turned out to be for this purpose." Ruan Nan Candle Dao, "It really is the Clear Sky Doll."

Because the Clear Sky Doll was taken down, the originally clear weather instantly started raining again, Lin Qiushi looked helpless and said, "Can we hang this thing up again and still salvage it?"

Nguyen Nam Candle said, "Try it." Ruan Nan Candle then wrapped the head in a white cloth, wrapped it with cotton thread and hung it back up again. Just as they expected, after the head would be hung back up, it wasn't long before the weather outside really cleared up again. The dark clouds that had been dense were gone for almost a moment.

"Kind of interesting." Ruan Nan Candle said as he stared at the sunny doll made of human heads.

"Let's go see who's dead first." Lin Qiushi looked at his watch.

"Good." Ruan Nan Candle nodded.

Then they went to the restaurant.

Most of the people inside the restaurant were eating now, and Lin Qiushi saw Lin Xingping and a few of her friends. In just less than a day, she had become one with the newcomer she had just met inside the door, Wang Rong Hua, and Wang Rong Hua seemed to have completely treated Lin Xingping as the most trusted person in the world.

When Lin Xingping saw them coming, she greeted them warmly and said come this way, come and have something to eat.

Naturally, Ruan Nan Candle stuck to Lin Qiushi's side and said tenderly, "Lin Lin, people are hungry." This would have been full of defiance if he was taller outside the door, spreading pettiness would definitely be full of defiance. But nay, the inside of the door shrunk him by a circle, so it wasn't very annoying.

Lin Qiushi then stroked his hair and said, "Be good, come and eat."

Ruan Nanzhu smiled and nodded.

Cui Xueyi watched the interaction between the two of them with disgust in his eyes, and the ten heads were thinking that these two were really ugly people. Anyway, Lin Qiushi's makeup from outside didn't disappear when he entered the door, so at this time he was still the same dirty man who made Cheng Qianli unable to eat.

The two of them casually found a place to sit down and count the number of people as they ate, and as expected, they found that the original fourteen people had turned into thirteen.

"How come there's one person missing." There were others who noticed this as well, "Is there anyone who didn't come? Still sleeping?"

"The one who lives with... with me is missing..." a man in the corner spoke up deferentially, "He went out in the middle of the night last night One trip, and never came back..."

"Why didn't you say so?" The person asking the question was a girl who got angry when she heard the answer, "What are you doing wandering out in the middle of the night without sleep, now the man is gone."

"I...I don't know, I tried to talk him out of it, but he said he heard something." The man replied, "Who knows what went out and didn't come back..."

The girl smirked and stopped talking.

The restaurant went quiet and the crowd fell silent.

"Alright, alright, you guys stop arguing." Lin Xingping said, "The NPC didn't give us a time limit this time, the conditions should be full of leniency, don't be too nervous, everything will be fine." She was actually good looking, her voice was gentle, her temperament was calm and capable, and she easily gained dominance in the team by presenting herself as a leader when people were on edge.

Of course, this was inside the lower level doors, and if it was a higher level door, those veterans would never take Lin Xingping seriously.

"We might as well take advantage of the good weather and go somewhere else." Lin Xingping said, "Near the courtyard, we haven't even been there yet."

"Fine, let's go together after dinner." Cui Xueyi answered beside him, "It's only right that we join forces to find the clues and the door as soon as possible."

So everyone planned to go out after dinner.

But when they reached the corridor, someone also spotted the large and somewhat strange sunny doll at the end of the corridor.

"What's that?" Someone inside the crowd asked.

"Is it a sunny doll?" Lin Xingping walked over to the Sunny Doll and said, "It's so big..."

She stood on her tiptoes and made a show of trying to take it off, but seemed a little undersized, "Someone take it off and see."

Someone next to her walked over and helped her take down the doll.

Lin Qiushi looked at this scene and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, this Lin Xingping was indeed smart, she didn't know the specific function of the doll, nor did she know if anything would happen if she touched the doll with her hands, but she made such a natural gesture, easily deceiving these inexperienced people on the other side.

The one who took down the Clear Sky doll was a man, and after taking it down, he found that the weight was not right, and his expression immediately changed, mumbling, "Inside... it seems like it's wrapped around a head..."

"Head?" The crowd's expressions changed dramatically, and Lin Xingping also made a fearful face, "You, you open it and take a look?"

The person who took off the clear sky doll then carefully opened the white cloth again, revealing the blistered and swollen human head inside.

When everyone saw this, they all drew a breath of cold air.

The person who claimed that his roommate was missing, on the other hand, immediately identified the deceased: "Yes, that's him, he went out at night and didn't come back." And it seemed like he was never coming back.

"The deceased has passed away, let's bury him." Lin Xingping said sadly, "Although he was separated from his body, we can't just let his corpse hang here, right?"

Some people in the crowd agreed and some were silent, but in the end, everyone dug a hole in the courtyard and buried the head.

But what Lin Qiushi found strange was that after these people took down the clear sky doll, he had thought it would rain outside, but who knew that the sky was still clear and sunny, with no intention of rain.

Lin Qiushi was slightly surprised, but immediately realized that Ruan Nanzhu seemed to be reciting a long nursery rhyme when he took down the clear sky doll, and he looked towards Ruan Nanzhu and met Ruan Nanzhu's eyes.

Ruan Nan Candle leaned into Lin Qiushi's embrace, his body light as a soft feather, he pressed his cheek against Lin Qiushi's chest and softly said, "Do you think it would be funny if I read it out now."

The clear sky doll was removed, and if Ruan Nan Candle read out the nursery rhyme again at this time, perhaps a pouring rain would strike the entire courtyard, and none of the people in the courtyard would be spared, including Cui Xueyi and his two accomplices, whom Lin Qiushi wanted to take revenge on.

Lin Qiushi's fingers slipped through Ruan Nanzhu's hair as he looked at the other people in the courtyard who were bent over digging a hole for their dead companions, and finally shook his head.

After getting Lin Qiushi's answer, Ruan Nan Candle, however, laughed as he said, "I like Lin Lin the most."

Lin Qiushi said, "I like you too." He asked what he thought and respected his opinion.

After burying their heads well, everyone went to this small town for a few laps.

This town wasn't very big, some residents could be seen walking around the streets, and the town was still very nice, with cherry blossom trees planted everywhere. There was also a small park and a clear river, all in all, if it wasn't for the fact that this was the world within the door, I would have felt quite comfortable living here.

Lin Qiushi had wanted to visit a few more places, but who knew that the sky started to get gloomy in the evening.

Because he was afraid of rain, he and Ruan Nanzhu returned to the courtyard early and stood in the corridor.

Sure enough, not long after, the sky smashed down with bean drops of rain, and the whole world was once again enveloped in a curtain of rain.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu came back early and didn't get wet at all, but there were a few who came back late and were drenched.

Lin Xingping originally wanted to move with Lin Qiushi and the others, but couldn't stand the sticky appearance of these two ugly goods, so she made an excuse to slip away halfway through.

Ruan Nan Candle also acted as if he was very understanding and said, "Sister Lin, you've never been in love before, if you meet someone you like, you can't control it at all ah." After he said this, he leaned in and kissed Lin Qiushi's chin.

Lin Qiushi was very cooperative and looked agreeable.

Lin Xingping's expression was clearly distorted, and after holding back for half a day she finally managed to refrain from swearing and said, "I have other places I want to visit, you guys can talk first."

"That's fine." Ruan Nanzhu said, "I want to talk to my Lin Lin for a while longer."

Lin Qiushi said, "Baby, let's find a small park..."

Then the two of them watched Lin Xingping get hard and disgusting and walk away.

As Lin Qiushi watched Lin Xingping walk away, he really couldn't hold back and laughed out, saying, "You're too evil."

Ruan Nan Candle disdainfully said, "I thought she could endure for how long, to be honest, I kind of regret making you so ugly, it's pretty disgusting to say that to your face."

Lin Qiushi was full of innocence thinking to himself that it wasn't all your own make-up... why are you blaming me....

Not long after they returned to the courtyard, heavy rain began to fall from the sky, and Lin Qiushi saw a few late arrivals hurrying back from outside, drenched in rainwater.

"Why is this rain just falling." Someone was still grumbling as he entered the house and went up the hallway, his water-soaked body leaving a series of footprints on the wooden floor of the hallway.

Lin Qiushi suddenly noticed that the old man who had led them here on the first day was standing quietly in the corner as these people entered the house, and his eyes seemed to fall on those footprints on the floor, and he didn't take his eyes off them for a long time. Lin Qiushi inexplicably felt that his eyes were a bit rear-ended.

"And we're told to bring an umbrella, where's the umbrella, really..." the man muttered and entered the house, his voice fading away.

But when they went out, they did look for umbrellas in the house, but there was no sign of them at all. Everyone looked at the weather and thought it shouldn't rain, so they just went out, but who knew that the rain would come so suddenly that those who weren't prepared would be directly drenched.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu also went back to the house after finishing their food.

It started to rain again outside, Lin Qiushi sat on the bed and lowered his head to play Sudoku for a while, Ruan Nan Candle was next to him and seemed to be thinking about something.

Suddenly, he said, "I always feel that there's something wrong."

"What?" Lin Qiushi turned his head to look at him.

"Usually inside a door, there is no time limit, this door is peaceful and peaceful." Ruan Nan Candle Dao, "Something is very wrong."

Lin Qiushi thought about it carefully, it was true, normally inside a door, there would be a clear time limit, but this time the NPC didn't say the final death limit. This was a very unusual situation, he said, "Is there something we haven't discovered?"

"It should be." Ruan Nan Candle said, "but it's only the first day, so there's no need to rush." Some patterns had to be confirmed with time, he had a guess now, but it was only a guess.

Lin Qiushi, however, thought of the nursery rhyme that came from within the rain curtain yesterday, and he said, "I... want to look outside tonight..."

Ruan Nan Candle blinked: "Aren't you afraid? What if seeing them is a death condition?"

Lin Qiushi shook his head, "I don't think so, since someone left the house to go out last night, there must have been others who heard the nursery rhyme, but they were all fine."

"That's right." Ruan Nan Candle lazily said, "You'll wake me up then, we'll watch together, and if there's an accident, we can take care of each other."

"Good." Lin Qiushi responded to Ruan Nan Candle's good intentions.

The sound of the rain, to Lin Qiushi, who had keen hearing, said that it was a very annoying thing. Even with Ruan Nan Candle lying beside him, he was somewhat unable to sleep from the noise. Ruan Nan Candle suggested that he find a paper ball to plug his ears, but Lin Qiushi refused.

"Let's wait until after tonight." Lin Qiushi said, "It'll be troublesome in case you fall asleep in the middle of the night."

"Alright." Ruan Nanzhu didn't press the issue.

The two of them retreated into their blankets and Ruan Nan Candle soon fell asleep, while Lin Qiushi had all the light and strange dreams in between half-asleep and half-awake.

These dreams were messy and illogical, Lin Qiushi even somehow dreamed that he was getting married, only to lift the bride's red cover and find Ruan Nan Candle's face underneath it. When he saw Ruan Nam Candle's face, Lin Qiushi instantly woke up from his dream, breathing heavily and staring at the ceiling that was plunged into darkness, the faint sound of a nursery rhyme came back to his ears: Bamboo stitch... Bamboo stitch... Bird in a cage ........

Lin Qiushi sat up from the bed and pushed Ruan Nan Candle awake.

Ruan Nan Candle opened his eyes, there was still some hazy sleep in them, but it quickly disappeared and he lowered his voice, "Coming?"

Lin Qiushi nodded and pointed at the door.

Ruan Nan Candle said, "Let's go."

The two of them slowly moved to the doorway and opened the wooden door a crack, seeing the scene outside.

Because it was very dark, Lin Qiushi couldn't see very clearly, he could only dimly see inside the courtyard, a few children holding hands, circling around something, and after Lin Qiushi carefully identified it, he realized that what they were circling around was actually a shivering person.

"Bamboo seam, bamboo seam, a bird in a cage, wanting to be thrown out all the time, just that night before dawn, the crane and the turtle slipped, who is it that faces you behind?" . the children stopped when the song reached its last line, their faces pale, their whole cheeks showing a kind of puffiness that had been blistered out of them, and repeated the line, "Who is it that faces you behind?"

The one who was surrounded didn't speak, or perhaps he said something that Lin Qiushi didn't hear.

Then he heard a soft thud, and the man's head and body were separated.

"Giggle giggle giggle" the clear voices of the children rang out, they seemed to be very happy and said, "It's your turn to be a ghost, it's your turn to be a ghost."

The headless corpse then slowly stood up, turned around slowly, and took over the position of the child behind him.

And only then did Lin Qiushi realize that another corpse without a head was also among them, and was now linked hand in hand with the two children.

The person who had been killed in place of the children... had become a ghost.

Lin Qiushi finally dawned at this moment.

The song sounded again, and the things in the courtyard happily turned in circles towards the outside, the heavy rain blurring their silhouettes so that Lin Qiushi couldn't see them clearly. But Ruan Nan Candle was originally leaning behind Lin Qiushi, but his breathing suddenly quickened as he said, "Did you see that?"

"What?" Lin Qiushi didn't understand.

"There." Ruan Nan Candle pointed to the corner of the courtyard.

Lin Qiushi looked but couldn't see anything, the corner was too dark, his eyesight was quite good but it was only that of an ordinary person, it didn't compare to Ruan Nan Candle: "I can't see..."

Ruan Nan Candle said, "Can't see?" He raised an eyebrow, "Well, if you can't see it, forget it."

"What is it?" Lin Qiushi asked.

Ruan Nam Candle: "It was a man standing there with an umbrella." He said, "It seemed like he was watching us."

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

Ruan Nan Candle: "Forget them, let's sleep or it'll all be light."

"Good." Lin Qiushi nodded.

After they closed the door, they lay back on the bed and were about to fall asleep, but then they heard thumping sounds coming from outside the house.

This sound was familiar to Lin Qiushi, and his expression immediately changed: "There's the sound of a ball."

Ruan Nan Candle sat up from his bed.

The ball hit their door frame with a thud, both Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nan Candle stood still, but they saw the door in front of them, pulled open by a small pair of hands, a small slit, then a black hole eye, appeared on the other side of the slit.

There was a little girl's tender voice, and she asked, "Have you seen my ball?"

Neither Lin Qiushi nor Ruan Nam Candle spoke.

So the little girl asked again, "Have you seen my ball?" She pulled the door open a little, and Lin Qiushi saw her face, a rotten half-cheeked face, showing white teeth, and she was covered in water, making a black stain on the floor.

"You saw..." the little girl intended to repeat a third time.

But Ruanan Candle opened his mouth, and he said; "You're wetting the floor."

The girl's movements stopped all of a sudden, as if she had heard some terrible words, she turned around and disappeared on the other side of the door. Lin Qiushi heard the thud again, and the ball, as if it were alive, stopped at their door. Then, a pair of small hands carried the ball away from their doorway.

Everything went silent.

"You can sleep now," Ruan Nan Candle said, "Go to sleep."

Lin Qiushi hmmmed and got up to pull the door over, it had no lock on it at all, it would be easy enough to pull it open. But there was no safer place to sleep.

"Sleep." Ruan Nan Candle shrank into Lin Qiushi's arms.

Lin Qiushi embraced him, somehow feeling somewhat at ease as he tucked the paper ball into his ear, his breathing soon evened out and they fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, Lin Qiushi slept until sunrise.

When he woke up, he saw Ruan Nan Candle playing with his phone with his head down, climbing up and saying blankly, "What time is it?"

"Eleven o'clock." Ruan Nam Candle said, "Awake?"

Lin Qiushi was in a state of shock: "Why didn't you call me at this late hour?"

"You're too sleepy, it's good to get some more sleep." Ruan Nan Candle said, "Get up."

Lin Qiushi nodded and was getting dressed when he heard Ruan Nan Candle add, "They found a new clear sky doll with the head of the person who died last night wrapped inside."

This had been expected by Lin Qiushi, and he just sighed softly after hearing it.