Kaleidoscope of Death

After confirming the purpose of the umbrella, Ruan Nanzhu hid it in the cupboard in the house, then squeezed into the same blanket with Lin Qiushi. After entering the door, his body had been a bit cold, as if it was the aftermath of an injury. Lin Qiushi let him squeeze into his arms, half-closing his eyes and falling into a shallow sleep.

The sound of rain outside was too loud, but Lin Qiushi didn't dare to put paper balls in his ears for fear that he might have missed something. That's why he hadn't been sleeping very well, and spent most of the night half asleep and half awake.

Tonight was no exception, Ruan Nanzhu who was shrinking in Lin Qiushi's arms soon fell asleep, and when Lin Qiushi felt as if he was about to fall asleep too, he was woken up by a miserable scream.

"What's wrong?" Ruan Nanzhu in Lin Qiushi's arms opened his eyes, he had obviously heard the screams coming from outside and opened his mouth to ask.

"Someone's in trouble." Lin Qiushi said, actually he didn't just hear the screams, he also heard the sound of something rumbling and rolling around along the corridor, the sound at first glance sounded a bit like the basketball that hit their door yesterday, but it seemed to be a bit heavier than a basketball.

Ruan Nanzhu got up, walked to the door, and gently opened a crack.

Lin Qiushi followed him, looked out of the gap, and finally saw the source of the scream in a corner of the corridor.

He landed on the floor and rolled forward, his features twisted strangely, his mouth wide open as he cried out miserably: "It hurts, help, help... Someone help me! ....... "This voice Lin Qiushi felt déjà vu, and upon careful thought, he discovered that it belonged to the person who had disappeared the next day in their team. The same victim who had his head chopped off during the day yesterday and made into a Haruhi doll.

"Help, help..." the Clear Sky Doll was still rolling around in the corridor cooing, but the courtyard was once again ringing with the sound of a song, and the children who appeared in the darkness, holding hands, sang that creepy song again: "Bamboo stitch, bamboo stitch, the birds in the cage, wanting to run out all the time, just before the dawn of the night, the crane and the turtle slipped..."

They spun around in a circle, surrounding the one at the very center, the young child's voice adding to the terror of the rainy night.

There seemed to be other people woken up by the screams, anyway, Lin Qiushi heard at least about three or four times the slightest ringing of the sound of pulling the door open.

The clear sky doll rolled forward with a strong effort and would soon roll in front of them, Ruan Nan Candle was quick-eyed and directly closed the door, and soon after that miserable scream came from outside: "Help, help, where is my body, where is my body..."

Lin Qiushi wanted to answer him, your body is in the courtyard, but he didn't dare to say it, because no one knew what would happen if he did.

When Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu carefully pulled the door open again, his shadow was gone from the corridor, leaving only the children who were happily playing games in the rainwater in the courtyard.

Lin Qiushi said, "Someone was just walking in the corridor." He clearly heard the sound of walking around in the corridor after the cry of that sunny doll disappeared.

Nguyen Nam Candle said, "Which way did it go?"

Lin Qiushi said, "Towards the direction of the master's room." Fortunately, he was exceptionally sensitive to sound, so he could know more information than the next person without looking.

"Oh, I got it." Ruan Nan Candle said, "Go to sleep."

Saying sleep, but actually not sleeping much, Lin Qiushi thought about what the Clear Sky Doll had to do with this courtyard, and this umbrella, and those children playing games outside.

It wasn't until it was almost dawn that he took a short nap again until he heard the sound of Ruan Nan Candle getting up.

"Not asleep, are you?" Ruanan Candle asked him.

"Hmm." Lin Qiushi said, "Didn't fall asleep much." But he was in good spirits and felt almost recovered after going to the toilet to wash his cold face, "Are we going to the bamboo forest today?"

"Do you remember how it goes in the song?" Ruan Nam Candle said, "Bamboo stitch, bamboo stitch..." he tilted his head, "Actually, in the original song, the first line is not bamboo stitch, but a bird in a cage." He said, "But there are many ways to translate this song, and I thought it was a difference in translation, but now that I think about it, it might not be a difference..."

"Rather a hint?" Lin Qiushi took over what Ruan Nan Candle wanted to say.

"Right, hint." Ruan Nan Candle said, "That's the only bamboo forest in the entire town that has bamboo, we have to go over there today." He pointed to the umbrella in his hand, "Since we have an umbrella, it's okay to come back later."

Lin Qiushi nodded his head in agreement, "Let's go together."

He had seen yesterday that the vacuum created around the umbrella was perfectly capable of accommodating two people, and he didn't trust Ruan Nanzhu to go alone, together, they could take care of each other if they really encountered any accidents.

"Okay." Ruan Nan Candle nodded and agreed to Lin Qiushi's proposal.

The two of them went to the restaurant to have a simple meal, but when they went out of the corridor, they saw a new clear sky doll hanging up at the top of the corridor... Why did they say it was a new person, because the difference in the facial features drawn by that simple brushstroke appeared, as if it was specifically telling them that the clear sky doll had changed people.

That noise last night was really too loud, apparently everyone heard it, thus the atmosphere inside the restaurant was condensed and frightening.

Lin Xingping, however, greeted them with her usual warmth.

Lin Qiushi casually responded.

"Is it a new clear sky doll? Who's next? Is it that if you get wet from the rain, it all becomes a sacrifice inside the Sunny Doll?" Among the crowd, everyone was discussing this topic, but Ruan Nan Candle and Lin Qiushi didn't mean to talk at all, they had two ugly faces on top of each other and were contentedly feeding each other, happily disgusting the others.

Of course, the focus inside this other person was the Lin Xingping ones.

"Oh, my dear, your rice grains are staining the corners of your mouth." Ruan Nan Candle leaned in, kissed the corner of Lin Qiushi's mouth, and said, "You're really careless."

Lin Qiushi said, "Yes baby, without you taking care of me, I simply don't know how to live."

Lin Xingping reckoned that she couldn't watch any more, so she forcefully changed the subject and said, "Last night, did you guys hear any sounds?"

"I heard it." Ruan Nam Candle looked frightened, "What was that screaming, it was terrible... I didn't sleep well the second half of the night."

In fact the second half of the night Nguyen Nam Candle continued to maintain his pig-like quality of sleep.

"We opened the door and saw the sunny doll landing in the hallway, screaming and rolling all over the place, and finally rolling to nowhere." Lin Xingping said, "You must be careful and stay away from that thing..."

"Okay, okay, thank you Lin for reminding me." Ruan Nan Candle thanked her gratefully.

"Also, we're going to continue exploring the clues today, so see if you guys should come with us or go to the bamboo forest." As soon as Lin Xingping said that, Cui Xueyi said, "Why ask them to come with us? They haven't done anything, I'll never take them through the door next time with people like this, they're simply trash. Sister Lin, don't try to persuade me either, you're almost as good as a good person, you can't protect them every time."

This was still quite reasonable, if a normal newcomer heard this they would probably feel a little ashamed and then smoothly promise themselves to explore the bamboo forest.

Lin Qiushi also had to admire their tactics.

"Alright, my dear and I will go to the bamboo forest to have a look." Ruan Nan Candle whispered, pleasing Lin Xingping, "Sister Lin don't be angry, we will definitely try our best, you must take me with you at the next door."

Lin Xingping smiled and said, "As long as you work hard enough, we won't give up on you."

Ruan Nanzhu then smiled in satisfaction.

Lin Qiushi didn't strike up a conversation beside him, his expression accosting him as he continued to eat his breakfast.

The injustice fighting tea from yesterday, who seemed to have heard the content of their conversation, looked at Lin Xingping as if she was about to stop talking, but in the end, she didn't say anything and just sighed softly.

That's right, the world of the Gate was already full of crises, and it was already difficult to keep yourself alive, so how could you have so much care for others.

After finishing their meal, several of them went out the door together, Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu promised to go over to the bamboo forest, and under the watchful eye of Lin Xingping, they carried their backpacks and followed the path into the bamboo forest.

"Heh, I hope they never come back." Cui Xueyi said this in disgust as he looked at their backs.

"Yeah, I hope they don't come back." Lin Xingping turned her head to look at Gou Yuan Si who had been scared like a quail since entering the door, "You have to get used to the inside of the door early, the low level door people can still help, the high level door will have to rely on themselves."

Gu Yuan Si heard two dry laughter, nodded but did not speak.

Lin Xingping was no longer persuaded, anyway, she wasn't everyone who had taken the door would join their organization, people like Gou Yuan Si were just mere employers.

Besides, Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi followed the path all the way forward, surrounded by dense bamboo forests.

The path kept going up, and they followed it as if they were climbing up to the top of the mountain.

Ruan Nan Candle was weak and a little tired after a short walk, so Lin Qiushi carried him on his back and continued on. Ruan Nan Candle rested his chin on Lin Qiushi's shoulder and said, "Am I heavy?"

"It's not heavy." Lin Qiushi looked up at the front, "Light as a feather, I'm afraid that a gust of wind will blow you away."

Ruan Nan Candle laughed at the words.

It was as if there was no end to this path, and the scenery next to it was almost identical, making Lin Qiushi think that they were spinning in circles. But Ruan Nan Candle was still very observant of his surroundings, and he was very sure: "We're not spinning in circles, we're indeed going forward, although the scenery around us is pretty much the same..."

"How much longer until ah." Lin Qiushi looked up at the sky, the sun was now starting to rise right in the middle and they had been walking for at least a morning.

"I don't know." Ruan Nam Candle said, "We have umbrellas anyway, we're not afraid."

Fortunately, Lin Qiushi's health had been different from normal people after passing through several doors, otherwise he would have to be really a bit tired from walking such a long mountain road, but now even with Ruan Nan Candle on his back, he didn't feel so tired.

The two of them kept walking, walking, walking and chatting until the topic was all over and Ruan Nam Candle started complaining that he couldn't walk any further when he was about to start telling his kindergarten story, they finally saw a different scenery - the path beneath their feet, turning a corner.

"Finally!" Ruan Nan Candle sighed and said, "Or else I'd want to start talking about the time my kindergarten teacher scolded me for grabbing candy."

Lin Qiushi thought to himself that I'd really like to hear that... But he didn't say anything out loud and turned a corner along the path, actually seeing a dilapidated divine shrine.

This shrine had not been used for a long time just from the looks of it, it was in a shambles, and there was a well next to it that looked like it had not been used for years, so it should have dried up.

Lin Qiushi walked to the entrance of the divine shrine and gently pushed open the door of the shrine.

There was a creak and the door opened in response, revealing a dim scene inside, Lin Qiushi raised his eyes and sucked in a breath of cold air.

When the wind blew, these dolls looked like countless heads hanging from the ceiling, and they were smiling at Lin Qiushi with their simple brushstrokes.

Lin Qiushi wanted to lie to himself that the ones in front of him were ordinary clear sky dolls, but judging from their size, these clear sky dolls couldn't be ordinary dolls, but should be the same type as the ones in their courtyard - all made of human heads.

"Tsk." Ruan Nan Candle stood next to Lin Qiushi and slowly walked into the house, he said, "So many clear sky dolls and it will continue to rain?"

Lin Qiushi said, "Maybe the doll is only good for one day? After using it... it loses its effectiveness..." which would explain why there was no time limit inside the door, it was actually there, it was just hidden.

In this door, every Sunny Doll is a human life, and if they want the sky to clear up, they have to use the dead person's head as a Sunny Doll, and if they can't find an umbrella and the weather doesn't clear up, wouldn't that mean they'll never be able to walk to this shrine... until the last survivor who won't be killed is left inside the door.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu walked to the depths of the shrine and saw a statue that was placed on top of a platform.

The statue was worn out, but this statue was without a head.

Lin Qiushi observed the statue and found that in front of the statue was a trough dedicated to incense, the statue was dressed somewhat like an ancient monk, at first glance it looked very ordinary.

Ruan Nanzhu said, "The head is missing."

Lin Qiushi said, "Could it be in the shrine."

Ruan Nan Candle said, "Let's look for it."

The divine shrine wasn't big, and Ruan Nan Candle and Lin Qiushi searched around but couldn't find the lost head, as a result Ruan Nan Candle looked at the statue and suddenly came to say, "Why don't we just get a head for it and press it on?"

Lin Qiushi: "...Are you serious?" After he said this, he then added, "Alright I know you're joking."

The words in Ruan Nan Candle's mouth were snatched up by Lin Qiushi before he could say anything, and very unhappily stared at him with a grudging look.

Lin Qiushi spread his hands, indicating that he didn't mean it.

Ruan Nan Candle ghostly said, "Lin Lin, you've turned bad."

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

Ruan Nan Candle: "But such a bad, bad you, people like it too."

Lin Qiushi: "..." he looked at Ruan Nan Candle's face and actually started to miss his appearance outside the door....

The two of them walked outside the divine shrine and continued to check around. Lin Qiushi noticed the dry well next to the divine shrine, he walked near the dry well and didn't dare to get too close, but instead propped his head up to look inside first.

However, the dry well was too dark to see anything, so after Lin Qiushi had a look at it for a while, he turned on his phone and shone his flashlight towards it.

As a result, when the light from the phone shone inside and Lin Qiushi saw the picture under the well clearly, he was almost shaken by the sight inside and his phone fell right into it.

"Fuck." Lin Qiushi cursed lowly and turned his head towards Ruan Nan Candle, "Come and see!"

Ruan Nan Candle said, "What's wrong?" He walked to Lin Qiushi's side and also looked towards the well, then he and Lin Qiushi let out the same exclamation, "Fuck."

Only to see that the entire bottom of the well was covered with dense bones, which had all turned into bones, but without exception had no heads.

What made Lin Qiushi feel most shocked was the posture of these corpses.

It was reasonable to say that a normal corpse thrown into a well would definitely fall to the ground, but almost all of these bones were stuck to the wall of the well, stretched out towards the top, and looked like they might crawl out of the well at any moment. Without a doubt, these bones could continue to move when they were thrown down the well....

Lin Qiushi laughed dryly: "They won't be resurrected again."

Ruan Nan Candle stroked his chin and calmly analyzed, "It's fine, there's no fighting power after resurrection, it's just a bunch of skeletons, they'll fall apart in one kick."

As a result, as soon as he said this, a clattering sound came from the well, and Lin Qiushi saw with his own eyes the skeletons lying on top of the well wall scattered to the bottom of the well.

Lin Qiushi: "...Don't say it, people have heard it."

Ruan Nanzhu: "If they heard it, then they heard it, if they are capable, they have already avenged themselves, so why do they need to scare us?"

Lin Qiushi really admired Ruan Nan Candle's logic... it was perfect, there wasn't anything wrong with it.

Lin Qiushi looked up at the sky and said, "Are we still going back today?"

"Going back is a sure thing, it's not safe to spend the night here not knowing what will happen." Ruan Nam Candle said, "You give me your phone."

Lin Qiushi handed him the phone, not understanding what he was doing, he saw Ruan Nam Candle turn on the camera and click and click at the shrine for a few shots.

"Why are you taking pictures?" Lin Qiushi didn't understand.

"Of course it's to find us a few more sunny dolls." Ruan Nan Candle laughed and said, "Let's go, let's go home."

"Good." Lin Qiushi nodded.

The two of them then headed back down the path.

Similar to Ruan Nan Candle's guess, it was already dark by the time they reached most of the way, and the two of them raised their umbrellas, and soon the bean-sized raindrops smashed down from the sky and landed on the oil-paper umbrellas. The oil paper umbrella held a vacuum around it, and Ruan Nan Candle was lying on Lin Qiushi's back, holding the umbrella. Lin Qiushi walked forward step by step.

At around eight o'clock, they returned to the courtyard.

No doubt, Lin Xingping was probably happy to see that Lin Qiushi and the others didn't come back, but she didn't know if they would drop their jaws in shock tomorrow morning when they saw Ruan Nan Candle and Lin Qiushi intact.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu went back to the house, and after washing up briefly, they went to bed and waited for tomorrow.

That night, they heard the screams of the doll again, but they were not surprised as they were prepared for the day before.

The next day, before going to the restaurant, Ruan Nanzhu took out a notebook from her bag, tore a piece of paper into many small notes, and wrote a few words on the note - It will rain during the day, don't leave the courtyard.

Lin Qiushi was confused at first, but combined with the picture Ruan Nan Candle took yesterday he understood and praised, "Awesome."

Ruan Nan Candle said, "So-so, third in the world, won't you give me some reward?"

Lin Qiushi: "What reward?"

Ruan Nam Candle: "A kiss or something?"

Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nan Candle, then reached out and pointed to his face, "Are you sure I want to use this face to kiss you?"

Ruan Nan Candle looked at Lin Qiushi's face and actually fell silent. Finally, he helplessly said, "Alright, forget it then, go out and fill me up again."

They took the note and went to the restaurant, and when Lin Xingping saw the two of them smiling, while Ku Yuan Si looked slightly nervous, Lin Xingping said, "You guys are here, how was yesterday?"

"Quite well, we've made a big discovery." Ruan Nan Candle, "I'll talk to you guys later!"

Then Nguyen Nam Candle happily ate his meal, making a few trips to the bathroom and chatting with others on the way.

When Ruan Nan Candle returned again, the notes in his pockets seemed to have disappeared, but Lin Qiushi didn't see how he did it anyway.

After eating, a few people found a secluded place, and Ruan Nan Candle made a show of being eager to see it, saying, "We actually found something at the end of that road yesterday!"

Lin Xingping's eyes showed a hint of surprise, but she quickly hid it as she said, "Yes, we've already said there's something on the other side of the bamboo forest!"

"Yeah, we even took pictures of it." Ruan Nan Candle's tone was celebratory, "Good thing you guys told us about it, you guys are really good people."

Lin Qiushi clearly noticed that when Ruan Nam Candle said this, Cui Xueyi's expression twisted.