Kaleidoscope of Death

The familiar bed, the familiar decorations, everything in front of him was exactly the same as the rental house in Lin Qiushi's memory. Lin Qiushi took a deep breath, forced himself to calm down, and tried to walk towards the living room.

"Lin Qiushi looked up and saw in the corner of the sofa Chestnut, who was squatting on top of the sofa and looking very nice. Chestnut tilted her head, her emerald eyes gazed at Lin Qiushi quietly, and her mouth mewed, as if urging Lin Qiushi to do something.

Lin Qiushi was all too familiar with Chestnut's call. He looked at Chestnut's cat bowl, and sure enough, the cat food in Chestnut's bowl had been eaten completely, and it was urging Lin Qiushi to give it more food.

If this were in reality, the first thing Lin Qiushi would have done was to pour cat food for Chestnut, but he knew clearly that he had entered the door, so he didn't act directly, but first took a look around the house.

The house was furnished exactly as it had been when he had moved away from it, even with a few freshly laundered clothes hanging on the balcony and fresh fruit bought in the fridge, the house was full of life.

Lin Qiushi walked around the house, walked slowly to the front door, gripped the doorknob, and gently twisted it open.

The door revealed a gap that was enough to allow Lin Qiushi to see behind the door.

What caught Lin Qiushi's eye was a long corridor, flanked on both sides by tenants with house numbers, not at all different from what Lin Qiushi remembered.

Chestnut started meowing again, it jumped off the couch and walked over to Lin Qiushi's feet and started rubbing its body against Lin Qiushi's ankles, Lin Qiushi lowered his head and looked at Chestnut for a long time before slowly bending down and reaching out to touch the cat in front of him.

Soft fur, warm skin, and I must say, Lin Qiushi breathed a huge sigh of relief the moment he reached the chestnut, and he held it in his arms, scratching its chin with his hand and calling its name.

Chestnut's mouth purred with an expression of great enjoyment, and Lin Qiushi turned to the kitchen with it in his arms to get cat food and fill up the cat bowl.

Chestnut jumped down from Lin Qiushi's arms and stood in front of the cat bowl and began to eat in earnest.

Lin Qiushi watched it eat, but he remembered something, he pulled out his phone from his pocket and dialed a number, however after the call was made, it showed that Lin Qiushi had dialed an empty number. Hearing the voice on the phone, Lin Qiushi's hands overflowed with sweat, and after he checked his address book, many bad thoughts popped up in his head. Almost all of the names in the address book, Lin Qiushi had an impression, but several of the most crucial people were missing... The names of all the members of Obsidian Stone were missing, which naturally included Ruan Nan Candle.

And when Lin Qiushi had just called Ruan Nam Candle's phone, it showed that the call didn't exist.

The feeling of suffocation swirled in Lin Qiushi's chest and he had many bad suspicions, but in the end, Lin Qiushi changed out of his pajamas and left the room, taking the elevator all the way down to the entrance of the neighborhood.

It was in the middle of summer, just before 6 p.m., people happened to be off work, and there was a busy scene of people coming and going everywhere.

Lin Qiushi stood in front of the neighborhood and hailed a taxi, heading straight to a location on the outskirts.

The taxi driver was a very chatty middle-aged man, his mouth has been saying something, if it was usual Lin Qiushi would have echoed two sentences, but today his brain was messed up, so he didn't say anything from start to finish, his lips pursed into a tight curve.

An hour later, the taxi arrived at the place Lin Qiushi said.

Lin Qiushi paid and stepped out of the taxi, seeing the villa that stood in his field of vision. The villa was still the way he remembered it, the orange light emanating from the windows, one could tell that someone was moving around inside. But this didn't put Lin Qiushi down, in fact the feeling of uncertainty in his heart grew stronger.

Lin Qiushi took a few steps forward and walked up to the villa's entrance, ringing the doorbell.

"Which one?" A moment later, a strange man's voice came through the doorway.

"I..." said Lin Qiushi, "It's me, Lin Qiushi, I'm looking for Ruan Nan Candle."

The other end was quiet for a moment and said, "You've got the wrong person, there's no one named Ruan Nam Candle here."

The moment he heard this, Lin Qiushi's brain buzzed and exploded straight away, and he used the last of his self-control to force himself to calm down, saying, "Excuse me, could you open the door? I have something very important..."

The door was opened and a strange tall man appeared in front of Lin Qiushi, he looked at Lin Qiushi and said, "What do you want?"

Lin Qiushi said, "I... my friends used to live here..." he deliberated on his wording, "Their names are Ruan Nan Candle, as well as Chen Fei and Yi Man Man..."

"Excuse me." The man said, "You're looking in the wrong place, there's no one here that you're talking about."

Lin Qiushi saw the scene inside the villa through the gap behind the man, and what he found shocking was that all the furnishings inside the villa were the same as he remembered, even the color of the carpet on the floor, Lin Qiushi remembered it clearly.

But although the scenery was the same, the person Lin Qiushi was looking for was missing.

"Are you alright?" About Lin Qiushi's face being too ugly, the man looked at him and asked a question.

Lin Qiushi managed to smile and said, "I'm fine... I'm sorry to bother you." He turned around and left the place.

The man watched him walk away, knitting his brows slightly, obviously wondering what Lin Qiushi was doing here.

After Lin Qiushi left the villa and took a taxi back to the city, he sat in the taxi with a somewhat dazed expression, unable to take in what was happening in front of him for a moment.

Ruan Nan Candle, who had entered the door with Lin Qiushi, had actually disappeared.

No matter how normal the world seemed, just this one thing alone was enough to send Lin Qiushi into an unspeakable panic.

Back in the community, standing at the door and watching the people coming and going, Lin Qiushi felt as if he had been abandoned by the world, and the environment that should have been full of city life made him feel completely out of place.

Lin Qiushi reached into his pocket and found a pack of cigarettes that he had already smoked a few times, after staring at the cigarettes in his hand, he took one out and lit it up, taking it into his mouth.

The smell of tobacco, spreading in the mouth, was different from the sweetness of the candy, but rather a bit choking, Lin Qiushi only took a puff, then stopped his action, irritably extinguished the cigarette, and threw it into the trash can beside him.

At this time, Lin Qiushi's phone suddenly rang, he pulled out his phone to take a look, but after reading the phone number displayed on it, he fell silent.

On the phone number was a name, a name that shouldn't have been there - Wu Zi.

Lin Qiushi stared at the name on the phone's screen and slowly pressed the call button.

"Hello, Akashi, where are you?" Wu Zi's grinning voice came over.

Lin Qiushi's throat swallowed, "I'm at home, you..." he didn't really know what to say for a moment.

"Why are you still at home, huh? Didn't you ask me to dinner? Come down quickly." Wu Qi was strange.

Lin Qiushi said, "I met you for dinner?"

Kuzaki said, "Yeah, I thought you said we were having a barbecue tonight! Hey, you didn't forget, did you?"

Lin Qiushi: "...where are you now?"

"I'm in front of your neighborhood." Kurezaki said, "What's wrong with you? Is it not feeling well?"

Lin Qiushi said, "I'm fine, I'll be right over... right away." He hung up the phone and looked towards the outside of the neighborhood, and indeed saw Wu Qi standing at the entrance of the neighborhood with his head down playing with his phone in a hundred different ways.

Lin Qiushi put his phone in his pocket and walked quickly towards Kuzaki.

"So fast?" After meeting with Lin Qiushi, Kurezaki said, "There's no need to run here, it's so hot and you're sweating."

Lin Qiushi hmmmed, but his eyes fell on Kurezaki's face. The same looks, the same temperament, even the same tone of voice, the person in front of him was indeed Kurezaki. He walked in front, talking to Lin Qiushi about what had happened in the company, and repeatedly urged Lin Qiushi to remember to go for a physical checkup.

Lin Qiushi's forehead was again covered in a dense layer of sweat, but he was just cold, even with the sweat.

After walking to the barbecue place outside the neighborhood, Wu Qi sat down and ordered food.

Lin Qiushi didn't talk much the whole way, but Wu Zi saw something different about him and wondered, "Qiushi, are you alright?"

Lin Qiushi said, "I'm... fine."

"Is it too hot? Or are you not feeling well?" Wu Qi turned to the boss and ordered a few more cold beers, skilfully opening them and then filling a glass with Lin Qiushi, "Drink this to cool off."

Lin Qiushi said, "Wu Qi, what's today's date?"

Kuzaki said, "Seventeen, what?"

Lin Qiushi let out a sigh of relief, "It's nothing."

The ordered food was quickly served, and Wu Qi could see that Lin Qiushi's state was not right, he asked questions in confusion, but when Lin Qiushi didn't want to answer, he had to stop.

Lin Qiushi wasn't in the mood to eat, all his attention was on the road next to him, yet until they finished eating and left, nothing that was supposed to happen happened.

Back then, when Lin Qiushi first came in, he came out of the door and came to this barbecue restaurant with Kurezaki. The same date, the same time, but the car accident that should have happened on the road didn't happen. Everything was so calm, as if Lin Qiushi's memories were delusional and he had become a strange fantasist who had fabricated things that didn't exist.

"Kuzaki." On the way back, Lin Qiushi suddenly spoke up, "How is your girlfriend these days?"

"She? Why the sudden mention of her?" Kurezaki was a bit baffled, but he answered Lin Qiushi's question honestly and said, "She's fine, what's up?"

Lin Qiushi: "...nothing."

Wu Zi: "Hey, you're weird tonight, what's wrong?" He frowned as he looked at Lin Qiushi, his eyes full of worry, "Is it true that you're not feeling well? Make sure you talk to me if something happens."

Lin Qiushi nodded his head and said yes.

Wu Qiuzhi sent Lin Qiushi downstairs and left only after Lin Qiushi went upstairs, Lin Qiushi returned to his door and pulled out his keys to open the door, but he looked like he was in a trance.

This was all so ridiculous, Wu Zi was still here and his girlfriend was fine, but why had Ruan Nan Candle disappeared? Lin Qiushi changed his shoes and entered the house, he saw a backpack on the sofa, he thought of something, he quickly walked to the backpack and pulled out the contents of the backpack.

After seeing what was inside, but Lin Qiushi was fiercely relieved, he only saw that apart from those standing supplies, there were three very special objects in his backpack. The first was an ancient notebook, the second was the skeleton of an infant, and the third was a silver gun, it was only after seeing these three items that Lin Qiushi had a real feeling - he was indeed passing through a door, and the environment he was in was within the door, but this door was almost nothing like the environment he was living in.

This was simply terrible, Lin Qiushi thought, but if this was inside the door, why had Ruan Nan Candle and the Obsidian people disappeared, where had they gone... Why was he the only one inside this door? And in that case, does that mean that the rules of the gate are invalid?

The only one left would not be in a state of invincibility, and if a mistake was made, he would face the end of death.

Chestnut slowly walked over to Lin Qiushi's side and jumped into his arms. Lin Qiushi stroked Chestnut's soft fur with his hand, looking at Chestnut's good looks, he was suddenly in a trance.

Ding dong, ding dong, the hour hand pointed to ten o'clock, and the clock on the wall made a crisp ringing sound. It was already dark outside, with only sparse lights remaining, and it still looked a little crowded.

Lin Qiushi picked up the remote and turned on the TV, preparing to pick a channel. While changing the channel, he saw a familiar face on the TV...Tan Zao Zao.

The Tan Zaizao in the advertisement was wearing a red long skirt, elegant and beautiful, like a beautiful flower in bloom, just like Lin Qiushi when he first saw her.

Wu Qiuzaki was alive, Tan Zaozao was alive, and all the dead people around him had returned, which Lin Qiushi didn't know what it meant.

The seemingly unexceptional everything was filled with a strange sense of dissonance, like the deep sea before a storm, and the tiny ripples that rippled through it seemed to indicate some horrifying truth.

The television made monotonous sounds and the light cast on Lin Qiushi's face, it had been a long time since Lin Qiushi had spent a night like this alone.

Ever since he and Ruan Nan Candle had established their relationship, they almost always slept together, and when they opened their eyes at night, they could see each other's faces.

However, at this time, silence returned once again.

The only thing that accompanied Lin Qiushi was just a cat named Chestnut.

As the night grew deeper, the lights outside the house went out one by one, and Lin Qiushi sat on the sofa, unaware that he had fallen asleep.

Ding dong, ding dong, the hour and minute hands coincided, and twelve o'clock arrived.

The TV that was originally playing a program suddenly started flashing white snowflakes, and the zzzling sound from it woke Lin Qiushi up from his dream, he opened his eyes and found that the TV in front of him had actually changed a channel. The only thing was that this channel didn't have a channel logo, as if it was performing some ancient costume drama, and the picture was stuck on a very old staircase.

This scene was slightly familiar, Lin Qiushi vaguely felt as if he had seen it somewhere before, but for a moment he couldn't remember, until the picture turned and a man with an axe appeared in front of Lin Qiushi.

With a grim smile on his face, he went all the way up the stairs, his footsteps finally stopped outside a certain room, he stretched out his hand and heavily slapped the wooden door in front of him, "Open the door, Wang Qiaoyi, open the door-"

"Help, help-" the woman's frightened cries for help came from inside the house.

The man heard this voice, but his expression became more and more fierce, he laughed, the axe in his hand fiercely, and heavily smashed on top of the wooden door in front of him, the wooden door which was already not sturdy was split by him, a huge gap was revealed on the other side of the gap, revealing the woman's tear-filled face, she said: "Help, help-"

The man intends to swing the axe again, but the axe is stuck in the door crack, Wang Xiaoyi see this scene, quickly push open the door from the house rushed out, the man's attention on the axe, a moment of inattention actually let Wang Xiaoyi run away.

The man's attention was on the axe, but he was unaware of it and let Wang Xiaoyi run away. Wang Xiaoyi staggered in the corridor, desperate for help as she ran, and the atmosphere was tense to the extreme when a door suddenly opened and saved Wang Xiaoyi.

That's right, what appeared on the TV was everything that had happened in the first door.

At that time, a man in their team had gone mad, or Lin Qiushi had saved the hunted girl.

However, when the TV turned, the girl who was originally saved by Lin Qiushi was actually chopped in half by a shovel the next moment. The red and white liquid spilled onto the snow, her eyes were wide open, and the color of resentment in them made people chill through the screen.

Lin Qiushi attempted to change the channel, but the remote control was useless, he even unplugged the TV, but all the images continued.

Lin Qiushi sat on the sofa and didn't move, however the knocking sound was continuous, and finally became more and more intense, as if it was trying to smash the door.

The sound was so loud that even if Lin Qiushi didn't open the door, other people would definitely be disturbed, but the knocking sound continued for several minutes without anyone giving a response. Lin Qiushi looked out of the window and saw that all the lights in the neighborhood were extinguished, as if once twelve o'clock arrived, the place became a different world.

The person knocking on the door became increasingly impatient, Lin Qiushi slowly got up and walked to the door, he saw the person outside through the door's cat's eye... It was a man with an axe, exactly like what Lin Qiushi had just seen on the TV.

He seemed to know that Lin Qiushi on this side of the door was watching him, so he began to smash the door even harder, and Lin Qiushi could even see the blood dripping from his axe through his cat's eyes.

Lin Qiushi took a step back, he took a deep breath, turned around and went into the kitchen, he picked up the knife hanging on the wall to defend himself, but when he returned to the living room, he found that the floor was already soaked in a layer of dark red blood. When Lin Qiushi looked around, he saw that the TV was on, but there was blood bubbling out from the inside out, and the body of Wang Xiaoyi, who had died in the picture, began to convulse, and her head, which had been split in half, was lifted from the floor.

Seeing this scene, Lin Qiushi involuntarily cursed, but the bad situation didn't stop there, because Wang Qiuyi's blood-soaked hands actually broke through the TV's barrier and peeked out from inside.

At the same time, the man who was smashing the door with an axe actually started to chop up the security door of Lin Qiushi's house, which should have been very sturdy, and he chopped out a huge opening, his eyes looked through the gap into the house, and when he caught sight of Lin Qiushi standing in the living room, he let out a strange and creepy laugh.

To be honest, if it were an ordinary person, he would have been scared out of his mind when he saw such a scene, and he would have jumped down from the building in fear without their help.

He stood far away from the TV, staring at the door that was about to be smashed, an idea popped up in his head, but he didn't know if it was useful.

The slain Wang Qiuyi was about to climb out of the TV, while the man outside the door chopped down another axe, while he was chopping down, the axe in his hand seemed to be stuck on top of the door, Lin Qiushi saw this scene, directly opened the door in front of him, rushed out of the door and turned around and ran towards the elevator.

The man's movements stalled for a moment because the axe was stuck, Lin Qiushi rushed into the elevator, pressed the button for the first floor, and the next moment the elevator closed, the man appeared at the door of the elevator - Lin Qiushi even saw his distorted face from the gap.

"Fuck." With a knife in his hand, Lin Qiushi reached out and wiped his face, he squeezed the phone and dialed Ruan Nan Candle's number again, however, the phone, which was obviously empty, was actually answered, and Ruan Nan Candle's urgent voice came from the other end of the phone, he said, "Qiushi, is that Qiushi?"

"Nan Candle- Nan Candle-" Lin Qiushi was sweating all over his body and he asked in a rush, "Where are you? Where are you?"

"I'm inside the door." Ruan Nan Candle's voice was a bit fuzzy as he said, "Akashi, how are you doing over there, is everything alright?!" Although he didn't explain his situation, vaguely, Lin Qiushi heard the ghostly cries of a woman on the other end of the phone, and he knew that Ruan Nan Candle's current situation would probably not be good either, so he was busy saying, "I'm fine, don't worry about me, I'll hang up first, you have to be well!" He was worried that Ruan Nanzhu was distracted by the phone call with him, so he just hung up the phone.

Ding dong, the elevator reached the first floor, and Lin Qiushi held his breath as he watched the elevator doors slowly open in front of him.