Kaleidoscope of Death

Chapter 65: Doctor

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu

Lin Qiushi could tell Ruan Nanzhu was furious, and typed: calm down, theyre not worth it.

Ruan Nanzhu went silent, but then flashed a cold smile. He didnt reply to Lin Qiushi. It seemed hed thoroughly taken down these peoples names in redcome the appropriate opportunity, hed be ruthless about getting revenge.

Feng Yongle stood beside them, looking at the 502 door tag in Ruan Nanzhus hand with a look of fright. He stammered, are we keeping that thing here?

Ruan Nanzhu, coolly, of course we cant keep it here. The tag would probably draw something over; though it wasnt on their door, it still wasnt safe.

Then what do we do? Feng Yongle asked. Its almost eight. Once it was eight, they couldnt go out.

Without speaking, Ruan Nanzhu left the room with the door tag in hand. He went across the hall.

It was an empty room across from them. Nobody was staying inside. It was locked, but Ruan Nanzhu easily opened the lock on the door. After putting the door tag inside, he closed the door again.

Well keep it there temporarily, Ruan Nanzhu said. And get it out when its useful.

Feng Yongle let out a breath of relief. Those people were too much. How could they think to do something like this?

If it hadnt been for Lin Qiuqius sharp hearing, theyd likely have been a goner here.

Ruan Nanzhu eyed the dawning night outside, and said, lets sleep.

It was eight; though it was still early, the sky was already completely dark.

There wasnt a single rustle in the entire sanatorium, as if even the patients who were so restless by day had grown afraid of this darkening night.

Lin Qiushi lied in bed playing on his phone. Ruan Nanzhu, in the bunk above, was quietit sounded like he was asleep already.

After playing for a while, Lin Qiushi grew drowsy. Just as he set his phone aside to get some sleep, he jumped, whole-bodiedhed heard the sound of knocking.

Feng Yongle wasnt asleep either, looking frightened. Clearly, hed heard it too.

Dong, dong, dong. The knocks were loud, coming from the door across from theirs.

Lin Qiushi and Feng Yongles gazes met. They both saw relief in each others eyes Good thing theyd put the door tag back. Whatever was stood there knocking, it definitely wasnt human.

Dong, dong, dong! The knocks grew fiercer and fiercer, before finally, there was the sound of the door breaking. Lin Qiushi very clearly heard the door across from theirs open, and thenperhaps after discovering there was nobody inside the roomthree or four minutes later, the sound of high heels sharply clacking along the hallway floor.

These noises came near from afar, then gradually disappeared. Lin Qiushis heart in his throat also slowly lowered.

Sleep, sleep Lin Qiushi didnt dawdle this time, shutting his eyes to force himself to bed. But no matter how he turned he just couldnt sleep. Maybe his tossing and turning disturbed Ruan Nanzhu in the bunk above, because Ruan Nanzhu suddenly spoke: cant sleep?

Lin Qiushi looked at the upper bunk, not knowing how to respond.

A moment later, Ruan Nanzhu climbed down in his night clothes. Then he very naturally lied down in Lin Qiushis bed.

He wore a long sleep shirt, and seemed a bit pale. When he lied down, his waterfall of black hair fanned out over the pillow. He turned his head, black eyes silently watching Lin Qiushi. This look made Lin Qiushis heart skip a beat.

The Ruan Nanzhu in this moment seemed, at a glance, perfumed with fragility. But closer observation would reveal that fragility to be nothing but a hoax.

In those dark eyes was a profundity like a deep, serene lake, as if just by meeting his gaze, the heart was calmed.

Lin Qiushi felt a pair of hands hook around his waist. As he was still self-consciously shifting about, Ruan Nanzhus face was already buried in the nape of his neck.

Stop moving, Ruan Nanzhu said. And sleep.

Lin Qiushi thought for a second, and stopped struggling. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep again.

Three minutes later, the two slipped to sleep in succession, leaving Feng Yongle alone with a woebegone expression He wanted to squeeze in with them as well.

But squeezing in was impossible; if Feng Yongle really dared a squeeze hed likely not survive the night. Though he had to note that the sight of the two young women entwined in sleep was lovely to behold.

Ruan Baijie had a sophisticated air, and seemed the mature type. But despite her pretty face, that air of hers made her seem hard to get along with. Lin Qiuqiu, on the other hand, was the completely opposite type. Her appearance wasnt top notch, but was still plenty eye-catching. Feng Yongle thought for a while for the adjectives: Lin Qiuqiu carried on her an aura of delicacy and worldly compassion. Her face was very small, and looked like a cute little animal. Compared to the dazzling Ruan Nanzhu, she was obviously harmless at a glance. Plus, with her disability, she couldnt help but attract some people with particular agendas.

In the middle of his thoughts, Feng Yongle grew sleepy as well. He closed his eyes, and his breathing evened out.

At midnight, the sound of heavy falling once again came.

But theyd learned their lesson from the night before; after everybody had been woken up, they lied calmly in bed without much movement. Lin Qiushi woke for a bit, then closed his eyes again and returned to sleep. Ruan Nanzhu the Sleeping Pill Fairy was indeed impressively effectivethere was no concern of sleeplessness at all.

They slept all the way until the next morning, when Lin Qiushi got up refreshed and energetic.

As soon as he got up he was met with Feng Yongles plaintive gaze, and startled.

Good morning, Feng Yongle said. Didnt you hear anything last night?

Lin Qiushi nodded to signal he did.

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Then why didnt you two wake up? Feng Yongle asked. That thing was scary as shit. It just kept jumping, I couldnt sleep at all.

Lin Qiushi was silent. Really, his hearing ought to be better than Feng Yongles. But if hed been fine with something Feng Yongle had been woken up by, the credit had to go to Ruan Nanzhu.

Ruan Nanzhu lazily said, its enough to be alive isnt it? Youre asking for too much. He cuddled over and kissed the shell of Lin Qiushis ear. Time to get up, baby.

He kissed Lin Qiushi into shivers. Lin Qiushis ears were very sensitivea single touch made his whole body tense up. But Ruan Nanzhu seemed to have discovered this, and just got worse in his teasing.

Lin Qiushi condemned with his eyes: youre taking advantage of me not being able to speak.

Ruan Nanzhu replied with his eyes too: youre wrong. Id do this to you even if you could speak.

Lin Qiushi:

He was speechless. Ruan Nanzhu beamed as he got up to wash.

Feng Yongle couldnt tell the turbulent interchange between them, and was currently feeling moved by their deep sisterly love.

Lin Qiushi sighed, and gave up on pursuing the matter.

As the three ate breakfast in the dining hall, they began to discuss the sounds from yesterday.

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu both expressed they hadnt heard, so only Feng Yongle, grimacing, could say, I think I know whats the deal with that door tag.

What is it? Ruan Nanzhu took a bite of a hard-boiled egg.

The jumping sounds came from across the hall, Feng Yongle said. So Im guessing, maybe the nurse will jump once from whichever room that has that number. As for what happened before she jumped It didnt take much thought to know it would be nothing good.

Ruan Nanzhu, oh, I see.

Feng Yongle, arent you shocked at all?

Ruan Nanzhu, oddly, we already know youd die, its just a different way of dying Why be shocked?

Feng Yongle was speechless.

Indeed, that 502 door tag clearly meant death. As for how you died, that did seem less important.

Leaving after their meal, they bumped into Jiang Yingrui and his team. Among them was the trembling Xue Zhiyun, whod been caught red-handed yesterday doing something nasty.

Lin Qiushi thought hed be a bit awkwardbut unexpectedly, he still greeted them with a shameless grin.

But this time, all three of them ignored him, just passing him by like air.

Considering Ruan Nanzhus expression however, Lin Qiushi had cause to believe that were it not for the fact that murders made ghosts here, Jiang Yingrui would already be dead by Ruan Nanzhus hands many times over.

Feng Yongle muttered under his breath about these shameless fucking bastards

Faintly, Ruan Nanzhu smiled. But there was no humor in his eyes. Theres no rush. Plenty of days ahead of us yet.

The sanatorium was too big. Yesterday, theyd only roughly browsed a few floors, and hadnt managed a detailed search. They planned to continue that today.

But after walking into the sanatorium, Ruan Nanzhu stood on the first floor and contemplated a while. Have you guys discovered this sanatorium is missing something?

Lin Qiushi: missing what?

Ruan Nanzhu, we didnt see a single doctor all of yesterday, did we?

As soon as Ruan Nanzhu said this, Feng Yongle clapped in realization. Thats right, we really didnt see any doctors, only a few nurses And those had all been indifferent, looking to have not seen them in return at all.

So what about the doctors, Ruan Nanzhu said.

Lin Qiushi thought over the buildings zone map they saw on the first floor yesterday, and typed: I remember the sixth floors the doctors offices, right?

Ruan Nanzhu, yes.

Lin Qiushi: theyd seemed to be all locked. Well take a look upstairs again?

Sure, Ruan Nanzhu agreed with Lin Qiushis suggestion.

The truth was a large majority of the rooms in this sanatorium were locked. Wanting to search room-by-room was pretty much impossible. So they could only look for a targeted room, then unlock it for inspection.

Lin Qiushi counted himself lucky to have Ruan Nanzhu at his side, and began to seriously contemplate learning the art of lock-picking once he was out

Most of the other floors were populated by patients. They wore hospital gowns, some wandering idly through the halls, some sitting silently in the corners. Some mumbled to themselves, as if in conversation with something nonexistent. A place that was meant to treat lung diseases seemed more like one large mental hospital.

But the sixth floor was quiet. There were no patients and no nurses. The entire hallway was steeped in a kind of dim lighting, like a reel from an old movie.

Once he reached the sixth floor, Ruan Nanzhu first found the Deans office.

The Deans office was in the center of the hallway. The door was closed, and they couldnt see inside.

Ruan Nanzhu, move.

Lin Qiushi and Feng Yongle both turned their shoulders to let Ruan Nanzhu open the door.

Two to three minutes later, the lock before them opened with a click. Ruan Nanzhu didnt immediately push the door open, instead very carefully cracked it to inspect the situation inside.

The room was quiet, and seemed harmless.

He searched the wall beside the door and found the rooms light switch. With a soft clack, a ghastly pale light illuminated the entire office.

Lin Qiushi followed Ruan Nanzhu inside. Once inside, his gaze was immediately caught by the wall.

The wall before him was packed with a constellation of memorial portraits. Every figure in the portraits looked cold and rigid, their chilly gazes shooting right out the frames. And they all seemed to have one thing in common: they were all wearing doctors scrubs.

Lin Qiushi very quickly noticed that on the highest point above the wall of portraits, there was an empty photo frame.

The three stared at that frame and sank into silence.

Whos it left for? Feng Yongle laughed humorlessly.

Nobody knew the answer to that question.

After examining the picture wall for a while, Ruan Nanzhu turned his gaze elsewhere. The three began searching inside the room. It quickly yielded results. In the corner of a drawer, Lin Qiushi discovered a photograph. In the photograph was a middle-aged man, handsome enough, with a head of short blond hair. He had on a calm smile. Most notably, he wore a doctors scrubs.

Lin Qiushi held this photo, searched the wall, and indeed, couldnt find this persons portrait.

Its not here, Ruan Nanzhu concluded.

So the empty one was left for him then Feng Yongle said. What if the keys in the frame?

Ruan Nanzhu thought this over. Take the frame down and see.

Feng Yongle nodded, found a chair, and climbed on. He reached up, took the frame, and lifted it off the nail.

Its just an empty frame, Feng Yongle said. Doesnt seem anything special. He turned it over, back and forth, and didnt see anything noteworthy on the frame.

Lin Qiushi had been looking down at the frame as well, but all of a sudden felt a buzz in his bodyhed sensed a strange line of sight. He looked up in suspicion, following the sightline. When he got a good look at its source, a chill ran down his back.

Because what was staring at him was the memorial portraits on the wall.

The gaze of these portraits went from looking ahead to peering askance. Practically every portrait was staring at them out of the corners of their eyes. With their stiff pallor and lifeless gazes, Lin Qiushi got an unpleasant feeling. He immediately reached out and gave Ruan Nanzhus sleeve a tug.

Ruan Nanzhu noticed the change in Lin Qiushis expression, and looked where he was looking, immediately noticing the change in the portraits.

And that change was intensifying as well.

The eyes of the portraits slowly began to move, like the dead inside the frames were coming back to life. The frames had begun to shake as well. Lin Qiushi stared with wide eyeshe could see a person in a portrait slowly lifting its hand, looking like it wanted to climb right out of the photograph.

For a normal person, a sight like this would definitely cause panic.

But Ruan Nanzhu was very experienced. He glanced at the frame in his handsand then his next move was to climb up on the chair and return the empty frame to its original spot.

Once the frame was back in place, all the changes stopped.

The people in the portraits returned to those indifferent expressions, eyes gazing lifelessly forward. It was as if everything theyd just seen had been an illusion.

Feng Yongle wiped at the cold sweat on his brow, and swore, fuck, that scared me.

Fright lingered in Lin Qiushis heart as well.

Ruan Nanzhu, the key might be in the frame.

But didnt we just check? Feng Yongle huffed. Theres nothing in the frame at all

Ruan Nanzhu glanced at him. Isnt the frames missing something thought?

Feng Yongle startled.

Lin Qiushi knew what Ruan Nanzhu meant. The frame was indeed missing somethingmissing the portrait that should be in it.

Its missing the portrait? Feng Yongle figured out as well.

Ruan Nanzhu nodded.

Then where are we going to find the portrait? Feng Yongles chuckle was pained. The sanatoriums so big

Well find it, Ruan Nanzhu said. Lets get out of here first.

They left the Deans office, and Ruan Nanzhu closed the lock behind them.

They seemed to have a clue about the key, but still none for the door. They browsed through the entire floor, searching in every corner, but they didnt find any hint of any tunnel.

Just as Lin Qiushi thought they werent going to have a breakthrough, Feng Yongle made a new discovery: he found a room.

That room had been locked, but somebody had broken that lock. And so Feng Yongle pushed the door right open.

That push was enough to terrify himin that big wide room were piles and piles of black bags. From the shape of the bags, they were clearly body bags for holding corpses.

Fuck Feng Yongle called for Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu in a hushed shout. Come look, hurry!

Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu came to the room door, and saw also these piles of stacked bodies.

Dont they take care of these bodies? Feng Yongle mumbled.

Ruan Nanzhu frowned. What did you just say?

I said, dont they take care of these bodies at all The stench of rot had already permeated the room, and smelled particularly nauseating. What is it?

Ruan Nanzhu said, maybe this is a way out. If they have to clear out the bodies

Lin Qiushi understood: you mean what that tunnels for?

Ruan Nanzhu nodded.

Lin Qiushi: theres a thought.

In the background from the hint, the tunnel was where bodies were gotten rid of. If the stacks of body bags before them had to be taken care of, then theyd have to be brought to the tunnel. All the humans would have to do was follow.

Though this was now a possibility, it wasnt easily implemented, since they didnt know when the bodies would be cleared out.

Ruan Nanzhu continued his analysis: The lock heres been broken, so its likely somebody else has also found this location. If theyre smart enough, theyd have figured out the hint here as well.

There were lots of ways to take care of bodies, primarily burial or cremation. There was no crematory here, so it was likely the former.

But there were no grave sites around the sanatorium, so anybody smart enough was apt to understand there was another site for corpse disposal here.

And if anybody had figured that out, they were competition.

Ill go ask the patients around here first, see if they know anything, Feng Yongle said. We cant just wait around, after all

Ruan Nanzhu nodded in agreement with Feng Yongles line of thought.

Then Lin Qiushi signaled that if they needed, he could guard this place on his own. He couldnt talk after all, and couldnt question anybody.

Ruan Nanzhu, alright. Well be around. If anything happens, make some noise and well come right over.

Lin Qiushi nodded in understanding.

The two went off nearby, while Lin Qiushi stayed put in a corner to see anybody else coming. After standing there for a while, Lin Qiushi saw the unexpected approach of a familiar figure. It was the one whod tried to trip them up earlier, Jiang Yingrui.

Lin Qiushi froze a bit upon seeing him. Just as he tried to hide, Jiang Yingrui had already seen him from afar.

Miss Mute. Jiang Yingrui approached Lin Qiushi, wearing a peculiar smile. Is it just you here?

Lin Qiushi watched him back in silence.

Where are your friends? Jiang Yingrui asked, standing in front of Lin Qiushi. Theyre not with you? Leaving you alone in a world like this is very dangerous, you know.

If Lin Qiushi was truly a helpless mute woman, perhaps hed feel fear, even terror when faced with Jiang Yingrui.

But Lin Qiushi wasnt, so against what were practically threats, his only reaction for Jiang Yingrui was a few blinks of the eyes.

Youre not scared? Jiang Yingrui asked softly.

Lin Qiushi still wasnt reacting.

Why arent you answering me? Jiang Yingrui was getting closer and closer to Lin Qiushi. The lack of space between them felt invasive, and Lin Qiushis expression went cold. He pulled out his phone and typed: I dont have anything to say to you.

You guys also saw that room? Jiang Yingrui said. Its all corpses inside you know

Lin Qiushis expression: And? Fuck off.

Say Jiang Yingruis voice suddenly dropped in register. if I put you in a bag and throw you in that room right now, do you think theyd notice?

This was over the line. Lin Qiushi stared coolly at Jiang Yingrui, contemplating beating him up for good riddance, when Jiang Yingrui switched to a smile. Of course Im only kidding. Miss Mute here is so cute after all, I couldnt possibly.

Lin Qiushi thought, you couldnt, but I could.

Jiang Yingrui kept up that smile. You guys just came down from the top floor, didnt you? What did you find?

Lin Qiushi watched Jiang Yingrui, expressionless.

Thats fine, dont tell me. Were about to go check it out ourselves anyways, Jiang Yingrui said. Ill leave you to stand guard here then.

He waved at Lin Qiushi, turned, and walked away.

Lin Qiushi dashed forward and socked him right in the back. Lin Qiushi held nothing back; his kick sent Jiang Yingrui stumbling straight onto the floor.

What the Jiang Yingrui was utterly shocked by Lin Qiushis actions. He probably hadnt supposed that, with such a gentle appearance, Lin Qiushi could so something so rough.

Lin Qiushi just brusquely spat in Jiang Yingruis direction, and held up a middle finger.

Jiang Yingrui,

Seeing Jiang Yingrui stare, mouth agape, Lin Qiushi felt much more satisfied. He was thinking how mute people really werent so well-off, since typing was all words and no presencemight as well shut up and just throw hands.

Angered, Jiang Yingrui began to laugh. Dont think I wont hit a girl

Just as he got up off the ground, Ruan Nanzhu, whod heard the noises, arrived. Lin Qiushi immediately threw himself into Ruan Nanzhus arms with an ill-treated expression.

Ruan Nanzhu, what the fuck did you do to my Qiuqiu?!

Jiang Yingrui, Im the one who got kicked, why are you acting the victim?!