Kaleidoscope of Death

98

Accompanied by Gu Longming’s meaningless muttering, Lin Qiushi slowly drifted off into sleep.

Ruan Nanzhu’s thoughts had always been difficult to guess, but what Gu Longming said actually reminded Lin Qiushi of something. The change in Ruan Nanzhu came after bringing Zhuang Rujiao back from White Deer. Could his reservations have come after seeing Zhuang Rujiao? Lin Qiushi thought that he really had to ask Ruan Nanzhu properly when he returned. If something really was the matter, maybe it can be resolved once the two talked it out.

Nothing happened this first evening. The next morning, everybody woke up. Some were filled with energy, while others had black circles hanging under their eyes. In particular, the two newbies were clearly not adjusting well to the world of the doors. The one named Xiao Mian even tried to leave the school, though of course in the end he returned downtrodden and no better off.

“I’ve already told you there’s no escape, why won’t you believe me?”

His roommate was an old man on his fifth door whose name seemed to be Wang Yao. Seeing Xiao Mian waste his time on a matter like this filled Wang Yao with disapproval.

Xiao Mian forced a smile. “I thought this was a prank, didn’t I…”

“So? What did you see?” Wang Yao scoffed.

“It’s completely shrouded in fog,” Xiao Mian replied. “At first I thought the fog was just a morning mist, but once I was outside, I realized there wasn’t a single person on the street…”

That the streets were empty past eight in the morning was clearly an abnormal situation. Plus, this was a school—all these students had seemed to just appear out of thin air. It was a scalp-numbing sight to see. So now Xiao Mian had clearly realized that the place he’d entered was different from reality. It also wasn’t any TV program or trickster’s scheme; it was a true otherworld.

“Good thing you came back,” Wang Yao said, “or else this morning could’ve been the last time we saw each other.”

He was smiling as he said this, but Xiao Mian’s face went all the paler. Xiao Mian spoke no more, lowering his head and beginning to eat the food in front of him.

After listening to the two talk, Lin Qiushi turned to Gu Longming and said, “let’s go take a look at the class where the incidents occurred after?”

“Yeah, sure,” Gu Longming nodded.

Last night, Lin Qiushi had given Gu Longming the hint for this door. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” was a line from the Bible, meaning that what you damaged of another’s, you must pay back at the same price. It had no scary origin story.

So Lin Qiushi couldn’t currently figure out how to apply this phrase inside the door.

Gu Longming also had no idea, so the two wanted to first go to where the incidents occurred to better understand things. They’d work it out from there.

When he’d brought them to the dorms, the NPC from the night before had provided the group with the basic details. Incidents first occurred in Year Three, Class Three of the Sculpting department—within one week, three people from this class had died. They all died in particularly horrid ways, and of course, after the police investigation, it was announced that these had all been suicides.