Chapter 135 True or False
That day, with Zuozi by his side, Lin Qiushi fell into an irresistible drowsiness. When he awoke, it was a new day. Sitting on the edge of his bed, Lin Qiushi watched the bright sunlight stream in through the window. Enveloped in the light, everything seemed filled with hope.
Lin Qiushi sat up from the bed, feeling extremely tired. He washed up casually, picked up his luggage and set off again.
This time, the flight wasn't delayed, and Lin Qiushi arrived in his hometown on time. After landing, he didn't rush home. Instead, he took a taxi to another place—the school mentioned in Ruan Nanzhu's text message.
That school is in the suburbs and is a high school.
May happened to be the time of year when the finals of the semester and the college entrance exams were approaching, and students were studying intensely. Taking advantage of the guards' inattention, Lin Qiushi slipped into the school through the back door and saw the entire campus.
Many years ago, Ruan Nanzhu had entered through this very door. Looking at the neatly arranged teaching building before him, Lin Qiushi thought of the same scenery he and the young Ruan Nanzhu had witnessed. Ruan Nanzhu was still a child then, and he must have felt completely helpless upon entering. Fortunately, he had found a helpful mentor and made a large group of friends within the Obsidian Stone community, from whom he benefited greatly. Despite its bumpy journey, he had finally made it to where he is today.
Lin Qiushi walked slowly in the school. Although he knew that Ruan Nanzhu and he were in different timelines and there was no possibility for them to meet, he had a magical illusion, as if they were standing in the same place, looking at the same scenery, separated by time and space.
I just don’t know what the school is like at night.
Lin Qiushi was a little tired after two days of running around. He found a corner of the cafeteria, sat down there, and fell into a deep sleep on the table.
When he woke up, the sun had already set. Lin Qiushi looked tired, knowing that the night like a hundred ghosts roaming around was about to come again.
He kept running for his life every night, and even his body couldn't take it anymore. However, some things couldn't be stopped just because he felt tired. Lin Qiushi didn't want to die, so he still had to cheer up and face everything that was about to happen.
He hurriedly left the school dragging his luggage and returned home before dark.
In fact, Lin Qiushi really wanted to stay in the school and meet Ruan Nanzhu, but he was afraid that he would not only take himself with him, but also the ghosts that followed him.
Ruan Nanzhu was already under enough pressure, and Lin Qiushi really didn't want to cause him more trouble, so he could only suppress his longing for Ruan Nanzhu and choose a safer approach.
Sitting on the sofa in his home, Lin Qiushi cradled Li Zi in his arms, his mind racing with the clues he hadn't figured out. From the moment he entered this door until now, he hadn't had any clue about the key. It was as if the key didn't even exist, and he couldn't leave.
So, could the words "no solution" on the clue possibly have some other hidden meaning? Lin Qiushi closed his eyes, leaned back on the sofa, and pondered quietly.
Such thinking yielded no results. The bizarre world at night seemed like a tangled ball of thread, with no clue what to make of it.
Li Zi fell asleep in Lin Qiushi's arms, her breathing becoming even. Her warmth passed through his clothes and reached Lin Qiushi, calming him down considerably.
The room was very quiet, with only the ticking of the second hand. The TV was on, but the volume was turned down to the minimum. Lin Qiushi looked at the silent screen in front of him, waiting for the night to come.
At twelve o'clock, the clock chimed twelve times.
Lin Qiushi sat at home when a strong, burnt odor pierced his nose. The odor was so overpowering that he couldn't help but cough softly. The next moment, Lin Qiushi realized it was the smell of a fire, something he had smelled before from inside the door.
Realizing what had happened, Lin Qiushi rushed to the bathroom, soaked a towel with water, and covered his mouth and nose with it. He then turned, opened the door, and attempted to leave. As soon as the door opened, thick smoke billowed into his room. Lin Qiushi rushed to the hallway and saw a raging fire burning there, spreading toward him.
The towel on Lin Qiushi's face blocked the thick smoke and dust that was blowing in his face, giving him a glimmer of hope. He turned and rushed into the fire escape next to him and went downstairs.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough." Lin Qiushi coughed violently, and tears kept flowing from his eyes due to the smoke. He staggered forward, not daring to stop for a moment. After going down many floors, he finally reached a floor without smoke.
Finally able to breathe a sigh of relief, Lin Qiushi leaned against the wall and breathed heavily for fresh air. However, when he caught his breath and raised his head to take in his surroundings, he couldn't help but gasp - the corridor next to him was covered with densely packed mirrors.
Mirrors covered the original walls of the corridor, and Lin Qiushi saw his disheveled figure in the mirror.
Seeing these mirrors, Lin Qiushi immediately remembered the door he had entered before and the fire that had occurred inside the door.
A strong sense of danger hung in Lin Qiushi's heart. He immediately felt that something was wrong here and turned around to leave. However, when he returned to the fire escape again, Lin Qiushi found that the door of the fire escape was closed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't open it again.
Knowing that this road was blocked, Lin Qiushi had no choice but to give up. He turned back to the corridor, looked at the mirror in the corridor, shook his head which was a little short of oxygen due to the smoke, and made himself more awake.
Lin Qiushi's reflections in the mirror filled the dimly lit corridor. Lin Qiushi's image layered upon layer upon layer on the cold mirror, creating the illusion of an immensely vast space.
Lin Qiushi paused in his tracks. At the end of the pitch-black corridor, he spotted two figures who had appeared out of nowhere. They were a mother and daughter, holding hands. Their bodies had been charred, a horrifying charcoal color. The girl held a disfigured doll in her hands, her dark eyes staring at Lin Qiushi silently. Those eyes held no emotion, only a dead silence like a deep lake.
There was only one path in the corridor, and there was no turning back. Lin Qiushi, standing in the middle of the corridor, felt like a beast trapped in a cage. However, the worst thing was that the mirror next to Lin Qiushi also began to change.
The mirror surface began to distort like water waves, and Lin Qiushi soon realized that this change was due to the excessively high temperature. Flames appeared at the end of the corridor - on the charred mother and daughter, and then began to spread rapidly in the direction of Lin Qiushi.
He was going to be burned to death - Lin Qiushi, who was clearly aware of this, turned around and tried to escape, but the flames were moving so fast that he could even feel the scorching temperature on his back.
At this moment, a pair of hands suddenly stretched out from the mirror beside him, grabbed Lin Qiushi's arm, and dragged him into the mirror, successfully avoiding the invasion of flames.
When Lin Qiushi was caught in the mirror, he was completely stunned until he saw two familiar faces in front of him. They were Zhuo Feiquan and his sister Zhuo Mingyu, who often visited Obsidian.
"Long time no see." Zhuo Feiquan looked down at Lin Qiushi and greeted him in a light tone.
Lin Qiushi was still in shock. He struggled to stand up from the ground and said, "...Long time no see." He thought he was dead, but he didn't expect to be saved by Zhuo Feiquan.
"Consider it what my sister owes you." Zhuo Feiquan said.
In the door with a person as a mirror, Zhuo Mingyu came out of the mirror a few seconds in advance, causing Lin Qiushi to be locked in the bedroom. If Ruan Nanzhu had not used Zhuo Feiquan's life to force Zhuo Mingyu to enter the mirror again, Lin Qiushi's life would probably have been lost in that door.
Lin Qiushi asked, "Are you guys in there too?"
"Of course." Zhuo Feiquan said, "Everyone who died inside the door is inside."
"Have you seen Ruan Nanzhu?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"Him? Why should I go see him?" Zhuo Feiquan obviously didn't like Ruan Nanzhu, and his tone was very rude, "I don't owe him anything."
Lin Qiushi's face was filled with helplessness. Entering the mirror world for the first time, he looked around and took in the surrounding scene. He was still standing in the corridor, but everything was completely reversed. Through the mirror next to him, he could see what was happening in reality. The corridor he had been standing in was completely engulfed in flames, turning it into a charred black. If he had been standing there just a moment ago, he would have been burned to a crisp.
"Let's go first. Don't stay here too long." Zhuo Feiquan said, "That thing can enter the mirror."
Lin Qiushi nodded and followed Zhuo Feiquan into the fire escape in the mirror.
"We'll take you downstairs. Remember to stay away from the mirror when you see it," Zhuo Feiquan said. "That thing will definitely attack you again."
Lin Qiushi asked, "Your incident occurred at the tenth gate?"
Zhuo Feiquan nodded. He was quite calm about it. He even looked at Zhuo Mingyu, who had been standing behind him without saying much, with a gentle look, "It's a good thing, right?" At least he could accompany her in the world inside the door.
"Are you still brother and sister here?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"Yes." Zhuo Feiquan said, "They are brother and sister. Although they don't remember what happened inside the door during the day...but not remembering it may not be a bad thing.
Lin Qiushi fell silent. The three of them walked down to the bottom of the building. Just as they were about to part, Lin Qiushi suddenly asked, "Is this place real?"
Zhuo Feiquan turned his head to look at Lin Qiushi, and used his eyes to ask what Lin Qiushi meant.
"Are you real too?" Lin Qiushi asked.
Zhuo Feiquan laughed and said, "If we weren't real, would you be able to survive until now?"
Lin Qiushi remained silent.
"At least for us, this place is real." Zhuo Feiquan said, "Maybe it can be regarded as a kind of compensation from the sect..."
As he spoke, Zhuo Feiquan had already reached the lower floor. He took Lin Qiushi into a random restroom and pointed at the mirror inside, saying, "Get out."
Lin Qiushi stretched out his hand toward the mirror, then felt a force pulling him abruptly from the mirror's world. He returned to reality, but the surroundings remained unwelcoming—the air still reeked of smoke, and the nearby walls bore traces of scorch marks.
Lin Qiushi glanced at the brother and sister in the mirror and thanked them softly.
Winding down the stairs, I wanted to get out of here quickly.
But things were obviously not as simple as he thought. Lin Qiushi was clearly walking downstairs, but he found that the floor number in front of him was getting bigger - he was actually climbing upstairs, and the higher he went, the stronger the strong burnt smell became. He stopped, but his ears caught a sound.
This sound instantly made Lin Qiushi break out in cold sweat on his back, and even his breathing stopped for a moment.
That's right, he heard Ruan Nanzhu's voice. Ruan Nanzhu seemed to be roaring angrily at someone, a tone Lin Qiushi had never heard before.
"If it's one minute less, your brother will die here!" Lin Qiushi heard this clearly. He walked to the fire door and saw what was happening on the other side of the door through the small window.
Ruan Nanzhu stood in the corridor, speaking to Zhuo Feiquan and Zhuo Mingyu, brother and sister, the words Lin Qiushi had overheard. His expression was gloomy, and his dark eyes revealed a strong murderous intent.
"Zhu Meng, you are a liar who goes back on your word!!" Zhuo Feiming roared angrily.
"Liar? How dare you call me a liar? You came out five minutes earlier than agreed. If he dies here, you will all be buried with him--" Ruan Nanzhu counterattacked with a sneer.
After hearing the conversation between the two, Lin Qiushi finally realized that this was what had happened inside the door.
At that time, he thought he was a step too slow and didn't have enough time. Later, he found out that Zhuo Mingyu came out of the mirror early, causing him to be locked in the door where he got the key.
Later, Ruan Nanzhu rushed into the bedroom and rescued him, risking being burned to death.
Everything before his eyes seemed to be a replay of his memory. The moment Lin Qiushi saw the mother and daughter disappear at the end of the corridor, Ruan Nanzhu ran as fast as he could, rushed into the bedroom again, and carried his unconscious self out.
Then they escaped through the fire escape, right? Although Lin Qiushi had no memory of these events, after he recovered from his illness, Ruan Nanzhu told him everything that had happened inside.
During this short distance, Ruan Nanzhu's body was severely burned. Then he carried Lin Qiushi and headed towards the fire escape.
Everything seemed normal until the four of them reached the door to the fire escape.
Suddenly, blazing flames burst out from the mirrors around them, blocking the four of them from moving forward. Ruan Nanzhu's body caught fire and he fell down screaming. Lin Qiushi in his arms was also engulfed in flames.
Lin Qiushi, watching all this from outside the door, widened his eyes. He hadn't expected what he saw. Ruan Nanzhu's body was on fire, and he kept screaming and writhing on the ground. His sharp cries were like a sledgehammer hitting Lin Qiushi's chest. He almost couldn't help but want to rush into the corridor, throw himself on Ruan Nanzhu, and extinguish the flames.
"This is all fake, all fake." Lin Qiushi didn't dare to watch any further. He clutched his chest, gasping for breath, his body slowly bending over, almost collapsing to the ground. Although he could no longer see the scene before him, Ruan Nanzhu's screams continued to ring in his ears.
"Ahhh, it hurts, ahhhh..." He rolled in the flames, his voice gradually weakening, and he called his name, "Qiu Shi, Qiu Shi... I'm sorry... I'm sorry..."
"Fake, fake, all fake." Lin Qiushi covered his ears, not wanting to listen any further. He was afraid he would lose control and rush in.
Ruan Nanzhu's voice finally stopped, but Lin Qiushi was already sweating profusely. He was trembling slightly all over, and slowly straightened up. Through the small window, he saw everything in the corridor.
Four charred bodies lay in the corridor, two of them hugging each other tightly. Lin Qiushi determined from their remaining clothes that they were Ruan Nanzhu and his body.
They died together.
His head began to hurt violently. Lin Qiushi covered his face with his hands and repeatedly told himself that what he saw was an illusion.
However, this was not the end. The charred corpse began to tremble slowly, and actually slowly crawled up from the ground. The corpse had been burned into the shape of a skeleton, and its appearance was so hideous that it made people shudder. He opened his mouth and uttered Ruan Nanzhu's voice again: "Qiu Shi."
"Nanzhu." Lin Qiushi was breathless.
The corpse slowly walked towards him. Through the glass, the man and the ghost met eyes. The person before him no longer had Ruan Nanzhu's handsome appearance, only horror remained. He said to Lin Qiushi outside the door, "Actually, don't you remember?"
Lin Qiushi took a step back.
"Don't you remember?" The dead Ruan Nanzhu looked at Lin Qiushi with his dark eye sockets. "Don't you remember that the four of us died here?"
Lin Qiushi said, "You're talking nonsense! We're not dead! You're fucking trying to trick me!"
Ruan Nanzhu said, "But do you remember what happened afterwards? ...Those memories were all fabricated by me to deceive you." His voice was filled with sorrow. "We died inside the door, but you don't remember it."
Lin Qiushi really didn't remember. He didn't remember how he left the door, but that didn't mean he would believe what the person in front of him said.
"I burned to death trying to save you," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Then we appeared in the world we are in now. I fabricated brand new memories for you..."
Lin Qiushi didn't say anything. He took out his phone and quickly sent a text message. But there was no reply. Perhaps the real Ruan Nanzhu was going through something serious...
"That's me on the other end of the line." Ruan Nanzhu, who seemed to have noticed Lin Qiushi's actions, raised his phone and grinned at Lin Qiushi. "Of course I won't get back to you in time."
"No—" Lin Qiushi shuddered when he heard this. He quickly flipped through his address book and was about to call Ruan Nanzhu, but suddenly stopped.
He couldn't do that. If Ruan Nanzhu was really in a critical moment, the sudden ringing of the phone on his body would definitely cost him his life.
Lin Qiushi used the last of his self-control to stop himself from dialing the number. He said, "Don't even think about trying to fool me! How could you possibly be Ruan Nanzhu!"
"Why not?" The person on the other side of the door revealed a sad look. "Or do you just not want to accept this cruel fact?"
Lin Qiushi gritted his teeth and said nothing.
"Haven't you already started to doubt it?" he said. "You doubt everything here, doubt the authenticity of everything. How could their appearance be so coincidental? They always save your life in times of crisis... Do you know why? Because this is all a dream you controlled yourself." He turned and pointed at the motionless body lying on the carpet, a terrifying smile plastered on his face. "You're already dead, Lin Qiushi."
Lin Qiushi knew he shouldn't waver, but there were some emotions he couldn't completely control. As the man before him spoke, many terrifying thoughts raced through his mind.
Lin Qiushi said, "Shut up, I won't believe you." He wiped his face with his hand and turned to leave.
Ruan Nanzhu, who was standing behind him, began to cry softly. He said, "Qiu Shi, don't go. I'm so scared to be alone."
Lin Qiushi's breath was caught in his throat.
"I'm so scared inside the door, please don't leave me alone." He said, "It's so dark here, and I'm all alone. Can you please talk to me? I'm really scared..."
Lin Qiushi took a deep breath and calmed down. He didn't believe that Ruan Nanzhu would beg him in such a tone.
"You are not Ruan Nanzhu." Lin Qiushi said, "You are not Ruan Nanzhu." He repeated this sentence several times as if he was saying it to himself.
"Lin Qiushi, Lin Qiushi, Lin Qiushi." The person inside the door was still calling Lin Qiushi's name in the same voice as Ruan Nanzhu.
Lin Qiushi walked down the stairs expressionlessly. This time, the stair numbers didn't appear. He finally reached the bottom of the apartment building. Ruan Nanzhu's calls still echoed in his ears. Lin Qiushi had been constantly checking his phone for text messages the entire way, but even after reaching a seemingly safe place, he didn't receive any more messages from Ruan Nanzhu.
Is he okay now? What's going on over there? Is he in danger? Lin Qiushi's mind was in a mess, and some thoughts even began to arise secretly. Could the person upstairs really not be Ruan Nanzhu? If it was really Ruan Nanzhu... then wouldn't he have abandoned him?
Uncertainty is always the most painful state. Lin Qiushi stood downstairs for a long time. He thought that ghosts would continue to attack him, but the community was unusually quiet.
However, this calmness made Lin Qiushi's mind even more confused. He stared at his phone, wishing he could travel through the radio waves to the other end to confirm Ruan Nanzhu's safety and see for himself that he was still alive.
But all this was just wishful thinking. Lin Qiushi thought with some despair, if something happened here, they wouldn't even be able to die together...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
