Chapter 15 Ruan Nanzhu
The warm water washed away the sweat and heat from his body. After taking a shower, Lin Qiushi sat in front of the computer and typed four words on the keyboard: Philxia Bird.
Philxia Bird, these were the four words written on the piece of paper he picked up at the door. Lin Qiushi couldn't figure out what it meant, so he thought of looking for the answer online.
A few tenths of a second later, what Lin Qiushi wanted appeared on the web page. He clicked on the first link and found that it was a forum where people were discussing Grimm's fairy tales, one of which was called The Shire Birds.
The Firsha Bird, also known as the Firsha Bird due to different translations, tells the story of three sisters and a wizard disguised as a beggar.
The story goes that a wizard disguises himself as a beggar and goes around capturing brides. He gives each bride a key and an egg, telling her he'll be away for a few days and asking her not to enter a certain room. Curious, the girl uses the key to open a forbidden door after the wizard leaves. Upon seeing the corpses scattered across the floor, the egg falls to the ground.
The egg fell to the ground, stained with red blood. The girl couldn't wipe it clean. When the wizard returned, he saw the red stain on the egg and dragged the girl into the room, where he hacked her into pieces with a knife. Of the three sisters in the story, only the youngest sister survived. In the end, she used her wisdom to save her sisters and kill the wizard.
They say fairy tales are for children, but Lin Qiushi found this story horrifying. The scene where the little sister puts her sisters' bodies together and happily watches them resurrect is particularly creepy.
This story is somewhat similar to Bluebeard, but it always feels a little bloodier than that one.
But what did the Philxia bird on the note mean? Lin Qiushi fell into deep thought. He wanted to connect these words with his own experience, but felt that it was a bit far-fetched.
But since this wasn't a previous experience, could it be a prophecy of the future? Lin Qiushi thought of the twelve dark doors, and the ominous feeling grew stronger.
Unable to get an answer, he lay back on the bed and began to stare at the ceiling in a daze.
He had been planning to quit his job and return to his hometown recently, but now this incident suddenly happened and all his plans were disrupted.
What happened inside the door was completely beyond his comprehension and could not be explained by common sense. He was at a loss for a moment and felt his thoughts were a little confused.
As he pondered this, Lin Qiushi slowly fell into a light sleep. His sleep quality was average, and any noise in the room would wake him immediately. In his drowsiness, Lin Qiushi heard a slight noise. Thinking it was Li Zi, he called out vaguely, "Li Zi..."
No response.
The sound disappeared, but a faint fragrance appeared in Lin Qiushi's nose. The fragrance was a little special, like the breath of ice and snow. At the same time, he felt a strange gaze with his eyes closed.
This was a feeling that was hard to describe. Although Lin Qiushi had his eyes closed, he could clearly feel someone looking at him. The gaze was so scorching that goose bumps slowly appeared on his back even though he was about to fall asleep.
...There was someone in his room. Lin Qiushi gradually regained consciousness and realized this clearly.
"How come you wake up so easily?" A strange male voice suddenly sounded. The voice was so close that the hot breath seemed to hit Lin Qiushi's ears.
Being discovered pretending to sleep, Lin Qiushi had no choice but to open his eyes.
The lights were off in the room, so he could only barely make out the visitor's features in the moonlight. He was an extremely handsome man, but despite his beauty, he didn't have a trace of femininity. He tilted his head slightly, looking at Lin Qiushi with a smile. His dark eyes were hidden in the darkness, making it impossible for Lin Qiushi to accurately judge his current mood.
"Awake?" The man gently stroked Lin Qiushi's lips with his fingers. His fingers were very cold, without the warmth that humans should have, but they were delicate enough, like jade.
Lin Qiushi instinctively tried to dodge, but the man grabbed his wrist directly. The man was extremely strong, and his hands were like iron shackles. Even when Lin Qiushi wanted to struggle, he felt a dull pain in his wrist - as if if the man exerted a little more force, his hand would break directly.
"Who are you?" Lin Qiushi asked, "Breaking into a private residence is illegal—"
The man was amused by Lin Qiushi. He slowly approached, carefully observing Lin Qiushi's appearance, and then whispered softly, "Just as cute as I imagined."
Lin Qiushi was horrified by these words.
Just when he thought the man would do something even more outrageous, he simply let go of his hand and casually turned on the bedside lamp.
Light once again enveloped the entire room, dispelling the unknown and fear brought by the darkness. Lin Qiushi could finally see the person in front of him clearly.
The man looked even better than he had imagined, but he was also a stranger. Their eyes met. Perhaps sensing the wariness and subtle panic in Lin Qiushi's gaze, the man smiled again. He extended his hand to Lin Qiushi and spoke gently, "Welcome to the world of doors."
Lin Qiushi didn't answer. He looked suspicious: "Who are you? Why are you in my house?"
The man didn't mind Lin Qiushi's cold attitude. He said, "Hello, Lin Qiushi. My name is Ruan Nanzhu. I know you have a lot of questions, but I can answer them all now."
Lin Qiushi pursed his lips, his expression looking a little stubborn.
Ruan Nanzhu raised his hand and looked at his watch: "You have ten minutes to get dressed, and then I will take you somewhere."
Lin Qiushi had just opened his mouth when Ruan Nanzhu interrupted him. This handsome, seemingly harmless man exuded a strong sense of oppression. His smile was so intense it made people's nerves tense: "You have no right to refuse."
Lin Qiushi looked helpless. He had just tested Ruan Nanzhu's strength and knew that he had no chance of winning in a head-on confrontation.
The atmosphere became somewhat tense. Just as Lin Qiushi was pondering whether or not to obey the man's order, Li Zi, who had been lying in the living room, suddenly appeared in the bedroom, meowing softly and rubbing his head against Ruan Nanzhu's calf.
Ruan Nanzhu's strong sense of oppression disappeared instantly. He bent down, picked up Li Zi, and scratched its chin skillfully: "You also have a cat?"
Lin Qiushi said, "Um...you..." He wanted to ask about Ruan Nanzhu's identity, but when the words reached his lips, he felt that Ruan Nanzhu would not answer his question as he hoped. However, he remembered something and asked hesitantly, "What is your relationship with Ruan Baijie?" The surname Ruan was not common, and the man had also said that he welcomed him to the world of doors. It must be related to those twelve iron gates.
Ruan Nanzhu didn't answer, "You have seven minutes."
Lin Qiushi looked helpless, thinking that while this man might be good-looking, his temper was harder than stone. So, he considered himself unlucky and started getting dressed. Fortunately, it was summer; getting dressed only took a few minutes.
Seven minutes later, the two appeared downstairs on time.
When Lin Qiushi left his home, he looked at his door lock with great confusion and saw that it was intact, without any signs of damage.
Ruan Nanzhu seemed to guess what he was thinking and pointed casually: "I came in through the window."
Lin Qiushi: "...Haha, you really know how to joke." His home is on the 16th floor. There must be some obstruction outside. Could Ruan Nanzhu have flown in through the window?
Seeing that he didn't believe it, Ruan Nanzhu turned around and left without explaining.
Lin Qiushi followed behind him and muttered softly, saying that trespassing into a private residence was illegal.
Ruan Nanzhu: "Why don't you call the police?"
Lin Qiushi: “…”
The two went downstairs to the garage, but they didn't expect that there was someone else sitting in the car in the garage. The person sitting in the driver's seat looked like he was about to fall asleep.
Ruan Nanzhu reached out and tapped the glass: "Cheng Qianli."
The young man named Cheng Qianli finally woke up, rubbing his eyes and said, "Brother Ruan, you're done so soon?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Let's go."
Cheng Qianli hummed, then turned to look at Lin Qiushi, "He's really cute."
Lin Qiushi: "..." Being called cute by a teenage boy really didn't make him happy at all. Honestly, if Ruan Nanzhu hadn't mentioned the door earlier, he would have thought they were a gang of human traffickers.
When Cheng Qianli was looking at him, Lin Qiushi was also looking at him. The boy looked to be only sixteen or seventeen years old. His voice was still changing and his face had traces of childishness.
Lin Qiushi, observing this situation, suddenly sat up straight in the back seat. A key question occurred to him...
Ruan Nanzhu saw that he looked nervous and asked, "What's wrong?"
Lin Qiushi: "Excuse me, how old is your friend?"
Ruan Nanzhu: “?”
Cheng Qianli, who was sitting in the front, said, "I'm sixteen." He thought Lin Qiushi was going to lament his young age and was about to show off, but Lin Qiushi muttered, "Sixteen... you don't have a driver's license, do you?"
Cheng Qianli: "..." He is worthy of being the man that Brother Ruan likes. His way of thinking is different from that of normal people.
Ruan Nanzhu also laughed and said, "I've met so many people, and you're the first one to ask this question."
Lin Qiushi: "So you have a driver's license? I just saw someone die in a car accident today. How about I drive? I'm a pretty good driver."
The car fell into an unspeakable silence.
Cheng Qianli sighed and said, "Don't worry, I've been driving for three years. As long as I don't encounter traffic police..."
As a result, as soon as they drove out of the community gate, the three saw a traffic policeman standing not far away conducting a temporary check for drunk driving.
Cheng Qianli: "Fuck."
Lin Qiushi had an expression that said, "I told you so."
So Cheng Qianli expressionlessly switched seats with Ruan Nanzhu, watching his boss get into the driver's seat. He then sat next to Lin Qiushi and glared at him.
Lin Qiushi had an innocent look on his face, thinking, I was just saying it casually, how could I have imagined it would come true.
The author has something to say: Ruan Nanzhu: My name is Ruan Nanzhu.
Lin Qiushi: What a nice name!
Ruan Nanzhu: ...Why don’t you try it?
Lin Qiushi: Slip away, slip away.
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