Chapter 23 Collapse
Ruan Nanzhu's words made everyone fall silent. Although the tone sounded like a joke, in such an atmosphere, it always felt that such a joke would come true.
Xiaoyi's body had inexplicably vanished, and they had been here three days, four days before his birthday. Yesterday, Xiaoyi's tragic death had left his mother weeping uncontrollably, but within a day, she seemed to have recovered from her grief. She muttered something about preparing a birthday cake and hurriedly bustled around in the kitchen. No one knew what she was busy with.
Everyone was in a heavy mood, feeling as if something was approaching, but for a moment they couldn't clearly think about what that dangerous feeling was.
Tang Yaoyao felt the elderly woman and young man downstairs presented a potential point of entry, so she went downstairs with Zhang Xinghuo and the others to gather more information. Ruan Nanzhu stayed away, discussing some matters with Lin Qiushi in the room. Also with them were Xu Xiaocheng and Zeng Ruguo. Both looked haggard, as if they could not bear any more shock.
There was a rustling sound in the kitchen, and the sound of my mother humming a song could be heard.
The bedroom door was closed tightly, and the two surviving twins were hiding in the house, not knowing what they were doing.
Zeng Ruguo drank too much water due to nervousness and asked to go to the bathroom. He also shifted his eyes to Lin Qiushi, with a pleading tone in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Lin Qiushi, feeling terrified by his gaze, asked, "What do you mean by looking at me like that?"
"Brother Yu, that's it..." Zeng Ruguo seemed a little embarrassed, but he gritted his teeth and said it out loud, "Can you go with me? I'm a little scared."
There was only one public restroom here, and that was where Lin Qiushi had found the baby's body. Noticing Zeng Ruguo's worried expression, he nodded and said, "Sure. I need to go too. Let's go together."
Zeng Ruguo happily agreed.
So the two of them went to the bathroom together.
It was almost afternoon now. Although it was only around three o'clock, it was almost dusk outside. There was a window next to the toilet, through which one could see outside. Before entering the toilet, Lin Qiushi glanced outside and saw only a thick fog, which was exactly the same as when they arrived.
Lin Qiushi quickly resolved the issue. Seeing Zeng Ruguo squatting in the innermost area, he said, "I'll wait for you outside."
"Okay." Zeng Ruguo smiled embarrassedly.
Lin Qiushi walked to the door and began to wait for Zeng Ruguo. He took out his cell phone and looked at it. He found that there was a signal on the phone. After thinking for a while, he didn't dare to call - he was afraid that he would call some strange place.
Lin Qiushi had originally thought Zeng Ruguo would soon emerge, but after waiting for four or five minutes with no movement, he suddenly sensed something ominous: a faint fishy odor. Lin Qiushi had smelled this scent countless times before, and he was almost certain it was blood.
"Zeng Ruguo!!" Lin Qiushi did not dare to go in directly, but called Zeng Ruguo's name loudly at the door.
There was no response, and an unsettling silence fell in the restroom.
Lin Qiushi hesitated for a moment, but still walked into the bathroom. However, as soon as he walked in, he heard a sound that was difficult to describe in words.
Lin Qiushi had never heard this kind of sound before. If he had to describe it, it was like something was hitting a hard object again and again, but the hard object was not particularly hard, because Lin Qiushi clearly heard the sound of cracking and shattering.
A thin layer of cold sweat broke out on Lin Qiushi's back. He called out, "Zeng Ruguo, are you still there?"
Still no sound, Lin Qiushi's heart sank instantly, knowing Zeng Ruguo was in grave danger. Through the crack in the partition, he saw blood slowly flowing from Zeng Ruguo's spot, snaking its way down the cracks in the floor tiles. It was about to reach Lin Qiushi's feet, but he dodged it with his quick reaction.
"Zeng Ruguo, are you still there?" Lin Qiushi called out, but he noticed that the blood under his feet seemed to have life and began to chase his footsteps. The speed was very slow at first, but it was gradually increasing. Lin Qiushi almost couldn't dodge and was stained by the blood.
After seeing this, Lin Qiushi no longer dared to stay here. He hurried out of the bathroom and returned to the house: "Oh no, something happened to Zeng Ruguo."
Ruan Nanzhu and Xu Xiaocheng stopped talking and turned to look over: "What's going on?"
Lin Qiushi said, "I was waiting for him outside, but I didn't hear any sound. When I went in, I saw blood all over the floor." He frowned. "The blood seemed to be flowing towards me, as if it was following the person. I didn't dare stay any longer and hurried out."
Ruan Nanzhu said, "Blood? You weren't stained with it, were you?"
Lin Qiushi shook his head.
"Oh, that's not bad." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Let's go and take a look. We can't go without going to the toilet for the next few days."
Xu Xiaocheng's face turned pale again as she listened to Lin Qiushi's description. According to Ruan Nanzhu, she was a real-life actress and this wasn't her first time entering this world. So, was this look of fear a real reaction or an act? Lin Qiushi was distracted for a moment.
"What are you thinking about?" Ruan Nanzhu noticed that he was distracted.
"It's okay." Lin Qiushi shook his head.
"You've gotten used to it," Ruan Nanzhu said. "You're quite adaptable."
He walked in front, his expression lacking much surprise or fear, as if he had already anticipated Zeng Ruguo's death. Lin Qiushi actually felt much the same as Ruan Nanzhu. Although he didn't know the reason, he had a hunch that Zeng Ruguo would be the first to die.
Ruan Nanzhu entered the restroom and walked straight inside. He observed the ground and warned them, "Don't step on the blood."
In just a few minutes, the bright red blood on the ground solidified into a dark brown color, as if it had dried up a long time ago.
Ruan Nanzhu stepped over the blood and saw Zeng Ruguo's body. He let out a soft "tsk" sound and said, "Dead."
Then Lin Qiushi also saw the situation in the toilet. Zeng Ruguo was indeed dead, and he was deader than dead.
He was lying on the ground, his head seemed to have been smashed into pieces by something, mixed with red blood, the scene was extremely bloody.
Xu Xiaocheng covered his mouth and began to feel nauseous again.
But Lin Qiushi remembered the knocking sound he heard at the toilet door just now. Now he finally understood what the sound meant - someone was hitting Zeng Ruguo's head with a hammer.
"Hmm..." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Do you feel like something is missing?"
Lin Qiushi asked, "Something's missing?" After careful observation, he finally discovered what was missing. "Where's his...his brain?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "Well, that's all."
Lin Qiushi fell silent.
Zeng Ruguo's head was smashed to pieces, and its original shape was almost unrecognizable. However, the brain matter that should have been all over the ground was now nowhere to be seen, leaving only broken bones and rotten flesh scattered on the ground in a mess.
"Fuck." Lin Qiushi finally understood something and cursed, a rare occurrence. "Are we eggs?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "High probability."
"Then what did he do with the brain?" Lin Qiushi shuddered at the thought of someone lying on top of Zeng Ruguo, carefully cracking open his skull, removing his brain, and then smashing his head into pieces. "I don't understand."
"It's definitely useful," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Its specific use remains to be verified." He said, "Let's go."
"What should we do with the body?" Lin Qiushi asked.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "Don't touch it, just let it stay here." He smiled calmly, "Maybe it will be gone soon."
The result was just as he said. When the people who went to the first and fourth floors came back, Zeng Ruguo's body had disappeared.
Only some dried blood remained on the floor, proving that what they had just seen was not an illusion.
"Zeng Ruguo is dead?" Tang Yaoyao was a little surprised when she heard the news. "How did he die?"
Lin Qiushi briefly explained the process.
"Well, if he's dead, he's dead." Tang Yaoyao's attitude was surprisingly calm. It was obvious that all the elderly people were already accustomed to death. She smiled self-deprecatingly, "He was lucky. Most people would have died when they rushed into the thick fog, but he survived for so many days."
Lin Qiushi: “…”
"Where is the body? I want to go and see it." Tang Yaoyao said.
"In the toilet." Lin Qiushi said.
However, after the group entered the toilet, they found that the body had disappeared, and the place where the squat toilet was located was clean, with only some residual bloodstains left.
"Gone?" Tang Yaoyao asked, "Who took the body away—"
"I don't know." Lin Qiushi shook his head. "We were inside the house the whole time and didn't notice the bathroom. Besides, he definitely didn't die at the hands of a human. It would be easy for those things to take the body away."
Ruan Nanzhu glanced at the toilet hole and said, "It should have been pulled away from the toilet hole."
"What do you mean?" Tang Yaoyao asked puzzledly.
"There's human tissue in the cave," Ruan Nanzhu said, "and hair."
After careful observation, everyone discovered that, just as Ruan Nanzhu had described, the narrow hole contained shattered human tissue and some black hair. If this were the real world, pulling a corpse out of the toilet hole would be impossible, but this world defied common sense.
However, after spending some time together, Lin Qiushi discovered that Ruan Nanzhu had amazing observation skills. Many details that they had not noticed were pointed out by Ruan Nanzhu. If it were not for him, this trip into the sect would probably be much more dangerous.
"What about you guys? Did you get any news downstairs?" Ruan Nanzhu looked at Tang Yaoyao.
"No." Tang Yaoyao seemed a little annoyed. "The young man on the fourth floor opened the door and slammed it after seeing it was me. You had to intervene—we're all women, so why should he open it for you?"
When Lin Qiushi heard this, he thought quietly, of course it's because Ruan Nanzhu is good-looking... The boys present probably all thought so, but no one dared to say it out loud, and everyone had the same puzzled expression on their faces.
"Maybe it's because I'm tall." Ruan Nanzhu said lightly without revealing the truth.
"That old lady is getting confused," Tang Yaoyao said. "I looked around and it seems like there's no one else at home except her. She doesn't understand anything we ask her and just keeps saying she's eaten. Who cares if she's eaten or not?"
When Ruan Nanzhu heard this, his expression changed slightly, but he said nothing.
"What should I do? I don't think I have any clues right now. Do I have to wait until their birthday?" Tang Yaoyao said.
"The biggest question is whether we can wait. I think Zeng Ruguo is the beginning," Zhang Xinghuo said. "Usually, once someone dies, as soon as that's the beginning, things start to get complicated."
No one said anything when they heard this, and Xu Xiaocheng started crying again.
Tang Yaoyao was annoyed by her crying and asked if she could stop crying. If crying was useful, no one would have to die.
Xu Xiaocheng said sorry in a pitiful voice.
"Okay." Ruan Nanzhu said, "There's no point in being anxious about some things." He said, "What's coming will eventually come."
Tang Yaoyao sighed: "This is the only way."
Because of Zeng Ruguo's death, the atmosphere among the people became heavy.
But they were unhappy, while the mother of the triplets seemed to be in a good mood and cooked a few more meat dishes in the evening - no one looked at the meat dishes but touched their chopsticks.
The woman didn't mind and ate with gusto by herself. Xu Xiaocheng had the worst tolerance and left the table after taking two bites of bread.
Zhong Chengjian, the newcomer who had been quiet, was about to go back to his room, but he ran into the twins standing there at the door. The twins were always elusive, and it was unknown how long they had been standing at the door.
"Do you know me?" One of the girls suddenly spoke to Zhong Chengjian.
Zhong Chengjian became very impatient when he heard this question and said, "Get out of the way and don't block me." This was his first time entering this world, and he was on the verge of collapse due to the strange environment and sudden death. When he saw the two children, he wanted to leave quickly and had no time to answer their questions.
"Do you know me?" The little girl in the skirt was persistent and continued to ask her questions.
Lin Qiushi was about to step forward to help, but Zhong Chengjian simply reached out his hand, pushed the little girl away, and left in anger, cursing.
The little girl was pushed heavily against the wall. She slowly straightened up, her black eyes staring in the direction where Zhong Chengjian left.
The sister standing next to her moved her lips and said something, then a strange smile appeared on the girl's face.
Lin Qiushi paused and looked at Ruan Nanzhu.
Ruan Nanzhu shook his head.
"He's usually quiet, but he has a bad temper." Tang Yaoyao also disliked Zhong Chengjian's attitude. She said, "How dare they provoke me like this, even with triplets..." She ate a mouthful of dry bread and sighed indifferently, "I'm going to have a good meal when we get out."
Who doesn’t want to go out? Who doesn’t want to return to the reality full of fireworks? But reality will never change according to human will, and they have to stay here for several days.
The darkness brought by night always brings people anxiety and fear.
Lin Qiushi remembered what Ruan Nanzhu had said. When he saw Zhong Chengjian and two of the triplets clashing, he guessed that something would happen tonight.
"Perhaps I misjudged the conditions for death." Ruan Nanzhu knew what Lin Qiushi was thinking and lay beside him to comfort him, "You're too soft-hearted. In this world, giving up some things is necessary."
Lin Qiushi said nothing, but sighed softly: "I could have avoided..."
Ruan Nanzhu: "You are not responsible for their lives."
Hearing this, Lin Qiushi smiled bitterly: "How can I take the responsibility? I just hope that fewer people will die." His life was saved by Ruan Nanzhu, so he naturally wouldn't be arrogant and think that he could bravely protect everyone.
"Yes." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Life and death are determined by fate." However, if Lin Qiushi didn't care about other people's lives at all and was a cowardly and selfish person, he would not look at Lin Qiushi differently.
Some things are inherently contradictory.
The room was narrow and the lights were dim. After Lin Qiushi pressed the switch, the room became dark.
Because of what happened last night, they changed the direction they slept and no longer dared to face their heads against the wall facing the corridor.
"I'm counting on you tonight." Ruan Nanzhu said very frankly before going to bed, "I'm like a pig when I fall asleep. I can't hear any sound unless someone wakes me up."
Lin Qiushi: “…” For the first time, he felt that having good hearing was a very painful thing. Wouldn’t it be nice to be deaf like Ruan Nanzhu and sleep soundly until dawn?
They both thought that Zhong Chengjian was dead tonight, but nothing happened after the whole night. The next day, when Zhong Chengjian walked to the table to eat breakfast, everyone looked at him strangely.
"Why are you looking at me like that?" Zhong Chengjian asked curiously.
No one spoke, just lowered their heads and continued eating.
Today's breakfast is porridge and dry bread. After eating it for several days in a row, Lin Qiushi really has no appetite when he sees dry bread, but he still has to eat it.
Zhong Chengjian sat down, picked up the bowl and started drinking.
However, he had only taken a few sips when he suddenly stopped moving, his expression changed drastically, and he covered his mouth with his hands and began to cough violently.
"What's wrong?" Tang Yaoyao, who was sitting next to him, was startled.
"Cough, cough, cough, cough, cough, what is this thing--" Zhong Chengjian spat out the porridge on the ground, only to see that the porridge was dyed red with blood. He put his hand in his mouth a few times and took out a long and thin object.
Everyone gasped when they saw the thing. It turned out to be a thumb-sized needle, pointed at both ends and stained with blood. Fortunately, Zhong Chengjian didn't swallow it directly, otherwise he would have pierced his esophagus and died there. However, even after discovering it, he still had a wound in his mouth from the needle, and blood was oozing out.
"Fuck it!" Zhong Chengjian got furious and threw the needle on the ground. "Who put that in my bowl?"
No one spoke, only silence spread.
"This porridge was prepared by that woman." Tang Yaoyao said, "It was set out before we arrived, and you can sit wherever you want."
"No," Ruan Nanzhu said, "Zhong Chengjian is usually the last one to arrive." Because he arrived last, everyone habitually reserved the outermost seat for him. "This person's target is Zhong Chengjian."
"So the needle was put there by that woman?" Tang Yaoyao asked in confusion.
Ruan Nanzhu stared at the bloodstains on the ground: "Maybe."
Zhong Chengjian was so angry that he was shaking all over. He rushed to the kitchen to ask the woman for an explanation.
Facing the furious Zhong Chengjian, the woman's expression was calm. She was wearing an apron and holding a soup spoon in her hand. She said, "I don't understand what you are saying."
"Did you put a needle in my bowl?" Zhong Chengjian said vaguely, pointing at his bloody mouth, "You want to kill me?"
The woman looked at him coldly, with the look of someone looking at a dead person.
Everyone rushed over and advised Zhong Chengjian not to get too excited. Zhang Xinghuo even held him back and told him not to have a head-on conflict with the woman.
"You're all cowards!!!" Zhong Chengjian was enraged. The rage and fear he'd suppressed since entering this world erupted completely at this moment. No one expected his next move to be to rush to the chopping board and pick up the knife the woman often used. "What the hell? Just kill them all!!" He swung his sword with all his might and chopped down directly at the woman.
Everyone was stunned by this sudden scene. Ruan Nanzhu reacted the fastest. He grabbed Lin Qiushi and Xu Xiaocheng who were standing in front of him and retreated. However, Tang Yaoyao and the others did not react in time and were splashed with blood.
“Ahhhhhhhhh!!” The woman was hit in the body and let out a shrill scream. She fell to the ground and died instantly.
"Kill you, kill you!!!" Zhong Chengjian's eyes were red, as if he was possessed by an evil spirit. He chopped the woman in front of him with his sword again and again until she was unrecognizable.
Only when his strength was exhausted did he sit on the ground, panting heavily. The madness in his eyes gradually faded, leaving only panic and confusion. He said in a weak and trembling voice, "I...I killed someone?"
"Zhong Chengjian, you psychopath!!" Tang Yaoyao's sharp voice rang out, "Do you know what you have done—"
"I killed someone?" Zhong Chengjian's voice was filled with tears.
"The point isn't that you killed someone, but whether the person you killed was actually human." Although Tang Yaoyao dodged, she was still splashed with blood. She looked at Zhong Chengjian and said angrily, "Do you believe she will come back to find you tonight?"
Zhong Chengjian slowly stood up from the ground. It seemed that his spirit was about to collapse. He repeated, "I killed someone, I killed someone," and let go of the knife in his hand.
"This is why I hate newcomers." Ruan Nanzhu rested his chin on Lin Qiushi's shoulder and whispered, "They're as sensitive as a hair. If you don't keep a close eye on them, they'll get into big trouble."
Lin Qiushi asked, "What will happen if we kill the NPC?"
Ruan Nanzhu said, "It won't be a big deal." He paused, "It's all death anyway, it's just a slightly more tragic death."
Lin Qiushi: “…”
The author has something to say: Ruan Nanzhu: It’s not good that he is too sensitive. Do you like thick-skinned or thin-skinned?
Lin Qiushi: Of course it’s thick.
Ruan Nanzhu: Hehehe, I’m just very thick.
Lin Qiushi: ………
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