Chapter 76 Leaving the Door
Lin Qiushi was deeply surprised that Luo Qianshui wasn't human. However, observing the expressions of Ruan Nanzhu and Cheng Yixie, they didn't seem overly surprised, as if they were used to this kind of thing.
Ruan Nanzhu returned to their side and said, "I chatted with them for a while. There's nothing serious. Luo Qianshui had an accident in another sect."
Lin Qiushi looked at him and asked, "Is this kind of thing common?"
Ruan Nanzhu said calmly, "Of course it's not common."
Lin Qiushi: "But why is it okay for Luo Qianshui to die in other sects..."
Ruan Nanzhu interrupted Lin Qiushi. His tone was icy, as if he didn't want Lin Qiushi to dwell on this matter any further, or even ask questions. He said, "This matter isn't important—at least not within this door."
Upon hearing this, Lin Qiushi had no choice but to nod. Although he felt that Ruan Nanzhu's attitude was a bit strange, there was nothing wrong with what Ruan Nanzhu said. Luo Qianshui's matter had nothing to do with this door.
After confirming Luo Qianshui's identity, Ruan Nanzhu agreed to cooperate with them and began to discuss how to find the key at night.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "We can't all go in. You two wait outside."
Lin Qiushi disagreed with Ruan Nanzhu's suggestion: "I think it's better for me to go." He paused for a moment and expressed his inner thoughts. "After all, it's still unclear whether Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui are friends or enemies. If I encounter any problems in there, you can lend a hand."
But if Ruan Nanzhu encountered any situation in the house, I'm afraid he and Cheng Yixie would be helpless.
Ruan Nanzhu pondered for a moment, looking a little hesitant.
Cheng Yixie said calmly, "Brother Ruan, you can't protect Qiushi all your life."
Lin Qiushi was slightly stunned when he heard this. He felt that there was something else behind Cheng Yixie's words, so he turned his head and looked at him.
Ruan Nanzhu had no expression on his face: "How do you know I can't?"
Cheng Yixie stopped talking.
The atmosphere between them was a little awkward, so Lin Qiushi had no choice but to say, "Nanzhu, let me go. It's okay."
Ruan Nanzhu tapped his fingers on the table and finally agreed to Lin Qiushi's plan. He decided to go into the house alone to get the key, while he and Cheng Yixie would guard Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui outside to prevent any accidents.
However, in just a few days, most of the people in the team died.
What makes this door different from other doors is that without props, you can't even tell whether the person next to you is dead or alive. It is possible that the person sleeping in the same bed with you may have been dead for several days.
Around three o'clock in the afternoon, Ruan Nanzhu discussed some details about retrieving the key with Luo Qianshan and others.
"I'll enter the mirror and lead the mother and child away from the door. This will take about five minutes." Luo Qianshui seemed to have long since accepted the fact of her own death. She narrated calmly, "So your time limit is five minutes. You must leave that room within five minutes."
"Yes." Ruan Nanzhu said, "Have you found the door?"
"Not yet." Ever since Ruan Nanzhu pointed out that Luo Qianshui was dead that morning, Luo Qianshan's face had lost its polite gentleness, replaced by a coldness that he was too lazy to pretend anymore. He said, "But it's definitely on the 34th floor."
Ruan Nanzhu was thinking about something.
"What about you? Who are you planning to send in?" Luo Qianshan asked.
"I'll go." Lin Qiushi stated the result of their discussion.
"You go? Who decided? Your friend?" After hearing Lin Qiushi's answer, Luo Qianshan's gaze shifted to Ruan Nanzhu.
Lin Qiushi said, "No, I wanted to go on my own." He asked, "Is there a problem?"
Luo Qianshan was slightly surprised by Lin Qiushi's answer. Indeed, who would voluntarily put themselves in danger? A hint of something else appeared in his eyes. "Aren't you afraid?"
Lin Qiushi asked, "What are you afraid of?"
Luo Qianshan smiled: "Of course I'm afraid of death."
Lin Qiushi was a little puzzled by his question: "Is there anyone who isn't afraid of death?"
Luo Qianshan shook his head: "No, you have never seen anyone who is truly afraid of death."
People who are truly afraid of death will be defeated by fear. Some people will even make irreversible actions out of fear when entering the first door. Of course, Luo Qianshan was too lazy to tell Lin Qiushi about these things. He just intuitively felt that the person named Yu Linlin in front of him was a little special.
So the matter was settled, and the five of them waited quietly for the night to come.
At eight o'clock in the evening, the strong smell of burning began to appear in the corridor again.
Lin Qiushi and the others arrived at the corridor as agreed and saw Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui already waiting there.
Luo Qianshan looked at his watch. "At 8:40, Luo Qianshui will enter the mirror to distract them. At 8:45, you must come out. The key is hanging on the wall in the center of the room. It's easy to find."
Ruan Nanzhu asked, "Is this what Luo Qianshui saw in the mirror?"
Luo Qianshan glanced at Ruan Nanzhu and nodded.
Sure enough, their previous statements were lies. The door was not open at all. The reason why the brother and sister could see the location of the key was only because Luo Qianshui could travel through the mirror.
Three minutes before 8:40, Ruan Nanzhu handed a blood-red bracelet to Lin Qiushi.
He didn't say anything, and Lin Qiushi tacitly took the bracelet and put it on his wrist.
"Life safety is the first priority." Ruan Nanzhu said softly, "If we really can't get it, forget it. We must get out."
Lin Qiushi nodded.
With a ticking sound, it was eight forty. Luo Qianshui turned and walked into the mirror beside her. Lin Qiushi noticed that there seemed to be a red string tied around her wrist, connecting her body to Luo Qianshan's.
The burnt mother and daughter who were standing quietly at the end of the corridor also reacted. They looked at the mirror beside them, and just as Luo Qianshui said, they turned around and entered the mirror beside them.
Lin Qiushi ran as fast as he could, rushing to the burnt room at the end.
A strong burnt smell filled his nostrils. He covered his mouth and nose with a wet towel with one hand and opened the door that had been burned and deformed with the other hand.
The room before me no longer resembled what it looked like during the day.
The whole house is black. Both the furniture and the walls have become deformed and blackened due to the high temperature. However, what is out of tune with the whole house are the mirrors hanging everywhere.
The mirror was still intact, and almost every corner was covered in mirror.
Lin Qiushi didn't dare to waste time and walked quickly into the room, searching the room, trying to find the wall with the key hanging on it that Luo Qianshan mentioned.
Lin Qiushi walked around the house but found nothing. It was not until he entered the bedroom on the left that he found what he was looking for.
"Fuck." After seeing the scene in the bedroom, Lin Qiushi rarely cursed.
I saw that the small wall of the bedroom was covered with densely packed keys, and each of these keys looked exactly the same - they were the bronze keys used to open the door.
At first glance, there are definitely at least one or two hundred of them.
Lin Qiushi looked up at his watch. He still had three and a half minutes left—how could he find the one he wanted among these hundreds of keys? Sweat dripped down Lin Qiushi's forehead, and he forced himself to calm down.
"Click..." However, just as Lin Qiushi was thinking, he suddenly heard the sound of a mirror being knocked behind him. Lin Qiushi turned around and actually saw a human figure in the mirror behind him. Although he had changed his clothes and half of his body was charred, Lin Qiushi still recognized him from his appearance. This person was the waiter in this hotel.
He stood in the mirror, staring at Lin Qiushi with resentful eyes.
The look was so terrifying that Lin Qiushi took a step back involuntarily.
"Crack, crack..." The man in the mirror began to hit the mirror in front of him with his hands. Obvious cracks began to appear on the mirror, and it looked like it would break at any time.
The man walked to the edge of the mirror, pressed the half of his charred face against it, and muttered curse words.
Lin Qiushi saw the man's eyes.
The man's ugly face was incompatible with his black eyes. They were like calm lake water, reflecting the dark light.
Lin Qiushi looked into his eyes, his expression suddenly becoming a little dazed. He seemed to hear the crying of a woman and the wailing of a child.
There was a man cursing and the sound of a mirror being broken.
"Go away, go away, don't come back." The woman said, "I hate you, I hate you——"
"You hate me, why do you hate me?" the man said, "Who do you think you are?"
"Ahhhhhhhh!!" Something broke and red flames shot out from it.
The woman let out a shrill scream, but with the sound of the mirror shattering, the scream gradually became inaudible.
The same was true of the children's cries. It seemed as if something had taken away their ability to scream... No, perhaps it had taken away their lives.
Then came the sound of panicked footsteps as the door slammed.
In a trance, Lin Qiushi felt that the scene seemed to have moved to another place. He saw a huge mirror that reflected the man's appearance. Just as the man turned around and fled in embarrassment, a pair of charred hands slowly stretched out from the corner of the mirror, grabbed the man's feet, and pulled him into the mirror.
When Lin Qiushi saw this, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his wrist. His face was startled, and he realized that he had actually walked in front of the mirror. If he took another step forward, he would be touching the mirror surface.
On the other side of the mirror was a man with malicious eyes.
"Cough, cough, cough." Lin Qiushi coughed a few times, finally breaking free from the illusion. He raised his wrist to check his watch. 8:44—he only had one minute left!
Key, key, key, which one is the real key?
At that moment, Lin Qiushi felt as if he were truly engulfed in flames. Yet, his keen hearing caught the sound of gentle footsteps emanating from within the mirror... Time was almost up; the mother and son were returning!
The crisis situation made Lin Qiushi's mind clearer. The three clues emerged in his mind: Use copper as a mirror to adjust your clothes; use history as a mirror to understand the rise and fall of things; use people as a mirror to understand gains and losses.
The bronze mirror has been found, the historical mirror has also been found, but what about the remaining human mirror?
What does it mean to use people as a mirror, and what are gains and losses?
Lin Qiushi looked at the man in the mirror and suddenly remembered what Ruan Nanzhu had said. Ruan Nanzhu said that doors have rules, which means that new life is not death, so generally they will not set up a situation where death is inevitable.
So does this man trapped in the mirror have any other purpose?
Lin Qiushi walked up to the man and began to observe his appearance.
The man stood in the mirror, his black eyes looking at Lin Qiushi with resentment. Lin Qiushi stared into his eyes and suddenly noticed something - a small scene was reflected in the man's eyes.
The scene was not a reflection of the scene in the house, but a completely different picture.
It was a small bedside table, on top of which was placed a photo of a family of three. At that moment, Lin Qiushi suddenly understood.
He turned and ran to the bed, and opened the burnt family photo with his hands. Under the photo was a beautiful bronze key.
Lin Qiushi finally understood what the words gain and loss really meant.
There was only a moment left, so Lin Qiushi grabbed the key and turned around and ran, not daring to stop.
Five seconds, four seconds, three seconds... Lin Qiushi's face lit up with joy when he saw the door. However, just as the smile appeared on his cheeks, he froze because two figures appeared at the door.
One was tall and the other was short. The tall one was holding the short one. Their bodies were burnt black. The tall one was holding the child with one hand and holding the door with the other hand. He gave Lin Qiushi a twisted smile.
The door was about to be closed - Lin Qiushi's brain reacted extremely quickly. He raised his hand and threw the key directly out the door.
Then there was a click and the door was locked heavily.
Lin Qiushi knelt on the ground and began to cough loudly.
The temperature in the room began to rise suddenly, accompanied by thick smoke. Lin Qiushi felt his consciousness gradually slipping away, and he clearly realized that he seemed to be dying.
Facing death, Lin Qiushi felt an indescribable calmness in his heart. With his cheek pressed to the ground, he looked at the charred wall, and countless scenes flashed through his mind like a kaleidoscope.
There are his, Li Zi’s, his friends’, and...Ruan Nanzhu’s.
Ruan Nanzhu was so beautiful in the revolving lantern. Before Lin Qiushi closed his eyes, he felt that he was quite useless. He was almost dead, and yet he was still thinking about a man...
Darkness enveloped Lin Qiushi, and he felt his body go limp.
…
Tick, tick, that's the sound of dripping water.
Lin Qiushi felt an intense thirst. He opened his mouth slightly and uttered a word with difficulty: "Water..."
Then something wet and soft brushed gently across his lips. Lin Qiushi slowly opened his eyes and felt a faint light.
"Awake?" a voice came.
Lin Qiushi coughed violently several times, and he finally saw the person sitting in front of him clearly. It was Cheng Yixie.
Cheng Yixie held a cotton swab in his hand, which was soaked with water.
"Yixie?" Lin Qiushi saw that he was a little confused, "I, I'm not dead?" He still remembered the scene before he fell into a coma.
Theoretically speaking, he would definitely die in such a situation.
"I'm Qianli." The other twin opened his big eyes innocently, "Qiu Shi, you didn't recognize me. You only thought about my brother."
Lin Qiushi: “…” Why does something so normal sound so different in your mouth?
"I'm out?" Lin Qiushi felt pain all over his body, and even his voice was extremely weak. "I thought I was dead..."
"Not dead." Cheng Qianli said, "Brother Ruan almost died."
Lin Qiushi was stunned and immediately sat up in bed: "What?!"
Cheng Qianli said: "Well...it's all right now. Don't worry, as long as we don't die immediately, we will be fine soon with our body's recovery ability."
Lin Qiushi: "No, no, no, how could something happen to Nanzhu?" He remembered that he had thrown the key out before coming out.
Cheng Qianli: "Then I don't know, he is still in a coma."
Lin Qiushi rubbed his head: "How long have I been out?"
Cheng Qianli: "Two days."
Lin Qiushi exhaled: "Where's your brother? Is he okay?"
"It's okay." Cheng Qianli said, "He will come over at noon. Just ask him whatever you want to ask."
Lin Qiushi nodded, indicating that he understood.
At noon, Cheng Yixie, who was delivering food to Cheng Qianli, appeared in the hospital.
"Awake?" Cheng Yixie asked, "How do you feel?"
Lin Qiushi lay in bed, looking at the IV drip in his hand: "Not bad. What's wrong with me?"
Cheng Yixie said, "Just like Brother Ruan, he lost too much blood."
Lin Qiushi uttered an "oh." Despite the excessive blood loss, he felt no pain. Besides a deep sense of weakness, there was nothing else unusual.
"Is Nanzhu okay?" Lin Qiushi was still very worried about him. "How on earth did I get out..."
Cheng Yixie said, "He's fine. He should be able to be discharged after a few days of recuperation." He paused for a moment and whispered, "It was Brother Ruan who opened the door again and rescued you."
"The door has been reopened?" Lin Qiushi asked, "But weren't the mother and daughter guarding the door?"
Cheng Yixie: "It's a long story."
Lin Qiushi: "Then take your time. I'm not in a hurry anyway."
Cheng Yixie nodded, describing the thrilling scene in succinct words. After seeing the mother and daughter return early and close the door, Ruan Nanzhu went completely mad. Without hesitation, he drew his weapon and subdued Luo Qianshan, forcing Luo Qianshui to enter the mirror again. He then distracted the mother and daughter once more, rushed through the door, and rescued Lin Qiushi.
The entire corridor was on fire at that time. Ruan Nanzhu, who came back carrying Lin Qiushi, almost became a fire man, with most of his skin burned.
Fortunately, the injury was inside the door, otherwise the person might have died long ago.
Then the fire began to spread, and before they were burned to death, they found the door to exit and used the key to leave that world.
Of course, because of Ruan Nanzhu's actions, their cooperative relationship with Luo Qianshan and his sister was directly broken. Cheng Yixie was very disdainful of this and said that there were no eternal friends in the sect, only eternal interests.
After hearing this, Lin Qiushi smiled and asked, "Then will we be friends forever?"
Cheng Yixie was slightly stunned when he heard this, then a hint of helplessness appeared on his expressionless face, and then he nodded lightly.
Lin Qiushi felt like he was teasing a child and burst into laughter.
Around dusk, Ruan Nanzhu regained consciousness. Although he suffered the same symptoms as Lin Qiushi—profuse blood loss—he did have some injuries. They looked like they had been scratched with a mirror, and the doctor even asked if he should call the police.
Lin Qiushi was pushed in a wheelchair by Cheng Yixie to see Ruan Nanzhu.
Ruan Nanzhu lay in bed, her beautiful face devoid of color, and an oxygen tube inserted through her nose. She looked extremely weak. But her black eyes were frighteningly bright, like a starry night sky, making one feel as if their souls were being sucked in.
Lin Qiushi called his name: "Nanzhu."
Ruan Nanzhu moved his lips slightly and hummed softly.
Lin Qiushi said, "Thank you." After he finished speaking, he felt a sense of inappropriateness. They say a great favor requires no thanks. If it weren't for Ruan Nanzhu, he might not have been able to get out of the door. Right now, he might have jumped from the building, or died some other way.
"I should be the one thanking you." Ruan Nanzhu's voice was very soft, like a feather floating in the air.
Lin Qiushi said, "Don't talk anymore. Get some rest and wait for your discharge." Ruan Nanzhu was too weak now. Even a few words drained all his strength.
Lin Qiushi's gaze shifted to Ruan Nanzhu's hands. They were beautiful, with long, white fingers. As they lay limply on the bed, the sharp, angular bones could be seen. But now, these beautiful hands were wrapped in bandages, seemingly just a microcosm of Ruan Nanzhu's wounds. It was hard to imagine how many such wounds were hidden beneath Ruan Nanzhu's hospital gown.
Lin Qiushi lowered his gaze and let Cheng Yixie push him out of the ward.
Ruan Nanzhu's breathing behind him gradually became regular, and he seemed to have fallen asleep again.
Lin Qiushi listened at the door for a while, then suddenly spoke in a low voice, "Is it worth it?"
Cheng Yixie stood behind Lin Qiushi. Although the words were incoherent, he still understood what Lin Qiushi meant.
He said: "As long as he is willing, it is worth it."
Lin Qiushi laughed: "That's right."
"Let's go." Cheng Yixie said, "You should also take good care of your body and try to get better as soon as possible."
Lin Qiushi nodded and was pushed back to the ward by Cheng Yixie.
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