Chapter 63 The Seventh Door
The time for entrance was moving forward day by day, and Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu were almost done with their preparations.
This was the first time Lin Qiushi had entered the room with someone from the website. Ruan Nanzhu told him that all online work was risky, so he had to hide his real identity after entering the room. If he was discovered, it would be very troublesome. Lin Qiushi strongly suspected that this statement was an excuse for him to let him wear women's clothes.
However, after Ruan Nanzhu accompanied him to change into women's clothes, Lin Qiushi's unbalanced feeling finally eased a lot.
Cheng Qianli seemed to know what Lin Qiushi was thinking, and earnestly told him to keep his original intention and not be corrupted by Ruan Nanzhu's terrible thoughts.
Lin Qiushi glanced at him and said nothing.
Cheng Qianli: "Why are you ignoring me..."
Lin Qiushi typed on his phone: I am integrating into the role of the mute girl.
Cheng Qianli: "..." Lin Qiushi, I'm afraid you're finished.
Sometimes being too adaptable can be a bad thing.
Finally, after spending a few days in the villa wearing a skirt, Lin Qiushi finally arrived at his new home. While he was eating at the dining table, he suddenly felt a strange, familiar sensation. Lin Qiushi put down his chopsticks, turned around, and casually pushed open a door. Unsurprisingly, the view outside had transformed into twelve iron gates.
Five of the iron doors were sealed, and the other six could not be opened. The only one that could be opened was the one belonging to the owner.
Lin Qiushi took a deep breath, grabbed the door handle, and pulled it gently.
The door swung open, and Lin Qiushi's vision shifted, transforming into a long corridor. This seemed to be the staircase to a basement. The air was thick with the smell of mold. The staircase was so long it seemed endless. Lin Qiushi slowly ascended, turning several corners before he spotted several people waiting in the hall.
He removed the bracelet from his wrist and surveyed his surroundings, confirming his location: the sanatorium mentioned in the clue. Although it was a sanatorium, it carried the distinct hospital smell of disinfectant. Abandoned hospital beds were everywhere, and as Lin Qiushi passed one, he even spotted dried brown bloodstains on it.
At this time, the crowd had gathered eight people, a total of nine including him. Some people looked away without interest when they saw him, while others began to look at him with interest, with other meanings hidden in the depths of their eyes. Lin Qiushi remained expressionless and pretended not to see anything.
Someone walked up to him, smiled and extended his hand to him: "Hello, my name is Jiang Yingrui, may I get to know you?"
Lin Qiushi typed on his mobile phone: Sorry, I can't speak, my name is Lin Qiuqiu.
Jiang Yingrui said, "Oh, sorry, how many times have you come in?"
Lin Qiushi: The sixth time.
Jiang Yingrui seemed to be very interested in Lin Qiushi, and even Lin Qiushi's cold attitude did not drive him away. In the end, Lin Qiushi had to say bluntly: Sorry, I want to be alone for a while.
Jiang Yingrui smiled when he saw the words: "Okay."
He didn't insist and just turned and walked away. It seemed he wanted to team up with Lin Qiushi, but Lin Qiushi clearly rejected his invitation.
The hall they were in was on the first floor of the sanatorium. Outside was a courtyard overgrown with weeds, and upstairs were the sanatorium's wards.
The sanatorium has a total of six floors, and the functional divisions are very clear. However, it seems that the mental state of the people here is not very good. At least Lin Qiushi saw a lot of messy graffiti on the walls.
Just as Lin Qiushi was observing his surroundings, his shoulder was gently touched. Lin Qiushi turned around and saw an unfamiliar face.
Although the face was unfamiliar, the clothes he was wearing were very familiar. He said, "Hello, my name is Ruan Baijie."
Lin Qiushi understood: Hello, my name is Lin Qiuqiu.
Ruan Nanzhu smiled: "Nice to meet you."
This time, Ruan Nanzhu still looked beautiful, with long black hair and a white dress. Although she was much taller than ordinary girls, her unique temperament was very eye-catching. He smiled slightly, and even though Lin Qiushi knew he was a man, he still felt something in his heart.
Ruan Nanzhu put his hand on his shoulder: "Shall we team up?"
Lin Qiushi nodded.
The eyes of the others also fell on the two of them, and Lin Qiushi clearly felt that some of them had malicious intent.
Although he had never encountered such a thing, the sect was ultimately a lawless place, where no one was held accountable for anything they did. Coupled with the threat of death, people often did some rather extreme things—this was all Ruan Nanzhu had explained to Lin Qiushi.
After hearing this, Lin Qiushi was deeply moved and said, "Don't we both feel very dangerous?"
Ruan Nanzhu said, "You think too much."
At that time, Lin Qiushi was still wondering what it meant that he was overthinking, but today he finally understood the meaning of this sentence.
Because a blind man walked up to them and began to harass them with obscene words. Lin Qiushi didn't elaborate on the specific words, but after the man finished speaking, Ruan Nanzhu showed a slightly angry expression.
Seeing this, the man became even more excited and stretched out his hand to grab Lin Qiushi's hair. Lin Qiushi was thinking about how to "gently" beat this man down, when he saw Ruan Nanzhu directly grab the man's arm - and twisted it hard.
Lin Qiushi heard the crisp sound of bones breaking and the howling like a pig being slaughtered.
Everyone's gazes turned from ambiguous to horrified. Ruan Nanzhu even managed to whimper at Lin Qiushi, saying with a pitiful expression, "Qiuqiu, Qiuqiu, he's so scary."
Lin Qiushi: “…” It’s obviously you who’s scary.
Now no one dared to come over and talk to them, and everyone tacitly stayed away from them, leaving Lin Qiushi at a loss whether to laugh or cry.
Just then, Lin Qiushi spotted their target: a young man in a black T-shirt, jeans, and a black baseball cap. He looked to be around seventeen or eighteen, handsome and fresh-faced. He had just walked in from the courtyard outside, his eyes fixed on the two of them.
He hesitated for a moment and walked towards Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu.
"Hello, my name is Feng Yongle." The boy introduced himself, using the same pseudonym he had given them on the website. "Can I team up with you?"
Hearing this, everyone else looked at the boy with sympathy, as if they thought his hand would be broken.
Who knew Ruan Nanzhu would smile sweetly: "Sure."
Feng Yongle breathed a sigh of relief, but he noticed that the other people's eyes were not right. He was a little puzzled: "What happened?"
Ruan Nanzhu pointed at the man in the corner who was about to faint from the pain and said, "This man just harassed us, but I beat him away."
Feng Yongle glanced at the man, then at Ruan Nanzhu, and was silent for a moment, as if pondering how Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi had managed to fight the man off with such frail bodies. Lin Qiushi actually guessed what he was thinking from his eyes... but he couldn't explain it, so he could only imitate Ruan Nanzhu and feign an air of ignorance, an innocent little kitten—Lin Qiushi felt he had become quite adept at it.
Fortunately, Feng Yongle did not investigate further.
People arrived one after another. The number of people was about the same as when Lin Qiushi entered the sixth door last time, still fourteen, but this time there was only one newcomer, who was huddled in the corner, shivering as he watched the scene around him.
Soon after everyone arrived, a woman in a nurse's uniform appeared before them. Her face looked extremely grim, and her exposed neck was covered in a bloody blue. She looked at everyone with a cold gaze and said, "Please follow me to the fourth floor."
Everyone followed her footsteps and reached the fourth floor.
"Your treatment will begin in seven days," the nurse said in a cold tone. "During these seven days, I hope you'll get used to the facilities in the sanatorium." A strange smile appeared on her lips as she spoke. "You'll like it here."
Afterwards, she told everyone some rules, such as eating only in the cafeteria, not eating outside food, and not leaving the room after 8 o'clock every night. After saying this, the nurse turned and left, leaving them with a cold back.
"Fuck, this is terrifying." A girl kept muttering, "Is this person a human or a ghost..."
No one answered her question.
There are eight accommodation rooms in total, each with two bunk beds, which means four people can stay in one room. Of course, if you don’t like, you can also use it as a double room.
Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu and Feng Yongle naturally lived together. During this time, a girl named Xue Zhiyun wanted to live with them, but was rejected by Ruan Nanzhu.
Of course, the reason for the refusal was very bitchy. Ruan Nanzhu said, "Oh, I'm not used to living with so many people~"
Xue Zhiyun said: "There are already three of them, can't I join them?"
Ruan Nanzhu: "No, that won't work. Sister Lin and I hit it off the moment we met. We must live together."
Xue Zhiyun said, "What about him?" She pointed at Feng Yongle.
Ruan Nanzhu shamelessly said, "What kind of person is a child?"
Xue Zhiyun left with a dark face, and Feng Yongle's face was not looking good either. At this moment, Lin Qiushi actually understood the feelings of these two people a little bit. It was like they hit it off right away. What kind of person is this kid? He is really a bitch and reported it.
But the final result was that Ruan Nanzhu successfully rejected the fourth party's interference and preserved their three-person room.
The living environment here can be said to be quite bad. The worst thing is that Feng Yongle found several complete pieces of human nails in his bed.
Feng Yongle shook out the quilt and said, "Are we going to stay here for seven days?"
Ruan Nanzhu said, "About the same."
Feng Yongle: "Alas, I hope I can get through this."
Ruan Nanzhu said, "Endure? I don't think so." He stood by the window, looked outside and said this.
"What do you mean?" Feng Yongle asked.
Ruan Nanzhu: "Didn't you read the information?"
Feng Yongle: “I saw it.”
Ruan Nanzhu: "Do you remember how the patients in the sanatorium left here?"
Feng Yongle said: "You mean that tunnel..."
Ruan Nanzhu said, "Let's take a look at the situation first."
While the two of them were talking, Lin Qiushi was studying his wall. There were many strange scratches on his wall, as if they were made by fingernails. It can be imagined that the person who slept in his bed at that time was probably not in a good mental state.
"It's time to go downstairs and have lunch first." Ruan Nanzhu said, "You still have to obey the NPC's orders."
The three of them turned and went downstairs to the restaurant on the second floor that the nurse mentioned. The meal was already served there, and the restaurant was filled with patients in hospital gowns.
To be honest, this was the first time Lin Qiushi had seen such a dense crowd inside the door. Logically, one would be less afraid when surrounded by people, but after seeing the mental state of these people, Lin Qiushi felt a chill run down his spine.
The patients in the restaurant were obviously in an abnormal state. Some of them looked numb, some lowered their heads and whispered to themselves, and some stared at the floor motionlessly. In short, this sanatorium did not look like a sanatorium at all, but rather like a large mental hospital.
"Let's finish our meal early and leave." Ruan Nanzhu said, "After all, mental state is contagious."
Indeed, if you stay with abnormal people for a long time, you will become abnormal yourself.
While they were eating, several other teams came over, including Jiang Yingrui, who was trying to team up with Lin Qiushi. He seemed very interested in Lin Qiushi and smiled at him from afar.
Lin Qiushi pretended not to see it.
After finishing their meal, the three decided to explore the interior of the sanatorium. They first went to the treatment room on the top floor. This wasn't a hospital after all, so the treatment options were limited. However, almost every room was filled with beds, some of which contained dying patients.
Feng Yongle said: "I don't know how many people died here."
Ruan Nanzhu: "A lot of people must have died."
Lin Qiushi continued walking forward and noticed a lot of graffiti on the wall. The graffiti was blurry, but one could make out words like "help" and "death".
"Hey? Someone is eating here." Feng Yongle suddenly discovered something in front of a ward.
Lin Qiushi leaned over and looked into the ward through the window, and found a patient eating noodles with a fork. He ate very slowly, chewing each mouthful for a long time.
"Didn't they say we can't eat outside?" Feng Yongle muttered. He did bring food in.
Ruan Nanzhu glanced at him and said, "You can try."
Feng Yongle said, "Forget it."
The three of them watched for a moment, then, seeing nothing unusual, prepared to leave. But after taking a few steps, Lin Qiushi heard a strange sound—a soft, puffing sound, as if something had been punctured. He paused and glanced back at the room he had just been observing. The sight of it made him pause for a moment.
The fork he'd been using to stab the noodles had now been thrust into the noodle eater's eye. Only the handle remained exposed, and blood streamed from his eye, yet he didn't utter a single scream. A wound this deep would surely have killed him, yet he slowly pulled the fork out and resumed eating his noodles.
Lin Qiushi: "..." He silently pulled Ruan Nanzhu's sleeve.
Ruan Nanzhu turned his head and saw this scene.
Feng Yongle's reaction was the most intense among them. He cursed and rubbed his arms: "Fuck, this is actually possible?"
Lin Qiushi didn't know whether it worked or not, but the man in the room was quite capable. He ate his own blood with noodles as ketchup and enjoyed it very much.
He even seemed to notice the person looking at him at the door, and smiled in that direction.
This scene is really creepy.
The three of them tacitly said nothing and turned away. And when they returned to their residence at the end of the day, Feng Yongle silently threw all his snacks into the trash can and never mentioned the extra meal again.
After walking around this floor for a while, it got dark.
They returned to their residence before dark, but before entering, Lin Qiushi noticed something. He patted Ruan Nanzhu, took out his cell phone and typed: Don't we live on the fourth floor?
Ruan Nanzhu: "Yes, what's wrong?"
Lin Qiushi: "...But why is this person's house number 502?"
Ruan Nanzhu looked up and saw that the room number near the stairs had actually changed to 502, while the other rooms were still 4xx. He said, "502, do you remember what it says in the file?"
Of course Lin Qiushi remembered.
Room 502 is a very special room in the sanatorium.
Because a head nurse and a nurse died there. It was said that the head nurse committed suicide by jumping off the building in Room 502 after failing to have an abortion with the doctor's child. After that, Room 502 began to be haunted.
Legend has it that every night one could hear the crying of a baby and the painful wails of a woman from inside. Later, a nurse committed suicide in room 502, and the room was sealed and no longer used.
So, here, 502 is a very special number.
When the rooms were being assigned this afternoon, Lin Qiushi was still feeling lucky that they lived on the fourth floor. Unexpectedly, when he came back from a walk, the room number had been changed.
To be honest, most people don't pay much attention to the house number when entering or leaving a house. Lin Qiushi remembered that this room was occupied by a man and a woman. He glanced at Ruan Nanzhu and asked for his opinion.
"I'll talk to them." Ruan Nanzhu said.
The sudden appearance of 502 should be a very obvious death condition. In this case, it would not hurt to warn everyone in the team.
So Ruan Nanzhu knocked on the door in front of him.
"Is there something wrong?" The person who opened the door was a girl from the team who lived here. She looked wary when she saw the people outside.
"There seems to be something wrong with your room number." Ruan Nanzhu said straight to the point.
The girl tilted her head and saw the changing numbers on the screen. Her face changed drastically: "When—"
"I don't know." Ruan Nanzhu, "We saw it when we came back. Do you want to change rooms?" There are plenty of rooms here - and there will be more and more rooms because there will be fewer and fewer people.
"Okay." The girl nodded gratefully at Ruan Nanzhu's kindness, "Thank you for the reminder."
"It's just a piece of cake." Ruan Nanzhu said.
After they finished informing, they returned to their own rooms.
It was almost dark, and there was still half an hour until the eight o'clock time set by the nurse.
After Lin Qiushi finished washing up, he sat on his bed and started playing Connect the Dots. Ruan Nanzhu sat on the upper bunk, lost in thought.
Feng Yongle, perhaps feeling the atmosphere was a bit awkward, found a new topic: "I didn't expect you were two girls."
Ruan Nanzhu: "What else?"
Feng Yongle: "I thought you were a boy."
Ruan Nanzhu: "Who says women are inferior to men?"
Lin Qiushi leaned against the headboard, thinking quietly, who could have imagined that the feminist before him was such a cute girl...
Eight o'clock was almost here when Lin Qiushi heard the sound of running and chasing in the corridor outside. The sound was crisp yet a bit panicky. Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu exchanged a glance, and Ruan Nanzhu said, "I'll go."
Lin Qiushi stood up before Ruan Nanzhu. He walked to the door and opened it carefully, wanting to see who was running outside.
After opening the door, Lin Qiushi saw only an empty corridor. His heart tightened as he was about to close the door, but he felt something stuck in the doorway.
Lin Qiushi lowered his head and saw a red high-heeled shoe had appeared at his door, standing abruptly on the edge of the door frame.
Lin Qiushi: “…”
Ruan Nanzhu walked up to Lin Qiushi and spotted the shoes. He looked around but didn't reach for them. Instead, he went back into the house, pulled out a dirty toilet plunger, and knocked the high heels out with a single blow.
Lin Qiushi was shocked by Ruan Nanzhu's actions.
Feng Yongle was also shocked. He watched in a daze as Ruan Nanzhu casually threw the toilet plug away, then went to the bathroom to wash his hands with a calm expression.
After coming back, Ruan Nanzhu found that the two were still staring at him. He was a little surprised: "Why are you looking at me?"
Lin Qiushi took out his phone and typed: Because you are pretty.
Ruan Nanzhu smiled and kissed Lin Qiushi: "Qiuqiu is still the cutest. Come, sister, give me a kiss."
Lin Qiushi felt a little embarrassed: Men and women should not touch each other.
Ruan Nanzhu had a strange expression after reading Lin Qiushi's words. He had always known that whenever he wore women's clothing, Lin Qiushi would be a little confused...
Lin Qiushi regretted it right after he finished typing. He suddenly remembered that the lovely Bai Jie in front of him was not a girl, but a very cruel man.
Lin Qiushi: “…” Alas, eyes are so deceiving.
The sound of high heels was heard outside again. This time, Lin Qiushi did not open the door, although the sound seemed to be surrounding their room.
It was completely dark and the entire sanatorium was shrouded in darkness.
Everything was silent, making the sound of running seem particularly harsh. Along with the thud of high heels hitting the ground, Lin Qiushi's keen hearing caught the faint sobbing of a child, though it was so quiet that neither Ruan Nanzhu nor Feng Yongle likely heard it.
So Lin Qiushi curled up in bed and pretended that he heard nothing.
"Go to sleep." Ruan Nanzhu, who was on the upper bunk, said goodnight to him. "If you can't sleep, you're welcome to come find me."
Lin Qiushi didn't say anything. Typing was too troublesome at the moment, and he was too lazy to communicate with Ruan Nanzhu.
Soon, Ruan Nanzhu's breathing became steady. Based on Lin Qiushi's understanding of him, he knew that he must have fallen asleep.
Lin Qiushi glanced at Feng Yongle beside him and saw that he was still staring at the ceiling in a daze. He felt inexplicably comforted - at least he was not the only one who couldn't fall asleep.
Feng Yongle seemed to have noticed Lin Qiushi's gaze. He turned his head, smiled at Lin Qiushi, and whispered, "Can't sleep?"
Lin Qiushi nodded.
Feng Yongle looked at Lin Qiushi, his eyes filled with an indescribable tenderness that frightened Lin Qiushi so much that he quickly closed his eyes. He felt that if he didn't close them and pretend to sleep, Feng Yongle would say something terrible.
The author has something to say: Ruan Nanzhu: You can tell how I feel about you by looking at my eyes.
Lin Qiushi: I confirmed through eye contact that the person I met wasn't a human...
Ruan Nanzhu: ???
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