Kaleidoscope of Death

Chapter 135: Real or Fake

That day, it was Satchan's company that greeted the irresistible drowsiness with Lin Qiushi. By the time he woke up it was another new day. Lin Qiushi sat at his bedside and watched the bright sunlight streaming in from the window. In the embrace of illumination, everything looked to be filled with hope.

Lin Qiushi got up out of bed, his body feeling particularly exhausted. After he washed up, he got his luggage and once again hit the road.

This time, the flight was not delayed. Lin Qiushi returned to his home city right on time. When his flight landed, he did not rush home, instead hailed a car to another location—the school that Ruan Nanzhu had mentioned in his text.

It was a high school in the suburbs.

It was May—nearing the end of the term and the college entrance exams. All the students were nervously studying. While the guards weren't looking, Lin Qiushi snuck into the school from the back door, taking in the school in full.

Many years ago, Ruan Nanzhu entered the doors from right here. Lin Qiushi watched the neat school buildings before him and thought that he was now seeing the same sight as the young Ruan Nanzhu. Ruan Nanzhu had just been a kid back then; he would've been so helpless when he started entering doors. Luckily, he'd met a kind guide, and then befriended many people in Obsidian from whom he'd benefited greatly. Though the journey had been bumpy, he'd finally made it to today.

Lin Qiushi strolled slowly inside the school. Though he knew that currently, Ruan Nanzhu was in a different timeline than he was and the two of them had no chance of meeting, he still had a kind of miraculous hallucination—that through time and space, they were standing at the exact same spot, looking upon the exact same scene.

Only he didn't know what the school looked like at night time, was all.

Lin Qiushi had ran around for two whole days, and was quite exhausted. He found a random corner of the cafeteria where he sat, lied down on the table, and fell deeply asleep.

By the time he woke again, the sun was already veering west. Lin Qiushi was still visibly tired, and he knew the evening riot of the countless ghosts was coming once more.

He was running for his life every night—even for his body, it was hard to bear. But some things couldn't be put on pause just because you were tired. Lin Qiushi didn't want to die, and so had to keep working up the energy to face whatever was coming next.

He grabbed his luggage and quickly left the school, rushing to get home before the night settled in.

The truth was, Lin Qiushi really wanted to stay at the school and see Ruan Nanzhu just the once. But he was scared that he'd be bringing not only himself, but also all of his ghosts.

The pressure over on Ruan Nanzhu's side was high enough already, Lin Qiushi really didn't want to get him in more trouble. And so he could only tamp down how much he missed Ruan Nanzhu and opt for the safer path.

Sitting on his sofa with Chestnut in his arms, Lin Qiushi contemplated the "No Solution" hint. Ever since entering this door, he had found no leads on the key. It was as if the key didn't exist at all, and there was no way for him to escape.

Then did the words "No Solution" from the hint have some other hidden meaning? Lin Qiushi closed his eyes and leaned against the sofa in quiet thought.

It didn't bring about any conclusions though. The bizarre Otherworld of the evening seemed to be as tangled up as a ball of yarn, and he couldn't comb the start of it out from anywhere.

Chestnut fell asleep in Lin Qiushi's arms, its breathing going steady. Its body warmth traversed through clothing and helped settle Lin Qiushi's emotions quite a lot.