Very soon, regarding Ruan Nanzhu's offer, Lin Qiushi had an answer—he decided to enter Cheng Yixie's ninth door together with Ruan Nanzhu.
About Lin Qiushi's decision, Ruan Nanzhu wasn't surprised. He only asked Lin Qiushi once more: "You've thought it through?"
Lin Qiushi nodded: "I've thought it through."
"The ninth door will be much more difficult. Even I can't guarantee you'll make it out safely," Ruan Nanzhu spoke bluntly. "This door may be your last."
Lin Qiushi said, "that's fine."
Ruan Nanzhu watched Lin Qiushi's face in silence for a moment, before nodding in acceptance.
Lin Qiushi thought there was something he wanted to say, but in the end, Ruan Nanzhu said nothing more.
After confirming Lin Qiushi was going with them, Ruan Nanzhu told Lin Qiushi the ninth door's hint. When he got it, Lin Qiushi read it over, and took on a look of shock: "This is a hint?"
Ruan Nanzhu, "mh."
There was a line on the paper: with bronze as mirror, one can right their apparel; with history as mirror, one can understand the tides of fortune; with people as mirror, one can gain from loss.
"What does this mean?" Lin Qiushi recalled this was a famous quote from Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty, something that was even taught in textbooks. But placed within the world of the doors, a hint like this was basically no hint at all.
"I don't know," Ruan Nanzhu said. "The hints for latter doors are all more abstract. They no longer have clear indications like the ones before. So what the situation will actually be like, we can only say once inside the door."
Hint slip pinched in hand, Lin Qiushi stared at it for a long time, before saying okay.
Their time of entry was, specifically, the fifteenth of the next month. Cheng Yixie was the one who told Lin Qiushi. When he learned Lin Qiushi was going into the door with them he seemed quite calm, like he'd already predicted Ruan Nanzhu would be bringing Lin Qiushi along.
Cheng Yixie was likely the quietest person inside the mansion. He was silent all the time, except to scold his brother.
Though Cheng Qianli and Cheng Yixie were twins, their personalities were complete opposites. Cheng Qianli went about his day like an air-headed child, while Cheng Yixie was very mature.
There was still some time before they were to enter the door. Lin Qiushi continued to rest in the mansion.
In the interim Tan Zaozao and that movie legend Zhang Yiqing also came around, together with the man taking Zhang Yiqing through his doors.
That person's name was Bai Ming. In both looks and disposition he was very sunny, with his hair in light, natural curls and a cute dimple on his cheek when he smiled.
To be honest, Lin Qiushi was having a hard time linking a person like this to a major player on the inside. He was quite curious how this Bai Ming appeared inside the doors.
The question felt a bit invasive however, so Lin Qiushi didn't ask.
Zhang Yiqing's condition seemed better than before. At least he didn't look on the verge of a breakdown.
Bai Ming was very interested in Lin Qiushi as well, though he didn't dare express too much of this interest in front of Ruan Nanzhu. Lin Qiushi still noticed, though, the occasional looks of assessment.
"Yiqing's movie's premiering in May, you guys have to go see it." The first thing Bai Ming did upon arriving at the mansion was pass out Zhang Yiqing's premier tickets. "I've already seen the uncut version, it's amazing."
Sitting on the side watching Bai Ming toot his horn, Zhang Yiqing's expression didn't look too good. Lin Qiushi guessed it was a look of humiliation…
"Yiqing is absolutely incredible, I like him so much." Bai Ming professed his love looking like a whole star-chasing fanatic. Which was fine on the regular, but now that he was complimenting the man to his face, it was rather hard to bear. Lin Qiushi clearly saw that despite Zhang Yiqing's severe expression, his ears had gone completely red. Zhang Yiqing stood up, feigning calm, and said he was going out onto the balcony for a smoke.
Lin Qiushi privately thought it was really pretty funny, that this Bai Ming had Zhang Yiqing completely contained.
Tan Zaozao started loudly guffawing without holding back at all.
"Zaozao, are you going in again?" Lin Qiushi quickly calculated the time, and felt Tan Zaozao's next door ought to be soon.
"Mh," Tan Zaozao nodded. "Chen Fei's bringing me this time… How about you? Which door are you on?"
Lin Qiushi said, "still my sixth." He didn't mention that he was going into the ninth door with Ruan Nanzhu.
"Oh…" Tan Zaozao's attention seemed to wander, like she was thinking of something.
Lin Qiushi asked, "what is it?"
"Nothing," Tan Zaozao sighed. "Just wondering what to do about the doors after this." She couldn't completely drop her real life job like Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi to focus on passing the doors, and she didn't have the courage to train. This meant that for higher level doors, she'd likely have more poor fortune than good, not to mention that even Ruan Nanzhu basically didn't take on doors after the sixth.
Because people said that after the sixth door, the level of difficulty thoroughly changed. As for how it changed, Tan Zaozao wasn't sure. All she knew was that it would be tough.
The group chatted for a while over lunch. Lin Qiushi learned, through Ruan Nanzhu and Bai Ming's conversation, that the two had known each other for about four years, and counted as old friends.
Bai Ming had already passed his ninth door, and was waiting for his tenth.
After eating, Bai Ming and Ruan Nanzhu went to the study. The two seemed to have something to discuss in private.
Tan Zaozao brought Lin Qiushi and Zhang Yiqing downstairs to play games.
What the two discussed Lin Qiushi didn't know, but when they came back downstairs, both their gazes were fixed on him.
Lin Qiushi, vaguely startled, asked, "what is it?"
"Nothing," Bai Ming grinned. "Just a bit curious about you."
Lin Qiushi, "curious?"
Bai Ming asked, "don't you think there's something special about yourself?"
Lin Qiushi gave it a thought, before murmuring, "I especially like cats?" As he said this, he was poking subtly at Chestnut's toe beans, all while Chestnut side-eyed him in displeasure.
Ruan Nanzhu, "…" Sure, that could be considered a type of special.
Hearing this, Bai Ming laughed. "You really are interesting." He didn't mention anymore about Lin Qiushi though, and after sitting for another while, left with Zhang Yiqing and Tan Zaozao.
Lin Qiushi glanced at Ruan Nanzhu, seated beside him, and quietly asked, "is there something special about me?"
Ruan Nanzhu eyed him back. "What do you think?"
Lin Qiushi shook his head, uncomprehending.
Ruan Nanzhu, "you really don't feel like there's anything weird about you?"
Lin Qiushi, "no."
Ruan Nanzhu stood up. "If not then forget it." At this, he turned and left, leaving Lin Qiushi no further opportunity to ask. For some reason, Lin Qiushi felt that Ruan Nanzhu's mood had soured…
Cheng Qianli learned they were entering the ninth door as well. He was very worried; he even set up an altar in his room and began to seriously pray.
Lin Qiushi was even dragged over to light three incense sticks of his own.
"Please bless them to return safely." Cheng Qianli's manners seemed wholly pious.
Lin Qiushi didn't use to believe in such things. But the world inside the doors had completely turned his worldview upside down, so he didn't say anything disrespectful before the incense altar.
"I'm so scared." After the incense, Cheng Qianli sat on his bed, muttering to Lin Qiushi. "I'm just really, really scared."
"Don't be scared, it'll be alright." Lin Qiushi petted his head. Cheng Qianli was only sixteen; he was still half a kid. "Your Ruan-ge will be there."
"Mh," Cheng Qianli said. "I want to be stronger, so then, then I can…" At this point, he seemed a bit embarrassed.
Lin Qiushi asked, "so then you can what?"
Cheng Qianli said, "so then I can be the one protecting my brother for a change!" He puffed up his chest, looking proud.
Lin Qiushi smiled. "Mh, then you gotta work hard." Sometimes, Cheng Qianli could be so foolishly adorable.
Cheng Qianli said, "even though he has a bad temper, and he gives me the cold-shoulder all the time, he's my brother in the end, right?" He lied down on the bed, muttering to himself. "He looks exactly like me, after all…"
Lin Qiushi just sat silently listening on the side.
He honestly didn't quite understand the brotherly love Cheng Qianli spoke of. Even in his youth he'd not encountered much of a familial atmosphere, nor did he have any brothers or sisters. At twenty-six, he didn't even have a person he liked. As Lin Qiushi thought this, he suddenly found his life a bit regretful. If he died inside this door, there seemed to be a lot that he hadn't experienced.
The day of Cheng Yixie's door opening got closer and closer.
The atmosphere inside the mansion began to tense as well.
Besides Ruan Nanzhu, Cheng Yixie had the highest level door. Lin Qiushi roughly calculated Cheng Yixie's time in the doors, and discovered he would've been entering doors since he was eleven or twelve. To have survived so many doors at such a young age, Cheng Yixie really was incredible.
And his younger brother Cheng Qianli was only on door six; there must have been years between each of their first doors.
This time, Ruan Nanzhu didn't put Lin Qiushi in drag. While he was glad, there was, Lin Qiushi discovered, a thin thread of disappointment deep in his heart. When he noticed this disappointment he scared himself. He hadn't thought drag could be addictive.
Of course, Lin Qiushi very quickly processed and got rid of these disappointed feelings, since he really was glad he didn't have to pretend to be mute anymore. As for the matter of a fake voice—he still had not figured that out.
Days flew by, and soon, it was nearly time to enter the door.
The weather had also gradually gotten hot. After dinner, Lin Qiushi sat on the balcony cooling off, and saw Cheng Yixie standing in the garden downstairs. Cheng Yixie's expression was solemn, and there was a cigarette in his hand slowly being smoked.
Lin Qiushi watched him from high above, and after a while's thought, called out: "Cheng Yixie!"
Cheng Yixie looked up.
Lin Qiushi declared loudly, "minors shouldn't smoke."
Cheng Yixie furrowed his brow. He and Cheng Qianli were almost entirely identical, with the exception of that cold aura he gave off. Though he was young, that aura clearly let people know that this wasn't a person to be messed with. He listened to Lin Qiushi though, and really did put out the cigarette.
Lin Qiushi fished out a fistful of candy, and tossed them down from the second floor. "Eat these."
Colorful candies fell on the green grass like fireworks going off. They were actually quite pretty.
Cheng Yixie bent down. He picked one up, unwrapped it, and popped it into his mouth.
Lin Qiushi watched him, grinning. "Is it good? The purple one is grape flavored—" These were hard candies he ordered online, made from fruit juice. They tasted pretty good.
Cheng Yixie glanced once at him and didn't speak. He did carefully pick up all the candies however, and pocket them before walking away.
Watching him go, Lin Qiushi was pretty happy. Though Cheng Yixie entered the doors before he did, Cheng Yixie was also still a kid in his eyes, not even eighteen yet.
The day before going in, Ruan Nanzhu put on his dress. The three all wore that special bracelet, and began waiting for the door to come.
Cheng Qianli grew anxious, pacing laps up and down the house.
In the end Cheng Yixie couldn't take it anymore, frowning as he said, "quit circling, I'm going dizzy just looking at you."
Cheng Qianli, wounded, "I can't even circle around?"
Cheng Yixie, "no."
Cheng Qianli, "…hmph. Well no, I'm gonna circle." Though he said that, he still obediently took a seat back on the sofa, picking up Toast nearby to viciously rub at.
Dizzy with the rubbing, Toast blinked its big black eyes, howling in woe.
"Stop torturing it," Cheng Yixie spoke again.
Cheng Qianli, "ah, you're too much! You won't let me do this, you won't let me do that—"
Cheng Yixie didn't make a single sound in reply, just stared expressionlessly back at Cheng Qianli. And so the two faced off for ten, eleven seconds, before Cheng Qianli fell unerringly to defeat once more. With tragic eyes he released Toast's round little butt and watched the dog run away.
Cheng Yixie looked at his watch.
Cheng Qianli saw this, and only grew more agitated. His lips moved soundlessly for a bit, until, almost inaudibly, he squeezed out, "you have to come back."
Cheng Yixie glanced up once at him.
"Hey, I'm talking to you here!" Cheng Yixie said. "Are you listening to me, Cheng Yixie, you have to come back." It seemed to have taken him a while to work up the courage to say this. "You have to come back!"
Cheng Yixie made a single, faint sound of agreement.
And so Cheng Qianli was satisfied, murmuring some other fussy orders.
As the two brothers interacted, Lin Qiushi was seated right beside them. He saw with his own eyes the corners of Cheng Yixie's mouth tick up as Cheng Qianli mumbled, though the motion was faint and only momentary, easily taken as an illusion.
The door came the next evening.
After eating, Lin Qiushi had gone back to his room.
He sat in front of his computer, and was just about to press the on button, when a very peculiar feeling came over his body. It was a feeling he was familiar with—the door had opened.
Lin Qiushi got up and opened his bedroom door. He wasn't surprised at all to see that the twelve metal doors had appeared in the hallway. Of them, eight were sealed off. The other three could not be opened.
The only one that could open was Cheng Yixie's ninth door.
Lin Qiushi came to the door, and tugged it open—the scenery around him twisted, and Lin Qiushi appeared on a wide paved road.
As he took in his surroundings, he looked a bit shocked, because it wasn't some desolate wilderness about him, but a full commercial street. Colorful signs hung from either side of the road, and though it was currently late and most of the shops were closed, it was still easy to picture the bustling street by day.
The path beneath his feet was very smooth. Lin Qiushi followed it, and saw a high rise that stretched into the clouds. A special coating covered the building's exterior, making it look like it was built out of mirrors; it absorbed all the light from around it, and was attention-catching even in the dimming night.
For some reason, as he looked at this high rise, a term came to Lin Qiushi's mind: phototaxis.
Phototaxis was a type of biological habit observed in both animals and plants. The most obvious one was how insects rush at a light source at night, even if that light was a flame that would incinerate them.
Humans were animals too, Lin Qiushi thought. In the dark of night, they would always walk toward the light source they see. With no consideration for what awaited them at the other end.
The doors to the high rise were open. Lin Qiushi slowly entered, and saw eight or nine people standing in the lobby. These people had already split into groups. Seeing Lin Qiushi walk in, most took on assessing expressions.
This time, Lin Qiushi saw no newbies out of their depths.
Considering the ninth door's difficulty, if there really was a newbie, then Lin Qiushi suspected they'd been dragged into this door literally seconds before their death.
Looking about, Lin Qiushi didn't find whom he was looking for. So he took a seat on a random sofa and began observing the situation around him.
Plus him, there were nine. Five men and four women, split into roughly three groups. They were likely all old hands at this; no one was pretending not to recognize the others. Instead they were all whispering, quietly discussing the matter of this door.
Lin Qiushi sat on the sofa for a while, until he saw two people come in. One was tall and one was short. The tall one was a woman in a long skirt, the short one was a cool-faced young man.
Though their faces were completely different, Lin Qiushi could still recognize them by their clothing and looks—it was Ruan Nanzhu and Cheng Yixie.
The two also saw Lin Qiushi on the sofa and approached.
"Everyone's here?" Lin Qiushi asked.
"Not yet, I don't think." Ruan Nanzhu sat down next to Lin Qiushi. "There are still some people looking around outside. They're probably waiting for their teammates."
At this, Lin Qiushi couldn't help but be impressed by Ruan Nanzhu's skills of observation. It seemed that not minutes after coming here, he'd already collected pretty much all the information they needed on the people around them.
Indeed, after about three minutes, two more people came in from the outside, also a man and a woman. The moment they came in, they headed straight for a corner.
When Lin Qiushi saw where they went he was surprised. "They… have five to one team?"
Ruan Nanzhu, "most likely."
"Is there advantage in numbers inside the doors?" Lin Qiushi tried to think this through, but something felt off.
"To some extent, yes," Ruan Nanzhu said, leaning back on the sofa. "The more people you bring, the more death conditions you can cross out, right?"
Lin Qiushi, "…"
Ruan Nanzhu eyed the corner, and laughed something cold. "Some people will do anything to survive."
Some people, in order to rule out death conditions, purposely brought a lot of newbies into the doors. The newbies didn't understand anything, and were very easily met with accidents inside. Of course, accidents happening to them was fine. To those who'd brought them in, it was even a good thing—they filled up the daily death quotas, after all. According to the rules inside, the number of people who could die each day was limited, so those people were actually safer like this.
Lin Qiushi hadn't thought things could be done this way. "And those newbies are still willing to come in?"
"Why wouldn't they be willing?" Ruan Nanzhu replied lazily. "There are always people who want to strike it rich in a single bite."
Who didn't want to forgo everything in the middle and jump straight through the ninth door? Risk and reward were usually in equal balance; to gain something, you had to give up something.
Such was living.
The group was finally all assembled. There were seventeen people in total, split into roughly five or six groups. The largest group among them was the one with five people. Lin Qiushi had a clear feeling that, of the five, their leader was the woman with the unkind expression.
With everybody gathered in the lobby, the hubbub grew louder.
At this moment, a person in a bellhop's uniform came over from the elevator. In his hand was a stack of keycards, and he smiled at the group in the lobby.
"I do beg your pardon, we've kept everybody waiting," the bellhop said. "These are the key cards to your rooms."
He began passing out the keycards.
Someone in the group asked, "how many per room? Are these single or standard rooms?"
"They're standard rooms," the bellhop said, and smiled. "Red card rooms have one large bed, white card rooms are doubles, and green card rooms can fit three, though one will have to sleep on the sofa." His was was soft and gentle. "Welcome to your vacation here, I hope all of you have a great time."
So they were supposed to be tourists. Lin Qiushi's heart jumped a beat.
"When does our vacation end?" the leader of the five-person group suddenly spoke. "Are there any tourist destinations nearby?"
The bellhop smiled. "I will give everyone a travel guide tomorrow, and on it, all the travel destinations will be marked." He finished passing out the keycards. "Please rest well tonight, everyone."
Lin Qiushi got up and fetched them a green card. The bellhop said green card rooms could fit three. It was perfect for their trio.
The room cards gradually traded hands, and the crowd dispersed on their own.
Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu, and Cheng Yixie's room was on the thirty-fourth floor. The floor was thickly carpeted, and from the hallways exuded a thick scent of burnt incense.
The lights were very dim. When they got to the room and stuck the keycard into the power slot, all the lights inside came on.
Lin Qiushi went to the window and looked out from the glass. He saw a darkened city, all of it swathed in dead silence. Not even a streetlight could be seen—though when he came in from the outside, Lin Qiushi had seen the streetlights turned on.
Ruan Nanzhu said, "this room is very interesting."
Lin Qiushi turned around. "Hm?"
Ruan Nanzhu, "there are mirrors everywhere."
Taking a look around, Lin Qiushi discovered there were indeed many mirrors inside the room. Most unbelievable was the one on the floor.
At the sight of the mirrors, Lin Qiushi couldn't help but think of that "with bronze as mirror" line in the hint. He sensed that the key had to do with the mirrors, but the hint wasn't enough, and he couldn't yet concretely capture it.
Cheng Yixie stared at the mirror beneath his feet, and was silent for a long time. Only when Lin Qiushi was about to walk away did he suddenly and quietly say: "This is a two-way mirror."
Lin Qiushi's face froze.
Cheng Yixie spoke very slowly: "People downstairs can see into our room."
At this, Ruan Nanzhu suddenly looked down at his skirt. "Then haven't I been exposed?"
Cheng Yixie, "…"
Lin Qiushi, "…"
Ruan Nanzhu, "upon closer thought, I'm actually a bit embarrassed."
Lin Qiushi, "…" If you're so embarrassed why are you pulling your skirt up higher…
Author's Note:
Hello everyone, I'm Xi Zixu's draft folder. For the next few days I'll be bringing folks new chapters. As for Xi Zixu, she got her hand chewed off when she washed her cat yesterday.