Ruan Nan Candle's words made everyone fall silent. Although his tone sounded like he was joking, in this kind of atmosphere, such jokes seemed likely to come true.
Xiao Yi's corpse had mysteriously disappeared, and they had been here for three days now, with four more days until the birthday. Xiao Yi had met a terrible end yesterday, and his mother had cried so hard she barely looked human. But after just one day, she seemed to have recovered from her grief, murmuring that she had to prepare a birthday cake as she busily rushed around the kitchen. No one knew exactly what she was busy with.
Everyone felt heavy-hearted, filled with a vague sense of impending danger that they couldn't clearly articulate.
Tang Yao Yao felt that the old lady and young man downstairs were a breakthrough, so she went down with Zhang Xing Huo to try to gather more information. Ruan Nan Candle didn't go with them. He stayed upstairs with Lin Qiu Shi to discuss some matters. Xiao Cheng and Zeng Ruo Guo also stayed behind. Both looked haggard, seemingly unable to withstand any more shocks.
From the kitchen came the sounds of pots and pans clanking, interspersed with the mother's off-key humming.
The bedroom door was tightly shut. The two surviving twins hid inside, doing who knows what.
Zeng Ruo Guo had drunk too much water due to anxiety. He turned pleading eyes to Lin Qiu Shi, wanting to use the bathroom but too afraid to go alone.
"What's with that look?" Lin Qiu Shi felt uneasy under his gaze. "Did you want me to go with you?"
"Brother Yu..." Zeng Ruo Guo looked embarrassed but steeled himself to ask, "Could you come along? I'm scared to go by myself."
There was only one shared bathroom. The same place Lin Qiu Shi had found the baby corpse before. Seeing Zeng Ruo Guo's apprehensive expression, Lin Qiu Shi nodded. "Sure, I need to go too. Let's go together."
Zeng Ruo Guo looked relieved.
The two of them headed to the bathroom. By now it was almost afternoon, though the sky outside was already dim, closer to dusk than midday. There was a window next to the bathroom. Peering out through the glass, Lin Qiu Shi saw nothing but heavy fog, unlike their clear arrival days ago.
After quickly finishing his business, Lin Qiu Shi said, "I'll wait outside for you."
"Okay," came Zeng Ruo Guo's muffled voice from the stall.
Lin Qiu Shi went to stand by the door. He took out his phone and was surprised to see he had a signal now. But he didn't dare make any calls, worried about connecting to strange places in this world.
He expected Zeng Ruo Guo to emerge soon, but after waiting silently for four to five minutes, a sense of foreboding arose. Lin Qiu Shi detected a faint bloody odor in the air. Having smelled that tang too many times already, he knew instantly what it signified - blood.
"Zeng Ruo Guo!" he called out, not daring to step inside. Only ominous silence answered. Through the crack between the stalls, Lin Qiu Shi now spotted blood slowly seeping across the tiled floor, winding its way steadily toward his feet. He reacted swiftly, avoiding contact.
"Zeng Ruo Guo, are you still there?" Lin Qiu Shi tried again, but noticed the blood seemed alive, changing course to chase his footsteps, moving faster and faster. He barely leapt clear in time.
Realizing the danger, Lin Qiu Shi fled the bathroom to warn the others. "Something happened to Zeng Ruo Guo!"
Ruan Nan Candle and Xiao Cheng stopped their discussion to look over. "What's going on?"
"I was waiting outside for him, but there was no sound. I went back in and saw blood all over the floor." Lin Qiu Shi's brows furrowed. "The blood was flowing directly at me, like it was following me. I got out fast."
"Blood?" Ruan Nan Candle asked, "You didn't get any on you, right?"
Lin Qiu Shi shook his head.
"Good, let's go take a look then. We can't just avoid the bathroom for days." Ruan Nan Candle said calmly.
Hearing Lin Qiu Shi's account, Xiao Cheng's face drained of color again as she started dry heaving.
Ruan Nan Candle entered the bathroom without hesitation, picking his way carefully across the floor. "Watch your step," he warned.
In just minutes, the vivid red blood had congealed into an inky black, as if long dried up.
Stepping over it, Ruan Nan Candle surveyed Zeng Ruo Guo's corpse with a soft tsk. "He's dead."
When Lin Qiu Shi caught sight of the scene, he understood why. Zeng Ruo Guo was certainly dead, gruesomely so. His head was smashed into an unrecognizable pulp of bone, brain and gore. But strangely, no gray matter or viscera could be seen, only the bloody carnage of shattered bone and flesh remained.
"Damn," Lin Qiu Shi swore uncharacteristically as realization struck. "Does this mean we're eggs?!"
"Most likely," Ruan Nan Candle replied.
"Why take his brains then?" A chill went through Lin Qiu Shi picturing someone carefully cracking Zeng Ruo Guo's skull to harvest the brains before obliterating his head completely. "I don't understand."
"Must be useful for something," said Ruan Nan Candle. "We'll have to investigate further." He headed for the door. "Let's go."
"What about the corpse?" asked Lin Qiu Shi.
"Best not to touch it. Just leave it be for now," Ruan Nan Candle answered with a placid smile. "It might disappear soon anyway."
And disappear it did. Upon the other groups' return, Zeng Ruo Guo's body had vanished without a trace. Only the dried bloodstains on the floor remained as proof of what they'd witnessed.
"Zeng Ruo Guo is dead?" Tang Yao Yao sounded surprised to hear the news. "How did he die?"
Lin Qiu Shi briefly recounted what transpired.
"I see. Well, dead is dead I guess." Tang Yao Yao's reaction was oddly indifferent too. She gave a self-deprecating laugh. "At least he was lucky to have lasted this long. Most people die the moment they rush into the fog."
Lin Qiu Shi: "..."
"Where's the body? I want to take a look," said Tang Yao Yao.
"Still in the bathroom," replied Lin Qiu Shi.
But when they entered, the corpse had vanished without a trace, not even a smear of blood remaining in the stall where it lay.
"Gone?" Tang Yao Yao murmured. "Someone took it away then..."
"Don't know," Lin Qiu Shi shook his head. "We were in the room the whole time, didn't notice anything happening to the bathroom. In any case, he clearly wasn't killed by a person. Those things could easily take a body if they wanted."
Ruan Nan Candle peered into the pipe hole. "Probably dragged away through here."
"What makes you say that?" asked Tang Yao Yao doubtfully.
"There's hair and flesh stuck inside," explained Ruan Nan Candle. "See?"
The others looked closer and indeed saw shredded flesh and dark hairs clinging to the narrow opening. An impossible feat in reality, but in this warped world, anything was possible.
After their time together, Lin Qiu Shi realized Ruan Nan Candle had exceptionally sharp observation skills, noticing many small details the rest of them missed. Without his inputs, this passage would surely have proven far more dangerous.
Ruan Nan Candle glanced around the bathroom stall again. "We should go."
Back in the room, Tang Yao Yao grumbled, "So we've got no leads or clues now? Just sit and wait until their birthday?"
"Waiting seems to be our only option," Zhang Xing Huo sighed.
While they were despondent over Zeng Ruo Guo's death, the triplets' mother appeared to be in high spirits, cooking up several meat dishes for dinner. Everyone eyed the mysterious food warily, lacking appetite. But the woman ate with relish, unbothered by their rejection. Xiao Cheng managed a few bites of bread before fleeing the table in tears.
The taciturn newcomer, Zhong Cheng Jian, also made to leave, only to find the twins blocking his way by the door. These two were always popping up out of nowhere. No telling how long they had stood there.
"Do you recognize me?" one twin abruptly asked Zhong Cheng Jian.
Annoyed at the question, he retorted, "Move aside! Don't block my way." This was Zhong Cheng Jian's first passage. Already rattled by the bizarre environment and deaths, he was in no mood to entertain the twins' antics and tried to brush past them.
But the girl in the skirt persisted. "Do you recognize me?"
Temper flaring, Zhong Cheng Jian shoved her forcefully against the wall to clear his path, cursing as he stormed off.
The girl slowly straightened up, black eyes fixed on Zhong Cheng Jian's retreating back. Her sister's lips moved whispering something that made the girl's face twist into an unsettling smile.
Lin Qiu Shi halted his steps to glance at Ruan Nan Candle questioningly.
Ruan Nan Candle just shook his head in response.
"That guy doesn't talk much usually, but guess he's pretty hot-headed," remarked Tang Yao Yao, also displeased by Zhong Cheng Jian's behavior. "Messing with those twins like that..." She took a desultory bite of her dry bread and sighed. "When we get out, first thing I'm gonna do is eat a real meal!"
Who didn't yearn to escape this place and return to the mundane world of everyday life? But reality cared nothing for human hopes or wishes. They still had several days left to endure.
The dark of night always brought unease and trepidation.
Lin Qiu Shi remembered Ruan Nan Candle's prior speculation - with Zhong Cheng Jian now provoking those twins, especially the volatile girl, something was bound to happen tonight.
"Maybe I guessed the death conditions wrong this time," said Ruan Nan Candle, reading his thoughts as they lay side by side in the cramped room. "You're too soft-hearted for this world. Sacrifices are necessary sometimes."
Lin Qiu Shi stayed silent, heaving a small sigh. "I could have prevented it..."
"Their lives aren't your responsibility," Ruan Nan Candle replied gently.
Lin Qiu Shi gave a bitter laugh. "I'm hardly qualified for that when my own life was saved by you. Just hoped we could minimize the deaths if possible." He harbored no arrogant notions of gallantly protecting everyone.
"Mm. To each their own fate in the end," said Ruan Nan Candle. Though had Lin Qiu Shi been a craven, selfish coward who cared nothing for others' lives, Ruan Nan Candle would not have thought much of him either.
Some things were just paradoxical by nature.
In the dim bedroom, Lin Qiu Shi hit the lights, plunging them into darkness. After last night's scare, they had shifted sleeping directions, no longer leaving their heads vulnerable to the open hallway.
"I sleep like the dead," Ruan Nan Candle confessed frankly. "Once I'm out, even loud sounds won't wake me. You'll have to shake me awake if anything happens."
Lin Qiu Shi: "..." For the first time, he regretted having sharp ears. Wouldn't it be nice to slumber obliviously like Ruan Nan Candle until daylight?
Expecting Zhong Cheng Jian's imminent death that night, they were shocked when morning arrived with nothing amiss. As Zhong Cheng Jian took his usual seat at the table, suspicious glances followed him.
"What's with the staring?" he asked, puzzled.
Everyone averted their eyes silently.
Today's breakfast was congee and hard bread again. After days of the same fare, Lin Qiu Shi had lost his appetite for the tough, tasteless bread. But needs must.
Zhong Cheng Jian began eating, but after a few mouthfuls, his motions abruptly halted, expression morphing in dismay. One hand clamped over his mouth as he coughed violently.
"What's wrong?" Tang Yao Yao jumped, alarmed.
"Cough cough what *is* this stuff?!" Zhong Cheng Jian spat out blood-tinged congee onto the floor and fished out a long thin object from his mouth, glinting wetly red.
The group recoiled in shock. It was a sewing needle the size of a thumb, both ends sharply pointed. Zhong Cheng Jian was fortunate not to have swallowed it directly, though his mouth was bleeding freely from puncture wounds.
"F*ck!!!" Zhong Cheng Jian exploded furiously to his feet. "Who the hell put a needle in my food?!"
No one spoke as silence smothered the room.
"The congee was prepared by that woman," Tang Yao Yao said finally, indicating the mother. "Our seating arrangement is random..."
"No." Ruan Nan Candle interjected. "Zhong Cheng Jian always arrives last to meals. This was targeted at him."
"So the needle was planted by her?!" demanded Tang Yao Yao.
"Possibly..." said Ruan Nan Candle, gaze fixed on the blood spatters.
"I'll kill you!! Kill you all!" Screaming dementedly, Zhong Cheng Jian seemed possessed as he seized the butcher knife off the counter and charged the woman. Too late to intervene, Ruan Nan Candle pulled Lin Qiu Shi and Xiao Cheng back swiftly while the rest froze in shock. Zhong Cheng Jian slashed down viciously, slicing the woman across the torso.
She let out an awful shriek and collapsed, instantly dead.
But Zhong Cheng Jian did not stop, face contorted in a frenzied haze as he continued hacking the corpse to pieces. "Die, die!!"
Only when his strength gave out did he finally drop the knife and sit numbly amidst the carnage, madness fading to be replaced by dawning horror and despair. "I...killed someone?" he whimpered faintly.
"Zhong Cheng Jian, you psychopath!!" Tang Yao Yao's shrill voice accused. "Do you realize what you've done?!"
"I killed someone?" Zhong Cheng Jian sounded on the verge of tears.
"The problem isn't that you killed someone, but whether that was even human!" Tang Yao Yao yelled, equally incensed. Though she had dodged clear, blood still spattered her clothes. "Don't be surprised if she comes back to haunt you tonight!"
Zhong Cheng Jian slowly rose on trembling legs, repeating "I killed someone" like a broken record. He released the knife and staggered away in a daze.
Leaning in close, Ruan Nan Candle murmured against Lin Qiu Shi's shoulder, "This is why I hate newcomers. High-strung as bowstrings, liable to cause disaster if you glance away a second."
"What happens if an NPC is killed?" Lin Qiu Shi asked quietly.
Ruan Nan Candle shrugged. "Not much really. Just a more gruesome death in the end."
Lin Qiu Shi: "..."