If they were in the normal world, they would only experience a full moon once a month. But the logic of the world inside the door was chaotic, and based on what had happened in the past few days, it seemed they were simply reliving the same day over and over again. The food they ate every day was the same, the places they went were the same, and even the tour guide's script was the same.
The next morning, there were no bloody handprints left in the room like Lin Qiu Shi had guessed. His speculation was proven - Xu Jin would only quietly leave at night to peel off her own skin when they went to the pagoda that day.
And today, they had to go to the pagoda again.
Ruan Nan Zhu had already decided to take the drum from the pagoda today. Although it sounded very risky, currently they had no other clues. They could only try their best.
After a long trek, they finally arrived at the group of pagodas.
The tall pagoda that had turned into a bone pagoda had reverted to its original appearance that they had first seen. The spire stretched high into the clouds, with almost half of it buried in the thick mountain mist.
Before Ruan Nan Zhu and Lin Qiu Shi rushed straight to the top of the pagoda, they first handed Xu Jin over to Lai Dong Yuan. Of course, their excuse was that it would be dangerous upstairs, so it would be best for Xu Jin who was fearful to stay below.
Xu Jin seemed to want to say something but held back. Lai Dong Yuan smiled and pressed her shoulder, "Don't worry, just stay down here with me. They'll be fine."
Only then did Xu Jin hesitantly nod.
After settling Xu Jin, Ruan Nan Zhu and Lin Qiu Shi then continued climbing up. As they climbed, Ruan Nan Zhu said, "We saw that mural yesterday before the accident, didn't we?"
"You mean the one in the room?" Lin Qiu Shi also remembered.
"Yes." Ruan Nan Zhu said, "I thought about the content of the mural carefully last night. Now I roughly understand what it means."
Lin Qiu Shi asked: "So what exactly does it mean?"
By the time they were talking, they had climbed to the top of the pagoda. But when they turned the last corner, Cheng Qian Li who was walking in front suddenly stopped. Although he didn't say anything, Lin Qiu Shi could see a clear fear in his eyes.
"What's wrong?" Lin Qiu Shi asked in a low voice, shocked.
"There's...there's someone..." Cheng Qian Li stiffly turned his head, "On the drum...sitting..."
Lin Qiu Shi took a step forward and saw the scene Cheng Qian Li described. On the not-so-big red drum, there really was a woman sitting with her back facing them. From her dress, she was clearly Xu Jin who was just downstairs with Lai Dong Yuan!
Xu Jin was half-kneeling on the drum, her posture was strangely hunched. She slowly raised her hand, seemingly about to hit the drum skin below her. Ruan Nan Zhu suddenly shouted, "Xu Jin, your sister is looking for you—"
Xu Jin's movements stopped.
Ruan Nan Zhu said, "She's asking when she can have her skin back."
Xu Jin slowly turned her head. When she turned to face them, everyone's breathing stopped - that was not Xu Jin at all, but a human-shaped piece of skin.
The peeled skin was still maintaining the shape it had when it was just stripped off, as if supported by a skeleton. Looking at it front on, you could even see the body tissues inside the skin. Cheng Qian Li almost screamed out loud, but desperately muffled himself with his hands at the critical moment.
"Xu...Jin?" Lin Qiu Shi's breathing was also a little chaotic, but he started to doubt whether the skin in front of him belonged to Xu Jin or her sister.
Ruan Nan Zhu was still the calmest among them. Facing such a terrifying scene, there was almost no change in his tone as he took out a bone flute from his arms and blew a melody.
A sharp scream came from the slit of the skin in front of them, as if it had a giant mouth. Cheng Qian Li let out a shriek and directly fainted. As he fainted, it seemed as if he saw the human skin pounce towards them.
There was the sound of arguing, more and more intensely, giving Lin Qiu Shi a headache.
He forced his eyes open to see Ruan Nan Zhu and Lai Dong Yuan arguing about something, and the atmosphere was very bad.
Lai Dong Yuan said, "Zhu Meng, I apologize. This matter did exceed my expectations."
Facing Lai Dong Yuan's concession, Ruan Nan Zhu disdained: "Apologizing is useless if everyone dies."
Lai Dong Yuan: "There must be a way to remedy this."
Just as Ruan Nan Zhu was about to refute, he saw Lin Qiu Shi wake up. His eyes shifted and he immediately put on an act, throwing himself onto Lin Qiu Shi, crying, "Old Yu! You finally woke up! When you were unconscious I was bullied so badly. They saw us as widowed and orphaned, not giving us a way to survive..."
Lin Qiu Shi: "...Widowed and orphaned?" Forget the widowed, where did the orphan come from?
Ruan Nan Zhu hit Cheng Qian Li who was eating rations next to him on the head, "Stupid son, your dad is calling you."
Cheng Qian Li put down his rations and wailed unhappily: "Dad...Mom is being bullied."
Lin Qiu Shi: "..." Cheng Qian Li, get a grip! Don't follow Ruan Nan Zhu's script!
Seeing their little play, Lai Dong Yuan worked very hard not to let his expression twist. He took a deep breath, seeming to have suppressed some emotions, and said, "When we get out, I must meet with you."
Ruan Nan Zhu just gave a cold laugh in response.
Lin Qiu Shi thought to himself that when Lai Dong Yuan meets Ruan Nan Zhu outside, he would probably suffer an even greater shock.
Lai Dong Yuan smiled bitterly and stroked his nose, trying to curry favor with Lin Qiu Shi to put in a good word and get Ruan Nan Zhu to stop being angry with him.
Lin Qiu Shi smiled helplessly and patted Lai Dong Yuan on the shoulder. Ruan Nan Zhu had his reasons for being so angry. He didn't dare try to persuade Ruan Nan Zhu, and Lai Dong Yuan's status as friend or foe was still uncertain. He didn't want to appear too close with him.
When the day ended, Ruan Nan Zhu's face was very ugly. Indeed, as he had expected, until they left the pagoda site, Xu Jin still did not come back.
The others noticed them missing a person and asked about it. Ruan Nan Zhu directly said she was missing and they didn't know where she had gone.
Until they returned to their residence, Lai Dong Yuan still didn't dare to approach Ruan Nan Zhu again, afraid to incur his wrath. After dinner, he tentatively smoothed things over with Lin Qiu Shi, asking him to go back and persuade Ruan Nan Zhu not to be angry with him anymore.
Lin Qiu Shi smiled helplessly. Ruan Nan Zhu had his reasons for being so angry. He didn't dare try to persuade him. Moreover, it was still questionable whether Lai Dong Yuan was a friend or foe, so he didn't want to appear too close with him.
Since Xu Jin was missing today, they could finally each have a bed to sleep openly.
Ruan Nan Zhu brought the drum back. The drum itself was not too big, only about the size of two adult palms. The drum body was made of lacquered wood and the drum head was made of fine human skin. When hit, it made a very pleasant sound. Ruan Nan Zhu sat on the edge of the bed, stroking the drum head and said, "We'll take this to go tomorrow. It should confirm my guess."
"What were you trying to say at that time?" Lin Qiu Shi remembered when they climbed to the top of the pagoda, Ruan Nan Zhu had wanted to say something but was interrupted by other things.
"Sisters are sisters, but how deep their feelings actually are is another matter." Ruan Nan Zhu said, "If she and her sister had such a good relationship, why would she be so reluctant to go take a look?"
He gently stroked the drum head. His expression seemed somewhat gentle.
After dinner, everyone went to rest early.
They didn't know if Xu Jin would appear again since the place they went today was the pagoda site.
Lin Qiu Shi felt a little uneasy before falling asleep. He tossed and turned in bed.
Ruan Nan Zhu beside him softly asked if he couldn't sleep.
Lin Qiu Shi murmured in agreement.
Ruan Nan Zhu then got up and lay down next to him, hugging his waist. He had done this many times and was extremely skilled at it. Lin Qiu Shi's body inexplicably relaxed a lot. He mumbled, "Why do I always sleep so soundly when you hug me?"
Ruan Nan Zhu: "Maybe I'm a sleep-inducing elf?"
Lin Qiu Shi: "..." That makes sense.
Although he didn't know why he would sleep so comfortably next to Ruan Nan Zhu, in short, Lin Qiu Shi soon fell asleep.
He thought he would sleep until dawn, but halfway through the night, he woke up again. When he first opened his eyes, he felt a cold gaze, as if someone was watching him. Lin Qiu Shi slowly opened his eyes to see Ruan Nan Zhu's sleeping face. He slowly sat up and looked around the room, but didn't find anything unusual. But just as Lin Qiu Shi thought the feeling was just his imagination, his forehead suddenly felt cold. A drop of water slid from his forehead down to his chin.
Lin Qiu Shi's body instantly froze up. He slowly raised his head to see a bloodied, skinless creature crouching on the ceiling, tilting her head at him with a weird smile.
Lin Qiu Shi: "Fuck!" Even though he was mentally prepared, he was still badly frightened. His whole body shuddered violently as he tried to steady himself.
The creature stared at Lin Qiu Shi for a moment. Then her long fingers stretched towards Lin Qiu Shi's scalp. Her target was very clear.
Lin Qiu Shi lowered his head to dodge her attack. His whole body was drenched in cold sweat. The creature's nails had turned into sharp blades. If he was touched by them, it would definitely peel his skin off.
"Skin...skin..." The creature kept murmuring crazily in her throat, her black eyes greedily staring at Lin Qiu Shi's fair and delicate skin. Her expression could almost be described as salivating.
Lin Qiu Shi rolled off the bed and crawled to the floor. Ruan Nan Zhu was still in deep sleep, completely unaffected. Fortunately, the creature didn't seem interested in the others. She pounced towards where Lin Qiu Shi was with single-minded obsession.
Lin Qiu Shi turned to run but found that no matter how he tried, the door wouldn't open.
"Skin...skin..." Facing the prey right in front of her, the creature's mouth split open in satisfaction. She let out giggling sounds from her throat and squeezed out words, "Skin...I want your skin..."
Lin Qiu Shi was drenched in cold sweat. He quickly looked around the room and saw Ruan Nan Zhu's bag placed near his pillow. The bag was bulging. The drum they had taken from the pagoda was stuffed inside.
In a flash of inspiration, Lin Qiu Shi turned and ran towards the bag. Then in one swift movement he took out the drum and forcefully beat it twice.
"Boom boom boom boom." The clear and melodious drum beats rang out. The creature's expression instantly froze. Then, as if afraid of something, she looked around in panic before scrambling out of the window.
Seeing her escape, Lin Qiu Shi finally let out a heavy sigh of relief. But when he lowered his head, his expression froze again.
He saw that because he had hit the drum too hard, a big hole had torn open in the soft drum skin. And inside the hole was something that left him dumbfounded.
It was a beautiful bronze key, seemingly ordinary at first glance. But Lin Qiu Shi was very familiar with it, because he had used an identical key to open the heavy iron gate inside the door.
"Fuck!" Instantly understanding what was going on, Lin Qiu Shi couldn't help but curse Lai Dong Yuan in his heart. He would never have imagined that Lai Dong Yuan had actually given them a replica key!
"But what to do about the drum..." Lin Qiu Shi took out the key and started worrying about the damaged human skin drum in front of him. "Can it be fixed..." He groped inside it twice before deciding to give up and ask Ruan Nan Zhu tomorrow if he could fix this thing.
With this thought, Lin Qiu Shi fell into a dazed sleep.
The next morning, Lin Qiu Shi was woken up by Ruan Nan Zhu's voice scolding Cheng Qian Li, saying that he must have secretly played with the drum last night!
Cheng Qian Li: "I didn't, I didn't! It's a human skin drum, what's fun about it!"
Ruan Nan Zhu suspiciously said: "You really didn't?"
Cheng Qian Li: "Why don't you believe me..."
Ruan Nan Zhu: "I want to believe you, but don't you remember who messed up that key clue Rubik's Cube last door?"
Cheng Qian Li: "I was just bored then..."
Ruan Nan Zhu: "Aren't you bored now too?"
Cheng Qian Li almost cried out. Because of his previous offense, his words had zero credibility now no matter how he tried to explain that he didn't break the drum.
Just as Cheng Qian Li was sadly pondering how to make Ruan Nan Zhu believe him, Lin Qiu Shi who was sitting on the bed weakly raised his hand and said, "...It was me."
Ruan Nan Zhu looked back: "Oh, it was you?"
Cheng Qian Li drew himself up, ready to listen to his boss scold Lin Qiu Shi, but the boss' next sentence was: "It's fine, just be more careful next time."
Cheng Qian Li: "????" What do you mean just be more careful next time? Was he born to a stepmother or picked up to recharge phone bills?
Lin Qiu Shi was also a little embarrassed. He quickly explained what had happened last night. Ruan Nan Zhu asked if he was injured. Lin Qiu Shi shook his head and took out the key from his pocket, saying, "I found a key inside the drum..."
Seeing the key, Ruan Nan Zhu was silent for three seconds before cursing out a very dirty word.
It was obvious that Lai Dong Yuan was not as harmless as he appeared. He must have seen something after entering the bone pagoda to take out a fake key to use as a stand-in. Fortunately Lin Qiu Shi was chased by the creature last night when he hit the drum to save his life, otherwise they would still be kept in the dark.
"Didn't I say it was strange he handed over the key so easily. He wouldn't give up the clue for the next door so easily right?" Ruan Nan Zhu pinched the key and sneered coldly, "Let's see how he Lai Dong Yuan will take responsibility if this job gets screwed up in the hands of the White Deer."
Lin Qiu Shi also had to admire these people, actually able to come up with preparing a fake key and the like.
Ruan Nan Zhu put the key in his pocket and said, "Xu Jin is very afraid of this drum. Now that the drum is gone, our time is limited. If we meet her again next time, I'm afraid it will be very difficult to escape."
Lin Qiu Shi nodded in strong agreement with Ruan Nan Zhu's statement. He didn't know why, but Xu Jin was particularly keen on him. While the others slept like logs every night, he had to wake up once.
"I'll take the drum to the temple today." Ruan Nan Zhu murmured, "This world should end soon."
It would of course be best if they could end this hellish world sooner. Lin Qiu Shi no longer wanted to meet with Xu Jin at night.
Lai Dong Yuan obviously didn't know his wrongdoing had been exposed. He still shamelessly came over to greet Ruan Nan Zhu. It had to be said that his appearance was very deceptive. Even though Lin Qiu Shi already knew he was a bad guy, when faced with his gentle smile, he would still hesitate for a moment.
Ruan Nan Zhu's attitude towards him was not very good to begin with. Today he was completely merciless, answering perfunctorily with a cold tone before chasing him away.
"Humph." Watching Lai Dong Yuan's departing back, Ruan Nan Zhu snorted very impolitely. "I want to see how he Lai Dong Yuan will take responsibility if the White Deer screws this job up."
After breakfast, everyone headed towards the temple.
There was still no sign of Xu Jin, but since she had appeared in Lin Qiu Shi's room last night, she must have followed the tour
guide back. At this time, she was probably hiding in the lush forests around them.
When they saw the temple again, Lin Qiu Shi's heart was completely calm. He and Ruan Nan Zhu found the platform they had climbed onto the roof last time, intending to go up again.
This time going up was to give the drum they had to the monster on the roof.
Delivering the drum was very dangerous. Although Lin Qiu Shi repeatedly emphasized this, Ruan Nan Zhu insisted on going with him, leaving a longing Cheng Qian Li to watch the ladder.
The two climbed up the platform one after the other carefully. Lin Qiu Shi went up first and found that compared to last time, there was more fresh flesh and blood left on the wooden platform, probably from the two people who were skinned alive the day before yesterday.
Ruan Nan Zhu followed behind him and came up too. This was his first time reaching the roof. After observing the surroundings, he took a few more glances at the nearby woods.
"What's wrong?" Lin Qiu Shi noticed his abnormal expression.
"I feel like something's following us." Ruan Nan Zhu said, "It's been following us since we set out."
Lin Qiu Shi: "Could it be Xu Jin?"
Ruan Nan Zhu: "Possibly. Let's give her the drum first."
Lin Qiu Shi nodded.
The two walked along the edge, slowly moving towards the center of the temple. Their footsteps on the human skin drum beat out a rhythmic tempo.
The temple roof was very quiet, and there was none of the fog Lin Qiu Shi had seen before. Everything was calmly abnormal.
Ruan Nan Zhu didn't walk in too far. He chose a suitable location and placed the drum in his hands onto the roof. Then he spoke up, "Your sister is unwilling to come over. We brought her drum from over there."
The moment these words left his mouth, it was as if the whole world fell into an eerie silence. Even the passing breeze stopped.
Intense drum beats rang out wildly. Thick fog gushed out from midair, starting to invade their location.
"Boom boom boom boom." Deep inside the fog, something was frantically beating the drum skin, the furious tempo seeming to vent an unrestrainable rage.
"Where is she?" The girl's voice rang out again. "Where is she? I hurt so much— I hurt so much—"
Lin Qiu Shi watched as the girl crawled out from the fog. When she saw the drum Ruan Nan Zhu had brought, she crawled over to the drum with both hands. Then she placed her hands on the broken drum skin.
"It's not mine, not mine—" The girl screamed madly. "Bring her here, bring her here!!"
She forcefully grabbed the drum skin and started tearing viciously.
Lin Qiu Shi didn't know if it was his illusion, but when the girl was tearing the drum skin, he vaguely heard another scream.
The girl also seemed to have noticed this scream. Her already bloody mouth instantly stretched open in wild delight, "You're here— you're here—" She forcefully beat the drum skin under her feet. The creature wielding blades instantly rushed out from the temple, madly running towards the woods not far away.
Seeing this scene, Lin Qiu Shi was almost scared silly. Ruan Nan Zhu, however, heaved a big sigh of relief. He laughed mockingly at himself, "Indeed not some deep sisterly love." He raised his eyes and gazed towards the dense forest far away.
Lin Qiu Shi said, "Is it all going to end now?"
Ruan Nan Zhu lowered his eyes, "Perhaps."
Who didn't want this hellish world to end sooner?