Kaleidoscope of Death

Chapter 93: Shrine

"Ah. Got it," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Let's sleep."

Saying it was one thing, actually sleeping was another. Lin Qiushi kept thinking about the teru teru bōzu's connection with this courtyard, and this umbrella, and the children playing that game outside.

It wasn't until nearing daybreak that he managed a little doze, until he heard Ruan Nanzhu getting up.

"Didn't sleep?" Ruan Nanzhu asked him.

"Mh," Lin Qiushi said. "Couldn't quite manage." But he felt energetic enough. After a wash with cold water in the bathroom he felt fairly revived. "Are we going into the bamboo forest today?"

"Do you still remember how the song went?" Ruan Nanzhu said. "Wicker hole, wicker hole[1]..." He cocked his head. "Actually, in the original song, the first line isn't wicker hole, it's 'the caged bird.' But this song actually has a lot of possible translations. I'd thought this was just a difference in translation, but now, maybe it isn't..."

"It's a hint instead?" Lin Qiushi finished Ruan Nanzhu's thought.

"Yeah, a hint," Ruan Nanzhu said. "In the whole town, there's only that bamboo forest that has wicker. We have to go take a look today." He gestured at the umbrella in his hand. "Since we have the umbrella, it's fine if we get back a little late."

Lin Qiushi nodded his agreement. "Let's go together."

He'd seen yesterday that the vacuum created by this umbrella could completely contain two people. He wasn't comfortable letting Ruan Nanzhu go alone anyways. With company, if anything really happened, they could at least take care of each other.

"Sure." Ruan Nanzhu nodded, consenting to Lin Qiushi's suggestion.

The two went to the dining hall for a simple breakfast. Out in the hall they saw hanging at its end a new teru teru bōzu... How did they know it was new? Because those crude-drawn features were slightly different, as if they were deliberately being told the doll had been switched out.

The noises last night had been far too loud—everybody had obviously heard it, because the atmosphere in the dining hall was frighteningly heavy.

Though Lin Xingping managed to great them with her usual enthusiasm.

Lin Qiushi greeted her back off-handedly.

"Is that a new doll? Who's next? Is it that everybody who gets rained on becomes a sacrifice inside the dolls?" Among the group, everybody was discussing this. Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi, on the other hand, didn't want to talk at all; these two people, with their two ugly faces, fed each other their meals with aplomb, cheerily grossing out everybody else.

Of course, the key part of "everybody else" was Lin Xingping and co.

"Oh, my love, you have rice on your lips." Ruan Nanzhu scooted close, and pecked the corner of Lin Qiushi's mouth. "You're so careless."

Lin Qiushi said, "yes baby, without you to take care of me, I wouldn't even know how to live."

Lin Xingping likely couldn't stand anymore, and forcefully pried up a new topic: "Last night, did you guys hear anything?"

"I did." Ruan Nanzhu put on an expression of shock and fear. "What was that screaming? It was so scary... I couldn't sleep for the rest of the night."

In reality, for the rest of the night Ruan Nanzhu had perfectly maintained his dog-like sleep-ability.

"I opened the door a bit to see, and saw that good weather doll had fallen to the ground. It was screaming and rolling about, and in the end I don't know where it went," Lin Xingping said. "You two must be careful, and stay away from that thing..."