abcnovels
Chapter 58
Chapter 58: The Fourth Person
As Lin Qiushi rushed downstairs, the pale white arm that reached out from inside the hat followed after him. Upon seeing this, Lin Qiushi did not dare to stay any longer in this house and dashed straight outside.
The owner of the convenient store was puzzled upon seeing Lin Qiushi frantically running out of the building, and so he asked, confused, “Why are you in such a hurry? Did something happen?”
Lin Qiushi panted heavily as he pointed towards the inside of the building.
The shop owner’s expression was doubtful and wanted to check inside. Lin Qiushi took out his phone and typed a few words: [Is your son really your son?]
Startled, the shop owner asked, “What do you mean by that?”
Lin Qiushi told him the truth: [His head fell off.]
At that, the owner immediately turned to enter the house and Lin Qiushi was unable to stop him. But when the owner opened the door, Lin Qiushi was shocked to see that the boy whose head had fallen off just a few moments ago was sitting on the sofa playing with his toys. It was exactly the sight that had greeted Lin Qiushi when he had first entered the house.
“What exactly happened?” Seeing that his son was fine, the shop owner turned to ask Lin Qiushi, even more puzzled than before.
Lin Qiushi looked at the boy, then the shop owner, and shook his head. At the end, he left without saying anything. Lin Qiushi didn’t know whether it was just his misconception or if it was because his mental state was overly sensitive, but the feeling of the boy’s gaze on his back did not cease, as if he was begrudgingly watching him leave.
After leaving the convenience store, Lin Qiushi visited the homes of the other children in town.
In this time, he met with some others from the group. They didn’t seem to have a good impression of Lin Qiushi, the mute girl, and hadn’t even bothered to greet him. Only a girl who seemed to have a gentle temperament stopped to exchange a few words with Lin Qiushi.
“We weren’t able to see any of the children; they seemed to all have been hidden by their parents.” The girl’s name seemed to be Dong Tianwei. “Don’t go, it’s useless.”
Lin Qiushi was somewhat puzzled: [What do you mean by hidden?]
Dong Tianwei, “It just means they were hidden. All the people in this town are very closed off. If their children disappear, the entire family’s ruined. In addition, it seems that divorce isn’t allowed in this town so they can only live in remorse for the rest of their lives.”
Lin Qiushi was surprised before he remembered something: [They’re not allowed divorce?]
Dong Tianwei, “That’s right. Where’s that person who’s always with you? Why isn’t he accompanying you? You’re so frail, what if you run into something?”
Lin Qiushi disregarded her questions: [Are there any exceptions?]
Dong Tianwei considered it for a moment, “I don’t think so? The two families I had visited were at each other’s throats and yet they haven’t shown any intentions of divorcing.”
Lin Qiushi nodded and thanked Dong Tianwei before leaving.
Dong Tianwei watched him leave, as if wanting to say something but she ultimately stayed silent. Her companion spoke up, “Why did you say so much to her?”
Dong Tianwei sighed, “Is it not a good thing, if one more person can survive?”
Her male companion did not reply.
Lin Qiushi walked directly towards where Lauren’s had lived.
After arriving and ringing the doorbell, he met with Lauren’s father, a middle aged man with a foul temperament and reeked of the stench of alcohol.
“What do you want?” Lauren’s father asked witl ill manners.
Lin Qiushi: [I wanted to ask when exactly your daughter disappeared.]
The father didn’t answer and fidgeted, “Hmph. Isn’t her missing person poster hung up in the plaza? Are you not able to go there and take a look for yourself and instead insist on coming over here to ask me?”
Lin Qiushi: [I just wanted to see if I can understand more of the situation from you.]
After typing these words out, Lin Qiushi remembered that he was currently in the role of a young woman. He copied Ruan Nanzhu’s pitiful act, wondering if it would have an effect.
Surprisingly, the act worked wonders. Lauren’s father’s attitude softened, “Around two days ago, I think…”
Lin Qiushi: [Where did she go missing?]
Lauren’s father, “Should be at home.”
Lin Qiushi could hear the uncertainty in his voice: [Are you sure she disappeared at home?]
Lauren’s father pondered over it and said, “I’m not. It was only a long time after did I discover that she had gone missing. Who knows when exactly she disappeared.”
Lin Qiushi: [Then may I be presumptuous and ask, when will your wife be coming home?]
Unexpectedly, Lauren’s father’s attitude immediately turned malicious at the mention of his wife. In addition to not answering Lin Qiushi’s question, he cursed and slammed the door shut in his face.
Staring at the shut door, Lin Qiushi sank into contemplation. He arrived at a terrible hypothesis.
After walking around town all day, the sky had begun to darken. Lin Qiushi decided to return to the inn before making a decision.
On his way back to the inn, Lin Qiushi passed by the small plaza. The plaza was indeed not very large, all the shops around it were closed, leaving behind only a feeling of emptiness. The signboard with the missing persons poster in the middle of the plaza especially stood out in this vacant place.
Lin Qiushi walked to the signboard and carefully examined the missing persons posters.
There were now a total of four posters, three of them from before and one newly pasted from yesterday.
Lin Qiushi didn’t know what he was thinking as he suddenly reached out his hand and removed one of the posters.
The poster hadn’t been stuck to the board too firmly so it was easily removed. Carefully examining the poster in his hands, Lin Qiushi suddenly discovered something new… he discovered that this poster was actually made of two layers.
That’s right. The poster was made of two sheets of paper stuck onto one another.
The two sheets were quite securely stuck onto one another. Lin Qiushi tried to separate them, but was only able to remove one corner. Frustrated, Lin Qiushi decided to remove all of those missing persons posters and stuffed them into his pockets before walking off as if nothing had happened.
Of course, as he took the posters down, he made a cursory look at each of the posters, and discovered that they were all double layered.
Having walked quickly back to the inn, Lin Qiushi saw Ruan Nanzhu sitting on the sofa on the first floor concierge, deep in thought.
Lin Qiushi arrived in front of him and tapped on his shoulders.
Ruan Nanzhu looked up, “You’re back?”
Lin Qiushi nodded and pointed upstairs.
Ruan Nanzhu smiled, “Tired? Alright, let’s go sleep together.”
Those beside them looked at them with weird expressions.
Using his eyes to communicate, Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nanzhu: Can you not speak in a way that causes misunderstandings?
Ruan Nanzhu shamelessly pretended not to see.
The two of them returned to their rooms. Once the door was closed, Lin Qiushi could speak again. In a hurry, Lin Qiushi said, “When I took a missing person poster from the plaza down to take a closer look, I found out that they’re double layered. Let’s see if we can seperate them.” With this, he took out the posters from his pocket.
Taking the posters from Lin Qiushi, Ruan Nanzhu suggested a solution, “If we soak it with water, we should be able to separate it, but I don’t know if the words would blur.”
Lin Qiushi, “Let’s test it out with one of them first.”
Thus, the two went to the washroom and decided to wait for the posters to soak for a bit in warm water before trying to seperate them. As they waited, Lin Qiushi asked if Ruan Nanzhu had made any new discoveries at the cannery.
Staring at the basin in front of them, Ruan Nanzhu was quiet for a moment before he spoke, “I almost brought that top hat back with me.”
Lin Qiushi startled, “Ah?”
Ruan Nanzhu, “I had been searching around when that hat suddenly fell from the tree branches in front of me. I don’t know what kind of strange power that hat has. My hand was already touching it when I was finally able to snap out of it.”
Lin Qiushi let out a breath of relief, “Thankfully, you didn’t bring it back.”
Ruan Nanzhu nodded, “After all, it’s the sixth door.”
After that, Ruan Nanzhu briefly went over what else he had found at the cannery. He said that it was fortunate that Lin Qiushi hadn’t eaten any canned fish because he heavily suspected that the canned fish were made from the missing children. He had found some fresh meat in the canning machine. He also found, on another tree, the corpse of a child who had died from hanging.
Of course, Ruan Nanzhu did not touch the body, and continued with his search as if he hadn’t seen it.
“What about you? Did you find anything?”
“I think we had been going about it in the wrong direction.” Lin Qiushi told him what he had experienced at the general store. “What do you think that child was?”
“Definitely not human,” Ruan Nanzhu answered. “The poster has separated.” He reached out and removed the poster from the basin.
The glue that had been holding the sheets of paper together had melted off. The two sheets of paper were easily separated.
After seeing what was on the other sheet of paper, Lin Qiushi was shocked stiff. On the back of the missing person poster was another missing person poster. The words had blurred out, but Lin Qiushi recognized the person in the photograph… it was the person from the group, the one who had disappeared wearing that top hat.
Separating the rest of the posters yield the same result. On the back of the three missing children’s posters were posters looking for the three missing members of their own group. The only one that was different was Lauren’s sister’s poster; the sheet behind it was blank.
Ruan Nanzhu stared at these posters, brows knitted.
Lin Qiushi, “Speaking of which… we hadn’t seen a single child since arriving in this town, right?”
Ruan Nanzhu looked back at him.
Based on the results of his investigations, Lin Qiushi told him his hypothesis, “The only two children we had seen were Lauren’s sister and the shop owner’s son who I had met today. I think there’s something wrong with both of them.”
Ruan Nanzhu, “There’s indeed something wrong with Lauren’s sister. There’s a sense of something off on her.”
Lin Qiushi, “Moreover, somebody from the group told me today that this town is very sealed off, and they don’t do divorce. Do you remember Lauren’s background…?”
Ruan Nanzhu, “En, his mother remarried.”
“Then that’s very strange,” LIn Qiushi sat on the sofa, staring at the three missing persons posters. “Say, could it be that in the town, there actually aren’t…”
Ruan Nanzhu finished Lin Qiushi’s sentence, “There actually aren’t any children,”
Looking at each other, they saw a similar expression in the other’s gaze.
“Actually there are,” Ruan Nanzhu spread out the posters which had been glued on the backs of the posters of the missing children. “We’ve taken on the roles of the missing children.”
Lin Qiushi, “…” A bunch of children weighing over a hundred catties.
Ruan Nanzhu, “Who isn’t a little princess at heart?”
Lin Qiushi, “Sigh, now that it turned out that we were the poor little kids all along, what does that imply for the future? When all’s said and done, where exactly is the key?”
Ruan Nanzhu’s finger tapped on the table, “If we are ‘the children of the town,’ then could the children in the town represent something else?”
Lin Qiushi, “Such as?”
Ruan Nanzhu, “The slendermen.”
Lin Qiushi immediately thought of the shop owner’s son whose face was full of joy even after his head had fallen off, and said after a moment of silence, “It’s possible.”
Ruan Nanzhu, “Still, as of now, there are still some parts that we can’t explain. If those children are actually the slendermen, then what about the corpses? Anyways, let’s let it go for now. It’s late. Let’s go to sleep.”
Lin Qiushi looked at the dark night outside the window and agreed with Ruan Nanzhu’s suggestion.
In the world outside the doors, pulling an all-nighter was called cultivation. Inside the doors, if you tried to pull an all-nighter, there’s a chance that you’d actually be able to ascend the next day. Really saves one the trials and tribulations of cultivation.
Lin Qiushi hoped that he was able to peacefully fall asleep through the night without dreaming.
But some things can’t happen just because you wanted it to happen. Although unwilling, Lin Qiushi still woke up halfway through the night.
He had heard the sound of a child crying.
The sound of the sobbing was heavy with the tone of complaint as it drifted from outside the window to inside Lin Qiushi’s ears. He sat up from bed and saw that Ruan Nanzhu was still asleep. For some weird reason, he felt the bitterness of an insomniac wife who’d gotten up to find her husband sleeping happily. Of course this feeling only lasted a second because Lin Qiushi’s next move was to jab Ruan Nanzhu awake.
Ruan Nanzhu, dazed, mumbled, “En?”
Lin Qiushi, “I can’t sleep.”
Ruan Nanzhu reached out his arm, looped it across Lin Qiushi’s neck, and pulled him into his arms, “Be good, come over here.”
Ruan Nanzhu’s arms were thick and very warm and a light fragrance emitted from his body. It was quite helpful in inducing sleep.
The sound of the crying got closer and closer. Lin Qiushi couldn’t help himself and looked towards the window.
What he saw nearly made him sit up in bed in fright. Lying flat against the window was a child. It was as if the laws of gravity did not affect him, the way he was glued onto the surface of the window. His hand was moving around the surface of the window, as if searching for a crack for him to slip in. At this, Lin Qiushi couldn’t help but secretly rejoice in how he and Ruan Nanzhu’s habit was to shut the window every night.
Still focusing on the sight before him, Lin Qiushi felt Ruan Nanzhu’s hands lightly press onto his back, and then slowly moved back and forth. He whispered, “Don’t watch anymore.”
Lin Qiushi, “Oh….”
Ruan Nanzhu moved his head back towards him with his hands and unhappily, said, “If you can’t sleep then look at me.”
Lin Qiushi looked up.
Ruan Nanzhu, “Is there anything better looking than me?”
Lin Qiushi did not speak anymore.
Ruan Nanzhu rested his chin on top of Lin Qiushi’s head. Then, slowly rubbing his chin against him, mumbled, “Go to sleep.”
Ruan Nanzhu had practically wrapped himself around Lin Qiushi’s entire body. Like a beast who had found a young cub, from head to toe, he was full of a desire to protect. Lin Qiushi felt an inexplicable sense of security. He closed his eyes and attempted to ignore the noise of crying. Slowly, he fell into the simple and sweet land of dreams.
When they woke up the next day, they were practically wrapped around each other into a single bundle.
The first thing Lin Qiushi saw after opening his eyes was the sleeping face of Ruan Nanzhu. He had to admit that Ruan Nanzhu was indeed good looking. Whether inside the door or outside, he always had the ability to attract gazes. Currently, his long eyelashes were moving up and down slightly with his breathing, like the wings of a swallowtail butterfly on the verge of taking flight.
Lin Qiushi silently watched him for a bit. Unable to hold back, he reached out to touch his eyelashes. Unexpectedly, just as he reached out his hand, Ruan Nanzhu’s eyes opened. There wasn’t a hint of sleep in those eyes and instead, held the trace of a smile, “Morning.”
Lin Qiushi hurriedly pulled his hand back and acted as if nothing had happened, “Morning.”
Ruan Nanzhu released Lin Qiushi from his arms, yawned, and slowly got up, “How’d you sleep last night?”
Lin Qiushi, “Pretty well.” He crawled out of bed and walked to the window. As expected, on the glass were countless small handprints. What he had seen the night before hadn’t been something his brain made up.
After getting ready, the two left for the dining hall. Upon arriving, they found out that another person had gone missing.
The person who had gone missing this time was someone they were familiar with, Wang Tianxin’s female companion, the one who had been beguiled by him.
When Lin Qiushi had realized she had disappeared, Wang Tianxin was still leisurely eating breakfast. He took his phone out and began typing: [Wang Tianxin’s female companion is gone.]
Having read what Lin Qiushi had typed, Ruan Nanzhu stood up and walked in front of Wang Tianxin.
Wang Tianxin was startled at Ruan Nanzhu’s sudden appearance. He had been given quite a beating by Ruan Nanzhu, unable to fight back the entire time. Although he tried to act as if he was unperturbed, his tone and wildly moving eyes gave away his innermost feelings, “What, what do you want?”
Ruan Nanzhu looked down on him, voice cold, “Where is your companion?”
Wang Tianxin swallowed, feebly looking at Ruan Nanzhu. In a quiet voice, he said, “He isn’t enough?” Such a terrifying master crossdresser was still not enough to satisfy you?
Lin Qiushi, who was off to the side, heard everything. His expression warped for a second…what the fuck do you mean by ‘isn’t enough.’josei
Ruan Nanzhu, “Are you asking me questions or am I asking you?”
Wang Tianxin hurriedly answered, “I don’t know. She didn’t come back yesterday.”
Ruan Nanzhu, “And you didn’t say anything?”
Wang Tianxin, “Even if I said something it’d be useless… it’s obvious that she’s gone.” As if he was not satisfied with that answer, he quietly added, “I told her not to go to the cannery but she didn’t listen.”
The cannery? At this keyword, Ruan Nanzhu frowned, “She went to the cannery? When?”
Wang Tianxin, “She left in the morning and hadn’t returned at any point in the day.”
Ruan Nanzhu, “I was also at the cannery, how come I didn’t see her?”
Wang Tianxin smiled dryly, “How would I know… maybe she took a different route?” Now that was utter nonsense. The town was only so big and there was only one road leading to the cannery. Moreover, the cannery wasn’t big enough so that two people would completely miss each other if they were in it. Unless, something had happened to her on her way there.
Ruan Nanzhu asked if there had been anything abnormal about her. Wang Tianxin thought about it for a moment before answering that the night before, she had stared outside the window for a long time, saying that there was the sound of a child crying.
Lin Qiushi thought of the child who had been stuck to his window last night.
“But I didn’t hear anything,” Wang Tianxin said. “I have a pretty good sense of hearing so she probably was too anxious and misheard something.”
Lin Qiushi didn’t think she misheard.
Ruan Nanzhu, “Is there anything else?”
Wang Tianxin shook his head, “No.”
Lin Qiushi stood up and walked over. Wang Tianxin grew more afraid watching him approaching. The way he forced his smile made him seem like he was on the verge of tears.
Lin Qiushi typed: [She only went to the cannery yesterday?]
“I think so.” Wang Tianxin immediately replied. Dong Tianwei, who had been sitting to the side, stood up and pointed at him, “He’s lying! Yesterday, Liu Ya did not go to the cannery at all!”
Liu Ya was Wang Tianxin’s companion’s name.
Wang Tianxin immediately tried to defend himself, “I didn’t lie! She really did tell me that she was going to the cannery!”
“Bullshit. We saw her when we went to speak to the other kids in this town. There was even a girl who was seventeen or eighteen with her,” Dong Tianwei said. “They were holding hands and seemed to have a good relationship! Don’t tell me that you didn’t know!”
Wang Tianxin replied angrily, “What are you going on about? I didn’t know from the beginning—I’m only repeating what she’d said to me. She clearly said that she wanted to go to the cannery, how would I know where she’d gone after!”
The two of them had begun fiercely arguing. From their resolute attitude, neither one of them seemed to be lying.
Liu Ya’s original destination had been the cannery, but on the way there, she ran into something else… such as a strange girl.
Everytime Lin Qiushi thought of the son of the general store owner, he would shiver.
Lin Qiushi typed on his phone to ask: [So from which family was that girl?]
“I don’t know… I’m not very sensitive to the differences in western people’s faces….” Dong Tianwei seemed a little embarrassed. “But I remember her hairstyle, she wore her hair in a ponytail. She wore a pink dress and looked quite cute.”
Lin Qiushi suddenly thought of something and took out the missing persons posters out of his pocket. He indeed found what he was looking for: the child who had gone missing on the fourth day, the photo of Lauren’s sister.
Dong Tianwei looked at the photo and revealed a stunned expression: “Yes, that’s her.” She then saw the word ‘Missing’ on the poster, “She, she’s one of the missing children? Then how did she appear again… and was holding Liu Ya’s hand… where did she want to take her…?”
Who knew? A child who didn’t exist leading someone who did by the hand, where she wanted to take her, definitely wasn’t a happy place.
Everyone became quiet at the sight of the photograph.
“We suspect that there aren’t any children in this town at all,” Ruan Nanzhu gave them some information. “So if you see children, be careful.”
The crowd erupted into discussion.
“Also, don’t randomly bring stuff back with you, “ Ruan Nanzhu added. “It might be a death flag.”
As Ruan Nanzhu spoke, Lin Qiushi glanced outside the window and immediately stood up. Not far from the dining hall, in the sparse woods, a slender figure appeared. The figure stood in the fog, and it was difficult to see it clearly. But vaguely, it appeared to be the silhouette of the slenderman.
It quietly stood there, as if watching them, as if guarding them.
It clearly did not have eyes, but Lin Qiushi felt as they were being observed.
He reached out and pulled at Ruan Nanzhu’s sleeve, signalling for him to look outside. But just as Ruan Nanzhu turned his head, that creature disappeared.
“What’s wrong?” Ruan Nanzhu asked Lin Qiushi.
Lin Qiushi typed: [Just now, that creature had been standing outside watching us.]
Ruan Nanzhu: “Just now?”
Lin Qiushi nodded.
Ruan Nanzhu: “Oh. Then let it watch. Under normal circumstances, it’s not like it can come inside.” His tone was light, as if what had happened was a small matter, not important enough to mention. “If it can, then it can be considered capable.”
Lin Qiushi looked at Ruan Nanzhu and didn’t speak.
The others weren’t as calm as Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu. As they looked outside, a suffocating fear emerged from their expressions.
Nobody knew that in the end, when exactly they would be able to leave this terrifying hell.
Translator’s Comment:
I just realized KoD is actually IdentityV.
Translated by Lori
Edited by Dust Bunny