Fire

There were only two beds in the room, so someone had to sleep on the couch. Lin Qiushi very consciously showed off his personal strengths of respecting the old, loving the young, and always putting ladies first—by resolutely expressing that he'd sleep on the couch. Cheng Yixie and Ruan Nanzhu could take the beds.

Cheng Yixie didn't bother going back and forth with Lin Qiushi about it, just changed into his pajamas and climbed into bed.

Ruan Nanzhu, on the other hand, sat on his bed watching Lin Qiushi for a while. It made Lin Qiushi inexplicably nervous.

"Why are you looking at me?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "because you're good looking."

Lin Qiushi, "…"

Ruan Nanzhu, "want to squeeze in with me?" He patted the mattress beneath him.

Lin Qiushi turned him down, saying he'd come over if he really couldn't sleep. At this answer Ruan Nanzhu only tilted his head a little, said alright, and didn't insist any further.

The sofa here was wide and soft, and actually wasn't uncomfortable to sleep on at all. A thin blanket laid on Lin Qiushi's body, and he cast his gaze to the mirror on the floor. A towel had been placed over it, covering up the bright mirror surface so that people beneath them could no longer see into their room. Having also inspected the other mirrors in the room, they'd discovered there were both two-way and one-way mirrors. So they'd spent some time covering up all the two-way mirrors with towels.

This condo was quite new, and seemed freshly renovated. Curled up on the sofa, Lin Qiushi fell hazily asleep.

First nights in this world were typically more peaceful. Lin Qiushi thought he'd be able to sleep until morning, but at midnight, he was unexpectedly woken up by Cheng Yixie.

When Lin Qiushi woke, he saw Cheng Yixie, brows furrowed, sitting on the bed, nose continuously twitching like he was sniffing at something.

"Yixie, what's going on?" Lin Qiushi asked, dazed.

"There's a smell," Cheng Yixie spoke lowly. "…Of something burnt. Do you smell it?"

Taken aback, Lin Qiushi diligently worked his nose, but he couldn't catch any scent at all. So he shook his head: "No. I can't smell it."

Cheng Yixie stopped speaking. He stood, went to the wall, and crouched down to start examining it.

This behavior was really somewhat strange. Watching from behind, Lin Qiushi was just about to ask when he heard Ruan Nanzhu, on the bed over, ask quietly, "what is it?" Ruan Nanzhu had woken up too.

Cheng Yixie was still examining the corner of the wall.

Faint gold wallpaper covered nearly every corner of the room. Lin Qiushi watched as Cheng Yixie got up, fetched a fruit knife from the table, then return to the wall to begin scraping at the wallpaper.

A few minutes later, the wallpaper was off, revealing a patch of dark black.

By the faint light, Lin Qiushi saw that it was the wall behind the wallpaper. His expression went a bit stunned.

"There… had been a fire in this room?" That wall looked to have been charred black; something had obviously happened in this room.

Cheng Yixie began coughing lowly, like he was choking on some smell.

Seeing Cheng Yixie like this, Ruan Nanzhu got up and went to the bathroom. From there he fetched a wetted towel and handed it to Cheng Yixie.

"Hold that to your face."

Cheng Yixie took it and pressed it over his nose and mouth. Only then did the coughing seem somewhat relieved.

"Looks like something did happen in this building," Ruan Nanzhu said. "There's at least been a fire."

Just as he finished speaking, Lin Qiushi also started to smell something burning. At first Lin Qiushi thought this was his own sense of smell playing a trick on him, and so looked at Ruan Nanzhu. But Ruan Nanzhu nodded at him. "I smell it too."

He quickly made for the bathroom, and prepared two more wet towels, handing one to Lin Qiushi. Then he said, "I'll take a look outside."

Covering his nose and mouth with the towel, Lin Qiushi expressed, "me too. Let's go together."

Ruan Nanzhu didn't refuse him, stepping to the door.

Outside the room was quiet. Nobody else seemed to have discovered the same olfactory oddity. But the moment Cheng Yixie left the room, his brows puckered harder.

Ruan Nanzhu glanced at him. "The smell is stronger?"

Cheng Yixie nodded, eyes sweeping the hall, like he was hoping to discern something. Lin Qiushi also heard a faint noise. It was a peculiar noise, a bit like people scratching at a door… His gaze followed the source, and at the same time, Cheng Yixie also pointed at the end of the hall.

At that end of the hall were the single-bed rooms. Only two women were staying there.

They took a few steps in that direction. Lin Qiushi was about to head toward the source of the noise, but Ruan Nanzhu reached out and stopped him.

"What is it?" Lin Qiushi startled.

Ruan Nanzhu didn't answer, just suddenly jerked his head up.

Lin Qiushi looked where he looked, and found that above their heads, the hallway was also lined with a row of mirrors. The entire hall was reflected in it. And in that moment, the figure in the mirror also rose his head, copying Lin Qiushi's exact motions.

Then Ruan Nanzhu pointed at the end of the hall again.

Lin Qiushi understood. He looked up at the end of the hallway in the mirror. With that glance, his breath completely stoppered, because inside the mirror, the end of the hallway was engulfed in a raging fire.

Flames erupted out from the gaps around the door. Thick black smoke accompanied it.

Lin Qiushi finally knew where that gagging smell was coming from. He looked away, then back at the hallway itself. The real-world hallway was still encased in darkness, without a single lick of firelight.

Cheng Yixie, unable to hold it back, began coughing again.

Lin Qiushi said, "will the fire spread here?"

Ruan Nanzhu shook his head. "I don't know."

Lin Qiushi watched the hallway in the mirror, and the fire was getting more vicious. Even the metal security doors looked to be warping in the heat. The noise like someone hitting a door grew crisper, accompanied now by a low wailing—there seemed to be people behind that door.

"Help, help…" someone was calling.

Lin Qiushi couldn't be sure if this was a sound only he was hearing, or if everybody could hear it. So he asked, "do you guys hear that?"

Both Ruan Nanzhu and Cheng Yixie shook their heads, indicating they hadn't heard anything.

But then Ruan Nanzhu said, "I didn't hear it, but I did see it."

"What did you see?" Lin Qiushi asked uncertainly.

Ruan Nanzhu replied, "a hand reaching out from the room." He then took a closer look. "Now there are two."

Just as Lin Qiushi was thinking that he couldn't see anything at all, a hand tapped once, lightly, on his back. He was scared into cold sweat, twisting around only to find a man and a woman standing right behind him. Lin Qiushi had a vague impression of the two—likely people from the group they'd met downstairs earlier.

"What are you looking at?" the woman asked.

These two had appeared without a sound, and none of them noticed a thing. If he hadn't seen these two earlier, Lin Qiushi really would've thought they were ghosts.

Lin Qiushi thought, this ninth door really was the place of proverbial crouching tigers and hidden dragons.

Against these two, Ruan Nanzhu seemed quite calm. He replied, "watching fireworks."

The woman smiled at this. "Fireworks? Are they pretty?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "standard."

The woman, "prettier than me?"

Ruan Nanzhu smiled too, before tranquilly saying, "prettier than you, but not as pretty as me."

The smile disappeared off the woman's face, and rage lit up in her eyes. She glared at Ruan Nanzhu's face with an unfriendly expression.

The man beside her stepped forward now. He provided a simple introduction, said he and she were siblings, that his name was Luo Qianshan and that his younger sister's name was Luo Qianshui.

Luo Qianshan said, "there's a fire at the end of the hall?"

No one on Lin Qiushi's side answered Luo Qianshan's question, since on some level, they were competitors, and handing hints to your competitors just wasn't a very smart move.

"It's on fire." Luo Qianshui too saw the image in the mirror that was completely different from reality. She glanced at Luo Qianshan. "Will the people inside be burned to death?"

Luo Qianshan replied, "I don't know."

And so the five continued to stand in the hallway, silently watching.

The fire did not seem intent on spreading, limiting itself to that one room. Lin Qiushi peeked at the opaque night outside the window, and didn't stifle a small yawn.

Ruan Nanzhu glanced at him, and said, "come on, let's go back to bed."

Lin Qiushi, "we're not watching anymore?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "are you going to stand here and watch all night?"

Fair point. Plus there were two creepy people standing beside them. The three paid the siblings no further attention, and made to return to their room.

Cheng Yixie's sense of smell was a bit too sensitive. Because of this, the smoke kept making him cough; he didn't look in too good a state.

Ruan Nanzhu was the last to enter the room. Before he did, he glanced one more time down the hall, and frowned.

Then, once inside the room, he immediately said to Lin Qiushi and Cheng Yixie: "They came out of the room."

Lin Qiushi, "who did?"

"The burnt up people," Ruan Nanzhu replied. The moment before he went inside, he saw two additional figures at the end of the hallway: one large, one small. They seemed to have been an adult holding hands with a child, bodies charred black and still on fire. Silently, they'd just stood there in the hall, watching every room on this story. It was a very discomforting sight.

At Ruan Nanzhu's words, Lin Qiushi was reminded of a certain portion of the hint: with history as mirror, one can understand the tides of fortune. Could "history" mean what had happened in this high rise?

As the three sat in silent thought, that burning smell gradually mellowed.

"Let's sleep first." Ruan Nanzhu glanced at the time. "We'll think about it tomorrow, or our bodies will give out."

So the three each returned to their own beds.

Normal people, upon an encounter like that, would likely be haunted by those terrifying images and have a hard time falling asleep. But Lin Qiushi figured they were no longer within the realm of normal people. Not only did he fall asleep quickly, but he also slept quite well; he didn't wake until the next morning.

The sun rose and with it the scent of ash. Woken by beams of light spilling through the french windows, Lin Qiushi blearily opened his eyes.

"Good morning," Ruan Nanzhu greeted.

"Mh." Rubbing his eyes, Lin Qiushi got up from the sofa, and entered the bathroom to wash up.

Cheng Yixie seemed to have woken early, and was already changed, silently standing by the window and watching the scenery outside.

"Breakfast is on the second floor," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Let's go. I'm actually a bit hungry."

The three descended from their room, and saw many people already gathered in the restaurant.

Lin Qiushi's gaze swept over the lot, and found the two he'd been seeking—the women who were staying in the single-bed room.

They seemed full of vigor and were cheerily chatting, as if everything that happened the night before hadn't affected them at all.

As Lin Qiushi continued to observe them, Ruan Nanzhu made a sound that was both a laugh and not a laugh, right next to his ear.

"You're watching them so seriously. What, are they better-looking than I am?"

Exasperated, Lin Qiushi replied, "you're the best-looking one of course."

"Oh don't sound too heartfelt." Ruan Nanzhu ate a mouthful of bread, then said, "those two are here too."

Those two being the siblings they'd met in the hall last night, Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui. The two were just walking in, one smiling at Lin Qiushi, the other glowering at Ruan Nanzhu.

It seemed Luo Qianshui was already holding a grudge against Ruan Nanzhu's provocation last night.

Ruan Nanzhu wasn't scared at all, jerking his chin in the girl's direction and leaning over onto Lin Qiushi's shoulder. He declared at an un-self-conscious volume, "oh my, that woman's glare is terrifying, she's scaring me."

Lin Qiushi didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

Cheng Yixie, on the other hand, seemed more than used to Ruan Nanzhu's passion for theater, and just chewed expressionlessly on his bread.

As they ate their fill, the bellhop who'd given them the room cards yesterday appeared, holding a stack of something in his hand. These were likely the travel guides he'd mentioned.

The bellhop said, smiling, "did everybody sleep well last night? These are travel guides to this area, everybody should take a good look after you get one." Then he began distributing them.

Lin Qiushi got one as well. Flipping it open, he found that it really was a guide to the scenic spots in this city, which included this high rise with the mirrored exterior.

The info yielded the fact that this high rise was a local landmark, renovated two years prior. The before and after could not be more different. Mirrors were attached all over the outside of the building, making it look very odd indeed.

As Lin Qiushi flipped through the book, he heard Cheng Yixie begin to lowly cough again.

"Hack, hack." Covering his nose, Cheng Yixie struggled to say, "something's on fire…"

"What is?" Both Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu were confused, because neither of them smelled anything.

But very soon, they didn't need to, because thick smoke had started to appear—the thing on fire was actually a person. It was one of the women staying in the single-bed room.

At first, it was only smoke drifting from her body. When startled gazes fell on her, however, blinding embers sprang out. These embers seemed to come directly from her flesh, engulfing her entire body in the space of a breath.

"Aaaaaaah!!" The woman let out an awful wail and threw herself to the ground, tossing and turning like crazy. But since the fire was burning from her insides, it didn't do her any good at all. Lin Qiushi also grabbed a bottle of milk from the table and attempted to douse the flames on her body, but it didn't make any difference either.

In the matter of a minute, before the crowd's very eyes, the woman who'd once been pretty as a flower was turned into a burnt black corpse.

"Argh—" Someone vomited on the spot. Others also didn't look too well.

It was said that burning to death was the most painful way to go. Lin Qiushi slowly returned to Ruan Nanzhu's side, and set down the milk bottle in his hand.

It seemed what happened last night had caused this woman's death.

"Xiao Yan! Xiao Yan!!" The other woman was sobbing loudly, throwing herself in a state of near-madness beside the body.

Lin Qiushi watched from the side, not speaking.

Ruan Nanzhu asked, "you okay?"

Lin Qiushi shook his head to say he was fine. In fact, he'd seen his share of bloody sights, but the one before him now was a bit too frightening… The ninth door was indeed difficult. On the very first night of their entry, someone was killed.

"Gross," Luo Qianshui, sitting not too far away, spoke icily, before getting up and walking away. "That's really off-putting."

Her brother was right behind her as they left the restaurant.

Luo Qianshui's attitude may have been cold, but it was actually the norm. After a scene like this, most people in the room looked on with numb expressions. Only in the five-person group that brought along newbies were people vomiting and flinching away.

"I'm so scared, Xia-jie," a young man said to the leader.

The woman named Xia-jie was likely the one who'd brought them inside. She replied, "don't be, there's nothing to be scared of. As long as you listen well and follow the rules, nothing's going to happen."

Though these words were superficial, it was indeed all they seemed to be able to do. The terror on the young man's face did not diminish.

Ruan Nanzhu got up as well. "Come on, let's go take a look around."

They left the restaurant, and went out onto a street nearby the high rise.

Unlike the worlds before, this world seemed widely accessible. There were endless streams of people on the bustling street, and shops of all sorts lined both sides. There were buses that could take them elsewhere. Even the currency being used was the same as their original world.

Taking in his surroundings, Lin Qiushi grew truly curious: "Can we go to other places?"

"Yes," Ruan Nanzhu said. "As long as you get back before nightfall."

Lin Qiushi, "if you don't?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "then you get to experience some truly strange ways to die." He spoke matter-of-factly; he'd clearly experienced that sort of situation before.

"Is this world complete?" Though he was trying to keep himself in check, there were still many more questions in Lin Qiushi's heart. He looked at the crepes down the street. "Is the food edible?"

"Mh," Ruan Nanzhu said. "They should taste pretty good."

So Lin Qiushi spent his own money on three, one for each of them.

Lin Qiushi chose the chocolate-flavored one, with ice cream inside the crepe. He took a bite and thought it really was pretty good, mumbling, "then what's the difference between this world and reality?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "difference? The biggest one's probably that this world has ghosts." Then, "I'm going to go ask about the high rise."

He approached some shops nearby, and asked the owners some questions.

It had to be said that the benefits of drag were truly apparent in this moment. The shop owners were very friendly toward Ruan Nanzhu. A thirty-something-year-old even gifted Ruan Nanzhu a box of candies from his candy store, saying if she had the time tonight they could plan something…

Ruan Nanzhu very bluntly turned him down.

It also had to be said that the NPCs here and the NPCs from the doors before were vastly different. These seemed far more like normal people. There was no way to tell this world was different than reality by their speech or actions alone.

It was enough to leave Lin Qiushi a bit dazed. "Are we really inside a door?"

Ruan Nanzhu, "of course." He glanced at Lin Qiushi. "The more difficult the door, the greater its resemblance to reality. The tenth door I'd gone into…" At this he stopped, dolor surfacing in his gaze like he'd remembered some unpleasant memory.

At the sight of this, Lin Qiushi didn't ask either. Just pretended he didn't see anything.

This aside, they did manage to collect a lot of information on the high rise.

Two years ago, there'd been a fire in the building, in which a family of three perished. They said the family were even from out of town, and met an unpleasant fate like this…

"It burned down an entire story?" It was from a little newspaper stand beside the high rise that Ruan Nanzhu got this information. The stand was well-aged, and an old man was selling the papers.

"Yeah, the entire story," the old man said. "Then the high rise was renovated. Because the outside was all black from the smoke, it was all covered up with mirrors." He nudged at his glasses, and spoke in a wizened voice: "the glare really stings…"

Lin Qiushi recalled the mother and daughter he'd seen inside the mirrors. It would appear that they were the victims of the fire.

"It's better that you don't live there, there are ghosts inside," the old man said. "They say there's someone crying every night…"

"Which floor of the building was burnt down?" Lin Qiushi asked.

"The thirty-fourth floor," the old man answered.

The thirty-fourth floor—exactly where they were staying. It seemed the key had something to do with this fire then.

After taking a spin outside, it was lunchtime. The three made to return to the high rise.

It was precisely noon. Sunlight shot down from the sky, reflecting off the building's exterior mirrors and becoming a beaming glare. The entire high rise was so bright that it couldn't be looked at directly, as if the whole building had been enveloped in a ball of blinding fire. Lin Qiushi only took one look, and it still stunned tears from his eyes.

Ruan Nanzhu said from the side, "oh, you look cute crying."

Lin Qiushi shot Ruan Nanzhu a look through red-rimmed eyes.

And then the bastard got his drama queen on, declaring before everybody in the restaurant that Lin Qiushi should stop crying, because she'd take responsibility for him.

Lin Qiushi, "…" Whatever. As long as you're having a good time.

Cheng Yixie had stayed utterly silent all this time, cleverly pretending to be part of the backdrop. Lin Qiushi strongly suspected he'd also been played around by Ruan Nanzhu like this many times before.

Though lunchtime came, many people didn't return for food. It was a populous street outside, after all, filled with choices. There was no reason to squeeze into this restaurant.

But Luo Qianshan and Luo Qianshui, whom they'd met before, were also here. Seeing Ruan Nanzhu, Luo Qianshui once again flipped him an eye-roll.

Ruan Nanzhu took it smiling, patting at his chest and saying why did it feel like he was being chased about by a biting bitch.

It was almost enough to prompt Luo Qianshui to storm over for a fistfight.

Lin Qiushi once again expressed his admiration for Ruan Nanzhu's ability to tease women, though the word "tease" in Ruan Nanzhu's hands gained a whole new meaning—add, subtract, carry the one, and it basically boiled down to provocation. If infuriated women were the bulls, say, then Ruan Nanzhu was the waving red flag that pissed them off…

Author's Note:

I'm so tired every day. I just want to sleep for sixteen hours straight _(:з」∠)_