Murder

At this moment, faced with an utterly stunned Jiang Yingrui, Lin Qiushi finally understood the high Ruan Nanzhu got from acting. He who had struck first became an innocent little kitten, trembling in Ruan Nanzhu's arms. Additional sniffling would, of course, be even better, but as things were, Lin Qiushi was still new to the acting business, and wasn't yet practiced enough to cry at the drop of a hat.

What he'd done was already enough though.

Feng Yongle was furious: "You animal, what the hell did you do to Qiuqiu!"

Jiang Yingrui's back was still aching, and immediately after picking himself up he was faced with Feng Yongle's angry interrogation; he was barely smiling: "What did I do? She's the one who hit me first—"

"How could she have hit you first!" Feng Yongle clearly didn't believe Jiang Yingrui at all. Brows deeply furrowed, he glared at Jiang Yingrui like Jiang Yingrui was a despicable opportunist. "Look at her, does she seem like someone who hits first to you?!"

Jiang Yingrui eyed Lin Qiushi, who was cowering like a bunny, and sank into silence.

Indeed she didn't, but whether or not she did didn't change the fact that he really had been socked six ways to Sunday by the girl in front of him.

Jiang Yingrui knew he had no way of making them believe it, and so just shot Lin Qiushi a vicious glare, turned, and walked away. He seemed truly pissed off.

Lin Qiushi was still lightly shaking. Watching from the side, Feng Yongle thought she was scared. But only Ruan Nanzhu, who was holding Lin Qiushi, knew that he was holding back laughter.

"Alright, it's alright now," Feng Yongle said. "Qiuqiu, don't be frightened. That man's gone now."

Lin Qiushi nodded, to say he's got it.

Seeing the red rimming Lin Qiushi's eyes, Feng Yongle soothed, "don't be frightened, we'll protect you. Let's not leave her alone next time, if we hadn't gotten back in time, and something had happened…"

Ruan Nanzhu thought, yeah, if he'd beaten the guy to death on the spot, there would be trouble indeed. But he still agreed out loud with Feng Yongle, and said it was his bad for not thinking it through.

The incident ended with Jiang Yingrui taking the loss. He wasn't likely to go back and tell everyone he'd gotten his ass kicked by Lin Qiushi—and even if he said it, who would believe him?

But after such a hassle, Lin Qiushi was suddenly reminded of something else. He got out his phone and typed: the nurse from before warned us to not go out after 8. Is that a rule for the sanitarium or a rule for us?

Ruan Nanzhu and Lin Qiushi knew each other well enough at this point that one look was all he needed to understand: "I'll go ask a patient."

They went to a nearby room, found a relatively sane-looking patient, and asked about the curfew.

That patient wore a numbered hospital gown, and stayed expressionless. At their question he coolly replied, "of course we can't come out at night."

"Why can't you come out?" Feng Yongle asked. "How long has this rule been in place?"

"Long time," the patient said. "As for why, well how would I know." His tone was very cold, fingers twisting neurotically into themselves. "Maybe, they're taking care of something that they can't let us see."

Lin Qiushi gave the patient's words some thought.

"So, about the…" Feng Yongle wanted to ask more, but the patient began to shout, quite aggressively: "I don't know! Stop asking me, I don't know anything, stop asking me!" He shouted, and even banged his hands hard against the metal bed frame. So vicious, he seemed ready to jump on them and fight at any second.

Seeing him like this, the group knew they wouldn't be getting any more information, and so took their leave.

"So can we go out at night or what…" Feng Yongle was a bit anxious, because this matter didn't feel quite clear yet. They didn't dare test it either. If going out at night was a death condition, after all, and something really did happen, they were screwed.

Ruan Nanzhu replied, "we'll know after tonight."

"How?" Feng Yongle didn't understand.

Ruan Nanzhu pointed at the room with the corpses they'd been guarding this whole time. "If this is empty when we check tomorrow, or if the number of bodies lessens, then it means they process the bodies at night. If that's the case, then we should be able to leave the rooms as well."

Feng Yongle, in realization, "I see!"

"If there aren't less bodies, then we'll have to use some other method to find the tunnel," Ruan Nanzhu said. "But other methods are far less efficient." Seven days passed in a blink, and the hint to the key was not yet obvious—they couldn't waste too much time on the matter of the tunnel.

As the three discussed these matters, they also took care of lunch at the cafeteria. It was Feng Yongle's turn to guard the room in the afternoon while Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu went in search of clues elsewhere.

They took a lap around the sanitarium, and confirmed there really wasn't a single doctor in the entire establishment, only the rare uniformed nurse.

To be honest, these nurses looked in worse condition than the patients. Each one of them seemed out of it, and panicked upon being spoken to or questioned.

"I don't know anything." This one was no exception; Ruan Nanzhu hadn't even opened his mouth to ask yet when the nurse turned and ran. The way she looked as she did this made Ruan Nanzhu snap, and he directly reached out and snagged the nurse by the arm, stopping her from going.

"We haven't even asked you anything, where are you running off to?"

In Ruan Nanzhu's grip, the nurse seemed horribly frightened.

"Unless, you already know what we're going to ask?" Ruan Nanzhu flicked up an eyebrow.

The nurse swallowed hard, her gaze wandering.

Ruan Nanzhu increased the pressure of his grip. "Hm?"

The nurse looked pained. But just as Lin Qiushi thought she really wasn't going to say anything, she spoke softly, "she's looking for him."

Ruan Nanzhu, "what?"

The nurse, "she's looking for him… He's the one who got her killed."

Her words were vague and mystifying.

But Ruan Nanzhu seemed to understand: "where is he then?"

"I don't know, nobody knows…" the nurse said. "But, he's in this sanitarium." After saying this, she forcibly yanked herself out of Ruan Nanzhu's grip and hurried off.

"That doctor's in this building, but the sanitarium is only so big…" With no one else around, Lin Qiushi didn't bother typing, just spoke lowly to Ruan Nanzhu.

Ruan Nanzhu shook his head without answer, sinking into deep contemplation.

The day ended like that, without finding more clues of the doctor's whereabouts. The word "doctor" seemed taboo in the sanitarium. Patients and nurses alike reacted strongly to it, either looking terrified or simply turning and running.

Feng Yongle squatted by the corpse room for nearly a full day. After the three reconvened, they traded clues.

Feng Yongle said, "people came and went a lot, always bringing bodies inside. The room's gotta be full by now… They'll have to clear it out."

They were seated in the cafeteria, talking over dinner.

Ruan Nanzhu told Feng Yongle their hypothesis in turn. Afterwards, Feng Yongle sighed: "but where are we supposed to find the doctor?"

That was indeed the question.

Right before they were done eating, Ruan Nanzhu plucked a small clump of rice out of his bowl, placed it into a plastic baggie, and tucked it into his pocket.

He did this quickly. Feng Yongle didn't notice at all. Lin Qiushi, on the other hand, did, and shot Ruan Nanzhu a curious look.

Ruan Nanzhu didn't explain, just smiled lightly at Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi didn't ask further.

With dinner out of the way, the three returned to their quarters. Feng Yongle sighed in praise at how kindly this door was, that it'd been three days and nobody had died yet…

"Yeah, I'm guessing when the deadline comes on day seven, a whole swath's going to die at once," Ruan Nanzhu replied lazily. "And only one will make it out… You think you'll be the lucky one?"

Feng Yongle laughed without any humor at all: "I wouldn't dare."

The odds were one to fourteen; to lose the bet was death, so who'd wager on that?

"Chat without me, I've got a thing. Gonna go out for a bit." Ruan Nanzhu suddenly rose, opened the door, and exited.

Feng Yongle startled. "Where are you going?"

Ruan Nanzhu ignored him.

"Where's she going?" Feng Yongle turned his look of bafflement onto Lin Qiushi.

Lin Qiushi flipped his palms to the sky, indicating he didn't know either.

Fortunately Ruan Nanzhu returned as quickly as he left. It wasn't even three minutes before he came back.

Feng Yongle still wanted to ask what he went to do, but at the look Ruan Nanzhu shot him, he had to give up.

Lin Qiushi was quite curious too, so Ruan Nanzhu got up close to his ear and murmured, "relax, you'll find out tomorrow."

Lin Qiushi, "…" So what the hell did you do though.

Night fell. The three lied on their respective beds, getting ready to fall asleep.

The sound of high heels once again started in the hallway. Lin Qiushi was already used to this, and simply acted like he couldn't hear it. Per the rules from the past two days, the suicidal nurse ought to be around any moment now to jump off the building. Lin Qiushi mentally hoped that she'd at least keep it down, so as to not wake him again.

With these thoughts in mind, Lin Qiushi fell asleep in a blur.

Though he'd prepared to be woken, Lin Qiushi was still shocked when he came awake to a sharp, awful scream. He opened his eyes, and saw Feng Yongle had also woken on the bed beside his. Their eyes met with horrified expressions.

"Help— Help—" It wasn't the sound of building-jumping this time, but a human's miserable cry for aid. Someone was scared and sprinting down the hall, like they were being pursued by something.

Lin Qiushi came awake at once, because the voice calling for help was very familiar—it was Xue Zhiyun, the girl who'd attempted to screw them over.

"Save me!!!" Xue Zhiyun's cries were awful. Horrible. Like she was being chased by something terrifying beyond belief.

"Aaaaah, AAAAH—" Between the screams, there was the sound of sharp weaponry plunging into flesh. And it seemed to be coming from right outside their door, chilling like none other.

Another round of rushed stumbling. Then Xue Zhiyun seemed to have been caught by that thing, her cries growing weak.

Lin Qiushi and Feng Yongle both sat up in their beds.

The sounds that Xue Zhiyun was making finally stopped. Lin Qiushi heard something heavy being dragged about outside, and then a loud thud—Xue Zhiyun seemed to have been tossed downstairs.

This was the fifth floor. Even if Xue Zhiyun had been alive, she was surely dead after that toss.

Lin Qiushi slowly got up, and went to the window. Through the glass, he could see Xue Zhiyun's body.

She'd fallen face-down, her skeleton distorted all over. There was no way she could still be alive. And right beside her stood a blood-covered ghoul. It was that nurse, who endlessly jumped off the building at night. She was smiling, sinister and fulfilled, with a long sharp knife in hand. The blade was coated with fresh blood.

Lin Qiushi slowly retreated back inside the room.

There came the sound of cursing outside, and then more wretched begging, more running. Night time, which should have been quiet, became quite lively with these noises.

Neither Lin Qiushi nor Feng Yongle could sleep. Ruan Nanzhu though, was as relaxed as usual. Beyond waking for a bit at first, he'd been still in bed, and seemed to really have fallen back asleep.

Lin Qiushi just sat on the bed the entire night. Only until dawnlight appeared outside did he release a breath.

Feng Yongle was much like Lin Qiushi. Once day broke, the two rushed to open the room door, wanting to see what had happened outside.

Upon opening the door, both of them were stunned by the view in the hallway.

Every single inch of it was soaked in fresh blood. Even the ceiling was covered in red.

Lin Qiushi scanned the hall, and very quickly found the room where the incident had occurred—it was the one occupied by Jiang Yingrui's group.

Lin Qiushi suddenly realized something. He approached that room door, wanting to see what number was on it. The room numbers here were a bit particular. They were printed on a piece of card stock and slotted into a clear frame. Because of this, room numbers could easily be switched out.

But what made Lin Qiushi wary was that the room before him wasn't 502. It was still a normal fourth floor number. Which made sense. Jiang Yingrui had thought to switch room numbers before; surely he would be extra careful about it himself.

Hang on, Lin Qiushi suddenly noticed something…

"What is it?" Feng Yongle asked.

Lin Qiushi shook his head, and pointed inside the room.

Feng Yongle, "we should see inside? Oof, it's all blood inside as well…" He turned and entered the room.

Just as he did, Lin Qiushi reached up and plucked out the room number card. The moment it was in his hand he knew something was wrong—it was way too thick. Lin Qiushi flipped the number card around, and saw on the back another number: 502.

In a split second, Lin Qiushi understood what Ruan Nanzhu had done—he'd used the rice to stick the 502 card on the back of Jiang Yingrui's original room number card.

Gaze flicking down, Lin Qiushi tore the 502 card off. Then he rubbed the rice marks clean with his fingers, and replaced Jiang Yingrui's room number, tossing the number 502 casually into his own pocket.

Feng Yongle didn't see what Lin Qiushi had done, still examining the blood-splattered room. Clearly without finding anything, he left the room shaking his head and sighing. "They're probably all dead, huh?"

Lin Qiushi: I don't know. But I only saw Xue Zhiyun's body.

Jiang Yingrui's group consisted of three people. One was Xue Zhiyun, and the other was an older man without much presence. Xue Zhiyun couldn't possibly be the only one who died last night, so the question was, where did the other two bodies go?

"Could they be downstairs?" Feng Yongle mumbled.

Lin Qiushi: Possibly…

Others from the group were gradually gathering. Three whole deaths in one night—everybody was naturally unsettled.

And most importantly, why had something happened to this room?

"Where did they go yesterday? Could all three of them have triggered the death condition?" the group discussed in hushed murmurs. "I think I saw them go into the corpse storage room."

"But I went in too," somebody replied in terror. "Why am I still alive…"

"Maybe the death quota's been satisfied?" The one speaking was a genial-looking middle-aged man named Cheng Dao, if Lin Qiushi remembered right. He continued, "even if everybody fulfilled the death condition, after all, there's no guarantee we'd all be killed in a single night."

After he said this, those who'd gone into the corpse storage room yesterday all went pale.

But that was indeed the truth. There was a limit to how many people the ghouls could kill inside, or else the group all dying off in one night would be a common occurrence.

"Did you guys see their bodies?" Cheng Dao asked. "I only saw the girl's."

"There's one over here," someone answered. "That man who'd been with them." The man, like Xue Zhiyun, had also been tossed off the fifth floor by the nurse. He'd just been thrown in a different direction, so Lin Qiushi hadn't seen his corpse.

At first, Lin Qiushi thought this man was Jiang Yingrui, but after seeing the corpse, he confirmed it wasn't.

"What about the last body?" Everybody felt uneasy.

A situation like last night's was surely hard to survive. Unless Jiang Yingrui had some kind of special method. Lin Qiushi's mind, for some reason, went to that super detailed hint paper. Could Jiang Yingrui also…? He lightly frowned.

Just as the crowd was discussing among themsleves, Jiang Yingrui appeared outside the door. Understandably, he attracted everybody's attention.

"What? What happened?" Jiang Yingrui asked genteelly. There was a fake-looking smile on his face.

Seeing him, Lin Qiushi's eyes slightly widened—he didn't think Jiang Yingrui would suddenly show up!

"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Jiang Yingrui's tone was quite at peace.

"You… Aren't you already…" Others couldn't believe it. Jiang Yingrui ought to be dead already, so how was he standing there, completely unharmed?

"Oh," Jiang Yingrui said. "It's like this. The group and I had a slight disagreement last night, so I went to sleep in another room. There's no problem with that, right?"

The crowd was silent.

Sure, the explanation wasn't faulty, but everybody still felt something was wrong.

Lin Qiushi as well. He watched Jiang Yingrui's easy manner, and couldn't help but think the man was lying.

Jiang Yingrui didn't bother explaining himself further though. His gaze swept over the crowd, and he asked, "where's Ruan Baijie?"

"Why are you asking about her?" Feng Yongle had little patience for Jiang Yingrui.

Jiang Yingrui replied, "I have something to ask her, of course." He smiled. "Because I suspected Ruan Baijie was the one who killed them."

Lin Qiushi watched him without reaction.

"What the hell are you talking about!" Feng Yongle was quite unhappy. "You're the one who tried to kill us first. If we hadn't discovered it, we'd've croaked by now—"

Jiang Yingrui didn't speak, just went to the door and picked out that room number card.

"So?" Feng Yongle scoffed.

Jiang Yingrui examined the number card in his hand, but didn't say anything in the end.

Lin Qiushi stuffed his hands into his pockets, slowly rubbing along the edge of that 502 card.

As they spoke, Ruan Nanzhu too appeared at the door. He held his arms over his chest, looking at Jiang Yingrui with a smile that wasn't quite a smile as he asked, "hm? What are we talking about?"

Jiang Yingrui looked up at met Ruan Nanzhu's eyes. Where their gaze crossed, sparks seemed to fly.

"Nothing," Jiang Yingrui smiled. Then he turned and left without another word.

Ruan Nanzhu watched him go with an impassive gaze.

Lin Qiushi came to Ruan Nanzhu's side, giving his sleeve a tug. Ruan Nanzhu patted him on the head.

"Good girl."

Side-eyeing him, Lin Qiushi really wanted to say don't touch my head—more specifically don't touch my hair.

"Come on, let's go get breakfast," Ruan Nanzhu said, stretching.

The three went to the cafeteria.

When he got the opportunity, Lin Qiushi pressed the room number card into Ruan Nanzhu's palm. Ruan Nanzhu wasn't shocked to receive it either, pocketing it with a casual gesture.

"You're getting good at this," Ruan Nanzhu said with a grin.

Lin Qiushi smiled too, and didn't speak.

"And our darling Qiuqiu's only going to get stronger in the future—" Ruan Nanzhu was drawling, tone filled with good humor. "Perhaps it'll be Qiuqiu protecting me in the future."

Lin Qiushi wanted to make Ruan Nanzhu quit his act, but hardly had the means. He had the strong suspicion that the reason Ruan Nanzhu made him mute so much was to take advantage of him.

But Feng Yongle was quite touched by their affection, saying, "you two really are close. Are you like this in reality as well?"

"Yeah," Ruan Nanzhu beamed. "Qiuqiu and I even sleep in the same bed every night."

Feng Yongle pictured it, and let out a dry cough. For some reason his expression had gone odd.

Lin Qiushi didn't figure out what Feng Yongle was thinking. He was, instead, contemplating Jiang Yingrui again. His instincts told him that last night, Jiang Yingrui had definitely been in his original room. But he'd somehow managed to escape the horrid scene from last night.

In the moment though, Lin Qiushi couldn't concretely figure out how.

"Alright, enough thinking." Ruan Nanzhu understood the problem on Lin Qiushi's mind, and said, "we'll fill up our stomachs first, before anything else."

Lin Qiushi nodded, picked up a steamed bun, and popped it into his mouth.

Ruan Nanzhu watched him with a bright smile.

Hairs standing a bit on end at his look, Lin Qiushi typed: what are you staring at me for?

Ruan Nanzhu, "nothing." He spoke slowly and leisurely. "I just think you're extra adorable today."

Lin Qiushi shivered, fielding strong suspicions that Ruan Nanzhu had taken the wrong meds that morning, the bastard.

"Alright, I'm just kidding." Chin in hand, Ruan Nanzhu yawned. "So about that doctor. You guys have any thoughts?"

Both Lin Qiushi and Feng Yongle shook their heads.

"I've got a guess," Ruan Nanzhu said. "Say, why do you think that nurse hasn't been able to find the doctor?"

Feng Yongle asked blankly, "why?"

Ruan Nanzhu said, "haven't you considered that maybe the doctor isn't part of the institution at all?"

Lin Qiushi startled.

Author's Note:

Ruan Nanzhu: My baby's all grown up…

Lin Qiushi: Right? I can finally clean up after you?

Ruan Nanzhu: I can finally wash and eat you…

Lin Qiushi: ????

I found a super yummy hotpot recently that I can't stop eating. Then I recalled a gay buddy of mine who'd visited. After we had hotpot he was so full that once he got up, he threw up.