Kaleidoscope of Death

Kaleidoscope of Death by Xi Zixu

And so, Cheng Yixie returned to Cheng Qianli’s side.

After leaving his first door, Cheng Qianli came down with a fever. He was sent to the ICU that night. Their parents both thought Cheng Qianli wouldn’t make it, but only Cheng Yixie knew that Cheng Qianli was welcoming his rebirth.

A few days later, Cheng Qianli left the ICU, his body slowly healing. The first sight that greeted him upon his waking was his brother Cheng Yixie.

Cheng Yixie was sitting on a chair beside his bed, leaning back with his eyes lightly closed, apparently asleep. Cheng Qianli saw the sunlight spill over Cheng Yixie’s black hair, making the inky strands seem slightly translucent. Speckled light dripped through tree branches and upon his back, and for a moment, it looked like he had wings. In Cheng Qianli’s eyes, Cheng Yixie seemed as holy as an angel fallen from the heavens.

The angel’s lashes trembled, and his eyes opened. Sleepiness clouded his dark pupils, and it was only in moments like this when a childlike tenderness could still be seen in his gaze.

“Ge,” Cheng Qianli called to him.

The instant he heard this, the child in Cheng Yixie’s eyes faded. His gaze returned to their deep, lake-like calmness as he looked at Cheng Yixie.

“Awake? Does it hurt anywhere?”

Cheng Qianli shook his head. “I think I’m pretty okay.”

Maybe he was imagining things, but he thought that the bout of sickness this time actually made his body more healthy; the places that were always quietly hurting didn’t feel like anything right now.

“Mh,” Cheng Yixie said. “Leave with me tomorrow then.”

Cheng Qianli was stunned. “Leave? For where?”

Cheng Yixie, “a place that can save your life.”

Cheng Qianli stared at Cheng Yixie in a daze. Cheng Yixie thought he’d at least ask some questions, but the fool nodded right then and there, concerned just enough to ask, “have you told mom and dad? They won’t stop us, right?”

“No,” Cheng Yixie said. “I’ve already talked to them.”

Upon his return this time, he’d gotten a check-up at the hospital. The doctors had been shocked to find his body completely recovered from terminal disease. By all reason, this kind of congenital cardiovascular malformation had no treatment at all given the state of modern medicine, but there hadn’t been a single symptom to be found on Cheng Yixie’s body.

“Let him come with me. If he stays here he’ll die,” Cheng Yixie had told his parents. “Only I can save him. I’m the best example.”

Faced with Cheng Yixie’s somewhat absurd request, their parents had at first been a little hesitant. But after Cheng Yixie used his own healthy body as proof, they’d agreed to it in the end. Because even if they got to keep Cheng Qianli, the doctors didn’t have any solutions. Since that was the case, why not let Cheng Yixie have a gamble?

After that, Cheng Yixie successfully took Cheng Qianli with him out of the hospital, and the two returned to Obsidian.

Obsidian was a warm place. Cheng Yixie rejoiced that he had been able to meet such a group of people. But Cheng Qianli was only a kid who practically grew up in the hospital—he was scared of the dark and a wimp. Though his body was growing gradually healthier after entering the doors, he still couldn’t manage to extricate himself from that terrifying world.

He couldn’t sleep because of the nightmares; every night he came to Cheng Yixie crying, barefoot, hugging a pillow and saying, “Ge, I had a nightmare again…”

Cheng Yixie was at his computer looking up information. He turned his head back and shot Cheng Qianli a look, before gesturing with his chin for Cheng Qianli to get on the bed.

Cheng Qianli obediently crawled into the large bed behind him, staring up at the ceiling in a daze.

“Ge, aren’t you scared?”

Cheng Yixie, “scared of what?”

“Of ghosts,” Cheng Qianli answered.

“What’s so scary about ghosts,” Cheng Yixie said. “I’m not scared of ghosts.”

“Then what are you scared of?” Cheng Qianli’s voice asked from behind him.

This question, Cheng Yixie did not answer for Cheng Qianli. Cool light spilled from the computer screen onto his impassive face. He didn’t want to say what he feared out loud, because it felt like if he said it it would come true.

Cheng Qianli didn’t pursue the question, either. His even breathing came from behind—he was just a kid, after all. Once he wasn’t scared anymore, he fell quickly asleep.

A few days later, Cheng Qianli saw Cheng Yixie come into the house with a furry lump in his arms. Before Cheng Qianli could react, Cheng Yixie was tossing that lump into his arms. The lump perked up its furry little butt and lapped like crazy at Cheng Qianli’s cheek with its tongue. It licked Cheng Qianli into giggles, and Cheng Qianli registered then that the lump was an adorable little corgi—he exclaimed in a moment of pure delight, “it’s a corgi! Ge!! I love you!!”

Cheng Yixie nodded at Cheng Qianli, turned around, and left.

What kid didn’t like animals? It was just that their physical conditions before hadn’t allowed them such hobbies. Now that Cheng Qianli was getting healthy, he’d given Cheng Qianli a long-coveted present.

Of course Cheng Qianli was happy beyond words, gobbling up extra bites of dinner that night. He even went around excitedly collecting everybody’s opinion on what to name the dog, before finally making a decision—Toast.

Toast was the little corgi’s name.

With Toast around, Cheng Qianli’s mental state got a lot better. He no longer sought Cheng Yixie out at night because he couldn’t sleep.

Cheng Yixie would sometimes go to his room and check on him in the middle of the night. He’d see the kid sprawled out with limbs akimbo, bent in all sorts of strange ways on the bed. And Toast would be lying right next to him, sleeping with its belly up—the two of them, one large and one small, made a particularly harmonious scene.

And Cheng Yixie would look away. When he closed the door behind him that night, he saw Ruan Nanzhu standing and smoking in the hallway.

“You’re up so late?” Ruan Nanzhu asked him.

“Mh,” Cheng Yixie said. “Couldn’t sleep.”

“It’s his second door in two days. Nervous?” Ruan Nanzhu said.

Cheng Yixie was silent for a while, before nodding and admitting to the anxiety deep in his heart.

“It’s never easy.” Ruan Nanzhu stubbed out his cigarette. “And you’re still so young…I’ll go in with you.”

Cheng Yixie thanked Ruan Nanzhu in response.

Ruan Nanzhu said nothing, just started back to his room. But when he pushed his door open, his footsteps halted, and he looked back at Cheng Yixie.

“But he’ll have to grow up sooner or later.”

Cheng Yixie met Ruan Nanzhu’s eyes. He knew what Ruan Nanzhu meant.

“You can’t protect him forever,” Ruan Nanzhu said.

“Do you think he can do it?” Cheng Yixie asked. “Do you think, he can come as far as I have?”

Ruan Nanzhu sighed, and said nothing more.

Some things could be achieved with hard work, but other things could only be gotten through talent. Though it wasn’t fair, this was the case for the world of the doors.

Some people were naturally suited to enter the doors. They were calm and clever; even in the most dangerous moments, they could think of ways to escape.

But some people couldn’t.

Cheng Yixie was a person suited to the doors, but his brother Cheng Qianli was just a regular dumb kid.

Cheng Yixie didn’t know how many times he’d fantasized about this—what a fortunate thing it would be if they had healthy bodies.

Cheng Qianli would grow up normally. Perhaps he’d be a bit stupid, and his grades would mean headaches for their parents, but that was fine. He would have a clever older brother. His brother could watch over him.

But all these fantasies were simply wishful thinking.

Cheng Yixie returned to his room. Nobody knew better than he did that Cheng Qianli was not suited to the doors. If things progressed down their regular tracks, Cheng Qianli would most likely very quickly die in the following doors.

But how could Cheng Yixie let all that happen? He’d already decided the path that he would walk.

Three days later, Ruan Nanzhu and the Cheng twins entered Cheng Qianli’s second door together.

This door was not particularly difficult, but to Cheng Qianli, it was still horribly thrilling; he was screaming of fright the whole time.

Cheng Yixie asked him, “how the hell did you even survive your first door?”

“I don’t know,” Cheng Qianli said. “I just went quietly to bed every night, and then one day I saw an open door. It was all bright inside, and after I walked in, I was out…”

Both Cheng Yixie and Ruan Nanzhu sank into a peculiar silence at this. It looked like fortune favors fools really was a wise saying.

After exiting his second door, Cheng Qianli got sick again for over a week. The doctor said it was caused by an excess amount of right.

Cheng Yixie watched over him as he got his IV drip, and Cheng Qianli was all wilted and sticky with sickness. He asked Cheng Yixie, “gege, how do I get better at this?”

Cheng Yixie patted his forehead, saying nothing.

“Will I get better if I stop being scared of ghosts,” Cheng Qianli said. “I’ve decided, I’m going to watch a scary movie every day once we’re back…”

Cheng Yixie wanted to sigh, but in the end, couldn’t do it. He only spoke lightly, “focus on getting better first. Everything else, there’s no rush. Ge’s here.”

Cheng Qianli nodded obediently.

Cheng Yixie thought Cheng Qianli had only been saying so, but after he got better, he actually did start watching scary movies. And one per day. Every single day he would be curled up in the living room with a blanket wrapped around his entire body, still scaring as badly as a quail each time.

Cheng Yixie was exasperated, but didn’t try to talk him out of it. It pretty much looked like Cheng Qianli’s courage wasn’t something that could be built up.

Though Cheng Qianli wasn’t particularly strong, he injected a different kind of life into Obsidian.

When the group grew numb from the torment of the terrifying doors, the upbeat Cheng Qianli was just like an oil pastel, swiping rich colors back onto Obsidian and filling the place with the breath of life.

If only the days could continue on like this, how nice would that be? Cheng Yixie wouldn’t think this just the once. Some things, however, couldn’t be avoided just by hiding.

Everything changed in Cheng Yixie’s seventh door.

That door was vicious beyond measure, and Cheng Yixie was the only survivor. Just as he was stumbling out the door, he got his hands on a hint slip different from all others.

A detailed hint for the next door was written on the slip of paper.

In that moment, Cheng Yixie didn’t comprehend just how this hint slip would change the tracks out under his life. He was still rejoicing, rejoicing that he’d once again escaped disaster, rejoicing that he’d gotten a hint to the eighth door, rejoicing that he’d be able to see Cheng Qianli again.

But a long, long time later, when he remembered this moment, he would realize that the Cheng Yixie back then had been standing at the crossroads of fate.

On one side of fate was hell. And on the other, was also hell.

[Extra: Twin Lives, Twin Deaths(1)] | [Extra: Twin Lives, Twin Deaths(3)]