CH 4

Chapter 4 – матрёшка 4

In the early morning of the next day, Xu RenDong woke up feeling very cold. Beside him, Lian Qiao was sleeping soundly. Xu RenDong turned his head, glanced at him and suddenly his heart moved.

There was a strangely familiar feeling, as though he’d seen him before somewhere.

Xu RenDong thought about it for a while but couldn’t think of any time when the two of them might have met. But since Lian Qiao is a live streamer, maybe he may have come across his photos online accidentally.　

In his sleep, Lian Qiao seemed to perceive he was being watched. He suddenly opened his eyes. His black and white eyes appeared stark. Xu RenDong was taken aback and subconsciously turned away, pretending to look at the snow scene outside the window.

“Um…” Lian Qiao rubbed his eyes and sat up. He looked around, saw Xu RenDong and said in confusion, “Brother RenDong, I felt like something was staring at me…” He even shivered. Rubbing his arms, he mumbled, “It felt horrible, my hair is standing up.”

“…” Xu RenDong refused to admit that he was the “thing” that Lian Qiao was referring to and said very calmly, “It’s so cold in the room, it’s practically freezing.”

“Yeah. “Lian Qiao nodded. He suddenly sneezed, then sniffed, “It’s quite cold.”

Xu RenDong still felt very embarrassed so he quickly sat up and put on his clothes: “It’s only half past six so I don’t know if other people are awake. I’m going to find out if there’s anything to eat.”

Lian Qiao jumped up and shivered; “Wait, wait, I’ll come with you! Don’t leave me alone, I’m scared!” 

The two did a lap around the house but even after they finished, the other people hadn’t woken up yet. There was bread and milk in the kitchen. The bread was hard and the milk cold. Xu RenDong found a small pot to heat the milk up slightly, when Lian Qiao suddenly said, “This is Leba.”

“Huh?” Xu RenDong looked back and saw Lian Qiao break the round loaf into two pieces, revealing the extra fine texture inside the bread. Lian Qiao weighed the weight of the bread and said with certainty: “This is Leba, a traditional Russian food. Leba is much heavier than ordinary bread so it’s easy to distinguish.”

Xu RenDong: “Are you saying that we’re in Russia?” As soon as he said this, he realized that this conclusion was unreasonable. Yesterday, everything had fully proved that this is not the real world but he still wants a logical explanation in his subconscious mind.

This was just his consciousness playing tricks on him.

Sure enough, Lian Qiao shook his head and refuted it: “I don’t think it is. But this may be a hint. After all, there was Russian written in the elevator and the key prop is a Russian doll. But what is this trying to tell us?”

Xu RenDong certainly didn’t know.

Xu RenDong poured warm milk into the cup and the two of them had a warm breakfast. Gradually, their bodies warmed up. He was about to go upstairs to wake up others when a woman’s scream suddenly came from upstairs.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh-“

Xu RenDong and Lian Qiao looked at each other and ran upstairs quickly.

The source of the sound was from the second floor. There was a pale woman standing in front of the door to a room, shaking all over. Xu RenDong recognized this woman as the one who had questioned Yuan XueMing last night. Her name was Xu Hong. Lian Qiao asked: “What’s the matter?”

“Something… something happened…” Xu Hong tremblingly pointed to the ground. The two followed her fingers and found a large patch of dark red blood seeping through the crack underneath in the door. The blood stain had dried up and even turned into ice. Judging from the amount of bleeding, the person in the door was probably already dead.

Xu RenDong turned the door handle but found it was locked. He looked back at Lian Qiao and said, “Let’s break the door down.”

Lian Qiao nodded. With a loud bang, the wooden door burst open. Xu RenDong stepped into a pool of blood and almost slipped. Fortunately, Lian Qiao’s eyes and hands were quick and grabbed him. Xu RenDong subconsciously wanted to thank him but the words died when he saw the scene in front of him.

The amount of bleeding in the room was much more spectacular than the bloodstain beneath the door. The floor, the bed, the windows… even the ceiling was splattered with blood. A large number of bright red meat was scattered on the floor, and the bones and blood vessels at the fracture sites were clearly visible. In fact, if it was just meat then it’s  okay, after all everyone has seen a butcher’s shop at the market. But the thing was, this meat is also mixed with fingers, eyeballs, hair and other things with human characteristics. It let people know straight away that they were looking at the corpse of a human. That’s what made it terrifying.

Fortunately, Xu RenDong’s psychological quality is not bad. After all, he personally died twice tragically, so seeing a broken corpse is still within his tolerance level.

Probably because the room had been sealed shut all night, now the escaped smell of blood was so strong that it made the eyes water. Xu RenDong coughed twice while covering his nose and mouth. He turned his head and was about to say something when he saw that Lian Qiao’s face was pale and his eyes were about to pop out.

Then…

“Hic.”

He. Was. So. Scared. He. Hiccuped.

Xu RenDong: “…”

The others heard the sound of the screams and arrived one after another. Seeing the horror in the room, they were shocked at first and then each of them looked at Xu Hong, who was shivering outside the room and showed a surprised expression as if trying to say; “Oh so, you’re not the one who died.”

This made Xu Hong angry: “What are you looking at!” 

The crowd turned their eyes away in silence, pretending to be contemplating the murder scene.　　

Xu RenDong walked out with Lian Qiao who was still hiccuping and met Yuan XueMing.

“Someone died?” Yuan XueMing was also very calm. He seemed to be used to something like this. “What’s the situation?”

Xu RenDong glanced at Xu Hong. Xu Hong hadn’t recovered from her anger yet and said in a testy manner: “I don’t know.”

“Did you hear anything at night?” Yuan XueMing asked her, “You live in the next room, right?”

Xu Hong said that last night she fell asleep very early and heard nothing. Yuan XueMing entered the room to inspect the corpse but soon he was choked by the smell of blood, and walked out frowning.

“Both people are dead.” He said, “Let’s go downstairs first to eat.”

Everyone was shocked that he was still thinking about eating at this time. A girl asked: “Don’t we need to do… an autopsy?”

Yuan XueMing said helplessly: “Ghosts kill people, what’s the point of an autopsy? Is it that you want to know if the ghost tore them apart with their bare hands or chewed them to bits with their teeth?”

His words made good sense. Xu RenDong nodded in agreement.

Everyone: “…”

Yuan XueMing calmed down and said, “Let’s go hunt for the ‘gifts’ after eating. The most important thing is to finish the task so we can leave as early as possible.”　

Everyone no longer had any objections and so went downstairs. 

Lian Qiao suddenly said: “I, I’ve already eaten… hic.”

Yuan XueMing subconsciously looked at the corpse in the room, the expression on his face instantly suspicious. Knowing that he was misunderstood, Xu RenDong quickly explained: “We ate downstairs. There is bread and milk in the kitchen.”

“… Oh.” Yuan XueMing gave Lian Qiao a deep look and then left.

Lian Qiao said, “I want to check the corpse again.”

Xu RenDong was a little surprised. But Lian Qiao hiccuped again and then walked, trembling, into the room. He bent down and carefully observed the corpse on the ground. He was uncomfortable with the smell of blood and his brows were slightly furrowed but his eyes were still eager to try.

“I’m going to get something from downstairs.” He ran down the stairs and soon came back holding a knife and fork in his hand.

Xu RenDong felt flabbergasted: “What are you doing with a knife and fork?”

Lian Qiao: “Because I couldn’t find any chopsticks.”

Xu RenDong: “???” 

What’s wrong, haven’t you eaten enough for breakfast?

Lian Qiao had a kind of fascinated excitement. He didn’t notice Xu RenDong’s frozen face and carried his knife and fork into the room full of broken corpses. He walked carefully to the middle of a corpse, squatted on the ground and began looking through the corpse, turning things around and studying it. Xu RenDong realized that he was doing an autopsy.

But an autopsy with a knife and fork… is really abnormal.

After a while, Lian Qiao announced his conclusion: “This corpse was gnawed to pieces by teeth and the tooth prints are still there.”

“Gnawed?” Xu RenDong was surprised, “Wasn’t he killed by a ghost? Could it have been a bear?”

“No. Look at the scene of the crime. The doors and windows were locked so it was a sealed room.” He pointed to the door of the room that was knocked open by them, “It’s  impossible for ordinary beasts to come in. And the tooth marks on the corpse are very small…”　

Xu RenDong was very surprised: “The tooth marks are small?”　　　

Lian Qiao’s face was not very pretty: “Yes. Compared to large beasts, I think it’s more like… a rabbit. A big rabbit.”

Xu RenDong suddenly envisioned a gray rabbit with a human arm in between his teeth and chewing down like he was eating a carrot. The image made his back feel cold.

Lian Qiao threw the knife and fork aside, walked out of the room and closed the door. He wiped the sweat from his face, showing a thoughtful expression.

Xu RenDong: “What are you thinking?”

Lian Qiao: “When I did the autopsy just now, there was a familiar melody stuck in my mind, but I can’t remember what it was exactly… it looks like this…. Hmm~mmmmmm…”

Xu RenDong was silent for a moment: “… A Bite of China.” {Name of a popular TV show which introduced different types of Chinese cuisine.}　

Lian Qiao: “…oh.”

Two seconds later, Xu RenDong couldn’t control himself anymore and burst out laughing.

“You…” Xu RenDong laughed, “You’re so scared that you started to hiccup when you saw the dead, and you can still think of food shows during an autopsy. Are you courageous or cowardly?”

Lian Qiao made a face “Actually, I’m a coward but my audience loves to watch me play horror games so I have no choice…”

Xu RenDong nodded, “It’s not easy for you.”

Lian Qiao asked, “That’s right, Brother RenDong, what do you do?”

Xu RenDong: “I’m an ordinary…”

Lian Qiao suddenly said: “Male high school student?”

Xu RenDong: “Financial analyst.”

Lian Qiao said, disappointed, “Oh. Brother RenDong you’re so good-looking and you have such a good body. I thought you were a star or a model.”

Xu RenDong ignored the compliment but the previous sentence still preyed on his mind. He frowned and asked, “I’m already 28, how can I still be a high school student? Do I look like someone who repeats grades a lot?”

Lian Qiao hurriedly said, “No, no, um, actually this is a pit. Because in Japanese anime, the hero who saves the world is always an ordinary male high school student so…” 

He surreptitiously glanced at Xu RenDong. When he found that he was not angry, he smiled and his eyes curved, “But Brother RenDong has good skin and looks really tender. If you said you’re a college student, I’d believe you.”

Xu RenDong: “Yesterday you wanted to call me dad.”

Lian Qiao: “I did not! I deny it!”

Xu RenDong: “Alright. Let’s go down and discuss with the others.” 

After going to the first floor, Xu RenDong told everyone about Lian Qiao’s discovery. Yuan XueMing said: “It’s possible for rabbits to kill. But don’t worry too much. Although there are ghosts in the world here, they have conditions for killing.”

Lian Qiao’s eyes lit up: “Just like the rules of a game?”

Yuan XueMing: “Yes, it’s like the rules of a game. But they don’t tell us the rules so we have to find out on our own. The rules of each world are also different, and there’s no pattern that can be found. We have to wait until people die to figure out what the death conditions are. So it’s useless to worry.”

Someone nervously said, “Then perhaps eating the bread can also…..”

After hearing this, everyone threw down the bread in their hands. Yuan XueMing said, “I don’t know if I will die if I eat it. I only know that I will be hungry if I don’t eat it.”

Everyone looked at the bread with complicated expressions on their faces, it was unknown what they were thinking.

After dinner, Yuan XueMing suggested that everyone explore the house separately to see if they can find any more matryoshka. Since Yuan XueMing was a veteran, everyone has regarded him as the leader of the team and obeyed his instructions. Even Xu Hong, who had a temper, followed everyone obediently.

It didn’t take long for them to make some new discoveries.

“There is a doll in the kitchen!”

“There is a basement here! But it’s locked and can’t be opened!”

Everyone explored the whole house, even the room belonging to the dead men, but couldn’t find the key to the basement or more information. So they gathered in the kitchen to study the new wooden doll together.

This doll was a bit bigger than the one in Lian Qiao’s hand. It also had the same weird smile. However this one looked more like a matryoshka than Lian Qiao’s one because it had a seam in the middle which looked like it could be unscrewed.

Lian Qiao shook the matryoshka and there was a gurgling noise inside. He said: “There seems to be something in it.”

“Is it the key to the basement?” Everyone was curious about it, but no one made any move to open it. After all, they don’t know if “opening the matryoshka” was a death condition. Who wanted to be the one to take the risk?

Lian Qiao stretched out his hand to take the doll and was about to unscrew it when Xu RenDong pressed his hand. He said, “I’ll do it.”

Lian Qiao was taken aback but by then Xu RenDong had already unscrewed the doll. Inside was a small compass.

It wasn’t the key so everyone was a little disappointed. Yuan XueMing also frowned.

But… a compass?

Xu RenDong and Lian Qiao looked at each other. For some reason they both had the strong impression that they were thinking the same thing as the other person.

***

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