Kaleidoscope of Death

Chapter 115: The Door That Can't Be Opened

As for how exactly they were going to repurpose this traitor, Ruan Nanzhu didn't say. The scariest things were all unsaid, however; Tian Guxue's entire soul was now overran by terror. She trembled so hard she couldn't even speak.

"What do we do for now?" Sun Yuanzhou asked. "Just leave her here? Isn't that risky?"

"She can still do something else for us," Ruan Nanzhu hummed.

Sun Yuanzhou was thoughtful.

"Open chests?"

"Yes," Ruan Nanzhu said. He looked at Tian Guxue, and spoke lightly. "You haven't opened any chests today right? Even so, you probably know where the Hako Onna and Hakobito are...right?"

Tian Guxue looked up at Ruan Nanzhu, panicked. "I don't know!!"

"You don't know?" Liang Miye scoffed. "If you don't know where the Hakobito and Hako Onna are, how do you open any of the chests? You're not scared to find one of them?"

"It's like this. Before I open a chest, if there's a Hakobito or the Hako Onna inside, the chest makes a sound..." Tian Guxue stammered. "And then I'll switch to a different chest to open. The Hako Onna warned me though that there can't be anybody beside me when I open the chests, so..."

Ruan Nanzhu lifted an eyebrow.

"You've already opened boxes today?"

"Mh," Tian Guxue nodded carefully.

"Fine, then we'll confirm what you said tomorrow," Ruan Nanzhu said.

If Tian Guxue was telling the truth, then she would be very useful to them. This way, she was a functionally a probe that could identify where the Hako Onna and Hakobito were.

Ruan Nanzhu asked Tian Guxue about a few more details, such as how she made contact with the Hako Onna. When asked about the rulebook, Tian Guxue told them that on the first day they arrived, she'd found the rulebook in the first-floor dining room. It had been in a corner, and the Hako Onna told her to look there.

"But how come I didn't see the rulebook?" a young woman from the crowd asked. She was the person who' first heard the Hako Onna cry when they came into the mansion, and the cry had come from the kitchen, so she'd gone to look around inside.

"Maybe I got here before you," Tian Guxue answered carefully. "By the time you went...I'd already taken it."

That was certainly a possibility. While Tian Guxue's explanation made some sense, it still made Lin Qiushi's forehead pucker...He'd detected a strange discrepancy in Tian Guxue's words.

Ruan Nanzhu didn't say anything either, deep in thought. He didn't say what he was thinking in the end though, just began discussing what to do about Tian Guxue with the group.

Tian Guxue was most scared of being killed. When she saw that they didn't want her life, she released a huge breath of relief.

In the end everybody decided to shut Tian Guxue in her room and assign someone to guard her. There was no harm in not opening any chests, after all, and the number of Hako Onna's powers had not yet reached six.

While everybody was discussing these things, Ruan Nanzhu stood aside in silence. Though his eyes were on Tian Guxue, his gaze seemed to go right through her, landing somewhere faraway.

"What is it?" Lin Qiushi sensed that something was off about Ruan Nanzhu.

"Nothing," Ruan Nanzhu answered lightly. "Just thought of something from the past."

So Lin Qiushi didn't press. He only took Ruan Nanzhu's hand with a squeeze, transferring the warmth of his palm to Ruan Nanzhu.

At their interaction, Sun Yuanzhou once again tossed them a queer look. That look really was far too complicated, and Lin Qiushi far too confused...He really did want to ask now exactly what Ruan Nanzhu had said to Sun Yuanzhou.