Corner Café

Welcome into the world of doors 歡迎進入門的世界! I have just started reading this BL novel, Kaleidoscope of Death 死亡萬花筒, by Xi Zi Xu 西子緒 which is a highly recommended Chinese BL novel. It has a very unusual BL story with mystery, horror, supernatural, and suspenseful plotlines. At the moment, I have just reached the second door, and the clue is based around the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale, Fitcher’s Bird, so you can imagine where the story is going… As I was searching for songs from the audio drama, there is a song based on the Japanese children’s game of Kagome Kagome, so I am guessing another door leads to that in the later part of the novel… I won’t say too much about it yet as I am still very early into the novel, but I have to say after discovering Chinese BL novels, I have almost given up on watching BL TV series as nearly 80% of the TV series have very boring, amateurish plots. The only thing that keeps me interested in many of the current BL TV series is just the OST, LOL… If you are not afraid of reading horror stories, Novel Updates has the novel translated into English – I have just checked and they have virtually completed the translation just a few days ago.

A very interesting thing is that the title theme song from the audio drama is sung by a Thai actor, Mario Maurer, who goes by the name of just Mario in China. I’ve also just found out that he starred in the 2007’s Thai movie, The Love of Siam.

Forever Daylight 永晝 – Mario

The song based on Kagome Kagome 籠中鳥 is from the third season of the audio drama, listen to the song 竹子縫 here as I can’t find it on YouTube.

Update May 25, 2021: Continuing on to the clue for the third door which is based on the Tibetan legend of drum made from human skin… Sister Drum 阿姐鼓 is a song from 1995 describing a girl looking for her missing dumb older sister and finding out about her fate…

Sister Drum 阿姐鼓 – Dadawa 朱哲琴

Update May 27, 2021: Actually Sister Drum is Lin Qiushi’s fifth door, even though technically only his third door, since he piggy-backed onto Cheng Qianli’s fifth door. Please read the footnote at the end of Chapter 31 as the author clarified the rules of the doors. Also I just reached the end of Chapter 49 where another clarification of the door leading back to the real world, i.e. once they found the key to open the door, everyone can leave through that door. That was one of my questions as there were two other persons in the first door I was worried if they found their way out after Lin Qiushi and Ruan Baijie found the door and left without telling them, LOL…
Also, is the ear stub on Lin Qiushi a tracking device since Ruan Nanzhu was able to find him so quickly after they escaped from the first door?

Update May 28, 2021: This is the footnote at the end of Chapter 55, the author answered the confused readers’ questions by summarising the first 6 doors that Lin Qiushi entered… I thought it was quite useful to clear my own mind, so I transferred the summary here…

第一扇：和阮南燭相遇。
Lin Qiushi’s first door: Chinese village folklore, meeting Ruan Nanzhu.

第二扇：菲爾夏鳥，林秋石的第二扇門，和阮南燭一起進。
Lin Qiushi’s second door: Fitcher’s Bird, went in with Ruan Nanzhu.

第三扇：阿姐鼓，蹭的程千里的第五扇，所以直接從第二扇跳到了第五扇的難度。
Lin Qiushi’s fifth door: Sister Drum, piggybacking off Cheng Qianli’s fifth door, so Lin Qiushi skipped from second door straight into fifth door.

第四扇：雨中女郎，屬於接活兒，蹭的譚棗棗的門，因為門比五級低，不計入門的計數。
Tan Zaozao’s third door: Svetlana Telets’ The Rain Woman, took on as a job with Ruan Nanzhu but since it was the lower grade than the fifth door, this door did not count for Lin Qiushi.

第五扇：佐子，蹭的夏如蓓的門，因為門比五級門低，不計入門計數。
Xia Rubei’s fourth door: Japanese children song, Satchan (サッちゃん), went in with Ruan Nanzhu, piggybacking off Li Dongyuan’s job of taking Xia Rubei into her fourth door, another lower grade door, so did not count for Lin Qiushi.

第六扇：瘦長鬼影，林秋石自己的門，也就是他的第六扇門。
Lin Qiushi’s sixth door: Slenderman, Ruan Nanzhu gave this door to Lin Qiushi and went in with him. Since Lin Qiushi piggybacked Cheng Qianli’s fifth door, the clue for the sixth door was for Cheng Qianli, and Lin Qiushi did not have any clue for his own sixth door. However from his job of taking other people into the door’s world, Ruan Nanzhu has accumulated some sixth door clues, and he picked this one for Lin Qiushi.

Update June 2, 2021: Now at the 11th door with Lin Qiushi and Ruan Nanzhu, scary… I really must go back and filled in the clues after the sixth door upto the 10th door, as we really need to remember all the details of the previous doors for door 11, LOL… Another tissue-needing novel, especially the last few chapters leading up to the 11th door, prepare to cry but the author promised it’s a HE (happy ending) in one of the footnotes! So far it has been a very scary, sad but still very enjoyable read, especially some of the very likable side characters like Cheng Qianli and Gu Longming, happily recommend this novel to everyone!

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Spoilers

Update June 3, 2021: OMG! What? What? What? What a twist for the ending! The last chapter is very open-ended and very confusing, LOL… The real endings are in the extra chapters! I have to read the ending a couple of times and still confused, LOL…

So basically the whole story happened inside the twelfth door and not actually real! Ruan Nanzhu is the NPC inside the twelfth door. My mind is boggling! Now I finally understand why kaleidoscope is in the title!

And so Ruan Nanzhu came out of the door world to be with Lin Qiushi, so he is now a NPC in a human body in the real world and the twelfth door is now shut down since the NPC of the twelfth door left and entered into the real world? Still can’t get my mind around it, LOL…