The Magic Mirror

"Mirror, Mirror, has Xixi ever liked me?"

"No."

"Not even a little? For a single moment?"

"No."

"That can't be. If Xixi really doesn't like me, why does she always ask me to order takeout for her? Why doesn't she ask some other guy to order it?"

"...Because you're the easiest to fool."

In a university dormitory, a disheveled young man stared blankly at the mirror in front of him.

The mirror was only about the size of two palms. It was entirely gray, and its surface was blurry.

Yet each time the young man asked a question, words appeared on the mirror's surface, answering him.

The answers the mirror gave, however, were clearly not what the young man wanted to hear.

His face turned deathly pale, and all hope left him.

"Xixi..."

Pain twisted the young man's face as his emotions surged.

He had never imagined that Xixi, the girl he'd given his heart to, had been using him.

Just then,

the young man suddenly clutched his chest.

"Medicine! My medicine!"

He hurriedly looked toward the special medication on the table.

The young man had suffered from heart disease since childhood and relied on special medication to stay alive. He needed a refill every month.

But when he managed to reach the medicine, he discovered that he'd already taken all of it.

"I forgot... I spent the money I'd set aside for this month's medicine on a bag Xixi liked..."

The young man slumped over the table, his consciousness growing dimmer and dimmer.

Before long, he fell completely still.

No one knew how much time passed.

The young man's finger suddenly twitched.

The next moment, his eyes flew open.

"I'm not dead?"

Su Yuan gasped for breath.

His last memory was of crossing a zebra crossing when a truck came speeding toward him.

Then he felt himself flying through the air.

And after that, he was here.

"Where am I?"

Su Yuan tried to calm himself.

He'd been hit by a truck that huge.

Even if he hadn't died, he should've been in intensive care by now—or at the very least, in a hospital.

But this place?

Su Yuan quickly surveyed his surroundings.

"Huh?"

His mind suddenly roared.

A flood of memories surged through him.

Several minutes later,

Su Yuan took a deep breath.

"So I've transmigrated."

Su Yuan thought to himself.

After taking in the original owner's memories, he had a rough idea of his current situation.

This world was extremely similar to "Earth," the world he'd come from. Even its history and culture were much the same.

The city where the original owner lived was called Magic City, the economic center of the Xia Kingdom.

The original owner was also named Su Yuan. He came from a remote city in the Xia Kingdom and had grown up in an orphanage.

After three years of hard work in high school, he'd finally gotten into an ordinary university in Magic City.

He was now in the summer break between his second and third years.

Although he had no parents to support him, he'd been hardworking from a young age. He took part-time jobs whenever he had the time, and with student financial aid and the like,

he'd managed to get by at school.

That was until one chance encounter, when he met his secret crush, Zhao Xixi.

At first, the original owner hadn't thought much of it. He and Zhao Xixi belonged to completely different worlds.

But to his surprise, Zhao Xixi had taken the initiative to talk to him, and the two had exchanged contact information.

After that, Zhao Xixi often turned to him to "vent."

She'd say she was hungry but had no money for food, or that she'd seen a bag she wanted but couldn't bring herself to buy it...

Naturally, the original owner wouldn't refuse his goddess when she was in need. In just a few months, he'd drained the savings he'd built up through years of part-time work to support her.

Now he didn't even have enough money to buy his special medication.

"You can't be a simp..."

Su Yuan's mouth twitched. He didn't know what to say.

From an outsider's perspective, the original owner's behavior had been that of a simp who'd given everything away for nothing.

And...

Su Yuan looked at the gray mirror on the table.

The original owner had picked it up a while ago on an antique street.

At the time, it had been tossed carelessly by the roadside.

Not wanting it to go to waste, the original owner had simply taken it.

He'd brought the mirror back to the dorm and left it in the corner of his desk to gather dust.

It wasn't until today, when Zhao Xixi deleted him from her contacts and left the original owner heartbroken, that he noticed the mirror in the corner.

So he'd picked it up.

The original owner hadn't taken it seriously. He'd merely treated the mirror as someone to confide in, telling it about his feelings for his goddess.

But when he asked, "Why did Xixi delete me?",

the mirror, which had seemed like a lifeless object, rippled on its surface. Then words appeared—

"Because you're out of money."

At first, the original owner had been terrified.

But after testing it several times, he realized that the mirror seemed to answer his questions.

So he'd asked it every question he'd been holding inside about his goddess Xixi, all at once.

As expected, he couldn't take the blow. His emotions surged, triggering his heart disease—and he had no medicine.

"A mirror that can answer any question?"

Su Yuan studied the gray mirror, his expression serious.

If it really could answer any question, then the value of this mirror... would be immeasurable.

"Should I try?"

After thinking for a moment, Su Yuan decided to test it himself and see whether the mirror really could answer any question.

"What should I ask?"

Su Yuan thought it over, then glanced at the bottle of special medication beside him.

Of course, it was empty.

He then touched his chest.

He could faintly feel his heart struggling to beat.

Clearly, when Su Yuan had transmigrated,

he'd inherited the original owner's heart disease as well.

"How can I cure my heart disease?"

Su Yuan stared at the surface of the gray mirror and asked in a low voice.

The gray mirror's surface rippled in layer upon layer.

The next moment, lines of text appeared.

[Method One: Go to Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital and have Lu Fusheng perform heart surgery on you. Afterward, recuperate in a private room at Zhongshan Hospital for two months, and you will be cured.]

[Method Two: Go to the Beijing Fourth Research Institute and take the Gene Serum recently produced there. Afterward, recuperate for one month, and you will be cured.]

[Method Three: At a depth of ninety thousand meters beneath the Arctic, there is a drop of Earth's Milk. Drink it to be reborn and cured...]

Su Yuan stared at the mirror's blurry, indistinct surface as one line of text after another appeared.

He was shocked, but also felt utterly speechless.

First was Method One: go to Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital.

What kind of place was Shanghai Zhongshan Hospital? It was one of the best hospitals in the entire Xia Kingdom—and the world. Getting an appointment there was notoriously difficult. And the mirror expected Su Yuan to go there for heart surgery?

That was completely unrealistic.

As for Lu Fusheng... Su Yuan searched through the original owner's memories. Lu Fusheng was the hospital's vice president and had stopped performing surgeries himself a long time ago.

As for Method Two... Su Yuan might not be able to manage Method One, but at least he understood it.

But Method Two? The Fourth Research Institute? Gene Serum? Su Yuan had never even heard of them.

Even if they really existed, they were beyond the reach of an ordinary person like him.

The hundreds of methods that followed were even more outrageous than Method Two.

There was no way Su Yuan could do any of them.

Setting those thoughts aside,

Su Yuan looked at the gray mirror again.

"How can I cure my heart disease?"

"Under the condition that I can do it easily."

Su Yuan thought for a moment, then asked again.

It was still the same question about curing his heart disease, but this time he'd added a condition.

It had to be something he could do easily.

The mirror's surface blurred and rippled. Before long, lines of text appeared once more.

[Do the following exercises... Perform them for half an hour every day, and you will be cured after three months.]

"It really can?"

Su Yuan's heart lurched. He immediately looked at the exercises the gray mirror had listed.

The movements were somewhat complicated and worked his entire body, but they weren't difficult for him.

Before long,

half an hour had passed.

Su Yuan followed the gray mirror's instructions carefully and finished the routine.

Since it was summer vacation, the entire dormitory building was empty. Even though he'd made a little noise, no one had noticed.

Su Yuan had specifically applied to stay on campus so he could take a part-time job.

"Whew!"

Su Yuan breathed a little heavily, and a sheen of sweat appeared on his skin.

But he could faintly feel his heart growing more at ease. Even its beating felt lighter and stronger.

"It works!"

Su Yuan was overjoyed.

Ever since he'd learned that he'd inherited the original owner's heart disease,

he'd worried that it could flare up again at any time.

But now?

According to the method the gray mirror had given him, all he had to do was practice this routine for half an hour every day for the next three months, and he'd be completely cured!

"It seems this mirror really can answer any question."

Su Yuan composed himself.

At the very least, he'd never heard of that routine in the original owner's memories.

A set of exercises that could cure heart disease?

If word got out, it would shake the medical profession around the world.

"It can answer any question..."

Su Yuan fell silent for a while, an odd look in his eyes.

Then he asked his next question.

"How can I live forever?"