The oldest ghost story the security guard had heard was about an outsider Taoist priest who came to Crooked-Neck Village.
Chen Zian and Xiangzi had never heard the story. They only knew that Crooked-Neck Village was strange, and that everyone in the village had crooked necks. In an age of feudal superstition, people might have attributed this to ghosts, but even now, the people of Huixiang still thought it was caused by ghosts, not some kind of illness.
To Chen Zian and Xiangzi, the Taoist priest story the guard told was like a sequel to the ghost stories about Crooked-Neck Village. It was fascinating.
I'd hoped the two of them could provide more clues, but they were so absorbed in the story that they couldn't think of anything relevant.
"What about the mirrors?" I patiently asked them again.
The mirrors in Huixiang might connect to some otherworldly space. It was like the incident Greenleaf had dealt with, where an otherworldly space connected through a door. Of course, there might be other conditions required to open one.
The three locals thought hard and came up with quite a few ghost stories involving mirrors, but they were all very ordinary, much like the usual mirror ghost stories. The mirrors might show the reflection of a ghost, or a ghost in the mirror might drag someone inside. In keeping with Huixiang's rules, those taken by the ghosts in the mirrors would return. The world inside the mirror was simply the opposite of the real world. There was nothing special about it.
I listened to one ghost story after another, but learned nothing useful.
The police officer caught up with us just then.
I still didn't know his name, but he had a commanding presence. The three men, who had been enthusiastically telling ghost