Mirror

Chapter 22: Mirror

Xu Zhi'an woke from the pain.

Along with the agony came a rush of relief.

I'm actually still alive?!

Both arms hung limply at his sides, and their angles were bizarrely twisted, as if someone had forcibly bent them backward and snapped them.

The truth wasn't far off from Xu Zhi'an's own guess.

But... he was still alive, and that was enough.

Xu Zhi'an couldn't quite describe how he felt. Fortunately, Bai Yanliang didn't give him much time to dwell on it.

"Mr. Xu, what did you discover?"

Bai Yanliang's expression was calm, but there was an unusual urgency in his voice.

His voice also reminded Xu Zhi'an that there were two other people here. Only then did Xu Zhi'an suddenly realize who had saved his life.

He stopped holding back. And after what he had just been through, anger welled up inside him. Enduring the pain, he said, "I'll explain as we go. Come on, let's get to the roof! There's something hidden in the water tank up there."

Bai Yanliang nodded. He and Jiang Li supported Xu Zhi'an on either side and turned toward the stairs.

The elevator didn't go to the roof, but the stairs did.

"Phew... phew..."

Though Yu Hanzhou tried to keep his breathing as quiet as possible, he still let out a few faint sounds.

His throat felt as if it had been torn open, burning with pain.

His body was covered in wounds, but even worse... Yu Hanzhou's face was deathly pale.

Dead... someone was already dead!

After they split up and fled, Yu Hanzhou had heard three screams, one after another!

Apart from Ma Zirong, who had died inexplicably first, those three were... Hua Xiaoxiao, Sun Wenjie, and Zhou Changfeng!

Among them, Zhou Changfeng had even been a veteran of Mist Gathering!

He had already survived several unimaginably terrifying missions. Every time, he'd made it back to the real world safely. But this time... he was dead.

He'd died in this nameless villa, and they didn't even know what year or month it was in this damned place!

No... no, something had to be wrong.

Hiding behind a wardrobe, Yu Hanzhou forced himself to think.

"When you encounter a mirror, don't open your eyes. If you hear a soft call, don't turn around..."

The two taboos were clear as day. As long as they followed them carefully, there shouldn't be a problem... Could it be that... there was a trap hidden in this riddle?

Yu Hanzhou clutched his head, analyzing the words one by one.

Encounter a mirror... soft call...

Open your eyes... turn around...

Why couldn't you open your eyes when you encountered a mirror? Was it because the mirror would reflect those "things"?

That was very possible...

No!

A sudden flash of insight struck Yu Hanzhou. The words really did contain a trap, but they weren't lies. They had simply... left something out!

Why couldn't you open your eyes? Because you were afraid of seeing what was in the mirror!

Then... besides mirrors, what else could reflect an image?

Yu Hanzhou finally remembered what had vaguely crossed his mind when Ma Zirong died.

Ma Zirong hadn't looked in a mirror, but he had still died in a bizarre way.

Why?

Now Yu Hanzhou finally understood...

Ma Zirong had an unconscious habit, one that many people shared... He liked to look people in the eyes when he spoke to them!

When two people were talking, looking the other person in the eye seemed polite. But Ma Zirong took it further: whenever anyone spoke, he liked to look them in the eyes!

That might have had something to do with Ma Zirong's profession, but it was too late to do anything about that now...

It was the eyes!

No... it was anything that could reflect an image!

You couldn't look at any of it with your eyes!

Yu Hanzhou had finally figured out the key, but... including him, only four people were still alive!

He had to find a way to warn them... Otherwise, the other three could die too!

Yu Hanzhou's expression shifted again and again.

He wasn't a saint, and the people in Mist Gathering were certainly not all decent people. In fact, he had witnessed all kinds of vile, evil deeds in the struggle to survive. In a place like this, human nature was the least reliable thing of all.

Just as Lu Xun once wrote: "Downstairs, a man is sick unto death. Next door, a family is playing a gramophone; across the way, someone is amusing a child. Upstairs, two people are laughing wildly, and there's the sound of mahjong. On a boat in the river, a woman is weeping for her dead mother. Human joys and sorrows are not shared; I only find them noisy."

Human joys and sorrows were not shared...

At that thought, Yu Hanzhou seemed to give up on leaving the wardrobe.

But almost immediately, he slipped out from the corner and felt his way into the darkness.

That was right... human joys and sorrows were not shared. Indifference and looking out for oneself seemed to be human nature.

But... Yu Hanzhou preferred to believe that human indifference came from being "unable to care," rather than from being cold-blooded and selfish.

Now, Yu Hanzhou felt he had fully understood the meaning of the riddle. As long as he was very careful, he should be able to help them without putting himself in danger.

Probably...

Meanwhile.

Lu Guo was hiding with one of the newcomers, Qi Nian.

When people were terrified beyond measure, they usually reacted in one of two ways. One was despair and psychological collapse; the other was hysterical madness.

Qi Nian was clearly the second kind.

After encountering one unimaginable horror after another, she seemed to have gone completely mad.

If Lu Guo hadn't clamped a hand over her mouth, she would definitely have rushed out screaming, without caring what happened to her.

"Calm down! Listen to me and you can survive!" Lu Guo hissed. This was his last attempt to control Qi Nian's emotions. If she stayed like this, he would give up on her without hesitation.

Fortunately, Qi Nian seemed to hear the word "survive." The wild look in her eyes brightened a little. She turned to look at Lu Guo, and they finally seemed to focus.

Lu Guo led her into a bedroom on the villa's second floor, where the two of them hid.

Outside the window, the night was pitch-black. Not a single star or moon could be seen. The wind rustled through the surrounding trees, as if something in the darkness were grinding its teeth.

Lu Guo clutched his head. Although he kept saying, "You can survive," he had a guess that filled him with despair. If it proved true, perhaps... only one person would truly survive—Yu Hanzhou.

Yu Hanzhou, the Grudge-Bound!

But... at least he was still alive for now.

"Listen..." Lu Guo had just stood up to say something to Qi Nian when she suddenly covered his mouth.

Qi Nian looked terrified. She pointed outside the bedroom, then at her mouth, and frantically waved her hand.

Lu Guo understood what she meant and quickly fell silent.

Just then... he finally heard it.

"Swish—"

"Swish—"

Something... was coming!

It seemed to be dragging something as it slowly passed the bedroom.

Fighting down his fear, Lu Guo leaned close to the crack in the door and peeked outside.

His pupils suddenly contracted!

Hua Xiaoxiao!

It was Hua Xiaoxiao's corpse!

Lu Guo covered his mouth in horror.

Just then!

Hua Xiaoxiao's eyes suddenly moved. It seemed she had spotted the eyes peering through the crack in the door.

Her eyes blazed with light! Her mouth, full of bloody foam, opened and closed as she begged!

She was begging Lu Guo to save her!