The rainy season in Kansas always carried a damp chill that would not lift. Rain hammered the Impala's windshield, blurring into streaks of water. Dean held the wheel with one hand and a cigarette with the other, ash drifting onto the dashboard-the navigation showed that the site of the "woman in white" case they were investigating lay just ahead, in a small town called Harmon. But they had passed three intersections in a row, and the houses along the road were all covered in thick dust sheets, like silent tombstones.
"This place looks even more like a ghost town than Black Forest Town." Bai Haorui lowered the window a crack. Cold rain immediately blew inside, carrying the smell of rust and mold. He remembered a story his grandfather had told him as a child: (In the autumn of 1928, a family of outsiders arrived in Dahao Village, west of Tengchong. Just as the shadow of the old pagoda tree at the village entrance slanted past the millstone, a mule cart rolled down the yellow dirt road and stopped outside an empty house. When its curtain lifted, the first thing to emerge was not a person, but a wooden box wrapped in blue cloth, with hints of verdigris showing at its corners-this was the Li family. The head of the household, Li Shouye, was an antiques dealer who had traveled far and wide. He had brought his wife and sixteen-year-old daughter, Li Wan, to settle in the village.
Dahao Village lay secluded deep in the mountains. Life there was like water in a well, so still that one could hear moss growing. The Li family's arrival had been a novelty, but before long, the villagers noticed something "strange" about them. Li Wan was fair-skinned, her features like porcelain steeped in stream water, yet she always shut herself in the west wing, staring blankly at the antique bronze mirror on her dressing table. The mirror was roughly palm-sized, its rim carved with a serpent swallowing its own tail. Its body coiled three times, its mouth gripping the tip of its tail. Verdigris spread across its scales like congealed blood.
At first she merely stared, but later came the whispers. Villagers passing the west wing would always hear fragments of speech drifting out: "Big sister, do you think I look pretty in this blue blouse today?" "The wild chrysanthemums by the well have bloomed. Would you like to see them?" No one knew who this "big sister" was. When Li Wan's mother asked, she merely smiled with her lips pressed together. "The big sister in the mirror. She answers me."
The trouble began with an autumn rain. That night, mountain winds hurled raindrops against the window paper. Li Wan suddenly screamed and sat bolt upright in bed, her forehead covered in cold sweat. When Li Shouye and his wife rushed into the room, they found their daughter staring fixedly at the bronze mirror, repeating, "She's coming out... her hands are so cold..."
The next day, Li Wan developed a fever. Her temperature rose and fell. When she was hot, the heat soaked through her padded jacket; when she was cold, she shivered beneath three quilts. The village physician examined her, but her pulse was as tangled as a knot of thread. He prescribed several decoctions, yet she vomited up every dose. Floating in the medicine she brought up were strands of copper rust as fine as hair-at this strange sight, the physician waved his hands repeatedly, saying he could not treat her and they needed someone who "knew these things."
Gritting his teeth, Li Shouye sent someone to the county town to bring back Taoist Ma. The Taoist wore a robe washed nearly white and gripped a peachwood sword. He frowned the moment he entered the west wing. "The thing inside this mirror has already latched onto the girl." He immediately set up a ritual altar, laying out incense, candles, cinnabar, and yellow talismans. Muttering incantations, he swung his peachwood sword at the bronze mirror. Suddenly, the incense ash drifted backward, and the candle flames turned blue-green with a soft pop.
"This is bad!" Taoist Ma shouted, but it was already too late-the bronze mirror cracked, its fragments scattering like shards of ice, some striking the walls and others falling to the floor. Strangely, every fragment, whether on the walls or the floor, reflected a complete figure: a woman in a white blouse, her long hair loose, her face as white as paper, screaming at them. That scream did not enter through their ears. It struck directly at their hearts, making their chests tighten. Li Wan's mother fainted on the spot.
Taoist Ma went deathly pale. He gathered his ritual implements and headed out, leaving only these words: "This thing is too vicious. I can't suppress it. Bury the mirror at once, somewhere as remote as possible, and establish a rule: no looking into bronze mirrors after dusk!" Li Shouye dared not delay. That very night, he took his servants and put every mirror fragment into a black cloth bag, then buried it beside the ancient well at the village entrance. As they buried it, a glug came from the bottom of the well, as though something had struck the water. The servants were so frightened that their hands went weak.
From then on, Dahao Village had a new taboo: once the sun set, no household dared touch a bronze mirror. The dressing table in the west wing was locked away. Li Wan's fever gradually subsided, but she became quiet and withdrawn. Her eyes always seemed veiled in mist, and she never smiled again.
Ten years passed. In 1938, a female student from the city named A Yun accompanied her relatives back to Dahao Village to escape the summer heat. A Yun loved excitement. When she heard the village elders tell the legend of the Tail-Swallowing Mirror, she was not frightened-she became interested instead. Always dismissing it as "old feudal superstition," she slipped out at dusk to the ancient well at the village entrance.
Moss covered the stone slabs around the well. A Yun crouched beside it, looked at her reflection in the water, and deliberately drew out her words. "Big sister mirror spirit, are you still there? Come out and play with me!" The moment she finished speaking, the reflection in the water suddenly paused-she had not moved, yet the corners of its mouth lifted into a faint smile. Panic stirred in A Yun. Just as she was about to rise, she saw an extra hand in the reflection, resting on "her" shoulder. That hand was bloodlessly white.
"Was I imagining it?" A Yun rubbed her eyes. When she looked again, the well water was calm. But back in her room that night, as she combed her hair before the dressing mirror, she saw another "her" standing inside it-the same clothes, the same hairstyle, but a face as white as though covered in powder, and entirely black eyes without pupils. Terrified, A Yun dropped her comb. When she looked again, only her own reflection remained.
From that day onward, nightmares plagued A Yun. In her dreams, she was always in a dark room with mirrors covering all four walls. In every mirror stood a woman in a white blouse, reaching out and calling, "Come here. Stay with me for a while." She wanted to run, but her feet seemed nailed to the floor. She could only watch as the women crawled out of the mirrors and touched her arms with icy hands. When she woke during the day, several new pale blue marks would always appear on her arms. She grew thinner by the day, her gaze turning vacant. She could neither eat nor sleep properly. Her relatives were frantic, but there was nothing they could do.
Worse still, the little girls in the village began talking nonsense. One five-year-old clung to her mother's legs and cried, "There's a big sister in the mirror wearing white. She wants me to go with her." Another child touched a bronze mirror while the adults were not looking and fainted on the spot. When she woke, she said, "Big sister said I look like Big Sister Wan, and she wants me to stay with her."-"Big Sister Wan" was none other than Li Wan from ten years earlier.
The villagers panicked, saying the mirror spirit had emerged to find a substitute. Someone remembered Taoist Ma's words, but he could no longer be found in the county town. In the end, the village's elderly clan leader had people make inquiries far and wide and found a distant relative-Taoist Master Xuanqing, who lived in Dali.
A fine rain fell over Dahao Village on the day Taoist Master Xuanqing arrived. He stopped as soon as he entered the village, pointed toward its entrance, and said, "The yin energy over there has gathered into mist." He looked no older than forty and wore a dark blue Taoist robe. On his back was a cloth bag containing a peachwood sword, a bagua mirror, and a small jar of cinnabar soaked for three years in rooster blood.
He first examined A Yun, taking her pulse with a deep frown. "Much of her vital essence has been drained. A few days later, and her soul would have been lured away." Then he went to the Li house and met Li Wan-ten years had passed, and she was now twenty-six, still quiet and withdrawn. The Taoist master took out a luopan compass. Its needle spun wildly toward the west wing. "Those mirror fragments were buried too shallowly. For the past ten years, it has been absorbing the yin energy of the well water, along with the villagers' fear," he said.
That afternoon, Taoist Master Xuanqing chose noon, when yang energy was strongest, to set up a ritual altar beside the ancient well. Three things stood on the altar: a bowl of glutinous rice mixed with hair from a boy with a pure-yang constitution, a peachwood sword soaked in rooster blood, and a bagua mirror engraved with the words "Suppress Evil." He ordered the villagers to retreat thirty paces and remain silent, then personally dug into the earth beside the well-after digging only two feet, he uncovered the black cloth bag. Its stitching had rotted, and the mirror fragments inside glowed faintly blue-green.
"Come out," the Taoist master commanded in a low voice, raising the bagua mirror toward the fragments. Sunlight passed through it, becoming a beam of golden light that struck the shards. "Aah-" A piercing scream suddenly rang out, and a white figure drifted from the fragments. It was the woman in the white blouse. Her face was clear now and bore a striking resemblance to Li Wan, but her eyes brimmed with venomous resentment. Several small, indistinct figures followed behind her-presumably the souls of the children she had attached herself to.
"You were born from an ancient mirror gathering yin energy, yet you coveted human vital essence and harmed so many. Today, I shall capture you!" As Taoist Master Xuanqing spoke, he took a scripture from his cloth bag, opened it, and began chanting an incantation: (Taishang Laojun teaches me to slay ghosts and grants me divine methods.
I call above to the Jade Maiden to gather and subdue ill fortune. Mountains split as I ascend, bearing the seal.
A canopy crowns my head, my feet tread Kuigang; the Six Jia support my left, the Six Ding guard my right.
Before me stands the Yellow God, behind me Yuezhang. The divine master slays, sparing neither the mighty nor the powerful.
First slay the evil ghosts, then cut down the night lights. What god will not submit? What ghost dares resist?
Swiftly, in accordance with the decree...) The characters on the pages actually shone gold and floated into the air, forming a circle that trapped the white figure within.
The white figure struggled wildly and reached for the Taoist master, but the instant her hand touched the golden light, black smoke rose from it as though it had been burned. "I won't accept this!" she shrieked. Her body suddenly expanded, transforming into a huge serpent swallowing its own tail. Its body coiled around the altar, its mouth open and tongue flicking. The Taoist master remained calm. He picked up the peachwood sword, dipped it in cinnabar, and thrust toward the serpent's head. "You take the form of a tail-swallowing serpent, vainly seeking neither beginning nor end. Today, I shall shatter this evil form!"
The instant the peachwood sword pierced its head, the serpent writhed violently with a sizzling sound. Its scales fell away one by one, turning into countless tiny mirror fragments. The Taoist master seized the chance to scatter the glutinous rice over them. White smoke rose as soon as the rice touched the fragments, and they slowly melted. Finally, he raised the bagua mirror and called into the air, "Righteous energy of heaven and earth, gather!" A beam of golden light shot from the mirror, drawing in all the remaining black energy.
With a sudden glug, clear spring water surged from the ancient well beside the altar, and the lingering yin energy vanished completely. In the distance, A Yun's vacant eyes suddenly brightened, and she slowly sat up; the village's little girls stopped talking nonsense and began laughing and playing.
Taoist Master Xuanqing sealed the bagua mirror inside a peachwood box and handed it to the elderly clan leader. "The mirror spirit has been eliminated. You may rest easy now. But remember, if an old mirror behaves strangely, never touch it carelessly. When the human heart is greedy, evil will come knocking on its own." With that, he shouldered his cloth bag and disappeared into the mountain mist.
That night, every household in Dahao Village lit lanterns, illuminating the ancient well at the village entrance. Li Wan stood beside it, gazing at her reflection in the water, and suddenly smiled-it was her first genuine smile in ten years. Later, the village taboo was lifted, but no one mentioned the tail-swallowing bronze mirror again. Only a shallow carving remained on the stone slab beside the ancient well, resembling both a talisman and a reminder: the human heart is like a mirror, reflecting good and evil, allowing no place for wicked spirits.)
Sam sat in the passenger seat, leafing through the case notes John had left behind, his frown deepening. "Dad's notes say someone saw this woman in white back in 1987-she flagged down cars on the highway, then vanished after getting in. The next day, the drivers would find their cars by the lake, with a bouquet of withered white roses on the seat. Three men have disappeared in the past three months. The last time anyone saw them, they were all heading toward the abandoned old house east of town."
Dean stubbed out his cigarette in the car's ashtray and jerked the wheel. "We're going to the house."
The abandoned old house stood hidden in an oak grove at the edge of town. Withered ivy covered its outer walls, like tattered green gauze wrapped around gray brick. The wooden front door had long since rotted, and every gust drew a mournful creak from it, like someone quietly sobbing. The moment Bai Haorui stepped inside, a chill suddenly spread from the Five Emperor Coins in his pocket-this was a new reaction since the system had unlocked Yin Energy Perception. Whenever evil spirits were nearby, the coins grew colder according to the concentration of yin energy.
"The yin energy is heavy." He took out three Five Emperor Coins, pinching their edges between his fingertips. A faint blue-green glow shimmered over their surfaces. "Denser than the water ghost at Black Forest Lake."
Dean took a silver dagger and a bag of salt from his backpack, scanning the living room warily. "Same drill. Find the remains first. Burn her bones, and the vengeful spirit will dissipate." Sam nodded and took out an ultraviolet light-a tool they often used to reveal traces of spirits invisible to the naked eye.
But after searching the house for more than half an hour, the three had not found even a splinter of bone. Dean's patience was nearly gone. He kicked the rotten stair railing, sending wood chips flying. "Damn it, did dogs eat this woman's bones?"
"Maybe she doesn't need her bones to exist at all." Bai Haorui suddenly stopped outside a room at the end of the second-floor hallway. The door stood ajar, and dripping water sounded inside. He pushed it open, and a damp, moldy smell rushed at him-a full-length mirror stood in the center of the room. Its brass frame was covered in rust, yet its surface was unusually clean, without a speck of dust.
Stranger still, the mirror did not reflect the room, but a pitch-black highway. Rain drifted through the reflection, and they could faintly make out a woman in a white dress standing beside the road, her long hair hiding her face.
"That's her." Sam's voice trembled slightly. As his ultraviolet light fell on the mirror, the woman's outline glowed pale violet-a characteristic of spirits. "But why is she attached to a mirror?"
Bai Haorui leaned closer, but before his fingers touched the glass, a blast of cold forced him half a step back. He opened the Expelling Evil notebook and quickly turned to the page on "mirror spirits." "Grandpa wrote that if someone was fixated on an object before they died, their resentment could attach itself to it. Look at her dress-" He pointed at the woman's hem. "There are mud spots and tears, like she was hit by a car."
Dean leaned in too, staring at the woman in the mirror. "A highway, a car accident, white roses... I'm guessing she was hit and killed on the highway." He drew his silver dagger and tried to jab the mirror, but Bai Haorui stopped him.
"Silver won't work. The mirror spirit's true body is inside the mirror, unless you smash it-but without resolving her fixation, she'll just attach herself to something else after you break it." Bai Haorui took out the Five Emperor Coins and brushed his fingertips across them. They suddenly glowed gold. "Five Emperor Coins were minted during the reigns of five emperors. They're rich in yang energy and can suppress yin evil. I'll stick them to the mirror to trap her. Sam, find the source of her fixation-did your dad's notes mention any family, a husband, anything?"
Sam immediately pulled out the notes and skimmed them. "Yes! Her name was Ella. She married the town doctor in 1985, then discovered he was cheating. They argued on the highway, and her husband pushed her out while driving. Then a truck hit and killed her... There's a slip of paper tucked at the end of the notes, too. An unfinished draft of a confession letter from her husband."
"That's it!" Bai Haorui's eyes lit up. He pressed the three Five Emperor Coins against the top, middle, and bottom of the mirror. The instant they stuck, the woman suddenly raised her head, revealing a ghastly pale face. Her eyes had no pupils, only pitch-black hollows. She reached out through the mirror, her nails long, sharp, and streaked with blood, but the moment they touched the coins' golden light, a sizzling sound rang out, like hot oil poured onto ice.
"Aaaah!" A harrowing wail came from the mirror. The temperature in the room plummeted, and frost flowers instantly covered the windowpanes. Dean instinctively shielded Sam behind him, gripping his silver dagger, only to discover that his own hand was shaking-after all his years hunting monsters, this was his first encounter with a vengeful spirit that could manifest in a mirror.
"Sam, read the letter!" Bai Haorui's voice tightened. The golden light of the Five Emperor Coins began flickering, clearly meeting resistance from Ella's resentment. "Read the confession aloud! Let her know her husband regretted it!"
Sam immediately lifted the slip of paper and cleared his throat. His voice trembled but remained clear. "Ella, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have betrayed you. I shouldn't have pushed you out of the car... I've regretted it every day all these years. I keep your photograph in my wallet and carry it everywhere I go... I know I was wrong. Please forgive me."
As he read the last sentence, the woman in the mirror suddenly stopped moving. Two trails of bloody tears flowed from her hollow eyes. She lowered her head to look at her skirt, as though remembering something, and her piercing cries gradually faded into quiet sobs. Bai Haorui knew his chance had come. He took the peachwood sword from his backpack, the Three-Five Evil-Slaying Talisman on its blade glowing red. "Dean, help me hold the mirror!"
Dean immediately stepped forward and pressed both hands against the frame. Despite the bone-piercing cold, he did not let go. Bai Haorui drew a deep breath and raised the peachwood sword, aiming at the Five Emperor Coin in the center of the mirror-Bang! The sword struck the glass, and a spiderweb of cracks instantly spread across it. Golden and red light intertwined. Ella's figure twisted and faded inside the mirror, finally turning into a wisp of white smoke that dissipated into the air.
The chill in the room gradually faded. The frost melted into droplets that ran down the glass. Breathing heavily, Bai Haorui put away his peachwood sword and noticed Dean staring at the Five Emperor Coins in his hand.
"These coins... really can suppress spirits?" Dean picked up one of the Five Emperor Coins, visibly pausing when his fingertips touched it. "How come all your stuff seems to work better than ours?"
"Of course. These are yang-energy tools with 'royal certification.'" Smiling, Bai Haorui put the Five Emperor Coins into his red cloth pouch. Suddenly, the system's mechanical voice sounded in his mind:
[Host detected to have successfully eliminated a mirror spirit. Active skill "Evil Identification" unlocked (can identify a vengeful spirit's core fixation). [Received free attribute point ×1 (currently available for allocation: strength 6, constitution 6, agility 5).] [Notice: Sam and Dean's trust in you has risen to "cooperative level." "Teamwork" buff unlocked-when working with the two of them in the future, all item effects +10%.]
Bai Haorui put the attribute point into "strength" and immediately felt warmth spread through his arms. Even the force of his sword swings grew somewhat stronger. Sam came over and patted his shoulder. "Thanks, Haorui. Didn't know you had that trick up your sleeve."
"What are you thanking me for? Just treat me with proper filial respect from now on." Bai Haorui pointed at Dean. "Besides, didn't someone want to see my glutinous rice rounds? Next time we run into an evil spirit, I'll make you a few."
Dean rolled his eyes but did not argue. He merely bent down, picked up the draft confession letter, and put it into an evidence bag. "Let's go. The next lead's in Colorado Forest. Dad said there's a 'man-eating monster' out there."
By the time the three left the old house, the rain had stopped. The setting sun shone through the clouds, spilling golden light over the highway. Bai Haorui sat in the passenger seat, watching the woods race past outside as he rubbed the Five Emperor Coins in his hand.