Chapter Sixteen: The Real Maiden and the False Maiden

Chen Qing pointed to his own brow and asked the empty space in the room, “Have you ever seen anyone else like me?”

His question made the young girl fall silent for a moment. Only after a long pause did she write on the paper: “Never seen does not mean…”

“At least you should try. If you don’t even try, then no one can save you.”

The translucent girl nodded, letting out a deep sigh.

“If you really want to help me… then kill her first.”

Her neat handwriting belied the cruelty of the request, which made Chen Qing laugh aloud.

He glanced over and, seeing that Zhang Lan beside him showed no fear, he began to suspect what was going on.

“This is the last time. Stop probing us. Just tell us what happened to you, straightforwardly.”

The girl seemed to sigh and walked to the desk, sitting down slowly.

From this vantage, Chen Qing could finally make out her face.

Her body, though translucent, seemed to obscure the view of the crimson liquids and the world within the mirror behind her. That reflected world appeared far tidier than this one.

“Back in March this year…”

She sighed, pulling a notebook from deep inside the desk, and began to write.

“I can’t remember the exact day. That morning, I left for school as usual, but before long, I sensed something was wrong.

The sky suddenly turned dark, but I didn’t pay much mind until I entered the school, by which time it was already as black as night.”

Chen Qing frowned, interrupting her, “Do you recall when exactly the sky started to darken?”

She shook her head. “I don’t remember. After I got to school, I found I was the only one in the classroom. I waited… a long, long time. I took a nap, and when I woke, I saw the clock on the wall showed it was already time for afternoon dismissal.

Naturally, I left the campus. And then… everything happened as I was leaving.”

She pinched her brow, lost in memory. After several minutes, she continued writing:

“That day, just as I stepped out of the classroom—no, out the school gate—someone stopped me. Someone told me, ‘Night is falling, do not leave the box.’

I glared at him, thinking he was a fool, and kept on walking… but when I got home, I found I was standing on a… a radiant staircase.

With every step I took, another ‘me’ would detach from my feet…

I dared not go further, but whenever I tried to turn back, a voice in my mind would warn me:

Stop, and you will die.”

“And the puppet—?”

She turned her head, her gaze landing on the girl who looked exactly like herself.

“That day, I entered my home, but the world behind the door was completely opposite from the outside.

I looked up… but all I saw was the floor of my home. I saw that wretch! She was using my body to talk with my parents! How dare she!”

She grinned fiercely, and a flush of blood seemed to suffuse her translucent form. “How could I let her take over my body…”

Staring into the mirror, she screamed hoarsely, “You’re the real demon! You! You want to steal my body!”

“My body?” She snapped the pen in her grip, her eyes shot through with veins of red. “It’s mine! My body! My memories!

This is the price… you’ll never have peace for the rest of your life…”

Chen Qing watched as the two girls argued, word by word, and pressed his own brow in frustration.

“What about the puppet? What’s the story with the puppet?”

He raised his voice, halting their quarrel.

Hearing his question, the Zhang Lan within the mirror gave a cold laugh. “This place is strange, yes… but some things are even more interesting.

That puppet—I brought it out and gave it to her.”

“You brought it out? ‘Brought’ it out?” Chen Qing’s frown deepened. “When you touched that thing, did you realize what it was for?”

She nodded, sneering. “How lucky… how lucky. Just when I was desperate, I found this thing.

After the first possessor acquires it, it can be given to someone else. The recipient, once they accept, is cursed, and from then on, her fate is tied to mine—we live and die together…”

Chen Qing’s brow furrowed further. “Does she have a way to kill you?”

She let out a derisive snort. “Oh, she does… she definitely does. Including you—didn’t you just now want to kill me?”

“The mirror, is it?” Chen Qing nodded. “That’s why you’re stopping us?”

“What else?! You want to watch me get killed, watch my body taken over by another wretch?!”

“Watch your mouth! This is my body!” Chen Qing paused, then asked the girl beside him, “But you’re both linked by the puppet, right? If we kill her, won’t you die too?”

She hesitated, then nodded slowly.

“So you see… So you see. That interloper should just go back where she came from. This isn’t her body.”

She looked at the three of them and continued, “Remember when she handed you the puppet? I say it’s not her body, and that’s that! Otherwise, how could she know nothing about these strange objects?!”

“Oh?” Chen Qing’s expression shifted slightly. “So you’re saying you’ve encountered these things before?”

“I’m a member of the Paranormal Society at Fourth High… How could I not know?”

“Is that why you got caught up in all this?”

She frowned, shaking her head. “No… I don’t think so… Though I can’t remember exactly, it shouldn’t be. It seems… it’s because of the person who warned me back then.”

Chen Qing didn’t quite understand, but didn’t press the matter. “You seem to be able to control this body now and then?”

“Yes, though I don’t know why. Sometimes, memories come to me out of nowhere and I return to my body. I suppose… the mirror’s control is weakening.”

She waved a hand dismissively. “In fact, even if you don’t help me… at most, a month from now, everything will be resolved. At the current rate, in half a month, I’ll be back in my body.”

Chen Qing frowned slightly, while Zhang Lan beside him shouted anxiously, “See! See! She’s already planning when to take my body back!”

But Chen Qing’s face showed only growing confusion.

“Do you know anything about this mirror?” he asked.

The two girls shook their heads.

At the same time, he noticed a hint of hesitation on the face of the girl beside him.

Her fingers trembled; her slightly extended index finger seemed to want to point at something.

She was certainly not someone who could control her micro-expressions, and Chen Qing was quite adept at reading them.

She wanted to speak but didn’t dare.

One glance told Chen Qing all he needed to know.

“What happened at that school you mentioned?”

He looked at the girl in the mirror and asked again, “As you say, these things happened only after you left school and headed home.”

The girl in the mirror was silent for a moment, then shook her head slightly. “I don’t know. The night before that day… we played ‘Cornered Man’ in the school. But nothing happened that night.

We thought it was another failed attempt, but we didn’t expect… that the next day, all this would occur.”

Chen Qing read the words, his gaze shifting to the girl beside him, who trembled and quietly took two steps back.

She definitely knew something.

Chen Qing thought to himself, then turned his focus to Jiang Wan. “Can you help check on the other students who were there that night?”

“You think they ended up like this too?”

Chen Qing shook his head. “This mirror is probably not a relic. They might have run into something else. And… she probably… doesn’t have much more to do with it.”

Jiang Wan was momentarily taken aback but didn’t speak her doubts aloud.

She followed Chen Qing to the door, still worried. Turning back to the girls, she reassured them, “Don’t worry. He and I will handle this as quickly as possible. You both said, at the very least, it’ll take half a month. So for now, please try to coexist peacefully.”

Both frowned, but knew this was the most reasonable solution.

The Zhang Lan in the room walked over to Chen Qing, leaned close, and whispered, “There were three others… that night…”

Before she could finish, the Zhang Lan in the mirror had already stepped up to her.

Feeling the presence at her ear, she fell silent.

“Is that so?” Chen Qing glanced at her, his eyes meaningful.

After leaving the girl’s room, they met Zhang Lan’s parents.

The couple waited anxiously at the foot of the stairs, the worry plain on their faces.

Chen Qing didn’t offer many explanations, instead asking about Zhang Lan’s activities at school.

Just as he expected, the parents knew nothing about what their daughter got up to there.

After a long pause, the Zhangs finally managed to provide a few names.

From their information, it seemed only a handful of students routinely stayed out late like their daughter.

Looking at the note in his hand, Chen Qing saw six addresses written down.

But he suspected three or four of those names were added just to make up the numbers, based only on hearsay.

He shook his head with a chuckle, which puzzled Jiang Wan.

“Why?”

She was confused by Chen Qing’s reaction.

“If there were too few names, wouldn’t it look like the parents don’t care about their child’s life?”

He explained, looking at the note. “And if they really knew why their daughter was out all night, they wouldn’t be so puzzled by what’s happening now.”