189 Mysterious Mirror
An abandoned house from the Republic of China Period that has stood for decades, these walls over three meters thick made of green bricks, three special doors… these seemingly ordinary details have actually revealed many crucial things.
Yang Jian could be certain that the person who built this house never intended to hide what was inside forever, but rather thought that at some point in the future, the contents of the house would be released.
Quite simple.
If one truly intended to protect and perpetually hide it, they wouldn’t specifically build a house and make it so conspicuously obvious.
Because even the most common of people knew that even the sturdiest of houses would one day collapse.
And the things inside the house would be revealed to the world again on that day.
Therefore, he could assert that the things inside the three rooms were definitely not ordinary.
They must represent something important but also extremely dangerous.
If it weren’t important, it wouldn’t be left to future generations, and if it weren’t dangerous, the rooms wouldn’t be constructed so securely.
“If that’s the case, I actually want to see what exactly is inside these three rooms,” Yang Jian narrowed his eyes, a touch of interest rising in his heart.
A sense of curiosity about exploring unknown and mysterious things surfaced.
He opened his ghost eyes, and the darkness before him vanished without a trace in an instant, a world of crimson revealed within his mind.
Even without using the light on his phone, Yang Jian could clearly see what lay beyond the wooden door that had been opened.
But at first glance, all he saw was a solid wall within the room.
Covered in dust, carrying a hint of damp and decay.
“Someone has already been here though, not only has the lock been cut with tools, but there are also footprints on the ground. I’m not the first one to enter this room,” noted Yang Jian as he carefully stepped inside.
Following a thick corridor paved with bluestone, he arrived at a nearly sealed small room.
Without windows or a ceiling, all around were stone bricks, bereft of even a sliver of light.
With Yang Jian’s entrance, the light from his phone illuminated the surroundings.
Wooden furniture was strewn about on the ground, stools, tables, and the like, bearing the weight of many years, seemingly left behind by the previous owner of the house, but they were all ordinary items, nothing unusual, now nearly completely decayed.
Beyond these inconspicuous items, Yang Jian suddenly spotted a mirror in the corner of the room.
An full-length mirror in the style of the Republic of China Period, as tall as a person.
The mirror’s stand was made of copper but was speckled with verdigris, yet the mirror itself was as pristine as new, glaringly bright, almost unseemly, as if it had just been purchased. If not for the old stand betraying its age, one could hardly tell from the glass alone that the mirror was at least a hundred years old.
Beside the mirror lay an old oilcloth, apparently used to cover it previously.
In other spots, there were safety helmets typically found on construction sites, along with some tools like pliers and hammers,
These items were recent additions, not originally belonging to the room.
“Those tools are clearly from the workers on the construction site,” Yang Jian frowned: “Zhang Xiangu mentioned that some workers had disappeared from the construction site, could it be that they disappeared here?”
“So it seems…”
He suddenly turned his gaze towards that pristine mirror.
Approaching cautiously, Yang Jian suddenly discovered that his own reflection was not present in the mirror.
A mirror that does not reflect the human figure.
“Indeed, the issue lies with this mirror. The missing worker must be related to this mirror… and furthermore, the mirror has been moved,” Yang Jian noted the traces on the ground where it had been shifted, clearly by someone unaware of the circumstances.
Can such an object be moved around so casually?
Even being near it required extreme caution.
“The mirror was originally placed like this… facing the door.” Without moving the mirror, Yang Jian speculated where it stood before, then glanced over.
Suddenly, he discovered a small hole on the wall opposite the door.
The hole was made deliberately with a drill, and through it, he could see the high-rise under construction on the opposite site of the construction site.
The high-rise was nearly complete, even the exterior glass had been installed.
“I presume that several workers from the construction site wanted to steal from this Republic of China Period house, as it’s very possible to find valuable antiques in such old homes. So, they drilled through the wall, connected the electricity, then unlocked the door. After realizing there was nothing valuable here, they moved the mirror to clear space and attempted to drill through this wall to reach the other side,” said Yang Jian while looking at the drill on the ground and then at the wall that had already been drilled into.
Behind the wall was the second room, the one with the copper door.
Having found nothing of value, those workers turned their attention to the second room.
Compared to opening a solid copper door, it was obviously much easier to drill through a wall from this room.
“If things are as I suspect, there’s only one possibility for the disappearance of the worker… The mirror is still here, the tools are still on the ground, but the worker is gone, and the invisible ghost that follows Zhang Wei is wearing the worker’s clothes. Everything points to this mirror,” Yang Jian pieced together, resolving much of his uncertainty.
But questions remained.
Although the mirror was eerie, what was its true purpose and use?
Unclear, and some dangerous experimentation was needed.
“The mirror was positioned to face the door, indicating that whoever entered would be reflected in the mirror. This is what the original owner wanted to happen, otherwise, they would not have designed it this way. But the mirror was also covered with an oilcloth, as if the owner didn’t want it to suddenly reflect someone… A very contradictory design,” Yang Jian pondered.
After some thought, he decided to do some testing himself.
To avoid a premature demise, he even directly lit the Ghost Candle.