Chapter 88: Strange Things, Strange Events

Yu Sheng leaned close to the mirror, scrutinizing the faint "second reflection" layered within it. The image superimposed on the glass gave him the feeling of window reflections at night—the scenery outside mingled with the ghostly shadows on the pane. The dark cave and the heavily falling snow beyond its entrance seemed to exist somewhere on the other side of the mirror, yet they were hard to make out, indistinct and hazy.

Erin scrambled up Yu Sheng's body in a few quick moves, perching on his shoulder, hugging his head while curiously studying the mirror on the wall. After a long moment, she muttered, "You think that snow 'blew over' from the other side of the mirror?"

"You can see it too?" Yu Sheng glanced at Erin with some surprise.

"Obviously. What's so surprising about that?" Erin found it odd. "I'm not blind."

Beside them, Hulithe nodded on her own before Yu Sheng could speak. "Benefactor, I can see it too."

"Uh," Yu Sheng scratched his hair. "It's mostly because I've been dealing with Xiaohongmao and Li Lin lately—I keep feeling like things I can see, others might not. Got a little paranoid."

As he spoke, he quickly weighed his options for another two or three seconds, then cautiously reached out a hand, attempting to touch the mirror's surface.

He remembered that the last time he touched this mirror, it had reflected a strange wasteland—a shattered puppet and a massive shadowy monster destroying each other at the center of that ruin. So what about now? What changes would the mirror undergo this time?

Erin instantly grabbed Yu Sheng's hair, watching his movements nervously. "Hey, be careful! If something's wrong—"

"Ow, ow, ow... Let go first!"

"Oh, oh, sorry. I got nervous and acted without thinking..."

The little doll belatedly released her fingers, and at that moment, Yu Sheng's fingertips touched the mirror's surface.

It was very cold—like touching ice directly. But aside from that abnormally icy sensation, the image in the mirror didn't change at all.

"Seems... nothing's happening?" Erin gathered her courage and reached out to touch the mirror in front of her. "Just a little cold on the hand."

Yu Sheng grunted in acknowledgment, withdrew his finger, and stared at the mirror with a furrowed brow. Just then, he noticed the superimposed image in the mirror beginning to fade. Within a few breaths, the scene of the cave mouth with swirling snow vanished without a trace.

It was replaced by the normal reflection of the room.

Yu Sheng hesitated, then touched the mirror again. The ice-cold temperature was gone; it had returned to normal.

"Benefactor," Hulithe had been watching from the side and finally couldn't help asking, "Was this mirror always like this before?"

"It's always been off. Occasionally it shows scenery from who knows where," Yu Sheng replied casually, his tone serious. "But before, it only displayed unusual images—never anything like today... snow accumulation in the room, and some iron lump that fell from nowhere."

As he spoke, he glanced again at the strange metal device he'd picked up from under the table.

The snow by the wall had already melted, leaving water stains on the floor. The dark, grimy iron lump remained in his hand. The bizarre image in the mirror had disappeared, but the things that seemed to have "come out" of it... hadn't faded like an illusion. They stayed in the real world.

Just as Erin often said: This was seriously creepy.

"I—I'm sleeping in your room tonight!" Erin hugged Yu Sheng's head tightly, her tiny body clearly tense. "On a chair or table—doesn't matter! I'm definitely not staying in that room!"

"You don't have to tell me—I'm not letting anyone use that room either," Yu Sheng said, peeling Erin's hands off his head. "That room's too weird. From now on, don't open the door without me present."

Erin and Hulithe nodded repeatedly.

"Also, if you're not sleeping in that room, you can share a room with Hulithe," Yu Sheng continued, lifting Erin off his shoulder and looking at her seriously. "Why do you have to stick to my room?"

"That tail monster whips people with her tails in her sleep!" The little doll immediately flailed in midair. "When you kick me off, at worst I fall to the floor—but when she swings one of those tails, I get smeared across the wall! Didn't you see?"

Then came a string of nonstop complaints—how she didn't even have her own room, wasn't valued because she was small, didn't have her own bed, and was shuttled around at night. A doll didn't need to breathe, so she just kept babbling without pause, making Yu Sheng's head buzz.

Yu Sheng even considered stuffing her straight into Hulithe's tails—but given that the doll would then make a huge fuss, he only thought about it.

Then he carried the chattering doll and, with Hulithe, left the strange room. He turned around, carefully locked the door, and even pushed it several times to confirm it was secure.

"Benefactor, should I guard this door tonight?" Hulithe asked quietly, seeing Yu Sheng's lingering unease. "If there's any noise, I'll call you."

Yu Sheng briefly pictured a nine-tailed fox crouching in the hallway like a guard dog and quickly shook his head. "No need. The room's been weird for a while, anyway."

As he spoke, he seemed to remember something. He set Erin down on the floor and pulled out the new phone he'd gotten from the Special Operations Bureau.

Erin finally stopped complaining and watched curiously. "What are you doing?"

"Weird stuff needs weird experts. I'm going to post on that 'Bordercom' app and ask. Maybe someone knows what this is?" Yu Sheng said, fiddling with the app's functions. "There should be an option to upload photos... those detectives and investigators who explore all kinds of strange places definitely use that feature... Hey, there it is."

He held the phone in one hand and the weird metal device in the other, taking several photos from different angles. Then he posted them on the public channel's message board.

After a moment's thought, he searched through the preset channel list and found two potentially relevant ones: "Artifacts and Oddities Discussion" and "Anomalous Phenomena Discussion." He pasted the photos there too, mimicking others' posts and adding a brief comment underneath:

"Unknown object. Material: metal. No signs of corrosion or living properties. Found in a room. When discovered, the room seemed to have experienced snowfall. Also suspected to be connected to a mirror that reflects distant scenery."

Yu Sheng initially wanted to write "found at home," but deleted it after a moment. He figured ordinary people probably didn't find such things at home, nor would they discover snow in a sealed room. No. 66 Wutong Road was a special place—he shouldn't reveal too many of its secrets.

Yu Sheng felt he still had the common sense of a normal person.

"Will anyone reply?" Erin nimbly climbed onto Yu Sheng's shoulder again and glanced curiously at the phone screen. "Just a few photos and a sparse description. I've seen other people's posts with at least a few hundred words, some even with videos..."

"I don't have much info to write up either," Yu Sheng sighed. "If I describe the surroundings, it's just a room. If I describe any weird properties of the thing itself, there's nothing—holding it gives no feeling at all."

"True..."

The little doll muttered under her breath.

Yu Sheng returned to the living room, watching TV with Erin and Hulithe while waiting for replies on Bordercom. He waited until evening before finally receiving a message notification.

When he opened it, a user named "Nie Tu San Qian" had left a reply in the "Artifacts and Oddities Discussion" channel: "May I ask about the specific environment where the object was found? Was it in an alien domain? What type of domain? Are there intelligent beings within the domain, or traces left by intelligent beings?"

Staring at this string of questions, Yu Sheng looked a bit bewildered. But this was, at least, the first 'peer' who had noticed his post. This was also his first encounter with a stranger on this platform as a 'spirit realm detective.' Fueled by a certain curiosity, he quickly began composing a reply:

"Alien domain: a residential house. The environment is an ordinary modern residence," Yu Sheng typed, looking up and glancing around. "Pretty peaceful—no monsters spawning. Intelligent beings..."

He paused, his expression turning a bit strange as he looked at Erin sitting on his lap and Hulithe carefully combing her tails beside him.

"There are intelligent beings."

Erin reached out and pulled at Yu Sheng's phone, glanced at it, and looked up. "You really think someone can answer your question? The Special Operations Bureau didn't even know about No. 66 Wutong Road until a few days ago. And you're seriously chatting with some random stranger about this?"

"I know. But asking doesn't cost anything, and who knows?" Yu Sheng understood perfectly. "Besides, maybe no one knows what's up with No. 66 Wutong Road—but the thing that suddenly dropped into our house might have come from 'outside.' It's not impossible someone recognizes it."

Erin thought for a moment, said "Oh," and went back to watching TV.

Yu Sheng's phone vibrated again.

Another reply from "Nie Tu San Qian": "I haven't heard of such an alien domain. Your description is rather peculiar... but this object is somewhat interesting. It appears man-made, yet the inscription in the corner is quite strange. Perhaps a senior at the 'Academy' would be interested."