This room was not always like this!
Yu Sheng quickly realized this—he could clearly remember how this room, which once held Ai Lin, looked: empty and barren, not a single piece of furniture, not even a chair.
Only a lonely oil painting hung on the wall facing the door...
Now, however, it was filled with all kinds of furniture, and a mirror hung on the wall directly opposite the door.
A sense of confusion and unease stirred within Yu Sheng, but he did not sense any danger lurking in the room.
Of course, he knew the so-called “feeling of crisis” sounded very mysterious.
After nearly facing death a few times, he felt he had developed some kind of perception of danger, and in this place... he felt the room was safe.
After hesitating at the door for a few moments, Yu Sheng stepped inside.
Everything in the room appeared normal.
There were no sudden appearances of monsters wielding pitchforks or fire pots falling from above as he entered.
The sunlight poured in from the window, and the air was fresh, with no hint of decay or any suspicious smell.
Yu Sheng inspected the room and confirmed that the furniture was unremarkable.
Finally, he stood before the mirror facing the door.
In his impression, mirrors were not usually placed directly opposite the entrance.
According to his understanding, not only was there a feng shui concern, but a mirror facing the door could easily frighten anyone entering at night.
However, he was unsure if there were similar beliefs in this "boundary city."
He simply felt that the mirror in front of him felt a bit... strange.
This strangeness wasn’t just due to the fact that an oil painting of Ai Lin used to hang here, but also because the reflection in the mirror... looked odd.
Though the image mirrored in the glass was perfectly normal, depicting the current state of the room, Yu Sheng scrutinized it for a long time without discovering the source of his unease—what exactly was off?
Was there something subtly wrong with the size or position of the items reflected? Was there an inconsistency in the light and dark within the image? Or... was there something in the mirror that didn’t exist in the room?
After some thought, Yu Sheng extended a finger and gently brushed against the surface of the mirror.
A chilling sensation traveled through him, and ripples radiated out from where his finger touched, causing the mirror's image to shatter in an instant!
Yu Sheng widened his eyes in surprise and instinctively took a step back.
In less than a second, the mirror had turned pitch black—the room’s reflection dissolved into the rippling waves, swallowed by an ink-like darkness that slowly crept about, undulating and swirling in front of him.
Then, from that darkness emerged a new figure.
Yu Sheng fought against the unease rising within him, stepping closer to examine it more closely.
Gradually, the heavy darkness that resembled a thick veil faded, allowing him to see the scene deep within the mirror:
A doll—yet it was not Ai Lin, but a stranger—lay shattered among ruins that were unrecognizable.
Its limbs were broken, its clothing tattered, and its body was covered in wounds, as if it had endured a fierce battle and ultimately succumbed.
Stunned, Yu Sheng widened his eyes, eager to see more within the mirror.
As if responding to his thoughts, the image in the darkness slowly moved.
Yu Sheng noticed that the perspective was pulling back and tilting, revealing a much broader view—
He saw the surroundings of the dead doll, the scale of the ruins, and structures resembling ancient pillars and eaves.
These structures were broken and collapsed in the muddy chaos of darkness, and many fragments of the doll's shattered limbs scattered around, as if whispering a message to him:
Everything here was destroyed in this battle.
Suddenly, a phrase echoed in Yu Sheng’s mind, one Ai Lin had told him before:
"... Living dolls are indeed blessed. I can fight much better than those so-called investigators or spirit world detectives in the strange lands..."
"Are these 'living dolls' really that powerful?" Yu Sheng couldn't help but mumble to himself.
But even such powerful beings could be killed, and something stronger than her had slayed her—As the perspective shifted, Yu Sheng finally glimpsed the "enemy" that had ended the doll's life.
A substantial shadow, the size of which Yu Sheng could not fathom—it loomed, nearly ten times the size of the doll.
Its shape resembled a human figure but appeared to have twisted wings sprouting from its back.
It too lay amidst the ruins, part of its massive body seemingly melting like sludge, merging with the chaos surrounding the debris and the doll's fragmented limbs.
The remaining structure of its body was warped and broken.
Yu Sheng couldn’t tell if the distortion on that giant shadow was caused by the doll’s attacks or if it had always looked like this—after all, it was quite an abstract sight.
Yet, he surmised that the doll and the enormous shadow with wings must have perished together.
Just as he wished to observe more details, the scene before him rippled again like water.
In an instant, everything in the dark shattered and dissolved, the heavy darkness surged like a curtain and then retreated toward the edges of the mirror frame.
In the blink of an eye, the mirror returned to being an ordinary mirror, reflecting the scene of the room again.
Yu Sheng stared blankly at this spectacle, then touched the mirror several times, hoping to conjure any strange image again.
What had that been?
Perhaps after dealing with unusual matters for the past couple of days, Yu Sheng felt his ability to accept such occurrences had grown stronger.
He didn’t find the bizarre scene frightening; rather, he was filled with deep curiosity about what he had just seen.
Was the scene in the mirror something that had really happened? Who was the deceased doll? What was the enormous shadow that perished alongside the doll? Where was this ruin? And why did all this appear in this house, right before his eyes?
Pondering deeply with furrowed brows, Yu Sheng couldn’t help but think of another question:
Did the scene recorded in the mirror relate to Ai Lin?
Though the deceased doll bore no resemblance to Ai Lin, her features were completely different, particularly her striking golden hair, which was nothing like Ai Lin's.
Yet, for some unknown reason, when he saw that doll, he couldn’t help but think of a girl sealed within an oil painting, watching television downstairs.
After a moment, Yu Sheng shook off his thoughts.
He looked at the mirror on the wall, placed his hand on the frame, and tried to gently pull it away to see if he could reposition it.
The mirror didn’t budge, as solid as if it had been cast into the wall.
After a few attempts, Yu Sheng chose to give up.
He turned and headed towards the door, but just before leaving the room, he suddenly turned back, quickly scanning the entire room.
The furnishings remained unchanged; the mirror showed no sign of alteration either.
Yu Sheng frowned and shut the door.
After two or three seconds, he abruptly pushed the door open again, as if intending to catch the room off guard.
The room remained unchanged, still the same scene.
Yu Sheng stood at the door, gripping the handle, nervously peering into the room as he surveyed every corner, gradually feeling like a madman.
After repeatedly confirming the absence of any change, he finally stopped fiddling with the door.
But instead of returning to his bedroom, he hurried down the stairs, heading for the dining room.
Ai Lin, who was watching television at the dining table, turned her head towards the corner of the frame when she heard the noise: “Hey? Yu Sheng, weren’t you going to sleep? Insomnia? I can’t tell bedtime stories, you know…”
She remained her usual carefree and familiar self.
Yu Sheng said nothing and sat across from Ai Lin, observing her intently as if examining something critically.
This made the doll in the painting feel a bit awkward.
“What are you staring at me for…” Ai Lin retracted her neck, “I know I’m good-looking, but you and a paper doll have no future together…”
Yu Sheng had prepared to discuss something, but her words threw him off track.
“Ahem, let’s talk about something serious!” He coughed awkwardly, forcing the topic back on track, “Do you remember what the room was like when you were hung on the wall before?”
“I remember,” Ai Lin thought for a moment and answered naturally, “Nothing was there, it was empty, and there was a door on the opposite side, and the wallpaper—did you know the corner wallpaper is all moldy and peeling, and you haven't fixed it?”
Yu Sheng nodded: Good, at least on this matter, Ai Lin’s memory aligned with his own.
“The second question, do you remember a place—it looked like a ruin, with ancient pillars and collapsed stone walls and eaves, the entire ruin was ‘immersed’ in darkness, and there was a doll—don’t worry about whether it’s you or not, but there was definitely a doll that died in the ruins, and it was a tragic sight, with limbs shattered everywhere…”
Ai Lin instantly shrunk back: “That sounds really scary.”
“Forget about whether it’s scary, just tell me if you have any impression of that scene.”
“No.”
Ai Lin responded without hesitation.
(End of Chapter)