Otherworldly Merchant

After listening to her story, I roughly got the details.

I remembered a long time ago I watched a short but popular show on the Internet. There was a student who was so bored that he decided to do an experiment with a mirror. From early morning to late night, he would use the mirror more than forty times every day and for five minutes each time.

In the beginning, everything was fine. However, as time went by, strange things started to happen. At first, he noticed that he didn’t recognize himself in the mirror. Later on, he couldn’t control his mood anymore. He would sob or laugh crazily and uncontrollably. He thought his reflection in the mirror was the real him and that he needed to follow what his image in the mirror was doing.

Around one month later, he discovered that he couldn’t live without the mirror. When he was away from the mirror, the entire world felt empty. He didn’t even feel alive. He just wanted to sit in front of the mirror all day long and watch himself.

He couldn’t eat or sleep well. He didn’t brush his teeth or wash his face. Eventually, he became bony, his eyelids black and his hair disheveled. He looked like a ghost.

He started to have symptoms of schizophrenia. He thought he was just a replica and that the image in the mirror was the real him. He spent every day questioning his existence in agony. In the end, he couldn’t endure the mental pressure and killed himself…

It was just an ordinary mirror but it was able to torment a living man until that point. Right now we were dealing with an unknown, ancient mirror that dated back to the Tang Dynasty.

This Ms. Song was really courting death!

“How much do you use the mirror in a day?” I asked her.

Ms. Song hesitated then answered, “Well, at first, I used it dozens of times. Then, sometimes, I spent the whole day in front of the mirror.”

I was startled while listening to Ms. Song. Even if she was a narcissistic, things shouldn’t have gotten to this level!

“Why did you want to look at the mirror so many times in a day?” I asked Ms. Song.

“What’s strange about that? I’m a WeChat saleswoman. I work from home all day and do live streams. Sometimes, when I’m bored, I will apply some makeup.”

I told her, “If you use the mirror that many times, some mental problems could arise.”

Ms. Song cursed and said, “Nonsense, are you even a real expert? Dancers have to practice in front of mirrors all day long. If it is as you said, all the dancers would have schizophrenia, wouldn’t they?!”

“They are different in nature. When they practice dancing, most of the time they focus on the movements from their hands and legs. They won’t gaze at their faces. But you’re different. Your focus is on your face. After a long time, it could cause some problems.”

Ms. Song didn’t believe me. “You’re talking nonsense.”

I knew I couldn’t get it through her head so I didn’t care.

At first, Ms. Song brought me to the villa she rented at the city’s outskirts. I walked around and checked things, but I didn’t find any imbalance between Yin and Yang. Everything felt fine. I asked her to take me to where she had kept the bronze mirror.

Ms. Song then drove me to the apartment she had rented.

This apartment complex was called Water Garden, and it was situated in Beijing’s Southern Third Ring Road. A one-hundred-square-meter apartment in this building cost at least five million renminbi. This woman was really rich. If I was in her shoes, I also wouldn’t have liked to leave this place.

At the moment we arrived at Water Garden, we saw Li Mazi waiting for us at the complex entrance. After seeing us stroll toward him, Li Mazi was mad. “Why are you so late?”

“There was a traffic jam and we were delayed,” I answered.

Ms. Song glanced at Li Mazi. “You better change your attitude. Otherwise, I will reduce your commission!”

Li Mazi was enraged but he couldn’t show it. He tried to refrain his anger and followed the BMW to the building entrance. When we entered the elevator, Ms. Song suddenly squatted and covered her eyes. She looked scared.

I was taken aback by her sudden, bizarre action. “Ms. Song, are you okay?”

Ms. Song’s voice trembled. “I don’t dare to look at the elevator wall. That’s not me reflected there.”

I took a glimpse at the elevator wall. It was metal and shiny like a mirror. We could clearly see our reflections.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Ms. Song was really scared after that event.

I was surprised to learn that she was living on the tenth floor. She was bold. Normally, single women lived on the fifth or the lower floors. The higher floors had more Yin energy, which was not good for feminine bodies. Also, if some bastard broke into their house and threw them off the floor, their bodies wouldn’t be left intact.

“Ms. Song, why did you want to buy an apartment on such a high floor?” I asked.

“I like it. Why do you care? It’s none of your business!”

I couldn’t hold my laughter. “Of course, I’m not going to care. But you have to be careful. It’s not good for a woman like you to live on a high floor.”

“Why do you say so?” asked Ms. Song.

“Why should I tell you? It’s none of my business, after all.” I snapped back.

Up until now, Ms. Song had always looked down on Li Mazi and I. I felt irritated. That was why I had to show that we were no pushover.

Ms. Song was eventually frightened. She apologized repeatedly and asked me to tell her the reason. After I explained things to her, Ms. Song was regretful and said she shouldn’t have believe the real estate agency.

As soon as we got into Ms. Song’s apartment, I could feel some strange coldness! This coldness wasn’t normal. It was the chill-to-bone kind of coldness that made people freeze from the inside out.

I took a deep breath. “Ms. Song, where’s the bronze mirror?”

Ms. Song took me to her bedroom and opened a safe. She took out the bronze mirror.

The bronze mirror was very detailed and meticulously dainty, from the gold plating to the sandalwood frame and supports. I could tell it was a genuine product.

Such a treasure was normally placed in a national museum. This was a very fine, high-class item. How could a not-so-rich woman possess it?

To be honest, although she had around ten million followers, she wasn’t considered a rich woman in Beijing. She wasn’t worthy of owning this bronze mirror.

I guessed the one who had sold the mirror to Ms. Song wasn’t a good person. It was likely that person did it on purpose…

“Ms. Song, how much did you spend on this mirror?”

“Not much, around five hundred thousand renminbi.”

She thought it would make her cool and powerful to show that she was rich. After all, she did spend five hundred thousand renminbi on a bronze mirror. However, I despised her in my heart. Is this woman stupid or what?

Only the crafty gold-plated frame from the Tang Dynasty was worth a lot more than that. In fact, it would be strange if there wasn’t anything shady about this precious mirror she could buy for only five hundred thousand renminbi.

But I kept quiet. “We will stay here tonight. I want to see how bizarre this mirror is.”

Ms. Song panicked and asked me, “Do I have to stay too?”

I cast her a surprised sidelong glance. “Ms. Song, if you don’t stay, who will? The bronze mirror affects only you. Perhaps it won’t work on us.” Ms. Song then nodded in agreement.

I turned the bronze mirror around to check it thoroughly. I found nothing strange about it, so I put it back on the dressing table. Then I looked at myself in the mirror for a while.

This bronze mirror was really excellent. It wasn’t much different from a glass mirror from modern-day. Although it was a little blurry at the corner, it must have been exceptional at the time. I guessed that only members of the royal family could use such a mirror.

Li Mazi walked forward and gently knocked on the mirror. He asked me, “So this toy costs around five hundred thousand? Oh boy, someone must think money is just trash paper.”

Ms. Song was angry. “Why, is it not worth five hundred thousand?” She started to quarrel with Li Mazi and insisted that it wasn’t a bad deal…

I became interested when Li Mazi knocked on the mirror. When he did that, the sound the mirror produced was really strange.

Normally, the sound made by someone knocking on a bronze mirror should be clear. However, the sound Li Mazi had created was hoarse, as if it was the cackle of an old Western witch from the eighteenth century. It also echoed for quite a long time, which was strange!

I wasn’t convinced so I knocked on it again. Indeed, it didn’t produce the sound it was supposed to, but rather some muffled, hoarse sound.

I hadn’t started my investigation when something suddenly hit Ms. Song’s window. Whatever it was, it broke the glass.

The room immediately turned dead silent. We all turned to look at her balcony.

A bloody black crow lay silently in the middle of the shattered glass. It was dead.

I took a deep breath. What happened to this black crow?

I was pretty sure it didn’t unknowingly hit the window. There must have been some reason behind this.

“I can’t believe how low-quality this glass is!” Ms. Song was so angry her face turned purple. “I want to find the manager of this building. What kind of apartment is this?!”

I hurried to stop her. “Ms. Song, please don’t talk. We need to listen to the commotion outside.”

Ms. Song was surprised and somewhat fearful. “What do you mean?”

I hadn’t answered and a flock of crows came to her window. They lined up and stared at Ms. Song with blank eyes.

Ms. Song immediately came forward to shoo them away. The crows cried ‘caw caw’ then flew away.

“What bad luck,” fumed Ms. Song.

“Yeah, it is,” sighed Li Mazi. “People say that when the crow caws, the time of death is near”

“Your stinky mouth can’t say anything nice, can it? What’s this ‘crow caws and time of death arrives’ nonsense? If you don’t shut up, I will call the police right now and have you arrested!”

Seeing them about to quarrel again, I hushed them out. “You shouldn’t get angry. I’m now sensing that the appearance of those crows is somewhat related to the bronze mirror.”

I then asked Ms. Song, “Have you ever experienced this same situation before, where a flock of crows come by and rest on your balcony?”