Otherworldly Merchant

Ms. Song shook her head and said, “This is the tenth floor. How could the crows fly that high up? Maybe you guys have a lot of Yin energy and that's why you have attracted the crows…”

“We’re not the problem. The problem here is the bronze mirror,” I said then knocked on the mirror. “Listen.”

Ms. Song listened but still hesitated. She asked cluelessly, “What about that?”

“Have you ever knocked on this bronze mirror?” I asked.

Ms. Song shook her head, “No, do you mean that those crows were attracted to the knocking sound in the mirror? No kidding, my room is soundproof. People from the outside can’t hear anything.”

“I seem to understand what’s going on.” I suddenly thought of a possibility and felt excited. “Is this sound similar to a crow cawing?”

Then, I knocked on the bronze mirror two or three times.

Ms. Song and Li Mazi exchanged looks. Then, they gave me a nod. “Yeah, it sounds somewhat similar.”

“This mirror and the crows are related,” I said. “Move, we’re going to catch some crows.”

Li Mazi was bewildered. “Why do we need to catch some crows? Did they somehow provoke you?”

“I don’t know what this bronze mirror is, but if the crows reacted to it, it means the mirror and those crows have something in common. We need to find this connection to deal with it! I need crow blood,” I explained.

Li Mazi immediately nodded. “Okay, I’ll go. You wait here with Ms. Song. This is a one-man job.”

Ms. Song nodded and said, “Good, I agree.”

“Well, if you agree, give me your car keys,” said Li Mazi. “Can I drive it? If I go now, I can return by tomorrow morning. Perhaps I could bring back two vultures to clear your bodies…”

Li Mazi had thought about driving Ms. Song’s car.

Ms. Song was irritated and threw the key at Li Mazi. “Do it quickly and come back early!”

Li Mazi fled immediately. I asked Ms. Song to put the mirror back in the safe. At this moment, I wasn’t prepared and didn’t have anything with me. If Ms. Song became charmed by the bronze mirror and went crazy, I couldn’t do anything.

After Ms. Song locked the mirror, she also locked the door and the windows. Then, she turned on the TV, sat on the sofa, and watched TV.

The TV was showing a cosmetic brand commercial. Ms. Song excitedly told me that she was the agent for this cosmetic brand.

“Oh, your job isn’t bad. You can sit home and earn money every day,” I said casually.

She began to blurt, “It’s not as easy as you think. I’m a woman who came from another province. I don’t even have a true friend. The friends I once had when I was poor are now jealous of my wealth. They have distanced themselves from me.”

Then, she cried and told me she was very lonely. She said she felt isolated from everybody else. She just wanted to find a man she could trust. As long as he loved her, she would even provide for him. Unknowingly, she approached me and started to touch me.

I got a headache. This woman was craving for a man? Although she looked beautiful and sexy enough for every man to drool over her, I wasn’t a laid-back guy. I thought about Yin Xinyue and immediately had a repulsive feeling toward this woman. I moved away from the sofa and cleared my throat. “If it’s possible, I want to wait alone. I need to think about how to deal with this bronze mirror.”

After I rejected Ms. Song, she became infuriated. She jolted up from her seat and marched to her bedroom. She cursed me for not understanding romantic chances and told me that I would be poor forever.

I cracked up laughing. I thought that even if I had to beg for food, I wouldn’t become her gigolo. I didn't like women like her.

I watched TV in the living room for a while, but my head couldn’t get rid of the image of Ms. Song seducing me. I was annoyed and thought, am I that charming? Why would women these days want to offer me their love?

Should I find the right date and marry Yin Xinyue?

While my head was wandering, Li Mazi came back. After looking at his disheveled, sweating face, I felt annoyed. This man had used the elevator to get up here. Why did he look so tired?

I asked him and Li Mazi answered, “Why? Because of Ms. Song, that woman is freaking troublesome!”

The bedroom’s door sprang open. Ms. Song stormed out and glared at Li Mazi. “What the heck did you just say?”

When Li Mazi saw Ms. Song, he cursed then fell off the sofa. He rolled on the ground. He gawked in shock and pointed at Ms. Song, “Y-You? Why are you here?”

“What the heck are you talking about? I’ve been here this whole time.” Ms. Song scoffed. “Are you even a man? Talking ill behind someone’s back like that, how shameless.”

Li Mazi’s face paled and tried to gulp his saliva. He said nothing to defend himself. However, I knew Li Mazi had bumped into something weird. I told Li Mazi to place the crows on the ground. Then, we went out.

As soon as we got out of the apartment, Li Mazi rushed toward the elevator. It was empty. Li Mazi was frightened and said to me, “There was a ghost! I just met a ghost!”

“What do you mean?” I didn’t understand and looked at Li Mazi.

It turned out when Li Mazi got up here, he saw Ms. Song standing by the elevator door. She smiled at him and immediately pulled him into the elevator. She hugged him, cried, and tried to kiss him.

If this happened in the past, Li Mazi would have flirted back. However, as soon as the woman touched him, Li Mazi remembered Chu Chu. He pushed the woman away and said, “Ms. Song, what are you doing?”

Ms. Song said nothing but hugged Li Mazi. She tried to kiss him again. Li Mazi got angry. He got out of the elevator halfway and went up the stairs.

He saw that the elevator was going down so he thought that Ms. Song was going out to buy something. However, when he got into the apartment, he saw Ms. Song in the house. So, how could he not be frightened?

After listening to Li Mazi, I had a cold sweat on my forehead. I could conclude that the person Li Mazi had seen was the one in the mirror.

We had never expected that the image in the mirror could get out and act like a real person.

I took a deep breath and felt scared as I glanced at the elevator’s general direction. I was afraid that a disheveled Ms. Song would walk out of there and talk to us.

When I confirmed that the elevator was empty, I heaved a sigh of relief.

“Li Mazi, we shouldn’t tell Ms. Song about this. We shouldn’t terrify her.”

Li Mazi nodded. Then, he asked a strange but interesting question. “Are you sure the one in the apartment is the real Ms. Song and the one I bumped into is the fake one?”

The issue he had pointed out made my heart race frantically. Oh right, how can I know that Ms. Song in the apartment is the real one and the one Li Mazi had met is fake? 

 Although I wasn’t so sure, I said to Li Mazi, “Don’t worry! Ever since Ms. Song came to us, I’ve never left her side. She’s not fake… unless the one who approached us was the fake one from the start!”

Li Mazi sighed and said, “Not really. You were in the living room and she was in her bedroom, right? What if something happened… during that time?

“No, that’s impossible,” I intervened resolutely. “The bedroom only has one door and there’s no other exit. It’s impossible. Don’t think too much about it.”

Li Mazi nodded and said, “Okay then.”

When we returned, Ms. Song was sitting on the sofa. She was watching the crows.

After seeing us, Ms. Song ran toward us and said, “What did you just talk about out there?”

I waved my hand and said, “Nothing. It was about unrelated business.”

Ms. Song eased her mind. “What should we do with these crows?”

I checked the black crows and saw that they were acting strangely. When Li Mazi brought them in the room, they were still lively. However, now they were all dumbstruck and didn’t move an inch. They all gawked in the general direction of the safe.

The bronze mirror was kept in the safe. It seemed the bronze mirror did affect them.

I asked Ms. Song to take the mirror out while Li Mazi and I grabbed the crows. We needed to draw their blood.

The crows seemed to have lost their sanity and did not recognize that we were doing something to them. No matter what we did, they didn’t wiggle. Their eyes only stared at the direction of the safe.

Li Mazi was pissed off. “You blasted birds. All of you were that fierce earlier and you even pulled down my pants. Why are you so obedient right now? You damn birds!”

After we drew out their blood, the five black crows should have died. However, they didn’t close their eyes. Li Mazi couldn’t stand it. He closed their eyes and suggested that we find a nice place to bury them.

Ms. Song placed the mirror in front of us. After I had finished the preparations, I asked the other two to move away. I used a brush and carefully smeared the crow blood all over the surface of the bronze mirror. After that, I stayed aside and watched the mirror’s reaction.

The crow blood rolled down the mirror and dripped on the table. In this dead silent room, the sound of fresh blood dripping had created a very abnormal atmosphere.

We didn’t dare to blink because we were afraid of missing something.