Otherworldly Merchant

The bronze mirror didn’t seem to be stained with blood. After the blood oozed down and dripped away, the mirror’s surface was clean and reflected the room. There was nothing strange about it.

Li Mazi was the first to lose his patience. After all of the crow blood dripped down, he couldn’t wait any longer. “Brother Zhang, did it work? Why hasn’t the bronze mirror reacted?”

I was also a little lost and sighed. “Let’s just wait then.”

Around one hour later, the mirror still didn’t have any reaction. I knew this trick had gone in vain. I stood up, prepared to collect the bronze mirror, and asked Ms. Song to clean the crow's blood.

However, as I was walking there and was about to touch the mirror, I saw a vague figure that stood behind Ms. Song in the mirror.

That person wore a white dress and had long hair. She looked somewhat similar to Ms. Song. From my position, I couldn’t see her face clearly. However, I could feel that she had been gazing at us the entire time.

I took a deep breath. My heart was pounding hard.

Since when did that ‘person’ stand behind the sofa? In other words, while we were watching the mirror, she was there. She was watching us, smiling coldly. It was as if she was mocking us.

I didn’t dare to turn around as I was afraid I would alert her. Carefully, I smeared some of the blood on the table to my hand and patted the mirror. I hoped this would work.

The moment my hand hit the bronze mirror, a ghostly face appeared in the mirror!

What was the deal with that face? It was covered in cuts. She was bleeding terribly. Her eyes bulged and one of her ears was missing. However, the ghostly face was lying horizontally as if its neck was broken.

All of a sudden, it opened its gory mouth and showed its sharp teeth. Then, a sharp shrill drilled in my ears. I was scared and threw the mirror down. Then I retreated.

Li Mazi caught me just in time. Otherwise, I would have landed on my butt.

I immediately turned around. There was nothing behind us. I didn’t see anyone.

I looked at the mirror. Nothing strange was there.

I doubted I had just experienced a hallucination. Then, the dead crows began to move from the ground. Even more mysteriously, some of them flapped their wings and flew out.

"Holy moly!" Li Mazi gawked in shock. “They aren’t dead yet!”

I immediately dashed to the balcony and looked down.

Five crows had leaped up to the balcony and jumped down. They didn’t do anything else but fall freely. Eventually, some of them hit the roofs of the cars that were parked on the ground. This produced a low thud sound. The cars’ alarms went off.

I had a headache now. I turned and said to Li Mazi, “We should get down there and bury the crows. We don’t want them to resurrect again.”

“Damn!” Li Mazi didn’t answer me but panicked. “Ms. Song... where is she? Where’s that woman?”

I checked the room. It was empty. The door to the house was open. We didn’t have to guess what had happened... Ms. Song had run away.

“She’s just giving us more trouble!” I scoffed.

“Come on, we need to find Ms. Song!”

I rushed outside. Li Mazi followed closely behind me.

However, when we reached the bottom floor, we still didn’t see Ms. Song anywhere.

There was something wrong with this situation. I forced myself to clear my head. I closed my eyes and contemplated it.

When I checked on the crows earlier, I had asked Ms. Song to clean the blood. Then, when I ran outside, I heard the sound of water run from the toilet. What if Ms. Song didn’t get out of her house but was washing the towel in the bathroom?

The apartment’s door opening must have been a trick of the mirror to disturb our thoughts and make us go downstairs. Meanwhile, it would stay and attack Ms. Song.

I got a headache, turned around, and rushed toward the elevator. I saw it was lingering on the twelfth floor. It didn’t go down, no matter how hard I pressed the button. I could only use the stairs.

Li Mazi followed closely behind me. “What’s going on?”

“I think Ms. Song is in danger. We should go back.” I told him.

“We haven’t found Ms. Song yet and you want to come back? How can we protect her then?”

I scoffed, “Ms. Song hasn’t left her house! Did you see her run away?”

If Li Mazi hadn’t said anything, I would have gone to the bathroom to find Ms. Song as the first thing.

Li Mazi patted his forehead. “Oh shoot, we’ve been tricked! That woman better not die! If she dies, we can’t avoid the responsibility!”

When we got back to the apartment, we found Ms. Song in the room. She was admiring herself in the mirror.

I exhaled in relief. It seemed our guess was correct.

“Ms. Song, are you all right?” I asked immediately.

“Oh, I’m okay,” Ms. Song answered with a smile.

“You should put the mirror away,” I suggested.

Ms. Song smiled. “Why should I? I want to put it here. I like this mirror. Every time I use it, I look so beautiful.”

I was astonished. Ms. Song now acted so nice and proper. It seemed she was now a completely different person…

Li Mazi poked at my waist. I turned to him, and I saw Li Mazi shaking his head. I understood that he was doubting the woman in front of us. This woman wasn’t the real one.

The mirror had tricked us into going downstairs so that it would have a chance to replace Ms. Song. After thinking about this possibility, I shuddered.

That mirror was very powerful if it could even swap itself with a real person!

I didn’t dare to think about it any more and just nervously watched Ms. Song. She was occupied with herself.

She was wiping and cleaning the crow blood. Her hand moved tenderly and meticulously as if she loved the mirror very much. It seemed she didn’t want to let the red hue of crow blood stain her mirror.

I cleared my throat. “Ms. Song, how about you return to the villa? Tonight, we will stay and watch this place.”

Ms. Song answered, “No, how could I do that! This place is my house, and you said that the bronze mirror affects only me, right?”

Li Mazi pulled the hem of my shirt. I turned to look at him. He pointed at the door. I understood what he meant. He didn’t want to be involved in this any more.

I took a deep breath and said to Ms. Song, “Ms. Song, how about we come back here again at night time?”

“Good!” Ms. Song agreed without a bit of hesitation.

Obviously, the woman in front of us wasn’t normal. If she was the real one, she wouldn’t dare to stay here alone.

I left with Li Mazi. When we got into the elevator, Li Mazi told me, “Things aren’t right. That one isn’t the real Ms. Song.”

I looked pensive and gave him a nod. “Do you believe that there are two people in the world that look exactly the same? Or, do you think there’s some item that could perfectly clone someone?”

Li Mazi was scared because I had used the word ‘clone’.

He immediately shook his head. “Brother Zhang, don’t scare me like that. I think Ms. Song was affected by the bronze mirror. She’s still Ms. Song, but now she has schizophrenia.”

“But we can’t explain the other Ms. Song you had bumped into,” I debated.

Li Mazi didn’t talk and just looked at the elevator doors in fright.

After a long moment, Li Mazi asked me, “How do you intend to solve this?”

I answered gravely, “I’ll ask Yin Xinyue to fetch me the Sirius Whip.”

Li Mazi was surprised. “What? You want to continue with this case?”

I nodded reluctantly. “I can’t let someone die without helping them. Also, in my profession, nothing should be left undone.”

Li Mazi could only nod.

That day, I asked Yin Xinyue to go back at my place and send me the Sirius Whip by express service.

Yin Xinyue knew that I had a business case in Beijing, and she was worried about me. Before leaving, she repeatedly asked me to put my safety above everything else.

I smiled and pulled her to my chest. I took out the ring I had prepared and slipped it onto her slender, soft finger. I smiled. “When I come back, we should get married.”