Volume 3: High School Arc - Mirror Game
There wasn’t much to say about the meal.
I didn’t think much of it, but Bai Juanjuan had a great time, especially when Sha Ha arrived—her handsome, silly, and adorably goofy energy made the girl burst into laughter.
Although she really wanted to stay the night at my place, she was still afraid her grandpa would worry, so she went home early around eight.
The sky gradually darkened.
At night, the three girls didn’t have any plans.
Shao He, who lived by a strict routine, went to bed early.
And Reina also went to sleep after cleaning up the mess in the yard.
I stayed in my room and waited until it was nearly ten.
Only after both girls had gone to bed did I get up, quickly took a shower, and changed into the combat outfit I had prepared in advance.
Of course, it wasn’t an actual combat suit—just a set of clothes that was reasonably tough.
First of all, it had to suit the season.
Since it was already autumn, the cold night wind felt chilly.
So I bought a pair of close-fitting lambskin leather pants with a bit of stretch.
Because considering the possibility of large movements, whether wearing a skirt or loose pants, it could easily delay action—so I went with something tight.
As for choosing tight leather pants... that was just my personal aesthetic preference.
Underneath the jacket, I wore a white cotton shirt.
Since other materials weren’t that comfortable, I preferred pure cotton—so it was a white long-sleeved cotton T-shirt.
The jacket on top was a tight-fitting ladies’ motorcycle leather jacket.
As for my feet—well, the jacket was cowhide, the pants were lambskin, so naturally, my shoes had to be crocodile leather.
Hmm... although that didn’t really matter.
I wore Martin boots.
Damn it, I spent ages picking them out but couldn’t find a pair without heels, so I had to go with a pair that didn’t have very high ones.
Of course, part of it was my own aesthetic—being a visual glutton, I simply couldn’t bear wearing ugly shoes.
These boots had 2.5 cm soles and 5 cm heels.
The soles were hollow in the middle, and honestly, from an aesthetic standpoint, they looked quite good.
But... damn it, these boots cost more than my leather pants.
Even though I had been living like a rich kid for over half a year, I was still used to buying inexpensive, practical things rather than chasing after brand names.
The pants and jacket together only cost a little over four thousand.
Mainly the jacket was more expensive, the pants only cost about 1,300.
But these shoes... over three thousand.
So damn expensive.
And crocodile leather wasn’t even as durable or practical as cowhide.
Still, for the sake of appearance, I let it slide.
On my hands, I wore a pair of tactical gloves.
But pure leather ones were hard to find, so I had a custom pair made.
Once everything was ready, I fastened the tactical waist pack at my waist—Swiss Army knife, tactical flashlight, stormproof matches, lock-picking tools, a spare phone, and a BeiDou satellite phone.
Actually, I also wanted to bring a military shovel, but I figured it was unlikely I’d need it, so I left it behind.
Of course I bought one, just didn’t take it with me.
It was my first reconnaissance mission, so I had to be as fully prepared as possible.
Except for things that were inconvenient to carry, I brought everything I could.
To avoid hindering my movements, I tried not to carry anything unnecessary.
God knows... well, that’s practically my catchphrase now.
But honestly, not even ghosts knew what kind of situations I might run into.
Let’s hope nothing unexpected happens tonight.
Thinking that, I walked out of the room.
Big city nights were always dazzling with neon and traffic.
But since this was a villa district, there were hardly any people around at night.
The streets were very quiet.
If you didn’t walk out of the villa area, there’d be no vehicles passing by.
So I had no choice but to scale the wall without much grace and headed down the street.
At night around here, quite a few homes still had their lights on, and the streetlights were bright—at least it didn’t feel pitch dark and scary.
I walked out of the villa zone and onto the main road.
The nearest villa was about a hundred meters away.
The space in between was mostly greenbelt, with a park in the middle.
There were still quite a few people on the roadside at this hour.
I walked up to the street and ignored the people casting frequent glances at me.
I raised my hand and flagged down a cab, directly telling the driver my destination.
"Uncle driver, I’m going to this mirror factory..."
I opened my phone and showed the driver the location.
He glanced at it and immediately frowned.
"Why is a young lady like you going there?"
Seeing the expression on his face, I couldn’t help but feel a sinking sensation inside, though I didn’t show it.
"What’s wrong?"
"Don’t take it the wrong way, miss... but you’re pretty young. That place... girls like you really shouldn’t go there. I’m serious..."
Though I had already gotten into the car, the driver still hadn’t started driving.
It looked like he really didn’t want to take me there.
"Uncle, just drive. Here’s the fare."
Normally, this distance wouldn’t cost a 100 yuan bill.
But I still pulled out two of them and placed them on the meter.
The driver looked at the two bright red bills and hesitated for a moment.
"...Sigh... I want to earn this money, but I don’t want to go against my conscience. Miss, judging from your outfit... are you meeting someone to go exploring or something?"
He was clearly tempted but still refused to drive.
"Let me give you some advice. Don’t go. That place... it’s really cursed."
"Uncle, I’m giving you the money. So tell me—just how is it cursed?"
Cursed?
To this day, I still didn’t know how the app was connected to reality.
When I was at the hospital, I didn’t have a chance to ask around.
But now, since this driver had a story, I had the cash to pay for it.
Consider it paying for a tale.
Even if I got scammed, I still wanted to hear what he had to say.
"Sigh! You young people just don’t believe in the supernatural."
The driver clearly hesitated again, but in the end, he accepted the two red bills as he spoke.
"Actually, I don't really know the details, but I heard from my father that it used to be a mirror factory built after the founding of the country. Later, a big fire broke out and killed many people, and it was abandoned afterward... From then on, people started disappearing near that area, and those who went missing were never found again... So, everyone living nearby moved away. The village next to it used to be called Liawong Village, named that because it sat on high ground that overlooked Xiuhu Lake..."
The uncle lowered the car window as he started the engine.
With the gentle rumble of the engine, the scenery around us slowly moved backward, and the uncle's low voice continued beside my ear.
"Everything I just told you, I heard from other people. But my father also told me something else..."
I stared out the window, listening to the story the uncle said he had heard from his father.
"This part was what my father said... There was a time when a plague broke out in Liawong Village. People back then were quite ignorant. My father said the epidemic was very serious, so the village ended up being sealed off. Later on, my father heard that the villagers decided to sacrifice a girl. Of course, the authorities didn’t allow it, but the old village chief led the charge and, in the middle of the night, dragged the girl—who had been chosen by drawing lots—out of her home... They say she was burned to death."
"This... what does that have to do with the mirror factory?"
I couldn’t help but ask after hearing the uncle’s story.
"You young people nowadays... Don’t rush me, I haven’t finished yet, have I?"
The uncle seemed addicted to storytelling, and after saying that, he continued with his tale.
"The girl died, and with the government's increased support, the plague in Liawong Village was finally brought under control. Some of the younger villagers left the village, and only a few elders stayed behind. Most of those young people went to work at..."
"The mirror factory?"
When I heard that part, I instantly figured out what would happen next in the story.
The uncle gave me a speechless glare and continued telling a story that pretty much matched what I had already guessed.
Here’s basically what happened: the factory caught fire, and most of the people who died were from Liawong Village.
The remaining villagers returned to the village, but people there started disappearing mysteriously.
Gradually, people began to believe that it was the girl’s ghost coming back for revenge, so they moved out.
Family after family.
And one night, the entire family of the village chief died in a fire due to a stove accident.
The strange thing was, rural windows were usually hard to seal completely, yet all seven members of the chief’s family failed to escape.
Back then, rural homes typically used earthen beds with stoves, so fires were normal, but it rarely led to something like that.
So many believed it was the girl’s ghost that came back.
After that, Liawong Village was completely abandoned.
The ordinary villagers, all terrified, moved out.
But the matter... didn’t end there.
After Liawong Village became empty, people in two nearby villages also started to disappear mysteriously.
The mirror factory, which was originally set to be rebuilt, was completely abandoned due to the continuing disappearances nearby.
The other two villages were also vacated.
Just like that... that whole area became a place no one wanted to go.
In the thirty-plus years since then, until now... no one has ever returned.
Some young people who didn’t believe in the supernatural would go there together for exploration, but supposedly, within a few days of returning, they would go missing.
Logically speaking, such a place really did seem cursed.
But for some reason, after all these years, it just remained abandoned.
No one touched it.
No one dealt with it.
If I had heard this story in the past, I definitely would’ve scoffed and brushed it off with a laugh.
However... hearing it now, I felt my scalp tingle, my back turn cold, and goosebumps rise all over my body.
Those so-called group explorers... could they have been players?
Could there be places like this all over the region?
Just what kind of connection is there between the app and reality?