253: Chapter 21 In the Beloved Mirror (2) 253: Chapter 21 In the Beloved Mirror (2) “Miss, do you think I’m handso!”
Outside the door, Shiyu Ling faintly heard this and frowned, “What kind of nonsense are you spouting now?”
The woman in the bathroom mirror likely had the sa thought, the faceless woman with black teeth didn’t make a sound for a while, as if she too was stunned.
Gongsun Ce seized the mont, “Just to clarify, this isn’t a pickup line; I’m just checking my own attractiveness.
If you have a different opinion, feel free to speak up, I humbly accept objective evaluations!”
“…” The monster in the mirror, who was just about to press her face against it, now stepped back, seemingly at a loss.
The gray-haired youth pressed on, “Is that a tacit agreent?
Indeed, you also think I look good upon our first eting?”
“Ah…” The black teeth woman voiced vaguely, “Ah…
ah.”
“Thank you for your recognition, Miss Unknown,” the gray-haired youth bowed forward, “We bear no grudges and I see no need for us to co to blows.
Since we et by chance, if you have so untold difficulties, feel free to share.
I can lend a hand; it’s the least I can do.
If you’re set on a fight, then no more idle chatter, let’s make it quick and easy for both of us—I can finish up and get to my al, and you can finish up and take a break.
Ladies first, whether to fight or talk, the choice is yours.”
“………”
The faceless, black-toothed woman, apparently unaccustod to such a situation, stepped back two more steps, speaking weakly, “I want…
to get…”
“What you want is?
Anything but my heart is up for discussion.”
Caught off guard, the black-toothed woman stuttered, “Sothing important…”
In RPG gas, NPCs at least say, “Could you go to the doctor’s house at the village entrance and buy two herbs for ?” But look at you, no information provided at all.
“Fine, I’ll look for it when I have my al and wait for my ride; if I can’t find it, that’s the most I can do.” Gongsun Ce nodded, “If fate allows, we’ll et again.”
The black-toothed woman disappeared, and the mirror reflected his own face.
He exited the bathroom, and Shiyu Ling coldly asked by the wall, “A Spiritual Attack or hiding?”
“Either I’m truly unlucky, or there are more hiding spirits than I anticipated.”
Gongsun Ce walked back to the table, thought about talking to an uncle at the next table who ntioned the mirror, but found that the table occupants had left.
His oyakodon had been served.
Golden silky eggs wrapped around fried onions, spring onions, and mushrooms, all drizzled over tenderly fried chicken on rice.
The broth, soy sauce, and mirin mixed into the sauce penetrated the rice, imparting it a sauce-stained color.
One spoonful and the aroma was captivatingly delicious.
The Superpower User tasted it and sincerely praised, “Delicious!”
“I told you this place has great taste,” Miss Linai softly spoke, “I’m starting now” before picking up her chopsticks.
“Mr.
Gongsun was gone for quite a while.”
“I was chatting with a hiding spirit in the bathroom.”
Miss Linai took a sip of barley tea to calm her nerves, shaking her head, “Whoa…”
·
During the al, Miss Qiluo in the phone expressed her intense desire to eat in various ways, eventually compromising by ordering takeaway as her real body in the City of Caelum.
The cyber idol Miss pulled up a banner: [(´;д;`) If only I could hack into Biochemical Sli to share its sensory abilities…]
Don’t be like that Qiluo, your elents are already nurous enough.
I’d even be scared of a sli idol as your teammate.
Gongsun Ce quickly typed [Please watch your image], then finished his real-world explanation, “…afterwards, that faceless Miss with pitch black teeth was gone.”
Miss Linai set down her chopsticks and dug out a lollipop from her pocket.
“There are records of similar hiding spirits,” she stirred the lollipop with her tongue, “but your description doesn’t quite match, Mr.
Gongsun.”
“What has Miss Linai thought of?”
Chuyun Linai’s gaze grew peculiar.
She raised her phone, her face reflected on the pitch-black screen.
“Have you heard of such urban legends?
A beautiful woman, once adored and yearned for, appearing in the mirror?”
The ghost in the mirror is a classic urban legend image, and he had encountered many related works before.
Common plots involved the ghost dragging soone into the mirror to kill them, or crawling out from it to harm soone.
However…
Gongsun Ce rembered the ghost who had shrunk back timidly minutes earlier, “I feel she’s quite different from the legends’ depiction, could it be because Mr.
Gongsun is so upright that evil spirits can’t touch ?”
“It’s probably because you’re mad enough to have sapped the ghost’s interest.” Shiyu Ling smirked, “If I were the ghost, I wouldn’t possess you either; might end up ntally contaminated and turn silly.”
The Superpower User hastily lowered his gaze, pinching his voice in a mannered tone, “How annoying, Miss Alice!
Talking about ‘possession’ in front of others in broad daylight, I get shy…
Why do you still hit people, that’s really rude!”
The blue-haired woman’s straight punch was blocked, and she emitted continuous retching sounds.
“Ugh, disgusting!”
“Could you two be a little considerate towards soone trying to explain seriously?” Miss Linai spoke with the unique worry of a serious person mingled among fools, “But back to the point, like Mr.
Gongsun said, the true hidden gods always differ from their images in folk tales.
The mirror specter I thought of is the sa.”
Gongsun Ce stopped arguing with his partner.
He rembered that the term ‘female room’ referred to the female officials in the palace in ancient Zero Island, and it also had a usage referring to ‘wife.’
“Does ‘mirror female room’ refer to the female official or wife in the mirror?”
Miss Linai shook a sugary stick in place of a nod.
“It’s used in the latter sense here.
A man sees his long-lost love in the mirror, and after conversing with her, falls into a brief bewildernt, to eventually wake from his spot as if awakening from a trance, with the woman in the mirror nowhere to be seen.
The hidden god who triggers this phenonon is the mirror specter.”
It seed to have no significant harm.
“In records, She has never caused serious trouble, so we didn’t adopt harsh asures here.
In an unusually active situation like today, using specialized thods to dispel it is enough,” explained Miss Linai, her look at him growing even more peculiar, “But if it really is the mirror specter, there’s sothing that doesn’t add up…”
Indeed, the hidden god Miss Linai described was different from what he had seen.
The figure he had seen in the mirror was not a beautiful woman, but a frightful monster.
“!” Gongsun Ce suddenly understood the origin of the witch’s peculiar gaze, but his partner also realized it at this mont.
“Hey, co on.
A woman with no face and black teeth?!” Shiyu Ling burst into laughter, “You actually like that kind of type, which doesn’t even count as human?!
Impressive, Gongsun Ce, didn’t see that you had such a heavy taste!”
“People coming from big cities have fresher perspectives, which I can understand…” Miss Linai’s smile was a bit strained.
The Superpower User shouted in despair: “That’s not it!
My sexual preferences are very normal.
The type I like is a tall, leggy, handso, silver-haired older woman!”
In his eagerness to explain, he forgot that he was in a diner on Zero Island instead of a fast-food restaurant in the tropolitan sky city, attracting the attention of everyone in the diner with his passionate voice.
Miss Linai rubbed her head, thinking that along the way, the Ninja Army probably wouldn’t need to be busy, as the information would just co to them.
·
Zhong Tie left the diner, bidding farewell to his workmates, and walked alone on the street.
Early April on Zero Island had not yet reached the hot season, the midday sun warming his body.
“Handmade paper folding fans.” “A six-pointed protective amulet bringing luck, buy six for double the fortune.” “A gift box of tranquil traditional sweets.” The small shops by the road put out genuinely appealing advertisents, a technique the shopkeepers learned after visiting big cities to attract custors.
However, remote Yuli Town had little tourist flow, and while many traveled from here to big cities, few ca from big cities here, rendering these attractive signs ultimately just for the locals to see.
“Everyone’s gone, huh…” Zhong Tie walked under the sun, yet his heart wasn’t as warm as outside.
He was 36 this year, a worker living in the town.
Ten years ago at this ti, he was walking with his then-girlfriend Aoi, contemplating how many children to have after their marriage; back then, the town’s shops hadn’t yet posted so many advertisents.
But maybe Aoi had seen too many big city programs on TV or found too many “inspirational stories of moving from a small village to succeeding in the big city” online.
Aoi always dread of living a splendid life on Dahe Island.
Naively, she thought she could make a breakthrough like the protagonists in those stories, but Zhong Tie knew they would find it hard to find a better place to live than the town without even the basic stepping stone of a high education in the harsh Weiyuan City.
His girlfriend didn’t think so.
Ultimately disappointed, she left without a word, boarded a train heading north, and he lost all contact with her.
Zhong Tie searched for a long ti but never saw his deeply loved woman again.
Until this morning.
His workmates said he had drunk too much, but Zhong Tie knew it wasn’t an alcohol-induced hallucination.
That morning, just after washing his face and looking up, he distinctly saw Aoi, identical to how she was ten years ago, even her voice unchanged.
Aoi smiled at him from the mirror, spoke of her unbroken longing over the years, urging him to co closer to the mirror to get a better look at his appearance…
The more Zhong Tie thought about it, the more distressed he beca.
He ran into a convenience store by the street and bought a small makeup mirror for won.
He stared hard at the mirror, hoping to see sothing, but all he could see was his own scruffy-bearded face.
“Damn it!
Why did she disappear?
Co out, Aoi!”
He squeezed the mirror, calling out anxiously.
People on the street looked over, but he remained oblivious.
“Uncle, are you looking for sothing?”
A voice reached his ears.
Not Aoi’s, but a more childlike, female voice.
Zhong Tie hurriedly looked up, noticing a strangely dressed girl approaching him with a beaming smile.
The girl was only waist-high.
She wore a black and white Gothic long dress, held a smooth round mirror in her hands, and stepped in boots, dressed like a mischievous child who had sneaked out of a costu party.
There were no children dressed like this in the town; was she a visitor from a big city?
“Did you get separated from your parents?” Zhong Tie quickly put on a friendly smile, “The police station is on the next street, or it’s closer if you go back towards the station the way you ca.”
The girl ca even closer, showing no sign of shyness.
She peered at the mirror in Zhong Tie’s hand, her eyes rolling as she spoke with an inscrutable tone, as if seeing through his inner thoughts, “Could it be, are you looking for a girl?
A girl in the mirror?”
Zhong Tie held his breath all at once.
“Did I guess right?
I’m so lucky!” The girl laughed, her expression turning excited and greedy like a hunter spotting prey.
“Wait for , dear sister.
Wait until Shiqi is ready, and I’ll co take you ho…”
This girl didn’t seem reputable.
Zhong Tie instinctively felt sothing was off, thinking he should stay away from this odd child.
However, a flash from the girl’s mirror caught his eye, making him lock eyes with his reflection.
“…!” He found himself unable to speak, his body involuntarily following the girl, his consciousness overwheld with panic.
What on earth had he encountered?
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