Through the Mirror
"Bang!" The monster exploded violently under the attack of Old Bear's fire stick, and broken flesh and blood splattered all over the stairs.
The old bear licked his lips, spat, and ran downstairs.
"Master Xia is back." Luo Dian followed Xia Yi's movements with the sword in hand, and said as he walked down the stairs, "The monster should be gone soon."
"Finally back." Gao Yang wiped his sweat and quickly followed Old Bear downstairs, not forgetting to kick the dead monster on the way down. "I was so frustrated just now. My wrists and legs are covered with cuts from the scales. If it weren't for Xia Yi, Luo Dian and I would have been dragged to death here!"
Xia Yi shook off the back of his cut hand and retreated calmly. Luo Dian's sword was nowhere near as sharp as Lao Xiong's firewood stick, and it pierced his abdomen fiercely, leaving only a shallow, round mark. Xia Yi, using the force of the attack, was catapulted off the stairs and landed on the first floor.
She glanced at the monster falling down the stairs. It shook its massive body and unexpectedly turned its gaze away, no longer looking at her. The only remaining monster at the other end of the stairs also descended hesitantly, its pace noticeably slower.
Since the monsters didn't come over, Xia Yi naturally wouldn't cause trouble. She stared at the monsters, slowly turned her back, and quickly retreated. It seemed that they had reached a special point. The two monsters became transparent at the same time and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Only broken lenses and pieces of flesh remained on the stairs, a reminder of what had happened.
Lao Xiong and Gao Yang looked at each other, their eyes full of caution. Luo Dian sighed and sat down on the ground.
"Damn, it's already past one o'clock. I thought we fought quickly, but I didn't expect the stalemate to last for such a long time." It took Gao Yang a while to come out of his shock. He looked at the time and said in surprise.
At the same time as the monster disappeared, the maids and security guards who were being hunted collapsed on the ground. From all directions, there were cries and screams of people who had been saved from desperate situations, mixed with the remembrance of their deceased relatives. The despair that had been suppressed when the monster appeared broke out completely.
"Tsk tsk, how miserable!" Gao Yang pulled Luo Dian up, patted the dust off Luo Dian's pants, and sighed.
Headless corpses lay across the hall, and the oozing blood seemed to have dyed the entire castle hall red. The further one went outside, the more corpses there were, accompanied by desperate cries, and the lingering darkness made people feel suffocated.
"Director Luo, can you see what monster caused this destruction?" Outside in the small garden, Master Xia and Madam Xia surveyed the corpses scattered across the ground, but they showed no pity for the maids. A lingering fear lingered in their eyes, more like a sense of relief that they weren't stuck in the castle. Xia Lijuan's expression of pity flashed through her, and she averted her gaze uncomfortably, but she immediately imitated her parents and straightened her back before the police.
"This still requires detailed investigation." Director Luo said with a serious expression.
"Okay, go ahead and investigate. We're just ordinary people, and we're afraid of this kind of thing. You must send someone to investigate as soon as possible." Master Xia sighed, his tone sincere. "We will comfort the dead. I will cover all the medical expenses for the injured. As for the deceased, they all died while working, so I will double the pension they deserve. I will also give bonuses to the living."
"Okay, it'd be best if we could calm the living. The team's psychologist will be here to take a look." Chief Luo nodded, and the officers behind him quickly began to dispose of the bodies. The hook-nosed housekeeper had left with Master Xia. She had narrowly escaped the ordeal and showed no fear at all. She frowned at the bloody mess on the ground and, along with a few of the maids who had gone out with her, followed the police's instructions, cleaning up and tending to the injured.
"Look at Mr. Xia's expression of concern for the country and the people. If I didn't know the inside story, I would have believed it." Gao Yang curled his lips, but when he met the approaching police, his expression changed in a second, showing a look of fear as if he had survived a disaster. "Comrade police officer."
"Hello, can you describe to me what the monster you encountered looks like?" asked the police.
"The monster is like a bear, with mirror-like scales all over its body. It's clumsy but very strong, and about twice as tall as me." Gao Yang gestured with his fangs and claws, his expression fully consistent with that of an injured person.
"It's still a bear. Did your Xia family disturb the bear's den? How come it happened again today just after yesterday? So many people died? The Xia family is too unlucky. So many people died while working on their own territory. Where can they go to seek justice?" The policeman took notes and shook his head.
"It's not a bear, it's a monster!" Gao Yang retorted loudly.
"It's definitely a wild brown bear. You might have misremembered it in your shock. There's no such monstrous creature anywhere in the world, let alone more than ten of them at once." The police officer shook his head and laughed, "Do you have photos, scales, or anything like that to prove it?"
"Of course, I'll take you to the stairs. The monster we killed is still there!"
Gao Yang said as he walked inside, but when he reached the stairwell, he was stunned. The stairwell had been cleaned thoroughly.
Gao Yang grabbed a police officer who was carrying a corpse and asked, "Where is the body here?"
"The bodies have all been moved away, and someone will be arranged to claim them when the time comes," said the police.
"Where is the monster's body?" Gao Yang asked.
"What monster corpse? I only saw human corpses and some broken mirrors, which were all swept away," the police officer said. "The man on the stairs was lucky. His head was still there, but the bear bit off a section of his leg. He must have died from excessive blood loss."
"People?" Gao Yang repeated subconsciously.
"It's a human! What else could it be if not a human?!" the police officer carrying the body was surprised. The two police officers thought about it and laughed, "You must have been frightened just now, and your memory is distorted."
Gao Yang's face was grim. How could it be a human? Just now, everyone was desperately trying to escape. Who would have thought of collecting monster scales and photos? This attack might just end abruptly like last night's bear attack, devouring people.
Lao Xiong and Luo Dian also looked at each other with regret. If they had known earlier, they should have taken ten or eight scales when they fought just now!
Just when Gao Yang and the police were in a stalemate, Xia Yi poked Gao Yang, and then took out a monster scale from her skirt pocket. The scale had lost its luster, and there were bloody pieces of flesh on its back. It was weird and terrifying. Combined with Gao Yang's statement, it looked like a scale pulled from a monster.
The two policemen were stunned when they saw the scales. They looked at each other before someone took over and asked, "Is this the monster scale you were talking about?"
"That's right, no bear should have scales, right?" Gao Yang looked at Xia Yi in surprise and said quickly.
"That's true. Are you sure this was taken from the monster that just killed someone? Let's go find other people to confirm it. If this is true, we might have discovered a new species. We can also get a lot of benefits if we report it to the national level." To Xia Yi's surprise, the police did not ignore it.
"Xia Yi, you are so amazing! You can even collect monster scales while fighting."
Xia Yi had originally hidden the scales to show Xiang Jiu if there were any clues. Confused, she asked, "Why did you tell the police?"
"You mean to say that the police won't care about these things, right? That's not certain. Although the game background in the copy is different, there must be police who represent rules and laws. Some police can even catch ghosts. After you call the police, the ghosts will be caught for you! Of course, this is definitely a very rare case. I suggest you call the police after the police appear. Otherwise, even if the call is connected, you don't know when the police will come. By the time they come, it will be too late!" Lao Xiong had obviously been cheated by the police before, and he said this with gritted teeth.
"Well, I haven't seen this statement when I was collecting information on the forum." Xia Yi said.
"Forums certainly don't release every bit of information. If ordinary people knew the tricks to certain games, wouldn't they be able to replace us anytime, anywhere after practicing? Many of our secret skills are kept secret," Lao Xiong said. "But the company should have a dedicated information collection team that compiles all the precautions and techniques into a booklet. My friend at Huaxing said they have it too. Didn't Huaxing give it to you? That's a rip-off!"
"No, I just entered the contract before entering the game, and my assistant probably didn't have time to give it to me yet." Xia Yi smiled shyly.
"You're too brave!" Gao Yang exclaimed. "When I entered the game for the second time, I mentally prepared myself for half a month. It was only after the ladder issued a warning that I finally went in. The only people I've seen entering game dungeons so frequently are those two crazy people in our company..."
"Those two great gods are very powerful." Lao Xiong nodded at Gao Yang.
"Why are you hitting me?" Gao Yang met Lao Xiong's unfriendly gaze and shrugged. "Yes, I have played games with those two crazy... masters. Often, I would only finish half of the game when they had already completed it. Apart from anything else, they were really fast at completing the game. Every time we waited for them to leave, we would analyze where they went, and then re-piece together the information they had already seen." Gao Yang laughed at himself when he finished speaking.
"Xia Lijuan is here again." Luo Dian sat on the bench and reminded the three people in front of him.
Not long after, Xia Lijuan came in with her maid, carrying a basin. Seeing the four people hiding there, she smiled and said, "Xia Yi, have some ginger soup to warm your stomach. And you guys, you must have been scared just now. My parents and I were out attending Jing Fang's funeral, and we were also scared when we heard the news!"
"Thank you." Gao Yang ran over first and took the ginger soup.
Xia Yi was the last to come over. When Xia Lijuan held the bowl, her hand trembled, and Xia Yi subconsciously loosened his grip. The bowl of ginger soup fell to the ground with a thud. Xia Yi quickly said, "I'm sorry."
Xia Lijuan also smiled and said, "It's okay." But Xia Lijuan's face-saving skills were not good enough, and Xia Yi could clearly feel that Xia Lijuan was unhappy.
Xia Yi took the ginger soup that Xia Lijuan handed over again, and used the action of drinking the ginger soup to cover up the coldness on his face. He felt that even Hao Si was not so annoying.
Around three o'clock in the morning, the police cleaned up the bodies, questioned the last maid, and then temporarily withdrew.
The surviving servants also returned to their own residences together.
Xia Yi locked the door and went straight to the transparent wave mirror. He took out the mirror and looked at it. The whole room seemed to have been cleaned and maintained the layout before Jing Fang died. Even the clothes hanging on the hangers had been ironed.
Xiang Jiu was also there, but he wandered around the room, glancing towards the dressing mirror from time to time, but did not jump onto the dressing table.
Xiangjiu seemed to notice her coming, jumped onto the dressing table, looked in the mirror for two minutes, and then breathed a sigh of relief.
"Xia Yi, around midnight, there was a sudden suction force coming from the mirror. If I hadn't jumped off the dressing table in time, I'm afraid the whole cat would have been sucked in by the mirror. It was so scary!" Xiang Jiu raised his paw and gently nudged it with his head. "But now the suction force is gone. Oh, right, when the suction force came, I felt something was wrong, so I went to the servants' villa to check, and everyone who was taking a bath in the villa disappeared."
"Tonight, we're keeping vigil at Jing Fang's funeral. The housekeeper had told them not to come out at night, and the servants went back to their rooms early." Xiang Jiu described all the things he found strange. "By the way, Miss Xia also came to Jing Fang's funeral. I heard them talking about the problems with this house. This house was passed down from the Jing family's ancestors. When the house was renovated a few years ago, the Xia family hired someone to renovate the house. When the servants take a shower, the shower head is right opposite the mirror, and the dry and wet separation barrier is transparent. If there is suction from the mirror, it will be sucked away directly when the shower is taking a shower. This must be a deliberate design by the Xia family!"
Xiang Jiu tilted his head and said, "Wait a moment, I'll go to the servants' room and see if they've returned."
Xia Yi changed his hand, and in the mirror, the little black cat slipped away, leaving the dressing table and running out like the wind.
After a while, Xiang Jiu came running back, opened his mouth and tried to stick his tongue out, took a deep breath, and then said in surprise: "Eight people disappeared, two of them didn't come back. One of them is called Lin Feng, a player of Xia Ji. He originally followed Lao Xiong to gain experience, and was assigned to two different camps. The other one who disappeared was an ordinary security guard, but he was injured and broke a bone some time ago.
The remaining six have all returned, but when I snuck into their bathrooms, I noticed many of them were injured. One was a player from our group. I followed him the entire day, and I'm sure he was healthy. But when I snuck in tonight, his entire butt was bruised and extremely swollen. I even heard one of the maids say her body was covered in red welts and swollen. They must have been injured when they disappeared and no one knows where. I'll follow them tomorrow night."
If it disappears directly, it should mean death, right?
Xia Yi paused, raised his hand and pinched the tip of his nose, so Lao Xiong was equivalent to killing one of his own.
"Is it possible that they went to your place?" Xiang Jiu said happily, "If they went to your place, I would go find you, but consciousness is a big problem. They have no memory of what happened after they disappeared. That player was scared to death when he saw his own butt, and cried to find Lin Feng, but couldn't find him. Now he is even more devastated." Xiang Jiu laughed and planned, "I exchanged medicine from the system to stay awake, which should be of some use."
"The players here are all newbies entering the game for the second time. They haven't found any clues. They just found a yellow paper that looks like a talisman behind all the mirrors in the Jing family. What's this on it?" Xiang Jiu used the hair of his chin to flip it up with difficulty and showed the entire talisman to Xia Yi.
Xia Yi looked at the talisman. No, it shouldn’t be called a talisman. It was just a piece of yellow paper with the symbol of money drawn on it.
However, there are few people who don’t recognize currency symbols!
Xia Yi glanced at Xiang Jiu. All the mirrors in the Jing family had this. She instantly thought of the anchor point. This symbol might be like a converter. The monsters coming out of these mirrors entered the Xia family where the anchor point was. What would the anchor point be?
Xia Yi shook his head. There was still too little information about the anchor point. Maybe it was in the mirror house. Don’t all monsters come out of the mirror house?
Xia Yi thought of the strange mirror house again. It would not move and would not be lost. This was indeed the best anchor location.
"I'll go to Xia's house tomorrow and ask you then." Xiang Jiu seemed to have already decided that he would come here tomorrow. He yawned and said, "I'm going to sleep. If I wasn't afraid that you wouldn't be able to find me tonight, I would have gone to bed long ago."
Xia Yi tidied himself up, changed into clean clothes, covered himself with the quilt, and went to bed to rest.
Just as the sky was getting light, rows of footsteps were heard in the small villa. The footsteps came from far away and finally stopped at Xia Yi's door.
Xia Yi was startled and suddenly woke up from his light sleep.
The door was suddenly kicked open, and the hook-nosed steward outside looked at Xia Yi with a cold brow: "Come out, the Xia family has been busy these past few days, and you, a newcomer, dare to cause trouble? You have only worked in the Xia family for a few days, and you dare to steal things. Did your last employer also kick you out because of stealing?!"
Xia Yi stared blankly at the maids rummaging through his room.
After a while, a familiar handheld mirror was found, and even the earrings Xia Lijuan gave her yesterday were found in her pocket.
"I don't know what's going on. I have never touched this handheld mirror of yours, and the earrings were given to me by you." Xia Yi said quickly.
"I've heard that story countless times. Angel said the same thing yesterday," the hook-nosed butler sneered. "Yesterday, the surveillance footage showed only the four of you entering the main hall. I don't know which floor you were on, but you stayed there for a long time. I searched all four of your rooms, but only you and I found the mirror. I don't care if it was a gang crime, but you definitely took advantage of the chaos to steal it."
"No." Xia Yi's face looked unhappy.
"So many people died yesterday, and you still had the guts to steal the mirror. You're really amazing! Don't think that we won't deal with the lost mirror issue just because of what happened yesterday. The young lady's mirror was lost several times, and I found it every time. The gem on the young lady's mirror is very valuable, and you can't afford to pay for it even if you sell it. After we finish dealing with yesterday's matter, we will hand you over to the police."
Maids were all around watching the fun. Xia Yi closed his eyes and tried to suppress his anger. He couldn't hit anyone, as it would only make things more complicated. But inside, he was filled with irritable anger.
It’s so annoying, why me, me again?
"No reason, I just hate you." A familiar voice sounded in Xia Yi's mind.
Xia Yi felt that if Xia Lijuan had done this, it must have been for the same reason.
Xia Yi was taken away and locked up in a small warehouse next to the villa's kitchen. It seemed that Anjie was also dragged into this warehouse yesterday. Because of his anger and irritability, Xia Yi remembered the small details more clearly.
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