Volume 1, Chapter 18: A Miniature Wei Hongying

When Chu Xinghe woke up again, it was already noon the next day.

"Xinghe!" Wei Hongying’s pretty face quickly filled his entire field of vision, her bright, watery eyes bloodshot.

"What happened to me?" With Wei Hongying’s help, Chu Xinghe sat up. His head felt heavy and foggy, as if he had accidentally over-slept during a nap.

"The Ghost Mirror shattered under the combined efforts of the four of you, and you passed out right along with it. You’ve been asleep ever since," Wei Hongying said, clutching his hand, her face still showing lingering fear.

"Wait... the Ghost Mirror shattered?" Chu Xinghe finally recalled everything. Ignoring his own lingering symptoms, he asked urgently, "What about [Hongying]?"

If the Ghost Mirror had shattered, he dared not imagine what would have happened to the [Wei Hongying] trapped inside.

"Xinghe, I'm okay."

A joyful voice, tinged with tears, came from nearby.

It was the voice of [Wei Hongying]!

Chu Xinghe turned his head in ecstatic delight, but all he saw was a cold table cluttered with miscellaneous items; there was no sign of [Wei Hongying].

"Here! I’m here!"

Seeing that Chu Xinghe hadn't found her, [Wei Hongying]'s voice grew higher, and she waved her hands vigorously, trying to catch his attention.

Following Chu Xinghe’s confused gaze, a palm-sized vanity mirror finally caught his eye. Inside, a tiny figure was waving at him.

He looked closer—it was indeed the [Wei Hongying] he had been so worried about.

"How did you end up in a small mirror?" Chu Xinghe picked up the vanity mirror. A great weight lifted from his heart, though he couldn't help but chuckle.

"Sigh, that's a long story." [Wei Hongying] looked sullen. While she was happy to have survived, her pride and joy—her figure—had shrunk to the size of a palm.

"Let me explain," Wei Hongying said, her tone carrying a hint of schadenfreude, as if to get back at him for teasing her earlier. "The Ghost Mirror shattered into over a dozen pieces that scattered in every direction. Even Elder Sun and the others couldn't stop a single piece."

"But later, we noticed you were clutching something tightly in your hand while you were unconscious. It turned out to be a palm-sized shard of the Ghost Mirror, and inside lay a miniature version of 'me.' You know the rest."

After hearing Wei Hongying’s explanation, Chu Xinghe was stunned that things had ended this way. He reached out a finger and gently touched the surface of the glass. The [Wei Hongying] inside leaned in, as if to embrace his fingertip.

"Will she disappear again?" Chu Xinghe asked the question he cared about most.

"Not at all. As long as we have this shard of the Ghost Mirror, I can stay with you forever," [Wei Hongying] said, stepping out of the mirror and climbing onto Chu Xinghe’s palm like a mountaineer.

"You can come out of the mirror?" Chu Xinghe carefully cupped his hands around the miniature [Wei Hongying], terrified of dropping her.

"I can, but only for a little while. I can't be away from the Ghost Mirror for too long," [Wei Hongying] said, leaning against his middle and ring fingers with a worried expression.

Chu Xinghe gently stroked her little head with his fingertip, comforting her, "That’s still much better than before. As long as we’re alive, we’ll find a way."

"Mm-hmm," [Wei Hongying] forced a smile; she didn't want Chu Xinghe to risk his life for her again.

Chu Xinghe knew she was putting on a brave face, and just as he was about to ask something else, the hospital room door was shoved open violently.

Leng Huaping rushed in first, followed by Li Jianjun and Chu Xuan. Elder Sun was nowhere to be seen.

"Xinghe, you’re finally awake! Is there anywhere you feel uncomfortable?" Leng Huaping immediately looked at him with concern, completely ignoring the [Wei Hongying] in his hand.

"Thank you for your concern, I’m fine now," Chu Xinghe replied gratefully; he could tell that Leng Huaping was genuinely worried about him.

As the two exchanged pleasantries, Chu Xuan approached. Although Leng Huaping found him bothersome, she obediently stepped aside to give them space.

"First, I must apologize. My miscalculation caused you to take on risks you shouldn't have had to face," Chu Xuan apologized quite straightforwardly, though whether he would change his ways next time was another matter entirely.

"It’s fine, it’s fine. I should be the one thanking you—[Hongying] was able to survive because of you." Chu Xinghe, unfamiliar with Chu Xuan’s character, actually thought the man was quite decent.

Leng Huaping, watching from the side, shook her head. She would have to warn Chu Xinghe to be wary of Chu Xuan, or one day he’d be sold out and still be counting the money for the other party.

Chu Xuan shook his head and said, "That was your own doing. Honestly, I still can’t figure out how you, in an unconscious state, managed to grab a shard of the Ghost Mirror that even Elder Sun and his team couldn't intercept."

At this point, Chu Xuan glanced at the [Wei Hongying] in his palm and continued, "And for [Wei Hongying] to be inside that exact shard..."

In truth, he had many more questions. Was the Ghost Mirror really destroyed by them? Why didn't the mirror reset this time? What exactly was the mist that had appeared inside it?

"I don't know the answer to that either," Chu Xinghe said. He also felt the coincidence was too great, but he was just as puzzled as Chu Xuan.

"Forget it. Tell me what you know: what exactly did you see in the mirror at the end?" Chu Xuan’s eyes sharpened suddenly.

If someone else had broken the mirror, if the mirror's reset had been forcibly interrupted, or if that shard had been intentionally placed in Chu Xinghe’s hand—then everything would make sense.

"Eyes... I saw a pair of eyes..." Chu Xinghe recalled the memory, still feeling a lingering chill. He could not imagine what a person must have gone through to have such despairing eyes.

"Eyes?" Chu Xuan pondered for a moment. He had someone bring a mirror and held it up to Chu Xinghe, asking, "Were they eyes like these?"

Chu Xuan had someone cover the rest of Chu Xinghe’s face, leaving only the area around his eyes exposed. In the mirror, only a pair of eyes stared back at him.

At this very moment, it was exactly like that moment in the past.

Chu Xinghe stared blankly at the mirror, as if yesterday were repeating itself. It turned out that what he had seen—

Was his own eyes.