Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 18 The Man in the Mirror

In the morning mist, the girl's face was a little blurry.

She was wearing the uniform of No. 3 Middle School and carrying a schoolbag. Her face was plain and her skin was fair, with nothing unusual to be seen.

But Ran Qing stared at her and subconsciously took half a step back.

——He is not familiar with this girl named Ouyang Xue.

Although we were classmates and talked occasionally, our relationship was not close enough to greet each other on the street.

The most important thing was that the moment the girl's hand landed on his shoulder, he felt a chill, as if he had encountered an evil creature.

However, this strange feeling of chill was fleeting. Ran Qing now looked carefully at Ouyang Xue in front of him, but could not see anything unusual.

Ouyang Xue was amused by his backward movement and asked, "Why are you so startled?"

Ouyang Xue's smile was very natural, revealing her white teeth.

She looked at Ran Qing and asked curiously, "Do you want to buy some sticky rice? After you left last night, someone from the school came to inform us that we had a physical examination this morning and we couldn't have breakfast."

No matter how you look at it, the girl in front of you is normal.

Not a dead person like Li Hongye.

Ran Qing temporarily suppressed his uneasiness and thanked the girl who kindly reminded him.

Then the two parted ways. Ouyang Xue walked into the school gate with her schoolbag on her back, while Ran Qing went to a bakery nearby and bought a red bean paste bread and put it in her school uniform pocket.

Compared to glutinous rice which cannot be eaten once it gets cold, bread can be kept longer.

Ran Qing walked into the school in silence, but the doubts in his heart still remained.

Why did he feel chills when Ouyang Xue patted his shoulder?
Could it be that he has seen too many terrifying things and is like a frightened bird?

Ran Qing walked into the school gate in silence and soon arrived at the classroom.

Just as Ouyang Xue said, we will have a physical examination this morning, and the class monitor announced it again at the podium.

Morning self-study continued as usual, and after that everyone went to the playground to gather.

In the classroom, Ran Qing sat in his seat, looking at the familiar textbooks and the familiar classroom, but his eyes couldn't help but glance towards the window.

Sitting in the third row by the window is Ouyang Xue.

Now the girl is holding a book and reciting the English words in the book like other students in the classroom.

The students' rhythmic recitation echoed in the classroom, inexplicably pleasant to the ears.

Ran Qing was also reciting the English sentences in the textbook, but his eyes were secretly looking at Ouyang Xue.

He observed the entire morning self-study class until the bell rang and the students in the classroom stood up and went downstairs.

Ran Qing didn't notice anything unusual in Ouyang Xue.

There was really nothing unusual about this young girl.

The momentary chill he felt at the school gate seemed to be just an illusion on Ran Qing's part.

"Ran Qing, why are you so distracted?"

"What happened?"

On the way to the playground to gather, several classmates with Ran Qing asked curiously.

Zeng Shunhao, Li Hong, Liao Xinyi, Liu Lei... They are the best friends and are all poor students from rural areas.

Although in a school like the No. 3 Middle School of the City with a serious school spirit and strict management, students have exhausted all their energy just studying and doing exercises and have little energy to form cliques.

But with no one interfering, the dozens of students in the class, the poor rural students still subconsciously gathered together, and the students from the city also played together without anyone guiding them.

No one is deliberately ostracizing anyone else, and no one is deliberately forming cliques. Sometimes the division of circles just happens naturally.

Now facing the concern of his friends, Ran Qing doesn't know how to respond.

If he tells others what happened to him, no one will believe it and it may even bring danger.

Grandma said that those unusual things should not be touched, and even more so, not told to others. If you tell others, they might see something they shouldn't see, which could bring disaster...

Ran Qing absentmindedly brushed off his friends' concerns, saying only that his father had been in the hospital after a car accident. This statement successfully silenced everyone.

Everyone knew about Ran Qing's complicated family background, so they tacitly stopped asking questions.

Soon, they walked to the playground and gathered.

On the playground covered with fine gravel, next to a row of rusty horizontal and parallel bars, the monitor was taking attendance with a roster.

Next to it is an old two-story building. The brick wall house built in the 1980s gives people a shaky feeling.

The second floor was the teachers' dormitory, and the first floor contained two large, empty rooms: one was the former dance studio, and the other was the former auditorium.

There were two large empty classrooms, divided just for boys and girls.

Ran Qing and other boys lined up outside the abandoned auditorium. The doctors and nurses in charge of the physical examinations sat behind tables, each table representing a different physical examination item.

Soon, as the speed of the queues increased, Ran Qing and the others separated.

Ran Qing stood at the back of the blood-drawing team, where the pace was the slowest.

He looked absentmindedly at the other students in the classroom, and waited in line for a long time before it was his turn.

Sitting down in front of the nurse, Ran Qing skillfully rolled up his sleeves and placed his arm on the blood-drawing pad.

Ran Qing felt a little scared as he watched the sharp needle in the nurse's hand pointed at the vein in his arm. It was not until the needle entered the vein and he felt a moment of pain that Ran Qing secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

——The most terrifying thing is not the moment of piercing, but the few seconds before it pierces.

Fortunately, the young nurse did not prick the wrong spot. After the blood was drawn, Ran Qing pressed his arm with a cotton swab and went to queue up for the next examination item.

After a round of items were arranged, it was Ran Qing who completed all the physical examinations first.

He walked to the door, felt the cool breeze from the playground, and started eating the bread he had bought in the morning, while waiting for Liu Lei and the others to have their physical examinations.

In the large dance studio next door, girls were also queuing up and laughing.

Ran Qing took a casual glance and saw Ouyang Xue standing up with her hand covering her arm where blood was being drawn.

Ran Qing subconsciously took a few more glances, and only looked away after Ouyang Xue disappeared in the queue.

There is a huge mirror in the empty dance studio.

Ouyang Xue's figure appeared in the mirror from time to time, and she was not afraid of the mirror reflecting her at all.

This is another clear proof that Ouyang Xue is not abnormal.

After all, Aunt Liu said that the mirror would burn those dead objects.

——Although Li Hongye is not afraid of mirrors.

But Li Hongye is not an ordinary evil ghost and cannot be judged by common sense.

Ran Qing withdrew his gaze and prepared to walk away.

But the moment she raised her foot, she saw her pale face reflected in the huge mirror in the dance studio.

Seeing his pale face in the mirror, Ran Qing was stunned for a moment.

——Do I look so bad?
No wonder Liu Lei and the others were so worried. His complexion was so grim, he looked like he was dying.

Ran Qing himself was shocked.

He couldn't help but take a second look.

The huge mirror in the dance studio clearly reflects the scene outside the studio door.

Ran Qing, wearing a thin school uniform, stood by the door, the playground behind him shrouded in a thick white fog. Ran Qing in the mirror looked pale, like a tuberculosis patient who had been ill for many years, with no trace of blood on his face.

Just at this moment, a classmate in school uniform walked past Ran Qing, and Ran Qing subconsciously moved aside.

As his classmates walked into the auditorium, the moment Ran Qing looked up at the mirror again, his whole body suddenly froze.

In the mirror, a girl in the uniform of No. 3 Middle School was standing quietly in the foggy playground. She was looming in the fog three or four meters behind Ran Qing, staring straight at him.

Skin as pale as death, eerie black eyes without any white at all, and a bloodstained school uniform...

Li Hongye!
(End of this chapter)