Revolving lantern, back to zero

Lin Shen did not turn around.

He stood in the corridor outside apartment 402, building 3 of the Cuiping residential complex. The photo on his phone screen was gone, replaced by a new text message from an unknown number with only four words:

"Look back."

Lin Shen put his phone in his pocket, turned around, and walked downstairs. He didn't look back. Not because he was afraid, but because he knew that if he turned around, he wouldn't see the person standing behind him—he would see a mirror. An old-fashioned full-length mirror, as tall as him, with dark brown frames, that had appeared out of nowhere in the corridor.

He glanced at it out of the corner of his eye at the corner of the stairs.

The mirror was indeed there. Its surface reflected the empty corridor and stairwell windows, but no one was inside. There was no Lin Shen, no one in the black hoodie, no reflection whatsoever. The mirror was empty.

Lin Shen continued downstairs, stepped out of the building, and felt the warm sunlight on his face. He stood on the concrete road in the community, looking up at the window of apartment 402. The window was closed, the curtains were drawn, and he couldn't see anything.

But he knew the mirror was still upstairs. The blank mirror surface resembled an open eye.

My phone vibrated again. This time it was Xiao Chen.

"Captain, I've found it!" Xiao Chen's voice was excited, with the eagerness of someone who had discovered something. "Those households whose mirrors were stolen have one thing in common—they've all been to a mental health center. Not recently, but within the last three years. Some went to visit patients, some went for outpatient appointments, and some went to deliver things. The timing and reasons were different, but they all went."

Lin Shen walked to the car and opened the door. "Who's there?"

"The first elderly woman visited her husband at the mental health center three years ago, and he stayed there for six months. The second programmer had psychological counseling there two years ago, and his medical record stated insomnia. The third family of three, the woman had seen a psychiatrist there last year, and she has mild anxiety. The fourth elderly man living alone was sent there for an evaluation by community workers five months ago, and they suspected he had early-stage Alzheimer's disease."

"And the fifth one?" Lin Shen got into the driver's seat. "The mirror in ward B7."

"The fifth case has no residents." Xiao Chen's voice lowered. "The patient in ward B7 has been transferred. Shen Ruo was transferred to a regular ward at the First People's Hospital of the city three days ago. Her attending physician said that her consciousness has fully recovered and she can communicate normally, but some of her memories are confused. She remembers who she is, remembers Lu Ming, remembers you, but she doesn't remember the revolving lantern incident."

Lin Shen gripped the steering wheel, remaining silent for a few seconds. "Is she still at the First People's Hospital?"

"Yes. 12th floor of the inpatient department, room 1208." Xiao Chen paused. "Captain, isn't that the same floor as Lu Ming's room? Lu Ming is in 1208, and Shen Ruo is also in 1208?"

Lin Shen recalled the photograph—Lu Ming lying on a white bed, his wrist wrapped in gauze. The back of the photograph read, "First People's Hospital of the City, 12th Floor, Room 1208." The same room. Lu Ming and Shen Ruo were assigned to the same ward.

It's not a coincidence. Someone did it on purpose.

"Chen Xu, continue the investigation." Lin Shen started the engine. "Find out who transferred Shen Ruo to the First People's Hospital of the city, who arranged room 1208, and who is in charge of their treatment."

"Okay. Captain, where are you going?"

"Go to the hospital."

The inpatient department of the city's First People's Hospital is a twenty-story building with a gray-white exterior and numerous windows, resembling a giant honeycomb. Lin Shen parked his car in the underground parking lot and took the elevator to the 12th floor. When the elevator doors opened, the corridor was quiet, except for the ringing of the telephone at the nurses' station.

Room 1208 is at the end of the corridor.

Lin Shen walked over, his footsteps light, but the floorboards still creaked. He stood in the doorway; the door was closed, but light shone through the glass window. He looked inside through the glass window—

Two beds. One by the window, one by the door. A person sits on the bed by the window, wearing a hospital gown, hair disheveled, head bowed, reading a book. Shen Ruo. A person lies on the bed by the door, covered by a blanket, face turned towards the window, face obscured. Lu Ming.

Lin Shen gently knocked on the door.

"Come in." Shen Ruo's voice was calm and steady, unlike someone who had just woken up from a three-year coma.

Lin Shen pushed open the door and went in.

Shen Ruo looked up at him, her eyes completely unwavering. It wasn't that she didn't recognize him; she knew him, but she felt no extra emotion—no surprise, no joy, no fear, not even curiosity. It was like a teacher seeing a late student in class, her expression conveying: "You're here, sit down."

"You've come," Shen Ruo said. "I've been waiting for you for three days."

"Did you know I was coming?"

Shen Ruo put down the book in her hand; it was a very old mystery novel, the cover worn and the spine bearing a library label. "I knew you'd come. Because that mirror was stolen."

Lin Shen walked to the bedside near the window and sat down in a chair. "You know about the mirror?"

“I know everything.” Shen Ruo looked at him. “Not because I remember, but because I can feel. My consciousness is still connected to the revolving lantern network. Even if the root of the ‘Holy Spirit’ is severed, the network is still there. I can still see some things—fragments, shadows, echoes. I knew about the stolen mirror from the very beginning.”

"Who stole it?"

Shen Ruo didn't answer directly. She turned her head and looked at Lu Ming lying on the bed near the door. Lu Ming was still asleep, his breathing was even, and his chest rose and fell slowly.

"Do you still remember the 'self' you killed in the Origin World?" Shen Ruo asked.

Lin Shen nodded.

"He didn't die," Shen Ruo said. "You only killed his body. His consciousness was released, escaped from the trunk of the 'Holy Spirit,' and scattered between various parallel worlds. He is not a complete person now, but a fragment of consciousness, like Lu Ming became a ghost three years ago. But he is stronger than Lu Ming because he was separated from the 'Holy Spirit's' main body. He inherited some of the 'Holy Spirit's' abilities."

"What ability?"

Shen Ruo turned her head and looked into Lin Shen's eyes. "He can enter mirrors. Not look into mirrors, but enter mirrors. Mirrors are not reflections for him, they are doors. He can travel between different mirrors, from the mirrors of this world to the mirrors of another world. He is looking for something."

"What are you looking for?"

"He's looking for a new body," Shen Ruo said softly. "His fragmented consciousness needs a container to stabilize and become a complete person. He's looking for a body that's closest to yours. In all parallel worlds, he's looking for a container that best matches your genes and has the most synchronized consciousness frequency."

Lin Shen gripped his knees tightly. "He wants to possess my body?"

"No," Shen Ruo shook her head, "He doesn't want to take over your body. He wants to take over Lu Ming's body."

Lin Shen turned to look at Lu Ming, who was sleeping soundly on the bed.

"Lu Ming died three years ago," Shen Ruo said. "His body has been kept going by a life support system. His consciousness has become a ghost, scattered throughout the network. This body is empty, without an owner. For the fragments of the 'Holy Spirit,' this is the perfect container—empty, alive, and with the closest frequency to your consciousness. Because Lu Ming was also a 'revolving lantern' ability user, his consciousness frequency is on the same band as yours."

Lin Shen stood up, walked to Lu Ming's bedside, and looked down at him. Lu Ming's face was very thin, with prominent cheekbones and deep-set eyes, exactly like the ghost form he had seen in Su Wan's room. But the Lu Ming now had flesh and blood, and a real pulse was beating under the gauze on his wrist.

"What would happen if a fragment of the 'Holy Spirit' took over Lu Ming's body?" Lin Shen asked.

"Lu Ming will wake up," Shen Ruo said, "but not the real Lu Ming. It will be something that wears Lu Ming's skin and contains the consciousness of the 'Holy Spirit'... It will have Lu Ming's memories, Lu Ming's appearance, Lu Ming's fingerprints, and Lu Ming's DNA. But it is not Lu Ming. It is another version of you."

Lin Shen's hand rested on the cold metal railing of the bed. "What does the stolen mirror have to do with this?"

“Mirrors are doors,” Shen Ruo said. “The fragments of ‘Holy Spirit’ require a large number of mirrors to build passages. The mirrors he stole were not ordinary mirrors. Those mirrors had all been used by those with the ability to create a revolving mirror—the old lady in the first house, whose husband was a D-level echoer, though she herself didn’t know it. The programmer in the second house, whose insomnia was because his consciousness would unconsciously enter a shallow revolving mirror. The lady of the third house, whose anxiety was due to her unstable consciousness frequency, occasionally receiving signals from parallel worlds. The elderly man living alone in the fourth house, who had a mild ‘mirror cognition disorder’—he could see another version of himself in the mirror.”

Lin Shen recalled the dreams those residents had: waking up in the middle of the night and seeing themselves moving, smiling, and waving in the mirror.

"The mirror of the fifth house," Shen Ruo said, "the mirror in ward B7, which I used for three years. When I was in a coma, my consciousness was constantly observing the outside world through that mirror. That mirror is a node in the entire revolving lantern network. The fragments of the 'Holy Spirit' stole it to use it as a channel to enter your world."

A series of hurried footsteps suddenly echoed in the corridor. Lin Shen turned around, his hand resting on the butt of his gun.

The door was pushed open. A young nurse stood in the doorway, pale-faced and panting.

"Team Leader Lin! Someone's been brought to the emergency room downstairs. They say he's your colleague! His surname is Chen!"

Lin Shen's heart skipped a beat. "Chen Xu?"

"Yes! He was injured, covered in blood, and kept calling your name!"

Lin Shen rushed out of room 1208 and ran towards the elevator. The elevator was too slow, so he rushed into the stairwell and ran down the stairs. He ran the twelve floors in one and a half minutes.

The emergency room was on the second floor. He pushed open the door, and the corridor was already in chaos—nurses were running with stretchers, doctors were shouting "Make way, make way!", and on the stretcher lay a person covered in blood, his face obscured by blood, making his features unrecognizable. But Lin Shen saw the uniform—a dark blue police uniform with the badge number 380217 on the chest.

Chen Xu.

Lin Shen rushed over and grabbed Xiao Chen's hand. Xiao Chen's fingers were icy cold, but still strong. He gripped Lin Shen's hand tightly, his lips moving, uttering hoarse, almost inaudible sounds:

"Captain...the mirror...the person in the mirror...is coming out..."

Xiao Chen's eyes widened suddenly, his pupils shrinking to pinpoints. He stared intently in a direction behind Lin Shen, his face displaying an expression Lin Shen had never seen before—not fear, but despair. The expression of someone facing an inescapable fate.

"He's right behind you." After saying this, Xiao Chen closed his eyes.

The electrocardiogram monitor emitted a long, flat beep.

The nurse wheeled him into the emergency room. The door closed. The red light came on.

Lin Shen stood in the corridor, his hands covered in Xiao Chen's blood. He looked down at the blood, red and warm, slowly cooling down.

He turned around.

At the end of the corridor, a mirror hangs on the wall. It's the kind commonly seen in hospital corridors, with a stainless steel frame, square and used for patients to tidy their appearance.

The mirror reflected the corridor, the lights, the cart, and him.

But besides him, there was another person.

The person stood behind him, very close, almost touching his back. They were wearing a black hoodie, the hood pulled low, obscuring their face. There was a tattoo on their wrist—a black snake entwined around a rose.

Lin Shen didn't turn around. He stared at the person in the mirror, and that person stared back at him.

Then that person laughed.

In the mirror, the face hidden by the brim of a hat slowly lifted up.

Lin Shen saw his own face.

But it wasn't a reflection in a mirror—it was another person's face, with the exact same features as him, but a different expression. That expression wasn't one Lin Shen would have. It was a cold, cruel expression, like a cat looking at a mouse.

The person in the mirror raised their right hand and wrote a few words on the mirror surface with their finger. The words were reversed, but Lin Shen could read them:

I've found you.

Then the mirror rippled like the surface of water. The person reached out their hand—and it came out of the mirror.

A pale hand, with long, slender fingers and black nails, passed through the mirror-like surface as if piercing through a film of water. The fingers stretched out in the air, pointing towards the depths of the forest.

Lin Shen took a step back and placed his hand on the gun handle.

But the hand didn't touch him. It froze in mid-air, as if blocked by something. The fingers clenched spasmodically a few times, then withdrew. The mirror returned to its calm state, reflecting the empty corridor.

Lin Shen stood there, his heart pounding so hard it felt like it was going to explode.

My phone vibrated.

Unknown number:

"The mirror is just the first door. The second door is in your house. The third door is inside your body. You can't stop me. I'm just warming up."

"—Another You"

The red light in the emergency room went out.

The door opened.

The doctor came out, took off his mask, and looked at Lin Shen.

"Team Leader Lin, he's out of danger. But he said something he wanted me to tell you."

"What did you say?"

"The mirror shattered, but the person inside didn't die. He got out."

Lin Shen closed his eyes.

He heard a very soft laugh coming from the mirror at the end of the corridor.