Revolving lantern, back to zero

Its daybreak.

Lin Shen stood by the window, watching the sun rise through the gaps between the buildings. Golden light shone on his face, on the seven stars in his eyes. The stars stopped twinkling; they were quiet, stable, like seven nails driven into the sky, fixed deep within his pupils.

He touched the scar on his chest. The scar was still, no longer throbbing. The "self" within him had been silent for a long time. It hadn't disappeared; it was waiting. Waiting for Lin Shen to be ready.

"You didn't sleep all night." Yuan Dian Su Wan stood behind him, holding a glass of water.

"I can't sleep."

"What are you thinking about?"

Lin Shen turned around and looked at her. She was still wearing that white nurse's uniform, her hair still tied up, but her eyes had changed—no longer empty and focused, but warm and meaningful. Like a mirror that had been wiped clean, reflecting things anew.

"I'm wondering, the 'Gardener' is dead, so who is the new 'Gardener'?" Lin Shen said. "He said he's the shadow of the people who died at my hands. He said he has many faces. He said the sixth seed is inside Su Wan. But the seed blossomed, the flower withered, and there was no fruit. So what does he mean by 'the sixth seed is in your world'?"

Yuan Dian Su Wan handed him the water glass. "Did you ask him?"

"It wasn't in time. He's gone."

"Then go find him."

Lin Shen took a sip of water. The water was cold, chilling him from his throat all the way to his stomach, like a thread of ice. "I don't know where he is."

Yuan Dian Su Wan took something out of her pocket and placed it in Lin Shen's palm. It was a small mirror, about the size of a fingernail, with a stainless steel frame. Lin Shen's face was reflected in the mirror, but behind him stood a person. Not a clear one, but a blurry figure, like a person seen through frosted glass.

"He's in your mirror," Yuan Dian Su Wan said. "Not this small mirror, but the mirror in your eyes. There are seven stars in your pupils, and each star is a mirror. He's in one of them."

Lin Shen turned the small hand mirror over to look at the back. There was a line of text engraved on the back, the handwriting exactly the same as his: "You're looking for me, and I'm right in your eyes. Close your eyes, and you'll see me."

Lin Shen closed his eyes. Darkness. In the darkness, seven stars shone, like seven lamps. In the halo of each lamp stood a person—seven different shadows, seven different faces. There was Old Zhou's, the drug dealer's, the fugitive he killed in the chase, and another version of himself who died in the revolving lantern. And there was another face he had never seen before. A young girl, fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing a school uniform, with a ponytail, large eyes, and black pupils like two black glass beads.

She stood in the halo of the seventh star, looking at him.

"Who are you?" Lin Shen asked.

"I was the first," the girl said. "The first person you killed. Not that drug dealer, but someone from before. You don't remember. Because you were too young then."

Lin Shen's heart raced. "I've never killed anyone. I fired my first gun seven years ago."

"You killed someone. Before you were born." The girl tilted her head, as if recalling a long-ago story. "When your mother was pregnant with you, she had a tumor. You killed that tumor. Not intentionally, but your cells devoured the tumor's cells. You survived, and the tumor died. That tumor was me."

Lin Shen opened his eyes. The sunlight stung his eyes. He rubbed his eyes, his fingers touching tears—he didn't know when they had started flowing.

"What did you see?" Yuan Dian Su Wan asked.

"I saw the first person I killed." Lin Shen's voice was soft. "Not after I became a policeman, but before I was born. A tumor. She turned into a girl, standing in my eyes."

Yuan Dian Su Wan remained silent for a long time. The sunlight outside the window grew brighter and brighter, shining on the mirrored floor of the living room and reflecting a golden light.

"So what the new 'Gardener' said is true," Yuan Dian Su Wan said. "He is the shadow of the people who died at your hands. He has as many faces as you have killed. The first person you killed was a part of yourself, so his first face is your own face."

Lin Shen looked down at his hands. There were seven crescent-shaped scars on his palms—not from fingernails, but from shards of mirror. Each scar corresponded to a mirror, each mirror to a star, and each star to someone who died at his hands.

"He's not an enemy," Lin Shen said. "He's my past. The people I've killed, the debts I owe, the memories I've forgotten. He's a part of me, just like the 'self' inside me. I've accepted 'myself,' but I haven't accepted him yet."

Yuan Dian Su Wan took the small hand mirror from Lin Shen's hand and put it back in her pocket. "Then accept him now."

"How do we accept it?"

"Close your eyes, find him, and tell him—you are not my enemy, you are my past. I don't need to kill you, nor do I need to be killed by you. I need to remember you."

Lin Shen closed his eyes. Darkness. Seven stars. In the halo of the seventh star, the girl was still standing there, wearing a school uniform, with her hair in a ponytail, and big eyes.

"You are not my enemy," Lin Shen said. "You are my past. I don't need to kill you, nor do I need to be killed by you. I need to remember you."

The girl's eyes reddened. Not from sadness, but from being seen.

"You remember me?" Her voice trembled.

"I remember you."

The girl smiled. It was a warm, genuine smile, like sunshine. Her body began to become transparent, spreading upwards from her feet. Just like all the mirror keepers he had ever seen in the mirror.

"Thank you for remembering me," she said. "Now you can go see the real 'gardener'."

"A true 'gardener'?"

"The 'gardener' you killed was a fake. He was the shadow of the real 'gardener.' The real 'gardener' is in the seventh star. You can see him if you push open the door of the seventh star."

She disappeared.

Lin Shen opened his eyes. He walked to the window and drew back the curtains. Sunlight streamed in, illuminating the entire living room. He took out the seven mirrors, stacked them together, and held them up to the sunlight. The sunlight passed through the mirrors, projecting a seven-pointed star pattern onto the wall. At the center of the seven-pointed star was a single point. Very small, very bright, like a burning star.

The seventh star.

Lin Shen reached his hand into the point of light. His fingers passed through the light as if through a film of water. He was completely drawn in.

Light. Dazzling, scorching, like the surface of the sun. He felt himself falling, not in space, but in time. A second, a minute, an hour, a day, a month, a year. He saw his past—his days in the orphanage, his days at the police academy, his days in the criminal investigation team. Every shot fired, every chase, every injury. All the memories flashed before his eyes like a movie, fast-forwarded, slow-motion, frozen in time.

He landed.

A room. White walls, white floor, white ceiling. Exactly the same as his own consciousness space. But in the center of the room, there was no chair, no table, no mirror. Only one person.

An old man. His hair was completely white, his face was full of wrinkles, his back was hunched, and he leaned on a cane. He was dressed in white clothes, exactly the same as when Lin Shen first met Chen Yuan in the Origin World.

"You've come." The old man's voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't had water in a long time. "I've been waiting for you for a long time."

Lin Shen walked up to the old man. "Are you the 'Gardener'?"

"I am the first 'gardener'." The old man raised his head and looked at Lin Shen. His eyes were brown, normal, but deep in his pupils was a very small, almost invisible pattern—not a black rose, but a tree. A tree's complete life process from seed sprouting, growing into a seedling, and becoming a large tree.

"Weren't you dead?"

"I'm dead. But not the 'Gardener' you killed. The one you killed was my shadow. I died thirty years ago. Before I died, I divided my power into seven parts and planted them in seven parallel worlds. Each part of the power will grow into a new 'Gardener.' You killed one, so there are six left."

Lin Shen's hand rested on the gun handle. "You're here to kill me?"

"I've come to save you." The old man smiled, a weary smile, like a lamp about to go out. "The seven stars in your eyes aren't mirrors, they're keys. Each key can unlock a 'Gardener's' cage. You unlock the cage, release the 'Gardener,' and then kill him. With each one you kill, one star disappears from your eyes. When you've killed all seven, your eyes will be clean."

Lin Shen stared into the old man's eyes. "Why me?"

"Because you killed yourself," the old man said. "When you died the first time, you killed that 'self' and released his power. Those powers scattered throughout your body and turned into seven stars. Only you can use these stars to open the cage, because those stars were earned with your own life."

Lin Shen lowered his head and looked at his hands. The seven crescent-shaped scars on his palms gleamed silvery-white under the white light.

"What about the sixth seed?" Lin Shen asked. "The new 'gardener' said the sixth seed is inside Su Wan. But the seed blossomed, the flower withered, and it didn't bear fruit."

The old man shook his head. "That's not the sixth seed. That's the seventh. The new 'gardener' deceived you. The sixth seed is inside you. Beneath that scar on your chest. It's been growing, waiting. Waiting for you to be ready."

Lin Shen pressed his hand to his chest. The scar was cold, not just cool, but ice-cold.

"What are you preparing to do?"

"Get ready to become the new 'Gardener'," the old man said. "When you kill the seventh 'Gardener,' his power will transfer to you. You will become the eighth 'Gardener.' You can choose to use this power to continue planting seeds, continue harvesting, and continue this endless cycle. Or you can choose to kill all the seeds, destroy all the powers, and end this cycle completely."

Lin Shen lowered his hand from his chest. "How do we end this?"

The old man stood up from the chair—Lin Shen didn't notice he was sitting in a chair because it was white and blended in with his clothes, the walls, and the floor. He walked up to Lin Shen, leaning on his cane, and reached out his hand, placing his finger on Lin Shen's brow.

"Go find the remaining six 'Gardeners' and kill them. With each one you kill, one star will disappear from your eye. When all the stars in your eye have disappeared, you will see a door. That door is the beginning of all worlds. Push the door open, go inside, and there is a tree. The tree bears seven fruits. Each fruit represents the power of a 'Gardener.' Pick the fruit and eat it."

"Eat it?"

"Eat it. Absorb the power into your body. Not preserve it, but digest it. Make the power a part of you, not as a tool, but as nourishment. Once you have digested all seven fruits, you will become the new 'Gardener,' but not to plant seeds, you will—to stop all the seeds from growing."

The old man removed his fingers from Lin Shen's brow. His body began to turn transparent, spreading upwards from his feet, just like all the mirror keepers Lin Shen had seen in the mirror.

"Are you going to die?" Lin Shen asked.

"I've been dead for thirty years," the old man smiled. "What you see are my memories left on the seventh star. My mission is complete. You've come, you've seen, you know. Now, you can leave."

He disappeared.

The white room began to collapse. Not shatter, but melt—like ice turning into water in the sunlight. The walls became water, the floor became water, the ceiling became water. The water flowed to the ground, forming a river, flowing into the distance, where there was light.

Lin Shen walked into that light.

He opened his eyes. Standing in his living room, sunlight streamed in through the window, warming his face. Yuan Dian Su Wan stood before him, holding a glass of water, her expression calm.

"How long were you inside?" she asked.

"have no idea."

"Three seconds."

Three seconds again.

Lin Shen took out seven mirrors from his pocket, stacked them together, and placed them on the coffee table. The seven stars in the mirrors were still there, but their positions had changed—from circles to straight lines, like seven beads strung on the same line.

The first star points north. The first "gardener" awaits him in a parallel world.

Lin Shen picked up his car keys and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Yuan Dian Su Wan asked.

"Go kill someone." Lin Shen opened the door. "No, go end the cycle."

He stepped out the door, down the stairs, and into the sunlight.

In the living room behind me, seven mirrors were arranged side by side on the coffee table. The seven stars reflected in the mirrors twinkled simultaneously, then went dark. Not because they went out, but because they knew they would shine again when the time came.