Gao Tian sprinted along the long, white path, his eyes fixed on the endless void in the distance.

The place was utterly desolate. No matter how far he ran, the scenery never changed: the white path stretching forward, the black expanse in the distance with no visible edge.

The only features were the mirrors lining the path, each one reflecting a different world from reality.

’This place would be perfect to use as a Ghost Prison in the future,’ he thought, ’a place to make ghosts serve their sentences.’

But if it got too crowded with ghosts, the Mirror World would no longer be safe. Gao Tian wouldn’t be able to use it like this—to scout for enemies or escape harm in the real world.

He could only choose one of the two options.

Either imprison vicious ghosts, or use it for his own travel.

For now, Gao Tian could only treat the Mirror World as a defensive tool. He’d figure out the rest later.

This row of mirrors should all correspond to rooms on the fourth floor. Gao Tian didn’t miss a single one, trying to find the one for Room 413.

The first mirror.

A cozy little room, its walls covered in all sorts of cartoon posters.

A tall, gray creature with long, thin arms that hung down to the floor. Its skin was grayish-white, and it had the face of a human woman.

It faced an empty crib, gently rocking it while humming a lullaby.

...

The second mirror.

A man like a great mountain of flesh lay on a collapsed sofa, surrounded by piles of empty beer bottles. He gripped a new bottle, pouring its contents into his mouth. The liquid inside had long since turned into a black, unidentifiable slime.

The man’s stomach was rotted and hollowed out. Countless small, black hands grew from within, swaying like blades of grass.

They seemed to be pleading with him to drink more of the viscous substance from the bottles.

...

The third mirror.

It looked like a living room. The lights were off, leaving it somewhat dim. The furniture was all pure white and spotless. The owner was clearly a fan of minimalist style.

There was no one in the room this mirror reflected. Strangely, on the walls, the table legs, under the sofa—in every conceivable place—human-like eyes had sprouted and were blinking incessantly.

...

The fourth mirror.

A family of ten, all dressed in black funeral attire, sat motionless in a small room of less than twenty square meters.

They didn’t watch TV, eat, chat, or do anything at all.

Men and women, young and old, every one of them was expressionless.

As Gao Tian passed this mirror, one of the people outside seemed to sense him and glanced in his direction.

...

Not daring to linger, he continued to sprint through the Mirror World.

Finally, he stopped in front of a somewhat familiar mirror.

The room reflected in this mirror was plain. Two figures sat on a sofa, their backs to him. Across from them was the wreckage of a television, smashed with a hammer and emitting a crackling sound. The strange part was that even though it was so badly damaged, a program was still playing normally on the tiny remaining piece of screen.

The two figures on the sofa were watching it intently.

’Isn’t this ghastly room the same Room 413 they were in before?’

Lan Chu had taken one of the dried corpses when he fled, leaving only one on the sofa. But for some reason, Xia Ta hadn’t been teleported away; she was the only one left in the room. In fact, she hadn’t even tried to leave, instead choosing to sit on the sofa and keep the corpse company.

It was strangely eerie. From behind, the figures of Xia Ta and the dried corpse really did look a bit like a father and daughter watching TV on a lazy afternoon.

The mirror Gao Tian was in was quite far from the sofa.

He couldn’t pull her out from this distance, nor did he dare enter Room 413 directly. All he could do was pound on the mirror’s surface, trying to get Xia Ta’s attention.

Other than the static from the TV, Room 413 was dead silent. A mirror on the wall suddenly began to shake, making it impossible not to notice.

Xia Ta, still on the sofa, slowly turned her head toward the mirror. The moment she saw Gao Tian inside it, her calm expression faltered.

Xia Ta immediately left the TV and walked over to the mirror as quickly as she could. After confirming it was indeed Gao Tian inside, the tension in her face eased slightly.

"How did you get inside the mirror?"

"But it looks like you’re still alive, which is good. What about the others who were teleported away? Did they survive?"

Judging by the way Xia Ta could freely leave the sofa and talk to the mirror, she wasn’t under any physical control and seemed mentally stable.

’How strange,’ Gao Tian wondered. ’If she wasn’t teleported to another room, why didn’t she try to get out of 413? Why did she just sit on the sofa?’

The room radiated a sinister aura, and there was no time for questions. Gao Tian spoke urgently through the mirror:

"Let’s not talk about that now. I’ll pull you into the mirror with me, and we’ll leave this room. Once we’re in the hallway with Jiang Yang and the others, we can talk."

As long as Xia Ta entered the mirror, all of Room 413’s deadly rules would be sealed off on the other side.

Once they were back in the hallway, at worst, they’d just have to trouble Zhao Zhenjia to whip up a couple of Wind Attendant Buddhas.

Just as Gao Tian’s hand passed through the mirror’s surface to grab her, Xia Ta simply stood her ground, showing no intention of entering.

Gao Tian froze for a second.

He then realized she probably suspected him.

After all, a familiar face suddenly appearing inside a mirror was very likely another trap set by a vicious ghost. An experienced administrator like Xia Ta wouldn’t be so naive as to trust his words and walk right into a mirror.

Time was tight. He had to make her believe him, and fast.

Just as Gao Tian was trying to think of what proof he could offer, Xia Ta just looked at him in the mirror and spoke calmly:

"Gao Tian, I believe it’s you. You’re improving faster than I imagined, acquiring new tools in every paranormal incident."

"I never suspected you were a ghost in disguise. You don’t need to rush to explain yourself on that account."

Gao Tian was stunned.

’If she knew I was a living person from the start,’ he thought, ’then why won’t she leave Room 413 with me?’

Xia Ta continued:

"The hosts on the TV called me their daughter. At first, I was furious. Because there’s a huge blank in my memory—I can’t remember my past, my family. It’s as if my life only began two years ago, and my earliest memory is arriving at the Living Persons Apartment to participate in this cruel game."

"I thought these vicious ghosts were trying to corrupt my perception and memories through dialogue."

"But then all of you were teleported away, and I was the only one left here. I started to realize something wasn’t right."

"At that time, we were clearly under the effect of ’Ghost Prohibition.’ The ghosts in this room shouldn’t have been able to influence my cognition."

"I sat down on the sofa, and I felt a faint sense of familiarity. It was as if, when I was a child, I used to sit just like this on the sofa, between my parents, watching boring TV with them until I fell fast asleep."

Seeing Xia Ta’s calm face, Gao Tian felt a growing heaviness in his chest.

’What is she talking about? Has she gone mad?’

He couldn’t understand a single word she was saying.

’Something must be wrong. How could the two dried corpses in Room 413 possibly be related to Xia Ta?’

Gao Tian:

"Are you trying to say that the two dried corpses in Room 413, or those two hosts on TV, are really your parents?"

"Snap out of it, Xia Ta! They’re ghosts from the fourth floor! They’ve been here for who knows how many years. How could they be your parents from outside the apartment?"

"Just calm down first. Come back to the hallway with me. Everyone’s waiting for you."

Xia Ta’s expression was perfectly serene, not at all like someone who was being controlled.

"Thank you, Gao Tian. But hear me out."

"Unlike your situation, my memory wasn’t altered by a ghost. On the contrary, that memory is a childhood trauma, a past I never wanted to remember for the rest of my life. My brain sealed it away on its own for self-preservation."

"Perhaps it was fate that brought me to the Living Persons Apartment, and then to this very room, forcing me to remember who I really am."

Gao Tian watched in astonishment as, behind Xia Ta, the shattered television began to reform. The glass screen puffed out like an inflating plastic bag, slowly reassembling itself piece by piece.

The back of the TV set was completely destroyed, but that didn’t stop the hissing static from resolving back into the clear, articulate voices of the male and female hosts. Those two pesky spirits had reappeared on the screen.

"Xia Ta, there’s no time! Get into the Mirror World, quickly!"

"The evil ghost is rebooting!"

Xia Ta didn’t even bother to glance back at the two ghosts that had reappeared on the TV. As if she already knew what was going to happen next, she continued speaking in that same detached tone:

"My parents used to run a private kindergarten. They earned a good income every year, you could say we were middle class. My childhood was the happiest time of my life. At school, I had the best phone and stationery, and when I came home, my father and mother treated me like the apple of their eye."

"But the good times didn’t last. A huge fire suddenly broke out at the kindergarten. The accident report came out quickly. My parents had cut corners to save money, so the fire safety equipment wasn’t up to standard. They were deemed the ones primarily responsible for the fire."

"The two of them didn’t have to face justice, because they were burned into two dried corpses in that very fire. And I became an orphan."