"Little girl?" Mu Anqi took out her candy cane, skillfully enlarged it, fired two marshmallows, then shrank it back. She crouched down and slowly extended the marshmallows toward the little girl. Mu Anqi softened her voice, afraid of startling the child: "What happened? Why are you crying? Where is your family… Can you tell big sister?"
However, the little girl had no reaction at all. It was as if she hadn't heard or seen anything.
"It's an illusion," Xia Fenghua said in a low voice. "You can also think of it as a scene replay. We're just bystanders—unable to interfere, unable to change anything."
"If I'm not mistaken, this Black Mirror vortex…" Xia Fenghua pressed her lips together, staring fixedly at the little girl curled up in the wardrobe. Her tone suddenly softened, "She's trapped in a nightmare."
A nightmare? Then… does that mean the master of this Black Mirror vortex is shrouded in the emotion of fear? To clear this kind of vortex… is to save? To save this little girl? But how do you save someone from a nightmare? By eliminating her fear? Then… what exactly is she afraid of?
Mu Anqi didn't understand what was happening, nor did she understand why this little girl was so frightened and terrified. If this room was presented according to the little girl's memory, then everything had truly happened… What was the relationship between the little girl and the owner of the room? If they knew each other, why were there no traces of the girl living here? If they didn't know each other, why was she hiding in someone else's wardrobe? A child visiting relatives? What exactly…
"Dong—"
A loud banging on the door suddenly exploded, the sudden noise startling Mu Anqi into a jolt. Mu Anqi was a bit annoyed: why did every game, every scene, always have to scare her unexpectedly a few times?!
The little girl in the wardrobe visibly trembled. She buried her head in her arms, her small body shivering, trying her best to diminish her presence. Clearly, she could hear that sound. Perhaps this was also a kind of scene replay?
"Dong dong dong!—"
It was called banging, but it was more like pounding. The sound was loud and fierce—the person outside the door probably had quite a bit of strength. Mu Anqi was irritated by the noise. She stood up and looked at Xia Fenghua, "Are you sure this is an illusion? Why does the sound feel so real?"
"Because it happened," Xia Fenghua said, revealing a sweet smile. Hugging her doll, she walked lightly toward the door.
"What are you doing? Didn't you say we can't interfere or change anything?" Mu Anqi asked in confusion.
"Mhm, we can't change what already happened, and we can't participate in what already happened. The little girl in the wardrobe is an illusion, but this is a Black Mirror vortex born from fear. To the girl, the nightmare is real, the monster is real, the fear is real—she's trapped in the nightmare and can't escape." Xia Fenghua tilted her head. "So, what she fears… can hurt us. And we can eliminate those things."
"This Black Mirror vortex… you'll understand after entering a few more times."
Xia Fenghua skipped cheerfully to the door as the banging grew more violent. Mu Anqi was about to say something, but when she saw Xia Fenghua about to open the door, she held her tongue. She just enlarged the candy cane in her hand and gripped it tightly, following closely to the doorway. Even though… this was her first time fighting ghosts, she couldn't just let her teammate handle it alone, right? Several blessing words flashed through Mu Anqi's mind as she stared intently at the trembling door. Xia Fenghua's small hand was already on the handle.
"Hello, I'm very sorry to disturb you so late at night. But my child has gone missing, and I checked the surveillance—she seems to have entered your home… I'm very grateful that you've taken care of her for so long. Now I've come to take her home."
Mu Anqi's curse got stuck in her throat. Standing at the door was a young man in a formal suit. He looked extremely polite, with obvious worry and urgency on his face. The earlier frenzied pounding on the door now seemed like an act of concern for the child.
"What? Abuse? Th-this is impossible! She's so adorable—I barely have enough time to love her, how could I possibly abuse her? Don't listen to a child's nonsense, what does she know?" The young man's face was full of sincerity. As he spoke, he suddenly slapped his forehead, as if realizing something, "Right, right, I know now. It's because I've been busy with work, and she's been wanting me to take her to the amusement park, but as you can see, I don't have the time—I'm just working hard to support the family. Yes, I'm sure you understand. There definitely aren't any injuries on her. If you don't believe me, you can check yourself. She's afraid of me? Maybe it's because I was in a bad mood last night after a business call and scared her. Yes, yes, I'll be more careful next time. Sorry to trouble you."
"Xiao Ai, Xiao Ai? Daddy's come to take you home!"
It was like a one-man show.
Mu Anqi watched as this "father" affectionately and gently called out his daughter's nickname and quickly walked into the bedroom. At that moment, it seemed someone said something, and the father nodded, saying, "Sigh, it can't be helped… I want to spend more time with her too. Her mother passed away early, and I'm not exactly the most attentive person—there are always some oversights. I'll be more careful in the future." The man sighed, but his eyes grew brighter. He walked toward the wardrobe, each step sounding loud and deliberate.
If this were happening somewhere else, someone unaware of the truth might sigh and say, "What an ungrateful child," or perhaps praise, "What a good father." But since this was happening inside a Black Mirror vortex, Mu Anqi only felt deeply uncomfortable. She even felt that the man was deliberately walking so slowly, making his footsteps so heavy, just to bring more pressure and fear to the little girl hiding in the wardrobe.
"All the best." Mu Anqi uttered a blessing, adjusting her emotions to sound as sincere as possible. However… this "father" was unaffected.
"It's not time yet," Xia Fenghua said softly, leaning against the wall.
What time? Mu Anqi didn't know. She watched nervously as the man stopped in front of the wardrobe, and then a suffocating silence followed.
Silence…
The wardrobe had just been opened by Mu Anqi and the others, so she could clearly see the little girl inside, trembling in terror. At that moment, the man made a motion to open the wardrobe. The little girl froze.
"Xiao Ai, Daddy found you~"
The silence was broken.
"No! No! No no no no no—" The little girl let out a shrill, desperate scream. She flung herself out of the wardrobe, stumbling and crawling in a frantic attempt to escape the room.
But the man caught her with ease.
"No! No! I didn't lie, I'm not a bad kid—sob sob—help me… sister, sister… sob…"
"You can't act so willfully in someone else's home, Xiao Ai. You need to be a good girl. Bad children… need to be punished." A gentle sentence, yet it carried an unspoken threat.
"Be good, come home with Daddy. You don't want to trouble this nice lady too much, do you?" The man picked the little girl up, placing his hand on the back of her head, and despite her cries and struggles, he pressed her into his chest. A smile curled at his lips as he politely apologized to the room's host, "Sorry for all the trouble."
"No…"
The man carried the child out the door.
"Be good, Daddy will play a game with you when we get home, okay? Xiao Ai needs to be a good girl…"
"No…"
The door closed.
At the moment the door closed, Xia Fenghua pushed it open. "Follow him."
The man in the suit, holding the little girl, walked down a dark corridor. The enormous full moon by the window silently watched everything. His refined smile turned eerie and terrifying under the moonlight. Step by step, he carried the little girl into the darkness, as if walking straight into a bottomless abyss. The darkness swallowed everything.
No sound of the little girl crying.
No sound of the little girl refusing.
No sound of the little girl struggling.
No sound of the man's footsteps.
A silent corridor.
A silent world.
"Xiao Ai is such a good girl. You didn't say anything you shouldn't have to that lady."
"Looks like Xiao Ai doesn't want to trouble Daddy, right? Xiao Ai doesn't want to move again and again, right? Such a good child."
At the end of the hallway, a "door" had appeared at some unknown point.
Rather than a door, it was more like the gaping mouth of a monstrous beast, about to swallow someone whole.
The man, holding the little girl, stepped inside.
Mu Anqi and Xia Fenghua followed immediately.
As soon as they entered the room, everything changed. The entire world seemed to be overlaid with a twisted, dark filter. The entire room was distorted, with a base tone of deep red and black…
The little girl was carried into the master bedroom by the man.
At this point, the little girl no longer cried or struggled. She was like a puppet in the man's arms, as if all her responses had been lost. Inside the room, she was placed on the bed. Mu Anqi followed, and as she looked along the girl's line of sight, she saw that the large floor-to-ceiling windows had no curtains drawn. In this twisted and dark world, only the full moon outside the window remained bright and pure.
Mu Anqi hated this kind of Black Mirror vortex.
The man began to take off his suit jacket in the room.
Mu Anqi gripped her candy cane tightly, her whole body filled with rage. She looked at the man, her teeth nearly grinding to dust. But at that very moment…
After removing his suit, black fur began to grow all over the man's body. It seemed like an illusion, yet also felt real. He transformed into a terrifying monster.
A dark, terrifying, twisted monster—Mu Anqi couldn't even tell what kind of creature it was, because its entire form was distorted and magnified, visually warped.
The monster extended its blood-red tongue, saliva dripping slowly. It opened its gaping, bloody maw and let out a low growl, proposing a "game," while soothingly murmuring, "Daddy loves you…"
"Roar!—" A piercing scream.
Xia Fenghua struck first. She was small and agile—Mu Anqi didn't even catch when she moved. Xia Fenghua was incredibly fast; she threw her doll, and the doll wobbled before standing up and engaging the monster in combat. At the same time, Xia Fenghua swiftly moved behind the monster and… began touching it?
"All the best! Smooth and successful! Auspicious and favorable!" Mu Anqi reacted instantly the next second. She quickly cast blessings on the monster, and its struggling ceased immediately. It stood up straight and assumed a "stand at ease" posture.
At that moment, Xia Fenghua removed the monster's right hand, and then its left.