Li Mazi and I also left Zhang Qinghai’s apartment, closing the door carefully. “Should we call the police? It’s not right to leave his dead body in his apartment.”

Li Mazi shot me a glance. “Are you addicted to putting your nose in other people’s business? Why are you worrying about him? He wasn’t born from a rock; he must have friends and family. When they can’t contact him, undoubtedly some will be worried. If you call the police and they question us, what should we tell them? Don’t forget that it was me who just picked this lock so we could enter the apartment. Do you want to harm your friends just to uphold justice? You want to send me to jail?”

I just said two sentence, and he taught me a lesson about the great truth.

I sighed and decided to leave it at that.

After we left Zhang Qinghai’s apartment building, Zhao Wuyang sat on the curb for half an hour. He vomited twice, his face pale. He didn’t look well at all.

He feebly looked at me, gasping for breath. “Zhang Qinghai is gone. Moreover, if we check the time, he died before Xue Peng and Xiao Sisi’s incidents. Does this mean that all people who went to Wuyan Village are going to encounter fatal incidents? Am I next?”

I shook my head. “It shouldn’t have anything to do with you.”

“Why not?” Zhao Wuyang asked, distraught. “I also went to Wuyan Village… I shouldn’t have gone with them! I shouldn’t have!” After saying this, he slapped himself.

He was lucky that the fright from before caused him to have little strength. The slap was like a breeze, barely hurting him.

Li Mazi burst out laughing. “You want to harm yourself? Let me do it. I won’t even ask for anything in return. Free of charge!”

Li Mazi was still in the mood to joke.

I kicked him aside, squatting and trying to comfort Zhao Wuyang. “It’s not as complicated as you think. Did you not see the pattern? Zhang Qinghai, Xue Peng, and Xiao Sisi got in trouble because they looked into that mirror.”

“Mirror…” Zhao Wuyang’s dispirited eyes finally had a sparkle of light.

I nodded. “Since you didn’t look into the mirror, nothing will happen to you. Otherwise, how could you be safe and talking to us right now?”

Zhao Wuyang exhaled in relief. He grabbed my arm as if he had just grasped the straw that could save his life. “You aren’t fooling me, right?”

I beamed at him. “You don’t trust me?”

“I do, I do!” Zhao Wuyang repeatedly nodded, his eyes red. “I trust you, that’s why I told you everything. I always trusted you…”

Li Mazi snorted. “Hey, just a friendly reminder. I’m the master.”

I ignored him, patting Zhao Wuyang’s shoulder. “So, there’s no need to worry that you’ll be the next victim.”

Zhao Wuyang nodded repeatedly. “I can ease my worried mind now. This whole thing should end here, shouldn’t it? I won’t travel again, ever. For the rest of my life, I will stay home. I must keep trouble as far as possible.”

A serious expression grew on my face as I looked at him.

Zhao Wuyang grew pale. “What’s wrong? Will something happen?”

When he said this, his voice shivered, his face tense and anxious.

“I looked around Zhang Qinghai’s house, but I couldn’t find the mirror.” I didn’t want to hide anything from Zhao Wuyang. “This mirror’s too dangerous. If someone gets a hold of it, there will be more deaths. We have to find the mirror first.”

“Find the mirror?” Zhao Wuyang looked at me, not quite understanding. “Where do we find it?”

“We must go to the place where it originated!” I kept quiet for a long time before responding.

Zhao Wuyang looked at me, his eyes saying: You’ve lost your mind!

I analyzed the situation calmly. “If that mirror gets in someone’s hand, whoever looks at it will have their facial skin peeled off. This mirror brings dangers far worse than your imagination.”

Zhao Wuyang pursed his lips. “What does it matter to me?”

I was amused by his reply. “Although Zhang Qinghai started all of this, you are one of the participants. Even if you aren’t targeted by the mirror, the people who had their faces skinned will have a lot of grudges against you.”

Zhao Wuyang became frightened again, and his face changed immediately. He looked at me, tensing up. “What should I do now? How do I get rid of their grudges? I didn’t do anything. I-I’m innocent.”

Li Mazi, who was smoking far away from us, suddenly chimed in, “Oh, well, the accomplices always say they’re innocent.”

“I’m not an accomplice.” Zhao Wuyang almost went crazy. “I was standing back at the time. I didn’t join their robbing operation!”

“It doesn’t matter now. We must find a solution to end this case! The best solution is that you take us to Wuyan Village,” I said.

Zhao Wuyang was panic-stricken. “We have to go back there one more time? The mirror was taken away. Why do we have to go back there? What about… Searching Zhang Qinghai’s apartment one more time? Perhaps we missed something. Maybe he had a hidden room or a chamber in his apartment.”

Zhao Wuyang was flustered.

After Li Mazi finished his cigarette, he walked toward us. “You think we’re shooting a movie? Hidden chamber? Did you lose your mind?”

Zhao Wuyang’s nerves were now tense strings. I was afraid that he would crack within the next moment. I hurried to push Li Mazi aside, talking to Zhao Wuyang. “Didn’t you say that you trust me? There’s no need to be afraid. I’ve been through this type of situation many times, and they were all more dangerous than this. Don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll be safe and sound.”

Whether it was my firm and resolute voice or my bright protagonist halo that caused it, Zhao Wuyang’s worried nerves were calmed after listening to me.

I decided to double down. “Moreover, you said earlier that you’re rather weak-willed. Do you want to live like that for the rest of your life? You must have your own principles and stick to them. You may find that you’ve changed once we’re done with this case.”

Zhao Wuyang thought for a second then nodded. “I trust you. I’ll take you there.”

I checked the flight tickets using my phone. The earliest flight was tomorrow morning, so we couldn’t depart today. Either way, there were things that couldn't be rushed. I told Zhao Wuyang, “We’ll gather tomorrow at the airport.”

Before I finished speaking, Zhao Wuyang stammered, intervening, “Hey… Master, c-can I stay in your shop tonight?”

“Eh?” I dropped my jaw, gawking at him.

“I’m not scared. I’m just worried.” Zhao Wuyang tried to find an excuse.

Li Mazi chimed in at the right minute. “All right, no need to explain. We know you’re scared. Although you’re a big man, you’re not even as brave as a woman.”

Actually, even when considering my own experience, Zhang Qinghai’s death was terrifying. Since Zhao Wuyang was a little weak-minded, I guessed he would get nightmares all night.

Since I decided to help him, I decided to see it through to the end. Who made me such a kind man?

I nodded. “Okay, but you have to cook me dinner.”

Zhao Wuyang agreed immediately.

Usually, the only other person who ate at my place was Li Mazi. And now, I had another visitor. The rice container in my house would have a protest soon.

Zhao Wuyang spent the night in my shop. The next day, we got on the airplane early in the morning, flying directly to Shandong. With Zhao Wuyang’s guidance, we took a train, a bus, and then got off at a rural mountainous area where even birds wouldn’t want to shit in.

We looked around, seeing the surroundings devoid of all human life.

Li Mazi was shocked, pointing at Zhao Wuyang. “Hey, are you some sort of human trafficker? Be honest, your goal was to bring two handsome, young men to this remote area and sell them to the old widows here, right?”

Zhao Wuyang was worriedly looking around, not even noticing Li Mazi’s teasing.

I patted Li Mazi’s shoulder. “Do you really think some widow would want to admire that ugly face of yours?”

Then, Li Mazi and I began to exchange jabs at each other. From a far distance, we saw a tractor. Zhao Wuyang hurried to stop it, telling the driver that we were going to Wuyan Village. If he was going in that direction, we wanted to hitch a ride.

The tractor was full of straw. The driver was afraid of trouble, so he didn’t want to give us a ride. Zhao Wuyang hastily gave him his watch. “Please take us there. Here, take this.”

The driver agreed happily.

After two hours on the bumpy road, the driver pulled his tractor to a halt by the road. “You guys, go that way! I don’t live in that village, so I won’t approach the place further.”

Li Mazi wasn’t pleased. “Hey, man, you aren’t very honorable. Didn’t you say that you would take us to Wuyan Village? Why did you drop us here?”

The driver’s tone was firm. “You voluntarily gave me the watch. I didn’t rob you or anything. Get off my tractor and go there yourself. No matter what, I’m not going to Wuyan Village.”

It sounds like there’s something pretty odd in that Wuyan Village!

I hurried to shove the watch back into the driver’s hand. “A deal is a deal. Brother, I know you’re a nice guy, and unless there was a reason, you wouldn’t drop us here, right?”

After I said this, the driver’s face changed into a warm smile. “Little brother, you know how to bargain.”

I deliberately took a pack of cigarettes out of Li Mazi’s pocket and handed it to the driver.

The driver immediately lit up a cigarette. Then, he didn’t leave but instead spoke to me as if we were friends. “Little brother, from the way you dress, you don’t look like you’re from Wuyan Village. Why do you want to go there?”

I smiled. “We found out about Wuyan Village from the Internet. They say this village is like a paradise on earth. It has beautiful sights that people should visit at least once in their lives. Since we have some time off, we decided to go there to widen our knowledge.”

When I said that, the driver’s face grew disdainful. “Nonsense! Birds don’t even want to shit in Wuyan Village. It has no beautiful sights at all. You’ve been deceived. Little brother, I think you’re a good and kind person. I’m going to be honest right now. That Wuyan Village is really strange!”