Ancient Mirror Mystery

Chapter 11

As Ningxia collapsed to the ground, the bedroom door was suddenly pushed open, and a blinding light shone in from outside. A dark figure blocked the light. Ningxia faced the light, unable to make out the figure's exact appearance, but from the outline, she could vaguely make out that the dark figure in front of her had long, drooping hair.

She grew weaker and weaker, and the immense fear mixed with waves of suffocation caused her eyelids to gradually close, but she could still clearly feel the indescribable chilling and murderous aura emanating from the shadowy figure.

As the figure slowly approached, Ningxia felt a pair of feet suddenly stand before her nose. They were white silk embroidered shoes, embroidered with a lifelike and exquisitely detailed phoenix. A strange fragrance wafted from the shoes into Ningxia's nostrils. She felt her body grow weaker and weaker, her consciousness seemingly fading. In her daze, she saw a pair of arms, white as paper, reaching towards her, upon which fluttered a striking, dazzling yellow butterfly…

"Ah!" Ningxia woke up with a start, cried out, and sat up. She found herself still sound asleep in her bedroom, everything unchanged, and her surroundings still looked like they were from the 21st century. Gasping for breath, a chill seeped into her pores through her soaked pajamas, causing her to feel nauseous. A foul odor rose from her stomach to her nose and mouth, and Ningxia exhaled the stale air she had inhaled in her dream.

"Ningxia? Where do you live? I'm coming to pick you up now!" Lin Wei's familiar voice made Ningxia's heart skip a beat.

"No. 58 Lingyun Road!" Ningxia told him the address.

"I'll be there in twenty minutes!"

"I'll be waiting for you at the gate!" Ningxia hung up the phone with delight, then looked at herself in the mirror again. Today, she had chosen a light yellow openwork knit sweater paired with white flared jeans, which perfectly accentuated her fair skin and slender figure. Ningxia then applied a light layer of orange lip gloss, making her look even more charming. After waiting at the gate downstairs for nearly five minutes, Lin Wei arrived in a white sedan. Today, he wasn't wearing his usual dark work attire, but rather a casual white T-shirt and jeans, looking much more energetic.

"You look beautiful today!" Lin Wei opened the car door and complimented with a smile.

Ningxia's face flushed instantly: "You look great today too!"

Lin Wei smiled and drove the car away from the city center, heading towards "Gutan Club".

"Oh, by the way, I have something to tell you. Su Yun's parents came to the club yesterday, and I refunded the remaining membership fee to them!" Lin Wei mentioned softly.

"Hmm." Ningxia's mood suddenly darkened when she thought of Su Yun's parents' haggard appearance.

Neither of them spoke, and the carriage fell silent.

"Actually, you might look even prettier in red. Why don't I ever see you wearing red?" Lin Wei said casually, looking at Ningxia's outfit, in an attempt to break the silence.

"I really don't have any red clothes!" Ningxia was a little puzzled as to why he asked such a question.

"What? You don't like red?" Lin Wei laughed.

Ningxia frowned, thought for a moment, and nodded: "I really don't like red. I think... red looks like..." She didn't finish her sentence.

Just as they were passing an intersection, the light turned red. Lin Wei stopped the car, turned around, and asked curiously, "Oh! What does it look like?"

Ningxia glanced at him, somewhat embarrassed, but unable to resist Lin Wei's smile, she said, "I think red looks like the color of blood!"

The red light turned green, and Lin Wei continued driving, saying, "Oh! Don't you think red is more like passion?"

Ningxia laughed: "Then why don't you wear red?"

Lin Wei laughed, "Men wearing red! Hahaha, I'm not that flashy!"

During a relaxed conversation, the white sedan had unknowingly entered the area of the "Gutan Club".

The white sedan passed by the magnificent gate of the "Gutan Club" and sped past it in a flash.

"Huh! Aren't we going in from here?" Ningxia asked, somewhat puzzled.

Lin Wei skillfully drove the car onto a mountain path next to the clubhouse and replied to Ningxia, "Since you said Miss Su Yun's diary mentions the back mountain, we'll go directly there from there, which will avoid arousing the curiosity of my subordinates! The fewer people who know, the better!"

"Oh!" Ningxia suddenly realized that this matter was indeed not something that should be known to more people, especially since it was such an expensive private club.

"This is Cold Mountain!"

"Cold Mountain? How come I've never heard of this mountain before?" Ningxia was a little embarrassed by her ignorance.

Lin Wei smiled but did not answer.

"Alright! Let's go in from here!" Lin Wei parked the car in an open space by the roadside and pointed to a narrow dirt road ahead.

Ningxia followed Lin Wei off the car, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and walked into the narrow dirt road. Suddenly, a cell phone rang. She opened her backpack, took out her phone, and saw the caller ID: "Millennial Ghost." It was Fang Jian calling.

"Hey! Fang Jian!" Ningxia was a little surprised.

"Ningxia? Where are you?" Fang Jian's voice came from the other end, sounding somewhat anxious.

"What's wrong? I'm outside!" She glanced at Lin Wei beside her, not wanting Fang Jian to know that she was with Lin Wei.

"I just found Professor Yu's laptop, and there's an email from 'The Avengers' on it!" Fang Jian exclaimed in surprise on the other end of the phone.

"I understand!" Ningxia's tone was somewhat nonchalant.

"How did you know?" Fang Jian asked, puzzled.

Ningxia recounted the incident of meeting Officer Wu at the Public Security Bureau that night.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner!" Fang Jian said with great dissatisfaction on the phone.

"I forgot for a moment! Okay, I'm not talking to you anymore, I'll contact you another day!" Ningxia hung up the phone with a hint of impatience and hurriedly chased after Lin Wei.

Upon entering the forest, the light suddenly became incredibly dim, as if entering a huge room surrounded by trees, oppressive and suffocating.

The dense, dark green branches resembled ancient warriors wielding swords and spears, baring their fangs and claws as they relentlessly tore at Ningxia's body. Ningxia felt as if she were Little Red Riding Hood entering a dark forest, utterly powerless to resist these monsters that had transformed into trees.

Lin Wei led the way, using a tree branch to clear a path. The dirt road grew narrower and narrower, the sides crowded with ever-growing branches, and the sunlight was blocked by the dense, tall trees. After walking for about twenty minutes, the dirt road became increasingly narrow, until it was almost impassable, as a large clump of dense bushes blocked their path.

"It seems like we've reached the end!" Ningxia stood on tiptoe, but still couldn't see the scene beyond the bushes.

Lin Wei frowned, looked around again, and suddenly said, "Come over here and take a look!" With that, he squeezed through a gap on the right side of the dense bushes and disappeared in an instant.

Ningxia was left aside. Suddenly, the surrounding dense forest was blown by the wind, making a rustling sound. The space surrounded by the dense forest seemed even darker, and a chill ran through me.

"Lin Wei! Lin Wei!" Ningxia called out towards the gap where he had disappeared, but there was no answer. She mustered her courage and, ignoring the pokes from the branches, squeezed through the gap in the bushes. Suddenly, a hand reached out from the other side of the gap, startling her.

"Watch out! Hold on to me!" Lin Wei's voice came from the other end. Ningxia breathed a sigh of relief and handed over her hand, a warm feeling immediately welling up in her heart.

After struggling through the dense bushes, Ningxia suddenly felt a sense of relief, and before her stood a building that left her speechless.

It was a building similar to the old-style buildings in the Gutan Clubhouse, but its color, appearance, and messy exterior all indicated that the building was several hundred years old. The entire building was a three-story courtyard house, and the direction from which Ningxia and Lin Wei appeared was directly opposite the back of the courtyard.

"Let's go around to the front!" Lin Wei pulled Ningxia along, crunching through the countless withered branches and leaves on the ground, until they reached the front of the house.

"There's another way!" Ningxia discovered that after going around to the other side, a small path paved with gravel led through the dense forest to another place.

Lin Wei remained silent, quietly observing the ancient house before him, before exclaiming involuntarily, "This house is at least three hundred years old!"

Entering the courtyard, a musty, decaying smell permeated the air. The ground was covered with withered branches and leaves blown in by the mountain wind, along with broken pieces of household items. A tattered plaque lay on the ground, the words "Residence" faintly visible; there should have been a few more characters before it, but they were gone. The screen wall directly opposite the main gate was carved with lifelike dragon and phoenix patterns. For some reason, Ningxia felt a strange, unsettling feeling whenever she saw the phoenix in the carvings.

"They actually carved dragon and phoenix patterns on the screen wall of the house! How audacious!" Lin Wei also noticed the patterns on the screen wall.

"That's a bit strange!" Ningxia said softly, gazing at the phoenix soaring in the wind.

"What's wrong?"

"I feel like I've seen this somewhere before!"

Lin Wei smiled and said, "These kinds of patterns are everywhere in computer software these days, it's nothing special!"

"But look, why is this phoenix riding on this dragon?" Ningxia pointed.

Lin Wei looked and saw that it was indeed so. The phoenix's outstretched wings seemed to overshadow the dragon beneath it, and the phoenix's proportions even exceeded those of the dragon.

"When Empress Dowager Cixi was in power during the Qing Dynasty, she ordered some stone tablets to be carved with phoenixes above dragons, in order to show that she was different from others and that her status surpassed that of the emperor!" Lin Wei thought for a moment.

"But this screen wall belongs to an ordinary family, and it's from the Ming Dynasty! Who would have been so bold as to carve such a treasonous dragon and phoenix pattern back then, with the phoenix even above the dragon?" Ningxia couldn't help but wonder.

"How strange!" Ningxia frowned and looked at the three-story building again.

"What?" Lin Wei asked, puzzled.

"In ancient residential architecture, buildings were generally only two stories high, but this house is three stories! That's quite puzzling!"

"Oh! Why?" Lin Wei listened to Ningxia's explanation with great interest.

"In ancient times, buildings were strictly classified by rank. Only royal palaces and large temples were allowed to have more than two stories. In other words, apart from palaces and temples, no ordinary residence, including those of the royal family, was allowed to have a three-story building!" Ningxia looked at the strange building in front of her in astonishment.

Lin Wei suddenly lowered his head and remained silent.

"So it seems this building is a modern forgery! It couldn't possibly be from the Ming Dynasty!"

Lin Wei suddenly said quietly, "What if there are exceptions?"

"Oh? An exception?" Ningxia turned her head, looking surprised.

Lin Wei: "That's right! What if this house was actually built with the emperor's personal approval?"

Ningxia suddenly remembered Su Yun's diary and exclaimed, "That princess! Could it be that a princess really lived here? No wonder that phoenix was riding on top of the dragon! That princess was incredibly audacious!"

Lin Wei nodded: "This was the most beloved princess of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty! All of this was built with Zhu Yuanzhang's permission, so it's not surprising that such an architectural style could be constructed!"

"Could it be that this princess is so favored by Zhu Yuanzhang that she could overstep the bounds of propriety to build such a residence?" Ningxia suddenly realized something, turned to look at Lin Wei, "How do you know so much? I remember you said you'd been to almost every corner of the area near this venue, and you'd never seen any Ming-style ancient buildings. But now..."

Lin Wei looked embarrassed and remained silent with his head down.

Ningxia didn't want to force her, so she smiled and said softly, "Never mind! I understand your thinking! You're trying to protect your club!"

Lin Wei breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Ningxia gratefully: "Let's go in!"

Passing through the screen wall in the center of the courtyard, which was carved with dragon and phoenix patterns, another courtyard came into view. Unlike the previous one, this courtyard was enclosed by a two-story building. The courtyard was larger than the previous one, and it was also in a state of disrepair and chaos. The plaque hanging halfway on the eaves of the main hall read "Tingyuxuan" (Listening to the Rain Pavilion).

"There's another courtyard in the back!" Ningxia discovered the courtyard in the back.

This is the third and final courtyard. An additional floor has been added, making a total of three floors. The floors increase sequentially from the front, creating a stepped architectural style.

The signboard read "Ninglu Tower," and Ningxia laughed, "So ambiguous!"

"Look!" Ningxia's eyes lit up, she exclaimed in surprise, her face changing drastically as she pointed to the window in the center of the third floor, directly opposite the courtyard. Lin Wei followed her finger and looked over, his face instantly turning pale as well. Hanging in that window was—

A white paper lantern!

His mouth gaped open, a sudden chill ran up his spine, and his hair stood on end. This white paper lantern—wasn't it the lantern carried by the strange woman mentioned in Su Yun's diary? Could it be that the strange woman was in the room?

Suddenly, a cold wind blew, causing the white paper lantern hanging by the window to sway, as if the lantern's owner was pushing it with an invisible hand, greeting the two uninvited guests in the courtyard.

"It seems to be telling us to go up!" Ningxia suddenly blurted out, startling Lin Wei who was standing next to her.

"Aren't you afraid?" Lin Wei looked Ningxia up and down, trying to find the answer in her eyes.

A resolute glint appeared in Ningxia's eyes. Su Yun's cause of death was likely up there, and nothing could stop her from going up.

"Let's go upstairs!" Lin Wei held Ningxia's hand tightly, and together they walked towards the stairwell.

The staircase had been in disrepair for years, creaking incessantly underfoot, which stood out starkly in the empty and quiet courtyard, adding to the eerie atmosphere of the entire estate.

Despite being weathered by hundreds of years, the wooden staircase has remained sturdy. Although it is damaged in many places, the weight of the two people did not break it, and it held up until the third floor.

The stairwell was covered in a thick layer of dust, and every step they took created a cloud of smoke that made them cover their mouths and noses as they slowly made their way to the door in the center of the third floor.

The door faced the hallway, which was incredibly dark, almost completely devoid of light, and filled with a cloud of dust. As they entered the hallway, Ningxia felt a large group of things rushing towards her. Suddenly, a small, cold creature struck her on the head. Ningxia screamed, and the creatures shrieked and stumbled away.

Lin Wei waved away the small creatures around Ningxia and quickly helped her up from where she had fallen to the ground: "They're just bats! It's alright!"

Ningxia almost cried, but she still managed to stand up with Lin Wei's help.

"Bang!" Lin Wei kicked open the door to the third-floor room, and a cloud of black ash rushed out, mixed with several panicked bats.