Цветок весенней реки, лунная ночь

Глава 8

"Doesn't your sister-in-law have any objections?"

"I outwardly agreed to let her wear the sachet, but as soon as I left, I put it in the car's glove compartment. However, somehow, Jenna discovered my trick and we had a huge fight!"

How did she know?

"She said it was the woman in red who told her that, and warned her to be careful I might cheat on her!"

"A woman in red?" Ningxia repeated, feeling the air growing colder and colder, as the chill began to creep in again.

"So, I think the woman Janna dreamed of, and the one you saw, and the one Su Yun saw, are somehow connected! But I can't quite put my finger on it!" Ning Kang flipped through "Tales of the Ancient Mirror" again. "Even the woman in this book seems to be one of them!"

This sounded a bit ridiculous, but she couldn't laugh.

"Where's that sachet?" she asked hurriedly.

"I don't know! After Jenna gave me a good scolding, I rushed to the car to look for the sachet, but strangely, I couldn't find it anywhere!"

"What happened to your sister-in-law afterwards? Was she angry?"

"Of course I was angry! But I swore to her that I would never betray her in this life before she would forgive me. But then a strange thing happened that caused her old illness to relapse!" Ning Kang's eyes were filled with sorrow again.

"Once, at a party our firm hosted with a large corporation, the company's secretary made a few jokes with me. Unexpectedly, Jenna, who was delivering my phone, bumped into me at the stairwell. After that, she never spoke to me again, nor did she go anywhere. She stayed at home all day, muttering strange words that only she could understand."

Ningxia said softly, "Of course, my sister-in-law saw the scene she least wanted to see, so naturally she'll be sad!"

"Oh! I was so inconsiderate of her feelings back then. I just thought she was being unreasonable, so I let her be. Until one day, I don't know how she found that strange sachet, she actually put it on my pillow! I only found it the next morning, and I was shocked. I scolded her a few times. Suddenly, she was like a different person. She pointed at me and started yelling at me. I was really terrified. She was completely different from her usual self. It was like she was possessed by a ghost. She even tried to strangle me, saying that I had killed her. I quickly called the nanny, who forcibly tied her up. I also notified the hospital and her parents. The only solution was to send her to a mental hospital again." Ning Kang gasped for breath, unconsciously touching his neck, as if Janna's hand was right beside him.

"I'm at my wit's end! Janna's been in the mental hospital until last month..." Ning Kang's face was contorted with pain, his voice trembling, "...she was at the hospital expansion construction site..." He then covered his face and burst into tears, "It's all my fault! It's all my fault! I shouldn't have let her go to that hospital..."

Ningxia watched with sorrow as Ningkang cried helplessly like a child who had done something wrong, and her grief intensified.

"Sister-in-law...where is her sachet?" After a moment of silence, Ningxia suddenly remembered something and asked softly.

Ning Kang said, "It's gone! After the police investigation, it seems Jenny went to pick up that sachet and that's when the accident happened! That sachet was a menace! It's better it's gone!" He couldn't help but show a look of disgust as he said this. Ning Xia remained silent, reaching out to stroke the delicate raised patterns on the purplish-brown square box in front of her, a strange feeling rising within her. For some reason, she felt a strange connection between this box and the sachet Ning Kang had mentioned.

"Alright! It's getting late, get some rest! I'll go to Black Town with you in a couple of days!" Ningxia packed up all her things and went back to her room. She couldn't fall asleep, so she sat up and checked the time. It was already past three o'clock, but she was wide awake and turned on her computer in a daze.

Ningxia typed the four characters "古镜幽谭" (Ancient Mirror's Ghostly Tales) into the webpage, hoping to find a complete version of this ancient book online. However, all she found were bizarre online ghost stories and sensationalist webpage titles; there was no information about the book itself. It seemed this book was indeed a unique copy.

As Ningxia was idly browsing those web pages, she suddenly came across an explanation in the search text:

"...The Legend of the Ancient Mirror...played by the famous opera artist Liu Fang...directed by the renowned director Chen Canyu, and filmed in Heizhen, an ancient town in Southwest China..."

"Black Town?" Ningxia's heart skipped a beat when she suddenly saw the two words that caught her eye, and she immediately opened the linked webpage.

This is a news item published in an unknown magazine. The original text is as follows:

"The Ming Dynasty legend, *The Tale of the Ancient Mirror*, tells the legendary story of a prominent Ming Dynasty family's decline after migrating south. It has been adapted for the stage many times. However, due to war, most of the scripts were lost, and the surviving ancient texts are mostly incomplete. Renowned director Chen Canyu has devoted many years to painstakingly compiling *The Tale of the Ancient Mirror* into a complete version and adapting it into a theatrical film script, aiming to recreate this little-known legendary secret of the Ming Dynasty."

This looks like a news report. Ningxia checked the date and realized it was from 1990, seventeen years ago.

"The female lead, Ji Xue, in 'The Tale of the Ancient Mirror,' is initially slated to be played by the renowned opera artist Liu Fang. Liu Fang has won numerous awards domestically and received countless accolades internationally..." This section was a report specifically introducing Liu Fang. Ningxia skimmed over it, but what followed astonished her. The original text is as follows:

"...The filming location for 'The Legend of the Ancient Mirror' was chosen to be the 'Qilin Pavilion' in Heizhen, a small town on the southwestern border. It is said that this Wei family mansion has an unusual connection with the Wei family mansion in the novel, and the crew's choice of this location for filming adds a legendary and mysterious touch to the story..."

"...Since filming began, Liu Fang has claimed that she has never been able to portray the character Ji Xue perfectly, feeling that she is slightly lacking. However, the audience has great confidence in her, and director Chen Canyu has also praised her acting skills."

"...During the halfway point of filming, the renowned opera master Liu Fang suddenly passed away due to illness, and the lead role was taken over by newcomer Liu Qian, who took on the responsibility. However, later, a male actor in the crew fell to his death; the actress playing the second female lead also subsequently developed schizophrenia; and then director Chen Canyu suddenly disappeared, delaying the film. The production company wanted to replace the director, but for various reasons, the film was halted. To this day, it remains an unsolved mystery..."

This report-like article was a film story published by an unknown magazine before its closure. Some netizens found it and pasted it onto various blogs. Ningxia checked the date; it was a rumor from ten years ago. She didn't know how much of it was true, but the mention of Liu Fang's sudden death, the deaths and madness of other actors, and the director's disappearance sent a sudden chill down her spine.

When Ningxia entered the words "Liu Fang" into the search engine, hundreds of results appeared. However, when Ningxia added the words "opera actor," only one result appeared.

The linked webpage was a website dedicated to introducing has-been actors in the entertainment industry; it didn't look like an official website. Ningxia opened the term "Liu Fang" (流芳), and several reports about her life appeared, mostly filled with praise. At the very bottom of the articles, there was a basic introduction to Liu Fang:

A low-resolution photo slowly opened beside it; it was a group photo of five or six people, with the small caption "Second from the right is Liu Fang." Ningxia clicked on the photo, whose faces were completely unrecognizable. A window popped up, displaying a large photo. The photo slowly refreshed, and the heads of the six people gradually became visible.

All six were girls, dressed in the outdated style of twenty years ago, and looked to be around the same age, in their early twenties. They were all rather unremarkable. Looking closely at Liu Fang, she was also quite ordinary—a round-faced girl with a bright smile and a youthful air about her.

Ningxia suddenly had a strange feeling; she seemed to have seen Liu Fang somewhere before, a feeling of familiarity that she couldn't quite place, but she couldn't quite place her. The photo's caption read: "Taken in 1980, XX Opera School." Eighteen-year-old Liu Fang, that's exactly what she looked like. Ningxia felt this Liu Fang looked somewhat familiar, but she couldn't quite place her. She opened another small photo, titled "Liu Fang in Performance." This was a series of photos showing Liu Fang in various roles at different times. Ningxia glanced at them briefly, but when she saw the third to last photo, her blood suddenly stopped. She stared incredulously at the slowly refreshing photos on the webpage—

The hairstyle, facial expression, attire, and the blood-red Ming-style clothing—it was unmistakably the woman Ningxia had seen on the wall of the funerary object shop in Black Town! It was also the same woman in red Ningxia had seen in the ancient mirror several times! Holding her breath, she gasped for air. What was happening? Could the woman in the portrait and the woman she saw in the mirror be Liu Fang? Looking into Liu Fang's eyes, Ningxia felt as if she were being stared at. That strange, unsettling feeling from the funerary object shop returned. Under Liu Fang's icy gaze, goosebumps rose all over Ningxia's body, and a chill seemed to rush from the computer screen.

Continuing on, the next two photos show the same makeup and attire as the previous one, only these are group photos. One of them is a large group photo of twenty or thirty people, with Liu Fang standing in the center of the front row. To her right is a middle-aged man with a slight smile, and to her left is a younger girl affectionately linking her arm with Liu Fang's. In the entire photo, most people are smiling, except for Liu Fang. She seems like an outcast, coldly raising her head and looking at the camera with disdain.

Turning the page, avoiding Liu Fang's piercing and gloomy gaze, the image showed a photo of Liu Fang and the middle-aged man on the right in the previous picture. Liu Fang's expression remained icy, her eyes not looking at the camera, but rather at her left. Although the middle-aged man next to her still had a smile on his face, it couldn't hide the chill in the entire picture.

The backgrounds of these three photos are somewhat blurry; one can only vaguely make out that it's the courtyard of an old-style building, next to a dark, murky pool, and beside that, a rockery. Although it's daytime, the sky peeking through the corners of the buildings is an unsettling, inky black. All the photographers have damp hair, as if a light rain is falling. The courtyard looks extremely old, the entire environment gloomy and dark, like the entrance to hell.

Could this be the "Qilin Pavilion"?

A line of small print caught her eye: "Liu Fang's look in the movie 'The Legend of the Ancient Mirror'."

Ningxia compared Liu Fang's earlier everyday photos with these three later photos of her wearing heavy ancient makeup. The differences weren't significant, which explained why Ningxia felt Liu Fang looked familiar when she first saw the photos from her student days. Her heart pounded wildly. Was this Liu Fang, whom she had stumbled upon from over a decade ago, the same person as the woman in red, or just a coincidence?

She flipped to Liu Fang's solo photo again. It was a full-body shot, showing Liu Fang standing in the center of the courtyard in a strange pose, staring coldly at the camera. Her bright red dress stood out starkly against the dim background. Ningxia suddenly remembered Su Yun's words, "that woman covered in blood." The Liu Fang before her seemed to be oozing blood from her entire body, eerie and mysterious. After thinking for a moment, she downloaded the photo, opened it with a drawing program, zoomed in, and slowly moved the mouse. Liu Fang's body moved upwards, finally stopping at her left wrist. Her wrist was spotless, as smooth and delicate as porcelain, without any blemishes. Moving the mouse again, her right wrist was equally clean, nothing at all.

She remembered Su Yun saying to her on the day he committed suicide, "You've seen her!"

As Su Yun spoke, he was recounting his punishment from heaven. The "she" Su Yun referred to was the woman in the portrait Ning Xia had seen in the funerary shop and the woman she had seen in the ancient mirror. If the woman in red recorded in Su Yun's diary was the same person as Liu Fang, how could Su Yun have seen her at the "Ancient Pool Club" ten years after Liu Fang's death? If the woman in red Su Yun saw wasn't Liu Fang, how could the two look so alike, as if they were cast from the same mold? Did Liu Fang have a twin sister? Perhaps the woman in red Su Yun saw wasn't the one Ning Xia saw? Then, who could it be? There were too many questions, her mind a tangled mess of knotted yarn, impossible to untangle. Her head felt like it was about to explode, throbbing with pain. She could only lie down, forcing herself to sleep, but tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

Moonlight streamed quietly through the curtains, bathing the room in a soft glow. Ningxia's gaze was drawn to the gentle light emanating from the bedside table—the moonlight reflected off the cover of Su Yun's diary. Unable to sleep, she turned on the bedside lamp and opened Su Yun's diary:

May 13, 2006, light rain

I returned to "Youlan Studio" alone. Even though a week had passed, I still couldn't forget every word that woman had said. Why did she tell me the story of the princess? Was she reminding me that I, the other woman, would eventually face retribution? And who was that woman she mentioned at the end? Who is waiting for me in hell?

Upon seeing this, Ningxia's body began to tremble slightly.

After dinner, I took a hot bath, then got dressed, put on a jacket, grabbed a flashlight I had prepared beforehand, and mustered my courage to head towards the back of the mountain. But this time was strange; I didn't see that white light or the blood-red clothes at the place where I usually saw her. The path at the end of the clubhouse was quiet, shrouded in darkness except for the faint glow of the streetlights.

Unbelievable! Where is that ghostly woman? Could she be in that abandoned house? The thought sent chills down my spine, and the cold mountain wind made me shiver.

Just as I was hesitating whether to go to that haunted house behind the mountain to find her, a distant opera singing voice came from the back of the mountain.

The sound was like a cold current blowing in the dead of winter, stimulating my whole body, yet it also had a strange attraction, leading me towards the back of the mountain.

Holding a flashlight, I followed the dirt road she had led me along last week, passed through a dark forest, and arrived at the old house.

The ancient building resembled a colossal monster long since dead, almost completely crumbling under the weight of time, leaving only a frail skeleton. Now, as if summoned by a sorcerer, the monster awoke, its bizarre, enormous eye glaring menacingly at me, the uninvited guest! That enormous eye was the white lantern hanging from a second-floor window in the center of the courtyard! The woman's voice echoed through the mountains, truly making me feel as if I had stepped into the world of *Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio*!

I swallowed hard, suppressing the overwhelming fear that washed over me, and walked into the dark door—the monster's gaping, terrifying maw—where only half a door remained.

Upon seeing this, Ningxia's heart suddenly pounded violently. Su Yun's diary entry only went up to the paragraph above; what followed was a whole bunch of chilling, blood-red stains, as if someone had spat out a mouthful of blood.

Ningxia slowly brought the stain close to her nose and smelled it.

It's blood!

She clutched her heart, which felt like it was about to burst from her chest, slid off the bed, and, enduring the immense discomfort, continued reading:

May 22, 2006, cloudy with light rain.

Today's weather is just like my mood and body, filled with sorrow and sadness.

"Let me sleep a little longer!"

"Wake up! We have guests!"

"Who is it?" Ningxia forced herself to open her eyes, and Ning Kang's face appeared in front of her.

"He said he's your friend!" Ning Kang's ambiguous smile made Ning Xia feel a little dazed.

"What friend?" My mind was still a little unclear.

"Go out and see for yourself!" Ning Kang grinned mischievously, got up, and went out.

When Ningxia appeared in the living room yawning and still wearing her pajamas, her eyes widened immediately upon seeing the person who entered. After a moment of stunned silence, she suddenly snapped out of it and exclaimed, "Ah! You, how did you get here!" After shouting, she suddenly remembered that she was still wearing her pajamas, her face flushed red, and she hurriedly ran into the bedroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

Ning Kang laughed: "That's just how my sister is! Don't take it personally!"

"Of course not!" The speaker was somewhat embarrassed; it was Fang Jian.

When Ningxia came out after getting dressed, Fang Jian was already chatting with Ning Kang.

"How did you know I lived here?" Ningxia asked, somewhat suspicious of Fang Jian's arrival after regaining her composure.

Fang Jian smiled slyly: "This is my secret weapon! I can't tell you!"

Ningxia glared at him, then saw Ningkang giving them both an ambiguous smile, and said reproachfully, "You could have just called me, why did you have to come all the way to my house?"

Fang Jian's expression turned serious. After bowing his head for a moment, he said solemnly, "I found this at Professor Yu's house!" He then handed Ningxia a piece of paper.

Ningxia took it and saw that it was a bank receipt.

"Why are you showing me this receipt for a bank-rented safe deposit box?" Ningxia asked, somewhat puzzled.

"This is the lease document that Professor Yu entrusted the bank to process more than ten days ago. Look at the date on the document!" Fang Jian seemed somewhat apologetic.

"July 28th! What's wrong?" Ningxia didn't think anything of it.

"Don't you remember? That was the day I took you to see Professor Yu!"

"Yes! It's a bit strange?"

"Also, with my teacher's wife's confirmation, I found something in the safe! Can you guess what it is?" Fang Jian said, taking out something wrapped in newspaper from his backpack. It looked like a thick dictionary.

"What is this! Let me see!" Ning Kang took it and opened the newspaper, revealing a purplish-brown square box inside.

"Huh! There's another one? What about the one you found at Professor Yu's house the other day? Wait a minute!" Ningxia felt something was strange and immediately took out the box that she had found in the large vase in Professor Yu's study earlier.

Fang Jian took the square box from Ningxia and placed it side by side with the one he had taken earlier on the coffee table, saying, "Take a close look!"

The two square boxes on the coffee table looked exactly the same, except for slight differences in color. The one Ningxia took out from the room was slightly reddish, while the one Fang Jian took out later was closer to dark purple.

"Not just the color, look inside!" Fang Jian opened the box, and two bronze mirrors stood up. The mirror in the box with a slightly reddish hue was flatter and had fewer copper spots, while the other mirror was uneven and had more copper spots.

Ningxia asked in surprise, "What happened? Did I buy a fake?"

Fang Jian shook his head, his expression filled with deep apology: "The one you bought is real. This fake one... belongs to Professor Yu!"

Ning Kang glanced at Fang Jian, then at Ning Xia, his expression grave: "It seems this Professor Yu is somewhat hypocritical!"

Ningxia was still somewhat incredulous: "Could it be that Professor Yu..." She didn't finish her sentence, but just looked at Fang Jian with a puzzled expression.

Fang Jian nodded: "I think! That day, Professor Yu asked you to lend him the box for a day, and solemnly told you that he would return it to you the next day, but in reality..." His face was a little ugly, obviously he was a little embarrassed to talk about his teacher's character.

"He had someone make a replica of this box overnight. Because of the time crunch, he didn't even remove the knife marks. He planned to return the replica to you the next day when you went there. As for the real one, he immediately rented a safe deposit box at the bank and put it there!" Ning Kang took over Fang Jian's words, which were extremely difficult for him to say.

Ningxia looked at Fang Jian, seemingly puzzled. Fang Jian nodded heavily: "I never expected the teacher to do something like this. I even swore an oath to guarantee it!" Ningxia suddenly said coldly: "Why did you return this genuine item to me? You could have kept it for yourself; I wouldn't have known, would I?"

Ning Kang was completely taken aback by Ningxia's words and felt momentarily embarrassed.

Fang Jian's face suddenly turned bright red. He stood up abruptly and shouted at Ning Xia, "Do you think I'm that kind of person? That's right! Even I didn't expect the teacher to do that, but I won't! Did you hear me clearly? I'm not that kind of person!" With that, he got up, strode towards the door, forcefully opened it, and left, slamming the door shut with a loud bang.

Ning Kang hurriedly chased after him, but Fang Jian's figure immediately disappeared into the corridor.

"What's wrong with you? Someone kindly helped you find your things, and you talk to them like that?" Ning Kang was extremely dissatisfied with her attitude.