Chapter 2: Yashe · The Ancient Mirror
He Yiyao gazed, utterly entranced, at the round ancient mirror inside the glass display case before her, reluctant even to blink.
“If you like it, I can take it out for you to have a look.” The owner of the antique shop gave a light laugh, his tone gentle and pleasant to the ear.
He Yiyao nodded again and again. Although she knew she most likely could not afford this ancient mirror, she still wanted to hold it in her hands, to truly touch it.
The owner unlocked the counter and took out the bronze mirror. “This is a rare Han dynasty bronze mirror with fish patterns. Han dynasty bronze mirrors mostly used the Four Symbols—dragon, tiger, phoenix, and bird—as motifs. This piece, with its red and green patina, is in excellent condition. Legend has it that it was a beloved possession of the famous Han general Huo Qubing. Miss, you truly have a good eye.”
He Yiyao carefully cupped the bronze mirror in both hands, staring fixedly at the four lifelike carp slightly raised on the back. The carved patterns were simple and fluid, each fish in a different pose, really as if they were swimming freely through water. The mirror was only about the size of her palm. Its body was very thin, very light—at least much lighter than she had imagined. He Yiyao was inwardly wondering whether this bronze mirror might be a fake, but the next second, when she turned it over and saw the mottled mirror surface, she became uncertain again.
The relatively smooth surface was covered in scratches, each one representing the merciless erosion of time. She could faintly see her own blurred reflection upon it. Seeing that hazy beauty, He Yiyao found herself even more unwilling to put it down.
She had wandered into this antique shop by chance on her way to cram school because the shop’s name was “Yashe.” That strange name had drawn her inside.
Curious, she asked the owner why it was called Yashe, and the owner replied:
Every ancient object in Yashe has its own story. They have carried those stories for many years, yet no one has ever listened. Because they cannot speak. That is why it is called Yashe.
Although the place was shabby and did not seem to have much business, she knew that if everything displayed here was genuine, the prices were definitely not something a high school senior like her could afford no matter what.
But just as she turned to leave, she discovered this ancient mirror.
She wanted it. What should she do? She did not want to let go of the mirror. The cool touch felt especially comfortable, as if it had brushed against some soft place deep in her heart.
A ridiculous excuse suddenly flashed through He Yiyao’s mind. “Boss, our school club is putting on a play, and we need an ancient mirror. Could you rent it to us for a month?” She thought she was only fascinated with it for the moment. Perhaps after a month, she would no longer like this dirty old mirror at all.
However, even she herself felt that her request was far too unreasonable. Just as she was about to say a few more words to salvage the situation, she unexpectedly heard the young antique shop owner say, “All right.”
He Yiyao froze for a moment, then excitedly began asking what she needed to leave as a deposit and how much money would be enough. In the end, the other party only asked for her student ID to register it, requiring nothing else.
“As for rent, just make it symbolic. Ten yuan,” the antique shop owner said casually.
So cheap? He Yiyao felt a little regretful. If she had known, she would have asked the price directly. Perhaps she had been overthinking it; this bronze mirror was simply a fake. But since she had already said she wanted to rent it, she could only brace herself and sign her name in the register. In her heart, she decided that if she still liked this ancient mirror after a month, she would definitely come back and ask how much it cost.
The young owner glanced at the registered name. His long, narrow eyes narrowed even further, and his slender fingers brushed over the character “Yao” in the register as he said ambiguously, “Oh, right. There’s one more thing.”
“What?” He Yiyao was holding the mirror so lovingly she could hardly put it down. Hearing him, she reflexively raised her head.
“There is one thing you must remember. This bronze mirror absolutely must not be wiped. Absolutely not.” When she heard those words, He Yiyao vaguely saw what seemed like a strange smile tugging at the lips of this ordinary-looking owner, but she did not pay attention. At the time, she was only focused on wrapping the bronze mirror properly and putting it in her bag, eager to rush off to cram school.
That evening, after He Yiyao finished her homework, she turned on her small desk lamp and held the ancient mirror in her hands, examining and playing with it carefully.
“It’s so scratched up. How did women in ancient times do their makeup with this?” Looking at the indistinct reflection on the mirror surface, He Yiyao could not help muttering softly. Seeing the mottled scratches on it, she originally wanted to wipe it with the alcohol cloth she used for her computer screen, but the moment her hand touched the mirror surface, the antique shop owner’s warning suddenly appeared in her mind.
There is one thing you must remember. This bronze mirror absolutely must not be wiped. Absolutely not.
Helplessly, He Yiyao put down the alcohol cloth. This bronze mirror was probably really a fake. The boss was afraid that if she wiped it, the more she wiped, the newer it would look. Haha!
When she was about to put the mirror down, she glanced at it casually—and her heart skipped a beat.
Because she actually discovered that the blurred figure inside the mirror… did not seem to be her.
At the very least, there would never be an extra topknot on her head. Moreover, that figure did not move along with her movements…
“Who… who are you?” He Yiyao could not help asking aloud.
No response.
She let out a breath, rubbed her eyes, and just as she was mocking herself for seeing things and was about to give up, she suddenly heard an ethereal, unreal voice drifting through the silent room.
“Thou… who art thou?”
The voice was so faint that He Yiyao nearly thought it was her own hallucination. But in the next second, she stared desperately at the mirror in her hands.
“…Who art thou?”
This time, the voice was clearer. It truly had come from this mirror.
Under the desk lamp, the scratches on the mottled mirror surface became even more obvious. But this time, He Yiyao was certain that the blurred figure inside was not herself.
“Who art thou?” The person in the mirror had clearly seen her too and cried out in surprise.
“I’m not ‘who’… I am called He Yiyao.” He Yiyao used archaic phrasing in a tiny voice, her face full of black lines. Was there something wrong with her mind? Or was this bronze mirror not a fake, but had a ghost sealed inside it?
“I am Huo Qubing.” This time, the voice inside the mirror answered much more quickly, and it was also much clearer. She could even tell that it was a man’s voice.
“Clang!” The mirror slipped from her hand and fell onto the desk with a loud crash.
“Xiao Yao! You’re still not asleep? It’s already ten-thirty! Don’t you have school tomorrow?” He Yiyao’s mother knocked on the door from outside. He Yiyao hurriedly wedged the ancient mirror between her books and then turned off the light.
Yet as she lay in bed, tossing and turning, she kept thinking: Was that a thousand-year-old wandering soul? The dignified Great General Huo Qubing trapped inside an ancient mirror?
He Yiyao discovered that during the day, no matter how she fiddled with the bronze mirror, there was no response. Only at ten o’clock at night did the mirror change.
“You’re Huo Qubing? That very famous Han dynasty general?”
“General? I am currently only a colonel, but I will become a general very soon!”
“But the books say you’re a general.” He Yiyao flipped through the Han dynasty history book she had deliberately borrowed from the library that day. Could he be a ghost with the same name?
“Haha! I know not what book thou speakest of. What about thee? How didst thou die? Why art thou inside the bronze mirror my aunt gave me?”
The words from inside the mirror horrified He Yiyao. She was dead? When had she died?
She hurriedly pinched her own face hard. Ow! It hurt!
“I’m alive and perfectly fine! I’m in school! I’m studying!”
“Eh? Then on what grounds dost thou say I am dead? This young lord is also alive and well! Riding horses! Shooting arrows!”
He Yiyao froze. She was not dead, and he was not dead. In that case… could this mirror connect two worlds across time and space?
“Hey! Since you say you’re not a female ghost, then show this young lord your appearance! Don’t be afraid to meet people just because you look like a corpse!”
He Yiyao had long since forgotten the antique shop owner’s warning not to wipe the mirror surface. With the attitude of giving it a try, she began gently wiping the mirror.
Every time she wiped a little, the mirror surface became slightly brighter. By the time her hand was so tired it was almost aching, she heard that hateful voice in the mirror tease, “Yo! With your hair all loose, and you still say you’re not a female ghost?”
“Clang!” He Yiyao sandwiched the ancient mirror inside a book and ignored every call from the figure inside, climbing into bed to sleep.
Once she put it away, she left it there for a full three days. The homework assigned by cram school and her schoolteachers left her no time to think about anything else.
Until, while occasionally flipping through her reference books these past few days, she suddenly discovered the bronze mirror tucked inside. After not hearing his pedantic “I” and “thou” for several days, she actually missed it a little.
He Yiyao propped the bronze mirror against a reference book and was about to lower her head to do her homework. Seeing her long hair falling down, she remembered what Huo Qubing had said before and simply combed her hair neatly into a ponytail before beginning to study.
When ten o’clock came, sure enough, a teasing voice came from inside the bronze mirror. “Long time no see! It’s been a month, hasn’t it? Eh? You actually tied up your hair? Don’t female ghosts have no way of touching their own hair?”
The mechanical pencil lead in He Yiyao’s hand snapped with a “pa.” “You’re the female ghost! No, wait, what did you say about a month? Only three days have passed here!” She looked toward the ancient mirror and discovered that the mirror surface was a little clearer than last time. She could vaguely see a flickering candle flame on the other side of the mirror, as well as the outline of a man.
“Hey, woman, thou… you wipe the mirror surface again. After you wiped it last time, it seemed like I could see more clearly.” Huo Qubing learned from He Yiyao and changed his “thou” and “I” into “you” and “I.” Although it felt a little awkward, it also struck him as very novel.
He Yiyao looked at the homework she had already finished, then simply picked up the rag on her desk and began wiping. “You said you haven’t seen me for a month? What’s going on? What times were you able to see me before?”
“The very first time was the first day of the sixth month, then the time before last was the eleventh day of the sixth month, and today is the eleventh day of the seventh month. I remember very clearly. On the first day of the sixth month, I went to Shanglin Park to hunt and shoot, drank until I was dead drunk, and when I came back, I discovered you in the mirror.”
“Eh? Could it be that our time flows differently? Maybe this ancient mirror is like a webcam, connecting two different time-spaces! It’s just that the internet cable might be a bit too long, so there’s a delay. Huh, but why isn’t there a delay when we talk?”
“Woman, please speak in words I can understand! What is a webcam? And what is an internet cable?” Huo Qubing listened very hard, but discovered that although he heard her, he did not understand.
“A webcam is a lens connected to a computer… Forget it, pretend I didn’t say anything.” He Yiyao rolled her eyes, feeling that explaining what a webcam was to an ancient person was pointless. They only understood heavenly mirrors!
“Hey! You wipe yours too! Don’t make me do all the work alone.”
“I wipe? The mirror in my hand is new! It’s already very bright! What is there to wipe?” Huo Qubing flicked the surface of the bronze mirror. “Woman, if I flick the mirror surface, does it hurt? People say that if an object is damaged, the ghost living inside it will hurt too!”
“Hurt your ghostly head!” He Yiyao wiped the mirror surface fiercely, imagining it as Huo Qubing’s face. I’ll scrub, I’ll scrub hard! “I’m not a female ghost!”
“I know, that’s why I call you woman!” Someone’s tone was extremely perfunctory.
He Yiyao was so angry her teeth itched. As if venting her resentment, she wiped the mirror surface hard. After a while, that irritating voice rang out again.
“I can see you! What the heck! Those uncles lied to me! Female ghosts aren’t devastatingly beautiful at all! They’re supposed to look terrifying!”
“Clang!” He Yiyao flipped the mirror face-down directly onto the desk, then grabbed a book and smashed it a few times to vent her anger.
She looked terrifying? He Yiyao could not help looking toward the mirror on her dressing table, where a delicate, lovely face was reflected.
That guy had something wrong with his eyes! And he said he rode horses and shot arrows! As long as he did not shoot his own people, that would already be pretty good!
From inside the mirror, the calls of “Woman! Woman!” kept coming.
He Yiyao touched the patterns on the back of the bronze mirror with her hand, recalling that just before she had flipped the mirror over, she had vaguely seen a handsome face.
Why was she blushing? Who cared about that guy? Lights off, sleep!
“Hey! Woman, are you there?” At ten o’clock at night, a certain person’s voice came from the bronze mirror right on time. Only this time, it was not so frivolous. It even sounded somewhat heavy.
He Yiyao struggled inwardly for only two seconds before turning the face-down bronze mirror over again. She had to admit that having an online friend from more than two thousand years ago was pretty damn cool, not to mention that he was the famous General Huo.
On the mottled mirror surface, the scratches had lessened a little, and an extremely handsome, heroic face was reflected within. It was still somewhat blurry, but those bright, spirited eyes—clear and flashing with deep light—captured He Yiyao’s heart in an instant, making her unable to look away.
However, where was he looking?
He Yiyao lowered her head and glanced at her camisole nightdress. Cursing him inwardly as a little pervert, she immediately went to find a jacket and put it on. This kind of clothing was probably too stimulating for men of ancient times. But, man? He Yiyao poked Huo Qubing’s face on the mirror surface and asked curiously, “How old are you?”
“This young lord is sixteen this year. What of it? They refuse to let me join the army!” Huo Qubing picked up the wine jug in his hand and took a gulp. “This young lord is already qualified enough to go into battle and kill enemies! Don’t tell me you also look down on me for being young like they do!”
Sixteen? No wonder this online friend’s features still looked so youthful. So he was an underage boy. He Yiyao raised her brows and said, “Be good. Call me big sister.”
“No! Woman, can’t you chat with me every day? I have to wait ten days each time! Can’t you come whenever I call?” Huo Qubing hiccupped and made the demand shamelessly.
“I chat with you every day!” He Yiyao curled her lip. Come whenever he called? Did Young Master Huo think he was a classmate of Harry Potter and had learned Apparition?
“It seems one day in heaven is ten days on earth!” Young Lord Huo sighed regretfully.
“Were you just praising me as a fairy? Really!” He Yiyao cupped her cheeks, embarrassed but amused, deliberately twisting Young Master Huo’s meaning.
For once, Young Lord Huo did not bicker with her. He was somewhat muddled from drink and mumbled indistinct words. “Woman, do you… do you want to see… the scenery beyond the frontier? You have to… always stay by my side. Don’t… don’t leave… I’ll take you… take you to see it…” By the end, he himself had fallen asleep facedown on the table.
He Yiyao silently looked at the young general in the mirror, who harbored soaring ambitions yet had drunkenly collapsed in frustration, and felt a tightness in her chest… She remembered that in history, Huo Qubing had died young at the age of twenty-four…
Should she tell him? But if she did, he would take it as a joke, wouldn’t he…
“Woman, I, Huo Qubing, was born the son of a servant and raised among silks and brocade, yet I have never once indulged in glory, splendor, wealth, and rank. A true man is born to die on the battlefield, to defend his home and protect his country!”
“Woman, do you know? The Xiongnu repeatedly harass our dynasty’s borders, yet His Majesty uses marriage alliances and dowry goods to maintain a relative peace!”
“Woman, if they let me onto the battlefield, I will surely slaughter enemies in every direction!”
“Woman… Hey! Are you listening to me or not?”
“I’m listening, I’m listening!” He Yiyao dug at her ear and continued lowering her head to work on her review questions.
This situation continued for several weeks. Every night at ten o’clock, she could see this online friend from two thousand years ago through the bronze mirror for about half an hour before being forcibly disconnected. But Huo Qubing could only see He Yiyao once every ten days, so counting it up, nearly a year had passed for him.
“Who are you trying to fool? You can’t even be bothered to look at my face. Is that thing you’re writing really so interesting? Is it more interesting than this young lord?”
This was the last homework she had to hand in tomorrow. Cram school would end tomorrow, and then school would start! However, He Yiyao blinked, raised her head to look at the desk calendar, and suddenly realized that tomorrow was the day she should return this bronze mirror to the antique shop.
Although Huo Qubing’s incessant nagging was somewhat annoying, she realized that she had already grown used to listening to him pour out his grievances every night. She could not help looking toward the bronze mirror on her right. On the mottled mirror surface appeared the other party’s young yet unmistakably domineering face.
“You…” He Yiyao wanted to say goodbye to him properly, but when the words reached her lips, she could not get them out. This bronze mirror was definitely genuine. Even if she sold herself, she could not afford it.
Moreover, she truly could not continue chatting with him like this. During this month, in order not to change the course of history, she had told him nothing and had obediently acted as a listener. By now, he probably still thought she was merely a female ghost living inside the mirror.
“Woman, do you know? Actually, I rarely talk to people. But when I face you, there always seems to be endless things to say. Perhaps it’s because I don’t know you at all, and you don’t know me…”
He Yiyao froze, not knowing what to say.
She had heard all the complaints he had vented these days. Empress Wei Zifu was his aunt, his uncle Wei Qing was a general of the Great Han, he wanted to go into battle and kill enemies and did not want to live a peaceful life in Chang’an… She had always felt that it was another world unrelated to her. But under his daily, gradual influence, it was as if she had witnessed it with her own eyes, standing beside him, looking through the still somewhat blurry mirror as he galloped across the hunting grounds…
“Woman, remember I said I would take you to see the desert and the grasslands? In ten days, I’ll take you to see them!” Huo Qubing said in high spirits. He Yiyao could see his flying brows, like two small blades thrust into the clouds, sharp and distinctive. “I have already volunteered myself and asked His Majesty to appoint me as Piaoyao Colonel so I can join the expedition! Ten days from now, you must wait for me!”
The mirror surface had already returned to normal, but Huo Qubing’s excited voice seemed still to echo beside her ears.
He Yiyao’s heart softened. She propped her chin in one hand and stared blankly at the ancient mirror. If she did not say anything unnecessary and only acted as a listener, that should be fine, right? Tomorrow, she would go to Yashe and ask the owner if he could continue renting the ancient mirror to her. She could take out all the coins in her piggy bank and pay a year’s rent in advance. That should be all right, right?
From then on, He Yiyao’s nights became extraordinarily vivid. Through this ancient mirror, she saw the alluring, clear moonlight beyond the frontier, saw the blood and carnage on the battlefield, saw the boundless desert…
She flipped through history books while looking at the ancient mirror.
Between the lines of the history books, she watched the battlefield storms within the ancient mirror.
She said nothing. She only accompanied him, encouraged him, comforted him, and passed the long years with him.
One day for her equaled ten days for him.
In the sixth year of Yuanshuo, he led eight hundred cavalrymen, galloping hundreds of li through the vast desert in search of traces of the enemy. In the end, his first battle using long-distance raid tactics was a success. They killed more than two thousand enemies; of the Xiongnu Chanyu’s two uncles, one was slain and the other captured alive. He led his troops back unharmed. Emperor Wu of Han immediately enfeoffed him as “Champion Marquis,” praising him as the bravest of the three armies.
Across the ancient mirror, she watched him hurry hundreds of li, watched the dust rising beneath the horses’ hooves, watched the blood flowing down his chest cover the mirror surface for the entire long night.
He said this was his first time in battle, and he had achieved a proud victory.
She said nothing. She only quietly looked at the mottled bloodstains on the ancient mirror, because this was the first time he had suffered such a severe injury.
In the spring of the second year of Yuanshou, he was appointed General of Agile Cavalry and led ten thousand elite troops alone to campaign against the Xiongnu. Barely nineteen years old, he launched a lightning raid across the thousand-li desert. In six days, he fought his way through five Xiongnu tribes, advancing fiercely all the way, and fought a head-on battle of life and death at Mount Gaolan. In that battle, he won a bitter victory. Although he slew nearly ten thousand enemies, of his ten thousand elite troops, only three thousand remained.
She watched across the ancient mirror, but did not see the scenes of his battle. When they met again, it was already the scene of victory.
He said that in order not to let her see bloody scenes, he had deliberately chosen the interval between their conversations to fight.
She said nothing. This time, there was no blood on the mirror surface. But she discovered that on the back of the mirror, there was an additional deep blade mark.
She could see the blade marks on the ancient mirror.
But how many injuries he had suffered, she could not see at all.
That summer of the same year, Emperor Wu of Han decided to launch the campaign to recover Hexi. In this battle, he became the commander of the Han army, once again advancing deep alone, and once again winning a great victory. At the Qilian Mountains, his forces slew more than thirty thousand enemies. The Han dynasty recovered the Hexi Corridor. From then on, the might of the Han army rose greatly, and he, at nineteen years old, became a god of war whose name struck terror into the Xiongnu.
She watched across the ancient mirror, looking at the land of Hexi beneath his feet, looking at his high spirits, looking at his countless soldiers gazing up at him…
He said he truly wished she could stand by his side and feel it all.
She said nothing, because she knew it was impossible…
That autumn of the same year, the Hunye King and Xiutu King wanted to surrender to the Han dynasty, and he went to the Yellow River to accept their submission. When he led his troops across the Yellow River, a mutiny suddenly broke out among the surrendering Xiongnu forces. Astonishingly, he personally charged into the Xiongnu camp with only several personal guards, faced the Hunye King directly, and ordered the mutinous soldiers to be executed. The Hunye King had every opportunity to seize him as a hostage or kill him for revenge, yet in the end, the Hunye King gave up. His courage to risk danger alone without fearing life or death not only overawed the Hunye King, but also shook more than forty thousand Xiongnu soldiers. The surrender at Hexi ended smoothly.
She watched across the ancient mirror. On that night of flickering candlelight, uncertain circumstances, and lurking danger, he stood there in the enemy’s tent. With only a single expression and a single gesture, he suppressed forty thousand soldiers outside the tent and eight thousand mutineers. The world was shaken, crying out that the god of war was invincible.
He said he had truly taken a risk this time, but with her accompanying him, she was his guardian goddess.
She said nothing. On this side of the ancient mirror, she silently loosened the corner of her clothes, which she had crushed completely out of shape in her grip.
In the third year of Yuanshou, Emperor Wu of Han had a magnificent mansion built for him and instructed him to go inspect it.
She watched across the ancient mirror, seeing the young emperor’s regard for him in his eyes, seeing the smiling princess by his side. She knew that Emperor Wu of Han had not only bestowed a mansion upon him, but also intended for him to marry the princess.
He said, “The Xiongnu are not yet destroyed. How can I have a home?”
She said nothing. She only looked at the hand he placed on the mirror surface while he spoke, the lines of his palm clearly visible.
For the first time, she reached out her own hand and pressed it against his.
Their hands were separated not only by a cold mirror surface, but also by two thousand years of time.
Yet still, something seemed to flow silently between them.
In the fourth year of Yuanshou, in order to completely annihilate the main force of the Xiongnu, Emperor Wu of Han launched the unprecedented Battle of Mobei. He led his troops deep into Mobei, raiding more than two thousand li and annihilating more than seventy thousand enemies. In pursuit of the Xiongnu Chanyu, he came all the way to Mount Langjuxu and led his great army in a ceremony to offer sacrifices to Heaven and Earth. After performing the rites at Langjuxu, he continued leading his troops deeper, all the way to the area around Lake Baikal in Russia, winning victory after victory. After this battle, the Xiongnu fled far away, and south of the desert, there was no royal court. His “Feng Langjuxu” became from then on the highest pursuit in the lives of Chinese military strategists throughout the ages, the dream they strove for all their lives. And that year, he was only twenty-two.
She watched across the ancient mirror, watching this highest military sacrifice to Heaven in history, watching him stand at the very peak of his life, watching his supreme glory.
During the six years of his campaigns, she had always stayed by his side, guarding him before his chest.
He said, “Woman, are you truly a female ghost? After so many years, your appearance has not changed at all…”
On the mirror, countless mottled blade marks had appeared, but the mirror surface grew clearer and clearer.
She could even see her own reflection in his eyes.
He said his ideal of pacifying the Xiongnu had already been realized. His dream of becoming a general had also become reality. He had almost fulfilled every wish he had held as a child, and he could almost obtain everything he wanted.
He said he wanted her.
She said nothing. She only silently shook her head, placed the mirror inside a sealed box, and locked it in the deepest part of the cabinet.
Enough, she told herself.
She had accompanied him for more than seven months, watched him struggle forward step by step, watched him finally climb to the summit of his life. That was enough.
In the end, they were not people of the same world. She would rather he simply think she was a female ghost who had forever lost her magic power, whose soul had scattered and dispersed, never to meet him again.
She had to forget him.
She buried herself in her studies, putting all her attention into her books, absolutely refusing to give herself any spare time to think of him.
Except that every night at ten o’clock, her heart would clench in pain, and she would habitually look at the place where the ancient mirror used to be placed, then force herself to look away.
What was he doing? What was he thinking? Who was he with?
She gritted her teeth. He no longer had anything to do with her.
How could she watch him slowly grow ill, weaken, and finally die?
She had had enough of only being able to watch him through the ancient mirror, unable to do anything, unable to touch him.
She admitted she was cowardly, so she chose to run away.
Life remained the same as before: school, cram lessons, homework… only every morning when she woke, her face was covered in tear tracks.
Finally, the college entrance examination ended. She did very well and told her parents that she should be able to get into the university she had wanted to attend since childhood. Her parents were wild with joy, while she closed her door and sank into sorrow.
The exams were over. She had free time. Without the excuse of studying, she began to be unable to suppress her longing for him.
At last, she could not help taking out the box locked deep in the cabinet. Looking at the long-lost ancient mirror, she gently stroked it.
This time, she had to tell him.
Although they could not be together, she had to tell him.
She liked him.
The room was empty and lonely. She sat there quietly just like that, waiting all the way until ten o’clock at night.
She did not hear his voice. There was only one clear sound of shattering—the ancient mirror in her hand had, without warning, developed a crack.
Then she saw that the other side of the mirror was covered with a strip of silk.
On the silk were several vigorous, powerful characters.
—A-Yao, in the next life, we must meet.
She was already sobbing too hard to speak.
“Boss,” He Yiyao stood before the counter and opened the box. Inside, the surface of the ancient mirror had a crack in it. Today was the day university began, and it was also exactly one year since she had rented this ancient mirror. “How much is this ancient mirror? I’ll buy it.”
The young antique shop owner looked at the cracked ancient mirror, but there was not much surprise on his face. “No need. Your rent is exactly its price.”
“Is that so?” He Yiyao did not believe it at all. To her, this ancient mirror was a priceless treasure. Even if the owner quoted an astronomical number, she would find a way to buy it on credit and repay him.
The owner closed the box and pushed it back to her, smiling. “Now, it is yours.”
He Yiyao lowered her eyes and carefully picked up the box.
This was her most precious possession.
“Right, there’s one more thing. It came with this ancient mirror. Let me look for it.” The owner walked into the room in the back. After rummaging around for a while, he came out leisurely, holding a yellowed, worn piece of silk.
As if struck by lightning, He Yiyao tremblingly took the piece of silk.
Her hands shook slightly as she unfolded it. On it were several vigorous, powerful characters: A-Yao, in the next life, we must meet.
Holding the ancient mirror’s box and clutching that piece of silk, she did not know how she left Yashe. She only knew that when she came back to herself, her parents had already brought her to the university campus.
The freshman reception area was bustling with noise, yet she felt as if she were standing in another space.
In her daze, someone bumped into her, and she fell to the ground. She desperately hugged the ancient mirror, but the silk drifted down to the floor.
A hand picked up the silk for her. It was a hand with distinct, elegant knuckles.
Her heart suddenly clenched so tightly that she did not even have the strength to stand.
She raised her head and saw a familiar face. This time, there was no ancient mirror between them, no distant two thousand years, no neighing warhorses, no clash of golden spears, no dust flying through the air… His face was clear and real.
The difference was that he was not wearing the armor he had never parted with, only a simple white T-shirt and blue jeans.
Tears slid down silently.
That person walked up to her, unfolded the silk, and, as if he had merely happened to see the words on it, yet also as if he had long known what was written there, read aloud with force:
“A-Yao, in the next life, we must meet.”
Every ancient object in Yashe has its own story. They have carried those stories for many years, with no one to listen.
But they are all waiting…