When I woke up the next morning, all three of our sons had already left. Lao Liu was sitting on the edge of the bed, stroking my face with an expression that suggested our marital life was anything but harmonious. I leaned up to kiss him. "What’s wrong?"
He gave a small grunt and leaned in, nuzzling me with his hair for a long while. When he finally looked up, he seemed to be hesitating on the verge of speaking.
I have a short fuse, and seeing him like that was more than I could take. "What is it?"
Lao Liu seemed to make up his mind. "Actually..."
Then, that eerie phenomenon happened again. I watched his lips moving, but I couldn't understand a word he was saying. It felt as if my Wernicke’s and Broca’s areas had suddenly malfunctioned. This had happened once before, back at my old home. At the time, I had just learned that my parents weren't my biological family and went to ask Lao Liu about my origins. He seemed to have explained something, but I had blacked out.
The current situation was identical.
I felt a wave of frustration. By the time I regained my clarity, Liu Wukong had already cooked breakfast and organized my schoolbag. "Hurry up and brush your teeth. Eat your breakfast."
To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed by the sudden attention. Although Lao Liu doted on me, he never did these kinds of chores. Usually, he’d just flick a beam of white light, and all the housework would be done instantly. Seeing him consult my class schedule and tuck my textbooks into the bag one by one actually terrified me. "Liu Wukong, what’s gotten into you?!"
Liu Wukong walked over carrying my bag. "What are you overthinking for? Go on." He gave me a little shove, like a mother bird nudging a fledgling, pushing me toward the bathroom. I was still afraid of whatever was in the mirror, so I made him stay with me.
As I brushed my teeth, Lao Liu stood right beside me. Lao Liu had a shadow, and so did I; we looked exactly the same. I stared at Lao Liu in the mirror, and Lao Liu stared back at me through the glass with a quiet, steady gaze. It felt incredibly macabre, and I nearly swallowed my toothpaste in fright.
After Lao Liu dropped me off at school, he left in a hurry. Truthfully, I wasn't in the mood for classes. Ever since the day we returned from the warehouse and the family reunited, I had felt that the world around me was slightly off. I wanted to talk to as many people as possible to figure out exactly where the problem lay. Since Lu Daoshi wasn't around, the first person I thought of was my eldest son. I headed to the library.
In the stairwell, I found the Eldest—who was usually as polite and composed as a diplomat—actually gripping the Second’s collar and pinning him against the railing! I heard his voice, low and cold: "You’ve gone too far. Cast those useless thoughts aside immediately. You are who you are; do not lose yourself. Otherwise, even I won't be able to save you when the time comes."
But my second son merely sneered, pointing at his own head. "This place is filled with nothing but memories of *that person*. Every day, every moment, every second, I’m thinking of him. It’s enough to make my head explode... I’m a copy, but I have the same feelings and memories he does. Why can't I?!"
"Because you only saw, heard, and knew. You didn't feel, realize, or experience it."
"You—"
Seeing that they were about to come to blows, I quickly pretended to be passing by. "Brothers shouldn't fight. We're family, one family..."
The Second son violently shoved the Eldest away, gave me a look of utter disbelief, and then stormed off in a rage, his ears flushed red. The Eldest sighed and glanced at me. "Do you need something?"
"Yes. I wanted to tell you—"
Just then, the Eldest’s phone rang. He listened for a moment, frowning, then checked his watch and apologized. "I’m sorry, something urgent came up. I have to go. See you later."
With that, he hurried down the stairs.
I was left with the miserable feeling of a neglected parent whose successful sons were all unfilial.
I agonized over who to turn to next. After weighing my options, I steeled myself and went to find Pi Zhang. He was the person involved who was closest to me.
Pi Zhang was smoking at the top of the stairs. When he saw me, he called out, "Hey, kiddo, where you headed?" He came over affectionately and gave my neck a playful squeeze.
Wait... wasn't this scene a bit familiar?
Wasn't this... yesterday?
I grabbed Pi Zhang’s hand and pulled him back. "Boss, when... when did you get back?"
Pi Zhang let out a confused sound. "Did you jerk yourself stupid last night? I’ve been here the whole time."
I suspected he might have amnesia. "Then... what about Lao Chu? You don't remember him either?"
Pi Zhang blew a smoke ring and squinted at me with an unfriendly gaze. "Why are you bringing up Chu Min? That brat never even looks me in the eye; all he knows is how to study all day."
I froze. Wait a minute. The Chu Min that Pi Zhang was talking about... was he the *real* Lao Chu?
Wait, the real Lao Chu disappeared two years ago!
Holy shit! I grabbed Pi Zhang by the collar. "What year is it?!"
Pi Zhang was startled. "What are you doing? What’s wrong with you?"
I asked him repeatedly until he finally snapped impatiently, "2012. What about it?"
God damn it!
Why was it 2012?! Why had I gone back two years?! Two years ago, everything was still normal... Had Lao Liu reset time again?
I went to the restaurant where Lao Liu used to wash dishes, but I couldn't find him. I went to the police station, but I couldn't find Ren Xing. The last straw I could think of was Jin Mu. I called his number, but it was out of service. I ran to the Academy of Arts—there was no record of such a person!
Why was this happening?!
Liu Wukong was definitely hiding something from me. Ever since our family reunion, he had turned back the clock two years. But what was his reason? And why didn't he tell me? I was desperate to see him. On my way home, I rushed to pick up Xiao Yu, but I couldn't find him—Xiao Yu wasn't at school. The teachers there treated me like a human trafficker again, and even their warnings were exactly the same.
A bolt of lightning suddenly struck my mind! I thought of the old man I’d bumped into two days in a row, the two dogs I’d seen mating two days in a row, and Pi Zhang squeezing my neck and saying, *Hey, kiddo, where you headed...*
I hadn't fucking gone back to the past at all.
I was fucking imprisoned in a single day two years ago, before everything had even begun—an infinite loop!
And everyone who could tell me the truth had vanished: Jin Mu, Lu Daoshi, Ren Xing...
Even Pi Zhang—had Liu Wukong even resurrected him, or was he just a fragment on a continuous loop?
Then, where was the real world?
And where was I???
I returned home, exhausted. No one was there, and the lights were off.
I waited until very late, but no one returned.
Terrified, I leaned against the shoe cabinet and began to cry, eventually falling asleep. I had a dream. In the dream, Lao Liu woke me up and said, "Little one, go back to bed. You'll catch a cold."
I happily lunged forward to grab him, but he vanished.
For some reason, I thought of Li Si. When he was the Chancellor but about to be executed, he told his son how much he missed the old days when they were poor, leading their dog out to hunt.
I felt just like that. I didn't actually care how powerful my Big Liu was. What did it matter if he could reach the top of Mount Everest? I just desperately, desperately wanted him to smile warmly and call me "little one" for the rest of my life.
A lifetime would have been enough.
He could grant me a happiness that would move heaven and earth with a casual gesture. Therefore, if there were any obstacles between us, they too would surely be enough to move heaven and earth.
I cried myself awake and went to the bathroom to wash my face.
I was so miserable then that I didn't care about anything else. When I pushed the door open and saw the person in the mirror, I wasn't as afraid as I had been yesterday. I just froze, realizing he was looking at me with a gaze that was incredibly quiet, devoid of any malice.
I finally broke down. "Who are you, exactly?"
That suffocating sense of familiarity made me ache so much I couldn't speak.
He stood there in silence.
I walked over and placed a hand on the surface of the mirror. "Is it you?"
He extended a finger, tracing the lines of my palm through the glass.
Then, he turned and walked away with grim determination.
On the other side of the mirror, my shadow turned and left.
I suddenly remembered: I am Liu Wukong’s shadow.
Trembling, I picked up the toothpaste cup.
I am not left-handed.
But at this moment, the hand holding the toothpaste was unmistakably my left...
It wasn't the world around me that was wrong.
It was Liu Wukong. Taking advantage of the move, he had locked me... behind the mirror!
None of this was real!
I was going insane! I found everything I could throw and smashed it against that glass. The glass shattered, but nothing changed. I sat amidst the shards of glass on the floor, asking *why, why, why*, but he never once turned back to look at me.
Among so many fragments, not a single one could see him.
"What are you doing?" Someone stepped over the glass shards and stopped beside me. He helped me up, led me to the bedroom to sit down, and tried to put a bandage on me.
I told him, "Hide all the mirrors in the house."
The Second son gave an irrelevant answer: "I’m leaving."
I felt completely drained. "Go then. Go, everyone leave. Just leave me here alone."
He sat with me for a while, muttering to himself, "Do you know why I have to leave? I’ve been exiled by him. I can never return to this family. He looks gentle, but he’s actually very strict, isn't he?"
He leaned in, trying to kiss my temple. I had been harboring vague suspicions about our conversation from this morning, so I moved away without a word.
The Second son continued to mutter in my ear, "It’s all because of this... but what choice do I have? Who told me to inherit those memories?"
A flash of insight suddenly crossed my mind. "Then do you know why he locked me inside the mirror?!"
He looked at me with a gaze full of pity. "You’ll get used to it. In the long ages of the past, you spent most of your time in the mirror world. That’s how he treats you. Crude control, terrifying possessiveness, excessive protection—who knows? Even when he slept, he locked you to his bedside. You loathed him..."
As he spoke these words, there was a faint, ghoulish intensity to him.
I didn't want to hear it and cut him off. "How do I get out?"
He shook his head. "I can't do it."
Me: "Who can?"
He thought for a moment, took my phone, and dialed a number.
The call connected, and the person on the other end said, "Hello?"
It was Jin Mu.
***
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My Roommate is a Non-Human | Chapter 61 | Behind the Glass | Novela.app | Novela.app
