Mirror
by M1zushiThe flower boy stopped in front of him, raising an eyebrow. “You look so old, are you new here?”
“Mm.” An Yu’s expression was calm. “My parents recently mutated. I’m an older orphan.”
“Why don’t you have a number?”
“Hadn’t received my uniform yet.”
“Know the rules?”
“I’ve heard of them.” An Yu handed over half his biscuit skillfully.
“Did you bring any food from outside?”
An Yu shook his head. “Came from the slums. My family had no extra food.”
“So weak,” the flower boy sneered, sizing him up. “Looks like you’ve got bandages on your neck and wrist. Got injured outside?”
“Yeah. Snake bite.”
The flower boy squinted, eyeing the bandages as if considering something.
An Yu reached toward his neck. “Do you want them? The wound barely bled, it’s just a bit of snake venom. If you clean them up, the bandages are still reusable.”
“Forget it. I hate reptiles the most.” The flower boy wrinkled his nose. “Did you bring anything else in from outside?”
“Nothing else.” An Yu tugged at his tattered, sack-like clothes. “Just these, but if you want them…”
Without looking back, the flower boy walked off.
An Yu looked at the identity information on his back—21380720, Qiang.
Finally, after those three left the cafeteria, An Yu picked up the last crumbs of biscuit left on his plate and ate them, looking toward the distance.
0914, the boy singled out by Qiang, appeared to show no signs of mutation, which is why An Yu hadn’t assessed him earlier.
He stood up to return his bowl and, passing by 0914, murmured softly, “Excuse me, sorry.”
His terminal vibrated silently in his pocket.
Qin Zhilu’s voice came through the earpiece, low: “Genetic entropy, 10573—a highly gifted aberrant who can hide his traits.”
An Yu’s gaze landed on the ID behind him—21370914, Chen Nian.
Chen Nian looked up and said gently, “Are you alright? Since you’re new, stay out of their way when you see them.”
“Mm…” An Yu nodded, rubbing the bandage on his right wrist as if in distress. “Before I came, I thought there wouldn’t be aberrant kids here…”
“There weren’t, years ago, but now more than half are aberrants.” Chen Nian observed him carefully. “But you’re unusual. It’s been ages since the orphanage accepted a new kid. Staff stopped looking for high-risk children ages ago. How did you get in?”
An Yu lifted his gaze, meeting Chen Nian’s eyes.
They were clear, with no malice, but full of scrutiny.
“Any other advice?” An Yu avoided his question.
“The managers don’t intervene in any fights here. Injuries don’t matter, but don’t provoke them into wanting to kill you. Also, stay away from mirrors.” Chen Nian’s words carried a hidden meaning. “The facilities here are old, and sometimes the mirrors make strange noises. I’m always worried they’ll shatter if I get too close.”
An Yu’s breath stopped for a moment, then he lowered his head and said, “Thank you. I’ll be careful.”
After returning his bowl, he entered the restroom and stood at the sink.
“It’s strange, sir. The orphanage facilities are indeed old. I remember almost every mirror having cracks, but now they’re all pristine.”
He looked at himself in the mirror, raising his hand; the reflection did the same. He tried to empty his thoughts, and the eyes in the mirror grew vacant in response.
Everything seemed normal.
Yet he couldn’t shake a subtle feeling—as if something else was watching him through the mirror.
He suddenly reached for his side, and a crisp sound rang out as the blade slid free, slicing across the back of his left hand. The blade tilted downward, and droplets of blood dripped onto the uneven cement floor.
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The reflection matched him in every way—movement, expression, even the bleeding hand.
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An Yu stiffened. “Sir?”
Don't scrape
Don't copy
Qin Zhilu’s tone was cold and firm. “A warning. Self-harm without reason is prohibited in the Spire. Whether you’re angry, anxious, or hungry, you must control your emotions. Don’t let me see you hurting yourself over and over again.”
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“A new one, set just for you.” Qin Zhilu’s tone was calm, though he didn’t sound like he was joking. “Once we’re out of here, it’ll be immediately added to the system. For every violation, you’ll be fined ten thousand. The fine doubles on the second offense, and triples on the third.”
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An Yu instinctively tightened his grip on his recorder. “Why do you ask, sir?”
Don't scrape
Don't copy
An Yu thought to himself: Neither. It’s because I discovered a lot of little secrets with this ability, including yours.
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An Yu had pondered this question for a while and replied softly, “I did feel something during the genetic injection from Codex, but it was similar to District 53—still just a space fluctuation. I believe this new ability was awakened when I fused with the shattered red light in District 84, so the trigger might be…will acceptance.”
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An Yu walked away, wondering why his Commander was so certain there would be another ability awakening.
Don't scrape
Don't copy
As soon as An Yu stepped out, he saw Qiang pinning a human to the wall and beating him.
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As he got closer, An Yu stopped in his tracks.
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Suddenly, a sharp, shattering sound of glass broke out behind him!
Don't scrape
Don't copy
An Yu suddenly realized that the breaking sound had been like a mirror shattering.
“Sir…”
Before he could finish, an excruciating scraping sound suddenly exploded in his mind, like a blade pressing hard against his eardrum, scraping sparks as it passed!
It was the kind of unbearable noise that seemed to drain his mind dry. The pain went deeper than anything he’d experienced in the Black Tower’s torture or gene induction experiments.
Though it only lasted a moment, even after the pain disappeared, An Yu was still in a state of shock, drenched in cold sweat as he struggled to recover.
“Did you hear that?” Qin Zhilu’s voice came through the earpiece. “There seemed to be a bit of noise just now.”
<em>A bit? </em>
An Yu couldn’t even describe the immense shock he felt.
If his terminal hadn’t stayed silent, he’d have thought that noise had killed him.
It was a more suffocating sense of impending death than when his carotid artery was almost ruptured by the [Frog Tongue].
He closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and, exhausted, turned to find a place to rest.
His distracted golden eyes looked down, and his gaze casually swept over the back of his hand.
Then he stopped.
Strangely, the cut on his hand had stopped bleeding.
The gash itself seemed to have shrunk, almost imperceptibly.
“Hey, it’s you again.” An annoying voice called from behind.
An Yu slowly took his gaze off his hand, half-turning back. “What do you want?”
Qiang walked up to him. “I’m hurt. Hand over your bandages.”
Still a little sluggish, An Yu stood there, taking a moment to process Qiang’s meaning.
Qiang moved in front of him and tapped the chopstick he’d just pulled from the corpse’s throat against An Yu’s bandaged right wrist. “These.”
In his earpiece, Qin Zhilu’s voice rumbled, “Feels like someone’s poking me.”
An Yu pulled his arm back. “No.”
Qiang looked surprised. “Didn’t you say you could spare them just now?”
“I figured you wouldn’t actually want them, so I said yes.” An Yu, weary, raised his eyelids. “Now that you really do want them, I can only honestly say no.”
“I see,” Qin Zhilu commented from the earpiece. “Seems you’re not entirely inhuman.”
Hearing that, An Yu hesitated, swallowing the excuse he’d planned to give Qiang.
To be fair, he didn’t think at all about the Commander who was embedded in his bandages.
He just felt that sharing half a compressed biscuit was one thing; it was fitting to follow local customs. But those bandages were worth 3,999 credits apiece. There was no way he’d just hand them over.
“In any case,” he covered his right hand with the bandages and said weakly, “these aren’t something I can give you.”
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Author’s Note
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<h4 style=”text-align: center”><strong><span style=”letter-spacing: 1px”>[24 Seeds and Flowers]</span></strong></h4>
Wherever there are people, there is strength and weakness, and thus bullying is everywhere.
A child’s malice is far more obvious than that of adults.
Many people who leave the orphanage are burdened by heavy trauma and ultimately develop antisocial personalities or die because of depression.
It is said that High Peak had fiercely debated whether to keep this institution going.
In the end, they chose to continue.
Because some people who left the orphanage don’t just take with them the forced lessons in submission, but also the resilience, insight, and compassion they honed.
Adversity plants seeds in everyone’s heart.
What kind of flower blooms ultimately depends on the person.
<div style=”text-align: right;margin-top: 10px”>-Loose Pages from an Useless Book</div>
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