501 Am I not Funny
The woman on the tv didn’t have her eyes focused. Her arms were covered in knife wounds. Her hair was disheveled like she was sleep-walking. The scariest thing was on the double bed, the woman’s husband was soundly asleep, not knowing what was happening. “Is this old video footage? In the video, the husband and wife are alive so this should be from quite some time ago.” Ironman studied the footage and shivered. Someone you slept beside would get up at night and then stand before the mirror with a knife. It was scary just thinking about it.
“Shush, roll the tape.” The woman kept repeating the same thing but her reflection was the only thing in the mirror. If she hurt the person in the mirror, she was hurting herself. The video soon ended. Yan Tang opened the cupboard underneath the television and found a sealed paper box. He opened the paper box. It had many old tapes and a dusty diary. The words on the first page of the diary were scary enough.
“I feel like my wife is trying to kill me. When I wake up every morning, the knives in the house would have been moved. It can’t be burglars because only the knives were moved.
“Ever since she did the plastic surgery, my wife acted stranger and stranger. She became prettier and gentler but it felt like I was a stranger in her eyes. We are husband and wife but she looks at me like I am a stranger. I can see the disgust in her eyes but we used to be so happy together. I need to find the reason for this change to save my wife!”
The content in the man’s diary became more despaired.
“Young brother, you are my only family. If you are reading this diary, then it means I’m dead. There is another person living inside your sister-in-law. I installed a hidden camera at home and I noticed that she would walk around the house with a knife at night. She wasn’t sleep-walking because she knew where the knives were kept. After getting the knife, she would check if I was really asleep before she headed to the mirror.
“I really couldn’t understand what she was doing. She appeared to be talking to the mirror. She wants to kill herself in the mirror?”
The content of the diary was almost similar. Han Fei turned to the last page. The last page only had 3 words. “Who are you?”
The handwriting for this question was different from the previous entries. It felt like it was the wife and not the husband who wrote this.
When Han Fei read the sentence, he felt like he was being watched. Someone was whispering the question into his ears. The woman on the television was mad. She sometimes waved the knife wildly at the mirror but other times, she sat at the vanity perfectly demure. She was like 2 different personas inhabiting one body.
“She was most likely possessed by the ghost in the mirror. She was fighting for physical control of the body with the ghost.” Yan Tang said, “I’ve seen many similar ghost movies. This kind of ghost is hard to deal with. They have no corporeal state and will slowly destroy a person through their mind.”
“Mental corruption?” Han Fei had a strong constitution. He could resist the voice but he allowed the voice to enter his brain. “I love this kind of mental challenge.”
“Why?” Yan Tang was confused. He silently pointed at Auntie Lee. “Be careful. Look at Auntie Lee. I believe she is already slightly possessed. If we are not careful, we might be drawn by the ghosts into the mirrors.”
“You have a point, do continue.” Han Fei finally found the correct way to use Yan Tang’s talent. He looked at Yan Tang with anticipation. He hoped to use Yan Tang’s Daydream talent to trick the ghost in the mirror to enter his mind. At the Ziggurat, Butterfly’s lingering memory wanted to take over Han Fei’s mind but was killed by Han Fei inside the red orphanage. Han Fei would die when his Life Points dropped to 0. It was easy to kill Han Fei but controlling his body was very difficult. Han Fei was not afraid of people entering his mind or looking through his memory because he couldn’t even tell which of his memory was real.
“I need your analysis. Yan Tang now is your time to shine.” Han Fei looked at the recording on the television and it was not good enough. He used Rest in Peace to remove the bedroom door and sat before the vanity table. He sat facing the mirror, just like the woman in the video. Because the bedroom door had been removed, he could see the video on the television through the mirror. This kind of reaction shocked the 3 players.
“Brother, are you sure about this? I really think the ghost might crawl into your head to take over your body. Based on my observation, there is an 80 percent that she’ll come for you.” Yan Tang had 9 starting points in intelligence but even he couldn’t understand what Han Fei was doing.
“This doesn’t look like a good idea,” Ironman said too. Everyone knew that the person who challenged the ghost was the first to die in horror movies. While the 2 players persuaded him, Han Fei looked at his reflection in the mirror with a smile. “Who are you?” The woman’s voice repeated in the living room television but the questions echoed in Han Fei’s ears. Han Fei opened his mind and relaxed fully like he was at the spa.
Slowly, perhaps it was Yan Tang’s words working, Han Fei saw his reflection in the mirror started to smile. As an actor with masterful acting, Han Fei was familiar with micro-expression. His reflection in the mirror was really smiling, it was different from acting. It contained an inexplicable smugness.
“Smile, smile brighter for me.” The mission required Han Fei to find a smiling reflection of himself. He didn’t know where to find one so he wanted to see if he could trick the ghost into doing that for him. Han Fei was originally a comedy actor so he liked to see others smile. It didn’t matter if he could kill the ghost or not, he was more concerned about the mission reward.
“Why is Brother Youfu smiling?”
“Is he really possessed?” Ironman took out his boxing gloves. He tried to mimic Han Fei but he realized perhaps he was not that suitable to be a professional gamer. Yan Tang and Ironman watched Han Fei. Auntie Lee initially also watched Han Fei but her head suddenly shook a few times. Her left pupils shuddered and then she turned to the open living room door. There was a power calling her to leave. Auntie Lee slowly turned around and stood in the middle of the living room.
With Yan Tang’s ‘curse’, something bad happened. The woman’s voice entered Han Fei’s mind and mixed into his memory. Some strange images started to appear. Han Fei saw a woman seated before the mirror tearing at her face. Half of her face was smiling, the other half was crying. No one knew what she was doing but she was in great pain. She clawed her face with her sharp nails. Her pretty skin was bleeding. But compared to the physical pain, the mental pain was more intense. After she snapped her nails, the woman took up the knife from the table and stabbed it at one half of her face. Intense pain entered Han Fei’s mind but he only gritted his teeth. The woman in the memory started to deface herself. Han Fei’s reflection in the mirror started to change too. Half of his face started to crack. Han Fei’s reflection in the mirror began to lean forward. As his reflection approached Han Fei, the painful memory of the woman became more numerous.
When the reflection’s face was on the mirror surface, it was not Han Fei’s face but a ruined woman’s face. Half of it was filled with scars, the other half was mad and crazy. The smile was gone, only resentment and hatred remained. All the memories started to cry. When the pain swept over Han Fei’s body, the woman’s face reached out of the mirror!
She came close to Han Fei’s face. Just as she was about to crawl into Han Fei’s face, the man’s eyes suddenly focused. He looked at the destroyed face and his eyes shone with dissatisfaction. “Why did you stop smiling? Was it because I am not funny?” The ruined face halted. The red eyes blinked twice. Using Soul-depth Touch, Han Fei grabbed the woman’s head and then bodyslammed it backward!
The woman tipped over with the vanity table. The cosmetics were scattered everywhere. The 3 players in the living room were stunned. They would remember this scene for life. The blade shone and the woman with the ruined face collapsed.
“You are not the ghost I’m looking for.” The memory of the woman dissipated from Han Fei’s mind. The woman’s memory couldn’t even enter Han Fei’s mind, much less take over his body.
Han Fei picked up the vanity table. The mirror was cracked but there was a bloody message—Who are you?
The woman’s voice in his ears was still echoing. The real ghost in the mirror was still alive.
“Looks like the scary ghost is not in this room.”
Han Fei walked to the living room and nudged the stunned Yan Tang. “Don’t stop, continue your analysis!”
