That was a copper coin.
The surface of the copper coin was mottled, with bloodstains and tarnish darkly clinging to the uneven patterns, making it impossible to tell the coin’s age or origin.
Yang Siguang stared intently at the copper coin in Li Bo’s hand, and in a daze, he seemed to remember seeing something similar at Li Chen’s funeral. Oh, yes, on that body, which had already lost all human form, two such copper coins were placed over the eyes.
And just as Yang Siguang’s mind wandered for a moment, he seemed to see that fresh, glistening eyeball—Li Chen’s eyeball—lying quietly in Li Bo’s palm, staring at him unblinkingly.
His breath caught in his throat.
Fortunately, in the next second, the man’s palm suddenly clenched tight, and Yang Siguang shivered, quickly snapping out of that dazed state.
“Stop looking. Although it’s already been treated with cinnabar, you’re in a bad condition right now, with weak yang energy, and you’re also the current host of the death curse. Staring at it too long could easily make it take hold of you again.”
Li Bo’s voice came from beside the bed, his tone lowered, almost cautiously.
Yang Siguang could feel the man’s gaze fall on the bandages wrapped around his neck, layers upon layers. He must have already known what had happened in this hospital room. Yang Siguang had been attacked by an evil spirit again.
Li Bo still felt a lingering fear.
According to the surveillance footage, Yang Siguang, who should have been asleep under the calming effect, had gotten up from his bed after glancing at his phone. After pacing around the room for a while, the young man had actually strangled himself, nearly suffocating himself into shock.
Fortunately, when the medical staff arrived, they found that he had only fainted. His throat had minor soft tissue bruising, but there was no major harm… Of course, in Li Bo’s eyes, this incident was far from as “minor” as it appeared. At least when he rushed into the room to check on Yang Siguang’s injuries, his face was so dark it seemed like it could wring water out, scaring the few subordinates stationed in the ward.
And it was precisely because of Yang Siguang’s injury that Li Bo no longer cared about the awkward and unresolved conflict between them. He simply returned to Yang Siguang as if nothing had happened.
“…Sorry, I know that seeing me might still make you uncomfortable.”
Li Bo’s eyes flickered as he faced Yang Siguang.
“But we can talk about everything later. The urgent matter now is to remove the death curse from you.”
Li Bo then took out the “curse root” he had just taken from Ding Xiaolong.
“I’ve already sent a photo to Aunt Qiao. She said it looks like this thing. To avoid further complications, she rushed over as soon as she got the message. She should be here soon. Once we deal with the curse root, everything will be easier.”
Because of the injury to his neck, Yang Siguang was quieter than ever. When he met Li Bo’s gaze, his eyes seemed unusually deep and cold, no longer the gentleness and intimacy they once shared.
Li Bo had to admit, seeing Yang Siguang like this made his heart ache with a subtle, sharp pain.
Yet, on the surface, he still forced himself to maintain an air of indifference, as if nothing was wrong.
“At least Li Chen won’t bother you anymore,” Li Bo sighed deeply, unconsciously running a hand through his hair. “You scared me, Siguang… I really didn’t expect this to happen. I thought I had enough people watching over you, but something still went wrong. I’m really sorry, I didn’t realize Li Chen’s obsession with you had twisted to this point…”
“That’s not right.”
Yang Siguang interrupted Li Bo in a hoarse voice, speaking very softly.
He must have been in considerable pain, each word coming out with great difficulty.
But he still insisted on speaking, “Something doesn’t feel right.”
The horrifying ghostly encounters he had experienced were so terrifying that they had made him overlook the oddities and contradictions within them.
According to Li Bo and Aunt Qiao’s reasoning, Li Chen’s deep obsession in life had kept his soul lingering, unwilling to depart, and he had tried to use a death curse to take Yang Siguang from this world, which had led to the subsequent incidents.
However, every time Li Chen appeared, he was in a broken state, his soul incomplete and unable to speak clearly, yet he did everything he could to remind Yang Siguang that he had taken something he shouldn’t have.
Later, he even turned into a black dog, attempting to swallow the “eyeball” when Yang Siguang wasn’t around.
After the black dog died, he had forced Ding Xiaolong to swallow the curse root…
“…I’ve been thinking, if my parents hadn’t come home that night and caught Ding Xiaolong eating the black dog meat, would Ding Xiaolong still have been in the house the next day?”
“Aunt Qiao also said that the curse root can only take effect on me. But Li Chen had threatened me so many times, and if you look closely… he was actually trying to keep the curse root away from me…”
“Did he really want to kill me?”
“But why do I feel like he just wanted to protect me…”
Hearing this, Li Bo felt the muscle under his left eye twitch uncontrollably.
His brows furrowed tightly.
“Siguang, calm down. Anything a ghost says is unreliable. Once a person dies, all that remains is their obsession. The most dangerous thing for a living person is to be misled by a ghost, because once your mind is disturbed, it will be even harder to fight back against the evil spirit. Besides, you’ve already experienced so many terrifying things. Li Chen almost killed you—”
Li Bo couldn’t help but remind him.
He noticed that when Li Chen was mentioned, Yang Siguang’s expression became strange. It was no longer the nostalgic sorrow of ignorance, nor the extreme disgust and anger after learning the truth.
Yang Siguang’s feelings toward Li Chen seemed to have become more complicated, no longer just rejection. Li Bo should have felt relieved by this, but in that moment, his heart felt as if it were weighed down with lead, making it hard to even beat.
Especially when he heard Yang Siguang’s response, the strange, sharp pain in his chest intensified.
“However, was that really Li Chen?”
Yang Siguang murmured hoarsely, as if talking to Li Bo, yet also as if speaking to himself.
“The color of the eyes is reversed.” He suddenly brought it up without any context.
“What?”
“The ‘Li Chen’ who really wanted to kill me, the iris mark is the opposite of Li Chen’s. It looks like… Li Chen’s mirror image.” At this point, Yang Siguang suddenly raised his head and stared fixedly at Li Bo. “The Li family worships the ‘Old Mirror Immortal,’ and I saw a mirror image of an evil ghost. So, is it possible that Li Chen didn’t want to take me away? Maybe it was that so-called ‘Old Mirror Immortal’ who wanted to do that?”
“…”
“Li Bo, what exactly is the Old Mirror Immortal? Was the one who put the death curse on me really… really Li Chen?”
Under Yang Siguang’s sharp gaze, Li Bo’s handsome face gradually turned into a pale and stagnant marble statue.
He looked back at Yang Siguang, his lips moved slightly but no sound came out…
Just then, a cold voice came from behind them.
“Does it even matter? All you need to know is that the curse root is destroyed, and your life is saved. Someone like you, with no power or influence, will likely end up like the Li family—separate paths, with little to no connection left.”
Yang Siguang and Li Bo both shuddered, turning around to see the woman standing at the door.
No one knew how Aunt Qiao had gotten there.
She looked the same as before, dressed simply, with a dark-red face and a strong physique. At first glance, she appeared to be an ordinary farmer’s wife.
But Yang Siguang could feel that Aunt Qiao’s aura was different now, more powerful and sharper than before.
“…The less you know about the rest, the better. In other words, the less you have to do with the Li family, the better.”
Was it his imagination? When Aunt Qiao said the last sentence, her gaze seemed to linger on Li Bo for a moment.
…
If this had been before today, Yang Siguang would have accepted Aunt Qiao’s arrangement without hesitation—destroying the curse root that might attract evil ghosts, lifting the death curse.
Then, he would bury all his hopes or resentment toward that person deep within his soul, and never think of it again.
But now, he could no longer accept such an outcome.
At least, he couldn’t completely ignore the possibility that Li Chen might have been trying to protect him. Just passively assuming that all the pain and strange events were caused by Li Chen, and attributing all the suffering and despair to that already broken soul—Yang Siguang couldn’t imagine that someone who, after death, was still trying to protect him, could have done such terrifying things when alive…
*
“So you think it’s not Li Chen, but the Old Mirror Immortal? That everything was caused by the Old Mirror Immortal?”
After hearing Yang Siguang’s nervous and determined inquiry again, Aunt Qiao stared at the copper coin Li Bo had handed her for a long time, and surprisingly, she didn’t seem shocked.
“Mm. Otherwise, there are too many things that don’t add up.”
“I’ve already told you, whether it adds up or not doesn’t matter. What you really need to do now is break the curse, and then you can completely sever ties with this matter. I even suggest that after you graduate, find a job in a distant city and never come back—”
Yang Siguang hoarsely spoke, “Aunt Qiao, I understand the reasoning, the deceased is gone, so this is meaningless. But I really want to know the truth. If Li Chen only wanted to protect me, then who really put the death curse on me…”
“It should be Li Chen’s parents… Mr. Li and his wife, they did it.”
At that moment, Li Bo suddenly sighed deeply and murmured.
Yang Siguang turned his head in shock to look at him, almost thinking he had misheard.
Li Bo looked at Yang Siguang, his pupils dark and devoid of any light. He still appeared calm, but the dominant CEO aura Yang Siguang had first seen had completely shattered, leaving only a sense of defeat.
“I should have realized it earlier,” Li Bo said quietly.
Li Bo’s position in the Li family had always been awkward. At first, the elderly couple never imagined that their daughter would have a child.
After Li Ailing left the family, they had no children for many years. Eventually, they selected a number of distant relatives based on their birth dates and chose Li Bo. However, although Li Bo’s birth date matched their requirements, his bloodline was already very faint. Moreover, as a child, Li Bo had an uncanny intuition, and every time he saw the couple, he would uncontrollably cry. This had always been a point of reproach for the couple.
When Li Bo returned from the basement unharmed, the couple never showed him any affection again.
Especially years later, when they learned of Li Chen’s existence.
Their direct grandson, whose birth date was even more perfect than Li Bo’s, and most importantly, the Mirror Immortal liked him…
“All along, the Li family has used their own blood relatives as vessels for the Mirror Immortal, somewhat similar to folk mediums, but the effectiveness of the Li family’s Mirror Immortal far surpasses ordinary ‘immortals.’ As long as there is a vessel, it ensures the family’s fortune, power, and success. However, for some reason, no vessel has ever lived past the age of 30. I still remember, when Li Chen came of age, the family was already preparing for his marriage… Those two, more than anyone, wanted Li Chen to have a new heir as soon as possible.”
Upon hearing this, Yang Siguang’s expression changed. He already had a faint sense of what had happened next.
And sure enough, shortly after, he heard Li Bo continue speaking.
“…But Li Chen didn’t want that.”
“Or rather, the part of Li Chen that belonged to him seemed very unwilling. Li Chen had a very strained relationship with his father and mother because of this. He said he couldn’t accept any intimate contact with anyone, and he also said he already had someone he liked… Later, there were reports that Li Chen… he did some very excessive things to Yang Siguang.”
When it came to this point, Li Chen paused for a moment.
It seemed like he was struggling with whether to continue speaking.
But after some hesitation, he still lowered his eyelids and spoke in a flat tone.
“This matter involves inheritance rights, and there are many details I don’t know. I only know that Li Chen had several major arguments with Mr. and Mrs. It dragged on until the fourth year. Actually, the things he did were originally not taken seriously by Mr. and Mrs. But as time passed, his behavior became more and more out of control, more and more bizarre.”
Li Bo was clearly referring to the things Li Chen had done before that challenged the boundaries of law and morality.
“If it was just about his actions regarding his lower body, the family wouldn’t have cared too much. The real problem is that for so many years, the person Li Chen went crazy for was always the same one. And the situation seemed to be escalating. There was even a paparazzi who took a photo of Li Chen climbing the outer wall of a residential building in the middle of the night, which we had to suppress… Probably because of this, in the end, Mr. and Mrs. decided to solve this hidden danger once and for all.”
“But in the end, the person who died was Li Chen, wasn’t it?”
Yang Siguang’s voice trembled.
Although it was a question, in his heart, he had already given the answer.
“…For you, he probably would have done anything.”
Li Bo’s voice was low, responding faintly.
*
With the man’s words falling, a deathly silence immediately enveloped the entire hospital room.
At this moment, it seemed as though even the air in the room had become heavier.
Yang Siguang covered his face with his hands.
Li Bo could hear Yang Siguang taking deep breaths, perhaps trying to control his emotions. However, judging by the result, his effort seemed to have little effect. He had always appeared weak and frail because of the previous matters, and now he looked even more on the verge of collapse. It was as if a gust of wind could turn him into a cloud of dust, scattering completely.
“…He was very smart.”
Suddenly, Yang Siguang’s soft voice broke the silence in the room.
“How could he be so foolish? I was just a childhood friend to him. He didn’t need to… he didn’t need to do this. I’ve already forgotten those childhood vows, how could someone so smart still rigidly remember an agreement that was long irrelevant? And he had been so indifferent to me before. If he really liked me, why didn’t he come to find me? Why did he only let me know all of this after he died… What was he thinking, damn it…”
Yang Siguang rambled on. Rather than asking someone, it seemed like he was talking to himself.
And the more he spoke, the more Li Bo felt his heart grow unbearably heavy and sour.
“By that time, he was probably already close to being replaced by the Mirror Immortal.”
When he realized it, he found that he had already spoken.
The information that Li Ailing had revealed to him earlier that day flashed through Li Bo’s mind.
“…Keeping distance from you, being indifferent to you, was also a form of protection. Siguang, he was trying very, very hard to control himself. He couldn’t help it.”
The voice that squeezed out of his throat became faint, as though there was another person inside his body, replacing Li Bo’s own soul, carefully explaining the past.
However, the more he explained, the worse Yang Siguang’s expression became.
And just as the atmosphere became so tense that no one could breathe, Aunt Qiao finally interrupted their conversation by pressing her temples.
“Enough!”
Aunt Qiao’s voice was sharp.
“All this trivial love and affection, you can discuss it later.”
She then raised her wrist to show them the time on her watch.
“But don’t say I didn’t warn you, if you two keep wasting time like this, you might miss the time for the ritual. If the death curse isn’t lifted, you can only go burn paper and talk about who loved whom and who didn’t love whom after that…”
Aunt Qiao rolled her eyes.
“Now, the most important thing, and the only thing that matters, is to destroy the curse root.”
Yang Siguang’s lips moved as if he wanted to say something more, but Aunt Qiao had already stepped forward and grabbed him.
“Alright, alright, I know you’re upset. But think about it, that little brat from the Li family, even after he’s dead, still wanted to protect you. Isn’t that just to save your life? Now that the opportunity is right in front of you, are you going to waste it? Let me tell you, people controlled by the Mirror Immortal, even if they die, can’t reincarnate. They suffer so much just for this one thing, and you still want to betray his intentions?”
Hearing this, Yang Siguang’s body froze instantly.
Aunt Qiao quickly took the packaging off the cinnabar in her arms, dipped her finger in it, and began applying it to Yang Siguang’s forehead, chest, and wrists.
Her movements were smooth and filled with an imposing force.
Then, Aunt Qiao brought over a very common folding chair from the hospital.
She placed the small altar, incense burner, and candles she had brought one by one in front of the altar.
After finishing these preparations, Aunt Qiao led Yang Siguang and Li Bo forward, and they each bowed forcefully in front of the “Holy Immortal” she had brought.
The copper coin was wrapped in yellow paper and directly placed into the incense burner.
Aunt Qiao then drew out a copper coin sword from her waist, pierced a piece of yellow paper and attached it to the sword tip, lit it, and began to poke it above Yang Siguang’s head and shoulders.
It was unclear what kind of incense Aunt Qiao was burning, but soon, the hospital room was filled with a strong fragrance.
The swirling white smoke quickly filled the room, making even the outlines of the furniture appear slightly blurry.
The three people, who had been so close just a moment ago, now seemed as though there was a semi-transparent wall between them, making them feel distant from each other.
At this moment, Aunt Qiao raised her sword high and spoke to Li Bo.
“The evil spirits will definitely appear soon, disturbing people’s minds and trying to stop me from destroying the curse root. Hold onto Yang Siguang and don’t let him move, do you hear me?!”
Li Bo’s pupils tightened slightly upon hearing this, and he immediately stepped forward, extending his arm to pin Yang Siguang’s frail body from behind.
Yang Siguang instinctively struggled for a moment, but at that moment, Li Bo’s cool breath brushed against his ear.
“Be good… don’t be afraid, it will be over soon.”
Perhaps because they both shared the blood of the Li family, at this moment, Li Bo’s voice perfectly overlapped with the voice of Li Chen from Yang Siguang’s memory.
Yang Siguang’s pupils trembled slightly, and his gaze became unfocused for a moment.
At this point, Aunt Qiao had already started chanting, her hands dancing wildly as she trembled in front of the altar. Suddenly, she raised her hand, and the tip of the sword pointed directly at Yang Siguang.
Yang Siguang immediately froze, unable to move, and could only watch as Aunt Qiao turned around and knelt in front of the small altar. Then, Aunt Qiao raised the copper coin sword high—”Pfft!”—and the sword tip plunged into the small incense burner containing the copper coins.
In that instant, a strong smell of blood erupted from the incense burner.
It was as though the incense burner, like a wounded animal, began to gush out a large amount of fresh blood.
Black blood kept pouring out, and soon it overflowed from the mouth of the incense burner, dripping steadily onto the ground.
Before long, the blood began to pool into a shallow layer on the floor, and the air was filled with the pungent, metallic scent of blood.
Even the fluorescent lights in the room began to flicker, and the splattered blood spots fell onto the surface of the light tubes, dyeing the room with a scarlet hue…
The scene before Yang Siguang was nothing short of terrifying and bizarre.
Suddenly, fragmented and twisted illusions began to appear in front of Yang Siguang.
In the illusions, some were sobbing in pain, while others were screaming loudly.
Just as Yang Siguang tried to make sense of the illusions, everything around him spun, and a series of neurotic whispers filled his ears.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself in a cold, bone-chilling darkness.
The darkness was endless, like the deep sea.
And in this entire space, the only two entities were him… and the massive mirror in front of him.
On the other side of the mirror stood a gaunt old woman with a face full of deep wrinkles and a twisted expression.
The old woman was kneeling in front of the mirror, desperately kowtowing.
“Please, Holy Immortal, show yourself! Please remove that child’s delusions, please kill that man Yang Siguang, the fox spirit!”
Her hollow gaze seemed to pierce through the mirror, directly staring at Yang Siguang’s fragile soul on the other side.
“He cannot live, he must die… Otherwise, Li Chen will run away, just like Ai Ling… they will all be taken away in the end… it can’t be like this, Holy Immortal, I have already lost one obedient daughter, I can’t let it happen again…”
“As long as he dies, everything will be fine.”
“Once he’s dead, everything will be fine. After all, they are all my family’s children. When those bad things die, they will know to come home…”
This extreme sense of fate sent an uncontrollable chill down Yang Siguang’s spine, and he instinctively took a step back, trying to escape the memory. However, his back pressed against a cold, decayed body. Yang Siguang shuddered and realized that the arms wrapped around him had turned into two decayed, pale hands.
[“Shh—don’t be afraid.”]
He heard Li Chen laughing.
But that voice clearly wasn’t from Li Chen himself, because no human could produce such a resentful and hateful sound.
Yang Siguang’s hair stood on end.
He instinctively tilted his head to avoid the disgusting breath in his left ear. But in the next moment, his right earlobe was gently bitten.
An identical voice laughed coldly in his ear.
[“Why are you avoiding me? After this, you will be with me forever. You’d better get used to it.”]
It was the second “Li Chen”… No, it was the second head, the head of the evil spirit, whispering incessantly in Yang Siguang’s ear, resting on his shoulder.
Yang Siguang’s body froze as if petrified, completely still.
He dared not move.
The fear, uncontrolled by reason, spread through his body along his nerves.
Yang Siguang could already feel that the arms wrapped around him were gradually increasing.
It was like a nightmare he had once had, with more and more arms stretching out from the darkness, layering upon each other, covering his body.
In the darkness, various faces, all with the same master behind them, were staring greedily and lecherously at Yang Siguang. It was as if they could turn their gaze into something tangible, peeling away all the attachments from the pale young man, allowing them to freely entangle, play with, and torment this fragile soul.
And Yang Siguang’s complete paralysis, without a doubt, pleased some unspeakable entity in the darkness.
A hand.
Long, soft, and snake-like, covered in grayish-blue skin.
It slowly crept over Yang Siguang’s shoulder, extending forward, passing through the mirror, and pressing down on the frail, maddened old woman’s head.
[“Hehehe, good.”]
Yang Siguang heard the voice behind him.
But just then, another voice filled with resistance shouted at the same time.
[“No, no—no! I won’t allow it!”]
[“I don’t want it, I don’t want it, I don’t want it! I absolutely don’t want it!”]
Yang Siguang’s body trembled. He could tell that this twisted, inhuman scream came from a real person who had once existed.
The next second, everything in front of Yang Siguang spun again.
When he regained his senses and opened his eyes, he realized that he had left the dark world behind.
He was standing in a luxurious, brightly lit dressing room.
He stood before a full-length mirror, his posture straight, with a smile at the corner of his lips.
However, the reflection in the mirror showed a young man with a pale, grayish face, hollowed eyes, and an expression of utter despair.
It was… Li Chen.
Yang Siguang stared directly at the Li Chen in the mirror, whose pain was so obvious.
[“Please, please, spare him, okay? You have so many souls already, you don’t need this one… Spare him, please… Please…”]
The real Li Chen was kneeling behind the mirror, desperately pleading with the figure in front of it.
[“I’ll listen to you from now on, I’ll give you everything, I beg you, spare him…”]
Then Yang Siguang heard “himself” speak with a laugh.
“Oh? Give me everything… including your body? All of your body?”
Upon hearing this question, the expression of the youth in the mirror froze instantly. Then, extreme despair filled his golden-brown eyes.
[“No…”]
“Think carefully.”
“The spell has already succeeded, and the lovely Siguang is about to die.”
“Look, it actually doesn’t make much of a difference how you choose. So, there’s no need to be so sad. Either give your body completely to me, in which case, he might live a little longer… Mmm… I’ll savor him properly.”
“Otherwise, just let me take him away. Don’t worry, even in my world, I’ll still be gentle with him.”
“After all, I really like him…”
“Haha, what’s that expression? Don’t think that I don’t know when you’re using my powers to peep at him through the mirror every day… Thanks to you, I’ve seen so many… very delicious scenes.”
“Siguang is really cute. I really like him.”
…
The familiar dizziness hit again.
The bustling crowd, the noisy voices…
Yang Siguang opened his eyes and was greeted by the scorching heat of a summer evening.
“Hey, look, look, over there, it’s Li Chen…”
He heard Xu Lu’s voice.
Then he looked up in shock and saw, across the crowd, the tall and handsome young man.
The difference was that, in his memory, on the evening when fate changed, Li Chen had only glanced at him before quickly looking away.
But this time, Li Chen in the crowd was staring directly at him, his gaze focused.
Then, the young man suddenly tilted his head slightly and smiled at Yang Siguang.
The smooth, flawless skin began to peel away with his smile, revealing the corpse marks beneath, and his clear eyes turned into shriveled eyeballs, rotting in the dark sockets…
Yet, Li Chen’s smile at that moment was still incredibly bright.
[“It’s okay.”]
[“Look, I’ll protect you.”]
In a daze, Yang Siguang heard him speak to him.
The next second…
“Crack—”
The sharp sound of metal breaking echoed.
In the illusion, Li Chen’s smile, along with Aunt Qiao’s copper coin sword in the real world, shattered, falling to the ground.
