Chapter 5: The Rules Are Lying
1747 Words
Su Nuo didn't sleep that night.
It wasn't fear keeping her awake.
Her brain simply refused to stop working.
The laughter from the mirror had stopped an hour ago.
The c***k hadn't grown since.
But it hadn't healed either.
It just sat there.
A thin line on the glass.
Like a scar.
Or a waiting mouth.
Lin Shuang was actually asleep this time.
Soft snores. Twitching feet.
Dreaming about something normal, probably.
Su Nuo envied her.
She looked at her phone.
3:47 AM.
She wrote a note:
【Hypothesis: The mirror world is layered.】
【Layer 1: Our world. (The reflection.)】
【Layer 2: The world inside the glass. 】(The original?)
【Layer 3: The space between. (Where the whisper came from.)】
She stared at it.
Then added:
【Layer 4: Whoever's keeping the layers apart.】
She didn't know who that was.
But she had a guess.
The hidden player.
---
Morning came gray and heavy.
Su Nuo splashed water on her face.
Didn't look at the bathroom mirror.
Didn't need to.
She already knew what she looked like.
She looked exhausted, irritated, and fully prepared to start a war if necessary.
She met the others in the hallway.
Jiang Cheng looked worse than yesterday.
Darker circles. Tighter jaw.
"You okay?" she asked.
"No."
Su Nuo nodded approvingly. "Good. Honesty saves time."
"He didn't sleep," Zhao Mingyuan said quietly. "He stayed up watching his mirror all night."
"Did anything happen?"
Jiang Cheng shook his head.
"That's what scared me," he said. "Nothing happened. It just sat there. Waiting."
"That is scarier," Su Nuo admitted.
"Where's Lin Shuang?" Zhao Mingyuan asked.
Su Nuo turned.
Lin Shuang's door was still closed.
"She should be out by now."
She walked back and knocked.
"Lin Shuang. Class in twenty."
No answer.
She knocked harder.
"Lin Shuang?"
Nothing.
Su Nuo's stomach dropped.
She tried the handle.
Locked.
"Step back," Jiang Cheng said.
He kicked the door once.
It didn't budge.
He kicked again.
Nothing.
"It's not the lock," Zhao Mingyuan said, examining the frame. "It's the room itself. The door won't open because something doesn't want it to open."
Su Nuo didn't wait.
She pulled out her phone and opened the camera.
Pointed it at the door.
Then she swiped to the mirror on the wall across the hallway.
Looked at the phone screen.
Not at the mirror.
The mirror showed the hallway.
Empty hallway.
But—
The door to 302 was open in the reflection.
In the reflection, the door was open.
"This is bad," she said.
She showed the phone to the others.
Jiang Cheng's face went pale.
In reality, the door remained tightly shut.
But inside the mirror—
Lin Shuang was standing there.
Just inside the doorway.
Staring at them.
Except she wasn't staring.
Because her eyes were closed.
And she wasn't moving.
At all.
"She's frozen," Zhao Mingyuan whispered. "In the mirror world."
"Then we go in through the mirror," Su Nuo said.
"That's suicide."
"Maybe. But she's our teammate. We don't leave teammates behind."
She looked at Jiang Cheng.
"You coming?"
He didn't hesitate.
"Break the mirror?"
"No. That might hurt her. We go in the right way."
She pulled out a sticky note.
Wrote:
【Door to Room 302: Requesting permission to enter.】
【Reason: Roommate is inside and not responding.】
【Signed: Su Nuo, Occupant.】
She stuck it on the door.
Then she knocked again.
Three times.
Then she waited.
Five seconds.
Ten.
The door clicked.
Jiang Cheng tried the handle.
It opened.
The room was dark.
Too dark for morning.
The curtains were closed.
The mirror on the wall was uncovered.
And Lin Shuang was standing in the middle of the room.
Exactly where the reflection had shown her.
Eyes closed.
Not breathing.
"Don't touch her yet," Su Nuo said.
She walked around Lin Shuang.
Looked at the mirror.
Her own reflection stared back.
Normal reflection.
Tired. Annoyed. Ready to fight.
But behind her reflection—
In the background of the mirror—
Another Lin Shuang.
Standing in the same spot.
Eyes open.
Watching.
"Okay," Su Nuo said slowly. "I see you."
The Lin Shuang in the mirror tilted her head.
Smiled.
Then she raised a finger to her lips.
Shh.
Su Nuo didn't shh.
She walked to the mirror.
Pulled out a sticky note.
Wrote:
【Exchange proposal:】
【You give her back.】
【I give you something better.】
【Negotiate within 60 seconds or offer expires.】
She stuck it on the glass.
The mirror version read it.
Her smile faded.
She thought for a moment.
Then she pointed at Su Nuo's bag.
Su Nuo frowned.
"What do you want?"
The mirror version pointed again.
More insistent.
Su Nuo opened her bag.
Empty water bottle. Sticky notes. Pen. Phone. Snacks.
The mirror version pointed at the snacks.
"...You want my chips?"
The mirror version nodded.
"You're holding my roommate hostage for a bag of chips?"
The mirror version shrugged.
Like: Yeah. So what?
Su Nuo stared at her for a long moment.
Then she laughed.
"You know what? Fair."
She tossed the chip bag at the mirror.
It didn't hit the glass.
It went through.
Into the mirror world.
The mirror version caught it.
Tore it open.
Ate one chip.
Then she pointed at Lin Shuang.
And snapped her fingers.
In the real world—
Lin Shuang's eyes opened.
She gasped.
Stumbled forward.
Jiang Cheng caught her.
"What—what happened?" Lin Shuang's voice was raw.
"You got traded for snacks," Su Nuo said.
"...What?"
"Long story. You're alive. That's what matters."
She looked back at the mirror.
The mirror version was eating her chips.
Waving at her.
Happy as anything.
"Weirdest mirror demon ever," Su Nuo muttered.
---
They left the room.
Lin Shuang was shaky but walking.
"Everything went dark," she said quietly. "One second I was getting ready. The next—nothing. Just silence. And then I was there. In the mirror. But also not in the mirror. Does that make sense?"
"Perfect sense," Su Nuo said. "You were in the space between."
She explained her layer theory on the way to class.
"Layer 1 is us. Layer 2 is the mirror world. Layer 3 is the space in between."
"What's Layer 4?" Zhao Mingyuan asked.
"I don't know yet. But something's keeping the layers separate. And I think that something is the hidden player."
"The one who disappeared?"
"Yeah. He's not gone. He's everywhere. Watching."
She stopped walking.
"We're not going to class today."
"We're not?"
"No. We're going to find him."
---
They searched the teacher's office building.
It was against the rules.
Rule 4: Do not enter the teacher's office building without permission.
But Su Nuo had a theory.
"The rules aren't there to protect us," she said. "They're there to protect something else."
They found it in the basement.
A door.
Not a normal door.
A door made of mirror.
Full-length. Floor to ceiling.
No handle. No lock.
Just glass.
And behind the glass—
A room.
And in the room—
The hidden player.
Sitting on a chair.
Facing them.
Eyes open.
But not seeing.
Because his eyes were mirrors.
Small. Round. Reflective.
Like buttons sewn into his face.
"Oh my god," Lin Shuang covered her mouth.
"He's not a player," Su Nuo said. "He never was."
She walked up to the mirror door.
The hidden player—the thing that looked like a player—tilted its head.
Just like the mirror version had.
Just like the thing in her mirror last night.
"You're the administrator," Su Nuo said. "Aren't you?"
The thing smiled.
Not a human smile.
A mirror smile.
Copying something it had seen once.
"Not exactly," it said.
Its voice was wrong.
Too many layers.
Like three people talking at once.
"I'm the warden. The mirrors are my prisoners. And the players?"
It leaned forward.
"The players are my entertainment."
Su Nuo didn't flinch.
"You've been watching us this whole time."
"Of course. You're the most interesting batch in years. Especially you."
Its mirror-eyes fixed on her.
"You see things others don't. You ask the wrong questions. The right wrong questions."
"That's a lot of words to say you like me."
The thing laughed.
The same laugh from the mirror last night.
The same soft, understanding laugh.
"I don't like you," it said. "I like watching you."
Same thing, Su Nuo thought.
But she didn't say it.
"So what now?" she asked. "You keep us here forever? Watch us run around until we die?"
"Forever? No. Just until you figure it out."
"Figure what out?"
The thing stood up.
Walked to the mirror door.
Pressed its palm against the glass from the inside.
No c***k this time.
Just a handprint.
That didn't fade.
"The rules," it said. "They're not what you think. Read them again. Really read them."
It smiled.
"Then come find me."
It turned.
Walked into the darkness behind the chair.
And disappeared.
The mirror door went dark.
No reflection.
No room.
Just black glass.
And one handprint.
Su Nuo stared at it.
Then she pulled out her phone.
Opened the rules.
Read them again.
Rule 1: Obey the school rules. Violations will result in punishment.
Rule 2: Do not leave the dormitory after 10 PM.
Rule 3: Do not look into mirrors.
Rule 4: Do not enter the teacher's office building without permission.
Rule 5: If you encounter any problem, you may seek help from a teacher.
She read them four times.
Then she saw it.
"Rule 1," she said slowly. "'Obey the school rules.' That's circular. It doesn't say which school rules. Just 'the school rules.'"
She looked at the others.
"What if 'the school rules' aren't the ones on this list?"
Jiang Cheng frowned. "What else would they be?"
"The school's real rules," Su Nuo said. "The ones for students. The ones that were here before we arrived."
She turned back to the mirror door.
"That's what he meant. We've been playing by the wrong rules this whole time."
She pulled out a sticky note.
Wrote:
【The instance rules are a distraction.】
【The real rules are written somewhere else.】
【Find them.】
She stuck it on the wall.
"New objective," she said.
"Don't follow the rules."
"Break them," Su Nuo said softly.
"Every single one."
"Let's see what this school is so afraid of."
（End of Chapter 5）
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