Chapter 123: Purpose
On that deep crimson wooden bed in the mirror, a cotton quilt covered in dark greenish mold spots rose into the air out of nowhere, hovering and surging like waves.
Zhang Qian had now circled to the side of the wooden bed, his gaze constantly scanning while observing the changes between the mirror image and the real object, trying to find any inconsistency.
But the more he observed, the more certain he became of his earlier guess.
“Completely the same… Whether it’s the timing of the leap or the curvature of the folds, there’s not the slightest difference.”
The mirror was like a gap connecting to another world, where everything was identical to the outside, the only difference being that Zhang Qian’s figure was missing inside.
No matter how ingenious the magic trick, it couldn’t perfectly predict the audience’s behavior; even Zhang Qian himself couldn’t replicate the quilt’s movement trajectory, so how could that possibly existing “person” do it.
“Since it’s not a prank, then it should be some kind of supernatural phenomenon… A supernatural event, could this be a ghost ship?”
For some reason, Zhang Qian’s reaction was much calmer than he had imagined.
It was as if fierce ghosts were a matter-of-course existence, just not known to the public.
“But isn’t a typical ghost story supposed to have an extra person appearing in the mirror? Why, when it comes to me, has even my own reflection disappeared?”
The eerie scene didn’t bring Zhang Qian much fear; a normal person would try to get as far away as possible from such a situation, but he instead leaned closer, feeling a strong curiosity.
All other things could be reflected, which meant there was nothing wrong with the mirror, so could the problem be with himself?
Glancing at the few items lying at the head of the bed, Zhang Qian grabbed them all and held them up to the mirror.
The mirror surface was somewhat mottled, but the blurry mirror image showed no change whatsoever, still just an empty room, with no items floating in the air.
“As expected, things related to me can’t be reflected, which makes sense, otherwise there should be a set of clothes standing in place in the mirror right now.”
“So the problem really isn’t with the mirror; not being able to be reflected is just my own issue?”
Clearly, he didn’t fit in with the surrounding environment right now, very likely an intruder or outsider of some kind.
The mirror was also part of this environment, so it couldn’t reflect him as an outsider.
“What purpose would bring me to such a weird place…”
Zhang Qian touched his icy cold handgun.
Carrying such a dangerous thing with him indicated that he had dealt with supernatural events before and was well aware of the dangers he might encounter here.
“It’s not just losing memory, there might also be other things to encounter…”
This time losing memory was probably a sudden situation, otherwise he had no reason not to prepare.
A handgun had no effect on the symptom of memory loss; he couldn’t just shoot himself in the head, could he?
This gun was definitely prepared for unknown dangers in supernatural events.
“But gold’s characteristics aren’t suitable for use as a weapon; surface gilding could be explained as personal style, but using gold as bullets is purely wasteful.”
“Unless gold has special meaning for these supernatural events… Is it for ghost hunting?”
Zhang Qian now felt a bit of a headache.
All these circumstances indicated that supernatural events truly existed, and he had been one of the informed before.
But this ship had erased his memory, leaving him now to piece together the truth through guesswork.
“Clearly I still remember most common sense and can clearly cognize this world. But the memories about myself, about the supernatural, I just can’t recall…”
Not only all kinds of information, but even the purpose of his entry here was forgotten.
The environment here wasn’t safe; just one room had this strange mirror image, how many rooms were there on the whole ship, and how many supernatural events were waiting for him?
Although he hadn’t encountered a fierce ghost representing danger yet, a fierce ghost couldn’t possibly stay in place forever; as time passed, the probability of him being found would increase…
“I must act quickly and not stay in this place any longer.”
He ejected the magazine from the handgun and glanced at it.
The magazine was in full state, but only seven rounds.
This amount was tough for the amnesiac Zhang Qian even to hit a target, let alone deal with all the fierce ghosts on the whole ship.
He weighed the gun body; it was extremely heavy, far heavier than iron of the same volume.
“It seems this isn’t simply gilded; most parts should be gold forged. This price should be very high; someone who can afford this gun should also be able to buy more gold bullets.”
“But I didn’t bring a backpack of bullets, just this one magazine symbolically, so before entering here, I must have known I wouldn’t face too many fierce ghosts.”
“My target shouldn’t be all the fierce ghosts on the whole ship; very likely just a specific one among them.”
And on a ship, setting aside the passenger identity, the most special existence should be the captain, right?
“But what am I supposed to do with the captain? Could it be to kill it?”
Zhang Qian looked at the handgun in his hand, not too confident in its power.
A ghost ship loaded with so many fierce ghosts definitely wasn’t simple; the captain controlling this ghost ship must be the most terrifying existence inside.
After weighing his own strength, he turned his gaze to the other few items.
“Two envelopes, one candle, one lighter; these things seemed a bit strange earlier, but in a supernatural event, they might have unexpected effects.”
The candle and lighter should be a set; the blood-red candle looked unusual, probably some special item.
But these two envelopes were a bit strange.
“To be carried close to the body means these two envelopes should be very important.”
“But why bring envelopes when dealing with supernatural events? Could the purpose of entering here be to deliver mail?”
The other items had no directionality and couldn’t point the way for Zhang Qian.
Only these two envelopes seemed to provide a bit of clue.
He picked up the envelopes and examined them carefully.
The two envelopes looked identical on the outside, both the same deep yellow, appearing very antique, with no pattern or line decorations on the surface.
There weren’t even recipient or sender names written; the spot that should have had a stamp was blank, unlike regular envelopes with a reserved box.
After turning them over several times, Zhang Qian still hadn’t found the clue he wanted.
Moreover, a slight rub revealed how thin the envelopes were, making one suspect if they were empty inside.
Otherwise… should he open them and see?
