There was a mirror in Lao Tian’s house, a little dirty. Kou Tong carefully wiped it clean with his sleeve, then put it in front of He Xiaozhi. “Try this.” 

Lao Tian sat in a wooden chair holding Huanhuan, observing with great interest. 

He Xiaozhi stared. “How…am I supposed to do this?” 

Kou Tong extended a finger, pinching out a line in midair. “Suppose that this is the spatial dimension we’re located in. Because of the time axis… Er, if you don’t understand that, you can imagine it as an iron wire held up here. Then in the same coordinate system, each coordinate point is fixed.” 

Kou Tong squeezed his other hand into a fist and put it under his raised hand. “This is Grandpa Tian’s limitless loop world. It’s like a mirror. Xiao Zhi was able to use the mirror to bring two spaces into contact because of a reflection off of this ‘fixed’ point in time reaching us on the island. And when the mirror was broken in the process, we landed ‘midway’ and fell here.” 

Apart from a face-saving gasp of admiration from Lao Tian, Huanhuan was already asleep, He Xiaozhi was still perplexed, and Huang Jinchen asked with a difficult expression, “How about you just tell us what we need to do to leave?” 

“That will need planning.” Kou Tong waved a hand, ran outside, and brought back a twig. He squatted academically in the yard, scribbling. When he squatted, Huanhuan woke up and thought that he had picked up the stick to play with it. It immediately jumped out of Lao Tian’s arms and happily bit the stick in Kou Tong’s hand, starting to play tug-of-war with him. 

Huang Jinchen sighed, his shoulders drooping. He stroked He Xiaozhi’s head. “What did I say? You can’t rely on beauty. Let’s think of a way to provide for ourselves.—Going with Kou Tong’s explanation, the space will act according to your wishes, adjusting…adjusting something or other, but anyway, it makes people’s wishes all come true. So it gave you a kind of superpower.” 

“Brother Huanhuan, please remove your paws! Don’t erase what I’ve just written! I haven’t finished calculating yet!” Kou Tong’s voice came through the door. “And then there’s Er-Pang. Please don’t lead the youth astray. This isn’t a superpower, it’s only a simple spacetime reflection…” 

Huang Jinchen turned He Xiaozhi’s head back towards himself. “Don’t listen to him. He can’t even handle a dog. Let’s continue along our line of thinking just now. Supposing that you wanted to be useful to others, wanted to find some kind of…feeling of being needed?” 

He looked a little uncertainly at He Xiaozhi. Given that “Dr.” Huang was a professional snake oil salesman concealed in a team of medical professionals, he absolutely couldn’t understand why someone would need others to need them. He could only regurgitate what he had heard. 

He Xiaozhi hesitated for a while, then nodded. 

“OK, so that’s right.” Huang Jinchen leaned forward. Pointing to the mirror, he said, “We really need you right now to open this path for us. A female lunatic has us in her sights, and we need to go back at once, or I’m afraid all the dependents at home won’t be safe for long.” 

Then, Huang Jinchen remembered Kou Tong’s gesture. He lay a hand on He Xiaozhi’s shoulder, slowed his speech, and, making himself seem as sincere as possible, said, “We’re relying on you.” 

Perhaps this revolutionary comrade’s faith was too moving. He Xiaozhi looked at the mirror for a while. Then the things that had been reflected in the mirror disappeared, and the furnishing of Kou Tong’s living room appeared in it. There was even someone standing facing the mirror—Manman, hugging her little bear doll. 

Manman’s big eyes, which took up nearly half her face, were staring straight at the mirror, as though she wasn’t afraid at all of the figures suddenly appearing in it. She pointed to Huang Jinchen, standing right in front of her, and said, “Ah, you’ve appeared.” 

Kou Tong stopped what he was doing. The gloom on his face was undisguised. “How can this be?! Does this prove that idealism surpasses materialism? Can mere imagination surpass logical reasoning?!” 

“Look, what did I say?” Huang Jinchen said to He Xiaozhi, shaking his head. “Being cultured is truly frightening.” 

Kou Tong looked up at the sky, but the ancient sages who had passed away could give him no answer. He could only cast the little stick far away. Huanhuan, at last getting exactly what it wanted, like a round artillery shell, took off from the ground with all four feet like a demonstration of doggy paddle-style qinggong, dashing far off. 

The first joint of Manman’s pudgy finger passed through the mirror. Lao Tian’s eyes opened wide, like a child seeing a new toy. He said in astonishment, “There’s a little girl, too!” 

Huang Jinchen knocked Manman’s hand away and chided her, “How rude. You have to say hello to grandpa.” 

When Manman finished rolling her eyes at him, she raised her head and seriously looked at Lao Tian. She said, “Hello, grandpa.” 

Lao Tian tentatively reached out a hand but didn’t dare to pass it through the mirror. He only gently shook Manman’s little outstretched hand next to the mirror. Smiling, he said, “I have a little granddaughter the same age as her.—Here, grandpa will give you a present.” 

He took one of the flowers that would never wilt from the vase and put it into the little girl’s hand. Manman took it. Her simple movement took the flower onto another time axis. Then a strange thing happened. The fresh petals lost their splendor at a speed visible to the naked eye. The flower wilted. 

The smile on Lao Tian’s face faded slightly. He sighed. “Even the flowers I grow are like me, buried up to the neck in earth.” 

He Xiaozhi was standing by the edge of the mirror. Hearing these words, he looked back at Lao Tian a little hesitantly. 

“We’ll come back,” Kou Tong said. “You can’t come to us, but we’ll come to see you again.” 

Lao Tian waved a hand. “Go on, go on. What’s the use of hanging out here with me? Your business is getting your broken machine fixed up. Before you use it next time, test it some more. Don’t be so slipshod. Keep the customers from lodging complaints against you.” 

Huanhuan, panting, came back with the little stick Kou Tong had thrown in its mouth, its tail wagging like an electric fan. Lao Tian picked up the stick and threw it again. The simple animal that only had one little stick in the whole world once again launched itself away with fervor. 

Kou Tong silently followed He Xiaozhi through the mirror. But Huang Jinchen looked back at Lao Tian, and he at last knew why the two people in front of him had been unwilling to look back as they left—the old man was standing alone in the empty little cabin with the teacups they had just been drinking from still laid on the table. The light and shadow were sparse. He was the only person here, watching on his own as these rare visitors left as hurriedly as they had come. 

The ravines of the wrinkles on his face were clear. Because he was smiling, they were curved in very kindly lines. He seemed accustomed to this movement of stopping to see people off. His footsteps couldn’t keep up with others’ footsteps anymore. He could only use his gaze to see them off. 

All of a sudden, something unfamiliar surged up in Huang Jinchen’s heart, as if a hand had gripped it. This made him speed up his steps and expressionlessly follow Kou Tong through the mirror. In the blink of an eye, he was back in Kou Tong’s house. 

Kou Tong’s mother came towards them like an avalanche. Facing the two grown men who had abruptly appeared in the living room, still in her forward-moving posture, she stood staring, dumbfounded. 

Kou Tong had no time to pay attention to her. In an unusually cautious movement, he approached the window, turned, stuck himself to the wall, and looked outside. 

“Well?” Huang Jinchen asked. 

“Nothing at the moment, but I think…” 

“What?” Yao Shuo came out of his room. He was an experienced soldier, after all. Though he had fallen to the level of being investigated by the RZ Unit’s crowd of little bastards, he still had that upright and composed bearing. 

Kou Tong briefly explained the situation with the element of social unrest Qin Qin. “She’s going to be trouble. A patient with persistent delusional disorder and paranoid personality disorder is a bomb that may go off at any moment to start with. Now, due to her delusions, she’s been granted some kind of power, so she’s an even greater threat.” 

Lao Yao frowned and glanced at Huang Jinchen. “Though the rules are bizarre, this still isn’t a game. The outcomes affect real people. We can’t harm her in any way.” 

“But the reverse isn’t true.” Huang Jinchen rubbed the barrel of his gun and lowered his voice slightly. “Even if she kills us all, at most she’ll be taken to a mental hospital. She won’t be convicted of a crime.” 

Kou Tong’s mom looked from one to the next. In great astonishment, she said, “What…are you all talking about?” 

“Mom,” Kou Tong said, looking miserable, “a young lady who’s a little mentally unwell has taken a fancy to your son.” 

Kou Tong’s mom indignantly opened her eyes wide. “What?!” 

Kou Tong continued to invent: “There are important people in her family…you understand, right? Anyway, that’s how it is. So she’s hired a crowd of monsters and demons to compel me into marriage.” 

Kou Tong’s mom’s expression softened a little. “What does her dad do?” 

Kou Tong choked. “…I can’t talk about it in too much detail.” 

Kou Tong’s mom’s eyes began to shine. “Does her family have a house? A car? How many members?” 

Kou Tong’s expression darkened. Huang Jinchen cheerfully chipped in: “Not only do they have a house, they also have a small island.” 

Kou Tong’s mom was invigorated. “What? A small island? That young lady must be dependable. Pretty good! Hey, Tongtong, don’t be so picky. It’s normal for girls to be a little sensitive, a little nervy, a little emotional or something.” 

Kou Tong said, “Enough, mom, you must have things to do. It’s time to cook.” 

Then he uncompromisingly pushed her out. 

Huang Jinchen, just dying to make trouble, said behind him, “Your highness the princess, I think the empress dowager wants to collude with the enemy.” 

Princess Kou rolled his eyes at him. He was too busy to take heed of his scoundrel knight. He hastily barged into the study, got out a big stack of notes, opened to a certain page, skimmed it at inhuman speed, then grabbed a ballpoint pen and began to scribble on a paper. “Ignore her. Er-Pang, go out and buy a pile of mirrors in bulk. I think that crazy girl is searching for our location right now. Take care not to be noticed.” 

“What did you find?” 

“You’re asking me?” Kou Tong looked up at him. 

“OK.” Huang Jinchen laughed. “I get it. We’ll get rid of all of them except that girl.” 

“What are you going to do?” Yao Shuo asked. 

“We discovered another time axis. Xiao Zhi has the ability to connect to this time axis. This way, he can fold space within a certain range. I believe I can use this to construct a relatively safe base camp,” Kou Tong said as he calculated. “I now somewhat understand the structure of this dimension.” 

Huang Jinchen gave an affirmative and went out. Everyone got busy at Kou Tong’s orders, measuring and calculating…

Four hours later, the whole house was piled full of mirrors. Starting from the front door, Kou Tong used mirrors of different size to seal up the whole apartment. Each bit needed He Xiaozhi to use his special “crossing” ability. When he had crossed through once, they marked a number on the back of each mirror. Kou Tong said this was something to do with “group theory.” According to the numbering, he imitated a generated cyclic group. 

Everyone looked at him with the expression of people hastening on mosquito-repelling incense. 

Kou Tong said, “Let’s experiment. Er-Pang, go on.” 

Huang Jinchen glanced at him. “All you can do is order me around. You’re bullying me for liking you, huh? Even for a beauty, pride is still wrong.” 

“How could that be?” Kou Tong said. “It’s because you’re the most skilled. If it can pass your test, then all mystical powers and superhuman fuckers will be knocked flat.” 

Huang Jinchen was over the moon at this praise and obediently ran out. 

As soon as he walked out, he realized something was off… It was very hard to say just what was off. It was just intuition, the intuition he had developed through countless times on the border between life and death. 

Then Huang Jinchen turned his head and opened the door to go back inside, but he found that there was nothing there. The whole apartment was empty. There were no people, and also no furniture, as if no one had ever lived there. 

He froze.