1 – The Mirror Opens

Chapter 1: The Mirror Opens

Click. The darkness is dyed bright, and a scene flickers onto a crackling screen.

This is the faculty dormitory, the oldest and most secluded building among the school’s structures that boast a century of tradition. Most of the newly appointed, young, and easy-to-push-around teachers are made to stay here. Red bricks blending beautifully with white landings, and ivy vines stretching out in lush green to wrap around the aged Western-style house. It is a building that catches the eye of anyone passing by. However, the moment one manages to become a faculty member and stays here, they reach a great realization: because it has been repaired over many long years, the interior walls are all blotchy, like a haggard face that has had makeup layered on it time and time again.

It is so haggard that digital TV doesn’t even work, to the point where antique-like cable TVs were distributed to every dormitory room.

—Amidst heavy rains pouring down on the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River…

As the boy passed the entrance of the hallway, the sound of a TV program leaked from the security office window. The old woman on duty would always block the boy’s path and shout like this:

—Goodness, you student must not know, but this is the faculty dormitory. This is where teachers live. Why does a student keep sneaking in?

But today, for some reason, the old woman did not stop the boy. Perhaps while idling away the time, her eyes had grown dim, or perhaps she had missed the sign of someone passing by because the night was so dark.

The boy went straight up to the third floor and knocked on a familiar iron door.

With a creak, the door opened, and a woman from inside peeked her head out.

“You’re here?”

The boy answered in a small voice.

“Professor Xie.”

He was an unwelcome guest who had arrived abruptly late at night. However, the woman, who was the boy’s advisor and the person he was closest to at school, was only surprised for a moment before inviting him inside.

First, she brewed a cup of tea and added sliced ginger. It was a night of pouring rain. Drinking hot ginger tea would warm the boy’s damp and cold body.

Professor Xie placed the steaming teacup on the table in front of the boy.

“When did you come back?”

“Today.”

The boy stood hesitantly in front of the sofa.

“Hurry and sit down.”

Only after those words were spoken did the boy sit awkwardly, clutching his hands over his knees. He didn’t even dare to touch the teacup.

“You came back without telling me beforehand. Are there even buses going to the school at this hour?”

“…Yes.”

“So, did you settle your family affairs well?”

After a moment of silence, the boy lowered his head, fiddled with a hole in his jeans, and spoke.

“My mother wants me to drop out until the very end…”

Soon, Professor Xie also fell into silence.

This is a university. Whether a student continues their studies or gives them up, the school has no right to stop them. Nevertheless, she had tried to persuade the boy’s mother. Considering the extreme poverty of the household, she requested that the mother allow the child to graduate from the university he had worked so hard to enter, promising to waive the tuition.

Even so, the boy’s mother had shaken her head sharply.

—What study? Chinese? Are there people here who can’t speak Chinese? This is just a scheme to rip us off!

She had explained to the boy’s mother with patience.

—Your son is naturally gifted. Look, he’s already in his second year; it would be such a waste to quit halfway. If he studies for just two more years, he’ll find it easy to get a job in society. I asked your son, and he said he wants to become a teacher later. With his grades, the teacher certification exam would be no problem. Since it’s the profession he desires and teaching is stable…

—How could that child be a teacher! You’ve seen his face, Professor!

A single heavy word, like a blunt knife, severed the current existing between the two.

Professor Xie felt a surge of anger but could not find the right words to respond.

—I’m taking him home right now to make him work part-time! We’re already struggling! This is no time to waste! With that face, that face… what’s the point of studying! Which school would want a teacher like that!

Just what kind of face was it?

An incandescent bulb was lit in Professor Xie’s room. Though it was dim due to the low wattage, it was sufficient to brightly illuminate the boy’s face.

It was a set of features very familiar to Professor Xie, but anyone seeing this face for the first time would instinctively gasp. A face like the Count of Monte Cristo—no, like the Count of Asura. Had he suffered from some disease in the past? As if trying to hide ruined skin, blotchy purple spots covered everything from his forehead down to his neck.

A blatant deformity that was an eyesore.

—He must be sick!

—Don’t go near him. It might be contagious.

—Hey! Count Asura!

What grew alongside this face were the curses and ridicule that followed him like a shadow.

Because he was abnormal—and because, despite being abnormal, he didn’t know how to cover it, and despite being ugly, he didn’t know how to hide—the boy had lived under all sorts of scrutiny since childhood. No matter how hard he studied or how kindly he mingled with people, he was still treated as a monster wandering alone in broad daylight. Equal treatment was a dream he couldn’t even dare to have.

Hardly anyone, except Professor Xie, noticed that the intact half of the boy’s face was very gentle and kind.

He always silently accepted people’s ridicule. Sometimes, he would even laugh along as if he had truly done something wrong.

But what on earth had the boy done wrong?

From what Professor Xie had observed, the boy was always a student who was more sincere in his studies and fulfilled his duties better than anyone else. Even during group projects, he silently took on the largest portion of the work. Even when others bullied him, he endured with a good nature and kept his words.

—It’s okay, Professor. I’m happy just that you talk to me. When I stayed at home, everyone in the neighborhood avoided me. There wasn’t a single person who listened to me intently like you do.

—My classmates are really kind too. At least they don’t hit me with bricks.

Contrary to his calm tone, his head was bowed low and his shoulders were curled. Because he had carried heavy insults for so long, the boy’s spine had already bent deformatively.

She had once told the boy:

—If you want, you can come for private tutoring after night self-study. If there’s anything you don’t know, I’ll help you, so tell me anytime.

At those words, the boy had smiled shyly, a blush appearing on the intact half of his face.

Two years passed like that. During that time, she became accustomed to the boy knocking on the dormitory door with his back hunched. The boy brought her the theses, essays, and even poems he had written to ask for her advice.

In today’s world, there are plenty of people who enjoy cursing, but people who enjoy writing poetry are rare.

However, the boy wrote poetry obsessively.

His classmates ridiculed him for it. They said it was sickening to see an ugly guy scribbling ugly writing. That it was more sour than his ruined, grape-like face.

The boy would simply smile and quietly continue writing.

But now, even that power had vanished.

Sighing inwardly as she traced back the past, she looked at the boy before her with eyes full of pity.

The boy spoke first.

“I came to say goodbye to you, Professor. I’m leaving tomorrow.”

“Are you going back to your hometown?”

“…Yes, I have to.”

After a pause, the boy continued.

“Professor. If the scars were in a place others couldn’t see instead of on my face, everyone would have been kind to me, right? That would have been really nice.”

Finally, Professor Xie’s eyes reddened. She had mobilized every effort until this situation arrived, but unfortunately, since she was not the boy’s family, she could not make the final decision, nor could she save him. As the family’s financial situation grew more difficult by the day, the boy’s mother regretted sending him to university. In the boy’s home, there was also a second son, who had just entered middle school and was perfectly healthy. To send the healthy child out into the world, the sick child had to be called back home.

She didn’t think the boy’s mother was wrong. Considering the family’s circumstances as a mother, it was a very fair decision.

“That… the thesis you left for me to check last time, the revisions aren’t finished yet—”

Professor Xie, feeling as if her tear ducts were about to burst, quickly changed the subject.

“Still, I’ve read up to the first part thoroughly. So, if you could just delay the withdrawal process until the revisions are done…”

“No.”

The boy shook his head with a smile.

“I’ll leave as soon as it gets light.”

She regretted it bitterly. Why did she think there was plenty of time left?

Why hadn’t she stayed up all night?

Why did she go shopping, engage in trivial conversations, and attend long, meaningless meetings?

When there was a student here losing his dreams. When there was a heart that would soon stop beating. To think that as his final advisor, she couldn’t even offer a single bouquet of flowers to the boy’s dreams.

“I’m sorry…”

“It’s okay,” the boy said.

“Instead, I wrote a poem for the last time; may I give it to you as a gift, Professor?”

She quickly nodded.

Then the boy took a piece of paper out of his bag and handed it over. It was a piece of paper so infinitely thin that it felt weightless in her hand.

She took in every letter and every phrase of the poem written on the paper. It was a passionate love poem, hot yet infinitely cautious, overflowing with lingering attachment. She had read the love poems left by famous poets until she was sick of them. ‘When will that moon lean against the thin veil and illuminate the drying tear stains of us two?’ ‘Only when you are within my eyes are my eyes finally beautiful.’ But now, she felt that no other poem could compare to the single sheet of paper the boy had brought.

A poem that revealed nothing. Did he feel that even embedding meaning was like a lack of rhythm?

The boy was a poet. He knew well that love that erased poetic meaning, love where the status was significantly different, was simply awkward.

“I’ll give this to you as a memento.”

A soft light hovered on both the ugly side and the intact side of his face.

“I’m sorry, Professor. I really didn’t have the means to buy a gift.”

“What gift could be better than this?”

She turned away, swallowing her tears, and spoke.

“Um, eat something. I’ll bring you some snacks.”

Professor Xie, composing her emotions while rummaging through a drawer, placed a tin case containing butter cookies on the table.

The boy offered a polite thank you. Then, under Professor Xie’s gaze, he timidly touched the teacup, shrank his hand back, and muttered.

“It’s hot.”

Professor Xie also touched the cup.

“How could that be? It’s just warm.”

And she didn’t forget to pour cold water over it.

The boy picked up his favorite cookie and sipped the tea.

Even after finishing the refreshment, the remaining night was long.

“Professor, may I read a few more books here before I go?”

“Of course.”

The boy smiled and said helplessly,

“I’m leaving soon, yet I’m being a nuisance until the very end.”

“It’s okay, you can stay as long as you like… Oh, when you go back, send me your address. I’ll pick out some of the good books I’ve read and send them to you. A smart kid like you… will never fall behind, even if you study on your own.”

All Professor Xie could give him now were words of comfort.

“If you need help, contact me via messenger anytime.”

The boy looked at her.

“Thank you.”

Soon, a short silence followed.

“If everyone were like you, Professor, I…”

The boy lowered his head deeply and could not continue.

Most of the space in Professor Xie’s dormitory was occupied by books. She used to invite the boy, who received stinging glares every time he went to the library because of his terrible, sickly face, to the faculty dormitory and lend him the books she owned.

As if he intended to take every single character back to his hometown in one night, the boy read books all night in the faculty dormitory.

It was rare for the boy to act so selfishly. In the past, he wouldn’t stay late for fear of disturbing the professor’s rest time. But today was an exception.

Professor Xie did not blame the boy for his final bit of selfishness. However, as they stayed up together, sleep washed over her, and she unconsciously fell asleep, slumped over the desk.

Faintly, she heard the boy’s voice calling her.

“Professor Xie.”

She responded with a muddled, “Yes.”

“There is one more thing I want to apologize for.”

The boy continued.

“The theft that happened in the classroom before… Things kept disappearing, and no matter how much they searched, they couldn’t find them, so only those students got scolded by you. I was actually the one who took those things.”

Drowsy and half-asleep, she almost woke up in surprise. However, she could not overcome the severe fatigue and the heavy weight of sleep.

A somewhat sorrowful voice continued.

“But I didn’t steal them to use them for anything. It wasn’t that I needed money. Actually, since they were the ones who always ridiculed me, I held a grudge in my heart… So I threw their bags into a pile of grass and later burned them clean. The students suspected me then, but you took my side without saying much. In fact, I was the culprit. I didn’t have the courage to admit it. That I am an ordinary person in only one person’s eyes. That I am a good person to only one single person. That person is you, Professor.”

After a pause, the boy added.

“Professor, I’m really hypocritical, aren’t I? But if even you are disappointed in me, I don’t know what I’ll do. You are the only person in my life who acknowledged me.”

As he reached the end, his voice gradually faded.

On the other hand, his gaze was clear and infinitely transparent, like someone who had shed a heavy burden.

“—This is the thing I regret most in my life… Professor Xie, I’m truly sorry. I think my disease transferred from my face to my heart. If there is a next life, I really want to be born as an ordinary person… I don’t want to be born with such a terrible face, to the point where I’m stripped of the right to love. Professor Xie…”

The wind blew through the window. The paper on the desk fluttered like a flag calling a soul.

And then, everything became silent.

The tea on the table grew cold.

When Professor Xie woke up the next morning, she found herself asleep, slumped over the desk. The inside of the dormitory was clean. The boy was a polite person, but in the end, he packed his things and left without even saying goodbye to his teacher.

Feeling a bitter sensation, she stood up and walked into the living room in a daze.

The moment she lowered her head and looked up at the table.

Her eyes snapped open, as if she had been drenched in a bucket of ice water.

The tea she had poured for the boy yesterday was frozen. But, but…

The indoor temperature was clearly around 28 degrees.

What? What happened?

With wide eyes, she searched the dormitory. As the traces entered her sight, her heart sank coldly. The butter cookies in the tin case. She had clearly seen the boy eating them, but now they were full, without a single piece missing. The tea in the teacup, which had turned to ice, was the same. And finally—.

The love poem written on a single sheet of paper. The poem the boy had left her as a farewell gift, which still rested comfortably in her heart.

That paper was nowhere to be found.

Or, perhaps it had never existed in the first place…

While she was half-trembling, her phone suddenly vibrated with a ‘ding’ sound. Startled, she stood up to check, and it was a spam message. She was about to breathe a sigh of relief when she remembered something, like someone waking from a dream, and quickly called the boy.

Ring, ring, ring.

Her heart trembled along with the dial tone.

—Hello?

The call connected.

It was the familiar voice of a middle-aged woman. A harsh, rough voice that sounded as if it were mixed with sobbing. She exchanged a few words with the boy’s mother on the other end of the phone.

Her heart, which had fallen into an invisible black hole, plummeted sharply.

The story she heard was—.

“…”

—It’s you people! It’s you again! I didn’t even look for you first! You’re calling first again?

The woman screamed. Professor Xie could not remember what words had been exchanged before. Only the final, desperate cry echoed in her mind, which had become a blank sheet of paper.

—That child is dead! He’s dead!

The blood flowing through her veins turned cold as ice.

Dead?

—It’s because you people enticed our child! On a day of heavy rain, he fought with me and ran out! The police said that at that time, a power line was exposed and…

Her ears rang numbly.

Between the violent curses and wailing, a few words barely reached her ears. Words like a farewell, blurry like a ghost, not belonging to this world.

A desolate voice flowed from the phone.

—What more are you looking for? What more!

—Yesterday was already the seventh day since my child died!