[This realm is not the other realm, in fact, everyone I wear a mask, if this layer of decoration is removed, then ......]

When the moon was full, I sat in front of my house, and there was silence all around. The cold light above my head illuminated the empty grain field, and vaguely, I felt as if I had seen an acquaintance who had died. He sat across from me, silent, just looking at the moon in the sky, smiling silently.

I know that this is a hallucination, a sign that I am dying......

- I live in a closed village without borders, which is isolated from the world and has the taste of paradise. The name of this village has two meanings, one is literal, saying that this village is big and has no borders. The second is that everyone knows but does not want to mention it, "realm" is "mirror", and "borderless village" is "mirrorless village". Because mirrors are taboo in the village, they are called evil things, and they cannot be touched by every family.

When I was nine years old, there was a middle-aged man in his forties in the village, named Li Guangde, who looked sick.

He was originally a member of the village, but suddenly disappeared when he was a teenager, and the whole village tried their best to search for him, but all of them were in vain. His parents cried heartbroken because they had only such a son, and both died prematurely. The house where the family lived was never demolished because there was a dying message that the son might return one day.

The tragic parents' wish came true after their death.

I still remember the dejected appearance of Li Guangde when he came back that year, the whole person was as dry and withered as a tree, wearing a tattered and smelly cloth shirt that looked like it had been wiped by, stepping on cloth shoes with polished soles, a mantle, and a chest-length beard.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared cautiously and quietly at the familiar stranger. For thousands of years, we all thought that we were coming to a foreign country. It wasn't until he walked back to his house step by step and closed the door that we suddenly understood that this person was Li Guangde, who had been missing for a long time! It's just that too much time has passed, and everyone has forgotten.

Early the next morning, I saw Li Guangde kneeling in front of his parents' graves, holding the cold tombstone and crying, which lasted for three days and three nights, and finally fainted due to lack of physical strength.

Many of us were moved to tears by him and helped him home. According to his cry - he loved to play at that time, somehow ran outside the village, got lost and couldn't come back, walked in the world outside, because he missed his parents, and returned to the place where he was lost, and made up his mind to find the intersection of the village for five years, before he had to return to his hometown by chance.

It's just that more than 20 years have passed back and forth, and not only things are wrong, but also a lot of diseases have fallen. Although his face now looks middle-aged, he always shows a sad look of vicissitudes that can only be found in his sixties.

At first, we all came up to him enthusiastically and asked him what was out there, and he was happy to talk about what he had seen and heard. I was the first of all the children, and I was so oblivious to it.

It wasn't until he said that the mirror was a very ordinary thing, not an evil thing, that everyone persuaded him to change his mind and stop talking about it. But he didn't, he always insisted on his point of view and persuaded everyone to believe him. But we all left together, including me, who was forcibly taken away by my mother, and I wanted to hear it again.

All Lee had to do was admit that he was wrong, which was an easy thing to do, and everyone would revert to their original enthusiasm for him and get along with each other. His remarks about the mirror would have vanished, but he always believed he was right.

I couldn't figure out why he was so reluctant, but it dawned on me that if he didn't have this temper, he wouldn't have been able to return to the village.

Unfortunately, the villagers are always generous with forgiveness and stingy with tolerance. Therefore, Li Guangde was rejected and isolated by the villagers quite tacitly, and after a long time, he showed undisguised disgust for him. No one wanted to talk to him, and everyone secretly gave him the nickname "Bull Maniac".

At that time, the adults in the family would prohibit their children from playing near his house, for fear of getting his bad luck and being brought bad by him. As long as he went, he was taken home and beaten without mercy.

My parents were ordinary members of the village, and they wouldn't let me go. However, I relied on my youth and ignorance, and I was not afraid of heaven and earth, so I secretly ran to him one night and begged him to tell me about the colorful world outside the village. I didn't expect that this mess would change the trajectory of my life in the future.

Because the villagers around his house have moved away, leaving only an empty house that no one lives in, so I am not afraid of being discovered. When I arrived, I saw him sitting in the doorway like an old man, half of his body in the clear moonlight, the other half in the shadows, looking lonely.

It doesn't matter if he knows me or not.

But he must have thought I, like everyone else, that he was a madman. For this reason, he didn't take the initiative to greet me, but just glanced at me, thinking that I was just passing by him. He guessed half right, and I did think he was a lunatic. But how can a child think that a madman is terrible?

When he saw that I was not afraid of him, he agreed to my request and told me something I had never heard of, and I was very happy to hear it. When he said that people outside would look in the mirror, I couldn't help but interject and say, "The mirror is an evil thing, and they still look at it." ”

He said, "Mirrors are not evil. ”

I was innocent and said, "It's not an evil thing, why are we all so afraid of it?" ”

He said, "Because they have never seen the outside world in their lives, and they are ignorant and ignorant. ”

I don't know a few big words, I don't know what it means, I don't know what it means, I don't know what it means, I don't understand it.

And he said, "Do you know what you look like?" ”

I really haven't seen it yet, and I said, "I don't know." ”

He said, "Do you want to know?" ”

I nodded honestly.

"You wait." He said, and then got up and walked into the house, and when he came out, he had in his hand a round object wrapped in yellow cloth.

I remembered the mirror and guessed he had it in his hand. I immediately ran to a stone pier and squatted, not daring to approach, only daring to look away. I pride myself on being very bold, but I am also afraid of this evil thing that everyone fears.

He beckoned to me and said, "Don't be afraid, come, come." ”

Curiosity drove me to my feet. I hesitate between the past and the past.

He went on to say mildly: "The mirror is not an evil thing, just a very ordinary thing. ”

After thinking about it for a long time, the thirst for knowledge eventually overrode the fear. I walked over to him and stood behind him, it would be safer. Although I was still playing the drum in my heart, he was protecting me, and I wanted to know what the mirror looked like and what I looked like, so I slapped my swollen face and became fat, and filled myself with some unwarranted courage.

Corner by corner, the mirror was revealed, revealing a bronzed back. It was very dark and brightly lit by the moonlight. It is carved with stripes in the shape of a lion, and it has a large toothless mouth that looks like it wants to swallow the moon in the sky. "This is the back of the mirror, and I'm going to show you the front side of it right now," he said. ”

I said, "Just take a look." ”

He turned the mirror slowly and said, "Okay." ”

Just one look—just one look—I thought to myself, and saw his house appear in the mirror, then disappear part of it, and become his face, and then a face that was completely unfamiliar and had never been seen in the village.

The face was chubby, ruddy, fleshy, with thick, sharp eyebrows, eyes the size of marbles that he usually played with, a pointed nose protruding downward, and lips a little wider than the nose.

He said, "How-"

Before he could finish, I jerked away. After satisfying my curiosity, I knew I had made a big mistake – I looked in the mirror behind my parents' back! Doing so violates the village's bottom line.

I was scared in my heart, and I regretted it and blamed myself. The first time I saw my own face, I only saw it once, and I can't forget it, it's deeply in my memory. I tried not to think about what had just happened and ran home single-mindedly, but it was impossible, it was like the wind that I brought with me when I ran.

My parents, who were anxious that I hadn't come home so late, were startled when they saw me running for my life, and hurried over to hug me. I threw myself into their arms, and my panic gradually calmed down and I felt at peace.

I didn't dare tell them about me looking in the mirror, it became a lump of stone in my heart, and a secret that no one could tell, so I could only swallow it in my stomach.

My father asked me solemnly, "Where did you run away so late?" What's going on again? So flustered. ”

I lied and said, "Playing hide and seek with my friends, I hid behind a tree, and I thought something was moving in the tree, so I ran back in fear." ”

The mother believed it and said, "It must be the wind blowing, don't be afraid, go to bed quickly." ”

That night, I dreamed of my own face. I was standing in front of a mirror taller than me, wearing Li Guangde's clothes, and I was looking closely, and I suddenly turned around in the mirror, and became Li Guangde's face, wearing my clothes. I woke up in fright, and when I saw the morning light outside the window, I knew that it was not time to get up.

I carefully touched my face, and my facial features were touched several times, comparing it with me in the mirror yesterday, trying to find out the differences, and the result was exactly the same, which was disheartening. I lay in bed, staring at the ceiling in a daze, until my parents came and told me not to be lazy to sleep, to get up and work.

I stayed at home for the next few days. My best friends on weekdays come to play with me, but I can't refuse. When I was idle, I went to help my parents hoe and farm.

They thought I was scared and thought it was a good thing, so they didn't say anything, but the dishes on the table were obviously better, and one fish in three days became one fish in two days.

I've been haunted by the fact that I've been looking at the mirror, and I'm worried that Lee Kwang-tak will tell me about it. In this way, not only will I be hurt, but my parents will also be implicated.

At a young age, I lived in fear, and I felt as if the sky was about to fall. I didn't dare to see him, I didn't dare to look at him from afar, for fear that he would greet me and attract the attention of the rest of the village. I'm more detail-oriented than usual, and I'm observant of what people say, and even a single look in my eyes can keep me up at night.

But after a few days, I didn't notice anything unusual about their attitude towards me, and my heart relaxed a little. I didn't let that slacken and my whole life was made cautious by this mistake I made.

I didn't drink a drop of alcohol in the days to come, for fear that if I got drunk, I would tell me about looking in the mirror. I haven't seen him once in half a year, so I try to avoid him. Until one day, I was sitting at the door with a straw in my mouth, and a friend suddenly came to me in a hurry and said, "Li Guangde is dead." ”

I hit a spirit, and immediately got up and ran to Li Guangde's house. It was the fastest time in my life, and I couldn't see my friends behind me.

Li Guangde's door was surrounded by several circles of people. But I was small, my hands and feet were slippery like a loach, and it was easy to swim in the crowd, so I squeezed in. I saw him fall straight to the ground with his back to the sky, and he didn't move.

At the end of his life, he did not tell me about me, nor did he give in to the villagers, and died alone in solitude. I think a man like him should be a warrior, but in fact, he is a sinner in our village.

I knew it was disrespectful to the dead, but I have to say that I was relieved. By the way, and the mirror, which is a big problem, and I am vaguely worried that someone will accidentally look in the mirror. No one else knows that there are mirrors in his house, only I know, but I dare not say!

Really! A shrill female cry came from his room, and everyone present heard it. The crowd became agitated and asked, "What's wrong?" ”

A few people who came out of the house to clean had a frightened expression on their faces. The woman in the middle trembled and held something wrapped in yellow cloth. When I saw this familiar cloth, I remembered the scene of that night as if I remembered it vividly.

"It's—it's—mirrors." The woman was so frightened that she stammered.

Everyone hurriedly said, "Have you been photographed?" ”

There were many people at ease, and the woman's mood gradually calmed down, but there was still a trilling voice in her speech: "No—no, when I saw it, I immediately covered it with this yellow cloth." ”

Someone said, "That's good." Take a hammer and smash it, put it in a box and seal it, and bury it with Li Guangde. ”

Someone said, "No hammer." Just take a heavy stone and smash it, save trouble. ”

Everyone agreed that this was the best way to go.

A big man quickly moved a large, heavy stone. The woman put the mirror on the ground, withdrew her hand, and the big man slammed the stone at the mirror. With a muffled sound, the mirror shattered, and I suddenly felt that the weather was sunnier.

The mirror never saw light in the sun.

Someone said: "This madman is still harming people when he dies, what if someone is accidentally photographed, and his soul is taken away." ”

Someone said, "Yes." I thought that I went outside to see the world, and when I came back, I could talk nonsense. ”

Someone said, "Yes." You see him, he died before he was fifty years old. It must have been photographed in the mirror by his own soul, otherwise, he would have lived to be in his forties. ”

Someone said, "Yes." I died at a young age, I'm in my seventies, and I'm still in good health. ”

Someone said, "Yes." If you want to live long, don't look in the mirror. ”

Everybody says – it's just that's it.

I don't know how many "yes" I've heard, I don't know if my soul has been taken away by the mirror, but I know that my soul has been taken away by their talk. I turned around and walked back home, dazed, and it seemed to be cloudy again.

A few powerful men carried Li Guangde's body to the mountain and buried it next to the grave of his parents, buried to the bottom. As everyone was about to go back, one of them suddenly shouted, "The mirror is not buried." They reluctantly dug up his grave again, threw the box with the mirrors into it, and covered it thicker than before, complaining that he was dead and tormenting.

Li Guangde's cemetery is high and protruding, and a crooked tombstone has been hastily erected on it, and only three big characters "Li Guangde" are written. His funeral was held in a festive and lively manner, and the villagers ate and drank as much as they wanted, like a wedding wine to celebrate his death, all of them were full of red light.

That night, the acquaintance in the tree screamed tirelessly, I didn't think it was noisy before, but that day it was so noisy that I wanted to climb up the tree and knock it down.

Seeing the moonlight sprinkled beautifully, I looked up at the moon and unconsciously thought of a metaphor - white as a mirror. I reacted instantly, slapped myself in the mouth, and thought of the mirror.

Then I looked at the moon again, but where did the moon come from in the sky, it was obviously a mirror! I was so frightened that I lowered my head and didn't dare to look into the sky anymore, and when I saw my parents sitting in front of the courtyard enjoying the shade, I ran to them and asked, "Will a person's soul be taken away if he looks in the mirror?" ”

The father rested with his eyes closed. The mother replied, "Yes." So you must not look in the mirror, otherwise you will become a short-lived ghost like Li Guangde. ”

I knew my mother was admonishing me, but she didn't know I had looked in the mirror. She said this to warn me with good intentions, but I felt like I had been stabbed in the chest - from someone closest to me.

I said, "Why is the soul taken away when you look in the mirror?" ”

The mother said, "Have you seen something in the mirror, do you move on its own?" If a piece of wood is placed there, there is no wind blowing, no one pushing, and the wood is motionless. But the person in the mirror can walk, jump, run, and learn people's movements, do you know why? ”

I whispered helplessly, "It's the soul that has been taken away." ”

The mother smiled and said, "Good son, you can understand everything, you are so smart." ”

My soul was taken—my soul was taken—the words rang in my ears over and over again, and I couldn't hear any other sound, as if I had been so quiet that I didn't scream.

My heart was heavy and depressed, and I asked reluctantly, "What is the soul?" ”

Mother said, "The soul lives in our bodies, and we cannot see or touch it." ”

I still don't know what a soul is.

Then my father spoke, knowing that my mother had not answered the right question, and he said, "The soul is how long a person can live." When a man looks in the mirror, his life is divided into two halves, half of which remains in him and half of which is sucked away by the man in the mirror. ”

I felt a knife plunge into my chest again, into the same wound – the same from someone closest to me.

I recalled what Lee Kwang-tak usually looked like, and searched for other causes of death. Sickly looking, always coughing, walking unsteadily, yes, that's right, he didn't die because he looked in the mirror, he died because he was seriously ill and in poor health. I was able to argue with it: "Li Guangde did not die in the mirror, but died of illness." ”

The mother said, "Son, why did you become stupid again when you were said to be smart?" Let me ask you again, do you know why he got sick? ”

My hope was suddenly extinguished, and I said weakly, "It was the mirror that took his soul away." ”

I stood on the ground and went back to my room without saying a word. I thought endlessly—"My soul was taken away, and my life was split in half." I've looked in the mirror and I'll not live to be fifty years old, probably dead at forty. I will die early, like Lee Kwang-tak. I closed the door and hid under the covers, wiping away tears. The moonlight outside the window shone in, and I thought it was the fierce light of the mirror.

I've had a short-lived curse on my body. As I grew up, my fear of death faded day by day, but what scared me the most was to end up with a white-haired man giving away black-haired hair. Fortunately, when I was eleven years old, my mother gave birth to a younger brother, and the knot that had been entangled in my heart was untied at that moment.

When I was fifteen years old, my mother took me to Mr. Painter and asked him to draw a portrait of me so that I could keep it for the rest of my life. It's a custom in the village, and everyone needs a portrait – they have to know what they look like. Although I already knew what I looked like, I didn't dare to disobey it, so I could only follow along.

Mr. is in his fifties, with a pair of clear and deep eyes that do not match his age, and the four treasures of the study are neatly placed on the table. I sat across from him and stared at him, as if I had seen myself in his black eyes.

He looked at me carefully for a few moments, as if to scrutinize every feature of my face, before he began to write. I saw that he first sketched out my appearance, a long round outline, and then his facial features appeared on the paper.

I pointed to the two eyes on the paper and said, "The interval is too big." ”

The gentleman said, "It's not big, it's not big, it's just right." ”

I pointed to my nose again and said, "It's too big." ”

The gentleman said, "It's not big, it's not big, it's just right." ”

I pointed to my lips again and said, "It's too wide and too thick." ”

The gentleman said, "It's not generous, it's just right." ”

My nagging didn't affect his painting. His tone was calm and patient. He has extraordinary concentration, can answer me at the same time, and can draw beautiful lines in a smooth way.

The mother next to me couldn't help but pat my head and said, "You baby, don't get in the way, sir, people are painting us." And he painted exactly like you, so it's not like it, why are you still picking and choosing. ”

I stopped talking, they said like it.

Little did I know at the time that a person's face changes slightly as he grows older. I remember my face as a nine-year-old, and my husband drew me when I was fifteen. I took the portrait home, set it aside, and never picked it up again, leaving it covered in dust. Because I stubbornly believe that that's not me.

In the days that followed, I worked hard while I was young, built a house for myself, and then moved out of my parents' house and lived alone.

I didn't marry a wife and have children, I was afraid that I wouldn't live long and I would lose someone, but I became like Li Guangde, sitting at the door all day long, killing time. Everyone thought I was a weirdo, including my family, but they didn't think I was a madman. Because the only difference between me and Li Guangde is that I agree with the people in the village.

They come to talk to me once in a while, so the loneliness is there, but it's not too boring. People, as long as you are a little flexible, you can live well.

Now, I feel healthy, but I don't know when I'm going to die, so I don't have much time left. A person who lives to 100 is considered to have a long life, and now that I am 45, it means that I can live to be at least 90 years old.

As you can imagine, I have a long life, but my life is too short. This is ridiculous, and it is true.

I had another dream. I dreamed that Lee Kwang-tak was sitting across from me with a smile, and I was connected to his house. I pointed to the bright moon and said, "What a mirror." ”