Volume V, Chapter 9, The Ghost in the Mirror, August 2118

In the early morning of the next day, Sima Aya returned to her apartment from the beach, and she took off the "spirit butterfly".

She wanted to take a bath, to wash away the fatigue of the day. When she saw her own mirror in the bathroom mirror, she suddenly felt different from usual, she knew it was an illusion, however, she still felt that the person in the mirror was out of sync with her movements, which made people uncomfortable, and wanted to smash the mirror.

"Why did they clone me? What are the benefits of cloning me for those people? Sima Aya whispered. While the evidence so far does not confirm that the men must have wanted to clone themselves, perhaps they were simply trying to access their own memories—agents' memories are full of secrets and certainly valuable—but a sense of unease enveloped her.

Even, when she opened the bathroom door after bathing, she also had that uneasiness hidden in her heart - opening the bathroom door and seeing another self, standing in front of her and smiling at herself.

Sima Aya's apartment is about 100 square meters, and for a person who is alone, this 100 square meters of apartment is not big. But people who have been alone for a long time will inevitably have a shadow in their psychology, especially for people like Sima Aya who don't like to be alone.

"Clone this person before you kill it."

When Sima Aya lay down on the bed, she realized that Zhang Guoyang's words, in the previous unconscious, aggravated the shadow of her solitude, making herself feel behind the door, in the wardrobe, under the bed...... In every space that can accommodate the next person, there may be a person, a person who is exactly like himself.

She was surrounded by this feeling, she felt like she was a helpless little girl, a little girl who could not turn to her parents or anyone else for help, because in this apartment, her parents were not there, and the "other people" in the hallucination of existence were clones of herself.

"Yi Yi ......" Sima Aya read her name and fell into a dream in extreme tiredness and restlessness.

In the dream, Sima Aya came to the mirror of the wardrobe, and in the mirror was a little girl - this is her self-impression of childhood.

One of the doors of the wardrobe was ajar, and through the crack in the door was the clothes in the closet—almost all of the gold was children's clothes, not adult clothes.

Sima Aya saw herself smiling at herself in the mirror, she smiled kindly, and beckoned to herself.

Sima Aya didn't want to walk towards the mirror, nor did she want to get close to her. So, subconsciously, Sima Aya wanted to retreat and stay away from the dressing mirror, but her feet walked forward without obeying the call, driving the body she wanted to escape from and slowly approaching the dressing mirror.

"Don't be afraid." Sima Aya in the mirror smiled and gently stretched out her hand to the mirror. Sima Aya outside the mirror also involuntarily raised her hand and stretched out to the mirror.

She even smiled at herself in the mirror.

Sima Aya's body touched the mirror, and her body gradually sank into the mirror, as if she had walked into a door, or as if her body was slowly sinking into a calm lake. When her body touched the mirror, it caused ripples on the mirror.

Sima Aya passed through the mirror and came to another room, this room and the room on the other side of the mirror, according to common sense, the left and right are opposite, because the mirror image should be reversed at the same time, but Sima Aya can't feel it.

Instead, she looked back at the room in the mirror, the room she had come from—she felt that everything was reversed.

When she looked back at the room she had been, she saw that there was no mirror image of herself in the mirror. In the face of this anomaly, she did not have a trace of uneasiness and fear. Because, even in the original world, when facing the mirror, occasionally she could not see the mirror image of herself - when she was wearing the "spirit butterfly", at this time, she was invisible.

Once, twice, three times, again and again...... It was no longer surprising and unsettling to not see her own mirror image in the mirror, she gradually got used to it, and developed a sense of security—that the invisible were invisible, that they were not seen, and that they were not seen by the enemy.

Sima Aya didn't know when she started, and not being able to see herself in the mirror brought not fear, but a sense of security. She is even terrified of the mirror in the mirror, and the longer she is alone, the deeper the fear of the mirror in the mirror.

Now, in this world, there is no mirror image of yourself in the mirror – and that's safe.

The other self (little girl B) is standing next to herself, smiling at herself (little girl A).

"Welcome to the world beyond the mirror." B smiled at Sima Aya.

The world outside the mirror? This is obviously the world in the mirror.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I forgot." B explained, "I think, according to your idea, this should be the world in the mirror. ”

Sima Aya touched everything in this new world, the cabinets, the walls...... Everything is real. B walked over and took her hand, and their hands were clasped together. She felt B's hand warm and dry, as if it was more real than real.

"Let's go, let's go outside the house." B said as he took Sima Aya's hand and walked towards the door.

At this time, Sima Aya glanced back at the mirror, and there was still no mirror image in the mirror.

"It's safe here, rest assured." B turned around and kissed Sima Aya on the cheek. When she was also her own daughter, she felt her breathing, with a sweet fragrance.

Sima Aya felt that she was passive, while she was proactive. Everything, very abnormal. In the dream, a vestige of reason told her that it was impossible for the people in the mirror to drive the people outside the mirror. There is no doubt who is the driver and who is the passive. And now, it's the people in the mirror who drive the people outside the mirror, so it's not normal...... Unless......

It's really like she said, this is the outside of the mirror, and she is the person inside the mirror.

"Here, no one will sneak into your eyes from the mirror." She kissed Sima Aya again.

Oh? No one sneaks into me from the mirror, well, that's good. Sima Aya thought subconsciously.

(Never?) She asked her. She didn't say it, but it was a dream, and thinking was almost indistinguishable from talking. To think is to say, to say is to think - in dreams, there is no deception.

"Yes, never." She replied.

So, the two of them came to the door of the room. B held Sima Aya with his left hand, turned the handle of the door with his right hand, and then pushed the door open.

On the other side of the door, there is a hallway. It's like opening the door of a hotel and entering the hallway of a hotel. However, this corridor appears to be made of metal. The floor, walls and ceiling of the corridor are made of metal, which exudes a silvery blue color and reflects a matte sheen when illuminated by the light.

There are many doors in the hallway, just like the doors of a hotel.

Sima Aya stepped out of the room with her and walked into the hallway. When she turned around and closed the door, Sima Aya realized that the door was also metal—just now, when she looked inside, the door was made of wood, just like the wardrobe and other furnishings in the room. But now, when she looked from the outside, she realized that, like the other doors in the hallway, it was metal.

Sima Aya touched the doorknob with her hand, the handle was very hard, and there was a hint of coldness, and there were even some rust marks on it—it was metal.

When the door closes, the B button moves a ring handle on the door, like the steering wheel of a car. Both of them were too short, so they had to stand on tiptoe desperately so that their little hands could touch the handles. It's like a little girl trying to get behind the wheel of a truck, trying to drive a big truck.

The ring-shaped handle was finally turned. There was a "whoosh" sound from the crack in the door, and the "sizzle" sound was very loud, like the sound of pumping or exhausting. The voice echoed through the empty hallway.

"It's a gas valve." B pointed to the ring handle and said, "There are a lot of these valves on board. ”

Boat? Gas valves? Of course. So, this is no ordinary hotel. Thinking about it carefully, Sima Aya vaguely realized that the corridor was narrower than the corridor of an ordinary hotel, and even narrower than the corridor of the cheapest hotel that Sima Aya had ever seen. But in the eyes of the two little girls, this is not small.

"Let's go, I'll take you to the living area. We walked around the boat. B smiled, "As you understand it, this is the ...... in the mirror Boat. ”

(That is, this is not the living quarters on the ship.) Sima Aya thought.

"Uh-huh, yes." B smiled and nodded, the living area was a little more spacious than here. B smiled, "It doesn't feel so small and oppressive." ”

(Well, these rooms are not living quarters.) Sima Aya repeated. Soon, B saw her doubts: she wanted to know what these rooms were used for?

"Well, let me tell you, this is the copy room." B said helplessly, "You can understand it as a kind of production workshop, can you understand this?" ”

(Copy?) Copy what? Sima Aya asked again, her gaze sweeping over the air valves of each "guest room" in turn.

"Looks like you're about to wake up." B said, "Looks like there's no time to take you to the living area." ”

(Why?) Sima Aya asked without thinking.

Why—in a dream, why ask why—unless one's brain is becoming active......

(Who are you?) Sima Aya asked.

"I'm you, can't you see it?" B pointed at himself with four fingers and made a gesture to introduce himself.

(No, you're not.) Who are you? Sima Aya repeated.

B looked at Sima Aya, was silent for a while, and paced back and forth a few more steps, and then, her eyes full of brilliance suddenly dimmed.

"I'm the ship's ...... Captain. She said, with regret in her tone, as if she wasn't proud to be the captain of the ship, or that she was an incompetent captain.

(No, you're not.) Who are you? Sima Aya repeated again. Why? Who are you? Why? Who are you...... Infinite repetition began to spring up in Sima Aya's mind. She opened her eyes and woke up from her dream.

The dream is over.

"Guns." Sima Aya subconsciously reached out and touched the hand tied to his thigh [Kikura]. The gun is there. She drew her gun and got up, carefully inspecting the room. At this time, she really woke up from the afterglow of the dream and returned to this insecure world.

"Guns." Sima Aya subconsciously reached out and touched the hand tied to his thigh [Kikura]. The gun is there. She drew her gun and got up, carefully inspecting the room. At this time, she really woke up from the afterglow of the dream and returned to this insecure world.

(End of chapter)