But just now, when the little girl looked down, her gaze happened to sweep across the lower edge of the mirror, passing over the spot where White Night was.
White Night wasn’t sure if the girl had seen her.
For just a moment, she felt the little girl’s eyes were on her.
Maybe it was just an illusion.
Suddenly, the little girl in the mirror raised her head again.
Her eyes were no longer confused, no longer searching.
She didn’t look elsewhere, didn’t glance around.
Her gaze passed through the mirror, straight and fixed, landing on White Night in the shopping cart.
White Night’s whole body stiffened.
She didn’t dare move.
She didn’t know whether she should move.
‘Would moving scare the little girl?’
‘If I don’t move, will she just keep staring like this?’
That one-second stare felt infinitely stretched in White Night’s perception.
The little girl in the mirror just kept staring.
Her eyes were clearly focused on White Night, pupils contracting slightly, eyelids lifting a little.
That was the reaction of seeing a living person.
Then, she smiled.
This smile didn’t belong to the endlessly looping birthday party in the mirror.
It wasn’t the satisfied licking of cream, not the coquettish wiping of the mouth, nor the matter-of-fact watching of her father adding food to her plate.
She pursed her lips, licking the cream off her mouth.
Her upper lip lifted slightly, revealing two newly grown front teeth—one big, one small, with a gap in between.
Her eyes squinted into two curved lines, eyelashes bunching at the corners.
She smiled.
This was a smile outside the loop.
Then, she turned her head back.
She extended her fingertip, carefully pinched a small corner of her father’s sleeve, and gently tugged, as if afraid of wrinkling the shirt.
She looked up and said something to her father.
White Night could read her lips.
“Dad. I think a big sister was looking at me just now.”
But her father just smiled and patted her head, his eyes still on the piece of pork loin he had just picked up.
His lips replied, “Yuyu, there’s no one. Focus on eating.”
He smiled as he said “There’s no one.”
He had no idea his daughter was telling the truth.
White Night’s body trembled involuntarily.
That tremor made the shopping cart quiver, the metal basket tapping against the handle with a faint click.
Little Frost was leaning over talking to White Peace about whether to smash the mirror, and didn’t notice the sound.
When Little Frost tried to push the cart away, she found it wouldn’t budge.
It wasn’t the wheels getting stuck; it was White Night’s weight tilting the cart to one side.
Little Frost thought the basket had hit the sofa corner.
She looked down and saw White Night staring blankly at the mirror, not moving.
Little Frost was startled.
“Little White Night?”
White Night didn’t answer, still in a daze.
In the mirror’s surface, in her small pupils, only that warm yellow light was reflected.
Mu Yingying also sensed something was wrong.
She turned back and saw White Night staring at the mirror, her heart skipping a beat.
Little White Night usually either curled up sleeping in the cart or poked her head out to look at the scenery; she never spaced out like this.
Mu Yingying immediately walked back, bent down, and asked softly, “Little White Night, what’s wrong?”
White Night’s voice was very soft, soft as a dream.
Mu Yingying had to bend down to hear clearly.
“That little girl… just now looked at me.”
Mu Yingying was stunned.
She quickly leaned close to the mirror, her face nearly touching it, nose almost hitting the glass.
But the little girl in the mirror was still eating her cake, head down, not looking up.
“She’s eating,” Mu Yingying said.
Little Frost also leaned in to look, saw the same scene as Mu Yingying.
But White Night knew she hadn’t misseen.
Before turning her head back, that little girl had smiled at her.
She remembered that smile clearly—that smile revealing uneven front teeth, eyes squinting into two slits.
She absolutely could not have been mistaken.
White Peace, who had been silent, turned her head.
She looked at White Night, studying her eyes carefully, as if trying to see the fading focus in her pupils.
Then, she shifted her gaze back to the mirror.
The world inside the mirror was as usual: warm yellow chandelier, white tablecloth, little girl Lin Yu eating cake.
At that moment, the little girl in the mirror lifted her head again.
She quickly glanced once more at White Night’s position.
She was still looking.
This time it was extremely brief, as if confirming whether that big sister was still there.
She didn’t actually nod, but that small relaxed movement clearly said: ‘Confirmation complete, relieved.’
Then she lowered her head again, using her spoon to scrape the cream that had spilled onto the plate’s edge.
White Peace spoke.
“That little girl can see Little White Night. She’s actually the most aware of the three in that family. She already knew she was dead a long time ago.”
Mu Yingying and Little Frost were both taken aback.
“This child… is sensible,” White Night said quietly, looking at the little girl, unable to describe the feeling in her heart.
There was no more Weirdness here to hunt.
They should go.
“Goodbye, Yuyu.”
She paused, then softly added another sentence.
“Happy birthday to you.”
The little girl heard it, smiled at White Night, nodded, and even raised her little hand to wave.
The two turned and walked out of the residential building.
Behind them, the door on the far right of the third floor was gently closed by Little Frost from inside.
No more light leaked through the crack.
The handwritten “Lin” character was still on the door, and next to it, the crookedly drawn little smiling face was still there.
Inside, the birthday party of that family of three continued.
Father added food to mother’s plate, mother wiped daughter’s mouth, the little girl was eating cake, cream on her lips, waiting to be wiped off with a tissue.
The wind in the ruins changed abruptly, carrying ash, rust, and the smell of decay from somewhere, hitting them all at once.
The windows on the second, third, and fourth floors were either shattered or just gaping black holes.
Only that one window remained clean.
The white curtains hung neatly, and the wind slipped through the narrow gap of the old sliding window that didn’t close tightly, puffing the hem of the curtains slightly.
From outside, it looked as if someone inside had just walked by, and the hem of their clothes had accidentally brushed it.
If someone passed by and looked up, they might think that unit was still inhabited.
In this ruin, that lit lamp itself felt like an unreal dream, as if the Doomsday had never come, and tonight was just one of countless ordinary and warm nights.
But that lamp only shone in the mirror.
The team’s shadows gradually lengthened.
The wind scattered White Night’s “Goodbye” into the air.
The ruins never retained any sound.
After walking over a hundred meters, they reached the street corner.
From here, looking back, they could still see the side of that building.
The collapsed wall and the intact window on the third floor became a lonely landmark.
They continued forward, their shadows stretched long in front of them.
The Sun was sinking toward the horizon, dyeing the entire ruin in layers of orange.
The half-collapsed office building in the farthest distance was just a dark silhouette.
In that mirror, Lin Yu was biting into a piece of cream.
Her father smiled and added a piece of braised spare ribs to her mother’s plate.
Her mother had just finished wiping her daughter’s mouth and crumpled the tissue into a ball.
The world inside the mirror couldn’t hear the wind outside the ruins.
The chandelier inside the mirror continued to shine.