“So… what happened after you dripped your blood?” Feng Bujue asked.

“I heard the sound of water…” Wang Tanzhi replied.

“Don't tell me it was you or someone else pissing their pants in fright…” Jue-ge followed up.

“Of course not,” Xiao Tan said. “What I heard was a sound like flowing river water.”

“Sanzu River? Huangquan? Styx?” Bao Qing asked three questions in a row.

“I wouldn't know about that,” Xiao Tan shrugged. “But I do know that in many religions and myths, the passage connecting the human world and the underworld is described as a 'river'; I think… what I heard at the time was the sound of 'that river'.”

“Then… what happened after you heard the sound?” Feng Bujue asked again.

“I also saw a lot of fragments, a lot of… memory fragments that didn't belong to me…” Xiao Tan frowned slightly as he said this. “Most of them were scenes related to death… like the memory of being murdered, or the instant before being run over by a train…”

“Didn't cause any mental pollution, did it?” Feng Bujue looked at his expression and asked with concern.

“Uh…” Xiao Tan replied, “Not really… because those fragments were just 'visual' and 'auditory' memories, to me, it was like watching a bunch of unrelated horror movie clips; in comparison, some of the scripts in Thriller Paradise are much more terrifying.”

“Oh…” Jue-ge heard this and responded with relief.

At this moment, Bao-daren, who was beside him, retorted sharply, “Yeah… the moment you said 'not really', I thought the second half of your sentence would be 'my mind has already been tainted by Jue-ge, this super pollution source, so I've lost feeling for this level of fragment'.”

“Hahaha…” Xiao Tan laughed heartily after hearing this. “You know what, that's also possible.”

“Hey, hey… is there anything to be happy about?” Feng Bujue said with narrowed eyes. “And…” He turned to look at Bao Qing. “What 'super pollution source'? Did you define that?”

“It was defined by an expert who gave me psychological counseling when I was little,” Bao Qing replied.

“Which expert? Tell me the name,” Feng Bujue immediately said.

“For his or her safety, I think it's best if you never know their name,” Bao Qing said, turning his head away from Jue-ge's gaze and saying to Xiao Tan, “Come on, let's continue talking about the fragments…”

“There's nothing else to say,” Xiao Tan replied. “The test ended after that.”

“Ah?” Bao Qing asked doubtfully, “Just like that?”

“Yes, just like that,” Xiao Tan replied.

“Then what's the point of this test?” Feng Bujue also asked.

“The purpose of the test was to find out what would happen when the scale came into contact with my blood,” Xiao Tan replied. “They had naturally already done other tests, such as… what happens when ordinary people's blood comes into contact with the scale, what happens when spirit ability users' blood comes into contact with the scale, what happens when you hold the scale in your hand and meditate, what happens when you stay with the scale for a long time, and so on.” He paused for half a second before continuing, “And me… I'm a special case. Director Gu felt that my blood had a chance to trigger different changes, so he arranged this test.”

“But the result wasn't anything special?” Bao Qing continued.

“Yeah, at least that's what they told me,” Xiao Tan replied.

“That's strange…” Bao Qing stroked his chin and pondered, “Since nothing abnormal happened during the test, how did the accident happen later?”

“Oh… that…” Xiao Tan responded rather calmly, “The thing is… after I finished the test, I returned the way I came under the leadership of Agent Zhang. What neither of us knew at the time was that when I first passed through the Fourth Containment Area, I had already caused a spiritual power sensing object on the upper level of the shelf to react… Therefore, when I passed through this place for the second time, that thing fell from the shelf due to the 'gravity' I generated; fortunately, the thing itself was harmless, but… when it fell, it happened to brush against the 'prank mirror' placed under that shelf. The mirror flipped once, and the cloth covering it slipped off… Just as the mirror was about to reflect me, Uncle Zhang Zhiang quickly turned around and knocked me down, preventing me from being exposed to the mirror, but…”

“…But he himself was reflected in it.” Hearing this, Bao Qing already understood the situation.

“What happens if he's reflected in it?” But Feng Bujue still didn't understand, so he continued to ask.

“If someone is reflected in it… 'that guy' in the mirror will transform into that person's appearance and escape from the mirror,” Bao Qing said, “And start 'pranking'.”

“Sounds like… 'that guy' is some kind of little sprite?” Feng Bujue continued.

“No… it should be described as a 'hysterical and extremely cunning monster'.” Judging from Bao Qing's expression when he said this, he obviously had a story, “The monster in the mirror is like a concrete manifestation of the thing called 'prank'. It's purely for the sake of playing pranks on people, and from its perspective, there's nothing that can't be used to play pranks. It doesn't even have a concept of words like 'consequence', 'responsibility', and 'guilt'. Although it doesn't have any destructive power in itself, you can imagine… in a place like a 'warehouse', letting it roam free would cause how terrible a chain reaction.”

“Eh? Bao-daren, have you also worked in a warehouse?” Xiao Tan then asked, “Listening to you, it seems like you've dealt with this mirror before.”

“That's because… I participated in the whole process of containing this item a few years ago,” Bao Qing explained. “That day, the department received a message: a man who attempted suicide claimed that someone who looked exactly like him was impersonating him… and ruining his life, and no matter how he explained it, no one around him believed what he said.

“This case quickly attracted our attention, so I and several agents rushed to the police station to investigate; after confirming that this person was not mentally disturbed and was not lying, we took him away and conducted a more detailed inquiry.

“Afterwards, I also joined the action team and went directly to the man's house to investigate… and discovered the existence of the 'prank mirror'.

“We only learned afterwards that he had found this mirror in a thrift store that was clearing out its inventory; he thought the mirror had a unique shape, and although the frame was old, the mirror surface was still clear, so he thought it was a valuable antique; after some bargaining, he bought the mirror back home.

“Who would have thought… what he brought home was essentially a terrible disaster.”

Hearing this, Feng Bujue couldn't help but ask curiously, “Then how did you 'contain' this mirror and the monster hidden in the mirror?”

“Hmm… that needs to be explained carefully,” Bao Qing said. “It's really difficult to 'catch' that monster, because it has the ability to teleport instantly over short distances. In addition, it also has a certain ability to 'read minds', which means… when you're near it, it can know what you're thinking.”

“Heh… they're all abilities that are very convenient for carrying out pranks…” Jue-ge laughed.

“Fortunately… this guy also has weaknesses,” Bao Qing didn't respond to his words and continued, “In fact, the various characteristics of this monster… are written on the frame of the mirror; but since it's written in an ancient language, ordinary people can't understand it at all.”

“But you're not ordinary people,” Feng Bujue continued.

“Yes, we're not,” Bao Qing replied. “So, after we photographed the words on the mirror frame and sent them back to the department, someone sent back the translation in less than ten minutes.” He took a sip of tea and continued, “As for the conditions for this 'prank monster' to come out of the mirror… the frame only said a general idea, but later we obtained more detailed data through experiments; the basic trigger condition is – a 'human' appears in front of the mirror, even if it's for only 0.01 seconds… that's enough. As for what the boundary of this 'appearance' is, we also tested it later… If the head is reflected, it will trigger immediately; and for parts other than the head… more than 60% of the body area needs to be reflected in the mirror on a two-dimensional plane to trigger it.”

“Oh… like when Agent Zhang knocked me down, only my back flashed in front of the mirror, and I was hit,” Xiao Tan responded.

Bao Qing nodded and continued, “And the way to put the monster back is… to have the person who released it appear in the mirror with it. At that moment, the prank monster will reveal its true form and be sucked into the mirror; and it won't be able to come out again for the next six minutes.”

“Wait…” Feng Bujue said, “Doesn't this guy have instant teleportation and mind reading? Then how did you achieve the above condition?”

“That's where its 'weakness' comes in,” Bao Qing said, revealing an inscrutable expression. “There are two weaknesses of the monster living in the prank mirror – first, the straight-line distance between it and the mirror cannot exceed 6,666 meters; second, for some reason, if peanut butter gets on the mirror, it must immediately come back and lick the mirror clean.”

“Huh?” Feng Bujue wanted to complain when he heard the first weakness, but he held back; but when he heard the second weakness, he suddenly felt that the previous weakness was quite normal. “Uh… why… the peanut butter part made some strange images appear in my mind…”

“I think that's because your inner world is too filthy,” Bao Qing calmly replied. “In short… later we transported the mirror to a place where there was basically nowhere to hide within a few kilometers, and blindfolded the victim, brought him to the mirror, used peanut butter to achieve the sealing conditions, and then covered the mirror and contained it.”

“Is it really okay for you to just cover such a dangerous thing with a piece of cloth?” Feng Bujue immediately raised this question after hearing this.

“You think we want to do this?” Bao Qing replied, “Experiments have proven that all coverings exposed to the mirror will be corroded except for linen, and the corrosion cycle is difficult to grasp… The same material can sometimes last a week, but sometimes it can only last a few minutes; in addition, using ropes, tape, or other things to fix the cloth on the mirror, or using a large cloth to directly wrap the mirror, will trigger the corrosion effect – even if we use linen.”

“Oh… in that case,” Feng Bujue continued, “Putting this mirror into a closed space after covering it won't work either?”

“That's right,” Bao Qing continued, “We tried covering it and putting it in a room alone; we also tried covering it and putting it in a large cabinet or box, and even tried putting it in colored ice cubes… But if we did this for more than ten seconds, the mirror would teleport out of the enclosed space on its own and appear in some random area nearby.” He paused, revealing a helpless expression, “Also, putting it in a deserted wasteland where there are no people is also not possible. In the absence of humans or other things around, it will also teleport, and the teleportation time and distance depend on the emptiness of the surrounding area…”

“Countless experiments have proven that only by piling this thing together with other furniture and miscellaneous objects, covering it with linen, and ensuring that there are frequent human activities around it, can it maintain a relatively stable state.”

“I also have a question,” At this time, Xiao Tan raised his right hand and asked like a child asking a question in class, “Have you tried to destroy this thing? Like smashing the mirror, melting it, etc…”

“Tried it,” Bao Qing replied, “In the first destruction experiment, we took a hammer and swung it at the mirror, but it only left a very small crack; and at the same moment, or rather, in the same second… there was a magnitude six earthquake in southern Wales…” He paused for a second, “Then said, the second time, we changed the position and took a chisel to it, and then South Africa had another earthquake… Please note that these two things happened on the same day.”

“I'll go…” Feng Bujue was shocked when he heard it. “This thing is going against the heavens.”

“After that, we didn't do any similar attempts again,” Bao Qing said, “If we took the mirror to melt it down and caused the volcano under Yellowstone Park in the United States to erupt, then things wouldn't be easy to clean up…”

“Hmm… I see,” Jue-ge responded, then looked at Xiao Tan, “Eh? So… the day you went to the warehouse, it ended with Agent Zhang putting peanut butter on the mirror?”

“No,” Xiao Tan shook his head.

“What?” This time, Bao Qing was surprised, “No?”

“Ah…” Xiao Tan looked at Bao Qing and said, “I heard about those detailed characteristics of the mirror you just mentioned for the first time…”

“Then how did you put the monster back into the mirror?” Bao Qing asked nervously.

“Uh… it's like this,” Xiao Tan replied with a calm face, “That day, after the mirror was revealed, I was also confused for a long time…

“I first saw a man who looked exactly like Agent Zhang running out of the mirror, and he disappeared in the blink of an eye; then I heard all kinds of alarms going off in the warehouse, and the staff was in a chaotic mess…

“In any case… five minutes after the alarm rang, I was taken to a 'safe room', and the agents told me to wait there and not move, and then they went out.

“As a result, as soon as they left the room, I found that… the other 'Agent Zhang' had already appeared beside me at some point; I saw him squatting on the ground… quietly tying the laces of my two shoes together.”

Xiao Tan said this, and chuckled softly, “So I said to him… 'can you stop', I didn't expect… he looked at me for two seconds, and said 'can', and immediately stood up, looking nervous and respectfully staring at me. When I saw that he seemed to be listening to me, I tried asking another question – 'can you go back to the mirror and not come out for a while', he said 'okay' with a sad face, and then disappeared…”

As he said this, Feng Bujue and Bao-daren both heard it – this situation should be related to Wang Tanzhi's spiritual ability or bloodline.

But Xiao Tan himself didn't seem to get the point of the problem: “Thinking about it now… could it be that you all misunderstood that prank monster, maybe it's quite easy to talk to?”