Dimensional Hotel

Yu Sheng leaned in close, pressing his face just inches from the surface of the mirror. He was trying to get a better look at that curious, faint “second reflection” hovering there. The mirror’s image was doubled somehow, as if he were staring through a window on a winter’s night. Inside it, the reflection of his own room seemed to blend with a distant, snowy cave scene beyond. The whole thing reminded him of looking through glass at two worlds at once—his familiar room and a strange, snow-covered world far away. Yet the second scene was blurry, as if it were only half-real, slipping just beyond his grasp.

Just then, Irene clambered up onto Yu Sheng’s shoulder. She wrapped her tiny doll arms around his head, peering intently at the strange vision in the mirror. For a while, she stayed silent, her eyes fixed on the curious sight. Finally, she spoke, her soft voice filled with wonder. “Do you think that snow is actually blowing over from the other side of the mirror?” she asked.

Yu Sheng turned his head slightly, surprised by her question. “You can see it too?” he said.

Irene sounded baffled by his surprise. “Of course I can. What’s so shocking about that?” she replied. “I’m not blind, you know.” Next to them, Foxy—his companion with the foxlike features—nodded as well, before Yu Sheng could say anything else.

“Benefactor, I see it too,” Foxy said quietly.

Yu Sheng scratched his head, feeling just a bit awkward. “It’s only that, after dealing with Little Red Riding Hood and Li Lin, I’ve been worrying that not everyone sees what I do. I was starting to think I might be imagining things.” He shrugged, embarrassed by his own caution.

As he mulled over these thoughts, Yu Sheng took a careful step forward. He reached out toward the mirror’s surface, wanting to test it somehow. The last time he had touched this mirror, it had shown him a strange wasteland where a broken doll and a dark, shadowy monster had both been destroyed. What would happen now if he touched it again? Would it show him something even stranger?

Irene, nervous at the idea, grabbed at Yu Sheng’s hair, clinging tightly. He could feel her body trembling a bit. “Hey, be careful!” she squeaked. “What if something weird—”

“Ouch, ouch! Irene, let go of my hair!” Yu Sheng yelped, startled by the sharp tug.

Now free, Yu Sheng’s fingertips brushed the surface of the mirror. It was cold—so cold that it felt like touching a block of ice. He half-expected the reflection to shift again, or for something to happen, but the image remained still.

“It’s just cold,” Irene said quietly, daring to reach out and tap it herself. “Besides that, nothing’s happening.”

Yu Sheng nodded and pulled his hand back, his brow furrowed in confusion. The chilly touch had vanished as soon as he stepped away, and now he noticed something else: the strange double image in the mirror was fading. In just a few seconds, that snowy cave and all its mysterious whiteness disappeared, leaving only the ordinary reflection of the room. The other world, if that’s what it had been, was gone.

He reached out again and touched the mirror, but this time it was just at normal temperature. No coldness at all. It was just a mirror, plain and simple.

Foxy, who had been watching all this in thoughtful silence, spoke up. “Benefactor,” she said carefully, “has the mirror always been like this?”

Yu Sheng shook his head, sighing. “It’s always been odd in some way,” he said. “Sometimes it shows strange scenes from who-knows-where. But this time, it did more than that. There was snow right here in the room. And that weird metal thing fell onto the floor.” He glanced at the small black metal object he had found earlier, picked up from under the table. The snow that had drifted in from the other side was already melting, leaving a small puddle of water on the floorboards.

He frowned at the metal device still in his hand. The strange vision in the mirror had vanished completely, but the evidence of its presence remained—the melted snow, the unfamiliar object. They were utterly real. Irene was right—this truly was bizarre.

“I’m sleeping in your room tonight,” Irene declared suddenly, her tiny arms hugging Yu Sheng’s head as if to protect herself. She shuddered. “I’ll just sleep on a chair or a desk, anything! I’m not staying in this creepy room alone!”

“I wasn’t planning on letting anyone stay in here anyway,” Yu Sheng replied, removing Irene’s hands from his head. “It’s way too strange. From now on, if I’m not here, don’t open this door, no matter what.”

Irene and Foxy both nodded in eager agreement. Neither of them had any desire to spend time alone in this unsettling place.

“Besides,” Yu Sheng added, lifting Irene off his shoulder and setting her down, “if you don’t want to sleep in here, you could just stay with Foxy. Why must you insist on being in my room?”

Irene immediately protested, waving her little arms wildly. “Because that fox whacks people with her tail when she’s asleep! You might kick me off the bed in your sleep, but at least I’ll only fall on the floor. She smacks me so hard, I go flying into the wall!” She went on and on, complaining about how she had no room of her own, no proper bed, and how everyone seemed to forget about her because she was small. It was a steady stream of whining, each complaint blending into the next. Since dolls don’t need to breathe, she never paused, not even for a second, making Yu Sheng’s head throb.

He entertained the mad idea of stuffing Irene into Foxy’s fluffy tail, but quickly dismissed it, knowing that would only lead to chaos. Instead, he scooped up the chattering doll, nodded to Foxy, and led them both out of that eerie room. He locked the door behind him, checking it once, twice, three times to be sure it was secure.

“Benefactor,” Foxy said softly, noticing his worry, “should I stand guard outside this door tonight? If anything happens, I could call you right away.”

Yu Sheng pictured Foxy, a nine-tailed fox, sitting like a guard dog in the hallway. He shook his head. “No, that’s all right. It’s not as if this room just started acting strange today.” He sighed, remembering that the entire house at Wutong Road No. 66 had its share of odd secrets. ṛ�

He set Irene down on the floor and pulled out the new phone he’d received from the Special Affairs Bureau. Irene, momentarily distracted from complaining, climbed onto his shoulder again, curious about what he was up to.

“What are you doing?” she asked, craning her neck to see the screen.

“When something strange happens, it helps to ask the experts,” Yu Sheng explained. “I’m going to post about this on the ‘Borderland Communications’ forum. Maybe someone out there will recognize what this metal thing is.” He fiddled with the phone, searching for the right feature. “There must be a way to upload pictures… Ah, here we are.”

He balanced the odd black metal object in one hand while holding his phone with the other, snapping several photos from different angles. Soon, he uploaded them to the public message wall. Then he looked through the categories and found “Ancient Relics Discussion” and “Unusual Phenomena Discussion.” Both sounded promising. He posted the pictures there, too, along with a brief message:

“Unknown object made of metal. No signs of corrosion or life. Found after a snowfall in a sealed room. Possibly related to a mirror that shows distant scenes.”

Yu Sheng almost wrote “found it at home,” but he changed his mind. After all, most people wouldn’t expect strange metal devices and sudden snow inside their homes. He had good instincts—there was no need to reveal too much about Wutong Road No. 66. Even a normal person like him knew better than to broadcast all his secrets online.

“Will anyone reply?” Irene asked, settling down and peering at the screen. “Most people write long posts, even add videos. You barely wrote anything.”

“I don’t have much else to say,” Yu Sheng admitted. “It’s just a room, and this odd object doesn’t seem to do anything remarkable.”

Irene tilted her head and shrugged. “Fair enough,” she said, turning her attention back to the television. With Foxy beside them, they returned to the living room, watching TV and waiting. Hours passed, and by evening, Yu Sheng’s phone finally buzzed with a reply.

He tapped the screen eagerly. The message came from a user named “Three Thousand Wicked Disciples” on the “Ancient Relics Discussion” channel:

“Can you describe the environment where you found this object? Is it in an Otherworld? If so, what type? Are there any intelligent beings or traces of them?”

Yu Sheng blinked at the unexpected questions. Still, it was a start—his first time interacting with someone who might know something useful. He quickly typed back:

“Otherworld, an old residential house. Modern furnishings, quite peaceful, no obvious monsters. As for intelligent beings…”

He hesitated, glancing at Irene perched on his lap, and Foxy grooming her tail nearby. “There are intelligent beings,” he finished, and hit send.

Irene peered at him skeptically. “Do you think anyone will really know what’s going on?” she asked. “Even the Special Affairs Bureau didn’t know much about Wutong Road No. 66 until recently. And now you’re expecting a stranger on the internet to solve it?”

Yu Sheng shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they won’t know about Wutong Road No. 66 itself. But this strange object could have shown up somewhere else before. Someone might recognize it.”

Irene considered this and gave a small, unsure nod. Then she went back to watching television. Before long, Yu Sheng’s phone buzzed again.

It was another message from “Three Thousand Wicked Disciples”:

“I’ve never heard of such an Otherworld. Your description is peculiar. But the object is interesting. It looks man-made, yet the markings on its corners are strange. Someone at the ‘Academy’ might be interested.”