Transmigrating Behind the Mirror to Become Her Guardian Lady - Chapter 1

“No, please don’t”

Sleep-talking whispers rose through the air at three o’clock in the morning. They echoed within the bedroom, stretched out by the thick, impenetrable darkness until even the faint tail-end of her voice carried a sense of panic and confusion.

Shu Mengli lay on her bed with her eyes tightly shut and her brows furrowed. Her elegant forehead was covered in a layer of cold sweat; she was trapped deep within a nightmare.

“Don’t!”

With one final cry of alarm, her panicked voice shattered the silence of the night.

Shu Mengli’s eyes snapped open.

Her vision was immediately swallowed by the heavy darkness of the room, making it impossible to see anything. She lay there with shallow, rapid breaths, her chest heaving violently. She stared at the ceiling in the dark for a long while before finally realizing she was in her own bedroom. It had just been a nightmare.

While the terrifying dream had jolted her awake, the midnight drowsiness left her consciousness hazy. Shu Mengli felt caught between these two states—awake yet dazed. It was an incredibly uncomfortable sensation. A sharp, throbbing pain pulsed at her temples as if a needle were picking at the nerves, making it impossible to fall back asleep.

Left with no choice, she tossed the duvet aside and sat up. She planned to get a glass of water to calm herself down and soothe her splitting headache.

As the soft quilt slid down her chest, it revealed the curves of her body wrapped in a camisole nightgown—curves so shapely they could make one’s blood race. Without putting on shoes, she stepped onto the floor with her bare, porcelain-white feet and walked straight out, guided only by the moonlight.

In her dazed state, she forgot to turn on the lights.

Consequently, the living room felt exceptionally quiet and dark. Standing at the doorway, Shu Mengliwho had just struggled out of a nightmare felt her pupils contract instinctively. It felt as though she were being pulled back into that suffocating, agonizing dream. She found it hard to breathe.

However…

Shu Mengli shook her aching head.

She couldn’t actually remember what she had just dreamed about. She only had a vague recollection of a girl in the dream crying very sadly and calling her “Sister…”

Calling her “Sister” what?

Shu Mengli looked up helplessly. Since she couldn’t remember, she didn’t intend to dwell on it. After all, it was just a dream; forgetting them upon waking was perfectly normal.

But just as she looked up while lost in thought, her eyes—now adjusted to the darkness—landed on the mirror standing next to the dining table. She froze for a moment.

Suddenly, an indescribable warmth flooded her heart. The palpitations and despair in her chest vanished in an instant, and even the throbbing in her temples ceased. She became entirely calm.

It was a full-length dressing mirror, about the height of a person. The glass was oval and smooth as water, while the frame was made of an unknown rosewood carved with ancient, intricate patterns. It looked vintage, mysterious, and exceptionally beautiful.

Shu Mengli was surprised by how quickly her negative emotions had faded, but her mind soon turned to the mirror’s origin. This was a dressing mirror she had bought while shopping last week. She had been so captivated by it at first sight that she brought it home immediately.

However, after placing it in the living room, she hadn’t had time to properly set it up before her company became swamped. She had spent a miserable week working overtime and hadn’t even returned home.

It wasn’t until today, having finally returned to her little nest and being woken by a nightmare, that she noticed this beautiful carved mirror again. For a moment, she found it strange—how did her headache vanish the moment she looked at it?

It’s probably just a coincidence, she thought with a smile and a shake of her head. It’s not like a mirror can actually cure illnesses.

She decided to just have her water and go back to sleep; she still had to work tomorrow.

Since the water was on the dining table, Shu Mengli inevitably had to walk close to the mirror. She stepped lightly across the fluffy carpet, leaving a trail of small footprints that stretched toward the table directly in front of the mirror.

As she drew closer, she couldn’t help but praise her own taste once more. From every angle, the craftsmanship of the carvings was flawless.

But just as Shu Mengli was admiring the mirror’s beauty in the moonlight, something strange happened.

Because she was walking, her pace and angle were constantly shifting. Suddenly, the bright moonlight shining through the window reflected off the mirror’s surface and pierced directly into her eyes, forcing them shut.

Instinctively, Shu Mengli tilted her head to the side to avoid the glare.

This should have been a normal protective movement, but on this chaotic night, it became anything but normal. Because she had her head turned and her eyes squinted, her vision was obstructed. Her forward momentum became clumsy, and as she lifted her right foot, it stayed lower than usual, accidentally hooking onto her left ankle.

This was a disaster.

Almost the moment she tripped herself, Shu Mengli lost her balance. She pitched forward, unable to control her fall.

Oh no!

Her heart skipped a beat as she instinctively gasped, but she could do nothing to stop herself from falling. If it were just a normal fall, she wouldn’t be so afraid. But as she hung in mid-air, her bright eyes filled with terror as she saw the mirror right in front of her.

She was going to crash into the mirror!

Damn it!

If I hit it and the glass shatters and scars my face, I won’t want to live anymore!

Shu Mengli wailed internally, her fear finally making her fully alert. Fortunately, the human body has powerful protective mechanisms. Her body reacted faster than her thoughts; she raised her right hand to brace herself and prevent the impending injury.

In that critical split second, a tiny bit of relief actually rose within her fear-stricken heart.

Thank goodness… at least my hand is out. My face won’t be ruined.

Though a thousand thoughts raced through her mind, the fall happened in less than a second. Her outstretched right hand pressed against the surface of the mirror.

In that instant, the sensation beneath her palm was moist and cool, like touching high-quality jade or the surface of a frozen lake in the depths of winter. Shu Mengli breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that at the very least, she wouldn’t be disfigured.

However, in the very next second, before she could even finish exhaling, the breath caught in her throat.

She stared at the unbelievable scene before her, her eyes widening as her relief was replaced by utter shock. Right before her eyes, her right hand—which was pressed against the cool mirror—behaved as if it had touched the surface of a real lake. Points of ripples emanated from where she touched.

As if touching water, or as if touching thin air, her hand passed right through the mirror! In the blink of an eye, the mirror swallowed her entire palm!

Holy.

Shu Mengli stared at this shocking sight, stunned. A second later, she reacted.

Holy crap! I must still be dreaming!

To her despair, she was certain she was wide awake. Looking at the eerie sight of her hand disappearing into a mirror in the middle of the night, her shock was mixed with a terror so great it felt like her heart would burst.

She couldn’t stop her momentum. She could only scream instinctively.

“WHAT THE!”

Then, face-forward and helpless, she tumbled entirely into the mirror. In the final second before she fell, she had one tragic thought: Well, there goes my perfect attendance bonus for the month.

A long time passed after Shu Mengli had completely fallen through.

The ripples on the mirror’s surface gradually settled, returning it to the appearance of an ordinary mirror. It stood quietly by the table, as beautiful and mysterious as ever. The room returned to its silent, still state.

It was as if no one had ever been there, and as if no one had ever fallen into a mirror.

“BAM!” “Ah!” “It hurts, it hurts!”

With a loud thud, Shu Mengli landed flat on her face. It was a complete, intimate contact with the ground that left her curled up and yelping in pain.

But she quickly remembered the bizarre scene of being swallowed by the mirror in her living room. She immediately swallowed her cries of pain and fell silent. Like a cat with its fur standing on end, she scrambled up from the ground and looked around her surroundings with alert, fearful eyes.

However, the more she looked, the more her heart hammered in her chest.

Directly in front of where she had fallen stood a perfectly round “curtain” of water. The water curtain was about two meters in diameter; its surface was as clear as a lake, shimmering with a moonlight glow that felt strangely gentle.

But as Shu Mengli’s gaze shifted past the water curtain to her surroundings, her breathing hitched.

Everywhere else she looked was darkness a thick, boundless ink that looked as if a monster might open its mouth and swallow her at any second. Aside from the glowing curtain, this eerie mirror world was entirely pitch black.

What on earth is this place?!

Shu Mengli stood up, rubbing her numb arm. she looked back instinctively, but the place she had just fallen from was already shrouded in darkness. Nothing was visible. There was no path back, and no obvious way out.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to remain calm. Even though she didn’t know the origin of that strange mirror or why it had dragged her here, she couldn’t just sit and wait for death.

Looking into the silent darkness, she tried to speak. At first, her voice was very small, her vocal cords trembling with tension.

“Hello? Is… is anyone there?”

As she continued to test the air, her voice grew louder.

“Is anyone there?”

Until finally, she shouted: “HEY! ANYONE THERE?!”

No one answered. Even the echoes of her shouts were swallowed by the darkness, returning no sound at all. This result was expected, and she wasn’t disappointed. It seemed she was the only one in this weird world for now.

That being the case, she had to focus her attention on the only feature in this space: the water curtain. As for the boundless darkness surrounding it, she wouldn’t be reckless enough to wander into it without reason.

Out of caution, she hadn’t explored the mysterious curtain at first, but now it seemed to be her only clue for escaping.

Thinking this through, Shu Mengli walked forward on her bare feet across the dark ground. She examined the water curtain carefully and found no abnormalities before reaching out to touch it.

Her fingertips met a sensation like cool, soft jade. It reminded her of the feeling she had when she first touched the mirror in her house. But this time, her palm pressed firmly against the curtain; it didn’t ripple or let her pass through. It felt like a solid mirror.

She pushed harder, but the water curtain didn’t react. It remained quiet and still, glowing with that gentle moonlight.

Shu Mengli withdrew her hand, her brow furrowing. It seemed this water curtain wouldn’t let her travel back. So, what was its purpose?

As she was thinking, another change occurred.

Just as her palm left the surface, the water curtain in front of her began to move. The spot she had just touched began to ripple, like a pebble dropped into a lake, sending out circle after circle of waves.

Startled, Shu Mengli backed away to a safe distance.

The water curtain didn’t turn into anything terrifying. Instead, the ripples smoothed out and slowly revealed an image. The quality was so clear that Shu Mengli felt like she was looking at an ultra-high-definition photograph.

The scene was simple. In the center was a closed wooden door. On either side of the door were wooden shelves stacked with various miscellaneous items.

A storage room?

Shu Mengli was confused. she didn’t understand the significance of this image. However, she raised her hand to gauge the perspective the angle was strange. It was as if she were standing on one of the shelves in that storage room, looking down.

Creak.

Suddenly, a crisp sound rang out in the dark space, breaking the long-standing silence.

Startled, Shu Mengli quickly pulled her hand back and stared at the water curtain in shock. As the sound echoed, the previously still image began to change.

Under Shu Mengli’s tense gaze, the door in the image slowly opened.

The sight behind the door caught her completely off guard, leaving her frozen in place.