Transmigrating Behind the Mirror to Become Her Guardian Lady - Chapter 15

On the highway, which resembled a grey ribbon in her field of vision, black smoke rose a sight completely out of place with the winter season. The long, thin trail of black smoke acted like a tether, pulling one’s gaze downward to its source: a black sedan slumped on the road, nearly reduced to a heap of ruins. Striking, winding blood was splashed recklessly beside it, also pooling around a person whose body was half-stuck in the car door, their survival uncertain.

Shu Mengli’s voice sounded as surreal as if she were falling into a dream. Staring into the distance, she hadn’t yet recovered from her daze when she spoke instinctively.

“Luolu, I think… should we do something?”

Twenty minutes later.

Braving the winter wind and clutching her small mirror, Jiang Weilu found the highway, which was not far away. This was a decision made by both individuals—the one inside and the one outside the mirror.

Shu Mengli naturally cared about Jiang Weilu’s opinion; after all, she was currently stuck in the mirror and could go nowhere, completely powerless to change the situation. Thus, the executor of the task could only be Jiang Weilu. It would have been understandable if the child had refused, as it was still uncertain whether there was danger ahead.

However, Shu Mengli hadn’t expected Jiang Weilu to agree immediately the moment the words left her mouth. The speed was so fast that Shu Mengli felt she might not have even thought about it.

Jiang Weilu understood the doubt and worry in her sister’s eyes. She smiled to comfort her, raising her arm to show off her small muscles as she joked, “Don’t worry, Sister, I’m already very strong.”

Fortunately, when the girl and the mirror reached the highway, none of the illegal incidents Shu Mengli had imagined were taking place. The road was quiet—quiet to a terrifying degree. Perhaps because Pear Town was too remote, or because the New Year was approaching, there were no passing vehicles. Consequently, until Shu Mengli and the girl arrived, no one had discovered the black sedan that had been smashed almost into scrap metal.

The entire car lay overturned and crumpled by the roadside, quietly emitting black smoke. Around it were messy, chaotic tire tracks that stretched for a long distance, along with bright red blood as striking as sprayed paint.

At this moment, Shu Mengli finally saw clearly the person she had spotted from the summit whose survival was unknown. It was a young man. Half of his body was hanging out from the driver’s seat; he had likely been thrown out during the crash. Shards of broken window glass were scattered around him, but even more were embedded in his face, leaving his features a bloody mess. A broken steel pipe from somewhere in the car had pierced through his neck, protruding significantly and spraying blood all over the ground.

He was beyond saving.

The moment this scene entered her sight, Shu Mengli felt as if her heart were being squeezed and kneaded by a hand. she almost screamed out loud. “Luolu! Don’t look!”

Jiang Weilu turned her face away and retracted her gaze, obediently looking to the side as her sister requested. The cold wind blew, ruffling the stray hairs at her temples and brushing against her doll-like, exquisite profile a face that showed no emotional fluctuation. The girl’s gaze was calm; there was not a trace of fear within her. She was even calmer than Shu Mengli inside the mirror.

But clearly, she did not intend to expose this abnormal composure in front of her sister. Jiang Weilu considerately reached out to cover the small mirror, preventing Shu Mengli from seeing the tragic scene any further. Then, she skillfully faked a trembling voice.

“It… it’s okay, Sister. As long as Sister is here, I’m not afraid.”

With the water screen in front of her thoughtfully blocked by the child, Shu Mengli calmed down considerably once she could no longer see the accident site. She took a deep breath. “Luolu, maybe we should leave first. Let’s go back and have Grandpa Butler call…”

However, to her surprise, Jiang Weilu rejected the suggestion. The water screen was a deep black, only faintly revealing some light. Shu Mengli couldn’t see the child’s face and could only hear her trembling voice.

“But Sister, there seems to be someone else in the back seat.”

Perhaps Shu Mengli herself had forgotten by now, but Jiang Weilu always remembered. She remembered every word her sister had said; she remembered her sister’s expectations of her. She knew her sister hoped she wouldn’t be so withdrawn and cold—that she would become a person who smiled and was kind.

So, if she became that kind of person, would her sister be happy and never leave her again? If that were the case, Jiang Weilu naturally wouldn’t mind doing it. Even if she had to fake it, she would.

Hearing the child’s words, Shu Mengli bit her lip and spoke with a complicated gaze. “But Luolu, aren’t you afraid?”

Jiang Weilu shook her head and chuckled softly. “As long as Sister is here, I’m not afraid.”

In the end, concern for the person inside the car won out. Accompanied by Shu Mengli, Jiang Weilu walked cautiously to the side of the vehicle and saw the person in the overturned back seat. It was an old man with half-white hair, roughly the same age as Jiang Weilu’s grandfather.

A black seatbelt was caught at his waist, biting tightly into his flesh, leaving him hanging upside down in the car. It was unclear where he had been injured in the crash, but blood fell onto the car seat like fine sand in a timer drip, drip. His thick hair was disheveled, obscuring the old man’s face; one could only faintly see a dark mole between his eyebrows and a heroic facial outline.

Jiang Weilu had no interest in the appearance of this dying old man; she merely glanced at him before stepping forward to save him. Relying on her small stature, the girl nimbly climbed into the overturned car and reached out to check the old man’s breathing.

Fortunately, a faint, warm breath brushed against her finger. Although the old man was unconscious, he was still alive.

Jiang Weilu crouched down, using one hand as a cushion underneath while she struggled to unbuckle the seatbelt with the other. Without support, the old man fell rapidly, crashing onto Jiang Weilu’s arm and forcing a muffled groan from the child. However, Jiang Weilu had a stubborn streak; she gritted her teeth and refused to make a sound, using both hands to drag and pull the old man out.

She then supported the old man by his armpits and dragged him away from the car wreckage, which might still pose a danger. The striking blood wound a long trail across the snow-covered highway, slowly spreading into a pool and staining Jiang Weilu’s clothes.

Shu Mengli’s serious and calm voice came from the small mirror, doing her best to soothe Jiang Weilu. “Luolu, the next part depends on you too. I’ll teach you some first-aid knowledge. He is heavily injured; we need to stop the bleeding first…”

Jiang Weilu was already calm, and with her sister by her side, she didn’t bat an eye at the blood-soaked old man. She followed Shu Mengli’s instructions without a trembling hand as she performed first aid.

Fortunately, their efforts were effective. Just as Jiang Weilu finished the final step, the old man lying on the cold ground showed signs of improvement. He actually woke up, opening his eyes and immediately seeing Jiang Weilu in front of him.

Caught off guard by his gaze, Jiang Weilu was momentarily stunned. She quickly realized what to do and stood up. Time was of the essence; she needed to get back into the car to retrieve the phone the old man had dropped and call an ambulance.

Unexpectedly, just as Jiang Weilu stood up, her hand was suddenly grabbed by the old man, leaving a faint bloodstain on her wrist. The old man’s grip wasn’t actually that strong, yet at that moment, it was impossible to break free.

Jiang Weilu lowered her gaze and immediately met the old man’s eyes, which were filled with fear and panic. No one is unafraid of death. In this moment, in this deserted, snowy land, ten-year-old Jiang Weilu was the old man’s only lifeline. He was afraid of being abandoned.

The old man tried hard to open his mouth to say something, but because his injuries were too severe, his lips only moved silently without producing a single word. But Jiang Weilu understood his meaning.

The feeling of being relied upon for the first time in her life was unexpectedly not that easy; instead, it felt heavy. She half-knelt and held the old man’s hand, her gaze solemn. “Don’t be afraid. I won’t leave.”

Half an hour later.

The midwinter weather brought more wind and snow. Standing on the deserted highway, the snowflakes and cold wind lashed out mercilessly, seemingly determined to freeze one into an ice sculpture. Jiang Weilu had taken off her padded cotton jacket and given it to the old man, even using her small hands to rub his to help him warm up.

Inside the mirror space, Shu Mengli saw that the child’s teeth were chattering. She was extremely anxious but completely unable to help. For the first time, she felt a surge of resentment toward the water screen that had become a barrier.

“Luolu,” Shu Mengli’s voice was full of heartache. “Hold on a little longer. How about we go back to the car to escape the cold?”

Jiang Weilu shook her head. she deliberately glanced at the corpse by the car door; there was no fear in her heart. Yet her small voice sounded quite convincing, trembling and full of dread as she acted like a poor little thing in front of her sister.

“Sister, I’m scared.”

Shu Mengli was instantly pained for her. “Luolu, don’t be afraid, I’m here with you…”

Before she could finish, she was interrupted. Colorful vehicle lights suddenly flashed in the distance, illuminating the grey highway with a dazzling display. Following that, the urgent sound of an ambulance reached her ears. Rescue had finally arrived, howling through the wind and snow.

However, it also interrupted Jiang Weilu’s little plan of acting pitiful to seek comfort from her sister. But the child wasn’t disappointed. At worst, she would just act a bit spoiled when they got back, and her sister would feel sorry for her and comfort her again heehee.

Very quickly, the ambulance arrived at the crash site. Nurses and doctors rushed out, moving quickly to lift the old man onto the ambulance. But because the old man’s injuries were too severe and the weather was terrible, the medical staff didn’t have time to carefully question Jiang Weilu.

A nurse came over to ask for Jiang Weilu’s contact information, but the girl smiled and shook her head, declining. In the end, the nurse had no choice but to leave.

Lying on the stretcher, the old man struggled to raise his head, looking at Jiang Weilu standing in the wind and snow nearby, seemingly trying to engrave her appearance into his mind. The girl noticed his gaze; her peach-blossom eyes narrowed slightly as she returned a warm, kind smile.

But soon, the door was closed by the nurse who was racing against time, completely cutting off their line of sight. The ambulance lights faded into the distance, and the mountains returned to silence once more.

Jiang Weilu stood alone on the snowy highway, watching the rescued old man depart. She didn’t feel cold. Standing alone at the scene of a car accident, she didn’t feel afraid or lonely. She was even faintly happy because she knew her sister was still with her.

Jiang Weilu lowered her head, her eyes shimmering as she looked at the small mirror in her hand. She was impatient to share the unique feeling of saving a person for the first time. But more than that, she wanted a simple word of praise from that person. She had followed her sister’s expectations so obediently; did her sister like her a little more now?

Jiang Weilu’s tone carried a hidden, anxious joy. Like a golden retriever seeking credit from its master, she restrained her wagging tail but couldn’t suppress the bright light in her large eyes that screamed, “Please praise me!”

“Sister, did I do a great job this time…”

Toward the end, her high-spirited tone dropped unexpectedly, and she couldn’t finish her sentence. Jiang Weilu looked down at the mirror in her hand, the joy on her face slowly freezing. Even her sparkling, glowing eyes gradually dimmed, losing their luster.

The wind and snow howled past her, also brushing against the small mirror in her hand. It clearly reflected Jiang Weilu’s face.

There was no sign of that cute little pixie.