Transmigrating Behind the Mirror to Become Her Guardian Lady - Chapter 22.1

Jiang Weilu was smart. Even though her heart was panicking, she knew that emotion was useless right now and would only cloud her judgment. She gritted her teeth, forced herself to stand, and worked her brain to its limit.

She had to find the mirror. She must find the mirror!

Quickly dressing, she took a deep breath and pushed open the bathroom door. She immediately noticed something abnormal. The bathroom door was currently shut tight, securely guarding what was inside. Ordinarily, this would be normal.

But! Jiang Weilu clearly remembered that before she went in, she hadn’t closed the door tightly because she was feeling restless about her Sister. Her beautiful “peach blossom” eyes narrowed, and a cold hum escaped her lips.

She knew it things don’t just vanish into thin air.

With a dark expression, she stepped out into the bedroom and paced steadily, observing carefully. The windows showed no signs of being opened, and neither did the door. That was truly strange did the person who came in walk through walls?

While that wasn’t impossible, a missing item in the Jiang household was never a coincidence. And the missing item just happened to be her most precious treasure the mirror that only Jiang Yuxi knew was important to her, yet had failed to steal before.

Jiang Weilu let out a cold laugh, her mind made up. She opened her bedroom door and walked straight out.

Thump, thump, thump! Thump, thump, thump! “Jiang Yuxi, open the door!”

Jiang Weilu’s voice held no warmth, and her knocking was so forceful it seemed she wanted to punch a hole through the door. Yet the person inside acted as if they hadn’t heard, only opening the door slowly after the violent knocking had continued for a long while.

Creak.

The bedroom door opened only a crack, revealing half of Jiang Yuxi’s extremely sour face. she said crossly, “What do you want!”

But Jiang Weilu had no patience for her. The moment the door opened a sliver, she slammed her palm against it to push it open and strode forcefully into Jiang Yuxi’s room. Her movements were so dominant and powerful that Jiang Yuxi couldn’t defend herself; she was pushed aside without suspense, watching helplessly as the uninvited guest entered.

Jiang Yuxi was about to explode with rage. “Jiang Weilu, what are you doing!”

However, the other girl ignored her entirely, walking straight into the room and searching through it as if no one else were there. Jiang Yuxi slammed the door shut and rushed over, incensed. “Jiang Weilu, what on earth do you think you’re doing!”

Blocked by the person rushing at her, Jiang Weilu finally withdrew her hands. For once, the virtuous smile she usually wore was gone; her gaze was sharp as she looked at Jiang Yuxi. Startled by the fierce look, Jiang Yuxi let go, her voice stuttering when she spoke again.

“What… what are you doing?”

Jiang Weilu’s beautiful eyes seemed to hold sharp blades, and her voice was cold as ice. “Jiang Yuxi, do you think I’m easy to bully?”

“What do you mean”

Slap!

A crisp, loud sound. Jiang Yuxi’s face was knocked sideways by a powerful slap. A bright red palm print instantly bloomed on her pale little face.

Jiang Yuxi was stunned. It wasn’t until the burning pain flared up that she reacted, followed by a surge of humiliation. She raised her head in fury and lunged at Jiang Weilu, looking ready to fight to the death.

“You’re freaking crazy!”

Slap!

Clean, decisive, and without hesitation. An even more powerful slap sent Jiang Yuxi sprawling to the floor. Jiang Weilu looked down at her, her eyes devoid of any warmth. For the first time, the elegant, noble eldest miss of a wealthy family swore.

“If you know I’m a freaking maniac, you still dare to provoke me?”

“Jiang Yuxi, you really are stupid, wicked, and beyond redemption.”

The wicked sister, knocked to the floor by the slap, couldn’t get up. She sat there covering her face, her head ringing and tears ready to fall. “You didn’t say a word after coming in, and then you suddenly hit me! How the hell was I supposed to know what you wanted!”

“You know exactly what I want. Where is my mirror?”

Her words were cut off by Jiang Weilu’s emotionless voice. Jiang Yuxi froze. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t know? Heh.” Jiang Weilu laughed contemptuously, her eyes narrowing.

Then she leaned down and grabbed Jiang Yuxi’s long hair. With a sudden surge of strength—the veins on the back of the child’s hand bulging—she hauled Jiang Yuxi up and dragged her along. Her hair was gripped violently and without mercy; Jiang Yuxi felt as if her scalp were being torn off.

She burst into tears of fright, scratching desperately at the back of Jiang Weilu’s hand and kicking her legs. “Jiang Weilu, you’re freaking crazy! What are you doing!”

But Jiang Weilu ignored her, never letting go as she silently dragged her to the bathroom. Then, with a flick of her wrist, she threw Jiang Yuxi onto the shower floor. She reached up to take down the showerhead, turned on the cold water, and aimed it precisely at the person on the floor.

Shhh!

The ice-cold water poured down mercilessly over Jiang Yuxi’s head and body. It was late March, just the beginning of spring, and the weather was still chilly. Being drenched in cold water like this was no better than being stabbed with knives.

“Ah!” Jiang Yuxi wailed, thrashing around on the floor but unable to escape.

Jiang Weilu watched her pathetic, screaming form with an expressionless face, her wrist swaying slightly as she moved wherever Jiang Yuxi crawled, the water followed.

“Are you awake now? Do you know where my mirror is?”

“You! Jiang Weilu, you just wait! I’m going to tell Mom and Dad how wicked you are and have them beat you to death!”

“Oh?” A mocking syllable escaped her lips.

Jiang Weilu raised her hand slightly and aimed the showerhead directly at Jiang Yuxi’s face. The cold water poured into her mouth without mercy; caught off guard, Jiang Yuxi swallowed a large gulp and was choked into silence.

Then she heard Jiang Weilu’s cold voice: “You said yourself that I’m a maniac. Do you think I’d be afraid?”

“Speak. Where exactly is my mirror?”

Now, Jiang Yuxi completely broke down. While blocking the water with her hands, she began to sob. “Wuh… I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you! Stop the water! I threw it in the trash can!”

Jiang Weilu wasn’t surprised by the confession. In the Jiang family, only Jiang Yuxi knew how much she cherished the mirror. The adults were too clever to think a mere mirror could be useful. Only a childish brat would be so eager to stomp on someone’s sore spot.

As for how she had entered her room so silently? Heh. Liu Yi had been dominant in the Little Jiang Residence for so many years; she didn’t believe for a second that her stepmother didn’t have a key to her room. Stealing it would have been child’s play for Jiang Yuxi.

Jiang Weilu arched an eyebrow, but didn’t stop. She continued to ask: “Which trash can?”

“The… the one at the main gate!”

“Why did you do it?”

“I…”

“The truth.”

“I just hate you!” Since her actions had been exposed, Jiang Yuxi completely gave up on pretenses. She fought to look at Jiang Weilu through the spray of cold water. “I wish you would die, die, die!”

“Very well.” Jiang Weilu coldly tossed the showerhead aside.

She stepped forward, her shoes splashing through the water on the floor. She leaned down to Jiang Yuxi’s ear and whispered softly:

“Jiang Yuxi, wouldn’t it be better to just stay alive?”

Having finished, she stood up and turned to leave without giving the other person a chance to think. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to deal with Jiang Yuxi, but she had something much more important to do!

After she left, Jiang Yuxi sat on the floor hugging herself, her face a mix of tears and water, her expression one of terror. Whether it was the look in Jiang Weilu’s eyes or the words she spoke, both were chillingly indifferent. Jiang Yuxi even felt that the other girl truly wanted to kill her right there.

She didn’t understand. She had only thrown away a useless, broken mirror! Jiang Weilu had caused her to be punished by the family and bedridden for a month, yet just for a mirror, she had beaten her like this?

What a psycho!

Jiang Weilu didn’t care what Jiang Yuxi thought of her, and she wasn’t finished with her yet. She just had a higher priority. After leaving Jiang Yuxi’s room, she began to run, charging to the main gate of the Little Jiang Residence in one breath.

To her despair, the servants of the Jiang household were far too diligent; the contents of the trash can had already been emptied into the truck that came to collect the garbage. It was empty!

A familiar dizziness hit her, and she felt so suffocated she could barely stand. But she knew she couldn’t faint now. She bit her tongue hard, the sharp pain clearing her brain and making it work instantly.

Fortunately, Jiang Weilu was a genius with a sharp mind. In that instant, she recalled something she had never paid attention to, yet vaguely remembered. In this villa district, the garbage truck came at exactly 8:00 PM every night. Given the size of the area, it took about an hour to finish the route which meant 9:00 PM.

She got home from school at 6:30 PM, finished her homework, and emerged from her shower at 8:30 PM. Her interrogation of Jiang Yuxi had taken about half an hour; it was now exactly 9:00 PM.

Perfect! The truck might not have gone far; there was still time!

As soon as the analysis appeared in her brain, Jiang Weilu’s legs moved impatiently, racing toward the back gate of the villa district.

Fate was both kind and unkind. Just as she reached the gate, the rear of the garbage truck was turning a corner outside. The child gritted her teeth, gathered her strength, and chased after the vehicle without hesitation.

However, even though she had been training with the old butler and exercised daily, she couldn’t be faster than a truck. She tried shouting, but it was impossible for a moving vehicle to hear her. Her throat felt as if it had been doused in spicy white liquor, burning with pain.

Then, making matters worse, she was in such a hurry that she failed to notice a rock on the road. She tripped. Her knees slammed into the hard ground, the tender skin scraped raw; blood bloomed instantly across a large area.

But Jiang Weilu didn’t even look down. She gritted her teeth and scrambled up, her eyes fixed on the truck that was moving further and further away.

No! This isn’t going to work.

Jiang Weilu took a deep breath, abandoned the meaningless pursuit, and forced herself to calm down. A map of the area around the villa district quickly formed in her mind, and a plan began to take shape. The truck’s final destination was fixed, but there wasn’t only one road to get there. She had other options.

Taking a deep breath, she watched the truck disappear, then turned decisively toward a completely different path. It was the optimal shortcut her powerful brain had quickly selected. She gritted her teeth and ran, staggering through the pain in her knees.

There’s time! There has to be time! As long as I catch it before the truck unloads or the garbage enters the incinerator!

It was exhausting—truly exhausting. The wind poured down her throat, her lungs wheezing like a broken bellows, her mouth full of the metallic taste of blood. But she didn’t dare stop. She would never give up.

Fortunately! She was lucky enough and smart enough.

The garbage truck had just arrived when Jiang Weilu caught up. The driver, climbing down from the cab, looked at the little girl in front of him in bewilderment. “What’s wrong?”

Jiang Weilu couldn’t even catch her breath, but she struggled to look up, her eyes burning with an intense light. “Please… please help me.”

Normally, there were rules against such things, and the driver wasn’t supposed to ignore them. But the child in front of him was crying so piteously, pleading again and again, saying the discarded item was a memento left by her mother. In the end, the driver and the supervisor both softened their hearts and agreed to let her search.

However, the driver looked at the heap of garbage in the truck with a worried gaze. “But there’s so much here, how can you possibly find it?”

Jiang Weilu shook her head, showing no sign of retreat. “It’s okay. I’ll find it.”

No disgust, no nausea, not even a frown. There was only anxiety and determination. She would find the mirror!

Under the deep moonlight, Jiang Weilu walked quickly over and began to search through the mess bit by bit. From a distance, the child’s figure looked small, lonely, and pathetic. The driver and supervisor looked at each other, sighed helplessly, and ultimately couldn’t bear it, joining in to help her search.

An hour passed. They found nothing. Two hours passed. Still nothing. Until finally long after the stars had gone to sleep they still hadn’t found it.

The driver and supervisor had given up and left long ago, but Jiang Weilu was still there, alone, refusing to quit. She was so tired she could barely lift her hands, yet she was still searching.

Suddenly! Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a corner of redwood beneath a broken wine bottle. For a second, she was so tense and happy she forgot to breathe. She hurried to push the bottle aside.

The familiar carved redwood came into view, the moist mirror surface reflecting the moonlight, silent and gentle. It was her little mirror!

At this moment, Jiang Weilu could finally no longer hold it back. She knelt, ignored the filth on the mirror, and immediately clutched it to her chest, her tears falling in a torrent.

“Sister, Sister!”

I’m sorry, it’s my fault. I was too careless. I almost lost you. I failed to protect you.

In the deep night, under the moonlight, the child sat alone in the lonely scrapyard, clutching the recovered mirror and crying from grief and lingering fear.

Shu Mengli might never know. In the very distant past on the other side of the mirror the year 2003 she could never truly reach someone had once run for her life. Someone had scraped her legs and ended up covered in wounds like a little maniac. All just to chase a mirror that didn’t even contain her at the time. All just for the possibility of seeing her again one day.

All just for her. She couldn’t be without her.

By the time Jiang Weilu dragged her exhausted body back to the Little Jiang Residence, it was late at night. The road was shrouded in dark shadows, with only a few night lights guarding the darkness; the usually lifeless mansion looked like a haunted house in comparison.

Fortunately, the New Year was long over, and Jiang Ming had recently been treating the house like a temporary palace, returning only once a month. Thus, no one cared that she was returning so late.

Click. She closed the bathroom door softly.

Clutching her little mirror, she walked under the showerhead. The cold water poured over her head, down her nose, and over her other tightly clenched fist.

She wasn’t strong enough. She wasn’t smart enough. She had to work harder and become stronger. Strong enough so that no one would ever dare touch her little mirror again!

The following evening.

As expected, how could the beaten Jiang Yuxi not complain to Liu Yi? So, when a servant came to invite Jiang Weilu to Liu Yi’s room, the child wasn’t surprised at all; she knew exactly what they wanted. Out of caution, she didn’t carry the mirror with her but hid it in a place in her room known only to her.