Transmigrating Behind the Mirror to Become Her Guardian Lady - Chapter 4

“So, so that’s where the necklace was! I was wondering why I couldn’t find it anywhere. I’ve truly become muddle-headed.”

Liu Yi had survived in the Jiang household for many years; she was no simple character. Though she was momentarily embarrassed, she quickly realized that someone might be targeting her tonight. After collecting herself, she immediately formed a counter-strategy. Her look of bewilderment vanished, replaced by a smooth transition. She turned and stroked Jiang Weilu’s head with a look of maternal affection, her speed of changing faces truly breathtaking.

“I wrongly accused Lulu. I’m so sorry.”

“Wrongly accused? And that justifies doing this?”

Jiang Ming’s almond-shaped eyes narrowed, his tone icy.

However, Liu Yi had long since anticipated his reaction. This woman’s acting skills were truly formidable; in a single instant, her eyes brimmed with moisture. She stood up, looking at Jiang Ming as she wiped away a tear that had fallen down her cheek, appearing every bit the pitiable beauty.

“Blame me, it’s all my fault. Blame me for being only Lulu’s stepmother and not her biological mother. I know that if I do even the slightest thing wrong, it will be magnified and I’ll be accused of abusing her. But it’s precisely because I treat her as my own child that I did this!”

Liu Yi cried with deep sincerity. Tucked away in the mirror, Shu Mengli winced at the sheer audacity of the performance.

But the play wasn’t over yet. Liu Yi’s eyes were red from weeping, the perfect image of a delicate flower battered by rain.

“I thought she had done something wrong. I thought that since the child is still young, I absolutely couldn’t let her develop bad habits. That’s why I used a strict method to make her realize her mistake. If the child can improve, it doesn’t matter if everyone misunderstands me!”

“I admit that I didn’t mention this at the dinner table because I wanted to shield Lulu. But fortunately…”

Liu Yi wiped her tears and gave a gentle smile, looking back at Jiang Weilu. “Fortunately, our Lulu didn’t do it this time.”

Her wording was clever. By saying “this time,” she implied that whether the girl had done it in the past was still up for debate.

Jiang Weilu was, after all, only a child. Hearing her stepmother’s high-sounding words about doing it all for her sake, her face immediately darkened. She looked at the woman with pure loathing.

Jiang Ming’s gaze swept between the two in the bizarre atmosphere. Finally, he gave Liu Yi a deep look and nearly laughed out of sheer anger.

“Whenever I’m not home, you all cause this kind of mess. It’s even been leaked to the public. Where am I supposed to put my face? Do you want everyone to treat me as a joke? Do you?!”

His final, thunderous roar made Liu Yi tremble, and she dared not say another word.

Jiang Weilu, however, only felt a chill in her heart. In that moment, it felt as though all the blood in her body was flowing backward. Standing at the threshold of light and shadow in the storage room, her consciousness flickered. She looked at the father in the doorway, unable to tell if that was a man or merely a beast that went by the name “father.”

She had been locked in the storage room, nearly freezing to death and framed for theft, yet in this man’s mouth, it was merely “a joke” and “a mess.” At this moment, Jiang Weilu felt cold from the inside out, as if she had fallen into an ice cellar.

But just then, suddenly thump, thump, thump a tiny, microscopic sound rang out that only Jiang Weilu could hear. Following that, she felt the small mirror against her chest vibrate. The tremor made the tip of her heart feel numb; that numbness then transformed into a warm heat that surged through her entire chest. It filled her up, suddenly giving her the courage to face everything.

Jiang Weilu suddenly realized she was no longer alone.

She reached out secretly, touching the small mirror in her inner pocket through her clothes. The tears she had been forcing back began to fall again. Is the Guardian Lady comforting me? She really was a gentle elf—so gentle that one couldn’t help but crave her warmth.

Elsewhere, after his angry outburst, Jiang Ming’s face grew even colder. However, since Jiang Weilu was the victim in this matter, he didn’t intend to take his anger out on her.

“Old Chen, take the Eldest Young Miss back and look after her properly.”

The butler bowed respectfully. “Yes, Third Master.”

With that response, the storage room was soon left with only Jiang Ming at the door and the trembling Liu Yi inside.

Jiang Ming let out a cold snort. Raising his long legs, he walked toward Liu Yi—slowly, but with a crushing aura. Liu Yi was unable to withstand his pressure and was forced back step by step until she hit the shelf behind her. In the next second, Jiang Ming, who had closed the distance, squeezed her chin and forced her to look up.

Because he used too much force, Liu Yi felt a burning pain in her chin. She instinctively braced her hands behind her against the shelf, but accidentally pressed down on a splinter. The wood pierced her palm, and blood flowed immediately. Her face twisted in pain, yet she didn’t dare move.

Jiang Ming didn’t seem to notice—or perhaps he saw and didn’t care. He continued to stare at her with dangerous eyes.

“You think I don’t know what you’re trying to do? You think you’re smart? I don’t like people who don’t listen. You crossed the line.”

With that, he shoved her chin away as if he had touched something filthy and turned to leave.

Once the restraint was gone, Liu Yi collapsed to the floor as if all her strength had left her. She reached out and violently pulled the wood splinter from her palm, watching Jiang Ming’s cold, departing figure through gritted teeth.

Compared to that scene, the atmosphere on the other side was much better.

When Jiang Weilu followed the butler out of the stairwell, her steps were slightly light. Noticing the commotion coming from below, she turned her head to peek. However, the butler’s gentle voice interrupted her. Like a startled hamster, Jiang Weilu immediately snapped her head back.

She heard Uncle Chen say, “Eldest Young Miss, go back to your room and rest to warm up. I will have dinner sent to your room shortly.”

Jiang Weilu nodded silently, but then remembered something and waved her hand. “No need. I’m not hungry yet. Please send it up in half an hour instead.”

Uncle Chen bowed with a smile. “Very well.”

Under the butler’s watchful gaze, Jiang Weilu went upstairs to her room. The moment she pulled the door open, her steady pace quickened. She rushed inside, shut the door, and locked it with a click.

Then, she practically hopped and skipped toward the bed. She pulled her precious little mirror from her chest pocket and looked at it with glowing eyes. The child’s face overflowed with surprise; for the first time, her expression was joyful and vivid.

“Guardian Sister, you are truly amazing!”

Seeing the child’s radiant smile on the water curtain, Shu Mengli couldn’t help but laugh as well. She thought to herself: This is how a child should laugh.

“Quickly, get under the covers and warm up. Look at how frozen you are; be careful not to get sick.”

Shu Mengli sighed inwardly, struck by the cold-bloodedness of this wealthy family. The whole family had gathered in that storage room, yet everyone was only concerned with their own interests. Not a single person had asked, “Lulu, are you cold?”

Jiang Weilu touched her own cold face, but felt her heart filled with warmth. She rubbed her slightly aching eyes with the back of her hand, kicked off her shoes, and scrambled into the quilt. Holding the small mirror, she said, “Thank you, Guardian Lady. I’m not cold.”

Shu Mengli chuckled at her childish movements. “So, do you believe me now when I say I didn’t lie to you?”

At the mention of their earlier conversation, Jiang Weilu became embarrassed. She lowered her head apologetically, her voice dropping.

“I’m sorry, Guardian Lady. I lost my temper with you back then.”

Then, remembering something, her face turned pale and panic rose in her eyes. “Guardian Lady, you won’t hate me, will you? I… I… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it!”

Seeing the child was about to cry, Shu Mengli hurriedly began to coax her, her voice soft and infinitely gentle. “No, no. Lulu, don’t overthink it.”

“Really?” Jiang Weilu looked up in surprise. “Then, will the Guardian Lady always stay with me from now on?”

The question made Shu Mengli freeze. She pursed her lips, unsure of how to answer. She couldn’t give a promise because she didn’t even understand her own situation or if she could ever return home. But seeing the nervous expression on the water curtain, she couldn’t bear to reject her directly. Instead, she changed the subject.

“Don’t be so formal and keep calling me ‘Guardian Lady.’” This made Shu Mengli, a twenty-eight-year-old woman tricking a child, feel quite embarrassed.

Looking at Jiang Weilu with gentle eyes, she said, “How about this? I’ll call you Lulu from now on, okay?”

Jiang Weilu’s eyelids lowered, her eyes hidden by long lashes reflecting a hint of disappointment. She noticed the Guardian Lady hadn’t answered her question, but the child didn’t dare ask again for fear of making her unhappy. She could only bury the question in her heart.

But soon, she cheered up again because of the affectionate nickname. “Then what should I call the Guardian Lady?”

Shu Mengli looked at the child’s sparkling “puppy eyes” and thought of her grandmother’s equally cute golden retriever. She chuckled and said, “You can just call me.”

Shu Mengli was stunned. She frowned and tried again. “My name is [消音 – Silenced].”

The words she spoke seemed to be automatically muted; the moment they left her mouth, they vanished. No matter how she tried, she couldn’t say her name.

Why? Shu Mengli’s eyes filled with doubt. Why does the mirror space restrict me in this matter?

Since there wasn’t enough information to find an answer, she could only bury the doubt for now. The voice of the child in the water curtain pulled her attention back.

Seeing Shu Mengli open her mouth several times without sound and then freeze, Jiang Weilu became worried. “Guardian Lady, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“Ah!” Shu Mengli snapped out of it. “I’m fine. How about this… from now on, you just call me ‘Sister.’”

“Are you really okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“Mhm.” Jiang Weilu nodded obediently, then immediately became happy because of the intimate relationship she had established with the beautiful lady in the mirror. She called out sweetly, “Sister!”

She then remembered what had just happened and couldn’t help but praise Shu Mengli again. “Sister, you’re really incredible! It’s the first time I’ve ever seen my stepmother and father act like that.”

Shu Mengli shook her head. It wasn’t that she was incredible; it was just a few simple tricks. The most important part was analyzing Liu Yi’s psychology knowing she was used to acting with impunity and wouldn’t expect a counter-attack. Furthermore, she had calculated the weight wealthy families placed on their reputation.

The result was better than she had imagined; Jiang Ming valued his “face” even more than she had predicted. Thus, things had progressed smoothly.

Jiang Weilu sat on the bed, leaning against the soft pillows, carefully cupping the round mirror in her hands. She watched the person inside shake her head modestly.

The small mirror compressed the adult Shu Mengli to about ten centimeters in size, making her look miniature, cute, and beautiful. The girl couldn’t take her eyes off her.

In her ten years of never being cared for, ten years of loneliness, and ten years of facing schemes and cold violence, Jiang Weilu had never been as happy as she was today. It was because today, she had acquired a mirror. Inside lived a beautiful Guardian Sister who would stand up for her, coax her gently, and belong only to her.

This was the first person in the world to be so good to her. She had nothing, only a mirror. But that was enough.

Usually at home, Jiang Weilu was targeted by her stepmother, and at school, she was marginalized by her half-sister, Jiang Yuxi. She rarely communicated with others. In this moment, she hated her own clumsy tongue for not knowing how to praise her sister better. Finally, she could only say awkwardly:

“Anyway… anyway, Sister is just the best!”

What a good child, Shu Mengli thought. Loving to give praise and so polite. The moment the childish words reached her ears, she felt as if an arrow carrying flower branches had pierced her heart, blooming into a brilliant cluster.

But thinking back, she couldn’t help but chuckle. The events were actually quite simple. Lulu praised her so much only because it was the first time the child had ever fought back.

Let the clock turn back to an hour ago; this is what they did.