The Cursed Mirror
While working in the fields, Zhang Qiang and Li Xiu follow a strangely behaving weasel into an abandoned mansion in the mountains. Inside, Zhang Qiang accidentally steps on a small mound, uncovering a rosewood box containing an ancient bronze mirror. The mirror is eerie—its surface is covered in green rust and blood-red streaks, while its back bears a grotesque nuo (exorcism) mask design, exuding an unsettling aura. Despite warnings from villagers like Old Man Chen and Granny Zhang about the mansion’s curse and the mirror’s dark nature, Zhang Qiang takes it home, hoping to sell it for profit. From then on, a series of bizarre events unfold: midnight knocks with no one there, the weasel’s repeated eerie appearances, livestock dying mysteriously, and ghostly wails echoing from the village at night. Most horrifyingly, no matter where Zhang Qiang discards the mirror—whether in a river, the wilderness, or deep in the mountains—it always returns, sometimes even reappearing on village walls, surrounded by terrifying nuo mask paintings. Tormented, Zhang Qiang and Li Xiu return to the mansion at night to investigate. Shrouded in thick fog, the estate is even more sinister: scratching sounds come from the well, shadowy figures loom in the mist, and Zhang Qiang glimpses glowing eyes in the well’s depths before finding a bloody handprint on his face. Granny Zhang reveals that the mansion once belonged to a nuo dance performer, and his descendant, Erzhu, was driven mad by its dark history. Zhang Qiang stages a fake plan to melt the mirror, then lies in wait—only to catch the stalker: Erzhu, who had been pretending to be insane. Erzhu confesses that he fabricated the hauntings to protect his ancestral home and the mirror (a family heirloom meant as a dowry). The mirror’s “returns” were his doing—he secretly retrieved it and staged the creepy scenes. After Zhang Qiang apologizes sincerely, Erzhu takes the mirror away, and the disturbances finally cease.
