Atlas Studios

  Atlas Studios

  By the time Lu Jingtian’s mother got back at the hospital, it was almost evening.

  As the nurses were preoccupied with their shift change, the middle-aged lady hurried into the room; it was pitch-black inside.

  She hastily turned on the lights, and the moment the room was lit up, the form of a person huddling in the sofa’s corner caught her eye unexpectedly.

  “Tiantian, why are you sitting there?”


  Concerned, she called out to her daughter but did not receive a response in return.

  She walked over worriedly only to discover, with abrupt shock, that the young lady had squeezed into a corner and curled herself into a fetal position. There were hardly any signs of life as the latter’s hands hung lamely on her sides; her rounded back was so still that she did not seem to be breathing at all.

  Alarmed, she was about to ask her daughter regarding her behavior when her eyes glanced in the direction of the young woman’s hands to see the smashed cosmetics case on the floor. Her heart jumped and she could feel herself catching her breath. She picked up the case from the floor and saw that the mirror inside had cracked with broken pieces having fallen apart.

  The middle-aged woman realized what had happened there and then. Her daughter was probably desperate to find out what had happened to her face and then searched frantically for a mirror. However, when she finally saw her face in the mirror, she freaked out and this was why she had been devastated even up until then!

  The woman was heartbroken and she wanted to comfort her but, when she gently touched the latter’s shoulder, the young lady fiercely shook off her hand and started yelling and screaming as she shrank further into the corner. All the while, she looked crushed and despondent as if the world was ending.

  The woman could not bear the sight any longer and rushed to hug her daughter while sobbing. “Tiantian, don’t do this. Don’t scare me…… I’m afraid…… Don’t be frightened, alright? I’m here to protect you; I won’t let anyone harm you! Don’t scream anymore……”


  Alas, Lu Jingtian was unable to take in any of her comforting words. The young lady broke down and bawled her heart out as if she was using this opportunity to vent all the pain and exhaustion, which had accumulated inside her, over the past days and the overwhelming regret inside her.

  She lost it because she caught a glimpse of her face at that moment and knew that she had been utterly defeated.

  Fear, helplessness, loneliness, despair……

  All these emotions ran amok inside her head, so much so that she felt herself suffocating.

  The middle-aged lady tried to calm her down repeatedly but to no avail. The young woman could not stop wailing and, finally, spat some blood froth—she must have aggravated her vocal cords to the point of rupture.

  That frightened the older woman so much that she screamed for a doctor to come over in the end, whereas the missy’s screams of misery and fear echoed down the hallway for some time.

  A minute later, a doctor hurried over, and when he saw the young woman so frantic and out of control, he immediately jabbed her with a dose of tranquilizer.

  Lu Jingtian’s eyes rolled back and then she fainted.

  “What’s going on?!” interrogated the doctor. “Why did she suddenly become so agitated? She was fine earlier, wasn’t she?”


  The woman could only shake her head before voicing her guess. “I don’t know. I left the hospital for a while, and when I got back, it was already like this. She might’ve turned hysterical after seeing herself in the mirror!”


  Behind her, a nurse suddenly remembered an event: A seven- or eight-year-old girl bumped into the missy that afternoon, and then, due to the lass’s naivete, she called the missy a monster several times after being scared by her horrendous face.