But at the upper part—about the height of the girls’ heads or slightly above the wall was no longer solid.
A square hole was carved into the wall, about twenty to thirty centimeters in length and width.
Inside the hole were some items.
Several plates, with something on them.
Behind the plates was an upright photo frame.
Although the hole was deep, the light from outside allowed everyone to vaguely see that the frame contained a photo—a black-and-white image of a young man facing the camera, smiling brightly.
From an aesthetic perspective, the young man was somewhat handsome.
But this was a funeral portrait, making it all the more eerie.
It had been hidden behind the mirror in the shared apartment, placed there who knows how long ago.
The two new tenants were stunned, now truly believing something was wrong with the house.
Xiao Gao and Xiao He, who had lived in the room for a long time and spent considerate time in the bathroom every day, were on the verge of collapse in fright.
Officer Zhao cleaned the wound on his palm, his expression serious: “Miss Sun, what is the meaning of this?”
Sun Yueyue remained silent, refusing to speak.
So he turned directly to Gu Zhisang.
“Miss Gu, from what you’re saying, the person who fell 10 days ago is related to… this photo in the bathroom mirror?”
Could it be… that this hole is where the “ghost” is?
Did this photo cause the death of that male influencer?
Not only Officer Zhao, but the other roommates also began to imagine the possibilities, growing even more frightened.
“It is indeed related:” Gu Zhisang said. “However, a photo alone can’t kill someone. Officer Zhao, you can break off two pieces of the mirror—one from the wall and one from the hole—and compare them.”
Officer Zhao: “???”
He did as instructed and found that the two mirror pieces were different!
The lower part of the mirror, attached to the wall, had an opaque reflective coating on the back.
However, the upper part of the mirror, covering the hole, had no reflective coating—it was just a transparent acrylic sheet with a metallic mirror finish on the outside.
This meant that the lower part of the mirror was a one-way mirror.
The upper part—the part directly facing the hollowed-out wall—was a two-way mirror.
From the outside, you couldn’t see inside.
But if a camera or even a person hid behind the two-way mirror, it would be like looking through glass, observing and spying on the girls in front of the mirror.
Officer Zhao subtly pressed his finger against the mirror and found that the mirror covering the hole had no gap or distance when touched.
Even a strong, upright man like him couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine, finding the funeral portrait increasingly eerie.
It was as if the young man in the portrait had been hiding in the hole in the wall, silently ‘watching’ everything outside.
Looking at Sun Yueyue’s guilty expression, it was clear that the landlord had something to do with this.
Suppressing his unease, Officer Zhao wore gloves, and took out the photo frame and other items from the hole, but found no camera.
Gu Zhisang continued: “This mirror was specially designed this way.”
“The upper and lower parts are different. Given the height of the female tenants, their eye level would be at the solid part of the mirror. Combined with the special lighting, it would be difficult to notice the hollow space above, let alone realize that something was ‘watching’ them every time they looked in the mirror.”
“I suspect that the person who died had entered this bathroom before his death and accidentally discovered the secret of this mirror. It was this discovery that led to his murder.”
Hearing this, Yuan Chufang, who was also terrified by the funeral portrait in the mirror, suddenly remembered something and exclaimed:
“Master Gu, I just remembered! Over half a month ago, the shower head in the outside bathroom broke. Xiao Wu contacted Sun Yueyue about it, and they agreed that she would send a repairman. So for those 2 days, Xiao Wu used our bathroom to shower while we were out.”
According to Yuan Chufang, having a male roommate was inconvenient, especially regarding bathroom use.
The apartment has two bathrooms. One in the master bedroom and one in the living room.
Since the master bedroom bathroom had a large vanity mirror and a bathtub, the girls preferred to use that one.
Xiao Wu, the male roommate, only used the bathroom outside except when someone needed to use it at night.
When the outside shower broke coincided with the time of Xiao Wu’s fall.
He had been using the master bedroom bathroom to shower during those two days, which explained why he was seen coming from the master bedroom direction in the surveillance footage.
Xiao Gao’s face turned pale as she spoke:
“After Brother Wu’s accident, we forgot about the repair. It wasn’t until the new tenants moved in that someone came to fix it.”
Gu Zhisang drew two more cards for divination based on the roommates’ statements.
This time, the inscriptions on the cards had slightly changed.
The truth of the matter was gradually coming to light.
“So, the male tenant who died borrowed the bathroom that day. If my deduction is correct, this male tenant was over 1.8 meters tall, and his eye level would be at the lower edge of the hole in the wall.” Gu Zhisang said.
“He discovered it.”
Perhaps while looking in the mirror or accidentally wiping the fog off the mirror, the male tenant noticed something unusual about the mirror and realized that the upper part was a two-way mirror.
He suspected that there was something behind the mirror.
Maybe even a camera.
The male tenant had a good relationship with the female roommates, so he called Sun Yueyue to question her about the mirror and whether something was behind it.
This questioning made Sun Yueyue worried.
She was afraid that the funeral portrait hidden behind the mirror would be exposed, so she used some method to silence the male tenant permanently.
This suggested something even more sinister behind the funeral portrait, something that made Sun Yueyue willing to kill to keep it hidden.
At the same time, the analysis results of the items in the small plates were sent.
“Officer Zhao, Miss Gu, the substance in these plates seems to be the ashes of burnt film, with some small fragments of unburned material still retaining some color.”
“I suspect these are the remains of some photos.”
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