In September 1999, shortly after a certain university in Shanxi Province opened its doors for the new semester, the freshmen began to discuss a peculiar school rule, which stated: "Playing the 'mirror combing hair game' in the dormitory at night is strictly prohibited. Otherwise, you will bear the consequences at your own risk!" This school rule was particularly emphasized by the school leaders when they announced it at the school-wide freshman assembly. The explanation given at the time was that the game could easily lead people to become obsessed, and a girl once committed suicide by jumping out of the dormitory window after playing this game.
In the eyes of the freshmen, this school rule is absolutely unique in China and abroad and will never be seen again in history.
"Tsk! What a bullshit school rule! Isn't it just a game? Why make such a big deal about it? It sounds scary. I think some people are just bored and made up these things to scare people. Don't they just want students to go to bed on time?" Taotao was very disdainful.
Taotao is one of the new students. She comes from a mountain village in southern Fujian. She grew up in a single-parent family. She is stubborn and independent, like a boy. Taotao has heard many stories about ghosts since she was a child. She has walked on mountain roads and passed cemeteries at night many times. She has the courage and bravery to fear nothing.
Out of curiosity, Taotao soon learned about the general situation from his seniors and teachers: more than ten years ago, a game became popular on campus: as long as you stand in front of the dormitory window and comb your hair in front of the mirror after midnight, three times forward, three times backward, three times left, and three times right, you can see what your future partner will look like, and even what you will look like after death. At that time, many people were playing this game. However, one time, after playing this game, a girl actually opened the window, jumped down incredibly, and fell to her death. Since then, few people have played this game, and the school has begun to set school rules to ban the game. It is said that when someone secretly played this game later, they would always see a girl standing behind them in the mirror, and that girl was the girl who fell to her death before. As a result, some people were scared and transferred to other schools one after another. Over time, no one dared to play this game anymore.
Taotao couldn’t be sure how many of these legends were true and how many were false, because she knew that many things would be distorted when passed around, but the school emphasized that this school rule was true, “Isn’t this too exaggerated?” Taotao was unconvinced and refused to believe, “Who am I? Am I afraid of this? Maybe I’ll give it a try someday!” Taotao said during a dormitory conversation.
"Taotao, do you really want to play this game?" Taotao's roommate asked worriedly, "I heard that whoever plays this game will be haunted by the female ghost. Forget it, it's better to have less trouble than more." Other roommates in the dormitory also advised Taotao not to take this risk and not to violate this school rule. But Taotao had studied dialectical materialism after all, so how could he believe in these things? How could he believe that there are ghosts and gods in this world?
Finally, one day, just after midnight, when everyone else in the dormitory was asleep, Taotao couldn't hold it in any longer. She quietly got up, tiptoed to the window, and took out a mirror and a comb. She was eager to see what would happen. Maybe she could expose these scams and prove that the school rule was absurd. So she combed her hair in front of the mirror. She combed the hair in front first, once, twice, and three times, then combed the hair in the back, once, twice, and three times, and then the left and right sides. Just when Taotao finished the last comb, a strange mirror image appeared. Taotao clearly saw a girl standing behind her through the mirror! The girl was wearing a white dress, and her whole face was covered by black hair. Taotao thought she was dazzled. She rubbed her eyes and looked again, but the girl was gone. Taotao turned around in a hurry, but there was nothing there? "Huh? What's going on? It's strange." Taotao was going to try again, but then she thought, there will be plenty of opportunities in the future, so she should see what will happen and what will happen first.
Taotao did not wake up the others. She returned to her bed in confusion, took off her coat, and got into bed. In a daze, Taotao saw the girl in white again, but the difference was that the girl did not cover her face with her hair, and she was very sweet, with a kind face. She nodded gently at Taotao and asked Taotao: "Do you know me?" Taotao shook her head vigorously, and the girl turned around, sighed, and disappeared again. Taotao also woke up because of shaking her head vigorously. It turned out to be a dream! Taotao felt very strange, and he couldn't figure it out no matter how hard he thought.
The next day, Taotao didn't tell anyone what he saw and dreamed last night, and went to class as if nothing had happened. However, Taotao felt a little uneasy throughout the day, but he didn't notice anything different. He ate his meals as usual, and didn't feel itchy, painful or uncomfortable.
For several days, Taotao found that nothing happened to her and she thought that what happened that night might have been an illusion.
A month passed in a flash, and Taotao suddenly had another dream. In the dream, there was a dormitory. The furnishings and layout of this dormitory were similar to his own dormitory, but it looked a little older. There was a girl in white standing in front of the window, combing her hair in front of the mirror, one, two, three times… Hey? Isn't this the game of combing hair in front of the mirror that he played before? Why is this girl playing it too? Taotao approached curiously, wanting to see what the girl looked like. Suddenly, another girl in purple rushed out from behind and pushed the girl in white out of the window. The girl in white immediately fell down with a "ah". Taotao was shocked and looked back at the girl in purple. She looked so familiar, as if it was Xie E, the teaching assistant in his class, but she was much younger than Xie E. Taotao woke up all of a sudden and felt that this was too bizarre and unbelievable.
From that day on, Taotao paid special attention to Teacher Xie E. During a break, everyone gathered around Teacher Xie to chat. Taotao mentioned a few words about the game of combing hair in the mirror. Teacher Xie's face flashed with fear, but it disappeared quickly. Teacher Xie said that she had heard of the story, but she didn't know the details, so she asked everyone not to think too much about it.
On the Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone had an evening dinner together. Everyone in the dormitory drank some wine and had fun until very late. They all went to bed one after another. Taotao also felt dizzy from drinking, so she thought of going downstairs for a walk, to relax and enjoy the moon.
Taotao came downstairs unknowingly and strolled in the yard. Suddenly, she saw a person in white lying in the flower bed not far away, motionless. Taotao didn't know what had happened, so she ran over quickly. Under the moonlight, she saw that the person was covered in blood, with her head tilted to one side. It was a woman. Looking at the face, it was clearly the woman in white. Taotao was horrified and at a loss as to what to do, the corpse actually floated up: "I died so tragically, I died so unjustly…" The corpse slowly floated away and disappeared after a while.
Taotao stood there blankly, frightened to death. She originally didn't believe in ghosts and gods, but this time she had to believe in them.
What to do? What to do? What to do? Tao Tao stumbled back to the dormitory. She wanted to tell her roommates, but she didn't know where to start. Besides, everyone was so drunk that night that they slept so soundly. She didn't have the heart to wake them up. She decided to bear it alone. She had never done anything wrong and had no grudges against her. How could she harm me? But what did those repeated "I died so tragically, I died so unjustly" mean? Was she really murdered? Was she really wronged? And it was Teacher Xie who murdered her? Oh, let's not think about these things for now, but Tao Tao suddenly had an idea.
On this day, Taotao wore a white dress and dressed like that girl. She appeared in Teacher Xie's class and found a seat in the corner and sat down.
Teacher Xie was giving a lecture at the podium. Taotao discovered that when Teacher Xie accidentally saw her, she was very surprised at first, and then glanced at her from time to time. Her lectures were not as fluent as before, and she often got stuck. Especially when their eyes met, there was a bit of fear in Teacher Xie's eyes. At this time, Taotao had guessed that it was almost certain.
About a week later, Taotao inexplicably dreamed of the girl in white again. She heard the girl in white holding her hand and saying, "Taotao, you are a good person. Good people will be rewarded. Please help me. I have waited for so many years and finally waited for a female warrior like you. Only you can help me. I thought you would run away like those people before, but you didn't. I died in this school, so I can't leave here. If you leave too, I don't know how many years I have to wait before I can get justice." Taotao felt sorry for her and agreed.
The girl in white told Taotao that her surname was Yuan and her name was Zuiting. She and Xie E were roommates in 1987 and they were good friends. They were almost inseparable. Later, a male counselor (equivalent to an intern teacher) came to their department. His surname was Hou and his name was Hui. He was only a few years older than them. He was sunny, handsome, knowledgeable, and humorous. Zuiting quickly fell in love with this counselor, and he also fell in love with Zuiting. Because Xie E was Zuiting's good friend, Zuiting often told Xie E about her worries. Soon, Zuiting and Hou secretly fell in love, which was a taboo at the time because the school did not allow teacher-student relationships. No one knew who was so wicked that he reported the matter to the principal. The principal found Hou Hui and asked him to make a choice, either resign or break up with Zuiting. During that time, Zuiting was particularly depressed, painful, and helpless. She told Xie E all her worries.
At this time, Xie E suggested to Zuiting that she play the game of combing hair in the mirror, saying that if the person in the mirror is Director Hou who dreamed of himself as a ghost , then Zuiting can pretend to agree to break up, and there is no need to worry about the other party changing his mind in the future; if the person who appears is not Director Hou, then it doesn't matter if they really break up. Zuiting couldn't think of a better way, so after hearing what Xie E said, she had to agree to give it a try.
Late that night, when the clock pointed to midnight, Zuiting, accompanied by Xie E, stood in front of the window and started the game in front of the mirror. She combed her hair one stroke at a time, feeling extremely nervous, and the more she combed, the more nervous she became. When she finished the last stroke, her heart was about to jump out. How she longed for her Mr. Right to be Director Hou, but she was afraid that man was not Director Hou. She stared at the mirror intently, but before she could see the figure in the mirror clearly, she suddenly felt a huge force pushing her out of the window. Before she could understand what was going on, just one or two seconds later, she knew nothing.
When Zuiting woke up, she found that she was held by two tall and thin strange men, one with a black face and the other with a white face. Zuiting began to struggle desperately: "Who are you? Let me go! Let me go!" The two men stood still, with their chests puffed out and their heads raised. The one with the black face said loudly like a primary school student reciting a text: "My name is Hei Wuchang!" Then the other one with the white face also recited a text: "My name is Bai Wuchang!" Then the two recited the text in unison: "We are ordered by the King of Hell to take you to the underworld!" When Zuiting heard that they were going to the underworld, she was unwilling to do so. She shouted loudly, "I won't go! I won't go!…" However, the two men were extremely strong. They carried her and ran. Zuiting felt like she was flying on the ground. She didn't know how long it had been before they suddenly stopped. Zuiting opened her eyes and saw a stone arch bridge with an earthen platform at the head of the bridge. On the earthen platform sat an old woman with a kind face, who didn't look like a bad person.
The old woman stood up, looked at Zuiting, sighed, then opened the lid of a big pot, took out a bowl of something that looked like soup, brought it to Zuiting, and said softly: "Girl, this is Mengpo soup, drink it, and you will forget all the love, hatred, and grudges after drinking it."
"No! I won't drink! I want to go back! I want to go to school! I want to find the person who hurt me!"
"Girl, the way past here is the underworld. If you were a good person in your life, the King of Hell will sentence you to heaven. If you are guilty, the King of Hell will sentence you to a level of hell according to the level of your crime. Just leave it to fate. If you want to go back, you can't go back to the human world. If you don't drink this bowl of soup, you will have no place to belong. Without a place to belong, you will become a wandering ghost, which is even more miserable and pitiful!"
"Mother-in-law, please let me go back. I was wrongly accused!" Zuiting told everything about how she fell in love with Hou Hui, how she was forced to play the game of looking in the mirror and combing her hair, and how she was inexplicably pushed downstairs.
The mother-in-law was in a dilemma: "The underworld cannot control the affairs of the living world." The two ghosts were also in a dilemma: "We won't be able to explain when we go back."
Zuiting fell to her knees at her mother-in-law's feet: "Please, mother-in-law, please, the two Lords of the Impermanence, let me go back. As long as you can find the murderer who killed me, I am willing to become a wandering ghost."
"Why bother? What's past is past. You have a clear conscience. It would be better to be reborn as a good one in the next life, isn't it?" The mother-in-law and the two ghosts were still persuading her.
"No! I won't be who I am now in my next life. How can I talk about the next life if I haven't avenged my grudge in this life? Just let me be a wandering ghost. Otherwise, I won't give up!"
Seeing Zuiting was so determined, the mother-in-law and the two Wuchang had to go aside to discuss the matter.
After a long time, they finally finished discussing. The mother-in-law came over and said to Zuiting, "Well, girl, don't blame me. You can be a wandering ghost. When you fulfill your wish, the Black and White Impermanence will come to find you. I will explain to the King of Hell, but I have to remind you that your wish may not be fulfilled."
…
After Zuiting said this to Taotao, she bowed deeply to Taotao and disappeared.
When Taotao woke up, he found that the dream was very long.
It was a dark night, almost eleven o'clock, and Xie E's office was bright. Xie E sat alone at her desk preparing for class. She was a little absent-minded. She thought of Tao Tao: What's wrong with Tao Tao recently? Why is she always wearing a white dress? Why does she look more and more like the damn Zuiting ten years ago? Especially that look, why is it so weird? Oh! Suddenly, she heard a "Hey" from outside. "Who?" Xie E became alert and looked out the window. It was pitch black outside. She pricked up her ears and listened carefully, but she didn't hear anything. Maybe the second "Hey" was her own echo. Xie E lowered her head and continued to prepare for class. Suddenly, she heard the door "squeak". She looked up at the door and saw that it was open a crack, but no one came in. "Damn wind!" She walked over gently, closed the door, and returned to her seat, but the door "squeaked" again and opened a crack again, but there was still no one. Huh? What's going on? She closed the door and went back to her seat, but the door creaked open again. "Damn it!" Xie E was a little scared: "Who is it? Don't scare me!" But there was no answer? Xie E looked around vigilantly. Suddenly, a woman with dishevelled hair slowly floated past the window, accompanied by a gloomy, slow voice: "I am Zui Ting, I am back, I am Zui Ting, I am back." The voice uttered word by word, and Xie E heard it clearly. "Ghost, ghost, ghost", Xie E was so scared that her whole body trembled. After a long time, there was finally no abnormality outside. Xie E hurriedly packed up the textbooks, turned off the fluorescent lights, and listened quietly by the door for a while. After confirming that the female ghost had gone far away, she quickly opened the door and ran to the avenue…
The cold wind was howling, the shadows of the trees were swaying, and the street lights were flickering. Xie E ran desperately, just thinking about escaping quickly. When she ran past the experimental building, suddenly, a white figure flashed out from the darkness and blocked her way. Xie E stopped with a cry of "Ah", and almost bumped into it. The person had her hair draped over her face, and it was the female ghost that had just passed by the window! "You, you, you…?" Xie E was so frightened that she couldn't speak. She felt the female ghost staring at her grimly, and the air was frozen like death. "E-zi, I-am-Zui-Ting, I-am-back–" The female ghost was still gloomy and spitting out words one by one. Xie E's legs were weak: "You are Zui-Zui-Zui…Zui-Ting?" "Yes, you-still-remember-me?" Xie E raised her legs and wanted to run, but how could she run? She fell to the ground with a "crack". Just as she was about to struggle up, the female ghost flashed in front of her eyes and shouted "Ang, Ang, Ang" three times: "Xie E, evil will be punished, you must pay back what you owe me, ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha…" The horrible laughter echoed in the night sky for a long time.
Xie E knelt down with a plop: "Zui Ting, I was wrong. I shouldn't have snatched Hou Hui from you, shouldn't have informed on the principal, shouldn't have tricked you into playing that game, shouldn't have pushed you down the stairs, shouldn't have told people that you were upset because of a breakup, that it was my selfishness, my fault, that I was possessed by the devil, that I harmed you, that I deserve to die, please forgive me, please forgive me…"
Taotao went to the police station to report the case, and she handed a tape with many "inappropriate" things on it to the police.
Under ideological and mental pressure, Xie E also took the initiative to surrender to the public security department and confessed to her murder.
Suicide turned into homicide, and a murder case that had been unsolved for ten years was finally solved.
Zuiting appeared in Taotao's dream again: "Thank you for dreaming that I became a ghost , Taotao, you have done so much for me, thank you so much, good people will be rewarded, now I have to go where I should go, and I want to tell you that the game is a lie and harmful–"
The school leaders were relieved to hear the news that the case had been solved. After repeated consideration, they finally decided to cancel that important school rule. When students comb their hair in the mirror, they would only be able to see themselves, but would no longer see their partner or the appearance of their dead.
(Note: "Yuan Zuiting" is a homophone for "injustice stopping", "Xie E" is a homophone for "evil", and "Hou Hui" is a homophone for "regret")