The Third Farewell

The first rule of the guard booth at the Chengnan Bus Terminal is: Don't look back at the mirror after twenty-two o'clock. If the person in the mirror laughs first - run away. Gu Lin was disobedient on his first night on the job. At twenty-two o'clock, the "self" in the mirror grinned first. The old security guard who was leading him reached out to grab the frame of the glasses and let the contents of the mirror sink in. There was only a pair of glasses left on the ground. Online loans pushed him hard, and forty-two resumes fell into the dust. He didn't dare to leave, so he could only continue working the night shift. He soon discovered that only he could read the seven printed rules. Lines of notes were squeezed under the paper: someone opened the door after knocking three times, but it was gone; someone ate a toffee and became a candy man; someone heard his name called from the loudspeaker and answered, and his name belonged to someone else. Each one died because of the same thing - unable to hold back, he reached out. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.