Prologue: The Shattered Mirror's Last Glimmer
August 12, 1937. A cellar in an old house in the Shanghai French Concession. A woman in a qipao clutched a bloodstained shard of mirror. The cracks across it resembled a spiderweb, reflecting the face of a strange man as he carefully scraped verdigris from the mirror with a pair of tweezers. The woman's fingertip lightly touched the icy surface. Dark red liquid suddenly seeped from deep within the cracks, weaving a blood-red bond between two time periods.
Chapter 1: The Rusty Mirror Mystery (Modern Timeline)
October 17, 2025. Hangzhou, Jugu Zhai Restoration Workshop. As the smell of mold mixed with turpentine crept into his nostrils, Wang Xu was using his sleeve
