Chapter Text
Luo Binghe’s arms hurt, but that’s a given since it had been what took the brunt of the other kid’s abuse. Shielding his face from the nonstop onslaught of kicks and punches all while he was on the ground, face pushed into the dirt and small stones digging into his cheeks. He felt pathetic, but this was not a new occurrence, especially when the other kids never seemed to have anything better to do. It’s in this state that his mother had found him when he returned home with none of what he had planned to go out and collect, an armful of cuts and bruises in its stead instead.
Ever the loving soul that she is, his mother gently helped him wipe away the dirt from his cheeks and soothe the aches in both his heart and muscles as she hummed softly to him. At this moment, he felt content and safe. Despite everything, there was nowhere else he’d rather be. The world against him and his mother, that was enough.
After the treatment, Luo Binghe had voluntarily picked up one of the many baskets at the side of their house, laundry ready to be washed in the river. “So kind, my A-Luo.” There’s a fondness to hearing his name said so kindly that he couldn’t help but bask in the praise before heading out with a small wave back.
Did Luo Binghe mind the work of washing others’ laundry? Not at all. To help out, he saw that it was only right that he help wash the clothes as he had nothing better to do anyway. The river is cold when he dips his feet in and collects water from it, the clothes set aside at the bank of it. Something gleams under the water, its light catching his eyes as he is hauling the bucket full of water.
Intrigued, he hastily dumped the water to lighten his load and wadded closer to the hidden item. The feeling of cool metal is what he first comes in contact, a smooth palm sized metal. Breaching the surface of the running water, Luo Binghe admired the pocket mirror as the light catches on its surface once more. Belatedly, he looked around as if to look for its owner, as such a nice and taken care of pocket mirror couldn’t have been dropped in that long ago. No one is around, and Luo Binghe came to the decision to pocket the item and go about his chore, for now, waiting for anyone to approach the river with a searching gaze.
-----
In the end, no one came, and Luo Binghe now had a basket of clean clothes and a pocket still weighed down by a certain item. There had been no other person to approach the river at all. Could he keep it? It seemed that no one owned it anymore. So when the sun had begun to find it’s way down slowly to the horizon, Luo Binghe dug out the item and opened it.
There’s a mirror, or what should be one because it doesn’t reflect anything. A mirror that doesn’t reflect! Surely this is the reason that such an item was thrown away! But, before Binghe could snap the pocket mirror close, something else appears on the mirror. Three dots, each bobbing one after another in a constant wave at the center of the screen. Part of him froze in fear, was the item cursed??? He should throw it bac-
“-at the fuck? Uh, hello?” a voice comes from the device, foreign and heavy in an accent Luo Binghe had never heard before. Not to mention the easily said profanity and informal tone! Next, an image comes across the mirror and replaces the three bobbing dots. A magic mirror?
There’s a man depicted from the mirror, face rather scrawny and sharp, bruises under his eyes and mussed short hair. Way shorter than acceptable, was this man some kind of criminal? His body was hunched over slightly as he lay inclined against what looked like a pile of pillows. Face adorning some kind of glasses he had never seen before, it’s glass seemingly better quality than what the noble has been boasting about when they had bought their own. There’s a confused frown on the other’s face, perhaps confusion at this situation as well.
“You!” The voice from the item startled Luo Binghe from his observations, fingers fumbling to catch the item before it fell. The man didn’t seem to care about the mirror almost being dropped and had instead scowled harshly back. “Are you some kind of hacker, hah? The fuck kind of cosplay you wearing there, bud? Get the hell off my lapto-!”
The mirror snaps closed and shoved back into Binghe’s pocket hastily, his heart racing as he ran back home with the washed clothes in tow.
-----
It’s not until the next day that Luo Binghe tried to open the pocket mirror again, bracing for the onslaught of insults from the odd man again. But there isn’t any, and when he opens his eyes to catch a peek, he sees the man as expected, but now it seemed that he had fallen asleep. The view was slightly askew as if the man had fallen asleep with whatever device he is using open.
Without the scowl, the man looked kinder but also much more sickly. Brows no longer furrowed and face slack with sleep as he breathed in softly. The glasses had been left on, tilted, and squished against the man’s face as he burrows his head into the pillows with a smack of his lips. It’s almost adorable, honestly. The man is still wearing what could presumably be wearing something white, though hard to tell through the yellow surface of the copper mirror. There’s a constant beep from the background, though coming from something unseen.
Luo Binghe didn’t want to wake the man, but he wanted answers, and also that angle didn’t seem that comfortable to sleep in for so long… “uh,” it felt awkward to speak into an item, but he pushed on anyway. “Excuse me, sir? Hello?” What if the man couldn’t hear him?
A groan comes through and the man blinks awake, eyes glazed as he looks around before his gaze finally landed on Luo Binghe. Surprise comes first before annoyance, brows returning to the furrow Binghe had seen upon their first meeting. “You’re back! What do you want from me? I know my family is rich but targeting me won’t get you shit.” Something in that statement sounded pained…
“No! I don’t want to take anything!” flustered by the accusation, Luo Binghe sidled into the tree he had chosen to rest against just outside of the town. “I just wanted to know what you are!”
“What I am?” a look of consideration and confusion passed the man’s face, eyeing Binghe with doubt and skepticism. “What exactly do you mean by that?”
“You’re in a mirror! How can you be in a mirror?”
“In a mirror, the fuck? You’re not some kind of hacker? Do you think I’d really fall for the bullshit?” the man seems to be seething, but Luo Binghe could see something calculating in his eyes, sharp and waiting for something.
Squeaking, Luo Binghe shook his head. “I swear! I don’t know what a hacker is! I just found a mirror and opened it and you started to yell!”
The skepticism is still there, but now the man seemed to be piecing something together, “Have you ever heard of a computer?”
“Uhh, no?”
“A phone?”
“No??”
Airplane? Car? Technology? Coffee? Chocolate?
“How can you not know chocolate!” the man seemed to be dumbfounded by each denial given by Binghe. At first it had been confusing to be asked if he recognized these foreign words, but now it was also entertainment the more the man became agitated.
“I’ve heard of it! But only the richer families have ever really indulged in such things.”
There’s an exasperated sigh from the man as he slumped back into his pillows with a sigh. “Next thing you’re going to tell me is that cultivation exists!”
Binghe wanted to laugh at the incoming reaction, “actually, it does.”
“WHAT?!” It’s a wonder how this man had not yet spit out blood in his visible outrage.
-----
“Different worlds?” that sounded farfetched. But then again, cultivation was ever-growing. But to provide an easy way to talk with another from another world? Who would hrow away such an artifact?
“Yeah, if you really aren’t lying to me this entire time as a practical joke,” a sharp glare, “then this would mean that somehow you’ve connected to my laptop. Which sounds completely stupid when I say it outloud…”
The man- the man? “Ah, I still don’t know your name? This one’s name is Luo Binghe!”
It’s a sudden change n topic, and so the man blinked back in confusion until his brain caught up to what had been said. “I’m Shen Yuan, my world hasn’t had courtesy names in a long time.”
“Yuan-ge! It’s nice to meet you!”
A loud laugh comes from Shen Yuan, eyes wrinkling from the amusement. “Okay, sure. You can call me that. Nice to meet you too Binghe.”