Mirror Maze： The Infinite Corridor of the Missing Person on Mount Hua
Zhao Xunjin's name, now etched as a chilling obituary, is embedded in the precipitous cliffs of Mount Hua, like an eternal footnote. But during the days of his disappearance, his fate was like a mirror, reflecting countless possibilities, and in each reflection, pushing the truth into a deeper mist.
His last figure was captured in the blurry image of a mountain surveillance camera. A lonely figure, walking towards a fork in the road. One path led to Canglong Ridge, the other disappeared into the thick fog, as if leading to another dimension. He chose the latter, stepping into a labyrinth of time and memory.
Some say he met a hermit in the mountains, who lived in a cave made up of countless mirrors. Each mirror reflected a different moment of Mount Hua: sunrise, sunset, snowstorms, the flow of stars... Time lost its linearity in the mirrors, past, present, and future intertwined, forming an eternal cycle.
In the mirrors, Zhao Xunjin saw his childhood, his arguments with his parents, his aspirations for the future, and his final destination – the cold bottom of the cliff. He tried to break the mirrors, to escape this predetermined fate, but each struggle only pushed him deeper into the corridor.
Others believe that Zhao Xunjin's disappearance was a carefully planned hoax. He was tired of the hustle and bustle of the city and longed to find inner peace in the mountains. He deliberately avoided the crowds, hiding in an unknown corner where he could be free from all constraints and become a true hermit.
However, these are all just speculations. The truth, like the clouds on the peak of Mount Hua, sometimes gathers and sometimes dissipates, never fully captured.
Perhaps, Zhao Xunjin's disappearance is itself a mirror, reflecting our inner fears and desires. We fear getting lost, the unknown, and being controlled by fate. But at the same time, we long to escape, to be free, and to find our true selves in a world without constraints.
When Zhao Xunjin's body was found, he was holding a note tightly in his hand, on which was written a line: "I saw myself in the mirror, and I also saw infinite possibilities." Is this line his submission to fate, or a declaration of freedom?
Perhaps the answer doesn't matter. What matters is that Zhao Xunjin's fate, like an infinite loop of a labyrinth, echoes forever in our hearts. His story will become a part of Mount Hua, an eternal fable about loss, searching, and existence. In the infinite reflection of the mirror, is human existence like an illusion, eventually dissipating in the endless river of time?