Chapter 19: The Magical Store (Part 7)
Creak, creak...
With the opening of yet another long-neglected door, a cluster of dark, glistening eyes gazed over from the shadows.
In the dead of night, being stared at by so many abnormal gazes, anyone would feel a chill run down their spine. However, the two people who opened the door felt no significant fluctuation. Qi An maintained his startled expression, shrinking behind Zhang Zhaoqi, and caught sight of the latter's perfectly calm demeanor with his peripheral vision.
Behind this door stood seven students.
Their eyes were all vacant, with a grayish haze veiling their dark pupils. They stared blankly at the two intruders.
They seemed somewhat confused, but quickly waved at them in an uncoordinated manner.
"Zhang Zhaoqi and... Qi An." One of the girls forced out a smile—sweet and lovely, though her words came out clumsily. "Did you come looking for... the Angel too? If so... what a pity. You... arrived too late. The Angel has... already left."
As she spoke, the girl sniffed the air with a puzzled expression.
"Did you see the Angel?" Zhang Zhaoqi glanced at the empty rooftop,直视着女生空洞无神的眼睛。
Those two words seemed to hold some special power over the seven students. Under Qi An and Zhang Zhaoqi's gaze, each of them fell into memory as if possessed by something.
One by one, the corners of their mouths curved into identical, eerie smiles.
Seven people with vastly different appearances and builds, yet at this moment, they all wore the exact same expression—each one blooming with a perfectly holy smile.
"We saw him." The girl talking to Zhang Zhaoqi wore the same infatuated smile as Li Li had before. "He stood in mid-air, smiling so gently at us... We didn't dare go up and disturb him. We just gazed stupidly at him, watched him sing hymns from the Bible..."
"When I finally gathered my courage to wave at him, he had already spread his beautiful, wide wings and flown into the distance..."
At this point, the girl's voice paused. She pressed her pallid face close to Qi An, parting her crimson lips. "So strange. He really does smell sweet."
"Just like Li Li said—softly sweet, like the Angel's scent. I want it so badly... I want it so badly..." By the end, she frowned in confusion. "But I've never smelled it before."
Qi An's thick, dark lashes trembled. Clear, luminous moonlight fell upon his nearly porcelain-white face. Zhang Zhaoqi felt the former's frail frame shiver in the cool wind—or perhaps for some other reason—thus instinctively grabbed Qi An's fair, delicate hand.
This also blocked the girl's doll-like exquisite face from view.
Qi An's hand was cold, icy—possibly from his weak constitution, possibly because the night had grown chill.
Zhang Zhaoqi watched him raise his brows slightly in apparent surprise, the corners of his eyes crinkling faintly. Something dark flickered in those eyes.
Just then, a gust of chilling wind arose. This sudden gust was powerful, rustling falling leaves across the ground and blowing the door creaking open again, revealing a flight of stairs leading downstairs.
This seemed like either a clever hint or a warning.
The girl's large, black-and-white eyes shifted away from Qi An's face. She walked mechanically toward the door that was about to close again, seemed to pause in confusion, then walked out with stiff elegance. The other six classmates followed with the same expression, matching their pace exactly.
Qi An let Zhang Zhaoqi hold his hand, watching these people's retreating figures without a sound.
Suddenly, his pupils contracted slightly.
He noticed a bruise.
On the neck of the last boy who walked out.
Since it was a cold, windy night, all the other students wore long-sleeved clothing. Their collars and the girls' tied-up ponytails concealed their fair necks beneath the dark night, nearly hiding the clues that might expose the secret.
That mark Qi An recognized clearly—it was a bruise from a violent collision with some object.
He shifted his gaze from these young men and women to the empty rooftop.
Since so few people ever came here, there was nothing but a fence the school had specially installed for safety purposes. Everything within was visible at a glance.
"Where are you going?" Zhang Zhaoqi's eyes flickered, his cool voice carrying across the rooftop in the night breeze.
"We... received an invitation." The last boy didn't turn around, only answering haltingly. "So... we have to keep the appointment."
Another familiar term.
Zhang Zhaoqi furrowed his brows, exchanging a glance with Qi An. "Let's follow them."
His tone was as calm as always, yet his broad palm with its thin calluses continued to hold Qi An's hand, his demeanor natural, as if holding his own possession.
Zhang Zhaoqi's palm carried a different heat than his cool exterior. This burning warmth had a strong presence for Qi An. He raised an eyebrow without a trace of emotion, acting in character—obediently letting Zhang Zhaoqi lead him out.
However, before leaving, Qi An cast an ambiguous glance at the fence surrounding the rooftop.
That—extremely low fence that served no real protective purpose at all.
The night was pitch dark. This group of students wandered through the campus like marionettes on strings, their movements stiff and mechanical. They paid no attention to the trailing Qi An and Zhang Zhaoqi, walking directly into a gloomy alley.
It was an alley the academy had long abandoned. The surrounding streetlights had been destroyed by unknown causes, and towering trees left unattended blocked the faint moonlight, rendering everything pitch black.
But strangely, the students walking ahead moved with perfect ease. Each one avoided the inconspicuous obstacles on the path without difficulty.
Zhang Zhaoqi held Qi An's hand, moving forward at a steady pace. Because of the darkness, Qi An had no choice but to grip his hand tightly. Whenever they bumped into something, Qi An's hand would tremble slightly, then grip even tighter.
But Qi An's body was far too frail. The hand Zhang Zhaoqi held felt boneless, and whenever Qi An trembled, his smooth, cool skin would brush against Zhang Zhaoqi's palm again—slippery and soft. A tingling sensation traveled from his palm through his limbs to the depths of his heart.
But after some time, the boy seemed to grow embarrassed and loosened his grip, only to tighten it again moments later. This cycle repeated.
In truth, Zhang Zhaoqi had other ways to illuminate the path, but in the end, he said nothing. He simply kept holding Qi An's hand, leading him to their destination.
It was still as desolate as before, with no trace of human habitation. Dilapidated, dirty, abandoned buildings stood on both sides of the narrow path.
A cold wind that defied the season made Qi An shiver.
After turning into this secluded alley, the young men and women ahead didn't slow their steps. They didn't enter any of the buildings. Instead, without breaking their pace, they walked toward a crumbling wall constructed of bricks.
Then—as their footsteps touched the wall—they became transparent, vanishing one by one before their eyes.
Qi An noticed that as they vanished, an ecstatic expression crossed their faces.
It was as if they had seen something they had always wanted.
That kind of heartfelt, uncontrollable joy.
Zhang Zhaoqi's gaze lingered on the wall for a moment. He lowered his eyes to look at their tightly clasped hands, then without expression, placed his other, less-used hand before the wall.
Two objects of different materials remained distinctly separate.
"It's that so-called invitation." Ji Xiaoyu's voice suddenly sounded from the other side. Qi An turned his head and found the girl's face covered in bruises—purple and blue—swollen in several places.
She tried to cover her face with her slender fingers as she spoke, but this obviously served little purpose. Seeing Qi An looking at her, Ji Xiaoyu coldly smiled.
"Li Li disappeared from here too." Zhao Qizhu甜甜地笑了笑,歪着头指了指他们面前的这面墙, "所以大姐姐就去实验了一下看能不能进去。然后……"
Zhao Qizhu waved her hand, smiling innocently and helplessly.
Ji Xiaoyu furrowed her brows, wanting to argue, but had nothing to say. She had absolutely no intention of testing the wall with her own body, yet her body seemed to move on its own, colliding with it.
The only one with her was Zhao Qizhu.
Seeing the latter's cute, naive smile, Ji Xiaoyu's expression shifted.
Could it be that she had just bumped into a ghost?
"Mm." Zhang Zhaoqi cast a meaningful glance at the delicate girl, then calmly recounted what had happened between him and Qi An.
"Should we wait here for them to come out?" Ji Xiaoyu covered her exposed arm, looking pitiful as she asked Zhang Zhaoqi. She wore little clothing, having chosen a nice outfit to showcase her figure. But there was a drawback—it was especially cold at night.
"Big sister can take out clothes from the system space if you're cold." Zhao Qizhu offered as if kindly reminding her.
Ji Xiaoyu's expression stiffened. Of course she knew this. Her complaints were merely to attract Zhang Zhaoqi's attention. Glancing at the sweetly smiling girl, Ji Xiaoyu gritted her teeth.
Qi An's gaze swept over Zhao Qizhu, then returned to the wall. He froze.
In his eyes, this solid wall gradually became transparent.
He saw countless pairs of eyes staring directly at him.
Then—
As if in welcome, they curved into eerie smiles.