The mirror flared with light, illuminating the entire room.
I squinted and raised a hand to shield my eyes. My guard went up, and I readied myself to use my ability at a moment's notice.
But when the light faded, I sensed no danger.
I opened my eyes again and realized the surroundings had changed.
I was no longer standing in the archive room. I was in a very ordinary living room.
There was a lot of stuff in it. Not much furniture, but plenty of odds and ends. Several storage boxes and baskets were piled around haphazardly, as if someone had crammed things into every available space. The stored items were all ordinary, mostly food: opened and unopened bags of red beans, mung beans, and wood ear mushrooms, along with bottles and jars of seasonings and pickled vegetables. There were also some cups and plastic bottles... I even saw whole cartons of cookies and milk, and a basket piled high with fruit...
Oh, and newspapers...
"Where is this?" Xu Jiu asked after a long pause.
The other three were in the living room too, all looking surprised. But there was a subtle difference in each of their expressions.
"Food!" Xu Jiu immediately made an exciting discovery.
I thought he meant the fruit and cookies. The pickled vegetables and red beans couldn't be eaten as they were, so only the fruit and cookies could be eaten right away. But when I turned, I saw him staring at the dining table.
A mesh food cover sat over the table, with two plates of food and a large bowl of soup underneath.
Xu Jiu's gaze had already drifted past me.
I turned around and saw the kitchen. A rice cooker sat on the counter by the kitchen doorway.
"Where is this place?"