Snap! A crisp snap of the fingers rang out.
In that instant, Joanne felt as though everything around her had fallen quiet.
The patter of rain outside, the lilting music in the café, and the soft chime of the wind bells stirred by the draft through the door.
All those sounds grew fainter, distant and peaceful.
The warm yellow lamplight blurred into halos, and her surroundings grew unfamiliar and remote.
What... what was happening?
Joanne tried to scream in terror, but just as before, the air around her turned thick and viscous. She could not even open her mouth.
She could do nothing now but watch in horror as the boy before her curled a finger and flicked it gently through the air.
As though something had shattered, everything around her began to crack, fissures spreading through the air.
The fragments seemed to turn into fine sand, rapidly scattering away.
Boundless darkness surged in from every direction. Joanne found she could move again, and she stared in terror at Zhang Xiao, still sitting in the café armchair.
She wanted to say something, but before she could ask, a point of light bloomed above Zhang Xiao.
The darkness receded like a tide. Joanne watched the chair beneath the boy rapidly transform. In moments, the café's simple wooden chair became an armchair that looked wonderfully soft and comfortable.
His clothes were changing rapidly too.
A deep, lustrous black spread from the collar of his cotton T-shirt, flowing downward. By the time it reached his feet, his clothes had become pure black wizard's robes, and gleaming leather shoes had replaced his casual footwear.
A fireplace sprang out of nothing in the darkness. By the time it had fully "grown," a roaring fire burned within it. Wooden floorboards appeared, weaving and winding together.
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