As he pondered, Qin Manjiang had already returned to the prop room.
"Go ahead!"
Xinxin's voice came out of thin air.
"Put your hand on these first," Xu Yi said.
Xinxin looked at the two Jade Cicadas. After a moment's thought, she placed her hand on them.
In an instant, a red light flashed and vanished.
Then Qin Manjiang, Xu Yi, and Xinxin could all see one another.
"Huh?" Xinxin looked down curiously. "Have you two been holding hands this whole time?"
"That's not important." Xu Yi glanced at the Jade Cicadas. "With two of them, the effect is stronger. They can even put all three of us in the same space, but our surroundings..."
Indeed, the small patch of space occupied by the three of them had merged, but the past and present as a whole remained separate.
Perhaps they could only merge completely once all five Jade Cicadas were found?
"What are these things?" Xinxin asked in confusion.
"Jade Cicadas. They're placed in dead people's mouths to suppress their souls. There are five positioned around the [Southern Branch Troupe]. These are two of them."
"Is that what they do?"
Just as Xu Yi finished speaking, a cultured, steady male voice rang out.
The three turned toward the voice. A middle-aged man leaning on a cane, with a white streak in the hair above his forehead, had appeared at the prop room's entrance.
It was Dense Forest!
"Uncle Yu?" Xinxin looked at him in surprise. "Why are you back? Didn't we agree to split up?"
"Uncle Yu?" Qin Manjiang whispered to Xu Yi.
"Yu Chenglin. Dense Forest's real name. Ring a bell now?" Xu Yi replied.
Qin Manjiang shook his head. "No. Is he famous?"
"Yes! He's on TV all the time! Don't you watch TV? You can always