Chapter 112: Social Circle

"We'll talk about it later," Du Zhengyi said, successfully making Luo Qi shut his mouth.

Luo Qi's arm was grabbed by Du Zhengyi, and the phone on the ground appeared in Du Zhengyi's left hand. The next instant, there was nothing but blurred, indistinguishable light and shadow before Luo Qi's eyes. Grabbing Luo Qi, picking up the phone, Space Travel—it was all done in one fluid motion. Luo Qi felt that there must be almost no junk information in Du Zhengyi's brain. A surge of curiosity made him especially want to take a look at Du Zhengyi's mental world; fortunately, he was still able to restrain himself.

He had a premonition that he was going to be scolded severely, and being sent back to the Mahjong Garden's daycare center was also a matter of minutes.

After the dizziness passed, when he could see his surroundings again, he was surprised to see gray pillars and the ground marked with yellow arrows. The sky above his head had vanished, and an escalator slanted overhead. Around him were noisy human voices, flickering electronic screens announcing station names, and turbid, humid air surged out from the tunnel; then, a subway train rushed out of the darkness.

"My god," Luo Qi said. "You actually wasted energy just to skip the subway fare."

"Stop talking nonsense. They will definitely bring professional Detection Mages and will be able to find our trail very soon. They could catch up here in a few minutes." Du Zhengyi gave Luo Qi a push from behind, practically shoving him into the subway. He pushed Luo Qi until he was pressed right against the carriage, then turned to block him. "Will these people's thoughts affect you? You just lost control; don't be curious about any thoughts."

"Got it," Luo Qi touched his nose and said guiltily. "Where are we going now?"

Du Zhengyi didn't speak. He looked back as the subway began to start. He saw Chi Yu rounding the escalator; he saw him almost immediately. Du Zhengyi locked eyes with those gloomy eyes from afar, and in the blink of an eye, the other party was left behind by the subway.

"Did they appear?" Luo Qi asked in surprise, watching Du Zhengyi's expression.

Du Zhengyi nodded.

"Whoa." Luo Qi bit his finger nervously.

"What are you afraid of?" Du Zhengyi said. "Weren't you acting pretty badass just a moment ago?"

Luo Qi didn't know if he was joking; he could actually joke at a time like this. "I'm just too nervous, don't make me even more nervous!"

Fortunately, this kind of rhetoric was always useful. Du Zhengyi became a bit more serious. "They have no way to follow us; they don't have the guts to use Teleportation on a platform in relative motion."

Luo Qi felt a bit more at ease. "Then where are we going now?" He then thought, "They will teleport to every subway station along the way and wait for us!"

"You're right," Du Zhengyi said. "But they can't make a move in front of so many people, so they can only keep following us to look for an opportunity, while we look for an opportunity to shake them off."

Luo Qi breathed a sigh of relief. Du Zhengyi didn't look anxious, so he felt relieved as well. He had been waiting for Du Zhengyi to say something about his insane, high-rebound-Qi-filled behavior today, but Du Zhengyi said nothing, and it seemed he didn't want to bring it up at all.

He shoved an object into Luo Qi's hand. Luo Qi was stunned for a moment before realizing it was the female Mage's phone.

He leaned against the closed door on the other side of the subway and let out another long breath, picking up the phone and fiddling with it to cover up the panic in his heart. Could he really have caused the owner of this phone to suffer brain death just now? Fortunately, the pace of life was fast enough that he didn't have time to stop and think about it carefully. Sometimes, not having time to think is truly a stroke of luck.

He swiped open the phone; the Mage hadn't set a lock, which was another stroke of luck. The phone's application was still on the camera. Being able to understand how to flexibly use human technology to deal with a Mage's blind spot, she was truly a clever Mage. Fortunately, she wasn't that proficient after all and hadn't thought to use WeChat to send a quick message.

Luo Qi looked at the photo of himself and Du Zhengyi on the phone and sighed.

"What's wrong?" Du Zhengyi asked with concern.

"I feel like I'm more handsome, so I'm just lamenting that," Luo Qi said.

Du Zhengyi froze, glared at Luo Qi, thought for a moment, and then said in a low voice, "Shorty!"

"Damn it!" Luo Qi said angrily.

"The next station is almost here. Are you ready?" Du Zhengyi said.

Luo Qi muttered a bunch of nonsense under his breath and pulled a mask out of his pocket to put on. "Is this useful?"

"I hope it's useful." Du Zhengyi grabbed Luo Qi's arm. "Don't get separated from me. This is a hub station; it will be very crowded during the evening rush, right?"

"It will definitely squeeze your virginity right out of you," Luo Qi nodded in agreement.

Du Zhengyi glared at him again as if he had a toothache. Luo Qi didn't notice at all; he was playing with the female Mage's phone, and after swiping a few times, he suddenly froze.

"Huh? She added quite a few people on WeChat," Luo Qi said in surprise.

Luo Qi swiped to the very bottom of the contacts list. "Eighty-two people?"

Du Zhengyi also leaned his head over to look. Although he hadn't used WeChat much, he understood the meaning after watching for a while. He suddenly pointed at one of the profile pictures. "This is my junior sister."

"Damn," Luo Qi felt his vision go dark. "So many people have phones, damn it, but you're the only one who doesn't, Senior Brother."

"Can you not be serious for once?" Du Zhengyi said with a straight face. However, he was indeed very surprised; he reached over to swipe through the contacts. Most of the other profile pictures weren't photos, and he couldn't tell anything, but even so, he still recognized a few Mages from the Profound Forest.

"Stop looking," Luo Qi said bluntly. "If Fan Shi's WeChat is in there too, I'll be scared to death. Spare my little life."

Du Zhengyi knew there was no time to look closely for now, so he had to give up, feeling somewhat that even the lives of Mages seemed very far away from him.

Luo Qi started nagging, appearing somewhat resentful. "How did you end up like this? You grew up in the Profound Forest, and you're the most badass in the Profound Forest, yet people don't even include you in their social circle. You didn't even know this existed! Your little junior sister didn't even tell you!"

"Shut up!" Du Zhengyi said impatiently.

Luo Qi reluctantly quieted down for a minute.

The subway stopped at that moment. Luo Qi squeezed out of the subway door behind Du Zhengyi, conveniently pulling up the hood of his hoodie while continuing to speak, "Do you think their behavior counts as bullying?"

"Shut up!"

"..."

He grabbed Luo Qi and searched while walking. Not wanting to increase his own energy signature, Du Zhengyi did not rely on energy to search for other Mages, but soon he saw two Mage-like figures in the distance struggling to squeeze toward them. He frowned and judged the situation, evaluating the difficulty of this escape. They might want to drag him down until he was exhausted; he had just discovered the traces of professional Detection Mages. With them around, he might not be able to shake off the pursuit even with long-distance travel, and he couldn't risk consuming a large amount of energy.

He pondered to himself, while Luo Qi was still babbling about nonsense. As if feeling it wasn't enough, his peripheral vision caught Luo Qi holding his middle finger high in the direction of the two Mages. Du Zhengyi's state of mind was, for a moment, truly a bit complicated.