Has technology really advanced this much?
Ye Jinyi rubbed her eyes, and by the time she looked again, only passing shoppers remained in sight.
“Was I just seeing things?”
She reached for her shopping cart, ready to leave the aisle.
But when her eyes landed once more on the lipstick shelf, she couldn’t help doubting herself again.
Maybe… it really was just a whole shelf of lipstick to begin with.
She probably didn’t sleep well—her brain must’ve been hallucinating.
“Alright, let’s finish shopping and then go home for a good nap!”
Setting herself that modest goal, Ye Jinyi resumed her grocery raid with the cart in tow.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the supermarket.
“Gummies, cookies, chips, and pudding!”
Huimengyi was happily picking out her weekly stash of snacks.
After all, winter break didn’t come often—having fun was essential.
And of course, impulsive shopping was an equally important part of the experience.
“Oh right—Dad’s beer and Mom’s sunscreen.”
Remembering that, Huimengyi hurried her cart over to the liquor aisle and tossed a few bottles of beer in.
Just as she was about to head to the cosmetics section, a pink stuffed bunny suddenly entered her line of sight.
“Did I… just see that?”
Huimengyi froze for a few seconds and saw the plush bunny walking along with the crowd, leaving the liquor section.
“A robotic plush bunny?”
That was the most reasonable explanation she could think of.
Her half-year career as a magical girl had long since transformed her from the kind of rookie who saw disaster in everything, into a calm, sharp-thinking, and capable magical girl.
These days, Huimengyi was totally dependable!
After thinking it over, she decided to follow it—just to see what was going on.
“It’s… it’s just for experience! Yeah! I’m expanding my horizons!”
What could she do?
As a kid from an ordinary household, she really hadn’t seen stuff like this before.
No harm in taking a look, right?
With that attitude, Huimengyi pushed her cart and followed the strange bunny.
Back in the instant noodle section, Ye Jinyi grabbed two large packs—about ten servings, which would last her five or six days.
Instant noodles were cheap and practical—her top pick under current conditions.
As for downsides?
Well, they got old fast.
Could anyone actually eat instant noodles nonstop and not get sick of them?
If so, that person definitely deserved the title of Instant Noodle Sage in Japan.
Clearly, Ye Jinyi wasn’t some kind of sage—she couldn’t go that far.
After tossing them into her cart, she looked up to head to the next aisle.
But just as she was about to move, she noticed that the area around her had become hazy.
Pink mist swirled around her, flowing gently past her sides—but oddly, it didn’t enter her body as she breathed.
She noticed vague silhouettes of people within the mist, all walking in the same direction, as though something up ahead was drawing them in.
“Is this… some kind of smoke performance?”
With that thought, Ye Jinyi followed along—but the further she walked, the denser and heavier the mist became, until eventually, she couldn’t see anything at all.
Vaguely, she began to hear voices around her.
“Zero-yuan shopping! Everything’s free! It’s all mine! Every item in the store is mine!”
“Check out my new diamond card limit… ten million! No—one hundred million! I’m buying out the entire store!”
“My kid’s tuition is paid off… my husband got promoted… no more debt collection calls in the middle of the night…”
Ye Jinyi couldn’t quite understand them, couldn’t fully make out what they were saying—she only felt like she had completely lost her way in this sea of pink mist, unable to find any direction.
Through the fog, she caught a glimpse of a faint orange-red light nearby.
Instinctively, she lifted her left hand and saw that the glow was coming from the ring on her finger.
What’s this?
Ye Jinyi had no idea what it meant.
Was this cursed ring about to start pulling another one of its nonsense tricks?
The glowing light pulsed once and floated up from the rose set into the ring.
“What are you doing?”
A sense of dread washed over Ye Jinyi—this ring was definitely up to something again.
Next, the light compressed into a tiny particle too small to see.
“It disappeared?”
Ye Jinyi stared at the vanished glow, unable to react for a moment.
But the next instant, that very spot where the particle had vanished suddenly pulled in all the surrounding mist.
The pink fog condensed, contracted, and finally disappeared entirely into the spot where the light had been.
At last, the Red Rose Ring glowed faintly pink—then went still once more.
But right now, Ye Jinyi had no interest in dealing with this cursed ring.
The chaos around her had already surpassed her ability to comprehend.
“Haha… I won! I actually won!”
A man stood with arms raised toward empty air, as if holding a lottery ticket.
“Mama… Mama finally came back…”
A little girl wept toward an empty shelf.
Ye Jinyi: “???”
She had no idea what any of this meant—only that an unexplainable fear was starting to creep into her heart.
She didn’t even know what she was afraid of.
At this moment, the entire mall was filled with people like this—drifting into madness, yet all moving in the same direction in an eerily orderly flow.
Across the shelves.
Cough cough cough.
Huimengyi waved her arms to scatter the last of the mist around her.
“Finally got rid of that annoying fog.”
But she had no interest in shopping anymore.
Looking at the people around her, she could already guess—there was a calamity in this mall.
“Could it be… that plush bunny from earlier?”
She wasn’t sure yet.
Finding an empty corner, Huimengyi made a fist with her right hand and pressed it to her chest.
“Dreams of illusion and reality, flickering and entwined—magic, activate!”
A translucent magic circle formed beneath her feet, its patterns blooming like ink in water, edges shattering and reforming continuously.
In the air, countless faint multicolored lights shimmered like soap bubbles in the sun, vanishing at the slightest touch.
The lights slowly attached to her body.
When they touched her school uniform, they vanished piece by piece like being erased—and were replaced by a new form.
Her upper body now wore a white lace-trimmed short-sleeve blouse, with a light purple bow at the collar.
Semi-transparent mesh sleeves extended to her wrists, giving her a look of pure elegance.
Below her waist, a deep purple pleated skirt swayed, with glittering stardust along the hem—dreamlike and ghostly.
Beneath the skirt were white over-the-knee socks, and her sneakers had transformed into black round-toe Mary Janes.
Finally, her hair accessories turned into a moon-and-star-shaped hair clip, with a light purple bow pinned to the right side of her hair.
“Magical Girl—Yingmeng.”
With the transformation complete, Huimengyi opened her violet irises, her pupils now shaped like a cluster of six-pointed stars.
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