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墨書 Inktalez
I traced my fingers over the yellowed pages of the ancient text, the tadpole-like characters glimmering with an eerie indigo under the desk lamp. Xiao Ya suddenly slammed a magnifying glass onto the table. "This is definitely not Oracle! Look at this spiral pattern; it resembles..."
"Like a hybrid of Sanskrit and Cuneiform?" I interjected, the bitterness of sleepless nights lingering in my throat. This was already our seventh gathering at this hour in the club activity room, with the shadows of the sycamore trees outside forever frozen at a forty-five-degree angle.
Xiao Ya abruptly pulled back the curtains, and the midday sun forced me to squint. The strawberry hair tie in her ponytail swayed as she said, "Let's go to the old campus and find Professor Chen. Those old trinkets in his study might..." Before she could finish, familiar footsteps echoed down the corridor—it was Director Zhang coming to check for unauthorized electrical appliances. Reflexively, I shoved the electric kettle into the cabinet, my movements so practiced they were almost pitiful.
After thirty-two cycles, I rushed into the Planetarium clutching an Old Icelandic Dictionary. The star map projected on the dome swirled above us as Xiao Ya tiptoed to reach the highest archive box, her waist half-exposed in the moonlight, glowing white. "Keep going!" she called out, tossing me a parchment scroll that smelled musty. Unrolling it revealed a campus map outlined in silver powder, with a blood-red hexagram marking the position of the clock tower's spire.
That night at the Fountain Pool, we found a rusty Bronze Key while torrential rain soaked our uniforms until they became transparent. Xiao Ya twisted a droplet from her hair and teased, "If we cycle again this time, I’ll definitely kick you into the pool." As her flashlight beam swept across the auditorium's outer wall, I caught sight of an Etched Symbol hidden beneath creeping vines—it matched the patterns on the ancient text's cover.
Amidst the grinding roar of clock tower gears, it felt like we would never reach the end of the spiral staircase. Xiao Ya suddenly tugged on my backpack strap. "Wait!" She pointed at subtle engravings between the bricks. "These Roman Numerals... they're hints for a combination lock." When we finally forced open that Copper Wood Door, an old smell of gear oil mixed with dust hit us like a wave.
The Bronze Instrument loomed in the center of the room like a giant spider, its eight copper tubes hanging down with Crystal Pendants at their ends. I ran my fingers over the indented palm print on the control panel and suddenly recalled a fragmented illustration from the back page of the ancient text. Xiao Ya gasped sharply. "Xiao Xiao, look!" On her phone screen was a group photo from 1900 at the School History Museum; the principal in a long gown was leaning against an identical instrument.
As I attempted to activate it for the thirteenth time, I deliberately knocked over Xiao Ya's coffee. The brown liquid seeped into the cracks of the floor tiles just as some hidden symbol array suddenly lit up. The instrument emitted a hum reminiscent of chimes, and the Crystal Pendants began to vibrate at different frequencies. When the tune of Erquan Yingyue abruptly played, pain shot through my head as if I might collapse—this was unmistakably the Morning Melody broadcasted right before each cycle began.
Xiao Ya pressed my sweat-drenched face against her shoulder; her Mint-Flavored Uniform made me want to cry. "We need to find the corresponding Harmonic Frequency," she said quickly tearing off her notebook cover to calculate. "It's like shattering a wine glass with just the right pitch..." Suddenly, a bell rang for class dismissal, startling us both into action; outside, the sunset glowed unnaturally red—this was usually when cycles reset.
I trembled as I pressed down on the eighth copper key; melodies struck by hammers caused the entire clock tower to resonate. Xiao Ya suddenly hummed along. "Wait! This descending part..." Her dust-covered face lit up unexpectedly. "It's a reverse playback of our school anthem's final measure!" As our overlapping palms slapped down onto the central Sound Pillar simultaneously, all Crystal Pendants shattered into powder, and a flash of blue light flickered in the bronze spider's compound eyes.
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