Chapter 28 : I joined the group, meow?

Late at night, after finishing her shower, Xiaoxi wiped her hair dry while picking up her phone to check her messages.

Earlier, she had left the group chat number in the comments section of her novel, and now twenty or thirty people had gradually joined.

This was undoubtedly a novel experience for Xiaoxi; after all, she had never really been able to interact with her readers before.

Seeing so many people join the group made her genuinely happy, and it gave her more motivation to keep writing.

Humming a tune in a good mood, Xiaoxi casually scrolled through the verification messages from those trying to join the group.

But when she saw one particular account, her humming abruptly stopped.

That familiar Hatsune Miku avatar, and the username “Hope to Work Less”… Isn’t that Mu Xingge’s personal QQ account?!

Although Xiaoxi had secretly deleted all her teammates’ contact information three years ago, changing her phone number and all her social media accounts, how could she possibly forget Mu Xingge’s QQ?

Her eyes widened, and the relaxed feeling she had after her shower instantly tensed up.

Mu Xingge had joined her reader group?

The group for the novel Xiaoxi wrote based on Mu Xingge, “The Defeated Magical Girl”?!

Just to be safe, Xiaoxi opened the QQ profile to double-check.

Yes, it really was Mu Xingge.

There was no way she would now track her down through the internet cable box to mess with her, right?!

Xiaoxi never expected that the little “Defeated Magical Girl” story she’d secretly written would be discovered by Mu Xingge.

Just as she was at a loss for what to do, a message mentioning her popped up on the top notification bar.

“@Group Owner, can the author update more often? Not enough to read.”

“@Group Owner, the story is great, but the part after the defeat is a bit boring. Can you write about Mu Xingge getting completely crushed by the Blood Moon Witch? That’d be awesome to read.”

Stop it! Just stop!

Xiaoxi’s heart was pounding as she opened the group chat to see which troublemaker was framing her… She only wrote the main character to be somewhat like Mu Xingge, absolutely not Mu Xingge herself!

When she saw the username of the person who @-mentioned her—“Eternal Star, Where Are You?”—Xiaoxi slapped her forehead with a “facepalm”…

That damn account belonged to Ye Xinglan!

What is this? Are you all ganging up on me?!

“@Group Owner, why aren’t you replying? I gave you a tip, so can you update a bit more?”

It was clear Ye Xinglan really wanted to see the rest of the story, but Xiaoxi thought Ye Xinglan had missed the point.

Usually, no one really cares about how the magical girl is defeated by the enemy, right? What everyone loves to see is what happens after the magical girl’s defeat; only you like to watch the defeat process itself!

Xiaoxi stared at the group chat, hesitating over whether to remind Ye Xinglan to watch her words since Mu Xingge might see the group messages.

But how could she explain that she recognized Mu Xingge’s QQ account? After just being suspected of her identity today, Xiaoxi didn’t want to give away any more clues.

Hope to Work Less: “@Eternal Star, Where Are You? You really like seeing the magical girl lose to the villains that much? [Yellow Face Smiling Emoji]”

Eternal Star, Where Are You?: “What I like to watch is none of your business! And if you don’t like it, why did you join the group?”

Hope to Work Less: “I do like it! The author writes very realistically and in detail. I really hope to have a chance to talk with the author properly. [Yellow Face Smiling Emoji]”

Xiaoxi was now genuinely sweating bullets.

Inside Ye Xinglan’s room.

After replying to the group messages, Ye Xinglan turned over in bed.

What kind of people are these, meddling so much? I like reading Eternal Star’s defeat stories, what business is it of yours?

Then Ye Xinglan opened her photo album, planning to delete some pictures she took today.

Since Xiaoxi wasn’t Eternal Star, there was no reason to keep the blackmail material.

But looking at the photos where the two of them were intimately wrapped around each other, Ye Xinglan hesitated before deciding not to tap the trash bin icon.

It seemed… Xiaoxi looked pretty cute in these pictures. Maybe she’d just keep them.

At that moment, a loud knock sounded on the door.

Ye Xinglan got out of bed, and when she opened the door, she saw Xiaoxi standing there, wrapped in a towel with damp hair.

Ye Xinglan’s face flushed slightly. “What’s up, Xiaoxi?”

“Xinglan, it’s about the novel…”

“What? You’ve published it already? Don’t tell me you’re not going to let me read it?”

“That’s not what I meant,” Xiaoxi forced a smile, “I just think you shouldn’t argue with people in the group… it doesn’t look good.”

Thankfully, Ye Xinglan lived with her, so Xiaoxi could stop her in person.

Otherwise, Xiaoxi really feared that after Mu Xingge found out, she’d track down the source through the internet and cause a huge mess.

If she’d known beforehand, she wouldn’t have based the story on Mu Xingge—she should have picked another old teammate instead… cough, no, if she expected to get exposed, she might as well have been a bit more twisted and based it on herself!

Eternal Star’s popularity was definitely no less than [Songbird Diva] Mu Xingge’s, alright!

Xiaoxi knew well that although Mu Xingge appeared to be a gentle and sunny idol on the surface, she was fiery-tempered behind the scenes.

Hopefully keeping that reader group wouldn’t cause any trouble… Xiaoxi thought anxiously.

The next day, in Miss L’s office.

Looking at Mu Xingge sitting cross-legged on the sofa, Miss L spread her hands.

“It’s not that I don’t want to show you, Xingge, but that kid’s file… well, it’s not in my hands.”

Mu Xingge had come to check on [Sirius]’s file. She’d been somewhat concerned about Sirius’s performance on the last mission and wanted to review it.

“Sirius was transferred from… Beihua City. Her file isn’t currently in Xiahaishi.”

“Don’t worry, Xingge, I personally arranged this. How could there be a problem?”

Mu Xingge shrugged and didn’t press further, instead pulling out her phone to scroll through the group chat messages.

Miss L noticed Mu Xingge’s bad mood but instinctively felt it had nothing to do with not seeing Sirius’s file.

“What’s wrong, Xingge?”

“Nothing much, just recently I found a novel based on me, you know?”

Miss L instantly understood. There were plenty of those kinds of things, and she was well aware of what Mu Xingge was referring to.

The association usually turned a blind eye to these things since the writers never used real names; everything was adapted and altered, making it hard to claim copyright infringement.

Miss L was just curious why Mu Xingge was so upset this time. Weren’t there plenty of those novels before?

“It’s not that I’m unhappy about what she wrote,” Mu Xingge snapped her phone shut viciously, “I’m unhappy because… it’s all true!”

Normally, Mu Xingge wouldn’t care about fabricated “Defeated Magical Girl” stories. But this one was just too real—not only were the events true, but the characters’ reactions were so accurate that she couldn’t help but care.

She even thought about it: if she really encountered the situation described in the novel… she might really react just as the story said.

That annoyed her—it was like someone getting defensive right after being suspected of cheating. No one gets angry over baseless accusations; only if they hit the mark.

Mu Xingge was certain it wasn’t a coincidence.

This novel had to be written by someone she knew!