Chapter 51: Suspected, Meow?

“We didn’t come out together? Where did you run off to just now?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing! I was outside looking for you for ages. Well, I guess we must have just gotten separated and missed each other.”

Xiaoxi didn’t panic at all; instead, she immediately turned the tables and threw out the excuse she had already thought of earlier.

“Really?” Ye Xinglan squinted her eyes. “Then didn’t you go to the Association staff to register your information? I already asked them, and they said your name wasn’t there. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be so worried.”

“Um… I didn’t get the chance to register yet. I just ran into you first.”

“Alright, that’s a lie.” Ye Xinglan rolled her eyes and gave Xiaoxi a light chop on the head. “I’m kidding. The Association doesn’t have the time to register everyone one by one. Tell me the truth—did you sneak back to the theater just now?”

“I—” Xiaoxi didn’t expect to be trapped into confessing. “Alright, I’ll be honest. I did sneak back… mainly because I was worried about that brat Xiao Keke.”

“But in the end, I got trapped by monsters inside the theater myself and was only just saved by a Magical Girl.”

It was a reasonable excuse. Although Ye Xinglan was still concerned about the bracelet, she couldn’t find any faults in Xiaoxi’s explanation.

“By the way, what about Keke?”

“That brat ran into monsters and got a few minor injuries. She just went to the hospital to get treated.”

Mentioning Xiao Keke, Xiaoxi couldn’t help but sigh again.

Ye Xinglan nodded thoughtfully. She suddenly felt that Keke was quite unlucky—she remembered that Keke had been to the hospital not long ago.

Honestly, Keke wasn’t doing a high-risk job like a Magical Girl, so it was pretty unlucky for an ordinary person to get injured so often.

The two of them left the messy theater entrance. Without the chaotic noise and crowds, the night air felt much fresher.

Ye Xinglan suddenly sniffed the air and frowned.

“Xiaoxi, are you injured?”

“Ah… I accidentally fell inside the theater just now. Scraped my left knee. How did you notice?”

“You’re walking a bit slow and limping a little. Are you okay?”

“Haha, I’m fine, I can handle it myself when I get back…”

Neither of them told the truth. Actually, Xiaoxi’s injured knee was her right one, but to avoid a repeat of what happened at the café last time, she lied.

Fortunately, she was wearing long pants, so Ye Xinglan couldn’t see the injury.

To be honest, Xiaoxi figured she wouldn’t fall into the same trap twice.

The situation in the theater was so tense that Ye Xinglan, as an ordinary person, must have been too scared to care whether Xiaoxi was hurt or not.

What Ye Xinglan didn’t admit was that she hadn’t seen Xiaoxi’s injury—she had smelled it.

There were too many people at the theater entrance earlier, so the mixed scents had distracted her, but now, when they were alone, Ye Xinglan immediately caught the faint scent of blood on Xiaoxi.

Just like last time at the café, Ye Xinglan, as the Blood Moon Witch, was very sensitive to the smell of blood.

But…

A thought suddenly popped into Ye Xinglan’s mind—Xiaoxi’s blood scent smelled strangely similar to that annoying Magical Girl in the theater. Both smelled sweet.

Ye Xinglan sniffed again. Xiaoxi’s wound must have happened some time ago and wasn’t bleeding anymore, so the blood scent was faint—so faint that Ye Xinglan was having trouble distinguishing it.

To be honest, Ye Xinglan didn’t have a strong impression of that annoying Magical Girl’s blood scent either; her mind had been focused on finding someone back then.

Still, the string of coincidences made Ye Xinglan feel uneasy. A seemingly impossible idea arose in her heart.

Could Xiaoxi and that annoying Magical Girl be…

Ye Xinglan glanced at Xiaoxi beside her but didn’t voice her suspicion.

At this moment, Xiaoxi was humming a tune, feeling quite pleased.

All her excuses today had been perfect. It seemed she didn’t have to worry about Ye Xinglan finding out anything.

“By the way, Xiaoxi, if you snuck back to the theater, why didn’t you answer my calls? I tried calling you so many times.”

“Did you? I didn’t hear my phone ring at all. Let me check.”

“……”

Moments later, a shout pierced the night.

“Damn, where’s my phone?!”

—

The next evening, inside Ye Xinglan’s room.

Rarely did Ye Xinglan skip gaming, but tonight she was rolling around on her bed—our little rich girl had something on her mind.

She took out the bracelet painted with a Q-version cat again, pondering whether Xiaoxi was connected to the Magical Girls.

But she didn’t intend to confront Xiaoxi yet. After all, the evidence wasn’t solid enough to jump to conclusions, and if she really wanted to know, there was no need to investigate alone.

Ye Xinglan suddenly realized that she and Xiaoxi had been living together for almost a month, and no one from the Association had come knocking. Her fake girlfriend identity hadn’t been used at all.

Aluan had told her to hide out for a month. The time was almost up, and once she reconnected with Aluan, she could let her handle the investigation.

Ye Xinglan knew Aluan had far more resources and skills for this kind of thing.

Actually, she wasn’t that curious either.

Ye Xinglan flipped over in bed. Xiaoxi wasn’t the Eternal Star after all. What did it matter if she was some other Magical Girl?

They weren’t really a couple. If they were, and Xiaoxi was hiding her Magical Girl identity from Ye Xinglan, then Ye Xinglan could at least understand it as a kind of red-temperature (red-warmth) excuse.

And thinking it over, Ye Xinglan even had a rebuttal to the idea that Xiaoxi was a Magical Girl—if Xiaoxi really was, then between writing novels and working as a Maid Café server, she would essentially be juggling three jobs every day.

It wasn’t that Ye Xinglan doubted anyone could handle three jobs; it was that she doubted anyone could work three jobs a day and still be this poor.

Yesterday, when she hurriedly accompanied Xiaoxi back to the theater, they found Xiaoxi’s phone near the emergency exit—destroyed beyond repair, with the screen shattered from being trampled in the chaos.

It was clear Xiaoxi didn’t even have money to buy a new phone. Ye Xinglan was the one who had lent her money first.

If Xiaoxi really was a Magical Girl, she shouldn’t be this poor. Did the Association not pay her a salary?

Meanwhile, in her own room, Xiaoxi suddenly sneezed loudly while typing away.

Right, now that Ye Xinglan thought about it…

She stared at the calendar on her phone and suddenly realized something.

Once a month passed and she reconnected with Aluan, she would probably move out of here. There’d be no need to keep pretending they were a couple.

After all, she had only stayed here to lay low in the first place… Thinking about this, Ye Xinglan felt an inexplicable pang of reluctance.

After a moment of silence, she suddenly got out of bed and decided to visit Xiaoxi’s room.