Chapter 3: Thirty Years Old, Yet Still a Magical Girl

“Name.”

“Jiang Yin.”

“Age.”

“30.”

“30?”

“I just turned thirty yesterday.”

“Gender?”

“Male.”

“Bang!”

In the bright interrogation room, the Old Police Officer slammed the enamel teacup in his hand on the table.

“Little girl, I’m not joking with you, understand?”

“But I really am Jiang Yin…”

The beautiful little girl with white hair and purple eyes shrank her neck in fear—

Don’t misunderstand, this wasn’t an instinct of the transformed body.

Jiang Yin, a good young man who obeyed the law, always reacted like this when being interrogated.

He just hadn’t experienced this before!

According to your statement, you… performed a self-comforting act last night, then fell asleep and woke up like this. Is that correct?

The information about Magical Girls used to be confidential.

But as Heavenly Net Technology advanced, and the city’s Monster Response System became more complete, Magical Girls were no longer urban legends among ordinary citizens.

Especially for these police officers, who each had a copy of the Magical Girl Affairs Manual.

Maybe for normal people, Magical Girls and Monsters were still rare things seen only online, but for an Old Police Officer who had worked at the grassroots for decades, he’d seen plenty of Magical Girls.

But he’d never heard of a case where an adult male like Jiang Yin suddenly turned into a Magical Girl overnight.

Looking at the cute, white-haired little girl in front of him, the Old Police Officer felt today was truly an eye-opener.

“Yes, I’ve already explained everything in detail.”

Seeing the girl’s honest appearance, the Old Police Officer rubbed his temples in frustration.

After careful consideration, he decided to report the case directly.

According to proper procedures, have the relevant department send someone to take over.

—Mainly because this kid’s innocent face really didn’t look like someone who could spout nonsense in the interrogation room.

As an Old Police Officer who had worked at the grassroots for many years, he’d long developed a keen instinct for judging whether strangers had criminal records at a glance.

Jiang Yin’s nervous and terrified demeanor just didn’t match the idea of having a criminal record as his colleagues suggested.

“Alright, bro… kid…”

Once he made his decision, he couldn’t keep speaking in an interrogative tone.

Subconsciously wanting to be gentle, he looked at Jiang Yin’s written statement and her beautiful, youthful face, struggling for a while before finally speaking.

“Comrade, the previous procedures were necessary. I hope you understand.”

“Hungry? You haven’t eaten yet. Want to go to the cafeteria with me for a bite?”

“When the relevant department comes to pick you up, you can leave.”

“Mm, mm, mm!”

Jiang Yin’s little head nodded so fast it left afterimages.

She’d only had two bites of tiger skin cake and two bottles of beer last night.

Although beer was sometimes called liquid bread, it didn’t fill you up.

Two trips to the bathroom before bed and it was all gone.

She’d only had a piece of emergency medicine all morning, and her stomach was empty.

If it were her previous body with chronic stomach problems, it would have started hurting long ago.

Food is the greatest thing under heaven.

She’d already sacrificed her dignity for her innocence, so whatever, let it be.

The authorities wouldn’t throw a rookie Magical Girl who couldn’t transform and had no training into a fight with Monsters.

She’d take things one step at a time.

If she could score a safe position in the rear, maybe she’d just make it through painlessly.

‘Hehehe… That feeling wouldn’t be bad either~’

Jiang Yin had always been an optimist.

She was the type who could be happy alone or have fun with everyone at a party.

Yesterday’s emotional breakdown was a rare occurrence.

Normally at that time, she’d be out with colleagues at a barbecue or KTV.

But what kind of midlife crisis could compare to waking up as a Magical Girl and finding last night’s uncleaned fluids still lingering below, almost self-pollinating?

No matter how big the problem, it wasn’t that big anymore.

Whatever.

She gave up!

The police station cafeteria was actually quite plentiful.

Some things seemed to be etched into her DNA.

Even though the memories were from so long ago, she was still used to queuing up with a tray.

She filled her tray with her usual portion, avoided the other officers who seemed to be gossiping about her, and sat in front of the Old Police Officer.

After wolfing down two bites, she realized something was wrong.

It seemed…

She got full a little too quickly.

The Old Police Officer glanced at her tray but said nothing.

Seeing her gobble up food in a thoroughly unladylike manner, he still said nothing.

He’d seen all kinds of people in his life and didn’t care at all.

But when the white-haired girl sheepishly pushed the barely-touched tray over to him, he couldn’t keep calm.

He was almost fifty, and his appetite wasn’t what it used to be.

He couldn’t finish this much food.

“If you can’t finish, don’t take so much.”

He tapped the table with his chopsticks, his expression turning stern.

“Wasting food is not good.”

“I didn’t expect it either…”

Jiang Yin scratched her head in embarrassment.

“My appetite shrank way too much…”

Looking at her pitiful expression, the Old Police Officer didn’t say anything.

He just silently took the tray.

This seemed like an act of God.

He couldn’t really blame the kid for wasting food.

The girl was cute too, and it stirred a bit of compassion in his heart—a man almost old enough to have grandkids.

At that moment, a young police officer walked over.

“Li Captain, her phone. It’s probably messages from her colleagues at work.”

“Give it to her.”

“Xiao Zhang, sit down.”

The Old Police Officer nodded calmly, motioning the young officer to sit beside him, then passed Jiang Yin’s tray to him.

“I got the food for you too.”

“So generous, Li Captain?”

The young police officer named Zhang looked delighted and didn’t notice that the tray had already been touched.

He wolfed it down immediately.

Jiang Yin watched the whole scene, inwardly admiring the cunning of the older generation.

Such acting, such composure—it put the younger officers to shame.

“Take a look.”

The Old Police Officer checked Jiang Yin’s phone again, making sure there were no suspicious traces before handing it to her.

“Delay things as much as you can. If what you said is true, there won’t be any trouble later.”

His words were subtle, as if Jiang Yin was just an ordinary citizen assisting in an investigation, but the girl understood the deeper meaning.

It meant that if she really was a Magical Girl, the Magical Girl Administration Bureau would handle any loose ends for her—that was an essential step.

After all, Magical Girls fought cunning, evil Monsters, and in terms of danger, it was the highest even in peacetime.

To prevent retaliation and targeting by Monsters, the true identity had to be kept secret.

It was said that this step didn’t exist in the past.

Because Magical Girl transformations naturally came with ‘information interference,’ making both Monsters and ordinary people’s memories of a Magical Girl’s real identity fuzzy or even completely forgotten.

It was only after incidents occurred that this rule was added.

Anyway, it couldn’t be a bad thing for Jiang Yin… and she had a lot of friends.