Chapter 11: I’m not human anymore

Li Huayu hung up the phone and rolled her eyes at the air.

“Those stingy bastards at the Management Bureau, 250, who are they cursing…”

She put away her phone and looked up, only to find that Luo Tianyou, who had been standing at the entrance of the noodle shop just now, had disappeared.

“Huh? Where did she go?”

Li Huayu panicked, was her voice too loud just now and got heard? She hurriedly ran over, craning her neck and looking around.

At that moment, a hand reached out from the shadows of the nearby alley and yanked her inside.

“Mm!”

Before Li Huayu could react, Luo Tianyou had pressed her hard against the cold wall.

Although Luo Tianyou was a bit shorter than Li Huayu now, her aura was overwhelming, and she glared at her with fierce eyes.

“You actually dared to report me?!”

Luo Tianyou had already thought Li Huayu was acting suspicious earlier—turns out she really was up to no good.

“I didn’t report you, just the ID you were carrying as a wanted criminal!”

Li Huayu was startled, then immediately retorted.

“You!”

Luo Tianyou was fuming, raising her fist as if to punch.

Li Huayu reflexively shut her eyes, shrunk her neck, and trembled, displaying a submissive posture, resigned to whatever happened.

Luo Tianyou’s fist froze mid-air.

What’s the point of hitting her? The Management Bureau people would be here any second.

No, I have to get out of here now.

Luo Tianyou released Li Huayu and turned to run, but before she could reach the corner, she saw the Management Bureau’s car lights already at the intersection.

So fast??!

Luo Tianyou hurried back into the alley and ran in another direction.

Li Huayu poked her head out to peek, then instinctively ran toward another street.

The alley just now was a dead end—if she got chased in there by the Management Bureau, she’d be done for.

As a thief, there was no way she could confront the Management Bureau head-on.

But the Management Bureau car honked a few times and then sped right in front of her.

Li Huayu quickly turned back to run, but the car stopped in front of her again.

Right at the entrance to that same alley.

Li Huayu realized there was no escape.

She squatted down and clutched her head.

The car window rolled down to reveal a middle-aged woman with an impatient, fierce expression, a cigarette dangling from her mouth.

She spat viciously.

“Li Huayu, did your damn occupational disease act up? Why the hell are you running! I’ve honked the horn eight hundred times—didn’t you hear?!”

Li Huayu looked up, stunned.

“Wang Jie, why are you driving a Management Bureau car?”

“Bullshit. Look carefully—is this really a Management Bureau car?”

Only then did Li Huayu notice the car had been modified.

The lighting was poor at night, so it just looked similar to a Management Bureau vehicle.

“Cut the crap! Where’s today’s goods?”

Wang Jie held out her hand.

“Sorry, Wang Jie, I don’t have any for now. But don’t worry, I’ll work hard and definitely give it to you by morning…”

“Smack!”

A loud slap landed hard on her left cheek, burning with pain.

Then two more, fast and fierce!

“Useless trash!”

Wang Jie grabbed Li Huayu’s hair, yanking her roughly up to the car window.

Her spit nearly sprayed onto her face.

“You’re the most useless in the whole group! You never meet the weekly quota! Did all the skills I taught you go to the dogs?!”

“Wang Jie, I’ll work hard, I’ll work hard. Please, just give me a little more time. I haven’t been doing this long, so I’m still not skilled…”

Li Huayu’s delicate face was distorted by pain, but she didn’t dare struggle.

She clutched her scalp, trying to ease the hurt.

Wang Jie cursed loudly.

“You bastard, if you can’t deliver tomorrow, just wait to die!”

“Yes, yes, I’ll do my best, I’ll do my best.”

Wang Jie swung her arm wide and slapped Li Huayu’s cheek hard again, then flicked her still-burning cigarette onto Li Huayu’s body before driving off.

Li Huayu slumped helplessly onto the cold roadside.

After several seconds, she shakily picked the cigarette off her clothes and tossed it away, then used her fingers to comb her messy hair.

When she turned, she met a pair of complex violet eyes.

Luo Tianyou stood at the alley entrance.

Because the alley was a dead end, she’d doubled back and witnessed everything.

“You saw?”

Li Huayu’s cheek was swollen, a trickle of blood at her mouth.

Her expression was wretched and ugly, utterly different from the gentle, delicate image she’d had before.

“Yeah.”

“I told you, if I don’t steal anything, I get beaten when I go back.”

Li Huayu spat out some blood and ruffled her hair.

“Why don’t you fight back?”

Luo Tianyou couldn’t stand things like this, but Li Huayu’s identity as a thief left her unsure how to react.

“I was raised by Wang Jie and the others. I used to pretend to be a disabled child, but as I got older, I could only start stealing.”

“Then why don’t you tell the Management Bureau? They’d save you.”

“It’s useless. Children who snitch always die in the end, tortured horribly. Wang Jie and the others stay just fine.”

Li Huayu sat on the roadside, leaning against the railing.

“If I hadn’t lost my bag, and it had money inside, I wouldn’t have been beaten today.”

Luo Tianyou hesitated for a few seconds, then asked.

“The money in your bag before…”

“It was stolen too,” Li Huayu said.

Luo Tianyou’s lips parted slightly as she walked over to Li Huayu.

Only then did she notice Li Huayu was trembling all over.

Li Huayu’s mouth was bloodied, her white teeth stained, tears at the corners of her eyes hidden by her bangs, her nose sniffling as she turned away, not daring to meet Luo Tianyou’s gaze.

Luo Tianyou remembered that when she herself had tried to hit Li Huayu just now, Li Huayu hadn’t resisted at all.

Even earlier in the bathroom, when she’d slapped her, there’d been no resistance.

Had she grown used to being beaten?

Most likely, ever since she was little, Li Huayu had grown accustomed to beatings, never daring to resist—because resisting only brought worse violence.

Luo Tianyou hated thieves and despised deception.

But the girl before her wasn’t just a simple villain.

She was more like a pitiful creature who had struggled too long in the mud, so used to pain and humiliation she’d even forgotten how to call for help.

And she wasn’t the only one.

Behind Wang Jie was a whole Organization, and there were others who’d tried to escape, failed to report to the Management Bureau, and been tortured to death.

Luo Tianyou couldn’t stand it.

She absolutely couldn’t accept that such an Organization existed.

“I’ll help you leave the Organization, but from now on you can’t steal anymore. You have to live properly.”

Luo Tianyou looked deeply at Li Huayu.

Within that gaze, Li Huayu saw a mix of complex emotions.

It was as if she saw the resolve to give up being human.

Then,She saw Luo Tianyou walk to a deserted spot beside the alley, take off her outerwear, and put on a beautiful starry dress.

Her long blue hair flowed without wind, cascading like a galaxy.

Her features became even more exquisite and moving.

The dress hugged her now slender yet powerful waist, the fluffy skirt and over-knee stockings outlining elegant legs.

“You really are… a Magical Girl.”

Li Huayu stared in shock as Luo Tianyou transformed before her eyes.

But in the Organization, there were Magical Girls—even some powerful ones.

Luo Tianyou was only one person.

She could never match them…

At the edge of the sky, a bright pillar of moonlight suddenly tore through the night without warning, plunging toward their location!

That radiance was so familiar, so iconic.

In Li Huayu’s mind, the image of one of the strongest contemporary Magical Girls instantly appeared.

The Moonlight Witch, Liuli under the Moon.