The two of them walked into the house.
To Shuihua’s surprise, the interior decor was nowhere near as extravagant as it looked from the outside.
The floor was made of warm-looking wood, and the furniture had a simple style.
Perhaps having heard them come in, footsteps echoed from upstairs.
Shuihua looked in the direction of the stairs and saw a pink-haired girl in loungewear coming down.
“Liujin-senpai, and… Shuihua…”
The girl squinted at Shuihua as she spoke, a subtle nuance in her expression.
“Hello. Last time we met, things were rushed, and I didn’t get a chance to ask your name.”
“I’m Magical Girl Yao Ying.”
The pink-haired girl lifted her chin slightly, adding deliberately, “Right now, I’m living together with Liujin-senpai.”
As Yao Ying emphasized this, her tone carried a faint sense of staking her claim.
“So, you and Liujin live together?”
Shuihua glanced at Liujin, thinking, Doesn’t she live in the university dorms every day?
“Mm… Sort of,” Liujin answered honestly as always.
“But I still mainly stay in the university dorm, since it’s convenient for classes and studying. I just come back here occasionally.”
“So Yao Ying gets this huge villa all to herself? Liujin, you’re pretty nice—just lending out such a big house.”
“It’s not that,” Liujin shook her head.
“Actually, I asked Yao Ying to stay here. Leaving the house empty for too long isn’t good. It needs some liveliness.”
“Exactly,” Yao Ying immediately chimed in, sounding a bit smug as she twirled a bit of pink magic at her fingertips.
“Plus, all the cleaning for this huge place is up to me! Such a big house, and I clean it all myself. Magic is amazing, right?”
The three sat down on the living room sofa.
Yao Ying casually waved her hand, and the distant cupboard opened on its own.
Tea canister, teapot, and cups leaped out in single file, then began boiling water, scooping tea, and brewing—all in smooth succession.
“What kind of magic is that?”
Shuihua had first guessed it was telekinesis, but seeing that Yao Ying’s gaze wasn’t even directed that way, she dismissed the thought.
“That’s my Amplification Magic. It’s super versatile! An Amplification Hero can boost combat strength, and Amplification Magic can boost magic’s power. It can also amplify these little objects, give them autonomy, and with a bit of training, they can brew tea all by themselves!”
“So your Hero rank is…”
“A-rank.”
Yao Ying’s eyes were already stuck on Liujin again.
“But I’m still far behind Liujin-senpai.”
Even one of Liujin’s Assistant Squad members had a higher rank than Director Star Li…
But that was to be expected; their roles were different.
They were humanity’s backbone against the Altered Beings, while Shuihua and the others were just grassroots civil servants.
“So, Liujin-senpai, why’d you suddenly bring Shuihua here? You haven’t come home in days, and when you do, you bring her.”
“Because there’s something I wanted Shuihua to look at,” Liujin replied straightforwardly.
“It’s in my room.”
Yao Ying wrinkled her brow.
Her jealousy was plain, but she didn’t say much.
She just sighed, “Fine, fine, Liujin-senpai, go have your tryst upstairs with Shuihua. I’ll just sit here and drink tea, won’t bother you two.”
Shuihua could hardly imagine herself caught in a jealous spat with a little girl.
Her face grew a bit awkward.
She wanted to explain that they were just friends, but in this kind of atmosphere, any explanation would only make it worse.
In the end, she just swallowed her words and quietly followed Liujin upstairs.
Liujin’s room was spotless, clearly kept in excellent order—no doubt thanks to Yao Ying.
Liujin went to her nightstand, opened the top drawer, and took out a thick, brand-new album.
“Don’t tell me you’re about to reveal that we actually met somewhere long ago?”
Seeing Liujin pull out the album, Shuihua couldn’t help but think of some classic clichés and joked.
“Uh… no.”
Liujin blinked, then shook her head.
“I just wanted to show you my drawings.”
“Oh, it’s an artbook,” Shuihua only then noticed the texture of the album.
“I thought it was a photo album.”
They sat on the bed, and Liujin opened the artbook.
Her artwork unfolded: at first, childish stick-figure doodles from her early years, then middle school parodies of textbook characters, followed by more formal pencil and ink sketches, and watercolor anime character studies.
There were even more digital drawings than everything else combined.
There were Heroes, Altered Beings, and a few Heroes that Shuihua recognized, though most weren’t S-rank—probably teammates who fought alongside Liujin.
The Altered Beings were all heavyweight, each infamous enough to be recorded in history, the kind that had brought heavy casualties to the Bureau of Supernatural Abilities—just looking at them was terrifying.
In works created after the Alteration Tide subsided, Liujin had begun to draw self-portraits, cityscapes, and some celebrity Heroes.
In her self-portraits, Liujin looked heroic, exuding both strength and beauty—not that she’d deliberately beautified herself, for she did look just like that in person.
“Guess who I drew at the end?”
Liujin quickly flipped to the last few pages.
How could Shuihua not know?
Liujin sketched her all the time in the dorm, copying Shuihua’s Official Publicity Image, then making her own variations.
Shuihua could guess with her eyes closed.
“Uh… Let me guess,” she tilted her head, pretending to think.
“Was it that balloon Altered Being who blew you up?”
“Of course it’s you.”
Liujin seemed not to catch the joke—or just didn’t care.
She solemnly turned to the last few pages.
Unlike what Shuihua imagined, the Magic Girl Shuihua in the drawing stood atop sparkling water, hands aglow with bright blue magic, posture upright, gaze sharp, with a confident, resolute smile on her face.
Shuihua had thought she’d be drawn in a cute style, or as a chibi mascot…
If that were the case, she’d have to protest—she wasn’t just a pretty face, her record was better than some B+-rank Magical Girls.
But seeing this version of herself—so much cooler than real life—Shuihua couldn’t help but smile and tease herself:
“I’m not that cool. Most of the time, I’m just getting spun like a top by Altered Beings.”
“That’s okay, I drew that too.”
Liujin flipped to the next page, where Shuihua crouched on the ground holding her head, spinning like a top from an Altered Being’s attack.
“Ugh…”
Shuihua’s face instantly darkened.
Clearly, she’d overestimated Liujin’s emotional intelligence; any sense of being touched vanished without a trace.
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