After walking hand in hand with Tang Xiaolu through the neighborhood next to the school for a while, we arrived at the base of a tall wall that she had described as “something a magical girl can easily climb over.”
Unlike the old dusty walls I remembered, the neighborhood wall before us was covered in climbing roses of some unknown variety.
Under the moonlight, these budding little flowers swayed in the breeze, giving off a faint fragrance.
“Come on.”
She gestured toward the wall with her eyes, then turned around and opened her arms to me.
“Our adorable dark chocolate cream little cake?”
“Again?”
I ignored that strange nickname “Dark Chocolate Cake” and said uncomfortably, “Um… I can just jump over myself, right?”
“You have to have a first time for everything!”
The girl in front of me looked stubborn.
“Come on, don’t make me coax you like a little kitten.”
“Fine, fine…”
With that, I had no choice but to helplessly walk toward the magical girl and open my arms.
“Good girl, worthy of being our little cake.”
Satisfied, Tang Xiaolu picked me up again in a princess carry, then leaped forcefully toward the top of the neighborhood wall, tracing an elegant arc under the moonlight.
Her chunky-heeled Lolita shoes landed on the bricks atop the wall.
“Wait a moment. In about one minute and twenty seconds, a car will pass by the overpass.”
Putting me down on the neighborhood wall, Tang Xiaolu, with her back to the school, stretched and said in a reflective tone, “When I come out of school late at night alone, I love standing here and looking at the scenery on both sides. This feeling is very magical. Behind me are the silent apartment buildings and high school campus with lights off.”
“Ahead is the main road where delivery drivers and pedestrians pass by from time to time. The streetlights make the whole road as bright as day. Everyone has their own things to do. It’s like… left hand reflection, right hand time. Xiao Yao, have you ever looked at our city’s night view like this?”
Saying that, she turned around and looked at me, who was standing there in a “well-behaved” posture.
“Huh?”
I snapped back to reality.
“I suppose… I have. When I was taking care of Mama in the hospital, I often looked out the hospital windows at the scenery outside the inpatient building. Heijiang First People’s Hospital, Heijiang Fifth People’s Hospital, Heijiang Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital, Affiliated Hospital of Heijiang Medical University… I’ve been to many, many hospitals and seen many, many views outside the wards. Outside some hospital inpatient buildings, there were busy roads; others had sea views; and some just had equally cold and sterile wards. When Mama got up to use the bathroom, when she needed a family member to watch her IV drip at night, when she was admitted to the ICU…”
“Accompanying a patient in the hospital is extremely draining. In most hospitals, each ward has at least four patients, each with a family member. If family members want to stay overnight, they all have to sleep on the floor. At night, the sounds of changing IV bottles, going in and out of the bathroom to wash hands, flushing toilets, eating, snoring… a cacophony of sounds rises and falls. The nurses also do rounds every two hours, making it impossible to rest properly. Sometimes when I really couldn’t sleep, I would walk to the hospital bed and stare blankly at the night view outside. However, standing on a high wall like this, able to freely overlook the city’s night view, is truly a first for me.”
“What’s wrong? Something on your mind?”
Maybe seeing that I had gone quiet, Tang Xiaolu leaned in.
“If you have something on your mind, you must remember to tell me, okay? Don’t bottle it up.”
“No, I just remembered some things from the past.”
I turned my head and looked into Tang Xiaolu’s eyes, which seemed afraid of losing something, under the soft light of the streetlights.
“Classmate Lulu is someone who really cares about her companions.”
“Of course! We’re both magical girls. Not everyone in this world can become a magical girl.”
Tang Xiaolu turned her face away.
“Besides, I’m your senior magical girl. It’s very necessary for a senior to take care of a junior and care about her mental health!”
“Really?”
I tilted my head.
“But just now I felt… like Lulu seemed to be afraid of losing something. Are you okay?”
“Uh… ahem ahem ahem.”
Tang Xiaolu coughed dryly.
“That’s your imagination, imagination…”
“Oh…”
I moved a little closer to Tang Xiaolu and reached out to take her small hand.
“Huh?”
Tang Xiaolu looked puzzled.
“Why suddenly…”
“Would this make Classmate Lulu feel a little more at ease?”
I smiled.
“Don’t worry. Even though I still don’t know exactly what a magical girl is, and I don’t know about Lulu’s past, at least I can guarantee one thing: I won’t bottle up sad things, and I won’t disappear for no reason.”
“Wh-what are you suddenly saying…”
Tang Xiaolu turned her face away.
“Who did you learn this from? It feels like… something from a novel or anime, like the interaction between lovers.”
“Was that too forward?”
I felt a bit embarrassed and instinctively let go.
“Sorry, I… I hardly have any experience talking to girls, so…”
“Forward? Not really.”
Tang Xiaolu grabbed my hand again.
“I just feel like our relationship is a bit off. I’m supposed to be your senior, but just now you gave me the feeling of being more… hmm, proactive?”
As she was speaking, a fully loaded oil tanker truck slowly drove over from afar.
The sound of its engine was somewhat harsh in the quiet street.
“This is the person I sensed through magic power, the most likely passerby. Once she drives past, no one else will come along this road for at least five minutes, so we can cross.”
Staring at the oil tanker slowly passing under the overpass, Tang Xiaolu said softly, “After midnight, pedestrians and vehicles on this road outside the neighborhood decrease a lot, but it’s not a complete no-man’s-land. Usually, if you want to go to the secret base, I suggest standing here first and checking for oncoming traffic…”
Before Tang Xiaolu could finish her sentence, the driver of the oil tanker approaching from afar seemed to yank the steering wheel.
The originally straight-moving vehicle suddenly made a sharp turn, heading straight for the greenbelt beside the road.
“What is he doing? Is the driver drunk?”
Tang Xiaolu was still puzzled when the truck crashed into the greenbelt with a loud bang.
Then, without any sign of slowing down, it continued toward the neighborhood fence behind the greenbelt.
Bang!
A crash resounded through the entire street.
The oil tanker, having rammed the neighborhood fence at full speed, overturned onto its side, and flames sparked at its underside.
“Not good!”
Seeing this, Tang Xiaolu grabbed my hand and prepared to jump down from the wall.
“I can sense the driver’s life force. She shouldn’t be dead yet. Hurry, save them!”
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