“I’m definitely curious.”
Feng Ling nodded.
“I still have a few patients’ magic power to collect. Come with me and take a look, but keep your voices down—most patients are resting.”
Zhi Jin turned the cart around and pushed it toward the ward ahead.
Feng Ling and Lian Ge followed closely.
Soon, Zhi Jin stopped in front of a ward door, knocked, and after receiving a response, turned the handle, opened the door, and pushed the cart inside.
The layout of this ward was exactly the same as the one Director Liu had shown them earlier.
On the first bed near the door lay a thin girl, about sixteen or seventeen, her face a little pale, with an IV drip.
Zhi Jin seemed to remember all the patients and briefly explained her condition.
“This little one was hospitalized next door for gastritis. She was transferred here last week. A few more days of rest and she can go home.”
Hearing someone enter, the girl’s gaze, which had been staring blankly at the ceiling, shifted, and she saw Zhi Jin and the two unfamiliar faces behind her.
“Don’t be nervous. These two are Magical Girls. They came to see you, and they won’t disturb you.”
“Hello, Sister Zhi Jin. Hello, Magical Girl sisters.”
The girl smiled and waved at them.
Zhi Jin parked the cart by the bed, then walked over and sat down beside the girl.
“Is your stomach better today?” she asked.
“I don’t know. The doctor said to keep observing and wait for tomorrow’s blood test results. Sister Zhi Jin, I won’t be like this forever, will I?”
“Of course not. You’re young and recover quickly. In a few days, you’ll be able to eat delicious food.”
While chatting with her, Zhi Jin gently placed her right hand on the girl’s stomach area.
A pale green glow soon appeared on Zhi Jin’s hand.
Green magic power surged up through her palm and quickly condensed into a small, droplet-like clump of magic.
It rotated slowly in the air, radiating a warm, soothing light.
With her free left hand, Zhi Jin took a metal bottle from the cart, unscrewed the cap, and brought the emerald green magic mass near the bottle opening.
The magic, docile under Zhi Jin’s control, obediently slipped into the metal bottle.
She tightened the cap, stuck a small label on the bottle, wrote a few characters with a fountain pen, and then placed the bottle back on the cart.
Feng Ling had expected some high-tech magic extraction machine or something, but it turned out to be just directly pulling the magic out of the patient with a hand.
Wasn’t that an ability only she herself had?
“I thought there would be some machine. So it’s just done by hand?”
Feng Ling asked bluntly.
Zhi Jin was taken aback for a moment, then quickly waved her hand and laughed.
“How could there be a machine capable of that… It’s an ability, my special ability.”
“My magic concept is ‘Sharing.’ By sharing the patients’ concept of ‘Healing,’ I can obtain corresponding magic power. It should be impossible to directly extract magic from a patient, right?”
“But you’re an ordinary person. Why do you have the ability to collect magic?”
Feng Ling was even more puzzled.
“I’m not an ordinary person… Because I’m a Magical Girl too, just like you.”
Zhi Jin blinked, bent down slightly, and patted her right leg.
Below her nurse uniform, a light pink ribbon was tied around her thigh in a bow.
In the center of the bow, a Star Crystal was quietly embedded, revealing her identity as a Magical Girl.
“You’re a Magical Girl? But why have I never seen you before…”
There were only seven Magical Girls in Haicheng.
Feng Ling saw them all the time, and even if she didn’t talk much with them, she knew their faces and code names.
But this Zhi Jin clearly wasn’t among them.
Feng Ling glanced at Lian Ge, who also shook her head, indicating she had never seen her.
However, Lian Ge realized she might be a Magical Girl from elsewhere.
“Are you a Magical Girl from another city?” she asked.
“Yeah, sort of. I’m a Magical Girl from the countryside. I live in Clam Village near Haicheng and usually come here to work.”
Lian Ge fell into thought.
She had never considered that there might be Magical Girls in rural areas.
Speaking of which, there probably wasn’t a Magical Girl Association there, no designated missions, and no subsidies.
Without subsidies, it meant having to support oneself, so working while being a Magical Girl made perfect sense.
“Then, what about the Qia Bi that made a contract with you?”
Lian Ge pressed further.
Generally, each big city was assigned one Qia Bi as a managing familiar for Magical Girls, but in the countryside, that was uncertain.
Zhi Jin shook her head.
“I don’t know where it went.”
Feng Ling nodded.
So in the end, Zhi Jin was a freelance Magical Girl.
Without any Magical Girl duties, she had taken up a job.
And being able to work freely as a Magical Girl—honestly, Feng Ling was a bit envious.
Lian Ge naturally had no idea what Feng Ling was thinking.
Instead, she was immersed in a sense of responsibility to bring this lone Magical Girl into the Association.
If Feng Ling were in Zhi Jin’s place, she would definitely blame Lian Ge for meddling.
She composed her words, then asked Zhi Jin seriously.
“Then, would you consider joining our Haicheng Magical Girl Association?”
“Just a question? I thought the Captain would forcibly drag her back to work on the grounds of ‘not fitting the image of a Magical Girl,'” Feng Ling said softly.
“Because I only manage registered Magical Girls.”
Being called out like that in front of everyone, Lian Ge immediately blushed and quickly waved her hands and explained to Feng Ling.
“Qia Bi is the one in charge of contracts and registration. I can only ask her wishes; I can’t make the decision for her.”
Zhi Jin shook her head and waved her hand.
“No. Everyone here is very friendly. I really like it here.”
“Then, keeping things as they are is fine… If you change your mind, you can come find us anytime.”
After a round of questions, the two had a good understanding of Zhi Jin’s background.
They never expected to run into a lone Magical Girl here.
Listening to this, Feng Ling noticed a suspicious point.
Since the ability to extract magic power relied on a unique Magical Girl’s ability, how did Enchantment Technology ensure that at the exact link they needed, there happened to be a Magical Girl with exactly that ability?
Or rather, this company didn’t just happen to encounter Zhi Jin; they actively sought out Magical Girls with special abilities like hers and matched their abilities to suitable commercial processes one by one?
Feng Ling seemed to have reached an even more startling conclusion.