Chapter 42: Exploded

Feng Ling woke up on Lian Ge’s bed, looked around, and realized she had somehow ended up sleeping there.

After finishing those draft regulations last night, she had been so exhausted that, considering she still needed to proofread them the next day, she had just collapsed on the sofa.

How had she wound up here?

It was only then that it dawned on her: Lian Ge must have found her and carried her to bed.

‘Maybe I’ve spent so much time as a Magical Girl that I’ve gotten slow about things like this,’ she thought.

Even now, she didn’t feel particularly bothered—it just felt like care from the Captain.

But soon enough, the awkwardness hit her belatedly, and she quickly threw off the covers, jumping out of bed.

Pushing open the bedroom door, she spotted the study door ajar and immediately walked over.

Lian Ge was sitting in front of her computer, not typing, just holding the mouse and slowly scrolling down the document on the screen.

Her left hand was cupping her chin as she nodded occasionally.

Hearing footsteps, Lian Ge turned around, smiled at her, and pointed at the dense text filling the monitor.

“You’re awake. I went over the draft we wrote earlier, made some revisions. Should be good now.”

“Great, then send it to the Association ASAP.”

Feng Ling let out a small sigh of relief.

Lian Ge organized the document, sent the digital version to the Association’s email first, then started the printer on the desk.

They also needed a physical copy.

The machine hummed as it spat out page after page of black-and-white text, the warm smell of paper quickly filling the room.

In that brief lull, Lian Ge shuffled the printed pages as she casually remarked, “I didn’t expect you to write something so decent, Feng Ling. I barely had to change anything. I was worried you’d never dealt with official documents like this and would be totally lost.”

“Come on, I’m amazing, alright?”

The two of them took the documents to the Association again, made final revisions with the relevant staff in the third-floor conference room, and then the Association formally submitted them to the Legislature.

Only when Feng Ling stepped out of the Association’s entrance did she finally let out a long, deep breath.

Her business reputation was saved.

Once she posted the announcement about the regulations on her platform feed and made it clear she had participated in drafting them, not only would it explain why she couldn’t promote Momo Ointment, but it would also give her the added halo of being a conscientious streamer.

Maximum damage control.

“Lian Ge, do you want to come over to my place tonight?”

It was Feng Ling’s first time taking the initiative to invite Lian Ge.

After all, Feng Ling had no proof on her own—she needed Lian Ge to testify that she had been involved in drafting the regulations.

Besides, a little Yuri Service would fill the gap left by the product promotion segment, so the audience’s enthusiasm wouldn’t go to waste.

Lian Ge’s reaction was bigger than Feng Ling had expected.

She stopped in her tracks, frozen in place, her blue eyes fixed on Feng Ling.

“Is it not okay?”

Feng Ling subconsciously thought Lian Ge might be unwilling, so she tilted her head and tried her best to act cute to coax her again.

“No, no, I’m just a bit surprised, that’s all. This is the first time you’ve invited me to your place.”

Lian Ge quickly waved her hands.

Hearing that, Feng Ling felt a pang of guilt—a rare moment of conscience making her feel sorry for how she had treated Lian Ge.

To prevent her relationship with Lian Ge from escalating, Feng Ling had always maintained a deadpan attitude toward it.

Even the rare times she proactively reached out to Lian Ge, it was only to use her as a tool to solve problems.

Feng Ling did have a little conscience—not much, but sometimes she still considered other people’s feelings.

Since sweet words cost nothing, she decided to butter Lian Ge up a bit.

“Because every time I wanted to invite you, you always came to me first. You always beat me to it, and that’s really frustrating for me.”

She clasped her hands behind her back, rose lightly on her heels, and whispered softly into Lian Ge’s ear.

Lian Ge, hearing all this sweet talk, broke into a smile and leaned closer to Feng Ling.

Together, they flew toward Feng Ling’s place.

The key turned in the lock, and the two squeezed side by side into Feng Ling’s rented apartment.

Feng Ling booted up her computer, adjusted the camera’s position and angle so that the frame perfectly captured herself and the empty seat beside her.

Lian Ge stood nearby, bent over with her hands on her knees, watching Feng Ling set up the streaming software.

Both their faces appeared side by side on the screen.

“Streaming again today? Am I not enough company for you?”

Feng Ling felt something dangerous in Lian Ge’s tone and quickly soothed her while explaining, “Uh… my viewers are used to watching me at this time. I already skipped yesterday, so if I miss today too, they’ll probably feel something’s missing, right?”

“But I can end the stream early. Once I’m off, I’ll focus on you.”

“No, no, I was just saying.”

Lian Ge realized that her question—”Am I not enough company for you?”—had made the atmosphere awkward, so she quickly waved her hands to explain.

She had asked it subconsciously, not expecting Feng Ling to interpret it as a complaint about not getting enough attention, and then to seriously list a whole bunch of reasons.

Seeing Lian Ge flustered for once, Feng Ling thought it was time to calm things down.

“It’s fine. Honestly, I want some time alone with you too. I want to tell you secrets we can’t share on stream.”

Right after saying that, Feng Ling felt like she might have overdone it.

She had only meant to smooth things over.

But considering the persona she had in Lian Ge’s eyes—she was just a clueless Little Demon Beast—maybe it didn’t matter.

She’d let Lian Ge interpret it however she wanted.

Lian Ge blinked, her lips moving as if she wanted to ask more, but Feng Ling had already clicked the “Start Streaming” button, switching into her professional mode.

Since Feng Ling had taken a day off yesterday, many viewers had been waiting for her to go live.

Now, seeing not only Feng Ling but also Lian Ge beside her, the comments exploded like a dam breaking.

“Here it is! Why didn’t you stream yesterday?”

“You took a day off yesterday, so you gotta make up for it today!”

“Captain Lian Ge again? Isn’t she showing up a bit too often?”

“Don’t tell me Lian Ge is here to sell stuff too?”

Feng Ling waved at the camera, wearing her usual energetic smile as she started the stream.

“Good evening, everyone! Today we have our special guest, Captain Lian Ge, back again. Let’s give her a round of applause.”

On the edge of the frame, Lian Ge gave a slight bow, still as proper and formal as ever.

“But before we officially begin, I need to announce something.”

Feng Ling folded her hands, resting her arms on the desk, covering the lower half of her face with her palms to look more serious.

“A couple of days ago, I was planning to promote a product called Momo Ointment. Unfortunately, that plan has to be canceled today.”

She waited for the barrage of comments to die down for a moment, then made a downward-pressing motion in front of the camera to signal everyone to calm down before explaining.

She briefly recounted how she and Lian Ge had detected “jealousy” magic in the product.

“Jealousy magic? What’s that?”

“So the manufacturer added it? That’s disgusting!”

“Wait, wait, didn’t you guys visit the factory yesterday? The test results were fine, right?”

Feng Ling continued, “That’s right. All the samples collected at the factory that day tested pure for healing magic—no abnormalities. So this issue most likely isn’t the manufacturer intentionally adding illegal magic. It’s probably an error during the manual collection process.”

“So, while Momo Ointment’s entire production line is a well-thought-out design—working with hospitals, letting patients get subsidies during recovery—those ideas are great.”

“But the current quality control can’t guarantee every batch is flawless. If these magic substances cause unpredictable harm to people, the cost is something none of us can bear.”

“So no product promotion tonight.”

Feng Ling gestured to Lian Ge, signaling it was her turn to speak.

Lian Ge nodded and took over, speaking quite professionally.

“After discussing with Feng Ling and the Magical Girl Association, we believe the current environment lacks an effective oversight mechanism for magic-containing products like these. Allowing them to circulate freely on the market would be irresponsible to consumers.”

“The Association has officially submitted a draft management regulation to the relevant departments today. We will also contact the platform to temporarily delist all related products until new regulatory measures are in place and we can reassess.”

“For specific articles, please refer to the ‘Draft Regulations for the Management of Magic Products’ posted on the Association’s official account today,” Feng Ling chimed in, trying to lighten the serious atmosphere.

“Several of those articles were painstakingly drafted by yours truly. Bet you didn’t know I had skills, huh?”

After a brief silence, the comments exploded.

“Feng Ling can write official documents? I thought I was seeing things.”

“Go Feng Ling! Conscientious streamer!”

“Wait, so Feng Ling breached her contract? What about the brand side?”

“I think this is too much regulation. There are tons of handmade products. Why do only the ones involving magic have to be taken down?”

The comment section quickly split into several factions, each arguing their point, none willing to concede.

Watching the increasingly heated debate on her screen, Feng Ling quickly stepped in to keep the atmosphere in check.

“So it’s just a temporary halt on promotion. Once the oversight system is in place and the Association gives the green light, there’s a good chance we can continue cooperating.”

“I really like Zhi Jin, and I support a mechanism where both patients and companies win. But at the end of the day, consumer safety comes first.”

“If I knew there were quality control issues and still pushed the product just for money, I’d be asking everyone to take the risk for me. That’s something I can’t do—either as a Magical Girl or as a streamer with a conscience.”

“So I just ask everyone to be patient a little longer.”

Feng Ling said this with genuine sincerity.

On a matter like this, she wouldn’t let herself be careless.

She thought her words would calm the comments down, but the reaction was completely off her radar.

“It’s blown up.”

“Last chance.”

“Streamer, switch to Chi Yun’s stream, quick, serious matter.”

“This is really blowing up.”

Feng Ling didn’t immediately understand what the comments meant.

She thought maybe she had misspoken and was about to add some clarifications, when a Super Chat popped up.

Now she realized it really had “blown up.”

“Streamer, how do you feel about Chi Yun currently promoting Momo Ointment?”

“Huh?”

Feng Ling switched to Chi Yun’s stream.

The image popped up, and there was Chi Yun, still hustling to promote the product.

But the comments in her chat had already started flooding in with things like “Quality control issues,” “The Association already submitted a supervision draft,” “Feng Ling said they’ll contact the platform to delist,” and “Streamer, isn’t the product you’re pushing defective? Are you scamming everyone?”

There were even nastier comments, directly copy-pasting Feng Ling’s earlier words and dropping them as a bombshell, basically implying Chi Yun was a heartless streamer.

…

“If I knew there were quality control issues and still pushed the product just for money, I’d be asking everyone to take the risk for me. That’s something I can’t do—either as a Magical Girl or as a streamer with a conscience.”

…

One after another, similar comments appeared in Chi Yun’s live stream, covering part of the screen.

But Chi Yun was still focused on introducing the product to the camera, completely oblivious to the shift.

Feng Ling remembered that the Association had notified all Magical Girls about the new rules for magic products that afternoon.

If Chi Yun was going to promote Momo Ointment, there was no reason she wouldn’t have checked.

And even if she somehow missed the notification, Lian Ge had gone over the whole thing in detail during the Association meeting a few days ago—right in front of everyone.

Her memory couldn’t be that bad.

She should have noticed.

Then again, Chi Yun technically wasn’t breaking any rules.

At this point, the draft was just a draft.

Even though it had been submitted to the Legislature, it would be quite some time before it was officially enacted.

In the gap—days or even weeks—Momo Ointment was still a legally marketable product.

The problem was that Feng Ling’s impassioned speech had already been broadcast.

Without even knowing it, she had taken the moral high ground, mercilessly slapped her senior Chi Yun in the face, and left her roasting over the coals.

‘Oh no, oh no, this is going to make enemies out of co-workers.’