Xiao Xi changed her computer password and stepped out of her room, only to see Xiao Keke standing by the entrance, changing her clothes.
“Leaving already? Not staying for lunch, Keke?”
“Eating with a perverted big sister like you at the same table is disgusting,” Xiao Keke said without looking up, swapping her shoes. “I have something at school, gotta go back. It’s nothing, I’ll be back in a couple of days.”
Xiao Xi frowned in confusion. “Your school hasn’t even started yet, how can they have something that needs you?”
“None of your business!”
Xiao Keke was momentarily speechless, then slammed the door and left.
Xiao Xi shrugged it off, thinking Keke must have been upset about the little royal-themed story she’d written earlier.
While eating, Xiao Xi kept thinking about how Ye Xinglan had just hugged her, but Ye Xinglan was still happily munching away like a hamster, so Xiao Xi hesitated and didn’t ask.
After finishing the meal, she stayed in her room for a while but felt restless and couldn’t write.
In the end, she decided to ask Ye Xinglan for clarification.
Come to think of it, they had been roommates for some time, but she had never been inside Ye Xinglan’s room.
“The door’s not locked, come in.”
The moment Xiao Xi pushed the door open, she froze on the spot.
She knew Ye Xinglan had bought a bunch of stuff online recently to decorate her room, but she hadn’t expected it to be this… horrifying!
The walls were almost completely plastered with posters of [Eternal Star], and the shelves were filled with related merchandise.
Anyone who didn’t know better would think the room’s owner was a hardcore Eternal Star fan.
But every single poster had a grotesque face drawn over it or a big red X marked across it, with words like “Go to hell” scribbled on some.
On Ye Xinglan’s bed sat a large life-sized Eternal Star body pillow, but judging by how worn it was, Ye Xinglan definitely wasn’t hugging it to sleep every night.
If anything, the pillow looked like it had been used as a punching bag to get this battered!
“Hmph hmph, what do you think? Not bad for my room’s decor, right?” Ye Xinglan puffed out her chest proudly when she caught Xiao Xi’s shocked expression, and even Tuan Tuan gave a little shake.
No, don’t be proud of something so bizarre!
“You really hate [Eternal Star] that much?”
“Of course! Both the Magical Girl Association and [Eternal Star] are no good!”
“Evidence is needed when you speak, Miss Ye Xinglan.” Xiao Xi sounded helpless.
Ye Xinglan immediately pulled out her phone and flipped through one news article after another in front of Xiao Xi.
They were all things like, “Shocking! The well-known magical girl [Eternal Star]’s dark side revealed,” obviously fake stuff.
“Most of these are… no, all of them are fake news, right? They’re hardly credible.”
“How do you know they’re fake?” Ye Xinglan retorted. “You’re not [Eternal Star], so how do you know she never did those things?”
Xiao Xi fell silent. She really didn’t know how to argue against that.
Putting aside personal grudges, Ye Xinglan did find Eternal Star hypocritical.
As the former secret weapon of the Council of Divine Summons, she knew many dark secrets unknown to ordinary believers.
The Magical Girl Association had done plenty of unsavory things behind the scenes.
For instance, during her imprisonment in the Ossuary, the association conducted inhumane experiments on her and other “monsters.”
Ye Xinglan firmly believed Eternal Star, who had captured her and locked her in the Ossuary, was well aware of those things.
Seeing her own photos plastered all over the room, alongside the battered body pillow with her image on it that had clearly taken a beating, Xiao Xi’s feelings were complicated.
In the end, she let out a long sigh.
“What’s wrong? Why that face? I’m cursing [Eternal Star], not you.”
“No… I just think that [Eternal Star] at least protected a lot of people as a magical girl. She doesn’t deserve all this.”
Ye Xinglan narrowed her eyes at Xiao Xi, the gaze making her a little uneasy.
“Why are you so eager to defend [Eternal Star]… Ah, I get it!” Ye Xinglan suddenly raised her voice.
Xiao Xi’s protection of Eternal Star and her familiarity with her teammates’ affairs showed she must have been exposed to this kind of information often.
There was only one answer—
“You’re a die-hard fan of [Eternal Star], aren’t you?”
“Huh?”
Xiao Xi was stunned, not sure how Ye Xinglan came to that conclusion.
Honestly, Xiao Xi used to hate her own die-hard fans, those people who wouldn’t run away when she fought monsters and stood by as cheerleaders, forcing her to fight and protect them at the same time.
She never thought the day would come when someone would call her her own die-hard fan.
“Then why do you only write little royal-themed stories about [Eternal Star]’s teammates, but not her?”
“I…”
Xiao Xi couldn’t answer immediately, feeling caught between “curry-flavored poop” and “poop-flavored curry.”
“Forget it, whatever you say… Wait, I’m here for something else, not to argue.”
“About what happened in the living room earlier,” Xiao Xi made a crossed-arms gesture, “this isn’t quite what we agreed on at first, is it?”
Come to think of it, Ye Xinglan’s excuse for living with her was strange.
The neighborhood she lived in wasn’t exactly scenic.
If we’re talking about the environment, the young lady’s usual mansion must be much nicer, right?
Ye Xinglan had a perfectly fine villa but chose to come here instead—it looked more like she was hiding from someone.
“Miss Ye Xinglan, be honest with me,” Xiao Xi became serious, “Do you have some other purpose? Or are you running away from someone?”
This time, Ye Xinglan was silent.
If she wanted to keep outsiders from guessing, she had to get Xiao Xi’s cooperation and come up with a better excuse.
Or maybe Xiao Xi wasn’t a magical girl, so an ordinary person wouldn’t be so opposed to her true identity?
“Alright, you guessed right,” Ye Xinglan carefully spoke up, “I am running away… from my family.”
“Family?” Xiao Xi blinked, waiting silently for her to continue.
“My family arranged a marriage for me, but I’m not interested at all, so I ran away.”
“And I thought, if I already had a partner, they’d back off, so…”
No wonder Ye Xinglan went to those matchmaking events.
Xiao Xi suddenly understood—the old story of dodging family-arranged marriage made perfect sense for a young lady like Ye Xinglan.
“So—you want to pretend to be my girlfriend, right?”
Ye Xinglan pointed at Xiao Xi with the determination of a Pokémon Trainer saying, “I choose you!”
“As long as we pretend to be a couple living together for a while, my family should back off.
Don’t worry, money and everything else can be discussed.”
Xiao Xi wore a pained expression.
Though she didn’t have much right to refuse since she couldn’t earn money from writing novels in the short term, it wasn’t about the money.
Pretending to be a couple with Ye Xinglan, an extreme hater of [Eternal Star]? Her dignity as a magical girl—
Well, actually, she realized her dignity had been lost ever since she decided to write those little royal stories about defeated magical girls.
I can endure this!
Seeing Xiao Xi agree reluctantly under financial pressure, Ye Xinglan happily let out a smug “Hmmph.”
She had known Xiao Xi wouldn’t refuse.
Speaking of money troubles… Ye Xinglan suddenly remembered something.
She called out to the dejected Xiao Xi, who was about to leave, and beckoned her over.
“I’m suddenly thinking about charging rent.”
“Huh? Didn’t you say we’d put that off for a while… Oh, you’re threatening me, aren’t you?”
“Mm-hmm, repeat after me—[Eternal Star] isn’t a good person~”
Xiao Xi clenched her fists and turned red in the face.
After a moment, she squeezed out the words through gritted teeth.
“[Eternal Star] isn’t a good person.”
“That’s right, keh keh keh keh keh…”
Ye Xinglan let out a string of villainous laughs straight out of an anime novel.
For some reason, hearing Xiao Xi say that made her feel incredibly satisfied.
It was almost like hearing Eternal Star being insulted right in front of her.
Maybe it was because Xiao Xi was an Eternal Star fan, so in a way, it was like Eternal Star herself was admitting defeat to her.
Just thinking about it felt awesome!
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