“And I’ve been pretty busy with work lately. We can sleep together, but you have to promise that once we get into bed, we just sleep—no other business, okay?”
Xiaoxi extended her pinky finger, attempting to seal the deal with Ye Xinglan by hooking pinkies and making a pact.
Seeing the Couple’s Ring on Xiaoxi’s ring finger, Ye Xinglan curled her lips but still hooked her pinky.
“Tsk, using work as an excuse. Honestly, you could just quit your job, I’m not exactly broke…”
The little rich girl was indeed generous enough, but when it came to matters of principle, Xiaoxi was absolutely not going to agree.
“No way, then I’d really be a kept woman! Oh, by the way, rent is due soon. I’ll transfer you the rent tomorrow.”
“What are you saying? Sounds like we’re strangers to each other!” Ye Xinglan protested, wrapping her arm around Xiaoxi and planting a kiss on her cheek. “We don’t even have to live here, anyway, since we’re already cohabiting.”
“Why don’t you see if one of the properties I own would suit us, and we can move there? Or I have a villa in another neighborhood…”
“No, no, no, forget it, Xinglan. I’m pretty used to living in this place. By the way, what does your family do? You’re crazy rich.”
Xiaoxi knew Ye Xinglan was generous, but hadn’t expected her to be this wealthy.
Come to think of it, Xiaoxi hadn’t learned anything about Ye Xinglan’s family situation—she didn’t even know what her family’s business was.
“Ah… let’s not talk about that for now, Xiaoxi. My relationship with my family… isn’t very good.”
Ye Xinglan looked a bit nervous. Seeing that, Xiaoxi didn’t press further. Though curious, if Ye Xinglan didn’t want to talk about it, that was fine.
But Xiaoxi still had other questions. She recalled the day she confessed to Ye Xinglan, how she had clearly sensed a fluctuation of Magical Power while they were in the fire escape.
At that time, she was too eager to explain herself and, with a recent monster attack nearby, didn’t pay much attention.
Only now, replaying the confession in her mind, she realized that monster’s rank wasn’t high, and even with Magical Power Dissipation, it shouldn’t have reached so far.
Plus, only she and Ye Xinglan were in the fire escape at the time. So that Magical Power fluctuation…
“…Anyway, that’s a separate matter. Couples living together and splitting rent is pretty common. I’ll transfer the money to you tomorrow, that’s settled.”
Xiaoxi suppressed her doubts for now, deciding not to ask more.
“You’re so stubborn… If you want to pay the rent, fine, but it doesn’t have to be money. Using your body as rent isn’t off the table either…” Ye Xinglan narrowed her eyes mischievously.
“Don’t pull my clothes! Someone messaged me… no, really, it’s Keke!”
Only then did Ye Xinglan stop pulling Xiaoxi toward the bed. Xiaoxi breathed a sigh of relief, opened the chat, and upon seeing the message from Xiao Keke, her eyes suddenly widened, and she slammed her fist on the table with a loud bang.
“Who the hell dares hit on my sister? I’m going to kill him!”
Maybe this was the difference between raising a little brother and a little sister. If a brother came to you with romantic troubles, you might enthusiastically help him strategize.
But if a sister said someone liked her… the protective older sibling instinct was usually to drag that annoying blondie out and beat him to death. Xiaoxi was definitely in that mindset now.
“Tell me everything. This is easy. Just tell me who it is, and your big sister will go beat them up!”
“That’s not what I mean! I just want you to help me figure out how to handle it, since you’re more experienced with love.”
“Keke says you’re more experienced~” Ye Xinglan teased, poking Xiaoxi’s arm.
“Then you’ve got to be more detailed. If you don’t tell me who it is, how can I help analyze?”
Xiaoxi changed tactics, gently coaxing, but in truth, she was just trying to get Keke to spill so she could hunt down that blondie and give him a proper thrashing!
“He’s a classmate at school. Because we’re in the same club, we interact quite a bit, and we get along well.”
Xiao Keke carefully reworded her relationship with Sirius to avoid revealing her identity as a Magical Girl, even though she was seeking her sister’s advice.
She was proud of how well she hid it. She’d been a Magical Girl in Summersea City for almost two months, and her big sister had no clue.
Upon hearing this, Xiaoxi already had an idea. She knew her little sister hardly went to school normally. This was part of the Xuedi Policy, a cooperative arrangement between the Association and schools.
In effect, Xiao Keke was a student majoring in “Magical Girl” studies, taking courses unified by the Association.
The work she did for the Association counted as a university internship, and after graduation, she would receive a Nominal Graduation Certificate.
So being a university student was Xiao Keke’s official cover.
Younger Magical Girls had to balance school and training, officially joining the Association at eighteen.
Xiaoxi could only wonder why she hadn’t had such a setup when she was a Magical Girl, forced to skip classes frequently to deal with monsters—leading to a perfect record of truancy over several years.
So Xiaoxi immediately suspected Xiao Keke was lying. If that was true, the person had to be someone from inside the Association, which narrowed the suspect list a lot.
“But recently, he’s been crossing boundaries—always touching me without thinking, using my things, and acting all concerned about me.”
Xiaoxi slammed the table again with a thunderous bang, furious. Who the hell was this bold bastard? This was straight-up harassment and hitting on her sister! He even dared to grope her!
Images popped into Xiaoxi’s mind: a dyed-haired blondie riding a Fiery Motorcycle, standing at the school gate whistling at girls—those kinds of flashy little blondies who thought two words with a girl meant she liked them.
Great, the blondie was hitting on her little sister… Xiaoxi grit her teeth.
“Or you can give me his full details and I’ll help you strategize.”
“You’re obviously trying to trap me into giving you information! If you keep this up, I won’t tell you anything!”
“Well, my advice is if you don’t like him, just reject him firmly next time. Better to cut off all contact with that little blondie.”
Xiao Keke frowned, surprised at how extreme the advice was. She pictured Sirius in her mind… surely he wasn’t the kind of person Xiaoxi described?
“I think you’re overthinking it, big sister. My classmate’s a good person, definitely not like what you said. I know her well.”
Ye Xinglan quickly grabbed Xiaoxi’s fist before she could slam the table again. “Don’t get worked up, baby, anger’s bad for your health…”
How could Xiaoxi not be angry? Her little sister seemed totally brainwashed by the blondie! And she was defending him!
No, even if Xiao Keke refused to spill more, Xiaoxi would find out who that blondie was on her own. She didn’t believe anyone would dare to mess with her little sister right under her nose.
Her fists clenched hard. She ran through suspects in her mind—there were plenty of people in the Association who came into contact with Magical Girls. Could it be someone from the Logistics Department or another team?
Or maybe another Magical Girl from a different squad? Xiaoxi knew Xiao Keke trained regularly in the Association’s Training Room and had several familiar Magical Girls there…
After brainstorming with no results, Xiaoxi grew even more furious. She’d joined the Association as Magic Girl Sirius to watch over her little sister, yet someone was harassing Xiao Keke right under her nose, and she hadn’t noticed a thing?
Damn it. If she ever found out who that blondie really was, she’d shred him into minced meat.
……
The next day, inside the Association’s Training Room.
Xiao Keke was training as usual. Though Eternal Star Senior’s special training had ended, she still followed the Senior’s high-intensity regimen daily. After a while, she even noticed she’d developed abs.
“Hey, A Wolf, what are you doing here in the training room? …Ah, don’t get me wrong, it’s just that I’ve barely seen you here before.”
Xiao Keke blinked in surprise. She’d never seen Magic Girl Sirius come to the training room before.
That was why she felt so frustrated with her own strength—she’d never seen how Sirius trained, but still couldn’t beat her.
“Gotta drop by sometimes.”
“A Wolf, aren’t you going to train?”
“I’m resting for a bit.”
Xiao Keke found it strange. Who comes to the training room just to rest? Was this some sort of anti-competition?
Her thoughts drifted back to what her big sister said last night… A Wolf’s behavior could be pretty weird sometimes.
Xiaoxi’s face was frosty. She usually avoided any Association events. She only patrolled shifts to keep Miss L happy and to protect Xiao Keke a little.
Today, she came to observe. She was determined to find that blondie bothering her little sister. But she couldn’t just shadow Xiao Keke all day, so she kept her distance and watched from afar. After a long time, she saw nothing suspicious.
Weird. Was that blondie really that mysterious? Not even a single appearance?
For Xiao Keke, something felt off, too. She kept feeling like someone’s eyes were watching her from behind—creepy.
That continued until Miss L summoned Xiaoxi to the office.
“Did your confession go well? Wow, A Xing, you look terrible. You didn’t fail, did you?”
Seeing Xiaoxi shake her head, Miss L relaxed. She’d thought the confession was a sure thing and hadn’t prepared a way to comfort a rejected Xiaoxi.
Besides, in Miss L’s opinion, Xiaoxi might as well just come clean about being Eternal Star.
Such a prestigious identity should actually help with romance, and maybe Ye Xinglan would like her even more if she knew. Miss L didn’t understand why Xiaoxi worried about this.
“It’s like this. I recently compiled some data on the Blood Moon Witch. If you have some free time, you can take a look. Maybe you’ll find some clues.”
“What use is that?” Xiaoxi frowned. “Do I still need to read about her? I can recite all the Blood Moon Witch info by heart.”
As the saying goes, your enemy knows you best. Xiaoxi had fought the Blood Moon Witch so many times, she knew her better than most members of the Divine Summon Order.
“I’m not giving you ordinary info. This is from the Research Division’s compiled data.”
Miss L made a “shh” gesture. This kind of material wasn’t supposed to be shown to a D-rank Magical Girl like Sirius.
“You know the Blood Moon Witch’s weaknesses. The higher-ups think her body is near its limit and she’ll need to come out ‘hunting,’ if she’s still in Summersea City.”
“This is specially prepared for you. After reading, handle it yourself. No need to return it.”
Xiaoxi nodded and folded the document into a small bundle she slipped into her pocket. She planned to study it later.
She rarely let her mind wander when it came to the Blood Moon Witch, but today she couldn’t fully concentrate.
Leaving Miss L’s office, Xiaoxi happened to see Shandie and Xiao Keke standing at the end of the corridor. Shandie handed a beautifully wrapped gift to Xiao Keke, both laughing happily.
Xiaoxi narrowed her eyes. She suddenly remembered Shandie had mysteriously given Xiao Keke a gift a few days ago as well.
Looks like the blondie might be starting to surface…
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