Watching Sand Gun run off into the distance, Little White in the cage was utterly stunned, the whole fairy in a daze.
After finally encountering another fairy’s magical girl, what kind of situation was this?
A lunatic magical girl?!
Before, even the slightest hint of dark magic from Jiang Yao had scared Little White half to death.
Even now, it still suspected that its half-baked magical contract might be the cause, but it never dared to speak up.
But now…
(This won’t do, I can’t just ignore this.)
If a magical girl goes crazy, then all us light fairies bear responsibility.
As a member of the fairy clan, in this kind of situation, Little White felt duty-bound and honor-bound to offer timely assistance.
So, it began racking its brains, trying to recall what this condition was called and what it should do next to help Sand Gun.
(Let me think, what did the Academy teach about this again?)
(Hmm…)
The result was obvious—Little White couldn’t remember a thing.
“Oh right, for a moment I actually forgot I smuggled my way here.
How could I possibly remember anything?”
Little White was both annoyed and amused at itself, leaning against the side of the iron cage.
If it couldn’t help, there was nothing to be done. At least it had tried its best, so it felt no guilt. It spread its two paws, closed its eyes, and entered ‘fairy slack-off mode.’
“prprpr.”
“Ah! You stupid dog! Don’t lick me!”
As soon as it shouted, the dog that had been sneaking up behind to lick it while it was leaning against the cage suddenly—who knew why—clamped down on the skin at Little White’s back through the bars.
“What—what are you doing?! Let go of me!”
Little White struggled fiercely, making the cage clang and rattle. The commotion startled the dogs in the neighboring cages, who had already been scared by Sand Gun just now, into a chorus of barking. That, in turn, set off the cats in the next cage, who fluffed up and hissed, even rolling around in a panic and spinning in place like breakdancers.
Some passersby who had noticed a girl acting weird in front of the pet cages had wanted to check it out, but seeing this chaos, they thought that oddly dressed girl from earlier must have drugged the animals. Fearing the pet owners eating nearby would blame them, they quickly backed away.
It wasn’t until five or six minutes later that Jiang Lingwei came out with her takeout ‘Cat Will Reason’ buns, picked up Little White, and left with the group—finally ending the farce of this embarrassing little creature almost losing an argument to a dog.
Sitting in the back seat of the taxi, Jiang Lingwei handed the buns over to the front seat for Jiang Yao to feed Little White. She still pretended not to understand what Little White was saying to Jiang Yao, instead leaning against Jiang Cheng’s shoulder, listening to Little White’s recount of what just happened, silently thinking to herself:
(This sounds serious…)
Based on the information at hand, Jiang Lingwei speculated that Sand Gun had probably experienced a failed mission once, and the trauma left a shadow over her, leading to her current state.
In the worst case, perhaps her teammates died, leaving her with such a mental blow.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason for Sand Gun to be wandering around alone.
Having gone through similar experiences, Jiang Lingwei couldn’t help but empathize.
But there was still one problem: why hadn’t anyone from the Bureau stepped in to help?
It wasn’t like her time anymore. The Bureau was now a mature organization with official endorsement, not some amateur outfit. No way would they fail to notice a magical girl in trouble.
Not to mention, Sand Gun wasn’t just any magical girl.
At least, in the publicly available information, Sand Gun had successfully completed many missions, repeatedly repelling threats from the Dark.
Judging from the timeline, she was probably second or third generation—a veteran with experience far beyond ordinary people.
Back in ancient times, someone like that would have been a centurion or an old campaigner.
So why was such a person so neglected? What was the local Bureau even doing?
Given the situation, Jiang Lingwei, who’d been considering seeking help from the authorities, decided to hold off and observe a bit longer.
Wenya Quan understood these things better, so she planned to ask her for advice later.
If nothing else worked…
(Sigh.)
It just sounded so pitiful, Jiang Lingwei really couldn’t stand to see it.
(If all else fails, I’ll have [Aurora] give it a try.)
As she mulled things over, Jiang Cheng suddenly squeezed her hand. “Hm?”
[Don’t worry. If there’s anything I can do, I’ll help.]
Looking at the words Jiang Cheng typed on his phone, Jiang Lingwei rested her head against his arm and reached out to take the phone:
(It’s fine, let’s wait for Sister Xiaoqian to come tomorrow and talk then. This doesn’t seem like a simple situation.)
(By the way, did you already buy the tickets online?)
[Don’t worry, I reserved them yesterday.]
(That’s good.)
Ten minutes later, their group arrived at the Lancang Ocean Museum.
This time, Little White was hidden in the backpack and brought along.
After all, it counted as family. It was hard to smuggle it into a restaurant, but for the aquarium, they had to let it have a look.
Officially, pets weren’t allowed, but Little White was a fairy.
Technically, it was the superior or even mentor to magical girls. If not for the fear of attracting attention, it wouldn’t even need permission.
“Wow.”
Once inside, seeing the spacious exhibition hall and the blue space, Jiang Lingwei was even more excited than Jiang Yao.
She had lived poor and inland before, and had never seen the ocean for real. As for aquariums, she’d never had the money or the time, and even when going out with friends, she never suggested going.
Later, she heard her city had an aquarium too, but by then the Dark Gate was almost open. For months, the vanguard from the Dark side kept dying in waves, stirring up endless trouble.
Her workload had skyrocketed, and there was no way she could go.
So, she’d always had a strong fascination with the sea.
She finally got to go to the beach, feeling the sea breeze and planning to try diving with Jiang Cheng when he came. But the whole thing got messed up by that damn shark-head, and the beach was still closed off. If Sand Gun hadn’t finished things off, that shark would have ended up in big trouble with the pent-up Jiang Lingwei.
Come to think of it, once a place was sealed off, someone had to have a magical girl deal with it or at least check if it could be reopened.
Would they really have to call Sand Gun to handle it…
Given her mental state, that beach would probably never be reopened.
“Mom, look over there!”
After passing by some fish bones and specimens, and the rack for renting audio guides and charging banks, Jiang Yao pointed at a blue whirlpool-like tunnel entrance.
This was the official start of the aquarium tour.
“Let’s go, quick~”
Seeing the door, an excited Jiang Lingwei didn’t even wait for Jiang Yao to react. She bounced ahead, taking the lead.
“Hey, Mom!” By the time Jiang Yao snapped out of it, her mother had already dashed ahead.
“Haha, I’m number one!”
“Mom…”
With Little White perched curiously on her shoulder, Jiang Yao helplessly moved to Jiang Cheng’s side:
“Now I’m convinced Mom’s memories really are seventeen years old.”
Jiang Cheng laughed with a sigh:
“I think so too, but at this rate, she might be even more childish.”
Seeing how lively the person ahead was, father and daughter hurried to catch up.
Entering the whirlpool tunnel, the glass walls on either side revealed all kinds of floating jellyfish. Under the hidden lights, their translucent umbrellas looked like shards of moonlight, and a whole swarm of moon jellies drifted gracefully through the water.
These little creatures were cheap, easy to raise, and a staple in any aquarium.
Yet even with such common critters, Jiang Lingwei couldn’t help but watch for ages.
Jiang Cheng, behind her, wasn’t much interested in the sea creatures—he thought Little Wei herself was more pleasing to the eye…
Jiang Yao had some interest, but she’d already seen a lot elsewhere or in videos. Seeing it live wasn’t as big a shock for her.
So, the configuration became two people and a fairy following behind, with Jiang Lingwei cuddling the equally starry-eyed Little White and snapping photos everywhere, while the father and daughter carried their things and handled the explanations—listening to Jiang Lingwei, who sometimes acted like a certain green orc, exclaiming, “Wow!” “Wow!” now and then.
They had to constantly remind the two up ahead to keep them from running wild like excited children.
Anyone who didn’t know better would think the tall, well-developed one in front was the daughter.