As soon as work ended on Saturday afternoon, Shui Hua immediately found a quiet corner to lift his transformation and return to his appearance as Yu Hua.
He merged into the bustling crowd, squeezed onto the subway, and headed for Xingyue Plaza in the city center.
After stepping out of the subway turnstile, the spacious and bright sunken plaza of Xingyue Plaza came into view, seamlessly connected to the subway exit.
Yu Hua stood near the exit, scanning the bustling crowd for Lin Ling’s figure.
He looked around several times; there were plenty of guys dressed like college students in casual clothes, but none of them was his familiar, slightly bookish roommate.
“Asked me to help out, but he’s the one who’s late…”
Yu Hua muttered under his breath, taking out his phone to complain, when he suddenly felt someone tap him gently on the shoulder from behind.
He turned around in confusion, only to see a tall, blonde girl before him.
She wore a black baseball cap, with strands of golden hair peeking out from under the brim.
On top, a simple white shirt; below, denim shorts outlining her long legs.
The white shirt looked a little tight across her chest, almost stretched to its limit, and he could vaguely make out the flat outline of her abdomen beneath it.
“You are?”
Yu Hua was stunned for a moment, unable to react right away.
The blonde girl stepped closer, almost touching his ear, and lowered her voice:
“It’s me, Lin Ling. I cast Presence Reduction Magic—you probably didn’t notice right away…”
The unique scent of a Magical Girl rushed to his nose, and the magical blur was instantly dispelled.
Yu Hua blinked hard, finally realizing that the girl in front of him was indeed his roommate Lin Ling—or rather, the Magical Girl Liu Jin.
“Oh, it’s you! I was just wondering why you hadn’t shown up yet…”
Yu Hua scratched his head a little awkwardly.
After returning to his normal form, his senses had been affected by the other’s magic—no wonder he hadn’t recognized Lin Ling.
“By the way… you actually came here in transformed form?”
“Uh… well,” Liu Jin tugged at the hem of her shirt a bit uneasily, a blush rising on her face, “because… I wanted to experience the environment and route firsthand. It feels more intuitive this way…”
“Fine, fine, whatever you say. So, since you chose to meet here, have you decided which place we’re actually going? After dinner are we heading straight home, or looking for somewhere to hang out, or…?”
“I’ve made notes.”
Liu Jin replied immediately, as if she’d been waiting for this question.
She quickly pulled a palm-sized notebook out of her little bag and opened it solemnly.
Yu Hua leaned over curiously, and was instantly stunned.
The pages were densely covered with flowcharts, rectangles and diamond-shaped decision points linked by arrows, with if-else statements marked for logical judgment, ready to ask Shui Hua’s preferences in real time to dynamically determine whether to go to an art museum, cinema, or coffee shop next.
Yu Hua’s mouth twitched.
He struggled not to blurt out, “Are you treating this date like a programming project?” but he couldn’t help but admire Lin Ling’s seriousness.
Though he was going to reject her, he figured she’d need some guidance for future relationships, so he decided to give her all the advice he could.
“Alright, let’s run through your process then.”
At this point, Yu Hua suddenly felt like teasing her.
“If we’re going to simulate, let’s do it all the way. I’ll play the role of Shui Hua now—guide me through your whole process, okay?”
He took a few steps back, stepped into Shui Hua’s shoes, and looked around as if searching for someone.
When he found Liu Jin, he let his gaze linger, then stepped forward:
“Senior Liu Jin, I finally found you. Hello, I’m Shui Hua.”
“Hello, Shui Hua,” Liu Jin responded at once, her voice betraying a hint of nervousness, “Th-thank you for coming today.”
She instinctively tried to bow, but halfway through seemed to realize it wasn’t appropriate, and abruptly turned it into a rather awkward nod.
“You’re too polite, Senior,” Yu Hua struggled to keep from smiling, telling himself not to break character, and kept up the Shui Hua act, “So… where are we going next?”
“We’ll go to that western restaurant ahead.”
Liu Jin responded as if she’d received a clear command, turned around immediately, and hurried off on her long legs, leaving Yu Hua behind in an instant.
Yu Hua tried to catch up, but after a few steps realized the problem and immediately dropped out of character.
“Wait, wait, why are you walking so fast?”
Liu Jin turned around at his words, only then realizing the gap between them.
She explained a little flustered, “I-I was just walking at a normal pace…”
“That’s your normal pace? I can barely keep up, how do you think Shui Hua with his short legs could? Big points off for this, you know?”
Liu Jin, like a student being scolded, shuffled back to Yu Hua’s side, this time slowing her pace so much that it was almost step by step.
“Alright, let’s continue,” Yu Hua got back into character, “Before you play Shui Hua, let me tell you—as the inviter and guide, you should be the one to start a conversation and break the silence, got it?”
Liu Jin took a deep breath, apparently trying to come up with something good, but what came out was…
“The weather’s really nice today…”
“Yes, it’s a clear day. If we walk somewhere high up, we can even see the sunset.”
“Mm.”
Yu Hua waited a bit, expecting Liu Jin to say more, but all he got was a plain “Mm.”
“And then?”
“And… then?”
Yu Hua put his hand to his forehead.
Small talk about the weather was already ridiculous, and even when he handed the topic back, she had nothing.
This roleplay was going nowhere.
“And then!”
Liu Jin hurriedly looked down to flip through her notebook, but couldn’t find any preparations for this situation, her face full of confusion.
“And then…”
“Lin bro, Lin bro,” Yu Hua looked at her with an almost pitying gaze, “With your skill level, I honestly recommend you borrow a few Galgame titles from Liu for practice before you try dating in real life…”
“B-but the real thing is tomorrow!”
Liu Jin’s anxious tone was unmistakable.
“Yu Hua, you’re so experienced and knowledgeable, there has to be some crash-course review guide you can give me, right?”
Seeing the hopeful look in her eyes, Yu Hua gave a look of pity and said slowly, “Do you think… a grade-schooler could learn advanced calculus in a day?”
“Yu Hua, please teach me, I’ll do anything.”
Liu Jin looked like she was about to kneel and grab his hand so he wouldn’t leave.
“But you’re so hopeless I don’t even know where to start…”
In Yu Hua’s eyes, Lin Ling would be the type to get tricked by a bad woman, lose everything after marriage, and still tell everyone, ‘She wasn’t like this before.’
“Feels like we should swap roles now. Let’s say you saved me, I’m treating you to dinner, and I’ll take the chance to invite you out—watch and learn, okay?”