Thursday.
The routine patrol duty for the district had fallen to the Magical Girl Division.
Unfortunately, both Xing Li and Fei Xing had classes during this period, so this glorious yet tedious task could only be shouldered by Shui Hua alone.
She maintained an altitude just above the average building height, slowly flying along the prescribed route, her blue twin ponytails streaming behind her.
At the same time, she focused her senses, releasing magic power to detect any abnormal ability fluctuations in the area below.
The first round of patrol finished—everything was normal.
According to the patrol manual, a recheck was required two hours later.
That was just right for Shui Hua—her short “Magic Power Bar” was already more than half depleted from this round, so she could take a break to rest and wait for her magic to recover.
But today, Department Head Xing Li wasn’t here, so no one could cast “Presence Reduction Magic” on her.
And, in order to facilitate magic recovery, she couldn’t just deactivate her transformation.
So Shui Hua could only continue to maintain her Magical Girl Shui Hua appearance.
She descended in front of a milk tea shop that looked pretty good, and as soon as she pushed open the door and stepped inside, the shop owner behind the register immediately recognized her, his eyes lighting up at once.
“You, you’re… Magical Girl Shui Hua? I’m your fan.”
The moment she heard the word “fan,” Shui Hua instantly thought of Lin Ling’s face and her heart tensed.
Still, she didn’t let it show, instead putting on her businesslike smile:
“That’s right, I’m patrolling the neighborhood. Could I please get a…”
She glanced at the menu.
“Pearl Milk Tea, full sugar, no ice, right?”
The owner answered before she could.
But this wasn’t actually Shui Hua’s real preference—she’d only mentioned it offhand in an interview once.
The fact he even knew this proved he was a true fan.
“Uh… Sure, how much is it?”
Shui Hua had originally wanted to order Lemon Water, but with such enthusiasm, she couldn’t bring herself to refuse, and could only nod to confirm.
“No need to pay. You’re our district’s gua… Guardian Deity, after all. This counts as our small contribution.”
Before Shui Hua could refuse, the owner had already briskly started making her drink, and before handing it over, quickly whipped up a beautiful Crispy Cone Ice Cream and handed it to her as well.
“Please take the ice cream, too. Thank you for your hard work.”
Shui Hua really wanted to grumble, “Hard work where…” but with such a friendly atmosphere, she couldn’t turn down the kindness.
She accepted the milk tea and ice cream with a sincere smile and gave her thanks.
Licking her ice cream, Shui Hua wandered down the street, looking for a place to sit, but the people around her had noticed her too—one after another, people approached, hoping for photos or a selfie.
Helpless, Shui Hua could only smile and nod, then channeled her magic power and flew up to the rooftop of another building, away from the crowd’s gaze.
She carefully sat on the edge of the rooftop railing, set the milk tea at her side, and while taking small licks of the chilly ice cream, pulled out her phone to kill time watching videos.
Just as she unlocked her screen, a message popped up from her elder sister, Yu Wenwen.
She opened it—turns out it was an upward shot: the photo captured her figure from when she was patrolling in the sky earlier.
“Patrolling? What a coincidence, I caught you~ (smirking emoji)”
“Yeah, just finished patrol, slacking off a bit now.”
Shui Hua snapped a photo of the street scene below and sent it—here, the roadside trees were lush, and all sorts of shops lined the street.
The view wasn’t bad at all.
“Only those who can fly get to enjoy views like this. I’m so jealous.”
“Don’t get your hopes up. A Magical Girl’s Transformation Device is bound—it doesn’t work for anyone else.”
Shui Hua ruthlessly crushed her hopes.
“Magical Girl, go ahead and enjoy it all by yourself. I’m not interested! (tsundere emoji)”
“By the way, Sis, isn’t today Thursday? Aren’t you working?”
Shui Hua suddenly remembered to ask.
The phone was silent for a few seconds before a new message came:
“I quit.”
“???”
Shui Hua sent three question marks.
“When did that happen?”
“Today. I just quit.”
“Our Boss isn’t even human. Started at eight, then changed it to seven-thirty, then last week made it seven o’clock. Overtime just keeps increasing every month. And get this: he wanted to start charging for air conditioning—ten yuan a day per person, can you believe it? The craziest thing is, next week he plans to make the restroom use card-activated, and charge by the minute for using the bathroom. If I don’t quit now, I’ll be paying to work for him.”
“Is it really that ridiculous?”
Shui Hua was speechless.
“Of course! Would I, your elder sister, make stuff up?”
Reading her sister’s complaints, Shui Hua’s sense of justice instantly flared up.
“Send me the address. I’m going to uphold justice.”
“Don’t do anything rash. At least we parted on decent terms. If you go causing trouble, we’ll end up at fault.”
“Relax. I’ll be strictly by the book in upholding justice. A Boss who’s this stingy, always scheming to squeeze his employees—one hundred percent, there’ll be problems with ability safety facilities in the workplace. I’ll just say I found hazards during my patrol, and ask other departments to conduct a surprise inspection for fire and ability safety. I’ll find a few violations and issue him a couple of fines—perfectly reasonable and lawful. Consider it a little revenge for you.”
“Good, then I support you. He should be fined hard.”
Yu Wenwen quickly sent the address.
Shui Hua finished off the ice cream in a few quick bites, grabbed her milk tea, and took off, flying toward the address Yu Wenwen provided.
It was a small-scale game company, squeezed into one floor of an office building.
Shui Hua took the elevator up, striding confidently into the company’s office area.
She strolled the corridors and common spaces as if no one else was there, her sharp gaze sweeping every corner.
“No Ability Fluctuation Alarm installed—fine. No Ability Stabilization First-Aid Kit—fine.”
Although she didn’t have the direct authority to issue fines, as long as she documented these clear violations in detail, there were plenty of people at the Ability Bureau eager for more cases.
Perhaps because management was so strict, Shui Hua wandered the corridor for quite a while and didn’t even see a single employee getting water or going to the restroom.
The entire office area was eerily quiet; her eye-catching outfit seemed to have become invisible.
She muttered to herself. Originally, she’d hoped to find an employee to ask about the situation—and maybe ask who the Boss was.
Just then, a middle-aged man in a wrinkled suit, his hair sparse, turned the corner.
The moment he saw Shui Hua, his brow instantly wrinkled into a knot, and his tone was especially hostile:
“Which team are you from? Wandering around during work hours instead of being at your station—looking for a fine, are you?”
From the way he spoke, this must be the Boss.
Unhurried, she pulled out her Magical Girl credentials issued by the Ability Bureau and displayed them in front of him:
“Sir, you’re mistaken. I am Magical Girl Shui Hua, under the Ability Bureau Dongjiang District Branch. I am here to inspect your ability safety measures in accordance with the law.”
But rather than showing any nervousness at her credentials, the Boss’s mouth curled into a very unnatural arc, revealing two sharp, slender canine teeth:
“Ability Bureau, Magical Girl Shui Hua? Heh… I didn’t expect that, even after hiding myself so well, living in seclusion, you people would still discover me…”
Shui Hua:
“Huh?”