She was really stupid.
Truly.
It was just like graduating from middle school to high school, and then to university—giving yourself a brand-new persona on the very first day you step onto campus, hoping for a romantic encounter with a beautiful girl.
Such things simply did not exist in this world.
Zhuge Yu truly thought that her life, which had been miserable for twenty years, had finally taken a turn for the better.
Eating a luxurious steak after starving for two days was proof of that.
Except it wasn’t a change in luck; it was a wicked man with ulterior motives toward her best friend, using threats and inducements against her.
She couldn’t betray Qi Qiancao, so everything she had eaten had to be paid back in full!
She exhaled heavily through her nose, her back straightening like a little giant.
There had to be a way.
There had to be a way for a girl to save up money quickly, or some other way to pay him back!
—
Small as she was, Zhuge Yu rushed to the supermarket early the next morning.
She would buy beef and cook it herself!
Wearing a black mask and a hoodie, her petite and fragile frame was reflected in the mirror.
Only this tightly wrapped outfit could give her a sense of security when she went out.
She believed this certainly wasn’t her fault.
She didn’t know when it started, but whenever she went to a crowded place, Zhuge Yu would feel an inexplicable sense of anxiety, as if every detail of her body was being magnified.
And those passersby—they had to be secretly observing her, waiting for the moment she lost her composure or made a fool of herself.
This feeling made her hate crowds, and added to her old habit of her whole body heating up whenever she got nervous, she generally avoided busy places.
But today was an exception.
It was all because she had let that steak go to her head last night and fell into a villain’s trap.
That despicable guy would surely show his true colors later, threatening her with a disgusting look that said, “You wouldn’t want to be unable to pay back the money for the steak, would you?”
As expected, she had been tricked again.
It had been like this since middle school.
She had been naively tricked by a group of female classmates who laughed and chatted with her, only for them to lure her into the classroom and lock the doors and windows.
After starving for an entire afternoon, she was accused in front of the whole class of not returning to the dormitory so she could steal things in the classroom.
Explaining was useless.
Who would have thought those people would stuff a sum of money into the hidden compartment of her backpack?
Because of that mess, her father had used his connections to send her to high school in Nantong City.
Life in high school wasn’t easy either.
In short, some people imitated her handwriting to write love letters to other boys, resulting in many experiences of being cornered at the school gate.
Looking back at middle and high school, there were only two people she was close to.
One was Qi Qiancao.
In her mind, Little Cao was as perfect as an angel, and the only person who didn’t care about the rumors or the way others looked at her.
So she had always been envious, even longing; perhaps she could never become a pure and kind person like Little Cao, but at the very least, she wanted to protect her from behind the scenes.
As for the other person, it was the scanning clerk at the supermarket.
The woman had thick, black hair that was so lush it was enviable, curling to cover the left half of her face.
The right side of her face, which was visible, was stunning enough on its own.
Though she was pushing thirty, she maintained herself like a girl in her twenties.
Zhuge Yu brought the packaged beef to the scanning clerk, who wore a look of surprise.
“Long time no see, Yu. You’re actually buying beef today? I didn’t think you knew how to cook.”
Jiang Youyou gave a surprised smile, withdrawing her hand from the task of sorting beans to weigh and label the beef.
Zhuge Yu kept both hands tucked into her hoodie pocket.
She didn’t know the first thing about cooking beef.
The most high-end food she had ever made in her life was stir-fried eggs with tomatoes.
But there was no choice.
With her current financial resources, she definitely couldn’t afford the debt of that despicable man’s steak set, so she had to do it herself.
“I know a little bit. Anyway, Sister Youyou, since when does your supermarket sell red beans mixed with mung beans?”
“A little brat did it. When I found the kid, they just threw a tantrum on the floor. Nothing I could do but accept my bad luck,” Jiang Youyou said with a helpless laugh.
“If it were me, I would definitely beat that brat until they were kneeling on the ground,” she said solemnly.
Though she hadn’t known Sister Youyou for long, she was certain that Sister Youyou was a pushover.
Last year, right after the college entrance exams, she was on her way home from school with her graduation certificate.
That group of female thugs who had disgusted her for three years blocked her at the entrance of an alley on their modified bikes, preparing to give her a “perfect graduation gift.”
Like stripping her naked and leaving her in the alley.
She had been driven to desperation by those bitches back then and almost committed a mistake she wouldn’t have been able to forgive herself for.
Fortunately, just as she was about to snap, Sister Youyou happened to pass by and stepped in like a superhero.
A pot of fermented bean juice was splashed all over those women.
The smell was simply too traumatic to recall.
That was when they became close.
Later, she learned that Sister Youyou’s divine skill of splashing bean juice came from a childhood where she was also bullied at school.
Back when Sister Youyou was in elementary school, she also had two childhood friends who carried things even more disgusting than bean juice to pour over bullies.
It was such a romantic legacy of bonds.
“Got a boyfriend?”
Sister Youyou inexplicably shifted to this topic.
She surely thought that since the little sister who usually lived on takeout and bread was suddenly cooking, there had to be something fishy going on.
Zhuge Yu rolled her eyes at her.
“I just had a run-in with the wrong person. When I was in high school, I felt like I was brainless in middle school. In university, I felt like I was brainless in high school. And now, I still managed to get tricked so badly I can’t tell north from south. So stupid.”
“A guy?”
Zhuge Yu curled her lip.
“Instead of gossiping, why don’t you consider your own marriage prospects, Sister Youyou? You’re twenty-eight and haven’t even had a boyfriend.”
“Yu, your tongue is still as sharp as ever. But at my age, I should probably look for a thirty-year-old man. I heard that men turn into an Archmage at thirty, so does that mean women turn into magical girls at thirty?”
Sister Youyou mused aimlessly.
Zhuge Yu picked up her beef and tossed back a comment.
“That would just be a Magical Old Auntie. Besides, a magical girl is such a sacred profession; a thirty-year-old woman couldn’t possibly do it.”
“Since there’s a setting for magic, what does being thirty matter?”
“Magic isn’t omnipotent.”
Zhuge Yu couldn’t be bothered to explain more to Sister Youyou.
“Moreover, if someone is a magical girl, they should be even more self-disciplined.”
“Heh.”
Watching the cool, departing figure, Jiang Youyou let out a soft chuckle.
The spirit of young girls really was different.
—
After spending half an hour finishing the bean sorting, and with few people in the supermarket in the morning, Jiang Youyou carried the mung beans into the staff breakroom.
She turned on the light.
In the room filled with clutter, a gray Ferret stood atop a box.
It had been pestering her for half a month now; it really was persistent.
It claimed to be an elf from the Garden of Hope, appearing in her home through a Transmission Channel in a mug.
Furthermore, it asked her if she wanted to become a magical girl.
At first, Jiang Youyou thought it was a Yellow Great Immortal seeking a title and almost swatted the elf to death with a shovel.
After a long explanation from the other party, she understood that this Yellow… Ferret wanted to sign a Contract with her because it saw her potential to become a magical girl.
But she was an auntie pushing thirty.
What part of her was like a “girl”?
To this, the Ferret provided an explanation:
“In my long career, I have found that as girls grow older, they often find it difficult to maintain their past purity.”
It even specifically pointed out the three magical girls it had contracted with over the last ten years: one was depressed and a smoker, one was mentally unstable, and one had kicked it out of the house.
It could be said that each was divine in their own way, and each was uniquely unhinged.
Yes, these were the soldiers the Ferret had trained.
Therefore, rather than finding a magical girl who would eventually rot, it was better to find an adult who still possessed a kind and passionate heart at thirty.
“By becoming a magical girl, you can return to the appearance of your youth! And the moment you sign the Contract, you can make the wish that is most important to you!”
“Do you want to become a magical girl?”
Jiang Youyou fell into thought. Even today, she still had no answer.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to return to her youth, nor was it because of some secondary-school-syndrome embarrassment.
She was quite willing to escape reality and be a partner of justice for once.
It was just as she had told the Ferret the first time.
She didn’t have a wish she wanted to make for herself.