“Sh-shared living?”
Xiao Xi’s eyes widened. She had wanted to add, “You’ve explained the benefits, but what about the drawbacks?” yet Ye Xinglan’s expression remained completely calm, making her realize she hadn’t misheard just now.
“Any reasons?”
“No particular reason. I just thought the scenery on the balcony was nice, so I want to live here for a while.”
“That’s not really a drawback for you, right?” Ye Xinglan shrugged. “I happen to need someone to help me with meals and chores, and the rent you owed before can be written off. Isn’t that pretty good?”
Ye Xinglan narrowed her eyes slightly. Moving in with a matchmaking partner to get closer sounded perfectly reasonable, didn’t it?
Xiao Xi didn’t say a word. She didn’t doubt Ye Xinglan’s reason either, only thinking, as expected from a little rich lady—rich people really are willful.
This place was indeed large enough for both of them. The two-bedroom, one-living room apartment Xiao Xi rented was originally a shared rental, but she had never found a roommate since moving in. The extra room was just right for Ye Xinglan to stay in.
The conditions Ye Xinglan proposed were also tempting. She was currently penniless and unemployed; if she left, she’d have to carry her luggage to stay at a cheap hostel for twenty yuan a night.
Yet Ye Xinglan’s remarks about magical girls during their matchmaking still echoed in Xiao Xi’s ears, making her uncomfortable. Although retired, there was still the dignity of Eternal Stardust…
“I’m fine with it. As for the overdue rent, I’ll repay it as soon as I have the money.”
Xiao Xi lowered her head in resignation. She hadn’t planned to just erase the owed rent like Ye Xinglan suggested; she didn’t like owing such a big favor to a stranger.
As for the dignity of a magical girl? What use was dignity? Could she eat with dignity?
Besides, at most, they were just roommates now, not a couple living together after a matchmaking date. Whatever Ye Xinglan’s values were, whether she liked magical girls or not, had nothing to do with her.
So that settled it. Xiao Xi, prepared to act as the little rich lady’s housekeeper, quickly cleaned out the vacant room. Seeing there was still time, she returned to her room, turned on her computer, and started sending out job applications.
Opening the recruitment app, staring at the uniform rejection replies from HR, she got angry… for a moment.
Actually, Xiao Xi wasn’t surprised by the results. Fresh university graduates were like fresh-cut leeks waiting to be harvested… eagerly awaiting. Her second-tier university degree, coupled with a year-plus gap caused by being a magical girl, was definitely not impressive.
Add to that her identity as a “Mana Syndrome” patient, and no company was willing to hire her.
“Mana Syndrome” was a newly discovered illness from the past decade. Fifteen years ago, a sudden meteorite didn’t just bring magical girls and monsters to Earth—it also introduced this special condition.
Mana Syndrome, simply put, meant ordinary people influenced by mana had a very small chance of developing various strange symptoms with no commonality. Medicine hadn’t yet found a cure.
Xiao Xi wasn’t even sure if her gradual transformation from male to female was due to her magical girl transformation or Mana Syndrome. After all, besides herself, she hadn’t seen a second boy awaken as a magical girl.
Her mother and sister had accompanied her to the hospital for multiple tests, but doctors couldn’t figure out anything. Eventually, her bizarre symptoms were diagnosed as Mana Syndrome.
Fortunately, aside from slowly turning into a girl, the syndrome had no other side effects… or so she thought, until now, when Xiao Xi realized HR found her too troublesome and wouldn’t even consider hiring her.
Xiao Xi had no choice but to lower her standards. Even if it was a part-time job, or a position with little resume requirements…
As she browsed the recruitment app, her eyes suddenly lit up with an idea. After a moment’s search on her computer, she opened a novel outline document.
That’s right, she did have a dream of writing novels in college. She had even successfully published and signed a contract for a novel on a platform back then. Unfortunately, she couldn’t juggle studies, writing, and magical girl duties all at once, so she stopped updating.
She still had one unpublished outline. Why not try sending it to her old editor? Writing web novels didn’t care about author resumes—no one would reject her because she had a second-tier degree or Mana Syndrome.
She opened QQ and scanned her friend list briefly, finding her old editor’s account. Luckily, she hadn’t been deleted.
The editor’s avatar was an anime girl with pink hair holding a cup of milk tea—Xiao Zhu, editor of the “Pineapple Bun Novels” platform, where Xiao Xi had once submitted her work.
Xiao Xi had seen editors’ avatars on other platforms—mostly real-life half-body photos, dressed in suits, arms crossed, confident smiles, looking like business elites. Pineapple Bun definitely specialized in the 2D world; all the editors’ avatars were cartoon characters.
“Dear editor, I have a novel here…”
After carefully choosing her greeting and sending the outline as an attachment, Xiao Xi closed the chat like with her job applications, waiting for a reply.
Unexpectedly, just ten minutes later, her QQ sounded with a “ding ding” message alert.
“Your story isn’t very good, a bit cliché.”
Opening the chat, the editor’s first sentence was a bucket of cold water. Just as Xiao Xi thought her web novel path was over, the editor sent several more messages in quick succession.
“But your writing is decent. You’ve written web novels before, right?”
“I see your outline is about magical girls. Actually, this genre is still pretty popular, but you need to change the approach.”
“Stories about magical girls defeating villains are old and out of favor now. Readers like stories that subvert the trope. Are you following?”
Xiao Xi hadn’t expected such a quick and helpful response from the editor. She hurriedly typed back, “I’m still here,” feeling a glimmer of hope.
“Yeah, anti-trope magical girl stories are more popular now, like the defeated magical girl theme… you get it?”
“Also, people love fanfiction about famous magical girls, like Eternal Stardust, and the Nightingale Diva Mu Xingge. You know them? They’re pretty big.”
Xiao Xi frowned at the screen. She could understand what the editor meant, but for her, a retired magical girl, to write a little defeated magical girl fanfic—it really went against her conscience…
“But is it really okay to write fanfiction about these famous magical girls?”
“Dumb, who told you to copy them word for word?” the editor gently coaxed. “What if the magical girl you came up with just happens to look a lot like Mu Xingge, but isn’t Mu Xingge? Readers would instantly think of her when they see your character.”
“That’s all I’m saying. Figure it out yourself. Also, Pineapple Bun is a serious site, so content can’t be too extreme, you know.”
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