“Too sudden. Can’t you say something before you start spouting off like that? And you’re really good at spouting nonsense.”
Wen Yaqing awkwardly grabbed a piece of paper from the table and began wiping her white lab coat.
“No, you explain it to me first!”
Quickly wiping her mouth, Jiang Lingwei pressed both hands on the table, gritting her back teeth:
“What exactly does ‘hereditary factor’ mean? I don’t get it at all.”
“Of course it’s the hereditary factor. It comes from hereditary genes, that is, genes, and it’s also the internal hereditary unit that determines an organism’s traits. It…”
“Translate it for me! What the hell do you mean, ‘hereditary factor’?!”
“Alright, alright, don’t get so worked up.”
Wen Yaqing put her hands on her chest in surrender, stopping her science lecture, and said helplessly:
“I’m just speaking from a scientist’s professional standpoint. No other meaning.”
“No other meaning?”
Jiang Lingwei hugged her shoulders: “I am, after all, a pure Magic Girl with a strong will! How could I possibly use dark magic, let alone have such… hereditary factors!”
“Uh…”
Wen Yaqing fiddled with the table, hesitated a moment, then said: “You and I know each other well. I’m obviously not saying it’s your problem. I mean, have you considered… the man’s problem?”
“The man?”
Jiang Lingwei almost blurted out, “I’m the man,” but she immediately realized what Wen Yaqing meant.
“Huh?!”
Those past scenes from adult stories flashed through her mind again like a giant hammer, making her brain go blank. Dizzy and disoriented, she slumped in her chair.
“Uh… Little Aurora? Are you okay…?”
“I… I still…” Jiang Lingwei’s face went pale as she looked up, but before she could finish, her head tilted: “Ugh—”
“Wait, I have a bag here, a bag!”
“Quack! I don’t want to hear it!”
After Wen Yaqing wiped Jiang Lingwei’s mouth with a towel, she kept covering her face, completely unwilling to accept reality.
“Listen, listen.”
Wen Yaqing patted her shoulder to comfort her: “I’m just saying it’s possible. Just possible.”
“Waaah~ I don’t want that kind of possibility!”
“Just like when my daughter was little. You said you had a strong will, didn’t you? What, are you being a stubborn little kid now?”
“That’s right. My mentality is that of a child. I don’t want to be a Magic Girl mom, or fight the darkness, or have a glorious mission!”
“How far do you want to go with this self-abandonment?”
Several minutes later, Jiang Lingwei finally snapped out of her confusion. She wore a serious expression and said to Wen Yaqing:
“I’ve made up my mind.”
“Made up your mind about what?”
“Should we just blow up one street after another and be done with it?”
“You just convinced me not to a few days ago,” Wen Yaqing complained. “I barely managed to get the explosives dismantled and moved out, and now you want to set them off again? Wait, I’ll figure out how to turn you back around.”
“No, no, I’m just kidding. Don’t actually blow anything up.”
Seeing this girl really pulling out her phone and starting to operate it, Wen Yaqing was quick to stop her. Jiang Lingwei leaned back in her chair again.
She nearly forgot there was a potential real madwoman here.
“What’s meant to come will come. Just say it… I don’t care anymore… really…”
“I mean, after ruling out many possibilities, from a rational standpoint, this is actually the most likely explanation.”
Wen Yaqing typed a few lines on her already powered-on computer, then turned the screen toward Jiang Lingwei:
“Look, this is the list of Magic Girls in most of the fixed cities, along with some of their abilities. I can also open up all current research results on Magic Girls.”
She pointed to the screen: “No, there’s absolutely no such condition. Not even anything close.”
“Maybe some Magic Girls wield emotions like anger, which can manifest in strong destructive power and sometimes even loss of control.”
“But that’s fundamentally different from dark magic. It still belongs to light magic. So, I want to double-check with you.”
Moving the mouse, Wen Yaqing looked up and asked:
“Are you sure it’s dark magic?”
“…I’m sure.”
“That’s unexpected, such a quick answer. I thought you’d think it over longer.”
“After fighting those things for so long, how could I not be sure?” Jiang Lingwei shook her head and smiled bitterly. “In my eyes, those things happened just a few days ago. A few days ago, I found out about the abnormal magic fluctuations from the old man, confirming those dark trash were planning something big.”
“Just now—we just finished investigating. This might be the final battle.”
She pointed at the lab, then the door outside:
“Here, this place, and there—we eat together, dream of returning to normal lives, plan operations, and make the final preparations.”
“How could I be mistaken… how could I…”
Unconsciously, Jiang Lingwei put her hand on the table and clenched her fingers: “If I hadn’t known she was my daughter, also a Magic Girl fighting the darkness, Sister Yaqing, you know what? I almost attacked her.”
“…”
Wen Yaqing was silent for a few seconds, then said softly, “Sorry.”
“It’s my fault. When I get into research mode, I tend to forget myself and don’t consider your feelings.”
“Oh, you don’t have to apologize,” Jiang Lingwei said, not bothered by it. “This is just like you.”
“Mm.”
Not lingering on the apology, Wen Yaqing continued:
“Back to the main point. Now that you confirm it’s dark magic, I have no choice but to consider heredity. Honestly, research on Magic Girl offspring is basically non-existent.”
“Why is that?”
As Jiang Lingwei asked, Wen Yaqing gave her a helpless look.
“Did I say something wrong?”
“Sigh,” Wen Yaqing said helplessly. “As expected, Little Aurora, you’ve never been the intellectual type.”
“Eh???”
“Think about it carefully. From the ‘first generation’ known to society until now, how many years have passed?”
“Hmm… ten years?”
“That’s it. Even if they started having children immediately after the dark disaster, the kids would only be nine years old at most. The minimum age for contract Magic Girls is fifteen, right? So where would anyone even study the offspring of Magic Girls?”
“That makes sense.”
Jiang Lingwei scratched her head. “So, does that mean it’s possible my situation isn’t hereditary?”
“No.” Wen Yaqing shook her head. “Think about it: normally, once a Magic Girl uses dark magic, she’ll blow up. Because that’s a power obtained postnatally through a pact with a fairy, and two conflicting energy types will violently clash.”
“But your daughter? From what you said, after transforming, her magic armor and spirit clothes changed too, and she maintained her combat effectiveness.”
“There’s obviously only one possibility: she had this ‘talent’ before the pact.”
She glanced at the screen:
“Unfortunately, even in this internal network, there’s no info about the so-called ‘first generation’ Magic Girls. Otherwise, we might have found some clues.”
“This is an internal network?”
Taking the chance to avoid the awful thoughts in her head, Jiang Lingwei looked at the many Magic Girl avatars, feeling like she was drawing cards in a gacha game.
As a fan of Magic Girl-themed works, she was quite interested.
Then she suddenly thought of something:
“Wait, since this is an internal network, how do you access it?”
“With my account.”
Wen Yaqing pulled a small employee badge from the drawer that looked like it had been there forever. It seemed plain, but the rank was so high Jiang Lingwei couldn’t understand it: “Besides, I led the construction of this whole system. Even though I’m out now, hacking back in wouldn’t be hard.”
She poked Jiang Lingwei’s dazed chest and said with a mischievous grin:
“Normally, someone at your base level doesn’t have permission to mess with me. Here, you call me Sister Yaqing. Outside, what will you call me?”
Jiang Lingwei expressionlessly slapped away her ‘salty pig’s’ hand:
“Ha, Sister Yaqing.”
“Oh! Quick learner, huh.”
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