Although Feng Ling found it somewhat unexpected, the matter of recruiting magical girls for the company wasn’t actually illegal or against regulations.
If you really wanted to dig into it, it could only be classified under the principle of “what is not prohibited by law is permissible.”
So for now, the thing that needed attention was still that strange “jealousy” magic.
Feng Ling immediately asked, “Can I take a look at the magic you collected?”
“Of course you can.”
Zhi Jin spread her hand and gestured toward the row of already-collected metal bottles on the little cart.
“Can I touch these magic directly?”
Feng Ling picked up a bottle at random, unscrewed the lid, and saw the green magic contained inside, floating quietly.
“Of course you can.”
Feng Ling stuck her finger inside, burying it in the magic.
The concept of flow could take effect on it.
Feng Ling controlled the healing magic to spin slowly inside the bottle, trying to centrifuge something out of it.
But this time, unlike last time, the emerald-green magic remained pure from start to finish.
Not only were there no red specks of “jealousy” magic, but there wasn’t even a trace of any other color.
Feng Ling pulled her finger out of the bottle, screwed the lid back on, and picked up another bottle beside it.
She did the same operation, but got the same result.
Feng Ling now began to doubt her earlier inference.
She somewhat suspected whether the planting of “jealousy” magic was intentional at all.
Perhaps the containers of Momo Ointment she had inspected were just coincidental with some small-probability event.
For example, maybe on the day of collection, a patient was in a particularly bad mood, generating a tiny bit of jealousy magic, and Zhi Jin accidentally sucked it up while collecting.
Or maybe Zhi Jin was feeling restless that day, and a shake of her finger accidentally brought her own emotions into it.
After all, this was essentially a handmade operation, not fully automatic machine production.
A bit of error was understandable.
Feng Ling didn’t rush to a conclusion.
She also wanted to take a look at the process after magic collection.
Zhi Jin and Director Liu didn’t try to hide anything.
They pushed the cart and led them further into the factory, where the scene finally looked a bit more like a real factory.
Automated mechanical devices ran methodically on the assembly line.
Small bottles of Momo Ointment lined up on the conveyor belt.
The entire process was smooth, requiring almost no human intervention.
All Zhi Jin had to do was plug her collected bottles one by one into the large iron tank’s interface.
The rest was left to the machines.
Feng Ling stood beside the assembly line and watched for a while.
She casually pointed her phone camera at the robotic arms in operation, hoping that someone in the bullet comments could spot something unusual.
But the bullet comments only had a few sparse lines like “That’s amazing” and “So satisfying to watch.”
No help at all.
When the finished products dropped out from the end of the line, Zhi Jin picked up a box and handed it to Feng Ling, saying it was a gift.
Feng Ling took it, unscrewed the lid, and stirred her finger inside.
It was still pure healing magic, with nothing unusual.
So looking at it this way, the only variable in the entire production line was Zhi Jin’s step.
Even if someone else wanted to add strange magic into the product, they had no means to collect magic and no corresponding concept source.
They couldn’t just conjure it out of thin air.
So after all that, maybe it really was just a one-time operational error by Zhi Jin.
Feng Ling suddenly lost interest.
She had thought she might catch some leverage, then slap the investigation report in front of this big company, implying “This matter can be big or small, depending on your sincerity,” and maybe achieve financial freedom directly.
But after all that investigation, the conclusion was “poor quality control in a handmade workshop.”
The most she could get was a refund of ten times the price. Where was the leverage for blackmail?
“We’re done touring. Let’s head back.”
Feng Ling had no mood to check her live stream comments anymore.
She reached out, grabbed the phone floating in the air, swiped the screen with her finger, and closed the livestream.
“Mm, let’s go.”
Lian Ge was also thinking.
She hadn’t found anything unusual.
The entire factory’s operation matched the public information she had looked up online.
The only unexpected thing was learning that the collector Zhi Jin was an unaffiliated magical girl, but that wasn’t directly related to today’s investigation topic.
If they wanted to address it, they would need to write a new mission report back at base.
“Remember to promote us a lot!”
Zhi Jin accompanied them all the way to the factory gate and waved vigorously at the two about to leave.
“Okay…”
Feng Ling lifted her hand and responded weakly with a few syllables.
The two walked out of the factory area along the path they came from, then flew up into the air.
When the factory buildings on the ground shrank to the size of matchboxes, Lian Ge turned her head and started discussing with her.
“Feng Ling, what do you think?”
“I think our initial line of thinking might have been wrong. They probably didn’t do it on purpose…”
Feng Ling analyzed while flying.
“Look, from collection to bottling, the only manual step was Zhi Jin’s. Everything else was machines. And even if someone wanted to tamper with it, where would they collect ‘jealousy’ magic?”
“So the problem is most likely in the human link. It could be that Zhi Jin’s hand shook, or during collection, the patient happened to be in a bad mood and mixed in some impurities. Handmade work always has error rates, right?”
“Mm.”
Lian Ge nodded.
Although the situation wasn’t as critical as they had imagined, it was still something to pay attention to.
Lian Ge continued, “I think the same way. But even so, I still feel it’s inappropriate to sell something with hard-to-identify hazards on the market.”
“Even if there’s no malicious intent, objectively speaking, magic products containing negative concepts, once they enter the market, their impact on consumer emotions is unpredictable. We still need to contact the Association and push for corresponding regulatory measures for such products as soon as possible.”
Feng Ling sighed.
For her, this was terrible news.
She couldn’t blackmail the company, and she couldn’t do live-streamed sales.
It was a day of maximizing losses.
The only good news was that she didn’t have to worry too much about subsequent accidents.
The product’s own problem wasn’t as serious as imagined.
At least she didn’t have to fear any large-scale incidents later.
But peace was good too.
She could focus on making money through live streaming without being dragged around by Lian Ge to investigate cases all the time.
“Mm-mm.”
Feng Ling responded weakly twice.
…
The white factory building stood quietly in the twilight.
Only the lights shining through the windows showed that people were working inside.
From afar, it looked no different from any other company.
Zhi Jin leaned against the wall in the corridor.
The little cart was propped beneath her, letting her rest lightly against it.
“The magical girls came so quickly already…”
Her fingers fiddled with the neatly arranged metal bottles on the cart.
She picked up one and unscrewed the lid.
Inside was healing magic collected that afternoon.
Zhi Jin held the bottle high, tilted her head, and looked at it for a moment.
Then she lowered it and extended the index finger of her other hand.
A tiny bit of deep red magic appeared at her fingertip, silently drilled into the bottle, and quickly mixed with the green magic.
Those two magical girls really thought she couldn’t tell they were here to investigate.
One was filming everything with her phone, and the other, though silent, had her eyes scanning every corner of the production line repeatedly.
Right after she finished collecting magic, those two magical girls urgently checked whether the magic she had collected was contaminated.
Their intent was too obvious.
Too bad they came at an inconvenient time.
She hadn’t yet injected the jealousy magic into this batch of products.
No matter how much they checked, all they found was full bottles of pure healing magic.
She wasn’t really afraid of having a conflict with the magical girls anyway.
Only two magical girls.
Eating them up wouldn’t be impossible…
But the best strategy was to win without fighting.
Slowly expanding the concept of “jealousy” was the safest approach.
Zhi Jin screwed the lid back onto the bottle she had filled with magic and placed it back in its original spot on the cart.
Then she straightened up, hummed a tuneless melody, and pushed the cart toward the assembly line.
…
Actually, Feng Ling was more anxious than Lian Ge about pushing through a new policy for magic products.
For no other reason than that tomorrow night was the scheduled live-streaming sales event arranged by the manufacturer.
The “shop visit” live streams from the past two days had already been broadcast, and the audience was warmed up.
Now that this had happened, Lian Ge would never let her promote the product again.
Feng Ling wouldn’t force herself to sell it either… but she needed a reason.
She had visited the store and accepted the money.
If she couldn’t give a reasonable explanation tomorrow night for why she wasn’t selling the product, her commercial credit would be completely ruined.
Who would want to cooperate with her in the future?
So Feng Ling could only use the “Magical Girl Association rules and regulations” as an excuse.
“Lian Ge, let’s work a little harder and draft this policy tonight, then send it out tomorrow. We can’t let these problematic magic products continue circulating!”
Feng Ling said this while sitting beside Lian Ge’s desk at home.
It was a little past one in the morning.
Lian Ge sat at the computer typing out a draft of the regulations, while Feng Ling helped her look up reference materials.
That’s right, the Magical Girl Association was also a “law”-making body.
Of course, to be more precise, all matters related to magic needed to first be drafted by the Magical Girl Association, then handed over to government professionals for revision and official enactment.
And since Qia Bi was a true hands-off boss, this task fell entirely on the magical girls, or more precisely, on Lian Ge as the captain.
But it was already one in the morning.
Lian Ge had stayed up late yesterday investigating the Momo Ointment matter, and she had been working continuously today.
Even after several cups of coffee, she couldn’t hold on much longer.
Visibly, Lian Ge’s typing speed slowed down.
Her head bobbed up and down, almost hitting the keyboard.
It started pecking like a chick pecking rice, then jerked up, only to continue bobbing.
“Sorry, Feng Ling.”
Lian Ge lifted her head from the screen, fingers still resting on the keyboard, but her blue eyes had trouble focusing.
“I can’t concentrate anymore.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. You’ve done enough. Leave the rest to me.”
Actually, Feng Ling had wanted to take over writing long ago, but Lian Ge kept refusing with a skeptical attitude of “Can a little demon beast like you really write official documents?”
Probably in her mind, Feng Ling hadn’t even read the Association regulations a few times.
Come on, Feng Ling knowingly broke the rules…
To be precise, Feng Ling knowingly broke rules that had no severe punishment but offered generous rewards.
Now that Lian Ge couldn’t hold on any longer, Feng Ling could finally take over.
Feng Ling decisively jumped down from the chair, circled around to Lian Ge’s side, and squeezed half her body under Lian Ge’s armpit just before she collapsed onto the keyboard, stabilizing Lian Ge’s upper body.
Feng Ling helped Lian Ge step by step out of the study and down the hallway.
Lian Ge didn’t even have time to cancel her transformation before Feng Ling laid her down on the bed.
Now Lian Ge could barely keep her eyes open.
She could only vaguely see Feng Ling’s small figure in a light blue dress standing at the bedroom door, outlined in a warm glow by the yellow light from the study outside.
“Good night, Lian Ge.”
Feng Ling was already eager to get back to work from the doorway.
“Good luck, Feng Ling.”
Lian Ge mustered the last of her strength to force a smile, then her head lolled to the side and she fell into quality sleep.
But Lian Ge didn’t actually sleep for long, because she had a messy dream.
In the dream, Feng Ling was sitting at the computer typing.
As she typed, she slumped onto the keyboard and fell asleep.
Then the dense text on the screen started falling out, piling higher and higher on the study floor, quickly burying Feng Ling entirely.
And in the dream, she frantically dug through those words to rescue Feng Ling, but no matter how much she dug, she couldn’t get through.
Then she woke up with a start.
Outside, the sky wasn’t fully bright yet.
Gray morning light seeped through the gaps in the curtains.
Lian Ge fumbled for her phone and glanced at it.
Only about four hours had passed since she lay down.
“Feng Ling couldn’t still be working, could she…”
The moment this thought popped up, she couldn’t stay in bed.
Lian Ge threw off the covers, stepped onto the floor, looked around but didn’t find her slippers.
She didn’t bother searching for them and walked quickly out of the bedroom in bare feet.
The bedroom faced the living room.
The Feng Ling she was worried about was sleeping on the sofa, still wearing her magical girl outfit.
Her cyan hair was scattered messily across the sofa cushions.
Lian Ge guessed it might be due to a lack of security.
Her body was curled into a ball at the edge of the sofa, knees almost touching her chest, arms tightly hugging a heart-patterned throw pillow.
Lian Ge didn’t check how much Feng Ling had written.
She just lightly walked over to the sofa, bent down, slowly slid her right hand through the small gap between Feng Ling’s waist and the sofa, and her left hand under Feng Ling’s knees.
Then she carefully lifted her off the sofa.
“Why sleep here? You could have just slept with me.”
Lian Ge said softly, carrying Feng Ling back to the bedroom and placing her on her own bed.
The bed still held residual warmth from her own body.
Feng Ling’s stiff posture immediately relaxed.
Lian Ge couldn’t resist gently rubbing her head, then pulled the blanket over her.
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