“Could it be…? Is Aurora really coming back?!”
“Ah!”
Seeing Jiang Lingwei jump up excitedly, Wen Yanquan also bounced up alongside her.
“I, she… is it true?”
Usually carefree and casual, but actually sharp and meticulous, Wen Yanquan stammered as she spoke:
“Is it really true… after all these years, she’s going to appear?!”
“I can’t be certain, but I have some ideas. Just listen to me first.”
Though she was excited herself, Jiang Lingwei immediately steadied Wen Yanquan by the shoulders and quickly said:
“Don’t get so worked up, you’re an adult now, try to stay calm.”
“I can’t be calm!”
Wen Yanquan’s face was full of grievance: “Little Aurora, to you, it might have felt like just a short nap, but for me, it’s been a full twenty years of waiting.”
“Twenty years… Even now, looking back, everything from back then is still vivid. You understand, right? When I found out you were still alive, I suddenly felt like I could put aside some things I hadn’t been able to let go of for so long—that kind of… relief.”
“In the past, I was always on edge. How could I ever forget you all? After you disappeared, every moment was filled with fear.”
Wen Yanquan looked at the transformed Jiang Lingwei softly and said:
“After all, I’m just an ordinary person. You magical girls, you shining heroes, you’ve all vanished without a trace, yet the demonic domain in the city center still exists.”
“It’s like a thorn, stabbing sharply into my heart. I was so scared, not knowing when the enemy might burst out from there. You understand that kind of anxiety, right?”
“All I could do was run away. But I could never betray the past. Even now, I can’t forget any of it.”
“I probably met Old Lin around that time. I don’t know what came over me.” Wen Yanquan’s face flushed slightly at this: “I just missed having a man around, someone to rely on. In the end, this fearful, wandering ‘heart’ of mine needed a home where it could feel safe.”
“Old Lin believed everything I said. From then on, we started preparing, until—the Dark Catastrophe came.”
“They called it a dark catastrophe, but I knew it was just the demonic domain in the city center breaking apart, the enemies pouring out from inside.”
“I started to feel uneasy again.”
Wen Yanquan raised her hand and gently stroked the scythe that emitted a faint glow:
“Countless nights and days, I wondered—did you all enter the other side of the dark gate and have some accident? Or was it that something even more terrifying came through?”
“Even though the catastrophe was somewhat contained, it still spread worldwide.”
“I thought I could forget it, but I just couldn’t. My husband, my daughter, everything I had in human society wasn’t enough to calm me, to erase that terrifying moment, that day of despair.”
“Because I understand how horrible the enemy is, my fear only grew.”
“Although I don’t like those so-called ‘First Generation’ magical girls who still hide their whereabouts to this day, I have to admit—they truly were brave.”
Wen Yanquan looked up and gave a self-mocking smile: “If growing up has given me anything, besides some useless wisdom, it’s a soul that’s become more timid and fearful.”
“That said, you might be disappointed, but the Wen Yanquan who charged into monsters yelling ten times over is probably truly dead.”
“So, Little Aurora, you see, I really need news from everyone.”
“I’m so desperate… for peace of mind.”
“…”
Jiang Lingwei didn’t know what to say, but she knew what she had to do.
“Sorry.”
Whispering an apology to this important companion, Magical Girl Aurora hugged the middle-aged woman tightly and softly said:
“It’ll be alright. Trust me.”
As Jiang Lingwei’s words faded, the sunlight streaming in from outside suddenly dimmed as if something blocked it, plunging the room into shadow.
“The world of magical girls… perhaps it contains pain and sorrow beyond what we can imagine.”
At school, Lin Yu added:
“Think about it—if she didn’t truly understand magical girls, why would she warn me like that?”
“I can understand this kind of thing too. After all, magical girls themselves face many dangers. Just like many parents don’t want their children to go to war and become soldiers, I guess she thinks the same way.”
“Yeah, I understand.”
Jiang Yao nodded solemnly.
“No, you don’t.”
Lin Yu shook her head heavily and said:
“None of us can really understand what it means to be a magical girl.”
Jiang Yao: “…No, I think we can at least imagine it.”
“No way!”
Lin Yu clenched her fists: “They maintain peace in the city’s shadows, fighting deadly battles with dark enemies time and again. Who knows what love and hate, betrayals, friendships, sword clashes, and heroic romances they experience? Ah~ those things that happen in the darkness—how could we living in the light they create ever know? They—”
Seeing Lin Yu enter full-blown chuunibyou mode and noticing the lunch break was nearly over, Jiang Yao hurriedly interrupted her:
“But, no matter how you look at it, the ages really don’t add up.”
“You’re right. By age, my mom certainly isn’t a ‘girl,’ but if we push time calculations, my mom could only be…”
Lin Yu hesitated briefly but then said firmly: “‘First Generation.’”
“Whoa…”
After listening carefully to her friend’s explanation, Jiang Yao gasped.
Suspicious. Really suspicious. Thinking about it this way, Aunt Wen Yanquan is just too suspicious.
No one really knows much about the mysterious ‘First Generation,’ not even the bureau has much info. What if the first generation wasn’t that strict about age?
Compared to Lin Yu’s half-knowledge, Jiang Yao herself being a magical girl had another guess.
Yes, it’s Aurora.
First, Aurora’s identity itself is a mystery, and she’s said by Xiaobai to be an ancient magical girl.
If Aurora herself is the First Generation, then everything makes perfect sense.
As for seeing Aurora and Wen Yanquan standing together, which both Lin Yu and she have witnessed—that’s easy to explain. Maybe it’s some magic Wen Yanquan uses.
Also, Jiang Yao still remembers when the Anshuiguan was attacking, and behind it came the sound of drone vehicles creating a bluff.
That moment gave her a good chance to catch her breath and create more “crystals within crystals” wrapped in magical crystals.
Combine that with Wen Yanquan’s identity as both an entrepreneur and a scientist, this is definitely something she could do.
It fits! Everything fits perfectly!
If she can make magical crystals, why couldn’t she create magical clones? She absolutely can, without a doubt.
No wonder Aurora always comes and goes mysteriously, and no wonder Lin Yu and Jiang Yao have both seen Aurora and Wen Yanquan together twice.
The truth was so shocking!
She was a magical girl, and her friend’s mom was a magical girl too.
A professional magical girl must be bold in making judgments.
At this moment, Jiang Yao, based on her groundbreaking reasoning, confidently concluded:
No mistake! Aurora is Wen Yanquan! Lin Yu’s mother! The First Generation magical girl!
Just then, the sky outside suddenly darkened.
Jiang Yao sensed something and looked up toward the window—
The shadow of the dark fairy, Anshuiguan—the projection—stood at the horizon.
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