At 8:00 AM, Shui Hua returned the room card for his room.
He walked to the room opposite his, where Liu Jin was staying, and knocked on the door.
“Liu Jin, are you awake?”
“Yes, I’m coming to open the door for you now.”
Footsteps quickly sounded, and the door opened.
The blonde girl, Liu Jin, stood at the door wearing her Magical Girl attire, looking surprisingly energized.
She stepped aside to let Shui Hua in, asking no questions about his whereabouts the previous night, as if nothing had happened.
She simply asked in a normal tone, “Are we leaving now?”
“Yeah, let me just change first, and then we’ll head out.”
Shui Hua went into the bathroom to take off the pajamas Liu Jin had given him.
Unfortunately, the pajamas were an unstable product of Magic Power; otherwise, Shui Hua would have considered keeping them.
Next, Shui Hua changed into his Magic Costume, put on various accessories, tied his hair into double ponytails, and stepped out of the bathroom.
“Let’s go.
It’s time to return to Shui City.”
The distance, which would have originally taken more than four hours by car, was greatly shortened by the flight capabilities of a Magical Girl.
More than two hours later, they had already crossed the border into Shui City.
By then, Shui Hua’s Magic Power was nearing the critical point where he would be unable to turn back.
Shui Hua didn’t want Liu Jin to carry him for the rest of the journey, so he proactively landed by the side of the road before his magic was exhausted.
“My Magic Power is almost gone, so I’ll stop here,” Shui Hua said to Liu Jin, who landed immediately after him.
“I can just take a taxi back. You should head back first.”
“All right. Be careful then.”
Liu Jin looked at him and nodded without insistence.
Without hesitation, she left immediately.
Shui Hua watched her figure disappear and breathed a sigh of relief.
Liu Jin was finally starting to listen; he expected the pressure of dealing with her would be much lower in the future.
***
Because Shui Hua had been in his transformed state since falling asleep at the hotel yesterday, he didn’t have to wait for the transformation cooldown to end today.
Shui Hua returned to the vicinity of the school, found a deserted spot, and used Transformation Release to return to his original form as Yuhua.
Afterward, he simply grabbed some takeout from the cafeteria and returned to the dormitory, ready to enjoy a rare afternoon break.
‘I can finally enjoy some time not being a Magical Girl,’ Yuhua thought as he pushed open the dormitory door.
However, what greeted him were two quite intense gazes.
The black and pink-clad Wang Zeqi and Liu Shixing had both turned their chairs around to face him.
Yuhua instinctively looked toward Lin Ling’s seat, but it was empty; he had likely gone to eat.
“What are you two… looking at me like that for?”
Yuhua felt a bit uneasy under their stares.
He quickly looked away, sat in his seat, and placed the takeout box on the table.
“Because we want to ask you…”
Wang Zeqi was the first to speak, his tone heavy with meaning.
“Could you explain what you and Lin Ling were doing last night?”
“What do you mean ‘what were we doing’?
Why are you asking that?”
Directly trying to prove his innocence would only make him look suspicious, so Yuhua chose to follow their lead for now.
“Why?”
Liu Shixing took over, her face so serious she looked ready to bite.
“Two people, despite clearly having classes, didn’t return to the dormitory all night.
You even skipped the next day’s classes together.
Yuhua, why do you think we have a reasonable suspicion?”
“Exactly, exactly,” Wang Zeqi chimed in.
“Sigh, I feel so sorry for Anpelin. How did she end up with a… scumbag like you?”
“Comrade Liu Shixing, please watch your language.
Don’t talk nonsense without evidence,” Yuhua tried to counter.
“I have changed my name now. It’s Liu Shuxing, so I’m ignoring your sophistry.”
Seeing that Liu Shuxing was starting to be unreasonable, Yuhua had no choice but to lay out the truth in advance.
“So, can you not think so crookedly? Lin Ling and I were just forced to stay outside while fighting an Awakened Entity.”
“Were you really fighting an Awakened Entity?”
“Do you trust me that little? Is my credibility with you that low? You’re starting to frame me without any evidence at all.”
Yuhua hammered the table, trying to restore his glorious and upright image.
“Evidence?”
Liu Shuxing crossed her arms and snorted.
“When Lin Ling came back this morning, we asked her. Want to guess what she said?”
“What did she say? No, don’t believe her! Believe me!”
Liu Shuxing and Wang Zeqi exchanged a glance.
Then, Liu Shuxing mimicked Lin Ling’s calm, emotionless tone and repeated her words one by one:
“She said, ‘Yesterday, I spent a wonderful night with Shui Hua.'”
“That is obviously misleading!”
Yuhua nearly jumped up in frustration.
“I didn’t even sleep in the same room as her yesterday! I opened another room for myself later!”
“Besides, she said she spent it with Shui Hua. Even if we really did sleep in the same room… given our size difference and personality difference… I would be the victim, okay?”
Liu Shuxing and Wang Zeqi looked at each other.
“That’s… true.”
“Only inexperienced virgins like you who have never been in a relationship would judge others by your own standards and think my relationship with Lin Ling is so filthy. Oh, wait, you’re little virgins now.”
“I bow before the mighty normie.”
Facing this mental suppression, Liu Shuxing could only lower her head in apology.
“So, try dating more to broaden your horizons.”
Seeing that he had finally settled the matter, Yuhua began to unpack his food.
“Speaking of… dating matters,”
Wang Zeqi hesitated, but he seemed truly desperate.
He confessed to Yuhua,
“I actually have something I want to ask for your help with.”
“What is it?”
Yuhua turned around.
“My childhood friend is coming to meet me tomorrow, but I’m not in a good state to see her like this. Can you help me think of a solution?”
“What else can you do?”
Liu Shuxing crossed her legs and tilted her head, speaking casually.
“It’s not like she’s your girlfriend.
If it’s just a regular childhood friend, just come clean.
Say, ‘I’ve mutated, let’s just be besties from now on.'”
“Spoken like someone who didn’t listen to the prompt.”
Yuhua glanced at Liu Shuxing and slowly restated the core issue for her.
“Little Wang specifically emphasized that this is a ‘dating matter.’ Doesn’t that mean the importance of this childhood friend is anything but ordinary?”
Wang Zeqi nodded at that point and added,
“Yeah, she and I… we don’t have an ordinary childhood friend relationship.”
Liu Shuxing immediately pointed a finger at Wang Zeqi.
“Well, look at you, Wang Zeqi. I thought Yuhua was the only normie in our dorm. It turns out you’ve been hiding your true self all along?”
“Exactly! I’m the only one suffering from this undeserved disaster while you’re comfortably staying hidden,”
Yuhua added his own condemnation.
“Don’t get ahead of yourselves…”
Wang Zeqi waved his hands repeatedly, explaining in a hurry.
“Let me finish explaining the situation first, okay?”