“If you really don’t want to cook for yourself, at least order some takeout.”
“Eh? That’s okay? Mom, you can use my phone.”
After roughly tidying up the scattered mess on the floor and tossing the unopened instant food back into the bag, Jiang Lingwei took her daughter’s phone and found a food delivery app.
“Wow, this really is the new era. Ordering food is so cheap and convenient now!”
In the era she remembered, the food delivery industry was still in its early stages, and ordering takeout wasn’t exactly cheap.
It wasn’t like now—just 9.9 yuan for a pork trotter rice, and for two yuan more, you could add a sausage and a bottle of water.
But what does “拼好饭” (group meal) mean? Could it be that you have to share a meal with others?
Seeing Jiang Lingwei’s excited expression at discovering this high-tech convenience, Jiang Yao smiled helplessly.
Her exaggerated, fake impressions of her mother gradually faded with more contact. To her, her mother had become a real, tangible person.
Looking at it this way, having a seventeen-year-old mother really was kind of adorably naive.
Taking the phone back, Jiang Yao quietly crossed out the “group meal” option during payment and ordered a similar item from a more upscale Bento Service.
“Mom.”
After all this, Jiang Yao pulled a pink bank card out of her pocket.
“This is… some money left over. The password is 201274. Tomorrow you can buy yourself a phone and get another card.”
“But, I don’t think I have an ID card.”
“Huh?”
Jiang Yao paused—oh right, that was actually a problem.
She had never seen her mother’s ID card.
Even when she left the sanatorium to handle formalities, it was through her family member certification.
Where had her mother’s ID gone?
(Seems like a trip to the bureau is needed tomorrow.)
Thinking this, Jiang Yao said to Jiang Lingwei:
“Mom, I’ll help you sort out the ID issue tomorrow.”
Jiang Lingwei didn’t say much about the money; from her daughter’s expression, she knew whose card it was.
As for that So-and-so Man, every time Jiang Lingwei tried to ask, she was stopped by Jiang Yao’s pitiful expression.
And Jiang Yao didn’t seem to be deliberately hiding anything; rather, it was like she genuinely didn’t know how to say it.
(This time, I’ll let it slide. She’s my daughter, it’s fine, but for me—if I can avoid using that man’s money, I will. Tomorrow I’ll start looking for a part-time job.)
Changing the subject, Jiang Lingwei suggested:
“Since there’s hardly any food at home, shall we go grocery shopping together tomorrow?”
“Of course!” Jiang Yao’s eyes lit up, then, as if remembering something, her gaze dimmed.
“Oh… I almost forgot I have school tomorrow.”
The girl said regretfully, then brightened again with anticipation. “But, but I can still ask for a leave!”
“No, it’s better to go to school as usual.”
Faced with her daughter’s almost explicit enthusiasm, Jiang Lingwei rejected the idea.
Even setting aside the need to act like a responsible mother concerned about her child’s studies, Jiang Lingwei understood the significance of “going to school” or, more broadly, engaging with human society for a magical girl.
The old man had once said that if a magical girl only fought every day and did nothing else, never engaging in normal social life, they would gradually become more susceptible to magical influence.
In the short term, this might boost their combat abilities.
But after all, magical girls were still human. Having their minds affected during their growth stage was definitely bad for their personalities.
It had to be said—the old man was reliable when it came to serious matters.
He had once cited an example from his homeland—a fairy who became excessively addicted to magic, developing “mana craving syndrome.”
The fairy realm was full of magic, and fairies were pure magical beings, naturally able to wield mana and normally guided its use through happy emotions.
Dark fairies, of course, were evil cultivators who sought to harvest negative emotions and were wildly ambitious.
As for that overly addicted fairy, it ultimately chased magic until death.
Because of excessive magical influence, it dissolved into mana itself and disappeared completely from the fairy realm.
The old man guessed it had truly shed its life essence and become one with its beloved magic.
As for the old man himself, it was hunted by dark fairies and had jumped into their experimental teleportation array, arriving here.
This was its first time on Earth, and its first time discovering that the contract magic from its homeland could create magical girls—warriors far stronger than fairies themselves—when applied to suitable girls here.
The dark fairies also realized the other side of the teleportation array was a new fertile land, inhabited by the once legendary and foolish creatures called humans.
So they sought to invade Earth by corrupting and enslaving its creatures.
The old man, as the only other being capable of controlling mana, naturally opposed them by creating warriors through equal contracts.
Jiang Lingwei had wondered—of course the old man could have simply lowered the eligibility criteria, creating a large number of flawed magical girls blinded by childish fantasies, or completely neglect their personality development to raise their power quickly, sacrificing them one by one.
From an efficiency standpoint, that would be the optimal way to fight the darkness.
“But wouldn’t that make me a bastard?”
The old man had laughed and answered like that back then.
It didn’t know what consequences would arise if magical girls excluded themselves from “human” activities and social life, and instead let magic over-influence their minds.
So as a disciple, Jiang Lingwei naturally didn’t know either—and she didn’t want to know the terrifying outcomes.
To sum it all up, the truth was: schooling is necessary.
Tsk tsk, kids nowadays still have it too easy.
When I was a little boy, I had to get up at four in the morning, carry a fifty-kilogram backpack, wear a school uniform made from flour sacks, walk forty kilometers on foot, cross snowy mountains, wade through swamps, climb ranges, and swim across three lakes and two rivers—along the way transforming into a magical girl to kill one or two monsters before reaching school!
“Waaah…”
Jiang Yao looked disappointed.
The reasoning was sound, but seeing the girl’s proposal denied and her head bowing low, Jiang Lingwei felt as if two drooping ears were hanging down above Jiang Yao’s head.
(Kuu…)
The little person inside Jiang Lingwei knelt down, struck by how her daughter’s disappointed expression pierced her parent heart like an arrow.
Her daughter’s request was too hard to refuse.
(No, no, I have to harden my heart! Harden my heart!)
(I still have to operate solo tomorrow.)
Just then, she saw Little White hopping down the stairs:
“Something’s wrong! 【Crystal】! More earth element bugs have appeared!”
“Ah? Didn’t they just come out today—”
Jiang Yao stood up immediately, then realized what she’d said and hurriedly corrected herself:
“Ah… ah… I wasn’t sneaking out! Little White! Why do you have to go out again?”
Jiang Lingwei didn’t ignore this and played along:
“Oh, so that’s why it was calling out—is it wanting to go out to play?”
“Yes, yes… haha.”
Letting out a dry laugh, Jiang Yao grabbed a packaged bread from the fridge.
“Mom, I have to go out for a while. I might be late coming back tonight. I won’t order takeout. If you get bored, there’s TV and a tablet at home, all without passwords.”
With that, Jiang Yao hurried off.
After she and Little White had left, Jiang Lingwei sighed helplessly:
“This kid can’t even lie properly. Who’s in such a hurry to walk the dog? And then say she’ll be late coming back.”
That’s how magical girls are—if something happens in the city, no matter what they’re doing, they have to get there as fast as possible.
Raising her hand, Jiang Lingwei touched her necklace.
The mana core was no longer as smooth as before, and the crack made her fingers uncomfortable.
But…
She stood up and quietly followed after Jiang Yao.
“I’m not incapable of fighting either.”
…
Half an hour later, a certain delivery guy:
“What’s going on with this family? The door won’t open no matter how many times I knock, and they’re not answering their phone (；´д｀)ゞ”