Ever since Xia Liang discovered the secret of Erald Sparrow's identity, she often deliberately made various intimate gestures.
Sotis she would sit next to Erald Sparrow, play with her long blue hair, and braid it into small braids or twist it into a braid.
Or, she would suddenly run behind Erald Sparrow, cover her eyes, and play the sowhat childish ga of "Guess who I am?"
Most of the ti, like now, she specifically chose when Lin Xiaolu was around to sneakily do little things: like tickling, kicking, or writing words on Erald Sparrow's hand to pass secret ssages.
The content of these whispers was completely aningless, things like "I don't understand," "It's difficult," "Explain it one more ti," that could have been said outright at the table, but she preferred to convey them through these small gestures.
If it was just once or twice, it would be alright, but after it happened many tis, Erald Sparrow felt she should give her a light reprimand.
"Xiaojin, you've been looking at this page for a long ti, have you figured out how to do it?"
So she narrowed her eyes, her voice slightly cold, "I was just talking about this with Bai i, why don't you share so thoughts with her?"
"Huh?"
Xia Liang, who had been pretend-studying her textbook, was slightly startled, then sowhat confusedly raised her head: "What?"
"Weren't you looking at the problems?" Erald Sparrow took the opportunity to pull out her hand and cross her arms in front of her chest, "Factorization, you just happen to discuss these types of problems with Bai i."
"Ah, that..." Xia Liang lowered her head, looking at the content on the book page, and was at a loss for words for a mont.
Her reaction was within Erald Sparrow's expectations, for she had been focused on making small gestures and probably didn't know which problem Erald Sparrow was referring to just now.
And in such a situation, even if she knew how to solve these problems, it would be hard for her to continue the conversation.
Therefore, under Xia Liang's sowhat resentful gaze, Erald Sparrow started a stern lecture, applying all the usual phrases like "How can you be distracted with exams coming up?" and "Even if you improve, you shouldn't be complacent," leaving Xia Liang speechless and forcing her to lower her head and obediently do the problems.
To the side, Lin Xiaolu was schadenfreudingly snickering; Bai Jingxuan looked a bit puzzled at the two of them, then continued to lower her head and contemplate her own book; Moco, who had been sleeping on the bookshelf, was woken up by the noise and lazily turned over.
In such an atmosphere, the last weekend before the mock exam ca to an end.
It was another Monday morning, when the first rays of sunlight touched the head of the bed, Erald Sparrow subconsciously opened her eyes. She sat up sowhat groggily, reached instinctively for the empty spot beside her, and gradually ca to her senses, then got out of bed.
The body of a magical girl doesn't secrete sweat or gri like a normal person, so there's no need for a special wash, but still, Erald Sparrow followed her usual routine and went to the washroom for a thorough cleaning.
Then, taking advantage of the early morning, she started waking up the girls one by one from their rooms.
Lin Xiaolu was the easiest to wake up, probably because of the cold war with Lin Yun over the past two years. To avoid seeing her dad's face before leaving for school in the morning, she used to get up early and go to school by herself.
This habit has gradually changed as the father-daughter relationship has improved, and now Lin Xiaolu doesn't like to get up early anymore, but she still retains a rather high sensitivity in her sleep, so as soon as Erald Sparrow knocked, she would be wide awake in no ti.
Bai Jingxuan doesn't need to go to school now, but since there's a lot of magical girl howork she urgently needs to catch up on, she can't slack off.
Her daily routine is very good, probably thanks to the many years she lived in the orphanage. Although she's not as easy to wake as Lin Xiaolu, as long as Erald Sparrow taps slightly on her bedside, she would slowly open her eyes. After waking up to Erald Sparrow's call, she wouldn't fuss about wanting to sleep in or linger in bed but would actively sit up and start her morning routine.
The hardest to wake up was Xia Liang.
According to her own words, unless she slept until the very last second before being late, she would not get out of bed. But the fact is, Xia Liang is seen as a delinquent girl by schoolmates mainly because of being late every day—that's what Lin Xiaolu said.
And now, since everyone lives under the sa roof, Erald Sparrow wouldn't allow her to continue indulging in her bad habits.
Gently knocking on the door, and receiving no response from inside the room, Erald Sparrow turned the doorknob and walked in, looking towards the single bed by the window—where there was a bulge under the quilt.
Walking over, Erald Sparrow paused by the bed, and she could see half a head sticking out of the bulge. The owner's disorderly black strands fell from the gap between the quilt and pillow, trembling slowly with the owner's steady breathing.
With one hand on her hip and waiting for a while, seeing that the person inside the bulge showed no sign of waking up, Erald Sparrow called out, "Ti to get up, Xiaojin."
The only response was the slight sound of breathing.
Raising her eyebrows, Erald Sparrow decided to show no rcy, reaching out and grabbing the quilt. She pulled straight back with force, then yanked the quilt away with a sudden jerk.
The figure within the nest was also revealed.
Xia Liang was seen hugging a large-sized plush toy, her head buried in the top of the toy, half her face pressed against the fluffy surface, eyes closed, with no intention of waking up.
Her face still wore an inexplicable smile, as if imrsed in a sweet dream.
Erald Sparrow stepped back a few paces to the window, drew back the curtains to let the sunlight into the room, then turned to the bedside, tapping Xia Liang's shoulder, "Ti to get up, you have school."
The other person still had no response.
Afterward, Erald Sparrow tried various thods: patting the shoulder didn't work, shoving didn't work, and even tapping the forehead yielded no response. After repeatedly encountering obstacles, she could only choose a slightly excessive thod.
Pinching the nose.
Her fingers touched Xia Liang's nostrils and then gently pinched them. Erald Sparrow squatted by the bed, watching Xia Liang's expression silently while secretly counting the ti, so as not to really cause suffocation.
In this way, after about 30 seconds, just as Erald Sparrow estimated it was unsafe to continue and was ready to give up the act, Xia Liang finally opened her eyes.
"Ha—huh, huh, junior?"
She opened her mouth sowhat groggily, gasping for a short while before asking in a puzzled tone, "Why are you at my place? Am I dreaming?"
"This is our base, and your school starts in 40 minutes, hurry and get up."
After letting go, Erald Sparrow took two steps back and left the room without waiting for Xia Liang to say anything else.
She hadn't noticed the stunned expression on Xia Liang's face behind her on the bed, as though she was contemplating sothing, but with the pressing schedule of the morning, she had no ti to linger.
Walking into the kitchen, she pulled arm covers from the cabinet beneath the stove. Erald Sparrow quickly retrieved a series of ingredients from the fridge and then started preparing breakfast.
Compared to the past when she was at her own ho, Erald Sparrow now had to prepare breakfast for four, but the process remained unchanged; she just had more tasks.
She boiled water in a frying pan, then placed asured amounts of pasta into it, chopped a few stalks of spring onion and vegetables, cracked a few eggs sunny-side up, and prepared the soup base for the noodles in the four ready bowls. Several very ordinary servings of pasta were thus finished.
After that, Erald Sparrow called the three little ones out from their respective washrooms, and it was ti for breakfast.
This was the Fangting City Magical Girl Squad's first morning after a sleepover at the secret base, as well as the first breakfast the four of them had together.
Erald Sparrow carefully collected feedback on the breakfast from the newcors. Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang started their usual bickering early in the morning, Moco talked incessantly to Bai Jingxuan, who ate her noodles quietly but still paid attention to the conversations of others.
A new week, and a new life, began from there.
Erald Sparrow continued one-on-one tutoring with Bai Jingxuan in the secret base, while the other two went off to school to carry on with the new term's curriculum.
Ti flew by rapidly, and the Magical Girls began to get accustod to living together at the secret base. Soon, this way of life beca the norm for them.
Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang would go to school together, Erald Sparrow and Bai Jingxuan would train and attend to household chores together, and Moco still considered herself the vitally important Seeder, venturing out daily to find new Magical Girl candidates.
anwhile, Lin Xiaolu would send Lin Yun a simple text ssage every night, and Erald Sparrow would also use Lin Yun's phone to respond with caring words. Bai Jingxuan still occasionally contacted the caregivers from the orphanage, reporting on her recent living conditions.
There was also an occurrence of a Remnant Beast during this period, but it was still a rather weak Egg-grade.
For so reason, since the people behind Claw Mark and Black Ash Dawn were defeated, the Remnant Beasts in Fangting City had beco much weaker, and the frequency and intensity of attacks had decreased. This suggests that the recent spike in Remnant Beast incidents was likely related to these individuals.
Erald Sparrow didn't care that the Remnant Beasts were weaker. In fact, she would rather have a world without Remnant Beasts, where people wouldn't need to live under the shadow of such crises.
Being able to resolve these attacks effortlessly was a good thing for her, for the newcors in the squad, and for the ordinary citizens of Fangting City.
Everyone was adjusting to this new state of living, keeping so things constant while allowing themselves to make so changes where appropriate.
After that, the baseline exams for Lin Xiaolu's and Xia Liang's junior high school proceeded as scheduled.
By that stage, Erald Sparrow had exhausted all the help she could offer. She believed she had done everything she could, and from then on, it was up to their performance.
During the days of the tests, even the atmosphere of Magic Power training beca sowhat tense; Xia Liang and Lin Xiaolu took the exams very seriously, as they represented an opportunity to demonstrate their hard work from an entire sumr.
So on the day after the exams ended, Erald Sparrow took the entire squad out for a celebratory hot pot al.
As the end of sumr approached autumn, the weather turned cooler—perfect for hot pot season. A group of young girls, all striking in appearance, made for a distinctive scene at the hot pot restaurant.
What puzzled the staff the most was that among this group of young girls, it seed the youngest one was the center of attention, as she was in charge of ordering and paying the bill, which was truly astonishing.
Throughout the al, diners from nearby tables occasionally looked over at the Magical Girls, and so even thought it was novel enough to take pictures, but they were politely stopped by Erald Sparrow, and had no choice but to regretfully put away their phones.
In this way, the baseline exam that had half the squad mbers nervous for so long was finally over, and life's pace once again slowed down for the Magical Girls.
Of course, Erald Sparrow didn't know what the kids were thinking, but she had her own new worries: with September halfway through and many things settled, a new troubleso matter was gradually approaching.
The day she had promised to go out with Xia Liang was drawing near.
Reviews
All reviews (0)