While Lin Yizhou was pondering whether he loved his brother or gold more, on the other side, Su Ziling finally lowered her hand knife.
Looking at Su Lili, who was crouching with her head covered, she couldn’t help but sigh.
“It’s so dangerous at night. How could you run out alone?”
“Mom, you’ve said that seven or eight times already…” Su Lili held her head and muttered quietly. “I just couldn’t stand watching Dad’s diet and sleeping habits.”
“Haah…”
Honestly, she didn’t know what to do with this little one.
“And…” Just as Su Ziling sighed, Su Lili continued, “Dad has mentioned your cooking more than once… more than once.”
Su Ziling understood that the “Dad” Su Lili was talking about wasn’t the current Lin Yizhou.
For this twelve-year-old, it might be a bit hard to make her distinguish between now and the future.
Or rather, she didn’t want to distinguish them at all.
“Mom, are you still angry?”
Su Lili, curled up in a corner with her head covered, sneaked a peek at Su Ziling’s expression from the corner of her eye.
“I won’t secretly look for Dad anymore…”
“It’s not about you looking for your dad,” Su Ziling wasn’t actually angry. She calmed down and explained. “I wouldn’t mind if you looked for him. What I’m worried about is your safety. Who would feel safe letting a twelve-year-old run out at night?”
At this, the little girl seemed to understand something, her eyes lighting up.
“So does that mean, Mom, you don’t hate Dad?”
“I don’t hate him, but I don’t like him either,” Su Ziling said calmly. “I don’t know what kind of person he is, but if we’re talking about looks from a woman’s aesthetic perspective, that guy would be quite handsome if he tidied up a bit.”
“What do you mean ‘from a woman’s aesthetic perspective’…” Su Lili muttered quietly. “Mom, aren’t you a woman?”
“…”
Su Ziling’s mouth twitched.
She wanted to say she wasn’t, but she really didn’t have the joystick anymore.
Seeing that she couldn’t win against this precocious kid, Su Ziling had no choice but to exert her authority as an adult and continued.
“If you want to go out at night in the future, at least tell me. I’ll go with you.”
“Yay!!” Su Lili cheered excitedly. “Then Mom, I want to sleep at Dad’s place tonight. Will you come too… ouch!!”
Before Su Lili could finish, Su Ziling hit her on the head with a hand knife.
“You’re twelve years old and you still want to sleep with your dad?”
Having taken an undeserved hand knife, Su Lili could only cover her head again and said pitifully.
“Really… can’t I?”
“Didn’t you say your dad has several cabinets full of kids who don’t wear clothes?”
“Oh, never mind.”
With that one simple sentence, Su Ziling and Su Lili reached an understanding.
“True, it might not be safe for me to go alone. I remember there’s a character named Ai Li in Dad’s study materials…”
“What?!”
Su Ziling’s face turned completely dark, and Su Lili realized she had said too much. She quickly covered her mouth.
But when she saw it was too late, she put on an innocent expression.
“Hehe~”
“Haah…” Su Ziling took several deep breaths, then said, “I think I really need to have a friendly and harmonious discussion with that guy.”
“Big bro? Lili?”
Just then, a lively voice sounded behind them.
Turning around, they saw Su Xiaomeng riding a shared bike and appearing behind them.
This was around the time she got off work, so running into each other here was quite normal.
Seeing Su Ziling’s face full of dark lines, Su Xiaomeng asked.
“What are you guys talking about while standing here?”
“Nothing,” Su Ziling shook her head. “Just shocked that someone is looking at Ai Li.”
“Someone?” The sibling intuition made Su Xiaomeng immediately realize who Su Ziling was referring to, so she said, “You mean Lin Yizhou?”
“Who else?”
Su Ziling rolled her eyes at her in exasperation, but Su Xiaomeng burst out laughing.
“Big bro, you’re making a big deal out of nothing. Isn’t that normal?”
Like Lin Yizhou, Su Xiaomeng was also a fan of two-dimensional culture, but she was a closet otaku. People who didn’t know her would never guess.
“How is that normal?”
“Oh, big bro, you don’t understand,” Su Xiaomeng explained. “For us otaku, what we really care about is the character’s appearance. Character traits are just seasoning. Simply put… we only get excited for good-looking characters we like. There’s no deeper meaning. Even if the character’s attributes change, as long as the appearance stays the same, they can still get us going.”
“…”
Listening to Su Xiaomeng’s lengthy explanation, Su Ziling’s mouth twitched.
“How do you know so much?”
“How could I not?” Su Xiaomeng spread her hands. “When I watch Sky Edge, I don’t project myself onto you, big bro.”
Then, she didn’t forget to recommend it.
“Oh, by the way, I bought a new disc of Sky Edge yesterday. Big bro, wanna watch it together?”
“?”
Su Ziling’s face, already full of dark lines, turned even darker, as if it could drip ink.
“So you’re also a stunner!!”
—
Time came to the next day. Lin Yizhou yawned and walked into the classroom.
With finals approaching, he really didn’t dare to skip class. Skipping usual classes was fine, but he still had to give the teacher some face during finals.
Fan Zhicheng was the same. Seeing Lin Yizhou, he couldn’t help but ask.
“Lao Da, Lao Da, did you watch the news last night?”
“What news?” Lin Yizhou was really not in high spirits. “I was doing dailies until three in the morning. I didn’t have time to pay attention to that.”
“It’s about your favorite show, the real-life model for Magical Girl Meluke, Pei Keke. She defeated two more Freaks again. I heard that the Freak even took hostages…”
“How are you still paying attention to this?” Lin Yizhou glanced at him. “And with your identity, why are you focusing on the Magical Girl side?”
“Strange, Lao Da, why do you seem uninterested? Aren’t you a big fan of Magical Girl Meluke?”
“I like Magical Girl Meluke, that’s right, but that doesn’t mean I like her real-life model. I can still tell the difference between reality and fiction, okay.”
“Alright…” Seeing Lin Yizhou’s lack of interest, Fan Zhicheng chose to end the topic and started talking about business. “But what I want to talk about isn’t this.”
“Then what?”
“It’s that Magical Girl Pei Keke. She publicly announced that she found the senior she’s been longing for and plans to cooperate with her. And that senior she mentioned… is the ‘Protean Witch’ we’re supposed to investigate.”
Su Ziling, who was eavesdropping, was stunned.
When did she agree to cooperate with Pei Keke?