Fortunately, as Lin Yizhou’s intimate cotton-padded jacket, Su Lili didn’t sit idly by. She took the initiative to step forward and explain the situation clearly, then hid behind Lin Yizhou.
Helpless, she had snuck out again this time, so naturally she was afraid of Su Ziling’s scolding.
“So what you’re saying is that you called Lin Yizhou to get up, and he didn’t respond, so you sat on him?”
“That’s right, that’s right.”
The little one hiding behind Lin Yizhou nodded repeatedly.
Looking at this person who always sided with outsiders, Su Ziling finally sighed helplessly and sat back down on her original stool.
Although the way they got along had eased a bit, it still seemed quite stiff to outsiders.
Su Lili looked left—Lin Yizhou was lying on the table reading an English dictionary—then looked right—Su Ziling was also flipping through a career guide.
Faced with this atmosphere, Su Lili had no idea where to start. She even felt like a one-way street had become blocked at both ends.
She didn’t understand. Just now, when she was secretly observing, everything seemed fine. Why had the two of them turned out like this after she showed up?
Helpless, she had to take the initiative and ask Lin Yizhou.
“Dad, how was Mom’s cooking?”
“Not bad,” Lin Yizhou thought for a moment, then gave a very serious evaluation. “If it’s out of ten, I’d give it a nine. Of course, it would be even better if there were fewer tomatoes.”
“Maa…” Hearing this evaluation, Su Lili complained with a face full of speechlessness. “Dad, you’re way too picky. With people too, and with food too.”
To that, Lin Yizhou only responded calmly.
“I just don’t think there’s anything inappropriate about it. Hating something but forcing yourself to endure it only brings unhappiness to both sides.”
“Uwaa…” Even Su Lili couldn’t help making a dead-fish-eye expression at that. “Dad, your way of speaking really feels like you’re destined to be single forever…”
But fortunately, Su Lili quickly cheered up and said to Lin Yizhou.
“But it’s okay, isn’t Mom here as a safety net?!”
“Don’t make it sound like I’m just going to give myself away for nothing…”
Su Ziling couldn’t help sighing, then looked at Lin Yizhou and said.
“Also, to correct one thing: I’m not disgusted with you. I just can’t stand your lifestyle and eating habits. I can’t figure out why, in this modern society, someone’s diet still has less nutrition than what primitive people ate. It’s truly baffling.”
“That’s clearly a stereotype about instant noodles,” Lin Yizhou retorted. “Science shows that instant noodles are actually quite nutritious, you know.”
“Ah, Dad!” At the moment of their standoff, Su Lili stood on tiptoe and tapped Lin Yizhou’s cheek. “There’s still a grain of rice at the corner of your mouth. Hehe~”
Looking at the little one’s expression, as if she was seeking praise, Lin Yizhou’s face froze slightly. He instinctively reached out a hand to pat her on the head, but feeling Su Ziling’s icy stare, he could only quickly withdraw his half-extended hand.
“Good thing you held back your urge. Otherwise, I’d really have to reevaluate your character.”
Hearing this, Lin Yizhou couldn’t help but complain with a speechless tone.
“Don’t make me sound like a criminal or something!”
Although Su Lili was indeed an intimate cotton-padded jacket, the one beside her… it was hard to say.
Maybe she was a mountain tigress protecting her cub.
“By the way, I almost forgot the main thing,” Lin Yizhou slapped his forehead, sat up, and said to Su Lili. “Let me see your magic wand.”
“Oh right, here you go, Dad.”
Su Lili handed over the magic wand in her arms, and Lin Yizhou began studying it very seriously.
Seeing him so focused, Su Ziling couldn’t help asking with curiosity.
“Is there something wrong with this transformation device? Or do you plan to use it for some evil experiment?”
“What kind of person do you think I am in your mind?”
Lin Yizhou responded while his hands didn’t stop working.
Su Ziling moved closer and continued.
“A weirdo who might suddenly go berserk and rush into a kindergarten to kidnap all the little girls.”
“Pfft!!”
Su Lili couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing at that metaphor.
“Hey…”
Lin Yizhou stared back with dead-fish eyes as a silent protest.
“So? What’s so special about this magic wand that makes you take it so seriously?”
“Its function is very strange…”
Lin Yizhou released a little bit of mana, but as the mana got close to the magic wand, it vanished instantly like a fallen leaf sucked into a whirlpool.
“I’ve seen many abilities that absorb mana, but one that can absorb the target’s mana cap… this is the first time I’ve seen such a thing.”
“The world is vast and full of wonders,” Su Ziling said calmly. “After all, just the fact that magical girls can make wishes is already pretty unreasonable, isn’t it?”
“The nature is different.”
Lin Yizhou shook his head.
“Do you know why the Weirdo Organization calls you ‘Protean Witch’?”
“Maybe because I have a lot of spirit outfit forms?”
Su Ziling hadn’t only used Su Xiaomeng’s transformation device. She also knew many junior magical girls and had borrowed their devices to fight, so she had more than one spirit outfit.
But Lin Yizhou shook his head again.
“If it were only that, we would have called you ‘Shapeshifting Magical Girl,’ not Protean Witch.”
As he spoke, Lin Yizhou held up the magic wand vertically, aiming it in Su Ziling’s direction as if comparing something.
“Maybe you don’t know this, but the mana of magical girls and the mana of monsters are completely different in nature… Su Ziling, when you transform, your overflowing mana doesn’t resemble either a monster or a magical girl. Instead, it’s more like another existence—a witch.”
“A witch?” Su Lili tilted her head and raised her hand like a curious child. “Is it a magical girl who grew up?”
“Are you saying that witches come from magical girls?”
Su Ziling recalled a certain work from her past life titled Magical Girl Xiao Fang.
“Neither,” Lin Yizhou shook his head. “That’s an existence… hard to describe to you.”
Lin Yizhou really didn’t know how to explain it to the two of them. After all, people didn’t have much concept of things they had never seen or experienced firsthand.
After thinking for a moment, he handed the magic wand to Su Ziling.
“It might be related to you. Why don’t you try using it?”