Chapter 41: Exposed! No… It Seems Not

“Big Brother Li Chi, what happened here?”

As soon as Gu Qingchuan stepped out of the room, she saw Ying Guang staring intently at Li Chi, looking as if she wanted to devour the innocent-looking boy whole.

Meanwhile, Li Chi was curled up in the corner with disheveled clothes, striking a defensive posture.

“You two…”

After all, Gu Qingchuan was still just a junior high school girl who had just entered puberty. 

She had some understanding of those kinds of things. 

Plus, she had been hanging around Chi Zaozao—the girl with the wildly imaginative mind—for some time recently. 

Seeing this scene, a bunch of indescribable images inexplicably popped into her head.

What kind of weird plot development is this?!

Steam rose from the top of Gu Qingchuan’s head as her little face flushed bright red.

“You two… you two…”

Her voice became hesitant and stuttering as she pointed at them with a trembling finger.

“You guys are actually… actually… doing it—”

Before the little girl’s outrageous statement could fully emerge, Ying Guang swiftly covered her mouth.

“Don’t overthink it. I was just worried that this guy might be White Lion in disguise, so I tested him with magic earlier. It looks like he’s not.”

Ying Guang quickly explained the excuse she had come up with to Gu Qingchuan. 

Luckily, she was fast enough; otherwise, the situation would have taken another bizarre turn.

Gu Qingchuan nodded. 

She didn’t suspect Ying Guang’s highly suspicious-sounding words at all.

Phew—

Good thing I managed to fool her.

Ying Guang turned back to Li Chi and repeated the same explanation she had used on Gu Qingchuan, though with some slight embellishments. 

After all, this boy seemed much smarter than that little girl.

“So that’s what happened. I thought…”

Gu Qingchuan breathed a sigh of relief. 

She believed that her senior wouldn’t lie to her.

However, the truth was that this silly girl had been successfully fooled by Ying Guang.

But Li Chi wasn’t that naive. 

He could tell purely by intuition that this Magical Girl was definitely lying.

What is she after? Trying to recruit me?

Damn it. I knew exposing myself like that would cause trouble. 

I should have held back a bit more.

Li Chi reflected bitterly. 

It seemed he was still too immature.

“However, while this kid definitely isn’t White Lion, I discovered something quite remarkable on him.”

Since both sides were people with special powers, Ying Guang saw no point in trying to hide anything for them.

Besides, this guy’s little sister was incredible. 

It turned out that all the young girls around him every day were Magical Girls, and he himself wasn’t an ordinary person either.

But up until now, why hadn’t they discovered each other’s secrets?

Ying Guang couldn’t figure it out no matter how hard she thought. 

She could only conclude that they had all hidden it too well, to the point that even after spending so much time together, none of them had noticed.

“What remarkable thing?”

Gu Qingchuan’s large eyes filled with great curiosity.

“Li Chi, show them. How long do you plan to keep hiding it?”

Ying Guang, whose mind had just been zapped by Li Chi earlier, didn’t realize how overbearing her behavior was. She hadn’t considered anyone else’s feelings at all.

“Could it be…”

Looking at Ying Guang’s confident expression and Li Chi’s current awkward situation, Gu Qingchuan understood.

Could it be that Big Brother Li Chi isn’t an ordinary person?

Could it be that he’s also a hidden Magical Girl?!

Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey! What am I thinking?!

It’s all Chi Zaozao’s fault! She’s always bringing up stuff like that around me and almost made me think something weird.

How could Big Brother Li Chi be a Magical Girl? He’s a total manly guy!

But… the spirits did say that men aren’t completely out of the question…

The slightly slow-witted girl fell into confusion once again.

She refuted her own thoughts while simultaneously coming up with somewhat reasonable explanations for her utterly ridiculous and bizarre idea.

She had completely tangled herself up.

“Big Brother Li Chi…”

Li Chi, still in his defensive posture, looked toward Gu Qingchuan.

“Could it be… you’re actually a Magical Girl?!”

Gu Qingchuan blurted out nonsense with dizzy spiral eyes.

Li Chi: “…”

Ying Guang: “…”

Girl, just go home. Please go home, okay?

Li Chi had now concluded that Gu Qingchuan had been infected by Chi Zaozao. 

From today onward, she would officially be renamed Chi Zaozao No. 2.

Seriously, my little sister hung out with that Chi Zaozao for so long and didn’t get infected, but you’ve only been around her for how long? 

You’re already turning into her clone!

One hour later…

Li Guang finally woke up. The brother and sister shared a touching conversation that brought tears to everyone’s eyes.

After that, it was time to address the issue with Li Chi.

Fortunately, Li Chi had already come up with a way to handle it.

The four Magical Girls and one high-ranking cadre from the Dark Organization were now sitting in a row inside Chi Zaozao’s bedroom.

Ying Guang hadn’t directly told Li Chi about Li Guang and the others being Magical Girls. However, before she could, Gu Qingchuan had stopped her using magic transmission.

Gu Qingchuan’s exact words were:

“This matter should be left to Xiao Guang. After all, they’re brother and sister. If Xiao Guang doesn’t want Big Brother Li Chi to know she’s a Magical Girl, then we don’t need to do this.”

The statement sounded straightforward, meaning that Ying Guang didn’t need to and shouldn’t do it. 

But in Ying Guang’s ears, it carried a completely different meaning:

The time isn’t right yet…

When? 

Why hide the truth? 

Since neither side was ordinary, why conceal their identities as Magical Girls?

Ying Guang, whose mind tended to overthink things, couldn’t understand. While others only meant the second layer of meaning, she had already extended it to the tenth layer.

One could only say that being overly active in one’s thoughts wasn’t necessarily a good thing. Acting too self-centered was merely one of the accompanying side effects.

Li Guang leaned weakly against Chi Zaozao’s shoulder. However, her complexion was no longer as pale as before. 

On the contrary, after learning that her brother was safe and sound—and moreover, not an ordinary person—her face had even gained a bit of color.

Everyone remained silent for a moment.

Then, Ying Guang, seated in the center of the group, spoke up.

“Li Chi, please demonstrate that ability from earlier again.”

She said “please demonstrate that ability from earlier again,” not “could you demonstrate that ability from earlier again.”

This meant that Li Chi had to do it now. There was no room for him to refuse.

The others’ expressions turned somewhat unpleasant.

What’s going on? Why is Ying Guang being so rude? She wasn’t like this before.

The three young Magical Girls thought to themselves.

The other party had put him on the spot, and right in front of so many people. At this point, Li Chi had no choice but to comply.

Fortunately, he had already prepared a reasonable explanation.

If the Magical Girls suspected he was Dark Fang, the high-ranking cadre of the Dark Organization, he would simply deny it to the death. 

If they still insisted on that idea, he was prepared to bring up the concept of dissociative identity disorder.

As long as he spoke sincerely enough and made his expression look sufficiently confused, they would definitely believe him.

After all, in a world where evil people were nearly extinct, no one would lie without reason. 

If they thought he had some unspeakable difficulties, that would be even better—no one would bring it up again in the future.

Li Chi took a deep breath. The energy within his body stirred slightly. Weak golden lightning, like parasitic creatures, emerged from his body and coiled around his arm.

Li Chi held his hand out in front of the girls to show them. Just as he was about to speak, the excited Ying Guang beat him to it.

“This is amazing! Absolutely incredible! This is an unprecedented power system! No wonder those two were fighting over you!”

She said excitedly, clearly wishing she could recruit Li Chi into her ranks right then and there.

Li Chi: “???”

Since he had been hiding in a certain spot spying on the Magical Girls earlier, their previous conversation had reached his ears word for word.

Li Chi naturally knew who the “two guys” Ying Guang was referring to were.

It was Dark Fang and White Lion, of course.

But she said they had fought each other because of him?

It seemed that in Ying Guang’s eyes, Dark Fang and Li Chi had always been two different people. She had never connected the two.

Have I been exposed? It seems like it… but then again, maybe not?

So what exactly was going on here?

Li Chi couldn’t figure it out.