Another new day arrived, and Lu Xiaoling seemed to be in a hurry for some urgent matter. She rushed out of the house, leaving a whole hour earlier than her usual time to head to school.
Lu Liang, on the other hand, didn’t go out to do his Cleaner work. Instead, he stayed home and enjoyed a comfortable sleep.
The reason was simple: he had caused such a huge stir in Commercial Street that now the Magical Girl Association must be going crazy searching for the Black Mist Monster.
To be safe, Lu Liang decided to temporarily suspend his operations for a while.
With nothing better to do, Lu Liang began training the Bug Monsters he had obtained from Bai Wanqing. There were twelve of them in total, all now awakened from their comatose state. Since they were all Monsters themselves, Lu Liang attempted to communicate with them, and to his surprise, he actually succeeded.
“One, two, three, rest, attention, right turn!”
The Bug Monsters followed the command, lining up with their shells aligned and shifting slightly forward in formation.
“Very good, very disciplined.”
Lu Liang picked up his phone and recorded a video of the Bug Monsters. Then he contacted the information broker Tangping and sent the video out. Afterwards, he rewarded the Bug Monsters with some biscuits.
Not long after feeding them, Lu Liang received a call from Tangping.
Tangping: “Is that… Bug Monsters? And they look like the intelligent type. Ah Liang, did you get these from the Subway?”
Lu Liang: “Mhm, is there a problem?”
Tangping: “No, it’s just that recently a Monster appeared, and right from its debut, it consecutively defeated over twenty Magical Girl Interns plus a Seedling-level Magical Girl. The Subway’s been on lockdown since then, making it hard for Cleaners to get in and work. If I find out who that Monster disturbing my profits is, heh… By the way, Ah Liang, I heard the Monster first appeared in the Subway. Do you have any leads?”
Lu Liang: “…I don’t know. I’m just a Cleaner selling Bug Monsters. Asking me won’t help. Just tell me if you want to buy.”
Tangping: “Of course I want them. Now that the Subway is sealed off by the Association with heavy guards, the number of Bug Monsters circulating on the Black Market has dropped a lot. I can’t even get any now.”
Hearing that the price of Bug Monsters had risen, Lu Liang narrowed his eyes and quickly said, “Oh? Price increase? Then I think we need to have a good discussion about the Bug Monsters’ pricing.”
There was silence on the other end for a moment. Lu Liang clearly heard a sharp slap — perhaps Tangping was slapping himself in frustration for speaking too much?
But soon after, Tangping said, “Okay, but I want to invite an expert to evaluate your Bug Monsters. If she thinks they’re good, I won’t have any objections.”
“An expert? Is your expert reliable?”
Lu Liang felt a bit uncertain. Ordinary people couldn’t tell the value of Monsters. To be called an expert, one must be someone who researches Monsters professionally. The question was… could Tangping even afford such an expert?
“Don’t worry about my people. She understands Monsters better than I do.”
Seeing Tangping’s confidence, Lu Liang had no choice but to trust him for now.
“Alright, tell her. Let’s meet on Commercial Street.”
Upon arriving at Commercial Street, Lu Liang called Tangping.
“I’m here. How about you?”
Tangping: “She should be here too. She’s easy to spot—she looks quiet and doesn’t talk much. Look for a girl with a particularly artistic vibe in the crowd—that’s probably her.”
Easy to spot? Particularly artistic?
Lu Liang chuckled. Those three descriptions together made no sense. Tangping was probably pulling his leg again.
After all, those who like studying Monsters are either crazy or Magical Girls. And seriously… who would work for a borderline illegal information broker like Tangping unless they were crazy?
Of course, Lu Liang considered their relationship more like “partners” than a simple employer-employee arrangement.
Ignoring Tangping’s description, Lu Liang searched the crowd for someone more fitting his image of an expert—someone with tattoos and piercings, a “landmine girl.”
After scanning around, he didn’t find the stereotypical “expert,” but noticed a scene: three or four men surrounding a girl, seemingly trying to approach her, but each one hesitated and pushed the others back, their expressions wavering between lust and fear.
“Bro, aren’t you supposed to ask for her number? Just go ask.”
“Don’t push me… I need some psychological preparation.”
Judging by the shy and innocent tone, one might think these guys were pure little virgins who couldn’t even look a girl in the eye and would blush for days after talking to a lady.
But these guys were clearly the opposite—tattooed, dyed blond hair, textbook examples of “bad boys.”
It was the first time Lu Liang saw blond-haired guys show such hesitation. He wondered what kind of girl could make them so afraid to approach and, out of curiosity, leaned in for a closer look.
Parting the surrounding men, Lu Liang caught sight of the girl’s face.
She wore faded, straight white work pants, and her short, slightly curled hair lazily hung down to her shoulders. Long, cage-like eyelashes gently veiled her eyes like gauze. Her lips were soft and flushed, while her pale chin bore a graceful curve.
With such distinctive looks, it was no wonder those blond guys were trying to talk to her.
Although her appearance and outfit were full of vitality—a truly youthful beauty—her expression was strangely cold and lifeless. Her pupils were dull and devoid of light, like a dead fish.
Yet, even so, she carried a certain charm, giving off the melancholic aura of a girl trapped in her youth.
To the guys trying to chat her up, she neither moved away nor responded. She simply leaned against the wall, holding a jar in her hands. Inside the jar, vaguely preserved in formalin, were four spherical objects.
Seeing those irregularly sized, wrinkled spheres, Lu Liang shuddered inwardly and thought,
Could those be… testicles?
No, no, he must be mistaken. Who would carry a jar of testicles out in public? And while the spheres looked like testicles, they were much larger than a normal human’s.
But they looked so realistic that if one didn’t suspect anything, anyone would think the girl’s jar held male testicles.
Suddenly, Lu Liang understood why those blond guys looked so scared.
When she noticed a few ants lagging behind the group, the girl didn’t hesitate—she stepped on the ants and killed them.
Watching the ants scatter in all directions, the girl smiled and laughed heartily, “Heh heh heh.”
After laughing, she finally noticed someone watching her and lifted her head.
The blond guys panicked, abruptly abandoning their attempts and hurriedly excused themselves.
But the girl’s gaze didn’t rest on the boys; instead, it fixed on Lu Liang.
After scrutinizing him for a moment, a strange expression appeared on her face, as if she had seen something inscrutable.
Then, she asked Lu Liang with a puzzled voice:
“Ah Liang?”
Her voice was hollow, mechanical, as if a delicate doll speaking in a non-human tone.
Hearing this familiar name, Lu Liang’s expression changed. Tentatively, he asked:
“Are you the expert Tangping sent?”
“Mm.” The girl nodded.
Lu Liang hadn’t expected Tangping’s expert to be this girl. He wasn’t sure if he was lucky or unlucky, but since they had met, he introduced himself.
“Hello, I’m Lu Liang, a Cleaner cooperating with Tangping.”
The girl paused, then introduced herself in a similar manner.
“He Wan.”
A black vortex appeared in her hand, completely engulfing the glass jar.
“I am an active Magical Girl.”
Lu Liang’s expression froze.
“You’re a Magical Girl?”