Sweating buckets here, sis.
Yin Lin walked into the subway, and Xia Shiyao followed her in.
After riding for three stops and getting off, Xia Shiyao got off right behind her.
Then she took a half-hour bus ride, and Xia Shiyao followed her onto the bus and got off at the same stop.
Yin Lin started running, weaving through the bustling crowd, trying to shake off Xia Shiyao.
Xia Shiyao, meanwhile, was running after her while talking on the phone.
She just couldn’t shake her off—this woman’s physical fitness was way too good.
And her willpower was remarkably strong.
Even though countless people along the way were chasing them, taking photos, and asking if they were Yin Lin and Jin Luan, even with her identity about to be exposed, Xia Shiyao stubbornly refused to give up the chase.
It had already been over an hour.
Xia Shiyao was still holding her phone, but the person on the other end, Diamond, was running out of things to act out.
No matter how much you love bathing, you can’t possibly take a shower for over an hour, unless you’re soaking in a bath.
So, Diamond had a sudden idea and said, “Yin! What happened? Why are you bleeding?”
Upon hearing this, Xia Shiyao immediately became anxious, stopped chasing, and asked Diamond on the phone.
“What’s wrong? What happened?”
Diamond: “Yin just fainted, there’s a lot of blood, hurry and come over.”
Xia Shiyao was caught in a difficult dilemma. She had been so sure that Yao Ruoning was Yin Lin—at least 99% sure.
But this phone call from Diamond suggested Yao Ruoning wasn’t Yin Lin.
What to do? It was a fifty-fifty choice.
Xia Shiyao chose to trust Diamond.
She quickly found a deserted spot, performed her Transformation, and then flew away.
Finally got rid of that woman! Nice, another round won.
Yin Lin leisurely made her way home, picking up three orders of Fried Dumplings on the way.
Back at home, Diamond pointed at the phone, which was already powered off—out of battery.
She was still in her Magical Girl transformation, so she plugged in the phone to charge and turned it back on.
As soon as it powered up, a flood of messages came in—all from Xia Shiyao, full of concern.
Sigh, geez.
The phone rang again—it was Xia Shiyao calling.
She pressed the answer button.
“Heh, Yao Ruoning, you made it home, didn’t you?” Xia Shiyao’s cold laughter came through the line.
“What Yao Ruoning? What are you talking about? I’m Yin Lin.” Her voice shifted slightly, returning to Yin Lin’s original tone.
“Don’t give me that. You deliberately had Diamond answer the phone and gave me a fake address to trick me, but when I went, you two were nowhere to be found. Yao Ruoning, oh Yao Ruoning, don’t let me catch you next time.” Xia Shiyao sounded a bit angry.
Yin Lin: “Big sis, what are you talking about? Are you so overworked you’re getting confused?”
Xia Shiyao: “Still acting, huh? Remember this—you’ll get what’s coming to you.”
The call was hung up, and Yin Lin could feel Xia Shiyao’s anger.
Crap!
Yin Lin quickly contacted the manager of the milk tea shop to discuss pretending not to be on shift tomorrow, faking a day off.
But she still planned to go work at the No. 8 Milk Tea Shop tomorrow.
The manager was confused—what kind of plan was this?
Yin Lin explained that if those who wanted milk tea couldn’t get any, No. 8 Milk Tea Shop would just turn into a fan meeting event.
The manager thought about it for a moment and agreed.
Back in her room, she gently peeled off the Band-Aid—ouch, it hurt quite a bit.
It hurt this much even without any hair—she couldn’t imagine how painful it would be if there was hair when ripping off a Band-Aid.
Looking at the Band-Aid, something suddenly came to mind.
Feeling guilty, she peeked outside her door. Diamond was eating Fried Dumplings and hadn’t come over.
So, she closed her door tightly and sniffed the Band-Aid.
A little disappointed—not a bad smell, not much of a fragrance either, mostly just the smell of medicine.
She went out to eat Fried Dumplings with Diamond and chatted about the Senior Demonic Entity.
The TV was still reporting on the incident. The Senior Demonic Entity had planned to enter the city, but was fiercely attacked by the Human Alliance along the way.
Bombers, armed helicopters, armored vehicles—every kind of vehicle had been deployed, and they’d been attacking all day.
The Senior Demonic Entity was getting closer and closer to the city. That thing was tough—it had destroyed over a hundred vehicles and consumed over ten billion worth of military supplies, but still hadn’t gone down.
However, it had already taken a lot of damage—green blood could be seen.
And it had used up a lot of magic, most of it on Shields. The Human Alliance’s firepower had forcibly shattered dozens of Shields.
By a rough estimate, the Senior Demonic Entity probably had about 60% of its magic left. If the fight went on another day, they might be able to take it down.
But the thing was heading for the city, and once it was inside, it would be hard to deploy bombers.
“Yin, if you don’t go, the Demonic Entity will enter the city, and then there will be a lot of casualties.” Diamond started urging her again.
“You’re not seriously asking me to deal with that thing, are you? Other than going to die, what else could I do?” She then probed, “You don’t actually want me dead, do you?”
Diamond: “Of course not. I’m just saying, if you really were going, I might try to talk you out of it.”
“Then I’m really going.” With that, she stood up and walked toward the window, acting like she was leaving. “I’m really going, you know!”
Diamond just looked at her, not reacting.
She asked, “Didn’t you say you’d try to talk me out of it?”
Diamond: “You’re not really going—I can tell.”
Fine, enough fooling around. She sat back down.
At that moment, the TV blared with the anchor’s excited shout: “Oh my god! What is that?! Yin Lin, it’s Magical Girl Yin Lin!”
Huh? Diamond and Old Song were both stunned.
What did that mean? Wasn’t she still right here?
On the TV, a familiar beam of light shot down from the sky, like an orbital cannon, as if fired straight from space.
It looked a lot like Yin Lin’s Magic Power Cannon.
That thing crashed down hard, striking the Senior Demonic Entity on the ground with pinpoint accuracy.
The screen instantly went white—almost nothing could be seen.
The cameraman quickly adjusted the exposure, turning down the brightness.
A milky white hemispherical explosion covered the ground, fire shooting up into the sky.
A terrifying shockwave hit a few seconds later, knocking the anchor and cameraman to the ground, rolling them over several times. The camera was knocked to the floor as well.
The power of that blast was even greater than Yin Lin’s 100% full-power Magic Power Cannon—it felt like it could end the world.
Even though they were dozens of kilometers away, Diamond and Old Song felt the ground shake, trembling a few times, with doors and windows rattling in response.
Wave after wave of magical ripples swept by—not wind, but magic invisible to humans.
The magic was like ripples made by tossing a stone into a lake, passing through walls and brushing over Diamond and Old Song.
It was the aftershock of the Magic Power Cannon’s explosion.
Yin Lin: “Diamond, what’s going on? Is there another Magical Girl who can use my move?”
Diamond shook her head: “As far as I know, only you can use that fighting style. It requires magic on your scale—even Black Phoenix doesn’t have as much total magic as you.”
Yin Lin: “Then who fired that shot just now? It definitely wasn’t me.”
Diamond: “No idea.”
They ate another Fried Dumpling and kept watching TV.
The cameraman looked at the beautiful anchor who had fallen beside him, then at his precious camera, and finally decided to pick up the camera first.
He hurried to capture the scene on the spot.
The explosion hadn’t subsided yet, and the heat was so intense that the cameraman’s skin turned red.
Yin Lin stared intently at the TV. Suddenly, her phone rang again.
As expected, it was Xia Shiyao.
She pressed the answer button.
“Are you insane?! That’s a trap, and you still dared to go? Get back here!” Xia Shiyao shouted.
“It wasn’t me, I’m at home eating.”
She snapped a selfie, taking a picture of herself and Diamond eating Fried Dumplings together, and sent it to Xia Shiyao.
What she didn’t expect was that this photo would cause her a lot of trouble tomorrow.