"Xiao Jing, are you done with your homework? Have you been on your phone?"
"I'm writing it, Mom." She sighed helplessly.
"Alright, keep at it."
The door closed, and the girl named Xiao Jing let out a sorrowful sigh.
"Homework, homework all day, not a bit of free time for me." She propped her chin on her hand, smiled gently at the bird, then, as if remembering something, pulled a book from her drawer.
"I'll tell you a secret—I'm studying the occult." She excitedly placed a piece of paper in front of her. "Look..."
The book opened, revealing its contents.
Magic circles, pendulums, rituals...
Alice, watching from behind the bird's eyes, observed with keen interest.
She'd felt something descend earlier, and now it turned out that feeling came from this book.
The girl didn't seem to realize anything was off about the bird. She muttered to herself, "I've always felt this world must have a lot of mysterious things, so I've been studying them. Recently, I stumbled into a gathering by chance—there's a group of people like me in it, but they're all strange, strange enough to scare me. They think the God of Light Prayer really exists, and the way they look at me... Hah, do you think I've actually stumbled into some weird circle?"
At that, she seemed to fall into thought.
Alice saw a flicker of confusion and unease in her eyes.
"It doesn't exist after all, does it? It's all just wishful thinking on my part. This world just follows its own rules, step by step. The mystical world doesn't exist, and I'm stuck struggling through this boring life, without freedom, until the end."
She showed a hint of pain—the kind that seemed common among children raised under strict discipline.
But not a single moment of free time? That parent was way too strict. Alice couldn't even see the point.
After thinking for a few seconds, Alice decided to give it a shot. She had the sparrow fly past the window and land on a blank notebook.
Its claws dabbed at the ink nearby, and the sparrow began to write.
"Do you believe in fate?"
A few words slowly appeared before her eyes.
The girl froze. Only after the writing was done did she rub her eyes hard, staring at the words in disbelief.
"You, you..."
"Fate has chosen you."
The sparrow was ordinary, yet it had written human words.
The girl swallowed, hardly daring to believe it. After checking the text multiple times, she said, a little excitedly, "Fate, are you talking to me? Who are you?"
She didn't know if the bird before her was extraordinary, or if some force was manipulating this scene.
Seeing the bird show no reaction, she patted her chest to calm herself, glanced at the words again, and said seriously, "I believe in fate. What should I do?"
"Wait for power to descend."
After writing that, the sparrow flapped its wings and flew away.
Chapter 16: Actually, I'm the Younger Sister
A few minutes later, the sparrow sneaked back, landing on a telephone pole, watching the girl from a distance.
Alice had basically confirmed that this girl had once been in contact with the supernatural circle.
The book in her hand had an indescribable allure; even Alice herself felt a pull after looking at it for a while.
"If this kid keeps studying it, she's probably going to develop mental problems."
But on deeper thought, she was exactly the kind of target Alice needed.
She had a strong curiosity about the mysterious, and if she could provide some Life Energy, she might be willing to do a few things for Alice.
Like...
Selling Purple Crystal Coins, or buying supernatural items.
Inside the hotel.
Her phone suddenly rang. Ye Qian, who had been sleeping soundly, yawned, cracked one eye open, and poked her head out from under the covers. She lazily reached out, as if using all her strength, and grabbed the phone to her face.
"Let me see who it is... Ugh, Xiao Lin?"
As soon as she saw the familiar name of her roommate, her expression froze completely.
This guy again?
From a certain angle, if this kept up, she was bound to be exposed sooner or later. Even refusing the call didn't seem to mean much.
After a few seconds of thought, she sighed and pressed the answer button.
"Hello?"
A weak, lifeless voice came out of Ye Qian's mouth.
"Hey, Ye Qian, you—" The voice on the other end cut off mid-sentence, then immediately changed tack. "Who are you?"
"Ye Qian."
"Ye Qian?" Xiao Lin's voice came through from the other end, sounding surprised. "What's up with your voice? Did you turn on a voice changer?"
"No, I didn't."
"No? No way, no way, you definitely did—check it again. That's a girl's voice, dammit. Whatever, forget it. How's your body now?"
"Not bad, just woke up. A little weak for now."
"You... kidney deficiency? Jerked off too much? Guess we can't play together for a couple of days. But seriously, that voice changer's amazing—lazy and cute, it's got me hard as hell."
Ye Qian: "???"
After a weird stretch of silence, she suddenly coughed hard. "The hell do you mean, hard?"
"Hahaha... whoa, wait. No way, you didn't actually turn into a girl, did you?" Xiao Lin seemed to catch on, exclaiming in shock.
Ye Qian snorted. "Do you believe in that kind of thing? Waking up one day and becoming a girl."
A strange quiet settled on Xiao Lin's end. After a long moment, he lowered his voice. "So... really?"
"What do you think?"
"Hold on, let me think about this."
Xiao Lin went silent. A full thirty seconds passed, and just when Ye Qian thought something had happened to him, the guy suddenly spoke up. "Bro, you wouldn't want anyone else to find out you turned into a girl, would you?"
"Get lost, get lost!" Ye Qian was speechless.
Was this world full of netizens from some Japanese forum too? If she weren't bound to run into these guys at school sooner or later, she wouldn't have bothered telling him in advance at all.
Of course, there was a better option in her mind: just ditch the past entirely and start a new life. Pretend she didn't know her old friends, to avoid dying of embarrassment.
For example, claim she was Ye Qian's younger sister, and say her brother had been gone for a while.
It wasn't like the other side could verify it.
After thinking it through carefully, she spoke in a serious tone. "Actually... I'm Ye Qian's younger sister."
"Younger sister?"
Xiao Lin's mood was complicated. He didn't remember that guy having any sister at all—she'd been hidden so long even his roommate didn't know.
"That's what I thought. Turning into a girl is way too ridiculous, totally unbelievable. But why are you answering the phone? Is he doing okay?"
"Big brother's gone missing." Ye Qian deliberately put on a sad tone.
"Missing?" Xiao Lin instinctively stood up and walked to the window. "You mean, you can't find him?"
"Yeah. He disappeared a long time ago."
"This..."
"Sorry, I just didn't want the people he knew to worry." Ye Qian let more sorrow creep into her voice.
In truth, the missing claim was easy to believe, since there were plenty of real disappearance cases in society—news about people vanishing into thin air popped up a few times every month. She hadn't understood it before, but lately, after getting involved in the Hidden World, Ye Qian had gradually figured it out.
Most of those disappearances were tied to supernatural incidents.
Especially events above LV20, which carried a high level of mystery. The outcome for ordinary people caught up in them went without saying.
"Did you call the police?"
"Already did. Waiting for results." Ye Qian replied.
"Alright... can you meet us? I want to get more details. Since you're Ye Qian's friend, maybe I can help find him."
"..."
Ye Qian was quiet for a moment. She tried sitting up, her gaze landing on the mirror. Looking at her weak reflection, she pinched her own small face and was surprised to find she was in much better shape than before.
Her head was still a bit dizzy, like a moderate fever, and she couldn't expect to recover within a week.
Might as well... use a clone to meet them.
"Alright. Where do we meet?"
"At the restaurant nearby. I'll send you the address."
"Okay."
After they finished talking, the call ended. Ye Qian let out a breath and started thinking about how to explain things to Lin Qingyan.
"Forget it, I'll just send her a message. From how Xiao Lin and the others acted, Lin Qingyan didn't spill about my transformation."
So she opened her chat app, organized her words, and sent them off.
Less than a minute later, Lin Qingyan replied: "Okay, but why not let your friends know?"
Ye Qian: "What do you think a good buddy's first thought is when his friend turns into a cute girl?"
Lin Qingyan: "..."
Lin Qingyan: "To bang you?"
Ye Qian: "Pfft—cough, cough. Don't talk nonsense. It's just for some special reasons. Hope you can keep my secret."
Lin Qingyan: "Mm-hmm, got it. Take good care of yourself."
Ye Qian: "I will, I will. Counting on you, okay?"
After finishing the chat, Ye Xin at home rose from the sofa, ready to set out.
That's right—for now, the only one available to meet was Ye Xin.
A girl at least on the level of a pure campus belle—he wondered what those guys would think when they saw her. Anyway, as long as they didn't know this was Ye Qian herself, there wouldn't be much of a problem.
She walked out the door and saw the location Xiao Lin had sent.
"It really is pretty close."
Just one kilometer away.
The sky had already darkened, so Ye Xin went straight there on foot.
Chapter 17: The Mysterious "Thread"
One kilometer away, at the restaurant.
Xiao Lin and his two roommates had arrived.
This place faced an artificial lake, with a century-old bell tower not far off. Among the many shops, its decor was actually fairly upscale, yet the prices were surprisingly affordable.
"Ye Qian really disappeared? His sister's coming? You've said it a few times, but I still can't believe it." Su Longjie, with his crew cut, crossed his arms and scratched his head anxiously.
"I don't want to believe it either, but I'm afraid it's true." Xiao Lin sighed regretfully.
His gaze swept the surroundings, and soon he noticed a figure in the corner.
With long black hair flowing, delicate and pure features, fair skin, and a slightly slender frame, she leaned against a tall tree, wearing a black dress, her legs wrapped in tight black stockings. Her timid demeanor was strangely alluring.
Xiao Lin swallowed hard and instinctively glanced at his phone to confirm the girl's identity.
"That's her, I see her."