Dad, Please Let Me Be Your Only Fan!

Chu Yuanqing tugged at the hem of her outfit with some dejection. She really didn't want to wear this for training every day. Everywhere she went, she felt like she was being stared at, and even now, she could feel a slight tingling sensation on her thighs and waist as gazes swept over her.

While her innocent understanding wouldn't assume the others were lesbians, nor did she think their stares were abnormal, it was still difficult to get used to. Interactions between girls were just too strange!

Maybe... she could forcefully use [Flow State] for accelerated learning?

A devilish invitation popped into Chu Yuanqing's mind, and she felt conflicted for a moment.

If she could enter [Flow State], her efficiency in remembering movements, rhythm, beats, and positions would at least triple. Even if her foundation was far inferior to the other contestants, she could quickly learn most of it.

But the key was that entering [Flow State] required complete immersion and a non-athletic state.

The latter was manageable; with more concentration, she could shorten the time it took to enter [Flow State], making it not difficult to enter even in an athletic state.

The problem lay with the first condition.

After all, Chu Yuanqing had been able to enter [Flow State] when studying music theory and singing before.

The root cause was that singing a sweet song only made her feel a little awkward, not ashamed. She only needed to focus on her singing technique and music theory, so she wouldn't feel much resistance.

But dancing to candy was different.

It was a sweet dance filled with cute details and girlish charm. Some movements even utilized the rotation of the skirt to create a unified visual effect. Not to mention, facial expressions were crucial to the soul of candy, and she couldn't skip them.

In other words, if she wanted to enter [Flow State], she first had to distort her male dignity and then overcome the shame of wearing a short skirt and acting cute.

Finally, she had to develop a liking and passion for it, even feeling a proper sense of excitement, before her brain could adjust to complete immersion.

Wait!

What was the difference between this and making a yuri protagonist actively add heart points to her status bar?

Chu Yuanqing suddenly sobered up, secretly feeling a sense of dread, and ground her teeth in annoyance.

Damn red-eyed rabbit, damn Flash Dance officials, don't think she'd willingly degenerate using [Flow State]!

Chu Yuanqing's will was firm.

It was fine. Although after dancing in a skirt all day, she had gradually gotten used to the light and cool sensation, it was only a tactical habit, a temporary measure born out of necessity to escape suffering!

"Come on, you can do it!"

Chu Yuanqing comforted herself for a while before fiercely continuing to dance.

In reality, this body was already very tired. Eight to nine hours of strenuous training a day had indeed improved her physique slightly, but honestly, her stamina and endurance were still below the average of Flash Dance trainees.

Therefore, the later it got, the more her movements would become distorted, and the less efficient she would be.

But if she didn't train more while there were fewer people around, she would have to endure more stares during the day. It was better to work harder at night.

Perhaps it was with this mindset that after dancing for several more hours under everyone's gaze, the sense of shame had dulled considerably.

Chu Yuanqing's state became more light and natural than during the day. She smoothly went through more than a dozen sets of parts, repeatedly breaking them down and training, then dancing them completely again. For the first time, she succeeded without any mistakes and without appearing stiff.

-- Hooray!

Chu Yuanqing felt a surge of surprise, like being freed from a swamp. She looked at her flushed face in the mirror, let out a long sigh, and her body was suddenly overwhelmed by heavy fatigue, causing a physiological dizziness in her mind.

The girl took half a step back, her eyes lowered, and sweat dripped from her eyelashes, scattering like tiny crystals. The field of vision in her pupils wavered, and the frantic thumping of her heart echoed in her ears.

The world seemed to slow down, and only an indescribable suffocation gripped her entire body.

Another moment passed.

Chu Yuanqing managed to stand steady. The dizziness had mostly subsided, replaced by a sense of emptiness from being hungry for a long time. After she recovered, she looked around and realized that no one was around anymore.

The electronic clock in the room showed 9:13 AM.

Chu Yuanqing rubbed her face, trying to sober up a bit, and muttered to herself:

"Looks like I need to eat properly from now on."

Her past life as a corporate drone had never had a regular schedule, and her diet was even more so. Basically, as long as she took care of her Daughter, she could just haphazardly feed herself.

It had been like this for 17 years. After changing bodies, it was naturally difficult to take care of her health immediately.

But...

Wasn't she a Magical Girl now?

Although her magic was as scarce as depleted mana, she could still use some magic. Her eyes and hair color were like special effects, and she even had a unique magical outfit that could be switched out at any time, like a Transformation.

Why wasn't she magical at all when she should be?

Chu Yuanqing complained in her heart, sat down on the floor, and spaced out while resting.

The lantern pendant's gray glass grew darker and more profound, with a few black lines winding and spreading.

The girl lowered her gaze and grasped it. In the heavy fatigue and rare tranquility, she felt a suffocating loneliness, like seawater slowly submerging her mouth and nose.

She suddenly realized that since her concentration had increased, she wasn't as muddled as before.

This meant that whenever she had free time, she would, like a lonely old person, unconsciously recall things from a long time ago.

Black lines and golden radiance flickered in Chu Yuanqing's clear pupils, and her thoughts drifted.

Actually, becoming a Magical Girl wasn't that much of a scam. In the old era, every blessing had its price and drawbacks, and there were countless more disadvantageous blessings than this.

For example, [Immortality].

This seemingly invincible authority requires complete self-belief in one's own immortality to activate, with the cruelest price being the dissociation of one's personality.

Another example is the [Wall of Sighs].

This summoned wall of pure white possesses conceptual absolute defense, and its activation condition is the random sacrifice of 50% of one's flesh and blood.

The price is that all damage the wall endures is instantly transformed into pain acting upon the soul. Only when the soul is in so much agony that it explodes will the wall shatter.

Another example is [Levatin].

This mythical armament can wound even concepts, capable of burning the heavens and boiling the seas, incinerating all existence. It was one of her most potent blessings in the past.

Its activation condition is equally demanding, requiring the inscription of an epic onto the soul, bearing the causality and sins of Ragnarok and the destruction of the world.

As for the price, the sea of fire it unleashes can only be extinguished by her blood.

Without [Immortality], 90% of her blessings would be mere one-time use products.

And these so-called blessings are precisely such uncertain abilities.

This is also why Chu Yuanqing chose to become the Savior. The moment she awakened [Immortality], she understood that some things could only be done by her, and only she could bear them.

Yet, even now, more than the pain of death, what remains vividly in her memory are the faces and voices of her comrades as they transferred their blessings to her before their demise.

If the beginning of the new era was her [Immortality], and the end was Charlotte's [Funeral Procession], then the blessings left behind by her fallen comrades were the bonds that turned the impossible into the possible, connecting everything like a miracle.

Chu Yuanqing thought, and began to silently recite the names in her heart, which were slowly blurring. After an unknown amount of time, when she reached a certain name, her eyes lowered, she stared blankly for a while, and then whispered softly:

"Charlotte."

"I... might miss you a little."

At the practice room door, Tang Liuli stood in place, holding a paper bag containing a salad, whole wheat bread, and the oil and vinegar dressing and yogurt for seasoning. Her emerald green eyes gazed at the lone figure in the distance, silent for a long time.

From childhood, she could smell emotions and vividly empathize with them in her mind.

This was why she had previously delivered multiple divine performances on the big screen and become famous throughout Great Xia, and it was also the cause of her current psychological condition.

And now, this talent allowed her to be the closest existence to Chu Yuanqing's heart.

Tang Liuli could smell the pervasive sadness within the room.

It was as thin as mist and as heavy as the sea.

So distant and lonely that it was impossible to approach.

But even more abstract and bizarre were the numerous hallucinations parsed from the emotions.

Tang Liuli's heart felt suffocated, like a boat rocking in the vast ocean. She clutched the fabric at her chest, tears welling up in her eyes, while a strange flush spread across her cheeks, her expression a mixture of confusion, longing, and joy.

This terrifying empathy was transforming the emotions she experienced into a flood of inspiration.

Countless character models she had memorized from her acting career collided fiercely in her brain like countless puzzle pieces, transferring into her deep-seated instinctual muscle memory.

--[Flow State].

This was the complete immersion unique to that former child prodigy.

If she willed it, she was now capable of surpassing 99% of actors in the world, delivering countless excellent performances filled with spirituality and unique style.

But why?

Tang Liuli was utterly bewildered. Her [Flow State] required passive triggers.

Initially, a slight stimulus was enough to enter it. As she shed her childishness, she needed to find emotion within high-quality scripts to chew on. It became increasingly so as time went on.

The threshold grew terrifyingly higher with the accumulation of age and experience, until eventually, no script could satisfy her, indirectly leading to her retirement from the industry.

Seven years had passed since then.

But now, Tang Liuli merely gazed at Chu Yuanqing from afar and reached the highest threshold, entering [Flow State] once more.

This miraculous accident was like a beam of light, illuminating her dark, inferiority-ridden heart.

Tang Liuli greedily empathized with the emotions.

She didn't care about the quality of her acting, nor did she care about [Flow State].

Or rather, she disliked acting, and even more so, she disliked this talent that was like a black hole, constantly weakening her own positive emotions.

In the current overflowing moment, she could feel the freshness and joy of all things in the world, escaping the gloom that surrounded her consciousness like a dense fog, as if reborn.

--Chu Yuanqing.

Tang Liuli repeated the name piously, like a saint. She recalled the warmth she felt upon their first meeting, a warmth that felt like a spiritual baptism. Lost in her soul, she whispered happily:

"Chu Yuanqing."

As the words fell.

[Flow State] finally ended amidst the immense stimulation.

This intense, climax-like conclusion caused her fingers to loosen, and the paper bag slipped, hitting the ground with a loud thud.

Tang Liuli remained in place, dazed. The mist in her eyes overflowed, like the physiological tears of someone disoriented after being stuffed with a small toy.

The girl's cute face was tinged with a faint rose color. She stared blankly at the other person, like an idiot, mumbling the person's name.

Chu Yuanqing put down the lantern pendant in her hand. She didn't notice a flash of pure white within it. Instead, she felt a sudden detachment of emotion, a daze. She turned her head in confusion and saw Tang Liuli standing there blankly.

The electronic clock in the room had unknowingly ticked over to 10:40. Had she really been spacing out for this long?

Chu Yuanqing suppressed her strangeness and asked:

"Liuli? Were you worried because I came back too late?"

Tang Liuli could no longer hear what the other person was saying.

In her vision, Chu Yuanqing was like a goddess descended to earth. When her cherry-blossom-colored lips pursed, the warm concern was so beautiful.

It was as if the bells of St. Sophia Cathedral were ringing in her ears, and she perceived the twelve lambs and twelve apostles from the church's relief carvings in her mind...

Sacred, beautiful, majestic, grand.

Finally, in her dazed state, countless words and emotions converged into a devout answer.

-- Qing Men???

"Liuli, Liuli? Are you spacing out?"

Chu Yuanqing's words broke her reverie.

Tang Liuli snapped back to reality in a daze. First, she was confused about what had happened, then shocked at how perverted she was, then disbelieving, questioning her life, falling into despair, accepting reality, and finally feeling a tsunami of shame for all her previous thoughts.

The subtle expressions on the little girl's face changed incredibly quickly. A blush like rouge instantly dyed her entire face.

Wuwuwu, I'm a pervert, I'm worse than a succubus, just let me die!

Tang Liuli was so ashamed and angry she wanted to die. When her gaze met Chu Yuanqing's confused one, she felt like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Without a word, she turned and ran.

But halfway through her escape, she rushed back, shoved the paper bag that had fallen to the ground into Chu Yuanqing's arms, and then, like covering her ears while stealing a bell, she continued to flee.

The scene was confusing and swift, like a level 15 typhoon that only managed to blow away the fries from McDonald's.

Chu Yuanqing looked down at the bread, salad, and yogurt in the paper bag. After thinking for a long time, she could only conclude that the child was too tsundere and too easily embarrassed.