Ke Mingqing and the Magical Girl Figurine

"Red Lotus"—Ke Mingqing did indeed remember someone by that name.

She was a vigilante who had helped the police catch quite a few criminals. Some people online jokingly said she was stealing the superhero companies' jobs.

Whenever this vigilante appeared on camera, she was usually clad in a long black-and-red metal coat and wore a metal mask. Red silk ribbons called the "Red Sash" wound around her arms, Wind-Fire Wheels beneath her feet, and a Fire-Tip Spear in her hand.

Of course, Ke Mingqing had never imagined that this person would turn out to be his sister.

"Morning... Are you not awake yet? Why have you been staring at me?"

As Xia Ningzhi passed by him carrying bowls and chopsticks, she freed one hand and gently ruffled Ke Mingqing's hair.

Ke Mingqing swatted her hand away. "Show some respect. What gives you the right to touch my head?"

"Hah, what's wrong with your sister touching your head? You're actually fighting back now?"

As Xia Ningzhi spoke, she set the bowls and chopsticks on the table, then walked behind Ke Mingqing and vigorously messed up his hair.

"Alright, alright, stop it." Ke Mingqing sighed.

She rested both hands on his shoulders, lowered her eyes to look at his hair, and said softly, "When I was at evening study hall last night, I heard everyone in our grade talking about you."

"And?" Ke Mingqing did not look up.

Xia Ningzhi kneaded his shoulders hard as she said seriously, "Don't do anything that dangerous next time. I was so worried last night that I couldn't even study. Dad must have lectured you already, right? So I won't say anything else."

"Hey, why do you sisters both say the same thing?" Ke Mingqing said. "It's always, 'Dad must have lectured you, so I won't say anything.'"

"Who doesn't know Dad's personality?" Xia Ningzhi laughed.

Xia Zili suddenly said, "All I know is that someone used my Weibo account to insult people online last night. My DMs got bombarded, and my blacklist gained dozens of people overnight."

"Who could be so uncultured?" Xia Ningzhi asked half-jokingly as she pulled out a chair and sat down.

As she spoke, she raised her bright eyes and swept her gaze over their faces, a smile curling at her lips. "It's rare for our little Zili to complain. I definitely need to teach that person a proper lesson."

"Who knows... Who could possibly be that uncultured? So hard to guess."

Without lifting her head, Xia Zili took a sip of porridge.

Ke Mingqing turned his head slightly and shot Xia Zili an annoyed glare.

After seeing how everyone else in the family had at least A-rank combat power, then comparing it to the "B-rank combat power" above this magical girl's head, he thought, So you're actually the weakest one in the whole family. What have you been acting so impressive for all this time?

"What are you looking at?" She tilted her head slightly, a lock of hair falling from beside her ear.

Ke Mingqing shook his head and said casually, "Nothing. I was just wondering if you know where I can buy Magical Girl Ember fan T-shirts. I want to wear one to school and find fellow fans."

The kitchen fell silent for a moment, followed by a sudden "pfft."

Xia Zili slumped onto the table with her head pillowed on her arms, coughing hard.

She had nearly sprayed out all the porridge in her mouth.

"Was that reaction really necessary?" Ke Mingqing asked, baffled.

Only after a moment did Xia Zili raise her head.

She stared motionlessly at Ke Mingqing and said with absolute certainty, even through gritted teeth, "You are not allowed to buy one."

"Why?" Ke Mingqing tilted his head.

"I said you're not allowed, so you're not allowed." The girl's ears were red as she spoke almost word by word.

"Then how about buying a figurine to keep in my room?"

As he spoke, Ke Mingqing took out his phone, turned the screen toward her, and showed her a Taobao listing.

Xia Zili looked up, staring blankly at the utterly indecent, extremely revealing figurines on Taobao, thoroughly shocked.

Following her gaze, Ke Mingqing scrolled through his phone so she could see even more similar products—Magical Girl Ember in a revealing swimsuit, striking seductive poses, or Magical Girl Ember holding an umbrella in one hand and blowing a kiss with the other.

Gradually, not only her ears but Xia Zili's entire face visibly turned red.

Her lips trembled. "W-What even is all this?"

"Isn't it good? The sales are so high, though they might not sell well lately." Ke Mingqing raised a brow. "Wait, no. Why have even more people been placing orders recently?"

Xia Zili finally came back to herself. Frowning, she said one word at a time, "You're not allowed to buy one! If you do, I'll disown you as my brother."

Ke Mingqing froze.

Beside them, Xia Ningzhi also paused, seemingly unable to understand why Xia Zili was taking this so seriously.

Wanting to ease the atmosphere, she arched a delicate brow and teased, "Wow, really? Our little Zili actually has such emotional moments too?"

She leaned close to Xia Zili's ear and asked softly, "Little Zili, are you really that possessive of your idol? You're allowed to like her, but your brother isn't? Isn't that unfair to him?"

"Exactly! It's like she's sick or something, getting angry at me for no reason!"

Propping up his chin, Ke Mingqing chimed in pitifully, "Yesterday, she even told me not to treat magical girls as idols. Yet she's the one with such a strong possessive streak."

Surrounded and attacked from both sides, Xia Zili was momentarily at a loss for words.

She lowered her eyes, silently blushing for a while. After a round of internal struggle, she finally made a concession.

"Even if you buy them, don't let me see those embarrassing things," she said coldly.

"I won't." Ke Mingqing snorted twice.

"You..."

"Alright, alright, can you two stop arguing?" Xia Ningzhi spread her hands. "Summer vacation starts in a few days. Once Big Brother and Second Sister come back, we can all go to Disney together, okay?"

"Big Sis, can you stop treating us like kids?" Ke Mingqing asked casually.

"If you're not kids, then who is?"

Xia Ningzhi chuckled, reached out, and messed up the hair he had just smoothed down.

After breakfast, they slung on their schoolbags and headed out.

At that moment, Ke Mingqing and Xia Zili were waiting for the same school bus at a stop in Old Jingmai District.

A heavy rain had fallen the night before, and the sky had yet to fully clear. Though it was summer, there was no feeling of summer in the air. Instead, a gloomy mass of rain clouds lingered in the distance.

The air at the bus stop was damp, and the road was wet and blackened.

Wearing headphones, Xia Zili sat on a public bench memorizing English vocabulary. Ke Mingqing leaned sideways against the bus stop sign, playing Tetris on his phone.

After waiting quietly for a while, a blue text prompt suddenly popped up before Ke Mingqing's eyes.

[Announcement: The "Player Forum" function is currently undergoing maintenance. The forum will be open to all players within one week, at which point all players will be permitted to exchange intelligence through it.]

"A forum?" Ke Mingqing raised his eyes slightly from his phone and thought, That's good... I can get information from other players without showing my face.

If other players found out that his home was hiding a group of superhumans, each one capable of killing him, then should those players ever want to betray him, there would be one very simple way.

They could reveal his identity to his family.

But one person is a real problem—the Japanese exchange student, he thought again.

When Ke Mingqing had first transmigrated here, he had not yet received his exclusive talent, "The Disguiser." Hitomi Kuroki had therefore seen the player marker above his head and immediately identified him.

"Hiss—"

The school bus soon arrived. Amid the hiss of air, its doors opened outward. The students inside were sleepy-eyed and had no attention to spare for anyone else.

Ke Mingqing and Xia Zili boarded the bus headed for Lijing No. 3 High School. The bright yellow bus slowly rolled through the morning streets.

In the morning light, Ke Mingqing held onto a hand strap, tilted his head slightly, and rested his face against the window as he watched the sky clearing after the rain. Sunlight was sliced apart by the leaves and poured warmly through their gaps onto his head.

The school bus smelled of disinfectant, and its swaying motion made everyone drowsy.

Suddenly, he heard someone beside him speak softly. "By the way..."

"What is it?" Ke Mingqing lowered his head to look at Xia Zili.

"Thanks, Bro." Xia Zili did not raise her head.

"Thanks for what?"

"For helping me last night," she said quietly. "No... For speaking up for her."

"Why thank me?"

"I just thought... in that kind of situation, having someone still willing to speak for her—if I were her, I might have been a little touched."

Xia Zili rested her head against the window. Sunlight fell across half her face, making her fair complexion seem almost transparent. Her long bangs lifted in the breeze, and beyond the window stretched a sky washed clean as water.

Ke Mingqing looked at her from the side and fell silent for a moment.

Then he said mildly, "That's good. Hand me your phone for safekeeping, then. Next time I'll keep insulting people with it. It's not my account anyway."

"...Get lost." After a while, that was the cold reply he received.

Soon, the school bus arrived at the stop near the school.

The moment Ke Mingqing got off, he walked ahead without even saying anything to Xia Zili. He was the center of attention at school now, and walking with Xia Zili would only cause her trouble.

Xia Zili wanted to catch up, but he had already walked far away with his schoolbag on his back.

She opened her mouth and watched his retreating figure disappear into the distance.