Beachside Gathering, Siblings Reunited (Please Vote)

At the entrance to the seaside villa, Xia Zili and Ke Mingqing stared blankly at each other.

The siblings stood frozen in place. Bright, scorching sunlight fell over their heads, while cicadas and crashing waves blended together, leaving them dazed.

Hitomi Kuroki fell silent.

Standing at the doorway, she quietly watched Ke Mingqing. A flicker of confusion crossed her delicate face, marked by a tear mole. After a long while, she sent him a message through the player interface.

[Hitomi Kuroki: So when you said before that your sister was a magical girl, you meant Magical Girl Ember?]

An Youlu rested a hand against her chin. She looked at the astonished Xia Zili, then turned to glance at Ke Mingqing. She clearly had not expected Miss Kuroki's boyfriend to know Xia Zili. The world really was very, very small.

An Youlu's face remained expressionless, but she lowered her head and let out a soft sigh.

Why did this pig rooting through the cabbage know Senior Ember? More importantly, why was this pig wearing a fan T-shirt with Senior on it? That was the strangest part.

So she stepped forward two paces and lowered her voice as she asked Xia Zili, "Senior, you know him?"

As An Youlu spoke, her bright black eyes remained fixed on Ke Mingqing's profile.

"Come on, she's my little sister. How could I not know her?" Ke Mingqing turned to meet her gaze.

An Youlu ignored him, as though she wanted to hear the answer from Xia Zili herself.

"Yes, he's my brother." Xia Zili frowned and lowered her face, turning her head aside. "How could I possibly not recogni—" Her voice abruptly cut off, the final word stuck deep in her throat.

Only then did she clearly see what kind of T-shirt Ke Mingqing was wearing.

As though she had seen a ghost, she silently glanced sideways and stared at the T-shirt.

On the front was an image of a girl in a Gothic dress standing with her arms folded, looking toward the distant sea horizon. Her eyes were melancholy and empty, and the sea breeze lifted the strands of hair by her ears.

With a sudden slap, Xia Zili smacked her forehead hard.

She shook her head, seriously suspecting that she was either at the end of her life or suffering from heatstroke, which was why she was seeing some mirage-like illusion. Why was such an absurd scene happening? Why was her brother wearing a fan T-shirt printed with her photo at the home of her magical girl colleague?

Fortunately, a cool sea breeze blew in from the shore at that moment, lifting Xia Zili's skirt and hair and slightly dispelling the dizzying heat.

She let out a long breath, and her expression eased somewhat.

I must have seen it wrong. I must have seen it wrong...

Thinking this, Xia Zili took a deep breath to prepare herself, blinked, and looked ahead again.

Ke Mingqing had turned halfway aside and was explaining his relationship with Xia Zili to An Youlu and Hitomi Kuroki.

An Youlu listened with half-belief and half-doubt, while Hitomi Kuroki nodded repeatedly.

With his back to Xia Zili, the design on the back of his T-shirt came into her view beneath the sunlight.

Magical Girl Ember held up a black umbrella in one hand and made a finger-gun gesture with the other, all while giving an unwilling wink.

The image faced Xia Zili directly, as though Magical Girl Ember were winking at her, her finger-gun aimed straight at her.

It felt as though her past self had pulled the trigger, only for the bullet to strike her own forehead two years later.

Xia Zili froze.

She stood stiffly in place like an ice sculpture.

In one second—just one second—her face turned red from forehead to chin, and even the tips of her ears flushed blood-red.

At that moment, she looked like a broken robot, steam puffing out of her head.

After a while, she suddenly raised a hand and firmly grabbed Ke Mingqing by the shoulder. Using a magical girl's exceptional physical strength, she forcibly dragged him aside.

Seeing Ke Mingqing being hauled away, Hitomi Kuroki and An Youlu exchanged a glance, both wearing slightly strange expressions.

After thinking for a moment, Hitomi Kuroki said softly, "Should we go inside first and let the siblings talk?"

"Okay. It's too hot outside. We can't let Miss stay out here, or she'll get heatstroke." An Youlu nodded.

"Why do you look so dejected?"

"It's nothing." An Youlu shook her head. "I just never expected my best friend to be Miss's boyfriend's little sister. This relationship is really complicated."

She did not know whether she should still hate the boy who had stolen away her Miss.

She had originally thought that one night, she could fly to his home on a sleigh and use her identity as Magical Girl Little Red Riding Hood to deliver him a "Christmas present," using it as a show of force to make him leave Miss Hitomi Kuroki.

If he stubbornly refused to leave, she would initiate Plan B—the assassination plan. As a magical girl, assassinating an ordinary person would not be difficult, though killing someone carried the possibility of turning into a witch. But for Miss's safety and happiness, becoming a witch would not be such a bad price to pay.

Yet Little Red Riding Hood had never expected that Miss's boyfriend would actually be her senior's family. Now, all her plans had died before they could even begin.

"A little, indeed..." Hitomi Kuroki said softly as well, then turned and walked back inside the villa.

The front door remained open for the two by the coastal road, and the bell at the entrance swayed gently in the sea breeze.

"What exactly are you trying to do?" Ke Mingqing sighed helplessly and leaned against the railing beside the coastal road.

With a red face, Xia Zili questioned him word by word, "Never mind why you're here. What is that thing you're wearing?"

"A fan T-shirt. It was expensive, and you nearly tore it."

"Take it off."

"Are you sick?"

"Didn't I tell you not to buy one?" Xia Zili's voice turned cold. "I even said that if you bought one, we'd cut off our sibling relationship. Why do you have so little respect for me?"

"Who I like is none of your business." Ke Mingqing did not think much of it.

Xia Zili suddenly froze. The sea breeze lifted the hair by her ears and swept it across her cheeks. The fine hairs at her temples swayed in the wind like bird feathers.

She lowered her eyes, then raised them again to look at Ke Mingqing. Stammering, she said:

"W-when you find out who you really like someday, you'll definitely regret this!"

"Then I'll regret it when the time comes."

Neither of them spoke. The sea breeze gently brushed over their cheeks, and a yellow bus drove along the coastal road.

"Forget it... I won't meddle in your business." After a long time, Xia Zili spoke softly.

Ke Mingqing sighed. "You were the one meddling too much in the first place."

Xia Zili glared at him, then thought for a moment. "Then back to the point—why are you here?"

"I came to hang out at my girlfriend's house," Ke Mingqing replied as though it were perfectly natural.

Xia Zili stared blankly for a moment. It took her a while to recover, then she raised her eyes and looked straight into Ke Mingqing's.

"...Girlfriend?"