Oddballs, Questions, Goodnight

After Ke Mingqing went downstairs, he had barely taken out a pair of bowls and chopsticks from the sterilizer when the doorbell rang from the entryway.

"Mom, I'll get it." With that, he set the tableware down and sauntered out of the kitchen.

He passed through the dim entryway and opened the front door. The evening breeze rushed against his face.

Xia Zili stood barefoot outside, with the night and cicadas at her back.

The girl quietly fiddled with her phone, its screen casting a glow over her eyes. She held a pair of sandals in her left hand, one of which had a strap torn at the corner.

Ke Mingqing did not need to think about it. She had probably gone back to her room to rest for a while, changed into clean clothes, slipped out through the window into the alley, then taken a long detour around to ring the front doorbell.

He leaned crookedly against the doorframe, staring at the sandals. "What happened to your shoes?"

"I accidentally broke them while running," Xia Zili said absentmindedly. "Why do you care so much? Can you stop blocking the doorway?"

"I'm blocking it."

"Move." Xia Zili looked up from her phone.

The two stood at the door, staring at each other for a moment.

"No." Ke Mingqing suddenly reached out and grabbed her shoulders, saying solemnly, "Sis, you'll never imagine what I just went through."

Xia Zili froze. Her eyes shifted slightly as she looked away and began playing dumb.

"You... ran into something?"

"Magical Girl Ember got hurt just now, so she came to my room to recover." Ke Mingqing thought for a moment. "She even told me she'd stand there, and I could look at her for as long as I wanted. My heart was pounding so hard, I almost passed out."

Xia Zili looked at him, slowly lowered her head, and her shoulders trembled faintly as though she were holding back laughter.

After a while, she finally raised her head with a straight face.

"Did you have a wet dream?" she asked disdainfully.

"No."

"You can tell people about your wet dreams that openly? Good thing I'm your sister. Any other girl would've blocked you already." Though she mocked him aloud, Xia Zili thought it was really fun to mess with this idiot brother of hers every once in a while.

"I swear, everything I said is true." Ke Mingqing sounded as earnest as if he were reciting a party membership oath.

"Where's the proof?"

"Forget it. If you don't believe me, then don't." Ke Mingqing shrugged. "You're just jealous. You'll never get to see her in your whole life anyway."

Xia Zili opened her mouth. I see myself every day when I look in the mirror. What do you mean I'll never see her in my whole life?

The girl lowered her gaze, then looked back up. Her eyes were sometimes dim, sometimes reflecting the moonlight.

For some reason, she was actually a little happy. At least it was clear that Ke Mingqing really liked how she looked as a magical girl. He was not pretending.

Normally, all she had to do was take a walk around school to hear plenty of people badmouthing Magical Girl Ember. Sometimes, when she sat alone in the classroom and listened to those discussions, she truly wanted to forcibly split herself and Ember into two separate people.

That way, after hearing things she did not want to hear, she would not have to be upset about them...

Once, she had finally reached her limit and simply flipped over the desks of those girls chatting together before turning around and leaving. When she returned to school the next day, everyone avoided her and gave her strange looks.

Xia Zili felt that whether it was herself or Magical Girl Ember, perhaps they were both oddballs.

At school, she was excluded. As a magical girl, she was still disliked.

But even if she was such an oddball, there would still be someone who always stood by her side...

The evening breeze gently lifted Xia Zili's hair, bringing her back to herself.

She brushed past Ke Mingqing's silhouette and walked inside as she said to him, "Aren't you afraid I'll tell your girlfriend what you said? That a magical girl 'accidentally' ran into your room and told you, 'You can look at me however you want'?"

"It's fine. My girlfriend is super open-minded. She'd just clap and say, 'That's amazing.'" Ke Mingqing followed behind her, fiddling with his phone.

Isn't that just an idiot?

Xia Zili grumbled inwardly when a crisp doorbell suddenly rang from the entryway.

She went over and opened the door. Before her stood a school-uniformed girl with her hair in a bun.

Xia Ningzhi had a backpack slung over one shoulder and held an exercise book in her other hand. She looked up from it and gave Xia Zili a puzzled glance.

"You're back from your classmate's house already?"

"What else? How long can a meal take?" Xia Zili replied.

Xia Ningzhi thought about it. "Which classmate? What's her name?"

"An Youlu."

Xia Zili played with her phone and gave Little Red Riding Hood's name without hesitation.

Xia Ningzhi remained undeterred. "Then can I go to her house with you another day?"

"What are you talking about? She doesn't even know you... Mom's calling you to eat."

With that, Xia Zili looked at her strangely, then turned and walked into the living room.

Xia Ningzhi stood alone in the entryway, watching Xia Zili's back disappear into its shadows.

At that moment, her mind was filled with White Jack's words on the overpass. Like a radio that could not be turned off, they echoed over and over. Perhaps until she found the answer, that radio would keep playing forever.

After tomorrow's college entrance exam is over, I'll try following Xiao Li...

Xia Ningzhi made her decision in secret. Just then, Ke Mingqing came to the end of the entryway with a rice bowl in hand and looked inside at her.

"What are you doing, Sis? Come eat. Mom made a whole table of food and nobody's eating it. She's practically heartbroken."

"Is she that heartbroken?" Xia Ningzhi asked as she took off her shoes.

"So heartbroken that the house tripped a breaker."

"Is our mom Magneto? That exaggerated?" Xia Ningzhi swept back a strand of hair by her forehead, making a joke. After changing into her house slippers, she walked into the kitchen.

She looked left and right, then finally pulled over a chair and sat between Xia Zili and Ke Mingqing. She said to them, "Just so we're clear, I'm your older sister. You can tell me if you have any troubles, okay?"

"Okay. Then help me deal with my finals," Xia Zili said.

"Go run errands at the supermarket for me tomorrow. I want popsicles," Ke Mingqing said.

Both wore blank expressions as they ate with chopsticks and played on their phones, their synchronization rate reaching ninety-nine percent.

"Oh, you two brats. I treat you a little better and you start pushing your luck, huh?" Xia Ningzhi laughed, raised both hands, and vigorously ruffled their hair.

After dinner, Ke Mingqing washed up in the bathroom and returned to his bedroom to rest.

He slumped into his leather chair, propped both legs on the desk, and stared blankly at the overpass outside the window for a while.

Then, a red notification bubble suddenly appeared over the "Friends List" in the upper-right corner of his vision, indicating that another player had sent him a message.

Ke Mingqing raised his brows and tapped the contact list. A chat window immediately appeared.

[Hitomi Kuroki: You there?]

[Ke Mingqing: What is it?]

[Hitomi Kuroki: I'm a little curious. Where did this body's biological parents go?]

[Ke Mingqing: They died. When he was little, they got caught in a fire. It seemed to have been caused by a Super-species losing control, but the culprit still hasn't been caught. Later, this body's original owner was taken in by Monster House.]

[Ke Mingqing: Search "Anhe District Fire Incident" online and you'll find it.]

[Hitomi Kuroki: I see.]

[Hitomi Kuroki: Oh, right. Let's add each other on WeChat.]

[Ke Mingqing: Oh, that makes sense. We're pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend, so not having each other on WeChat would be too ridiculous.]

[Hitomi Kuroki: HMT245xxx. That's my WeChat ID.]

Ke Mingqing looked at her message, then took out the phone in his pocket, opened WeChat, and quickly found Hitomi Kuroki's account.

Her WeChat name was "Blackwood Cat," a plain and unadorned name. Her profile picture was a cartoon red panda holding bamboo, with a beauty mark beneath the corner of its eye.

He sent her a friend request, then swiped into her Moments. There was nothing there, nor did she have a personal status message. Minimalist.

Hitomi Kuroki soon accepted his request. With a ding, she sent him a WeChat message.

It contained just two short words:

"Goodnight."