Ke Mingqing and His Alien Mom

The kitchen was dimly lit, and the cicadas outside the floor-to-ceiling windows were gradually growing quieter.

Ke Mingqing took a bottle of cola from the refrigerator and glanced out the window.

The old building was shrouded in twilight, the last glow of the setting sun on its brick walls quietly fading away. Laughter from children chasing each other drifted out of the deep alley, occasionally mixed with a bark or two.

He pulled over a chair and sat down beside the dining table.

Xia Zili sat quietly beside him.

She had taken a shower and removed her hairpin. She wore a flax-colored nightgown, her medium-length black hair falling over her shoulders and giving off the faint, fresh scent of orange shampoo.

Xia Zili still did not say a word.

But Ke Mingqing could now understand her feelings a little better.

Whether one awakened superpowers, injected mutant genes into one's body, or was chosen by a comet to become a magical girl, it could make one's body stronger, but it would not make one's heart invulnerable.

No one could possess a flawless heart.

Even at this very moment, netizens around the world were still venting their fury at her. That scale of verbal violence was far beyond what a sixteen-year-old girl could bear.

The dining table was silent, while the maple tree outside rustled in the evening breeze.

The brother and sister were having stir-fried shrimp noodles for dinner.

Given their mother Xia Wenna's cooking skills, only dishes this simple could keep people from losing their appetite. It was like being terrible at arithmetic—no one could possibly get addition under ten wrong.

Ke Mingqing picked up his chopsticks, lifted a shrimp to his mouth, and looked up at Xia Wenna. "Mom, when are Big Brother, Second Sister, and Third Sister coming back?"

Xia Wenna was leaning against the cabinet, quietly staring out the window, her eyes seeming to be covered by a layer of mist.

Her reactions were always a beat slower than ordinary people's. After quite a while, she finally turned her head and slowly said as she thought, "Your Third Sister is in her final year of high school and has evening study class tonight, so she's having dinner at the school cafeteria. Big Brother and Second Sister are still at their universities. They'll take the train back in a few days... Mm, everyone will be on summer break soon. The house will be lively then."

Xia Wenna had always spoken very slowly, for more than a decade now.

How slow, exactly? Slow enough that she sometimes seemed like a robot, making people want to wind the spring on her head so she would talk faster.

Ke Mingqing glanced at her. Of course, he did not believe Xia Wenna's alien brain could not keep up. But she had maintained this persona in front of the family for so many years that it would be hard to change it now.

With his chopsticks still in his mouth, he said in a muffled voice, "It'll be good when they're back. A little livelier."

"You're in such a hurry for everyone to come back and laugh at you?"

Xia Zili spoke absentmindedly as she reached out and turned up the volume on her phone.

A video was playing on her phone. A gentle voice came from it, sounding like a news anchor's. "Rain Crow reprimanded this student in person. Online opinions on the incident have been sharply divided. One side believes the student was exceptionally quick-witted, while the other believes that in such a situation, staying still and waiting for rescue was the best choice."

Ke Mingqing drooped his head, letting the words go in one ear and out the other without caring much.

"Tell me, how many times have you secretly watched your brother's heroic deeds?" he asked casually.

Xia Zili did not even raise her eyelids. "I couldn't avoid it even if I wanted to. Everyone in the class group chat has been forwarding it. Dad must've lectured you already, so I can't be bothered to say anything."

"What's the point of obsessing over some lousy school bus incident every day? We should watch some real news." As Ke Mingqing spoke, he opened his phone, tapped on the most popular video on the Super-species website, and played it.

He even turned the volume all the way up to drown out her phone.

"Magical Girl Ember's blood-soaked rampage through the building has sparked enormous controversy on the internet. While the other party were criminals, was it inhumane to brutally torture and kill them in full view of the public?

"The key issue in this controversy is that magical girls are mostly teenage girls to women in their twenties, creating a substantial divide between them and superheroes—heroes are, on average, considerably older, and the law permits superheroes to kill criminals while making arrests.

"In China, magical girls themselves also carry the nature of idols and have an enormous influence on minors. Furthermore, most magical girls are minors themselves, so there have rarely been cases of magical girls killing someone in public.

"At present, the media has interviewed the head of the Chinese Magical Girl Company, Xi Ziyue, regarding this incident. Xi Ziyue stated that it was due to inadequate internal discipline on their part and offered a solemn apology."

When the video ended, the screen froze on the anchor organizing their notes.

The kitchen fell completely silent, so quiet that only the cicadas outside could be heard.

Xia Zili lowered her head, her hanging bangs covering her eyes. Her right hand, still holding the chopsticks, had not moved for a very, very long time.

After a while, her lips moved slightly, and she softly said, "She did nothing wrong."

"Oh, you think she did nothing wrong. Of course I think I did nothing wrong on that school bus either." Ke Mingqing paused. "But if she did nothing wrong, why are so many people criticizing her?"

As the siblings spoke, Ke Mingwei happened to return home. He took off his police jacket and hung it on the wall, then walked into the living room step by step, pulled over a chair, and sat down. He turned to look out into the night as he lit a cigarette for himself.

Apparently having heard their conversation, he spoke up around the cigarette in his mouth. "Killing people is wrong."

Xia Zili was silent for a moment before raising her eyes.

"Why can't magical girls kill people?" she said coldly. "Everyone treats magical girls like decorative vases, but their work isn't much different from those heroes'."

"Then you should ask that comet that comes to Earth once every ten years. Ask it why it only turns underage little girls into magical girls."

As he spoke, Ke Mingwei flicked away some ash and turned to meet his daughter's gaze. "Then think about it... Would people be more accepting of a villain staining an entire high-rise building with blood, or an underage girl in a skirt holding an umbrella?"

Xia Zili lowered her head. Her eyes beneath her bangs were filled with indignation, and her expression darkened slightly.

After a long silence, Ke Mingwei added, "Rain Crow has been a superhero for so long, and he hasn't killed anyone either."

"Dad, Rain Crow is a special case, okay? He's the only superhero with a no-killing rule." Crow Man, you really have no shame. Do you have to promote yourself as some model idol in front of your daughter?

"Maybe..." Xia Zili asked quietly, "she just lost control?"

"She lost control and killed someone?" Ke Mingwei said coldly. "That's exactly why I say magical girls are unstable."

Xia Zili wanted to say, "What does that have to do with other magical girls?" But her mind was filled with the image of her master publicly apologizing for her at the press conference. In the end, she could only keep a sullen face and shut her mouth.

Ke Mingqing sighed. "Actually, I think Magical Girl Ember is pretty good. She's not as bad as everyone says."

Xia Zili froze slightly.

She slowly turned her head and quietly stared at Ke Mingqing.

"No..." Ke Mingwei said calmly. "She's just a willful little girl. She got a little power beyond ordinary people and thought she was invincible, with no regard for the law."

"But she's pretty!" Ke Mingqing said as if it were only natural.

Ke Mingwei fell silent for a moment, the cigarette nearly slipping from his mouth.

Xia Zili was completely stunned as well.

"Hey, isn't it enough for magical girls to be pretty?" Ke Mingqing said lightly. "And putting her behavior aside, I think she's the most interesting magical girl of this generation. Think about it... Magical girls in the past all went for the sweet and cute type. It was fake as hell. She's the only one who feels genuine—she keeps a cold face all day and doesn't try to please her fans."

He paused. "Though she can be a little too chuuni sometimes, and her temper's a bit bad, I think it's still acceptable."

Ke Mingwei sighed.

Xia Zili stood there in a daze for a while, then the tips of her ears suddenly reddened slightly.

She stared blankly at Ke Mingqing's profile for a while. Only when he turned his head and met her gaze with a strange expression did she silently look away.

Xia Zili slowly lowered her head, nearly burying her face in her noodles, her ears growing redder and redder. The next moment, she suddenly spoke with some displeasure. "You..."

"What?" Ke Mingqing turned to look at her.

Xia Zili fell silent for a moment. "You're the type of person I hate most—the kind who treats magical girls as idols and only cares about their looks... Big Brother, can you not be so shallow?" There was no anger in her tone, but neither was it as cold and exhausted as before.

After saying that, she placed her chopsticks on the edge of her porcelain bowl and walked away without looking back.

Wait, had it been a long time since she last called me "Big Brother"? Ke Mingqing watched her retreating figure from the corner of his eye and suddenly realized.

"Qing, why are you bullying your little sister again?" Xia Wenna asked belatedly.

"Mom, she was obviously the one who started picking on me, okay?" Ke Mingqing protested. "She might be a fan. She got angry when she heard Dad saying bad things about her idol."

"I see..." Xia Wenna thought for a moment, then nodded. "Mm, being a fan isn't very good."

Ke Mingqing sighed. Talking to this airheaded alien always felt exhausting, so he simply stopped speaking.

Since he still needed to check what functions the player system had, he ate quickly, slurping down the noodles in his bowl in no time.

He put his bowl and chopsticks in the sink, crossed the living room, and headed upstairs. At that moment, Ke Mingqing tilted his head slightly and glanced at Ke Mingwei from the corner of his eye.

A text panel suddenly appeared reflected in his pupils.

[Main Quest One, Phase One triggered: Create a second identity to approach the superhero "Rain Crow," and attempt to attract their attention and establish contact.]

[Quest Reward: 1,000 Superhuman Coins, 1 attribute point, 1 chance to use the item roulette.]

"A second identity?" Ke Mingqing thought. So... I need a mask?

"What is it?" Ke Mingwei noticed his gaze, removed the cigarette from his mouth, and turned around. "Don't dwell on what happened this afternoon. What's done is done. Just don't make the same mistake next time."

"Got it, Dad."

Ke Mingqing replied absentmindedly, then turned and went upstairs.