Before the Festival

Bang!

A sudden knocking sound broke the silence of the living room, making Lin Xiaolu, who was holding a rag, look up.

"What the hell?"

Filled with doubt, Lin Xiaolu looked around at the glass in front of her and finally saw a black stain above the window. Upon closer inspection, she realized it was an insect that had crashed into the glass and died.

"Ugh, really, how disgusting!"

She grumbled a little, then scrambled up to the windowsill and pulled open the window safety latch. Standing on tiptoe and with her head held high, she stretched a rag out the window, trying to wipe away the stains.

However, just as she stretched her hand out of the window, her foot suddenly slipped, and her whole body tilted backward, falling from the window to the side.

Wow!

The brief gasp didn't last long, because a pair of hands suddenly reached out from behind and helped Lin Xiaolu up as she was about to fall.

"Be careful, Sister Xiao Lu."

The newcomer said, "If you can't reach it, you can actually transform."

Lin Xiaolu blinked, tilted her head back, and saw Bai Jingxuan standing behind her, looking at her with some concern.

"Hmm..."

It took her a while to recover from the lingering fear of almost falling, and after a moment of hesitation, she finally mustered her words and stood up, feigning nonchalance. "It's okay, it's okay! Falling from this height is nothing anyway. Always relying on magical girl abilities won't help you grow as a person!"

Is that really the case...?

After letting go and taking a few steps back, Bai Jingxuan looked at Lin Xiaolu with some suspicion. "But I feel that even if I learn to wipe the window on tiptoe, I won't gain any real growth."

"If you don't exert physical effort, it doesn't count as labor!"

Lin Xiaolu raised her index finger and said seriously, "Besides, I read in a book that you can grow taller by frequently standing on your tiptoes and jumping!"

Her remarks left Bai Jingxuan speechless for a moment.

After being speechless for a while, she first looked at Lin Xiaolu's height, then thought of herself, and couldn't think of any words that would fit the current situation.

After a moment's pause, she spoke hesitantly, offering an encouraging smile:

"Hmm, that makes a lot of sense!"

"It's too late to say such things after so long of silence!"

Lin Xiaolu covered her forehead and sighed, lowering her head in surrender. "Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore."

"Well, how should I put it... I think that issues like height development aren't noticeable until adulthood."

Seeing her mood instantly drop, Bai Jingxuan quickly tried to comfort her, saying, "Look, as the saying goes, 'A girl changes a lot as she grows up,' and height is one of those changes!"

"I don't want to be comforted about my height by elementary school kids who are about the same height as me! Besides, girls change a lot as they grow up, and I'm almost fifteen, so my chances are almost over!"

Lin Xiaolu said in frustration, "I've been drinking milk, exercising, and sleeping for eight hours straight, so why am I being treated this way?!"

"Xia Liang is taller than me, fine, but what's wrong with you? Are you on hormones?"

"I'm considered short in the yard..." Bai Jingxuan explained softly.

"Hmm!"

As the saying goes, lies don't hurt, but the truth is the sharpest knife. Her explanation left Lin Xiaolu speechless.

Unable to vent her turbulent emotions, Lin Xiaolu grew angrier the more she thought about it. Finally, she could only pick up the rag that had slipped from her hand and angrily say to the bug stuck to it, "It's all your fault! You made me look like this!"

Heaven help it, this dead insect probably never imagined that it would be unfairly blamed for something like this.

"A bug? Did it hit the window?"

Bai Jingxuan turned her head to look at the rag in Lin Xiaolu's hand and asked in confusion, "Are there any here too?"

"'Also'?"

Her words caught Lin Xiaolu's attention, causing her to turn her gaze. "You ran into her too?"

"Hmm, a moth has landed on the kitchen window."

Bai Jingxuan turned around and pointed to the kitchen, saying crisply, "They were probably attracted by the lights in the house, right?"

As if to confirm her words, a flying insect was circling the living room light, occasionally bumping into the lamp's casing and making a soft sound.

The two girls were drawn to the flying insect, watching its movements until they saw it give up on hitting the lampshade and fly away elsewhere.

"... Speaking of which, there have definitely been more insects lately. Even though the weather has turned cool and it's autumn, we keep finding clothes moths on the walls inside the house. Are they coming in to keep warm?"

"Is something in the kitchen spoiled?"

"That's impossible. We've only been here for a month and a half. How could food rot that fast?"

Lin Xiaolu put one hand on her hip, lowered her head, and pondered, "Looks like I need to find something to repel the insects."

"How about trying mothballs?"

Bai Jingxuan suggested, "I remember the teacher kept a lot of cleaning supplies in the storage room."

"Teacher...?"

Feeling somewhat bored, Lin Xiaolu sat down by the windowsill and sighed, "Larkspur has been gone for almost half a month now, when will she be back?"

"Sister, did you ask the teacher in the group chat before?"

"I did ask, but I asked if she would come back for the Full Moon Festival."

"I remember the teacher said she wasn't coming back?"

"... yes."

Lin Xiaolu stared at the floor, then subconsciously kicked her feet twice. "She said her work wasn't finished and she wouldn't be coming back."

This was the answer Lin Xiaolu received from the information two days ago.

She texted both her father and Larkspur, asking about their plans for the Full Moon Festival.

Ultimately, Larkspur said she wouldn't come back, telling her to spend the holiday with her family; Lin Yun, on the other hand, told her she would come back for the holiday.

This was indeed an answer that Lin Xiaolu hadn't expected.

She was initially a little hesitant, wondering how she should arrange her schedule if both of them came back for the holidays.

This is a tradition in Eastern Hua Prefecture. The Full Moon Festival is a time for family reunions, and in most cases, being with one's blood relatives is the top priority. If Larkspur and her father both return to Fangting City for the festival, she might need to celebrate at the Secret Base first, and then go home to spend the festival with her father. Even though she actually prefers to celebrate with her companions at the Secret Base.

Now the problem has become simple: if Larkspur doesn't come back, she naturally only has one option left: going home for the holiday.

"It's a little disappointing," Bai Jingxuan said softly.

"Who can argue with that?"

Lin Xiaolu agreed, saying, "But you must be the most disappointed, since the surprise you prepared has to be delayed again."

Bai Jingxuan and Xia Liang considered this Secret Base as half a family. If Larkspur didn't come back and Lin Xiaolu went back to her own home, their Full Moon Festival would indeed be much quieter.

"No, it's not really a surprise or anything. I just want to wait for the teacher to come back before I tell her properly..."

Bai Jingxuan waved her hand somewhat flusteredly. "After all, it's really a bit inappropriate to talk about this over the phone."

"What's the big deal? It's not like it's a bad thing."

Lin Xiaolu sighed, "You've surpassed me, a senior who became a magical girl two months earlier, and awakened your Magic Armament first. Be a little more confident."

"Sister Xiao Lu..."

The sadness in her voice made Bai Jingxuan feel a little flustered. "Did I make you unhappy?"

"Unhappy?"

Looking at Bai Jingxuan, Lin Xiaolu squinted and rested her chin on her hand. "How could I be happy? I've been a magical girl for almost five months and I'm still only at the Seed level. Elementary school students who took the role later than me have already mastered Magic Armament. How can I be happy?"

"This, I..." Bai Jingxuan opened her mouth, unsure of what words of comfort she could say.

The two remained silent, exchanging glances without uttering a word.

"Pfft, what's with that expression?!"

Lin Xiaolu observed her reaction, and after a moment, laughed, pinching Bai Jingxuan's cheek. "I'm not that petty, I wouldn't hold a grudge against you over something like this. Don't look so gloomy, it's like I'm bullying you."

"It's true that I'm unhappy, but it's because I feel like I'm terrible at things, and it has nothing to do with you."

"But Sister Xiao Lu is just as good as she is."

With Lin Xiaolu pinching her cheek, Bai Jingxuan said somewhat seriously, "I think you're very amazing."

"I've already said it, being comforted by elementary school students doesn't make me happy."

Reluctantly letting go, Lin Xiaolu grinned and said, "To be more accurate, thinking about my current situation only intensifies my sense of frustration."

But I...

Bai Jingxuan tried to say something more, but her words were quickly interrupted by a sound from the entrance hall.

Bump!

With the crisp sound of the door closing, two cheerful greetings reached their ears: "I'm home!" "I'm home!"

The visitors were none other than Xia Liang and Moko.

Xia Liang, dressed casually with a sparkling earring, walked into the house carrying several plastic bags. "Can anyone help me with these things? They're too heavy!"

"Ah, yes!"

Bai Jingxuan immediately went to greet her, while Lin Xiaolu followed leisurely behind. Upon seeing Xia Liang, she immediately suppressed the smile on her face.

What kind of expression is that?

Xia Liang followed Bai Jingxuan into the living room and saw Lin Xiaolu with her usual sour face. Somewhat confused, she asked, "Is your period here?"

"What are you saying? You're the one on your period! I'm just in a bad mood!"

Lin Xiaolu retorted irritably, carrying a rag as she approached Xia Liang: "What were you doing? Why did it take you so long to buy something?"

"This...?"

Hearing this, Xia Liang smiled happily, "I happened to run into two classmates at the mall, gave them some advice, and then we chatted and had lunch together."

"Eh--"

Lin Xiaolu said quietly, "So you just left the two of us at home to do chores while you went off to be a social butterfly?"

"What do you mean by 'doing odd jobs'? You were the one who played rock-paper-scissors with me, saying whoever lost would go buy groceries."

Xia Liang pouted, somewhat disgruntled. "I haven't forgotten the smug look on some people's faces when they won, and now they're starting to back out?"