Lin Xiaolu's Guess

The world is constantly changing.

Lin Xiaolu wants to change, but Lin Xiaolu doesn't actually like change.

She wanted to change herself, but she didn't want the world around her to change.

But reality often falls short of expectations. As she grew up, the world around her changed, but she herself remained unchanged.

She went from being confused to understanding this point, from being ignorant to becoming aware of it.

The elders she met always said she was innocent and childlike, and her classmates often complained that she was immature. Although she hated being told that, she couldn't come up with a reason to refute it.

She still loves the things she loved as a child; she's still the girl in her class least likely to fall in love; and she's still shorter than her peers.

And, subconsciously, she was still waiting for her mother to return.

Her mother was dead, and she, no longer a child, was fully aware of this. However, she couldn't help but wonder what it would be like if her mother were still alive.

Therefore, she has always been very resistant to the appearance of other women around her father.

She didn't know how long her father could maintain his feelings for her deceased mother; she didn't know what would happen to their already fragile family after another woman entered the household. She didn't want a stepmother.

Even though she knew that her father's love life was his freedom, she just didn't want it.

This feeling became especially strong after meeting the woman named Hong Siyu.

When they first met, she could sense that the woman was imitating her mother's speech and mannerisms. The woman was trying to attract and get closer to her father in this way, which made her feel an extremely strong sense of crisis.

She told herself she didn't mind, she didn't care. She was already a magical girl, someone who had entered the Magic Side, and should be an extraordinary person with the world in her heart. These trivial matters of life couldn't disturb her mind.

But that night, after she overheard the woman's conversation with her father, she realized something else that shocked her even more:

--The Larkspur also knew her father, and this was very likely the reason why the Larkspur took special care of herself.

Even though her father later declared it a misunderstanding, and she learned from Larkspur that Cui Que's care for her was actually because her mother had also been a magical girl, Lin Xiaolu never forgot her initial suspicion.

Sometimes, she would ask herself: if everything was really as she thought, and her father and Larkspur had a deeper relationship, and Larkspur might even one day become the "stepmother" she had always resisted, what would happen? Would she be sad or happy?

Based on past experience, Lin Xiaolu felt she should still refuse. After all, Larkspur was just Larkspur; even if she was a senior she admired and respected, it wouldn't work if she wanted to use that to become her stepmother.

However, the reality seems to be different.

When she actually started thinking about this issue, and even began to fantasize about "what if Larkspur was her stepmother," she found that, inexplicably, she wasn't so resistant.

It's as if it were perfectly natural for the Larkspur to be its "mother".

At that time, Lin Xiaolu did not understand where this inexplicable feeling came from. She just thought it was her own wild imagination and did not express these thoughts.

Until the night of the Full Moon Festival.

When she and her companions decided to leave their homes after discovering the huge crisis in the city center, she caught a glimpse of her father's bedroom door being open.

It was already past midnight, and even if my father was very busy with work, there was no reason for him to go out at that time, but he still left home.

Later, during the battle against the enemies of Black Ash Dawn, when they were at a great disadvantage, Larkspur was not originally supposed to appear in Fangting City, appeared.

She had clearly said she wouldn't come back for the holidays, but she still stood in front of the enemy in a desperate situation.

And finally, it was in the middle of the battlefield that the woman who had transformed into a monster and called herself Moss uttered those words:

"It seems her father also had an affair with you."

At that moment, Lin Xiaolu suddenly realized the truth, and everything became clear.

Why did the father leave at that time, and why did Larkspur appear at that time? It was all because the father and Larkspur really had a secret relationship, or even a romantic relationship.

It was at that time that Father brought Larkspur to the city.

When everything became logical and flawless in her mind, Lin Xiaolu, who was protected by Larkspur during the battle, finally understood what her strange feelings for Larkspur were.

She sensed her mother's qualities in the Larkspur.

This was a feeling that made no sense at all, because her mother Anya and Larkspur were completely different people.

Anya has a warm and uplifting personality. She may be a bit eccentric at times, but that eccentricity and nonchalance bring a powerful sense of encouragement.

The Larkspur's personality is aloof and profound. It is usually very serious, but there is a subtle tenderness within that aloofness and seriousness.

Even the least perceptive person could clearly sense the differences between these two personalities.

But Lin Xiaolu just had this inexplicable feeling.

After that day, Lin Xiaolu had a rather strange dream.

In my dream, I seemed to be an infant lying in swaddling clothes, my mother teasing me with a tender smile. At that time, I couldn't speak, and could only gesture to her with "ee-ee-ya-ya".

In her dream, she didn't see her father, but her mother seemed to be talking to someone she couldn't see, and even looked somewhat girlish and playful.

In the midst of her unbridled laughter, she surrendered herself to that unseen person.

Lin Xiaolu felt her height suddenly drop, and a pair of cool hands took her in and gently pulled her into their arms.

The embrace was cold, but not unpleasant; it was even somewhat comforting.

Who could it be? Lin Xiaolu wondered, struggling to open her eyes in the swaddling clothes and straining to look upwards, trying to see clearly who that person was.

She saw blue.

She saw a pair of deep blue, jewel-like eyes gazing gently at her.

The Larkspur held her, and with an expression never seen before, opened and closed his mouth, uttering a string of words that the baby could not understand.

Then, Lin Xiaolu woke up from her sleep.

In the morning sunlight, Lin Xiaolu, still half-asleep, sat on the bed, lingering on the strange dream. She felt the experience was incredibly real, as if it had actually happened.

She realized that this dream might not just be a simple fantasy; it must have some meaning of its own.

Lin Xiaolu sat on the bed, deep in thought. After a long period of recollection, meticulous reasoning, and careful presentation of evidence, she finally arrived at a somewhat bold conjecture:

My mother appeared to me in a dream; she agreed to let Larkspur be my stepmother.

Bad day, only 2k. sigh

Many thanks to readers Moonlit Dream, Slow Lazy Fish, onestones, Walking Stone, Mo Qianluo for their generous donations, and also to other readers for their donations and votes.