Before the New Year

With the year-end approaching, on the second-to-last day before the holiday, Lin Yun finished work at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau and returned home around nine o'clock.

This was not only because he had a meeting with government officials that afternoon, but also because he had made it a regular practice for him to show up at the base disguised as Larkspur after work.

Normally he might stay in the house at the base, but today was different— Lin Xiaolu had gone home.

Lin Xiaolu would go home at most once a week, and at least once every two weeks to change her spare clothes and daily necessities, take away some things she would need for the next period of time, and bring home some things she didn't need. She would also tidy up her room.

This was a natural thing for her, and she didn't need to consider any complicated internal factors, but for Lin Yun, whether or not to go home required multiple considerations.

For the first two months after moving into the Secret Base, his schedule was closely aligned with Lin Xiaolu's. Basically, whenever Lin Xiaolu came home, he would find an excuse to leave the base—after all, Xia Liang already knew the truth, and Bai Jingxuan didn't care about any of that. As long as he ensured that he was there when Lin Xiaolu came home, he could alleviate the conflict of identity to some extent.

However, as time went on, especially after the Full Moon Festival, Lin Xiaolu discovered that her father was not an ordinary person in the conventional sense. Later, she even learned that Lin Yun was the director of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau. So one night, she asked her father a thought-provoking question:

"Have you stopped working overtime or having social engagements in the evenings lately?"

Lin Yun could actually give a definite answer, which is "indeed not necessary," but he finds it difficult to explain the underlying logic in a few words that his daughter can understand and accept.

After all, this is due to both his personal reasons and reasons at the Fangting City level.

Objectively speaking, he does have a lot to do, whether it's various decision-making tasks within the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, communication with certain government officials, or even getting involved in the political affairs of Fangting City. If Lin Yun is willing to spend time on these things, he could be so busy that he can't go home every night.

But in reality, Lin Yun was unwilling to waste time on trivial matters.

His attitude toward the work of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau was simple. "To eliminate the unstable forces in Fangting City." Apart from this objective, he had little interest in deeply participating in Fangting City's policy-making, power games among the Fangting City's top officials, and other such matters.

This is both a personal interest and a matter of assessing the situation.

Although Lin Yun is a native of Fangting City, he has never had any political achievements in his more than 30 years of life. He has no qualifications or experience. Although he is now the director of the Fangting City, he is still an "outsider" to the government officials of Fangting City.

If he were just a simple outsider, that would be one thing, but he is not. Anyone with a keen eye who tries to understand Lin Yun's background, even if they can't find out about Anya or Lin Xiaolu, can still learn the unsettling fact that he was "directly assigned by the Heavenly City General Bureau and is suspected to have the will of the Magic Kingdom behind him."

How to manage the relationship with the newly appointed director of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau has become a major problem for the Fangting City.

The relationship between the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau and the city government is not one of superior and subordinate, but rather two sides of the same coin within the same city.

The Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau manages Mage and other individuals with extraordinary powers, while also connecting with powerful entities like magical girls and Magic Kingdom. The government, on the other hand, is responsible for ensuring the lives of ordinary people and maintaining urban facilities and the smooth functioning of society.

In most cities, the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau maintains a somewhat distant relationship with other government departments. Most of the time, they each perform their own duties, but there are also many areas where they need to work together.

A typical and sensitive topic is the operating expenses of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, which need to be obtained from the government. And whenever money is involved, there will be countless stakeholders.

Typically, when a city's Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau requests money from the government, it signifies the start of some dirty deals between high-ranking officials: how much money to give, in what form to give, and when to give. There are many things that the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau and Opposition and the government need to haggle over, and personnel on both sides can use this as an excuse to seize more benefits for public or private purposes. A large amount of funds flow into the pockets of certain officials under the guise of "Bureau of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau activities."

These things were an unspoken Rule in Fangting City in the past, and it was no exception even when Moss was in office. After all, although none of the dirty tricks that Black Ash Dawn did were human-made, they still required money and a lot of resources.

But this rule was immediately broken when Lin Yun took the stage.

It wasn't that Lin Yun didn't realize it or didn't understand the rules; he simply couldn't be bothered to care.

He didn't see the need to create various pretexts just to extract money from the government; he preferred to take only what was needed. He wouldn't deliberately simplify things at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, but he also wouldn't ask for resources beyond normal expenses.

Officials in Fangting City had mixed feelings about this.

The good news is that expenses have been greatly reduced on paper. Compared to the exorbitant demands of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau in previous years, the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau under Lin Yun's leadership is truly noble. The bad news is that many people have lost the opportunity to pocket the money, and at the same time, they have lost the chance to recruit Lin Yun.

The newly appointed director of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau was so incorruptible and incorruptible that they really didn't know how to win him over. If they couldn't win him over as one of their own, then he would ultimately be an "outsider," and if he was an outsider, then many things couldn't be discussed in greater depth.

What troubles them most is that not only is it difficult to win over and curry favor with this new director, but the idea of him ostracizing or suppressing them is even more absurd—after all, he was directly appointed by the Kingdom, and who knows how deep their relationship might go? If he has a powerful figure in the Kingdom above him, a single word could remove Fangting City from the protection of magical girls, and that would be truly disastrous.

They also know that this is actually a kind of happy trouble.

Because many small city Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, let alone being directly appointed by the Kingdom, most of their members may never be able to personally visit the Magic Kingdom in their entire lives, let alone have the power to request anything from the Kingdom. Often, when faced with Aberrant Beast, they can only silently clean up the mess, or hope that a capable magical girl from their city will emerge.

For nearly a century, Fangting City has been just such a city. In the past, Fangting was relatively remote and small in scale, and was often invisible in the eyes of the Kingdom. The frequent Aberrant Beast disasters made people feel uneasy.

Until twenty years ago, Fangting City produced a group of magical girls who were truly talented. They were not only able to easily solve the Fangting City Aberrant Beast plagues, but their military influence even extended across the Wasteland, covering several surrounding cities, making Fangting City one of the most stable cities in the southern Eastern Hua Prefecture.

After such a reputation spread, many people naturally came to Fangting City, wanting to settle down. This directly led to the rapid development and expansion of Fangting City over the past decade, and the economic development zone in the new urban area was also established as a result.

Twenty years ago, Fangting City was just an unknown small town, but twenty years later it has developed considerably. Although it still lags far behind traditional big cities, it is now considered one of the best among small towns.

This trend stalled at the beginning of the year because the magical girls in Fangting City seemed to be facing a generational gap due to the issue of succession, and the increasing frequency of Aberrant Beast disasters caused some unease among the people.

However, as the new generation of Magical Girl Squad gradually became active, the older generation of magical girls also made a high-profile appearance on the Full Moon Festival, killing a giant Aberrant Beast that had invaded the city. The residents of Fangting City have regained their confidence in "safety".

The current stability of Fangting City is largely due to the protection provided by the Magic Kingdom. This has resulted in the city government officials being caught in the middle, unable to be too enthusiastic or too negligent when dealing with Lin Yun, which is quite uncomfortable.

Lin Yun was actually well aware of this.

But for him right now, this is the best state to be in.

Once he was to lead the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau to establish a deeper cooperation with the government, he would inevitably have to communicate more closely with all parties, resulting in a large number of meetings, receptions, and social engagements... Just thinking about it made his scalp tingle.

He was quite certain that he didn't have time to maintain personal relationships with these government officials, so there was no need to do those superficial things; he could just focus on his own work.

As for the work at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, not to mention that Hong Siyu has already helped him a lot, there's absolutely no need for him to work overtime until late at night to finish his unfinished work; he can take it back to the base or home to continue.

This is why Lin Yun can now go home frequently instead of working until late at night like before.

However, the background and the power struggles mentioned above are things that cannot be told to Lin Xiaolu. Perhaps Lin Xiaolu will have to face these things when she grows up, but Lin Yun does not want her to be exposed to them now.

"I'm the bureau chief now. As long as I don't want to work overtime, no one can force me to." That was his final answer.

But using this excuse all the time is still a bit far-fetched. More importantly, he worries that if he's always there when his daughter comes home, it might seem like he's trying to cover something up and arouse unnecessary suspicion.

So, occasionally, even when Lin Xiaolu went home, he would choose to remain at the base as Larkspur, creating the illusion that "Lin Yun was busy with work."

But today is different. It's almost the end of the year and the new year is just around the corner. This time, Lin Xiaolu is home, and he must meet his daughter as a father.

For no other reason than to ask for leave.

After all, it's the New Year, a time for family reunions. Considering that he previously spent the Full Moon Festival with his team members as Lin Yun, and this time the Bai'an City Squad has joined, it's undoubtedly more appropriate for him to be Larkspur.

Therefore, Lin Yun's identity had to be absent.

He had already come up with an excuse. He had just recently formulated a rule for the Fangting City Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau to stay on duty during holidays, so he could say that as the director, he would stay at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau. It sounded perfectly reasonable.

Unfortunately, as he and Lin Xiaolu were having dinner across the table, pondering when to bring up the topic, Lin Xiaolu spoke first:

"... dad."

Just one word was enough to make Lin Yun raise his head in astonishment.

Now that the father-daughter relationship has gradually improved, it is not uncommon for Lin Xiaolu to talk to him, but because of their past cold war, the number of times she has addressed him so formally is very few.

In his memory, almost every time Lin Xiaolu used this title as an opening remark, she would always follow up with something quite remarkable.

And this time, his daughter certainly did not disappoint him.

"The day after tomorrow is New Year's Eve, and I want to go home to celebrate," Lin Xiaolu said in a low voice, putting down her chopsticks.

"Oh, you're planning to... go home?"

Fortunately, Lin Yun had prepared herself mentally, so she didn't show too much surprise. She simply acted as if she had no objection and calmly asked, "Is it the same as the previous Full Moon Festival? Or should I call all your teammates over?"

"Um, I'd like to invite everyone, is that alright?"

Lin Xiaolu nodded. "There might be a little more people this time than last time."

"People from Bai'an City? Our place might be a bit small then."

Lin Yun remained calm. "Besides, if we need to seat so many people, we might have to move to a different table."

Upon hearing this, Lin Xiaolu looked down at the dining table beneath her and immediately looked troubled.

"... How about we change the table?" she suggested softly.

"You changed the table just for the holiday?"

Lin Yun raised an eyebrow. "Do you think we look like a family that wealthy?"

"Aren't you the bureau chief...?" Lin Xiaolu muttered, "Such a high-ranking official, surely replacing a table at home wouldn't be a problem, right?"

"No matter how many times I tell you, Dad is an honest official who doesn't abuse his power."

As Lin Yun put food into her bowl, she said, "Besides, this table was bought by your mother, so we definitely can't change it. If we buy a new table, it'll just sit on the balcony collecting dust. Forget it, you might as well spend the New Year at your base."

Upon hearing that Anya had bought the table, Lin Xiaolu fell silent for a moment before speaking again:

"Then you'll come to our side?"

"I can't go." Lin Yun shook her head and smiled. "I was just about to tell you that Dad will be on duty at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau this Chinese New Year and probably won't be able to spend it with you. I'm sorry."

"On duty?" Lin Xiaolu was speechless.

"Yes, after all, the reason why such a big incident occurred before the Full Moon Festival was largely due to the slow response of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau, so someone has to be on duty since the beginning of this year's Lunar New Year." Lin Yun replied, feigning helplessness.

"At the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau?" Lin Xiaolu pressed.

"Yes, in the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau," Lin Yun replied.

"Then I'll go to your office."

"You're coming to my office..."

Lin Yun repeated the sentence aloud, her mind gradually processing what her daughter was saying, "... Huh? To my office?"

"Okay, I'll come to your office to celebrate the New Year with you." Lin Xiaolu drooped her eyelids and looked at Lin Yun with displeasure, as if to say, "If you make any more excuses, I'm going to make a scene with you."

"Why?" Lin Yun rarely felt confused during her conversation with her daughter.

"You are my father, and I am your daughter."

Lin Xiaolu emphasized each word as she pronounced it:

"Isn't it only natural to spend the New Year together?"