Lin Yun drove Hong Siyu's car to take her back to her apartment, then took the tram home. By the time he stepped into the entryway, the clock was already pointing to ten.
He subconsciously glanced at the shoe cabinet by the door and found his daughter's shoes carelessly kicked onto the floor. Lin Yun straightened them before heading into the living room.
If Hong Siyu had been right, there should have been a television interview with the new magical girl tonight.
He turned on the TV and checked the city channel. Seeing that it was airing a cheap late-night idol drama, he realized the news broadcast had likely ended long ago. He then opened his communicator and searched online for the city channel's schedule that night.
Before long, he found a replay of the evening news on the official website.
One of the reports covered the Aberrant Beast's attack on the downtown district that morning.
The report described the damage and casualties the Aberrant Beast had caused in that neighborhood, then shifted focus to state that the one who had defeated it was the newly appointed magical girl. Though she was a newcomer, she had already made an outstanding contribution to public safety.
Then the footage shifted to the scene, where the reporter announced that they had met the new magical girl and would be conducting an on-site interview.
Before long, this magical girl, who had previously remained rather mysterious, made her debut through the news interview.
The first thing on screen was a girl who seemed as though she had stepped out of a fairy tale.
She had golden twin ponytails, a pale blue dress, and a bright yellow corset around her waist, tied into an exaggerated bow at her back. A round gemstone was pinned to her chest, and she wore a tiny top hat.
"Hello, um, I'm the new magical girl. My name is White Rose..."
Judging by her clothes alone, no one would think of her as a combatant. She looked more like a little girl who had run away from some ball.
Yet such clothing was perfectly normal for magical girls.
Most magical girls fought dressed like this. More counterintuitively, no matter how much their outfits appeared to restrict movement, their movements were never affected by those gorgeous garments.
Naturally, the first impression such magical girls gave people was not "powerful," but "cute."
Yet as he watched the magical girl in the news footage, Lin Yun felt that something was off.
There was no clear source for that sense of wrongness, but it was so intense that he quickly realized what it truly was—familiarity.
He felt familiar with the magical girl on the screen.
Had he seen this girl somewhere before? As the thought arose, he subconsciously compared the magical girl before him to his memories.
Deep down, he had already vaguely sensed the answer, but he had been unwilling to think in the direction he least wanted to accept.
But if he did not think in that direction, there was no explanation for this familiarity, no answer at all.
So when he hesitantly brought the answer he least wished to consider into the open, Lin Yun froze.
Because he could not accept it.
How could it be her? Why was it her? How could it possibly be her?
Countless questions arose in his mind. The questions turned into confusion, the confusion into agitation, and then into anger.
Approaching forty, Lin Yun rarely felt such intense fury in his life anymore. It surged as if it would burst from his chest, scorching his mind until it went blank.
He could not understand.
Why was this magical girl Lin Xiaolu? His daughter?
In no mood to keep watching the news, Lin Yun put down his communicator. His thoughts were a mess, and his emotions refused to settle.
—I need to have a proper talk with her.
The thought surfaced in his mind.
Even though he and his daughter Lin Xiaolu had been cold toward each other for a long time and barely exchanged a few words in their daily lives, he still needed to fulfill his duty as her father and have a proper talk with her.
If she had willingly become a magical girl, he had to tell her the pros and cons and let her weigh them again.
With that thought in mind, Lin Yun suddenly stood and headed straight for his daughter's room.
[Knock first].
Such a note was stuck to the door.
That familiar handwriting... When had this note begun appearing on his daughter's door?
In the two years since his wife's death, too many conflicts had arisen between father and daughter. He had never been good at expressing himself, and their relationship had ultimately reached this point.
They were clearly family who depended on each other in this world, yet they could go an entire day without saying more than a few words. Even when they did speak, it was only about the most basic daily arrangements, never a heartfelt conversation.
Lin Yun paused with his fingers against the door, then drew a deep breath and knocked.
"Are you asleep, Lulu?"
There was no response from inside.
His heart sank slightly. Lin Yun waited a little longer, quickly steadied himself, and knocked again.
Still, there was no response.
The soft knocking sank into the depths like stones dropped into a deep pool, disappearing without a trace.
Lin Yun lowered his head, his expression darkening slightly.
If it had been any other day, he probably would have given up by now. He would have felt that things could no longer be salvaged, that they ought to leave enough distance between them and let time mend the gap.
But not this time. Even if it worsened his relationship with his daughter further, he had to convey what he wanted to say.
So he would not stop.
Click.
Just as he prepared to knock for the third time, the door before him was suddenly pulled open.
A young girl in pajamas glared at him irritably and snapped the moment they met.
"I'm awake. What do you want?"
Her wary expression made her look like a cat with its fur standing on end.
Seeing his daughter being uncooperative again, and thinking of how he had come to speak with her out of concern, Lin Yun felt a wave of irritation and frustration. He thought the girl was being so aggravating that he really ought to scold her.
But the words reached his lips and stopped.
He suddenly did not know what to say.
Should he directly ask whether his daughter had become a magical girl? Then scold her for something that everyone else would see as a good deed?
Or should he immediately lecture her about the dangers of being a magical girl and tell her to give it up at once?
Leaving aside how he could produce evidence to support his claims, would revealing everything so bluntly touch upon his child's fragile, sensitive nerves?
Even taking a step back, after such a long time without a real conversation, was it really appropriate for him, as her father, to begin by denying her? He wanted to know what his daughter truly thought, but would she really be willing to confide in him? Could such a harsh conversation truly achieve his goal?
How could he make his daughter trust him now?
No matter how he thought about it, the answer was that he could not.
Lin Yun could not help but wonder what he truly wanted to tell her. Setting aside these external conflicts and the estrangement that had accumulated between them, if he wanted to know his daughter's true feelings, then what did his own heart want?
His thoughts churned beneath his daughter's gaze, until in the end every thought seemed to fade into nothingness, leaving only one voice.
"It's been several days since we saw each other. Dad just wanted to see you."
After stripping away all the needless emotions of anger, anxiety, worry, and guilt, that was the only sincerity left in him.
Perhaps he could not make his daughter happy. Perhaps he could not solve the problems between them. But at least right now, he wanted to see her.
Now that he knew his daughter had become a magical girl, he wanted to see whether she was safe, whether she was afraid, whether she was emotionally stable.
When the girl standing in the doorway heard that, her tightly furrowed brows lifted, then relaxed. Her expression became complicated as well.
"Now? Just for that?"
"Yeah. I was afraid you'd get angry if I called for you this morning."
A smile tugged at Lin Yun's somewhat blank face. "Now that I've seen you, I feel much more at ease."
The black-haired girl lifted her nose and sniffed, pursed her lips, and after a long while, murmured.
"Are you drunk?"
"Maybe. I really did drink quite a lot tonight."
Following his feelings, Lin Yun answered honestly. "I'm really happy that you were willing to open the door for me."
"...So you've seen me now. Then what?" His daughter still frowned.
"Nothing much. I just wanted to ask how you've been lately, whether you're happy at school."
Lin Yun stood where he was and waved a hand. "I won't ask about studying. You can handle that yourself. I'm not qualified to lecture you about it either."
Their conversation came to another halt.
Perhaps surprised that her father had asked such a question, his daughter studied him strangely. Before long, she still answered with an unconcerned expression.
"Oh, it's normal. Nothing's happened."
"It sounds like something dangerous happened near your school. Are you all right?"
"Dangerous... It's nothing. I can handle it."
"Do you need me to pick you up or drop you off?"
"Just focus on your own work."
"How's the phone I bought you for your birthday last month?"
"It's good."
"Is the dinner the hourly helper cooks all right?"
"It's fine. Auntie Liu is a great cook."
"Has anything good happened lately?"
"Something good?"
His daughter raised her brows at that, seemingly puzzled. But then, as though she had thought of something, her expression turned somewhat hesitant.
"I don't know, but nothing bad has happened anyway."
Nothing bad had happened...
Lin Yun's heart stirred slightly.
"Is that so? Then I guess there's nothing else for me to ask."
Hearing his daughter's somewhat ambiguous answer, he seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and took a step back. "Lulu, Dad is sorry."
Those words were met with a brief silence.
"...It's too late to say things like that now."
The girl behind the door spoke softly. She glanced at him again, lowered her eyes, and began pushing the door shut.
"I'm going to sleep. Stop bothering me."
Click.
The door before him closed.
Lin Yun stood outside the door, lost in thought. He remained there for a long time before finally walking toward his own bedroom.
In the end, he still had not been able to broach the topic of "magical girls."
He could not say it, could not ask. Whenever he tried to mention those words, his throat became unbearably dry.
But not saying it now did not mean he had given up.
During their conversation just now, Lin Yun had already thought of another way. Perhaps through that method, he could tell his daughter some things about magical girls and be certain that she would take his words seriously.
Opening the door to his bedroom, he undid his formal attire, set down his briefcase, and walked toward the wardrobe in the corner of the room with a burning gaze.
There were two wardrobes in the master bedroom, one for each owner's clothes. One was large and stood by the wall, while the other was much smaller and tucked into the corner.
Lin Yun did not have many clothes. Aside from a few sets of casual menswear he wore regularly, he only had formal clothes for work.
He opened one drawer. It contained old clothes, many of which were styles he had worn when he was younger but no longer suited his age or current trends.
After removing the clothes piled on top, he slowly reached inside and took out a palm-sized gift box.
"...Nineteen years."
He murmured in a daze.
Back when he had ignored his wife's objections and hidden this box away, he had never imagined there would come a day when he took it out again. At the time, he had felt that his life was already complete, that everything had settled into place, and that he had no reason to take out what was inside.
But after all these years, only today, after learning that his daughter had become a magical girl, did he understand that running away could never solve anything.
He gently undid the clasp, lifted the somewhat stiff lid, and stared at the item inside in silence for a long time.
It was a Shard-Pattern Gem Flower.
A gemstone covered in fine, fragmented patterns, already stained with dust and grime.
It had another name. People often called it a "Flower of the Heart."
And in this world, only one kind of person possessed such a peculiar treasure.
—Magical girls.
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