Phone Incident

Since Lin Yun began posing as Larkspur in front of his daughter, carrying two cell phones with him has become a habit.

To avoid being detected when using it, he even consulted a female sales clerk at the flagship store before buying the phone, and based on her advice, deliberately chose a phone case that made "Larkspur's Phone" look more feminine.

There are only three contacts on this phone: Lin Xiaolu, Xia Liang, and Hong Siyu.

In order to be able to contact them in time when the Aberrant Beast appear or in case of emergencies, Lin Yun does not deliberately turn off her phone or put it on silent mode. She only switches it to vibrate mode when she is at work.

The same applies today.

When he left home in the morning, he deliberately took Larkspur's phone out of his usual suit pocket and carried it with him to ensure that Larkspur's identity and communication with the two girls were smooth.

However, he didn't expect that the two little girls had somehow followed him all the way to the shopping mall.

At first, he was focused on acting to fool Moko; after meeting the two girls, he began to try to smooth things over for them in this awkward situation; later, while shopping, he was so immersed in the sentimental mood of this special day that he completely forgot that he had such a time bomb in the inside pocket of his shirt.

The result was this: the clear ringtone drew Xia Liang's attention, and he reached inside his shirt, holding his phone, unsure whether he should take it out or not.

In just a few seconds, several plans had already flashed through Lin Yun's mind:

The first method is to quickly turn the volume of the Larkspur's phone down to the minimum, then take out your own phone and pretend that you just answered a call.

This solution is logically flawless, but it is very difficult to implement – he set his phone to ringtone and vibrate to prevent himself from ignoring incoming calls.

Even if he could turn his phone volume down to zero, the vibration was still hard to ignore in the nearly empty restaurant.

The second method is to answer the call, but cover the microphone of Larkspur phone with your hand so that your voice cannot be heard by the phone; then take out Lin Yun's phone and pretend that you have received a call from someone else.

The logic of this plan is not flawed, but it is more difficult to implement. First, he cannot ensure that he can completely cover the microphone, and even a slight leak of sound will give him away; second, doing so would make his movements quite strange, with his right hand inside his jacket while his left hand reaches to his right to reach for his phone to answer the call, which looks very odd no matter how you look at it.

The last option is to hang up the phone directly and then use Lin Yun's phone to call Larkspur, so that Xia Liang can only get a "busy" message when she calls back.

This is very simple to do, and you could even say that he could definitely succeed if he wanted to. But there is a huge logical flaw: he can't explain why Xia Liang's call was disconnected as soon as his phone stopped ringing.

Just as he was making his decision, Xia Liang had already taken action.

She held the phone to her ear, tilted her head to look at Lin Yun, her eyes filled with confusion and inquiry. "Uncle, aren't you going to answer the phone?"

Lin Yun knew then that there was no time to delay.

"Yes, thank you for reminding me. I was thinking about something and didn't notice."

He initially answered with a blank expression, trying to distract Xia Liang with conversation; at the same time, he began to fumble around on the side of his phone, trying to find the volume buttons, thinking that he should at least turn off the ringtone first.

In his mind, since several options had already been listed, it didn't mean they couldn't be used together. He figured he could just deal with whatever came his way and act accordingly, and there was still a chance to get away with it.

"That's strange... I'll try hanging it up."

However, before he could take any other action, Xia Liang was already talking to himself, lightly tapping the phone screen with his finger.

As soon as she made this gesture, the bell in the restaurant stopped ringing a moment later.

The empty restaurant returned to silence, except for the mall aisles outside the shop window, which were still filled with screams and shouts. The glass partition of the storefront became a boundary, dividing the restaurant into two worlds: outside, people jostled and pushed, noisy and spreading panic; inside, it was cold and quiet, so quiet you could hear a pin drop, filled with awkwardness.

Without a doubt, Xia Liang just pressed the hang-up button.

After this series of actions, she first held the phone loosely, looked at Lin Yun, blinked innocently, and then exclaimed in surprise, "Ah, it really stopped?"

Lin Yun looked at the undecorated ceiling in the restaurant and let out a long sigh.

He lowered his hands to his chest as if in surrender.

"Uncle, you have someone else's phone on you."

Seemingly aware of the situation, Xia Liang, despite trying to restrain herself, still revealed a somewhat mischievous smile, "Although asking like this is a bit of a leap, it should be the person I'm thinking of, right?"

"You guessed right." Lin Yun, seemingly unfazed, admitted bluntly, his voice completely flat.

"Why is Senior... no, Senior Larkspur's phone with you, Uncle?"

After receiving Lin Yun's reply, Xia Liang seemed even more confused. "I remember that the young senior used my phone at my house last night..."

"We know each other, and this morning I found out she left her phone at my house."

Lin Yun opened her mouth somewhat numbly, futilely throwing out an improvised reason. "Although it's not what you think, we do maintain some contact."

"I went to find my uncle in the middle of the night, and then I left my phone at your house..."

Xia Liang gradually dropped open. "So, you two really are in that kind of relationship?"

"I don't know what kind of relationship you're referring to, but I don't think so," Lin Yun said, closing her eyes.

"Uncle, even if it's consensual, having that kind of relationship with a child is still illegal, okay?"

Frowning, Xia Liang said somewhat seriously, "Besides, Senior Larkspur is so cute, how could you bear to do something naughty to her?"

"... I've already said, we're not in that kind of relationship. We only interacted because of Lulu and magical girls."

Lin Yun sighed helplessly, "Besides, she should have told you, right? She's much older than you, an adult my age."

That won't work either.

Xia Liang pouted, unusually displeased, and said, "Even if you're all adults, I still think you shouldn't have done that. You're being very unfair to Xiao Lu, aren't you?"

"My friend, I can assure you, it's really not like what you think."

Lin Yun suppressed her embarrassment, put on a solemn expression, and earnestly explained, "I know you care about Lulu, and I also know that Lulu isn't quite ready to accept having a... uh, a stepmother yet. So, I really have no emotional relationship with this 'Senior Larkspur' you mentioned."

"Really?" Xia Liang asked, somewhat doubtful.

"If I had to say, she's actually closer to Lulu's mother."

To divert her attention, Lin Yun explained, half-jokingly, "If you want to know, I'll tell you on the way back."

"Her mother? You mean..." Xia Liang wanted to ask more, but she was forced to stop herself from speaking.

At that very moment, Lin Yun's chest and the phone in her hand vibrated simultaneously.

When Xia Liang picked up her phone, she saw that Lin Xiaolu had sent a message in the Magical Girl Squad group chat:

[Little Brocade: What are you doing? Hurry up and come here!]

[Larkspur: There's been an Aberrant Beast attack at Golden Fort Shopping Plaza in Luoming District. Larkspur, are you free right now? Ah, no need to rush.]

"... It seems we really can't continue this conversation."

After reading the information on the screen, Xia Liang lowered her hand and smiled helplessly, "Then, Uncle, if you can contact Senior Larkspur, could you please inform her? After all, she instructed us to notify her whenever any Aberrant Beast appear."

Although she was full of doubts, she ultimately knew what was more important: she could inquire about the gossip about family matters later, but driving away the Aberrant Beast was the top priority at hand.

"I will."

Seeing that he finally had a chance to end this awkward conversation, Lin Yun didn't hesitate to stop. He looked up and met Xia Liang's gaze, nodding in a mock-serious manner, "Hong Siyu should have a way to contact her."

"Phew, let's talk about the rest when we get back."

After letting out a breath, Xia Liang put away her phone and waved to Lin Yun: "As for what happened before, I'll just take it as what you said, Uncle, is true."

"It's all true." Lin Yun said expressionlessly. "Just don't exaggerate it to Lulu."

"Don't worry, I won't tell Xiao Lu."

Xia Liang chuckled mischievously, "I know, after all, if I tell her these things, she might start overthinking things."

Lin Yun thought to himself that what Xia Liang had just said was also just wild speculation, but in the end he didn't argue anymore and just silently watched Xia Liang leave the restaurant.

Watching the girl run away, he leaned back in his seat, let out a long sigh, and finally relaxed a little.

Forget about all that, let's put those things aside for now and figure out where to transform first, he thought to himself.