Small Is Good

Chen De lay sprawled on the sofa.

His posture was as textbook-perfect as a stranded salted fish.

His left hand held up his phone while his right absentmindedly stuffed chips into his mouth.

Crunch.

Crunch.

A short-video platform was open on the screen.

A compilation of magical-girl transformation cosplayers was playing.

The BGM was the kind of explosive electronic music that got your blood pumping, while the editing was dazzlingly flashy.

The comments were nothing but "my wife," "so cool," and "please debut."

Chen De expressionlessly double-tapped the screen.

It might have been fake, but everyone appreciated beauty.

Whenever people saw something beautiful, they could not help giving it a like.

After liking it, he swiftly tossed the memory into the garbage dump.

Then he kept scrolling.

The next video featured a cat.

An orange tabby slapped a cup off the table, then stared at the camera with an innocent yet extremely punchable look.

Chen De instinctively glanced at Qubi on the coffee table.

Qubi sat on the table, its tail swishing rhythmically from side to side.

Its expression was even more punchable than the orange cat's.

"Chen De."

"Hmm?"

Without even looking up, Chen De kept his eyes glued to the screen.

"Aren't you going to practice magic?"

Chen De's thumb stopped over the screen.

He finally tore his gaze away from his phone and shot Qubi a sidelong glance.

That look held thirty percent mockery, thirty percent cold indifference, and forty percent casual unconcern.

He was practically possessed by an overbearing CEO, and was equally punchable.

"When did you get the illusion that I wasn't practicing magic?"

Qubi's pupils contracted.

It abruptly lowered its head and looked around its body.

A silver-white ring of light.

It quietly floated around its body, slowly rotating.

A circle.

A nearly perfect circle.

There was not the slightest tilt or uneven edge.

The glow was soft and stable, as though it had been drawn with a compass.

Qubi's fur instantly stood on end.

Then its whole body sprang nimbly, leaping out of the ring.

It landed lightly on Chen De's head.

All four paws landed precisely atop his head.

"Quit being so edgy and practice properly."

Chen De raised his phone a little higher to keep Qubi's tail from sweeping across the screen.

"I'm serious. I was practicing just now."

"You were scrolling through videos."

"I was practicing while scrolling through videos."

"You were multitasking?"

"Yep."

Chen De finally put down his phone and sat up from the sofa.

Qubi jumped onto the sofa as well.

"Wait." Qubi narrowed its green eyes. "That ring just now—"

"I made it."

"I saw that."

"And? Aren't you going to praise me?"

Chen De crossed his arms, looking utterly pleased with himself.

"When did you make it?"

"About thirty seconds before you asked me that."

Qubi fell silent for a moment.

It recalled what had happened thirty seconds ago.

Thirty seconds ago, Chen De had been lying on the sofa, scrolling through his phone with his left hand and eating chips with his right.

Both hands had been occupied.

What had he used to make that ring?

"You made it with your feet?" Qubi's voice was full of deep suspicion.

"Can you be serious for once?!"

Chen De's toes curled unconsciously before he rolled his eyes.

"I made it with my mind."

"With your mind?"

"Yeah, that Hands-Free Casting thing you mentioned before."

Qubi's ears twitched.

It had indeed brought up the concept of Hands-Free Casting.

But that had been when it was explaining the techniques used by max-level magical girls, casually dangling an enticing prospect.

It belonged to the category of forward-looking knowledge called "you might use this someday."

Not practical knowledge at the level of "you should already know this now."

"When did you learn Hands-Free Casting?"

"This afternoon."

"Weren't you lying on the sofa all afternoon?"

"Yep."

"You learned it while lying down?"

"More precisely, I practiced it while lying down."

Chen De tilted his head, looking as smug as an elementary schooler who had scored full marks on a final exam.

His tail was practically about to stick up into the sky.

"Didn't you say that a circle is a cyclic structure, and magical power automatically completes the closed loop?"

"I did."

"So I thought, since a circle itself has a natural tendency to close—"

"Why did I have to use my hands to guide it?"

"When my hands aren't cooperating, they're actually a negative factor."

"So it's better to directly control the flow of magical power with mental strength and skip the physical contact step."

Qubi said nothing.

Its tail stopped moving.

That meant it was either thinking extremely hard or completely speechless.

"I wasn't wrong about you. You really are impressive."

"Of course I am."

Chen De's nose was practically pointed at the sky.

But Qubi's next sentence yanked him straight back down.

"Then make another one."

"Huh?"

"I said, make another one."

Qubi jumped back onto the coffee table.

"If that one just now wasn't something you lucked into, you should be able to reproduce it."

Chen De's mouth twitched.

"Are you questioning me?"

"It's not questioning. It's verification."

"Science values repeatable experiments."

"You're a cat, and you're lecturing me about science?"

"You're a magical girl, yet you've been talking to me about gender for dozens of chapters. Why can't we talk about science?"

Chen De took a deep breath.

He realized he had lost another argument.

Fine.

He would make one.

Who was afraid of whom?

He closed his eyes.

He concentrated his mental strength.

He sensed the flow of magical power inside his body.

Silver-white motes of light gathered from the void and slowly began to move.

Upward.

Tracing an arc.

Turning.

Downward.

Closing.

A perfect ring of light formed above the coffee table.

Chen De opened his eyes and looked at Qubi.

"Well?"

"Not bad."

Qubi remained stingy with its words of praise.

"Make another."

"That's enough."

"Two."

Chen De gritted his teeth and focused again.

A second ring formed beside the first.

It was slightly slower than the first, but just as perfect.

Two silver-white rings floated side by side in the air, quietly rotating.

The living room's aesthetic instantly rose several levels.

"Are two enough?" Chen De asked, barely suppressing his smugness.

"Try three."

"Are you addicted or something?"

"I'm testing your limits."

"You could just ask me directly!"

"You wouldn't know if I asked."

Chen De found himself unable to refute that again.

This cat's logic was practically flawless.

He gritted his teeth and made another one.

When the third ring formed, he could clearly feel his mental strength beginning to strain.

The string in his mind was drawn taut.

It was like a computer running three livestream windows at once—it could still handle it, but the fan had already started buzzing.

"Three." A sheen of sweat appeared on Chen De's forehead. "That's really enough now, right?"

"That's enough."

Qubi finally nodded.

Chen De breathed a sigh of relief. The moment he withdrew his mental strength, all three rings shattered at once.

The silver light burst like bubbles, scattering tiny motes throughout the living room.

It looked pretty.

But it was exhausting on the brain.

"Your limit for now is maintaining three at once," Qubi concluded.

"Does that number mean anything?"

"Yes."

Qubi jumped onto the back of the couch.

"The more complex a Magic Formation is, the more shapes it contains."

"You've seen compound magic formations in anime, right?"

"The kind bright enough to blind a dog?"

"The more shapes there are, the more directly it reflects the power."

Chen De slumped back onto the couch.

"So you're saying I still have a long way to go."

"Not that far, actually."

For once, Qubi gave her a positive evaluation.

"At your current pace, you can graduate from the circle-rolling stage."

"Really?"

"Really."

Chen De's eyes lit up.

She felt the satisfaction of finally clearing a game's tutorial.

"So what do I practice next?"

"Magic formations."

"The thing you mentioned before—adding structures on top of a circle?"

"Right. The circle is only a vessel. Real magic requires geometric structures to be built inside it."

Qubi stretched lazily.

"The most basic Magic Formation is the Triangle Formation—an equilateral triangle drawn inside a circle."

"That doesn't sound hard."

"It certainly doesn't sound hard."

"That tone is making me very uneasy."

"Your intuition has always been accurate."

Qubi jumped onto the floor and scratched several lines into it with its paw.

"You can already construct circles with just your thoughts."

"But triangles are different."

"Why?"

"Because triangles have corners."

"...Isn't that obvious?"

"A circle is a continuous curve, so magic power can naturally glide along it."

Qubi tapped the ground with a paw.

"But a triangle's three corners are sharp turns."

"You need to fit three turns inside one circle while keeping the entire structure stable."

"That's the difficult part of Magic Formations."

Chen De's expression slowly shifted from confidence to something more complicated.

"So I got so good at rolling circles, and all I learned was how to use a steering wheel?"

"Right."

"Now you have to learn how to drift."

"That's actually a very accurate analogy."

Chen De fell silent for three seconds.

Then she picked up her phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Let me recover for a bit first."

"Weren't you full of motivation?"

"Motivation and mental energy are two different things."

Chen De pointed at her head.

"This place is already buzzing. If I start making turns now, I'm going to crash."

Qubi glanced at her.

"Then rest. Practice again tomorrow."

"Tomorrow won't work."

"Why not?"

Chen De swiped across her phone screen twice.

Then she turned the screen toward Qubi.

It displayed a school announcement.

A notice for transfer students reporting for the new semester.

Su Xi.

Tomorrow.

"I have to go to school tomorrow."

Chen De stared fixedly at the name on the screen, one that looked both unfamiliar and expensive.

"As Su Xi."

Qubi tilted its head, its emerald eyes revealing no emotion.

"Are you nervous?"

"No."

"Really?"

"Would being nervous help? It's not like those hundred thousand yuan would get refunded just because I'm nervous."

Chen De pressed her phone against her chest and stared at the ceiling.

The silver specks of light had not completely faded yet.

The living room glittered.

"Qubi."

"Mm."

"What do you think Jiang Ping's reaction will be when he sees Su Xi tomorrow?"

"Probably the reaction he'd have to seeing a new classmate."

"And then?"

"And that's all."

Chen De said nothing.

Several seconds passed in silence.

"That's good, then."

She set her phone on the coffee table and slowly climbed off the couch.

"I'm going to bed. I have to get up early tomorrow."

"Sweet dreams."

"You're a cat wishing me sweet dreams. That just makes the odds of me having a nightmare even higher."

Qubi flicked its tail.

Just as Chen De reached the entrance to the hallway, she suddenly stopped.

With her back to Qubi, she stood stiff as a board.

"What is it?"

"Oh, right."

"What?"

"What am I supposed to wear to school tomorrow?"

"Your uniform."

Qubi thought that was a stupid question.

"You spent a hundred thousand yuan. That included a brand-new school uniform."

"I know I'm wearing the uniform."

Chen De's voice dropped.

Even from behind, Qubi could see a suspicious blush slowly creeping over the tips of her ears.

"I mean... underneath."

Qubi tilted its head.

"Underneath? Didn't you buy that yourself online before?"

"I'm... not sure whether the size I bought fits."

"Then try it on and find out."

Chen De's face was completely red now, like a boiled tomato.

She turned around and glared at Qubi through gritted teeth.

"I tried it on. It was a little too big!"

Qubi let out a merciless laugh.

"I told you. You don't have that configuration."

"I just haven't developed enough yet! I'm still young!"

"You're already in your second year of high school."

"I don't care! Too big is better than being squeezed tight!"

Clutching her chest, Chen De fled in humiliation.