Disdain

The Black Stockings Witch incident did not cause much of a stir in Jiangyang City. Just as Fu You had predicted from the start, the Special Incident Response Department classified the Black Stockings Witch's appearance as an ordinary Witch incident. In the end, they never discovered where the Black Stockings Witch had come from.

Fu You's name did not appear in the news. According to the reports, the incident had been resolved entirely by Huang Xing's team. Of course, Magical Girls such as Huali and Lan Xiaohuan, who had bravely stepped forward, were also praised.

Naturally, all the coverage concerned only Magical Girls. No media outlet would report their real identities. Without official permission, any outlet that reported a Magical Girl's true identity would face severe punishment.

After seeing the news, Huali felt indignant on Fu You's behalf.

But Fu You said that not being reported on had been his own choice. Such empty praise was meaningless.

The Special Incident Response Department would not pay him a single extra cent just because he had handled one more Witch this month. At most, there would be verbal praise, and he had no need for that.

"Senior, are you short on money?" Huali asked.

Fu You always brought up money, intentionally or otherwise. Huali could naturally hear what that implied.

Fu You glanced at him, then shook his head.

"If you're really strapped for cash, Senior, I can help you," Huali said.

"Keep that little bit of money for yourself," Fu You said.

"I'm actually pretty rich," Huali said.

Fu You looked at him. "Can you afford to buy a hospital?"

"A hospital? Do you mean hospital bills? Senior, do you need treatment?"

"I mean an entire building."

"Uh... why do you want to buy a building, Senior?"

Fu You shook his head and merely looked out the window.

Newbies really were newbies. They had no idea how much a Magical Girl had to spend.

Fighting Witches was part of daily life, and so was going to class. When things were peaceful, he still had to sit obediently in the classroom with Huali and attend lessons, even though he never listened.

Huali had endless questions, and Fu You was cold toward him most of the time.

Huali cared especially deeply about the changes in his body. He was always secretly asking Fu You when his body had begun changing after he became a Magical Girl.

Fu You could understand Huali. When he had first become a Magical Girl, he too had struggled greatly to adapt to the changes in his body.

After all, it was his own body. Who could truly not care?

The effects brought by a change in gender touched every aspect of life. It was not only about how others in society viewed him; many parts of everyday life would become completely different as well.

But Fu You was unwilling to reveal too many of his secrets to Huali.

That Canary from back then was already gone. The one here now was Fu You.

The Canary of the past had been just as ignorant as Huali was now.

As a Magical Girl, he had always worn a huge golden dress, golden boots that made little squelching noises as he walked, and beautiful waist-length golden waves. With his petite face, he looked like a little girl who knew nothing, staring wide-eyed as he clung to his seniors and asked one question after another.

That Canary had died long ago.

The Fu You of today was an entirely different existence from the Canary of the past.

Aside from Yuan Xiaofang and Sun Feiliu, probably very few people could connect him with Canary.

He did not want to reveal his past to Huali, but Huali kept asking, and it was starting to irritate him.

"Senior, when did you start transforming back then?"

"Have you always kept living as a boy?"

"Was anything inconvenient? I heard Senior Huang Xing say that after becoming a girl, it's hard to keep pretending to be a boy. Is that true? Can I keep being a boy like you?"

Whenever Fu You turned around, he would see Huali's eyes practically sparkling. The blond, blue-eyed man gave off an intensely uncomfortable aura.

Fu You could clearly feel goosebumps beginning to rise all over his body.

Why exactly did I have to look after a rookie Magical Girl like this? Sitting with someone like him, people might even think we were some kind of couple.

Just thinking about that was enough to make him despair.

But Huali's questions were not actually that offensive. As his senior—and a particularly unusual senior at that—Fu You should answer them.

But precisely because he was too unusual, he truly did not know how to answer.

If he told the truth, there would be a huge problem.

The masculine persona he had worked so hard to build would collapse in an instant.

As a Magical Girl, pretending to be a man was not easy. There were far too many things to overcome. Huang Xing was right: Huali would eventually learn that after becoming a Magical Girl, continuing to be a man was almost impossible.

Magical Girls possessed a desire for love and justice beyond imagination. The longer they remained Magical Girls, the more obsessively they pursued love and justice.

The pursuit of justice was still fairly normal. Although it made Magical Girls more innocent, at least it did not affect everyday life. But "love" was an extremely complicated subject.

"You'll understand soon enough," he could only tell Huali.

Without personally experiencing that despairing change, Huali would never understand what he meant.

"Understand what? How long did it take you to become a girl back then? Is it inconvenient to say? Are you embarrassed, Senior? I won't tell anyone."

Fu You thought for a long time before finally replying.

"Three months."

"Three months? That fast?"

Three months was actually already a long time.

There was no way Huali could endure three months.

Fu You had already noticed the faint hint of pink in Huali's pupils.

If nothing unexpected happened, one month would be enough for Huali to fall completely.

Since Huali himself had chosen the path of becoming a Magical Girl, then all these changes were a price he had to bear—or, in official terms, accept the baptism of a Magical Girl.

And then...

He would become a complete Magical Girl.

By then, he could be considered fully trained, right?

By then, it would also be time to say goodbye to Huali.

A complete Magical Girl was destined not to accept Fu You's existence. Only someone incomplete like Huali was now would still hold him in awe and admiration.

It did not matter.

What he had promised Sun Feiliu was only to train Huali into a qualified Magical Girl. As for what happened afterward, Fu You did not care. It was enough to obtain the reward he wanted. Whether they became enemies or strangers in the future was irrelevant.

"Senior, after you became a girl back then, did you buy women's clothes yourself? And those supplies too?"

"...Yes."

"Senior, you really do have women's clothes?"

"..."

Fu You did not really want to deceive Huali. He had never liked lying. But telling the truth about everything would expose far too many secrets.

Damn it, I don't want to keep being a senior for even another moment.

Mysterious people were better off staying mysterious.

Pink-haired people really were troublesome, one worse than the last.

Nothing good ever came from meeting someone with pink hair.

Never.