Jiang Si was calculating when it would be best to go to the gym.
They had already gone shopping. Though they had only glanced at the surrounding shops while looking for a fast-food restaurant, wasn't that what shopping was anyway?
They had eaten what they needed to eat, too. The fast-food restaurant's couples' meal cost twenty-six, and he had no idea what was supposed to be cheap about it.
If the Azure Cloud Sect disciples hadn't kept chattering about how the man couldn't be too stingy on a date and how the two of them really couldn't share one boxed meal, he had originally planned to buy a ten-yuan boxed meal and make do.
Ultimately, sharing sweetness and hardship was what revealed the depth of a relationship. Wouldn't sharing one boxed meal make it easier for people to mistake them for a couple?
Deliberately buying a couples' meal was still too contrived.
Although he wasn't particularly short of money now after fleecing Susan of half her salary, Jiang Si, who was used to being frugal, wasn't very willing to spend too much on this sort of thing.
They had eaten a couples' meal and bought drinks. If he had bought ingredients and cooked normally, that money could have fed him for a week.
Besides, since Shion was a magic puppet, feeding her was pure waste. Once food entered her stomach, her magic destroyed it.
So he basically couldn't let Shion eat too much. He gathered up the remaining dishes and packed them.
Even if Keke didn't eat them once he brought them home, he could save himself making a meal tomorrow.
Doing two things at once wasn't difficult for him. What was difficult was making the magic puppet Shion wear some gentler expressions.
According to Bingtang and the others, if her expression was too cold, just like usual, people might not consider them a couple.
Although Jiang Si felt that whether they were a couple didn't really matter, Bingtang and the others insisted that only with that status would Shion have grounds to act if the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau dared cause trouble again.
As for taking action, the two organizations had always maintained a tacit state of partial cooperation. Jiang Si didn't think the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau was stupid enough to go that far.
Once they had more or less finished eating, the magic puppet said quietly, "Next, let's go to the arcade first..."
It was probably Yumo speaking.
Jiang Si picked up the packed food and drinks, stood, and walked straight toward the door. "We should exercise after eating. We're going to the gym first."
Jiang Si stretched a little and turned his head to glance at the magic puppet following obediently behind him.
Under his precise magic control, the magic puppet Shion maintained a gentle smile, carrying the little handbag Bingtang had picked out for her. Her rather plain casual clothes only made her exquisite face look even prettier.
She had turned quite a few heads along the way.
In fact, he had rarely looked at his own appearance after transforming. After all, Jiang Si didn't particularly care about transformation.
In the classic fantasy webnovels he had read, protagonists often obtained abilities such as transformations.
For instance, Linley's extremely iconic Dragonblood Warrior transformation in Coiling Dragon.
Cool and powerful-what boy hadn't dreamed of having an ability like the Dragonblood transformation?
When necessary, he could turn into a dragon and crush all living beings, roaming the world with unrestrained abandon.
So Jiang Si didn't find gaining strength by transforming into a magical girl incomprehensible in the slightest.
Ultimately, people who marveled at all the strange and wondrous things in this world simply hadn't read enough webnovels.
Jiang Si only regretted that his transformed form was a young girl rather than some cool dragon.
Now, looking at the magic puppet's face, devoid of any majesty or strength, he felt somewhat disdainful.
How great would it be if I could turn into a dragon?
"Huh? We're going to the gym now? Isn't it a little too early? Wouldn't it be better to go to the arcade first..."
Ignoring the Azure Cloud Sect disciple's questions, he brought the magic puppet to the gym.
The gym on East Street wasn't newly opened. It had been there since he was a child, but Jiang Si had never been inside.
There was simply no need. There were plenty of ways to exercise, and he could even make his own exercise equipment.
Jiang Si had once believed that gyms had absolutely no reason to exist.
But during this date, he suddenly thought of the gym. Wasn't this precisely the sort of occasion it existed for?
If someone truly wanted to focus on exercising, they could do it at home. But if they wanted to chat and go on a date, the gym was very suitable.
They could exercise while chatting and show their partner the results of their training.
It was practically the perfect date spot.
That must have been why gyms had endured for so long.
But when he entered the gym, some of the equipment caught Jiang Si's attention.
He had to admit that, although he hadn't expected anything at first, the barbells whose weight he could increase himself were genuinely appealing.
He handed the packed food to the magic puppet Shion, who obediently carried it and followed beside him. Quite a few young men still exercising couldn't resist glancing over, their gazes inevitably gaining a touch of envy.
When Jiang Si walked over to a barbell and started adding weight, some young men who considered themselves fairly well trained approached Shion, casually striking up conversations and even showing off their muscles.
Shion wore a smile, but her gaze held no emotion whatsoever. "Get lost."
Although her attitude was rather sharp and cold, to hot-blooded young men who enjoyed working out, such looks paired with a prickly personality were even more attractive.
Quite a few young men who had finished exercising drifted over as though by accident. The impatient ones went straight up to chat, while the patient ones prepared for a more natural encounter or silently displayed their strength.
Some girls who had come to exercise also tried approaching her to chat. After all, this spot had unknowingly become the gym's center of attention, something perceptive people could still sense.
Yet the magic puppet Shion ignored them all.
Her gaze remained fixed solely on Jiang Si, so some people involuntarily began paying attention to the boy who was still adding weight to his barbell.
"What's he doing?"
"Playing a building game?"
"How many plates has he added now?"
Only when both ends of the barbell were full and there was no room for more did Jiang Si stop. He tried lifting it slightly and did indeed find it a little heavy.
"What the hell is he doing? He doesn't actually think he can lift that, does he?"
"What a joke..."
The next second, without going through any standard weightlifting motions, Jiang Si raised the barbell, its ends even bending under the weight, as casually as if he were picking up a stick.
The gym fell somewhat quiet for a moment.
Ignoring everyone else, Jiang Si pulled over another barbell and started adding plates again.
The men who had been beside the magic puppet Shion, planning to chat her up, immediately widened their eyes. Apart from one or two young men who refused to give up, everyone left Shion's side and was drawn over to Jiang Si.
A group of muscular men surrounded Jiang Si. They were nowhere near as reserved as when they had approached Shion, firing questions over one another:
"How do you train, bro? Could you teach me?"
"Why aren't your muscles more defined? Dude, you're way too strong."
"Holy shit, didn't you break a record? Bro, have you considered going pro?"
Jiang Si said nothing and simply kept lifting weights.
Susan and Peony had followed them the whole way.
Watching Shion and Jiang Si order a couples' meal at the fast-food restaurant, Susan's face darkened, and her whole body trembled slightly. Only after a long while did she say in a low, sinister voice, "They even ordered a couples' meal."
"Looks like they really are on a date." Beside her, Peony looked worried. "Won't we disturb Shion? She finally gets to go on a date with her boyfriend, only to discover people from our Disaster Countermeasures Bureau watching..."
"It's fine as long as we don't show ourselves." Susan spoke casually. She was no longer in any mood to come up with excuses. "Besides, we haven't confirmed Jiang Si is her boyfriend."
"How is that not confirmed, any way you look at it..."
"Ordinary friends can go out together and have a meal together," Susan said firmly. "There's nothing strange about it."
"But the couples' meal..."
"Jiang Si's a cheapskate who can't bear spending money, so he ordered something cheap. His family's struggling financially anyway. It makes perfect sense."
"But linking arms..."
"There are so many people around that they could easily get separated. There's nothing strange about linking arms. Didn't we link arms when we went shopping before?"
For a moment, Peony had nothing to say.
They were both girls. How could linking arms between female friends be the same as linking arms between a man and a woman?
Even if she wanted to go after Jiang Si, did she really need to try this desperately?
Peony knew Susan didn't like Jiang Si much and always seemed to want to arrest him.
If Jiang Si was confirmed to be Shion's boyfriend, she probably wouldn't be able to cause him trouble anymore. That must have been why she was now trying so desperately to deny that they were a couple.
When Jiang Si and Shion started feeding each other, she saw Susan biting her thumbnail so hard that she actually chewed it to pieces.
Surely she couldn't deny it now.
But Peony didn't ask, because she kept feeling that if she did, this former close friend of hers would find some other excuse...
"That Jiang Si ate his fill of the couples' meal himself, then packed it up when Shion had barely eaten anything. Same with the drink-Shion only had one sip before he put it away to take with him. Where did this stingy guy come from?"
Susan criticized him resentfully under her breath. "Shion must be blind to find a boyfriend like him. He's so miserly even when treating her to a meal, terrified she'll eat one extra bite of his food."
"I thought Shion would be the type to split the bill when eating out," Peony remarked casually beside her. "I didn't expect her to let Jiang Si pay. That's a little surprising."
"For someone like Jiang Si, just getting to sit with Shion is a massive stroke of luck. He'd dare ask her to split the bill? Is making him pay some kind of injustice?"
"That's not really how it works." Peony smiled helplessly. "However beautiful and powerful someone is, a romantic relationship has to be equal. Otherwise, how could they date? However bad Jiang Si might be, if Shion likes him, splitting the bill is perfectly normal. It's not a matter of anyone losing out or being wronged."
"Hmph. You always have a whole set of lofty principles ready." Susan glanced at her. "You've never even dated anyone."
"As if you have. Who has time when work's so busy..."
As they quietly traded barbs, Susan saw the two leave the fast-food restaurant and immediately interrupted Peony. "They're leaving. Follow them."
"I'm saying, really, let's not. If Shion gets angry, we'll be in trouble..."
"If you're not coming, fine. I'll go myself."
"You can't even transform anymore." Peony sighed and hurried after Susan. "Wait for me."
They kept their distance-though with Shion there, it was hard to say whether maintaining that distance did any good.
Following them all the way to the gym, the two watched in astonishment as Jiang Si led Shion inside.
They exchanged a glance, each seeing the bewilderment in the other's eyes.
"What's this about?"
"Coming to the gym for a date?"
Peony thought for a moment. "Exercise after a meal?"
"Aren't they afraid they'll throw up, going to the gym to exercise after eating?"
Just as they were about to head up, three more people jogged over from another cold-drink shop to the foot of the gym building.
After one glance, Susan's face immediately darkened further.
Peony was also taken aback. The three opposite them clearly hadn't expected this either and stopped at the entrance.
The five of them stared at one another.
"Yinluo, shouldn't you explain?" Susan was the first to speak, questioning her with a cold laugh. "Why are you here with Yinlian and Keke?"
"Yesterday's meeting made it clear that we would be carrying out this mission." Peony's expression wasn't particularly pleasant either. "You're violating regulations, Miss Yinluo."
Before Yinluo could speak, Yinlian shielded her older sister. "It was a coincidence. We happened to run into them. Chief of Security Susan, Team Member Peony, we didn't mean to interfere with your mission. We just came to the cold-drink shop and happened to see Jiang Si, and Shion..."
At those words, the atmosphere among the five grew inexplicably heavy.
Yinluo also pulled her younger sister back and stood in front herself. "If you have any complaints about me, you can submit documents requesting a review to our superiors when we get back. Right now, we need to establish exactly what relationship Shion and Jiang Si have. I believe that, with our connection to Jiang Si, even if we really are exposed, it'll help persuade Shion to show mercy."
Peony looked at Keke, who had her head lowered without saying a word, then glanced back at Susan. "What do we do?"
"Things have already come to this. What else can we do?" Susan stared at Yinluo for a long while before saying slowly, "Just this once. Stay hidden. We'll submit a report about their misconduct when we get back."
The sisters Yinluo and Yinlian both breathed sighs of relief. Then Yinlian took the somewhat distracted Keke's hand. "Maybe they just happened to run into each other. Keke, cheer up!"
Keke managed a strained smile. She took a deep breath to ease the lingering sour ache, then firmly patted her cheeks. "I'm fine, Captain. Let's go."
She followed the group up to the gym.
The gym was spacious, almost the size of two small school sports fields, and divided into men's and women's areas.
There weren't many people in the women's area, but it had plenty of cover and was relatively out of the way, making it convenient to hide.
The five didn't spread out too far, each finding somewhere to sit. Only Keke got on a treadmill and tried jogging.
As she jogged, she watched the group of gymgoers surrounding Shion over there, her breathing growing somewhat hurried with her running.
When she was sad, exercising a little would make her feel much better, too...
Glancing again at Jiang Si adding weight to the barbell over there, Keke wore a complicated look and increased the treadmill's speed.
"So many people are gathering around Shion..."
"She is very pretty, after all."
"Did she just tell them to get lost?"
"That's kind of cool..."
Yinluo and Peony did belong to the same department, after all, so once they sat down, they naturally started chatting.
Meanwhile, Susan watched Jiang Si leave Shion aside and run off to add weight to a barbell, continuing until he had loaded it to the maximum before starting to exercise on his own. The corner of her mouth twitched.
"If your future partners took you to the gym and left you aside to exercise by themselves, would you be able to accept that?"
The others all instinctively shook their heads.
Only Yinlian hesitated before saying uncertainly, "Actually, it's... it's all right? After all, a date means going places both people like. If the other person likes the gym, there's nothing wrong with accompanying him there, is there? You can't always go places the girl likes on a date. Places the boy likes are important too..."
Peony nodded. "The captain has a good point."
Yinluo adjusted her glasses. "I'd make it clear beforehand that I wasn't going to the gym."
Although Keke said nothing, her disgust was written all over her face. She was the least able to accept going to the gym...
Watching Jiang Si abruptly raise the excessively heavy barbell and draw away all the men around Shion, Peony said softly beside them, "It looks like those two have made their relationship official."
At those words, the other four all seemed somewhat shaken. Peony looked around strangely, a little puzzled about what was shaking them, before Yinluo spoke first:
"In that case, this isn't very good news for our Disaster Countermeasures Bureau. Shion, the Azure Cloud Sect's sect master, being so close to a relative of a Magical Girl Combat Team member could easily cause trouble... If outsiders think the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau and the Azure Cloud Sect are secretly cooperating, that wouldn't be good."
"Why wouldn't it be good?" Keke asked. "Doesn't the Azure Cloud Sect have a decent reputation in Beihai?"
"It does, but we're the official organization, after all. If outsiders think an official organization has ties to an illegal organization, a lot of things will become troublesome. The legitimacy of our law enforcement, headquarters' assessment of us, funding, things like that. Adult problems..."
Peony watched Jiang Si absorbed in exercising in the distance, Shion standing motionless beside him like an exquisite doll. "Even if you say that, they look like they've already made their relationship official. What can we do?"
Yinlian smiled slightly. "It's not as though a relationship can't change once it's official. We can also ruin their relationship."
The three other girls' eyes lit up.
"I think," Peony immediately said beside them, "we could keep it under wraps for now, couldn't we? There's no need to break up a couple, right?"
"No!"
The other three rejected her in unison.
Peony shrank back and said weakly, "Fine... If Shion gets angry, you'll have to deal with it yourselves. Don't drag the Disaster Countermeasures Bureau into it..."
The five fell quiet for a while before Susan coughed. "Anyway, how do we ruin it? Let's hear it first."
Yinluo thought for a moment, then said:
"We just need to make Jiang Si fall for someone else, right?"