Chapter 100: The First Morning at the Secret Base

Ever since Xia Liang discovered the secret behind Senior Cuique's identity, she has often deliberately performed various affectionate gestures.

Sometimes she would sit beside Senior Cuique, pick up that long blue hair to play with, braiding it into small plaits or twisting it into a pigtail.

Or else, she would suddenly run behind Senior Cuique, cover her eyes, and play the somewhat childish game of "Guess Who I Am."

More often, it was just like now, specifically choosing times when Lin Xiaolu was present to secretly perform little tricks: such as tickling, kicking feet, or writing characters on Senior Cuique's hand to pass secret messages.

The content of these secret messages was completely meaningless, things like "I don't get it," "It's too hard," or "Explain it again," and even speaking them directly on the table would be fine, but she insisted on conveying them through these little tricks.

If it were just once or twice, it would be one thing, but after the frequency increased, Senior Cuique felt she should give her a little warning.

"Senior Xiaojin, you've been staring at this page for half a day; have you figured out how to write it?"

So she narrowed her eyes and said in a slightly cold voice, "I just happened to be talking about this with Bai Mei; do you want to exchange insights with her?"

"Hm?"

Xia Liang, who had been pretending to stare at the textbook, was slightly stunned, then looked up in confusion: "What?"

"Aren't you looking at the problem?" Senior Cuique took the opportunity to withdraw her hand, crossed her arms over her chest, and said, "Factorization; you might as well exchange insights with Bai Mei on these types of problems."

"Ah, this..." Xia Liang lowered her head, looked at the content on the page, and was momentarily speechless.

Her reaction was exactly what Senior Cuique had expected, because since she had been focused entirely on performing little tricks, she probably didn't even know which problem Senior Cuique had just mentioned.

And in this situation, even if she knew how to solve this type of problem, it would be very difficult for her to continue the conversation.

So, under Xia Liang's slightly resentful gaze, Senior Cuique launched into a stern lecture, using all the common phrases like "How can you be distracted when the exam is coming soon" and "Even with progress, you shouldn't be arrogant," leaving Xia Liang speechless, forcing her to lower her head and obediently work on the problems.

Lin Xiaolu on the side secretly laughed with glee; Bai Jingxuan looked at the two of them in some confusion, then lowered her head again to ponder her own book; Moke, sleeping on the bookshelf, was woken by the noise, and slowly turned over again.

Just within this atmosphere, the last weekend before the diagnostic exam ended.

It was another Monday morning; when the first ray of sunlight hit the bedside, Senior Cuique instinctively opened her eyes. She sat up somewhat dazedly, instinctively touched the empty bed beside her, and only then gradually woke up, rolling over to get out of bed.

A body in the Magical Girl state actually doesn't secrete sweat or dirt like a normal person, so there's no need to wash specifically, but Senior Cuique still followed her own living habits and went to the washroom to wash up.

Then, taking advantage of the morning, she began to knock on each girl's door to wake them up one by one.

Lin Xiaolu was the easiest to wake up; probably benefiting from the cold war with Lin Yun over the past two years, in order not to see her father's face before morning duty, she often got up early on her own and went out alone to school.

This habit has gradually changed as the father-daughter relationship eased; the current Lin Xiaolu doesn't like getting up early as much, but she still maintains a relatively high sensitivity during sleep, so as long as Senior Cuique knocks on the door, she can wake up immediately.

Bai Jingxuan doesn't need to go to school now, but because there is still a lot of Magical Girl coursework that needs tutoring, she cannot relax.

Her sleep schedule is also very good; probably owing to years of life experience at Fuli Academy, although she isn't as easy to wake as Lin Xiaolu, as long as Senior Cuique knocks slightly on her bedside, she slowly opens her eyes. And after being woken by Senior Cuique, she doesn't complain about wanting to sleep in or linger in bed, but instead sits up very actively to begin the morning routine.

The hardest to wake up is Xia Liang.

According to her own words, unless she sleeps until the very last second before being late, she won't get up. But the fact is, one of the main reasons Xia Liang is regarded by her classmates as a delinquent girl is that she is late every day—this is what Lin Xiaolu said.

And now, since everyone lives under the same roof, Senior Cuique won't allow her to indulge in her bad habits.

After knocking lightly on the door and receiving no response at all from inside the room, Senior Cuique turned the doorknob, walked into the room, and looked at the single bed placed by the window—on it was a lump formed by a quilt.

Walking forward, Senior Cuique watched the bed for a while, and then saw half a head sticking out from the lump. Messy black hair strands spilled out from the gap between the quilt and the pillow, trembling slowly along with the even breathing of the hair's owner.

Waiting a while with one hand on her hip, seeing that the person in the lump still had no intention of waking up, Senior Cuique called out: "Get up, Senior Xiaojin."

All that was received was the sound of light breathing.

Raising her eyebrows, Senior Cuique decided to hold back no longer; sure enough, she reached out, grabbed the bedsheet, pulled it straight backward with force, and then yanked it sharply, pulling the quilt right off.

Along with it, the silhouette in the bed was also revealed.

There stood Xia Liang, hugging a large doll, her head buried at the top of the doll, half her face pressed against the surface of the plush toy, eyes closed, with absolutely no intention of waking up.

A strange smile still hung on her face, as if she was immersed in a beautiful dream.

Senior Cuique turned back, walked a few steps to the window, pulled open the curtains to let sunlight into the room, then moved to the head of the bed and patted Xia Liang's shoulder: "Get up, it's time for school."

The other party still had no reaction.

After this, Senior Cuique tried various methods; patting the shoulder yielded no reaction, shoving yielded no reaction, and even slapping the forehead yielded no reaction. After repeatedly encountering obstacles, she could only choose a method that was slightly excessive.

Pinching the nose.

Her fingers touched Xia Liang's nostrils, then gently pinched them; Senior Cuique squatted by the bed, quietly watching Xia Liang's complexion while secretly counting the time to avoid causing actual suffocation.

Just like that, after continuing for about 30 seconds, until Senior Cuique estimated she couldn't continue and was preparing to give up this action, Xia Liang finally opened her eyes.

"Haa—huff, huff, Little Senior?"

She opened her mouth somewhat groggily, panted for a short while, then said somewhat strangely: "Why are you in my house? Am I dreaming?"

"This is our base; your school starts class in 40 minutes, get up quickly."

After Senior Cuique let go, she stepped back two paces; before Xia Liang could say anything else, she left the room.

She didn't notice the expression on Xia Liang's face behind her on the bed, looking stunned as if pondering something, but the morning time was tight, leaving her no room to linger there.

Walking to the kitchen, Senior Cuique took out arm covers from the cabinet below the stove, quickly rummaged through the refrigerator for a series of ingredients, and then began preparing breakfast.

Compared to preparing meals at her own home before, the breakfast Senior Cuique prepared now was for four people, but the process remained unchanged, only the actions increased.

Boiling water in the wok, then adding a measured amount of dried noodles, cutting a few segments of scallions and vegetables, cracking a few poached eggs, and mixing the noodle soup base in four prepared noodle bowls; several very ordinary portions of dried noodles were thus completed.

After that, Senior Cuique called the three little ones out from their respective washrooms, and it was time for breakfast.

This was the first morning the Fang Ting City Magical Girl squad stayed overnight at the secret base, and also the first breakfast the four of them had together.

Senior Cuique paid attention to collecting feedback on breakfast tastes from the new members; Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang started their daily bickering from early morning; Moke was talking to Bai Jingxuan on her own; Bai Jingxuan quietly slurped noodles alone, but also kept paying attention to the others' conversation.

A new week, and a new life, began right then.

Senior Cuique continued tutoring Bai Jingxuan alone at the secret base, while the other two went to school to continue their new semester coursework.

Time flew by rapidly, and the Magical Girls began to get used to living together at the secret base; soon, such days became the norm for them.

Lin Xiaolu would accompany Xia Liang to and from school; Senior Cuique would train and do housework with Bai Jingxuan; Moke still considered herself the crucial planter, going out every day to find new Magical Girl candidates.

Meanwhile, Lin Xiaolu would send a simple text message to Lin Yun every night; Senior Cuique would also use Lin Yun's phone to reply with some caring words; Bai Jingxuan would still occasionally contact the caregivers at Fuli Academy to report on her recent living conditions.

During this period, a Remnant Beast appeared once, but it was still merely a rather weak Egg-level one.

For some reason, ever since the people of Claw Mark and Black Ash Dawn were defeated, the Remnant Beasts in Fang Ting City have become much weaker, and the frequency and intensity of attack incidents have decreased accordingly. It can be seen that the surge in Remnant Beast incidents over the previous period was indeed inseparable from this group.

Senior Cuique didn't care about the Remnant Beasts becoming weaker; rather, she wished there were no Remnant Beasts in this world, so people naturally wouldn't need to live under the shadow of such a crisis.

Being able to easily resolve these attack incidents is, in fact, a good thing for her, for the newcomers in the squad, and for the ordinary citizens of Fang Ting City.

Everyone is adapting to a new state of life, making some changes to themselves while ensuring certain things remain unchanged.

After this, the diagnostic exams for Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang's middle school were held as scheduled.

At this point, the help Senior Cuique could offer had been exhausted; she believed she had already done everything she could, and from now on, it could only depend on the two of them.

During those exam days, even the atmosphere of magic training became somewhat Solemn; both Xia Liang and Lin Xiaolu attached great importance to this exam, after all, it was an opportunity to showcase the results of their efforts throughout the entire summer vacation.

So, on the day after the exams, Senior Cuique specially took the entire squad out to eat hot pot.

Late summer and early autumn, the weather turned cool, and it was the season to eat hot pot. A group of little and big girls, all with outstanding appearances, formed a table of diners, constituting a unique sight in the hot pot restaurant.

What puzzled the staff most was that among this group of little girls, the youngest one seemed to be the center; whether placing orders or paying the bill, she handled it all, which was truly astonishing.

During the gathering, diners at nearby tables occasionally cast glances at the table of Magical Girls; some even found it so novel they wanted to take photos, but Senior Cuique politely stopped them, leaving them to sadly put away their phones.

Just like that, the diagnostic exam, which had kept half the squad members nervously preparing for a long time, came to a complete end, and the life rhythm of the Magical Girls slowed down once again.

Of course, I don't know what the children think, but Senior Cuique has a new worry: as September passes its midpoint and many things settle, a new trouble is gradually approaching.

The day agreed upon with Xia Liang to go out and play together is coming.

(End of this chapter)