Chapter 102: Returning to Electronics Street

To this day, Lin Yun could still recall the experience of visiting the Electronics Street with his squad members for the first time.

And that had happened several months after the young him became a Magical Girl.

Having chosen to fight to protect Anya and standing up to become a Magical Girl, he and Anya formed a two-person Magical Girl squad, constantly fighting in Fang Ting City to protect the city.

After some time, a foreign Magical Girl from the Eastern Japan Province, codenamed Margaret, arrived in Fang Ting City and met Lin Yun and Anya while subduing a Remnant Beast. The three got along very well and hit it off immediately, so they began acting together, and the squad's size grew to three.

After some more time passed, the Sower of Fang Ting City, the rabbit fairy Vobo, found the squad's fourth and final member at that time—a same-age girl named Su Shengzi, whose Magical Girl codename was Lanxiang.

Su Shengzi was a girl suspected of coming from a wealthy family—the reason for the suspicion was that she never revealed the specific details of her family situation. However, the substantial wealth she occasionally displayed, along with her lack of concept regarding money, allowed the other members of the squad to somewhat sense the immense financial power behind her.

As a suspected Young Lady, apart from occasionally putting on airs to display a bit of etiquette and cultivation, Su Shengzi spent most of her days in a state of doing as she pleased, never caring about the gaze of others.

The concrete manifestation of this state was: she would always throw herself into something due to a three-minute burst of enthusiasm, study it day and night without eating or sleeping, and once she felt she had mastered it, she would cast it aside, repeating this cycle endlessly.

Several months after joining the squad, one day, Su Shengzi suddenly became obsessed with arcade video games.

No one knew when she had come into contact with this thing; anyway, one day after school, she suddenly announced to the other squad members, "Let's go to Electronics Street!"

This proposal caused the squad members at that time to fall into an argument.

At that time, in the Fang Ting City squad, Lin Yun was a hardworking good boy who had no good impression of arcade halls, those dragon dens and tiger lairs spoken of by elders; Anya was a playful rascal full of interest in everything, willing to try any form of entertainment she hadn't experienced; and Margaret, as a resident of the Eastern Japan Province and the birthplace of arcade games, was infinitely familiar with this form of entertainment.

The argument eventually turned into a vote, and the vote passed Su Shengzi's proposal with an overwhelming result of three to one, thereby opening the precedent for the Fang Ting City squad to hang out at Electronics Street after school.

At the same time, whenever Lin Yun, as the only male in the group of four, left school surrounded by three girls and under the strange gazes of countless same-sex classmates, he had to mourn the irretrievable purity of his reputation in his heart.

His reputation among the male and female students of the same school had already been slandered: boys saw him as a role model, while girls saw him as a scumbag. But in reality, he was just friends with the other three, because when the four of them went out to play together, he usually acted alongside the other members in the form of a Magical Girl.

Precisely for this reason, purely in terms of time spent active at Electronics Street, "Senior Cuique" was far longer than "Lin Yun."

Gazing at Electronics Street under the rain, Senior Cuique seemed to see the scenes of the old squad here. Years had passed, and the former partners were now scattered across the world; she herself hadn't come here for the purpose of playing for many years.

In the curtain of rain, Electronics Street, which was itself a pedestrian commercial street, had become quite desolate; only a few pedestrians with umbrellas walked slowly along the eaves. But the surrounding shops still had their doors wide open, with bright lights inside, where the noise of voices and music made it seem incredibly lively.

Senior Cuique and Xia Liang, each holding an umbrella, walked across the road where puddles had already formed, finally arriving at the first stop of this trip—the archery range.

As a popular venue that had stood in Electronics Street for many years without falling, with the boss changing several times yet still operating, the Electronics Street Archery Range could be considered a well-known landmark.

Whether in Lin Yun's youth or now, as long as one walked through the somewhat winding entrance hall and entered the actual spacious inner field, one could see scattered young people, looking like college students, practicing there.

And when Senior Cuique and Xia Liang walked through the door and arrived in front of the counter, this somewhat strange combination quickly attracted the attention of some people.

After all, for a place like an archery range, the hourly payment standard is often too high for primary and middle school students, and right now, such a combination of a middle schooler and an elementary schooler appeared somewhat out of place in the crowd.

Xia Liang was fine, but Senior Cuique—even though her outfit today was very simple: long sleeves, long pants, and short boots, and her hair was tied into a neat single ponytail—that head of blue hair, resembling a foreigner, was somewhat eye-catching.

However, Senior Cuique was used to such gazes; rather, she had already become accustomed to the surprised looks of others when conducting business with this appearance.

Even when the front desk clerk came up and immediately said a series of rude things like, "Little sister, are you lost?", "Little sister, are you a foreigner?", and "Children might not be able to play this," she could still view it calmly and respond indifferently.

After agreeing on the time and paying the deposit, Senior Cuique led Xia Liang to find two quiet shooting lanes.

After selecting a bow of suitable size and standing before the target stand, Senior Cuique slightly adjusted her posture under Xia Liang's gaze. Then, she held the bow in one hand, nocked the arrow by lifting the tail, extended her elbow, drew the bow, aimed, and released; a series of dashing actions were completed in one fluid motion.

Whoosh!

The arrowhead hit the bullseye dead center.

"Oh!" Xia Liang clapped her hands in some amazement, "So cool!"

Shaking the ponytail at the back of her head, Senior Cuique glanced at Xia Liang and extended the bow in her hand: "Want to try?"

Seeing Senior Cuique's action, Xia Liang instinctively reached out to touch the bow, then blinked her eyes in some confusion: "Me? But I've never played this before..."

"No need to have played before; I'll teach you the movements, you just practice how to aim." Senior Cuique said indifferently.

Actually, Senior Cuique herself wasn't particularly proficient in archery, but she had at least practiced the shooting posture according to the standards, plus the superhuman physical constitution of a Magical Girl, using powerful vision and coordination as a foundation, so the hit rate naturally became high.

After correcting Xia Liang's posture on the side and ensuring it was generally without error, Senior Cuique stood aside and watched Xia Liang's practice.

During this period, there were other customers who, for some unknown purpose, volunteered to come and guide Senior Cuique and Xia Liang in archery, but they were rejected by Senior Cuique with a cold face.

On the other side, Xia Liang was initially a bit unfamiliar and nervous, but as she repeatedly tried and erred shot by shot, her hit rate gradually improved, from missing the target to the outer ring, and then from the outer ring gradually moving inward; her speed of improvement was undeniable.

Senior Cuique watched for a while on the side, and before long, she walked back to her own target stand.

The scene of Xia Liang practicing made her for a moment unable to distinguish whether she was in the present or the past.

In the past, the four girls of the Fang Ting City squad would often sneak their schoolbags into the archery range after school. And to make the explanation easy and avoid others questioning why this group of middle school girls came to play blindly every day, Su Shengzi directly came up with a crooked idea—just tell the shop owner that this was a club activity.

As Magical Girls, even in their original forms, their physical constitutions could be optimized to a certain extent, so after practicing for a period of time, the girls all possessed a level far exceeding that of ordinary enthusiasts.

Over time, as they went there more and more often, a perception even spontaneously arose within the enthusiast circle: the girls' archery club of Lixing Middle School was very high-level.

This also left the sports students of Lixing Middle School completely confused when later asked about the school's archery club: how did they not know their middle school had an archery club?

Of course, these were all stories of the past.

Soon, the originally agreed-upon hour had passed; Xia Liang put down the bow in her hand, slightly sweaty, looked at the distant target, and smiled with some satisfaction.

The arrows hit the bullseye dead center, and not just one arrow.

"Continue?" Senior Cuique also lowered her hand and turned her head to look at Xia Liang on the side.

"It's interesting, very interesting, but I remember there are other places on today's schedule?" Probably because she had fun playing archery, Xia Liang's emotions were clearly fully mobilized, and she asked excitedly.

"Of course, but if you really like it here, we can extend for a while longer."

"Then... let's continue next time after all."

"Really don't need to?"

"Mm, let's go to the next place!" Xia Liang smiled brightly.

Senior Cuique then hesitated no more, paid the bill, and led Xia Liang out of the archery range, holding up their umbrellas to walk toward the second stop of their journey.

The next destination was a bookstore.

Electronics Street once had the city's largest book wholesale city, containing all kinds of books, and was also the main gathering place for reading enthusiasts at that time.

Twenty years passed, and the book wholesale city was still there, but it was no longer in its old form. When Senior Cuique and Xia Liang walked through the building's main door, they could discover that its interior decoration was completely new, showing no signs of being old-fashioned, obviously having undergone a renovation.

And after the renovation, although the bookstore still retained the main structure from twenty years ago, its internal furnishings, decoration, and even business model had undergone major changes.

The bookstore of today has been integrated with catering and beverage businesses such as tea drinks and coffee, combining to form a style similar to a book bar, or rather, a book cafe.

Customers, while buying books or selecting books, can find a suitable place to sit, order a drink, and then flip through the books they just bought, or preview the content of certain specific readers. This form is very relaxing and pleasant, but compared to the old book wholesale city, it is completely of a different nature.

The bookstore is divided into five floors; although there are separate levels, the spaces above and below are connected, with multiple escalators weaving through, making it appear quite spacious. Senior Cuique and Xia Liang were in no hurry, leisurely ascending from the first floor.

After spending some time observing the furnishings throughout the bookstore, Senior Cuique turned her head and asked Xia Liang, "Is there any book you're interested in?"

When she asked this, the two were standing before the manga section.

"No need."

Looking at the manga section nearby, where the young crowd was relatively dense, Xia Liang paused for a moment, then shook her head: "But I feel like this is something Lin Xiaolu would probably like?"

"Indeed."

Senior Cuique looked ahead, then nodded with certainty.

She hadn't read manga in many years either, but knowing that Lin Xiaolu was still quite enthusiastic about it, she thought to herself and unconsciously began:

"If there's a next time, let's invite Bai Mei along too."

But just as she finished speaking, she saw Xia Liang reach out and gently grasp her hand.

"Although saying this now feels a bit unfair to Lin Xiaolu, when the two of us go out to play, I still hope Senior Xia will talk more about my things."

Xia Liang gazed straight ahead, her voice somewhat wavering: "At least for today."

"... I understand."

After a moment of silence, Senior Cuique slowly nodded.

"Hmph, hmph."

Xia Liang chuckled softly: "Then, let's just keep walking like this from now on."

Her words "keep walking like this" left Senior Cuique momentarily confused; only after glancing at her own hand again did she realize what Xia Liang meant:

She wanted to walk while holding hands.

Such an act carried a certain implication of intimacy, but combined with their current appearances, it looked more like an older sister holding a younger sister's hand, which was somewhat strange.

Senior Cuique sighed again: "Don't pull any more strange little tricks."

"What little tricks?"

Xia Liang blinked innocently, yet once again resorted to her old tactic, scratching Senior Cuique's hand back with her fingers: "Like this?"

Senior Cuique raised her hand and gave her head a sharp rap.

"Why?!" Xia Liang cried out in pain.

"I don't want to repeat myself; just behave yourself."

"Hmm..."

After being scolded by Senior Cuique, Xia Liang stopped deliberately acting mischievous. The two held hands and walked around the bookstore for a while longer before leaving the renovated wholesale book city and heading to their third destination.

The pre-arranged third destination, also one of the highlights of this trip, was the arcade.

As a primary reason why the old Fang Ting City squad visited the electronics street after school, the arcade was also one of the important early popular cultures of the commercial district.

Back when the old squad was young, one of the freshest forms of entertainment for young people was going to the arcade to play games; many were so fond of it that they would linger there, often losing track of time.

Wealthy players would continuously buy arcade tokens, repeatedly playing their favorite games to hone their skills, so they could show off properly in front of their friends later; others, with no money, would wander aimlessly there, watching others play various games, occasionally offering advice, or even seeing if they could sneak a token from someone else.

Such times and culture are now gone forever.

Arcades nowadays are no longer considered trendy entertainment; naturally, young people are not as enthusiastic about them, and arcades have become just another ordinary experiential entertainment consumption, like movie theaters or ice-skating rinks.

Without the halo of trend culture, it is also difficult for so many people to settle down and delve deep, or to wait.

"You wait here for a moment; I'll go buy game tokens."

Seeing that Xia Liang's attention was captured by the claw machine at the entrance, Senior Cuique did not insist she follow, but simply gave a brief instruction before leaving alone.

She found the front desk staff at the cashier counter between the display cases. After repeatedly declaring to the other party that she was not a lost child and did not need to find her parents, and even proving her adult identity amidst the other's shocked gaze, Senior Cuique finally returned to the agreed meeting place with Xia Liang, carrying a small basket filled with game tokens.

But as soon as her gaze fell upon the scene not far away, she couldn't help but frown.

Because at some unknown time, Xia Liang had been surrounded by several girls dressed and made up flamboyantly, who appeared to be only around middle school age.

Judging from their mocking smiles, their words to Xia Liang as if they were quite familiar, and Xia Liang's behavior of keeping her head down and saying nothing, this was probably not merely picking a fight.

They might know Xia Liang.

(End of this chapter)