Chapter 138: Lin Xiaolu's Hypothesis

The world is constantly changing.

Lin Xiaolu wants to change, but Lin Xiaolu actually does not like change.

She wants to change herself, but she does not want the world around her to change.

But reality always goes against one's wishes; as she gradually grew up, it was the world around her that changed, while the one who failed to change was herself.

This point, she went from confusion to clarity, from ignorance to awareness.

The elders she met would always say she was innocent and childlike; the classmates she knew often found her childish. Although she hated being spoken of this way, she could not produce any reason to refute it.

She indeed still liked the things she liked in her childhood; she was still the girl in the class furthest removed from romance; she was still a head shorter than her peers.

And, she still subconsciously waited for her mother to return.

Her mother was already dead; the child she was no longer could clearly recognize this fact, but she could not help but think: what if her mother were still here?

So, she had actually always resisted other women appearing around her father.

She did not know how long her father's feelings for her deceased mother could be sustained; she did not know what shape the family, already extremely fragile, would take after other women appeared in it. She did not want a stepmother.

Even though she knew her father's love life was his freedom, she simply did not want it.

This feeling became especially intense after meeting that woman named Hong Siyu.

At their first meeting, she could feel that the woman was imitating her mother's words and habits; that woman tried to attract and approach her father in this way, which generated an extremely strong sense of crisis in her heart.

"I don't mind, I don't care," she told herself. She was already a Magical Girl, one who had entered the Magic Side and should be a transcendent being with the world in her heart; such trivial matters of life should not disturb her mind.

But that night, after she secretly overheard the conversation between that woman and her father, she realized another thing, one that impacted her even more greatly:

— Senior Cuique also knew her father, and this was very likely the reason Senior Cuique took special care of her.

Even though later, her father clarified this hypothesis as a misunderstanding, and she learned from Senior Cuique that the reason for her care was actually that her mother had also been a Magical Girl, Lin Xiaolu did not forget that hypothesis from that time.

Sometimes, she would ask herself: if everything were truly as she thought, if her father and Senior Cuique had a deeper relationship, and even if Senior Cuique would one day become that "stepmother" she had always resisted, what would happen? Would she be sad or happy?

According to past thinking, Lin Xiaolu felt she should still want to refuse. After all, Senior Cuique was just Senior Cuique; even if she was a senior she admired and looked up to, if she wanted to become her stepmother on that basis, it would not work.

But the facts did not seem to be that way.

When she really began to think about this question, and even began to fantasize about "if Senior Cuique were my stepmother," she discovered that, inexplicably, she was not so resistant.

It was as if, if Senior Cuique were truly her "mother," it would be a matter of course.

At that time, Lin Xiaolu did not understand where this inexplicable feeling came from; she simply took these as her own wild imaginings and did not voice these thoughts.

Until the night of the Full Moon Festival.

When discovering the huge crisis in the city center, and she and her other companions chose to leave their homes, in a fleeting glance she discovered that her father's door was not closed.

It was already early morning then; even if her father was busy with work, there was no reason for him to go out at that time, yet he left the house.

Afterwards, while fighting enemies of the Black Ash Dawn and once falling into a huge disadvantage, Senior Cuique appeared in Fang Ting City, where she was originally impossible to appear.

She had clearly said she would not return during the festival, yet she still stood in front of the enemies in the desperate situation.

And finally, in the midst of the battlefield, was that sentence spoken by the woman who had turned into a monster and called herself Moses: — "Her father seems to have something going on with you too."

At that moment, Lin Xiaolu suddenly understood, her mind cleared.

Why her father left at that time, and why Senior Cuique appeared at that time; everything was simply because her father and Senior Cuique truly had a secret relationship, or even, a romantic relationship.

It was her father who had found Senior Cuique at that time.

And when everything in her mind became logical and all logic appeared flawless, Lin Xiaolu, who had been protected by Senior Cuique during the battle, finally understood what that strange feeling she had for Senior Cuique truly was.

— On Senior Cuique, she felt the temperament of her own mother.

This was a feeling without any reason, because her mother Anya and Senior Cuique were completely two different kinds of people in personality.

Anya's personality was warm and uplifting. Perhaps sometimes she was very scatterbrained, but within that scatterbrainedness and laxity lay powerful encouragement.

Senior Cuique's personality was cold and deep. Most of the time she was very rigorous, but within that coldness and seriousness lay a tiny tenderness.

Even if the least sensitive person were to distinguish the personalities of these two, they could clearly feel the difference between them.

But Lin Xiaolu just produced this inexplicable feeling.

After that day, Lin Xiaolu had a somewhat strange dream.

In the dream, she seemed to be an infant lying in a swaddle; her mother was teasing her with a tender smile, and she at that time could not yet speak, only able to "coo and babble" and gesture at her.

In the dream, she did not see her father, but her mother seemed to be talking to someone invisible the whole time, even appearing somewhat girlishly playful.

In her hearty laughter, she handed herself over into the hands of that invisible person.

Lin Xiaolu felt the height she was at suddenly drop; a pair of hands bearing a bit of coolness took her over, and then gently hugged her into their embrace.

That embrace, although cold, was not unpleasant, and even somewhat comfortable.

Who was it? Lin Xiaolu thought this way; she struggled to open her eyes within the swaddle, straining to look upward, wanting to see clearly who that person truly was.

She saw blue.

She saw a pair of azure eyes, as translucent as gemstones, gazing gently at her.

Senior Cuique held her, opening and closing her mouth with an expression never seen before, and spoke a string of words an infant could not understand.

Then, Lin Xiaolu awoke from her sleep.

In the morning sunlight, Lin Xiaolu, with sleepy eyes, sat on the bed like this, somewhat lingeringly savoring that strange dream, feeling that the experience in the dream was incredibly real, as if it had truly happened.

She realized that this dream might not be her simple fantasy; it should have its own meaning.

Lin Xiaolu sat on the bed thinking like that; after long recollection, careful reasoning, and cautious evidence-gathering, she finally arrived at a somewhat bold hypothesis:

— Mom sent me a dream; she agrees for Senior Cuique to be my stepmother.

Today was a flop, only 2k, slacked off, meow.

Thanks to readers Yue Youmeng, Manman de Lan Yu, oones, Shitou Zoulu, and Mo Qianluo for their large donations, and also thanks to other readers for their donations and voting support.

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