Chapter 187: Reunited As If in a Dream

—— "So, just because of this?"

Ten minutes later, in the Director's office, Lin Yun stood aside, watching the two people confronting each other on the sofa, and sighed inexplicably: "I just went to another department, how did you two end up fighting?"

"Clearly, it's the senior's fault!"

Hearing this, Hong Siyu leaned forward, pointing a finger at the person sitting opposite her, who was now acting aloof: "Why didn't you say anything earlier that Yuanxiang was back! And you didn't even mention it to me?"

"... This isn't my problem. That person didn't notify me either before."

Lin Yun crossed his arms, his gaze instinctively averting from Hong Siyu: "How to put it, even if I knew a singer with the same name and surname was coming to Fang Ting City for a concert, I couldn't confirm it was her personally before actually seeing her. If I told you directly and it turned out to be a completely different person, wouldn't it be even more awkward to make a fuss over a misunderstanding?"

"So the final result is that I wasn't included?"

Hong Siyu pointed at herself: "Do you mean that the entire Fang Ting City and Bagan City squad members all went to the concert, everyone went out privately together, but I, on my weekend, even had to take a day off for duty? What about me? Where's my share?"

"I just thought you still needed continued treatment..." Lin Yun hesitated, unable to finish his sentence.

"The Chief said before that I'm already cured, cured! Look at me now, where is there any trace of the residual beast?"

Hong Siyu stood in front of Lin Yun, spreading her arms: "Senior, look again? Isn't me like this just a perfectly normal beautiful girl? Can't I be seen like this?"

"... Sorry."

Lin Yun lowered his head helplessly: "I didn't consider it well enough."

"In the end, why did you decide so easily to go listen to another woman's concert? What if that singer isn't Yuanxiang herself?"

Hong Siyu slightly rose on her toes, forcing eye contact with Lin Yun: "In that case, wouldn't it be completely benefiting another woman!"

"Calling going to someone else's concert 'benefiting' is a bit much..." Lin Yun couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth, "Matsushita's ticket fee wasn't very expensive anyway, simply going to watch a performance doesn't mean losing anything."

"What is it, Senior, you just don't understand, I'm not talking about money!" Hong Siyu immediately became even more unhappy.

—— "I also object, you can search online and see my photo."

Matsushita Yuanxiang, standing aside, raised her hand at this moment: "I'm so famous, you can just check and know if it's me personally."

"This is your first time holding a concert in Fang Ting City, how could there be so many detailed messages about you on the local inter-city network?"

Lin Yun shook his head: "Even if there aren't many clear, unprocessed front-facing photos online, your current image differs quite a bit from the child I remember in my memory. How can we confirm it's you personally without going to the scene?"

"What nonsense are you talking, sister? My photo book photos are all original, no post-processing needed!"

Matsushita Yuanxiang suddenly widened her eyes: "And isn't your way of saying that if you could confirm it's me personally, then you wouldn't go to my concert? Really? So heartless? It's clearly my concert?"

"I have many serious matters to do here, how could I spend half a day just to listen to a few songs."

Lin Yun lowered his eyelids slightly: "You know, I'm not very proficient in things like pop music, anyway, I can't tell if it's good or bad."

"What kind of mid-life crisis remark is that? As soon as 'pop elements' are mentioned, you keep your distance, opening and closing your mouth with 'serious matters', how did you become such a boring person after getting married?"

Matsushita Yuanxiang stuck out her tongue, making a disgusted expression: "No, a normal middle-aged uncle at least has some hobbies like fishing, playing cards, or collecting, do you really have any decent hobbies?"

Lin Yun was stunned.

He recalled his usual life slightly, to be precise, not just the present, but also the life when Anya was still alive. No matter which time period, it seemed the focus was only on "work". And now, having become a magical girl again, besides having an extra option of taking care of children, it was just having more work on the magical girl level.

Pushing further back, back to his student days, at that time because he wanted to advance in school, and the matter of being a magical girl occupied a lot of time, so he seemed to be the only one in the team who, besides fighting residual beasts, was studying every day.

"Hobbies"... what were those things again?

"Driving... does that count?"

Thinking it over and over, he could only find this one thing that occupied a certain proportion of his life. It seemed only when driving was he able to empty his mind, not needing to think about work and such matters.

"Wow, using the kind of phrasing young girls like, this greasy middle-aged flavor is overflowing." Matsushita Yuanxiang exclaimed instinctively.

"Senior..." Hong Siyu also looked at Lin Yun with a somewhat sympathetic gaze.

Being looked at by the two with such subtle expressions, even Lin Yun found it a bit hard to bear: "Wait a moment, although I indeed have no hobbies in life, I think what we were discussing before should be something else. Is what you two are saying a topic that needs to be discussed now?"

"Sister, you like this kind of person?"

However, this sentence completely failed to reach the other two. Matsushita Yuanxiang turned her head and said to Hong Siyu: "Don't let the filters of the past blind your eyes."

"Hmm... even so..."

Hong Siyu also cooperatively put on a conflicted expression: "I will convince myself it's fine, a man focused on work is also very charming..."

"Alright, you two have had enough."

Lin Yun lowered his eyelids and clapped his hands: "Hong Siyu, don't join Matsushita in making a fuss. It's not easy for us to gather together again, shouldn't we exchange information first?"

"Ah, here it comes, such standard official talk." Matsushita Yuanxiang chuckled softly: "If you insist on changing the subject, that's fine, but in that case, you might miss some very interesting things. For example, do you know what Hong Siyu told me when you weren't here? She was..."

As soon as she said this, before Lin Yun could feel any doubt, Hong Siyu rushed over from the side with a big stride, covering her mouth from behind: "Nothing at all! I just thought the person coming to the office was the Senior so I called the wrong person, and I was just very surprised when I saw it was actually Yuanxiang!"

"Mmm mmm mmm?" Matsushita Yuanxiang, with her mouth covered, shook her head trying to break free from the restraint, but Hong Siyu at this moment completely disregarded her image, hanging on her back like an octopus, impossible to shake off.

"Ha... so it was just awkward because I called the wrong person?"

Seeing the strange behavior of these two, Lin Yun also guessed there was probably some hidden story behind it. He knew that when he came up from the Special Operations Department downstairs, what he saw was an incredibly solemn cold war scene. The two people sat on sofas on either side, facing each other, yet no one spoke: "Just because of this, was it necessary to make things so stiff like when I walked in?"

"Heh, I just proposed some suggestions for improvement, Hong Siyu just seemed a bit hard to accept." After using great effort to pry Hong Siyu's hand off her face, Matsushita Yuanxiang chuckled lightly: "Forget it, since you don't want me to say it so much, I won't say it."

"Tactics that haven't been truly used yet, definitely can't be revealed here..."

Hong Siyu muttered behind her head: "Anyway, don't talk about this, hurry up and change the subject."

"Okay, okay, okay, listening to you, sister."

Matsushita Yuanxiang shrugged: "Then let's talk about the 'serious matters' that our Director Lin has always been talking about."

Hearing this, Lin Yun raised an eyebrow, but having long been accustomed to the sarcasm in Matsushita Yuanxiang's words, he did not speak to refute.

The Director's office, which had been somewhat noisy just a moment ago, suddenly fell silent.

"Which matter should we start with? Your side or mine?"

Matsushita Yuanxiang looked at Lin Yun, then at Hong Siyu: "For example, do you have any questions about the Realm? I have been in the Realm for the last ten years, so I should know more new information than you. But let me clarify first, many things I heard from others myself, I haven't verified personally. If there are errors, don't blame me."

"What is Su Shengzi doing now?" Lin Yun asked directly.

Of the five people in the old Fang Ting City squad, except for Anya and Su Shengzi, the remaining three have now gathered here. Anya aside, the fifth person who did not attend inevitably made people a bit concerned.

Moreover, this fifth person was that Su Shengzi.

At some point, a saying circulated among magical girls: a successful magical girl squad is often composed of the following members: an energetic mascot, a cold and proud combat specialist, a mature and sensible peacemaker, and a neurotic troublemaker.

Applying this formula to the old Fang Ting squad, while others' roles had slight deviations, it perfectly embodied Su Shengzi.

——She was a crazy person who sought trouble for no reason.

As long as Su Shengzi was around, the squad argued daily over bizarre topics and chased after strange goals, wasting countless amounts of energy.

Lin Yun's most vivid memory was when Su Shengzi specifically studied an instant formula to solidify residual beast corpses, processed the harvested remains into adventure materials, and ultimately terrified Hong Siyu into the hospital.

Yes, Su Shengzi was also the smartest member of the squad; though her magic power and magic gear potential were unremarkable, her comprehension and research ability in formulas were unparalleled, even allowing her to create original minor formulas based on existing systems. This formula for solidifying residual beast corpses was one she devised herself.

Such a research-oriented talent naturally drew the favor of veteran magic girls across the nation. In fact, the first person in the squad to speak with Emerald Green was not Lin Yun, but Su Shengzi.

According to Su Shengzi herself, after questioning her on several points, Emerald Green personally extended an olive branch, inviting her to join the Research Institute and even promising to resolve her Flower Card within ten years. Yet she rejected the tempting offer without a second thought.

"I only study what interests me. I don't want to be ordered around by Wang Ting's elites."

This was Su Shengzi's explanation.

And she truly lived by her words: after completing her ten-year term, she resigned without hesitation and left Fang Ting City, vanishing completely from Lin Yun's life.

Now, all members except her and An Ya have returned, yet without such a troublemaker, it truly felt like something was missing.

"That woman… sigh, you didn't know?"

Speaking of this, Masaou Yuanxiang suddenly sighed: "She went off to the Interstice alone."

"... Huh?" Lin Yun took several seconds to process what she meant. Hong Siyu also widened her eyes upon hearing this.

The Interstice, a world separate from both the Magic Nation and the Material Realm, was considered the epitome of "wild frontier" due to its extremely unstable spatial connections with the other two worlds and its inherently unstable structure. Rumors even claimed the Interstice was the origin of residual beasts.

Anti-nation organizations like Black Ash Dawn, Claw Marks, and the Resistance had deeply entrenched themselves in the Interstice, treating it as their stronghold—no exaggeration to call it a criminal paradise, a veritable dragon's den and tiger's lair for magic girls.

And yet Su Shengzi, a retired magic girl who had completely lost her powers, chose to go there alone?

"And the truth is, my last contact with her was nine years ago—the very moment she resigned and left Fang Ting City. I know no more than you do; I only heard her say she was going to the Interstice for a 'journey to find herself.'"

Masaou Yuanxiang gave a dry laugh: "And then we lost all contact with her."

She didn't finish the sentence—anyone else who went alone to the Interstice and vanished without a trace would be presumed dead.

But that person was Su Shengzi.

Just as Lin Yun had always struggled to believe An Ya was truly dead, unable to grasp it as real, Su Shengzi was someone who seemed utterly incompatible with the phrase "seeking death."

Her actions, no matter how bizarre or abnormal, always felt like they had a purpose.

Thus, combining her passionate love for formula research and development with her sudden abandonment of magic girl powers, her past rebellious remarks mocking Wang Ting elites, and her unusual curiosity toward residual beasts, Lin Yun couldn't help but form a strange thought.

"... Listening to you, that woman—could she have gone to join Claw Marks?"

(End of Chapter)