Chapter 251: Lin Xiaolu, the Team Bully

Time rewound slightly.

While Senior Cuique was still dealing with that endlessly long dessert marathon in the restaurant, the three juniors remaining in the inn were still continuing their "battle" in the kitchen.

With the aid of magic tools, the chocolate-making process indeed became unimaginably easy; the three of them didn't need to spend much energy adjusting the flavor and texture of the chocolate. They only needed to make slight modifications to the existing recipes according to their own preferences to produce chocolates with different flavors, all delicious enough.

Therefore, after preliminarily determining the flavor the chocolate should present, Lin Xiaolu was destined to spend most of her energy on the shape.

The magic tools provided by the shop could help with simple shaping, but they did not offer a custom-shape function, so this part could only rely on Lin Xiaolu's own efforts. After a long period of thought, Lin Xiaolu failed to achieve any effective results, because she was directly stuck at the very first step of the process:

—What kind of shape should it be made into?

Since making chocolate was itself a whim, Lin Xiaolu had not done much homework beforehand. With the knowledge she was currently cramming at the last minute, it seemed she could only think of making flower petals, simple cartoon animals, or hearts... but she wasn't particularly fond of these shapes.

Although flower petals relatively fit the identity of a magical girl, they were somewhat crude; the shape of small animals was very cute, but making them into Valentine's Day chocolates felt subtly mismatched with the atmosphere, and they might seem a bit childish; as for hearts, while this was indeed a classic choice for such a holiday, wouldn't it be a bit too cliché?

Ultimately, what kind of feeling was she harboring that made her want to give chocolate to Senior Cuique?

Cutting off a small piece of the semi-solidified chocolate and stuffing it into her mouth, Lin Xiaolu gazed at the simple molds on the table and fell into thought.

The cloyingly sweet flavor made Lin Xiaolu's thoughts a bit more active, but it still failed to help her solve this core problem. So after thinking to no avail, she could only appropriately shift her attention to see how the other two were doing.

The first one to enter her field of vision was Bai Jingxuan.

Unlike Lin Xiaolu, who had dug herself into a corner, Bai Jingxuan clearly hadn't thought that much about the shape of the chocolate; rather, she hadn't intended to make any shape from the very beginning.

The solidified milk chocolate was simply cut by Bai Jingxuan into several large brown squares, and then, holding a piping pen, she stood on tiptoe, concentrating intently on writing something on the chocolate.

"Hmph-hmph-hmph—Doo-doo-doo—"

Because she was in a cheerful mood, Bai Jingxuan was humming the theme song of a children's cartoon; although she was a bit off-key, she clearly didn't care.

And probably because she raised her arms too high, the hem of her top was pulled up quite a bit, moving up and down with her motions, causing her waist and part of her back to be completely exposed to the air.

Lin Xiaolu stood aside, looked, thought for a moment, then decisively raised her hand and pressed her cold hand back against Bai Jingxuan's back: "You're showing off."

—"Aaaaaah!"

Bai Jingxuan, suddenly attacked from behind, screamed, directly flung away the piping pen in her hand, and almost jumped onto the counter in front of her. Once she finally calmed down a bit, she immediately grabbed the hem of her top, turned around, and said dissatisfied:

"What are you doing!"

"Just checking how your chocolate is coming along?"

Lin Xiaolu withdrew her hand, as if she hadn't been the one playing the prank just now, and said with high-minded propriety: "Are you planning to write something on the chocolate? What are you writing?"

While saying this, she tried to go past Bai Jingxuan to see the words on the chocolate. But this time she failed, because Bai Jingxuan immediately blocked in front of the chocolate.

"I won't let you see."

Clearly, Bai Jingxuan was still holding a grudge over Lin Xiaolu's prank just now, so she almost covered the chocolate with her arm: "Sister Xiaolu, go back and make your own chocolate!"

"Still won't let me see? So mysterious."

Upon hearing the other person say that, Lin Xiaolu immediately became even more curious, poking her head left and right around Bai Jingxuan. But Bai Jingxuan blocked so thoroughly that Lin Xiaolu saw nothing.

"Go back quickly!" Bai Jingxuan shouted gloomily.

"If you won't let me see this piece, I'll go look at the others."

However, Lin Xiaolu didn't give up easily. She soon gave up on the chocolate piece Bai Jingxuan was covering with her arm and instead moved close to the other pieces nearby. These chocolates didn't have full writing yet, but they all seemed to have started, already decorated with certain content using the piping pen. When Lin Xiaolu saw the content clearly, she immediately exclaimed:

"Eh, so there's a piece for me too!"

She stood next to the chocolate that already had her name written on it, seeing that "Sister Xiaolu" was written neatly on it, while the piece next to it had "Sister Xia Liang"; both names were followed by colons, obviously indicating blessings that hadn't been written yet.

Although giving chocolate on Valentine's Day is a very exciting thing, receiving chocolate on the same day brings a completely different feeling. When she realized that one of the pieces of chocolate was meant for her, Lin Xiaolu was absolutely overjoyed, grabbed Bai Jingxuan's shoulder in one motion, and hugged the other person while shaking her:

"You really have it in you, you girl!"

And merely hugging Bai Jingxuan wasn't enough to express the surprise she received, so Lin Xiaolu quickly reached out and pinched the other person's face: "You like me that much? I can't help it, call me sister again!"

"Stop shaking me..."

Bai Jingxuan had already been tormented by Lin Xiaolu to the point of giving up, but she didn't want to let go of her hand covering the chocolate, so she could only weakly wail, trying to use words to stop Lin Xiaolu's tyranny: "If you keep this up, I won't give you the chocolate..."

"Ah, that won't do."

This rather weak "threat" was unexpectedly effective at this moment; upon hearing this, Lin Xiaolu immediately let go: "Since you've already made it, I have no reason not to accept it. Remember to pick a nicer-looking wrapper for my piece."

"... They're all the same anyway." Bai Jingxuan rubbed her neck and muttered quietly.

"Hmm, what?" Lin Xiaolu didn't hear the other person's whisper clearly, so she directly asked.

"Ah? Oh, I said I will."

Bai Jingxuan shrank her head back and stepped aside: "Anyway, Sister Xiaolu, go back and make your own chocolate first, don't look at mine! Blessings written for others cannot be seen, or they will become invalid!"

"Who is the piece you're writing now for, Senior Cuique?" Lin Xiaolu asked, tilting her head.

Bai Jingxuan puffed out her cheeks, gave a soft "Hmm," then turned her gaze aside, obviously not wanting to say much more.

"Understood, then I won't look."

Although she didn't know what exactly was understood, Lin Xiaolu nodded as if she comprehended everything. Then, she turned and walked toward Xia Liang.

And the commotion over at Bai Jingxuan's side earlier was obviously not hidden from Xia Liang a few meters away; realizing that Lin Xiaolu was about to come over and cause trouble, she decisively stopped her hand's motion and stepped aside:

"Look if you want to."