Chapter 48: The Senior's Junior

"There's a doorbell?"

Lin Xiaolu, who had been resting her chin in her hands, lifted her head and straightened up: "At this hour?"

Xia Liang stuck her head out from the side and asked: "Is it a delivery?"

"I don't know; I haven't bought anything." Lin Xiaolu denied it outright.

"Then did your father buy it?" Xia Liang proposed another possibility.

"Him? I've never seen him order anything online."

Still maintaining a negative stance, Lin Xiaolu had just spoken a sentence when she hesitated again: "But we can't rule out that possibility..."

"So should we open it?"

Looking at the front door in the entryway, Xia Liang was somewhat eager: "Anyway, it's daytime; it should be fine, right?"

"Regardless of whether it's daytime, the security in our residential area should be no problem." Lin Xiaolu seemed persuaded.

Xia Liang waved her hand, and purple magic condensed into a wand in her palm: "Then I'll transform into a magical girl and stand aside; if it's a bad guy, I'll hit them?"

Lowering her eyelids to stare at her for a while, Lin Xiaolu had wanted to ask "Why don't you go," but realizing this was her home, she felt she should take some responsibility. So she suppressed that thought, stood up from the sofa: "Seems okay."

Waving her hand to dispel her own magical girl transformation, Lin Xiaolu shuffled in her slippers, taking small steps toward the entryway; Xia Liang held the wand, kneeling on the sofa with only her head visible, secretly watching the situation.

Frowning, Lin Xiaolu walked to the door, her hand pausing on the doorknob for a moment before pressing down and carefully opening it.

—What met her eyes was a completely unfamiliar woman.

This woman appeared to be in her twenties, relatively tall, with bright features and jet-black hair styled in a simple C-shaped perm. She wore a printed white open-front T-shirt on top and a high-waisted denim long skirt below, carrying a small crossbody bag in her hand, giving off the vibe of a capable female office worker.

"Who are you?" Lin Xiaolu was somewhat stunned.

"Ah, so this is the senior's... so cute!"

But the woman before her seemed not at all unfamiliar with her; upon seeing Lin Xiaolu, her eyes lit up: "I've only seen photos before; the real person is even cuter than the photos!"

Her self-absorbed monologue made Lin Xiaolu even more confused: "So who exactly are you?"

"Who I am isn't important; what matters is meeting you for the first time. Lin Xiaolu, right? Come give auntie a hug!" The woman enthusiastically spread her arms.

"Why? I don't want to!" Lin Xiaolu couldn't help but step back two paces.

Overwhelmed by confusion, she didn't know what to say for a moment; the commotion drew Xia Liang and Moke from the living room closer.

Seeing the two stuck in a standoff, Xia Liang first froze, then quickly pieced together the situation; facing the woman at the door, she smiled and said:

"Ah, hello, sister? Who are you looking for?"

Her demeanor and etiquette were impeccable, leaving no room for criticism, as if she were the child of this household.

And her words instantly delighted the woman at the door: "Ah? You called me sister? Hahaha, your mouth is too sweet, kid."

Because she was wearing outdoor shoes, she couldn't enter the room, so she could only stand in the hallway, waving and gesturing: "You come over too; let sister give you a kiss!"

"Um, that's..."

Overwhelmed by the other's excessive enthusiasm, even Xia Liang couldn't help but show a troubled expression.

"So who exactly are you!" Lin Xiaolu, pushed aside, asked again.

Only after she asked this question for the third time did the woman at the door seem to snap out of her overly enthusiastic state. She carefully studied the two girls before her; seeing them both at a loss, she realized she hadn't introduced herself yet.

And a stranger being so familiar right off the bat indeed left people unsure how to react. So she coughed lightly twice and slightly restrained her expression.

"Cough, it seems you don't know who I am; let me briefly explain first."

Raising the shoulder bag in her hand, she pulled out a small black ID card and waved it in the air: "I am Hong Siyu, the liaison from the Special Strategy Bureau, responsible for coordinating with your senior Senior Cuique. Besides that, ten years ago, I was also a resident magical girl in Fang Ting City."

Her movements were crisp and efficient, and her smile was very approachable, but the simple sentence spoken beneath such an expression contained a wealth of information, leaving the two girls behind the door somewhat dazed.

"Senior Cuique's... liaison?"

"A magical girl from ten years ago?"

Clearly, the girls' respective points of focus differed.

Lin Xiaolu, of course, cared more about Senior Cuique's social connections; whether she was curious about what kind of person Senior Cuique's liaison was, it was impossible to say she wasn't.

As for Xia Liang, she would naturally think of the same question as Lin Xiaolu, but the latter half of what Hong Siyu said clearly contained more important information.

Seeing that this self-introduction successfully captured the two girls' interest, Hong Siyu at the door knocked on the doorframe, no longer as overly enthusiastic as at first meeting, and asked suggestively: "After all that, aren't you planning to let me in for a sit?"

The two girls exchanged a glance; Xia Liang winked, and only then did Lin Xiaolu reluctantly pull a pair of shoe covers from the entryway shoe cabinet and hand them to Hong Siyu: "Here."

"Hehe, then sister will graciously accept your offer."

Taking the shoe covers from Lin Xiaolu's hand, Hong Siyu deftly slipped them onto her square-toed shoes and, with a kind of excitement others couldn't understand, stepped through the door into the apartment before her.

Stepping into Lin Xiaolu's home, she instinctively looked around, her gaze shifting from the dining area to the living room, seeing the dining table, the clock, the cabinets... then the sofa neatly placed there, a hint of nostalgia flashing across her face.

It really has been so long.

She murmured to herself.

This strange behavior made Lin Xiaolu, standing nearby, stare at her curiously; Xia Liang was also puzzled. But out of politeness, they quickly led Hong Siyu to the living room.

Xia Liang turned to the kitchen to make tea; Lin Xiaolu casually pointed toward the sofa, her expression somewhat tense: "Right here, please sit."

"Are you shy around strangers?" Hong Siyu turned back and asked her.

"No such thing."

Lin Xiaolu replied stiffly: "Please don't treat me like a child."

"Being shy around strangers isn't really a trait exclusive to children."

Hong Siyu found an empty spot on the sofa and sat down casually: "We adults do this too, you know? And we give ourselves a more serious-sounding name: social anxiety."

"... There is no such thing."

"Okay, okay, no such thing."

Hong Siyu chuckled somewhat teasingly, simultaneously patting the empty space beside her: "Then could you come sit next to sister so I can get a good look at you?"

"Um..." Regarding this request, Lin Xiaolu remained frozen in place, motionless.