Chapter 59: The Mobile Phone Incident

Since Lin Yun began disguising himself as Senior Cuique in front of his daughter, carrying two mobile phones has become his habit.

To avoid revealing any flaws while using them, he even specifically asked a female clerk at a flagship store for advice before buying the phones, and when selecting phone cases, he deliberately made "Senior Cuique's phone" look a bit more feminine.

This phone had only three contacts in total: Lin Xiaolu, Xia Liang, and Hong Siyu.

And to ensure timely contact with them in case of a Beast attack or any emergency, Lin Yun did not deliberately turn the phone off or set it to silent mode; he only switched it to vibrate mode when at work.

Today was no different.

When he left home in the morning, he deliberately took Senior Cuique's phone out of the pocket of his usual formal suit and carried it on his person, ensuring that contact between the identity of Senior Cuique and the two girls remained sufficiently smooth.

It's just that he hadn't expected at that time that the two little girls had somehow followed behind him at some point, all the way to the shopping mall.

At first, he was focused on acting to deceive Moke; after encountering the two girls, he began trying to smooth things over in this awkward situation; afterwards, while shopping, he became immersed in the melancholy emotions of this special day, to the point that he completely forgot about the time bomb still in his inner shirt pocket.

The result was this: the clear ringtone made Xia Liang shift her gaze over, while he, with his hand inside his inner shirt pocket, holding the phone, didn't know whether he should take it out or not.

In just a few short seconds, several plans flashed through Lin Yun's mind:

First, quickly turn Senior Cuique's phone volume down to the minimum, then take out his original phone and pretend he just happened to receive a call.

This plan was logically the most flawless, but operationally very difficult—he had set the incoming call sound to ringtone plus vibration specifically to prevent himself from ignoring it.

Even if he could turn the phone's volume down to zero, in this restaurant where there were already few people, the sound of the vibration would also be hard to ignore.

Second, choose to answer the call, but cover Senior Cuique's phone's microphone with his hand so his voice wouldn't be picked up by the phone; then take out Lin Yun's phone and pretend he received a call from someone else.

This plan also had few logical flaws, but it was even harder to execute. First, he couldn't ensure he could completely cover the microphone; leaking even a little sound would expose him; second, doing this would make his movements quite strange—his right hand inside his coat, while his left hand reached to the right to grab the phone to answer the call, looking strange no matter how you saw it.

The last option: directly hang up the call, then use Lin Yun's phone to call Senior Cuique, so that when Xia Liang called back, she would only get a "call in progress" prompt.

Operationally, this was very simple; one could even say that as long as he was willing, it would definitely succeed. But logically, there was a huge flaw: he couldn't explain why, as soon as the ringing stopped on his end, Xia Liang's call was hung up on her end.

Just as he was deciding in his mind, Xia Liang had already acted first.

She held her phone to her ear, tilted her head to look at Lin Yun, her gaze filled with confusion and inquiry: "Uncle, aren't you going to answer the phone?"

Lin Yun knew then that there was no time for him to delay.

"Mm, thanks for the reminder. I was just thinking about something and didn't notice."

He first answered with a blank expression, trying to use conversation to distract Xia Liang; at the same time, he began feeling around the side of the phone, trying to find the volume button, thinking he should at least turn off the ringtone first.

In his mind, since several plans had already been listed, it didn't mean they couldn't be mixed together; dealing with moves as they came, acting according to the situation, there should still be a chance to bluff his way through.

"That's strange... let's try hanging up."

However, before he could take any other action, Xia Liang had already muttered to herself, her fingers lightly tapping the phone screen.

Accompanying her action, a moment later, the ringing in the restaurant stopped.

The empty restaurant returned to silence; only the mall corridor outside the display window was still filled with shouts and screams. The store's glass partition wall became a boundary, dividing the inside and outside of the restaurant into two worlds: outside, people pushed and crowded, noisy and clamorous, spreading panic; inside, it was cold and quiet, where a pin drop could be heard, filled with awkwardness.

Undoubtedly, what Xia Liang had just pressed was the hang-up button.

After this series of operations, she first loosely held the phone looking at Lin Yun, blinked her eyes somewhat innocently, then exclaimed in shock: "Ah, it really stopped?"

Lin Yun looked at the unadorned ceiling of the restaurant and let out a long breath.

He lowered the hand at his chest in a gesture of surrender.

"Uncle, you have someone else's phone on you."

Seeming to realize the situation before her, even though Xia Liang tried to restrain herself, a somewhat mischievous smile appeared on her face: "Although asking this is a bit of a jump, it should be the person I'm thinking of, right?"

"You guessed right." Lin Yun, like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, admitted it bluntly with a flat voice.

"Why is Junior Senior's... no, Senior Cuique's phone with you, Uncle?"

After receiving Lin Yun's answer, Xia Liang seemed even more puzzled: "I remember Junior Senior used a phone at my house last night..."

"We know each other. This morning I found she left her phone at my house."

Lin Yun spoke somewhat numbly, futilely tossing out a made-up reason: "Although it's not what you think, we do maintain a certain connection."

"Coming to find Uncle in the middle of the night, and then leaving her phone at your house..."

Xia Liang slowly opened her mouth: "So, you really have that kind of relationship?"

"I don't know what kind of relationship you're talking about, but I don't think so." Lin Yun closed his eyes.

"Uncle, even if both parties are willing, having that kind of relationship with a child is illegal, you know?"

Frowning, Xia Liang said somewhat seriously: "And Senior Cuique is so cute; how could you bear to do bad things to her?"

"... I already said, we don't have that kind of relationship; we only have contact regarding Little Lulu and the Magical Girls."

Lin Yun sighed weakly: "Besides, she should have told you, right? She is a grown-up, much older than you two, and my age."

"That doesn't work either."

Xia Liang puffed out her cheeks, unusually displeased: "Even if you are both adults, I still think it shouldn't be like that; you're also letting Little Lulu down, aren't you?"

"Young lady, I can assure you, it really isn't what you think."

Lin Yun, suppressing the embarrassment in his heart, put on a serious expression and earnestly defended himself: "I know you care about Little Lulu, and I know Little Lulu isn't very able to accept having a... uh, stepmother right now. So there really is no emotional relationship between me and the 'Senior Cuique' you mentioned."

"Really?" Xia Liang asked somewhat suspiciously.

"If I have to say, actually, her relationship with Little Lulu's mother is closer."

To divert her attention, Lin Yun explained half-truthfully: "As for this point, if you want to know, I will tell you both on the way back."

"Her mother? You mean..." Xia Liang wanted to ask more, but was forced to stop as the words reached her lips.

Because at that very moment, the phone in Lin Yun's chest and the one in her hand vibrated simultaneously.

Picking up her phone to look, Xia Liang found that Lin Xiaolu had sent a message in the Magical Girl squad group chat:

【@Xiao Jin: What are you doing exactly? Hurry up and come!】

【@Senior Cuique: There is a Beast attack at Jinbao Shopping Plaza in Luoming District. Senior Cuique, are you free now? Ah, no need to rush.】

"... Looks like we really can't continue chatting."

After reading the message on the screen, Xia Liang lowered her hand and smiled helplessly: "So, Uncle, if you can contact Senior Cuique, could you inform her? After all, she instructed us that whenever a Beast appears, we must notify her."

Although her heart was full of doubts, she ultimately knew what was more important: gossip about family matters could be asked about later; driving out the Beast was the top priority at the moment.

"I will."

Seeing finally a chance to end this awkward conversation, Lin Yun did not hesitate to stop. He looked up at Xia Liang, nodded deliberately, "Hong Siyu should have a way to contact her."

"Phew, let's leave the rest for when we get back."

After exhaling, Xia Liang put away her phone and waved at Lin Yun: "As for all that stuff before, I'll take it as true what you said, Uncle."

"All true." Lin Yun's face was expressionless. "Just don't embellish it for Little Lulu."

"Don't worry, I won't tell Xiaolu."

Xia Liang smiled mischievously: "I know—after all, if I told her this, who knows what nonsense she'd start imagining."

Lin Yun thought to himself that she'd just been daydreaming herself with all that talk, but he said nothing more, only fell silent and watched Xia Liang leave the restaurant.

Watching the girl's figure sprint away, he leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh; his tense nerves finally eased slightly.

Forget it—set all this aside for now, he thought. Better to think first about where to transform.