Chapter 95: Lin Xiaolu's Sense of Crisis

Lin Xiaolu's somewhat strange reaction caught Xia Liang's attention.

Seeing the other party staring motionlessly at the entrance after Senior Cuique left, she reached out and patted her shoulder: "Is there a problem?"

"Status..." Lin Xiaolu emitted a low voice.

"Status?"

"My status is under an unprecedented threat!"

Turning around suddenly, she grabbed Xia Liang's shoulders, Lin Xiaolu's eyes chaotic like a whirlpool: "If this continues, it absolutely won't do; we can't let their relationship heat up any further!"

"Ah..."

Such a dramatic reaction was Lin Xiaolu's personal style; having witnessed it several times, Xia Liang had already developed some experience on how to deal with Lin Xiaolu in this state. Regarding this, she merely drew out her voice indifferently to express a sigh, then said with a strained smile: "Why?"

"Can't you feel it? If this continues, that child will monopolize Senior Cuique's attention!"

Failing to notice the perfunctory tone in Xia Liang's words, Lin Xiaolu was clearly greatly stimulated; her hands grasped at the air, speaking without thinking: "Just the fact that she is sent home alone every day now, having so much time to be alone with Senior Cuique, is simply too enviable... too biased!"

"That child lost her parents, has a disability, and also calls out 'Teacher, Teacher' every day, so sweetly. Possessing the elements of 'well-behaved', 'pitiful', and 'likable', if I were in Senior Cuique's position, I would subconsciously choose to give extra care."

"And once this pattern continues, as they spend time alone together every day, their relationship will surely get better and better; the attention Senior Cuique invests in that child will also increase more and more, until one day it completely surpasses ours!"

"If it really reaches that point, the four-person squad will only have two names left! We two will become background characters, become bystanders!"

As she spoke, Lin Xiaolu could even imagine that day.

In a daze, she had already seen that by that time, Bai Jingxuan, who had completely monopolized Senior Cuique's affection, standing beside her, asking pitifully:

"Teacher, since everyone in the squad is a newcomer, is it really okay to care for me so much alone?"

"Ah, it's fine, because you are the most excellent one in my heart; the other two are just delinquent girls who failed school exams."

"But, Senior Xiao Jin is more excellent than me, right?"

"She is too excellent; she is already walking on the broad path without needing my guidance."

"Then Senior Bai Mei isn't the person you expected at the beginning?"

"Even the shifted magic power she barely awakened she can't master well; such a useless child doesn't deserve my care."

"Teacher..."

"Xiao Xuan..."

—"Aaaaaah!"

Clutching her head, Lin Xiaolu was struck by the scene she imagined, falling onto the sofa and letting out a mournful cry: "No, aaaaaah! I don't want to see that day, I don't!"

This performance, like a one-man crosstalk, made Xia Liang sitting nearby almost go blank.

Seeing Lin Xiaolu making more and more noise, she even couldn't help but think, "Maybe I should just ignore her?"

"Ahaha... how to say it, I feel the Junior Senior wouldn't be like that."

After a pause, finally finding a gap to interject, Xia Liang said with a dry laugh to comfort her: "You don't need to be so pessimistic and complicated about it either; just like me, why not view everything with a normal heart?"

Her original intention was to hope Lin Xiaolu wouldn't think about things so extremely and exaggeratedly, but as soon as these words came out, she found the other party had calmed down surprisingly.

She saw the other person stop speaking, staring fixedly at Xia Liang's face; after a while, she slowly averted her gaze:

"Forget it, talking about these things to someone like you who has never been favored from the start, you wouldn't understand anyway."

The living room was instantly filled with a silence as dead as death.

Lin Xiaolu had no self-awareness of the lethality of this sentence, but as the words fell, after the atmosphere grew heavy for a moment, she felt her face being held by two hands.

She saw Xia Liang wearing a stiff smile, not knowing when she had placed both hands on either side of Lin Xiaolu's cheeks, then her fingers exerted force, pinching her face hard.

Lin Xiaolu struggled: "Ni zai gan shen me (What are you doing)!"

"What am I doing? You really dare to say it, you really dare to say it!"

Pinching Lin Xiaolu's face viciously, Xia Liang, though smiling on her face, gritted her teeth and said: "Is it this arrogant mouth that said that sentence? There's a limit to making things up on your own!"

"You, who take advantage of the Junior Senior treating you differently to act without fear! What do you mean by 'never been favored from the start', what a 'never been favored from the start'! I'm so angry, do you think I don't want to get a bit more care?"

"After the whole summer, you and Xiao Xuan both had the Junior Senior's individual guidance, only I was completely left to my own devices because my progress was too fast! Do you think this is the result I wanted!"

Lin Xiaolu tried to slap Xia Liang's hand away: "Wo shuo de shi shi shi (I am speaking the truth)!"

"I know! But precisely because it is the truth, it hurts!"

"Na ni na wo sa qi gan shen me (Then why take your anger out on me)!" Unable to break free from Xia Liang's face-pinching assault, Lin Xiaolu simply switched from defense to offense, reaching out to pinch Xia Liang's face as well.

"Do you think who made me so angry in the first place!"

The two of them wrestled like this, playing around for a long time, until they felt hungry, only then managing to put this topic aside.

As Senior Cuique had instructed earlier, before going to Xia Liang's house for the evening study session, they still had to eat dinner first.

Simply reheating the rice and dishes cooked by the part-time worker, and cooking the white rice and serving it, they brought it all into the dining room; the two girls sat on opposite sides of the dining table and picked up their chopsticks.

—"What exactly is going on with the two of you?"

Yawning, Moke, who had just awakened from deep sleep, looked at the two of them somewhat baffled: "Why do your faces look a bit red and swollen, did you get fat?"

"None of your business!"

"This has nothing to do with Moke."

The two of them spoke in unison; although the wording was different and the emotional tendency differed, upon closer inspection, the meaning was about the same.

Having provoked them without making them angry and receiving a rebuff, Moke immediately felt even more baffled.

"In any case, this situation is not a solution."

With her red and swollen face puffed out, Lin Xiaolu held her rice bowl and said: "Even discussing this matter without personal bias, I feel this current state is too inefficient. You, me, Senior Cuique, that child. We four live in four different places; every time we have an activity, we have to gather first, change locations in the middle, and then there is such a small child who needs to be picked up and dropped off; don't you think it's troublesome?"

"There's no way around it, right?"

Taking a sip of vegetables, Xia Liang chewed carefully: "If we really have to talk about it, the Junior Senior is the one who should feel the most trouble; she hasn't complained about anything. Do you really want to be so cold-hearted and let such a small child fly back alone after the activity ends? Or do you plan to volunteer to pick her up and drop her off?"

"S-o, I-s-a-y!"

Tapping the bowl with her chopsticks word by word, Lin Xiaolu said loudly: "Even for Senior Cuique's sake, it's time to think of a win-win solution!"

"What solution?" Stopping her hand's movement, Xia Liang blinked her eyes curiously.

"Hmph, you stopped watching magical girl anime long ago—you've lost your childlike heart and can't understand."

A faint smile curled her lips as Lin Xiaolu lifted her chopsticks and drew circles in the air, her tone proud: "When it comes to magical girls, there's one classic element and scene—I think we can absolutely adapt it!"

"The classic scene of a magical girl?" Xia Liang tilted her head. "School?"

"Zero points." Lin Xiaolu delivered the verdict coldly.

"Then what could it be?" Xia Liang set down her bowl and chopsticks, beginning to ponder.

Combining the earlier topic with the current scene, considering the context in which Lin Xiaolu had spoken, and listing one by one the possible ways to change the situation, Xia Liang felt she was faintly grasping the answer.

Watching Lin Xiaolu's utterly "I'm a genius" expression, she opened her mouth slightly, then couldn't help but point a finger at her.

Seeing that Xia Liang seemed to have an idea, Lin Xiaolu no longer teased—she revealed the answer.

In that instant, the two finally synchronized their thoughts, speaking the same word in unison:

"Secret base!"

(End of Chapter)