Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

Chapter 66: Chapter 61 Old Photos

Lin Xiaolu pinched the edge of her phone, her fingers unconsciously applying force.

She could see, in the photograph, the magical girl dressed in a cherry blossom pink puffy skirt, laughing with others, embracing with some indefinable emotion the somewhat shy blue-haired magical girl by her side.

Two people, who shouldn't have had any connection in her understanding, stood intimately together in this photograph, prompting Lin Xiaolu to unconsciously open and close her lips without being able to utter a single word.

"Is this how it is?" She really wanted to ask again.

But if there had been any doubts in her mind before, they certainly vanished the moment she saw this scene.

Yes, it should have been like this all along.

Her mother's many unusual behaviors while she was alive; why her father was so secretive when she died; why the mysterious magical girl, Emerald Sparrow, took special care of her... all the reasons fell upon the answer "Mother was a magical girl."

It was like a lock that couldn't be opened had found its original key, which, with a light turn, clicked open.

The her of the past never felt that her mom had any connection with the identity of "magical girl." In her memory, her mom was always a strange housewife who liked to insist she was a freelancer.

Her personality was carefree to the point of being scatterbrained, her actions were lazy and sloppy, and sometimes she was even more childish than herself. But she truly loved her, spoiling her as a good mother.

She could recall the scenes of snuggling in her mother's arms watching magical girl cartoons on TV; she hadn't forgotten the smile on her face when she told her, "I want to be a magical girl when I grow up."

All of a sudden, Lin Xiaolu remembered many, many things—her mother who used to sleep with her as a child but left midway; her mother who, growing up, would suddenly say she needed to go buy something during meals; her mother who had agreed to come to the parent-teacher conference but failed to show up, later claiming she got the time wrong.

"So that's how it is..."

Before she knew it, her vision was blurred by tears, spilling over her eyelids, streaming down her cheeks, and sprinkling onto the phone screen.

Her throat tightened and her voice choked. She felt that she should not be this weak now that she was a magical girl herself, committed to saving others, but she could not stem the sobs no matter how hard she tried.

"So it was like this."

The real magical girl had always been by her side, and she had been the child favored by a magical girl from the beginning.

Only, it was not until two years after she lost her that she came to know all this.

At first, Lin Xiaolu just wept, but soon she covered her face, sobbing uncontrollably.

She had thought that in the two years since her mother's passing, she had already cried enough, shed enough tears. She thought she had gotten through it, become numb, and wouldn't break down crying over her mother's things like this anymore.

But unexpectedly, when she discovered the additional link of "magical girl" between her and her mother, she suddenly found that she still had so much to tell her mother.

Becoming a magical girl isn't as easy as she had imagined.

Remnant Beasts are so disgusting, so hateful, so frightening.

Practicing magic power is very hard and dull.

The Magic Kingdom seems to be a very complicated place.

Emerald Sparrow is a very nice person.

She has comrades to fight alongside now.

She might have started to understand her father.

And... she hadn't realized that even after two years, she still missed her so much.

A myriad of thoughts mingled with sorrow, locked inside the small cabin of the car. Although the vehicle sped along the road, there were memories that lingered, unable to be left behind.

Lin Xiaolu cried heartbreakingly, while Xia Liang beside her did not know how to comfort her, and Lin Yun in the front seat remained silent, saying nothing more.

At least in his eyes, it was good that one could cry at such times.

If one kept grief and tears bottled up in their heart, and buried longing and regret forever deep within, then after a long while, they might not even be able to confirm if those feelings still existed.

The crying in the car continued for a long time, until Lin Xiaolu gradually stopped and started to sob softly. Xia Liang patted her back and then continued to question Lin Yun: Continue your saga on ???

"Uncle, but if what you're saying is true, there seems to be another issue with this photo."

She looked at the photo of Emerald Sparrow and An Ya and asked with some confusion, "If Xiaolu's mother is a Magical Girl from the same era as Emerald Sparrow, then she should have retired by now, right?"

As far as she and Lin Xiaolu were aware, Emerald Sparrow was a resident of the Magic Kingdom.

After all, Emerald Sparrow never mentioned which city she was from, and she always emphasized that she was much older than them. Other people corroborated that she was a "very important person," indeed not seeming like a Magical Girl from the material world.

The two girls had actually always been skeptical of Emerald Sparrow's claim that she was an adult, but now that they saw this photo, their remaining doubts also disappeared.

"She didn't retire."

Seeing that Lin Xiaolu's emotions were much more stable, Lin Yun sighed inwardly and continued expressionlessly, "Because Lulu's mother is special. She is a lifetime Magical Girl, different from others."

This brand new concept left both Lin Xiaolu, with tears on the corners of her eyes, and Xia Liang, who was comforting her, feeling bewildered.

——"Lifetime? Xiaolu's mother was a lifetime Magical Girl?"

Different from the two confused girls, the one with the biggest reaction in the car was actually Moke.

That was not surprising, for of everyone present, aside from Lin Yun, only it knew what that term meant.

Seeing that Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang had no concept of this, it immediately explained, "A lifetime Magical Girl means that because of some special achievement or deed, one is allowed to remain forever in the material world. It's a really amazing proof of strength!"

"Mom… was she very amazing as a Magical Girl?"

Lin Xiaolu asked while choking up, repeating the words said by Moke, then as if realizing something, she looked up blankly, "Then, then how exactly did Mom die?"

While asking, she reminisced, and suddenly remembered another critical point, staring straight ahead at the driver's seat as if she could see through the back of the chair and into her father's eyes:

"When you originally told me to 'forget her,' was it because of this reason?"

This question went straight to the heart of the matter. After her sadness and longing had been released, she finally realized that her mother's death was not so simple.

Lin Yun didn't speak.

His silence was not a refusal, but a consideration.

His gaze drifted towards the rearview mirror where he made eye contact with Lin Xiaolu, whose eyes were reddening. In that gaze, he could see that although there was sorrow, her eyes were still clear.

Then he spoke up.

"...During these days as a Magical Girl, you must have heard something about how a Magical Girl's strength is determined, right?"

Lin Yun took his eyes back, staring somewhat woodenly out the front windshield at the road: "White Piece, Character Piece, Flower Piece. Although I'm not very clear about the specifics, she had a title before she died."

His words paused slightly, but there was not a sound from the back seat.

Whether it was Lin Xiaolu, or Xia Liang and Moke, they were all captivated by his words, holding their breath, quietly waiting for the rest of what he had to say.

Perhaps at this moment, he should be lighting a cigarette to add to the atmosphere.

Such an idea came to Lin Yun out of nowhere, but he didn't have the habit of smoking, and he could just let out a long sigh, as if exhaling his own worries:

"It's said that, in the latter half of her career as a Magical Girl, the other Magical Girls acknowledged her as 'the strongest Flower Piece'."