Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 249 On the road

The bright white light flickered slightly on the ceiling of the cabin, but returned to normal after a moment.

Delphinium spread out her suitcase on the bed and knelt beside it to count the things she would need for the next trip.

After taking out the things she would need next and sorting the remaining items, she closed her suitcase, sat on the bed and let out a long sigh of relief.

At this time, the sky outside the window had already turned into the darkness of the night.

On the bed opposite Delphinium, Xia Liang was wearing headphones, his fingers swiping across the screen of his mobile phone from time to time, and the video images on the phone were reflected in his pupils.

"Feel sorry."

So Delphinium took the initiative to speak.

"……Um?"

Hearing Cuiqiao talking, Xia Liang took off one of his headphones and looked at her strangely: "Why are you apologizing?"

"It would be a bit boring to live in the same room with me, right?"

Delphinium looked at her and said, "Because I don't really understand what young people like nowadays. Most of the topics you are interested in are out of context, so it's like now, we can't talk at all."

"Eh...will it? I don't think so."

Xia Liang put the phone on his chin and thought for a moment: "I feel that even if Xiaolu and I live in the same room, we will probably stay in our own beds playing with our phones, right?"

"Is that so?"

Cuiqiao was a little unconvinced: "Logically speaking, you are going to the kingdom to take the test next, and you should be nervous, excited, or looking forward to the future. Shouldn't you have endless things to talk about at this time?"

"No... She and I have talked about this kind of thing a lot before. We said we wanted to chat, but at this moment, there's actually nothing to say."

Xia Liang smacked his lips and said, "It may sound a little strange, but although I am looking forward to seeing what the kingdom looks like, I don't really have any extra emotions. I just think these are just natural things."

“Are all young people like this now?”

Delphinium was stunned: "I remember when I first went to the kingdom, I almost talked with my teammates all night long."

"That's probably because you and that teammate have too many topics to talk about, little senior. It has nothing to do with going to the kingdom."

Xia Liang laughed dryly: "No, it's better to say that I can already guess that you were with Ying Senior at that time, right?"

"Is it that obvious?" Delphinium questioned.

"It's so obvious... ah, no, it's better to say that the picture is almost appearing in my mind."

Xia Liang raised his hands and covered his ears: "Let's not talk about it anymore. I don't want to listen to those sweet and sour youth stories full of love. I feel that it will make me feel very ugly."

"I thought you would like to hear this." Delphinium said with a blink.

"I like to listen to other people's words, but I reject your words, young senior." Xia Liang stretched out his hands and made a "cross" sign in front of himself.

Delphinium just felt a little confused, but her intuition made her not continue to ask questions on this topic. Instead, she chose to shut up and look out the dark window.

There was indeed nothing worth seeing in the wasteland after nightfall. All she could see was the desert, the Gobi Desert, and endless sandstorms. This monotonous scenery soon made her feel a little bored.

But as she said before, she really didn't know what to talk to Xia Liang about. She felt that she shouldn't spoil the mood by bringing up topics like assessments and studies at this time, as this would make her seem like a boring elder who was just making small talk and only annoyed others. So she simply remained silent.

After this silence lasted for a while, Xia Liang, who was looking at his phone, suddenly turned his head and looked at Cuique and said, "If you feel tired, you can go to sleep first, young senior."

"Oh, um... hm?"

Delphinium responded first, and then asked in confusion after realizing it belatedly: "Sleep?"

"Well, I want to finish watching this movie before going to bed, so you can go to bed first." Xia Liang said as a matter of course.

"You mean, I can go straight to bed next?" Delphinium asked again, as if to confirm something.

"Yeah, what's wrong?" Xia Liang raised his eyebrows.

"...No, nothing."

Delphinium exhaled, "Just realized I might have been overthinking this."

"Eh--"

Hearing her say this, Xia Liang suddenly showed a teasing smile on his face: "So you were overthinking. Can I ask, my respected young senior, what exactly did you overthink just now?"

"It's nothing important." Delphinium said expressionlessly.

"Irrelevant? What kind of irrelevant is that? Do you think I might suggest some entertainment projects like flying chess, or do you think I will force you to continue chatting?"

Xia Liang stood up and moved closer to Delphinium: "You can't be worried that I will ask to sleep with you, right? This seems a bit too 'insignificant'?"

"You think too much." Delphinium closed her eyes.

"Oh, I was embarrassed to bring it up myself, but since you, young senior, took the initiative to bring up this topic, I will ask for it with reluctance."

Putting down the phone in his hand, Xia Liang came close to Cuique and said in a strange tone: "So, young senior, tonight, can you... go to bed early and have a good sleep?"

"...Hmm?" The unexpected words made Cuiqiao open his eyes again, but all he saw was Xia Liang's smiling face.

"What's the matter? Do you really think that I will make some embarrassing requests after finally finding an opportunity to be alone?"

Xia Liang smiled like a cunning little fox: "But I won't. All I ask is that you take a good rest and prepare for the next trip to the country."

"...It's really unexpected." Delphinium opened her mouth and could only comment this way in the end.

"Hehe, being caught between two little girls vying for your affection every day, and having to work hard to balance the two of them, plus having to deal with a lot of messy work, it really is hard, isn't it?"

Xia Liang stood up and patted his coat: "So you don't need to worry about this or that on my side, just relax, I won't make things difficult for you."

She paused halfway through her words, then looked at Delphinium and said, "Is it hard to understand?"

"A little bit." Delphinium nodded.

"Because this is a new strategy I came up with recently."

Xia Liang was a little proud, and said with his hands on his hips: "I named it the 'gentle harbor strategy'. When Xiaolu and Xiaoxuan acted ugly in front of you to compete for that little favor, I just need to remain gentle, tolerant, and indifferent. Let you, the little senior, feel no pressure when you are with me, even like a spring breeze, and feel that it will be easier in front of me than with them. Then, over time, won't my impression score soar easily?"

“…Maybe that’s a possibility.”

Delphinium commented bluntly, yet still confused: "But can you tell me this kind of thing directly?"

"You must say it out loud."

Xia Liang blinked his eyes: "This is what you taught me, little senior. What if I don't say it, and you don't feel my good intentions, wouldn't all my efforts be in vain?"

Delphinium was speechless.

"Okay, so just relax and sleep peacefully."

Xia Liang sat back on his bed, put on his headphones again, and waved his hand: "Don't worry about me, I will go to bed on my own when the time comes."

She said so and did so.

When Cuiqiao really believed what she said and chose to go to bed first, she found that Xia Liang was still sitting on her bed watching the video, with no intention of doing anything.

This behavior finally made her relax a lot.

No need to worry about those trivial things anymore, Delphinium can naturally relax its mind, let its thoughts become free, and take a good rest on the spiritual level.

I don’t know what the situation is with Lulu and Xiaoxuan.

Such random thoughts flashed through her mind, but they were just random thoughts after all. She would not run to other people's cabins and disturb those who might have fallen asleep just because of such a thought.

Then, Delphinium closed her eyes on the bed.

……

……

When the landship sailed into the depths of the wilderness, it was already late at night. The soft white moon hung high in the night sky, casting a layer of tranquil glow on the dark landship.

Lin Xiaolu looked at the endless wasteland outside the window, stared at the unchanging scenery for a while, then closed her eyes and pulled the curtains at the porthole.

The crisp sound of rolling curtains broke the silence in the small cabin.

Bai Jingxuan, who was originally reading with her head down, raised her head silently and looked towards the window. After realizing where the voice just now came from, she lowered her head again without saying a word.

As agreed in the previous game, the two people could only live in the same cabin because they failed to win the flying chess. The cabin of moderate size can accommodate two single beds, and there is a square table fixed on the ground in the middle of the single beds. When the passengers on the ship do not need to lie down to rest, they can sit on the bed and face the table, so that they can do some simple work.

At this time, Bai Jingxuan placed her book on the table and read it attentively with the help of the fluorescent lights in the cabin.

Lin Xiaolu's eyes casually swept across the pages of the book and easily recognized the content printed on it - it seemed to be an elementary school textbook.

She also knew that Cuiqiao was preparing to let Bai Jingxuan return to school, so she didn't say much. She just covered her mouth and yawned silently, then kicked off her shoes, shrank back into bed, took out her mobile phone, and began to clean up today's daily mobile game tasks.

The two of them kept to themselves and did their own things. Bai Jingxuan turned the pages of the book in her hand, and the pictures on Lin Xiaolu's phone kept changing. Bai Jingxuan left the room several times, but soon returned to the room alone, looking a little disappointed. She didn't say anything, so Lin Xiaolu didn't ask her what she was doing when she went out.

It was like this until late at night, when there was no other noise except the roar of the landspeeder's engine. Lin Xiaolu blinked sleepily, yawned again and sat up from the bed.

She was used to washing up before going to bed, but there was no independent bathroom in the cabin, so she could only go to the public bathroom on the land ship.

When Lin Xiaolu walked out of the cabin for some distance in a daze, she realized that there seemed to be a tail following her.

When she looked back, she found that it was Bai Jingxuan standing behind her.

"…What are you doing?" She asked subconsciously.

"Go pee." Bai Jingxuan answered in a rather bachelor manner.

"Oh." So Lin Xiaolu didn't doubt him and continued to walk forward.

But when she walked a little further forward, she found that Bai Jingxuan was still hanging behind her. She was confused for a moment and turned back to ask, "Well, do you have to follow me?"

Bai Jingxuan pursed her lips and said nothing.

Seeing that she didn't answer, Lin Xiaolu felt even more puzzled, so she continued to stare at Bai Jingxuan, wondering what this little girl was trying to do.

“…Um, can we keep going?”

After a while, Bai Jingxuan finally spoke first: "I can't bear it anymore."

"I'm not saying anything bad about you. If you want to go to the bathroom, why don't you just go by yourself? Why are you following me?"

Lin Xiaolu was a little puzzled: "There are no obstacles ahead."

"I don't know where it is." Bai Jingxuan stammered.

"What?"

"I don't know where the toilet is!" Bai Jingxuan shouted louder and louder.

"Huh? Oh, oh."

Lin Xiaolu realized what the other party was talking about, and she took a step forward with a little embarrassment. Unlike Bai Jingxuan, she had deliberately memorized the location of the bathroom on the way here, so after a few turns, she took Bai Jingxuan to find the nearest bathroom.

When she was holding the face towel holding her own face and collecting water from the basin, she realized it belatedly and widened her eyes: "Ah, so you didn't find the bathroom when you went out a few times just now?"

Bai Jingxuan's footsteps paused slightly, then immediately became a little hurried. Without waiting for Lin Xiaolu to ask anything, she rushed into the compartment closest to the door.

This topic was just brushed aside in Bai Jingxuan's silent protest.

Nothing unexpected happened on the way back. Lin Xiaolu led Bai Jingxuan through the corridor with warm yellow lights and returned to the cabin where they lived. After changing into special pajamas for going out, they prepared to go to sleep.

However, before going to bed, out of pure curiosity, she walked over to Bai Jingxuan's desk and took a look.

At this time, Bai Jingxuan was pondering over a Spanish reading question. The tip of the pen that was placed on the blank space of the question did not move at all, and it was obvious that it was stuck.

Lin Xiaolu looked at the question and said nothing more, then turned around and left, returning to her bed. But when she kicked off her shoes again and was about to lie back on the bed, she stopped for some reason.

With a thoughtful expression on her face, Lin Xiaolu walked to Bai Jingxuan again after a moment. When she found that Bai Jingxuan still hadn't written down the answer, she cleared her throat and said, "Choose B."

Bai Jingxuan raised her head and looked at her with some confusion.

"I mean, the answer to this question is B." Lin Xiaolu reiterated.

Bai Jingxuan tilted her head, still looking puzzled, but she lowered her head and filled in option "B" in the blank with a pen.

Then, she was stuck on the next question.

Seeing her like this, Lin Xiaolu understood that she didn't understand the article at all, so she could only shrug helplessly and say, "Forget it, let me explain it to you."

Having said that, she squeezed in next to Bai Jingxuan and sat down, and began to explain the article to her and the meaning of some of the words in it.

With the intensive tutoring at Cuiqiao over the past six months, Lin Xiaolu's academic performance has basically caught up with the majority of her classmates. In addition, her language foundation is better than other courses, and her current English-Serbian course results are already considered good, which is more than enough for her to guide Bai Jingxuan's primary school courses.

Bai Jingxuan previously lived in an orphanage, and because of her physical illness, it was difficult for her to go to school to receive systematic education, so her learning foundation was indeed not very optimistic. Science and Donghua language courses were fine, and Bai Jingxuan's habit of reading allowed her to learn something. But Xiluo language was completely different. Bai Jingxuan had never read foreign language books before, so she had to learn this course from scratch.

Lin Xiaolu decided to go all out and led Bai Jingxuan to explain all the exercises on the pages of the book. It was not until she could no longer stay awake due to the overwhelming sleepiness that she put down the pen in her hand tiredly: "Okay, let's stop here. It's time to go to bed."

"...Yeah." Bai Jingxuan's eyes were still fixed on the questions in the textbook, and she made a response sound that no one knew whether it had any specific meaning or not.

Lin Xiaolu could only judge based on her experience and thought that she probably heard what she said, so she didn't say anything more, but stood up and prepared to go to bed.

"Um, Sister Xiaolu."

At this time, I don’t know if she had finished reading the contents of the book, Bai Jingxuan finally raised her head: "Thank you, you are really amazing."

"It's just ordinary. You're welcome anyway." Lin Xiaolu blinked and answered calmly.

"But, although I have indeed received a lot of care from you and I should thank you, I will not admit defeat."

Bai Jingxuan raised her eyes and looked directly into Lin Xiaolu's eyes: "I will be mom's...teacher's favorite child, and I will never lose to you."

Lin Xiaolu looked at her.

The two people looked at each other, and neither of them showed any intention of backing down. After a while, Lin Xiaolu raised her hand and gently patted Bai Jingxuan on the forehead.

"Okay, I accept your challenge, but I'll say this beforehand, I won't let you down. Show me all your abilities."

After patting Bai Jingxuan on the head, she went back to her bed without looking back:
"Then I will make you understand that I am the senior."

……

……

The next morning, the land ship arrived in Yannan City very smoothly.

There were no risks or accidents, and there were no attacks by wild beasts around the waterway. This was just an ordinary voyage for this weathered land-based ship.

Everyone walked out of the port carrying large and small bags, and under the guidance of the guide, they boarded the port bus to the city. After a long drive of more than an hour, they finally entered the city of Yannan City.

Just a quick glimpse of this central city was enough to amaze people like Lin Xiaolu who had never been there before.

Tall smart buildings stand on both sides of the commercial streets, and many of the building exteriors are covered with dynamic display screens, playing a variety of advertisements. Suspended bridges are built between the buildings, spanning the main roads of the city. Each bridge is not only a traffic artery, but also a small sky garden filled with green plants and colorful flowers.

Swarms of small drones fly through the air, methodically carrying out tasks such as logistics, air purification and monitoring. There is a drone docking station on top of each building to facilitate cargo delivery.

In addition, there is the extensive urban rail transit; the dizzying underground building complex; the three-dimensional green space embedded between the elevated roads and major traffic arteries... Many things cannot be seen in a small town like Fangting City.

There is no doubt that in the material world, central cities are synonymous with the most developed and advanced human civilization. Their area is often five or even ten times that of ordinary cities, and they are surrounded by a varying number of small urban belts. If placed in the past history of the material world, they can even be called relatively small "countries".

What creates this rare prosperous scene in the world is nothing else but the real and unique geographical advantages of these central cities - the stops of national special trains.

At this moment, Cuiqiao was standing in front of the special train station in Yannan City.

This is a tall and huge building, like a giant monument standing on the ground. The station is pitch black, and the main body is a rectangular block, but the top side is slightly tilted inward, forming an asymmetrical bevel effect. The bevel surface flickers with fine Favor runes, appearing and disappearing with the change of light. Starting from this bevel surface, the huge rectangle is divided into two from the middle, looking like a deep crack that has been cut. The track from afar enters from the crack and extends from the other end of the crack, just passing through it straightly, simple enough to make people feel solemn.

There were several huge entrances and exits on the side of the black building, but unlike the crowded scenes at ordinary train stations, the flow of people entering and exiting this station was extremely sparse, and only three or two people could be seen occasionally. Compared with the bustling downtown area several blocks away, this place was so deserted that it made people wonder if they had taken the wrong road.

Of course, Delphinium knew she was not wrong.

This was not her first time to come to this magnificent and peculiar station. In fact, because Yannan City was the central city closest to Fangting, she had set out from here to the magical kingdom more than once in the past.

A special barrier was set up around the station using the country's technology, so ordinary people had no chance of getting lost. Only those who held a ticket for the country's special train and had a certain level of magic power as a guide could enter this area and find this station hidden in the downtown area.

The trains in the station all have only one destination, the Magic Kingdom. They arrive and depart strictly according to the schedule with few delays. The routes of these special trains are also exactly the same. They all circle around the central city of the material world before taking a carload of passengers to the Magic Kingdom.

It's not just magical girls who go to the kingdom. In fact, as long as they have the relevant permission, a large number of humans go from the material world to the magical kingdom every day, whether for business, tourism, further studies, or political purposes.

These people naturally account for a minority among humans in the material world, but in terms of absolute numbers, they are not a small number at all.

Compared with the previous experience at the land ship port, the security check process at the National Special Train Station became much smoother. Perhaps it was because the staff here often received magical girls and were no longer surprised by underage girls riding trains alone or in groups, so they easily let Fang Tingshi and his group pass.

With green lights all the way, Cuiqiao and the others quickly boarded the train they were going to catch.

(End of this chapter)