My wife is a witch princess.

"Your Highness, please stop fooling around. You're too far away to hear me."

"...Whenever you lie, you like to call me Your Highness."

No one paid attention to Xia Li's words. She could only sit down with her head down, mutter the incantation a few times, and draw circles with her fingers.

Jiang Shuo tilted his head.

"So, who is Tang Xiaoniang?"

“Brother, Tang Xiaoniang is my good friend from the class next door. She’s been absent from school for several days now.” Jiang Xiaoxiao’s voice trembled, and tears welled up in her eyes. “Last time she sent me a message saying that I would call the police for her… I thought she was joking.”

Jiang Xiaoxiao could no longer stop her tears. She took out her phone, and her QQ avatar was still lit up, with a few scattered messages on it.

Time: 12/15 22:14

"Greedy Little Bear": Please call the police for me, help!

'Greedy Little Bear': Just kidding! I bought a little panda outside, I'll give it to you next time you go to school.

'Greedy Little Bear':

"Little Loves Bears": It's my birthday this weekend, I'd like to invite you to dinner, are you coming?

'Greedy Little Bear': I have something to do this weekend, so I won't be coming.

Jiang Xiaoxiao burst into tears. Her best friend had said that she would definitely come to her birthday party, and she had actually doubted what her best friend had said.

She stared at the chat messages, her finger swiping unconsciously, and suddenly noticed that Tang Xiaoniang always used punctuation in her messages, but after that sentence, "Call the police for me, help me," there were no more punctuation marks.

Jiang Xiaoxiao was probably blaming herself too much, and actually thought that such a trivial detail was the key to saving her friend.

After she was isolated, this was her only close friend.

Jiang Xiaoxiao was thinking,

If I had made a phone call that day, or asked a few more questions, Tang Xiaoniang... wouldn't have died.

If Tang Xiaoniang had discovered the punctuation problem earlier, she wouldn't have died.

I'm so stupid...

Chapter 25 What does it have to do with me, a witch, if someone at this age doesn't engage in pure love?

At the Four Seasons Inn, the discussion was lively. Law enforcement officers led the seven people away from the restaurant without disrupting order for long. Song Che was called out for a brief questioning, left his name, and then released.

"...Here's a tissue."

Xia Li couldn't bring herself to wipe away Jiang Xiaoxiao's tears, but a pang of pain welled up inside her. She didn't want this girl, who usually had such a beautiful smile, to be crying her face and losing her spirit. She couldn't smile herself; she wanted Jiang Xiaoxiao to smile.

Jiang Xiaoxiao took the tissue and wiped away her tears, but more tears kept falling from the corners of her eyes. She turned off her phone, sniffed, then turned it back on, staring blankly at the chat interface, clicking on her QQ profile picture, and looking at the personalized tag:

"With a little anticipation, I look forward to the snow falling!"

Jiang Xiaoxiao pays the most attention to detail when writing questions and is least afraid of traps. She can remember a parenthesis, a simplification, or even a verb. But because of this meticulousness, she didn't notice her friend's unusual behavior or her friend's typing habits.

People always regret things and always think, "If only I had known," but they are unwilling to believe that even if there were a way to undo the past, they would still make the same choice if they could go back to that time.

Xia Li stood to the side, her hands clenching and unclenching inside her hoodie sleeves. She wasn't good at comforting people, nor was she good at speaking. She remembered feeling strange when Song Che died, and only now did she understand that she felt guilty and wanted to apologize to Song Che, who had been with her for decades.

After thinking for a while, Xia Li put together a sentence that sounded alright: "...Just say what you want to say."

As soon as she finished speaking, Jiang Xiaoxiao's eyes welled up with tears again. She leaned against Xia Li's chest, her tears soaking her clothes. Xia Li was at a loss, so she could only gently hug this kitten-like girl and say, "...If you tell her, you won't feel guilty."

Xia Li's words sounded like she was speaking to herself.

Jiang Xiaoxiao replied to a message with trembling fingers.

'Little Loves Bear': I'm sorry, I'll make sure you and the others are bullied.

"Little Loves Bears": Beginning, One.

Xia Li silently thought to herself: I'm sorry that you're the one who has suffered before me.

……

"What else do you want to say? Abuse, bullying, insulting teachers, being ignorant and incompetent, disrupting social order—how could No. 1 Middle School produce such students? And seven of them at once! Now you're famous, and no one can suppress you."

In the interrogation room, a cell phone screen suddenly lit up, displaying two messages pinned to the top.

'Little Loves Bear': I'm sorry, I'll make sure you and the others are bullied.

"Little One Likes Bears": (This is a phrase from a Chinese web novel, and doesn't need a direct translation.)

The man interrogating him was furious when he saw it.

"So you're just pretending Tang Xiaoniang is still alive, deceiving her friends and teachers? If she weren't orphaned, you would have been discovered long ago. Honestly, your being a minor is your only protection; your actions are no different from those of an adult committing a crime. You know you're committing a crime, right?"

"Alright, call the last two over. Lock this one up in the law enforcement department first, and notify his parents and teachers."

The boy who was leading the group went out, and two girls came in.

The man who asked the question looked up, sized him up, and asked, "From the same class?"

"...No, I'm from Class 6."

"Who's in the same class as Tang Xiaoniang?"

"...I, but I really didn't bully her."

"Law enforcement officers are already reviewing the surveillance footage. Since you didn't bully her, you won't be involved. But you're really bold, plotting murder in a restaurant?"

The man paused, his voice tinged with confusion, "...Did your parents know you had abortions?"

"...I know, but they don't care about me anymore."

"I see you two are girls, so I have a suggestion: don't hang out with these people. I know your basic situation; your grades were originally good. Why do you want to waste your time with the hooligans in the class?"

The two girls remained silent, each turning their heads to look to one side.

"Have self-respect and don't be so casual. Although I'm a policeman, once I take off my uniform, I'm a father and a husband. Do you think a responsible man would let you do these things? A responsible man who doesn't study, doesn't earn money, gets you pregnant, and leads you astray?"

Okay, that's all I wanted to say. I'm not in charge of education, and my language might be a bit rough, but what I want to say is that, regardless of whether they are boys or girls, at this age, bullying others shouldn't be the only thing they do.

The man muttered to himself, "Playing with other people's feelings in the name of love... Shouldn't this age be the age of purest love and the yearning for romance the most..."

……

Jiang Xiaoxiao stopped crying, but her eyes were still pink. She lay on the table, staring blankly into space, her vision blurred as she looked at the money trees.

Jiang Shuo and Xia Li switched seats, and Jiang Shuo sat next to her to keep her company.

Xia Li sat down to Song Che's right, her silver hair drooping listlessly over her shoulders. The witch princess rarely showed her emotions, but she was still a girl after all, and she was lamenting the death of another girl.

They also lamented that Jiang Xiaoxiao had lost her only close friend.

Many images flashed through Xia Liqing's eyes.

Those were the days after Song Che's death. King Hit invited her to a banquet of a very high standard, attended by nobles of the kingdom. She casually sat at a table, and when someone raised a glass, she took a sip in response. She became dizzy after just one sip, which resulted in her not eating much. Xia Li, like Song Che, couldn't drink alcohol, and both of them got drunk after just one sip.

As the banquet ended and the sun set, the drunken nobles were taken away by their families, and the guests chatted with their friends as they went home. Only she remained, clinging to a large tree, and slept for four hours in a daze. The night wind woke her up, chilled to the bone. If Song Che were here… she would have already been taken back to the castle by now.

But Song Che wasn't there. She rode her broomstick in a daze, got lost, and entered the Great Forest of Monsters. In the end, she fell from the sky, broke her arm, and lost her magic hat.

That time, she almost cried.

“…Song Che”.

"What's the matter."

Why are your eyes red?

Song Che was feeling annoyed. He was just having a nice meal when he ran into a bunch of clueless people who provoked him, made Jiang Xiaoxiao cry, and even made Xia Li cry. They also bullied their classmates and accidentally killed someone... How could someone so young do such a thing?

Wait, His Highness can cry?

Song Che couldn't understand why Xia Li always did strange things for no reason. For example, right now, she was staring at him, her blue eyes unblinking, yet filled with a thin mist. She was serious, but hesitant to speak.

...You have to wash the dishes again?

"I'm sorry, I left you..."

"what?"

"...It's nothing, you misheard, I didn't say anything."

Xia Litao's lips pressed tightly together, unable to utter a second "I'm sorry." Her previous words had exhausted all her courage and pride, but that little rascal had only replied with a "Huh?".

Song Che was starting to panic. The Witch Princess rarely apologized; unless it was a serious offense, she was usually incredibly stubborn. Was this... a bomb planted in the house? Had she stolen all of Bruce's cat food? Or had she leaked Earth's coordinates to the Trisolarans?

After thinking about it, Song Che came to a conclusion.

"Are you...hungry?"

"...A little."

"Let's eat then." Jiang Xiaoxiao stood up at some point, her tear stains dried. "It's all my fault for crying so much that I forgot about the important matter."

"Xiaoxiao, you..."

“I’m fine. Tang Xiaoniang is my good friend. I’m sad for her, but—” Jiang Xiaoxiao said solemnly, “I can’t neglect my friends now. I need to cherish the present.”

She handed the menu to Xia Li, "Sister, thank you for the tissues. I've ordered part of the menu; let's see if there's anything else I need to add."

Chapter 26 Xia Li Wants to Celebrate Her Birthday Every Day

Xia Li, Xia Li, with an appetite as big as an ox, she can eat an old sow without even looking up.

Song Che muttered to himself.

At first, Xia Li was very reserved and only ate her own portion. But after a while, she suddenly became intelligent and started eating her and his portions, but she left half of each dish for Jiang Shuo and Jiang Xiaoxiao.

Her manners as a witch were impeccable, leaving Song Che in awe.

As I said before, while other girls are charming and beautiful, she is shameful to even mention. While other girls are considered femme fatales, she is full of mouth, has a limp, and looks like a bandit!

From the moment the food was served, her little mouth never stopped. Song Che noticed that she was eating in small bites, but in the blink of an eye, half of the plate was empty.

“…Song Che, water.”

"Here you go, I'll pour it for you, just eat it."

"……Um."