Hui Jin’s breath caught in her throat.
She didn’t reach out to take it, so Xia Che just kept holding the phone out.
Three pairs of eyes were fixed on the phone screen as a short vibration echoed through the VIP hospital room.
“Aren’t you going to answer that?”
Xia Che shook the phone.
Snapping out of it, Hui Jin immediately snatched it, hung up, and held down the power button to turn it off in one smooth motion.
“Is that really okay? Based on the name, that looks like your boss, Hui Jin.”
Xia Che stared at her.
“Ah, well… it’s fine, really.”
Hui Jin tried to sound casual, but her stammering betrayed her nerves.
She’d barely woken up and was already under this much pressure.
The middle-aged woman at heart couldn’t handle this.
More importantly, there was no way she could answer the phone as Hui Jin!
Especially in front of the kids.
How was she supposed to explain that the person who answered Ye Qianqiu’s phone sounded like an eleven- or twelve-year-old girl?
“I’m sorry, Uncle, but I’m Uncle Ye’s niece. He got hit by a car and is in the hospital. He’s still unconscious!”
‘No, no, no matter how you put it, that excuse was way too ridiculous.’
A simple check would reveal that Ye Qianqiu had no hospital records.
So how was she supposed to explain her disappearance for a whole week?
The girl clutched the phone, her mind a tangled mess.
“So Senior Hui Jin really is a working adult,” Ye Xiao Chi said, resting her elbows on her knees and cupping her face in her hands.
She felt like she’d heard the name Boss Xu somewhere before, but she couldn’t quite remember, so she shrugged off the odd feeling.
“That must be tough. Fighting monsters during the day and working at night…”
Ye Xiao Chi reached out and patted Hui Jin’s head.
“You passed out fighting for everyone, and the first thing your boss does when you wake up is nag you to get back to work. What a jerk!”
“Y-Yeah…”
Hui Jin’s gaze drifted as she answered absentmindedly, while Xia Che’s expression behind her grew stranger by the second.
Wanting to change the subject quickly, Hui Jin pulled her head away from Ye Xiao Chi’s hand.
Ignoring the girl’s mournful look, she asked:
“Um… how did I survive?”
As she spoke, she slipped her phone under her pillow.
Since she couldn’t figure out what to do…
‘I’ll just ignore it for now.’
“Ah, let Xia Che explain. He was there after all.”
Ye Xiao Chi elbowed Xia Che behind her.
Xia Che nodded.
“After you deactivated that burning form, your vitals dropped dangerously. You were practically knocking on death’s door. But luckily, Candy arrived in time and healed you with her magic.”
“Just… that simple?”
Hui Jin raised an eyebrow.
“But that form…”
‘She should have been doomed.’
Burning Form used her soul as fuel to exchange for massive magical power, allowing her to momentarily return to A-Rank strength.
The cost was that once her soul burned out, she would die.
Even Candy’s healing magic shouldn’t have been able to fix it.
Candy’s magic was fundamentally about birth and couldn’t fill the void left by her soul.
Hui Jin recalled the scorching heat and tingling sensation she’d felt in her daze back then.
The memory was so vivid that the girl’s face flushed, even the tips of her ears turning a cute pink.
That’s right. The last person she remembered seeing was Xia Che.
If she asked him…
“Um, Xia Che… do you remember what happened then? I distinctly remember…”
Hui Jin felt too embarrassed to describe what she’d felt.
‘Thinking I imagined being french-kissed on my deathbed is just like a repressed little girl in puberty!’
‘What if my mind was playing tricks on me? How would I ever face anyone again!’
The more she thought about it, the more mortified and confused she became.
The girl bit her lip, her cheeks flushed like the sunset.
Her red eyes looked at Xia Che with watery expectation, waiting for his answer.
“Ah, what? I just told you everything that happened.”
Xia Che answered without changing his expression, then shrugged.
“I’m just an ordinary person. There’s nothing I could have done even if I’d wanted to, right? Besides, I was really freaking out back then. Good thing Miss Candy arrived in time…”
He looked at Hui Jin seriously.
“Hui Jin, don’t do anything that dangerous again. If something happened to you, what would Xiao Chi do?”
“Mm… mm, I know…”
His tone and stare were so firm that even Hui Jin lost her confidence.
She was stunned for a moment before nodding instinctively.
And what did he mean by what would Xiao Chi do?
She was just Feizuan’s senior…
“But no matter what, the important thing is you survived!”
Sensing the awkward tension between them, Ye Xiao Chi stepped in to smooth things over.
“And did you know, Senior Hui Jin? Your fighting footage went viral online! It already has 1.3 billion views! You’re like a veteran hero who’s been popular for years. Your name’s been sitting at the top of the trending charts for ages!”
She pulled out her phone, searched for the relevant keywords, and showed the screen to Hui Jin.
Hui Jin looked at it.
Just as the girl had said, the video had 1.34 billion views and over a million comments.
The thumbnail was a super clear front-facing shot of her after activating Burning Form.
She had no idea how those drones had managed to capture that.
“Hah…”
Hui Jin let out a deep sigh.
Back then, she only thought about protecting Ye Xiao Chi.
She never considered surviving.
Now that things had blown up like this, staying anonymous was completely out of the question.
“Hui Jin, what are you going to do now?”
Xia Che suddenly spoke up.
“If you still don’t want to cooperate with any organization, I’ll help keep them away…”
To make his words more credible, he opened a photo on his phone and showed it to Hui Jin.
“I just got my Hero Management Agent License a while ago. I’ve got some knowledge about this.”
Hui Jin was taken aback.
A small smile curled at the corner of her lips as she teased:
“Oh? You betrayed me before but now you’re acting like my buddy. Mr. Xia Che, what exactly are you after?”
“I’ve deeply reflected on my mistakes. I hope Miss Hui Jin will give me a chance to make up for it.”
Xia Che answered without a hint of shame or a change in his heartbeat.
“That sounds nice, but…”
Hui Jin shook her head and clasped her hands together on the blanket.
“I’m planning to join the Task Force.”
“Huh? Senior Hui Jin is joining the Task Force?”
Ye Xiao Chi’s eyes lit up, and she leaned in close.
Hui Jin quickly scooted away, pulling the blanket up to cover half her face to ward off the girl’s grabby hands.
“Mm…”
She answered quietly, not intending to explain further.
After everything that had happened, she’d realized just how weak she truly was.
The Shadows had returned.
If she had to face an enemy of that level again, she wasn’t sure she could use Burning Form.
Even if she could, what if it wasn’t enough to win?
It was a last resort.
Her actual strength was only around E-Rank.
Against an absolute power gap, no amount of skill or experience could bridge it.
To protect the people she cared about, she needed to be strong enough.
As the largest official hero organization, the Task Force should have a systematic way to improve a magical girl’s base stats.
She didn’t want to break her promise to the girl again.
She didn’t want the people she cared about to get hurt again.
In the end, the girl made up her mind.
SLAM!
At that moment, the door was suddenly thrown open.
A woman in a professional suit, red-bottomed heels, and a high ponytail walked in under Hui Jin’s surprised and uncertain gaze.
“Hello. I’m Jiang Yiyun, director of the Magical Girl Division of the Task Force. I happened to overhear your decision at the door. What a coincidence!”
Jiang Yiyun smiled brightly and handed over a contract.
“Then without further ado, shall we sign the contract?”
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