After leaving the community gate, Lin Liuxia finally dared to raise his head.
The sun had just risen above the building across the street, and there was hardly anyone on the road.
The morning rush hour had passed, the students had long since entered their school gates, and the entire street was left with only a few women walking their dogs and a street-sprinkling truck.
He had been pressing down the brim of his hat the entire way, wishing he could stuff himself completely inside it.
Seeing that the street was now empty, the heat in his face finally began to fade.
‘Good.’
He breathed a sigh of relief, and his steps finally returned to normal.
At the intersection, he took out his phone and checked the navigation. The destination was 2.5 kilometers away, a twenty-six-minute walk.
‘Take a taxi?’
He swiped to the balance screen, glanced at it once, and immediately swiped back.
‘Twenty-six minutes.’
‘Let’s walk. It’s still cool in the morning.’
‘This month’s rent, my daughter’s tutoring fees, and the gas for the car…’
‘…Forget it. Thinking about it too much will only give me a headache.’
Lin Liuxia lowered his head and continued walking beneath the trees.
The skirt was a little short. Whenever the wind blew, the hem fluttered upward, forcing him to use one hand to hold it down.
His other hand had to hold his hat in place, making him look like a thief.
The edges of his thigh-high stockings dug tightly into his legs. After walking for a while, the pressure became almost numbingly uncomfortable.
He wanted to adjust them, but fiddling with his stockings in public felt too improper, so he could only endure it.
The twenty-six-minute journey stretched into more than thirty minutes.
Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened along the way, and he finally arrived safely after narrowly escaping his own embarrassment.
Starry Blue Night.
The four characters were displayed on a dark wooden plaque in dark blue neon tubing. The lights weren’t on during the day, but even the sign alone gave off an intimidatingly expensive vibe.
Lin Liuxia stopped at the entrance.
The glass door reflected his current appearance. A few strands of silver hair peeked out from beneath his hat, and his petite figure had a fair, delicate face squeezed between his mask and the brim.
He stared at his reflection in the glass for a while.
‘So cute, but why does it have to be me? 😒
Lin Liuxia painfully averted his gaze and reached out to push the door open.
The hinges were so smooth that the door opened without making a sound.
A blast of cold air hit his face, making him shiver.
Then he froze.
There wasn’t a single person inside the cafe.
More than ten tables were arranged throughout the shop, each decorated with a white vase and a neatly folded napkin. Not a single table had been touched.
The area behind the counter was empty, and the coffee machine’s small green standby light was glowing.
All the ceiling spotlights were on, and an unfamiliar piano piece played softly through the speakers.
‘Is this… what reserving the entire cafe looks like?’
Lin Liuxia stood on the doormat at the entrance, not daring to step inside.
He really couldn’t handle this kind of place. His monthly salary would probably only cover two afternoons of sitting here.
He took out his phone, tapped the bunny avatar he had just added, and typed a message.
[I’m at the cafe, but there’s no one here.]
He sent it.
The screen immediately displayed the words ‘the other party is typing’.
The next second, a reply appeared.
[Second floor.]
[The room at the very end.]
The response had come instantly.
Lin Liuxia stared at the two lines, and his heart began to pound.
‘Could Xiao Xue have been holding her phone and waiting for my message?’
He suddenly remembered something from more than a decade ago. Xiao Xue had been just like this back then.
Whenever Lin Liuxia said they would meet at six the next morning, he could find Xiao Xue leaning against the railing at the training ground by 5:40, pretending to look reluctant while holding a bottle of milk for him.
If he asked about it, she’d claim she’d bought it along the way.
But there wasn’t even a convenience store along the route from the Magical Girl Association to the training ground.
Lin Liuxia shook his head, tossing those distracting thoughts aside.
‘Why am I thinking about that? I’m here to ask her for help.’
The stairs were at the very back of the cafe, their steps covered in dark gray carpet.
After reaching the second floor, he found a corridor directly ahead, with four doors on each side. The room at the very end was unmarked and dimly lit.
Lin Liuxia stopped in front of the door.
He placed his hand on the doorknob, then withdrew it.
‘How should I start?’
“Hi, long time no see?”
‘Hmm… That sounds a little too casual. Not really appropriate.’
“I’m sorry I haven’t contacted you in so long?”
Even he felt embarrassed just imagining himself saying that.
Back then, the day after submitting his retirement application, he had practically vanished from the face of the earth.
At the time, he had wanted to cut off all ties completely, and the cleaner the break, the better.
‘But now…’
‘Damn it.’
He raised a hand to adjust his mask, then pulled his hat brim down a little farther.
‘…What’s the point of adjusting these? I’ll have to take them off once I go inside anyway.’
‘Forget it.’
He closed his eyes, inhaled deeply, and slowly exhaled.
‘Don’t think about anything else. Just fix the magic circuit problem and leave once it’s done.’
‘Absolutely no bringing up those other complicated matters.’
He reached out, grasped the doorknob, and turned it.
The door opened.
The private room was spacious, with an entire wall made up of floor-to-ceiling windows. The curtains were only half drawn, allowing sunlight to stream in and divide the floor into bright and shadowed halves.
Two sofas sat near the windows, with a low table between them. Two cups of coffee rested on the table, steam rising from their rims.
A woman sat on one of the sofas.
She wore a black suit, her long hair neatly tied behind her head. Her legs were crossed, and she leaned casually against the backrest.
Holding the handle of her coffee cup with her left hand, she tilted her head and gazed out the window.
Lin Liuxia’s hand remained on the door.
‘It’s been ten years.’
The woman before him seemed even colder than the one he remembered.
“…Xiao Xue.”
The hand holding the coffee cup paused in midair before the woman slowly turned her head.
She looked at the petite figure standing in the doorway, wearing a hat and mask. Her gaze settled on the strand of silver hair peeking out beneath the brim.
One second.
Two seconds.
“Take them off.”
The coffee cup clinked against its saucer.
“Take off both your hat and your mask.”
Lin Liuxia obediently raised his hand and removed the hat.
His long silver hair fell over his shoulders. After being pressed beneath the brim for so long, several strands stuck out messily.
Then he removed his mask.
Holding both items in his hands, Lin Liuxia stood there, unsure where to put them.
Xiao Xue stared at him for a moment before tilting her head with an expressionless face.
“Sit.”
“Oh.”
Lin Liuxia hurried over, set the hat and mask aside, and sat properly on the single sofa opposite her.
Xiao Xue said nothing more. She leaned forward, pushed one of the coffee cups toward him, and then settled back against the sofa.
Her demeanor was as cold as ever, no different from when they had spoken on the phone.
For some reason, Lin Liuxia felt relieved.
‘Good.’
If Xiao Xue had immediately asked where he had been all these years or why he had disappeared without a word, he genuinely wouldn’t have known how to answer.
He picked up the coffee she had pushed toward him and cautiously took a sip.
“So bitter!”
The words had barely left his mouth when Lin Liuxia froze.
Back when he and Xiao Xue went on missions together, he had always complained that the coffee provided by the Magical Girl Association was too bitter, and that even adding a packet of sugar barely helped.
Every time he took a sip and grimaced, Xiao Xue would coldly toss her own packet of sugar toward him.
Eventually, Xiao Xue had found him too troublesome, so she simply started adding sugar to his coffee herself.
But that had all happened ten years ago.
Holding the cup, Lin Liuxia suddenly didn’t know whether he should continue drinking.
Xiao Xue glanced at the coffee in his hand, then at the cup beside her own hand.
She reached out and took the cup from Lin Liuxia.
“Sorry, I took the wrong one.”
Then she pushed her own cup into his hand.
“Drink this one. I added sugar.”
Lin Liuxia lowered his gaze.
The cup was already less than half full, and a faint lipstick mark remained on the rim.
He did like sweet coffee, but the problem was that Xiao Xue had clearly already drunk from this cup.
Lin Liuxia raised his head.
Xiao Xue had already turned toward the window, her fingers resting beside the black coffee. Her expression remained as unapproachable as ever.
‘Hmm, the tips of her ears are a little red.’
‘This…’
“Xiao Xue, you just drank from this cup, right?”
Xiao Xue straightened her back slightly.
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll drink the other one.”
Lin Liuxia was just about to put the cup back when Xiao Xue looked up and shot him a glance.
“It’s just coffee.”
“Are you disgusted by me?”
‘?’
‘How did this turn into me being disgusted by you? 😒
“I didn’t mean that.”
Fearing a misunderstanding, Lin Liuxia hurriedly explained himself.
“I just thought it wasn’t quite appropriate.”
“There’s no such thing as appropriate or inappropriate,” Xiao Xue said flatly. “Drink it. It’ll taste even worse once it gets cold.”
Lin Liuxia didn’t dare say anything more. He lowered his head and forced himself to take another sip.
The sweetness spread across his tongue, and the coffee was indeed much better than the previous cup.
Lin Liuxia pursed his lips and spoke softly.
“You still remember.”
Xiao Xue said nothing, turning her head away.
After a moment, she replied casually.
“I just have a good memory.”
Her voice still carried little emotion, but Lin Liuxia could tell that her mood seemed to have improved considerably.