Lin Lu walked into the Magical Girl Headquarters Building early the next morning.
Even at this hour, the building was already bustling with activity.
Uniformed staff hurried past with armfuls of documents, and several Magical Girls chatting in the hallway excitedly waved to her when they saw her.
“Senior Chiyoyuki! Congratulations on your upcoming debut!”
“Senior Chiyoyuki! I’m a fan too!”
Lin Lu politely nodded her thanks and quickened her pace toward the recording studio.
Qin Lan saw Lin Lu come in and handed her a cup of hot coffee.
“Have something warm. It’ll soothe your throat.”
Lin Lu took the coffee and drank a sip, instantly feeling a bit warmer.
“Today, we just need to record three songs.” Qin Lan flipped open the sheet music.
“Snow, Moonlight, Starlight and Dream. We’ve practiced these three songs for so long, you should be very familiar with them. It shouldn’t take long.”
Lin Lu nodded.
She could sing these three songs perfectly without even looking at the music.
“Alright, I’m ready.”
As Lin Lu expected, the recording went very smoothly.
By the time they finished all three songs, it was just past noon.
Walking out of the recording booth, Lin Lu looked down at her phone.
Qin Lan had sent a message asking how the recording went, and she typed a reply.
As she turned a corner on the stairs, she accidentally bumped into someone.
“Ah! Sorry…”
Lin Lu staggered, nearly falling, but since she was the one not paying attention while looking at her phone, she apologized first.
“It’s fine.” The person looked up and steadied Lin Lu, “Hmm? Oh, it’s you.”
Hearing the familiar voice, Lin Lu was also taken aback.
After steadying herself, she looked up and saw the signature fiery red hair.
“It’s you, Sister Hong Huang.”
Hong Huang leaned against the wall, holding a cup of coffee, and looked Lin Lu up and down.
“You came to record today?”
“Yeah.” Lin Lu nodded, “My debut performance is next week, after all.”
“Oh, I saw.” Hong Huang took a sip of coffee and said, “Ah~ Too bad I didn’t manage to get a ticket.”
Lin Lu wasn’t sure what to say.
Would Hong Huang come to see her debut performance?
Hong Huang chuckled lightly, “Just kidding. I don’t need to fight for tickets. If I have time and feel like going, I can just ask Qin Lan to save me an internal VIP ticket.”
“Really? I didn’t think someone as busy as you, Sister Hong Huang, would have time to watch a debut performance.”
“Hey~ Don’t say that.” Hong Huang shook her head, “No matter how busy work is, you can’t forget to rest. Besides, I’m not a workaholic. What’s strange about watching a performance when I’m tired? More importantly, I’m very willing to keep an eye on an outstanding junior like you, who will definitely join our Seven Blades in the future.”
“Let’s not talk about that.”
Hong Huang tossed her empty coffee cup accurately into a trash can.
Her smile faded a bit as she said, “Have you felt anything unusual lately?”
Lin Lu frowned, ‘Unusual?’
She hadn’t noticed anything strange these past few months.
If she had to say something… it was that the frequency of Shadow Beast appearances seemed higher, but they were all small fry, so dealing with them was very easy.
“Hmm… If I had to say, the number of missions has increased a bit, but no strong enemies have appeared.”
Hong Huang nodded.
“Right. Over the past two months, the appearance frequency of Shadow Beasts in Beijiang City has almost doubled. Not just the numbers, but the variety is more mixed too.”
“This… maybe it’s a coincidence?”
“Unlikely.” Hong Huang shook her head, “Do you remember that Changmeng person? You should know the increased frequency started around the time she appeared. I suspect this definitely has something to do with her.”
“But… so what? The ones appearing are all low-strength Shadow Beasts. No matter how many come, they can’t threaten us. What’s the point of her doing this? Creating chaos?”
“Not clear yet. But I’ve investigated over the past few months and haven’t found much about Changmeng’s whereabouts. We also don’t know if there are other Hui Yan active in Beijiang. They must be plotting something. The increased frequency of Shadow Beasts might be them conducting some kind of experiment.”
Hong Huang’s voice lowered, “And… back when Changmeng met you, she showed an extremely high interest in you. Perhaps… their target might be you. Be careful in all things.”
Remembering how Changmeng said she would meet her again when she left, but not seeing a single trace of her over these two months, Lin Lu also felt a twinge of unease.
The target… could it be her?
But if the target of all this was her… could they have seen through her identity as a Witch?
Lin Lu shook her head, ‘Impossible.’
Even Hong Huang hadn’t detected her Witch identity.
How could Changmeng possibly know?
At most, she might have questions and suspicions about her identity.
“Alright, don’t be too tense. I’m still here, aren’t I? Wild guesses will just scare yourself. We’ll deal with whatever comes. Are we afraid of her?” Seeing Lin Lu frowning in deep thought, Hong Huang chuckled lightly and patted her shoulder.
She turned and walked upstairs.
“Chiyoyuki, don’t mess up next week’s debut performance.”
With that, her red trench coat disappeared around the corner.
Lin Lu stood still, looking at the empty staircase, dazed for a few seconds.
She looked down at her phone.
It was already 1:30!
The time she agreed to meet Hoshino Hikari and the others was 1:30!
“Oh no!”
Lin Lu hurriedly ran down the stairs, flying directly toward the cafe using magic.
At 1:40, Lin Lu pushed open the cafe door.
Warm air rushed over her, carrying the aroma of coffee.
Hoshino Hikari and the others had already arrived.
Seeing Lin Lu at the entrance, they greeted her.
“Sister, you’re here!” Hoshino Hikari waved to her, “We were just about to message you to ask where you were.”
“Sorry.” Lin Lu smoothed her slightly messy hair, showed the reservation information to the front counter staff, and followed the server leading them to a private room while talking to everyone.
“I ran into Hong Huang at Headquarters, so we chatted for a bit and I lost track of time. Sorry to keep you waiting.”
“Senior Hong Huang?” Lin Qingqing’s eyes lit up, “The Chief of the Seven Blades from the capital, Senior Hong Huang? What did she want with you, Snow?”
“Nothing much.” Lin Lu sat down with everyone in the private room, then ordered some desserts and drinks from the server before continuing.
“She just reminded me that the frequency of Shadow Beast appearances in Beijiang has increased a lot recently and told me to be careful.”
Hoshino Hikari also frowned.
“It really has increased a lot. Minazuki and I even encountered groups of Shadow Beasts during a mission… although they weren’t strong.”
“Right. That’s why Hong Huang reminded me to be careful.” Lin Lu took a sip of lemon water and waved her hand.
“Anyway, let’s not talk about these things with no real clues today. We haven’t discussed the debut performance yet.”
Hearing about Hong Huang and the other matters, Minazuki’s eyes sharpened, but she then pushed her glasses up and slid her tablet to the middle of the table.
“Right. Let’s discuss the performance today. We’ve looked at the plan Sister Qin Lan sent, but we need to discuss some specific coordination details…”