Chapter 40 – You Went to the Movies, Didn’t You? With a Magical Girl

Dinner tonight would be braised chicken over rice.

The classic choice for when you had no idea what to eat: shut your brain off and order braised chicken over rice.

Lin Xi had no plans to cook tonight. She’d definitely had fun with Xia Xun, but she’d also exhausted herself.

Add to that the fact that she’d stayed up all night reading yuri manga, and Lin Xi was now both tired and sleepy.

She’d eat some braised chicken over rice, then get home early, wash up, and sleep.

“Perverted Witch?”

“What now?” Lin Xi asked weakly. “Stop calling me Perverted Witch all the time. Can’t you call me by my name? If I’m a pervert, aren’t you a pervert too? You’re even more perverted than me, so should I start calling you Pervert Shi Yu from now on?”

“Hey!” Shi Yu’s brows furrowed. “Made friends with Xia Xun and suddenly you’ve got a backbone, huh?”

“This has nothing to do with Xia Xun.”

“Fine. Lin Xi. Xi. Little Xi-Xi~”

“Blegh-” Lin Xi hurriedly stopped her. “Don’t. We’re on the same side here, don’t start with that voice. Just call me ‘Lin Xi.'”

Shi Yu reluctantly approved Lin Xi’s request. “Fine, Lin Xi. We can’t go home yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re going to the movies with me.”

Lin Xi narrowed her eyes. No matter how hard she racked her brain, she couldn’t remember ever agreeing to go to the movies with Shi Yu.

“Go play by yourself. I absolutely never said I was going to the movies with you.”

“You have to go,” Shi Yu said forcefully. “Consider it your apology to me for spoiling it.”

“An apology, huh? I’ll pay, but I’m not going. I want to go home and sleep like the dead.”

Lin Xi didn’t mind seeing that excellent animated movie a second time. The key question was who she’d be seeing it with. Shi Yu? Hard pass.

“You’re willing to go with Xia Xun, so why aren’t you willing to go with me? We’re teammates. Our relationship is way closer than yours with Xia Xun.”

“Uh, Shi Yu, you don’t even believe what you just said, do you?”

“Fine…” Shi Yu nodded in admission. “All right, if you don’t want to go, forget it. But you have to transfer me the money for two movie tickets.”

“Huh? Why? You’re not so fat that you need two seats.”

Shi Yu looked at Lin Xi with murder in her eyes. For a girl, weight was not something to joke about.

Lin Xi died… No, she didn’t. Before Shi Yu could make a move, Lin Xi apologized first.

“Remember this,” Shi Yu emphasized. “I have golden proportions and a perfect figure.”

“I need two movie tickets because I plan to ask Lu Yi to come with me.”

“Aside from canned yellow croaker, Lu Yi’s favorite thing is movies.”

Lu Yi was going too? Lin Xi instantly perked up. “Well, I suppose I can go with you two. Anyway, I was planning to watch it a second time.”

Shi Yu: “…”

“You heard Lu Yi was going and suddenly you’re interested, huh?”

“You perverted scumbag. Lu Yi is our teammate, and she’s also a pure, innocent Neko. You’re trying to make a move on her???”

Lin Xi shook her head, looking utterly innocent. “I’m not. I didn’t. Don’t make things up.”

“I just want to become good friends with Lu Yi. What’s wrong with that? What does it have to do with you?”

“The eyes of the masses are sharp,” Shi Yu said coldly. “If I find out you sweet-talked and tricked Lu Yi into letting you get handsy with her, I’ll chop off your hands and feet.”

Lin Xi: “…”

And so, with a single phone call, Shi Yu invited Lu Yi out.

Before the movie, they went to eat.

Since Lin Xi had received a five-thousand-yuan bonus today, Shi Yu ordered her to treat them.

Fine, she’d treat them! Lin Xi was happy to buy Lu Yi dinner. After all, Lu Yi had treated her to canned yellow croaker before.

In the end, they chose barbecue.

Actually, Lu Yi was the one who chose it. Lin Xi asked what she wanted to eat, Lu Yi said grilled fish, and Shi Yu had no objections, so they headed straight for a barbecue restaurant.

“Lu Yi, do you really like fish?” Lin Xi asked.

“Mm.” Lu Yi nibbled on her grilled fish and nodded lightly.

“Then another day, I’ll make you some braised carp to try.”

“Huh? You can cook?”

“Of course,” Lin Xi said, showing off shamelessly in front of Lu Yi. “Pan-frying, stir-frying, boiling, deep-frying-I can do it all!”

“Wow-” Lu Yi instantly turned into a little fangirl, gazing at her with admiration.

“Don’t listen to her brag,” Shi Yu said. “Her cooking is just okay.”

“Just okay? Then who is it that eats everything I cook every single day, faster and cleaner than anyone else?” As the cook, Lin Xi always got to the table late, and by then Shi Yu, the human rice-devouring machine, could sweep the dishes clean.

“Wasn’t me. I didn’t. Stop making things up.” Shi Yu fired off the classic three-hit denial combo.

And so, Lin Xi and Shi Yu’s heated debate finally came to an end only when dinner was over.

The three of them headed straight for the movie theater.

Shi Yu sat in the middle, separating Lin Xi from Lu Yi.

Lin Xi was speechless.

The movie was so good that even on Lin Xi’s second watch, she didn’t feel sleepy at all.

…

“Holy shit!-“

“That was badass!-“

Just like Lin Xi after her first viewing, Shi Yu praised the movie in the most straightforward way possible as they walked out of the theater.

Lu Yi, meanwhile, was like Xia Xun, analyzing and commenting on it from the angles of script, dialogue, special effects, music, and more.

“Lu Yi, you and Xia Xun really love movies,” Lin Xi said. She decided she needed to learn from them.

She couldn’t keep being this uncultured, relying on nothing but “holy shit” to get her through life.

Lu Yi said, “After I came from the Dark Realm to Z City, movies were how I first learned about human culture.”

“It was also because of movies that I developed such a strong interest in human culture.”

“I see.” Lin Xi understood Lu Yi’s love for movies now. Movies were her window into understanding humanity. “Thank goodness there are so many good movies in the world. They made you fall in love with human culture.”

“Aren’t you the same?” Lu Yi said. “If you didn’t like human culture, then a Special-Grade Disaster like you, Lin Xi, would definitely be running around killing people and setting things on fire.”

Lin Xi: “…”

How should she put it? This naturally airheaded Neko was adorable!

The reason the current Lin Xi liked human culture was because her soul was human to begin with-just a human from another world.

As for the old Lin Xi, the Cuddle Witch… did she like human culture? No, what she liked was human girls! Ah, no, not just human girls. There were girls from other races on the Last Wish List too…

“Oh, right, Lu Yi. Tell me what our old home, the Dark Realm, looks like.”

“Because of my amnesia, I’ve forgotten a lot.”

Lu Yi shook her head. “I’ve forgotten what things were like over there too. It seems like… once we come to this world, we forget our experiences in the Dark Realm?”

“That’s a thing?” Lin Xi said. “Forget it, it doesn’t matter. Since we’re here, we might as well make the best of it. We can still live a good life here in Z City.”

“Mm.” Lu Yi nodded obediently in agreement.

After saying goodbye to Lu Yi, Lin Xi dragged her exhausted body home and hurried through washing up.

“Look at you, all listless like a zombie,” Shi Yu teased. “You only stayed up all night. What’s the big deal?”

Lin Xi had no strength to argue. She admired Shi Yu’s boundless energy.

Villains were always full of energy.

Back in the bedroom, she collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.

But her phone rang at the worst possible time.

“Is that Lu Yi saying she got home?” Lin Xi had told Lu Yi to send her a message once she arrived.

Even though there was really no need to worry about the safety of Lu Yi, that Bomb Maniac…

It was indeed a message from Lu Yi. At the same time, there was another message.

A message from Zhao Xinning:

[You went to watch a movie, didn’t you?… With a Magical Girl.]