Chapter 41 – Plan A and Plan B

When Zhao Xinning swiped to that intimate photo of Xia Xun and Lin Xi outside the movie theater, she felt like the sky had come crashing down.

Her brain froze. Her phone slipped from her palm and dropped onto the bed.

All trace of sleep vanished. She shot upright.

“How could this…”

“How did Xi suddenly get so close with Magical Girl Xia Xun???”

Zhao Xinning picked up the phone from the bed, opened the photo, and checked it again and again.

There was no mistake. The girl linking arms with Xia Xun, pressed close to her and smiling so happily, was undoubtedly Lin Xi.

It wasn’t some girl who merely looked like Lin Xi.

“Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?!”

A stabbing pain pierced Zhao Xinning’s heart. She even felt dizzy, her vision swimming, as if she could hardly breathe.

“Why is she smiling so happily?!”

“She and Xia Xun aren’t even that close, right?!”

What shattered Zhao Xinning the most was that even when she and Lin Xi had gone to the amusement park together, they had never taken such a perfect photo.

The feeling this picture gave off was almost like… a couple???

At the very least, they looked like inseparable best friends.

But!

“Xi has one good friend, and only one! Me!”

“I’m supposed to be her only good friend!”

Zhao Xinning’s stomach twisted, cold sweat pouring down her back.

An unprecedented pressure, an unprecedented sense of crisis, made her feel as though she had plunged into an abyss.

Gravity, maxed out.

“Xi really has changed these past few days, but isn’t this change way too drastic?!”

Sometimes, Zhao Xinning genuinely felt as if Lin Xi had become a different person.

But once she calmed down and thought about it, how could that be possible?

Real life wasn’t a movie or a novel. There was no way some cliché body-snatching plot could happen.

The only relatively reasonable explanation was that Xi had grown up???

That she was slowly maturing, starting to enjoy making friends, and even… experiencing the first stirrings of love???

And then, she’d fallen for Magical Girl Xia Xun???

Right. Xia Xun was the perfect Magical Girl, an idol of their school and even all of Z City. It was perfectly normal to like Xia Xun.

Zhao Xinning liked Xia Xun quite a bit too, of course. Just in the most ordinary sense.

After all, who would hate the great hero who protected the peace and safety of Z City?

The only person Zhao Xinning truly, sincerely liked was Lin Xi.

But she couldn’t say it. She was afraid Lin Xi would reject that kind of affection from her.

If, in the end, they couldn’t even remain friends… Zhao Xinning couldn’t bear such a catastrophic outcome.

So she had planned to become Lin Xi’s best and only close friend, and continue nurturing their feelings.

There was a saying: “Companionship is the best confession.” Zhao Xinning believed it with all her heart.

She was waiting for the moment when everything would fall naturally into place. When that time came, she would offer Lin Xi the perfect confession, then happily get together with her and live a blissful, shamelessly sweet life…

However.

“Is my long-term strategy about to be stolen out from under me by Xia Xun?!”

“No!”

“Absolutely not!”

Looking at the photo, an inexplicable loathing surged up inside Zhao Xinning. “I think I must be the only human in Z City who hates a Magical Girl…”

“But this isn’t my fault!”

“Xia Xun must have tons of friends. She must be living a brilliant life with everyone revolving around her. So why does she have to come and steal away the Xi who belongs only to me?!”

“She’s the one who’s going too far!”

Zhao Xinning had originally thought that ordinary people like her and Lin Xi would probably never have anything to do with a Magical Girl in their entire lives.

Who could have known that Lin Xi and Xia Xun’s relationship would be like a rocket launch, soaring straight into the sky in one burst?

“I have to get to the bottom of this!”

“A sweet, innocent girl like Xi has no resistance to a Magical Girl. Xia Xun might have used some underhanded trick to lure her in.”

“I need to find out exactly what happened.”

“If Xi really did get together with Xia Xun… then I’ll have no choice but to take my final safety measure.”

Zhao Xinning glanced at the photos of Lin Xi plastered all over her walls, her gaze firm and her heart set.

Aside from Plan A-staying by Lin Xi’s side and slowly nurturing their relationship over time-Zhao Xinning had also prepared a Plan B.

Once Plan B was set in motion, there would be no turning back.

That was why Zhao Xinning wouldn’t use Plan B unless she absolutely had to.

“No one is taking Xi away from me. She belongs only to me.”

Zhao Xinning took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.

To investigate the truth, she needed a clear head.

She opened her chat with Lin Xi, typed out a message, and sent it:

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

…

“How does Xinning know I went to the movies with Xia Xun?”

Lin Xi’s sleepy mind lagged for a moment before the answer occurred to her.

“Oh, she probably saw that selfie Xia Xun and I took in front of the theater online, right?”

“Heehee, is Xinning jealous that I got to watch a movie with a Magical Girl and even take a picture with her?”

Lin Xi sat up in bed, planning to reply to Zhao Xinning before going back to sleep.

[Yeah, I went to see a movie with Xia Xun. That animated film was amazing!]

She had only just sent the message when Zhao Xinning’s voice call came in the very next second.

“Hello? Xinning?”

“Mm, Xi. Sorry to bother you so late.”

“It’s fine.” Lin Xi then asked, “Xinning, why does your voice sound a little weird? Are you not feeling well?”

Zhao Xinning was, in fact, feeling very unwell right now. “No, thank you for worrying about me. I’m just a little curious. Why did you go to the movies with Xia Xun? And when did you and Xia Xun get so close?”

So Lin Xi explained things to Zhao Xinning.

She had gone to the Countermeasures Bureau building today to pick up her certificate and bonus. After she was done, she had treated Xia Xun to a meal as thanks.

“The movie was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Xia Xun and I both really like movies.”

“And as for me and Xia Xun being close, how are we close? She’s a Magical Girl. I’m just an ordinary friend of hers, I guess.”

“Ordinary friend?” Zhao Xinning asked. “But that photo looked pretty intimate, didn’t it?”

Lin Xi replied, “That photo was staged. We were holding the movie tickets and posing together to promote that amazing film.”

“Really?!”

“Yeah. What’s wrong?” Lin Xi had the feeling that Zhao Xinning seemed oddly fixated on that photo. “Xinning, are you jealous that I got to take a picture with a Magical Girl?”

Zhao Xinning: “…”

“If I run into Xia Xun another day, I’ll ask her to take a picture with you too.”

“Ha. Haha. Then thank you so much, Xi.”

“No need to thank me, Xinning. You’re my best friend.”

“Huh? Best friend? Xi, you’re my best friend too! No one else even comes close!!!”

Lin Xi’s ears rang from Zhao Xinning’s sudden high-pitched shout. She didn’t understand why Zhao Xinning had suddenly gotten so excited.

“By the way, Xi,” Zhao Xinning continued, “what do you think of Xia Xun?”