Chapter 43 – You Smell Like Her Perfume

“All right, got it, Captain,” Xia Xun said, stifling a soft yawn. “You guys go make the arrangements.”

“I’ll handle the arrests-if they take the bait.”

“Mm. Xun, we’re counting on you when the time comes,” Zhao Xing said. “One of those three robbers might be from ZERO.”

“If we really capture someone from ZERO alive, that’ll be a major accomplishment. There’ll definitely be a bonus.”

“Captain, could you maybe have a little more awareness of serving the people?” Xia Xun asked. “How much is the bonus?”

“Heh heh,” Zhao Xing chuckled. “When the time comes, won’t Shuguang Technology’s million-yuan bounty on the robbers become our bonus?”

Hearing Zhao Xing say that shaved away quite a bit of Xia Xun’s sleepiness.

“Xun, I just wanted to give you a heads-up today. Sorry to bother you. Good night.”

“Mm. Good night, Captain.”

After hanging up, Xia Xun lay in bed and opened her shopping app.

“Time to load up the cart first!”

“Once we catch the robbers and the bonus hits my account, I’m going on a shopping spree!”

“I absolutely have to buy a hundred-inch LED giant-screen TV.” Xia Xun already had a high-end game console at home; all she lacked was a big screen. “Next time, I’ll invite Lin Xi over to play games together!”

…

“Hey! Get up!”

“My name isn’t ‘Hey,’ it’s-“

“Why are you talking so much?” Shi Yu yanked Lin Xi’s blanket right off her.

Lin Xi curled into a ball and mumbled blearily, “…Five minutes… Let me sleep ten more minutes… In fifteen minutes, I swear I’ll get up…”

“What, are you turning oversleeping into an arithmetic sequence?” Shi Yu delivered Lin Xi a “finishing blow.”

She slipped her ice-cold hand down the back of Lin Xi’s neck.

“Aah!” Lin Xi shrieked and sat bolt upright. “Shi Yu, you should seriously be grateful I don’t get cranky in the morning, or I’d kill you in a heartbeat!”

Shi Yu: “…”

She took the gun from under the pillow and handed it to Lin Xi. “Here-” She pointed at her own head. “Shoot me right here.”

Holding the heavy gun, Lin Xi was completely at a loss.

“Three, two, one-” The moment Shi Yu finished counting down, she snatched the gun back. “I gave you a chance, didn’t I?”

“You had your chance. You’re just useless.”

Lin Xi said, “I wasn’t fully awake just now. Could you hand me the gun again?”

“Get lost!”

Lin Xi reluctantly got up to wash and get ready.

Maybe she had been too tired yesterday, but she still hadn’t slept enough.

Mainly, because Shi Yu was living at her place, she had to wake up even earlier to prepare breakfast for the refined Miss Shi Yu.

When would these days of being a servant and a slave ever end…?

After eating the delicious fried egg and finishing the remaining half glass of milk, Shi Yu shouldered her bag and left first.

Although she and Lin Xi lived together, they wouldn’t go to school together.

They maintained the appearance of an ordinary classmate relationship to conceal their master-and-slave-no, to conceal their teammate relationship.

Actually, there was another reason they got up a little early: Zhao Xinning often came by to go to school with Lin Xi.

So Shi Yu had to leave first and avoid Zhao Xinning.

Lin Xi cleared away the dishes, checked the time, and figured Zhao Xinning would usually arrive around now.

Ding-dong!

Sure enough, the doorbell rang.

Lin Xi slung her bag over her shoulder and went straight out.

Outside the door, the beautiful young girl in her school uniform, brimming with youthful energy, greeted her with an adorable smile.

“Xi, good morning!”

“Mm. Xinning, good morning.” Lin Xi felt like she had just been healed.

So this was the power contained in Angel-sama’s smile?!

Lin Xi locked the door. “Let’s go.”

Zhao Xinning reached out and took Lin Xi’s hand. “Let’s!”

Ever since the last time, when Lin Xi had taken Zhao Xinning’s hand of her own accord for the first time and gone to school with her, Zhao Xinning had been the one to initiate it every day after that.

Holding hands and sticking close was beneficial to Lin Xi, so of course she was happy to go along with it.

She just hadn’t expected Zhao Xinning to like it this much, going to school hand in hand like a little kid…

The instant Zhao Xinning moved close to Lin Xi, she noticed something was off.

Very off!

“Xi… on you-“

Zhao Xinning leaned in even closer, her nose twitching as she sniffed carefully.

“There’s this faint citrus scent on you. It’s practically… exactly the same as Miss Shi Yu’s smell!”

Zhao Xinning looked as if she’d been struck by lightning.

“Why do you have Miss Shi Yu’s perfume on you???!!!”

Ah. This-

Lin Xi was also struck by lightning. Did she???

Shi Yu really did smell nice, but it wasn’t because of body wash or shampoo, and she didn’t wear perfume either. Was it her special constitution??? That was Lin Xi’s guess, anyway. She had asked Shi Yu about it before, only to be cursed out as a perverted scent fetishist…

Had she picked up Shi Yu’s scent from sleeping in the same bed as her???

Lin Xi genuinely hadn’t noticed it herself.

“Um, I… do I?”

“You do!” Zhao Xinning said with absolute certainty. “You definitely do! This is exactly what Miss Shi Yu smells like!”

“Really?” Lin Xi drew on her acting talents. “Then I guess it’s probably because I changed body wash.”

“The scent of my new body wash just happens to be the same as Miss Shi Yu’s perfume. What a coincidence.”

Zhao Xinning stared straight into Lin Xi’s eyes. Fortunately, Lin Xi’s “skill” at lying was profound enough that Zhao Xinning failed to spot any flaws.

On the other hand, Zhao Xinning didn’t believe Lin Xi would lie to her.

Lin Xi smelled similar to Shi Yu. It couldn’t possibly be because the two of them were living together, right?

Once that unrealistic possibility was ruled out, the only reasonable explanation was the one Lin Xi had given: she had changed to a new body wash.

“So that’s what happened…” Zhao Xinning said. “Xi, I suggest you switch back to the kind you used before.”

Zhao Xinning didn’t want Lin Xi to smell like some other girl. “Oh, right. I strongly recommend the body wash I use every day!”

“Okay. Sure,” Lin Xi said.

It had nothing to do with body wash at all. When she got home today, she absolutely had to bring this up with Shi Yu.

They had put cockroach bait around the apartment, and over the past couple of days, the cockroaches had pretty much been wiped out.

There was no need to keep sleeping together anymore.

Tonight, they had to sleep separately!

After bluffing her way through that crisis, Lin Xi and Zhao Xinning arrived at the station hand in hand.

Once they got on the bus, the onboard TV was airing the morning news, reporting on the various Dark Realm Disaster attacks from yesterday.

To avoid causing panic, the authorities had given the public a perfunctory explanation.

Yesterday, Lin Xi had learned from Xia Xun that Dark Realm Disaster incidents had become frequent because something had gone wrong with the barrier protecting Z City.

Fortunately, Z City’s Chief Magical Girl, Su Tang, had already begun working on repairs.

“Huh? This kitten is amazing!” Zhao Xinning said to Lin Xi, pointing at the TV screen.

“Its name is Little Mi,” Lin Xi told Zhao Xinning. “It’s Xia Xun’s pet. Yesterday, in front of the mall building, it ate one Shadowspider with each bite and really enjoyed them.”

Zhao Xinning’s mood abruptly cooled. “Xi, you and Miss Xia Xun really did have quite an exciting day together.”

Damn it!-

Zhao Xinning screamed inwardly.

Lin Xi, completely missing the implication in Zhao Xinning’s words, cheerfully admitted it.

“We sure did!”