Chapter 106 Dating (Part 1) (5k)
【Bai Mei: When will you come back, Delphinium? 】
[Delphinium: A little later, maybe in the evening. ]
[Bai Mei: So late? Then we can order takeout for lunch. ]
[Delphinium: Well, thank you for your hard work. Is everything going well over there? ]
[Bai Mei: Don't worry, leave it to me! ]
Looking at the screen of her mobile phone, Kuija slowly took a sip of tea, felt relieved, and put the phone back on the table.
It was after lunch, and sitting in the elegant tea restaurant, Cuique and Xialiang were resting on their chairs. On the wall nearby, the wall clock made regular and crisp sounds, accompanied by soft music, making people feel comfortable and cozy.
The lunch place they chose was a tea restaurant called Qinhe, which was suggested by Xia Liang after seeing a recommendation online. It was not originally planned by Cuique. The restaurant was very prosperous. It took them an hour just to wait in line. After entering the restaurant, the surrounding booths were full of customers, and there were almost no empty tables.
Delphinium had no particular interest in this kind of internet-famous restaurant, nor did she have any preference on what dishes to order, so the task of ordering was completely handed over to Xia Liang. The final result was that the table was full of dishes that looked very good, and Xia Liang took out his phone and took pictures of each dish that was served.
Regardless of whether the meal is delicious or not, at least Xia Liang should be satisfied.
As Cuiqiao put the phone back on the table, Xia Liang, who was originally still thinking about how to take a better-looking photo of the cake, raised his head and asked while holding the phone:
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Baimei asked us where we are now." Cuique answered truthfully with a blank expression.
"Why do you still call me Baimei?"
Xia Liang smiled teasingly and said, "Anyway, they are not here now, so just call me Xiaolu in front of me...ah, little senior, do you usually call me Lulu?"
Delphinium stared at Xia Liang with drooping eyelids and said, "I told you, this is the consciousness of being a magical girl."
"Um--"
With a noncommittal hum, Xia Liang raised her voice slightly, put down her phone, and picked up the spoon next to the cake: "You've already started calling me 'Xia Liang', but you're still insisting on calling Xiao Lu 'Bai Mei'. Are you just being shy?"
"…Like I said, I haven't figured out how to explain it to her yet."
Delphinium looked away helplessly: "Anyway, if you're well rested, we can leave now. We have other plans in the afternoon."
"etc."
Upon hearing this, Xia Liang suddenly raised his hand and said with a smile, "I suddenly have a place I want to go."
Seeing her smile that was obviously meaningful, Cuique felt her eyebrows twitch slightly, but she still asked with respect to her, "Where do you want to go?"
"Well, after all, we're already in the electronics district, and the weather has finally turned from rainy to sunny..."
Xia Liang pointed outside the French window of the restaurant and said with great interest: "Shall we go look at some clothes?"
…
…
A moment later, in a clothing store not far from the tea restaurant.
"Great! This dress really suits you!"
Inside the store, Xia Liang walked out of the dressing room and stared at her new outfit in the mirror. The salesperson beside her praised her generously, "Little sister, you are a natural model. Even promotional photos can hardly achieve the effect you have!"
Xia Liang and Cuiqiao came to a casual women's clothing store called "Remedy", whose main feature is that it specializes in young women, especially those between the ages of fifteen and thirty.
"Haha, thank you."
Smiling and thanking the salesperson, Xia Liang adjusted her short pink sweatshirt, smoothed out the slight creases on the corners of her skirt, put on her white short-tube Martin boots, and turned around to try to see the whole body effect: "But, um... it feels a little childish."
After looking at the clothes for a long time without making up his mind, Xia Liang turned back to look at Cui Que: "What do you think, young senior? Is this dress suitable?"
"It's very pretty, very cute, very harmonious and very tasteful."
Delphinium had a blank expression on her face, and uttered a few words as calmly as a robot: "I think it's very suitable."
This was a habit she developed when she went shopping with her wife and helped Anya pick out clothes.
Whenever Anya wanted to ask Lin Yun for his opinion when choosing clothes, she was usually not really asking for his opinion, but just wanted to hear him praise her for looking good. As for what clothes she would choose in the end, it often had nothing to do with Lin Yun's feelings.
Of course, it's not just like this with Anya. In fact, it's normal for Delphinium - or Cornflower - to go shopping with the teammates of the Old Fangting City team.
As the only male magical girl in the team, Lin Yun is also regarded as a reference for the aesthetic tastes of the opposite sex, so she is often asked questions like "How do you like this outfit?"
If she didn't answer, she would be questioned repeatedly. If she answered too perfunctorily, she would be scolded. Over time, Delphinium had developed a fairly mature set of perfunctory words.
Being able to hear the perfunctory tone in Cuiqiao's words, Xia Liang first narrowed his eyes with a little dissatisfaction, but soon as if he thought of something, the smile on his face became a little ambiguous.
"elder sister."
She suddenly asked the salesperson beside her, "Does the store have clothes that fit this child's size?"
"This child?"
Turning his head to look at Delphinium, the salesperson took a look and nodded: "For the smallest size of clothes here, it should be about the same, right?"
"Since it's almost the same..."
Xia Liang smiled, took two steps towards the direction of the Jade Bird, and said frivolously: "Hehehe, young senior, how about giving it a try?"
"Try what..."
The absent-minded Cuique came back to her senses a little, and after gradually understanding what Xia Liang meant, she looked at the various clothes in the store expressionlessly. After staring at the clothes for a while, she turned back and said to Xia Liang solemnly: "I won't wear it."
"Why?"
Xia Liang said with some regret: "Young senior, you don't have many casual clothes, right? And most of them are like what you are wearing, basically children's clothes. Why don't you try to dress up a little more maturely?"
"I'm different from you."
Frowning slightly, Kuizi folded her arms helplessly and said earnestly: "For me, as long as the clothes can meet the needs of daily changes and washing, it's enough, and the appearance doesn't look too shabby. I don't need, and I don't like to dress so fancy."
"Have you worn it before?" Xia Liang suddenly asked.
This question made Cuiqiao's expression stiffen. After looking up at Xia Liang for a moment, he nodded helplessly: "Go through."
What she didn't say explicitly was that she had worn it not just once, but almost all of them.
Not to mention the popular styles in the past decade, she had worn every style of clothing that was popular among young girls at least twenty years ago at Anya's request.
If we want to trace the origin of this, we have to start from a long time ago.
From the very beginning, Anya's attitude towards Lin Yun becoming a magical girl was very positive.
At first, when she first met Lin Yun who had turned into a magical girl, she thought she was a girl from another place, but when Lin Yun confessed her identity, she was overjoyed at first, and then readily accepted this fact.
Anya has never had any thoughts like "it's disgusting for a boy to become a magical girl". Rather, she seems to like Lin Yun more in the magical girl state.
To put it in Anya's favorite cheesy love words:
"My favorite boy is Lin Yun, and my favorite girl is Cornflower. Adding the two together, I like her the most."
Because of this, Anya is actually very keen on dressing up Lin Yun who has turned into a magical girl.
At first, she just matched some of her old clothes, but as time went on, she started to pick them up while shopping, and finally it evolved into a weird tradition she proposed called "Cornflower Image Update Day."
Every once in a while, the Old Fangting City team would take Lin Yun, who had transformed into a magical girl, to pick out clothes and customize some new casual clothes for her.
Most magical girls look pretty good after transformation, and although their styles are different, most of them are cute, pretty, and exquisite. However, Cornflower's appearance is rare. To put it in the words of her former teammates, she looks "aristocratic" and "like a daughter of an aristocrat from nowhere."
Several teammates, especially Anya, treated Lin Yun, who had turned into a magical girl, almost as a dress-up doll and tried all kinds of outfits on her.
Therefore, although she herself was not interested, she could not deny that she had worn various women's fashions. In fact, because she had worn them so many times, she had become completely accustomed to wearing various skirts in this way.
“Sure enough!”
Hearing Cuiqiao's answer, Xia Liang clenched his fists excitedly: "It's not the first time anyway. I also want to see what the young senior looks like in other clothes. Try them on and have a try!"
"Yes, I want to see it too!" the clerk next to him responded.
Cuiqiao looked at the two people in front of her, and remembered Xia Liang's inexplicable smile and proposal in the restaurant before, and immediately knew: this was what she had planned long ago.
However, her purpose of accompanying Xia Liang today was to make him happy. The experiences in the morning were not very pleasant, so there was nothing wrong with complying with Xia Liang's wishes at this time.
"It's agreed in advance."
She raised her eyes and stared at Xia Liang, and said solemnly: "I don't wear clothes that reveal too much skin."
--"Very good!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Xia Liang and the shop assistants high-fived and cheered, as if they had solved some problem. The atmosphere was very lively.
Then, led by Xia Liang and suggested by the clerk, the two began to have a heated discussion about what kind of clothes would be more suitable for Cuique's temperament and body shape.
Off-shoulder jackets, suspender skirts, cartoon sweatshirts, sweaters...all kinds of clothes were handed to Cuique by Xia Liang, and then Cuique put them on with an indifferent look on her face and walked out of the dressing room with a cold expression.
And no matter how cold her reaction was, the enthusiasm of the other two did not diminish in the slightest.
Based on the clothes Delphinium was wearing, the salesperson personally changed Delphinium's hairstyle into several simple ones, including but not limited to double ponytails, a bun, and three braids... while Xia Liang held his mobile phone on the side and took pictures from various angles.
Looking at the girl in unfamiliar clothes in the mirror and listening to the flattery of the shop assistant beside her, Delphinium opened her eyes slightly and suddenly felt as if time was out of place.
It was as if I had returned to the time when I went out with the members of my old team, and the people chatting and laughing outside the locker room were Anya, Margaret, and Su Shengzi...
However, this feeling only lasted for a short moment before she came back to her senses and her thoughts returned from the past to the present.
"How is it, young senior?"
After taking the photo, Xia Liang walked out, held Cuique's shoulders, and looked into the mirror: "I think this one is the most satisfactory."
Delphinium looked in the mirror and saw that she was wearing a short-hem, loose-fitting, long-sleeved cardigan jacket, a skirt with a high waistline, white socks and canvas shoes on her feet, which gave her a student-like temperament.
Her appearance as a magical girl was somewhat young, but with this outfit she looked a bit like a little adult, and she looked a lot more mature, at least like a middle school student.
It was this point that made Delphinium nod subconsciously after a brief silence and admit: "I think it's good."
It's not just perfunctory, but I'm really satisfied with it.
In this way, after nearly an hour of trying, they finally stopped because the clerk left other customers aside and it was really a bad influence. Cuique and Xia Liang walked out of the store carrying a few packaging bags.
By this time, it was already afternoon.
"Ah, satisfied, satisfied!"
Holding the phone, Xia Liang walked forward while flipping through the photos he had taken before: "Normally, it is impossible to see the young senior wearing these clothes, but now I can save them all."
“…I hope you can delete it.”
Holding the paper bag, Delphinium walked along the street in small steps: "If you really don't want to delete them, then be a little more careful and don't leak these photos to other members."
"Eh? Isn't it good to let Xiaolu take a look?"
Xia Liang raised his phone and shook it: "I think she will be very happy to see it. After all, the little senior is very cute."
"You know what I mean."
Delphinium rolled her eyes at her and said, "No means no."
"So this is our secret?"
Xia Liang smiled and put the phone to his chin: "This way, we have more secrets between us."
In response to her deliberately provocative words, Delphinium simply remained silent.
If he answered too much, it would undoubtedly encourage Xia Liang's playfulness; if he answered too indifferently, Xia Liang would feel ignored. Without responding, and dealing with it indifferently, the two walked along the pedestrian street for a while, crossed the lane they came from, and returned to another block again. Delphinium didn't speak, so Xia Liang didn't ask, but just threw out some questions from time to time, chatting casually.
Not long after, as they turned a corner, Delphinium said softly, "We're here."
"Where?" Xia Liang asked with some confusion.
"Our next stop is a privately run pour-over coffee shop."
Delphinium recalled as she said, "It was also the place where the Fangting City team used to meet after school. I don't know if it's still in operation, but let's go and take a look."
"Just like we had to meet on the rooftop of the office building before?" Xia Liang asked thoughtfully.
"That's about right." Delphinium answered lightly.
"Hey...young senior, you actually met in a place like this before." Xia Liang said curiously, "Is there any special consideration?"
"Is it weird? Going to a cafe shouldn't be unusual."
"It's not that going to a cafe is unusual, but the kind of cafe you guys came to seems a little..."
As Xia Liang spoke, he stretched out his hand and pointed in the direction across the street: "Look, this should be the one, right?"
"What kind of cafe? It should be just an ordinary..."
Cuique looked in the direction of Xia Liang's finger and saw that there was indeed a cafe in the place she remembered. But when she saw the cafe's sign and decoration clearly, she seemed to have forgotten what she was going to say and swallowed the second half of her sentence.
In her memory, the location across the street should have been a small and exquisite Western-style coffee shop. Business was a little slow, but the atmosphere and equipment inside were very exquisite.
But now, what she saw was not the store she remembered.
A young girl in a black and white dress uniform was standing at the door, enthusiastically advertising to passers-by; the overall decoration style of the storefront was light pink, which looked quite girlish; the name of the cafe was written in cursive on the sign, but the logo next to it showed a mini black and white dress.
This type of skirt has a specific name in the public's perception: maid outfit.
——It was a maid cafe.
(End of this chapter)
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