Chapter 170 Delphinium's Plan
Under the bright light, the porcelain white dinner plate reflected a slight oily sheen. On the wooden dining table, scattered tableware was placed neatly or messily. Delphinium leaned back in the chair, folded her hands, and the fingers of her right hand tapped slowly in the crook of her arm.
Across the dining table, Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang were sitting upright.
On the table between them were several plates of home-cooked food that were still warm. Judging from the appearance, they should taste good. However, there were a lot of leftovers, and it was obvious that they had not been touched. Everyone at the table looked tense, even Nini was sitting upright, only Moko at the corner of the table was eating heartily without any concern.
After dinner, Cuiqiao asked the two girls to tell the whole story in front of everyone. After learning that all the money she had given for tutoring had been misappropriated, she pursed her lips and did not speak for a long time.
This made Lin Xiaolu, who was already feeling guilty, even more nervous. Although she sat upright, her eyes were fixed on her knees, as if there was some treasure on the ground. Although Xia Liang was not as frightened as Lin Xiaolu, he obviously knew that he had done something wrong. He had a flattering smile on his face and his eyes were full of pleading for mercy when he looked at Cuiqiao.
Delphinium's eyes scanned the two people's faces for a while, then she closed her eyes and sighed helplessly: "In other words, you two used the money I gave you for tutoring, but didn't buy any books."
The two girls remained motionless and silent, obviously agreeing.
"What else can I say? You are grown-up kids now. You don't need me to teach you the basics of spending money wisely."
She narrowed her eyes and spoke in a slower tone, "I am your senior, not your parent. I have no obligation to teach you about the right and wrong of such things. Although I am a little dissatisfied and disappointed, it is not enough for me to criticize and blame you harshly."
"I'm just a little helpless. After all, I'm half your teacher in terms of study, but you've completely forgotten what I've taught you."
"Maybe I've given you too much of a burden? After all, you didn't have to patrol alone before. Now you have to go to school during the day, go on security patrols after school, and I have to urge you to study when you get home. Compared to your peers, it's a bit too hard. Shouldn't I give you more personal time?"
"If you are dissatisfied with me about these things, you can tell me at any time, and I will reduce some of your work... Hmm? What's wrong with you, Bai Mei?"
Before Kuei-Chi could finish her words, she noticed that her daughter looked a little strange.
Lin Xiaolu's shoulders trembled slightly at first, then the corners of her eyes and the tip of her nose turned red. After sobbing twice, tears began to flow down her face.
"I... wuwu, I'm not..."
She seemed to want to explain, but her words were choked in her throat and she couldn't finish her words for a long time.
This reaction also attracted the attention of several girls nearby. Xia Liang had a helpless smile on his face that said "I knew it", while Bai Jingxuan's expression was full of confusion and puzzlement.
"What's going on?"
This made Cuiqiao, who had a serious face two seconds ago, panic. He quickly jumped off the chair, ran to Lin Xiaolu's side, turned sideways and looked at Lin Xiaolu and said, "Why are you crying? Why are you crying? Did I say something too harsh?"
"No... I, I haven't forgotten what you said, Delphinium, and I don't want to complain to you. How could I not care about or hate what you said? I obviously didn't think that way, not at all..."
Lin Xiaolu covered her mouth and nose, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably, and said intermittently: "I really just accidentally clicked the wrong one, I'm sorry..."
"Really just an accident? Well, I misunderstood you."
Delphinium tried to soften her voice: "I know, it's true that I blame you, but don't cry for now, okay?"
"I, I don't want to cry..."
Lin Xiaolu tried hard to suppress her sobs: "I just, I just can't help it."
"It's okay. If you can't help it, just cry for a while. It's okay."
Delphinium opened her hands and waved them slightly: "Don't hold it in, just cry first, I don't mind."
"It's so ugly to cry..."
"No, magical girls are cute even when they cry."
"I don't want to do anything bad, so please don't hate me." Lin Xiaolu sniffed twice.
"I don't hate you, you don't have to worry about this." Delphinium tried to make her answer sound serious enough.
After some coaxing and persuasion, Lin Xiaolu finally stopped crying. However, even after she finished crying, she still grabbed Cuique's sleeve, as if she was afraid that she would run away.
After such a chaos, the restaurant finally regained its calm. After comforting Lin Xiaolu, Cuique remembered that she had not finished speaking. However, the atmosphere had reached this point, and it was difficult to put on a stern face even if she wanted to.
She could only look around tiredly, and finally her eyes stopped at Xia Liang: "Bai Mei has finished explaining, do you have anything to say?"
"I'm sorry, young senior, I won't dare to do it next time." Xia Liang immediately clasped his hands together and lowered his head: "Please spare my life, please."
"...Well, that's it."
Cuiqiao sighed, looked at Bai Jingxuan beside her, and pointed at Xia Liang: "See? Don't learn from them in the future."
Bai Jingxuan nodded obediently, looking like she had been educated.
Seeing that the youngest child was not affected by this incident, Kusanagi felt relieved. She turned back to the girls who made the mistake and said, "In short, this won't happen again. I will transfer another amount of money for buying books to you tomorrow. I hope you can keep your promise this time."
"I'll delete the game right away."
Lin Xiaolu frowned and wiped her eyes: "I will never spend money in the game again."
"I won't spend money recklessly, either. I promise."
Xia Liang raised his hand and then looked up: "But there's no rush to delete Xiaolu's game, right? Mobile games usually have refund channels, and there are also reasons like impulsive spending by minors. I think maybe I can get my money back if I try it?"
Lin Xiaolu nodded: "Well, then return the money first..."
"Stop, stop it first."
Delphinium tapped the table twice and waved her other hand: "I'm not so unkind as to not want you to play the game. Just like when Xiaojin got her hair done, I couldn't possibly curl your hair straight; the same goes for Baimei. Since you've spent money in the game, does that mean you have the game items you want? You've already spent the money, so keep playing."
"But, playing games is not good in the first place." Lin Xiaolu said in a muffled voice.
“So play appropriately and manage your time well.”
Delphinium raised a finger. "And, I have another request. Show me the game you play. I need to know what game makes you want to spend money; and make sure the content of the game is appropriate for your age."
In fact, this was her original purpose. Rather than criticizing her daughter for spending money on games, she wanted to know why her daughter spent money on games.
Although Lin Yun also played games when he was young, he mostly went to arcades with his team members or played cooperative party games together. He himself had hardly ever played long-term online games.
Lin Yun also knows that in today's material world, games are something that teenagers are inevitably exposed to during their growth. Although many parents regard it as a scourge, his attitude is relatively open-minded. In his opinion, it is better to prevent children from playing games than to prevent them from doing so. Instead of strictly preventing them from playing games, which will eventually lead to imbalance in their children's minds at school, or they will play games secretly, it is better to seriously understand what the children really like and then manage them openly.
However, Lin Xiaolu had never been interested in games in the past, and was mostly addicted to the animation programs on TV. Now it is rare to find her daughter playing games, and even recharging money into them. Cuique is also very curious about what this is for.
"Then I might as well delete the game..." Lin Xiaolu muttered softly.
Delphinium hummed in reminder.
"...I got it. I'll show you." Lin Xiaolu had no choice but to take out her cell phone obediently.
After taking the phone from her daughter, Kuei Ching immediately saw the icon of "Magical Girls Power Rangers" on the last line, and her doubts were dispelled a little.
She knew that her daughter had been fascinated by and obsessed with "magic girls" since she was young, and she and Lin Xiaolu had talked about these things when they walked home at night. If it was a game about magic girls, it would indeed be likely to attract her daughter.
After opening the game interface, she carefully looked at the art style of the game and found that it was a fresh picture book style. The magical girls in the game seemed to be dressed quite neatly, without any outfit that was too indecent. Her subconscious approval level increased a little.
But when she clicked on the character guide and scanned the preview pictures of the magical girls in the game, her movements became slower and slower, and finally, her eyes stopped on a few of the characters.
“This game…”
She raised her eyebrows slightly: "Using a real-life magical girl as the prototype?"
"That's our guess."
Lin Xiaolu was unwilling to speak, so Xia Liang explained: "After all, we even saw a magical girl who looked a bit like Senior Ying."
"Which one?" asked Delphinium.
"My name is Shucao." Xia Liang answered simply.
Without noticing Lin Xiaolu's expression as if she wanted to burrow into the ground, Cuique swiped through the character album and found the character codenamed "Shucao".
But when she clicked on the avatar and heard the other party's lines and greetings, she looked a little dazed.
"Is this the role you want?"
She couldn't help but ask Lin Xiaolu: "Because you saw her? That's why you added money to the game?"
"......Yeah." Lin Xiaolu nodded.
Delphinium's expression suddenly became complicated.
It was an expression that no one could tell clearly, mixed with various emotions. Even a child like Xia Liang who was good at observing people's expressions could not fully understand it.
"I see."
After a while, Cuiqiao handed the phone back to Lin Xiaolu: "I agree, just think of this money as pocket money for you."
"Give me...pocket money?"
Lin Xiaolu raised her head in surprise: "Is this really okay?"
"Just think of it as a gift from an adult." Delphinium reached out and tapped the back of the phone. "A gift for you guys after patrolling for so many days."
——"So what's going on? I've never met Sakura-senpai in person, so only you know, little senior. Is it really like him?"
The conversation between the two made Xia Liang very curious. He approached Cuique again without knowing when, "Or did you just borrow a name?"
Bai Jingxuan on the other side of the table also pricked up her ears, probably because she heard the code name "Ying", so she paid special attention.
“…No.”
Under the expectant gaze of the two girls, Delphinium slowly closed her eyes: "But, there are indeed many things that can make people think of it."
"Not really, but why does it make people have that association?" Bai Jingxuan asked immediately.
“It’s not just resemblance that can lead to association.”
Delphinium had a complicated expression: "If you are really familiar with them, just a conversation, an idea, or a preference may remind you of a specific person."
"I still don't understand..." Bai Jingxuan shook her head, but didn't ask any more questions.
Both she and Xia Liang could see that after mentioning the character named "Shucao" in the game, who actually reflected "Ying", Cuique and Lin Xiaolu were not in a very high mood.
"Let's not talk about this for now! I suddenly thought of something. Since there are so many characters in this game whose prototypes are real-life magical girls..."
Xia Liang raised his voice and tried to liven up the atmosphere by changing the subject: "So, is there a character in the film whose prototype is the young senior?"
Her words immediately attracted the attention of everyone present.
Whether it was Bai Jingxuan, who was still curious before, or Lin Xiaolu, who was a little depressed, they all looked up at her and then looked at the phone loaded with the game.
"Why didn't I think of that!"
Lin Xiaolu suddenly became excited: "Maybe there really is a delphinium in here!"
"…If the prototype is me, then it would be meaningless, right?"
Delphinium retorted: "After all, I am already here, why do you have to find another me in the game?"
"That's different!"
As Lin Xiaolu spoke, she clicked on the illustrated guide: "I really want to see what the Delphinium in the game looks like!"
"I want to, too!" Bai Jingxuan quickly jumped down from her chair and trotted over to Lin Xiaolu's side. Together with Xia Liang who had already walked over, the three of them suddenly huddled together.
Delphinium could only watch the three girls' behavior and didn't know what to say for a moment.
The three little ones scanned the illustrations line by line, but their initial excitement and interest slowly faded away with time. After they had thoroughly scanned the illustrations, they all fell silent inexplicably.
"What's wrong?" This time it was Delphinium that felt curious.
“No…” Lin Xiaolu said unhappily, “I didn’t see any magical girl who looked like Delphinium.”
"There is a magical girl whose style and color are a bit similar to the young senior." Xia Liang thought and said, "But that magical girl is not short, and her code name is 'Silver Flower Grass', so it should be another magical girl, right? Could it be the Blue Star senior from Tiandu City?"
"Why is there no mother?" Bai Jingxuan was obviously not in a good mood, so she didn't notice how the name she blurted out attracted the surprised looks from those around her: "Obviously, mother is a big shot in the magic kingdom, right?"
"No...um, you..."
Lin Xiaolu was obviously the one who cared the most about this title. She opened her mouth to ask something, but suddenly remembered the misunderstanding a few days ago, so she swallowed the second half of the sentence back: "Forget it, just pretend I didn't say anything."
Several girls continued to search around the phone screen for a while, and found that there was indeed no magical girl whose prototype was similar to Delphinium. Finally, they gave up the idea and dispersed.
Lin Xiaolu originally thought the same, but when she realized that Cuiqiao had agreed to her recharging, she suddenly remembered that she still had 12 guaranteed draws to make, so she pursed her lips and returned to the main menu interface of the game, wanting to continue drawing cards.
However, when she returned to the main interface, a notification suddenly popped up in the game.
That was a preview of future in-game events.
[Hello, dear fairies! Magical Girls Squad will start a new round of plot events on November 28. The event is called "Attack! Claws". Read the event plot, challenge the event dungeons and bosses, and get rich rewards! ]
[Plot summary: After defeating the giant beast that attacked the city, the Magical Girls Squadron obtained a strange crystal. However, they did not know that this crystal had attracted the attention of a special organization, and a battle for the crystal was about to begin. For this, a new enemy also appeared in front of them...]
[Activity participation range: Complete all story levels of the main storyline of Chapter 22. ]
[Activity maintenance time: November 28, 9:00~13:00]
[Activity bonus character: [Reappearance of Missing] Card pool character: [Super rare] Morning Glory]
“…What the hell?”
Lin Xiaolu looked at the announcement and suddenly felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't tell what it was.
After a brief thought, she saw that others had already started to clean up the table, so she stopped worrying about it and put it behind her along with her unfinished card drawing task.
So she turned off the screen of her phone.
(End of this chapter)
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