Chapter 15: The Secret Chamber (Long Chapter)

Jiang Lingwei wanted to reassure Wen Yaquan that everything was fine, that everyone was just busy.

But she couldn’t lie.

How could she say something so deceptive?

Patting Wen Yaquan’s back, she whispered, “It’s great to see you again.”

“Good!” Wen Yaquan wiped her face, voice booming. “Let’s go upstairs and talk!”

“Shh!” Jiang Lingwei hushed her, gesturing apologetically to other customers.

“Come on, come on.”

Grabbing Wen Yaquan’s hand, Jiang Lingwei veered left, as if she owned the place.

After a few steps, Wen Yaquan pulled her back.

“Uh… upstairs is to the right.”

“Oh…” Jiang Lingwei’s eyes blurred briefly, then she shook her head, smiling wryly. “Sorry, I thought this was the old shop.”

“Almost…” Wen Yaquan started loudly, then lowered her voice at Jiang Lingwei’s frantic glare.

“Really… whose shop is this?” Jiang Lingwei muttered, following her up the right stairs.

“Meow.”

Hei Dou lifted an eyelid as they passed, meowed softly, rubbed against the windowsill, and basked in the sun.

The third floor was Wen Yaquan’s private space, decorated like a cozy home.

Murals, unfamiliar figurines, and trinkets adorned the modest space.

“Wait, I’ll grab some food,” Wen Yaquan said, heading to the kitchen.

Jiang Lingwei wasn’t hungry.

She had much to say, but Wen Yaquan had already pushed her onto the sofa and hurried off.

“Uh, can I look around?” she called.

“Whatever!” Wen Yaquan shouted from the kitchen.

Rising, Jiang Lingwei studied the wall patterns and game boxes in a cabinet.

She spotted family and wedding photos on a shelf.

The man, bespectacled and scholarly, wasn’t handsome.

He and Wen Yaquan held a shy, delicate girl smiling at the camera.

Of course… after all these years, Wen Yaquan getting married was normal.

‘Her husband seems nice.’

At her age, a happy family was a blessing.

A coincidence—she and I both have daughters.

‘But my husband’s missing.’

Slap.

She smacked her forehead, banishing the thought.

‘I don’t want that man, I don’t want that man, I don’t want that man…’

Wandering, she noticed a small door between shelves, labeled in brushstrokes: My past, full of courage and glory, is buried here. Only a true magical girl can open it.

“Pfft.”

Jiang Lingwei chuckled.

“Sister Quan always loved this stuff.”

“But with real magic, it’s not totally chuunibyou, right?”

“Sister Quan! There’s a door here. Can I open it?”

“Whatever!” came the cheerful reply, amid cooking noises. “Don’t say anything yet! You’ll taste my cooking, then we’ll talk about the years!”

“You’d better bring your A-game!” Jiang Lingwei grinned, peeling off the door’s seal and gripping the handle.

“Hm?”

It didn’t budge.

Using both hands, she pulled harder—

“Wait! What door?” Wen Yaquan’s panicked voice rang out. “Oh no, don’t—”

Pfft!

A water gun sprayed liquid across Jiang Lingwei’s face.

The small door’s interior flashed red, blaring alarms.

Ding-ding-dong-dong! Ding-ling-ling-ling!

Wen Yaquan’s phone on the table screeched.

Stunned, Jiang Lingwei wiped her face. “What is this?!”

Wen Yaquan dropped her pan, silenced the phone with one hand, and rushed over with a towel. “Don’t worry, it’s Vatican holy water!”

“Where’d you get that? Why?” Jiang Lingwei spluttered.

“Heh, from Shangyang Bodhisattva,” Wen Yaquan said. “I got it to ward off evil. Couldn’t find a magical girl, but I heard foreigners have holy water blessed by them. There’s amulets inside too.”

Wiping Jiang Lingwei’s face, her practiced motions screamed “mom.”

‘Wait, is she treating me like a kid?’

“What’s in there? Such a fuss,” Jiang Lingwei said, exasperated.

Wen Yaquan’s hands froze.

“Well… best you see for yourself.”

She draped a dry towel over Jiang Lingwei’s neck, pointing to the door. “I planned to show you later, but since you’re here…”

“Alright.”

Jiang Lingwei nodded.

Classic Sister Quan—acting on impulse.

Wen Yaquan’s backstory flashed in her mind.

Raised in an orphanage near Songji City, she was found crying in roadside grass by an aunt selling vegetables.

Wrapped up, fed porridge, and taken to the county police, she was sent to a city orphanage, as the county lacked facilities.

The day before, police chased a trafficking gang—likely abandoning her in their haste.

Investigators later found more tragic remains behind the bushes.

Wen Yaquan was lucky, recovering quickly despite her frail state.

Orphanage director Zhang named her Yaquan, so she was Zhang Yaquan.

At ten, her wealthy biological father found her, restoring her surname “Wen.”

No soap-opera drama ensued—no inheritance fights or grieving mothers.

Her father loved her mother, who died soon after childbirth.

His grief and funeral duties left him vulnerable when Yaquan was stolen.

Grateful to the orphanage, he kept her name and vowed to make up for lost time.

But at fifteen, her father died in an accident, leaving her alone again.

Despite this, Wen Yaquan stayed resilient.

Perhaps due to anime, post-grief, fifteen-year-old Yaquan caught a severe case of… chuunibyou.

Normally, this fades with age, becoming a funny memory or cringeworthy history.

But her childhood trauma and loss fueled it.

Even in college, she believed in magical girls and a dark dragon sealed in her arm.

She paid for a black dragon tattoo to “harness” its power as the Flame Dragon magical girl.

Then she met a real monster.

Thinking it a test, she charged in.

Hot weapons barely dented the beast.

Wielding a bench, yelling, “Everyone retreat! I’ll fight it!” she was clueless about its weaknesses.

Luckily, [North Wind], the old fairy’s first contracted magical girl, shot the monster’s head, saving her and erasing her memory.

But Wen Yaquan encountered monsters ten times.

On the tenth, the memory wipe backfired, unlocking all prior memories.

The old fairy warned another wipe would ruin her mind.

Finding her place, she begged to join as a magical girl.

The old fairy refused. “You have some magic aptitude, but you’re not qualified. Sorry.”

Undeterred, she offered to be backup—funding a base, equipment, or research.

The fairy rejected her.

But Wen Yaquan bribed him with unlimited potato chips—his weakness.

He caved, and she became the team’s only non-magical girl… girl (?)

A pink-haired newbie, unnamed, had tipped her off about the chips.

Inside the small door, a narrow corridor stretched.

Guiding Jiang Lingwei deeper into the secret room, Wen Yaquan’s tone grew heavy.

“I don’t know if I’m lucky or unlucky, but I lean lucky.”

“Every crisis turned out okay, with good outcomes.”

“Maybe my luckiest moments, besides reuniting with my father, were meeting you all.”

“No,” Jiang Lingwei said, sidestepping two amulets. “Not meeting—fighting side by side. We’re all honored.”

“Haha…” Wen Yaquan’s nose twitched, voice shaky.

She turned away, forcing cheer. “Nice words, but don’t be shocked by what I show you.”

At the corridor’s end, she flicked on a light.

The small room held only a glass case in the center.

“Let me see what—”

Jiang Lingwei’s words caught in her throat.

Wen Yaquan stood silent.

After a moment, Jiang Lingwei stammered, “That’s… Sister Yunxia’s…”

“Go ahead, enter code 0703. The glass will lower.”

Encased was a cross-shaped sickle, faintly glowing.

The magic weapon of Magical Girl [Yunxia].