Chapter 5: I was called “Mom”

Something was off.

Nine out of ten parts off.

Yet even though she clearly sensed it, the curiosity in Su Tang’s heart grew stronger.

“Fine, I’ll go.” Su Tang agreed.

“Yay!” Ningliu immediately raised both hands in cheer, as if saved.

“Then I’ll trouble little Su Tang.”

Tao Lian paused, then meaningfully reminded Su Tang, “No matter what happens later, don’t be too surprised, okay?”

Su Tang didn’t understand but didn’t think too much about it, then headed upstairs.

Xia Qingli’s room door was pear yellow, easy to recognize. The next room seemed unoccupied, the door retaining its original color, and beside it was Mei’s room.

Su Tang came to Xia Qingli’s door and lightly knocked twice.

“Knock knock.”

“Um, Xiao Li, can I call you that? Time to get up?”

“…”

No response.

“Knock knock knock.”

Su Tang knocked a few more times: “Xiao Li?”

The next second, the room door opened inward a bit, revealing a crack.

The door wasn’t locked?

Why did it suddenly turn into a horror movie…

But it was broad daylight, and this was the invincible magical girls’ dorm; nothing should happen, right?

“Um, excuse me?”

Seeing no movement inside, Su Tang cautiously pushed the door open.

The scene inside slowly unfolded before Su Tang’s eyes. When she saw the full view, her eyes instantly widened.

Bags upon bags of trash piled up in every corner of the room. Various items not yet in trash bags—temporarily not called “garbage”—were scattered messily everywhere. And that blonde, adorable petite girl was curled up sleeping on a round mat in the center of the room, as if the only small patch of purity in this garbage world.

Yet strangely, despite the scene, Su Tang couldn’t smell any odor, nor feel any “dirt.” It was as if those bags of trash had long fused with the room, as ordinary as tables and chairs, and the other items were chaotically “orderly,” as if they belonged exactly there.

“You saw it.”

Suddenly, a voice came from behind Su Tang, startling her into a tremble.

Turning around, Mei was standing behind her at some point. She seemed to have just returned from morning training, a pure white towel around her slender snowy neck, collar damp with sweat, outlining a beautiful chest shape while emitting the same pleasant blueberry scent as yesterday.

“I-it was Miss Ningliu who asked me to come! I didn’t mean to!” Su Tang quickly said.

“It’s fine. You don’t need to worry about being silenced for stumbling upon a magical girl’s secret. This isn’t something worth hiding.”

Mei glanced into the room, her expression calm, “Xiao Li is a very powerful magical girl, but in daily life, she’s a complete mess.”

“A m-mess?”

“You see it too.”

Su Tang looked back at Xia Qingli in the room.

Her mind recalled yesterday when she patted her head, that reliable appearance.

The image completely shattered…

It felt like opening an Apple phone and entering the Android system.

As expected, magical girls are all glamorous on the surface but quirky in private.

“Confirm she’s awake and that’s it. Don’t worry about the rest.” Mei said, then headed to her own room.

Su Tang now understood why Tao Lian and Ningliu’s reactions were so subtle earlier.

It felt like they found Xia Qingli troublesome but had to tough it out living under the same roof because she’s indispensable combat power.

Looking at the trash-filled room and thinking of everyone’s attitude toward Xia Qingli, Su Tang inexplicably felt uneasy.

“Ahhh, whatever.”

Su Tang hesitated for a moment, then walked into Xia Qingli’s room, picking up two trash bags with left and right hands to take out.

This scene was seen by Mei, who had changed clothes and come out again.

“You’re really a kind girl, but you shouldn’t get involved.” Mei patted her head and sighed deeply.

“Get involved? What do you mean?”

Su Tang, holding the trash bags in both hands, tilted her head.

The next second, she suddenly felt something hugging her leg again.

Looking down, Xia Qingli was tightly hugging Su Tang’s leg, looking up at her with that calm, ripple-free cute face and scattered blonde hair, like the finest crafted doll.

“Xi-Xiao… Li?”

“Mommy.”

“?”

Wait, hold on?

Su Tang was stunned first, then immediately had a bad premonition.

Could what Mei meant by getting involved be…

Suddenly, Su Tang’s head throbbed with pain, as if something had unexpectedly drilled into her brain.

“I won?”

As if by instinct, Su Tang blurted out those three words.

“What won?” Mei asked in confusion from the side.

“N-nothing.” Su Tang quickly shook her head.

In fact, Su Tang had just awakened and discovered her ability—Victory Mark.

Victory Mark meant that when Su Tang won against a target by “any means,” the target would be marked and could never again achieve victory over her.

The reason she successfully marked Xia Qingli was probably because she called Su Tang “mommy,” judged as Su Tang’s win.

This result wasn’t conveyed through some medium implanting memories; Su Tang “just knew.”

Because this was Su Tang’s ability; she was supposed to know.

Su Tang found it baffling but quickly reacted.

After drinking the evil doctor’s mysterious potion, it wasn’t just because it was a prototype that she only turned into a girl.

She was essentially still a monster!

Just very cute, and undetectable by magical girls.

But could she really not be detected?

Thinking this, Su Tang warily looked at Mei.

As the most cautious and serious in the Fruit Pie, if she discovered Su Tang’s monster identity, she’d slice her in half in less than a second.

“Little Su Tang, Xiao Mei, come down for breakfast!” Tao Lian’s voice came from downstairs at this time.

“I’ll go down first.”

Mei patted Su Tang’s shoulder, “For now, we’ll have to trouble you. If Xiao Li offends you later, we’ll figure something out.”

After saying that, Mei headed downstairs.

“She… didn’t notice?” Su Tang swallowed.

It seemed that from the moment the Fruit Pie found Su Tang, she was already a monster, but due to her special constitution, magical girls couldn’t tell, and she had just awakened her ability.

Ahh… In the end, she still became a monster? Though magical girls can’t detect it, it’s still a headache…

However, the headaches weren’t just one.

“Mommy.”

Xia Qingli still clung to Su Tang and said something even heavier, “Drink milk.”

“…”

Su Tang instinctively looked down at her own flat chest, lips twitching.

Are you serious?