Chapter 9: First of all, I’m not a lolicon.

Alice knew Feibisi, but she was much more used to calling her the shady merchant.

Click click.

Raising her phone to take photos of herself, Alice casually sent a few pictures over. All of them were shots where she blocked her face with her hand but showed her full body, taken from a high angle.

“This should be enough, shady merchant. I’ve already paid the price.” Alice said to the makeup case beside her.

“Hey! Avoiding that pretty face and not letting it into the frame? Lady Alice, what a waste of such a cute face!” Feibisi expressed her dissatisfaction, the banging sounds suggesting she was slapping the table.

“Nothing good ever comes from you having my photos. That’s it, I’m hanging up.” Alice reached out to end the call on the makeup case.

“Eh, wait wait wait! I still have something to say!”

“Make it quick.”

“Alice, are you really not planning to come back? Even if you don’t want to join the Wise King Court, the other courts are also interested in you…”

“I have no intention of getting involved in matters of the Law World, at least not for now. That’s all.”

Alice unilaterally ended the call and reached out to close the makeup case.

Buzz buzz!

The phone she had just added Feibisi on kept ringing nonstop. Alice chose to ignore it selectively. She didn’t want to sink back into the past anymore. She had to live in the present. She still had her sister to take care of.

“Right… I need to send a message using Xia Hui’s account to let her know.”

Alice still took out her phone, ignored the string of red notification dots from Feibisi, and separately opened the chat with the contact saved as “Little Sister.” She sent a short message.

【Men Remain Boys Until Death】: Not coming home tonight. Company arranged a business trip. Go to bed early.

Her sister did not reply. She waited a full minute with no response.

Maybe she’s cooking?

Alice suddenly felt like visiting her sister. Anyway, she couldn’t do the live stream tonight unless she wanted to risk getting caught by Xia Xiaocheng again.

Leaving the rented apartment, Alice dispelled her magical girl equipment, keeping only a basic dress. After all, dressing too much like a magical girl could easily cause misunderstandings.

The night wind was a bit chilly. At this hour, there were very few people coming and going in the residential complex. Alice gazed at the starry sky and unconsciously followed muscle memory to the front door of her home.

Room 202, Building 7, Unit 1 in Shanhe Kangcheng — the home of Xia Hui and Xia Xiaocheng.

Staring at the familiar door and the small repair advertisements on the wall, Alice did not enter as usual. She sighed and looked toward the balcony.

“I’ll fly up and take a look from the balcony. If she forgot to lock the window, I can help close it.”

Having lived in the complex for a long time, Alice also knew the positions of the nearby surveillance cameras. She avoided the camera angles and slowly flew up to the second-floor balcony, peering into the living room.

The glass sliding door between the living room and balcony was not blocked by curtains. Xia Xiaocheng was lying on the sofa, smiling brightly while holding her phone, as if sharing something happy with someone.

Who is my sister chatting with? A boy or a girl? Why does she look so happy?

As her brother, Alice felt it was her duty to find out. She quietly pricked up her ears and used magic power to enhance her hearing.

“Jiang He! Let me tell you, today I encountered something super lucky!”

“Did your account gain followers? Or did your brother get you a new phone?”

“Neither! It’s a person I met in real life!”

“A handsome guy?”

“No! It’s a genuine, super cute beautiful girl loli! White hair and blue eyes, exactly my type! It hits my XP so hard!”

Xia Xiaocheng spoke with quite a bit of pride and showing off. Jiang He on the other end of the phone asked back.

“You like them small? Are you asking to get shot or electrocuted? Never mind, you’re expelled from the magical girl registry.”

“Jiang He, don’t misunderstand! First, I’m not a loli-con! Second, Senior Alice is really beautiful and strong. You don’t know how tough the disaster beasts were tonight. Luckily Senior saved my life. She’s such a gentle person.”

Xia Xiaocheng couldn’t help lifting her legs and swinging them in the air. Her face was flushed red with happiness.

It looked like her sister was just sharing daily life with a friend who was also a magical girl companion. Then there was no problem.

Alice felt relieved. She then touched her own cheek, which felt a little hot and flushed. She really hadn’t known that she matched her sister’s XP.

Right, this must just be joking between friends. It’s normal for close girlfriends. Young people nowadays express themselves more openly. It must be my own issue.

After comforting herself, she was about to fly away from the balcony when Alice realized she hadn’t turned off her enhanced hearing yet. She heard something that made her stay.

“Eh? I just saw my brother sent me a message. Ohhh! Good news, Jiang He! My brother is on a business trip and won’t be back! Let’s log in!”

“It’s already this late… I’m not staying up with you. I’m going to sleep. So tired.”

“Sleep sleep sleep, all you know is sleeping. Fine, you big sloth. I’ll play by myself. Bye bye.”

“Mm, bye bye.”

Jiang He hung up. Xia Xiaocheng flipped over and eagerly opened her game.

“Brother isn’t home tonight, and Jiang He is on patrol tomorrow. Woohoo! Tonight I’m going to play until dawn.”

Xia Xiaocheng looked quite happy. But at that moment, Alice’s expression outside the balcony darkened.

She wasn’t against staying up late to play games. After all, students nowadays faced a lot of pressure, and she could understand. Plus, her sister was also working as a magical girl, so occasional indulgence was acceptable.

However, “play until dawn” — she was genuinely worried about her sister’s health. So she had to intervene. Staying up until one or two was already the bottom line.

Soon, Alice’s figure disappeared from outside the balcony. Xia Xiaocheng was fully focused on her game.

But this atmosphere didn’t last even five minutes.

Knock knock knock.

The knocking sound interrupted Xia Xiaocheng’s gaming rhythm. She sat up and looked toward the door, wondering if she had misheard.

“Anyone there?”

Knock knock.

What answered her was another polite knock.

There really is someone! Could it be my brother forgot something and came back? Good thing I kept dinner warm in the pot and didn’t clean it up yet.

Xia Xiaocheng tossed her phone aside and hurriedly went to open the door.

Ever since becoming a magical girl, her perception of external “malice” had become sharper. So she didn’t need to check through the peephole. As long as it wasn’t someone with bad intentions, it was fine.

Click. The door opened.

“Brother, you’re back! I knew you forgot… Eh!”

What Xia Xiaocheng saw first was not Xia Hui, but slightly lower, Alice looking up at her.

“Good evening, Xia Xiaocheng.”

Alice raised her hand in greeting. Her tone and expression were cool and distant, making Xia Xiaocheng feel a chill run down her back.

“Uh… Good evening, Senior. Is there something you need? Would you like to come in and sit?”

“Sure.”

Alice stepped into her own home. To act as if it was her first time here, she deliberately stood at the entrance and looked around for a moment before sitting down on the sofa with Xia Xiaocheng.

The two sat facing each other sideways. Without her transformation, Xia Xiaocheng was about 1.4 meters tall, slightly taller than Alice, so she had the strange feeling of being the older sister.

“Um, Senior, you can speak now. The door is closed.”

“Xia Xiaocheng, did your brother… tell you to go to bed early?”

The moment Alice spoke, Xia Xiaocheng’s heart jumped.

Senior came specifically because of my brother’s message? Could it be that the two of them know each other! So my brother asked her to come check on me!