Chapter Seventeen: Flawless Reasoning

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Lan Fu sat in the study with her arms crossed, sulking as she stared defiantly at the computer screen before her. Yue He had taken her otherwise unused monitor, leaving him without a dual-screen setup; now all the windows on his desktop overlapped, severely hindering his workflow.

The screen recording from Douyin was banned the very night it was posted, yet it was impossible to stop its spread across the internet. He had even seen it once in his department’s group chat, though it was quickly blocked within minutes.

Such an unconventional magical girl combat video was rare even on a global scale, inevitably attracting a great deal of attention.

Moreover, there hadn’t been such a public magical girl incident in years. The internet’s silly netizens, as if pent up, had dug up every piece of information in less than a day.

If it weren’t for the fact that the active period was so long ago that it formed a natural barrier, the Magical Affairs Bureau might already be knocking on his door.

If he were to speak of regrets, Lan Fu did feel a bit of it.

He had to admit, no matter how much he disliked the Bureau, over the years they had been fairly successful in clearing out magical beasts; after all, they were an organized and disciplined force. The probability of encountering a magical beast attack in the city was very low—this time, it was just bad luck that he ran into it head-on.

Yet at that moment, he could never ignore the victims.

The reason magical girls possessed such power was precisely because of that instinctive wish to protect. Before taking action, he was fully aware of the consequences of revealing himself again, but… perhaps this was his fate.

After such an incident, Lan Fu naturally lost all motivation for work and took a day off to stay home and monitor the situation.

Including the hospital visit earlier, he had taken two days off this month. By the way, the hospital visit counted as personal leave since he didn’t have a hospital certificate.

With these two personal leaves under his belt, he knew his boss wouldn’t look kindly on him tomorrow.

Counting the days, he would need to take another day off to go to the civil affairs bureau, since they didn’t work on weekends.

The anxiety this caused Lan Fu was almost equal to the anxiety of being caught on witness records. For middle-aged people, worries weren’t about size but sheer number.

“Come to think of it, you never seemed truly happy,” Yue He had said, and no matter how hard he tried, Lan Fu could never erase that expression from his memory. He didn’t want to face that version of her.

“If that’s the case, does having me by your side still mean anything?” Lan Fu buried his face in his hands, squeezing as if trying to crush his memories.

Then he forced himself to dive back into the chaotic information on the screen, letting himself be consumed by the current troubles.

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The only comfort was that all the information dug up online was within his expectations, and the Magical Affairs Bureau was probably still investigating in the wrong direction. It was just that his experience from his era no longer applied, and he wasn’t sure how much longer he could hold out against new technologies and methods.

As for the bag of money on the desk…

Lan Fu picked up the cute rabbit-patterned paper bag and emptied the twenty thousand yuan inside. He glanced over it but didn’t feel the anticipated surge of joy.

With the magical beasts and magical girl diverting the Bureau’s attention, it was exactly what Boss Tian wanted. The delivery wasn’t just unaffected; it actually went more smoothly.

Shi Ningyu, who had completed the transaction, remembered Lan Fu’s rule to meet after work hours and gave him half the money.

“Why am I getting so much?” Lan Fu was a bit surprised after counting the cash.

“Too lazy to calculate. Haven’t you been a corporate drone long enough to be addicted to performance metrics? Do we need to hire an accountant too?” Shi Ningyu retorted with some resentment, leaving him speechless. Girls really were moody—she used to admire him in the refining room… Lan Fu once again felt grateful that he hadn’t had a daughter.

Speaking of which, his son wasn’t much easier to deal with!

Lan Fu wondered if Fu Linxing had seen the video…

Did that kid browse Douyin? Even if he didn’t, based on Lan Fu’s observation of how intensely young people surf the net nowadays, the video was probably shared in some group chat among them. Chances were high that Linxing had seen it.

In theory, having grown up under the Bureau’s publicity campaign, kids nowadays shouldn’t be very interested in magical girls; at least, it wouldn’t be mainstream conversation.

The problem was that Linxing had stolen a painting. If he hadn’t seen that painting, he probably wouldn’t have connected the dots…

Lan Fu knew how much trouble his son could cause. Since he had risked stealing the painting—and not to report He Yue—he must have done some homework on magical girls.

With bad luck, the curious and proactive Linxing would soon realize the magical girl in the painting was the same as the one in the video. Since the video leaked from an outdoor streamer, it wouldn’t take much analysis to confirm the location.

Then he’d realize the person in the painting lived in the same city as him…

Though Lan Fu was confident his son wouldn’t uncover the truth immediately, he could guess the misunderstanding it would cause.

As long as Linxing didn’t take the stolen painting to report He Yue, it would still be tolerable.

The question was: how could he fabricate a story both convincing enough to make Linxing drop the matter and not expose his own lie?

While he was agonizing over this, a message notification suddenly popped up on his phone from Linxing. His heart jumped, and with trepidation, he opened his son’s message.

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“Dad, I’m really, really sorry for stealing that painting! And I misunderstood you before! How could you keep something this big from me? So old He was… that back in the day?”

Lan Fu found it hard to describe his feelings at that moment. It was like being sleepy and someone hands you a pillow—but it’s wet; or hungry and someone brings you food—but it’s from a fast-food chain.

He was just worrying about how to lie to Linxing, and the kid basically delivered his own challenge.

Of course, Lan Fu knew exactly what his son was referring to. But he couldn’t just use that excuse like some unscrupulous company legitimizing a community mod; that was a massive lie requiring a thousand more to cover up, and it was way too unfair to He Yue...

Besides, he felt Linxing’s line of thought was a bit off.

So he cautiously replied, “Back in the day, what?”

“That one—the big fuss going on these past few days. Have you seen that video from Wanda Plaza? They’re not letting it out here anymore; I’m worried even typing this will get blocked… Anyway, since you asked about the painting, you must know what I’m talking about. Those who know, know!”

“You admit to the painting now? Weren’t you pretending not to know the afternoon before yesterday?”

“I was wrong, really wrong. I was just confused. Punish me however you want, but first tell me if old He was really that!”

Lan Fu thought for a moment and asked his son, “Has your mom found out about the painting?”

“Of course not! If she knew, would I be messaging you secretly like this?”

“Watch your language.”

“Private messaging! Abbreviated! I’m typing this secretly in the bathroom to save time—she’s about to take my phone and make me go to bed.”

Lan Fu breathed a sigh of relief. It was impossible otherwise; what was he worrying about? “Your mom is not that.”

“Then who is the person in the painting?”

“First, tell me how you got the idea that your mom was that.”

The other side fell silent for a moment, then the typing indicator flickered intermittently. Lan Fu sneered inwardly, waiting to see what trick Linxing would try next.