Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

At thirty-three, Hong Siyu had once forgotten the word "miracle."

Just as she had hoped for during her student days, she had become the most ordinary of workers, laboring in an unfamiliar city.

Of course, to say she was a worker, her place of work was slightly special—it wasn't a regular civilian enterprise or institution, but the Abnormal Strategy Bureau.

In her twenty-second year, she fled Fangting City.

After graduating from university and receiving her diploma, she left the city without even saying goodbye to her teammates, merely sending out a message before silently disappearing from the port.

She did not attend An Ya and Lin Yun's wedding, nor the full-month celebration of their child.

This was not her initial intention; she had always tried to maintain a smooth relationship with An Ya, but in the end, she realized she couldn't do it. So, she fled to a city where no one knew her, and she knew no one else.

She went to the central city of the Donghua Region farthest from Fangting City—Tiandu City, where she registered, spending the rest of her Magical Girl career.

Later, An Ya called her several times, hoping Hong Siyu would return to Fangting City, but she declined politely each time.

An Ya hadn't done anything wrong; she simply pursued her own love and received a response. In this matter, she didn't have to care about her own feelings, as she wasn't the one in the right.

That's what Hong Siyu thought.

She knew An Ya was seemingly ditzy, yet a sensitive person. The tolerance and gentleness she showed towards friends was the reason An Ya was able to become the captain of the Fangting City squad. Even with the horrible attitude Hong Siyu held in this matter, An Ya still hoped to mend their relationship.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

In contrast, Hong Siyu's own behavior in this situation was so unfeeling, she felt disappointed with herself.

But truly, she couldn't do it.

Perhaps it was for this reason that she never made a breakthrough in her magical ability, forever remaining at the bud level. After all, the wish she made when she became a Magical Girl was to become happy.

Later, Hong Siyu settled in Tiandu City with a permanent residence, bringing her mother there and decisively settling down. After completing ten years as a Magical Girl, she naturally chose to retire and then joined the Abnormal Strategy Bureau headquarters in Tiandu City. Aside from returning home with her mother during holidays to see relatives who were not close, Fangting City completely disappeared from her life.

Then, when her mother passed away, she never went back to Fangting City again.

An Ya still occasionally made calls, and Hong Siyu would sometimes answer, listening to the other side talk about what had happened in Fangting City.

An Ya, after getting married, was clearly a bit more mature than in her youth, though she would still act foolishly without rhyme or reason, but she had become much more worldly wise. She would tell Hong Siyu about the new members of the Fangting City squad, and even intentionally introduce the newcomers to Hong Siyu, but she no longer mentioned the matter of her returning, merely silently expressing her own thoughts.

Hong Siyu never gave a response in this regard, as if she didn't catch the implications in An Ya's words.

And so, time flew by, until one day, An Ya stopped calling her.

At first, she felt a sense of relief, thinking that An Ya had finally given up on futile persuasion and let go of the past. But soon, a piece of internal news from the Abnormal Strategy Bureau left her stunned.

—The strongest ace of the Magic Kingdom, Cherry, had been sacrificed.

At the moment she learned of An Ya's death, she didn't even know how to describe her feelings.

Was she happy? Relieved? Satisfied?

She couldn't deny that those self-loathing emotions uncontrollably overflowed from her heart at that moment.

The object of her envy and avoidance for so many years had just vanished from the world.

But she knew those dark thoughts weren't everything.

Afterward, she took the initiative to apply to the Abnormal Strategy Bureau headquarters in Tiandu City, requesting a transfer to Fangting City to assist in the training and coordination of new Magical Girls and to investigate An Ya's cause of death.

The headquarters agreed to her request and reassigned her back to Fangting City.

It meant that after many years, she could finally see the person she cared and longed for once again.

With what face should she confront her senior? She thought as much on the day before returning to Fangting City, and couldn't wait to visit An Ya and Lin Yun's home, eventually managing to see Lin Yun as she had wished.

But she never imagined that Lin Yun would look like that when she saw him again.

He was a gaunt middle-aged man with a lackluster gaze and unkempt beard. His clothes were still neat and tidy, but even the most crease-resistant suit couldn't correct a person's spirit; he looked so weathered and lost, Hong Siyu could hardly find a trace of his former self in this man.

He was no longer the handsome youth of the past.

Even upon seeing her, he didn't show any particular reaction, simply greeting her in a basic manner.

Was this the man she had been yearning for all these years, the one she had fled to another city like an ostrich to avoid, now having made the special trip back just to see?