Chapter 125: Rooftop Night Talk

The night wind brushed across the rooftop, carrying the faint salty scent unique to coastal cities. It lifted strands of Lin Yu’s long black hair, making them flutter lightly.

The hem of the JK uniform swayed with the breeze, outlining the slender, upright silhouette of the “girl.”

She narrowed her pure black eyes slightly, speaking in a tone that sounded as if she’d been waiting for quite some time:

“You cops are really strange. Why do you all love talking on rooftops?”

Luo Shaotian’s footsteps stopped a few paces away from her.

It had barely been half a day since he last saw “Lulu,” yet when he faced her again, a wave of overwhelming surreality swept through him.

He still couldn’t reconcile this calm, composed, and faintly intimidating young girl with the pitiful little high school runaway who had once squatted by the roadside, begging him to take her in.

“Lulu…”

He tentatively called her name, voice filled with disbelief and tangled emotions.

“That’s enough, old man…”

Lin Yu cut him off coldly, frowning with visible distaste.

“Why are you calling me so affectionately? I only borrowed your mortal shell for a while to replenish my energy… you didn’t seriously think it meant anything, right?”

“…No.”

Luo Shaotian took a deep breath, forcing himself to think straight.

“I just don’t understand—why hide your identity to get close to me? I’m… not someone special, am I?”

“Oh? At least you know that much yourself~”

Lin Yu crossed his arms, chin tilting up slightly, speaking in an official, business-like tone:

“The only reason I lived in your house was because a friend entrusted me to treat the pollution in your body. So I had to approach you like that. Even had to cook for you every day… ugh, thinking about it annoys me. I hate cooking the most.”

“Entrusted?”

Luo Shaotian immediately caught that word.

“Who entrusted you? Could it be—”

“Hey.”

Before he finished, Lin Yu pulled a small bottle from his pocket and tossed it to him.

Luo Shaotian caught it instinctively. Inside were white capsules.

“These suppress your psionic energy. One pill a week. It’ll keep the pollution under control. I used to slip them into your food, but since you already know, no need for the hassle. Take them yourself.”

“…Thank you.”

Luo Shaotian gripped the bottle carefully.

“Does this mean… you plan to leave?”

“Do I have any reason to stay?”

Lin Yu tilted his head—an adorable gesture paired with a voice cold enough to freeze water.

“Do you really think I like playing a runaway high school girl living under the same roof as some stranger? Please. Every day I’m scared you’ll see something you shouldn’t…”

“You… you know I’m not that kind of person.”

“Who knows~”

She shrugged, dismissive.

“Anyway, even if it was an act, thanks for your hospitality. And I cured your pollution, so we’re even. Neither owes the other anything.”

“Even?”

Luo Shaotian shook his head, gaze deepening.

“No. I owe you.”

“Huh?”

“If not for you, I would’ve died under that monster’s hands.”

“Protecting civilians is a magical girl’s duty.”

“But without you, I would’ve gone berserk during the fight with Wu Jianguo.”

“I was entrusted. Naturally, I fulfill the request.”

“And one more thing…”

Luo Shaotian’s voice dropped lower.

“If not for you, I would’ve died long ago at Red City Gang’s hands.”

“I only did a little—huh?”

Lin Yu froze.

A chill crawled up his back.

“What… do you mean?”

Luo Shaotian spoke calmly:

“I remember. I remember everything now.”

A flicker of panic flashed in Lin Yu’s eyes.

He instinctively stepped back half a pace.

—Why?

Why the hell did he remember that incident?

Logically, the logistics department should’ve erased that memory…

Was it due to psionic exposure?

Or—

“Your relationship with Lin Yu… isn’t ordinary, right?”

Every word was a nail hammered precisely into the wall Lin Yu had constructed.

“To make a magical girl appear multiple times to bail him out…”

A faint red tint crept onto Lin Yu’s cheeks.

“…Even willing to sell her body—cough, I mean—move into my home…”

“…And even just now—”

“Enough!”

Lin Yu cut him off sharply, voice slightly shrill from panic.

“So what if it’s true?! It’s none of your business! We’re even now, aren’t we? Isn’t that perfect?”

She forcibly shoved down her swirling emotions and turned to leave.

“Wait.”

Luo Shaotian called out to her.

“…What now?”

She stopped, body stiff, but refused to look back.

“The whole ‘lost phone’ thing… was fake, right?”

Luo Shaotian’s tone held quiet scrutiny.

“When I called your phone… the one who picked up was Lin Yu.”

—Shit.

Worthy of being a cop—he pieced the clues together way too fast!

What now??

What the hell now?!

When a lie is exposed, there are only two outcomes:

1. Tell the truth. (Impossible for Lin Yu.)

2. Tell an even bigger lie.

So—

“Y-yeah! I didn’t lose my phone!”

Lin Yu blurted loudly.

“I… I left it with him! When you called, he helped me act it out so your precious brotherly heart wouldn’t worry!!”

“Left… with him?”

Luo Shaotian processed the flimsy excuse, eyes narrowing in thought.

“So you’re saying… at that ‘girls’ gathering’ you mentioned… Lin Yu was there too?”

Lin Yu stiffened like a shocked cat.

She had accidentally revealed crucial information.

“What’s it to you?! Busybody!!”

She snapped, panic leaking everywhere.

“I just want to know what relationship Lin Yu has with you magical girls—”

“So annoying!! Go ask him yourself!!”

Lin Yu clapped both hands over her ears, as if physically blocking the questions.

Knowing that the more she said, the more she would slip, she bolted for the stairwell without looking back.

Luo Shaotian didn’t chase.

He simply stood there, letting the wind rustle his hair.

Footsteps faded.

Silence returned.

Neon lights flickered from afar, casting fragmented color across the rooftop.

But in his mind—

A storm was gathering.

The canning factory.
The rainy night.
The police station…

Fragments once unrelated now pulled together by an invisible string.

And the other end of that string—

Was tied firmly to a certain person he once shared a home with.

“A-Yu…”

He slowly pulled out his phone.

The glow illuminated a face filled with worry.

His fingertip hovered over a name he had pressed countless times before.

“Just how many secrets… are you still hiding from me?”