Chapter 30: The Weight of Restraint

Su Xinxin realized it.

A single tear, she noticed, had formed at the corner of her eye.

She raised a hand to wipe it away, her fingertip brushing against the cool dampness. The tear trickled down her cheek, landing on the deep brown plaid of her skirt, where it bloomed into a small, dark stain.

She stared blankly at the wet mark, a dull, indescribable ache welling up in her heart.

She couldn’t acknowledge them. She couldn’t draw close. She couldn’t utter another word.

This was the path she had chosen.

When she signed the contract, her intentions were clear: anonymous remittances, distant protection, and ensuring the children lived well—that would be enough. She believed she could manage it. A seventy-year-old should have long since learned restraint and letting go.

But standing here, separated by rows of bookshelves, watching that child, now grown into a quiet, book-reading youth, politely call her “Elder Sister”…

She suddenly felt the immense weight of those two words: “restraint.”

She walked to a window in the corner and slowly crouched down.

She didn’t know why she felt so fragile, as if a mere gust of wind could shatter her.

She rummaged in her bag for a tissue, lowering her head to press it against the corner of her eye. But her tears were disobedient, quickly soaking a small patch of paper, leaving a transparent wet mark. She replaced it with another, then another.

The soft light outside the window remained, reflecting her blurred silhouette on the glass—the face of an eighteen-year-old girl, yet twisted with a profound sorrow that even a seventy-year-old might not possess.

Not far away, a girl in a light blue plaid pleated skirt was quietly watching this direction.

Lin Mo stood rooted to the spot, unconsciously biting her lip.

‘Was that the girl… the one who helped me get the book just now?’ she silently wondered.

“Mhm,” Xiao Li hopped out of her phone, flying to her owner’s shoulder. Her eyes followed Lin Mo’s gaze to the figure crouching by the window, shoulders trembling slightly. “She… she doesn’t seem quite right.”

Lin Mo didn’t speak immediately. She watched the girl—the vintage plaid skirt, the off-white ruffled trim, the deep brown satin ribbon bow. The image of her standing on tiptoes, lightly bouncing to retrieve a book for Lin Mo at the bookshelf, still lingered in her mind.

Yet now, she was huddled in a small ball in the corner.

“It hasn’t been that long, how could…” Lin Mo murmured, a small orb of warm white light instinctively coalescing in her palm.

She sensed it carefully. A wisp of grayish aura did indeed hover around the girl—an N-rank “Mote.”

Lin Mo turned her back, pretending to browse the books on a shelf. With a slight lift of her fingertip, the ball of white light silently drifted towards the figure by the window, gently enveloping her before quietly dissipating.

The girl remained crouched, her shoulders still trembling softly.

“The purification… no reaction?” Xiao Li’s voice held a hint of confusion.

Lin Mo focused her senses once more. The wisp of gray aura had indeed vanished, but the girl’s emotions had not calmed.

“Her emotions… they’re real,” Lin Mo softly said.

She recalled the moment she had encountered the girl earlier—how she had merely been passing by, yet stopped to help her retrieve a book, her movements gentle, her words soft. When those eyes met hers, there was an indescribably reassuring warmth.

Now, those same eyes were steeped in tears.

What could have happened in such a short time to cause this girl’s emotions to surge so violently?

She stood there, suddenly unsure what to do.

As she pondered, a distinct, aggressive aura swept past her from behind. Lin Mo sharply turned her head, her magical perception instantly expanding—it was a low-rank R-class “Wandering Spirit”!

It turned out the “Mote” earlier had merely been a diversion; this was the true lurking menace!

The Wandering Spirit seemed to sense it had been locked onto. The grayish-black mist abruptly contracted, swiftly fleeing towards another bookshelf.

“Chase it!” Xiao Li urged.

Lin Mo’s feet pivoted, and she pursued without hesitation.

However, the Wandering Spirit’s escape speed was incredibly fast, weaving nimbly between the bookshelves. By the time Lin Mo reached the vicinity of the atrium, the aura suddenly vanished—not as if it had concealed itself, but as if it had completely dissipated.

It had been purified.

Lin Mo stood at the edge of the atrium, her hand dropping. She looked down at her palm, where the orb of purification light, which she hadn’t had time to release, was slowly dimming and disappearing.

She had been half a step too slow.

“…It seems it was handled by another magical girl,” Xiao Li sensed for a moment.

“Mhm.”

Lin Mo said no more, simply standing still, her gaze sweeping past the atrium to the corridor on the other side. It was empty, save for a few readers quietly walking by.

Who could it have been?

To be able to lock onto and purify that Wandering Spirit before her, with faster speed and keener perception—there was indeed a resident colleague in this library.

“Owner,” Xiao Li’s voice softly chimed, “do you want to go say hello?”

Lin Mo thought for a moment, then shook her head. “No. They didn’t show themselves, which means they don’t want to be disturbed.”

She turned and started walking back. After a few steps, she paused again, her gaze piercing through the layers of bookshelves, returning to that corner.

By the window, the figure in the brown plaid skirt was still crouching, but her shoulders were no longer trembling. She was looking down, seemingly rummaging for something in her bag.

At least, she seemed calmer now.

Lin Mo retracted her gaze and slowly walked in another direction.

****

By the window, two or three minutes earlier.

Su Xinxin stuffed the crumpled, wet tissue into the side pocket of her sling bag, then pulled out a dry one and pressed it firmly against the corner of her eye.

‘Am I… ‘ she began in her mind, her voice a little hoarse, ‘is it this girl’s body that cries easily, or my old man’s soul?’

“Perhaps both,” Xiao Ming crouched by her knee, her fluffy tail gently brushing her hand. “However, you did seem to have a trace of ‘Erosion’ on you just now.”

Su Xinxin froze for a moment.

So, it was “Erosion” affecting her emotions.

She looked down at the half-damp tissue in her hand, and suddenly felt as though the bitterness in her heart had found an excuse to settle.

“No wonder,” she said. “No wonder I was so… so emotional just now. So it was ‘Erosion.’ That explains it, that explains it…”

Xiao Ming looked up at her, her long ears twitching, but she didn’t expose her.

“Eh? Wait—” Xiao Ming suddenly perked up her ears. “There’s a trace of ‘Erosion’! Is it a Wandering Spirit? It’s right near us!”

Su Xinxin instinctively focused her senses. Indeed, a gray, turbid aura, far more distinct than a “Mote,” swiftly swept past from behind her. Its direction was…

“Should we chase it?” she asked.

“Absolutely not!” Xiao Ming immediately rejected. “You can’t defeat a Wandering Spirit right now! Quickly send a message to Mentor Jasmine!”

“Oh, oh, right…”

Su Xinxin frantically pulled out her phone, her fingers still a bit disobedient. She opened the chat with Jasmine and quickly typed:

[Mentor Jasmine, there seems to be a Wandering Spirit on the third floor, right at…]

Before she could finish typing, the Wandering Spirit’s aura suddenly vanished.

It seemed to have completely dissipated—purified.

Her finger hovered above the screen, momentarily stunned.

She had typed it all for nothing.

She sighed and began deleting the sentences she had just typed, character by character.

When she had deleted it down to just [Mentor Jasmine, third floor is g], her finger slipped, and she accidentally hit the send button.

The message flew out with a *whoosh*.

Su Xinxin froze.

“What do I do? It sent!” she urgently looked at Xiao Ming.

“Recall it! Long-press the message, and a recall option will pop up!” Xiao Ming’s ears quivered in agitation.

Su Xinxin long-pressed the message, and sure enough, the words “Recall” appeared. Just as she was about to tap it, her finger stopped mid-air.

“If I recall it… won’t she be even more suspicious?” she hesitated. “I… I’ll just send another message to explain.”

So she lowered her head again and slowly typed:

[Sorry, I typed incorrectly just now… I apologize for disturbing you.]

She tapped send.

She put her phone back in her bag, letting out a soft breath.

That should… explain it clearly, right?

The phone screen lit up.

Lin Mo looked down and saw a new message notification from “Jasmin.”

She tapped it open.

First message: [Mentor Jasmine, third floor is g]

Second message: [Sorry, I typed incorrectly just now… I apologize for disturbing you.]

She looked at the two messages, paused, then suddenly covered her mouth, smiling soundlessly.

“What is it? What happened?” Xiao Li poked her head out from Lin Mo’s shoulder.

“Nothing,” Lin Mo put away her phone, a lingering smile still on her lips. “It’s just that I feel… she’s a bit silly again.”

“Who? Jasmin?”

“Mhm.”

Lin Mo walked a few steps, then suddenly remembered something and looked back in that direction.

By the window, the figure in the brown plaid skirt had already stood up. She was looking down, tidying her skirt, then picked up her deep brown sling bag and slowly walked away.

A few rays of sunlight filtered through a gap in the clouds, falling on her smooth black hair, gilding it with a faint, warm glow.

Lin Mo retracted her gaze and continued walking forward.

In the distance, someone quietly turned another page of a book.

A rustling sound, like wind brushing through treetops.

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