Chapter 22: The Aftermath and Lingering Traces

Su Xinxin tried wiggling her fingers, then gently rotated her neck. Her body felt agile, with no major issues beyond a slight weariness. She braced herself against the mattress and slowly sat up.

“I…” Her voice was a little dry as she spoke.

“Don’t worry!” Jasmine quickly explained, handing her a glass of warm water from the bedside table. “You weren’t forced to revert from your transformation; you’re still ‘Jasmin’ right now. It’s just your first time experiencing such intense magic consumption, and your body and mind haven’t adapted yet. It’s similar to a protective faint after extreme exhaustion. Many rookies go through this.”

Su Xinxin took the glass and sipped slowly. The warm water soothed her throat, offering genuine comfort. At the same time, she felt a gentle warmth emanate from Jasmine’s fingertips, which were lightly resting on the back of her hand, like soaking in a hot spring. The lingering dizziness and discomfort quickly faded.

“Thank you,” she set down the glass, her voice earnest.

“You shouldn’t be thanking me!” Jasmine waved her hand, smiling. “You should be thanking the seniors from ‘Apricot Grove.’ They are our magical girls’ exclusive doctors. Whether it’s injuries, magic backlash, or overexertion like yours, we can come here anytime. They were the ones who just examined you and stabilized your condition.”

Su Xinxin nodded, instinctively pressing a hand to her forehead.

Too much information had flooded her mind over the past three days: the rookie training from the previous two days, the high-level battle she had witnessed today, the sheer exhaustion from depleted magic, and the bizarre reality of lying in this ‘Magical Girl Hospital’ at this very moment. All these scenes intertwined and collided, causing even her seventy-year-old soul to feel a throbbing sensation from information overload.

“Alright, what you need most now is rest.” Jasmine stood up, thoughtfully helping her tuck in the corner of the duvet. “Another ten minutes or so of lying down should be enough for you to recover. I’m going to check on Teacher Cornflower and the others; they might need examinations too.”

With that, she left the ward with light steps, but she left the grayish-brown lop-eared rabbit, Hua Ling—Xiao Li—on the bedside table.

Xiao Li sat primly, its large amber eyes gazing seriously at Su Xinxin.

“You must rest well!” it spoke, its voice clear and carrying a mature, almost adult-like admonition. “If you feel unwell, you must say so in advance. You’re only an apprentice right now, so don’t be foolishly brave! Otherwise, you’ll just make my master worry again!”

Being so solemnly ‘criticized’ by this little creature, Su Xinxin was initially startled, a faint sense of ‘not having done well enough’ passing through her heart. But then, a strange familiarity surged within her—this tone, this expression, how much it resembled the way her own children used to ‘educate’ her when they felt she was ‘worrying too much.’

This small ‘complaint,’ tinged with concern, actually brought her a long-lost warmth, a sense of ‘home.’

As she thought, her ancient soul relaxed, and a gentle smile unconsciously curved her lips.

“Hey! I said a couple of things to you, why are you smiling?” Xiao Li immediately widened its eyes, crossing its front paws over its chest in a defensive posture. “You, you’re not a masochist, are you? Ugh… scary!”

Su Xinxin’s smile froze on her face, real confusion rising in her eyes.

A masochist? What was that?

She instinctively turned her head, wanting to find the little creature who always seemed to explain new terms in time.

But at that moment, Xiao Ming had curled herself into a snowy white furball, sleeping soundly beside her pillow, rising and falling with each breath, completely oblivious to the conversation.

It seemed she couldn’t rely on her.

“…Understood, I’m sorry.” Su Xinxin felt a little helpless, so she complied with Xiao Li’s words, lying back down on the bed, pulling the thin blanket up to her chin, and closing her eyes, feigning a return to rest. “Then I’ll… rest a bit longer. You should go find your master quickly.”

“That’s more like it!” Xiao Li nodded in satisfaction, lightly leaping from the bedside table. “You really are a handful! Rest well!”

With that, it transformed into a faint glow and passed through the door.

Silence once again settled in the ward.

Su Xinxin quietly opened one eye, confirming Xiao Li had truly left, before letting out a soft sigh of relief.

She turned on her side, looking at the snoring Xiao Ming beside her pillow, and stretched out a finger, curiously poking its soft cheek.

In her current identity, this little creature was probably the only one she could speak to without reservation, the only one who could truly be considered ‘family.’

“Ugh… Master, you still need to rest, and I need to rest too. Stop bothering me…”

Xiao Ming mumbled something indistinctly in its sleep, vaguely scratching at the poked spot with a small paw, then rolled over, presenting its backside to her, and continued to sink into slumber.

Su Xinxin smiled faintly, withdrew her hand, and also turned over, quietly gazing out the ward window.

Just like the day she first met this little creature.

****

The atmosphere in the neighboring ward, however, was far from peaceful.

“You clearly could have purified it then, so why did you insist on forcibly slaying it?” Cornflower’s voice remained steady, but a hint of restrained, rational disapproval could be detected beneath it.

“Didn’t I say it earlier? I’m a staunch annihilationist.” Gentian’s voice, though weak from her hospital bed, was unyielding. “For me, no matter what ‘corrosion’ it is, I’ll cut it down completely.”

“But your condition was already very poor at the time. Why use such a high-load finishing move?” Cornflower looked at her. “Even if you reject purification, you should at least consider your own body.”

“No!” Gentian turned her face away, a look of disdain on it. “What if that evil spirit ambushed me during purification? What if it was just faking weakness? You know that guy is a bit cunning. Besides—” She paused, then turned back to Cornflower, a slightly ingratiating smile tugging at the corner of her lips. “Even if I collapse, don’t I still have you?”

Jasmine, who had just reached the ward entrance and was hesitating whether to enter, happened to witness this scene, her footsteps pausing outside the door.

It seemed… she had arrived at the wrong time?

Cornflower, however, didn’t respond to Gentian’s words. Instead, she turned to look at the doorway. “How are things?”

She asked directly, her gaze falling on Jasmine with scrutiny.

“Uh… the rookie is quite stable, and there weren’t too many casualties this time. Recovery…” Jasmine knew she had been spotted, so she slowly walked in, subconsciously reporting.

“I’m asking about you,” Cornflower interrupted her, her eyes glimmering as she seriously assessed Jasmine.

“I… I’m fine too! After all, I wasn’t directly involved in much of the fighting…”

“Evacuating people, protecting citizens, and maintaining social order are equally crucial,” Cornflower’s tone softened. “Combat is not a magical girl’s sole responsibility. Jasmine, you did very well.”

On her shoulder, a small Si sat quietly, like a silent chronicler. It occasionally raised a front paw, tapping lightly in the air, as if organizing an invisible mission report.

After Cornflower finished speaking, she cast a sidelong glance at Gentian on the bed, her words clearly aimed at her.

“Tch~” Gentian turned her head away, her face clearly expressing, ‘Saving people isn’t as satisfying as fighting.’

In the shadow by her pillow, Xiao You had curled herself into a ball of purplish-gray fur, revealing only one eye. It lazily glanced at Cornflower and Si, then closed its eye again, as if utterly uninterested in this ideological debate.

****

Night deepened.

A corner of Xinghe Han Street Commercial District gradually fell silent. A few streets away from the battlefield, a streetlamp cast a dim yellow light at the entrance of an elegantly decorated coffee shop.

“Pah! What’s this strange taste?”

The young man who had just bought a hot Americano frowned, holding the paper cup further away.

“Come on, I think you just can’t get used to coffee. A country bumpkin can’t appreciate fine dining,” his companion teased with a laugh.

“Impossible! There’s just a… an indescribable sour smell!” The man sniffed again, then, with a look of utter disgust, he tossed the almost untouched coffee, cup and lid, into a roadside trash can with a clang.

Inside the bin, black liquid slowly seeped from the gap in the lid, mixing with a bit of fluid at the bottom of the bin, forming an inconspicuous, slightly reflective dark stain.

In an unobserved corner, that puddle of black water seemed to come alive. Extremely slowly, it seeped drop by drop through a crack at the bottom of the trash can, down into the dark sewer opening below.

The night wind blew, rustling a few fallen leaves, covering that insignificant trace.

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