Chapter 8: And So On, and So Forth

After finishing the sweet pancake to calm her mood, Ren Huazhi began to write the combat report for Meng Qiuxu on the small table.

She used her novelist’s expertise to embellish the report, vividly describing how fierce the nightmare’s attack was, and how she had fought back with her wisdom and the environment. Even though her positioning was very cautious, she still couldn’t avoid taking a hit to the chest—the armor was pierced like paper, and she had almost fainted. However, in the end, she had burst out with her potential to protect the lives of the police officers, and had thrust the gunblade into the nightmare’s body and fired, completing a last-ditch counterattack.

She even added side descriptions and psychological descriptions, almost completing a short story of nearly ten thousand words.

She clicked send—

[What is this?]

[Can’t you just let me read a normal combat report?]

Meng Qiuxu’s post-reading feedback came back in a few minutes.

[This is the written summary you’ve been brewing all noon? What’s with all these onomatopoeias and suddenly inserted descriptions of scenery?]

…Obviously, this science and engineering woman, who was very poor in the spiritual realm, did not have the ability to appreciate literature.

Ren Huazhi felt very heartbroken. Young people these days, they don’t even read a paper book for years. The predictable online novels, which just change the character names, are rampant on the best-seller lists. The speed of the decline in aesthetic ability is staggering.

[I was almost killed by your paper-mache armor. My psychological activity was a little intense. Is there a problem?] Ren Huazhi replied righteously.

[I know, I know. I’ll strengthen the defense. You don’t have to emphasize it for the fourth time! I’ll send you an address later. It’s my laboratory. Bring the belt over tomorrow. I’ll overhaul it.]

…Ah.

Ren Huazhi’s heart skipped a beat. She realized her oversight.

Speaking of which, last year, there had also been a period when she and Meng Qiuxu were in close contact. It was during the break-in period before the sword and shield had been adjusted to their optimal state—the Flower Weaver’s blessing ability was difficult to use, so she was particularly dependent on the magic-conducting hunting gear to amplify her numerical advantage.

Even so, she had maintained her magical girl form throughout the contact and had kept the frequency of their meetings to a minimum, adhering to the principle of confidentiality. To this day, even though the identity of the “Flower Weaver” had been exposed, Meng Qiuxu still did not know who the person under the mask was.

But this method was not working now.

Because her new form itself needed the belt to be maintained.

If she took off the belt, she couldn’t see Meng Qiuxu.

If she wore the belt, she couldn’t repair the battle damage.

Wasn’t this a dead end?

Ren Huazhi thought for a moment…

[Should I mail the belt to you within the city?]

Just as this line of text was being typed in the input box, it was all deleted. It was too abrupt, and it would arouse suspicion…

Was there a way to send the belt to the laboratory without exposing Ren Huazhi’s current image, and also make it seem very natural?

…There seemed to be a way.

Meng Qiuxu’s laboratory was located in the eastern suburbs of Nancheng, in an abandoned village that had been collectively relocated due to groundwater pollution.

That village had been empty for more than a decade and had become a popular adventure spot for idle college students. Meng Qiuxu had occupied the most scenic mansion in it, and in it, she had developed the magic-conducting hunting gear that every magical girl in Nancheng had.

Anyway, they were all abandoned houses. I didn’t think anyone would want them. As long as Ren Huazhi also found a room to occupy and become a king, she could create a transfer safe house with just a little tidying up!

Ren Huazhi couldn’t help but be impressed by her own amazing wisdom.

She had a whole afternoon to do it. It could be considered a spring outing in the suburbs. It could be solved easily. She picked up the canvas guitar bag, which was bulging with the gunblade and the belt, and slung it over her shoulder.

She returned to the border of the village in the city along the way she had come. She picked a slightly cleaner one from the pile of shared bicycles and set off.

“Speaking of which, Kamen Rider…”

While she was bored on the road, Ren Huazhi chewed on the cheap name that Xu Panpan had given her in that strange self-justification.

Although she hadn’t heard of it, it should be a Japanese morning children’s tokusatsu drama series… Did that little ancestor Xu Panpan, who claimed to have dropped out of school due to depression, really spend her days in her rental room watching these things?

Ren Huazhi didn’t plan to write a fanfiction with someone else’s IP. As a literary worker, she had to give her new identity a name—

[—Are you there?]

A greeting suddenly came from the guitar bag.

“…?!”

Was this belt’s voice communication always online?! Was it real-time?! Where had personal privacy gone?!

[This is not a call, but an emergency call from my side. You don’t have to answer. In short, Mangzhong is tracking that stray two-headed dog nightmare, and now she’s been…]

Attacked by a nightmare? Ren Huazhi’s movements paused.

[Uh, it’s hard to explain to you. You should have seen a few magical girls gossiping at the funeral home, right? They’re a bad little group from the Great Bear school, and they’ve always been at odds with the Flower Weaver. I’ve tried to persuade them several times, but it’s no use. Now these few girls have blocked Mangzhong at the foot of White Horse Mountain. I’m just mentioning this to you. I’m not asking you to go and support her, since your armor hasn’t been repaired yet.]

…Hey, so it’s them. A false alarm.

If I don’t have to go and support her, then I won’t go.

The three-person gang from the Bear school were typical junior high school socialites. They didn’t accept the Flower Weaver’s low-key and pragmatic principles and liked to show off in front of the police officers. But when they made a scene, it was all thunder and no rain. They couldn’t beat Ren Huazhi before, and they couldn’t beat her successor, Mangzhong, now. Basically, they were… uh, the mascots responsible for taking the fall.

At least they were also working hard to fight the nightmares.

Forgive them. After all, they’re just amateur delinquents.

Ren Huazhi’s original psychological expectation was that Mangzhong had encountered a nightmare without being familiar with the sword and shield. That would have been worth being nervous about. But these three sisters… were they going to be sparring partners?

Given that at the current combat level, the Bear school kids had no possibility of defeating Mangzhong, Ren Huazhi decided to ignore it and continue with her safe house plan.

She spent half an hour slowly riding out of the city and arrived at the abandoned stonemason’s village where the laboratory was located.

Meng Qiuxu had set up cameras and traps in many hidden corners of the village, turning this area, which was not her property in terms of ownership, into her own kingdom.

And Ren Huazhi knew the location of every camera. She moved through the village’s edge like a phantom, and on the other side of a river from the main village, she found her ideal… basement.

A basement was enough. She didn’t plan to live here.

Or maybe it should be called a cellar, the kind of facility that old villagers used to store food for the winter. The entrance was a sloping well on the side of the house, and inside there was a creaky wooden table. Ren Huazhi used her blessing ability to create some clean water to wash the tabletop. The belt was placed squarely in the middle, like a tribute on an altar, waiting for a fated person to break in and trigger the automatic pickup plot device.

“Phew… this should be enough. When I get back, I should make a deal with Old Meng and divide the river. And I should bring some more furniture over to fill it up…”

Ren Huazhi felt a sense of a bountiful harvest.

Was this the thrill of a farming novel? It was as if she had understood this knowledge point. As expected, personal experience is very important.

She sent a message to Meng Qiuxu to come and pick up the belt, and Ren Huazhi’s small figure disappeared into the bushes on the other side.

“Ouch! My hair, my hair is caught…”