Chapter 10: The Opened Gate and the Gentle Guide

"Hello, senior Jiang Si."

When Jiang Keke walked in with her friend, Jiang Si briefly thought he must be hallucinating.

Since their parents died three years ago and she had a falling-out with him, his sister hadn’t just been hostile toward him.

In fact, she was cold to everyone, acting as if she wanted to cut ties with the whole world.

Not to mention having friends—she barely said a few words to classmates at school.

Every parent-teacher conference, the homeroom teacher would point this out to him.

"Your child is too withdrawn. This won’t do. Maybe take them to a hospital to see if something’s wrong..."

Schools nowadays place a huge emphasis on students' mental health, which made Jiang Si uncomfortable.

Back when he was young they didn’t have such conditions...

"This is my friend, Silver Lotus."

Jiang Keke’s words snapped him out of his thoughts; he nodded. "Get along well."

"You don’t have to tell me."

It wasn’t that Jiang Si was being childish and playing the silent treatment like Keke.

He had always interacted with her normally; his behavior just carried over from how he’d acted with his father in his previous life.

Compared to a sister, Keke was actually more like a daughter—age in his heart felt about that different.

When their parents were at work, he had helped take care of the little girl: changing diapers, feeding, soothing her to sleep—he’d done it all.

Saying her father had taken advantage of her would be unfair; besides, their parents were dead, and the elder brother was like a father.

As for why he could be so cold and laissez-faire as a parental figure...

Because in his past life his real father had been that way.

Although his current-life parents were friendlier, they hadn’t spent much time together and weren’t that familiar. Jiang Si still preferred the old way of interacting.

If a kid rebelled, they got slapped; if nothing happened, he didn’t bother. He was barely present normally. As long as they didn’t cause trouble, they could do what they wanted.

If it got unbearable, they could stay with relatives to avoid causing more trouble.

So after the greeting, Jiang Si went to the kitchen to cook while Jiang Keke completely ignored him and dragged her friend to the bedroom.

In that sense, they still had familial tacit understanding.

She had come with Jiang Keke to visit the house intending to persuade the parents to let Keke join the Disaster Control Bureau.

But she ran into this situation and ended up painfully wedged in the middle.

"Your brother is Jiang Si..."

Hearing Silver Lotus's remark in the bedroom, Jiang Keke looked a little surprised. "What about it? Do you know him?"

"Who in high school didn't know him? Every nearby high school knows his name."

Silver Lotus’s face flickered with complicated expression. "He cut class all the time, drove teachers up the wall, always making trouble—picking fights with gang members outside school in the name of 'practical training' and sending them to the hospital. The gangs’ parents came to the school... lucky their kids had records, so the school could handle it."

Her mouth twitched. Of course Jiang Keke knew her brother’s notorious reputation.

But she hadn’t expected it to spread so far—even Magical Girls had heard.

"He's really that bad."

"Not exactly 'bad'..." Silver Lotus gave an awkward laugh and lowered her voice. "At least the gangs near the school don’t dare come around anymore. He beat them into fear, which is kind of a good thing—no one’s bullying students now."

"Our parents always told him to study hard and graduate from college." Jiang Keke kicked off her slippers, sat on the bed hugging her legs. "But he doesn’t study properly—skipping class, fighting, saying he needs to train..."

"Your parents..."

"They died three years ago from a Disaster Beast attack."

Her tone was flat, but Silver Lotus still offered a sincere "I’m sorry."

She had suspected the parents were gone ever since she’d once seen Jiang Si fighting in front of the high school and heard the homeroom teacher drag him back, scolding him. She wasn’t sure if the teacher had just been hitting a sore spot or if the parents truly had died.

Now that it was confirmed, she felt a twinge of guilt.

"As you can see, it’s just me and Jiang Si at home. Our relationship isn’t good. If you want to persuade him to let me join the Disaster Control Bureau, you can try. I’m not interested in talking to him about it."

The strain between them was visible...

Silver Lotus sighed. "All right, I’ll try."

Hmph, Jiang Keke turned her head, hugged her legs, and lay back on the bed. "Do as you wish."

...

While he was eating, Jiang Si paused when he saw Silver Lotus come out of Keke’s room.

He hadn’t expected Keke’s friend to come downstairs—nor that Keke wouldn’t come out herself.

Usually Keke would come down to eat and he’d dutifully go upstairs to his room. That was the routine.

Seeing that Keke still had no intention of coming out, Jiang Si cleared the table and decided to head up first.

"Senior Jiang Si, you should know me, right?"

The girl asked cautiously. Jiang Si glanced at her. "I don’t remember."

Ahhh—this opening had failed!

She’d rehearsed that approach on the way out: being from the same school, she was the class monitor who often helped in the office, and Jiang Si, as a poor student, had frequently been made to stand in the office as punishment, so they had met.

Thinking back, they’d indeed met only a few times—but a few encounters in that setting should still be memorable, right?

She wanted to use that to break the ice.

The plan had completely flopped.

She wished she could sink into a hole, but she quickly recovered. Though her ears were flushed, she kept a professional smile.

I’m the captain of the Magical Girl squad—I won’t lose to an ordinary student!

"I’m the class monitor of Grade 1, Class 6, Silver Lotus. We’ve met in the office before..."

"Oh, sorry. I don’t remember."

"It’s fine." Silver Lotus tapped her thick-soled boots on the floor. "There was a Disaster Beast at Jiang Keke’s school today. You must have heard about it?"

"I didn’t."

"There were news reports."

"I don’t watch the news."

Silver Lotus finally understood why Jiang Keke disliked her brother. Communication here was impossibly difficult.

As she debated giving up, Jiang Si paused and asked, "Was anyone hurt?"

Silver Lotus widened her eyes and then stupidly asked, "Who? Me?"

"Do I know you that well?"

Only then did Silver Lotus realize he was asking about Jiang Keke. "Uh, no."

She had been injured fighting the Disaster Beast earlier, so she first assumed he had been asking about her—an embarrassing misunderstanding.

I could die...

"Oh, then it’s fine."

Cold, but it showed he cared about Keke just now.

Bolstered by that, Silver Lotus asked, "How do you see Magical Girls?"

"Powerful."

"If Jiang Keke became a Magical Girl, what would you think?"

"I wouldn’t be able to beat her." If he didn’t transform himself.

Silver Lotus rubbed her forehead with her right hand, feeling a headache coming on.

His answer was so honest—no pretense, no joke.

If his sister transformed into a Magical Girl, his first thought would be worrying that he couldn’t beat her anymore?

How do siblings like them live? Do you beat your own sister?

But she guessed he answered purely from the perspective of combat strength, not because he’d actually fight his sister.

Silver Lotus wasn’t naive—she’d seen what happens when family members fight.

Although Jiang Keke was cold and a little resentful toward her brother, it wasn’t hatred to the point of fighting.

"Usually Magical Girls don’t use their power to fight family," she explained solemnly. "The Disaster Control Bureau carefully regulates that kind of strength."

"Oh, are you from the Disaster Control Bureau?"

"I’m a non-staff member, only responsible for guiding Magical Girls to join the Bureau. Normally I’m just an ordinary student—Disaster Control Bureau thinks peers communicate better..."

That was a lie. Jiang Si actually had part of the BH City Disaster Control Bureau’s Magical Girl roster.

Silver Lotus, fifteen, height 1.5 meters, captain of BH City’s Magical Girl squad, pink Magical Girl specializing in mental attacks, parents alive, one older sister who also works at the Disaster Control Bureau.

Not an outsider at all, but a real combatant.

They hadn’t hesitated to send a core member to recruit Keke—serious effort.

But it made sense: in the past two years, many newly born Magical Girls in Beihai had been intercepted by Azure Cloud Sect—Bingtang always found Magical Girls the Bureau couldn’t locate.

BH City’s Disaster Control Bureau had been so short on recruits they once had to borrow Magical Girls from other cities.

Those other cities didn’t have it so bad—facing a civilian free Magical Girl organization, they were helpless and even lost in recruiting. They were forced to borrow Magical Girls from other cities, prompting questions about who the official organization really was.

So sending a captain to recruit new Magical Girls was reasonable.

Jiang Si didn’t intend to expose Silver Lotus’s lie; he simply replied, "Keke became a Magical Girl? You can just take her to the Bureau to register."

Once registered as an official Magical Girl, she’d get a city government salary, confidentiality and daily security, and protection from the Disaster Control Bureau.

"Right now Jiang Keke isn’t an adult. She needs a family member to accompany her, and she seems hesitant about joining the Bureau." Silver Lotus worriedly added, "I’m afraid she’ll become a free Magical Girl. Disaster Beasts are increasing, Azure Cloud Sect’s activities are more frequent, and free Magical Girls are in danger. If they’re deceived into Azure Cloud Sect, it’s even more dangerous..."

"There have been a few Magical Girls tricked into it and gone missing. Those despicable Azure Cloud Sect—one day we’ll arrest them all!"

Silver Lotus spoke through gritted teeth. Jiang Si’s expression remained unchanged. "They’re hatefully wrong."

After calming herself, Silver Lotus continued, "In short, I hope you can persuade Jiang Keke to register with the Bureau so she won’t be targeted by Azure Cloud Sect. I know your relationship might not be good, but you’re the only family she has. If you’re willing to say a word, she’ll at least listen, right?"

After clearing the table, Jiang Si courteously poured her a cup of tea. "Do you want something to eat? I can make something."

"No thanks. I ate on the way here..."

Even if she had said yes, Jiang Si wasn’t in the mood to cook; the kitchen was already clean. At most he might order takeout.

"Let’s return to discussing Jiang Keke..."

"I won’t interfere with her choice." Jiang Si cut her off. "She’s in her second year of middle school and can tell right from wrong. If she doesn’t want to join, she probably has her reasons. I don’t even know those reasons—telling her to go to the Bureau would be inappropriate."

His words blocked the prepared pitch. Silver Lotus stared at him for a moment, hesitating. "I think she may not know what’s best and might make a decision she’ll regret, which is why adults need to help..."

"I’m not much older than her. My decision wouldn’t necessarily be better."

Jiang Si pushed the finished cup of tea toward her. "Believing adult decisions are best is arrogance. Why can’t children make mistakes? Children have the right to choose and should bear the consequences of their decisions. Whether failure or success, they should have the chance to experience it. She’s in second year—she should gain independence."

For a moment, Silver Lotus felt like she was speaking with a senior adult rather than a fellow classmate.

His tone was more like a guardian than Keke’s brother. More importantly, it lacked condescension. Whether toward Keke or to her, his manner felt like a peer’s conversation.

People often underestimated Silver Lotus because of her height or treated her like a child.

Jiang Si’s wary distance, carrying a touch of gravity, though not friendly, still showed respect.

And he truly seemed to be considering Keke’s best interest, not the cold person Keke made him out to be.

When Silver Lotus had become a Magical Girl, her family had tried to stop her. If not for her sister, she might now be just an ordinary student.

Adult decisions aren’t always right, and when adults make mistakes, they can’t take responsibility for the children.

After a moment of thought, Silver Lotus nodded in agreement. "You’re right. Keke should decide for herself."

Jiang Si added, "Of course I want to visit the Disaster Control Bureau."

Might as well see where your Miracle Seed is stored.

"Then Jiang Keke needs to register."

After answering, Silver Lotus suddenly lowered her voice. "Actually, senior Jiang Si—you really care about Keke, don’t you?"

Jiang Si raised an eyebrow and didn’t respond.

How she deduced that, he had no idea—odd line of thought.

Fortunately Silver Lotus didn’t press the matter and bowed her head. "I’ll ask Jiang Keke’s opinion. As a senior, I’ll look after her."

"All right, then. Thank you."

"No trouble at all."

Jiang Si glanced out the window; it was already getting dark. He frowned slightly. "Are you staying here tonight?"

"Huh? Is that okay?"

Jiang Si rubbed his temple—he’d been asking her. He disliked questions answered with questions.

He got up to go upstairs. "I’ll leave bedding outside the door. You can help yourself."

Silver Lotus blinked and called up, "If you’d like, senior Jiang Si, you could knock and I’ll open the door for you?"

"Better not."

"Hehe, just kidding."

Watching Jiang Si leave, Silver Lotus took a breath and went back to Jiang Keke’s room.

Seeing Keke hugging her doll and staring off into space, she said seriously, "Jiang Keke, you heard all that, right? Your brother hopes you’ll decide for yourself. He wants you to live independently."

Jiang Keke pursed her lips. "Pretty words. He’s just afraid of the trouble."

"I think he’s sincere. I can feel it. Trust your Magical Girl intuition—I don’t think he’s as cruel or indifferent as you imagine. He respects people and didn’t treat me like a child because of my height..."

"Oh, he treats everyone the same." Jiang Keke shrugged. "He treats everyone the same—like trouble."

Silver Lotus sat on the chair and leaned over the backrest. "Anyway, I’m not here to change how you feel about your brother. This is mainly about Magical Girls. Do you want to join the Disaster Control Bureau?"

Lying on the bed with her doll, Jiang Keke mumbled, "I’ll think about it..."

"Fine, then I’ll stay with you until you decide."

"But we could at least go look around."

"Yay! Your brother wants to see the Bureau too—this’ll satisfy his wish."

"Hey, you should be more concerned about me."

"Doesn’t matter..."

With a sigh, Jiang Keke left the topic. Compared to Jiang Si’s indifferent stance, she wanted to know Master Shion’s opinion more.

Would Shion want her to join the Bureau? From Silver Lotus’s words, Master Shion might be the leader of Azure Cloud Sect.

Why did she save Keke? After rescuing her, why didn’t she take Keke away like she had other Magical Girls and bring her into Azure Cloud Sect?

She couldn’t make sense of it.

If only she could see her again...