Chapter 56: Green Tangerine's Worries

After parting ways with Violet and the others, the Green Orange Magical Girl went into the women's restroom, and amidst a flash of cyan light, she disappeared.

Out stepped a girl of sixteen or seventeen. Standing at one meter seven tall, with dark, bright eyes and a jet-black ponytail tied in a bundle that swayed back and forth, she wore a blue-and-white school uniform and carried a school backpack. Exiting the restroom, no one would ever guess that this ordinary-looking high school student was actually a magical girl.

Li Xuanyu glanced at the time. It was almost seven o'clock, and a trace of deep frustration inevitably surfaced on her face. Heading back now would surely earn her another scolding from her old man.

Yet, what could she do? Who made her a magical girl?

Li Xuanyu shook her head, casting her chaotic thoughts to the back of her mind. If her old man wanted to yell, let him yell; she was already used to it anyway. Right now, excitement still dominated her mood.

Because she had finally found an organization. She was no longer part of some ragtag rebel force, but a genuine, bona fide regular army. Imagining herself in the future, punching disaster beasts and stepping on abyss demonesses, the depression in her heart instantly vanished.

Returning home, she spent quite a bit of effort tidying up the messy wine bottles and items scattered across the floor, restoring everything to a spotless, brand-new appearance.

Ever since her mother passed away, her father had transformed from a dashing, well-groomed handsome man into the sloppy middle-aged uncle he was now. However, Li Xuanyu could understand him. Playing the role of both father and mother, while also bustling away at the noodle shop from morning till night, how could he possibly have the time to clean the house?

So chores like this were usually left to her. Only, she couldn't quite figure out why there were more and more wine bottles and cigarette butts around the house.

Clearly, her old man hadn't had much to do with smoking and drinking in the past, but nowadays cigarettes never left his fingers. Could it be that he was busy expanding his business lately and suffering from heavy psychological pressure?

With a bitter-sweet shake of her head, Li Xuanyu placed her school backpack on the desk, flipped open her assignments, and began to work on them earnestly.

One minute later, she scratched her head and kept writing.

Five minutes later, she scratched her head, hesitating for a moment before writing.

Ten minutes later, she scratched her head, stared blankly for a long time, and didn't dare to write anymore.

"...Sigh!"

Clearly, whenever she did her homework in the past, inspiration used to flow effortlessly from her pen—*swish, swish, swish*—ideas would pop up as if they were free, and she would finish everything in no time.

How was it that only three months had passed, and Li Xuanyu felt like these assignments had completely changed their appearance?

Comrades-in-arms of the past had become mortal enemies of the present.

Li Xuanyu stared blankly at the television, which was broadcasting today's breaking news:

[This evening, an unidentified disaster beast appeared at the Hanjiang District Department Store. It has currently been eliminated by the Gladiolus Judgment Team. However, the building collapses caused by the disaster beast have made the scene extremely unsafe. Nearby residents are advised to pay attention to safety and try to avoid the area.]

Her gaze shifted to her own cell phone, which held the contact information of her good deskmate. As long as she was willing to ask, the other party would certainly be willing to let her copy.

However, the sense of shame in her heart did not allow her to do such a thing.

What her mind thought and what her hands did were two entirely different matters.

One step, two steps—just as she was about to send out the edited message, the door opened.

Hearing the familiar footsteps, Li Xuanyu knew her father had returned.

Instinctively and belatedly, Li Xuanyu tossed her phone aside, her heart pounding wildly. She had been just a hair's breadth away from falling into depravation.

***

Wuuu wuuu...

Yet every single character in the various subjects of homework before her was recognizable.

Put them together, however, and she was completely baffled.

Normally, at this hour, Li Jianguo wouldn't close the shop early. But after seeing the news report on television, he immediately closed the storefront and rushed home. He wasn't afraid that a disaster beast would come and attack him; he was afraid that his daughter still hadn't come home.

Ordinarily, he could have just made a phone call to ask directly, but considering that his daughter had recently shown a slight tendency toward straying down a bad path, and fearing that she might only give verbal promises over the phone, he decided to head straight back.

Upon returning home, he habitually glanced at the shoe cabinet and found his daughter's shoes placed on it, causing a hidden sigh of relief to escape his chest.

However, when he saw his daughter looking at her phone while doing homework, doubt inevitably arose in his mind. In the past, his daughter never looked at her phone while doing homework.

Gradually, the doubt turned into perplexity: Could she be copying someone else's homework? Perplexity turned into anxiety: Was the person lending her homework a boy or a girl? If she copied homework every day, what would she do during exams? Which in turn escalated into anger.

Yet, upon walking into the room and discovering that it had been cleaned to a pristine, spotless condition, the anger in his heart instantly transformed into misery, helplessness, and guilt...

If he had only devoted a bit more attention to his daughter, would she not have turned out like this?

Li Jianguo walked over to his daughter's side, wanting to reach out and stroke her head, only to realize in that instant that his daughter was already seventeen years old.

She was no longer that giggling little girl who laughed all day long. Halfway out, his hand withdrew. In his mind, there were countless questions he wanted to ask his daughter: he wanted to know why her grades had suddenly plummeted from the top of the class to the bottom; he wanted to know why his daughter always slipped out of the house in the middle of the night and snuck back in.

Yet, if he actually voiced those questions, would his daughter truly be willing to tell him?

So, the words resting on the tip of his tongue turned into: "Xiaoyu, have you eaten yet? If not, Dad will go make you something."

"I already ate at school."

"Oh, good as long as you've eaten..."

Feeling her father sitting beside her, Li Xuanyu inevitably began to feel tense and awkward.

In her eyes, her father was an extremely taciturn person who usually bore any hardships silently by himself.

Only when he encountered problems he truly couldn't resolve would he look like this—wanting to ask, yet unable to open his mouth.

"Old man, did something happen?" Li Xuanyu spoke up first.

"Nothing major. It's just that I saw your academic performance slipping a bit recently. Is it because the teacher adjusted the seating chart, or did you change teachers and you're not quite used to it..."

Li Jianguo rambled on and on, ultimately failing to say that the issue lay with his daughter herself.

"Old man, if you have something to say, just spit it out."

Li Xuanyu didn't answer his question, instead probing directly into the true tangle in her father's heart. Seeing her father reveal a look of delight, she added somewhat uncertainly, "If it's something I can do."

***

"It's like this: I know a teacher from the key classes at Qiuyuan No. 1 High School. Since your grades have dropped a bit, I was thinking of having him tutor you. What do you think?"

"What subject does he teach? What's his name?"

Qiuyuan No. 1 High School?

Li Xuanyu hesitated. Why would her ordinary father, who ran a noodle shop, know a teacher from the top elite high school in Yeqiu City? Could he have run into a scammer?

She couldn't help but be suspicious. Teachers and noodle shop owners were two entirely parallel lines that should never intersect.

"Seems he teaches Chinese. His name is Bai Yuze."

Li Xuanyu picked up the phone she had discarded a moment earlier and began searching for information using Duoniang.

And sure enough, she actually managed to dig up the identity information of a teacher named Bai Yuze.

At first glance, the impression he gave her was that he was extremely young—not at all like a teacher from a key class.

In her view, teachers in key classes were typically veteran educators in their thirties or forties.

"So young? He must be a fraud."

After reading through the other person's profile, Li Xuanyu's tone remained filled with disbelief.

"He can't be a fraud. I watched this kid grow up with my own eyes. Besides, you and Bai Youqing used to run around at his heels every day when you were little."

At this, Li Jianguo revealed a smile that came straight from the bottom of his heart.

"Huh? I know him too, and I used to run around at his heels every day?"

Li Xuanyu's previously furrowed brow twitched, then smoothed out as she immediately shook her head.

Impossible, absolutely impossible. Why didn't she have a single shred of memory of this?

"Even if he isn't a fraud, he teaches Chinese. My biggest problem right now is math; he won't be able to help me with that."

"Xiaoze said that as long as you're willing to contact him, no matter what subject teacher you need, he can find them for you."

A smile tugged at the corners of Li Jianguo's somewhat expressionless face. He understood that his daughter had already agreed.

"...He's that good? Old man, did you save his life or something?" Li Xuanyu frowned, speaking uncertainly.

This time, Li Jianguo didn't answer. He simply placed Bai Yuze's contact information on the desk and said earnestly,

"Don't go bothering people from Monday through Friday. Over the weekend, take a sick leave from school and try contacting Xiaoze to see if he has time to come over to the noodle shop for a meal—no, wait, tell him directly to come down to the Fangkangxiang Restaurant for a proper feast."

"Oh... okay."

Li Xuanyu nodded. Staring at the phone number on the desk, and then watching her father's back—which somehow looked a great deal more relaxed—she slowly fell into silence. Today, she finally understood the meaning of the phrase: the weight of a father's love.