Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 217 Emotional Negotiation
What Lin Xiaolu said makes sense, or rather, her words are the truth.

In fact, it was just as he said. Even last year, when the cold war between father and daughter was at its peak, the two of them still had a New Year's Eve dinner together. Although during the whole process, Lin Xiaolu made almost no movement except "um" and "oh", and only Lin Yun was talking.

If Lin Yun heard what Lin Xiaolu said last year, it might be a bit of an exaggeration to say that he was moved, but he would definitely be very relieved. It is better to say that even if he heard it now, he would still feel very happy.

But the problem is that this sentence doesn't sound like something Lin Xiaolu would say at all, and in this situation, it's even a little confusing.

"Everyone in your team is together. Even people from Baian City are here. All the magical girls are together, but you're the only one who won't go over during the New Year?"

He looked at Lin Xiaolu as if he was meeting his daughter for the first time: "Is this really necessary?"

"Cui Que is already an adult. Xia Liang and Bai Jingxuan don't have to go home. They are different from me. They don't need to think about where to go. They just need to be with the other team members."

Lin Xiaolu lowered her eyes slightly: "But I have my own family after all. Although the relationship with teammates is also important...but I should still be with my family during the holidays, right?"

"Even if the place of celebration is the office of the Strategy Bureau? I can't bring the New Year's Eve dinner in, you can only eat in the cafeteria with me."

Lin Yun tried to calm his expression and said slowly, "Besides, the nature of the work of the Strategy Bureau is very special. In fact, everyone should try to avoid entering the Strategy Bureau with their family members. So even if I can take you there, you can only go with other employees to visit, or stay in the office with me."

"Is there any problem?" Lin Xiaolu was puzzled.

Lin Yun shrugged: "It will be boring."

Lin Xiaolu was speechless for a moment, as if she had made up her mind. After a while, she spoke again: "It doesn't matter. I'm not afraid of being bored."

“But your teammates all got together at the same time and happily celebrated the New Year.”

Lin Yun bluntly touched Lin Xiaolu's sore spot: "Everyone else is playing, and you are the only one accompanying me on duty. Dad doesn't have any objections, but you'd better think about it again."

"This, uh...ah...hmm..."

Lin Xiaolu squinted her eyes and pursed her lips, obviously experiencing a fierce psychological struggle. After a while, she nodded heavily and said, "I've made up my mind. I want to go!"

Such a firm choice made Lin Yun even more confused.

Before he could ask more questions, Lin Xiaolu in front of him made an even more surprising statement:
——"Also, our school will have final exams soon after the New Year holiday! I plan to concentrate on studying during this time, so I will move back home before the exams!"

Am I dreaming?
Trying hard to suppress the upward curve of his lips, Lin Yun fell into deep thought.

Lin Xiaolu's words actually moved him a lot. At first glance, he felt very relieved. But although he was happy, he could clearly feel that his daughter was not telling the truth.

At least not entirely true.

The reason is very simple. First, Lin Xiaolu always likes to look away when she tells a lie. Second, this statement does not fit her daughter's usual style.

After spending more than half a year with Lin Xiaolu as a delphinium, Lin Yun now has a deeper understanding of his daughter's personality. It can be said that she is awkward or not frank. In short, most of the time, it is difficult for Lin Xiaolu to express herself directly.

Even now that the conflict between father and daughter has been thawed and their relationship can be gradually mended, I'm afraid it would be difficult for her to express this idea.

After all, the father and daughter seemed to be sitting at the same table having dinner together and there was not much distance between them, but in fact there were still layers of barriers between them.

There are two reasons for this. First, the impact of the Cold War has not yet been eliminated. Although Lin Xiaolu has learned a considerable part of the truth and no longer has so much resentment towards her father, this does not mean that the two will be as close as ordinary parent-child couples.

It is better to say that even if Anya had not passed away, the relationship between father and daughter in the Lin family has never been very good.

In the past, Lin Yun was indeed not a good father. In the name of work, he almost abandoned his emotional attention to his children, and he always asked his daughter to do this and that in a very cold and hard way. From the child's point of view, this almost gathered most of the elements of a "hateful father".

If we use a score to describe the relationship between father and daughter, with a full score of 100, then during the Cold War it would be probably 0 points, and when Anya was still around it would only be 40 or 50 points, not even reaching the passing line.

This has led to the current awkward situation between the two of them. They both clearly know that the other is their only relative in this world, but for a moment they still don't know how to resolve the awkwardness or even truly open up to each other.

How can we recover when we have never had a close relationship and don’t even have a reference sample?
The second reason, which Lin Yun could actually feel, was because he "revealed the identity of the Strategy Bureau."

For Lin Xiaolu, no matter how unsatisfactory her father was in the past, after all, she had been with him day and night since she was born, and they were extremely familiar with each other, and there was no gap in their lives.

However, this state of mind was broken when Lin Yun revealed that he was actually from the Yi Ce Bureau. This sudden revelation of the fact only made Lin Xiaolu feel unfamiliar and at a loss.

This can be seen from the fact that she has been saying from time to time recently, "Aren't you the director?"

If it was an ordinary family with a close parent-child relationship, this wouldn't be a problem at all, and the child wouldn't change his or her view of the parents because of a little unfamiliarity. But the Lin family was not a model family, so the distance between them increased.

Due to these two reasons, Lin Yun and Lin Xiaolu are still in a state of mutual testing, trying to gradually find a more comfortable way of getting along through interacting with each other again and again.

This is also one of the motivations for Lin Yun to encourage and even push Lin Xiaolu to go to the magical girl base for training in a dual capacity - as the saying goes, distance creates beauty, and reducing the frequency of meetings between father and daughter may gradually dilute the negative impression in his daughter's mind.

At the moment, the relationship between father and daughter has obviously not eased to a level higher than that of the Fangting City team, enough for the daughter to give up the gathering with the team just to celebrate the holiday with her family.

Under the current circumstances, even Lin Yun himself would not make such a suggestion, because in his imagination, these would only add to the burden of decision-making for his daughter and would have no real significance.

So, according to common sense, Lin Xiaolu has even less reason to propose such a plan.

If she really just considered her father's feelings in the context of the New Year and wanted to take this opportunity to narrow the distance between them, she would never use such a straightforward approach.

In other words, anything that Lin Xiaolu can talk about frankly is definitely not what she cares about most.

The biggest possibility is that Lin Xiaolu herself did not consider the aspect of "this can bring the father and daughter closer", she just subconsciously chose this method for some other purpose.

Why on earth?

Lin Yun remained silent, but his inquiring gaze made Lin Xiaolu feel uncomfortable. She subconsciously asked, "What's wrong? Why are you staring at me?"

"Did you encounter any problems with the team?"

After a little consideration, Lin Yun decided to get straight to the point: "Who did you quarrel with? Or do you feel stressed? So you want to separate and calm down for a while?"

The first person he thought of was Bai Ji from the Bai'an City team. After all, Lin Xiaolu had been depressed because of the conflict with Bai Ji before, but after thinking carefully, this was not possible. After all, Bai Ji lost to Lin Xiaolu in the subsequent competition, and after crying bitterly, they reconciled temporarily, so Lin Xiaolu would not worry about him until now.

Who could this person be? Xia Liang? Bai Jingxuan? Or Aso Yuanxiang? It couldn't be because I said something wrong when I was Delphinium, right?

"...There is no such thing." Facing Lin Yun's question, Lin Xiaolu was visibly shaken, but she just shook her head to deny it, refusing to communicate: "I just want to change the environment."

"If it's for the school exam, I remember Delphinium said that she is responsible for tutoring you."

Lin Yun continued to slow down his tone to reduce the pressure created by his questions: "The same was true for the final exams last semester and this semester. For the sake of exams alone, it would be more convenient to stay in your team's base, right?"

Of course, there is a basis for his statement. You know, he has already prepared the review content and exercises for the final exam, and is just waiting to give Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang a intensive review after the New Year.

He also didn't think there was anything wrong with pointing out this fact. After all, these were things that had already happened objectively and there was no judgment involved.

But what he didn't expect was that after he finished speaking, Lin Xiaolu's expression suddenly changed and became obviously much more complicated.

Is there anything confusing about what I just said? I just mentioned the final exam. Do I really hate exams that much?
Lin Yun was confused again.

In fact, compared to the beginning of this semester, although Lin Xiaolu's grades have not improved much, they have not regressed much either. Although it is indeed difficult for her to focus on her studies as a magical girl, with Delphinium's help in tutoring, it is no problem for her to get a grade around the middle or lower levels.

The level of "lower middle" sounds bad, but compared with Lin Xiaolu's previous academic performance, it can be said to be a world of difference. At least the teachers in the school are very satisfied with this result, and sometimes even praise Lin Xiaolu.

"…It's convenient, but that's not what I'm thinking about."

On the other hand, Lin Xiaolu also responded to Lin Yun's doubts: "In short, I just moved back to live here for a while, don't think too much."

"Is it really not because of a conflict with others?" Lin Yun asked suspiciously.

"Really not!" Lin Xiaolu puffed up her cheeks.

"Then what's the reason? You have nothing to do anyway, why not tell me and let me help you analyze it."

Putting the chopsticks in his hand on the edge of the bowl, Lin Yun looked at his daughter calmly: "You don't have to worry about whether what I said is right or not. Even if it is wrong, what if it can inspire you?"

"I'm not idle. I'm going to do my homework after dinner. I don't have time to chat here or gossip about trivial matters."

"You really don't want to say it?"

"……In no mood."

"Even if I'm the only one who can hear you?" Lin Yun said calmly.

Just as the conflict between father and daughter could not be resolved by relying on Lin Yun's identity, only Cuiqiao could understand his daughter's feelings indirectly and prescribe the right medicine. Similarly, if Lin Xiaolu's current worries come from the magical girl team, perhaps only he, an insider, can act as a "counselor".

Obviously, this sentence hit the mark again, so Lin Xiaolu remained silent again.

She held the rice bowl in one hand and the chopsticks in the other, and stood still for a long time with a rather funny look on her face. After a while, she also put down the bowl and chopsticks like Lin Yun did.

bump.

The porcelain bowl touched the wooden table, making a dull sound.

She picked up the tissue on the side of the dining table, carefully wiped the corners of her mouth, wiped her hands, then threw the tissue into the bowl, folded her arms, and leaned back in her chair.

With her head lowered, her lips were first pursed, then slightly opened and closed. The fingers that were grabbing her arms pulled up her sleeves, then gradually relaxed.

——"Can you promise not to tell Delphinium and the others?"

Finally, she raised her eyes and looked at Lin Yun with suspicion, but also mixed with a little expectation.

"If you ask me to, I can certainly keep it a secret for you." Lin Yun nodded expressionlessly.

After all, the moment I knew it, Delphinium already knew it, so there was no need for me to specifically convey the message.

As he thought so, he continued to look like an indifferent person and motioned Lin Xiaolu to continue.

So Lin Xiaolu took a deep breath, calmed down her emotions, and slowly told Lin Yun the reason why she suddenly decided to move back home.

His first impression was that Lin Xiaolu's ability to express herself needed to be improved.

She spoke very slowly and her order was a bit disordered. Her logic was even more confusing because of the large amount of personal emotions mixed in. Her personal feelings were mixed with the course of events, and many times her expressions were incomprehensible.

However, as his statement became longer and longer and the content became more and more, Lin Yun gradually understood the whole story.

Then, his expression also became complicated.

If at the beginning he still had the attitude of understanding the problem and helping to analyze the causes and solutions, then after listening to Lin Xiaolu's statement, this feeling was almost gone.

Instead, there was an intense feeling of embarrassment and confusion.

——"So, I think I can't go on like this. If I continue to rely on Delphinium subconsciously, it would be irresponsible. If I continue to expect so much without permission, it will only cause more pressure on her. Wouldn't I become an annoying clingy person? Rather than letting myself go to that point, I might as well move back now, calm down, and think about what I should do next..."

On the other side, Lin Xiaolu was still stating her thoughts as fast as a cannonball. Her speaking speed had changed from slow at the beginning to torrential speed, and she was pouring out her emotions like a real rainstorm.

After talking a lot like this, Lin Xiaolu finally stopped when she felt dry in the mouth. Then she looked at Lin Yun expectantly: "So? That's about it. What do you think I should do?"

Faced with this question, Lin Yun really couldn't answer it for a while.

Not to mention giving an answer, even asking him to quickly accept the information in Lin Xiaolu's words was a bit too much.

After all, let him summarize what Lin Xiaolu just said. The general meaning is as follows:
[I know that you and Delphinium are no longer in a relationship, but I personally want this stepmother unilaterally. If there is no ethical connection between the two of you, how can I recognize this stepmother, and how can I make sure that I am not being sentimental now? ]

To be honest, he felt that what his daughter said was not human.

But now that things have come to this, what should I do better?
Lin Yun's gaze moved slightly upwards and stared at the incandescent light on the ceiling of the restaurant.

Now, the number of people troubled by this problem has increased from one to two.

(End of this chapter)