Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 241 Strange Competition
On the other side, opposite to Bai Jingxuan, Xia Liang also started his own tutoring program.

As the only leaf-level player in the team, Xia Liang’s main task in the next period of time, in addition to continuing to train his magic equipment, is to carry out more systematic learning of techniques.

The magic suit "Yinli" has a very good compatibility with spells. In addition to the explosion system, it can also produce a chemical reaction of 1+1>2 when combined with many other spells. However, Cuique's own research on spells is really limited. The only combination she can think of is the explosion system. Some more sophisticated combinations are beyond her cognition. It is indeed beyond her ability to guide Xia Liang.

In line with the principle of first come first, Cuiqiao still assigned this job to someone else. So, the teacher who finally came to take charge of this special training content was Hong Siyu.

As the saying goes, people learn things in different ways and specialize in different skills. Among the magical girls currently staying in Fangting City, except for Emerald, the one with the deepest attainments in skills is probably Hong Siyu. Even if we expand the comparison scope to the entire magical kingdom, the number of skills that Hong Siyu has mastered is among the top. Therefore, letting her be responsible for this part of teaching can be said to be the safest choice.

"Then, from today on, I will be Xiao Xialiang's teacher."

Bringing a bunch of notebooks and draft papers, and a pair of black-framed glasses from somewhere, Hong Siyu sat in front of Xia Liang with a confident attitude and said enthusiastically, "I will start with the most basic techniques and try to teach you every technique you should know. If there is anything you don't understand, you can interrupt me at any time."

"Okay! Thank you for your help. I will do my best!"

Xia Liang also responded with a spirited attitude, but after seeing the notebooks on the table, he asked again: "Speaking of which, Sister Hong, these notebooks are..."

"Ah, these, some of them are the key knowledge points I recorded when I was learning the technique, and some are my notes in school when I was in college."

Hong Siyu's eyes lit up when he heard this question, and he immediately stretched out his hand to spread out the books in front of him, and said, "This is the introductory notes for energy shaping techniques, this is the introduction to deformation techniques, this is a collection of key points for balance techniques, this is the theoretical basis for waveguide techniques, and this one is about complex functions, and this one is about thermodynamics and statistical physics..."

Xia Liang could guess the contents of the first few subjects she mentioned, but the more she talked about them, the more things seemed wrong. Seeing that Hong Siyu was still introducing them one by one, and she seemed to be unwilling to stop until she had finished introducing everything in front of her, Xia Liang had to interrupt and said, "Um, Sister Hong...are these related to learning the techniques?"

"Huh? That's right." Hong Siyu was a little confused, but still answered.

"Well, those things sound like they have nothing to do with the technique. They should be the contents of mathematics and physics..." Xia Liang slowed down his speech as much as possible, looking at Hong Siyu's expression and said slowly.

"It's also what I'll use when I teach you the spell." Hong Siyu nodded: "Although magic power hardly obeys the physical laws of the material world, the impact of magic power on the outside world can still be predicted. Mathematics is also a common tool when we do research..."

"No, that's not what I meant."

Feeling the cold sweat running down his temples, Xia Liang stammered, "Master, the main thing is that I haven't come into contact with the knowledge you mentioned yet?"

"Well, after all, a lot of it is high school or even college knowledge, and some of it is only for students in related majors. In the country, generally only magical girls in the research institute need to learn these things."

Hong Siyu raised her finger and said as if to show off, "But your sister Hong, although she didn't join the research institute and her university is not a science department, she is still a magical girl who specializes in magic, so she still taught herself everything in college."

"Yes, that's right."

Xia Liang nodded and swallowed his saliva: "Then, the notes here..."

"These are all introductory contents that I have carefully selected. As long as you finish learning all of these in the next month, I guarantee that you can lay a solid foundation for the technique."

Seeing Xia Liang's eyes widen, Hong Siyu immediately nodded approvingly: "Are you excited? Are you shaking with excitement? No problem, as a magical girl specializing in magic, you should have this kind of spirit. Then without further ado, let's get started quickly."

"Well, ah..."

Xia Liang opened her mouth, but she didn't know what else to say. She only felt that the cold sweat that had been lingering on her temples had already slid down her cheeks. She looked down at the notes that almost covered the entire table, then raised her head somewhat stiffly and tried to force a smile:
"Okay, I'll do my best."

……

……

"now you."

In the underground training ground of the base, Cuiqiao said this while extending her hand and handing the magic thread that was wrapped into a complex pattern to Lin Xiaolu.

The silk thread turned into a symmetrical and regular magnificent pattern between her hands, and then quietly appeared between the two of them.

"Well……"

Looking at the figure in front of her, Lin Xiaolu raised her hands hesitantly, but stopped when her hands were about to touch the silk thread.

She looked thoughtful and frowned as she carefully examined the structure of the silk thread. After thinking for a long time, she finally put her fingers between the silk threads, pulled them for a while, and took the silk thread from Delphinium's hand.

Then, the originally extremely regular pattern suddenly collapsed into a few monotonous lines.

Lin Xiaolu looked at the silk thread in her hand, feeling a little disappointed:

“…Ah, failed.”

"Well, it's over."

They both sighed at the same time.

Just as it appeared on the surface, Cuiqiao and Lin Xiaolu were actually playing cat's tangle.

As a traditional game in Donghua Continent, cat's tumble game can be said to be the childhood memory of most children in Donghua Continent in the early days.

Generally, there are two ways to play cat's tangle: one is for one person to weave various patterns with the rope, and the other is for two people to interact with each other. What Cuique and Lin Xiaolu just did is naturally a game that requires two people.

A circular thin rope is pulled into a basic shape by one person using both hands, and then another person flips and deforms the shape, and this process is repeated until one person can no longer adjust the rope into a regular shape, or the rope becomes tangled in his or her hands and falls apart.

What Lin Xiaolu and Delphinium just did was even an advanced version of a childhood game. It did not follow any fixed rope shapes and patterns, nor did it consider how to let playmates take over. It only needed to follow the two principles of "pattern symmetry" and "not a dead knot". The changes in the patterns were unpredictable and completely irregular.

That's why Lin Xiaolu still failed after a long period of thinking.

Lin Xiaolu still remembers that her mother played this game with her when she was very young. However, she didn't understand the routines and game skills at that time. Most of the time, she just messed around and had fun messing up the lines in her mother's hand. Her mother also let her do whatever she wanted and never forced her to play well. In the end, she didn't know much about this game.

At that time, she had no idea that she would one day face such a situation: practicing with the core of skipping rope.

If she were given another chance, she would definitely practice catwalk well since she was young - Lin Xiaolu even had such an idea, but unfortunately, there is no if.

The story begins when she proposes to learn from Delphinium and wants to fight with silk threads.

At the beginning, Cuiqiao was actually just teaching her some fighting skills step by step, including actively slowing down the movements to practice with Lin Xiaolu, and using decomposed movements to explain how to deal with various situations in order to show the changes that silk threads can use in actual combat.

After only two days of teaching, Cuiqiao finally managed to explain some of the simplest ideas, but when she asked Lin Xiaolu to try it out with silk thread herself, something went wrong.

Or rather, nothing went wrong, because Lin Xiaolu made a fool of herself as expected.

Either he would trip over the silk threads he had laid down while walking; or he would tie himself up when tightening the silk threads; or he would not remember where the ends of the threads were after laying down the threads; or he would not be able to control the thickness and displacement of the threads, often cutting both parties' clothes and skin during actions. The most exaggerated incident was when he almost cut off Delphinium's fingers.

After that incident, Delphinium took the initiative to stop the actual training and proposed the method of cat's tuck.

"Start with the most basic training. You have to master the spatial changes of the silk thread, or at least have a certain sensitivity to the displacement in space after pulling the silk thread."

This is how Delphinium explains the role of the training of catapult rope: "When you face a real battle, no enemy will give you time to think about the strategy of laying out the rope, and you will not have the mind to distract yourself and remember the position of your own thread. If you don't have this sensitivity, you will be hurt all over by yourself without the enemy making a move."

Lin Xiaolu had no objection to this, after all, she herself felt that her previous behavior in training was too embarrassing. After that, the actual combat part of the special training was replaced by a game of catapult.

Every day, in addition to continuing to learn combat skills, training magic equipment, and practicing magic, Lin Xiaolu also studies how to do rope flips.

In the first few days, she could only follow the routine to produce some fixed patterns, but as time went on, she finally mastered certain tricks and was able to barely keep up with Delphinium's pace and process some extremely complex patterns.

In the last round of flipping the rope, although Lin Xiaolu was defeated in the end, she had actually lasted several rounds against Cuiqiao. Compared with the initial dilemma where she couldn't flip the pattern at all, this was a remarkable improvement.

Although Lin Xiaolu's current level was still far from being able to fight with silk threads according to Delphinium's standards, if she continued to improve at this rate, it would be quite hopeful that she would be able to learn how to use silk threads in a month. Therefore, she did not make any further requests.

The two practiced a few more rounds like this until Lin Xiaolu's mind clearly couldn't keep up, and Cuiqiao stopped training.

At about this time, Bai Jingxuan knocked on the door of the training ground.

"Teacher, Sister Xiaolu, dinner is ready."

She first leaned half of her body into the door, and after confirming that both people were there, she walked in.

During the New Year holiday, considering that the Bai'an City team had stayed here for quite some time, it was not appropriate to continue to regard themselves as guests, so the Fangting City base finally re-established a set of housework shifts.

The three seniors took turns to be responsible for cooking, washing dishes, sweeping the floor and other relatively more labor-intensive chores, while the six juniors and a fairy were responsible for a series of miscellaneous tasks such as washing clothes, wiping the table, taking out the trash, etc.

Today, Hong Siyu was in charge of cooking, and Bai Jingxuan served as the kitchen helper, so it was her turn to notify her companions to eat.

However, even if the work content is just repeating the same thing several times, the behavior is still different when facing different people. When calling others to eat, Bai Jingxuan usually just informs them, and when calling Cuique and Lin Xiaolu to eat, she will quietly wait for the two people to come out at the door, and then follow Cuique upstairs together.

Of course, it was the side where Lin Xiaolu was not.

The three people walked side by side on the stairs, moving forward and backward together just like three people on four legs exercising. Even though the stairs were wide enough for three people to pass through together, Delphinium, who was squeezed in the middle, still felt uncomfortable all over.

If I had to say specifically which one is more uncomfortable physically or mentally, I would probably say it is more uncomfortable mentally.

In Delphinium's perception, two people were squeezed beside her, one on the left and one on the right. Although there was no conversation between them, the silence was subtle and the atmosphere of targeting each other was really unbearable.

This situation has also occurred in recent days.

At the beginning, perhaps because Lin Xiaolu had obtained Cuiqiao's consent, she spent more and more time with Cuiqiao and took the initiative to act like a spoiled child. The resulting impact was that Bai Jingxuan, who had always liked to follow Cuiqiao, began to lose her place.

Of course, Bai Jingxuan is a relatively sensible child. She did not get angry because her seat was taken by Lin Xiaolu. Even if she had a little emotion, she could adjust herself.

After all, Lin Xiaolu can't follow Cuiqiao all day long. She still has her own things to do. Bai Jingxuan can naturally continue to get along with Cuiqiao during this time.

However, soon, as the special training began, this balance was broken. Because Bai Jingxuan had to learn turbidity from Aso Yuanxiang, she spent most of her time on the side of the Baian City team, while Lin Xiaolu had to learn silk thread fighting, so she basically took classes with Cuique every day. Naturally, Lin Xiaolu could be with Cuique almost every day, but Bai Jingxuan almost had no such opportunity.

This situation would be fine if it continued for a day or two, but when three or four days passed, things started to become a little wrong.

At the beginning, only Bai Jingxuan would take the initiative to find Cuique during rest time and housework time. If Cuique was in charge of housework, she would take the initiative to come and help even if it was not Bai Jingxuan's turn to work that day.

This situation was not uncommon. Before this, Bai Jingxuan often took the initiative to help Cuique with various chores. At that time, even if Lin Xiaolu saw it, she would not react.

But after the New Year, the nature of things changed quietly, and Lin Xiaolu began to take the initiative to help Cuiqiao with work.

As time went by, many times two people were competing for the work.

The situation evolved from fighting for jobs to fighting for positions, fighting for attention, and finally to the level of "competing for favor" in just three to five days.

Of course, this does not mean that all problems only arise within three or five days. Rather, some of the small conflicts between Bai Jingxuan and Lin Xiaolu have actually been going on for a long time.

It is certainly not the case to say that the relationship between the two is as hostile as fire and water. In fact, if we put aside the matter of Cuiqiao, the relationship between Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan can be considered very good.

In Lin Xiaolu's opinion, Bai Jingxuan is a very well-behaved and sensible junior, and most of the time she is also a very lovely little sister. She also admires her strong spirit despite her disability, so she doesn't mind being a little humble in many things.

To Bai Jingxuan, Lin Xiaolu is also a senior and sister who seems to have a bit of a temper, but is actually very gentle. Coupled with a series of oolong incidents before, she now treats Lin Xiaolu as a half-real sister, and naturally does not want to have any conflicts with her for no reason.

To be fair, both of them wanted to get along well with each other, but if the matter of Delphinium was taken into account, many things became more complicated.

As early as when Bai Jingxuan first joined the team, Lin Xiaolu had always been resentful about the fact that Bai Jingxuan "stole Delphinium's attention."

However, at that time, Cuiqiao was still intentionally controlling the distance between herself and the team members, and did not let this identity get too close to these children, so Lin Xiaolu also felt that she should not compete with an elementary school student for such a thing.

In addition, she was still confused about her future at the time and was not so sure about what she wanted. She also felt that "getting less love" was a very naive idea, and ultimately did not let this emotion continue to spread.

The second fermentation of this emotion actually occurred one month after the Full Moon Festival.

For some reasons that Lin Xiaolu didn't know, the relationship between Cuiqiao and Bai Jingxuan became closer for some reason. If Cuiqiao and Bai Jingxuan had originally spent more time alone, it could be understood that Bai Jingxuan was the magical girl who joined the team later and had more homework to do and needed to make up for it; then after that time, Cuiqiao and Bai Jingxuan were often alone just because of pure "love".

This made Lin Xiaolu, who was standing by, feel extremely jealous, and her eyes turned red with envy.

After that, she experienced the competition with Baian City and the battle on New Year's Eve. It was a series of changes that gave Lin Xiaolu the courage to take a crucial step and finally "regain her own favor."

From her current perspective, Bai Jingxuan had monopolized Cuiqiao's attention for so long in the past few months. Now it was finally her turn, and she should enjoy this time to the fullest. That was why she had a retaliatory mentality towards Bai Jingxuan.

But in Bai Jingxuan's eyes, this incident became a naked provocation.

Bai Jingxuan could actually ignore this kind of provocation, because she could feel that Lin Xiaolu did not have much ill intention; but Bai Jingxuan could not ignore this kind of provocation, because Lin Xiaolu occupied the position next to Cuique, resulting in her not having been intimate with Cuique for many days.

In front of others, Cuiqiao also didn't let her call "Mom". She could only call her "Mom" when she was alone. So Bai Jingxuan had always called her "Mom" in private, which was what she had been doing before. But now, because of Lin Xiaolu's obstruction, she couldn't do it anymore.

In Bai Jingxuan's eyes, there are not too many important people in this world. If you count on your fingers, there are only her biological parents, the magical girl Sakura who once saved her, Uncle Tian who is now working at the Strategy Bureau, Cuiqiao, Uncle Lin, and her current teammates.

And if we have to choose the most important people among them, they would only be Cuiqiao and Lin Yun.

However, although Uncle Lin from the Strategy Bureau was willing to be her "father", she also knew that Lin Xiaolu was Lin Yun's real daughter. No matter what, she could not be more important to Lin Yun than Lin Xiaolu.

Bai Jingxuan didn't want to compete with her "Sister Xiaolu" for "Dad" because she knew that this would make Lin Xiaolu and "Dad" sad, so she chose to get close to Delphinium.

In her opinion, Cuiqiao was the senior of the Fangting City team and everyone's teacher, and everyone had the same status in front of Cuiqiao. So, as long as she worked harder and was more considerate, it shouldn't be a problem even if she monopolized more love.

But she didn't expect that Lin Xiaolu would not only snatch the spotlight, but also monopolize it so blatantly, leaving her no room at all.

Bai Jingxuan is a very sensible child, and precisely because she is sensible, she knows exactly what she wants.

There was no way she could let go of the position next to Delphinium.

In this way, a war without gunpowder began.

In response to this, Cuique's attitude was just confusion at first, but when she realized the strange competition between Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan, she tried to mediate, hoping to avoid more conflicts between the two.

But she soon discovered that this matter did not seem to be something she could handle.

There is no other reason, it’s just because she is the party involved and the de facto “referee” of this competition.

It is meaningless to stop it. Forcing two people to give up the competition by force is nothing more than moving this behavior from the open to the dark.

If she does not stop it and just tries to make one of them give up, then no matter which side she chooses to speak for and seek mediation, it will constitute de facto favoritism, which is the greatest harm to the child.

In this regard, the extremely troubled Cuiqiao had no choice but to seek external help. She consulted Hong Siyu, but got a strange answer "I also want the senior's love"; she consulted Aso Yuanxiang, although the other party had a good attitude and did give some suggestions, but unfortunately, when it comes to education-related issues, this person is even more layman than Cuiqiao herself.

In this way, the only option Cuiqiao had in the end was to pretend to be ignorant and try her best to balance the two sides so that both Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan would feel that they were "favored".

Hence, the strange sight of three people standing side by side on the stairs.

(End of this chapter)