Get off work and become a magical girl

Chapter 246: Temple Fair Prayer
Fangting City, Honolulu, Bailao Temple. This is a temple located in Fangting City that has always been very popular.

Honolulu is not a proper mountain. It is only tens of meters above sea level. Strictly speaking, it is just a higher mound. However, the citizens of Fangting in the old days still called it a mountain for convenience. Through word of mouth, the name has been passed down.

It is said that the temple enshrines a famous doctor in Fangting City in ancient times. His surname was Bai. He was highly respected by the people because of his superb medical skills and kindness. He often exempted the medical expenses of some poor patients. After his death, grateful people built a temple for him to commemorate his merits.

Later, with the expansion and development of the city, the Bailao Temple was renovated several times and finally became one of the famous local attractions. At the end of January every year, as the end of the "New Year" festival, Fangting City will hold a temple fair for the whole people at the Bailao Temple.

Lantern shows, lantern riddles, dragon dances, fireworks, and many other traditional folk activities are part of the temple fair. In addition, there are also special food stalls, games... All in all, it is a pretty grand event.

"Then, let me hereby announce that the joint outing of the Fangting City and Baian City Magical Girls Teams, as well as the farewell party for the Baian City team, will begin now!"

In an open space not far from the temple fair, a group of girls in different clothes were gathered together, looking in the same direction.

In their sight, the pink cat-shaped fairy Moko was holding a roll of sandalwood that came from nowhere, and shouting loudly to herself.

"After all, why is it responsible for the announcement?" Lin Xiaolu, who was wearing a thick cotton coat and a long scarf and almost wrapped herself up like a ball, turned her head and asked Xia Liang beside her.

"Well, strictly speaking, Moko is the sower of our team after all, so joint activities with other city teams should indeed be hosted by him."

Blowing out white mist from his mouth, Xia Liang rubbed his red face with his gloved hands: "Besides, no one wants to take this job from it, so it's not a bad thing to make it happy for a while."

——"So, do we really have to go out and play in this weather?"

Mu Baihe, who was standing by, narrowed her eyes and asked, "Didn't you check the weather forecast before you came? Do you know what the temperature is today? It's minus ten degrees! Why do you have to come to the temple fair at this time? Is the person who came up with this idea okay?"

Lin Xiaolu glared at him.

"Don't say that. The weather is a bit cold, but there are quite a lot of people here, which means there are actually quite a few people who are willing to go out and have fun in this weather."

Before the two of them started arguing, Aso Yuanxiang, who was standing next to Mu Lily, suddenly reached out her hand, held her head and shook it: "Besides, isn't it out of kindness that they invited you out to play? Don't be so absolute when you speak, kid."

"...You just want to play." Mu Lily said in a muffled voice as her head was pressed.

"How could that be? I am just acting as a guardian to ensure your safety during your trip."

Aso Yuanxiang kept smiling and turned her gaze to Lin Xiaolu: "So what do we say next, our little tour guide? What is the first activity?"

"Ah? Oh, let me think about it."

Lin Xiaolu's attention was diverted by the question, and she began to recall the guide she had read for today's temple fair: "Well... we should go to the mountain path first, because the dragon dance team will start from there. We can follow the team and then go to the lantern riddle guessing venue."

In line with the principle of "whoever proposes, whoever is responsible", the entire tour plan for this temple fair was formulated by Lin Xiaolu. Several seniors completely acted as hands-off managers, leaving Lin Xiaolu to lead the way. Lin Xiaolu also cooperated and spent a lot of time looking up strategies on the Internet, and finally formulated a plan. It is for this reason that Lin Xiaolu, who has made so much effort, is dissatisfied with Mo Ke taking away part of her hosting rights.

Following Lin Xiaolu's arrangement, everyone walked towards the mountain trail. From the outside, a team of young girls really attracted attention. Passersby would look at the team from time to time. Some even thought they were a performing arts team because the girls were pretty, so they would take the initiative to step aside and make way for them.

The nine-member team walked along the road for more than ten minutes before finally arriving at the place Lin Xiaolu mentioned. As expected, there was already a large group of tourists gathered there. In the middle of the crowd, gongs and drums were blaring, and exciting and festive music was playing along the road. It was obviously a dragon dance performance team.

Lin Xiaolu tried to squeeze into the crowd, but soon found that it was not realistic to get through the dense crowd. So she took the next best option and continued to move forward with everyone, walking to the sides of the road ahead, waiting for the dragon dance team to arrive.

Soon, a group of people wearing red and yellow training uniforms, red scarves on their heads and holding dragon lanterns in their hands came along the road to the sound of gongs and drums.

The dozens-meter-long dragon lantern was dancing in the performer's hands, the dragon head raised high swung its whiskers, and the dragon body covered with colorful scales sparkled in the sunset.

The performers' steps are neat and rhythmic. They each hold a bamboo pole and make movements such as leaning over, looking up, or twisting to the rhythm. With their cooperation, the dragon's body seems to come alive. With the beats of drums and gongs, it tumbles, twists and turns in the air, sometimes circling, and sometimes leaping.

People gathered around holding their mobile phones high in the air, taking photos and recording videos. Sometimes pedestrians applauded and cheered, and sometimes parents and children could be heard laughing. The sidewalk, which should have been deserted, now became a river flowing with a festive atmosphere.

Delphinium stood by the sidewalk, just watching quietly and silently, occasionally clapping softly with the crowd.

"What? Not interested?"

Aso Yuanxiang, who had stood behind her without her noticing, suddenly asked, "The level of the performance troupe coming this time is quite high. Why don't we take this opportunity to record a few clips?"

"It's not that I'm not interested. In fact, they dance pretty well."

Delphinium shook her head: "It's just that it happens every year. I've seen it too many times and recorded it too many times, so naturally there's not that much passion."

"...That's right. You've been in Fangting all these years. You should be tired of it now."

Aso Yuanxiang sneered: "Unlike those girls, they are seeing it for the first time."

As she said this, she pointed at several girls from Bai'an City. They had now squeezed to the front of the crowd, with surprise visible on their faces. Mu Baili, who had the most negative attitude when she came, responded enthusiastically, and her outstretched hand almost touched the dragon lantern.

Perhaps it was because her enthusiasm infected the dragon dance team. Several young men and women in the team shouted a few times, and the dragon's body suddenly turned and passed behind Mu Baili. The shining dragon's body made the girl's light yellow hair shine.

This sudden impromptu performance also drew cheers from the surrounding audience.

"That child, surprisingly, seems to like this kind of traditional cultural things?" asked Delphinium who saw this scene.

"Which one do you mean?"

"Lily. I thought she was in that stage where she was a little rebellious and didn't care about adults and traditional things."

"Oh, that child."

Aso Yuanxiang nodded in understanding: "It is indeed as you said, quite rebellious, but this child still has some preferences for music, dance and other things, so she is interested in dragon dancing."

“I see. I see.”

"What? You don't plan to continue asking about the story behind this?" Aso Yuanxiang was a little surprised.

"not going to."

Delphinium deadpanned, "Most magical girls' backgrounds are hardly pleasant anyway, and she's now a member of your team, so I think you should be able to handle these issues."

"How cold." Aso Yuanxiang sighed.

"It's better than a magical girl who abandons her team and is not in the city for half of the year, right?" Delphinium glanced at her.

"Haha, you're right."

After laughing, Asou Yuanxiang's mouth curled up slightly: "Anyway, you have been to Baian City before, so you have also been to our team's magical girl base, right?"

"That piano store?"

"Yes, Mingyin Music Store. The old owner and his wife are both acquaintances of mine. However, they retired early due to health problems and handed the store over to their daughter, the magical girl 'Dengzhan'."

Aso Yuanxiang's tone was slightly lamenting: "As for Mu Lily, the child's parents were also acquainted with the old manager of the music store. Both parents were in a band, but the two were not married. Later, their relationship broke down, and only her father was left to take care of her."

"Later, her father felt that he couldn't pursue his musical dream with a burden, so one day he suddenly abandoned the child in a music store and disappeared."

"It's funny, he left behind a letter of repentance of several thousand words and his guitar. In the letter, he tearfully expressed the psychological struggle he went through after abandoning his child. He also claimed that he would mortgage the guitar as child support. But in fact, he bought the guitar at Mingyin Music Store and even bought it on credit. He never paid it back until the end."

Having said this, the two of them did not continue for a while, simply because the dragon dance team was still moving forward, and they had to follow the crowd and move forward.

"Is this why you said the child was interested in music and dance?" asked Delphinium.

"Well, when her scumbag father was still alive, he made a living by performing at various performance venues. Occasionally, he would even have to sing on the street, but he would always take her with him." Aso Yuanxiang smiled: "How should I put it? Hobbies are really cultivated from childhood?"

"If possible, I still hope you won't describe the life of a scumbag to me in such detail."

After a brief thought, Delphinium expressed her opinion on the story told by Aso Yuanxiang: "To be honest, after listening to it, I felt sympathy for the child, but also quite annoyed."

"Who said it wasn't? Fortunately, the old owner and his wife of the piano store are both good people. After realizing that there was no turning back, they adopted the child. So nominally speaking, Mu Baihe is actually Dengzhan's sister."

As Asou Yuanxiang shrugged as she walked, "However, although there is no doubt that Mu Lily's father is a scumbag, no one in the piano store has ever told her the truth. She still thinks that she is just fostered here, and her father will come back to pick her up one day. So remember not to say bad things about her father in front of her, otherwise she will be unhappy."

"Is it necessary? To make up a lie that will be exposed one day?" Delphinium wondered.

"Yeah, is it necessary to make up such a lie that will be exposed one day?" Aso Yuanxiang paused, looked back at her with a teasing expression, and repeated it word for word.

Delphinium was speechless.

"…You went through so much trouble just to tell me this?"

After a while, she said helplessly: "Did you expect me to ask this question?"

"Who knows? Maybe I just got it in my head and wanted to share with you some of my experiences over the years."

Aso Yuanxiang said ambiguously: "After all, I told you this story not to express anything, but I just thought it was more appropriate to tell it now. You can also just treat it as a story. There is no need to delve into it."

"That's not a very pleasant story," sighed Delphinium.

"I'm really sorry." Aso Yuanxiang said with a smile, obviously showing no remorse.

The dragon dance team walked along the aisle and gradually arrived at the temple fair venue amidst jubilation.

At this time, the sun had just set and the sky had turned dark. The colorful lanterns hanging throughout the temple fair became the main sight in everyone's eyes.

The noisy sounds of gongs and drums merged into the venue along with the dragon dance team, and walked towards the huge stage that had been built in advance. The magical girls, under the guidance of Lin Xiaolu, left the team early and walked to another slightly quieter venue.

I say "slightly" because there is finally no deafening sound of gongs and drums, but it is only "slightly" because there are still huge crowds of people here.

This place was supposed to be a larger courtyard in the temple, but now it has been transformed into a lantern riddle area. Several rows of high-hanging lanterns hang from wooden frames. The wooden frames that hang the lanterns cover the night sky like a ceiling, and each lantern is pasted with a piece of red paper with something written on it in ink.

In a corner of the courtyard, a middle-aged man in scholar's clothes was writing something on the table. There were many lanterns without paper on them placed beside the table. It was obvious that he was still writing lantern riddles. His handwriting was vigorous and powerful, attracting many passers-by to stop and watch.

A little further away, at the exit of the courtyard, several staff members were standing there, guarding a large pile of prizes. The contents were very diverse, with expensive items such as small furniture, cheaper items such as toothbrushes and paper towels, and of course some coupons for consumption at the temple fair.

Delphinium was actually quite interested in this kind of word game. After walking around the courtyard twice with great interest, she picked a lantern that could guess the answer.

Red Lady, going up to the tall building, feeling heartache and tears flowing - guess an object.

This puzzle was not difficult. After a little thought, Delphinium realized that the answer should be candle.

Thinking of this, she subconsciously reached out and wanted to tear off the red paper on the lantern, but soon she discovered a problem - even if she stretched out her hand, the distance between her fingertips and the lantern was still so far.

She looked around and found that the other magical girls were also concentrating on solving the puzzle, so there was no one next to her. She could only turn around and try hard to stand on tiptoe.

——Still can’t touch it.

Delphinium couldn't help but droop her eyelids.

She looked around again, and after making sure that no one was paying attention to her, she pursed her lips slightly, then exerted force with her calves and jumped without using too much physical strength.

——The fingertips can still only rub the bottom of the red paper.

The amplitude of the jumping movement was really huge, so it attracted the attention of some tourists around. Under the gaze of these people, Delphinium was really unwilling to continue to compete with this lantern riddle, so she turned around and left. However, before she took a few steps, she heard a voice behind her:
"Little sister, do you want to take this lantern riddle?"

She turned around and saw a young staff member had torn the red paper off the lantern and handed it to her.

Looking at the red paper in front of her, Delphinium remained silent for a while. "Ah, isn't it? Did I make a mistake? I'm so sorry..."

Seeing that Delphinium didn't react, the staff member scratched his neck awkwardly. Before he could take back the red paper, he saw Delphinium had already taken the red paper from his hand at a very fast speed, and left a hasty "thank you".

"Come on, get more prizes to show your parents!"

The staff shouted encouragement behind her, which made Delphinium quicken her pace. She held the red paper expressionlessly and found the locations of the other magical girls. Then she just stood aside with her arms folded, not saying a word, as if she didn't intend to continue solving the puzzle.

About ten minutes later, Mu Baili, who was the slowest, finally found a riddle that she seemed to be able to guess. Everyone went to the prize redemption office with their red paper and answers.

Every tourist who guesses the answer correctly can participate in a lottery at the prize redemption counter. The lottery content is the prizes piled up in the courtyard. The vast majority of the magical girl team answered correctly, only Moko and Aso Yuanxiang's answers were wrong.

"That doesn't make sense. Shouldn't 'almost black' be grey? Why would it be a bird?" This is Moko's question about the correct answer.

"Haha, the riddles in your Donghuazhou dialect are too difficult to understand. We people from Dongyingzhou can't understand them." This is Aso Yuanxiang's defense for her bad behavior.

When it came to the final lottery draw, it started with Lin Xiaolu, followed by several younger generations, and then the older generations, with Cuiqiao being the last one to draw.

Taking out a piece of paper from the lottery ticket tube, Cuique slowly unfolded it and saw a few black words written on it: "50% off coupon for all glutinous rice balls."

It’s not a surprise, I did win the prize; but it’s not something that makes me excited either.

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In such a subtle mood, hearing the staff shouting "Congratulations, third prize", Delphinium took the so-called coupon with a subtle expression. On the contrary, Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan, probably because they like sweets, immediately cheered.

Because of this, the group's dinner was decided to be glutinous rice balls.

After leaving the lantern riddle venue, the magic girls mixed in with the crowd and walked into the snack square, where there were many snack stalls, and some vendors with ring toss and turntable games to fool children. The so-called "glutinous rice balls coupon" can actually only be used in this place. As long as it is a stall selling glutinous rice balls, no matter what flavor, no matter how much you buy, you can get a 50% discount.

With mixed feelings, she paid at the glutinous rice dumpling vendor. In keeping with her traditional ideas, Delphinium ordered a bowl of glutinous rice dumplings with black sesame filling, which was a bit too plain compared to other magical girls. As for the others, if Xia Liang ordered purple potato filling and Hong Siyu ordered peanut filling, which were normal, then Lin Xiaolu ordered strawberry filling and Aso Yuanxiang ordered coffee filling, which were confusing.

Have rice dumplings become such a fancy food these days?
Biting the black sesame glutinous rice balls in the spoon, Delphinium thought as if she was doubting her own worldview. If she remembered correctly, when she was still young, when she came to the temple fair with Anya, Su Shengzi and others, glutinous rice balls were still a very traditional snack, right?
Just as her thoughts were gradually wandering and she was about to sigh because she realized that she could not keep up with the times, Bai Jingxuan had already sat down next to Cuique with her bowl in her hand.

"Mom, try the glutinous rice balls I ordered."

She pushed her bowl in front of Delphinium very naturally and spoke crisply.

"What did you order?"

Cuiqiao looked at Bai Jingxuan, thought for a moment, and then did not try to shirk responsibility. Instead, she gently used a spoon to scoop up a glutinous rice ball from Bai Jingxuan's bowl.

After putting the glutinous rice dumpling into her mouth and savoring it for a while, she knew the filling of the glutinous rice dumpling - custard filling.

Although compared to traditional fillings like black sesame, custard-filled glutinous rice balls can definitely be said to be somewhat innovative, but compared to something as unorthodox as coffee filling, it is a bit too normal.

Thinking so, Delphinium swallowed the glutinous rice dumpling in her mouth.

"It's delicious." Then he gave his own evaluation.

"Really? Thank you!" Not knowing why she was so happy about the compliment, Bai Jingxuan happily took back her bowl and leaned towards Delphinium: "Then mom, I want to have a bite of yours too."

"Well...it's OK, but it's just a very ordinary black sesame flavor, no different from what you buy in the supermarket."

Delphinium blinked, a little confused: "Do you really want to eat it?"

"Yes!" Bai Jingxuan nodded.

"All right then." Delphinium thought so and pushed her bowl away.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she finished this action, Bai Jingxuan pushed the bowl back.

"What's wrong? Don't you want to eat again?" Delphinium looked a little confused.

Bai Jingxuan shook her head and hummed in denial.

"That's..."

Before Cuiqiao could finish his doubtful words, he saw Bai Jingxuan adjust the eye mask on one side of her body, then lean forward slightly and open her mouth.

"Ah." The girl said softly.

Delphinium felt her wrist twitch.

She looked around, then at Bai Jingxuan, and after a brief hesitation, she lowered the spoon in her hand helplessly, and used Bai Jingxuan's spoon to scoop a white and black glutinous rice ball from her bowl.

"what."

As she said this, she blew twice to cool the glutinous rice balls in the spoon, and then, with a little embarrassment, put the glutinous rice balls into Bai Jingxuan's mouth.

Bai Jingxuan wrapped it up in one bite, chewed it vigorously for a few times, and then swallowed it like a cow chewing a peony: "Delicious!"

“…As long as it tastes good.” Delphinium could only respond awkwardly, while glancing around to make sure not too many people saw this somewhat embarrassing scene.

Unfortunately, before she turned her sight 90 degrees, she saw another person on the other side of her.

"boom"!
Lin Xiaolu placed her bowl heavily on the table and glared at Bai Jingxuan. Then, her expression changed and she looked at Cuiqiao with an extremely obedient and docile gaze:

"Delphinium, I want to eat it too!"

"no!"

Bai Jingxuan immediately objected: "I was here first!"

"You've already eaten, it's my turn!" Lin Xiaolu argued immediately.

"I came first!"

"It's my turn!"

The two of them looked at each other and spoke at the same time, like a quarrel among primary school students. They just kept repeating the same sentence over and over, and their voices were getting louder and louder.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Cuiqiao quickly stopped the two girls, then with a numb face, took out another glutinous rice ball from her bowl and handed it to Lin Xiaolu's mouth.

Then, he watched Lin Xiaolu swallow the glutinous rice balls happily.

She felt like a bird feeding its chicks in nature. Although she brought food, the chicks in the nest were all crying for food and fighting for it, wishing to snatch all the food from each other. She had to feed them while trying to maintain a balance.

After feeding Lin Xiaolu a bite, she went back to feed Bai Jingxuan. After feeding Bai Jingxuan a bite, she had to feed Lin Xiaolu again. Before they knew it, several other magical girls had also come to the same table with their bowls. Several people gathered together, watching how Cuique fed the other two dumplings.

Besides Cuiqiao herself, Bai Jingxuan and Lin Xiaolu seemed to have completely abandoned their sense of shame and just enjoyed the process of eating glutinous rice balls. Not only that, if the seats were not already full, judging by Hong Si's expression, she would have wanted to join in the fun.

This extremely torturous process for Delphinium lasted for more than ten minutes. Only after she had finished all the dumplings in her bowl did she breathe a long sigh of relief.

However, before she could take the next move, she saw Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan push their bowls almost at the same time, pushing the other two bowls of dumplings in front of her.

"Come and have a taste of mine too!"

"You can eat mine!" Then, they said almost in unison.

Delphinium's already numb expression didn't change at all.

She looked at Aso Yuanxiang who was sitting right opposite her, only to see her giving her a thumbs-up with a smile; she looked at Hong Siyu again, only to see her pushing her bowl forward; finally she looked at Xia Liang, but Xia Liang just looked at her with a slightly resentful look and gestured two words with his lips.

"You deserve it."

As the girl complained silently, fireworks slowly rose in the night sky not far away. After a few silver lights crossed the night sky, they stunned the entire night sky like blooming flowers.

"Boom" "Boom"!
The brilliant, noisy, shining and gorgeous fireworks caught everyone's attention, indicating that the temple fair had gradually reached its climax. The atmosphere at the scene was extremely intense.

People gathered together, eating snacks while looking up at the fireworks and night view in the distance. There were also wonderful performances on the stage not far away. It was a night with a temperature below zero, but the overly warm atmosphere was enough to make people forget the cold, and even feel the heat from the heart.

In the end, thanks to the fireworks that attracted everyone's attention, Delphinium was able to leave the table with just one word, "I'm full," and avoid facing a more embarrassing situation.

Then, as if to divert attention, she took the initiative to suggest joining in the ring tossing game.

Naturally, no one would reject this proposal. In addition, Lin Xiaolu's original plan included a gaming session for everyone to play together, so the two parties hit it off immediately.

Lin Xiaolu and Bai Jingxuan were both trying their best, as if they were going to use the game to resolve the conflict at the dinner table; while Kuizi seemed to be trying to change her mood, and she just kept a blank face and focused. Soon, because the magic girls were so accurate in their traps, they almost took all the most valuable prizes in a few rounds, and the boss asked them to leave the scene with a wry smile.

The square, the stage, the lantern show, the group walked along the pre-planned route and visited almost the entire temple fair, even walking to the point where even the magical girls were a little tired, before finally reaching the last part of the day.

——Pray for blessings.

Rather, this is the function that the Bailao Temple itself should have.

Until this moment, the bundle of sandalwood that Moko had been holding came in handy. The magical girls followed the worshippers, lit the sandalwood in their hands, and walked into the temple in the curling smoke.

The smoke was filled with the smell of burning incense. In front of the main hall, the huge copper body of the incense burner shone brightly under the candlelight. Three thick legs supported the incense burner. Incense ash piled up like a mountain, emitting wisps of white smoke. The pilgrims held burning sandalwood in their hands, some with three sticks together, some with nine sticks in a bundle, forming a long line and slowly moving forward. When they arrived in front of the incense burner, they solemnly inserted the sandalwood into the incense ash, put their hands together, and prayed softly.

There were crowds of people, some worshipping alone, some with their families, couples holding hands, and groups of friends. Among the diverse crowds, the magical girls were still the most conspicuous.

Fortunately, after a whole night of being watched, everyone has almost gotten used to it.

For the magical girls and their group, the most timely request for this trip here to pray is the upcoming national assessment.

——I hope everything goes well on the next trip to the country. In the worst case scenario, at least it will be safe and sound.

Putting the incense in her hand into the incense burner, she looked from afar at the bronze statue in the hall that symbolized "Bai Lao", lowered her head slightly, and muttered silently in her heart.

Imitating her movements, the younger generations followed suit one by one, then clasped their hands together and silently made their own wishes.

No one would speak out their wishes because it would make them ineffective. This was an unspoken rule among everyone in Donghua Prefecture.

"I hope I can be promoted directly to the flower level this year..." Mu Yuri, the only one who spoke, shut up after Aso Yuanxiang knocked her head.

Lin Xiaolu, Bai Jingxuan, Xia Liang, Hong Siyu...even the usually frivolous Aso Yuanxiang, and Mo Ke, who had no idea what was going on, all lowered their heads and prayed quietly.

After a long time, the delphinium among the smoke and clouds raised its head and opened its eyes.

She never believed in ghosts or gods, nor did she believe in so-called prayers, but even so, before leaving for the kingdom, she couldn't help but feel nervous about what she was going to do next.

Forging an identity, sneaking into the country, treating injuries, and even regaining power... Will everything really be so smooth?

She didn't know, and she had no way of knowing, but now the arrow was on the string and had to be shot.

"The Queen's Year..." She muttered to herself, the heaviness in her heart becoming stronger, but the light in her eyes did not fade at all.

She is ready.

(End of this chapter)