Off Work, Then I Become a Magical Girl
Chapter 54: Tracking

On that Saturday, Lin Yun dressed casually and went out alone.

On days when he didn’t need to commute, he rarely chose to drive, but today, he was heading alone to the central commercial district of Luoming.

He had subtly brought up the incident in the apartment elevator with Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang, but whether they truly didn’t know or were just pretending not to understand, the result was the same—they had no reaction whatsoever.

However, that night, when he was tutoring Lin Xiaolu in schoolwork as Veronica, her distracted expression remained etched in his memory.

Thinking back, he realized that, according to the promise he had made when taking Lin Xiaolu to school, he should have a proper talk with her. At the very least, he needed to tell her about Aya instead of keeping her in the dark.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, Lin Yun silently turned the steering wheel. After making a turn at an intersection and driving a bit further, his brow suddenly twitched.

He could feel the magic reaction coming from the Heartstone Flower he carried.

It was a signal—an indication that a spell he had set up had been triggered.

Back when he first encountered Moko, it had seemed suspicious and its motives were unclear. To monitor its movements, Veronica had secretly placed a tracking spell on it.

Later on, although Moko’s actions proved that it was nothing more than an outright fool, Lin Yun had kept the spell active since Moko often accompanied Lin Xiaolu. This way, if anything unexpected happened, he could locate them immediately.

Touching the Heartstone Flower, Lin Yun’s outstretched hand gradually shimmered with a deep blue magic glow. His hand, originally that of an adult man, became translucent, revealing the shadow of a much smaller hand pressing against the fractured gemstone flower in the same gesture.

A sensation surged through his mind—the spell he had placed was right behind him.

Why was Moko following him?

Although he found it odd, Lin Yun didn’t let his thoughts show. Instead, he released the Heartstone Flower, letting everything return to normal. Pretending not to notice anything, he continued driving.

Before long, he was forced to stop at a red light at an intersection. That was when he noticed a pink head peeking in from the edge of his car window.

He didn’t even need to take a closer look to know—it was undoubtedly Moko. There wasn’t even a need to guess.

At the moment, Moko was clinging to the car window with its paws, its large cat-like eyes wide open, and its face pressed tightly against the glass in a comical manner.

For some reason, there was also a phone hanging around its neck. From the design, it looked strikingly similar to Xia Liang’s. If not for the fairies’ cognitive interference ability working in full effect, the sight of a floating phone would have surely scared nearby pedestrians half to death.

Lin Yun continued to feign ignorance, subtly observing Moko through his peripheral vision. After scrutinizing it for a while, he finally confirmed something—the phone around its neck was indeed Xia Liang’s.

In other words, whatever bizarre thing Moko was up to, Xia Liang was definitely involved.

Recalling what he had seen in the elevator that day—the one that had gone straight to his apartment floor—Lin Yun couldn’t help but form a hypothesis.

Could that have been Xia Liang that day?

What exactly was she up to?

Lin Yun pictured Xia Liang’s ever-smiling face in his mind but still couldn’t decipher her intentions. However, since he wasn’t doing anything that needed to be kept secret, he didn’t particularly care about her little tricks.

After all, he had once said that as an adult, he should be tolerant of children’s small acts of mischief.

And so, Lin Yun kept driving toward his destination, completely unaware that a taxi several hundred meters behind him was following him with two girls inside.

——"Target acquired."

Staring at her phone screen, Lin Xiaolu furrowed her brows. "Moko just checked through the car window—it’s definitely him."

"Do we really need to go this far?"

Not only had she been dragged into this, but her phone had also been taken away. Xia Liang sighed in exasperation. "Even if your dad is really going on a date with another woman, that’s his business, isn’t it?"

"I never said I wanted to interfere with that."

Lin Xiaolu mumbled under her breath, "It’s not like it would be a big deal anyway. He was already getting all cozy with some woman at Mom’s funeral—what’s a date compared to that?"

"But earlier, you said this kind of thing counts as cheating..."

"Ugh! I was just talking nonsense! Stop nitpicking my words at a time like this!"

Puffing up her cheeks in frustration, Lin Xiaolu hurriedly changed the subject. "Anyway, what we’re focusing on isn’t the fact that he’s going on a date—it’s about who he’s meeting!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it." Xia Liang grinned teasingly. "So if it turns out to be someone you don’t care about, then you wouldn’t mind them hitting it off, right?"

"...I wouldn’t mind," Lin Xiaolu replied stubbornly.

"But what if it’s Hong Siyu, the lady who came to our house a few days ago?"

"Then I’ll expose her real reason for getting close to us to Veronica! Let her know that woman is—huh? Huh?" Lin Xiaolu suddenly paused and looked up. "Wait, what did you just say?"

"Hong Siyu?"

"I don’t care what you call that woman—I meant the part before that!" Lin Xiaolu pointed at her.

"A few days ago?" Xia Liang blinked innocently.

"Don’t try to gloss over it! You just said ‘our house,’ didn’t you?" Lin Xiaolu’s eyes widened.

"Yeah, I did."

"I’ve corrected you so many times already! I told you, that’s my house! You’re really pushing your luck!"

"Is it really a problem? I’d love for us to be like a real family."

Xia Liang playfully teased, "That way, I could call you ‘big sis.’ How about it, Xiaolu-jiejie?"

"That sounds so cringey. Cut it out."

Giving Xia Liang an exasperated glare, Lin Xiaolu sighed. "Anyway, my house is my house, and your house is your house. You can’t mix that up."

With that, she refocused on her phone, carefully tracking both Moko and her father’s movements.

The car fell into silence.

The taxi driver in the front seat could clearly hear their conversation, but family drama was none of his business. He told himself to mind his own business and remained silent.

"Xiaolu."

After watching Lin Xiaolu for a while, Xia Liang suddenly spoke up. "What if your dad’s date really isn’t that woman, and like you said, it’s..."

"It won’t be."

Lin Xiaolu cut her off without hesitation, eyes fixed on her phone so that Xia Liang couldn’t see her expression. "I have to believe in Veronica. It won’t be."

"But you were just doubting it a few days ago?"

Lin Xiaolu didn’t answer.

Because she didn’t know how to.

The possibility she least wanted to accept had been swirling in her mind ever since she had left the house in pursuit of Lin Yun. But now, in this very moment, she found herself calming down.

Veronica’s past words and actions resurfaced in her thoughts, gradually reaffirming her trust—her ideal Magical Girl wouldn’t be the kind of person who meddles in someone else’s family.

Even though, deep inside, a tiny part of her wondered—if she really had to have a stepmother, then maybe...

So rather than catching her father red-handed, this pursuit was more about giving herself peace of mind.

Staring at the red and blue dots on her phone screen, Lin Xiaolu remained silent.

She knew that no matter what she was feeling inside, the real answer lay ahead.