Hahaha! I can’t take it anymore, Little Zhiqiu! To think you were ambushed by a magical girl, and then tied up in such a fashion… Hahaha! I’m genuinely dying of laughter!
South of Nandou City, bathed in the soft glow of moonlight, a young girl’s hearty laughter echoed from within a grocery store named ‘Fuli Ji’.
“Stop laughing, I said stop laughing!” Bai Zhiqiu’s face flushed crimson, evidently mortified by the young girl’s unrelenting mockery.
While it was true that any dignified witch suffering a defeat at the hands of a magical girl, complete with a humiliating defeat CG, would undoubtedly become a laughingstock…
‘But this is your dearest disciple! Couldn’t she show a little more restraint?’
Bai Zhiqiu’s face remained flushed, yet his eyes, now narrowed to slits, glared fiercely at Qian Moyu.
Noting his disciple’s almost man-eating glare, Qian Moyu quickly cleared her throat, a faint cough escaping her lips.
“Alright, no more laughing! Really, I won’t laugh again.”
With that, Qian Moyu gently stroked Bai Zhiqiu’s head, finding the soft texture endlessly satisfying.
“Hmph~ Don’t touch me!”
Bai Zhiqiu petulantly swatted Qian Moyu’s hand away, then retreated to the side to sulk.
“Relax, Little Zhiqiu, don’t be angry! How about I prepare something for you to eat? After all, you were tied up tonight… I mean, you fought a magical girl for three hundred rounds. You must be hungry, right?”
Bai Zhiqiu ignored her, merely puffing out his cheeks and glaring, resembling an indignant pufferfish.
“Silence means consent, then! You can play with your phone for now; your food will be ready in just a moment!” With that, Qian Moyu pulled out her phone and offered it to Bai Zhiqiu. “Just remember not to snoop through my private things.”
“Got it, got it!” Bai Zhiqiu declared, taking the phone and playfully sticking out his tongue. “Do I really look like the kind of person who’d snoop through other people’s privacy?”
“I trust you won’t! After all, Little Zhiqiu is an honest little witch!”
Having said her piece, Qian Moyu attempted to pat Bai Zhiqiu’s head once more. This time, however, he offered no resistance, allowing her hand to settle on his hair.
‘Indeed! My little disciple is growing cuter by the day!’ Qian Moyu mused. ‘When we first met, he nearly tore the shop apart; he’s nothing like this docile now, even if he’s not *truly* obedient. The Eye of the Stone of Destiny truly has impeccable taste….’
After a couple more pats, Qian Moyu headed towards the kitchen; she still had to prepare her little disciple’s late-night snack, after all.
****
Once his master had left the room, Bai Zhiqiu unlocked the phone. He had to admit, Qian Moyu’s device was remarkably minimalist.
There were no games, no novels—only a short video platform that exclusively broadcast news.
‘Hmm! Case closed!’ Bai Zhiqiu thought. ‘Master looks eighteen, but her mental age is eighty!’
‘Such thoughts, however, could only be entertained internally; he absolutely couldn’t let her hear them. After all, no one wanted to spend three days and three nights in Tentacle Space, right?’
Bai Zhiqiu deftly opened the browser, skillfully typed in a string of encrypted URLs, and accessed the most mysterious site: Sorcery and Magic.
This was a website exclusively for magical girls, though, naturally, some witches would secretly slip in to browse.
After all, the site’s original purpose was to provide a communication platform for magical girls, and since ‘magical girls’ were often abbreviated as ‘witches’, it was perfectly reasonable for witches to sneak in. (Hands on hips, Bai Zhiqiu mentally added).
Combat missions and confidential information, of course, were handled on the association headquarters’ internal channel, minimizing the risk of leaks as much as possible—though, admittedly, leaks still sometimes occurred.
After the loading circle on the webpage completed two rotations, Bai Zhiqiu finally gained successful entry to the site.
He had to admit, Bai Zhiqiu’s luck was quite good today; he had just entered and already stumbled upon an incredibly popular post, boasting an unparalleled number of views and saves.
‘Woohoo! Looks like there’s something good to see!’ he thought, as the ahoge on his head twitched agilely, clearly sharing his curiosity about the information.
Driven by curiosity, he clicked it open, only to be greeted by an astonishing photograph.
A young girl, clad in a dark red lolita dress, knelt on the ground.
A subtle hint of resistance flickered in her wine-red eyes, while her slightly disheveled clothes and flushed face only added to her alluring vulnerability.
‘A divine masterpiece!’
‘So cute and adorable…. But… wait… isn’t this me?!’
A clap of thunder exploded in his mind. ‘This is… so humiliating… completely humiliating for *everyone* to see…’
Bai Zhiqiu scrolled further down the post. Sure enough, what met his horrified gaze were photo after photo of him, captured in every conceivable pose.
And that wasn’t all; Bai Zhiqiu also spotted comments from several familiar names in the comment section.
Jasmine: “That kind of female brat deserves a harsh punishment!”
‘f*ck! Who’s punishing whom?! If I hadn’t let you off that day, you’d already be my little pet, and you wouldn’t be yapping here!’
And Rosemary: “This despicable little witch should be caught and taken to headquarters, where everyone can take turns punishing him!”
‘Believe it or not, when I get the chance, I’ll drag you into Tentacle Space and let Squeaky and his little friends give you thorough “training”!’
…
Tens of thousands of comments were omitted below, but the gist was clear: virtually every magical girl in the country had seen this post.
Scrolling to the very top of the post, Bai Zhiqiu found the author’s name: Peony.
Although the avatar depicted a red-haired young girl in gorgeous attire, the face, bearing an 80% resemblance to Yan Qingzhu, unequivocally revealed that this was Yan Qingzhu’s personal account!
‘Yan Qingzhu! What a move! Just you wait for me!’
Bai Zhiqiu continued scrolling through the comments, all the while silently cursing Yan Qingzhu in his heart.
With each new comment he read, a few more colorful epithets were added to his mental tirade.
Most bizarre of all, as the post went viral, a torrent of fan-made content flooded in!
Such as:
“The Captured Witch—Higanbana”
“The Untold Story of Miss Higanbana and Miss Peony”
“On the Methods of Punishing Female Brats—Higanbana Edition”
“Miss Witch Will Never Yield to a Magical Girl”
…
And so on, like the stars in the sky.
Seeing these fan creations, Bai Zhiqiu’s already shattered dignity splintered even further.
The fearsome reputation he had painstakingly built over three years in Jiangnan Province had been utterly destroyed in a single day!
“Little Zhiqiu, dinner’s ready! Huh? What did you see? Why that expression?”
Qian Moyu placed a bowl of Yangchun noodles in front of Bai Zhiqiu, cautiously observing him.
At this moment, Bai Zhiqiu’s eyes seemed veiled in a dusky gray, and even his usually lively ahoge lay flat, devoid of its former spirited bounce.
“Ah? Nothing, nothing! I’m just a little tired! Absolutely nothing is wrong!”
Hearing his master’s words, Bai Zhiqiu quickly waved his hands, pretending to be fine, but the subtle movement of his right hand, attempting to hide the phone, betrayed his current nervousness.
“Is that so? Truly nothing? Little Zhiqiu, don’t lie to me!” Qian Moyu narrowed her eyes. “If nothing’s wrong, then why are you hiding your phone?”
“Ah~ I… I…” Bai Zhiqiu stammered, at a loss for how to explain himself.
At the same time, his fidgeting feet exposed his extreme unease.
‘Something’s fishy!’
“Forget it! Eat first! Rest after you’ve eaten; dawn will break soon.”
With that, Qian Moyu left the living room and returned to her own bedroom.
“Phew! That scared me!”
Seeing Qian Moyu leave, Bai Zhiqiu hastily deleted his browsing history, leaving no trace.
‘I absolutely cannot let Master see any of this!’
On the other side.
Qian Moyu returned to her bedroom, opened her computer, and synchronized her phone’s browsing history.
Upon seeing her disciple’s humiliating photos, Qian Moyu was filled with deep indignation.
She right-clicked on the photos, intending to delete them permanently!
‘Oops! I accidentally clicked ‘Save’ instead…’
‘Darn it! Well, as your master, I suppose I’ll just have to critically examine them…’