Chapter Twenty-Six: Transformation!

To understand Kira’s reasoning, one must first acknowledge a fundamental premise: Kira is a kind-hearted girl who has lost her memory and lacks common sense. When it comes to matters of romance, her understanding is shallow at best. Most of what she knows comes from conversations with Gongsun Ce and others.

Miss Kira’s trustworthy friends had put it this way:

—At the very least, this time, they must end up married!
—Print out a marriage registration form, treat it like a street-side survey, and invite them both to sign it.

Both Gongsun Ce and Qin Qianbai are intensely focused on marriage. Therefore, if romance is merely a prelude to marriage, then solving the issue of romance naturally resolves the issue of marriage as well.

But, thinking further—what is marriage a prelude to?

The answer is obvious: After marriage comes having children.

From this perspective, if one wishes to convey their feelings without an explicit confession, the logical approach is to start from the perspective of procreation. Requesting the other to help choose a crib is an implicit declaration of “I wish to have children with you,” which, in essence, is the most fervent confession imaginable! Even someone as timid as Shiyu Lianyi could express his feelings through such an action.

Full of confidence, Kira parked her car at the entrance of the Apex Serenity Tower.

Shiyu Lianyi’s inner voice sounded like a mix of retching, moaning, and screaming, and then faded away, leaving only silence.

Kira, startled, covered her mouth.

“How could this be? Did something go wrong? Was it an accident?”

“Ahhhhhhh—!”

Just then, a familiar scream echoed nearby. A brown electric scooter with a wooden shell sped toward the building, deftly handled by a long-haired rider, who spun the front wheel and parked right next to her!

Even after the vehicle stopped, the boy in the newsboy cap on the back seat kept shrieking.

“Ahhhhhhh—!”

Kira recognized him as the original owner of the scooter. She hurried over, pushing her own vehicle, and called out, “Oh, you got here so fast! Thanks for your scooter—I didn’t break it.”

Miles, trembling, took back his electric scooter. The long-haired rider asked, “Is this your scooter?”

“Yes... it’s mine... it’s not broken...”

The poor child looked on the verge of tears.

“Riding is fun,” said the man in blue, smiling. “Help me load some songs on it later.”

“Okay... thank you... I’ll do that... huh? What did you say?”

The helpful man ignored the boy’s question, his attention shifting to a new target.

Mingke scrutinized the girl with pink hair, until she couldn’t help but speak first. “Hello? I’m Kira. I think I saw you the day before yesterday.”

The man in blue asked, “Were you the one standing in front of the clothing store?”

“Yes, that was me. Wait—” Kira jumped up in excitement, “You could see me then?”

He shook his head.

“No, I couldn’t. What were you doing that day?”

Kira’s spirits sank.

“Um... I was singing, ‘Silent Snowy Night.’”

“Singing…”

Perhaps understanding something, the man broke into a happy smile.

“Ah, I get it.”

But he quickly frowned.

“…No, I don’t get it.”

Mingke circled Kira, muttering in frustration.

“Strange.”

He leaned in, staring intently into Kira’s eyes. His gaze was more like one appraising an object than a person, sending chills down her spine.

Miles, finally recovering from his terror, summoned the last scraps of his sense of justice.

“Sir...? Isn’t this a bit inappropriate...?”

“Hm! Maybe. I still need to look further.”

For some reason, Mingke smiled again.

He took out a black portable music player, pressed it into Miles’s hand, and instructed, “This is for listening to music. I found your scooter—now you load some good songs onto it for me.”

With that, the twin-blade swordsman turned his back and strolled away.

Kira and Miles exchanged bewildered glances.

“Who is he?”

“I don’t know... Sir? Sir?!”

The newsboy cap boy turned to chase after the strange man, only to find that he had vanished without a trace.

“What just happened?”

Hoping for answers from the girl who’d borrowed his scooter, Miles was instead met with a new, baffling question.

“Shiyu Lianyi is in a huge crisis—I have to hurry and help him! Do you have a mascot costume? Or even just a headpiece?”

Miles emptied his pockets, showing only his wallet and phone.

He wailed, “Miss! This is all I’ve got—I really don’t have what you need! Please, let me go!”

“What should I do? I can’t go directly... The movie tickets are still with Gongsun Ce and the others... Oh, heavens!”

The pink-haired young woman’s panic matched his own; to bystanders, they seemed to be competing in a contest of helplessness.

“Let me think, let me think, I need to improvise... There must be a way...!”

Suddenly, Kira’s eyes lit up as if she’d thought of something.

She tapped her forehead with a finger and softly called, “Transform!” under the confused gaze of the middle schooler.

Poof! With a cute cartoon sound and starburst effects, a cloud of pink smoke erupted around the twin-tailed girl!

The pink smoke completely obscured Miles’s vision; Kira was nowhere to be seen. The newsboy cap boy could not comprehend what had happened—perhaps it was her superpower? But a second later, what he saw made him abandon that theory entirely.

The pink smoke cleared, and the girl herself was gone.

Boing, boing—the sound of elastic material bouncing off the pavement. Emerging from the smoke was a huge plush bear, nearly as tall as the girl herself, with fluffy fur.

The giant bear wore two little cat hair clips and lifted its fuzzy paw to ask, “Did I transform?”

Miles almost dislocated his jaw.

“Transformed into a bear—?!”

“Great, it worked! May I borrow this for a moment? I’ll return it right away after I’m done.”

The middle schooler nodded unconsciously. The bear took his—or rather, the strange man’s—music player, and called out as before.

“Transform!”

Poof!

When the pink smoke dispersed, the music player had turned into two connected movie tickets.

With his mouth agape, Miles’ jaw actually did dislocate this time.

“Hang in there, Shiyu Lianyi! I’m coming to help!”

Boing, boing—the giant plush bear hopped into the building.

It took Miles over a minute to regain basic composure. He looked at his empty hands, then at the entrance to the tower.

“My music player... No, my jaw... No!!! Ahhhhhhh!!”

Clutching his jaw, the newsboy cap boy bolted after her into the building.

Almost at the same moment, the black sedan that had escaped the traffic jam finally arrived at the tower’s entrance. The passengers in black spotted the two electric scooters at a glance.

“They’re here! After them!”

The trio in black rushed into the building.

A few minutes later, two university students from the Imperial Academy landed on the top floor of Apex Serenity Tower.

Gongsun Ce asked anxiously, “Shiyu? Miss Kira? What’s going on right now?”

•

What exactly happened inside this tower?

To answer, we must rewind the minute hand slightly, back to when Kira arrived at the tower’s entrance—that is, when Shiyu Lianyi pointed to the crib.

Gongsun occasionally complained that Qin Qianbai’s tone sometimes sent chills down his spine; it felt, despite the warmth of spring, as if he’d suddenly been thrust into winter.

Shiyu Lianyi had always laughed off his friend’s exaggerations, but today, he finally experienced it firsthand.

It was all true.

“So, tell me—why did you ask me to help choose a crib?”

The sensation was akin to being yanked from a cozy room into the icy outdoors in midwinter. When someone so familiar spoke in that tone, the coldness was doubled by the contrast.

Even when he first met her, Kaldacia had never spoken like this. She had always been gentle, cheerful, considerate, lively, and kind. It was her warmth that had drawn him to her in the first place.

Shiyu Lianyi thought dully that this must be karmic retribution. Life is always like this—you receive as much as you give. Surely, his own coldness at the start had led to this helpless situation three and a half years later.

“How strange, Lianyi. Usually, only those with relevant experience would know about this. Do I look like the type of girl who’s cared for infants?”

—He’d stepped right onto a minefield.

She looks like a delinquent, probably a woman with a chaotic private life, probably bad at her studies, maybe always hanging out with bad crowds—who knows what she does in her spare time… What Kaldacia Spencer despised most were those prejudiced judgments!

It was just like being accosted by clueless thugs, or being harassed by upperclassmen under the guise of club activities, or being gossiped about by girls when she first entered university. In an instant, less than a second, Kaldacia would explode!

He had one more chance.

Now, in this desperate moment, a single sentence could turn the tide—!

“I remember Kaldacia has younger siblings, so I thought you might have some experience from caring for them.”

Like a drowning victim reaching for a lifeline, Shiyu Lianyi threw out his last reason.

“Because Kaldacia is a gentle girl who loves to take care of others!”

There was no doubt—the words were heartfelt, sincere.

“You…”

The blonde girl seemed caught off guard by the sudden statement.

“I see. Sorry~” She rubbed her head, embarrassed. “My parents bought all the baby supplies back then, so I’m afraid I can’t help you…”

Shiyu Lianyi breathed a sigh of relief.

Success—she’d stepped back from the brink!

He turned naturally, calling out to his friend.

“No, it was my own oversight. In that case, shall we leave here first?”

Now, he only needed to quickly find an excuse to exit the furniture store, and this episode would be safely behind them!

“—Wait a moment, Lianyi.”

Behind him, the blonde girl pressed down her hat.

“You haven’t told me why you want to buy this.”

…He’d celebrated too soon.

He couldn’t see her expression, which only heightened the invisible pressure.

The original question remained unanswered; he still needed a reasonable explanation for wanting to buy a crib!

Quick, think, Shiyu Lianyi, one last hurdle…!

“It’s the material.”

He had it—a reason that would dispel Kaldacia’s doubts!

Doing his best to sound calm, the young man in the suit said, “Infants are delicate, so cribs are usually made of healthy materials beneficial to the body. I want to select the ideal material here and custom-make a bed from it.”

It was a flimsy excuse. Would she believe it?

“Oh, I see~”

Her voice seemed to return to its usual tone, and Shiyu Lianyi felt as if a weight had been lifted.

At last—a success…!

A familiar sensation touched his shoulder; Kaldacia affectionately leaned close, whispering in his ear.

“I’ll accept that explanation for now, Lianyi.”

His suit lining was instantly soaked in cold sweat.

“—!”

The blonde girl smiled at him as she always did.

“So, Lianyi? Where shall we go next?”

Shiyu Lianyi realized, with icy clarity, the truth of his situation.

The carefully planned date had, at this moment, become nothing more than a scrap of paper.

And to make matters worse—

His clubmates, who worked so hard for his romance, had no idea what had transpired!