She was being hunted down, so she became a magical girl.

"There's not much to say about that mission. He and I were both employed by the same employer, and we had some collaborations."

Passing a bullet from the left hand to the right hand can also be considered cooperation.

"After that, I became acquainted with your brother, and I overheard about his sister named Jiang Chenglian by chance."

"After I learned your name from Cliff—the information broker you contacted—I guessed that you were his sister."

"But I don't know his current location. Mercenaries are always wary of everyone, and so were he and I."

"In short, that's the situation. I have some clues about your brother's current location. If you're willing to stay, I can help you find him."

As Xu Ting abruptly ended the conversation, Jiang Chenglian pouted in disappointment.

"Can't you say more? For example, when you were fighting side by side back then, did you ever—"

"There's nothing there."

Xu Ting said with a headache.

She finally experienced firsthand that it takes thousands of lies to maintain a lie.

Lying that she "knows Xu Ting" is a choice with both advantages and disadvantages.

This would effectively prevent Jiang Chenglian from leaving. Judging from her curious expression, their deal was definitely going to be finalized.

There are advantages, but what about the disadvantages?

Jiang Chenglian will definitely verify the truthfulness of Xu Ting's words repeatedly. Is Xu Ting going to make up a bunch of little stories to fool her?

She is not Scheherazade, who can weave stories from One Thousand and One Nights.

When she could no longer come up with anything to say, Xu Ting had no choice but to tell the truth.

I hope Jiang Cheng won't sever his sibling relationship with her in a fit of anger...

With these concerns in mind, Xu Ting and an excited Jiang Chenglian discussed the cooperation details.

Jiang Chenglian still refused to put a price tag on the power of magical girls, insisting on paying for it with money or other work.

So Xu Ting arranged a job for her—

Settle accounts.

The financial operations of the Gift-Giving Cult are very complicated, and Luo Ruowei is basically in charge of them all.

Xu Ting took a portion of the bill and gave it to Jiang Cheng to practice calculations, which would reduce Luo Ruowei's workload.

And there is another benefit to doing this.

That is to reduce Jiang Chenglian's available time.

Jiang Chenglian disliked math from a young age and often asked Xu Ting to do the arithmetic problems her older sister assigned her.

Even if she is almost eighteen years old, it is impossible for her genes to mutate into a math genius.

If you throw these bills at her, she'll be scratching her head in frustration, spending a lot of time and energy on work, leaving her no time to go out and wander around, thus reducing the chances of her encountering gangsters or being suddenly killed by the Tianyi Group.

If she gets tired and wants to quit the job, Xu Ting will use the excuse, "Don't you want to find your brother?" to morally blackmail her and force her to continue.

In that case, everything will be fine.

By binding people to their workplaces with survival guarantees and moral norms, and then throwing them extremely heavy workloads, people lose the energy to go out and cause trouble.

This move by the giant corporation was indeed effective.

After reaching an agreement, Xu Ting finally breathed a sigh of relief.

A feeling of exhaustion washed over me like a tidal wave.

She was just about to say goodbye to Jiang Chenglian when she heard his cute yet annoying voice:

"By the way, Miss Lost in Color, what is your innate magic?"

"My innate magic is called [Vertical and Horizontal], which can—"

"Wait, wait, wait," Xu Ting quickly interrupted Jiang Chenglian.

"A magical girl's special magic is a very important secret and cannot be easily told to others. What you are doing is dangerous."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Cheng pursed his lips and said with some dissatisfaction:

"Is Miss Fainted considered someone else?"

Before Xu Ting could answer, she rolled her eyes again and asked, "Could it be that Miss Fainted is actually an employee of Tianyi Group?"

"No." Xu Ting shook his head with a wry smile. "You do know that Tianyi Group is no good."

"Of course!" Jiang Chenglian said indignantly. "The Tianyi Group stole the magical girl's power and used it for evil deeds. They're absolute villains!"

"Although I can't beat them, even if I encounter them, I will never give the people from Tianyi Group a friendly look."

Wait, something doesn't seem right.

Xu Ting first affirmed Jiang Chenglian's admirable quality of hating evil as if it were his enemy, and then tentatively asked:

"How did you find out that the Tianyi Group stole the magical girl's power?"

Jiang Chenglian had never heard of the Epitaph Incident, and the claim that "Tianyi Group stole the magical girl's power" originated from the Epitaph Incident.

Who relayed this statement to Jiang Chenglian?

Jiang Chenglian subconsciously replied, "It's a blonde older sister..."

He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, as if realizing that what he had just said was something he shouldn't have said.

She quickly and abruptly changed the subject:

"Miss Faded Beauty, are you unaware that the Heavenly Will Group stole the magical girl's power?"

The blonde sister... Xu Ting doesn't recall such a person; she's someone worth noting.

Jiang Chenglian is unwilling to share this information with her, which clearly shows that he doesn't trust her enough.

Looks like I'll have to put some effort into improving my relationship with them.

Thinking of this, Xu Ting replied:

"I know, you can search online for epitaph incidents, there are records of this in there."

"But remember not to post anything online. Tianyi Group might try to find you by following the trail, so be very careful."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Chenglian nodded repeatedly, like a chicken pecking at rice.

This kind of concern should improve one's favorability, right?

Xu Ting wasn't sure; she had no interest in games where you could fall in love in the virtual world, and she had no experience in that area.

"Miss Jiang, it's late now, I have to leave. You should get some rest."

"If you need anything tomorrow, feel free to contact me and I'll come find you right away."

Xu Ting was so sleepy he couldn't stay awake any longer.

"Okay, have a safe trip."

Jiang Chenglian habitually waved goodbye to Xu Ting, and said without any suspicion:

"I know your code name, but you don't know mine. That's not fair."

"My magical girl code name is Yunyi. You can call me Yunyi from now on. Calling me Miss Jiang is too formal."

Xu Ting stopped and turned around to say:

"The Color Loser is just my code name as a mercenary, not my magical girl code name."

"I haven't decided on a code name for my magical girl yet."

"Also, my innate magic is called [Eye of Fear]."

After saying that, she left the safe house.

Half a minute later, she stood in front of the abandoned water tower, looked around at the empty surroundings, and said:

"Crow, isn't my motorcycle still parked at Airport Five?"

"No," said the crow.

"No way, I remember it very clearly, it was parked in the garage at Airport No. 5," Xu Ting replied.

The crow shook its head:

"What I mean is, you don't have a motorcycle."

"You have not paid your parking fees for more than 24 hours. According to the regulations for the underground parking garage of Airport No. 5, it has been confiscated by Airport No. 5."

...I forgot about that too.

Never mind, motorcycles aren't worth much anyway.

The biggest problem now is...

"I'm in the middle of nowhere, and I have no transportation. How am I supposed to get back?"

It's only a ten-minute walk from here to Airport No. 5, but Airport No. 5 is quite a drive from Qi Li's small apartment.

The crow offered a suggestion: "Traffic doesn't run at night, so you can jog back."

"By the time you run until dawn, you should be home."