Magical Girl Fan Bingbing

Leng Qiaoqiao lives in an old residential area in the south of the city. Most of the buildings here were built before the monster invasion. The walls are covered with cracks and moss, half of the streetlights are broken, and the rest are barely lit.

Jiang Ran parked the car at the entrance of the alley and walked in.

The address on the file pointed to a two-story self-built house, with several empty express delivery boxes piled up at the door and a faint light shining from the second-floor window.

Jiang Ran stood in front of the door and raised her hand to knock.

The room was quiet for a few seconds, then the sound of slippers stepping on the floor came from afar and grew closer.

The door opened a crack, revealing half a wary face and an amber eye.

Leng Qiaoqiao was wearing a faded sweatshirt, her golden hair casually tied back. Compared to the figure who climbed out of the window a few days ago, she now looked like an ordinary girl.

When she saw who was standing outside the door, her amber eyes widened suddenly, and then the door narrowed rapidly, almost closing completely.

Jiang Ran's foot got stuck in the door crack a step ahead of time.

"Leng Qiaoqiao, it's me."

"...I knew it was you." Leng Qiaoqiao's voice came from under the door, sounding like she was gritting her teeth. "That's why I closed the door."

"I'm not here to arrest you."

Leng Qiaoqiao didn't speak, and the door didn't narrow any further, but it also didn't open.

Jiang Ran looked at the crack in the door and said calmly, "If I wanted to report you, I could have told the police a few days ago at the scene."

There was silence for a long time coming from behind the door.

Then the door opened.

Leng Qiaoqiao stood at the doorway, her arms crossed, her expression full of wariness and confusion. She stepped aside, making way for just one person to pass through.

"Come in."

When Jiang Ran entered the room, her first impression was that it was deserted.

The living room was small and sparsely furnished: a sofa, a coffee table, and an old television. There were no decorations on the walls. The kitchen stove, like in Chu Ying's house, was covered in dust, and a few takeout coupons were stuck on the refrigerator. These were probably the most homely things in the house.

Leng Qiaoqiao did not invite him to sit down, and the two remained facing each other across the coffee table.

"How did you find me?" Leng Qiaoqiao walked to the window, glancing out every now and then, afraid that she might see a few police cars flashing red and blue lights.

"There's no one outside, just me." Jiang Ran reassured her, "Your records are still at the school. This is your home, right?"

As she spoke, Jiang Ran strolled around the house as if nothing had happened. "To be honest, I had a very good impression of you back then. You were a hard-working and good student. Even if you didn't become a magical girl, you shouldn't have gotten involved with magic elements."

Leng Qiaoqiao's pupils shrank sharply. "Teacher Jiang, I don't know what you're talking about."

Jiang Ran pulled the sparkly hair accessory out of her pocket: "An Avenger, right? Do you like being a superhero, or do you want to take revenge on someone?"

Leng Qiaoqiao's breathing became erratic instantly, and the expression on her face betrayed her inner turmoil.

"Teacher Jiang, I don't know why you've come to see me," Leng Qiaoqiao said coldly. "But let me make this clear: if you're here to persuade me to turn myself in, then you can leave."

"I'm not here to persuade you to turn yourself in. After all, I'm just a physical education teacher, not a psychology committee member."

Jiang Ran walked up to Leng Qiaoqiao. The difference in size made Leng Qiaoqiao subconsciously take a half step back. "The Municipal Public Security Bureau raided your hideout. The money, equipment, and people are all gone. Now you can only hide here and lay low."

Leng Qiaoqiao remained silent. Jiang Ran had indeed hit the nail on the head. That warehouse was all her property. The incident happened so suddenly that she didn't even have time to react, which is why she was now so poor that she could only afford to eat cheap meals every day.

She learned about the current situation through various channels, and now the question is where she will get her living expenses.

After a moment of silence, Jiang Ran continued, "But I was thinking... perhaps we could collaborate?"

He had the technology, and Leng Qiaoqiao had the connections; the two could hit it off immediately.

Leng Qiaoqiao's gaze shifted to Jiang Ran's face, her eyes showing confusion, then disbelief, and finally she couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"You? Teacher Jiang?" Leng Qiaoqiao seemed to have heard a funny joke.

Although Jiang Ran is a teacher in the magical girl special class, he teaches pure physical skills and does not involve any magical skills.

Now they come to her, a well-known figure in the industry, and say, "Let's collaborate?"

But Jiang Ran's expression didn't seem like a joke: "You only have two choices now, one is to cooperate with me, and the other..."

"You're still young, you probably don't want to experience the iron fist of the police department, do you?"

……

Leng Qiaoqiao was persuaded by Jiang Ran's superb negotiation skills.

Despite being persuaded, Leng Qiaoqiao still didn't quite trust Jiang Ran when it came to the specifics of how to proceed. In her eyes, Jiang Ran was an amateur.

"What do you plan to do, Teacher Jiang?" Leng Qiaoqiao asked.

Jiang Ran's plan was simple: everyone would divide the work and do what they were good at.

"Wait a minute," Leng Qiaoqiao interrupted him. "The first question is, where do you plan to start construction?"

Jiang Ran looked around: "Your home? It's quite quiet, and there are no neighbors nearby."

"Absolutely not!"

Leng Qiaoqiao flatly refused. The remains of the monster rotted very quickly, and the smell could be detected two streets away. It would require a series of professional freezing and filtration equipment.

"Shall we rent another warehouse?"

"The Municipal Public Security Bureau is currently conducting a crackdown, and those places are key targets for surveillance. If you want to be arrested by your own students, then go ahead."

Jiang Ran was taken aback; he really hadn't expected there to be so many intricacies involved in making magic essence.

In the past, he only cared about killing, and the aftermath was handled by specialists. He really didn't know much about this aspect.

Seeing that Jiang Ran was truly a greenhorn, Leng Qiaoqiao sighed and came up with a solution: "We can buy a motorhome. It has a freezer, so we don't need to install any filtration equipment. We can just drive it to the suburbs..."

"Then I'll open a craft workshop and become a magic fairy."

Moreover, the bigger the waves, the more expensive the fish.

"Let's do it that way then." Jiang Ran thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

"But there's another problem. I'm out of money right now." Leng Qiaoqiao stretched out a small, delicate white hand. "Buying monster corpses costs money, and buying a motorhome costs money too. Teacher Jiang, you'll have to pay for it."