Transform into a magical girl after getting off work

"Huh? Emerald Sparrow thinks highly of me?"

As expected, Lin Xiaolu's attention was quickly diverted by these words, and she asked curiously, "What did she say about me?"

"Hardworking, serious, full of potential..."

Lin Yun briefly summarized some of Lin Xiaolu's strengths while forcefully peeling the shell off an egg in his hand, "Anyway, she sees you as very outstanding."

"Eh... really?" Lin Xiaolu slightly lowered her head and sipped her milk.

Although she tried to maintain a calm demeanor, her feet dangled and kicked playfully under the table, clearly betraying her inner excitement.

Her mind was captivated by these words, naturally unaware of the complex thoughts harbored by her father.

"It's not just because I'm relieved, but also because I have some matters to attend to in two months."

Seeing that Lin Xiaolu's attention had been diverted and she probably wasn't in the mood to ponder, Lin Yun added, "I might need to go on a long business trip and won't be able to stay in Fangting City, so it's good for you to move in with your Magical Girl teammates."

"How long will you be gone?" Lin Xiaolu blinked as she held her cup.

"It could be several months." Lin Yun was vague, "I was planning to ask Auntie Hong to take care of you, but it seems that's not necessary now."

"I don't want that woman to take care of me." Lin Xiaolu's eyes drooped slightly, "And although it doesn't bother me, you seem to be getting a bit too close to her."

"It's nothing but business, what are you imagining at such a young age?"

Lin Yun sighed, a bit helpless, "And don't call her 'that woman' in her presence, it's a bit rude."

"All right—"

With Lin Yun's permission, Lin Xiaolu conveyed the news that she would be staying over at the secret base and would live there for several months to the team.

All the matters concerning the secret base were thus settled.

With the Magical Girls showing such willingness, the Abnormal Strategy Bureau naturally agreed immediately. Almost right after Emerald Sparrow proposed the idea to Hong Siyu, the specifics of the location had already taken shape.

It wasn't just about the secret base's location, Lin Yun left all the communication with the welfare institution to the Abnormal Strategy Bureau. Neither his real identity nor that of Emerald Sparrow were convenient for dealing with these matters.

The progress went more smoothly than expected.

After negotiating with Director Liu Wenqin, in the end, under the pretense of "special talent training," with the endorsement of the Abnormal Strategy Bureau and the personal request from Bai Jingxuan, the welfare institution readily agreed to the request for her temporary move.

This meant that once the secret base was established, Bai Jingxuan could nominally live in the dormitory overseen by the Abnormal Strategy Bureau, but actually reside in the Magical Girl team's secret base.

Bai Jingxuan seemed very happy about this.

Although she usually did not take the initiative to express her preferences, Emerald Sparrow could sense that she was quite looking forward to "living with the Magical Girl team," and even the intensity of her training had increased significantly.

In the midst of this positive trend, a few more days of summer passed in such a rhythm.

Despite having mostly finished their summer homework, Xia Liang and Lin Xiaolu still faced baseline tests at the start of school, so they had to continue their diligent studies.

Emerald Sparrow used her spare time to review a lot of middle school coursework and was able to guide the two girls in all subjects. She even obtained some question banks from Lin Xiaolu's school, selecting and recompiling them herself, to give them periodic tests.

Teaching, practicing, and reviewing errors, this was the three-pronged approach of exam-oriented education. This well-established method from many teachers' experience, regardless of other advantages or disadvantages, certainly had outstanding effects when used for tutoring.

After a summer of hard work, Lin Xiaolu had managed to shore up her weak points, raising her scores in physics and mathematics, her weakest subjects, to over 70 points, and occasionally even hitting 80.

Xia Liang, as ever the prodigy, fully displayed her solid foundation as "someone else's child." Starting from single-digit scores, while also managing the devilish holiday training, she raised almost all subjects above the passing line.

Such intense tutoring naturally came with its cost, as Emerald Sparrow often had to stay up late to mark their papers and prepare more polished presentations. To stay alert, she even had to maintain her transformed state to prevent herself from dozing off due to tiredness.

In the quiet study room late at night, a small figure could often be seen working diligently under the lamp's glow.

They had all put in extraordinary efforts, and now their results seemed natural.

Of course, even though they had made great and arguably dramatic progress, such achievements at the relatively simple middle school level didn't count for much. If the two girls wanted to become "excellent students" in the conventional sense, they still had a long way to go.

With less than a week left before school started, another night found Lin Xiaolu and Xia Liang hunched over their desks, writing on test papers prepared by Emerald Sparrow, while she sat nearby flipping through a textbook.

In this tranquility, a cellphone vibration suddenly broke the silence.

Lin Xiaolu remained unaffected, remembering the ringtone of her own phone; Xia Liang also didn't look up, likely guessing whose call it was.

Emerald Sparrow was momentarily taken aback and then set down her book to reach into the pocket of her dress. Just as her hand was about to touch the fabric, it suddenly stopped.