Chapter 228

Page Eighty-Three The Gift from Mysterious Girl A

“Darling, try this salted crispy chicken~”

Lǐn Huā picked up a piece of fried chicken and stuffed it into my mouth.

“Cha…Chairman, dear, also try my**!”

Before I could swallow that bite, the stubborn idiot also picked up a similar piece of chicken and shoved it towards me. She was between me and Zǐ Jiě, and her chopsticks were unstable, poking repeatedly into my nostrils… This was really uncomfortable.

Xiao Qínglán, displeased with this meaningless competition, snorted, “Hey! How do you two act like you made this dish yourselves? Just remember, this is your future grandma…”

She glanced at Mom and then corrected herself, “…No, it’s your future grandpa who cooked it!”

Mom had been in high spirits today and went all out. She heated up a wok of oil and not only made this plate of salted crispy chicken but also a complexly prepared pine nut perch. The sweet and sour eggplant fish meat was something anyone would enjoy.

Xiǎo Lěi licked her chopsticks and flattered, “But Xiao Wei’s cooking skills are getting better and better!”

“This is thanks to Běihǎi’s teachings. I wasn’t very good at cooking a few months ago.”

Mom mentioned someone absent with a red face, and Xiao Qínglán’s expression flashed with obvious displeasure, but she quickly controlled her emotions.

She even laughed, “Big Brother Běihǎi is really impressive. I should learn from him someday.”

But there was no sincerity in these words at all.

“Ding-dong~”

The doorbell rang, and Zǐ Jiě, who had been eating silently, looked up.

“It’s probably Xiao Li and the others. I’ll go open the door.”

Cherry Sauce also got up and followed Zǐ Jiě to the entrance hall.

“Hello, this package is for Miss Cháng Kǎi! Could you please sign for it?”

A strange female voice came from outside, sounding like a delivery person. However, I hadn’t bought anything recently, so I was curious.

The delivery person asked again, “It’s best if the recipient signs in person. Is Miss Cháng Kǎi here?”

“Oh, I’m here—Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!”

Because I stood up too hastily, my knee hit the corner of Lǐn Huā’s chair.

“Kǎi-Chan, be careful.”

Although I wanted to correct the delivery person’s use of “Miss,” the image of a cross-dressing big boss seemed even harder to accept…

“Miss” it is, I chose to stay silent.

This “Miss” wore a unique cap with cat ears… No, they were animal ears-shaped decorations. She looked young, but her short black hair had gray streaks, possibly due to overwork like Xúlián Xuézhǎng.

“Does it sound like there are many people inside? I might have interrupted your meal!”

“No, it’s fine…”

However, her most noticeable feature wasn’t her appearance but the strong scent of perfume on her.

Perhaps my resistance was too obvious, as the delivery person apologized, “I’m sorry, I have severe body odor, and I run around a lot, even sweating in winter. So, I have to cover it up this way…”

There must be some hidden reason.

“Do we really need to know all this?”

“You don’t have to go into detail. Sign here… Wait, what?!”

I signed the delivery slip, and the sender’s name was clearly “Mysterious Girl A.” Looking at the address, it was blank. It was indeed something sent by our mother.

“Where was this sent from?” I asked.

The delivery person put the slip back into her waist pouch and explained, “This package was dropped off directly at the station. There was no one there, and no address was left. Since it was nearby, they delivered it to you.”

“Do you deliver packages like this too?”

The delivery person smiled, “In principle, we don’t, but the sender paid a large postage…”

“What kind of postage? Gold fragments or coins?” Cherry Sauce raised an eyebrow.

“It was a gold coin. The station master said it’s real… Knowing this, you must know who the sender is, right?”

I nodded and replied, “Not just know, I’ve been dreaming of finding her…”

“Hmm, then I can’t help. I haven’t seen the sender’s face, but at least I didn’t make a mistake. I’ll leave this here. I have more deliveries to make, so goodbye!”

Afraid of being questioned further, the delivery person with the animal ear hat waved and left, placing the package on the shoe cabinet by the door.

Zǐ Jiě narrowed her eyes.

“This delivery person seems suspicious. I suggest you follow her and see what’s going on. Maybe you can catch a clue.”

Cherry Sauce snapped her fingers, and a black substance detached from my clothes, quickly slipping through the door crack…

But it returned soon after.

“What happened? Couldn’t you catch up with the delivery person’s little electric scooter?” I asked.

Cherry Sauce helplessly spread her hands.

“…There’s no little electric scooter. There isn’t a single person on the road.”

“So fast? She just left the courtyard?”

“Yeah, she disappeared after turning a corner. It must be a teleportation spell.”

Only then did I realize, and I was stunned. “That delivery person is… Mysterious Girl A herself? I didn’t recognize her at all. Could she already be able to change her appearance at will?”

Instant teleportation is already beyond the norm, and if she can also change her appearance, then the “secret major search operation” entrusted to Zǐ Jiě wouldn’t work. After all, it’s impossible to track someone who can change their face anytime.

—”Don’t panic. We can’t confirm that was our mother. After all, Qianxia’s body doesn’t have body odor.”—

…Then who was that delivery person?

Zǐ Jiě asked, “Teleportation spells consume a lot of magical energy. She can’t be a deity, right? Where did she get so much magical energy?”

Myself and Cherry Sauce also discussed this but couldn’t reach a conclusion.

“This is tricky… Let’s first see what she sent.”

Hearing the discussion, Xiǎo Lěi and Lǐn Huā also peeked curiously from the living room.

I picked up the palm-sized package and weighed it.

It was light and made a clear clinking sound when shaken, indicating the contents might be broken.

Cherry Sauce conjured a pair of scissors and cut along the seal line, revealing… three chains.

Very simple designs, just fine rings linked together. Whether they were silver or stainless steel, since these were small gadgets made by Mysterious Girl A, they must have odd spells attached.

To understand their effects, I handed the chains to Cherry Sauce.

“What’s this? Can you analyze it?”

Cherry Sauce didn’t take them but instead shook out the empty package, and a small folded paper slipped out.

“Analyze what? Isn’t there an instruction manual?”

“What does it say?” I asked with a shrug.

“Let me see… Hmm…”

Cherry Sauce unfolded the paper and read aloud, “‘Disaster relief, enlightenment, fortune enhancement, calming the spirit, exorcism, soul anchoring, beware of harem fires’… Hmm, that’s all.”

Zǐ Jiě raised an eyebrow.

“This is called an instruction manual?”

The writing style was like a charm from a temple, cryptic and obscure, but it didn’t explain its purpose.

“No, at least one sentence is clear. ‘Beware of harem fires.’ Considering the number of bracelets, we can confirm these are for your three girlfriends… Zǐ, yours.”

So they are bracelets?

Cherry Sauce handed one bracelet to Zǐ Jiě, while Lǐn Huā and Xiǎo Lěi scrambled to grab theirs.

“They’re all the same, no need to fight. After putting them on, tell us how they feel.”

After all three put on the bracelets, nothing happened except for them looking at each other.

“Did you feel anything?”

Xiǎo Lěi shook her head honestly.

“No, nothing. Perhaps it’s just decoration?”

“Maybe it needs magical energy to activate… I’ll try.”

Zǐ Jiě began to channel magical energy into the bracelet, and the three chains lit up dimly but quickly faded.

Zǐ Jiě said, “These three bracelets are connected. When one gets magical energy, the other two activate simultaneously… Impressive, how does this work? I want to bring them to the research institute for analysis by Miss Kē Màn.”

The bracelets from our mother unexpectedly sparked Zǐ Jiě’s curiosity.

“Now that they’re activated, did you feel any effects?” I asked again.

Xiǎo Lěi closed her eyes and felt it, then shook her head.

“Nothing. Perhaps it’s just a literal talisman for luck and calmness. If it works, it’s quite impressive.”

Lǐn Huā agreed, “I agree with Lěi’s view. As long as luck improves and emotions stabilize, avoiding arguments, it maintains harmony in the harem.”

At first glance, it seemed reasonable, but given our mother’s mischievous nature, it couldn’t be a simple talisman. There must be something fishy.

“Ding-dong—”

Just as the suspected delivery person left, the doorbell rang again.

A 1.9-meter-tall red-haired gorilla walked in.

“Chairman… Oh, are you welcoming us like this?”

Seeing so many people at the door, he seemed to misunderstand something and scratched his head embarrassedly.

Xiǎo Lěi immediately kicked him.

“Don’t be so self-centered. Who’s waiting for you? A delivery person just came to drop off something.”

Lù Lí jumped out from Zhao Zhao’s shadow, her tan skin blending in, making her hard to notice at first.

She blinked and asked, “Sis, have you finished?”

“How did you know?”

Zǐ Jiě sighed and then put her arm around my shoulder like a brother.

“Yes, my relationship with Ling Meng is now the same as yours.”

Still very tactfully put.

“Even though Ling Meng is unreliable, I won’t break you apart!”

…Lù Lí seems to have some issues with me.

“You really hold grudges, don’t you?”

Zǐ Jiě rubbed her sister’s hair and asked, “Have you eaten?”

“We have,” Lù Lí said as she brought out a box from behind, “This is the gift you asked me to bring.”

The snacks from the Southern City, Dad’s favorite.

Zǐ Jiě took the beautifully packaged box.

“Thank you.”

Lù Lí chuckled, “Zhào Ge took me there. You should thank him too?”

Zǐ Jiě glanced at Zhao Zhao and gave a tiny “thank you.”

The honest, simple-minded Zhao Zhao wasn’t the type to hold grudges, and Zǐ Jiě was his sister-in-law. At this moment, he just scratched his head and laughed foolishly.

“Thanks, it’s nothing.”