Chapter 74: The True Anomaly
“Oh dear, today neither my brother nor Sister Xia Mo is coming home for dinner~”
Seeing the two messages that appeared almost consecutively on her phone, Luo Shuangxing’s eyes squinted like crescent moons.
Sitting next to her, Xiaomimi didn’t quite understand why Luo Shuangxing was smiling so eerily; wasn’t it just that one person was having dinner alone tonight?
“Mi Mi, don’t you think it’s quite a coincidence?” Realizing Xiaomimi couldn’t grasp her thoughts, Luo Shuangxing had no choice but to explain helplessly.
“Sister Xia Mo isn’t coming home because she has to keep an eye on things at the zoo, ready to act at any moment, and she mentioned in the message that Die’er is with her.”
After all, this was the Magic Department; Luo Shuangxing didn’t directly mention the name Dark Butterfly but used Die’er as a reference.
“Sister Xia Mo isn’t going home, Die’er isn’t going home, and just at this moment, my brother sent a message saying he has to work late and won’t be coming home tonight.”
You could say it’s a coincidence, maybe, but it’s hard to believe it’s just a coincidence.
Can a coincidence be that precise, sending out messages just seconds apart?
“If I originally had a 50 percent suspicion of my brother, just this message alone raises my suspicion by another 20 percent.” Luo Shuangxing waved her phone, revealing a sweet smile.
“I’ve heard that magical girls tend to attract each other, so now that I’m a magical girl and Sister Xia Mo is a magical girl, the person caught between us can’t be ordinary, right?”
After listening to Luo Shuangxing’s long-winded reasoning, Xiaomimi was still a bit confused, but she roughly understood what Luo Shuangxing meant.
In any case, the timing was too coincidental, which made Luo Shuangxing suspect that her brother was Dark Butterfly.
“Come on, Mi Mi, let’s have dinner first and then look for Sister Xia Mo and the others!”
Since Xia Mo had to stay up late at the zoo, Luo Shuangxing naturally had to accompany her senior.
She couldn’t let her senior be on the front lines working late while she was cozy in her warm bed, right?
Moreover, her brother said he wouldn’t be home tonight, so Luo Shuangxing could do whatever she wanted, as her brother wouldn’t be around anyway.
If Luo Shuangxing suddenly got a call from Luo Shuangyue in the middle of the night asking her why she wasn’t home, she could use that to confirm that Dark Butterfly and her brother were two different people, and she wouldn’t lose out either way.
…
“It’s already past closing time, and the visitors and staff at the zoo have evacuated; the Magic Department’s operation is about to begin.”
Holding a hamburger in her hand, Luo Shuangyue was eating while looking at the internal footage of the zoo on her phone.
She and Xia Mo were currently at a hamburger shop outside the zoo having dinner, and as for how they got the internal footage, that was thanks to Xia Mo, the informant of the Magic Department.
She directly sent the live stream link to Luo Shuangyue, allowing her to watch it at will.
The sky had already turned grey, and it wouldn’t be long before night fully fell. The members of the Magic Department were conducting a thorough search of the zoo, ensuring that no irrelevant individuals remained inside before proceeding with further actions.
“Which area do you think we should search first?” Xia Mo leaned over to look at Luo Shuangyue’s phone.
But as soon as she got a little closer, Luo Shuangyue seemed to sense some danger and immediately pulled back her head and hands, not giving Xia Mo a chance to come any closer.
“Don’t you have a phone? Just look at yours.” Luo Shuangyue didn’t know why she was being so sensitive; she used to enjoy getting an advantage over Xia Mo in front of Linglan, but now, the moment Xia Mo got close, her heart skipped a beat.
How strange.
Luo Shuangyue believed her intuition wouldn’t lead her wrong, so what could happen if Xia Mo got close to her that would be very bad for her?
Xia Mo also noticed the girl across from her intentionally dodging her, but she didn’t know if Dark Butterfly was avoiding her subconsciously or if she realized Xia Mo had some little schemes in her heart.
Both of them had secrets, and the atmosphere suddenly turned strange.
In the end, it was Xia Mo who broke the awkwardness, taking out her phone and opening the Magic Department’s live stream.
By the way, she tried to justify her earlier actions, “It’s more convenient to share one screen for communication, and I didn’t complain when you did something like that to me last time; now you’re the one who’s being picky about me…”
As she spoke, she threw a resentful glance at Dark Butterfly.
“How can it be the same?” Luo Shuangyue muttered softly; what was in the past was in the past, but now she felt it was very dangerous to be close to Xia Mo.
What if Xia Mo was secretly plotting something against her?
“How is it not the same… Hmm, the Magic Department seems to plan to search the reptile area first, did they really choose that place?” Xia Mo mumbled, then shifted the topic back on track.
This was the area she thought needed to be investigated first.
When the entire zoo felt off, the one place that still seemed normal was the most peculiar.
Why did strange things happen everywhere else, but not there? Could it be that there was some secret hidden there?
“It seems the Magic Department’s personnel are still somewhat sensible. By the way, there’s a very strange keeper in the reptile area; have you seen her?”
Luo Shuangyue also thought there was something wrong with the reptile area, but she later let Jiuye and Black Dragonfly investigate it several times and still couldn’t figure out what was wrong.
It seemed that they would have to rely on the Magic Department to uncover something.
Unlike the evil organization that could only operate in the shadows, the Magic Department was much more convenient; when they performed a thorough search, they did a thorough search. If they couldn’t find anything, then Luo Shuangyue wouldn’t be able to figure it out either.
“Huh? Is there?” Xia Mo was taken aback and quickly flipped through today’s investigation reports, but no matter how she searched, she couldn’t find the strange keeper Luo Shuangyue mentioned.
Not only was there no testimony from that keeper, but even other staff at the zoo hadn’t mentioned this person.
A keeper with such a unique appearance and an ability to get close to snakes couldn’t possibly be a mere nobody, right?
“There’s nothing, no clues at all.” Quickly finishing reading all the reports, Xia Mo lifted her head and said to Luo Shuangyue, whose expression was serious.
“No clues at all? Then did I see a ghost…” Luo Shuangyue slowly rubbed her forehead with her index finger, a sudden feeling of unease creeping into her heart.
Could it be that she had just brushed past the most anomalous thing at the zoo the day before?
