Xia Liang slammed the spatula heavily on the chopping board beside her, tilted her head, and although she wore a smile on her face, her eyes were devoid of any amusement: "Shut up."
Lin Xiaolu immediately shrank like a startled quail.
The work in the kitchen continued.
Just like that, Xia Liang moved with haste, and in just over ten minutes, a simple plate of noodles was ready. The two girls carried the cooked noodles out of the kitchen and returned to the dining room.
"Luckily, that woman... Hong Siyu came later than usual today." Clasping her hands around the bowl, Lin Xiaolu let out a long sigh, "If she had come in the middle and insisted on meddling, that would have been troublesome."
"You weren't much help just standing there, were you?"
Xia Liang smiled with narrowed eyes: "Next time you talk too much in the kitchen, remember who's holding the knife, okay?"
"I get it already..."
Lin Xiaolu responded with a muffled voice, poked her chopsticks into the bowl, and stirred, picking up a strand of noodles and slurping them up.
Then, her expression turned extremely odd.
Xia Liang, puzzled, followed with a bite of noodles and her expression too became subtly altered: "...Ah, no salt?"
"Why is that a question?" Lin Xiaolu tapped the edge of her bowl irritably.
"Because I did it so quickly, I can't even remember what I've done..." Xia Liang pursed her lips.
After a moment of silence, Lin Xiaolu put down her chopsticks: "Off with her head!"
"Your Majesty, spare my life!"
Off to the side, Bai Jingxuan silently watched the interaction between the two, expressionless as she swallowed her noodles, then suddenly spoke up: "Speaking of which, isn't it much later than usual for Sister Hong to not have come by now?"
"It's probably something to do with work."
Lin Xiaolu, unconcerned, fetched several cans of pickles from the refrigerator: "If she doesn't come, she doesn't come."
"Don't say that. After all, we did prepare her dinner portion, so let's send her a message and ask."
As she spoke, Xia Liang opened her phone to compose a message and sent it to Hong Siyu. Soon, the phone buzzed, indicating a reply.
"What did she say?" Lin Xiaolu asked.
Xia Liang scrolled through her phone: "She says she probably won't make it tonight because she has to work overtime."
"Why?" Lin Xiaolu asked as she struggled with the pickle jar lid.
—"Is it because of the recent exams at the Abnormal Strategy Bureau?"
—"She says the Abnormal Strategy Bureau is about to have a recruitment exam soon, and she needs to be involved in setting the questions."
Almost simultaneously, two voices rang out, but they came from two different people.
Xia Liang read the text message out loud, only to realize she wasn't the only one speaking. Following the sound, she looked over to see Bai Jingxuan uttering something similar.
"Did you know, Xiaoxuan?" Putting down the phone, she asked, somewhat puzzled.
Bai Jingxuan nodded: "Because someone I know told me about it."
"Who? Someone from the orphanage?"
"A caretaker from the orphanage."
Bai Jingxuan replied softly, looking down: "You sisters must have seen him before."
"We've met him?" Xia Liang tilted her head.
"It was that time when the bad guys came to make trouble at the orphanage." Bai Jingxuan continued to explain, "The uncle who was with me at that time, it was him."
"I think I have some impression of him?" Lin Xiaolu tapped her chin.
"That impolite guy!" Moke, sitting behind Bai Jingxuan, crossed her arms and declared.
"Yeah, I met him previously when I returned to the orphanage, so we had a brief chat."
Bai Jingxuan nodded: "He mentioned he was preparing for an exam recently, and if he passed, he wouldn't be working at the orphanage anymore."
"Is the job at the Abnormal Strategy Bureau that good?" Lin Xiaolu finally twisted open the jar of pickles and placed it on the table, looking at Bai Jingxuan: "The way you talk about it, the difficulty of the exam to work there seems pretty high?"
Silence fell upon them.
Because both Bai Jingxuan and Xia Liang looked at her as if she were an alien creature.
"Do you never listen to what Sister Hong says?"
Before long, Xia Liang was the first to start explaining: "The Abnormal Strategy Bureau, that's the best job a common magician could hope for!"
"The best job? They're just a bunch of people responsible for menial labor fixing up the city, aren't they?" Lin Xiaolu blinked innocently.
"They're also in charge of managing personnel from the magic side other than the Remnant Beasts and Magical Girls."
Xia Liang laughed dryly: "That description is a bit too dismissive."
"Eh... so, that uncle going to take the exam is actually quite a tough ordeal?"
Lin Xiaolu lifted a mouthful of noodles with some pickles, her voice completely flat: "Then let's wish him success on his exam."