Chapter 16: Bai Jieke and Magic Girl Embers

On the night of July 2, 2026, Li Jing Square was the most crowded and bustling area in the entire city.

At this moment, people on the brightly lit streets heard a sudden commotion in the sky and looked up. Following the source of the noise, they witnessed an unbelievable scene: a pale corpse was impaled on the spire of the Li Jing Tower!

They stood frozen in place at first, until an ear-piercing scream shattered the silence of the square.

"No, no, no... How can I die here? I haven't even been to a Rain Crow fan meet-and-greet yet..." the Theater Puppet yelled, coughing up a mouthful of blood and kicking its legs wildly at the empty air.

But the more it struggled, the deeper its body sank onto the spire.

Seeing that everyone's eyes were focused on it, Bai Jieke suddenly stopped struggling. It pointed at Magic Girl Embers in the distant sky and spoke in a tone reminiscent of someone telling a dry joke:

"That's right, Miss Embers... I am about to die, and you have tortured and killed someone in public once again. Don't you feel guilty?"

Embers looked at it, her eyes filled with resentment and confusion. She had clearly seen Bai Jieke adjust the direction of its fall, intentionally dropping onto this iron tower and letting the spire pierce its body. But why would it commit suicide?

This was obviously a blatant frame-up. She could already imagine what tomorrow's news headlines would be—"Magic Girl Embers Relapses, Tortures and Kills Criminal in Public Again, Suspected of Testing Public's Bottom Line". Once public opinion fermented again, she would truly be finished. No matter how much the Magical Girl Company tried to hide her away or do damage control, they would never be able to suppress the masses' fury toward her. From then on, she could forget about ever appearing in the public eye as an official Magical Girl.

Embers fell silent for a moment and cast her gaze downward.

Screams echoed one after another across the square as people fled in panic. A child fell to the ground and bawled. Meanwhile, crimson blood poured down like a waterfall from Bai Jieke's pierced chest, dyeing the top of the iron tower red.

This scene was exactly the same as a certain image Embers had seen before.

The sight from that day roared back like a speeding train, crashing headlong into her mind: the tall building stained with blood, the gazes cast by the crowd, their terrified faces and bewildered eyes, and the ceaseless flashes from their phone cameras.

A ringing in her ears grew louder and louder until it was deafening, making Magic Girl Embers want to cover her ears. She didn't know what to do. Her hands and feet were ice-cold, and her body trembled slightly. She opened her mouth but found herself speechless as the terrifying gazes drowned her like a tidal wave once again.

But at that moment, Bai Jieke suddenly threw its hands up and tilted its head to look at the bustling figures in the square.

"Please don't cyberbully our poor, lovely Miss Embers, alright? I, Bai Jieke, testify right here! I willingly died by her hands. This is absolutely not some one-sided slaughter!"

As it spoke, Bai Jieke raised a hand to its forehead in a military salute. Maintaining its bizarre posture while impaled on the spire, it solemnly swept a glance over the crowd in the square. However, no one in the crowd paid it any mind; they merely screamed and fled.

So, it lowered its head, sighed, and shouted at the top of its lungs in near madness,

"If she didn't kill me, I was going to snap the Li Jing Iron Tower in half and smash all you idiots into minced meat! Then I was going to dig out your intestines and eat them as a side dish for roasted crow!" It paused. "Oh... you're asking which kind of crow I was roasting? Rain Crow, of course."

Magic Girl Embers listened in a daze, slowly raising her eyes to look at it. Her mind was completely blank at this moment. She couldn't figure out what this lunatic was doing at all. First, it intentionally framed her; then, it suddenly started speaking up for her. It was simply unbelievable.

Bai Jieke raised a non-existent eyebrow and muttered to itself incessantly,

"Oh no... Why does that sound like some clumsy PR tactic? Am I a shill hired by the Magical Girl Company to clear her name?"

With that, it suddenly hurled its walking stick toward the square with all its might. In an instant, the walking stick burst into eerie blue flames.

Like a torch of bewitching color, it fell straight toward a child in the center of the square. This strike could easily smash the child's head into a bloody pulp and boil his brains! But Bai Jieke could control the walking stick to fly back into its hand at any time.

If Embers shot at the walking stick, it would be knocked away, and the child in the square would be safe. If she couldn't fire in time, the walking stick would automatically fly back into Bai Jieke's palm, and the child would still be safe.

"This is truly a top-tier battle of wits on the level of elementary schoolers playing rock-paper-scissors," Bai Jieke marveled at its own astounding intellect, reaching up to cover its mouth.

In the next fraction of a second, Magic Girl Embers abruptly raised her umbrella and pulled the trigger at the falling walking stick.

BANG!

The bullet tore through the night sky and shot out violently, knocking the walking stick away in the blink of an eye.

The walking stick plummeted into the square's fountain, its eerie blue flames extinguished by the spurting water. The five-year-old child burst into tears, and a woman rushed out from the crowd to hold him.

"Xiao Lei, are you alright? Are you okay?" the woman cried, clutching the child's head. She looked up, her trembling eyes fixed on the gothic-dressed Magical Girl in the sky, and spoke almost as if she had lost her voice. "Thank you for saving my baby... Thank you!"

Bai Jieke looked thoroughly disappointed, much like a fan watching their national football team miss the final shot that would have qualified them for the World Cup. It shouted hysterically,

"Damn it! God fucking damn it, why couldn't I take one more person with me before I die?! You bunch of lowly mutts—!"

At this moment, the people in the square all looked up, staring blankly at Bai Jieke impaled on the spire, before turning to look at Magic Girl Embers, who had just stepped up to save the day.

But Embers was also stunned, the tip of the umbrella in her hand still pointing at the ground. She slowly raised her eyes and stared unblinkingly at the Theater Puppet throwing a tantrum on the spire.

"Was it doing that on purpose?" Embers thought blankly. "It knew I would definitely shoot, so it deliberately threw the walking stick at that child?"

Bai Jieke did sit-ups on the spire, looking alive one moment and dead the next. It repeatedly adjusted its posture as if trying to make its death look a bit more graceful. Finally, it recited a famous line from a certain children's cartoon about a wolf and sheep in a haunting tone:

"I will definitely be back..."

With those final words, Bai Jieke gave up the ghost and dissipated into a cloud of white mist.

Magic Girl Embers stared blankly at the spire.

"Who... are you really?" Before she could even ask Bai Jieke this question, the other party had already vanished without a trace.

Her mind was still clouded with confusion at this moment. Bai Jieke had first exposed her true identity, and then directed and acted out this scene in front of the crowd to bail her out. Neither of these actions made any sense to her. The young girl's thoughts were like a ball of yarn that had rolled off a table, its endless threads tangling in every direction.

"Not only does it know my true identity, but it also spoke up for me like that. Could it be..." Thinking of this, Embers suddenly paused for a moment. She looked up and unconsciously muttered,

"...My brother?"

For some reason, Ke Mingqing's face suddenly surfaced in her mind at this moment.