Magical Girl Heavy Dependence

Chapter 77, Unexpected Changes

Ding ding.

The phone rang at an inopportune moment, jolting Zhong Ai awake from that warm embrace as if electrocuted. She frantically pulled away, lowered her head, and forcefully wiped her reddened eyes.

Cheng Chen, without changing his expression, took out his phone and held it to his ear: "It's me."

Something's happened.

On the other end of the phone, Jiang Fei said in a deep voice.

Cheng Chen's eyes narrowed slightly. He gestured to Zhong Ai, stood up, and headed outside, saying, "Wait for me."

Just then, Chu Kai also received a phone call. He also hurriedly got up, their eyes met briefly, they smiled at each other, and then rushed off to different exits.

Standing in the empty corridor outside the concert hall, Cheng Chen asked into the phone, "What's the situation now?"

"Do you still remember the transaction records you retrieved from the 'Asura Lord's' trade fair barrier?" Jiang Fei's voice was very irritated.

Cheng Chen asked, "Have you found a final buyer?"

"It's the Xianmeng Group."

The person on the other end of the phone didn't keep us in suspense and stated directly, "Although the payment for all the transactions goes through several virtual accounts, the source is an entity related to the Xianmeng Group. No wonder I've always wondered which powerful family in Yincheng has such substantial capital to support such large-scale transactions."

It was both unexpected and yet predictable.

Cheng Chen nodded slightly, his tone calm: "But this isn't much of a problem."

"certainly."

Jiang Fei sounded a little frantic. "If it were just something so trivial, I wouldn't have been so tactless as to interrupt your date with your childhood sweetheart. The important thing is that all the magical girl corpses they bought at exorbitant prices ended up in our warehouse."

Cheng Chen: "?"

He stopped abruptly, his expression finally turning serious: "What happened?"

"We have very deep business ties with the Xianmeng Group, you know that, right?"

"Know."

"Okay, this explanation is much easier: In the projects involving business cooperation between the two parties, there are several subsidiaries that are joint ventures jointly owned by both parties, with us as the controlling party. They are mainly responsible for selling merchandise and idol derivatives through Xianmeng Group's online channels, as well as licensing some videos and music."

"Yinfu Entertainment's logistics and e-commerce businesses have been spun off from the main company and are handled by these subsidiaries. You know the reasons, so I'll skip to the main point..."

Because of peripheral businesses such as logistics and e-commerce, the vast majority of employees are ordinary people.

Yinfu Entertainment is a "magical girl company".

In order to protect the true identities of the magical girls from being revealed, and also to protect the safety of ordinary people, the company separated these ordinary employees from the main body of the company from the very beginning, and assigned them to different locations to work, depending on the business.

"The key point is the calamity beast you killed at the trade fair," Jiang Fei explained, suppressing her anger. "We held a press conference before, saying we would punish it to give an explanation to the fans affected by the concert."

Cheng Chen hummed in agreement: "And then?"

"The main body of the Disaster Beast is the 'Nightmare Stone,' but that's for experts. For the general public, it's not as shocking as seeing the Disaster Beast's corpses piled up like mountains. So after you killed it, I had the people in the Tactical Execution Department contact the Asura Lord to retrieve the corpse."

"We have a logistics branch with transportation capabilities, and the Xianmeng Group holds a certain stake in it. So, coincidentally, all those magical girl corpses were secretly hidden in the same logistics park. Someone had planned our actions in advance and had already inscribed the ritual array there. The corpses of the calamity beasts and the magical girl corpses are both essential materials for starting the ritual, and we personally delivered the key materials there."

Jiang Fei sighed deeply: "This is a setup, a setup targeting us."

Suddenly, Chu Kai's furious curses came from the other side of the corridor.

It seems that the calls they received were all about the same thing.

Cheng Chen picked at his ear: "The ceremony has already started?"

"That's right. The logistics park has been sealed off, and all the magical girls in the association are rushing there."

"Who is the ritual aimed at?"

In the magical world, the term "ritual" specifically refers to special magic used to communicate with high-ranking beings, such as legendary gods or great beings.

"I don't know."

Just listening to the phone call, he could picture Jiang Fei pinching her brow. "It's beyond my knowledge. Anyway, it's not a 'nightmare' or a 'star observer,' probably some kind of 'extraterrestrial beast,' I don't know..."

"I understand. We'll talk about the rest when I get there. You wait for me at the site."

Cheng Chen stopped her from continuing.

He hung up the phone, turned his head, and glanced into the concert hall. Then, without looking back, he turned and strode out of the Golden Hall theater.

……

The producer... he actually hugged that guy?

Yan Xi felt all her strength drained away in an instant.

She stared blankly at the embrace, opened her mouth, but couldn't utter a sound.

It was me, it was me first... I was clearly here first!

Whether it was meeting the producer or becoming his trainee... why did it turn out like this...?

She looked up at the ceiling, unaware of the emotions welling up in her chest.

Is it jealousy?

Is it frustration?

Or is it anger?

Her mind was a complete mess; she didn't want to care about anything anymore, nor did she want to uncover any conspiracy.

At this moment, Yan Xi just wanted to curl up in this corner and bury her head in her knees.

Fortunately, at that moment, Cheng Chen suddenly received a phone call and then quickly went outside the concert hall.

Yan Xi was slightly moved.

Whoever called, but... thank you, Telephone Man, for making me feel a little better.

She saw Zhong Ai half-stand up, gazing longingly in the direction Cheng Chen had left. That delicate, girlish expression, as if savoring the memory of a touch, instantly made Yan Xi's mind go blank, and her face flushed red.

No way! Why am I being so sad here?

Yan Xi shook her head.

Zhong Ai is a spy for Nightingale's House, a traitor!

The producer's hug just now was perhaps a result of her deliberately showing weakness and seducing him, which made the kind and innocent producer soften his heart and hug her.

That's right, that's it!

The producer has a cold exterior but a warm interior; he would never abandon a lost and loveless little animal. My own personal experience proves it!

With the producer absent, this is clearly a good opportunity.

She wants to confront the traitor face-to-face! To expose her ugly face!

The moment the thought popped into her head, Yan Xi jumped up straight from the corner as if she had been injected with adrenaline.

The sudden movement and figure immediately caught Zhong Ai's attention, and she saw her too.

"Yan Xi, you..."

Zhong Ai was still immersed in the embrace from just now, and her sentimental mood had not yet dissipated.

Yan Xi simply grabbed her collar and pulled her up from the seat.

"You bastard, I warned you to stay away from my producer..."

thump.

The accusations and demands for retribution abruptly ceased.

The sudden loud voice startled Shen Lianjing, who instinctively turned around.

But at that moment, her movements stopped, as if time had stood still.

Looking out, all the audience members were still looking at the stage, where the piano music was at its most exciting part.

Yan Xi collapsed limply to the ground, her eyes darting around.

Zhong Ai straightened her disheveled collar expressionlessly and looked at Jingwei, who had appeared to her side at some point, her expression indifferent.

"It's time to go, Azure."

She gazed into Zhong Ai's eyes.

"You still have things to do."

Zhong Ai's eyes dimmed, but she quickly looked up and said, "Mm."

A flash of magical light appeared beneath their feet, and they vanished from the spot.

Shen Lianjing came to her senses and felt a blur before her eyes. Then she found that the seat behind her was empty, with only Yan Xi lying on the ground.

She was startled and quickly went around to the back seat.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Even in his coma, Yan Xi continued to talk in his sleep.

"...Bastard...how dare you talk to the producer...I'll never forgive you..."

……