Chapter Eight: Don’t Look for People in Fan Circles

On the way home, Fu Linxing slipped into an alley with his classmate when no one was paying attention.

“Where’s the stuff?” he asked impatiently.

Zhong Zihao quietly slipped a TF card into his hand. “Spent the whole weekend on this. I collected every animation I could find online, all the well-known works. Except for the ancient ones, most come with the original files. For those I couldn’t download in time, I left you links.”

Fu Linxing immediately inserted the card into his phone and browsed through the file list. His eyes lit up as he patted Zhong Zihao’s shoulder hard. “Awesome!”

“These are all banned items. If you put them on cloud storage, they’d be deleted in minutes. If I hadn’t collected a lot before, you probably couldn’t buy these resources even with money now.”

“How much did it cost? Give me a number.”

Seeing how serious Fu Linxing was, Zhong Zihao scratched his head awkwardly. “Why talk money between us? That’s so tacky. Just remember to help me rank up.”

Fu Linxing agreed without hesitation and quickly hid the folder.

The two walked out of the alley as if nothing had happened. Passing a milk tea shop, Fu Linxing treated Zhong Zihao to a drink and waited with him at the bus stop.

Fu Linxing’s new home was close to school, so sometimes he didn’t take the school bus. Zhong Zihao, however, walked quite a distance just to deliver the goods, then had to take the bus back.

After seeing his classmate off, Fu Linxing checked the time and dashed home.

As expected, his mother hadn’t finished work yet. He quickly prepared dinner, stirring vegetables with one hand while scrolling through his phone with the other, his eyes scanning images rapidly.

The school monitored phones, and screen time was limited at home, so he had to make the most of this time.

Although Fu Linxing had relatively free access to his phone and computer and was good at searching, the thing he was looking for was quite special. He had to rely on his classmate, who was revered as a “resource king.”

At first, it was hard to admit—searching for magical girl animations wasn’t just crossing a line; it was downright weird to say out loud...

But after a few tentative hints, Zhong Zihao was ecstatic to find a fellow enthusiast and whispered excitedly, “What type do you like? Kid-friendly? Magical girl battle? Or healing types?”

“Uh... I just started watching, no preference yet...”

“Then I’ll give you a bit of everything. You came to the right person—I’m super confident in my collection!”

“Preferably from 2000 to around 2013. I can’t handle the old animation styles.”

“Those years were a golden age, but classics like ‘Cardcaptor Sakura’ are a must! I’ll pack everything for you.”

And so, Fu Linxing received a giant gift box containing nearly every magical girl work from the past 60 years. To hide his true purpose, he accepted it all.

Zhong Zihao’s organization was impressively professional—videos were sorted by year, and there was a handy index for tags. Fu Linxing had worried about the volume making searching difficult.

Starting with magical girl animations to investigate the silver-haired girl in the painting was a method he’d stumbled upon in a forum post.

At first, it seemed far-fetched, but feedback from others suggested it was quite feasible.

Now, the publicly available magical girl information had been filtered by the Magical Affairs Bureau into reports, news articles, or academic papers analyzing crimes.

Although some enthusiasts shared information secretly online, it was scattered across exclusive circles with high entry barriers.

Moreover, a specialized jargon had developed to keep outsiders out, making it hard to find anything without insider knowledge.

Adding to the difficulty, the appearance of magical girls couldn’t be captured by images, making it extremely hard to identify a specific individual.

However, before the public officially recognized the existence of magical girls, and before their disastrous first appearance, an urban legend had already spread.

It claimed that someone had indeed seen magical girls and hidden their images within anime and novels.

At first, people laughed it off, but when the Magical Affairs Bureau started banning all magical girl-themed creations, people gradually realized the legend was true.

In early works, more and more prototypes of magical girls were uncovered, even appearing as characters in works categorized in other genres due to incomplete elements.

Fu Linxing spent considerable effort, compiling information from various sources, to narrow the range to a dozen or so works.

Based on Fu Lan’s age, he estimated the silver-haired girl’s age at the time and filtered out some more.

Yet, looking at the character designs on the index covers, none seemed to match.

He ate while skimming through countless magical girls, growing increasingly convinced he was on the wrong track.

Creators often made necessary changes to character designs; the girl might not even have silver hair in the animation.

Those who searched this way usually had substantial knowledge of the real magical girl in question.

They recognized her via tribute skills, costume details, or hidden references in lines, not by pure luck like him.

Still, he anticipated this and had a backup plan.

He opened several inquiry posts he’d made earlier. Since he hadn’t earned enough tokens to post bounties, there weren’t many replies.

Based on the features he described, others suggested some titles mostly dated between 2009 and 2011.

This was near the end of the magical girl animation era, three years after magical girls entered public awareness—a honeymoon period when they coexisted peacefully.

The good news was this roughly matched the time Fu Linxing speculated the silver-haired girl was active.

Many works from this period openly adapted well-known real magical girls into animation characters, making identification more accurate.

The bad news was that the magical girl craze during those years meant more works than all previous years combined, increasing the search difficulty.

Worse still, compared to TV animations, the magical girl image thrived several times stronger in another realm — the chaotic world of fan creations.

Zhong Zihao’s big gift naturally included fan works, which actually made up a large portion.

Not only animations but also vast amounts of manga, illustrations, and novels. His classification of these was even more detailed, and it was clear he’d filtered for quality—all high grade.

Whether due to his broad XP or some inclusive generosity, the subject matter covered almost everything imaginable.

Limited by early internet speeds, the media files were small, so the tiny TF card held an ocean of resources, overwhelming Fu Linxing with despair.

Though the replies had pointed him in the right direction, he hesitated when he finally found the files.

Did he really want to watch fan works based on his father’s first love?

Where had it all gone wrong? Why did these people only talk about explicit or adult comics, and not a single decent animation based on her?

The girl in the painting clearly didn’t have that vibe, and her outfit was modest. So why...

Before starting his search, Fu Linxing reminded himself to stay calm. Even if he failed, gaining side knowledge about magical girls through these works would be worthwhile.

But he wasn’t prepared for this kind of “understanding.”

The sound of a key turning at the door jolted him from a hellish scene of tentacles and slime.

He snapped off the indecent player at lightning speed and casually placed his phone on the sofa armrest to “charge,” then leapt away to the desk, pretending to work on a half-finished exercise book.

“Sorry, Linxing, I’m late again today,” He Yue said, slipping off her high heels at the doorway and stretching her sore feet. “Have you eaten?”

“I have. You haven’t yet? I’ll heat some for you,” Fu Linxing carried dishes toward the kitchen.

He Yue looked pleased. “In a couple of days, a part-time cook will come to the house, so you won’t have to work so hard.”

“That’s nothing. I just cook when I get home.”

“You just don’t cook well enough.”

“You really are my mom!”

He Yue laughed and took a bite, “Am I wrong? This is burnt.”

Fu Linxing blushed, his already mediocre cooking worsened by distraction.

He Yue glanced at her watch. “Still not done with homework at this hour? You’re definitely behind.”

“No big deal, just a little left,” Fu Linxing waved her off, deliberately leading her to misunderstand.

He returned to his desk to continue working, but his mind was cluttered and unfocused.

While writing, He Yue suddenly said, “Hey, can I borrow your phone for a bit?” Before finishing, her hand was already reaching out.

Fu Linxing panicked. “No!”