Something's off about this magical girl.

Chapter 58 Detective Peach

Tao Zhuo let Guan Lan's words roll around in her mind a few times.

Still not quite understanding, she finally turned to look at Gu Bai.

Gu Bai didn't say anything, turned his gaze away from Guan Lan's face, and looked up at the direction at the end of the corridor.

He heard it.

At that moment, Xia Zhi's footsteps could be heard coming from the other end.

Clear, steady, and methodical, just like her personality as a magical girl.

"Teacher, I've failed in my duty, I'm really sorry."

The girl stopped in front, her orange eyes sweeping over the three people before she gave a slight bow to Gu Bai and then spoke:

"Guanlan, come with me."

"OK."

Guanlan's fingers traced the ribs of the umbrella resting on her thigh, her smile still lingering:

"After all, how could I possibly refuse such a warm invitation from the future leader of Qixin Academy?"

Please do not speculate on Qi Xin's future personnel arrangements.

Xia Zhi's tone was half a degree colder than usual. She came behind Guan Lan and tried to put her hand on the wheelchair handle, but was repelled by a magical barrier.

"There's no need to trouble you, future dean."

Guanlan used her magic to move her wheelchair closer to Xia Zhi, but before turning completely, she turned to the side and took one last look at Gu Bai.

Her gaze lingered on his face for a moment, as if reminding him of something, before finally curving her lips into a smile:

"See you next time, teacher, when you're fully awake."

"I actually hope this is the last time I see you in Qixin," Gu Bai said, his disdain overflowing, without giving Guan Lan's words much thought.

But at this moment, Guanlan had already taken the lead and walked forward. The wheels of her wheelchair rolled across the floor with a soft and steady sound.

Xia Zhi watched her walk away, and before she left, she spoke to Gu Bai and Tao Zhuo:

"Teacher, Tao Zhuo, if you have time, please go to Vice Director Zhang's office now. She has something to discuss with you."

"Okay." Gu Bai nodded.

"Then I'll be going now." Xia Zhi then left.

Tao Zhuo's strength was not wasted; she clenched her fists and waved them in the air, beaming with joy.

"Oh, there it is! A mysterious message... Maybe it's about changing my surname to 'Lin' and then giving me a mission that will allow me to live off my wealth for the rest of my life!"

"Your top priority right now is to uninstall 'Qidian Chinese Website'!" Gu Bai punched Tao Zhuo's head.

Ten minutes later...

Vice Principal's Office.

When Gu Bai pushed open the door, Deputy Zhang was standing by the window, facing the door, holding an opened document in his hand:

"Let's chat. Would you like some tea?"

"Uh, that's a strange way of putting it. Shouldn't we have something like a cooling mana potion?" Tao Zhu muttered under her breath.

"Anything is fine. The results of the investigation into the wounds on the corpse are out, right? It's faster than I expected."

As for Gu Bai, he simply pretended not to hear Tao Zhuo's embarrassing remarks.

We took our seats and waited for Vice-Director Zhang's reply.

"Yes, but only one of them."

After putting down the documents, Deputy Zhang went to the tea table and poured tea for Gu Bai and Tao Zhuo respectively, his gaze fixed on Tao Zhuo:

"Tao Zhuo, let's talk about your matter first. The investigation results for the bomb are in, and it's confirmed without a doubt that it's traces of your magic."

"Ah, ah..." Tao Zhuo was stunned by these words, and her hands began to tremble.

Fortunately, the boiling water from the teacup she had just picked up dripped onto the magic barrier, preventing her from screaming in pain.

"The research results are in. In fact, your magic was just the final step that triggered its explosion. The creator understood the properties of magic and knew its purpose, so he deliberately chose this method to send it to the Calamity Zone to cause destruction."

"The teleportation to the disaster zone is random, so this activation method was used to ensure lethality?" Gu Bai understood.

"clever."

"Was it done by a witch?" Gu Bai didn't quite understand, but he also knew that witches were actually the ultimate adversaries of magical girls.

Deputy Zhang nodded in confirmation: "Although there is no direct evidence, judging from the power of the explosion and the speculated cause, it is highly likely."

"Objection! Although I think she's a witch, some things are a bit strange."

At this moment, Tao Zhuo conjured a magnifying glass from her magic storage bag and held it in her hand, seemingly switching into 'detective' mode:

"Guaranteed lethality? This method can only guarantee killing the magical girl! Since it can only be triggered by the magical girl's magic power, the residents would normally have already evacuated by the time the magical girl discovers the bomb!"

"Indeed, perhaps the witch's intention was to kill the magical girl?"

Gu Bai agreed, and recalling the events of that day, he added a guess: "The target should be a high-star magical girl."

"Okay, I'll have someone look into it."

Deputy Zhang nodded, but she didn't continue the topic, instead shifting to the next topic that Gu Bai was more interested in:

"The second thing is the magical residue on the girl's body."

"Who did this?" Gu Bai asked directly.

"It involves at least five six-star magical girls working together, and none of their magical traces are recorded in Qi Xin's magical girl registration file."

"call..."

Gu Bai let out a breath, almost as if he had been told, "What use are you guys?"

"How is that possible!"

But Tao Zhuo almost choked on her breath and couldn't exhale.

Are you kidding me? This is a pretty strong magical girl team, how could Qi Xin not have recorded it!

"We have registered them all. The 'Magic Tracker' in Qixin Academy will be monitoring you 24/7. We will notify you immediately if we detect any more of the same magical traces."

Perhaps thinking that his recent efforts to assist Gu Bai had yielded no results, Vice Zhang's tone became somewhat humble.

As for Gu Bai, while he sighed and was disappointed, he also understood that there might be more to the story behind what made the magical girl accept her fate of being killed.

Most importantly, she could see so much of the past, so why didn't she choose to ask me for help in the end?

Could it be...?

At that moment, Tao Zhuo, who was fiddling with the magnifying glass in her hand, suddenly had a flash of inspiration and recited a line she had copied from somewhere:

"I forgot the beginning, and I forgot the middle."

"In short, the one who sees through the only truth is the famous detective Tao Zhu, who looks like a magical girl but is far more intelligent than a magical girl!"

"Speak." Gu Bai raised his hand to Tao Zhuo's face.

If he's not satisfied with the answer, he won't hold back in the "Making Rice Cakes" activity.

"Teacher, first of all, although the magical girl who was victimized didn't reveal her identity, she must be very powerful."

"Yes," Gu Bai affirmed.

"Hmph." Tao Zhuo chuckled smugly, twirling the magnifying glass in her hand:

"The common thread is the killing of high-level magical girls."

She paused for a moment, the corners of her mouth curved upwards, and she changed her tone, as if she were saying something perfectly natural:

"The answer is... both incidents were actually committed by the same evil witch. And this witch has more than one method and more than one target; she's specifically hunting magical girls. Therefore, she will definitely modify, upgrade, and iterate the bomb concept version after version!"

"Huh?" Gu Bai was somewhat shocked. It was indeed surprising that Tao Zhuo could actually say something.

Tao Zhuo put down the magnifying glass and tilted her head: "Hey, shouldn't you praise Tao Zhuo for being the smartest while simultaneously giving me a hundred or two hundred thousand in rewards on my Qi Xin account?"