"These?"
The witch followed Zheng Qing’s gaze towards her own wrist, casually took off sothing, and tossed it into the warlock’s hand: "A few Haha Beads, a little novelty my cousin gave for Christmas... an ancient alchemy puppet... If you encounter a tricky but not too powerful opponent in the hunting ground, throw them, and they can turn into alchemy puppets to help entangle the enemy. But don’t hold out too much hope; their resistance to magic is limited, far inferior to your Minotaur. I even think Furry Bean could take on three of them at once."
Zheng Qing shook the few pale-golden small round beads in his palm, weighed them, and felt they had so heft. Upon closer inspection, they seed like little figures curled up together, laughing heartily.
No wonder they’re called ’Haha Beads.’
"Really interesting, I’ve never seen such little things before." He genuinely praised, simultaneously giving a little kick to the furry grey-skinned dog that suddenly appeared at the call of his na from sowhere: "...Quickly get out, don’t loiter in this shop, be careful not to be caught and skinned!"
His warning was not unwarranted, as Zheng Qing had faintly sensed curious glances cast at the dog from figures cloaked in black at nearby tables.
Furry Bean whimpered, wagged its tail happily, circled the witch once, and then disappeared quickly into the shadows between the bar and the wall.
"Sorry, I forgot about its habits." A hint of apology flashed in the witch’s eyes, then she joyfully added, "So, as compensation, I’ll give you these Haha Beads..."
Zheng Qing imdiately felt the small beads in his palm beco extraordinarily hot.
"Your Butter Beer, unsweetened!" The Multi-Ard Tribe Attendant pushed two big beer mugs in front of the witch.
"Thank you."
The witch took the mug, then turned her head to the distressed-looking boy, slightly raising her chin, indicating: "...Go play with the boys, don’t let them quietly curse behind my back."
"I..." Zheng Qing opened his mouth.
"I don’t need such little things for now, but you might use them in the hunt coming up," the witch directly interrupted the boy’s attempt to refuse, supplenting, "Alliance’s selection tasks for registered hunting teams are not easy, even if Absolution is composed of students... If you feel too guilty, give a lavish Lunar New Year gift."
Zheng Qing’s open mouth slowly closed, and he nodded strongly.
The witch smiled faintly, waved her hand, and turned to leave leisurely.
Ahem.
Ahem, ahem.
Several suppressed low coughs brought the young cost student back to his senses, pulling Zheng Qing’s gaze reluctantly away from the witch’s departing figure, towards the noisy person.
"Do you need so cough syrup?" He was full of displeasure.
Xiao Xiao rubbed his neck and politely refused: "Thanks, I feel much better, I don’t need it for now... but you... I’m sorry, but I vaguely heard the word Lunar New Year... Are you planning to celebrate New Year with the Monitor after completing tasks?"
The Alliance-designated hunting team tasks are not yet confird, talking about task completion feels a bit extravagant.
"Eavesdropping is a bad habit, especially for diviners. Be careful your ears don’t start oozing pus after you sleep at night." Zheng Qing glanced at him, lifted his beer cup, and took a small sip: "...As for the New Year, whether or not, what does it matter?"
"Whether or not, I suggest you spend New Year lying down in the school hospital, like last sumr."
Doctor Xiao adjusted his glasses and sincerely offered his opinion: "Otherwise, I’m afraid after school resus, our hunting team will have to change leaders... You’ll be assassinated for celebrating New Year with Jiang Yu."
The young cost student sneered, sowhat dismissively: "It’s not that serious! During the New Year, even the fanatic fans should calm down for a few days... Besides, Jiang Yu and I are just friends..."
"What you say doesn’t matter to ."
Xiao Xiao rolled his eyes and succinctly hinted: "Additionally, this year’s Lunar New Year falls exactly on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, don’t tell you haven’t looked at the Old Almanac."
Upon hearing this, Zheng Qing was startled, imdiately recalling the ’lavish gift’ he had promised before, and couldn’t help but curse under his breath. This ant he would have to cough up double during New Year.
The short warlock apparently misunderstood sothing, stood on tiptoes, gently patted Zheng Qing’s shoulder with empathy.
"Just keep an open mind..."
"Has the Alliance-designated task been confird?"
Zheng Qing changed the subject, not wanting to dwell on the issue of whom to celebrate New Year with, and rembered what Jiang Yu had ntioned before: "I recall you submitted related docunts of Absolution to the school’s Hunting Committee last week... I’ve heard sotis student hunting teams also get very troubleso tasks?"
"Um, today’s Wednesday, at the latest by Friday we should receive notifications." Xiao Xiao calculated and supplented: "...Then we’ll probably have two to three weeks to complete the task. Indeed, though according to the agreent between the school and the Alliance, the formal hunting teams composed of students have quite a bit of room in task selection and difficulty, sotis, to maintain a ’reputation for fairness,’ the school deliberately chooses more difficult tasks for students... especially since most mbers of Absolution belong to Jiuyou Academy."
Jiuyou Academy’s spirit is fairness and equality.
Zheng Qing sighed deeply, raised his beer cup: "Hope all goes well."
Ding!
"All goes well." Xiao Xiao clinked his mug against his.
"By the way... what gift will you give Sima? During the New Year." Zheng Qing downed the warm beer in his cup in one gulp, two flushes ascending his cheeks again, unsure of how he returned to the previous topic.
"A bouquet is always a must." Xiao Xiao’s tone was also sowhat uncertain: "As for the rest... we’ll see what cos up, hopefully, we can pick up sothing good during this hunting task."
Zheng Qing pinch the few Haha Beads still warm in his palm, nodded in deep agreent, and then pulled out a letter paper and a feather pen, hastily writing a morandum.
The morandum was folded into a light green paper crane and stuffed into a grey cloth bag - this was a new magic skill he recently learned, allowing the paper crane to be used as a reminder that, when the scheduled ti arrives, will accurately crawl out of the pocket to remind the wizard of prior plans by pecking at their ear or other ans.
When everything was done and he looked back, he found Xiao Xiao was gazing up at the ceiling.
"What are you looking at?"
"I saw a raven fly from the second floor into the ceiling." Xiao Xiao pointed to his ceiling, Zheng Qing followed his finger to see candlelight twinkling like the real starry sky, the pitch-black ceiling seeming ethereal, swallowing everything, giving a sense of remoteness and loneliness.
He did not see the raven Xiao Xiao ntioned.
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