High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 714: Chapter 62: Cafeteria for Cost Control_1

”Cheer up!”

Old Yao clapped a hand on the young scholarship student’s shoulder, lecturing him, ”Pull it together. You must remember, this is the top university, and you are my student. Don’t spend your days daydreaming and pondering the meaningless. As a young person, be lively, don’t be like an old man, you lack the vigor of youth!”

Zheng Qing pulled up the corners of his mouth, forcing a strained smile.

Even though these were the words being said, the overwhelming pressure did not dissipate due to Old Yao’s pep talk— Zheng Qing felt like he was carrying a nuclear bomb around school, a moment of carelessness might blow him to pieces.

”Of course, it’s not ruled out that your transformation spell could have mutated,” the professor pondered for a moment, then gave the young wizard a reassuring promise, ”Magic, during its development, will always present this or that kind of mutation—and the reasons for mutation are various, countless—in any case, if everything develops according to cause and effect, then it wouldn’t be called magic.”

Saying this, Old Yao picked up a parchment envelope from the lecture desk and handed it to Zheng Qing.

”This contains your notes on the transformation spell, the school infirmary’s medical report, and the monitoring report for the transformation potion... Because they needed to open the bottle to inspect, the potion bottle you handed in is no more. The school has issued two new transformation potions for you, the effects will definitely not be worse.”

”However, if you wish to use the transformation potion in the future, remember to file a report. This way the school’s Guardian Array can increase your protection level, so you won’t get carried away by a mouse...especially now, when the school is in such a mess. if you didn’t file a report, someone might kick you into Lin Zhong Lake after your transformation and there’s nothing you can do.”

Zheng Qing took the parchment envelope, listened to Old Yao’s nagging, and shivered uncontrollably when he thought of the icy waters of Lin Zhong Lake this time of year, and the stinking Fishmen living in the lake.

”I understand, I understand.” He nodded repeatedly in acknowledgement.

”Hmm... if there’s nothing else, go have lunch. I see that they’ve been waiting for you for quite a while.” Old Yao put away his lecture notes and casually handed his teacup to the school worker elf floating by on one side, then turned his head to give Zheng Qing another piece of advice, ”If there’s anything abnormal about that magic, remember to tell me in time, or any of the other professors. Also, don’t forget to catch mice.”

”After you’ve transformed into a cat, catching mice should be quite convenient, huh.”

There was a hint of teasing in his last sentence.

This was also a way for the professor to establish closeness with his students. The young scholarship student gave a wry smile, but suddenly remembered something else.

”Professor, do mice wear clothes too?” As he followed Old Yao out of the classroom, he couldn’t help asking.

The last time he transformed into a cat and pranced around campus, Zheng Qing had once seen a big mouse dressed in clothes in the office building — this mouse had been bothering the young scholarship student for a long time, and he couldn’t figure out whether it was a mouse transformed by a wizard or a genuine mouse spirit.

Since Old Yao just mentioned this topic, he just took this opportunity to ask.

”A mouse wearing clothes?” Old Yao stopped walking, turning his body to look at Zheng Qing, one hand clutching his pipe and his eyebrows raised high, ”Inside the academy? You saw it?”

Zheng Qing nodded repeatedly, sharing what he saw and heard that night in detail.

At the end, he added, ”These past two weeks, I deliberately spared some leisure time to go look under that tree hole. The first two times, it was just like before, nothing was in there, and the paper cranes had disappeared...the third time I went there, the tree hole was gone! The tree bark was intact, it felt like I had been dreaming.”

”Damn.”Old Yao cursed softly, paused for a moment before explaining, ”Maybe it was a wizard practicing the transformation spell who played a prank on you... Just like that disappearing tree hole, only magic could cause that kind of effect.”

”And of course, some enlightened mice will dress themselves up in human-like fashion and run around looking for knowledge... You must remember, this is a wizard university, anything can happen.”

Zheng Qing nodded, agreeing, and was mulling over it, but felt that Old Yao’s answer was a bit perfunctory.

If there really was a wizard practicing the transformation spell, and the result was a mouse, as the dean of Jiuyou Academy, he must have heard some rumors. And enlightened mice, if they didn’t register their identities at the top university, Zheng Qing believed they would have long been caught by the mad wizards in the research institute and sent to the laboratory to be guinea pigs.

Most importantly, that night, the mouse ran around the campus, and the school’s Guardian Array didn’t show any abnormal fluctuations. If there were no tricks involved, Zheng Qing absolutely refused to believe it.

So there he was, lost in his thoughts, heading to the cafeteria for lunch with Fatty and a few others.

Meanwhile, Xiao Xiao was seriously analyzing the explanation Old Yao gave before the class, ”...What he said may not necessarily be false, but it certainly isn’t the whole truth. Do you guys know how many researchers, assistants, lecturers, and school staff the top university has? For a simple survey task in Silent Forest, would the dean and vice-deans need to do it themselves? They only need to issue a notice, there will be people willing to delve deep into the forest for evidence of a silence tide.”

”Yeah! At the very least, Assistant Hilda would be very happy to do it... The last practical class, she told me she’s about to grow mold from staying too long in the school.” Zhang Ji Xin kept agreeing with the doctor’s analysis, providing his own supporting arguments.

”Unconvincing.” Fatty habitually retorted, ”Maybe it’s just like the rumors say, Silent Forest is suppressing some monsters... The deans went to check the actual situation of those monsters. But as a long-time reporter, I can easily judge the difference between rumors and facts. In my opinion, the reliability of this rumor is very high!”

”Heh... I don’t know how reliable it is, but I do know that you have only been a reporter for less than two months.” Zhang Ji Xin snorted coldly.

In the midst of their conversation, the group had already arrived in the cafeteria.

”Who knows!” Xiao Xiao finally shrugged, changing the subject, ”But one thing is certain, for a period of time, the school cafeteria will offer a lot of fish-related food—the Wenchuan Fish with seeds is very delicious.”

As he said this, he pointed at the menu on the glass window.

Steamed fish, boiled fish, braised fish, grilled fish fillet, fried fish balls, stewed fish soup, sour fish soup, spicy fish cubes and so on, as far as the eye could see, all the meat dishes on the rack are made from Wenchuan Fish.

It could be seen that the school’s work committee had done a great job in controlling the cafeteria costs.

”I don’t care.” Zheng Qing scanned the assortment of fish dishes on the rack, and said dispiritedly, ”As long as the cafeteria doesn’t skin mice and make dishes out of them, I can accept anything.”

The others looked at each other and then burst into laughter.