High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1863: Chapter 84: I Wish I Were a Cat

From childhood to adulthood, Zheng Qing has experienced holidays like Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and New Year’s Eve.

Although the Qixi Festival includes the word ’Xi’, he has never seriously celebrated it. So when Xiao Xiao held a bouquet of flowers and elegantly distanced herself from them, Zheng Qing had a moment of confusion, several figures flashed in his mind, and he shivered involuntarily.

Should he do something too?

What was he doing during last year’s Qixi Festival?

He counted the days on his fingers — last year’s Qixi was on August 7th, just under two weeks after he received the acceptance letter from the First University. He had just followed Thomas to the Great Ming Pavilion to buy study supplies, and his mind was full of that bizarre new world, leaving no room for Qixi celebrations.

Moreover, no one celebrated Qixi with him.

For years, even over a decade prior, he had been a good socialist successor who learned well and progressed daily. Even if there was some ambiguous feeling between him and female classmates, it was just ’touching the emotions, stopping at propriety’. Qixi and the like were too excessive.

In comparison, his classmates back then preferred celebrating April 1st.

As for this year.

He struggled to recall what happened after the trial began, especially on the second day.

What did they do on the second day?

Oh, right, on the second day of the trial, Xin Fat Man used a magic potion he concocted to clean out a nest of Deng’s White Ants, picked the fattest ones, placed them on an iron plate, sprinkled spices, roasted them until fragrant and oily, and even shared a small plate with Zheng Qing.

However, Zheng Qing still hadn’t fully adapted to the old-school wizards’ preference for consuming frogs, insect beasts, and other bizarre foods, so he gave the plate of roasted white ants to Jiang Yu, as he noticed that the two witches in the team seemed to favor the Fat Wizard’s dark cuisine.

So that could count as having given a gift, the young cost student thought anxiously.

He raised his head and noticed Xin Fat Man looking at him with a sympathetic gaze.

”What?” The leader of the Absolution Hunting Team glared at the Fat Wizard irritably.

”Nothing.”

Xin Fat Man stroked his smooth chin, a touch of compassion in his voice: ”Initially, I envied your life of juggling several relationships, but today I suddenly understood the old saying — gains come with losses, fortunes intermingle with misfortunes — have you decided what gifts to give them? Something too ordinary won’t do, like Doctor — I bet he’s hiding a bunch of Sprites in his bouquet.”

Hiding Sprites that can sing in a bouquet is a widely used method — very old-school but quite practical. Just imagine, when a witch lifts a bouquet of roses, several exquisite, small, and adorable Sprites suddenly emerge, serenading beautiful love songs with their heavenly voices. How wonderful.

Of course, this only works for outgoing witches. If the recipient were shy and introverted, the Sprites would probably be tucked back into the flowers as soon as they appeared.

Zheng Qing’s mind flashed with these whimsical thoughts, yet he didn’t get angry at Xin Fat Man’s ’juggling several relationships’ remark, possibly because he had become numb to such nonsense from the Fat Man.

Bang!

The boy walking with his head down collided heavily with a thick wall of flesh, looked up, and realized it was Zhang Ji Xin ahead of him who had stopped.

”How many relationships is Mr. Zha juggling now?”

The red-faced male wizard tilted his head, looking at the others nearby — besides Zheng Qing and Xin, their group included Dylan from the same dormitory and Lin Guo, who often roamed around the pedestrian street. The two witches left the group at First Square to join other witches; Blue Bird, being cold-natured, wasn’t fond of socializing; and Monk Shi Yuan vanished as soon as he got off the plane.

”Jiang Da Headmaster, Elena, Sister Korma,” Fat Man counted on his fingers one by one, then added: ”... possibly a few female cats too; at the start of the school year, didn’t we help him drive away some female cats in heat? Maybe he was taken advantage of by some female cat before.”

Zheng Qing listened but had no energy to be angry.

”No cats, and no Sister Korma.” He waved his hand weakly, defending himself.

The Blood Werewolf suddenly flashed to his side, eyes gleaming: ”So there’s Jiang Yu and Elena?”

The young cost student paused, unsure how to respond.

”What’s the situation with Elena? Are you still in contact? Are you two in a long-distance relationship?” Xin Fat Man unleashed his journalist talent, firing a barrage of questions like a machine gun: ”I heard from other Gypsy exchange students that the witches’ group has decided to expel her, without specifying why... Is she coming this semester?”

Zheng Qing increasingly fell silent.

Due to some reasons that couldn’t be disclosed, Elena’s incident was not announced by the school authorities to everyone, with most only knowing that she temporarily took a break due to health reasons. After some time had passed and rumors had spread, letting her withdraw quietly made it less noticeable.

The young cost student instinctively glanced back in the direction of San You Bookstore.

Months ago, in that bookstore, he saw the small tree protected by the Mister in a transparent ball — during the initial period, he visited the bookstore three times a week to seek out the Mister and inquire about Elena, but was turned away each time.

Gradually, as his studies intensified, combined with his reverence for the Mister, his visits to the bookstore dwindled. Thinking back, the last time he recalled Elena, he couldn’t remember when exactly — or perhaps the main reason was Jiang Yu, prompting Zheng Qing to subconsciously avoid the thought.

The Yellow Flowered Cat of the bookstore once told him that he had already ’died once’ and shouldn’t involve past grudges in this life. It said this because Zheng Qing approached it asking for the dried fish it stole from his home the previous winter.

While this statement indeed absolved it from returning the dried fish, more importantly, it made Zheng Qing feel justified and comfortable with his current choices — Elena was something from his ’previous life’.

”I remember you gave Elena a Talisman Scroll for Valentine’s Day in February; you can’t give the same thing this time.”

Dylan pointed to a brightly branded store at the street corner: ”Like I mentioned before, the ’Jango - The Scarlet Witch’ series sold in Linjinghua are the best gifts for witches.”

Jango - The Scarlet Witch is a lipstick brand popular with young witches. But Mister Wolfman didn’t know that the Gypsy witch no longer used lipstick.

Zheng Qing’s mood plummeted.

Somehow, his mind flashed to a Haruki Murakami quote — like a cat, pleasing only oneself, ignoring others, life might be more exciting.

He really wished he could turn into a cat right now.