High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2590: Chapter 811: Some Reports About Shanglin Garden

”...Zheng Qing achieved excellent results in both the 2008 and 2009 Campus Cup Hunting Competitions. He also performed well in various Spring and Winter Hunts organized by the school and participated in several secret missions with the Alliance... It is particularly noteworthy that the Atonement Hunting Team he formed was successfully promoted to become an officially registered hunting team within just eighteen months. These achievements might be one of the reasons he received an invitation to the Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt...”

Zheng Qing read the summary report of the Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt in the campus newspaper word by word and quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

Overall, the content of the report was relatively objective, listing the various hunting competitions he participated in after entering the First University, from the Campus Cup to the school’s Winter and Spring Hunts, as well as subtle mentions of the Black Prison War and the Trident Sword secret mission.

Although, due to confidentiality reasons, his contributions in many tasks were greatly underestimated, the comprehensive overview—such as the clear description of the Black Tide Counterattack battle his Atonement Hunting Team temporarily participated in Beta Town last spring—and a small list of these actions at the end of the report still gave readers the impression of a person worthy of his reputation, a talent of extraordinary caliber.

There were many similar articles.

For instance, analyzing the identities of this year’s Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt attendees, listing exciting moments from the event, or praising the charity evening following the hunt exhibition, and so on.

Zheng Qing didn’t skip a single one, reading each page carefully.

Aside from the campus newspaper, he didn’t miss any of the latest newspaper magazines he could collect, such as the Beta Town Post, the Daily Horn Newspaper, the Ganges Daily, and those by Miss Duo Duo.

The reason for this was partly because his identity in attending the Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt was somewhat subtle—he participated as Jiang Yu’s male companion, and if public opinion noticed this, he was somewhat worried about his personal safety; the other part was due to the events he encountered during the Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt.

This included pulling Tushan Chujiu’s tail on the Magic Stage, leaving her covered in dirt, dancing with a dozen witches at the Spring Hunt Ball, and the young mare from the Huizong Tribe, among others.

Zheng Qing had previously been interviewed by Ms. Pulitzer and Miss Barnes and was aware of the power of journalists’ ChunQiu style of writing. Thus, he could easily imagine how easy it would be for journalists from the Post (he saw several familiar faces at the Shanglin Garden) to create big news by exploiting topics.

Just like the challenge match between him and Tushan Chujiu, there were several angles to approach—Tushan Chujiu originated from Alpha, and Zheng Qing from Jiuyou Academy, the battle topic between Alpha and Jiuyou could immediately stir up the emotions of most students from the two academies; Tushan Chujiu originated from the Tushan clan of the fox race under the moon, which was always at odds with the Qingqiu clan, to which Zheng Qing happened to have a special relationship with the young leader of, so his actions on the Magic Stage could also be interpreted by outsiders as an internal power struggle within the moon fox clan; furthermore, Zheng Qing, being a warlock, dealing with a witch without any grace on the Magic Stage, if specifically reported, would also arouse discontent among the witch community, or even trigger complaints of sexual harassment due to him pulling Tushan Chujiu’s tail; and so on.

But after skimming through most of the latest newspapers, whether due to a misconception or not, Zheng Qing felt that the content related to him in all the reports became very ’conservative and cautious,’ which can no longer be considered ’objective,’ but can fully be described as ’courteous.’

This made him feel quite flattered.

More so, it was confusing.

”...The most important feature of talisman painting is ’distortion.’ This feature can be directly reflected in the composition and patterns of the talisman. We can see that every stroke of a standard talisman is very distorted... In the primitive era of witchcraft birth, wizards believed these distortions were the most truthful depiction of heaven and earth. According to Levi Strauss’s theory, one significant feature of primitive thinking is analogical thinking. So, originally, talismans embodied typical manifestations of analogical thinking...”

On the podium, Professor Zhang of the Fu Lu Class was monotonously reading from the content of ”Basic Talisman·University Sophomore” without seemingly noticing Mr. Zheng Qing, whose head was almost in the drawer below.

Even so, Zheng Qing lifted his eyelids while flipping through the newspapers, cautiously paying attention to the movements on the podium—a silly habit cultivated through years of strategizing against the podium in his long education journey.

Of course, the ’conservatism and courtesy’ of the reporting tone does not mean ’accuracy.’

Most of the content related to him regarding hunting and personal resumes was flawless, except for the description of interpersonal relationships, which contained many errors, and the content was somewhat subtle.

For example, one report in the ”Daily Horn Newspaper” concerning Zheng Qing concluded with—

”...Having won the Merlin Gold Medal, Zheng Qing began this semester by abandoning his usual low-key and cautious style, making a high-profile appearance at occasions like the Shanglin Garden Spring Hunt. He shocked the entire upper wizard world with his use of a thousand talismans in a challenge match, while maintaining close relationships with multiple witches. It’s reported that Miss Betsey Black of the Black Family, Miss Vivian O’Brien of the O’Brien Family, and Miss Jiang Yu from the Zhongshan Jiang Family, among other noble ladies, had intimate interactions with him at the Shanglin Garden banquet...”

The accompanying photo was a close-up of Zheng Qing dancing elegantly with Betsey on the dance floor, with the faint profile of Jiang Yu whispering to Vivian in the distance—she seemed delighted.

Zheng Qing couldn’t help but admire the photographer’s skill in capturing the moment for the Horn newspaper.

”Maintaining close relationships with multiple witches?”

How did they reach this ghostly conclusion? Does dancing count as a close relationship? Most of the witches listed in the article, Zheng Qing never even met before going to Shanglin Garden. If this logic were followed, all the warlocks at Shanglin Garden would be ’maintaining close relationships with multiple witches.’

Zheng Qing shook his head, squinted his eyes, and read the report once again, feeling something odd. But due to limited time, he eventually didn’t waste too much energy on this piece, turning to look at other reports and articles instead.

Simple sorting through.

The thing that made Zheng Qing most relieved was that the matter of Luna Huisu wanting to have a foal with him wasn’t spread around. He privately speculated that it was partly because very few people knew about it, and partly because the conservative and sensitive nature of the Huizong Tribe made journalists think carefully about Danghag’s deterrence before penning any gossip about them.

However, this stroke of luck lasted only one day.