High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2728: Chapter 949: Little Trouble

”Why didn’t you raise your hand when Professor Li asked about the ’Gnostic’ sect?”

After the divination class, Zheng Qing took the time to ask Xiao Xiao about the issue that had been bothering him for half the class, before the hour changed: ”Don’t tell me you don’t know the term Gnostic... you were the one who told me about the various aspects of the ’Gospel of Judas’ back then.”

Xiao Xiao was slowly wiping his brass telescope—students need to perform immediate maintenance on the equipment they used for practical lessons like this one.

”Why should I have raised my hand?”

The diviner of the Yuzui Hunting Team rolled his eyes subtly and pouted: ”Previously, I only told you about the ’Gospel of Judas’ without mentioning the Gnostics; you should have thought of it... The Observer Family dislikes the Gnostic sect’s ’gnosis,’ believing that they’ve extended ’epistemology’ to an unnecessary extent. Too deep, too wide, too dangerous.”

He used three ’toos’ in a row to emphasize their family’s attitude towards the heretical sect. Seeing that Zheng Qing still looked a bit puzzled, he forcefully simplified the explanation:

”... Apart from the ’knowledge’ that the professor mentioned, in ancient Greek, ’Gnostic’ also implies ’skilled at knowing.’ Just like me, ’skilled at knowing.’ You can generally understand this opposing sentiment as ’Homophily repulsion.’

While speaking, the PhD student dipped the velvet cloth in kerosene again, then glanced sideways at the contemplative Zheng Qing: ”Additionally, rather than worrying about why I didn’t raise my hand, I think you should consider how to explain the incident of entering the school hospital to Jiang Yu from the day before yesterday. Witches tend to be particularly pedantic about these matters.”

As he brought up Jiang Yu.

Zheng Qing’s face fell immediately, glancing at another telescope unconsciously.

Jiang Yu was right behind him, wiping the telescope stand alongside Li Meng.

He hadn’t told Jiang Yu about the incident when Thomas dragged him away on Saturday night. From his perspective, it’s better to avoid trouble and spare the witch distress over something that’s already resolved—it’s not a gentleman’s thing.

Besides, her academic workload was even heavier than his.

”Men should bear the troubles, you’re doing it just right.” Xin Fat Man eagerly joined in, patting Zheng Qing on the shoulder with wet paws: ”...I support Mr. Zha in this matter!”

Zheng Qing frowned, carefully avoiding his pig hoof.

Xiao Xiao, however, sharply pointed out the Fat Wizard’s avoidance: ”The key issue is not that he didn’t tell Jiang Yu about the matter, but that Jiang Yu heard about it from Su Councilor!”

Zheng Qing let out a heavy sigh.

Xiao Xiao was spot on.

Sunday night, he skipped the class meeting, Jiang Yu sent him a paper crane at the time. Since Zhongqing had just returned from the school hospital investigation by the school works committee, and the next day was Monday, he vaguely said he was on ’assistant duty’ to spare her unnecessary worry.

As a result, the next afternoon during class, Su Ya informed him in the classroom that he had to go to the mansion for dinner on Tuesday night; the lady had found the best healer in Qingqiu to check him up.

”Heard you were taken by a black wizard to have your blood drawn and flesh cut? You don’t seem much changed!”

The Little Fox Maid sized up the young assistant in the corridor with a curious face: ”Tell me what the black wizard looks like? The three Great Elves in your family are extremely curious... If not for the lady stopping them, they’d have come along with me today!”

Zheng Qing had reason to believe that the three Great Elves in his family weren’t curious; they were worried about him.

But now was not the time to get hung up on wording, he urgently needed to end this topic and urged the Little Fox Maid to hurry back: ”I got it, I got it, we’ll discuss this tomorrow night...”

”I’m not in a hurry to leave, Li Meng said she found a new four-leaf clover she wants to show me.”

Su Ya was obviously not happy to return early, having trouble getting out: ”You start telling me which part of your flesh was cut by the black wizard? Poseidon is convinced it was from your butt...”

Saying that, she kept sneaking glances at Zheng Qing’s butt.

Zheng Qing gritted his teeth.

Considering whether or not to pay a price to make this troublemaker leave quickly.

The abrupt voice of Jiang Yu came from behind: ”What did you guys say about the black wizard, cutting flesh and drawing blood? Who was kidnapped?”

Zheng Qing swiftly turned around.

Just in time to see the witch standing at the doorway.

Noticing the boy’s startled expression, she frowned, and with a cold demeanor, added: ”—Sorry, I didn’t intentionally listen to you. Li Meng is completing her assignments, so she asked me to come out and give this four-leaf clover to Su Ya.”

With that, she tossed an amber to the Little Fox Maid.

A beautiful four-leaf clover lay quietly within the transparent amber.

Upon receiving the gift, Su Ya squinted instantly, her furry ears perked up above her hair, happily explaining: ”Hey, it’s nothing serious, just that Zheng Zha was taken by a black wizard the night before last. As the lady mentioned, he was again... um um...”

Zheng Qing pulled a cake from the grey cloth bag and stuffed it into the Little Fox Maid’s mouth.

He felt his luck had been drained by that four-leaf clover.

The good news was Su Ya’s attention seemed to have shifted to the cake, forgetting to continue; the bad news was Jiang Yu, being clever, easily inferred the general situation from the context.

She gazed at Zheng Qing quietly.

Sizing him up.

She didn’t utter another word, just slightly nodded before turning back into the classroom.

Sometimes, silence is more terrifying than scolding.

When Zheng Qing sent away the troubled spirit back to the classroom, the witch was wholly focused on guiding Li Meng with her homework; when Zheng Qing passed her desk, she lowered her head and seriously reviewed her studies; after class, as soon as the professor stood up, she followed him out of the classroom.

By then, Zheng Qing hadn’t seen her face straight-on for nearly twenty hours.

Xiao Xiao was the first to notice the subtle tension between them.

Which led to his previous advice.

”So what do you think I should do?” Zheng Qing scratched his head, feeling quite troubled.

”Apologize, apologize—there’s no meaningless reason for the ’apology’ to come with ’apologize.’”

Xiao Xiao squeezed the velvet into his hand, then pulled out a rose, waving it in front of Zheng Qing: ”No need for overly precious gifts, but it must be sincere!”

Zheng Qing pondered thoughtfully.

Turning back, Jiang Yu’s figure had disappeared from beside the brass telescope, leaving Li Meng alone wiping the tall stand weakly.

”She left when you two were chatting.” The Fat Wizard noticed Zheng Qing’s roaming gaze and reminded him: ”If you chase now, you should be able to catch up!”

”Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” Zheng Qing threw the cloth into the fat man’s arms and hurried out.

The Fat Wizard exchanged a glance with the PhD student, pleading innocence, and shrugged: ”—He didn’t ask me!”