High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2776: Chapter 997: Four Letters

Knock, knock.

A rhythmic tapping came from outside the window, cutting off the discussion in the room.

The three people and two cats all turned their heads in unison to look over.

It was already late at night. Even with the moonlight, the glass window showed nothing but pitch-black darkness. Only the owner of that tapping sound was shrouded in a faint red glow, its shape exposed clearly.

It was a paper crane.

The nearest to the window, Xin Fat Man hurriedly got up and pulled the window open.

The paper crane flapped its wings, swooshed through the fat wizard’s armpit, circled the bright chandelier twice, then gracefully folded its wings and landed on Zheng Qing’s shoulder, pecking at his earlobe.

The boy hissed softly from the sting of pain and raised his hand to take the paper crane.

The moment the paper touched his fingers, Zheng Qing knew this was public stationery from the academy. When he opened it, the handwriting on it wasn’t sloppy either. Although there was no signature, as an officially employed teaching assistant of First University, Zheng Qing could easily recognize the handwriting as that of Zhang Yu, the acting leader of the Teaching Assistant Group.

The content of the letter was very simple.

”Don’t casually leave the guards’ line of sight, thanks for your trouble.”

This was a ”reminder.”

Zheng Qing stared at the last two characters of the letter—this ”辛苦” could be interpreted both as a polite phrase when troubling others, and as implying that once he left the guards’ sight, he would make things very辛苦 for them.

Such a short line, he read it four or five times.

While he was still weighing whether that ”辛苦” carried any other meaning, a thin black line appeared along the edge of the paper. In just the blink of an eye, the whole sheet silently turned into a handful of ashes in his palm.

”Whose letter?” The diviner of the Yuzui Hunting Team pushed his glasses up, fished out his crystal ball, and his eyes took on a hint of alertness.

”What letter? Do we need to report it to the school?”

Xin Fat Man’s reaction was significantly more dramatic. He quickly shuffled back a step, grabbed the Fat Cat still dozing on the table and tossed it onto the bed with one hand, while the other hand had already flipped open his Law book. At the same time, he carefully studied Zheng Qing’s expression, as if the next second the boy would burst into a blazing torch.

Zheng Qing could understand their sensitivity—after his relationship with Su Shijun was exposed last year, there was a period when floods of Curse letters and Roaring Letters flew toward Dorm 403, leaving a very deep impression on the few young wizards.

Feeling both helpless and amused, he suddenly felt a twinge of guilt about the temper he’d thrown tonight.

”It’s fine, just a reminder from the Teaching Assistant Group.”

He repeated the content of the letter in brief, and while he was explaining, he suddenly realized why Zhang Yu had sent him such a letter out of the blue: ”—I’m guessing it’s because when I went to that Seven Sins meeting tonight, I vanished from the guards’ line of sight for a stretch... probably scared them half to death.”

”Ah, yeah... if you’re on assignment and discover your target has disappeared again, just thinking about that is enough to sour your mood.”

The fat wizard smacked his lips and shook his head. ”If I were a Guard Team Member, I’d at least put a hex on you, make you lie in bed nice and obedient.”

Zheng Qing let out a heavy sigh.

Slumping his shoulders, he shuffled feebly over to the desk, pulled open a drawer, and took out a stack of stationery.

”He probably doesn’t need you to reply, right?” Xiao Xiao had clearly realized what Zheng Qing wanted to do and casually pushed the inkwell and pen rack from the corner of the desk over to him.

”Thanks.”

Zheng Qing picked out a neatly trimmed feather pen from the rack and dipped it into the inkwell. ”—Basic courtesy still matters... and I might have to write more than one letter.”

Despite what he said, the ink-laden feather pen hovered in midair for a long while without touching the paper.

Zheng Qing got stuck right at the first letter.

How should he start his reply to Zhang Yu—”Respected”? ”Dearly respected”? He definitely couldn’t use ”Dear.” Or should he just toss out all those annoying formalities and write, ”Hello, Leader Zhang Yu”? But since the other party hadn’t signed his letter, would it seem not very clever to spell out his identity so plainly in his reply?

Xin Fat Man leaned over and watched for quite a while, then finally shook his head and went back to correcting his manuscripts.

The feather pen twisted a little in the boy’s hand, as if reminding him not to fall asleep.

Zheng Qing pulled away the first sheet of paper and decided to write the second letter first. This one was relatively easier, since it was for someone familiar, so he didn’t need all those rules and formulas—

”Hope this finds you well. Tonight’s meeting with those devils was unpleasant; they’ve accepted an outside commission and intend to harm ’One, Two, Three,’ so I wanted to ask if you have any amulets suitable for the three of them. Your studies keep you very busy, so don’t trouble yourself to look on purpose; I just felt a bit upset thinking about this, so I wanted to talk to you. Tomorrow I’ll tell Old Yao about it. Also, there was no tinnitus today.”

Because he was worried the paper crane might be intercepted midway, he wrote the contents of this letter a bit vaguely, but Zheng Qing believed the recipient would easily understand what he was trying to convey.

After writing the last sentence, he paused, his gaze sliding over that piece of Obsidian. On the stone one could faintly see a patch of emerald boxwood leaf. The boy shook his head, dipped the feather pen into the inkwell again, and added—

”Also, the Gem Cat sneaked back tonight without going to the Cat Fruit Tree. Please apologize to the White Jade Cat for him and me, and tell her I’ve already turned that cat into Stone so it can reflect on its behavior.”

After folding this first paper crane, he laid out the third sheet of stationery.

He hesitated for a moment.

Dipped the pen in ink—

”Hope this finds you well. I once told you that I joined a small club at school; at tonight’s gathering, I learned that someone outside intends to harm ’One, Two, Three.’ For now we can’t track down who these people are, so the mansion side needs to strengthen their protection of the three of them. Also, the weather is getting hotter; please help me collect Dong Dong’s shed fur. Later, I can make a little doll for her.”

”Also, the Gem Cat saw the two of you sitting together tonight and was so scared it ran back. I’ve already turned it into Stone. Before I go to class tomorrow, I’ll tell it to go find Old Yao and talk about the ’One, Two, Three’ matter. If the Big Fox is still napping in Old Yao’s office at noon, please be sure to accept the Gem Cat’s apology.”

Writing up to this point, Zheng Qing scratched his head and suddenly felt that having a duplicate of himself wouldn’t be so bad.

Then came the last letter.

This one was for Old Yao.

Zheng Qing decided to take Xiao Xiao’s advice and escalate the matter of the Great Elves being coveted.

And the most accessible big shot he could think of—and also the one with the greatest energy—was the counselor of Astronomy Class 08-1, the dean of Jiuyou Academy, Legendary Wizard Professor Yao Xiaomi—

”Professor Yao, hello. I’ve heard some things that could endanger current students, and I’d like to report them to you in person tomorrow. I hope the school will thoroughly investigate this matter and protect the personal safety of the students. Yours respectfully, salute.”

Very few wizards write letters like this, and under normal circumstances, Zheng Qing wouldn’t need such fuss just to go find Old Yao. But tomorrow was Saturday; to avoid the Professor not being in his office, he felt he needed to give the Professor a slightly unconventional reminder.

As for the letter to Zhang Yu, after he finished the first three, he finally figured it out: there was no need to fuss over forms of address or signatures at all—the point was the content.

So this last reply was unusually concise—

”Received!”