High School of Demon Hunting

The first weekend after the Start of Summer, pouring rain.

If the spring breeze in March is like scissors, then the gale in May is a machete.

Chopping the entire World into pieces.

The rain of May already has a bit of summer’s passion. Before dawn, bean-sized raindrops were already clattering against the window glass, playing a lullaby for the young Wizards still asleep.

There was no class today.

Zheng Qing finally slept in for once.

It wasn’t until Dylan, who’d had a late-night class, came back to the dorm drenched from head to toe that he slowly rolled down from the Six-pillar bed and shuffled toward the washroom. Fatty Cat Tuan Tuan, rare for once, hadn’t curled itself into a ball, but was standing on the Fat Wizard’s chair, tiptoeing on its paws, tail hanging down, forehead pressed to the glass, gazing deeply at the rain outside.

"What are you looking at?"

When Zheng Qing, toothbrush in mouth, was driven out of the washroom by Dylan, he found the Fat Cat still standing by the window. Curious, he couldn’t help leaning his head next to the cat’s and looking out.

The curtain of rain connected Heaven and earth like a huge brush, painting the whole World a murky gray. There were barely any people in the campus, but a few small animals were happily frolicking in the rain.

Following the Fat Cat’s line of sight, Zheng Qing happened to see a few Flower Cats playing and roughhousing in the rain. Those cats looked familiar; he vaguely remembered they were also Cat Fruits from the Cat Fruit Tree.

He tilted his head and gave the Fat Cat a look.

"Men, huh."

He shook his head, mouth full of foam, mumbling with feeling — in the cat world, the multicolored Flower Cat coat is the very definition of pretty. Flower Cats to ordinary toms are what Victoria’s Secret Angels are to loser guys, and those Flower Cats cavorting in the rain were like beauties in skimpy outfits at a water-splashing festival or bikini girls on the beach.

No wonder the Fat Cat was so absorbed.

"I suspect those few cats are trying to seduce you." From across the desk, Doctor Xiao, who was bent over writing, suddenly looked up and tossed out a possibility that made Zheng Qing’s heart skip a beat: "—Never seen cats play in the rain before."

"Nonsense!" The boy was so startled he immediately rapped his knuckles on the desk.

Bang!

The washroom door was pushed open forcefully by Mister Wolfman the Blood Werewolf. While toweling his much cleaner but still dripping hair, he started complaining about Zheng Qing without any politeness: "—If I hadn’t come back you still wouldn’t get up! You’ve got thirty-six hours in a day, you really gotta fight me for these few minutes?"

He was talking about the two of them clashing over wash-up time.

"I only have thirty-six hours a day when I have class." After spitting out the foam in his mouth, Zheng Qing stuck his head back out and carefully corrected him: "It’s the weekend today; I only have twenty-four hours..."

"Hurry up and let those few female cats downstairs drag you off already..." A vicious Curse drifted over from in front of the dressing mirror where Dylan stood.

"What’s got his temper so bad today?" When Zheng Qing came out of the washroom, wiping his hands, he couldn’t help asking Xiao Xiao, "Normally even if you snatch his drumstick, he’s still in a good mood..."

"Probably because of that old divination." A lazy voice drifted from the Fat Wizard’s bed behind him.

"What divination?"

"The gentleman dug out a divination he had done when he was a kid a few days ago. It said that when he’s one thousand three hundred and fifty years old, he’ll hit a hurdle. If he gets past it, his prospects are limitless; if he doesn’t, he’ll end up beset by troubles inside and out..."

"One thousand three hundred and fifty years old?"

"Which is this year..."

Zheng Qing couldn’t help shaking his head. Leaving aside how much credibility Dylan’s age still had after all his bullshitting, just the fact that a childhood divination could see something so detailed was suspicious enough. He glanced up at Mister Wolfman the Blood Werewolf’s bed and half-jokingly said, "What hurdle? Your coffin’s rotting?"

Dylan didn’t pay any mind to Zheng Qing’s teasing.

After carefully wiping clean that pair of pretty little fangs in front of the dressing mirror, he turned around and gave him a once-over: "Where’s your cat? The one that turned from a gemstone? Doesn’t it come back every morning?"

"It came back yesterday afternoon."

Thinking of the message the Black Gem Cat had brought back yesterday afternoon, Zheng Qing scratched his head a little — the good news was, the Black Gem Cat had seen Old Yao yesterday; the bad news was, Old Yao had politely refused to be a bodyguard for the three Great Elves, merely suggesting that Zheng Qing apply for help from the School Works Committee; fortunately, Su Daxu very boldly took on this task, so the Black Gem Cat didn’t return empty-pawed.

But then again.

Zheng Qing figured that with the capabilities of a Legendary Wizard, since she already knew about the trouble those three Great Elves were in, there was no way she would just stand by and watch when they were in danger.

This more or less counted as an open conspiracy.

Coming back to himself, Zheng Qing jerked his chin toward the window and clicked his tongue: "Also, with the rain coming down that hard outside, you really expect a cat to brave the storm to come back to the dorm? I’d bet anything it’s curled up napping somewhere dry and warm right now... If it hadn’t stayed out, I wouldn’t have slept in this late either!"

The fact that his transformed clone could be used as a kind of stamina potion was something all the young Wizards in Dorm 403 already knew. But hearing him blame his laziness on a cat still made Xiao Xiao shake his head hard.

"What are you shaking your head for?!" Zheng Qing shot the Diviner a dirty look.

"It reminded me of what Li Meng said about you when she came to chat yesterday." Xiao Xiao pushed up his glasses.

"You can actually keep a conversation going with that little brat?" Dylan was instantly impressed.

Zheng Qing, by contrast, was much more curious about what the Little Witch had said, his tone unconsciously tinged with a bit of wariness: "Her? Commenting on me? No way she said anything good..."

"It’s not really bad, actually; it’s fairly objective."

Xiao Xiao tapped his Feather Pen against the Parchment in front of him: "It’s just that she used a pretty interesting metaphor. She said you’re like a sugarcane her cousin bought recently..."

"Sugarcane? Sweet? Upright and full of backbone?" Zheng Qing was completely lost.

Xiao Xiao gave him a long, meaningful look: "No, it’s sweet when you’re eating it, but once you’re done, your mouth’s full of pulp... So yesterday when she came to me, she wanted to ask how the Alchemy Workshop usually disposes of sugarcane pulp."

Zheng Qing’s face instantly went dark.

Sure enough, you really couldn’t place any faith in that little minx.

"What did you tell her?" The drowsy Fat Wizard suddenly perked up with interest, forcing his eyelids open to ask.

"What else could I say?" Doctor Xiao shrugged. "There are only so many uses for sugarcane pulp: papermaking, composting, brewing... I got the feeling Li Meng was particularly interested in the composting method."

Zheng Qing finally couldn’t take any more.

"What are you writing, anyway? You’ve been busy since early this morning..." He abruptly yanked the topic away, craning his neck to glance at the Parchment by Xiao Xiao’s hand. Besides dense lines of tiny characters, there were all sorts of charts and diagrams, looking extremely complicated.

"A paper on the metamorphosis of your Sprites." Xiao Xiao cheerfully closed the previous topic and, without the slightest attempt to hide it, naturally pushed the manuscript toward Zheng Qing. "—It’d be a shame not to organize it properly."

"You actually put pen to paper?"

Hearing that, Zheng Qing was genuinely surprised.