High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 1138: Chapter 200: Wild Birds Enter the Room

The Calming Charm was the focus of last term’s study, and everyone in the class could recite the method of its drawing by heart. It was also tested in the final exam papers, and almost no one lost any marks on this charm.

Zheng Qing didn’t know why Teacher Zhang singled him out to answer such a question.

But that didn’t stop him from answering it.

”There are two key points when drawing the Calming Charm. First, when moving on to the second step, the tip of the brush should be lifted from the upper right. Second, the final horizontal stroke of the sixth step of the drawing must go from the upper right to the lower left. It can be left blank, but it must not be fully connected in one stroke to prevent the energy from being locked in.”

”Also, if the pen is lifted too early in the third step, the final stroke is also likely to block the charm’s energy point...”

Zheng Qing stood up and spoke confidently and clearly, listing the key points, difficulties, and common errors of the Calming Charm in just a moment.

Teacher Zhang nodded with satisfaction.

”Very good, that was an excellent answer.” As he spoke, the teacher took out a scoring board and made a check: ”A ten-point reward, does anyone have any objections?”

There was a sudden uproar below, followed by a burst of laughter.

The uproar was because the teacher’s question had been too simple, not worth ten academic points at all, so everyone was surprised at the score awarded by the teacher. The subsequent laughter was because the classmates saw the encouraging gesture Teacher Zhang made to Zheng Qing.

Everyone immediately understood that this was the teacher’s silent encouragement to Zheng Qing.

Zheng Qing’s encounter during his Saturday night patrol by Lin Zhong Lake had already become a hot topic, and the school’s preliminary handling had spurred a wave of protests throughout the academy. At such a crucial moment, having a teacher from the school stand up and cheer for Zheng Qing was a huge encouragement to all the students.

Even if she only stood in the shadows of the rest of the students and secretly made an encouraging gesture, everyone could understand her caution.

Zheng Qing couldn’t help but break into a radiant smile on his face.

”Sit down, sit down.” Hearing the slightly noisy cheers in the classroom, Teacher Zhang became somewhat uncomfortable, gesturing repeatedly for Zheng Qing to sit down and, raising her voice to remind the students below: ”Since no one has any objections, I will start the lesson now... Does anyone not have their homework from the last class?”

”No—ody!” the students shouted in unison.

”Excellent.” The female lecturer revealed a satisfied smile: ”Then let’s start with the three examples from the last class...”

...

After returning to his seat, Zheng Qing slightly subdued his cheerful expression. He noticed Nicholas, sitting in another corner, looking pale and almost shrinking under his desk.

This gave him a slight sense of foreboding.

”What exactly happened?” Zheng Qing used his eyes to point in the direction of Nicholas and quietly asked his companion.

Xin Fat Man sighed softly and handed a copy of the Beta Town Post to Zheng Qing.

The page had been folded several times, leaving only a chunk of text the size of a block of tofu, in which a few sentences had been highlighted with a red feather pen. Beside it, the phrase ’Wild Birds Enter the Room’ was scrawled, remarkably eye-catching.

Zheng Qing knew this must be where the crux of the problem lay.

”...This freshman from Jiuyou Academy, who had studied at First University for many years, stated that he supports the Fishman Tribe expressing its legitimate rights, and suggested that they (referring to the Fishman Tribe) should not seek support from Alpha Academy.”

”’If they turn to Alpha for support, the whole thing changes,’ the student said, ’The Jiuyou student council will think these fishmen are deliberately causing trouble, trying to drag down the academy’s scores this year.’ (For more on the ranking battle for points between Jiuyou and Alpha Academy, please turn to the third page for the commentator’s article ’First University’s Score Evaluation System Urgently in Need of Reform’).”

”’The academy is indeed a bit too harsh on the fishmen; we think so privately. But we wouldn’t say this in public,’ the student emphasized. ’...Everyone also thinks that if the academy were to manage everything, there would be no point in having fishman reservations. But in reality, that’s impossible.’”

”’Some want Old Yao to step down, others want him to take a step further, to become the vice chancellor or some other position,’ the student ended with a laugh, ’So you see the chaos outside, it’s actually pretty filthy at its core.’ (For more on the internal power struggles at Jiuyou Academy, please turn to the fifth page ’Dialogue’ column.)”

”’Does the yearning for freedom and justice still need to consider timing and stance?’ In response to the journalist’s persistent questioning, the student did not answer directly, instead vaguely stating ’the academy has its demands’ and ’I can’t say more.’

”...’Don’t reveal my name,’ the student strongly requested at the end of the interview, ’I’ll get points deducted!’ As is well known, Jiuyou Academy has been widely criticized in the wizarding world for its policy that only scores matter, even its own graduates have repeatedly spoken out about the harm rigid education does to the new generation of wizards. It now appears that this educational system not only locks away the futures of these young wizards but also tries to block their current right to free expression, which is in stark contrast to Alpha Academy (for more discussion on Jiuyou Academy’s educational system, please turn to the ninth page.)”

Upon reaching this point, Zheng Qing didn’t bother to look for that ninth page, nor did he have the desire to continue reading.

”Utterly unoriginal.” The young state-funded student laughed disdainfully, crumpled the newspaper up casually, and tossed it to the ground: ”Catching at shadows, making a fuss over nothing, blindly following, unable to discern right from wrong, making a scene for no reason... pitiful... Why would anyone subscribe to such a thing!”

”If you don’t want to read it, just don’t read it, don’t throw it away,” Xin Fat Man muttered softly, mindful of Teacher Zhang’s glance from the podium, ”Such a waste, it’s not yours...”

With that, he laboriously bent down, picked up the crumpled paper ball Zheng Qing had made, and carefully unfolded it in the drawer, muttering, ”I still have to return it to someone...”

On the other side, after hearing Zheng Qing’s derisive laugh, Zhang Ji Xin also expressed a similar view.

”My brother also said,” the red-faced male wizard mouthed silently, eyes on the blackboard, ”The only progress Beta Town Post has made in recent years is significantly boosting Saint Mango’s performance... the number of readers suffering from heart attacks and cerebral infarctions increases every year.”

Hearing this, Zheng Qing couldn’t help but chuckle.

Then he immediately straightened his face and turned to look at Xiao Xiao.

”What’s the deal with Nicolas,” he glanced covertly at the corner on the other side of the classroom and sighed, ”how could he be so careless...”

Xiao Xiao grunted, ”I’ve said it more than once, there are three things at First University you can’t touch...”

”Unethical experiments, conflicts between clubs, and interviews by the Beta Town Post,” Zheng Qing raised his hand, answering eagerly while stressing, ”I know, Xin knows, the Elders know, even Lin Guo knows... but Nicolas might not. Did you tell him?”

”He has been in school for three years, how could he not know about this kind of thing?” Xiao Xiao retorted.

Zheng Qing was left speechless.