High School of Demon Hunting

Chapter 2269: Chapter 490: Childhood

To avoid damaging the tip of the Fox Tail Brush, Zheng Qing chose a rather unremarkable fox hair from the edge of the pen’s base.

Just like that strand of hair.

The fox hair turned to ashes between the fingers of the young scholarship student, transforming into a subtle wisp of energy, which the warlock gradually infused into the Moonlight Box. The whole process was steady and quiet.

In contrast to his roommates who had their eyes wide open to observe the transformation process, Zheng Qing kept his eyes closed the entire time, wholeheartedly visualizing Su Shijun’s appearance, demeanor, and aura in his mind.

Having looked at Su Shijun up close several times without her glasses on left a very deep impression on Zheng Qing—it surprised him how vividly her image appeared in his mind, almost as if she were alive. He even had the illusion that the witch in his consciousness seemed to know she was being visualized and was looking at him with a teasing gaze.

The startled warlock instinctively opened his eyes.

At that very moment, he heard the exclamations of Xiao Xiao and Xin Fat Man by his side.

”What happened?”

”Why did it shrink!”

In a hurry, Zheng Qing looked at the Moonlight Box and saw, under the transparent crystal cover, that the witch, once tall and slender, had now become tiny. Her beautiful long dress now appeared oversized and cumbersome on her smaller frame, but appearance-wise, she was evidently a greatly shrunken version of Su Shijun.

Or rather, she looked just like Su Shijun in her childhood.

The three warlocks looked at each other in dismay.

”Were you not focused when you were visualizing just now?”

”Maybe that fox hair was too small and didn’t provide enough aura?”

Xiao Xiao and Xin Fat Man successively proposed their guesses. Zheng Qing furrowed his brows, pondered for a moment, and finally picked up the Fox Tail Brush again, carefully plucking another fox hair.

This time, after the aura was introduced, the witch within the box changed again—the pretty yet ill-fitting long dress disappeared, transforming into a well-fitting, blue-and-white dress. White lace ruffles adorned the blue satin, resembling waves on the sea.

”This isn’t Su Councilor.”

Xiao Xiao scrutinized the little witch inside the box who had lively fox ears and a fluffy large tail, once again giving his judgment with great caution.

”Indeed, it’s not.” The Fat Wizard pinched his chin, eyeing the green apple on the desk.

Zheng Qing remained expressionless.

At the feet of the witch in every Moonlight Box, there were two vague clouds of mist, used to accommodate the ’additional mental consciousness’ of the visualization target—for example, when Zheng Qing visualized Jiang Yu, those two clouds of mist turned into a pair of small cats, one black and one white—but this time, at the feet of the ’Su Shijun’ he visualized, was a black cat and a four-tailed fox.

Inside the crystal cover, the ’Su Shijun’ sat unladylike on the grass, laughing heartily, one hand tugging the black cat’s tail and the other the fox’s tail, tying them together into a pretty bow.

This was definitely something the Upper House Member from the Moon Council could never do.

Sixty jade coins.

Just thinking about this number made Zheng Qing’s face twitch involuntarily. How many times would someone have to burn straw dolls or participate in hunting contests, or act as a shady intermediary to earn that much! The scholarship for a year was only ten jade coins!

Realizing that he had spent a large sum of jade coins only to end up with two unusable gifts, Zheng Qing felt a surge of anger and dizziness. This feeling intensified when he saw the ’Su Shijun’ in the crystal cover crawling randomly on the grass, her fair face smeared with dirt, and her black hair tangled with grass clippings.

”That’s why you shouldn’t go for flashy things,”

The Fat Wizard, who had somehow retreated back to his bed, hugged Tuan Tuan and commented earnestly: ”If you had given a big bouquet of roses on Christmas Eve or a few beautiful magic stone ornaments this morning, who could find fault with that?”

This statement fully exposed the Fat Wizard’s lack of experience.

He didn’t even know about Zheng Qing’s thrilling experiences the previous Christmas Eve.

”What do you plan to do?” Although this question appeared to be a query, Xiao Xiao’s face clearly showed the expression of ’ask me quickly’ and ’I have something to say’.

Zheng Qing tugged at the corner of his mouth and asked obligingly, ”What do you think?”

The diviner of the Absolution Hunting Team confidently adjusted his glasses and first clarified: ”It might not be suitable to give them away, but keeping them is absolutely not viable... That Moonlight Box from Poseidon would be reasonable to keep, but as for the one from Li Meng, what’s the idea in collecting it?”

He didn’t play games, directly saying what everyone tacitly understood.

”So what?” Zheng Qing nodded slightly, deep in thought.

”So, just go with the plan and deliver them directly.” Doctor Xiao, appearing experienced, suggested, ”Sometimes, the value of a gift is not in the veneer, but in the thought. You could include a card with the gift explaining the reasons and circumstances. They might even find these two gifts more interesting because of it.”

...

...

There were less than fifteen minutes before the start of the afternoon practical class.

Zheng Qing stood in a small grove outside Green Valley, holding a card above his head and waving it left and right—this was the card given to him by a Little Red Riding Hood outside the Huck Brothers Watch Shop at noon.

In past years, students exchanged gifts in one of three ways: either bravely presenting them face-to-face amidst the jeers and teasing of others; finding a wandering snowman on campus, stuffing the gift into the snowman’s belly, and inserting a paper crane symbol into its head. The snowman would then follow the paper crane’s guidance to deliver the gift to the witch; or by handing the gift to ’Santa Claus’ for delivery.

The ’Santa Claus’ here wasn’t a real bearded old man, but a temporary worker hired by the school.

For example, last year, the school bought a batch of pumpkin carriages from the Greenhill Mansion and hired a group of Big Mice from the Rat Immortal to deliver gifts while wearing pointed hats.

The reason they used mice last year was partly because they were cheap, and partly because it was the Year of the Rat, making them fit perfectly with First University’s pursuit of ’harmonious unity’ among the four colleges.

This year was different.

This year was the Year of the Ox. The school couldn’t find enough little oxen suitable to pull carriages, nor could they find enough Minotaurs to act as messengers—most Minotaurs were too rough and bulky, which might psychologically terrify many young wizards if they were used to deliver gifts.

Bam!

A flash of red darted out of the air, passed over the card that Zheng Qing raised high, and crashed heavily into the snowbank in front of the young scholarship student. A rotund pumpkin carriage landed in a most ungainly manner with its backside sticking out of the snowbank, its black wheels still spinning squeakily in the air.

The moment of hesitation for the warlock allowed several rabbits to scramble out of the snowbank, greedily breathing the fresh air. One rabbit even had a half-eaten carrot in its mouth.