Weekend

She woke up feeling dazed.

She walked to the bathroom, covering her face in a state of utter listlessness.

Finally—the ecological jet lag between the normal Earth and the Witch Earth had caught up with her. After spending nearly a month in this world, Jiang Han's biological clock had finally malfunctioned.

Staring at her haggard reflection in the mirror with panda eyes, Jiang Han felt an extreme sense of physical discomfort.

--"Witches are all night owls."

Hmm... Jiang Han's eyelids stung a little, and she felt an involuntary urge to close her eyes and sleep. However, she braced herself against the sink, trying to stay awake, though she regretted that it was difficult for a person to remain conscious on willpower alone.

Consequently, her gaze landed on the faucet in the shower stall. Looking at the blue handle that symbolized 'cold', a few words surfaced in her mind:

"If a person isn't ruthless, they can't stand firm."

She reached out and twisted the blue handle. Icy water sprayed out from the showerhead. She stripped off her clothes in a few quick motions, covered her mouth with both hands, and dove into the shower.

"Woooooo!!"

--She let out a pathetic sound while taking a cold shower early in the morning.

The cold shower helped her perk up. Returning to her room, she skillfully pulled on her pantyhose, applied lipstick in front of the mirror, and turned her back to it to carefully fasten her bra. She then turned around, slipped into her black-ice colored witch robe, made a super lame peace sign, and spoke in a tough-guy voice:

"I'm cute again."

Regrettably, her own appearance, which leaned toward delicate and cool-toned, did not suit the description of 'cute'.

Looking like the second female lead who descended from the heavens, successfully defeated the first blonde female lead, and then walked down the aisle with the male lead—a total victory! Jiang Han silently mocked herself, put on her slippers, and walked out the door.

There was no sound coming from the room next door; it was as quiet as an alleyway in the dead of night.

"Zhenling isn't awake yet? Strange, she has always liked to wake up ten minutes early."

Jiang Han walked to her sister's door, gave a light cough, curled her index and middle fingers, and tapped on the door twice with her knuckles.

Knock, knock.

The room was silent for a moment before some faint, cluttered noises arose. Then, after a while, footsteps sounded, dragging toward the door.

The door opened, and Jiang Zhenling stood behind it.

Her long black hair was draped over her shoulders in a messy, chaotic state. Her slightly pale skin looked lifeless, and her large, bloodshot eyes stared over, as if she might hit her sister with a Fireball or an even worse spell in the next second—perhaps that description was too long-winded; simply put:

Her eyes were filled with killing intent.

She didn't say a word, just stared quietly at her sister.

Being stared at by her sister with that kind of gaze, Jiang Han maintained her composure and said, "It's almost seven-thirty. We have to be at the tutoring center by eight."

After she finished speaking, the surrounding air seemed to grow colder.

Jiang Zhenling clenched her fists expressionlessly, the corners of her mouth twitching slightly. It seemed she was gritting her molars, her facial muscles tensed, and those large eyes narrowed slightly. She stepped forward two paces and turned Jiang Han around so her back was facing her.

Smack!

After the smack, Jiang Han felt a burning pain in her butt and stumbled forward two steps. When she turned her head back, she only felt a gust of wind before seeing the door slam shut with a bang! Then came her sister's voice, suppressing a murderous desire:

"It's the weekend, the tutoring center isn't even open!"

Rubbing her aching butt, Jiang Han limped back to her room.

Sis, you've put a bit too many points into the Strength attribute for your mage build... Jiang Han gasped. Although she understood how angry one could be when woken up on a morning they didn't have to work, her sister's slap was a bit too painful—it felt like she was trying to kill her. Could it be that she had morning grumpiness?

Jiang Han had made a blunder. She had originally wanted to take a nap, but she found that the cold shower had worked too well; she didn't have a shred of sleepiness left.

She walked out of the room again and went downstairs. The house was quiet at this hour.

She saw a few letters placed at the entrance of the house.

Witch mail was only delivered at 3:00 AM, so being a courier was also a 'night shift job' for witches. It was said that the income was quite good, and the post office had a unique point system to attract witches to apply, along with unique spells and occasionally low-priced, high-value materials.

It was just a pity that this was a profession that required a G-class broom license... A G-class high-speed broom license required one to be at least 25 years old to take the test. Therefore, Jiang Han couldn't consider this job; she was only 18 this year.

Jiang Han walked over and collected the letters;

"Pathfinder Association—For Ms. Jiang and Ms. Ye. Hmm, sounds like some kind of mountaineering club, or perhaps a Folded Space Exploration Association."

"South City Sixth Avenue Employee Office—For Ms. Jiang."

A string of letters were for her two mothers. Jiang Han didn't intend to peek at their contents; she simply sorted them and placed them on the shoe cabinet in the entryway.

"Du Xueqing—For Zhenling."

"Lin Xin—For classmate Zhenling."

The next few letters were for her sister. Jiang Han guessed that her sister must be very popular at school.

The last two were for herself.

"Dream Garden South City Elite Witch Academy—For Ms. Jiang Han."

She opened it directly. It contained a bunch of nonsense like 'Welcome to join us', 'We are extremely delighted by this', and 'This is a great honor'.

After that came the meat of the matter: 'Free provision of common spells from levels 0-3 owned by Dream Garden', '40% off rare spells', 'Free provision of multiple rare spells during instruction', and '2 and 1 free spells for levels 4 and 5 respectively each month.' The investment was heavy. Dream Garden valued Jiang Han, an Archwitch who had just turned 18 and still had plenty of room for her magic power to grow, extremely highly.

Unfortunately... a witch's investment usually only consisted of 'knowledge' and 'spells', and rarely 'money'...

Even many school scholarship systems only offer rewards like "free tuition" or "a few free spells," rarely providing actual monetary support. Needless to say, this is another unique habit of domestic witch cultivation; if you want money, you have to earn it yourself.

Inside the letter from Dream Garden was a small pendant.

The pendant consisted of a silver Möbius strip and a faceless, hooded witch figurine crafted from mithril. It was exquisite and beautiful, carrying a faint trace of magic. The letter also provided an explanation for it:

"A pendant with fire-resistant properties."

"A pendant crafted since the inception of Dream Garden, symbolizing the identity of Dream Garden witches who actively participate in Dragon Hunt activities."

"Even for an ordinary witch, holding it allows one to obtain desired knowledge within the Dream Garden library."

As for the fire resistance, judging by the magic sensed from the pendant, the effect might not be very significant, but having something is better than nothing. Jiang Han put the pendant on directly and felt a lukewarm magic cover the surface of her body.

The second letter was from an unfamiliar name:

"To Ms. Jiang Han — from Sang Haixin."

After confirming she had never heard this name before, Jiang Han hesitated for half a second before opening the letter: since it was addressed to her, it must be for her.

The letter paper had a faint smoky scent, and the handwriting was quite elegant:

"To Ms. Jiang Han:

I hope you are well, Ms. Jiang. We met by chance at the South City market the other day, and I exchanged oranges for your mailing address. Thinking back on it, it was truly an intrusion.

I happened to acquire a few pots of heart-oranges today and have prepared fine tea. I hope you might join me to taste them.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely, Sang Haixin.

P.S. If you are interested in meeting, I shall await your arrival at the Appleton Hotel."

It was that witch who sold oranges. Jiang Han's mouth twitched. The letter would have been fine if not for the last sentence, but with that addition, it could be "simply translated" immediately.

A simple translation of the letter's meaning would be: Hey pretty girl, want to hook up?

Not hooking up, not hooking up, good girls don't hook up...

Jiang Han put the letter away and sighed. The thought of having to write a reply to this cultured female hooligan made her feel that life had lost much of its color.

After putting the letters away, she took out the business card from Witch House again to look at it, falling into deep thought.