Comrade's Pet Shop

Pet Street had no unpleasant smell. The witches seemed all the more determined to keep the environment pleasant in places like this.

Jiang Han looked around curiously, following behind her younger sister as she turned this way and that until they reached a fairly large square. The ground was paved with bread bricks. Jiang Han did not know what bread bricks were like in this world, but in her original world, this kind of concrete bread brick was the type used in the Soviet Union's Red Square. Back in the eighties, whenever people in China talked about building a square or a park, designers would blindly use Soviet-style designs as reference.

In this world's terms, it should probably be called, "All Sky Islands were built by copying the Soviet Union."

Come to think of it, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it had brought New China countless top-tier technological experts and badly needed heavy-industry specialists. That was why domestic architecture during this period carried a bit of Soviet blood.

Jiang Han sighed wistfully, then saw her sister pick a shop beside the square and walk inside. Jiang Han followed her in and found a foreign clerk with pale golden hair and blue eyes standing beside her sister. She wore a beige-gray uniform, a short skirt, and tall boots. She did not look much like a waitress or shop clerk; she looked more like a soldier heading to the battlefield. Her back was ramrod straight, and her smile was warm.

"Comrade!" she asked Jiang Zhenling in Mandarin with a strange accent and heavily rolled r's. "What kind of pet are you looking to buy? Our shop has imports from different regions—Poland, Ukraine, the Great Motherland... but nothing from America."

Jiang Han watched her sister walk over and give the clerk a hug. "Comrade, I'm here to buy a pet for my sister."

"I see, dear comrade. Would you like to browse on your own, or would you like me to show you around?"

"Could you introduce them to me?" As soon as Jiang Han spoke, the clerk sprang into action and marched right over to her.

Jiang Han noticed that this Soviet witch comrade was exquisitely pretty and tall, blonde and blue-eyed—she practically met every requirement her younger sister had for a future wife... yet her sister did not seem especially attentive toward her. Little Comrade Jiang Zhenling stood at the doorway, chewing on the cotton candy she had not finished, watching the scenery outside. Like an ironclad straight girl, she did not even come in to join the fun.

Sis, you'll never find yourself a wife acting like that... Jiang Han grumbled inwardly.

The refined Slavic clerk smiled and asked, "Comrade, do you prefer a larger pet or a smaller one?"

"A smaller one." Jiang Han remembered Jiang Zhenling's instructions.

Jiang Han was led to a cage. It was a somewhat old-fashioned iron cage, and inside was what appeared to be some kind of eagle.

She was not sure whether it was actually an eagle, because it had three pairs of wings. Its beak bore pale ice-blue patterns, and a faint blue glow seeped from its golden eagle eyes. It had a vicious temperament. After noticing Jiang Han staring at it for a while, it beat its wings against the iron bars, releasing pale icy ripples around itself. The air in the shop abruptly dropped several degrees...

"Bitch!"

The clerk blurted out a classic Russian curse, threw open the cage, and smashed her fist viciously into the eagle's head. A thud mixed with a crunch rang out, as though something had broken.

"Fuck, you moron!"

She cursed again, casually drew out her wand, paused for two or three seconds before chanting a spell, then waved her wand and scattered pale gray light over the eagle sprawled inside the cage. The eagle shakily got back to its feet and became much more obedient. Only then did the clerk close the cage door in satisfaction. Looking at the stunned Jiang Han as if nothing had happened, she introduced it:

"A Caucasian Hunting Falcon. A fierce bird-beast. Not only can it deliver letters, it can also hunt enemies like a professional assassin. Its sturdy ice shield can withstand .45-caliber rifle fire; against automatic rifles from the Motherland, it can even take one or two magazines. It can also learn simple Hydro School spells. At most, it can learn defensive spells up to Level 3 and other spells up to Level 2 within the Hydro School."

Since she did not know how the clerk's schools and spell levels were classified, Jiang Han simply nodded obediently, humming and smiling, occasionally tilting her head to bluff her way through. She looked like a good student who had no idea what the math teacher was talking about, her eyes full of both thirst for knowledge and the instinct to survive.

"Most importantly, it uses mana cautiously and very economically. It suits witches who enjoy precise control over their mana expenditure."

Look at how well she put it. Someone else might have said its mana pool was small, but she had spun it into "liking precise mana control." She really was sales material.

Jiang Han asked curiously, "Were you using healing magic just now?"

The clerk answered just as curiously, "Comrade, that was a Transmutation School spell. Most witch students take Transmutation School as an elective."

Seeing that this comrade was talkative—the sort who seemed open and forthright but could keep her curiosity in check—Jiang Han began slipping her questions in indirectly. She toured the various strange animals with the clerk while secretly learning as much as she could. The clerk answered what she knew and did not answer what she did not, responsibly behaving like a wealthy overseas returnee sponsoring a female student: gentle and chatty, occasionally slipping in a Soviet joke that made Jiang Han cover her mouth and laugh.

Seeing that Jiang Han only half understood common knowledge, the clerk took her hand and made a suggestion. "Dear comrade, how about I conduct a physical examination for you and see exactly how much mana you have? That way, I can better help you find a suitable pet."

Since she did not understand, Jiang Han asked her sister outside the shop first. Only after receiving her approval did she undergo the examination.

Jiang Han sat in a chair in the shop's inner room. Beside her stood a crude machine as tall as two people, made of gears and copper wires.

Jiang Zhenling, who had followed them in, glanced over the shop and suddenly spoke. "You even have an Elemental Analyzer? And two Liquid Mana Refiners as well? Comrade, that's almost illegal."

"People often forget their own total mana capacity, so our shop keeps such tools on hand." The clerk flashed a radiant smile. "Besides, it is only close to illegal. As long as you do not install the sampler, it is legal."

Listening to this, Jiang Han felt the machine was a little like helicopter deals in her previous life. Remove the weapons, and it was a humanitarian rescue helicopter; sell it, reinstall the weapons, and it instantly became an attack helicopter.

The clerk entered several parameters into the machine. Jiang Han suddenly felt as though she had been placed in a bath, her body surrounded by water in an extraordinarily strange sensation.

"This is an instrument I brought from the Motherland. All its standards are Soviet standards, so the results will need to be converted into Chinese..." the clerk said as she typed.

"The Soviet Union measures mana in coulombs, right?" Jiang Zhenling asked.

"Mm. Below 145 coulombs makes one a Weak Witch. Converted to your calculations, that means below 300 millicoulombs is a Weak Witch, below 900 millicoulombs is a witch, and below 1,500 millicoulombs is strong... oh, I forgot, your country has no other classifications. Roughly speaking, above 20,000 millicoulombs makes one an Archwitch in your country."

Another uncountable question had been solved.

Jiang Han waited patiently. Once the results came out, Comrade Jiang Zhenling grabbed them first and looked them over. She frowned as she read out several numbers, then suddenly looked at Jiang Han with the eyes of a philosopher.

That gaze was so profound, it was practically cross-eyed.

After reading the results, the clerk comrade gave Jiang Zhenling a strange look.

Her eyes were filled with confusion and questions.

The expressions, movements, and looks shared by these two women were too frightening. Jiang Han asked softly, "Is there a problem?"

Her words were like pressing a computer's power switch. Her sister and the clerk seemed to wake up at the same time, staring at each other for half a second. Seeing that Jiang Zhenling had no intention of speaking, the clerk took over.

"It's nothing. It's just that your total mana capacity... is preliminarily calculated at 18,400 millicoulombs, infinitely close to the minimum threshold for an Archwitch."

Jiang Han understood. This meant she was talented and close to becoming an Archwitch. "Then am I unhealthy? Your expressions..."

"No, no, no."

"You're very healthy. You've just developed rather well..." The Slavic clerk secretly glanced at Jiang Han's chest, quietly muttered "developed rather well" again, then professionally continued, "A witch's development period is divided into three stages. From age zero to eighteen is the first development period. The second begins at twenty-six and ends at thirty-six. Only some witches experience the final development period, from forty-six to fifty. Mana grows rapidly only during development periods; at all other times, it grows very slowly. That is why most Archwitches only become Archwitches at around thirty. It is rare for someone like you to be close to the threshold just after finishing her first development period."

Comrade Jiang Zhenling's words, meanwhile, were rather more chilling:

"I'm wondering whether Mother Ye cheated or Mother Jiang cheated. Otherwise, this is impossible... Eighteen thousand. The combined total across three generations of our family might not even be that high."

"Bullshit!"

Jiang Han hurriedly put an end to her sister's disrespectful thoughts.