Chapter 1077
Hesta's sudden change greatly piqued Stella's interest. She could not help turning around, trying to find what had rendered Hesta abruptly speechless.
Tulan had already stepped through the door with a massive backpack a head taller than she was slung over her back. Behind her, a girl even more slight than Jahadorei followed closely at her heels.
Hesta's gaze passed over the two of them and continued to fix on the night over the open ground outside.
"Jane!" Tulan called to her. "What are you looking at? I'm here!"
Only then did Hesta come back to herself. "...Ligo just said you had a friend—"
"This is Qizhen." Tulan took half a step back, gripped the girl's shoulders with both hands, and nudged her half a step forward. "Her field is technological anthropology. We lived together the whole time we were in District 1."
Only then did Hesta lower her gaze and focus on the unfamiliar face before her. This young girl named Qizhen looked only slightly taller than Silei. She wore sandals with a slight wedge heel, a long skirt that fell to her calves, and medium-length curls whose ends rested in shallow curls over her shoulders. A woven straw hat hung down her back, making her look like a tourist who had just returned from the beach.
"...Oh, welcome." Hesta's expression quickly returned to normal. "Anthropology?"
"Qizhen just finished defending her doctorate," Tulan said. "When she heard I was coming to District 12, she came along. She can only stay here until autumn, though, and then she has to go back to District 1."
"Have you already found a position?" Stella asked.
"I'll be doing a postdoc in the anthropology department at Arent University for a while." Qizhen looked a little shy. "As for what I'll do