The Valentine's Day dance did not leave as deep an impression on Zheng Qing as his first Moon-Hunting Dance had.
Perhaps because he had grown accustomed to grand occasions, he felt a touch of aesthetic fatigue toward this small-scale dance organized by the Student Union. Neither the nymphs' singing nor the Nightglow Finches' dancing stirred much emotion in him. The only thing that remained in his mind was the Gypsy witch's radiant smile throughout the evening.
The second thing Zheng Qing found satisfying about this dance was that, when he danced with Ilena, they had finally not discussed philosophy as they had at the Moon-Hunting Dance. Thanks to his earlier discussion of cosmetics with Dylan, he had finally found a way into conversations with witches and behaved a little more naturally.
In short, it had been a victorious dance, a wonderful dance, a grand festival for the young witches and wizards of Jiuyou Academy.
After the revelry came nothing but exhaustion.
That exhaustion lingered all the way into the new semester's meeting the following evening.
February 15 was a weekend and the last day of winter break. As usual, the students of Jiuyou Academy had to attend their weekly class meeting.
Compared with the meetings from last semester, the only thing that made everyone feel relieved about today's meeting was that Old Yao had informed the students in advance through the two class monitors that no homework would be collected tonight. All assignments, including weekly journals, would be collected together at the meeting during the first week of the semester.
"This is the Academy giving everyone a little buffer period in consideration of post-holiday syndrome," Dunton explained when he announced the news to the boys.
But at the same time, he emphasized, "Anyone who hasn't finished their homework needs to