Friday was April 3rd, and the next day, Saturday, was Qingming Festival.
By tradition, this was a fixed holiday in the Wizarding World. First University would also grant a day off as usual, giving students enough time to mourn their ancestors, hang willow branches to welcome spring, and prevent Yin energy from surging up and ghosts from running rampant and harming students.
Of course, for students within First University, the latter reason sounded more like a joke. After all, throughout the entire Wizarding World, no ghost that dared harm First University students on First University's campus had ever been born.
Quite a few clubs took advantage of these traditions to set up haunted houses, fright mazes, and similar activities that day as team-building events to strengthen friendships among students.
But this year was different from previous years.
Since this year's Qingming Festival fell on Saturday, which was already a day off, the members of First University's Professor Joint Conference made the decision after a brief discussion not to grant an additional holiday for Qingming Festival and instead combine it with Saturday's break.
It had to be said that, for most students, this was dreadful news—about as dreadful as it could get.
A gloomy atmosphere had spread from friday night onward, shrouding the entire campus along with the drizzling rain. Yet no one knew whether it was because of the holiday or because the students were mourning the lost day off.
Early Saturday morning, Zheng Qing received his discharge papers from the nurse and, as usual, headed straight for Feiyuan to do his morning exercises. He had something else to do that morning as well.
But when he arrived beneath the tree where he usually did his morning exercises, he unexpectedly spotted Ilena.
"Morning!" the Gypsy witch greeted Zheng Qing enthusiastically.