The next day was Monday.
Although there had been a minor disturbance in the dorm last night, it had not affected the young scholarship student's body clock.
Just after six in the morning, Zheng Qing was still pushed awake by the force of habit, leaving Duke Zhou's Go board behind. Bleary-eyed, he yawned, pulled open the bed curtains, and prepared to get up for morning practice.
Then his foot froze in midair, half a foot above his shoes.
Because a dusty gray Doggy was squatting beside them, wagging his tail happily with a shoelace clenched in his mouth.
Zheng Qing held a yawn in his mouth and, for a long while, forgot whether he should open it or close it.
After a few strangled "heh heh" sounds, the young wizard suddenly snapped awake and kicked at Doggy. Unsurprisingly, he missed. Doggy stuck out his tongue, wagged his tail, and turned into a phantom that vanished before Zheng Qing's eyes. The shoelace in his mouth, meanwhile, dropped to the floor with a slap. Limp and soft, like a dead snake.
A second later, Doggy reappeared before Zheng Qing in a different spot—slightly more than a foot farther away than before—still enthusiastically sticking out his tongue and happily wagging his tail.
This guy was getting more and more proficient with that skill, the thought flashed through Zheng Qing's mind.
Then he realized his mistake.
"The dog is here! The dog is here!" the young scholarship student shouted. "That dog came again!! Everybody, get up! The dog is back!!"
Before his words had even faded, Doggy went poof and turned into a phantom again, disappearing before Zheng Qing.
The wizard stared at the empty floor in front of him, dumbfounded.
The others woke up because of his shouting and got out of bed