After leaving Qingqiu Mansion, Zheng Qing had felt dazed and muddleheaded.
So much so that he had nearly forgotten he still had a practical class that afternoon.
All afternoon, every movement he made carried an awkward sense of being out of control, like someone walking with the wrong arm and leg swinging together. During practical class, he turned the simplest "Ge Zhi Tan Xi" into "Ge Zhi Tan Yi" while chanting. The vines he summoned were as limp as cooked noodles, leaving more than half the class laughing helplessly.
Naturally, his absent-minded state also drew many scrutinizing and suspicious looks.
It was not until that night, when he lay in bed and tucked the Nightmare Doll beneath his pillow, that the young publicly funded student felt as if he had found a few "anchors" in life again and steadied his understanding of the world.
That brief "clothes-shopping" trip had been an enormous shock to the young wizard.
Before this, he had been quite confident in his wallet. Though it was not particularly well stocked, it still carried some weight. He had thought that while it could not compare to the deep accumulations of certain Wizarding Families, it should have been enough to let him live respectably in the Wizarding World.
Then reality viciously yanked his ear and roared at him, telling him what true "respectability" looked like.
"All right, no outsiders now."
The moment Fatty Xin returned to the dorm that evening, he impatiently grabbed the young publicly funded student by the collar. Waggling his brows, he pressed, "What did you do with Councilwoman Su at noon?"
Zheng Qing froze at the question.
If he remembered correctly, he had answered that question more than once today. Everyone in class, Xin included, had practically heard his answer already.
"Went to buy