Zheng Qing staggered through the crowd.
He saw those three pairs of bright, sparkling eyes again, filled with curiosity and anticipation. Dazed for a moment, he finally came to his senses, grabbed the onlooking Xiao Xiao, and gave a rapid-fire instruction:
"Take them back to Qingqiu Mansion! Right now!"
Without waiting for Doctor to nod, he turned to the three Great Sprites, lowered his voice, and stressed his words slightly. "...You need to listen to Xiao Xiao's arrangements. Go back to the mansion immediately! I'll come see you this weekend."
"Awoo!"
"Okay!"
"No problem!"
Amid the clamor, the three Great Sprites obediently agreed. Hugging their little schoolbags, they lined up neatly behind Xiao Xiao, drawing a string of complaints from Li Meng and Fatty Xin.
Naturally, Zheng Qing had no time to deal with the two live treasures' grumbling.
He followed Jiang Yu and ran a long way until there was no one around.
"Let's convert time here."
The witch unfolded her spellbook. After checking that there was nothing unusual nearby, she immediately took out her hourglass and looked at Zheng Qing. "We wasted a few minutes just now, so we need to hurry... I noticed this place when I passed by this afternoon. There's no one around, so it's safe to convert time here... Whatever you have to say, say it three and a half hours ago."
Before she finished speaking, she inverted the Time Conversion Hourglass and vanished completely amid a suppressed yet Dazzling glow.
Strictly speaking, what Jiang Yu had done violated the rules—whether converting time in front of others or casually doing it in an empty clearing in the wilderness, both carried great risks.
But right now, there was only Zheng Qing nearby, and Zheng Qing felt that she had a perfectly unreasonable reason for doing