"Raise your hand?"
Not only Jiang Yu but Zheng Qing too looked at the Black Gemstone Cat in surprise, unsure what he meant.
The Black Gemstone Cat returned the boy's gaze with utter disdain—Zheng Qing suddenly felt something peculiar, as though he were looking into a funhouse mirror—and then heard the Black Gemstone Cat explain to Jiang Yu, "I mean, when Professor Li asked about Ear Worms' weaknesses and what their secretions do... I thought you ought to know... after all, Li Meng attracts bugs all the time, so you must know plenty about them. But why didn't you raise your hand?"
"Oh, that."
The witch brushed back the long hair hanging beside her ear, took the Black Gemstone Cat by the scruff, and set him back on Zheng Qing's shoulder. She smiled at the boy and the cat. "—Would you believe me if I said I wasn't paying attention to what the professor was saying just now?"
The Black Cat twitched his ears.
Zheng Qing obediently nodded.
Although the explanation sounded very unreasonable, it was, in fact, the most reasonable explanation of all. As for what the witch had been thinking about instead of listening to the teacher, one look at her smiling face robbed Zheng Qing of the courage to ask.
The teaching building was not far from the Hundred Herb Garden the students often visited.
Soon, the low, two-story building came into the young wizards' view.
The flimsy, dilapidated arched gate, the dark nameplate, the openwork runes in the stone wall, the gray plaster peeling at its corners, and everything else seemed frozen in time, exactly as Zheng Qing remembered them from his first visit to the Hundred Herb Garden.
"Let's get moving, everyone."
Professor Li had already changed into his dragonhide protective gear. His gaze swept