Magic Restraint Steps

With hurried footsteps, a familiar figure appeared before Zheng Qing.

Jiang Yu held several thick reference books in her arms and hurried over to Li Meng. Perhaps because class was already over, she was no longer wearing Jiuyou Academy's scarlet robe, having changed into a dark red knitted dress instead. Its hem was not long, reaching only about her knees, and beneath it she wore a pair of knee-high boots of the same color. A gap of two or three inches lay between the boots and the hem, revealing a small stretch of fair skin that stood out sharply against the colors above and below.

Zheng Qing's gaze lingered on that small stretch of fair skin for a moment. Then it felt as though his eyes had been stung, and he hurriedly looked away, afraid someone would notice and think him "forward" or "impolite."

Above the hem, a broad black belt was fastened around the witch's waist. At the center of its front sat a slightly matte buckle. It looked somewhat like leather, though it might also have been some sort of jade insensitive to light.

Higher still, a long scarf hung around the witch's neck. Its smooth silk surface was embroidered with tiny gold and silver Runes, and faint halos of light occasionally swept across it—Zheng Qing had every reason to believe that this scarf did more than simply keep its wearer warm. Perhaps because she was in the library, Jiang Yu had not tied it, merely draping it around her neck so that it fell naturally down both sides of her body from her shoulders, revealing the V-shaped neckline of her knitted dress.

The young publicly funded student's gaze paused at that V-shaped neckline for a second, perhaps even less, before immediately shifting away and continuing upward. At