You Are a Wizard

Thomas was the name of Zheng Qing's interviewer.

He was a young German man, with blond hair and blue eyes, tall and fair-skinned, his eyelids slightly drooping, and his eye sockets sunken. His straight nose made his entire face appear more angular. He wore a well-fitting suit, meticulously tailored, complemented by a deep red tie and polished leather shoes, making him look like a successful businessman.

After checking the admission letter, Thomas didn't linger with Zheng Qing's family. Instead, he suggested that Zheng Qing show him around the city.

Zheng's parents seemed completely unsuspecting and entrusted their son to the stranger with complete confidence.

Standing dumbfounded on the street, Zheng Qing watched the man constantly flipping through a map in his hands. He subtly wiped away some sweat and asked, "Mr. Thomas, where are you planning to go?"

"I need to figure out how to get to your local marketplace," Thomas replied, frowning as he stared at the map, counting on his fingers. "At university, you'll need to learn to live independently and prepare many things. Also, just like in middle school, you'll need to get some basic textbooks, stationery, lab supplies, and so on. The marketplace has everything, and the shops there offer discounts before the semester starts, which would be very cost-effective for you."

"But..." Zheng Qing glanced at the enormous supermarket behind them, feeling increasingly confused. "Aren't there stationery stores everywhere on the street? The largest warehouse supermarket in Pingyang is right behind us."

"Supermarket?" Thomas was taken aback, his eyebrows shooting up. "You bought things at this supermarket when you went to school before?"

As he spoke, he turned around and carefully examined the bustling supermarket across the street.

"I usually buy at the stationery store at the school entrance," Zheng Qing explained with a lack of confidence, his cowlick standing on end. "I mean, this supermarket has a lot of things, and it should have some stationery I need."

"Where did you go to middle school?" Thomas narrowed his eyes, still scrutinizing the supermarket.

"Pingyang No. 1 High School, a provincial key school." Zheng Qing felt a little more confident saying this.

"No, no, no, I mean, where did you actually go to middle school?"

"It's on Yizhong Road. We just passed by our high school entrance a moment ago."

"Excuse me, I mean, have you ever attended a more special school?" Thomas finally turned back, looking somewhat surprised. He gestured comically with the map in his hand, muttering, "A special one?"

"No!" Zheng Qing denied outright. "Unless you consider a key high school a special school."

"Could there be a problem with the system?" Thomas put away the map and took out a phone-like device from his pocket. He scanned Zheng Qing from head to toe, the machine's beeping sound accompanying its movement.

Zheng Qing looked around awkwardly, feeling a bit lost.

"No problem!" After fiddling for a while, Thomas carefully examined the device in his hand and nodded reassuringly, then shook his head. "If the person is fine, then it's another troublesome matter."

"Troublesome matter?" Zheng Qing sounded a bit nervous and asked cautiously, "Mr. Thomas, should I tell my parents? Or my grandpa?"

"Oh, no need, no need," Thomas said, shaking his head repeatedly. He looked at Zheng Qing, then at the large envelope in his hand, and sighed. "I just need to find a place to talk with you... As expected, being an interviewer isn't an easy job... Let's go to that tea house over there. I don't like coffee, do you?"

"Either is fine," Zheng Qing replied suspiciously, following him. He couldn't shake the feeling that this well-dressed guy was a con artist.

"I suspect you've never attended a Wizard School before," Thomas said sternly to Zheng Qing as they walked towards the tea house.

"Wizard School?" Zheng Qing seemed to freeze for a moment, his voice involuntarily rising a few octaves.

"Wizard School? Are you talking about stories from Harry Potter?" A passing girl, about twelve or thirteen years old, seemed to have overheard Zheng Qing's words. She excitedly approached them. "I'm a big Harry Potter fan too! What are you talking about? Magical creatures? Magical Quidditch? A piece of Hogwarts' school history? Or The Tales of Beedle the Bard? I have all of those."

Zheng Qing was startled by the sudden voice and stared at the little girl with wide glasses perched on her nose. After a long moment, he came to his senses, gave a dry laugh, and shook his head vigorously. Thomas, on the other hand, looked at the girl with curiosity.

Blushing, the girl mumbled a few words and then hopped away.

Zheng Qing closed the cover of his pocket watch. Twelve minutes and thirty-four seconds had passed.

He and Thomas were now sitting in a tea house in the middle section of Pingyang Road, with Thomas sitting opposite him, flipping through a newspaper.

They had been sitting there for twelve minutes and thirty-four seconds, and Thomas had been engrossed in his thick newspaper the entire time.

Zheng Qing held his teacup with both hands, sipping the pale green tea, and cautiously peeked at the newspaper opposite him.

On the back of the newspaper was a small news item with a striking headline: "Witch Alliance Committee Expresses Dissatisfaction with Dark Blue Castle."

"...At the press conference, Huang Shi, spokesperson for the Witch Alliance Committee, revealed that during a recent special operation to crack down on illegal laboratories, abnormal dimensional fluctuations were detected in the Dark Blue Castle. As of the reporter's deadline, Chief Justice Sam Marshall of the Wizard Court had signed a comprehensive search warrant for the Dark Blue Castle... The Wizard Alliance reiterated its concern over dimensional fluctuation experiments and stated that the Alliance will continue to strictly review laboratories involved in 'Dimensional Convergence' without prior notification..."

Zheng Qing couldn't understand any of the newspaper's content.

He dejectedly watched Thomas put down the newspaper and take out a pen to start writing and drawing.

The two sat in silence, letting time flow by, the atmosphere a little awkward.

"What are you calculating?" Zheng Qing finally found something to talk about.

"Odds," Thomas replied without looking up, continuing his calculations. "The World Cup is halfway through. Although the Golden Star Team is still in the lead, the Flamingo Team is showing strong momentum. They've successfully killed the Wild Demon King first in three consecutive matches. Every few years, there are these dark horse hunting teams. If I can bet on this one correctly, I can put aside these annoying chores for the next two years and focus on preparing for the multi-dimensional magic fluctuation interference experiment under the conditions of the Secret Garden Space."

"Are you talking about betting on soccer?" Zheng Qing asked him blankly.

Thomas glanced at him and continued to bury his head in calculating his odds.

Bored, Zheng Qing blew on his tea, trying to recall the strange events of the day and piece together a plausible conclusion.

After a while, seeing Thomas finally put away his newspaper, Zheng Qing quickly spoke up, "Regarding the Wizard School you mentioned earlier, I don't quite understand."

Thomas looked down, carefully examining the tea leaves in his cup. Then, frowning, he raised his eyes and looked closely at Zheng Qing opposite him.

Those pair of emerald green eyes looked somewhat familiar to Zheng Qing.

"You are a wizard," he said drily to Zheng Qing.