I'm a Little Curious

"Wizard?" Zheng Qing thought of the little girl from earlier, a wave of toothache hitting him. "I could barely accept it if you said Daoist."

"Including Chinese Daoists, monks, and Confucian scholars, the Holy See's monks and priests, Japan's Onmyoji and ninjas, India's Brahmin monks, Egypt's priests, America's psychics, and even non-biological entities like vampires, werewolves, fierce ghosts, and spirits, they are all actually considered wizards. It's just that due to historical reasons, different names have emerged."

Zheng Qing blinked, finding it very interesting. "You mentioned earlier that First University is a wizarding university, so does that mean there are also wizarding middle schools and wizarding elementary schools?"

"Correct!" Thomas nodded, his emerald green eyes calm and clear, his face showing no hint of joking.

"Do you know Hogwarts?" Zheng Qing asked with a smile.

"Of course, outstanding graduates of Hogwarts have always been able to enter the Alpha College of First University without an entrance exam." Thomas's eyes showed a hint of surprise. "You know this college too? Do you have friends there? If I heard correctly, a little girl on the road just now also mentioned the name of this school. Hogwarts is an ancient middle school located in Britain. I attended middle school in America at 'Super Genius.' In fact, apart from recruiting new students and some international exchange and cooperation, First University doesn't have much connection with these middle schools."

"What's the date today?" Zheng Qing interrupted Thomas's endless explanation, his face pulled down as he looked at the shiny-haired guy in front of him, his eyes full of suspicion. "It doesn't seem to be April Fool's Day."

"You don't believe me?" Thomas raised his eyebrows.

"I'm just a bit curious. It's not that I don't believe these, well, these supernatural things..."

"This isn't supernatural at all. Isn't this a natural thing?" Thomas interrupted sternly. "For wizards, everything is natural."

"What I mean is, I mean, I never attended any wizarding elementary school, wizarding middle school... The mere fact that this is a university and not an elementary school says a lot. Do you expect someone who doesn't even know basic arithmetic to be able to prove '1+1'? I'm not Harry Potter!" Zheng Qing waved his hands anxiously, explaining in a hurried tone.

"Who is Harry Potter? I've heard his name several times today." Thomas looked utterly bewildered but still answered very seriously, "Also, isn't one plus one two?"

"Are you an alien?" Zheng Qing's eyes widened.

"To be precise, I do have some alien bloodline." Thomas frowned and replied earnestly but somewhat reluctantly, "But I don't recommend you ask other students like that at school, it's very impolite... If it weren't for the school's rule that interviewers must answer students' questions, I wouldn't bother with your unreasonable demands."

A server from the tea house came over with a teapot to refill their water and also replaced the dried fruit platter.

Zheng Qing picked out a peanut, cracked the shell, and popped the peanut into his mouth. While chewing, he shifted his body slightly, changing his sitting posture. He felt that the conversation between them was very strange. He needed to move a bit to adjust his mindset.

"How did you find me?" Zheng Qing changed the subject after watching the server leave.

Thomas's raised eyebrows and gaze swept over Zheng Qing's head, as if he found the question as laughable as the cowlick on top of his head.

Zheng Qing looked around. The waiters stood behind the counter with numb smiles, and the few sparse customers were engrossed in their cups. The entire tea house seemed exceptionally quiet.

He picked up his teacup, took a sip of tea, and rephrased his question: "I mean, how did you know I was a wizard?"

Thomas still looked confused, as if he still didn't understand what Zheng Qing was talking about.

"I mean, I don't remember registering at First University." Zheng Qing carefully rephrased his question again. "And I've emphasized since just now that I never attended wizarding kindergarten, elementary school, or middle school. I have hundreds of classmates who can testify that for over a decade from elementary to high school, I've always stayed within a two-block radius."

"Oh," Thomas said, suddenly understanding, then he looked at Zheng Qing with a very strange expression and said, "But you have the ability to cast spells, right... It's like you completed elementary and middle school at an unconventional school, and once your abilities were sufficient, you were naturally added to the school's roster."

"Also, you participated in the independent enrollment exam organized by First University," Thomas took out a piece of paper, handed it to Zheng Qing, and smiled with satisfaction. "I have your transcript for the Global Wizarding College Entrance Examination here. The maximum score was 500, and you got 480, ranking second among this year's newcomers, an excellent score!"

Saying that, he picked up his teacup, took a sip of tea, nodded at the stunned Zheng Qing, and gave him an encouraging smile.

Zheng Qing vaguely recalled the night he found Poseidon's mother.

Before being woken up by someone in the KTV, he was running with a black cat in his dream, then was led into the depths of a dense forest, entered a building, and was pushed into an examination room by a handsome young girl to take a bizarre exam.

"I always thought that was a dream." Zheng Qing felt like an idiot.

"That was indeed an exam in a dream. There's no faster way to gather all the candidates than in a dream." Thomas shook his head. "From Alaska to the Himalayas, candidates are spread all over the world, and the school doesn't have that many pumpkin carriages to send you."

"You use pumpkin carriages to go out?" Zheng Qing grinned.

"That's a rhetorical device." Thomas took a deep breath. "You can think of it as a dark joke."

"Then could you introduce me to this... First University?"

"Just like its name, First University is the number one ranked university in the wizarding world." Thomas didn't refuse. After a moment of thought, he began to speak eloquently:

"The education students receive at this school is the most optimal education, verified by many Archmages: Sky Script that can travel the universe, spellcasting that encompasses various magical arts, the preparation of various magical potions, and a higher-level understanding of the world's origins, as well as a broader understanding of our history. It can be said that this school synthesizes all the world's most excellent knowledge and imparts it to the next generation."

"The school has a very long history, but there is still some disagreement about the exact founding date."

"First University developed on the foundation of Jiuyou Academy. Originally, there were only a few specialized departments, such as the Department of Arcane Arts, the Department of Potions, the Department of Alchemy, and so on; however, with the development of the times, three hundred years ago, the then Joint Council of Professors, after several years of discussion, finally united several excellent academies in the wizarding world at that time to jointly establish the brand new First University. Although the school's influence has greatly expanded, internal disputes have also increased."

"For example, the dispute over the founding date. Some people insist on calculating from the time Jiuyou Academy was established, believing the school has been founded for thousands of years; others believe the school was truly established three hundred years ago, and Jiuyou Academy before that was incomparable to the current First University."

Thomas shook his head, took a sip of tea, and curled his lips, showing a look of disdain.