A daring idea...

"Applying for a job?"

Mu You gave Lin Xue a slightly odd look. "Which... position were you looking at?"

Lin Xue glanced back at the flyer before answering, "The veterinarian position."

"Oh? Can you handle it?"

The veterinarian position paid 2,000 more than a regular employee's, but the work wasn't all that different. Besides checking the animals' health each day, the vet still had to take care of their food, water, and toilet needs, just like any other shop assistant.

Mu You wasn't questioning whether she had veterinary qualifications. He was more doubtful about her ability to endure hard work.

Working in a pet shop wasn't something just anyone could handle. Every day meant long hours dealing with animal waste, shedding fur, scratches, bites, and all sorts of other problems. The job was dirty, hard, and exhausting, nothing like the pleasant image it presented on the surface.

Over his years running the shop, he had hired dozens of employees, if not a hundred. Most of the young people among them had been drawn in by the high wages he advertised, only to quit after a few days because they couldn't stand how dirty and tiring the work was.

Even ordinary people reacted that way, let alone the young woman before him, who clearly came from a very well-off family. It was only natural for Mu You to be skeptical when a fair-skinned, wealthy beauty with no need for money volunteered to work as a low-level shop assistant.

Faced with Mu You's doubts, Lin Xue opened her phone, found a photo, and showed it to him.

"The animal carcasses I usually dissect and handle are far more disgusting than anything I'd have to deal with here, so you don't need to worry about whether I can stomach it," Lin Xue said calmly.

Mu You glanced at the photo on her phone. It showed an Advanced Veterinary Qualification Certificate, with her name and details listed below: Lin Xue, Nansheng Medical University, veterinary medicine, class of 2018.

Seeing the certificate, Mu You finally caught on. A top graduate from Nansheng Medical University... Could she be the fellow alumna Zhao Qian had referred to him?

Mu You was pleasantly surprised.

He had assumed Zhao Qian had only mentioned it out of politeness that day and hadn't held out much hope himself. Who would have thought she was so reliable that she actually sent a classmate his way...

"All right, you're hired!"

With that connection, Mu You had no reason to hesitate. He made the decision on the spot.

"The pay and benefits will be as listed on the flyer. Any problems with that?" Mu You asked.

Lin Xue glanced at the recruitment flyer again and nodded. "That's fine."

"All right, come with me."

Mu You was decisive. Having suddenly hired such an outstanding graduate, he made no attempt to play it cool and immediately put her to work.

First, he sent Lin Xue to give every animal in the shop a checkup, especially Cola!

At least Mu You had personally picked all the other animals from the Pet Conservation Base, and they all had quarantine certificates.

Cola was the only exception. As an American Shorthair from another world, he had never received any vaccinations, and there was no telling whether he carried any otherworldly germs.

Mu You had already been thinking about taking him for a full examination sometime. Now that he had hired a veterinarian of his own, of course he arranged one immediately.

Lin Xue seemed to understand what Mu You was thinking. She gave the other little animals only brief examinations, but paid special attention to Cola. Using the equipment left behind by the shop's previous vet, she took blood samples and performed a rectal examination, stool tests, nasal examinations, mucous membrane examinations... dozens of detailed checks in all!

Her final conclusion was that everything was normal. This American Shorthair couldn't have been healthier.

The only potential issue was that he hadn't been vaccinated yet, so he needed to receive the full course of the Feline Triple Vaccine and the Rabies Vaccine as soon as possible.

That conclusion put Mu You at ease. It seemed Cola's previous owner had taken very good care of him.

Cola, however, was trembling behind Mu You, clinging to his trouser leg and staring at Lin Xue in terror. "Mu You, who is this woman? Is she going to take over our territory?"

"What do you mean, take over? She's an employee here, just like Xiao Ya. She'll be coming to work every day," Mu You told him quietly. Cola's words were directed only at Mu You. Naturally, nobody else could understand him; all they heard was a series of meows.

"No!" Cola let out an anguished howl, rubbing against Mu You's calf over and over. "This woman is terrifying! Mu You, hurry up and chase her away!"

"In your dreams. I'm paying good money for this doctor. From now on, you're getting a full checkup every month!" Mu You said with a cold laugh.

"???"

Cola felt as though a bolt of lightning had struck him out of a clear sky. The thought of getting poked in the butt and having his blood drawn every month made him feel like he was falling apart.

At six that evening, the pet shop closed for the day.

After seeing his two employees off, Mu You returned to the shop and finished the closing tasks.

He dawdled for a while longer, then waited until it was completely dark before taking out his phone and launching Fool!

Although he hadn't managed to locate the Witch over the weekend, Mu You reckoned he was close. He had already explored more than half the map. Unless his luck was particularly bad, he should be able to find her today.

Sure enough, just after logging in and moving his character a couple of steps, the prompt he had been waiting for finally appeared.

[You follow the narrow, winding path along the edge of the village. Just as the darkness is about to swallow you, you finally spot a building with a pointed roof standing amid flower beds in a corner at the western end of the village. Black and blood-red Demon Petals grow all around it. Four large characters carved into the broom sculpture on the roof proclaim the building's identity-"Witch's House"!]

[The Witch, an expert in potionology and witchcraft, has mastered thousands of spells. The potions she brews have helped many villagers regain their health, while her poisons strike terror into the Werewolf. She is the village's guardian deity and the Werewolf's nemesis!]

"Finally!"

Mu You let out a long breath. The Witch actually lived at the western end of the village, while his house was in the east, placing them at opposite ends of the longest diagonal. No wonder it had taken him two whole days to find her.

Still, shouldn't a witch, presumably the most powerful and esteemed person in the entire village, be living somewhere less remote? Was this really fitting?

Shaking his head, Mu You hurriedly moved his character forward to "knock," ready to pay a proper visit to this legendary Witch.

It would be even better if he could become her apprentice on the spot, learning magic from her, then how to make poisons...

As long as he could learn the Witch's skills, he would never have to fear that Werewolf again, even in the real world!

[You knock on the Witch's door, but unfortunately, there is no response. Perhaps you could try returning at another time.]

"Huh?"

Mu You frowned at the prompt that appeared in the game. What did that mean? Was the Witch not home?

Unwilling to give up, he knocked several more times, but the result was always the same. The same prompt kept appearing, telling him to return at another time.

"You've got to be kidding..."

Mu You was speechless. After finally finding the Witch's House at the cost of so much stamina, she wasn't even home? And it didn't say when she would return, either. Was he supposed to come here every day, making repeated visits just to meet her?

"I'll just have to come back tomorrow with the book and take another look..."

Mu You shook his head helplessly and prepared to move his character away.

But just then, something occurred to him.

"Wait, not home..."

Remembering the new spell he had obtained a couple of days earlier, Mu You suddenly had a daring idea.