Chapter Summaries

Twelve-year-old Lin Er woke up in her middle-school dormitory with a wizard set from a dream and confirmed that its magic was real. At school, she worked out how the wand and spells functioned and discovered it could borrow magic from a wizard who gave permission.

• Lin Er woke among her dormitory roommates and realized she had been reborn as a twelve-year-old middle-school student.
• Lin Er found a black magic book, a wand, and a broom in her suitcase, then used Scourgify and flew on the broom before hiding it under her bed.
• Lin Er returned to class and remembered how Xu Duoduo and Shi Meng had shared the crowded dormitory with her.
• Lin Er reviewed the spells recorded in her magic book and learned that her wand could cast only a few spells each day before recovering overnight.
• Lin Er realized that her wand could borrow magic from a wizard chosen by the same kind of wand, if that wizard gave permission.

Lin Er joined the between-class exercises and went to the restroom with Shi Meng before English class, reflecting on their past and the teachers who had watched over her. They returned to class, where Teacher Yang let them in without question, and Lin Er took her seat beside a boy who did not notice her.

• Lin Er followed Shi Meng during the first-years’ between-class exercises and remembered how Shi Meng had once been the first girl to accept her.
• Shi Meng caught Lin Er heading toward the restroom and hurried there with her before English class.
• While they waited, Lin Er reassured Shi Meng that she would explain their lateness and recalled the teachers and classmates who had been assigned to look after her and Xu Duoduo.
• Lin Er and Shi Meng returned to class, and Teacher Yang let them enter without asking why they were late.
• Lin Er sat in her usual seat beside a boy who continued whispering with someone behind him without noticing her.

Lin Er attended English class as she adjusted to life as a student again and hid her spellbook beneath her textbook. After class, she tested the book by writing in it, but her name vanished, and she startled her deskmate off their shared bench.

• Lin Er told her deskmate to move over as Teacher Yang began class in English.
• Teacher Yang announced that she would teach entirely in English, while Lin Er reflected on her memories of school and her former struggles with the subject.
• After class, Lin Er listened to her classmates gossip about their teachers and noticed the tall boy Jun Yang among them.
• Lin Er wrote her name in the blank spellbook, but the writing vanished.
• Lin Er sprang up in shock, tipping the bench and sending her deskmate tumbling to the floor.

Lin Er tried to communicate with the wizard connected to her magic book, but their language barrier left her struggling to understand and reply. After taking lunch tickets from her cousin Ying Yuecheng, she resumed writing and finally exchanged names with Prince.

• Lin Er read the wizard’s English messages but could not understand them, so she hid the magic book when the teacher looked her way.
• Lin Er asked Ying Yuecheng for his unused special-meal ticket, and he handed it over while explaining to his friends that she was his older cousin.
• Lin Er told homeroom teacher Gao Haibo that the ticket belonged to Ying Yuecheng, and Gao Haibo let her move ahead in line for fish.
• Lin Er searched her English textbook during the midday rest and wrote that she did not know English and was a twelve-year-old Chinese student.
• The wizard asked for her name, and Lin Er introduced herself before the wizard replied, “My name is Prince.”

Lin Er used her newly remembered school routine and a computer-room spell to translate her foreign friend's messages, then worried that her repeated replies of “NO” had made him think she was a Muggle. The chapter leaves her uncertain whether he had stopped responding because he looked down on Muggles.

• Lin Er called her foreign friend Little P in her thoughts and tried to ask him for the English word for magic, but he replied that he was going to sleep.
• Lin Er slept through the afternoon and answered a question in math class by reading the textbook definition of a negative number aloud.
• Lin Er went to the locked computer room after dinner and used the Unlocking Charm to get inside and translate the words she had written down.
• Lin Er realized that her answers of “NO” to questions about being a wizard and knowing magic could have sounded like a declaration that she was a Muggle.

Lin Er negotiated with the person she called Xiao Wang to borrow his magic once a day in exchange for food, while struggling to communicate across their language barrier. She secretly flew home to heat water and returned to school, where she shared it with Xu Duoduo and Shi Meng.

• Lin Er wrote down a proposal explaining the magic book's item-transfer ability and her terms, then returned to class when Xiao Wang did not answer.
• After class, Lin Er struggled to read Xiao Wang's message, exchanged simple words with him, and learned that he called himself Prince.
• Lin Er and Xiao Wang agreed that she could borrow his magic once a day if she paid him with food, and they exchanged a twig and a pencil.
• Lin Er secretly rode her broom home, heated water at her family's locked new house, and returned to school with the water.
• Lin Er gave the hot water to Xu Duoduo and Shi Meng, and Xu Duoduo shared some of her cold water with Lin Er.

Lin Er tested how trading and magic could support her life at school, but rejected using a risky Memory Charm to become a commuter. As she settled into another day of classes, she confronted how little she knew about her future and how much work catching up would take.

• Lin Er agreed to bring Shi Meng hot water after visiting her relative, while warning her not to meet Lin Er because the return time was uncertain.
• Lin Er transformed a red performance outfit into a plain white shirt and traded an apple for another use of magic.
• Lin Er considered using a Memory Charm on her homeroom teacher so she could commute, but decided the risk of harming him was not worth the convenience.
• Lin Er used an expired meal ticket and a transformed magnolia leaf to provide food to the person on the other side of their trades.
• Lin Er reflected on her lack of career goals and her academic struggles, then spent history class worrying about money, housing, food, and her future.

Lin Er struggled with money and worries about her family before a dispute over her classroom seat turned into a fight. The homeroom teacher brought her and the boys involved to the office, where Lin Er calmly explained what had happened.

• Lin Er used Stupefy to keep herself awake through class, then worried about her lack of money and her family's expected return home.
• After dinner, Lin Er told Li Xiang to leave her seat, but he refused and the other boys took his side.
• Lin Er slapped a boy who cursed at her, then fought Li Xiang and bit two boys who intervened.
• The homeroom teacher and disciplinary director broke up the fight and sent Lin Er and the boys to the office.
• Gao Bo asked about the conflict, and Lin Er gave a direct account of the events.

After fighting three boys, Lin Er was punished alongside them and revealed her fierce belief that she had to defend herself because no one could protect her forever. Gao Bo suspected her words came from a deeper experience, but Lin Er denied that anything had happened and returned to evening study.

• Gao Bo assigned Lin Er and the three boys self-criticisms, ordered them to read the essays at assembly, and required their parents to come to school.
• Lin Er wrote a clear account of the fight without expressing regret, and Gao Bo questioned her about her willingness to fight back.
• Lin Er told Gao Bo and the other teachers that bullying could not always be solved by talking or by relying on adults, and said she did not want to be pushed around in silence.
• Gao Bo asked whether something had happened to Lin Er, but she denied it and said she would try to control her emotions.
• Lin Er returned to evening study, then went to the new house and used a bamboo pole to switch the power back on after discovering it had been turned off.

Lin Er treated her injuries with a potion from Xiao Wang and continued sharing food with him while recovering at school. After Li Xiang warned her not to leave after class, she went home anyway and was surrounded by students outside the school gate.

• Lin Er returned to the dorm with gentian violet on her face, and Shi Meng and Xu Duoduo were startled by her appearance.
• After midnight, Lin Er contacted Xiao Wang, learned he had also fought that day, and received a potion from him for her injuries.
• Lin Er drank the potion, felt her face and chest improve, thanked Xiao Wang, and sent back the empty bottle.
• Lin Er arrived late to class the next morning, then shared breakfast with her pen pal and continued giving him food and clothes throughout the week.
• Li Xiang told Lin Er not to leave after school on Friday, but she packed her schoolbag and headed home when classes ended.
• A group of students gathered outside the alley, surrounded Lin Er, and Li Xiang stood at the front looking pleased.

Lin Er fought off boys who tried to surround her after school, and Lin Yueyue and his friends helped her get home. She returned to her grandparents, who worried over the gentian violet on her face and sent her to do homework while her sister was still away.

• Lin Er swung a broom at Li Xiang and the boys surrounding her, then bit Li Xiang when they overpowered her.
• Lin Yueyue and his friends arrived on motorcycles, drove the boys away, and helped Lin Er up.
• Lin Yueyue recognized Lin Er, teased her about her fight, and had his friends take her home.
• Lin Er left the broom at the new house, then found her grandparents threshing peanuts at the old house.
• Grandma Lin checked Lin Er's face, scolded her for fighting, and told her to cut an apple and save half for her sister.

Lin Er returned to her grandparents’ home, helped gather vegetables, and went to fetch her sister Huihui. That night, she lay awake worrying that she could not bring Xiao Wang another meal because her family had only prepared enough food for themselves.

• Grandpa Lin gave Lin Er an apple and agreed to accompany her to school next week without telling Grandma Lin.
• Lin Er picked cucumbers, eggplants, and peppers from the old family garden, then told Second Grandaunt the marks on her face were gentian violet.
• Grandma Lin sent Lin Er to find Huihui, and Lin Er brought her home from a neighbor’s house after dark.
• Lin Er said she had already bathed at school and helped Huihui wash her feet before bed.
• Lin Er stayed awake, knowing she could not spare food from her family’s set dinner to take Xiao Wang another meal.

Lin Er tested the limits of her magic, made a portable storage space, and used sewing and fishing to prepare clothes and food. She went to the fields to gather leftover peanuts, leaving her plans for the harvest unresolved.

• Lin Er realized her Transfiguration spell lasted three days and cast the Undetectable Extension Charm on her old schoolbag.
• Lin Er borrowed a piece of fishing net from Great-aunt and used her mother's old sewing machine to make five shirts and three pairs of cropped pants.
• Lin Er caught a carp and several crucian carp in the pond, and Grandma Lin cooked the fish for lunch.
• Lin Er gave Lin Huihui fifty cents to stop her from following, then put three small crucian carp into her enchanted schoolbag.
• Lin Er went to the fields with a hoe and basket to gather peanuts left behind after the harvest.

Lin Er used the Summoning Charm to gather peanuts, rice, and copper coins while avoiding taking crops that might belong to others. She prepared food and supplies for school and sent meals and vegetables to her pen pal.

• Lin Er summoned a sack of peanuts from a field and decided to return home to do her homework rather than risk being seen gathering more.
• Lin Er sent her pen pal fish soup and tofu at lunch, then noodles that evening, and arranged to borrow his magic for extra spell uses.
• Lin Er flew to her family's fields at night and summoned several sacks of peanuts, but stopped herself from taking crops from neighboring villages.
• Lin Er summoned a small quantity of rice and then copper coins from the fields, gathering the coins into a cloth bundle before returning home.
• Grandma Lin noticed Lin Er's broom when she came home late, and Lin Er hid it in her backpack.
• Lin Er packed cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, pickled greens, and well water for school, sending some vegetables to her pen pal.

Lin Er dried the peanuts she had scavenged on the school roof and brought candy for her pen pal, then learned that her classmates were gossiping about her. Her homeroom teacher told her Li Xiang had accused her of seeing his attackers, and Lin Er responded with a threat before Gao Bo urged her to settle down.

• Lin Er bought candy for her pen pal and used an Unlocking Charm to reach the teaching building roof.
• Lin Er spread hundreds of jin of scavenged peanuts across the roof to dry.
• Lin Er noticed her classmates acting uneasy around her and talking about her after she arrived.
• Gao Bo told Lin Er that Li Xiang had claimed she saw someone beating him up after school.
• Lin Er joked that she might as well beat Li Xiang up herself, and Gao Bo told her to settle down.

After the homeroom teacher stopped Li Xiang from bothering Lin Er, she received an extra meal ticket and gifts from the students’ families, and rumors at school shifted in her favor. She kept her distance from her classmates and continued studying and exchanging meals and messages with her pen pal, whose magic she could now use repeatedly without trouble.

• Gao Bo explained that Ying Yuecheng and the homeroom teacher had intervened to stop Li Xiang, warned Lin Er to avoid dangerous youths, and gave her an extra meal ticket.
• The class monitor gave Lin Er apples from Li Xiang’s family and the other students’ families, along with gentian violet from Gao Bo.
• Lin Er carried the apples to the dormitory, where classmates began viewing her with pity and the girls who had bullied others became less eager to target her.
• Lin Er refused the dormitory girls’ invitation to join them and focused on preparing for the monthly exam.
• Lin Er continued sharing meals and correcting vocabulary with her pen pal, and they learned she could use his magic repeatedly as long as she did not cast it many times in a row.

Lin Er used magic to sell stolen peanuts to two buyers in the mountains, then took her unexpected earnings to the city to shop where no one knew her. She left home with a day to herself and money to spend.

• Lin Er gathered thirty-eight bags of peanuts and five bags of rice, then worried that local buyers would recognize her and tell Grandma Lin.
• Lin Er found a way to sell the peanuts and stopped a tractor in the mountains by luring its driver and companion out with a fallen tree.
• Lin Er stunned the two men, took 4,734 yuan for the peanuts, and erased their memories of the encounter with Obliviate.
• Lin Er returned home, then told Grandma Lin she was visiting a classmate to get permission to leave for the day.
• Lin Er took a bus to the city, where she planned to shop without being recognized by anyone she knew.

Lin Er traveled to the city to buy inexpensive clothes for herself, her family, and her young pen pal. After packing the purchases away, she returned to choose winter and other seasonal outfits, leaving with clothes worth 600 yuan.

• Lin Er suffered severe carsickness on the rural bus and reached the city after taking three buses.
• She recovered, then visited a crowded wholesale clothing shop and joined five students in a bulk purchase of summer clothes.
• Lin Er sent a unisex outfit to her young pen pal, who confirmed that it fit.
• She bought summer, winter, and spring-and-autumn clothes for her pen pal, herself, her younger sister, and her grandparents.
• Lin Er paid 600 yuan for clothes and used several trips to the restroom to pack them away.

Lin Er spent the day in the city buying shoes, food, books, and household supplies for herself and her young wizard pen pal. After shopping for fishing gear, she left the city on her broom and headed home before her grandmother could start calling for her.

• Lin Er bought shoes for herself and her pen pal, then ordered them both large servings of rice noodles and added bananas and pears to her backpack.
• Lin Er bought sets of classic literature, a Harry Potter book, bread for her pen pal, and three little cakes, planning to save one for her younger sister.
• Lin Er skipped the last bus and decided to fly home on her broom after dark, using the Disillusionment Charm to avoid being seen.
• Lin Er bought pork, cooking utensils, a small stove, and fishing gear, then carried the purchases into an alley in several loads.
• Lin Er cast the Disillusionment Charm in a secluded patch of woods and flew home with a carp and fishing net hanging from her broom.

Lin Er returned home with a large silver carp and a fishing net she claimed to have found, then argued with Lin Huihui over a packet of spicy strips. The next morning, Grandpa Lin secretly gave Lin Er an old twenty-yuan note he had found on the road.

• Lin Er flew home on her broom and told Grandma Lin she had found a large silver carp and fishing net near a reservoir.
• Lin Er gave Lin Huihui spicy strips and warned her to stay away from the water, but Huihui tattled to Grandma Lin.
• Grandma Lin smacked both sisters, and Lin Er took back and ate the spicy strips before sleeping in Grandpa Lin's room.
• Grandpa Lin told Lin Er not to spend all her money buying treats for Huihui.
• Before dawn, Grandpa Lin gave Lin Er an old twenty-yuan note he had found while bringing the cow home.