Chapter 52: A Temporary Guide for Guest Interaction
“Thank you…”
“Stop saying thank you all the time, be more optimistic.” I interrupted her, as I started to feel what it’s like for others to constantly thank me. It was indeed a bit annoying.
“Ah… I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to… Anyway, I’m like this now…”
“So as a thank you, how about you give me your contact information?” I smiled slightly and continued, “More friends, more paths. Let’s be friends, how about that?”
“Thank you… you consider me a friend…”
“Why do you need to thank me for that? Don’t you have any friends?” I said, helping her up as we prepared to leave. She looked so pitiful and helpless, almost as if someone had bullied her. To some extent, that was indeed true, as she had been bullied by a senior right after school started.
“I really don’t have many friends, those are just classmates…”
“Why do you sound as if you’ve seen through the world? You just became a girl; it’s not like you’ve been castrated. But considering you don’t have any friends, I’ll let you in on a secret: girls’ happiness can be dozens of times greater than boys’～”
I leaned closer to her with a mischievous smile. Although I hadn’t experienced it myself, it didn’t stop me from teasing her; it was just talk.
If one day she comes running to me accusing me of lying—saying girls’ happiness is hundreds of times greater than boys’—then I would know she had tried it and would question her about whether she was secretly up to no good. You see, that would be a military strategy.
At that moment, Quan Xiuzhu turned red from my words, looking a bit flustered.
“I… you… I won’t try it!”
“I’m just telling you; I didn’t say you had to try. Do you actually want to give it a go?”
“No! That’s impossible!”
Her response made me decide not to press further. I didn’t expect Quan Xiuzhu to have a hint of tsundere in her. I thought I might be able to cultivate that tsundere familiarity.
Even though tsundere is a bit out of style for me now, popular things cycle back around, who knows when tsundere might be back in vogue?
“Alright, we haven’t added each other as friends yet. Where’s your phone?”
“Um…”
Quan Xiuzhu took her phone out of her pants pocket, which shocked me. Wait, she still has this phone?
But when I got hold of it, I realized something was off. “Not this phone; I mean the one the academy issued.”
“The one the academy issued?” she asked, puzzled.
“You didn’t get it?” I also questioned, unsure.
“Is there one? I only know…”
“Okay, okay, let’s not dwell on sad things. Since you didn’t get it, let’s go see if we can still get it.” I interrupted her, feeling frustrated with the senior who brought her here.
How irresponsible! Just brought someone here to register and then left?
“Alright…”
I led Quan Xiuzhu out of the alley, coming out from the other side. Although I wasn’t too familiar with the area, I roughly knew where I initially registered.
It shouldn’t be too far from here.
Otherwise, that senior wouldn’t have brought her so far for witch transformation play, would she?
“By the way, it’s evening now. Are you hungry?” I turned to ask.
“Not really… maybe…” Quan Xiuzhu seemed preoccupied with her phone, just being guided out by me.
But it seemed that once I mentioned she might be hungry, she quickly realized and felt her stomach rumble, though her mouth was still stubborn.
Clearly, her stomach was betraying her stubbornness.
Though her voice was small, I still heard it.
“Stop pretending, if you’re hungry…” I looked around; it seemed different from the street I just walked down. There didn’t seem to be many places to eat.
“Forget it, I still have some snacks here. You can have them for now.” I handed her the snacks I had, which were given to me by the grandmothers during our chat, though I had only eaten one and hadn’t finished it. I meant to take it back to the dorm as a late-night snack.
“Is it cold? Is that okay?”
“No… thank you.”
“I told you there’s no need to thank me, really.”
I passed the snacks over, leaving behind the unfinished one. Looking at her, I wondered how long she had gone without eating.
It shouldn’t be that bad, right?
Once I brought Quan Xiuzhu to the place where I had registered earlier, I found that the seniors were still there. It seemed they were on standby all day for those registering.
After all, no one knew when a senior would bring a new student to enroll.
“Quan Xiuzhu, are you sure you registered here?”
“Yes,” she nodded clearly. Since she was forced to come here, she likely remembered it.
“You didn’t even get your phone, so after you registered, that senior just… um… didn’t do anything else?”
“Nothing.”
“How irresponsible! Seriously.” I expressed my indignation on her behalf. Since she had already registered, I would take her to get her phone.
“Hello, senior～ I’m here to help my friend pick up her phone. The senior who brought her here just left her behind, I’m really sorry.”
“Okay, take it, just don’t take too many.” The senior, seeing I was polite, agreed to my request. After all, while things regarding phones weren’t strictly regulated, it shouldn’t allow for people to pick them up repeatedly. Even if there were many phones, they can’t hold up under constant use.
“Thank you, senior～”
After sweetly thanking her, I spoke again, “Um, senior, we’re both new students. Where can we recharge this phone?”
“Recharge? You need to pick up your room card, the dorm should have it available,” the senior replied directly, with no intention of recharging it for us. I had hoped to get a freebie, but that was not going to happen.
After bidding farewell to the senior, we continued to complete Quan Xiuzhu’s enrollment process.
But I didn’t give up. After searching for several seniors, I finally found a helpful one willing to recharge it. Although it wasn’t much, it was enough to power up the phone.
“Here, your phone; the academy system inside is very important, and your future study life will rely on it.” I handed her the phone, “I’ve added you as a friend. If you need anything, you can contact me directly. I’ll reply in a timely manner if I see it.”
“Thank you.” Quan Xiuzhu took the phone but still hadn’t let go of her old one.
“What’s wrong?” I noticed she seemed anxious with her new phone.
“The phone has no signal…”
“No signal?” I instinctively looked up. After all, that crack in the sky was still quite dramatic, and I could see it from here.
But looking now, it seemed that crack was almost completely fixed?
So the original phone signal was gone?
“Um… I can’t reach my family…”
“That’s normal. The academy won’t let you share its information like that. You should understand this. The outside network cannot find anything about Extraordinary Academy. Right now, your old phone is essentially a brick; you should try using the new one.”
“The new phone can connect to the outside world?”
“Unfortunately, it can’t either. However, there’s no issue using it within the academy.” I shook my head, dashing her remaining hopes. I could see that she had completely lost hope at this point.
“Don’t be sad. Witch Academy is a good academy. Eventually, we’ll come into contact with extraordinary aspects. The academy merely leads us down different paths; maybe you can give it a try.”
“But… this isn’t how it should be!” It seemed my words hit a nerve, and Quan Xiuzhu instinctively shouted.
“Shh! Keep your voice down; do you want everyone to see you making a scene?”
“Um… sorry…”
Quan Xiuzhu quickly realized and covered her mouth, composing herself. It seemed her self-regulation abilities were quite good, at least she accepted the reality so quickly.
She neither sought d*ath nor collapsed.
Indeed, for a newly adult person, the concept of d*ath is still too serious.
After that, Quan Xiuzhu and I left without a fuss, heading to get the room card. After all, it would soon be night, and she certainly couldn’t sleep on the street.
What if some senior picked her up? Just thinking about it was a bit terrifying.
