Anna had been making extracts all afternoon, only resting for half an hour in between, and she stopped tiredly when she made twenty units.
At this time, the moon had risen above the willow tree*, and Anna suddenly remembered that Natalie might still be waiting for her. She didn’t have time to fully inform Dawkins; she only said that she would come back here the next day after lunch the next day before hurrying away.
[T/N: A line in a love poem by Ouyang Xiu from the Song Dynasty about couples during the Lantern Festival.]
She left Dawkins behind to chase after her, shouting, “You can’t come in the morning? Can you do any earlier?”
It was a pity that Anna had long walked away.
Generally speaking, it was the employer who was the big boss, but things were different in the mage world. Most of the time, the employer also had to beg people to accept their money.
Dawkins and Anna had a pure buyer and seller relationship. Up until now, Dawkins only had Anna, a mage disciple that was willing to help and did a good job, whereas if Anna was not willing to help him, she could choose to do other tasks.
Talented people always had more options.
Therefore, when Anna said that she would come back tomorrow afternoon, Dawkins couldn’t say anything else. He could only pray that she would not be stolen by others. Fortunately, he wisely gave her a deposit of five gold coins, so she had to make at least 100 units before leaving.
Should he give another ten gold coins as a deposit tomorrow?
When Dawkins was considering whether to do such a “cunning” thing, Anna hurried over to the meditation room.
Seeing that Natalie was borrowing the dim light of the meditation room to flip through her notes, Anna felt a burst of guilt. She hurriedly walked over and said, “Sorry, I was caught up in making potions for a while, and I forgot the time. Next time if I’m late, you can head back first.”
Natalie’s eyes lit up when she saw Anna coming. She put away her notes and clung to Anna’s arm with a bright smile: “I didn’t wait long, I was just reviewing!”
Anna patted Natalie’s head and smiled helplessly.
Although she was a little tired at the moment, Anna still cheered up and helped Natalie analyze the problems she encountered in practicing spells today and propose feasible solutions.
After saying goodbye to Natalie, Anna walked home in the moonlight and bought some food on the way. The young man was growing and eating a lot. The food she bought in the morning might not be enough.
When Anna arrived at her residence, she opened the door and saw that Abel was lying on the meditation mat like a dead fish on a cutting board. After she came in, he said weakly, “It’s so boring.”
“You can meditate to restore your spiritual power as soon as possible.” Anna suggested. After a while she added, “If you don’t know how, I can teach you.”
Abel glanced at her, dissatisfied: “You just want to drive me away earlier!”
“Yeah, and?” Anna said confidently, “You are a stranger to me. I saved you out of the goodness of my heart; do I have to take care of you for the rest of your life? If you are smart, hurry up and take advantage of this time to get better. Other than me, you will never be able to find a kind-hearted cutie like me who expects nothing in return, okay!”
Abel tsked, neither refuting nor agreeing for her, and when Anna set down the food, he scooted over again as if nothing was wrong. No matter what was taken out first, he wasn’t picky, directly stuffing it in his mouth.
Anna looked at Abel devouring the food and not being picky. Somehow, she was reminded of that demon.
Abel was also very easy to feed.
Abel quickly finished his portion, rubbed his stomach and spread it out on the ground like a dead dog. He suddenly said to Anna after a while, “Since the food you brought is delicious, you can ask me any questions you have.”
His tone made Anna curious, and she asked, “Any question?”
“Of course!”
Anna sneered: “Okay, then tell me, why does the sky look blue during the day?”
Abel was taken aback, what kind of problem was this?
“What reason could there be? That’s how the sky is.”
“If you don’t know, say you don’t know.”
“Then you say what the reason is!”
“Because of Rayleigh scattering.” Anna said calmly.
Abel frowned: “What’s that?”
“Forget it if you don’t know, ignorant.” Anna glanced at Abel with disdain, cleaned up her finished dinner, and got into a meditation position, “Don’t disturb me, I want to meditate.”
She quickly pretended to be busy… After all, she only knew the term, but really didn’t remember how to explain it, but it was enough to use it as a bluff to scare off others.
Abel saw that Anna was ignoring him, and started to meditate on her own. He had no obsession with “why the sky was blue”, if he didn’t know, he didn’t know. He was only annoyed with her condescending tone, and upset, turned his back toward her and went to sleep.
After a while, Abel said again: “If someone finds me here, what are you going to do?”
It took Anna a while to answer: “What do you mean what should I do? I didn’t know that a fallen mage broke into my house. I am also a victim.”
Aipu sneered: “Aren’t you afraid that I will tell them that you invited me in?”
“If you say that, will they believe it?” Anna retorted without any guilt, and glanced at him, “Little boy, you are still too young.”
“Who are you calling a little boy!” Abel glared at Anna angrily.
Anna was afraid that if they got into a quarrel, it would be endless, so she said like an elder sister preparing for an exam who was trying to coax her disobedient little brother out of her room: “I’m talking about myself.”
Then she entered a state of meditation again. No matter what Abel said to provoke her, she did not respond.