The people from the School Works Committee arrived at the scene in just a minute.

Of course, since the incident was minor, only one person came.

The visitor was a warlock, around thirty years old, slightly overweight, with thinning hair and puffy eyes. It was unclear if his eyes were naturally swollen or if they were like that due to work stress. He wore a crumpled robe with its hem stained with water, making one wonder if he had just been chatting with the fishmen of Lin Zhong Lake.

"It is indeed the Qinling Ancient Zither’s silk."

The warlock used a pair of tweezers to snip off a thin silk thread, conducted a simple test, and then immediately provided a conclusive result. However, he couldn’t conceal his confusion: "But this rare spider should be a species unique to Qinling. Even the Silent Forest doesn’t have its population... How did it suddenly appear in the school?"

As he spoke, he removed the monocle from between his eyes, slipped it into his chest pocket, and pulled out a small wooden box, gently placing the spider silk inside.

"Could it have escaped from a professor’s laboratory?"

Zheng Qing, watching his every move, offered his own guess — in fact, it was the most likely hypothesis, as this kind of ’incident’ had occurred before. Once, a few murmuring monkeys had escaped from a school lab and rendered a small forest completely silent. Every creature from students, cats, dogs, to the birds in the sky and insects in stone crevices that encountered the monkeys had to endure the ’Silence Curse.’

"Until the investigation results come out, any possibility exists," the school handyman cautiously expressed his opinion, rubbing his thinning hair. "After all, it’s just the beginning of the school year, and we can’t rule out the possibility that some ’local specialties’ got inadvertently brought into school with the luggage when the students returned."

Pop!

A hollowed-out pine cone was smashed on the ground at Zheng Qing’s feet.

The warlock didn’t need to look up to guess the smug look on the twin-tailed squirrel on the branch above, probably waiting for him to look up so it could sprinkle down a handful of cracked pine shells.

The school handyman didn’t look up either.

As the person responsible for handling campus incidents, he knew these cheeky little rascals in the woods all too well. To put it negatively, they are overly brazen, but as long as you treat them coldly and keep a certain distance, they will quickly lose interest in provoking you.

Only Jiang Yu among the three wizards showed a bit of interest and looked up.

And then, in the next second, she screamed a guarding curse:

"Restricting South Mountain, Maintaining Rock-like Firmness!!"

Buzz!

A pale yellow protective barrier instantly rose up, encompassing the three wizards.

Crack! Boom!

The crisp sound of thunder mixed with a deafening explosion erupted outside the barrier. Through the barrier, Zheng Qing could clearly see masses of orange-red flames rolling and surging within the billowing black smoke, quickly subsiding.

The explosion lasted only for a few seconds before disappearing without a trace.

This time, four or five figures appeared in the forest, like their tails were on fire, even without the need for the two young wizards to release a Green Bird.

There were student council members in red robes, probably the School Guardian Array duty officers; black-robed teaching assistants, likely responsible for campus safety at this time; and two new grey-robed ones, one of whom was Zheng Qing’s former superior, Old Verne.

He immediately spotted Zheng Qing hiding under the South Mountain Spell.

"What trouble did you cause this time?" The old man, today not carrying his magic wand, held a large piece of roasted meat in one hand and a suspicious paper bag in the other, with a long neck from which gurgling sounds of water were coming.

It appeared he was enjoying his delicious dinner.

The pale yellow guardian spell barrier quietly dissolved, revealing a clearly innocent and bewildered Zheng Qing, a school handyman filled with suspicion, and Jiang Yu with a serious face.

Zheng Qing’s innocence was undoubtedly genuine.

He actually didn’t cause any trouble today; he merely came for a quiet walk in the woods with a witch, yet how did he manage to encounter so many mishaps?

"Perhaps it was just an accident."

The bald school handyman, with a hard head, spoke up, trying to maintain the School Works Committee’s last shred of dignity in front of so many ’outsiders’: "The explosion just now was because that twin-tailed squirrel on the tree ’accidentally’ dropped a few firecrackers..."

The other five wizards all looked up in unison.

The little squirrel on the tree seemed terrified too, standing on the branch with another black pebble in its arms, shivering dazedly.

"It’s actually smart, knowing it shouldn’t move recklessly now," Old Verne muttered, and extended his hand, entwining four or five long vines like a large hand, retrieving the twin-tailed squirrel from the tree.

The squirrel obediently held the small stone, remaining motionless.

Then the old man took out a shelled chestnut from his pocket, exchanged it for the stone after feeling it, and casually tossed it aside, while carefully placing the squirrel on his shoulder: "This one is just an ordinary pebble, but as for the one just now..."

The school handyman with thinning hair hurriedly interjected: "The one just now must have been picked up somewhere else, mistaken for an acorn but too hard to crack, which is why it was dropped earlier... Before that, it had already thrown many things down, yes, it also threw down the pine cone."

He pointed to the pine cone at Zheng Qing’s feet that had turned half into charcoal.

The black-robed teaching assistant had also completed his investigation by this time, briefly summarizing: "Judging from the smoke and blast range, it can be confirmed that the firecracker had expired, its magic loop severely corroded, thus significantly reducing its power, it was just a bit loud..."

Old Verne raised his hand to stop him from continuing the analysis.

"Do you have anything to add?" He tilted his head looking at the two young individuals.

Jiang Yu shook her head.

Zheng Qing hesitated for a few seconds, then also shook his head.

"If not, you can leave first; you should be familiar with the follow-up procedures." The old man then took a few sips from the paper bag, pointing towards the outside of the forest: "Don’t take this path anymore, take the one with more people... What’s the point of not returning to the dorm after class and loitering in the woods!"

The student council member in the red robe and the black-robed teaching assistant both took a few more concealed glances at the boy.

Zheng Qing resisted the urge to immediately put on the invisibility talisman.

Only after leaving everyone’s scrutinizing eyes did he let out a heavy sigh of relief.

"One accident is an accident, but two start to feel strange." Jiang Yu analyzed in a low voice, offering her worried suggestion: "Should you go to the school hospital for an anti-curse blessing?"

She suspected Zheng Qing had been maliciously cursed for reasons ’known to all.’

"Hmm, wouldn’t that be too sensitive?" The warlock mentally checked through all the risk factors that could threaten him, walking absentmindedly next to the witch.

The next second, his foot slipped, and under everyone’s gaze, he fell flat on his back.