Stepping out of the principal’s office, Aya Tone stretched languidly, a satisfied sigh escaping her lips. “Done!”
She resolved to find a moment later to establish a spatial node near the entrance. That way, she could simply teleport directly next time, sparing her little brother the trouble of picking her up.
[Li Huaiming: What a shame. No sanctioned speeding for me then.]
She ordered takeout and settled down by the artificial lake in the academy’s center, patiently awaiting its arrival.
Dragon Court Academy truly lived up to its reputation as a national key project. The environment alone was absolutely perfect for fishing!
And the lake’s resources… Tsk, tsk, tsk, simply astounding. There were even a few meter-long specimens. Someone had certainly put thought into this.
Aya Tone, having subconsciously activated her X-ray vision, licked her lower lip. ‘If only I could reel them in,’ she mused, a mischievous grin playing on her face.
The thought sparked a pang of regret: ‘Why didn’t I bring my fishing rod?’
‘Hmm… that’s not right,’ she reconsidered.
‘A fishing rod, at its core, is nothing more than a long piece of bamboo with a line, isn’t it?’
As for the rod itself, she reached out and retrieved her magic wand. With a flicker of thought, the short, unassuming wand instantly elongated and solidified.
‘Heh, a ready-made rod, then!’
‘The line, though… that’s a problem.’
Her gaze drifted to a fellow angler not far away.
“Hey, buddy, got any spare line?”
Chen Yu, who had spent the entire morning fishing without a single bite and was just about to pack up, was surprised to hear a pleasant voice from a short distance away.
‘Though I doubt they’re calling me,’ he thought, glancing over instinctively. ‘It’s a man’s nature, after all. What if?’
‘So cute.’
Chen Yu felt a jolt in his heart, his pulse thrumming wildly as if eager to burst free from the confines of his chest.
In his line of sight, a white-haired loli sat upon the grass.
Her fair skin seemed sculpted from ice and snow, her long white hair cascaded like a waterfall over her shoulders, the tips swaying gently with the breeze.
Beneath her delicate nose, her rosy lips were slightly pursed, utterly adorable.
‘And… she’s looking at me!?’
Chen Yu’s pupils quivered involuntarily. ‘Such a beautiful little girl… could she be a second-generation rich kid?’
A child this exquisite couldn’t possibly come from an ordinary family.
“Hey, buddy, don’t just stand there gaping; I asked you a question.” Seeing Chen Yu still frozen, Aya Tone couldn’t help but feel a touch of impatience. She brushed bits of grass from behind her and started walking towards him.
‘You can’t fish without a line! And an angler with a tackle box must have plenty of gear!’
Watching this little princess, who seemed to have stepped right out of a fairy tale, approach him, Chen Yu finally snapped back to reality and hastily tried to compose himself.
In all his years as a blogger, this was the first time he had encountered such a stunning girl.
He politely inquired, “Hello, may I help you?”
“You… don’t recognize me?” Aya Tone frowned. She mused that she wasn’t even wearing a hat, so how could this person not know who she was?
‘Are you an outsider?’
Dragon Court Academy didn’t restrict outsiders; as long as one had no criminal record and completed registration, entry was permitted. However, that was the extent of it; all student privileges remained inaccessible to non-students.
Aya Tone had made an appearance at the opening ceremony, so logically, no student of Dragon Court Academy should be unfamiliar with their teacher.
Yet, judging by his tone, this person didn’t seem to recognize her at all.
“Haha, how did you know I’m not a student here?” His identity thus exposed, Chen Yu openly admitted it.
He’d heard from his fans that the lake in this academy held meter-long fish, so he’d packed his gear in the dead of night and driven hundreds of kilometers to get here.
The result? Not a single bite. He was planning to head back, regroup, and return for another attempt tomorrow!
He hadn’t expected such an unexpected encounter just before leaving.
He was quite curious as to why this little girl had recognized at a glance that he wasn’t a student here.
‘It couldn’t be my student ID, could it? People only really wore those in elementary school; after junior high, they were usually tucked away in pockets, not displayed.’
“Guess?”
Aya Tone’s lips curved into a playful smile, but then she remembered how rare it was to meet someone who didn’t recognize her, especially a fellow angler. She wouldn’t want to scare him off.
“Anyway, let’s not talk about that. Buddy, do you have any spare line?”
“I do…”
Chen Yu considered for a moment, then bent down to retrieve an unopened spool of fishing line from his tackle box and offered it to her.
“Will this work?”
“It’s fine, as long as it works. I don’t care about the specifics.”
Taking the spool, Aya Tone eagerly dashed back to her fishing spot, skillfully tying the end of the line to the crystal at the tip of her wand.
Clearly, this wasn’t her first time doing something like this.
Her bait was equally simple: she merely plucked two blades of grass from the lawn, threaded them onto her hook, and cast them directly into the lake.
This sight left Chen Yu, who had been watching intently, utterly flabbergasted.
‘Where’s the chum? No need to chum the water? Just start fishing? And with grass? Is… is she really not just messing with me?’
He thought back to his own morning, where he’d used nearly ten pounds of corn just for chum, yet hadn’t landed a single decent fish.
‘Heh…’
Chen Yu sighed. Perhaps he was being too harsh.
The little girl before him was only around junior high age. Perhaps she’d seen him fishing and, on a whim, wanted to try it herself.
That was how he, too, had fallen in love with fishing years ago.
However, with such an adorable girl nearby, Chen Yu’s intention to pack up and leave suddenly shifted.
He wanted to see if Aya Tone could truly catch a fish with such rudimentary equipment.
****
Meanwhile.
After casting her hook, Aya Tone hummed a little tune, waiting for the fish to bite.
‘Fishing, this art, demands a calm and peaceful heart. You can’t rush it.’
‘Besides! Her legendary fishing skills weren’t just an empty boast.’
Mere minutes later, faint ripples emanated from beneath the floating clump of grass near the shore. Aya Tone, seemingly oblivious, simply gazed idly at the lake’s surface.
Chen Yu, positioned further away, had his view obscured by the aquatic plants along the lake, preventing him from seeing the increasingly dense bubbles on the water’s surface.
“Here it comes!” The clump of grass abruptly vanished beneath the water’s surface, and Aya Tone’s eyes sharpened.
Her hands tightened around the wand’s shaft, giving the fish no chance to resist.
With a single pull! The Gates of Heaven opened!
Before the fish in the water could even comprehend what was happening, its streamlined body was yanked from the surface, tracing a graceful arc through the air.
Its black scales, flecked with gold, shimmered with an enchanting radiance under the sunlight.
The sight completely bewildered Chen Yu, yet he instinctively tapped the camera mounted on his chest.
‘She actually caught one, with such rudimentary tools? Heh, what was the point of my ten pounds of corn then?’
In that moment, Chen Yu felt his very core belief in fishing begin to fracture, as if it would shatter at the slightest touch.
“Hey buddy, could I borrow your fish keeper? These fish are a bit inconvenient to carry.”
“Ah, alright…”
With the fish keeper secured, Aya Tone resumed her angling journey, so engrossed that she didn’t even notice when her takeout arrived.
‘After all… when you’re catching a fish every five minutes on average, who has time to eat!?’
No flashy tricks, just pure skill speaking for itself!
Only after another two-pound ‘little one’ was landed did Aya Tone reluctantly cease her efforts, still feeling a trace of regret.
‘Ah, fishing truly is addictive. If it weren’t for class starting soon, she’d want to keep reeling them in with gusto. The sensation was simply exhilarating!’
She detached the fishing line from her wand and carefully re-spooled it.
Aya Tone hoisted the heavy fish keeper and walked towards her newfound companion.
“Here you go, buddy, the fish are yours. Thanks for the line.”
Chen Yu, utterly stunned and plunged into self-doubt, numbly accepted the spoils Aya Tone offered him.
He glanced down at the churning water in the fish keeper.
‘Heh.’
Over ten fish, each weighing more than six pounds, with only a few insignificant smaller ones among them.
‘This fish keeper has truly been underutilized with me,’ he thought wryly.
“It’s been so long since I’ve fished, my hands are a bit rusty, but that was just exhilarating!” After sitting for over two hours, her bones cracked and popped with a series of satisfying sounds.
“I have to go to class now. You carry on, buddy.”
“Alright, goodbye,” Chen Yu replied mechanically.
Watching the silver hair recede into the distance, he quietly touched the sports camera on his chest.
‘No way! How can I let my mind explode alone? I’m a fan-loving blogger; naturally, I have to share something this good!’
Having made up his mind, Chen Yu immediately began packing up his gear.
He couldn’t wait to show those self-proclaimed ‘fishing kings’ what a true chosen one looked like!