Miss Witch, even if we're poor, we can't sell ourselves!

When I stepped out of the mirror world, the sky outside the window had changed from the bright white of the afternoon to the warm orange of the evening. The setting sun shone through the gaps in the peach branches, casting long golden-red stripes on the bed sheet.

Miya lay on the bed, blinking her eyes until her consciousness fully returned to her body in the real world, and then slowly sat up.

Just now, she used her tentacles as plows to turn over several dozen square meters of land in the mirror world.

The land in the Mirror Realm is indeed good, with soft, fertile soil, a lakeside water source, and constant, gentle sunlight. But even the best land is just wasteland if it's not cultivated.

Miya first used her tentacles to pick up the pebbles in the planned area one by one and pile them on the side of the ground. Then she used her hardened tentacles as hoes to loosen the compacted topsoil. After that, she hardened the tentacles and flattened them to use as simple shovels.

It was indeed much more efficient; the last small patch of land was plowed using this traditional method.

She has now neatly planned out the land on the east side of the lake.

The freshly turned soil is dark brown in color and has moderate moisture, giving it a healthy sheen under the constant, gentle light in the mirror.

She planted several branches broken off from low trees along the edge of the field as markers, clearly separating the reserved planting areas for different herbs.

The remaining few open spaces by the lake have not been taken care of for the time being. She plans to keep some of them to raise low-level monsters in the future, and she plans to wait until she consults with Teacher Bie Chenye before deciding on the rest.

Bie Chenye has been cultivating herbs in the back mountains of the Moon Forest for hundreds of years. The small tomatoes in the pot on the windowsill of her wooden house are several levels sweeter than those sold in the market. Mi Ye does not intend to waste this naturally endowed soil in the Mirror Realm with her limited gardening knowledge.

She retracted her tentacles into her sleeve, flexed her wrists, picked up her phone, glanced at the screen, and sprang up from the bed.

It's almost five o'clock.

Several people in the freshman group were complaining that the afternoon's professional classes were too difficult. Asase also sent a message in the dormitory group saying that there were too many people in the training field and she couldn't find a spot. However, she didn't have time to reply to these messages because her attention was firmly captured by a message that Fig sent in the club group.

"Meet at the club activity room at 6:30 tonight for the first formal club project proposal presentation."

The first official event of the astrology society?

She jumped out of bed, put on her cotton coat, casually wrapped her scarf around her neck twice, and rushed to the bathroom to wash her face with cold water.

The cool water splashed on my face, dispelling the lingering drowsiness.

Miya raised her head, wet her sticking-out hair in front of the mirror and pressed it down, then patted her cheeks to make her complexion look better.

Before leaving, she sent Xiaoye a message saying that she was going to the cafeteria for lunch and then going directly to club activities. Xiaoye replied with a voice message immediately, his tone completely different from when she left for class. He complained with great frustration about why things like advanced mathematics even exist.

Mi Ye replied with a cat patting her head emoji, stuffed her phone into her pocket, pushed open the dormitory door, and walked towards the cafeteria.

The clouds on the horizon were dyed orange-red by the setting sun, and a few patches of thin ice remained on the snow-covered stone path, making a slight cracking sound when stepped on.

There weren't many people in the cafeteria, so she packed a plate of fried rice to go and ate it as she walked. The fried rice contained corn kernels and diced ham, and was just the right amount of salty. Each grain of rice was distinct.

After finishing my meal, I threw the empty lunchbox into the trash can at the entrance of the cafeteria, then went back and bought two more packs of biscuits and a box of juice from the window to bring to Fig and Corona Borealis.

The scenery along the road from the cafeteria to the activity building is completely different in the evening than during the day.

The snow was filled with the setting sun, and the ivy on both sides was illuminated like ribbons edged with gold.

The corridor on the top floor of the event building remained quiet, with only the sound of her footsteps on the old wooden floor making a slight creaking sound.

The wooden door at the end of the corridor was ajar, and warm yellow light and a faint projection of the starry sky shone through the crack.

Miya pushed open the door and saw the scene inside.

Fig, wrapped in a thick blanket, nestled in the sofa in the corner of the activity room. When she saw Mi Ye push the door open and come in, her light gray eyes peeked out from the edge of the blanket, curving into two shallow crescents.

"You're here! So fast!"

She patted the spot next to her, gesturing for Mi Ye to come and sit down.

The starry sky projection on the ceiling of the activity room is slowly rotating, with pale blue star trails climbing from the east wall to the west wall, and occasionally a few shooting stars streaking across the sky with silvery tails.

Miya placed the cookies and juice on the small round table. Fig thanked her, while Corona Borealis turned her head from the window and, upon discovering that Miya had brought the snacks, didn't stand on ceremony at all, taking the whole box of juice and inserting a straw.

"Everyone's here."

Fig glanced at the two of them, took a paper envelope from the blanket and placed it on the table. His tone was still lazy, but the topic was obviously more serious.

"Our first official club project: solving a paranormal incident!"

Miya had just untied half of her scarf when she heard this, and her hand involuntarily stopped in mid-air.

Paranormal events?

She blinked, her eyes filled with question marks.

This world has magic, elemental reactions, and the glittering marks of gods, but she had never actually heard of ghosts before, so she was instinctively shocked.

Corona Borealis had clearly anticipated Miya's reaction. She raised a finger and shook it, her long, light purple hair circling in the air as she shook her head, her posture resembling that of an adult explaining common sense to a child.

"Of course, ordinary little witches wouldn't know, since this kind of thing isn't written in textbooks."

She crunched the straw loudly, her tone carrying a sense of superiority that came from someone who had been there before.

"However, as an astrology society, our value lies in solving these kinds of things."

After Fig and Corona Boreal finished showing off, they pulled out their phones from under the blanket, swiped their fingers across the screen a few times, and then turned the screen towards Night.

It was an app icon that Mi Ye had never seen before. It had a dark blue background with a silver pentagram in the center. Different symbols extended from each point of the pentagram. The style was simple and clean, and it was obviously an official product.

"The Witch Association".

As she spoke, Fig handed the phone to Mi Ye so she could see the screen clearly.

"You've probably heard of it; it's similar to the adventurers' guild you see in any novel or anime."

Miya took the phone. The interface was a simple task hall, with a task type filter on the left and a constantly refreshing task list on the right.

She scrolled down a few pages; the requests were all over the place, ranging from monster slaying to finding lost cats.

"You know the tuition for Moon Forest is 50,000 Loren a year, right?"

The fig's voice was faint.

"It does not include food expenses, accommodation fees, textbooks, or laboratory materials. It would be impossible for a little witch from an ordinary family to complete four years of study here on her own."

She pulled the phone back from Mi Ye's hand, went back to the homepage, and opened her personal page.

【Name: Fig】

[Level: C]

Number of requests resolved: 23

This month's earnings: 2300 Loren

"Therefore, most students will register for the Witch Association and take on some commissions within their capabilities in their spare time to earn living expenses. The platform will rate the registered witches based on the number and difficulty of the commissions they complete. The higher the rating, the higher the risk factor of the commissions they can take on, and of course, the higher the reward."

"As for compensation—"

Suddenly, Corona Borealis, who had been silently drinking juice, came over and slammed his phone on the table. The number of his monthly earnings on the screen shone brightly, like a flashbang that had exploded.

The young master has been robbed?! Ten thousand Loren?!

Miya stared at the number for a long time, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly open.

One hundred thousand!

She worked tirelessly all night at Nightingale's Nest, serving dishes and selling drinks, earning only a few hundred Loren. She even topped the morning charts for live-streaming her drawing doujinshi, gaining over two thousand followers, but her income was still only five thousand.

As a result, this guy did in one month what she did in many months.

There's something I'm not sure if I should say, but seeing this little devil loli make money makes me feel worse than when Mi Ye herself loses money!

She swallowed hard, forcing herself to look away from the string of numbers, but her mind was already racing with calculations.

One hundred thousand Loren is enough to pay for two years of tuition, enough to buy a bunch of alchemy materials, enough to rent a small apartment in downtown Bellavita, and even enough to send a real jacaranda to March Summer.

"Hehe, pretty impressive, huh!"

Corona Borealis was very satisfied with Miya's expression, and when she put away her phone, the corners of her mouth were turned up so wide that she couldn't suppress it.

Seeing the bright look in Mi Ye's eyes, Fig smiled slightly in his light gray eyes, then pulled a folded commission form from the envelope and unfolded it on the table.

The commission form was stamped with the red seal of the Witch Association in the upper right corner, and the commission amount was written in bold: 30,000 Loren.

"I've already accepted it. Paranormal cases are a bit special, so the pay is usually much higher than for regular cases."

Fig pointed to the amount column with his fingertip, his tone tinged with excitement.

"Let's pull this off tonight, ten thousand each."

Ten thousand per person!

Miya's pupils contracted sharply, and she sprang up from the sofa.

"When are we leaving? Now? What else do we need to prepare?"

Fig was amused by her impatient manner and laughed out loud. The blanket slipped off her shoulders, revealing her light gray braids.

Before she could answer, Corona Borealis stood up and pressed Miya back onto the sofa, placing one hand on Miya's shoulder and holding up the half-empty box of juice in the other.

"Don't rush, don't rush, you haven't registered an account yet."

Borealis pulled the straw out of his mouth and pointed to the pentagram icon on Fig's phone.

"This app requires you to personally go to the Witch Association branch to verify your magic attributes and identity information before you can register. The online verification won't pass, so we have to make a trip to the city center first."

She picked up her jacket from the back of the sofa and draped it over her shoulders, then carefully put the binoculars back into her bag. She turned around and waved her gleaming B-level certification badge on her phone screen at Mi Ye.

Fig, who was next to her, had already stood up wrapped in a blanket. She walked to the locker in the corner of the activity room, took out a bag from it, slung it across her body, and carefully folded the paper envelope on the table and stuffed it into the bag.

After tidying up, she turned her head to look at Mi Ye, her light gray eyes gleaming faintly in the starlight.

"Let's go. Before the association branch closes, let's register our accounts and head straight to the commissioning location. Those strange things like to show up after dark, so the timing is perfect."

Miya nodded excitedly, rewound her scarf, zipped her clothes up to her chin, stuffed her communicator into her pocket, and followed the two out of the activity room.

The sunset at the end of the corridor had faded from warm orange to dark blue. Most of the other clubs in the activity building had dispersed, and only a few windows at the end of the corridor still let in the last bit of the afterglow of the sunset, casting long shadows of the three people on the wall.

As they descended the stairs, Corona Borealis walked in front, her steps light as if she were walking on clouds.

She pushed open the door of the event building; it was already completely dark outside.

The glowing plants in the Moon Forest campus lit up in the darkness, the glowing grasses by the roadside that resembled reeds emitted a pale blue, cool light, and the crystals on the bases of the streetlights slowly rotated under the power of magic, casting a soft white light.

The peach trees on both sides of the main road swayed gently in the night breeze, and the wooden signs under each tree were illuminated by the streetlights, making the names of the senior students and their graduation project topics appear and disappear in the interplay of light and shadow.

"Oh, by the way, let me mention something to you."

Corona Borealis, walking at the front, suddenly turned around, its pale purple eyes gleaming with a malicious light under the streetlights.

"When freshmen first enter the Witch Association, they are usually harassed by the guys in the association and assigned a really disgusting test assignment. You'd better be mentally prepared."

"...Is this really not intentional, is it?"

Miya walked to the side, frowning.

"There's nothing we can do about it. After all, there's only so much work to be done. If there are more new people, the others will definitely earn less. That's the zero-sum game of the adult witch society. Cherish your leisurely university life now."

Corona Borealis spoke with such confidence and conviction, in the tone of an elder lecturing a younger person.

Fig walked beside Miya and couldn't help but add a comment.

"Back then, Xiao Bei was deliberately blocked from entering the dormitory. Her first request failed and she was rejected. She cried and made a scene in the dormitory all night."

"I didn't cry or make a scene!"

The voice of Corona Borealis came from the front, probably sounding angry and embarrassed.

Miya couldn't help but laugh out loud.

The night breeze blew from the depths of the peach grove, carrying the cool fragrance of snow and flowers.

As she gazed at the Milky Way in the night sky, a question suddenly came to mind.

"By the way, Fig-senpai, what exactly was the content of that paranormal case request you mentioned?"

Fig glanced at her sideways, a meaningful smile curving his lips.

"The abandoned hospital was said to emit strange singing and crying sounds at night, which disturbed people to the point of mental breakdown. The police investigated several times without any results, and finally had to treat it as a paranormal event and put a reward on it through the association."

She paused, then added.

"But don't worry, this mission is just preliminary reconnaissance, there won't be any danger. If we can't win, we can just run away. And don't let Xiao Bei's carefree appearance fool you, she's actually quite strong."

Miya thought for a moment and nodded in agreement, after all, the Chaos Missiles of Corona Borealis had indeed caused her a lot of trouble.

However, there was an abandoned hospital and strange singing.

The combination of these words doesn't sound like something as easy to earn as 30,000 Loren.

Corona Borealis had already run out of the school gate and was waving at them from the street, her light purple hair shimmering under the streetlights.

"Hurry up, hurry up, or the association will close! I also wanted to stop by that bakery to buy a chocolate one, but it closes at nine!"

Miya took a deep breath of the cold air, temporarily suppressing the jumbled thoughts in her mind, and quickened her pace to catch up with the two people in front of her.

In the night sky above Bellavita, clouds are slowly gathering.

The cold wave predicted in the weather forecast seems to have arrived earlier than expected.