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

Bie Chenye squatted down in front of Mi Ye, his hands supporting his knees, and stared at her for a long time.

Those dark eyes swept over every strand of Miya's hair and every inch of her chubby cheeks from top to bottom and left to right, as if examining a treasure that had fallen from the sky.

Her expression was complex, a mixture of joy, emotion, a little helplessness, and a deep-seated anxiety.

Mi Ye felt a little embarrassed by the stare, but she didn't look away. She just tilted her head slightly, gave Bie Chenye a sweet smile, and then silently activated her "Reading Faces" skill in her mind.

A flash of cyan-gold light disappeared in her mind, and information about Bie Chenye was laid out before her like an unfurled scroll.

……

【character】:

She is socially anxious and shy, but she can be affectionate and playful around people she knows well. She adores children and is afraid of being alone.

Current Preferences:

Yearning for companionship and to be needed, she was both excited and incredulous that "finally someone is willing to learn flesh magic."

[A secret hidden in my heart]:

I was worried that I wouldn't be able to teach her well, and that this little girl would leave after only a few days, just like those students who vowed to choose flesh and blood majors but were scared off by the difficulty after a week of classes.

……

As Miya read through the information on the scroll line by line, a corner of her heart was gently tugged.

The teacher in front of me, with a red flower pinned in her hair and speaking in a somewhat strange way, is actually quite similar to her in some ways.

They are the kind of people who have been alone for a long time, crave companionship but don't know how to ask.

"Come, come, let me show you around!"

Bie Chenye stood up, patted the herb fragments off his robe, and took Mi Ye's hand to walk into the house.

She walked quickly, almost skipping, but after two steps she suddenly stopped, looked back at Mi Ye to make sure she wasn't being pulled too fast, and then continued walking forward.

This subconscious action made Miya chuckle again.

The interior of the wooden house looks messier than the outside.

The living room had been converted into half a laboratory, with stacks of handwritten notes piled up in the corner, their covers bearing faded labels.

The table by the window was covered with bottles and jars containing liquids of various colors and herbal specimens. Mi Ye couldn't recognize what was in some of the jars.

The air was filled with a faint scent of herbs and old wood, along with a subtle floral fragrance, probably wafting from the red flower on Bie Chenye's head.

In the center of the living room stood a low, round table and two crooked rattan chairs, which looked handmade, not very finely crafted but sturdy.

Two teacups were placed on the table, one with a cat's paw pattern and the other a plain white porcelain cup with a small piece missing from the rim.

"Sit down, sit down!"

Bie Chenye pressed Mi Ye down onto the slightly higher rattan chair, then pushed the cup with the cat paw pattern in front of her, picked up the teapot on the table, and poured her a cup of tea.

The tea was warm, with a pale green color and two small mint leaves floating on top.

"This is mint I grew myself, with a little wild honey added. Try it."

Miya picked up the cup and took a small sip; the coolness of the mint and the sweetness of the honey melted on her tongue.

She said earnestly that it tasted good, and then took another sip.

Bie Chenye sat down opposite her, holding the chipped teacup in both hands. As he watched her drink the tea, the corners of his mouth curved into a wider smile.

"As long as you like it."

The voice was much softer than when it was at the door. The strange appearance had faded, revealing a more authentic person inside, who was somewhat clumsy and cautious.

"I haven't had any customers here for a very, very long time."

"Students used to come occasionally, but now even fewer people are asking about it."

"When Meredith messaged me saying she had found a student suitable for flesh magic, I thought she was joking."

Miya put down the cup, held it in both hands, and felt the warmth of the cup's walls travel up through her fingertips.

She didn't reply, but just listened quietly.

"Do you know what it feels like to have stayed here for several years?"

"In the woods behind the house, mushrooms grow in spring and chestnuts fall in autumn. I talk to those mushrooms and chestnuts every day."

"Once I found a glowing Ganoderma lucidum on the back mountain. It was so beautiful. I squatted down and talked to it for a whole afternoon. Did it find me annoying?"

Bie Chenye laughed at the end of his speech, but his voice trailed off after a few laughs.

She looked down at her teacup, the chipped rim of which was positioned directly under her chin, casting a blurry reflection on the tea.

"Later, the Ganoderma lucidum was eaten by a wild deer, and then I had no one to talk to again."

Miya placed the teacup on the table and jumped down from the wicker chair.

The chair wasn't very high for an adult, but her legs were short, and her little leather shoes made a soft thud on the wooden floor when she landed.

She walked up to Bie Chenye and looked up at her.

Bie Chenye was stunned for a moment, wondering what she was going to do.

"Teacher, could you squat down a little?"

Bie Chenye blinked blankly, but still obediently bent down, slid off the high stool, and half-squatted in front of Mi Ye.

Even after she squatted down, she was still a little taller than Mi Ye, so Mi Ye took another half step forward, stretched out her right hand, and gently placed it on the top of Bie Chenye's head.

The hand was very small, too small to cover the top of an adult's head, but the movements were very serious.

First, place your palm flat on Bie Chenye's dark hair, then gently stroke it back a few times.

Through her hair, she could feel the warmth of Bie Chenye's hair and the soft touch of the red flower petal brushing against the back of her hand.

"Teacher, please."

Miya's voice was soft, with her gentle yet earnest tone.

"You can contact me whenever you want to talk. Even though I sometimes have to work at night, I will definitely reply when I see your message."

Bie Chenye froze, her fingers unconsciously clenching the hem of her robe, the red flower on her head trembling gently with her breath.

Mi Ye watched as Bie Chenye's face changed from its normal pale white to a ripe tomato, blinked, and suddenly realized a fact.

What this teacher demonstrated before was probably the result of her mustering all her courage.

A teacher with social anxiety, who had lived alone deep in the mountains for several years, was faced with a cute little girl who suddenly came to visit. In order not to make the little girl feel awkward, she put herself into a very reluctant social mode.

"you……"

Bie Chenye's voice trembled slightly.

How did you know what I was going to say?

Mi Ye tilted her head and gave a naive smile.

"Because it's easy to guess what other teachers are thinking."

Bie Chenye stared at her for several seconds, then turned his head away, covering half of his face with his sleeve, revealing only a pair of slightly red ears.

"Oh no, I've lost face in front of the students."

She muttered as she stood up, then turned around and pretended to tidy up the bottles and jars on the table.

Mi Ye watched her hurried figure and mentally confirmed the personality information she had just read.

She likes children, will act spoiled in front of familiar people, and is afraid of being alone.

All correct.

To ease the tension, Miya asked another question.

"Teacher Bie, Teacher Meredith just said that her magic is 'analysis,' which allows her to analyze natural phenomena and magic to understand principles and then modify them. So, what kind of magic system does she belong to? Are there many witches like her?"

Miya walked back to the wicker chair and sat down again, picking up the cat paw teacup.

When Bie Chenye heard this, she turned around. She was still a little shy, but academic topics were clearly the battlefield she was most familiar with.

She took a deep breath, put the jar back in its place, and then sat down opposite Miya, placing her hands on her knees with her arms crossed.

"Meredis follows the path of [Rule of Law Magic]. Strictly speaking, witches with low magic power usually follow this path."

The voice gradually returned to normal rhythm, and although the tips of her ears were still red, her tone began to become more confident and fluent.

"Theoretical Law Magic, also known as Theoretical Law Magic, can be understood as a discipline that uses theory and experimentation to modify, upgrade, and even reinvent magic."

"Witches who follow this path don't care how high the concentration of magic is; what they pursue is the most fundamental understanding of the laws governing the world, because ultimately, magic is also part of the laws of the world."

As she spoke, she seemed to remember something, and pulled out a blank sheet of paper from a stack of manuscripts on the corner of the table. Then, she pulled out a pencil with a crooked tip from somewhere and drew a tree on the paper.

Unlike the tree painted by Meredith, her style was more casual, with crooked lines, a somewhat thick trunk, and branches extending in all directions.

"The Law of Reason is like the trunk of this tree. It doesn't have a fixed shape. After all, it's not a specific spell, but a whole set of methods."

"A witch who walks this path must choose a more specific direction as her 'main trunk'."

"For example, magical electricity, magical magnetism, magical mechanics, magical dynamics, magical optics, all of these are acceptable, as long as their laws can be deciphered through theory and experiment. Meredith chose mathematics."

"math?"

Miya put down her cup and blinked.

Surprised?

Bie Chenye twirled the pencil between his fingers.

"Most people wouldn't choose math because it's too difficult. You can't intuitively grasp mathematical principles like you would when testing the power of a fireball; it's completely abstract."

"But Meredith's talent is analysis, which is a perfect match for mathematics."

"Using her talent to deconstruct mathematical theorems, and then using the derived rules to rewrite magic in reality, this is the core operating method of Law of Reason."

She drew several thick branches at the top of the tree trunk, then labeled one of them with the word "Mathematics," and then branched off countless tiny twigs from the "Mathematics" branch, with a few small dots at the end of each twig, like tender buds that had not yet sprouted.

Miya looked at the dense branches and moved closer.

"How do we progress through these branches? Is it enough to just learn from textbooks?"

"Good question."

Bie Chenye gently tapped the paper with the end of his pencil.

"This is what makes the Law of Reason Magic so different from other disciplines. You can think of each branch of magic, such as probability theory, geometry, topology, and algebraic structures, as different branches on a tree."

"Learning the basics only allows this branch to grow to a basic height, but to break through to a higher level, you need inspiration."

"【inspiration】?"

"right."

Biechenye drew a small light bulb in the blank space of the paper, and then wrote a word next to the light bulb.

"【flash】"

"Inspiration comes from your deep understanding of the subject."

"It's not about rote memorization, but that 'Ah! I get it!' moment of sudden realization."

"This kind of moment is also called a 'flash'."

"Once you trigger a flash, you can go further on the current branch, and sometimes even create a completely new branch."

"But the flash is uncontrollable; not all witches can trigger it."

"People who lack talent may get stuck on the same branch of the path their whole lives, never getting that moment of enlightenment."

Miya stared at the densely packed branches and small words next to the light bulb on the paper, and suddenly felt a strange sense of familiarity.

This is exactly the same as the skill tree in her previous life when playing games. Reaching a certain level only unlocks nodes, and truly powerful skills require specific conditions to be triggered.

She roughly understood why Meredith was the first academician.

Choosing the most difficult main branch and still being able to trigger so many flashes of light, resulting in seventeen types of magic that were included in textbooks—what else could this be but genius?

"Teacher, is flesh and blood magic... like that too?"

Miya looked up and asked.

"Flesh and blood magic..."

Bie Chenye put down his pen, tilted his head, and thought for a moment.

"Flesh and blood represent a new system, but it is still essentially related to inspiration and flashes of brilliance."

She gently held Mi Ye's hands in both of hers, her eyes serious.

"But we're not in a rush. We won't start classes today. Today we'll just show you around, chat, and let you get a feel for the direction you're heading. We'll begin when you're truly ready, okay?"

Mi Ye looked down at the hand being held, then turned her palm over and used her tiny fingers to clasp Bie Chenye's fingertips.

She tilted her head back and flashed the brightest smile she'd had since she came in.

"Thank you, Teacher Bie Chenye!"