For some time after that, Lin Shu's daily routine fell back into a steady rhythm.
She began her meditation at four in the morning, followed by a set of boxing exercises in her dormitory, attended her classes according to schedule, and then headed off to Professor Snape's for detention. Her schedule was rigorous to the point of absurdity.
Only in her spare time could she manage to slip away to Moaning Myrtle's bathroom to brew pills. Yet heaven rewards the diligent; after tinkering and revising the formula for a while, she finally managed to refine pills using potion ingredients—not liquids, but solid little spheres. The medicinal efficacy was not diminished in the slightest; if anything, it was even better.
During this period, she also wrote a letter back to her sect, asking Fourth Senior Sister to craft a few empty pendant mount artifacts. With these, the talisman paper placed inside would remain completely undamaged by water.
She had long intended to arrange this for Fred and Cedric. Although she had previously given Cedric some talisman paper, paper was fragile; unless handled with the utmost care, it would wear out long before the talisman could ever take effect. She had thought of this problem well in advance—which only proved that she was, quite simply, a genius.
Today was a day with no classes.
Students from every house sat about the Great Hall in twos and threes. Draco refused to let Lin Shu sit with that bunch of obnoxious lions, and firmly dragged her over to the Slytherin table. As a result, Lin Shu could only wave from afar at Hermione, Harry, and the others.
Before long, however, the chiming cries of owls rang out, breaking the previous atmosphere.
Immediately afterward, owls flew in one after another, carrying various packages and letters in their beaks. After a sweeping flight, they delivered their burdens precisely into the hands of their owners.
As soon as Draco received his package, he tore it open impatiently to reveal a letter and two boxes of cookies. The moment the lid was lifted, a rich aroma wafted out—a scent combining sweet, creamy notes that burrowed persistently and aggressively into everyone's noses. To be honest, Lin Shu had never eaten anything particularly delicious since arriving here, and a fragrance like this was something she had never even smelled before.
Just as she felt her appetite being thoroughly piqued, Draco pushed the unopened box of cookies toward her.
"Shu, this is for you."
"For me?" Lin Shu asked, quite astonished. Giving her this entire, full box—wasn't that a bit too much?
"Yeah! My mother made these herself, specifically for you. Of course they're for you."
"Specifically for me? But I don't think I've ever met your parents."
At this, Draco flashed a rather cocky smile, every pore on his face practically shouting: *Praise me! Go on, praise me!*
"Even though you haven't met, I mentioned you in my last letter to my dad. You're the friend I made in Slytherin, and they really like you."
"Oh, I see! Then please thank your uncle and aunt for me, and thank you too, Malfoy. I won't be polite, then—they smelled so delicious just now."
Happily, Lin Shu opened the cookie box and picked out a piece to pop into her mouth. The taste was simply marvelous. When bitten open, there was a strawberry filling inside, offering rich layers of flavor that were neither cloying nor greasy. Truly, it was one of the finest desserts she had ever tasted.
"Delicious~ Malfoy, open your mouth."
A child's happiness was as simple as that. As Lin Shu ate with relish, she didn't forget Draco, the mastermind behind it all, and picked out the largest cookie to feed to him. For a moment, the atmosphere between the two of them was cozy in the extreme.
This sight caused the Weasley twins, sitting across the room at the Gryffindor table, to cast displeased glances in their direction.
Originally, they hadn't interacted much with Lin Shu, but that single encounter had left them utterly spellbound. They found Lin Shu so endlessly fascinating that their eyes drifted toward her of their own accord, eager to see what other delightful surprises she might conjure up for everyone.
Yet when observation goes on long enough, it turns into habit. By now, the two of them unconsciously tracked Lin Shu's every move second by second; even if she merely frowned at a mutton chop with a gamey odor, they would quietly note it in their hearts.
Seeing her getting along so well with Malfoy now made tumultuous emotions churn inside them, though they couldn't quite tell what those feelings were. Maybe it was jealousy. Maybe it was bitterness.
Either way, Lin Shu was entirely oblivious to their wretched mood; her attention had already been captured by something else.
Neville had received a Remembrall. Word had it that if there was something you had forgotten, the smoke inside the sphere would turn red.
It was the very first time Lin Shu had ever laid eyes on such a trinket. Her eyes remained glued to the sphere in Neville's hand, and sure enough, the next second she watched the smoke turn bright red.
"Wow! How magical."
"It's just a stupid ball, Shu. If you like it, I'll buy it for you!" Draco declared grandly, carrying himself as if he weren't merely buying a toy, but purchasing an entire shop.
"Enough, Malfoy. I'm not going to spend your money—I have my own."
"That's completely different. You can keep your own money; me wanting to spend mine on you is my business. You can't boss me around."
*What kind of overbearing CEO dialogue is this? Nope, reject!*
Draco chuckled and leaned closer to Lin Shu, bringing their heads together to whisper.
"If you feel embarrassed, you can give me a talisman. I heard you gave one to a certain senior. Do you like that senior?"
Lin Shu was left completely bewildered by his words. *She* liked a senior? Which one? Why hadn't she heard about this?
*Give a talisman!* Oh~ so he meant Cedric.
"Unreliable gossip shouldn't be trusted, Malfoy. Besides, what's so hard about wanting a talisman? I can write one for you anytime!"
Lin Shu readily agreed, and Draco brightened up. He immediately picked out a strawberry-filled cookie from his own box and fed it to Lin Shu.
"There~ strawberry flavor, you like this one, right? You fed me, and now I'm feeding you. We're even."
"You even want to keep score over this? You're so childish."
The two of them bickered back and forth. While Lin Shu claimed Draco was childish, she was actually acting the most childish of all. She proceeded to feed him one treat after another, repeatedly stuffing his mouth to shut him up.
Want to call it even with her? No way! She had to win—she had to win at everything.
No questions asked; she was simply an Eastern woman with an indomitable competitive streak.
"Shu, enough! I'm already getting a bit full."
"Fine! Then I'll just keep the rest for myself."
"You can have mine too. Take them all."
"Then what about you?" Lin Shu felt rather embarrassed; no matter how she looked at it, she was coming off as the one who ate everything and took everything away.
"If I want to eat them, I can just have the house-elves whip some up and send them over anytime. Just eat up; it's rare to see you like a specific food this much."
"Malfoy, seriously—I could cry! You're the best. I'll always be friends with you, you're the number one best friend in the whole world."
The atmosphere between the two of them was so cozy it was almost like a horror movie, because neither the Slytherins nor the students from any other house had ever seen Malfoy look so pleasant and amiable toward anyone. In that moment, Draco shed the halo and pride of the Malfoy family and lowered his head.
Yet all of this, viewed through the eyes of the Weasley twins and Harry sitting opposite, was agonizingly glaring.
Harry pressed his lips together and said to Hermione:
"Hermione, you spend the most time with Shu normally. If you can, you should tell her just how bad Malfoy is. Someone as innocent as Shu must have been tricked and bewitched by him. As her friends, we ought to help her see Malfoy's true colors."
"Harry, perhaps Shu doesn't need us to worry about her at all. What I mean is, Slytherin respects strength and talent, and Shu clearly possesses both. Isn't it completely normal for someone like that to be sought after? Trust me, Malfoy won't be able to stir up any trouble in front of Shu."
Harry was left completely speechless, unable to find a retort, though deep down he still felt worried for Lin Shu.
As for the Weasley twins, before they even realized it, the quill pens in their hands had been snapped in half, silently venting some inner fury. Right now, a chilling aura radiated from their entire bodies, carrying a terrifyingly gloomy gloom. If anyone were to provoke them at this moment, it would detonate them entirely.
Every single scene playing out across the table felt like needles in their eyes. Yet they had no reason to step forward and stop it.
Just as everyone was lost in their own thoughts, a piercing eagle's cry rang out, cutting straight through the eardrums and making it impossible to ignore.
Hearing that familiar sound, Lin Shu's eyes instantly blazed with light. She wondered if she was hearing things—why did it sound so much like the spirit beast of her Fifth Senior Brother?
Even as she waited in a mixture of anticipation and doubt, a giant eagle entered everyone's line of sight, plunging down from above. It beat its wings and swooped directly toward Lin Shu. The sight frightened everyone else out of their wits, but Lin Shu was utterly ecstatic.
"Xiao Yu, it really is you! You came to see me."
Who could possibly understand the feeling? Meeting kin in a foreign land—even if it was an eagle—brought an overwhelming sense of warmth!
Fighting back the urge for her eyes to water, Lin Shu raised her hand to provide a landing perch, and watched as the bird obediently tucked in its talons and stepped onto her arm. Once it kicked off the cumbersome package tied to its leg, it resumed its shrill cries.
Human and eagle communicated without a single barrier, leaving everyone around them staring in dropped-jaw astonishment and clicking their tongues in wonder.
Times of reunion are always fleeting. Xiao Yu came and went in a rush, soon flying out of the Great Hall altogether.
Lin Shu watched it fly away until its figure vanished entirely before she finally withdrew her gaze, turning her attention to the package that had fallen to the floor.
Opening it up, she found it filled with various daily necessities: consecrated talisman paper, cinnabar, a Peach Wood Sword, a compass, bells, Five Emperors coins, jujube and peach-lightning-struck wood Qimen plaques, prayer beads, and the like.
She had already brought more than enough of these when leaving the sect; she hadn't expected them to send her this much more.
Ah—this was the heavy, heartfelt love of her fellow martial brothers and sisters!
Worth mentioning, however, was that the necklace base artifacts she had written to ask Fourth Senior Sister to make had also arrived. The quantity wasn't large; the first batch consisted of only six pieces.
Still, for Lin Shu's current needs, that was more than enough.
Looking closely at the little trinket, it was a moon-shaped pendant carved with numerous hollowed-out runes. At the very bottom was a built-in snap clasp mechanism that allowed the moon to be pulled open from the middle, revealing an empty inner compartment designed to hold talisman paper quite naturally.
This truly resolved an urgent crisis for Lin Shu. Otherwise, she would have kept fretting over it, constantly terrified that Cedric and Fred's lives might be in mortal peril any second.