"Diagon Alley, Diagon Alley... I'm so excited. I wonder what kind of Wand I'll get. Will it be like those fanfictions where an ordinary wand can't handle my 'magic power' and explodes, and I end up having to use the Elder Wand or something? I can't wait!"
Amid Ye Feng's murmurs, Headmaster Dumbledore, true to his word, appeared punctually at the doorstep of Ye Feng's home beneath the morning sun. Whether Ye's Dad and Ye's Mum were simply carefree or Dumbledore genuinely inspired that much trust, they actually felt entirely comfortable letting Ye Feng go off on a far journey alone with him.
That was across the ocean! In this era, let alone smartphones, landline phones were not yet fully widespread; in many places, a single village might have only one telephone.
Yet under such circumstances, his parents were completely at ease letting him travel across the ocean to another country alone with Dumbledore to study. Mind you, he was only eleven years old! Even though he had always behaved more maturely than his peers, outwardly he was still just a child of eleven.
However, after Ye Feng followed Dumbledore via Apparition to the domestic magic branch office, traveled through their fireplace network to London, and met his mother's old schoolmate, Ye Feng understood completely why his parents were so untroubled. For that old schoolmate's husband had the surname Zhang, and they had a daughter named Cho Chang.
"It really is a small world..." he muttered, watching the girl standing before him. A year or two older than him, she tilted her head to study him. Though only twelve or thirteen, her delicate face was already beginning to reveal the promise of breathtaking beauty.
Ye Feng never imagined that his mother's classmate would turn out to be the mother of Cho Chang, the famous great beauty of Hogwarts. Perhaps only with this connection, and with both sides having communicated beforehand, could his parents truly feel secure enough to let him come here alone for his "studies."
"Well, since you two already know each other, I'll leave the task of taking young Ye Feng to purchase his preparatory school supplies to you. That won't be a problem, will it, Miss Cho Chang?"
"No problem at all, Headmaster Dumbledore. I will definitely help Ye Feng get all his entrance supplies fully prepared."
Hearing Cho Chang's words, Headmaster Dumbledore nodded in satisfaction. Although Cho Chang was not yet particularly well-known, she was exceptionally reliable—a young girl one could completely set one's mind at ease about. It was precisely because of this reassuring and dependable young girl that he had wanted to find another young wizard from back home and had ultimately chosen Ye Feng.
One had to admit that Cho Chang's family was truly hospitable. On the very evening Ye Feng arrived, they not only prepared a remarkably lavish dinner for him but also directly tidied up an empty room for him to stay in. This treatment was vastly superior to that of a certain savior living under the stairs.
Yet even before coming, Ye Feng had already longed for all the kinds of magic he had previously only heard about or seen snippets of. So that very night, Ye Feng knocked on Cho Chang's bedroom door and borrowed her copies of *The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1*, *A History of Magic*, *Magical Theory*, *A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration*, *One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi*, *Magical Draughts and Potions*, *Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them*, and *The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection*.
In other words, the required textbooks for a first-year student.
Originally, Ye Feng had also intended to borrow books for higher-grade students, but Cho Chang felt that Ye Feng was being altogether too ambitious. Besides, there was only a little over a month left before the term started, and it was already questionable whether Ye Feng could even get a rough grasp of the first-year books, so she flatly rejected his request.
Cho Chang was underestimating Ye Feng just a bit. No matter what, he was a Cultivator capable of manipulating objects with his divine sense. For books without any restrictions or seals, he only needed to sweep them with his divine sense to read them completely. The only reason he hadn't used his divine sense to probe the rest was simply out of politeness.
Of course, reading through them was still somewhat different from fully mastering them, and besides, it wouldn't do to borrow them one second and claim he had finished reading them the next. So Ye Feng carried the books back to his own room.
Once he had moved the books into his room, Ye Feng didn't rush to test whether the things inside were real, nor did he attempt to use the magic from the books. Because right now, an even more pressing problem lay before him.
Although his family back home was considered quite well-off, they didn't possess a currency called the British Pound. In other words, he didn't have a single penny in his pocket, yet when Hogwarts started, students had to purchase various supplies themselves.
Furthermore, although Auntie Li—Cho Chang's mother—had stated that all these expenses would be covered by them, Ye Feng didn't have the face to eat their food, live in their home, and use their money on top of that. After all, they weren't truly family yet, so Ye Feng began pondering how to get some money.
In truth, the best method was to take out a loan. For Ye Feng remembered very clearly that a historical event would take place internationally in the year 1991.
At the end of this very year, the old Big Brother—one of the two global superpowers—would collapse and disintegrate overnight. And the Ruble, issued with the backing of this behemoth, would become utterly worthless with its fall.
In other words, Ye Feng only needed to take out a massive loan in Rubles at this time and exchange them for Galleons. Then, when that giant fell and the Ruble depreciated, he could repay the loan at an infinitesimally low cost—a cost that, compared to the Galleons he had exchanged, was practically as good as a gift.
In reality, people had indeed done this in real life.
Our Brother Three had done precisely that back then. When that giant collapsed, he landed a vicious blow on the successor, Big Bear, right at that critical juncture, and as a result, Big Bear completely marked him down on their blacklist.
Ever since then, Brother Three hadn't stopped getting tricked and scammed by Big Bear. Aside from the fact that he practically had "I am a fool with lots of money, come quickly" tattooed on his forehead, this might well have been a major reason.
However, taking out a loan required collateral. He surely couldn't mortgage Hogwarts, could he?
As he pondered, Ye Feng's gaze fell upon the row of crystal-like test tubes sitting under the dim yellow lamplight.
"Speaking of which, the Sorcerer's Stone should be quite valuable too, right? If I were to take the Sorcerer's Stone to Gringotts to mortgage and take out a loan..." At this thought, Ye Feng's eyes suddenly lit up. However, the Sorcerer's Stone was currently still in Gringotts, and he was going to Diagon Alley tomorrow, so there definitely wasn't enough time.
"Looks like I'll have to bleed a little." Murmuring softly, Ye Feng flipped his right hand, and with a flash of light, a pale yellow crystal the size of a chicken egg appeared in his palm.
Over the past ten years, because of his young age, he hadn't traveled far and thus hadn't triggered many system missions. Still, by relying on daily check-ins and routine tasks, he had managed to save up a bit of family wealth. What he was taking out now was one of the leftover spirit stones he had hoarded over the years that he hadn't managed to use.
"Though this isn't a Sorcerer's Stone, it's a spirit stone. And even though it's just a low-grade spirit stone, even a low-grade spirit stone contains extremely dense and pure spiritual energy. Taking it to Gringotts should fetch a good price."
"Whew! Now everything is ready; I'm just waiting to head to Diagon Alley tomorrow. I hope the magic world of this world can bring me endless surprises." Mumbling to himself, Ye Feng casually placed the spirit stone on the table, then fished a top-grade spirit stone out of his spatial ring and held it in his palm to begin his daily routine of cultivation.