Chapter 8 I almost went bankrupt!

  "Alright, I'll go buy some materials after the assessment is over." Zhuge Mingyue thought for a moment and said, "We need to buy materials, but we have simple tools at home. I'll take another look later to see if we need anything else."

  "Wow, Zhuge, when did you learn alchemy? How come we didn't know?" asked Wan Qichen in surprise.

  "I've read some before when I was bored. But how could you possibly know? You never talked to me about it before." Zhuge Mingyue looked at Wan Qi Chen with disdain.

  Wan Xi Chen lowered his head and stopped talking, feeling a bit down. In the past, Zhuge Mingyue had few people to talk to in school, let alone friends. Zhuge Mingyue didn't have a single friend!

  "Alright, Fatty, aren't we speaking now?" Zhuge Mingyue looked at the dejected Fatty and couldn't help but speak up. It's not like she could blame Wan Qi Chen or anything. The past Zhuge Mingyue was indeed a loner. However, regarding alchemy, Zhuge Mingyue wasn't lying. In her free time back then, she had learned some basic alchemy. So at home, she had the simplest tools and knew some basic formulas. But alchemy really was too much of a waste of time, so later on, Zhuge Mingyue stopped learning it altogether.

  "En en, Zhuge, we're going to take the junior summoner assessment together now." Wan Xi Chen's eyes lit up as he nodded in agreement.

  "En. After the assessment, let's go buy some materials." Zhuge Mingyue said, looking at the Summoner Association's gate, which was very grand and lively today. Many people came to participate in the primary summoner assessment, all of whom were students who successfully summoned their magical pets at the academy yesterday.

  "I'll be waiting for you outside. You all have to pass the assessment." Xue Zihao walked towards the side of the association with his bow and arrow on his back, and sat down at the edge of a flowerbed nearby.

  "Alright, see you later." Xue Zihao clenched his fist, "Don't worry, we'll all make it through."

  Zhuge Mingyue simply nodded slightly and stepped into the association's gate.

  The colleges participating in the assessment have lined up, and there is a person in charge of registration and payment in the hall. Only after completing the registration and paying the fee will they be allowed to enter for the assessment.

  After waiting for a while, it was Zhuge Mingyue's turn.

  "A gold coin." The person in charge was a middle-aged man with a stiff face. He said this expressionlessly and stretched out his hand.

  It's really expensive! Zhuge Mingyue cursed in her heart. The annual expenditure of an ordinary family is only about twenty gold coins, but the assessment for this primary summoner costs one gold coin.

  After handing over the gold coins, the middle-aged man lazily asked: "Name, age."

  "Zhuge Mingyue, sixteen years old." Zhuge Mingyue replied.

  When the middle-aged man heard Zhuge Mingyue's name, his expressionless face finally changed. He suddenly looked up at Zhuge Mingyue from head to toe, with some surprise in his eyes, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he bowed his head and registered for Zhuge Mingyue, saying: "Go in from behind me, third room on the right." At this time, the middle-aged man's tone was no longer as stiff as before.

  Zhuge Mingyue nodded slightly and thanked him before trying to leave past the middle-aged man.

  But then, out of nowhere, came the voice of Wan Qi Chen: "Zhuge, go for it! You must pass. After the assessment is over, I'll treat you to dinner."

  Zhuge Mingyue's footsteps paused, turned around, and a smile burst out on his face: "Definitely. Fatty, you have to pass too."

  "Ah!" Wan Xi Chen nodded vigorously, his face smiling like a flower.

  Zhuge Mingyue smiled and turned around, walking towards the third room that the middle-aged man had mentioned.

  A long corridor with small rooms marked with numbers on both sides. Zhuge Mingyue pushed open the door of room No. 3 and saw a thin middle-aged man inside, who was writing something with his head down. Hearing the footsteps at the door, he said casually without looking up: "Stand in the middle and summon your magic pet."

  Zhuge Mingyue heard this and stood in the middle, concentrating his mind and reciting a low incantation, summoning out a parrot.

  "Ah! Master, I'm taking a hot spring bath right now, why are you calling me at this time? I almost walked out naked!" The parrot squawked non-stop as soon as it appeared.

  That thin middle-aged man looked up in surprise at the fat parrot that appeared above the house. Is this a magical pet coming to take the assessment?

  "Shut up!" Zhuge Mingyue jumped up lightly and pulled down the parrot, hugging it in her arms.

  "This is your demonic pet?" The thin and gaunt man who was today's examiner asked with a furrowed brow, full of doubt.

  "Yes." Zhuge Mingyue nodded.

  "This... a talking magical pet." The examiner looked at the parrot in Zhuge Mingyue's arms and asked doubtfully, "Is this a mountain chicken?"

  "Damn it! Where did your eyes grow? I'm a parrot, the most handsome parrot in the world! Waaah... Hmmph... Damn your butt!" The fat parrot was furious, how dare this person compare him to a chicken. Before he could finish cursing, his beak was covered by Zhuge Mingyue. Zhuge Mingyue started to feel a headache, offending the examiner, didn't know if she could pass the review.

  "Oh, it's a parrot." The examiner didn't get angry, but instead frowned seriously and said, "So, what type of magical pet is this parrot? Is it an attack-type or defense-type?"

  "Attack class," said Zhuge Mingyue.

  "Can it attack people?" The examiner looked at the chubby parrot and asked suspiciously.

  "Verbal attacks are also attacks. Being able to make someone so angry they're half dead and vomiting blood is a skill too." Zhuge Mingyue said seriously.

  "This... I've never actually heard of an attack like this." The examiner tapped his pen on the notebook, "Can this even count? Does it really have any effect? But I don't see much killing power in it. And it's so fat..."

  "Ah, esteemed examiner, I can have it demonstrate its attacking power." Zhuge Mingyue saw the examiner's hesitant expression and thought for a moment before saying this. If she didn't pass the assessment, or if her magical pet was classified as an ornamental magical pet, neither would be a good outcome.

  "Let it show me its demonstration. If it indeed has attacking power, I will classify it as an attacking-type magical pet." The examiner nodded and said seriously.

  Zhuge Mingyue released the parrot's beak, and the parrot let out a long cry of "Ah!", then panted: "Master, are you trying to suffocate me?"

  "No complaining, or I'll scald you! Quickly show the examiner your language skills! If I don't pass the assessment, I'll pluck your fur and roast you!" threatened Zhuge Mingyue.

  "The woman is really unpredictable, just now she said it was braised, and now she says it's roasted." The parrot muttered to himself, then turned his head to look at the frowning examiner, and rudely opened his mouth, "Hey, who are you? Want me to show off my unparalleled fighting skills? No problem. Did you hear that? What's wrong with you, why are you so thin? Overthinking? Sick?" The parrot's tone was quite concerned.

  The examiner smiled slightly, just about to answer, but the next words made his expression change from sunny to cloudy, then to light rain, and finally to heavy rain! It was only short of hail!

  "I'm telling you, being thin can be caused by many reasons, such as excessive mental stress, genetics, or illness. Looking at your pale face, I think you must be sick? If you're sick, you should get treated early. Otherwise, if the disease gets worse, it'll be too late. You have a salary, right? Get treated early. If you don't have a wife, that's okay, but if you do, after you die, your wife will remarry and the hat on your head will change to a very green color. And when you're dead, the condolence money from the association won't be spent by you, but by your wife and other men. At most, they'll give some money to buy a grave for you. If you have children, it's even more miserable... Ugh..." Just as he said this, Zhuge Mingyue covered Fat Parrot's mouth. Because at that moment, a crisp cracking sound came from the examiner's hand, where his pen had been snapped in two.

  "Your Honor, is... further proof needed?" asked Zhuge Mingyue cautiously.

  The examiner closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and then exhaled heavily. In his heart, he silently recited ten times: "I am an examiner with high professional integrity, I am an examiner, I am an examiner, I have very high professional integrity! I must not quarrel with a fat bird." Finally forcing himself to calm down, he hastily asked, "Name? Age? Register quickly and get out of here!"

  "Zhuge Mingyue, sixteen years old." Zhuge Mingyue smiled awkwardly and replied promptly.

  "Oh no, don't be so hot-tempered. I've heard that men with big tempers will harm themselves, and if they do get hurt, their condition will only worsen. Even if you don't consider yourself, you should at least consider your wife..." The parrot struggled free from Zhuge Mingyue's grasp, chirping away.

  "Get out! Now at once!" The examiner found a spare pen, registered it with a brush, and threw a medal to Zhuge Mingyue, roaring.

  Zhuge Mingyue grabbed the medal and immediately ran out with the parrot, fearing that if she was late, the examiner would regret it.

  Digression

  I forgot to update today, haha.

  I once forwarded a Weibo post, which read: Today I took a taxi that almost hit someone who was crossing the road recklessly. The person said, "Do you dare to hit me?" The driver replied, "I don't dare! But if I did kill you, I'd have to pay 600,000 yuan in compensation - would you be able to use it? It's not like your wife's new husband would get it! At most, I'd give you 2,000 yuan to buy a cremation urn!" The person was left speechless.