Chapter 183: The Third Law Shard
Hearing the Door Spirit's words, Jia Na's expression froze for a moment, and then she saw a cylindrical box handed over by the Door Spirit.
"Who sent this?"
Feeling the faint residual warmth coming from the box, Jia Na couldn't help but ask, feeling a little confused.
"It was sent by Miss Vivian's messenger—about an hour ago."
An hour ago?
Wasn't that when she was still performing with the troupe?
"Okay, I understand."
"Miss Jia Na—"
Just as Jia Na was about to close her dormitory door, the Door Spirit, who seemed hesitant to speak, called out to Jia Na with a slightly embarrassed look.
"Um—Miss Jia Na, thank you for taking care of me this year—. I wish you a Happy New Year."
Hearing the Door Spirit's words, Jia Na couldn't help but blink with a smile.
"Happy New Year, Door Spirit. Remember to rest early and don't stay up late anymore."
"Thank you for your concern, Miss Jia Na."
Gently closing the door, Jia Na, who had been tired all day, couldn't help but rub her slightly stiff face.
After taking off her wizard robe, she placed the warm wooden box she was holding onto the experimental table.
"I thought Vivian would ignore me during this time because I stood her up."
Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, Jia Na's lips couldn't help but curl up into a smile when she thought of Vivian's usual tendency to sulk.
"I'll go visit and thank her another day."
After all, besides kindly inviting Jia Na to her home for the New Year, Vivian also generously spent nine hundred and ninety-nine jin sule to present flowers to Jia Na during today's performance.
Not only that, but also last time in the Swamp Secret Realm, Vivian was worried that Jia Na wouldn't get first place, so she proactively forced all her remaining Swamp Magic Frog tongues onto Jia Na.
Although they had only known each other for a short year, Vivian's personality, which makes her fiercely good to others once she recognizes them, initially made Jia Na feel that the other party had ulterior motives.
However, as time went on, Jia Na also gradually came to recognize her without realizing it.
While this recognition might still seem somewhat distant to others, for Jia Na at present, it was a huge breakthrough.
"Could this be the New Year's Eve dinner made by Vivian's family?"
Smiling, she opened the lid of the wooden box. Because the box was insulated, there was a layer of something resembling tin foil wrapped beneath the wooden lid.
"This is—"
Looking at the roughly twenty-odd irregularly shaped triangular foods placed inside the insulated box, Jia Na could tell with just a glance that each triangular food was actually made by wrapping an unknown filling with a thick layer of dough.
"Are they dumplings?"
Although the appearance was very difficult to recognize, Jia Na could be certain that this shape of food was the dumplings she had always been thinking about.
Furthermore, besides the few difficult-to-recognize "dumplings" on the first layer of the insulated box, at the bottom of the insulated box,
there was also a small bottle of apple cider vinegar and a pair of silver knife and fork.
"So, she still remembers."
A few days ago, while the two were discussing "hobbies" in the cafeteria, Jia Na mentioned that her number one "hobby" was eating food she made herself.
At this time, Vivian, who had been thinking about inviting Jia Na to her home for the New Year, also followed this topic and casually asked:
"Besides that black egg, what other food do you eat during the New Year?"
"Dumplings."
"Dumplings? What are those? Are they food from your hometown again?"
"That's right, and it's a food with a very beautiful meaning."
At this moment, Vivian, who had been observing Jia Na's expression from the side, saw emotions in her eyes when she mentioned "dumplings" that Vivian had never seen before.
"What's the specific way to make them? You're not going to dip them in vinegar to eat, are you?"
"The specific method is very simple—and yes, I do like to dip them in vinegar to eat."
"Alright. Actually, compared to the kind of rice vinegar you like to dip, I personally prefer sweet and sour apple cider vinegar."
"Apple cider vinegar? Maybe I can try pairing it someday."
"Okay! I believe it will definitely taste better than dipping in rice vinegar—"
The memories in her mind came to an abrupt halt. Her eyelashes slightly lowered, looking at the comically shaped dumplings in the insulated box and the bottle of apple cider vinegar reflecting a deep brown luster, a different kind of emotion, like fireworks, silently ignited, ascended, and bloomed in her heart, causing Jia Na's closed inner world to ripple with a long-lost warmth.
"Whoosh—bang—"
Just as Jia Na was slightly lost in thought, suddenly, outside the window in the ink-like night, a fiery red firework suddenly bloomed.
As if she had thought of something, Jia Na, who had put down her knife and fork, quickly walked to the window and looked down.
"So it was a group of Ravens."
On the snowy ground, a few Ravens, who had somehow gotten fireworks, were setting them off so brazenly in the academy.
Looking at the rare cheerful figures of those few Ravens, Jia Na's face didn't show any smile; instead, there was a hint of unspeakable disappointment.
"Whoosh—bang—"
Watching the second firework explode in the air, Jia Na withdrew her gaze, returned to the experimental table, and looked at the dumplings in the insulated box.
Immediately, she gently opened the apple cider vinegar and evenly poured it over each dumpling. Solemnly picking up the knife and fork, she brought a dumpling dipped in apple cider vinegar to her mouth.
"It's really, so hard to eat—.."
Perhaps it was because the dough was too thick, coupled with the apple cider vinegar being too sweet, causing Jia Na's first bite of dumplings in this other world to be forced down with a complex texture.
"Next time, maybe I'll make them for her instead—"
"But, Happy New Year—"
"Happy New Year, Vivian."
"Happy New Year, Jiang Bai—"
The reputation of 'song of the ocean' spread very quickly, and the Nightingale Opera House was still packed the next day.
However, starting from the second day of the New Year, the performances of 'song of the ocean' returned to one show per day.
This also meant that Jia Na only needed to arrive at the theater at 1 PM every day and then leave punctually at 6 PM.
This way, she could not only receive extra overtime pay for working on non-weekend days, but also have a lot more free time each day.
It's worth mentioning that after Jia Na broke through to Extraordinary Charm, whenever she took her final bow, different audience members would throw money and flowers like crazy, as if they had been hit by a charm Witchcraft.
At its peak, Jia Na could even receive three consecutive "seas of roses" in one performance.
It was precisely this "shocking" way of increasing income that made everyone in the Nightingale Opera Troupe show more respect towards Jia Na.
After all, it was thanks to Jia Na's presence that they were highly likely to receive more generous bonuses at the end of the year than in previous years.
Besides this, there was another unexpected matter.
That was, on Jia Na's Wizard Tree, a third Law Shard had suddenly appeared.