World Occult Usage Guide

Chapter 107 Happy New Year
Lin An had just sat down at the desk in the facility when Ruan Ruyun's video call came through.

The screen showed a girl's round face, sunlight streaming through her long, flowing hair and illuminating her bright, dark eyes.

"Happy New Year, Junior Sister Ruan," Lin An said with a smile.

"Same to Senior Lin, wishing you prosperity and good fortune." Ruan Ruyun clasped her hands in a fist salute, mimicking her senior's gesture. "Long time no see, how was your winter break?"

"I've been working part-time. What about the younger student?"

"It's so tiring. I went back to my hometown in Sichuan. It's so lively there, and the food is so good! Hot pot, pig brains, rabbit heads... Waaah, coming to the UK means I have to get used to everything all over again. It's so hard."

Lin An observed Ruan Ruyun's swaying figure and found her background quite familiar: "Junior, are you at Ann Arbor University? And it seems to be near the School of Humanities?"

"Senior Zhou invited us to have New Year's Eve dinner in Chinatown tonight. Since it's on the way, I thought I'd share a ride with you, Senior, since carpooling is cheaper. Dietrich has been so unsafe lately, I'm afraid to take public transportation."

Ruan Ruyun raised her hand, and a rope tied to something wrapped in newspaper swayed.

"Look, these are the ingredients I brought myself, including cured meat from my hometown. My grandma's cooking skills are absolutely superb."

"Thank you..." Lin An was embarrassed, forgetting that his senior sister always assumed he would come to her house for dinner every Spring Festival. "But I'm not at university now, so why don't you go by yourself?"

"You're not here? Today is the annual freshman orientation for each department, a chance to meet new exchange students from all over the world and some visiting professors. I think our Academy of Sciences is organizing it in a particularly interesting way."

"...Wait, school's started?!"

"And senior, you never check your messages. I clearly made plans with you on Green Bubble." Ruan Ruyun's tone revealed deep disappointment. "Luckily, the video call went through, otherwise I don't know how long I would have had to wait. Whether you agree or refuse, at least reply with a message."

Lin An scrolled through the chat history and found that Ruan Ruyun had indeed sent a lot of messages in the morning, but he was in a meeting with the Dawn Association at the time and had turned on Do Not Disturb mode.

"Sorry, I didn't check my phone during the day."

"Senior, why do I feel like you're not in Dietrich?" Ruan Ruyun stopped in her tracks, leaned closer to the screen, and carefully examined the background next to Lin An. "Where is this? A hotel?"

"My boss asked me to go on a business trip a few days ago."

Lin An placed his phone on a stand to the side, continuing his video call with Ruan Ruyun while sending absence emails to his professor and advisor.

Once he left the desolate and remote central region, the cell phone signal became relatively stable, allowing him to attend online classes from inside his RV.

The professor replied quickly, sending Lin An a Zoom.us room number and password, along with a schedule for the new semester. Lin An glanced at it and couldn't help but feel overwhelmed.

This semester I have more papers to submit than ever before...

Sigh, after delivering the Thunderbirds, I'll have to rush back to Dietrich to meet the deadline.

Fortunately, I only missed the freshman orientation and can still catch the first class, so I don't have to worry about my class grades dragging me down.

"Senior, what kind of part-time job did you find? Be careful not to get scammed." Seeing Lin An's twitching expression, Ruan Ruyun asked with concern, "We're in a foreign country and don't know anyone. It's better to stay at school and stay safe."

"I'll be back as soon as my business trip is over." Lin An opened the class materials for the first period and read them quickly. "Although our school is less safe for me than this place."

"Why?"

"Because of Doris Wood," Lin An said casually as he organized the outline of his speech for next Monday.

"Doris?"

Ruan Ruyun repeated it subconsciously, and a sweet, soft, cotton candy-like voice came from beside her.

Are you calling me, darling?

Holy crap.

A creature even more terrifying than the news of the start of school has appeared.

The more Lin An interacted with the Canaanite family, the more he understood how terrifying they were, and the more wary he became of the short-haired woman he had met briefly at the pool party.

He was extremely grateful that he hadn't used any mystical magic at the time, and had only watched the Foundation's four-person team's actions from afar.

Stiffly turning to the screen, Ruan Ruyun unconsciously held her phone away, looking at the short-haired woman with a smiling face slowly walking behind her, and the four imposing bodyguards in black behind her.

The shadows blocked the warm spring sun, and Ruan Ruyun stared wide-eyed.

Having never seen anything like this before, she was both terrified and overjoyed. Her face turned bright red, and she could barely speak English, so she greeted the party queen in Chinese.

"Miss Woodwood!"

"Hello," Doris replied with a smile in Chinese.

Feeling helpless, Ruan Ruyun waved her phone around, only managing to capture a picture of the two people's clothes.

Lin An narrowed his eyes slightly as he listened to their conversation.

Ruan Ruyun, no longer the chatterbox she was in front of Lin An, kept replying with short phrases and interjections. If it weren't for Doris subtly bringing up topics every time, the two would have long since fallen silent.

Weather, studies, holidays, Happy New Year...

There wasn't much informative material.

Until Doris mentioned her goal.

"Ruan, did I interrupt your phone call with your boyfriend?"

"No, he... he's a senior student." Ruan Ruyun waved her hand nervously.

"Oh, may I say hello to him?"

“Of course…” Lin An raised his phone and saw Doris’s face.

Her face was pale, but her demeanor remained noble and unpredictable. She smiled at Lin An on the other side of the screen, her white teeth separated like seashells.

"An'an, what a coincidence! I haven't seen you all winter break."

"I took a part-time job, so I'm quite busy." Lin An said expressionlessly, pretending nothing was wrong as he continued writing his speech.

"Just now you said the reason I'm not going back to school is because of me?" Doris blinked innocently. "Did I keep mentioning you on social media, causing you some trouble?"

So you kept tagging me.

Lin An's lips twitched. Ever since Doris followed AnL, he had registered a new account and blocked her immediately.

In fact, Lin An couldn't understand why Doris cared so much about him. He clearly hadn't revealed himself—Doris knew Lin An was a Mystic, but she didn't know he was a Source-level being, let alone that he was the successor of the Hittite ritual.

Otherwise, not only would Doris herself not remain indifferent, but the Canaanite family behind her would not have remained so.

"To be honest, yes." Lin An steeled his resolve. "Doris, I'm just an ordinary college student. I really can't bear the extravagance of such a wealthy family. Could you please be so kind as to let me return to my normal life?"

There are countless mysterious people in the world, so please don't keep targeting me.

Doris wasn't angry at the blunt rejection. She tilted her head and pondered for a moment before saying, "Alright, since you're bothered, I won't put any more pressure on you."

Before Lin An could even breathe a sigh of relief, she continued.

"It seems you don't like online communication with too much exposure, so let's meet offline. I heard the new planetarium at the university is quite romantic, and it will be completed on March 1st. I'll mail you a ticket for the first day."

Lin An almost lost his composure.

When did I agree to go on a date with you?!

It was more like a death sentence than a date. If Doris recognized the mysterious real person and told the powerful family behind him, Lin An would probably not be able to continue living in the United States.

Quickly find a reason to refuse.

Just as Lin An was about to speak after organizing his thoughts, he saw Doris say a simple goodbye to Ruan Ruyun, her figure disappearing from the small screen, leaving only her fading voice behind.

"Professor, I'm here."

She has an appointment with a professor from the humanities department?
I hope it's not...

Lin An was eager to see the professor's face clearly, so he said to Ruan Ruyun, who was holding the phone, "Junior, could you move the camera a little closer to Doris?"

“She’s already gone. I’m not going to continue the video call with you. The ride-hailing driver has arrived,” Ruan Ruyun said. “Happy New Year, Lin An.”

After saying that, she hung up the video call.

Looking at the pop-up dialog box, Lin An cursed under his breath.

Damn ride-hailing services, they couldn't have come at the worst possible time!
He was almost certain who the professor who met with Doris was.

Fortunately, Lin An had separated "The Complete Book of Magic I" from the other ancient books early on and put them in a bank safe deposit box, but the other ancient books remained in his apartment and were kept by his mother.

Before leaving Dietrich, Lin An scanned all the ancient books into his mobile phone cloud, thinking that this would ensure everything was safe and that he wouldn't have to worry about the books getting damaged.

Unexpectedly, when he finished reading the fourth book of "The Complete Book of Magic", the system did not sound a notification sound.

It told Lin An that the [Mysterious Encyclopedia] was a mystery generated based on the "Encyclopedia of Magic" series, and Lin An had to read the original ancient book to include it; the electronic version did not count.

Not only is it useless, it's also an old relic!
Taking a deep breath, Lin An cleared his mind of distractions, closed the written speech, and opened the fourth magic encyclopedia that he had finished translating.

The document displays the default font for the headings.

The Complete Book of Magic IV: The Cursed Winds - The Black Witch, the White Witch, the Scarlet Witch and their Allies.

…………

The journey continues.

The distance to San Francisco is decreasing.

If we don't change the detour, we can arrive within two days.

Unlike the previous relaxed and casual atmosphere, an inconspicuous black car followed behind the RV, trailing unpleasant exhaust fumes, mingling with the bustling traffic, like a shadow urging it on.

During their rare break, Lin An and Barry volunteered to go to the gas station convenience store to buy food for the day.

Once they were no longer under surveillance, they were finally able to chat privately for a bit.

Standing side by side in front of the freezer, Lin An took the initiative to speak.

"Barry, that day's matter is completely settled, right?"

“At this critical juncture, even just being invited by the inspection team is a deadly accusation,” Barry said calmly. “As for you, I’ve already ‘settled’ many things. After all, right now I don’t want to cause trouble, nor do I want to die; I just want to survive in the cracks of high-paying jobs.”

Lin An was taken aback: "I'm not sure if I understood."

"You have a peculiar trait, Lin: you always smile especially sweetly when you lie, hide things, or deceive others." Barry flicked his sleeve, producing a cigarette from seemingly nowhere. "Do you know the MGM Grand Casino?"

Thank you to Shuhuang Nandu, Book Friend 160425123932512, and 459357930 for the monthly tickets, and thank you all for the recommendation tickets and subscriptions.

A long chapter will be updated at the same time tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)