Chapter 182: The Third Law Fragment

Upon hearing the Door Spirit’s words, Janna’s expression froze momentarily. Then she saw the Door Spirit handing over a cylindrical box.

“This—who sent it?”

Feeling the faint residual warmth emanating from the box, Janna asked with a hint of confusion.

“It was Miss Vivian’s messenger—just about an hour ago.”

An hour ago?

Wasn’t that when she was still performing with the troupe?

“All right, I understand.”

“Miss Janna—”

Just as Janna was about to close her dormitory door, the Door Spirit, hesitant and slightly embarrassed, called out to her.

“Um—Miss Janna, thank you for your care this past year… Happy New Year.”

Hearing this, Janna couldn’t help but smile and blink.

“Happy New Year, Door Spirit. Make sure to get some rest early, don’t stay up late again.”

“Thank you for your concern, Miss Janna.”

Gently closing the door, Janna, exhausted from the day, couldn’t help but rub her slightly stiff face.

After taking off her Wizard Robe, she placed the warm wooden box onto the lab table.

“I thought Vivian would ignore me for ditching her recently.”

Tucking a stray lock of hair behind her ear, Janna’s lips curled up involuntarily at the thought of Vivian’s usual tendency to sulk.

“I’ll drop by to thank her properly another day.”

After all, besides kindly inviting Janna to spend the New Year at her house, Vivian had also thrown down nine hundred and ninety-nine Gold Surrel to present flowers during Janna’s performance that day.

Not only that, back in the Marsh Secret Realm, Vivian had worried Janna wouldn’t come in first and forcefully shoved her only remaining Marsh Toad Tongue into Janna’s hands.

Although they had only known each other for a year, Vivian’s tendency to go all-in once she accepted someone had initially made Janna suspicious of her motives.

But over time, Janna gradually came to accept her.

This acceptance might still seem somewhat distant to others, but for Janna at that moment, it was already a significant breakthrough.

“Don’t tell me this is New Year’s dinner made by Vivian’s family?”

Smiling, she opened the lid of the wooden box. Because it was insulated, beneath the lid was another layer wrapped in what looked like foil.

“This is—”

Looking at the twenty or so irregularly shaped triangular pieces of food inside the insulated box, Janna immediately recognized each piece was made with a thick dough wrapper enclosing some unknown filling.

“Dumplings?”

Although their appearance was hard to recognize, Janna could confirm that these oddly shaped items were indeed the dumplings she always longed for.

And besides these misshapen “dumplings” in the first layer, at the bottom of the box were also a small bottle of apple vinegar and a pair of silver knife and fork.

“So she still remembered.”

A few days ago, while the two of them were talking in the dining hall about their “hobbies,” Janna had mentioned her top hobby was eating food she made herself.

At that moment, Vivian—who had been trying to invite Janna to her home for the New Year—casually asked:

“Besides that black egg thing, what else do you eat for New Year?”

“Dumplings.”

“Dumplings? What’s that? Another one of your hometown foods?”

“Yes, and it’s a food with very beautiful symbolism.”

At the time, Vivian, observing Janna’s expression as she spoke of “dumplings,” had seen an emotion in her eyes she had never seen before.

“So what’s the recipe? Don’t tell me it has to be dipped in vinegar again?”

“It’s actually pretty simple—and yes, I do like dipping it in vinegar.”

“All right. But personally, I prefer apple vinegar, something sweet and sour, to your rice vinegar.”

“Apple vinegar? I could try that someday.”

“Great! I bet it’ll taste better than rice vinegar—”

The memory ended abruptly. With her lashes lowered, Janna looked at the comically shaped dumplings and the bottle of deep brown apple vinegar. An unusual warmth silently ignited, soared, and bloomed in her heart like fireworks, stirring a rare touch of warmth in her long-closed heart.

“Fwoosh—bang—”

Just then, as Janna was slightly lost in thought, a brilliant red firework suddenly burst outside her window in the dark night.

As if realizing something, she put down the knife and fork and quickly walked to the window, looking down.

“It’s a group of Rooks.”

On the snowy ground below, several Rooks—no one knew where they got them—were boldly setting off fireworks right in the academy.

Watching their rare gleeful antics, Janna’s face showed no trace of a smile. Instead, an inexplicable sense of loss clouded her features.

“Fwoosh—bang—”

As the second firework exploded in the sky, Janna turned away and returned to the lab table, eyes falling again on the dumplings.

She carefully opened the apple vinegar and poured it evenly over each dumpling. With great care, she picked up the knife and fork and brought one vinegar-soaked dumpling to her mouth.

“It really tastes awful—…”

Perhaps the dough was too thick, or the apple vinegar too sweet, but Janna’s first bite of dumpling in this otherworldly land ended with her forcing down a mess of complex flavors.

“Next time, I’ll make them for her—”

“But, Happy New Year—”

“Happy New Year, Vivian.”

“Happy New Year, Jiang Bai—”

The word-of-mouth for Song of the Ocean spread quickly. The next night, the Nightingale Opera Troupe was once again completely sold out.

However, from the second day of the New Year onward, Song of the Ocean reverted to a single performance per day.

This meant Janna only needed to arrive at the theatre by one in the afternoon and could leave promptly at six in the evening.

Not only did she receive extra overtime pay for non-weekend performances, but Janna also enjoyed significantly more free time each day.

It was worth noting that after Janna broke through to 【Most Charming Witch】, each time she took her final bow, various audience members—seemingly under the influence of enchantment magic—would shower her with lavish gifts and flowers.

At its peak, Janna once received three consecutive “seas of roses” in a single performance.

This “astounding” source of revenue dramatically shifted the attitudes of everyone in the Nightingale Opera Troupe toward Janna, making them more respectful than ever.

After all, it was thanks to Janna that they now had a high chance of receiving bonuses more generous than any previous year.

In addition to all this, something entirely unexpected happened.

On Janna’s Wizard Tree, a third 【Law Fragment】 suddenly appeared—.

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