"Knock, knock, knock."
The compartment door was gently knocked.
Theo, who was sitting near the door, got up to open it: "Hello?"
Vid and the others heard voices coming from outside—
"Mancini? Are you in this compartment?"
"I heard Vid Gray is over here—"
"Looks like we made a mistake—we should try further ahead—"
The people outside were discussing among themselves, ready to search a different compartment, but an inadvertent glance inside made them see Vid sitting there.
The student froze for a moment, the nonchalance on his face not yet withdrawn, quickly turning into a warm smile—
"So you are really here?" He squeezed past Theo, entered with two others, and said as if they were long acquainted, "Hey, Gray, how was your holiday?"
Theo was pushed to the corner, helplessly watching as three taller students walked into the compartment, making the space suddenly feel cramped.
—Who are you?
Vid raised an eyebrow slightly, just about to speak when Michael suddenly cut him off. He stood up smiling and said, "Long time no see, Prewett, I heard you went to Iceland over Christmas?"
Prewett finally turned his gaze to him, smiled, and said, "Yeah, saw some impressive sights, and after coming back, I heard about the Friendship Book—" He looked at Vid, saying, "—it's absolutely amazing! I immediately bought a full set of the deluxe Friendship Book editions, twelve books in all, corresponding to the twelve months of the year."
Michael cooperatively praised, "As expected of the Prewett family, even that Machioni had to give way. We were only able to snatch one of the limited editions, to get a second one we'd probably have to wait two more weeks."
"Don't worry, it won't take that long. As long as there is profit, Machioni's speed is like riding a Granian. Of course—only the first batch of the December limited edition is available, and it's only sold to truly ancient and noble pure-blood families, unlike some… um, not the same."
He said meaningfully with arrogance, as if unintentionally casting a glance at Theo.
The Mancini family is actually not bad, at least much richer than the Weasley family. But Theo was sorted into Hufflepuff, and it seemed like he was labeled "silly and dumb," instantly swept into the lower tier of the disdain chain by these haughty pure-bloods.
Leian's expression was icy, just about to stand up, but was held down by Theo on the shoulder, stopping him from speaking.
Michael seemed not to understand his implication, smiled and said, "The Prewett family is indeed very old—these two are—"
The two behind Prewett had been watching Vid with interest, sometimes glancing at Michael, completely ignoring the two Hufflepuffs. Their scarves had large patches of green with silver stripes, their expressions somewhat gloomy—obviously, they were Slytherins.
Among the houses, only Ravenclaw maintained quite a good relationship with Slytherin, but this "good" merely involved polite greetings and short chats when meeting, hardly ever accompanying each other often.
Prewett was waiting for someone to ask, and immediately introduced, "This is Gaston Yaxley—"
A blond, thick-browed boy nodded with a smile at Vid.
"This is O'Neal Fuli—"
A dark-skinned, softer-featured boy smiled kindly.
"—they are both sixth-year Slytherin students. They heard that the inventor of the Friendship Book was in this compartment, so they wanted to meet."
Prewett spoke while still smiling, but his eyes strongly met Michael's, implying—step aside, boy!
Michael, unable to block anymore, reluctantly stepped aside, winking at Vid as he turned, silently conveying a message.
The boy named Gaston Yaxley then stepped forward, extended his hand politely, and said, "Hello, Mr. Gray."
Under Michael's slightly nervous gaze, Vid stood up and shook his hand: "Hello."
Although his tone was calm, talented individuals naturally enjoy more leniency from others.
As long as it's not a direct refusal, Slytherins see it as a sign of friendliness.
A shallow smile appeared on Yaxley's pale face: "I didn't expect the inventor of the Friendship Book to be so young, Ravenclaw hasn't seen such an excellent student in many years. Mr. Gray, you're truly capable and gifted, destined for a future no less remarkable than Terence Moray. I think a larger stage would allow your intelligence to shine fully."
He paused, elongated his tone, saying, "The Yaxley family is very willing to provide you with some assistance."
Though Prewett maintained a smile, a hint of jealousy was difficult to suppress on his face.
Michael glanced at him, then at Fuli on the other side—the Slytherin's smile was impeccable, revealing nothing.
"Thank you very much for your kindness, I'm deeply honored," Vid politely said, "but in alchemy, I'm just an apprentice, far from being comparable to Professor Morry."
"Of course—Professor Morry's skills are undoubtedly high, but I admire your future more," Yaxley said with an unintentional tone of superiority. "Though the alchemical level of the Friendship Book is basic, something many sixth and seventh-year students can achieve, it's the ingenious idea that's truly commendable—how did you come up with it?"
Vid nodded and said, "Speaking of which, it's not exactly original—you know about the Muggle internet?"
"—Muggle?" The three of them almost simultaneously changed their expressions, as if they had heard some contaminating term.
"Yes." Vid smiled and said, "The core protocol of internet communication is the TCP/IP protocol, which transmits data by dividing it into packets. The client sends requests to the server, receives and parses responses from the server, while the server returns the processed result to the client. During input, the sequence of instructions and raw data…"
Vid courteously explained the principles of computer operation and then talked about the internet, cloud computing, electronic chips, wide area networks, data planes, and other messy concepts, even throwing in future topics like e-commerce, the deep integration of artificial intelligence and big data, blockchain technology, and digital currency.
There was only Vid's voice left in the compartment, while the others stared blankly, as if they had become bewildered infants. Even some students who had come upon hearing the news, wanting to meet Vid Gray, stood at the door not daring to enter, as if there was some strange seal here.
When Vid finally paused, the three of them, out of politeness, refrained from interrupting, quickly got up to leave, their faces pale as if just drenched by a heavy rain, their departing figures somewhat resembling a hasty escape.
Theo walked over to close the door, seeing only a few people in the aisle hurriedly avoid his gaze, as if fearing he might pull them in and start a mind-numbing talk.
Theo locked the door with a spell, and the four of them simultaneously burst into laughter.