The Mad Beauty Professor Forced Me to Mark Her - Chapter 13

The next day was Wednesday. Rarely, Qi Si went to class. She arrived the earliest and sat in the eastern corner of the back row.

Perhaps that face was too striking, or perhaps her back was too straight and her posture while flipping through her book too leisurely. In any case, whenever students came in through the front door and saw her at a glance, they would secretly be startled.

The fat guy who had shoved her in the stairwell before looked as though he had seen a ghost. Leaving a large stretch of empty seats on the east side untouched, he hugged his books and squeezed together with the male Alphas on the west side.

The girls of neighboring Dorm 601 had always been united and usually appeared together for class, but this time, they were completely split up. Ai Wen pulled a newly made friend to sit in the front-middle rows and happily chatted with the male Omegas. Ji Min carried a computer bag, adjusted her glasses, and sat gloomily beside Qi Si. As for the other two, they were nowhere to be seen even after the class bell rang.

Aside from someone as unconventional as Ji Min, there were also some friendly students among the class. They gathered around Qi Si curiously to ask questions and discuss assignments with her.

“During the mountain-climbing trip, thank you so much.” He Xiaotian was one of the people who had gone missing on the mountain before. “Thinking back on it now is really frightening. Thankfully, you arrived in time and saved me and Li Xu.”

Li Xu.

Wasn’t that the owner of the computer Qi Si had hacked into?

Qi Si asked He Xiaotian, “Which one is Li Xu?”

He Xiaotian pointed toward the crowd on the western side of the back row and said quietly, with embarrassment, “Actually, he should thank you in person. But that day on the mountain, he lost consciousness and doesn’t remember what happened. He also doesn’t know how dangerous the situation was. He even blamed me for not saving him.”

So he was an ungrateful, heartless scumbag. In that case, Qi Si felt even more at ease messing with him.

They had only chatted for a few sentences when the substitute teacher came in carrying a computer. Amid the disappointed sighs of the students, the substitute teacher took out a baton and threatened the front row. “What are you all whining about?”

So it was Senior Sister Liu Yilan? Although her temper was a little big, she was still rather good-looking. She really did not deserve the evaluation of “a fierce and ugly female PhD student,” right?

Liu Yilan took attendance. When she reached “Qi Si,” Qi Si raised her hand and called, “Here.”

Ai Wen said, “Isn’t she called Yuan Lü?”

“You illiterate or what? Those two characters are Qi Si. Qi Si, like seven times seven is forty-nine!”

“Fuck.” Ai Wen felt as though she had been slapped across the face. “Damn it, it really is… Did I actually lead everyone wrong?”

Liu Yilan said, “Shut up! Continuing roll call!”

When she reached “Li Xu,” Qi Si carefully noted his appearance and wrote his features in her memo.

The full name of face blindness was “prosopagnosia.” The exact reason was an inability to remember facial features. Once a face was seen, it was forgotten, as if there were a bug in the brain’s storage. The only way to overcome it was to strengthen memory and use other methods to deepen impressions.

Qi Si recorded in her memo: Li Xu. Short stature, protruding forehead, mole with hair beneath his lower lip.

After class, Ji Min caught up to Qi Si and introduced herself first. “I’m Ji Min.”

When there was no one nearby, Qi Si asked her, “Were you the one who sent me messages last night?”

Ji Min was surprised. Qi Si said, “I traced the IP. After thinking about it, it should be you. Are you in that group too?”

Ji Min did not deny it. “A friend who was kicked out of the group forwarded them to me. What do you plan to do?”

Qi Si said, “The chat records can be handed to the police as evidence, but then your friend would be retaliated against, right?”

Ji Min adjusted her glasses and smiled meaningfully. “Do you think the police will help you? Just based on a few chat records?”

Qi Si said, “To be honest, I’m not sure either.”

“The police won’t care about this. They only start working after something happens. And evidence collected through illegal intrusion into someone else’s computer cannot be used as legal evidence. You understand that, right?”

Qi Si froze for a moment. “How do you know…?”

Ji Min lowered her head slightly. Green light reflected off her glasses as she said earnestly, “Warn your family and tell them to pay attention to safety. Sometimes conflicts between students look like trivial little things, but there have been cases where they ended in death. You absolutely can’t underestimate these people’s bottom line.”

Qi Si agreed with her words and asked curiously, “Ji Min, how old are you?”

“A bit older than all of you. I repeated a year,” Ji Min said with a smile, adjusting her glasses in concealment to cover the corner of her eyes. “What, do I look old?”

“Not at all. It’s just that when you speak, you usually give people the feeling of an older sister,” Qi Si said.

Ji Min lowered her head and laughed. “That may only be toward you. I’ll leave first. If you need help, call me.”

Qi Si called Jiang Mingzhu again and told her not to go out these two days. She asked her to request two days of leave for Jiang Shu and keep her at home. If they needed anything, they should order delivery to the door.

Over the phone, Jiang Mingzhu did not show panic, suspicion, or blame toward Qi Si. She simply held the phone and worried over her. “Be careful outside. Don’t mix with people from society. Money isn’t the issue. The most important thing is making sure you successfully finish university.”

“Your sisters can go to school a couple of years later, but you’ve already gotten into university. Your future matters most.”

“After you graduate, find someone you like, get married, and build your own family. Don’t worry about us.”

At five in the afternoon, Qi Si was already waiting in the garage at Shuxiang Garden.

Lin Ye left the laboratory relatively early today. When she reached the garage, she saw Qi Si squatting in her parking space, reading a book thicker than a brick. Lin Ye drove her white Porsche over and honked at her twice.

Like a stray dog being shooed away, Qi Si got up and made space for her car.

Lin Ye looked at her with amusement and rolled down the window, telling her to get in and sit for a while.

Qi Si walked over in a daze and opened the car door, sinking into a rich pheromone scent.

Her brain received the signal, and her nerves were fiercely stimulated.

“Come in and sit.” Lin Ye narrowed her eyes at her. Because the car seat was low, her skirt had ridden up a little when she sat down, revealing a pair of beautiful long legs.

She wore nude stockings with a gray sweater dress, making her whole person look very soft and warm. Her bearing and movements were dignified and steady, yet for some reason, Qi Si’s eyes could not leave her legs at all, as if her soul had been hooked away. By the time she reacted, she was already sitting in the passenger seat, her gaze still fixed on Lin Ye.

“So obedient.” Lin Ye reached out and touched her burning-hot face. “Do you remember who I am?”

Qi Si was dazed. She looked at her for a while, then suddenly lowered her head and licked Lin Ye’s palm.

Lin Ye froze. Qi Si also came back to herself and froze.

Lin Ye sneered. “Bark once for me.”

Qi Si: “…Woof?”

Lin Ye was amused. She turned off the car’s fragrance diffuser and turned the air-conditioning to maximum, letting the scent disperse.

Under the twenty-degree air conditioning, Qi Si felt as though she were in deep water and scorching fire at once. Her face gradually burned red, red as the fiery clouds at the edge of the sky.

What had she just done?

Lin Ye gloated. “A pheromone-like substance. How was it? Did it smell good?”

Qi Si: “…”

The car door was locked. Qi Si pulled at it once but failed.

She was like a captured stray animal, dirty all over and stripped of dignity, curled up in Lin Ye’s car with her mind completely blank.

Lin Ye asked, “Want to smell it again?”

Qi Si looked at her with red eyes. Tears rolled in her eyes, and her thin lips pressed into a line, as though she hated Lin Ye to the extreme.

Lin Ye parted her lips slightly, stared blankly for a few seconds, then rolled down the window and turned her face away. “Why can’t you take even a little joke? I didn’t see you cry when other people bullied you.”

Qi Si pressed her lips together, her face flushed red, and did not speak.

“Don’t be angry. Anyway, I know I’m wrong but won’t change. I’m your senior by generation. I just wanted to tease you. If you get angry, then it won’t be fun.” Lin Ye used the rearview mirror to tidy her bangs, glancing at Qi Si from the corner of her eye.

Qi Si said, “Does Professor Lin speak like a child only to me, or to everyone?”

Lin Ye asked, “What makes you think you’re any different from others?”

Qi Si’s lingering resentment had not faded. “No difference. Except I’m unluckier than most people.”

Lin Ye found no fun in that and ordered, “Get out.”

Qi Si closed the door gently and watched Lin Ye enter the elevator.

That soft hem of her skirt seemed to linger around her.

What a strange person. Why had she wanted to kiss her just now?

Lin Ye returned upstairs, put down her bag, and stood in front of the sink in a daze for a while.

That light lick from Qi Si against her palm—the strange feeling made her unable to help savoring it again, and the tingling sensation made her whole body shiver.

The dog wagged its tail at her desperately from inside the cage. Lin Ye went over and let the little thing out, letting it run around for a while, then took her clothes and went to shower.

At the hospital, she had to come into contact with all kinds of bloody and dirty things every day. The laboratory was not much cleaner. The mice and rabbits used in daily research would die lively and adorably beneath scalpels every day. So the first thing she had to do when she returned home was shower—wash until her whole body was hot and her skin was rubbed red and swollen.

In half an hour, there were three missed calls on her phone.

Lin Ye impatiently called back. Dean Su’s wife spoke with a kindly smile in her voice. “Professor Lin, are you home?”

Lin Ye said, “Yes.”

“I couldn’t get through when I called you earlier, so I thought you weren’t home.”

Lin Ye said, “I was showering just now.”

“I’m almost at your residential complex. Building 7, right? Come down and pick me up later. I forgot the door number.”

Lin Ye: “…”

“I spoke with Chairman Lin yesterday as well. Our hospital has a long-term cooperative relationship with your group. A child made a small mistake; as long as she realizes the problem, that’s enough. There’s no need to damage the relationship between us over this.” The woman’s smile was kind, and the sound of car navigation also came through the phone. “Moxiao, apologize to Professor Lin. She’s listening.”

Su Moxiao timidly leaned over. “Professor Lin, I really know I was wrong.”

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The call was mercilessly hung up.

Su Moxiao broke down. “Mom, look at her!”

“It’s fine. Things can’t be explained clearly over the phone. We can just talk in person. She won’t refuse.”

A black extended Mercedes stopped in the garage. Su Moxiao got out of the back seat in a hesitant, reluctant manner, supporting the arm of a slightly plump middle-aged woman as she cried, “Mom, I’m really afraid of her. Why don’t you change me to another laboratory? I don’t want to go to hers…”

Madam Su frowned and patted her arm in comfort. “Can she peel your skin or eat your flesh? Honestly, you too—who hasn’t gone through things like this? You’re only a sophomore. You have little status and little influence, so being controlled is normal. Don’t take her frightening manner to heart. Doing your work properly and publishing papers is why you came here.”

Su Moxiao forced herself to cheer up, gritted her teeth, and decided to pull herself together. Then she saw a familiar figure walking toward them, and she froze.

Qi Si’s features were handsome and delicate, her expression cold. “Madam Dean, do you still remember me?”

Madam Su hesitated. “You are?”

Su Moxiao said coldly, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m Qi Si. We met before at Jinghai No. 1 High. Do you remember?”

A trace of a smile bloomed across the middle-aged woman’s tightly lined face. “I remember now. You were Moxiao’s deskmate. Why are you here?”

As they spoke, a young man got out of the driver’s seat holding a tool, staring at Qi Si with a wary expression.

“Shuang’er, don’t worry. This is your sister’s classmate.” Madam Su pushed the young man aside. “Sit in the car and wait. We’ll talk for a while.”

The boy was the younger brother Su Moxiao had brought to the mountain-climbing trip last month. He was tall and thin, wearing a baseball cap, always with a gloomy, dull look. Qi Si had seen him back in high school. She had heard that the boy had been adopted by the Su family at age five. He did not attend high school and mixed with some people in society. Every day after school, he would arrive at the school gate on time to pick up Su Moxiao and bring her home. Although he was nominally their adopted son, he was more like the Su family’s private bodyguard.

An invisible pressure approached. Qi Si did not retreat. Relying on being taller than the mother and daughter, she stared fixedly into the middle-aged woman’s eyes and said, “Madam Su, did you once tell me that classmates should help each other, and ask me to tutor Su Moxiao more?”

The woman’s narrow eyes shrank, and her gaze dodged. She smiled and said, “How long ago was that? I can’t even remember.”

“It wasn’t that long ago. We only graduated high school last June,” Qi Si said. “Auntie, people should be reasonable. I know you found our homeroom teacher and arranged for Su Moxiao to sit with me. I already helped you realize your wish. After I got dumped, I had nothing to say. But now Su Moxiao is attacking me and taking revenge in every way. Was that also under your instruction, Auntie?”

Madam Su looked at her daughter in confusion. The latter exploded in anger and pointed at Qi Si. “Bullshit! Which eye of yours saw me taking revenge on you? You brought this suffering on yourself. You deserve it!”

Qi Si said calmly, “I have chat records between you and the others. I can tell your mother very clearly that you instructed them to bully me.”

“You… How could you possibly?!”

Seeing the screenshots of the chat records Qi Si took out, Su Moxiao sucked in a breath.

Qi Si did not let her see them clearly and put away her phone. Then she said to Madam Su, “Auntie, do you know why Su Moxiao was dismissed from the laboratory?”

“Stop talking nonsense!” Su Moxiao was so angry she stomped. “Mom, don’t listen to her. She’s lying about everything!”

Madam Su kept her face tense and did not speak. Qi Si exhaled softly and said to Su Moxiao, “You shouldn’t have gone to those people. You think they admire you and will help you do things. Do you know what the price is?”

Su Moxiao’s face turned blue and white by turns. She gripped her mother’s hand tightly, wanting to flee this place.

“What price?” Madam Su’s tone could still be considered kind. “Student, tell me what you know.”

“Don’t listen to her,” Su Moxiao urged. “Mom, she’s not a good person. Something happened to her family, and now she’ll do anything for money—gambling, online loans, anything. She’s being so aggressive because she wants to threaten me, destroy me, and extort money from you!”

Qi Si said, “When have I ever coveted your family’s money?”

Su Moxiao cursed angrily, “Even if you didn’t before, you will now or later. Trash from the bottom like you can forget getting even a single cent from us! Shuang’er! Chase her away!”

Qi Si laughed from extreme anger. “Are you sick? Do you have any idea how those boys amuse themselves with you behind your back?”

Before she could finish speaking, Su Shuang’er jumped out of the car and ran over, shoving Qi Si hard.

The boy was like a crazed wolf, immensely strong and without reason. All he had was a chest full of rage.

Qi Si fell to the ground. Seeing Su Shuang’er take a fire extinguisher from the car, she hurriedly got up and dodged him.

Su Shuang’er roared, raised the fire extinguisher with both hands, and hurled it at Qi Si. Fortunately, Qi Si reacted quickly and avoided it. There was only a loud boom as the fire extinguisher smashed a dent into the ground.

Madam Su remained unmoved, watching her adopted son go mad without stopping him. She stared at Su Moxiao and said, “Do you want me to hear the truth from your mouth, or from someone else’s?”

Su Moxiao lowered her face and only nodded after a long while.

Qi Si was being stared down by Su Shuang’er. Wary of the surveillance cameras all around, she did not intend to fight him. But Su Shuang’er did not care about such things. His eyes were bloodshot, and he roared as he launched killing moves at Qi Si: straight punches, hooks, side kicks, sweeping kicks, spinning kicks. It was clear that this boy was truly risking everything.

Qi Si looked from afar at Madam Su’s expression. The woman seemed to have no intention of learning anything from Qi Si at all. She believed she controlled everything and did not take a student like Qi Si seriously in the slightest.

The arrogance of the powerful was probably just like this. Even if someone at the bottom was driven mad, in their eyes, it was nothing more than ripples caused by a pebble. Not worth mentioning.

Qi Si did not want to let them have such an easy time. She glanced at Lin Ye’s beautiful Porsche, her thoughts turning rapidly. She lured Su Shuang’er over, first enticing him to punch her in the face. Then Su Shuang’er picked up the fire extinguisher and smashed it hard toward her body.

Qi Si swiftly avoided the fatal attack.

With a clang, Su Shuang’er smashed the front of Lin Ye’s Porsche into a mess. Still not satisfied, he struck it again violently.

Bruised and swollen, Qi Si staggered away, keeping several meters from this family of lunatics.

Madam Su finally could no longer endure it. “Enough!”

Su Shuang’er dropped the fire extinguisher, walked up to the mother and daughter with red eyes, and said in a suppressed voice, “She was the one who came looking for death first.”

Madam Su glared at him. “You smashed someone else’s car. Calm down, will you?”

Su Moxiao was mumbling through the sequence of events to her mother when Lin Ye suddenly appeared from behind and said sarcastically, “Wow, Madam Dean has such a temper. I didn’t come downstairs to pick you up, so you had someone smash my car?”

Qi Si crouched to the side and looked at Lin Ye, who was wearing fluffy pajamas, pinching her bleeding nose as she smiled lightly. If she had not heard Lin Ye speak, Qi Si would have thought she was a young girl.

“Professor… Lin, this is your car?” Madam Su was startled. “Aiya, what an unfortunate coincidence. I must explain this properly…”

Lin Ye said lazily, “Explain what? Even if you explain, I’m too lazy to listen. Let’s call the police directly and see what they say.”

The moment Su Moxiao saw Lin Ye, she lost her courage. Just now, she had spoken fluently while framing Qi Si for gambling and crime. Now she did not even dare let out a fart.

Madam Su, however, was truly cunning and experienced. She said steadily, “Professor Lin, you’re exaggerating. It’s only a car. No matter how expensive it is, we can afford to compensate you. Where is the need for police intervention? Besides, your Lin family is an honored partner of our hospital. Our two families have worked together for many years. There’s no need to make things awkward over such a small matter.”

Lin Ye dialed 110. The Su mother and daughter became so anxious they nearly jumped up and down.

“There’s really no need to call the police. What can the police do even if they come? Professor Lin, Lin Ye, I’ll immediately arrange a brand-new car for you. This bit of property damage means nothing to families like yours and mine. Shuang’er only wanted to help me teach an ignorant student a lesson. Today, never mind the police—even if Chairman Lin came, he wouldn’t bother with me over this.”

“Chairman Lin” seemed to be a tightening spell. As long as that name was mentioned, Lin Ye would restrain herself a little.

She hung up the phone and tilted her head to look at the Su mother and daughter. “Madam Dean, smashing a car is a small matter. Character, however, is a big problem.”

The Su mother and daughter fell silent at the same time.

“Why am I unwilling to let Su Moxiao stay in my laboratory? Actually, letting her slack off and muddle through with a few papers until graduation wouldn’t be difficult.”

“But she’s too good at causing trouble. I don’t know whether you’ve heard of the poisoning case at the medical school two years ago. Conflicts between students can be big or small. Everyone here is a highly intelligent adult. If their ability were too poor, they couldn’t have gotten into medical school. Push them too far, and they can do anything—murder, arson, you name it. When human lives are involved, I don’t want to bear that responsibility.”

Lin Ye narrowed her eyes and looked over the mother and daughter. She wore fluffy dinosaur pajamas, but her killing aura was heavy. With just a few sentences, she suppressed the Su family.

Su Moxiao could not lift her head and hid behind Madam Su, avoiding Lin Ye’s gaze.

A cold light flashed through Lin Ye’s eyes. “Madam Dean, think about yourself. If you keep indulging your daughter in doing evil, the consequences won’t be something your dean can bear. If she wants to walk the road of research, then she should honestly do the work. Otherwise, she should recognize reality early and get lost.”

Madam Su quietly drew in a breath, then half-smiled as she stared at Lin Ye. “Didn’t the culprit in that poisoning case still get away with it in the end? Professor Lin, you’re too conservative. Not quite like the rumors.”

Lin Ye said, “Do as you like. In any case, I won’t accept your daughter. Even if you call my old man here, it won’t work.”

Madam Su said, “You’ll change your mind, Professor Lin.”

Lin Ye looked at Su Moxiao, and the latter shivered. She stood straight and said, “Professor, I really know I was wrong. I won’t cause trouble again. After I go back, I’ll tell Zhou Weihang and the others to focus on studying and stop targeting anyone. Believe me.”

Madam Su echoed her. “That’s right. Study properly. Don’t go down crooked paths.”

Su Moxiao rambled on for a while. Lin Ye had no patience to listen and could not wait to drive them away.

Qi Si watched the entire thing from the side, seeing the three members of the Su family return in defeat, and her feelings were somewhat complicated.

Actually, Lin Ye had foreseen this long ago. Every member of the Su family was shrewd, and they would never take Qi Si seriously.

Although Lin Ye was too lazy to care about these rights and wrongs, she had still said those words, trying to help Qi Si solve the problem.

Whether it worked or not, at least she had tried.

Wearing indoor slippers, Lin Ye walked up to Qi Si and looked down at her from above. The arrogance that had looked down on everything earlier was gone from her eyes.

Qi Si’s feet had gone numb from crouching. When she stood, she nearly fell back to the ground, but Lin Ye grabbed the back of her collar.

Her neck hurt from being restrained. Qi Si held onto the dinosaur leg to stand, and when she met Lin Ye’s hostile gaze, she guiltily looked away.

Lin Ye said, “Compensate me for my car.”

Qi Si said, “Mm…”

“I saw all of it. You did it on purpose,” Lin Ye said. “You’ve gotten bold. You even dare use me?”

Qi Si knew Lin Ye’s heart was as clear as a mirror. She did not deny it and lowered her head to apologize. “I’m sorry.”

Lin Ye said, “Compensate me.”

Qi Si said, “Mm.”

She boldly imagined how many years she would have to work without eating or drinking if she really had to compensate Lin Ye for a Porsche.

But then again, Qi Si was not mainly responsible for what had happened just now. Besides, the Su family had already agreed to compensation. So what Lin Ye meant was probably…

Qi Si thought for a while and said seriously, “I can be your driver or bodyguard. If you need it, I can come to your home and help clean, cook for you, and if you have cats or dogs, I can help clean the litter and walk the dog on time every day. If you have children in the future, I can tutor them… There may be things I haven’t thought of yet, but roughly, these are the things I can do for you. Don’t think about the laboratory side. I’m allergic to mice.”

The corner of Lin Ye’s lips twitched. “What are you talking about?”

Qi Si said, “I’m seriously thinking about how to compensate you. Doing housework is also a form of compensation.”

Lin Ye said, “What about compensation with your body?”

Qi Si stiffened. “What?”

Lin Ye looked at her with disdain and slowly turned around.

Qi Si was thrown into chaos and heard Lin Ye say, “Come upstairs with me.”

Qi Si: “?”

…No way, right? Was Lin Ye really that crazy?

In the elevator, Qi Si carefully glanced at Lin Ye.

Lin Ye asked, “What?”

“I’m not very good,” Qi Si said. “My gland function is impaired. I’m not a normal Alpha.”

Lin Ye looked at her with interest. “Oh?”

Qi Si pressed her lips together. “And I lack experience. I’m prone to operational errors.”

Lin Ye said, “Is that so?”

“Not only that, I’m not very sensitive to pheromones. Other people often say they go crazy as soon as they smell Omega pheromones, but I don’t think I’ve ever experienced that…”

Lin Ye narrowed her eyes at her.

Qi Si said, “What I mean is, if I can’t go crazy normally, then it’s not that you’re no good. It’s that I’m no good.”

The elevator was still rising. Lin Ye said, “Shut up. Your heartbeat is so loud it’s annoying me.”

Qi Si: “…”

Was it that exaggerated?

Lin Ye lived on the seventeenth floor. It was a three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment with luxurious decoration, but the entryway was piled with delivery boxes. Things were piled everywhere on the sofa and cabinets. Seven or eight pairs of shoes had been left unattended, and a white Pomeranian on the balcony wagged its tail excitedly.

A single young woman living alone had a respectable job that kept her busy from morning to night. Every day, she made do with simple meals in the cafeteria, and that alone was already more impressive than the vast majority of people. Could anyone really expect her to spend a lot of time tidying the house every day?

Fortunately, there was no kitchen waste in the room, and the dog spent most of its time on the balcony, so the whole place was still considered clean. It was merely a little messy.

Lin Ye said, “Clean up.”

After saying that, she sat on the sofa herself, held a laptop, and started writing something.

Qi Si was convinced. She found a sponge mop that had dried into a corpse, then discovered a floor washer whose dust box was stuffed full, then found a robot vacuum that had run out of power… Of all these tools, not a single one could be used?!

Lin Ye lifted her head from the screen and saw Qi Si circling around blindly, so she said, “Help me open all the deliveries first. Organize them and put them on the cabinets.”

Qi Si said, “You’re… lazy to this extent?”

No matter how lazy an ordinary person was, they would not miss the moment of opening deliveries. At least the experience of opening packages was fresh and happy!

Lin Ye seemed uninterested in all of that and lowered her head to continue looking at the computer screen.

Qi Si busied herself like a little bee and opened twenty or thirty packages in one go. More than half of them were gifts sent by others. Several bouquets had already rotted, and some fresh products had also spoiled.

“Damn, these are all Teacher’s Day gifts! What a shame, they’ve all gone bad!”

“There’s also a box of handmade mooncakes here. Professor Lin—Sister, you don’t like sweets?”

Lin Ye stopped and thought for a moment. “Take them and share them with people. I don’t remember who sent them.”

Qi Si organized the delivery boxes and placed them by the door, went downstairs several times to throw out trash, then took Lin Ye’s dog downstairs for a walk. By the time she came back upstairs, she was exhausted.

Disaster truly came from the mouth. If she had known Lin Ye’s house was this messy, she should never have volunteered herself!

“If you don’t finish today, continue tomorrow.” Lin Ye checked the time. Qi Si had worked for three hours, but the room was still a mess.

Qi Si sat on the floor and looked at her, wanting to cry but having no tears. “I have class tomorrow. I’ll have to come after six.”

Lin Ye said, “Then compensate me with a car. I want it now.”

Qi Si said, “…All right. I’ll come before five tomorrow.”

Lin Ye quietly looked at her.

Qi Si said, “Even if I come early, it won’t be useful, right? Aren’t you going to the laboratory tomorrow?”

Lin Ye said, “I have a date tomorrow.”

Qi Si froze for a moment and suddenly remembered that at Professor Lin’s age, it was only natural for her to go on dates.

Someone that outstanding could not possibly remain single and living alone forever. Society would not tolerate it, and neither would her parents.

Only then did Qi Si realize, “If it’s a date… and the car just happens to be broken, what should we do?”

Lin Ye looked at her expressionlessly.

Qi Si raised both hands in admission of guilt. “All right, I delayed your lifelong happiness. Come up with a plan, and I’ll do my best to help you.”

Lin Ye said, “…Borrow Zhou Danqing’s car?”

Qi Si snapped her fingers. “Okay. Are you calling Sister Zhou, or am I?”

Lin Ye said, “You call.”

Qi Si said, “But it’s already ten. Is it appropriate to call now?”

Lin Ye coldly glanced at her.

Qi Si braced herself and dialed Zhou Danqing’s number. Unexpectedly, a man answered. “Who is this?”

Lin Ye’s gaze changed. Without waiting for Qi Si to speak, she walked over and ended the call.

Qi Si: “?”

“We’re not borrowing it.” Lin Ye got up and went to the kitchen, opening the refrigerator and looking inside for a long while.

Qi Si asked, “What do you want to drink? I’ll go downstairs and buy it for you.”

Lin Ye said, “Alcohol.”

“Okay. Is beer fine?” Qi Si stood up with her phone and muted Zhou Danqing’s return call.

But Lin Ye had already noticed her screen. “Answer her call and say you dialed the wrong number.”

Qi Si did as told. Zhou Danqing laughed and said, “I knew it. Xiao Qi, who are you with?”

Qi Si glanced at Lin Ye. “I’m alone. What’s wrong?”

Zhou Danqing said, “Oh, nothing. Just asking casually. Come by my place to have fun when you have time.”

Qi Si hung up, went downstairs to buy alcohol, and knocked the door open. “Here.”

Lin Ye saw that she had no intention of entering the apartment and did not take the beer. She glanced at her, her smile mocking.

“I’m going back,” Qi Si explained. “I still have things to do. Thank you very much for today. What you said was right. It was useless for me to go to them. I still had to rely on you to speak up. After I go back and finish my work, I’ll come find you first thing tomorrow morning. Then I’ll think of a way to help you borrow a car.”

Lin Ye said, “Get lost.”

Qi Si placed the beer at the entryway and turned around to roll away.

The elevator went down to the garage. Qi Si went to look at the miserable state of Lin Ye’s car and stood in front of it for a while, filled with guilt.

The car was in Sentry Mode, and the camera flashed at her.

Qi Si knew Lin Ye was watching her. For some reason, a strange thought appeared in her mind: she felt Lin Ye was very pitiful.

Not long after, Qi Si returned upstairs again and, gathering her courage, knocked on Lin Ye’s door.