The Mad Beauty Professor Forced Me to Mark Her - Chapter 7

After the college entrance exams ended, Qi Si took thirty thousand yuan from home, carried a large backpack, brought along the passport she had just received, and set out from Jinghai. Traveling on foot and hitching rides, she went from the Taihang Mountains to the Qinling Mountains, crossed the Sichuan Basin, wandered through the ancient villages of Yunnan and Guizhou, climbed over the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau—the roof of the world—and finally left the country from Kunming. Before winter arrived, she went to Southeast Asia, wandered aimlessly through city streets, earned a little money from part-time work, and then discovered that she did not like cities.

By chance, she boarded a cargo ship headed for Africa. She spent more than half a month at sea, drifting from North Africa to Eastern Europe, wandering all the way, staying far from crowds, and vanishing without a trace.

Back then, Qi Si’s father, Qi Pan, had not yet been in the car accident. A man in his forties was right at the peak of his career. Although his divorce from his ex-wife had taken more than half his assets, his remarried family was happy. His eldest daughter from his ex-wife, Qi Si, was excellent in her studies and had just been admitted into University A’s medical school. The second daughter brought over by his current wife was so obedient it made one’s heart ache, always rushing to do housework despite her young age. The third daughter, born between him and his current wife, was just at the babbling stage, clever and lively, a little treasure who knew how to make people happy.

It was also the year Qi Si got into university that Qi Pan, wanting to make up for the debt he owed her over her three years of high school, took out another three-million-yuan loan and bought a house in the suburbs of Jinghai with a total price of five million, so Qi Si could settle down in Jinghai in the future.

The next year, housing prices fell. Qi Pan lost focus while driving. By the time he came back to himself and turned the steering wheel, it was already too late. The car accident scene was tragic. He was lucky enough to survive, but from then on, the Qi family’s circumstances plummeted. Qi Si also ended her idealistic wandering life from that point on and began running around day and night for money.

Since she had once carried a twenty-kilogram backpack and hiked thousands of kilometers, even camping at an altitude of six thousand meters, Qi Si naturally would not fear a mountain only eighteen hundred meters high. From borrowing equipment at the rescue station and entering the mountain to finding the two trapped students, Qi Si only spent an hour and a half.

When the searchlight shone over them, the two despairing students used all their strength to scream. One had injured his leg, while the other was not much better and was trembling violently from the cold.

This place was on the shaded side of the mountain. There was little sunlight during the day, and after sunset, the temperature dropped rapidly. The two students were only wearing T-shirts and shorts. They lacked outdoor experience and had used their phones as flashlights until the batteries were completely drained. They did not know how to call for help, had no way to keep warm, and were short on both water and food. The one who had injured his leg was already so cold that his consciousness had begun to blur.

If they had been found a few hours later, someone might have died.

Qi Si had brought thermal blankets for them and used a GPS walkie-talkie to accurately describe their location. Soon, people arrived and carried the two students down the mountain.

This incident changed many people’s opinion of Qi Si. Shen Yixuan even suggested to the counselor that Qi Si be nominated for the city’s Good Samaritan Award.

After hearing about it, Qi Si asked her, “…How much is the prize money?”

Shen Yixuan said, “There’s no prize money. There’s a pennant and an honor certificate, and it can add credits!”

Qi Si said, “Then forget it.”

What use was empty talk of honor without prize money? Besides, she would have to sign up and fill out forms. Too troublesome.

She was so short on money now that she wanted to sell her organs. MII told her that an Alpha’s gland was very valuable and could sell for around two hundred thousand on the black market. If Qi Si had two hundred thousand yuan, her youngest sister could go to kindergarten, and their family could rent a slightly more spacious place instead of squeezing into a fifteen-square-meter room.

Qi Si could also set aside some money to buy a laptop and continue studying computer science on her own. Perhaps she could even complete her medical school courses at the same time.

She had saved six thousand yuan in cash, two thousand of which had been compensation from the fat guy, but she was not in a hurry to buy a new phone. Instead, she found a beat-up watch on a secondhand website and wore it every day as she went back and forth between the classroom, the library, the bar, and the dorm.

The fact that she was short on money soon spread. Not long after, Shen Yixuan came over happily to pass along a message. “Senior Moxiao asked me to tell you that their laboratory is short one research assistant. She wanted to ask if you’d be willing to help. She can pay you twenty yuan an hour.”

During the period Qi Si had been working at the bar, her schedule had been upside down. Every day, she was listless and exhausted, and at night, she could not return to the dorm normally. If the hourly pay had not been decent, she would have wanted to change jobs long ago.

An hourly wage of twenty yuan in the capital city could only be considered bottom-tier. Besides, “research assistant” sounded impressive, but who knew what the actual work would be? With Qi Si’s ability, she would probably only be qualified to wipe the laboratory windows.

Su Moxiao was tossing scraps at a beggar, putting on an act for her fellow medical school students so she could earn a reputation for being beautiful, kind, and helpful.

Qi Si said, “I’ll consider it if it’s one hundred an hour.”

Shen Yixuan cursed and grumbled for a while, then finally told Qi Si with surprise, “Senior said that’s fine! Senior really treats you so well!”

Qi Si was indeed tempted.

What youthful love, hatred, grudges, and resentment could possibly be more important than money?

Two hours a day meant two hundred yuan. No matter what, this work should be easier than working at the bar, right?

That way, she could free up more time to study and would not get scolded every day for skipping class.

On September 28, Qi Si followed the address Shen Yixuan had given her and found the laboratory. At the access-control door, she pressed the doorbell.

The call connected, and an impatient female voice said, “Who is it?”

Qi Si said, “Hello, I’m here to apply for the research assistant position.”

Qi Si heard that woman raise her voice and shout, “Who called for a research assistant? The person’s here!”

Through the intercom, she could hear people whispering to one another on the other side. After a while, a boy came closer and said, “Were you recommended by Junior Moxiao?”

Qi Si said, “Yes.”

“The door’s open. Come in.”

The electronic door opened automatically. Qi Si entered the laboratory building, passed through the dim stairwell, and went up to the third floor. She dodged someone in a white coat rushing through the hallway with a large basin of glassware, found the room number, and knocked on the open door.

A tall, slender woman was looking at something under a microscope. She was standing sideways to Qi Si, wearing a white lab coat with the grace of a custom-made trench coat. Five-centimeter stilettos paired with black stockings made Qi Si’s gaze linger on her ankles for a full half-minute.

That side profile and hairstyle—

It looked like Su Moxiao.

Su Moxiao’s hair was about this length, with slightly curled ends. And the way she dressed when they went mountain climbing last time had also been mature.

A sharp ache stabbed through Qi Si’s heart. She had not expected that after so much time had passed, she would still… feel even a little shaken.

So damn stupid. Qi Si slapped herself mentally, moistened her throat, and was just about to speak when the other person finally raised her face and looked over.

Qi Si saw a trace of surprise in her eyes. For that instant, some strange thoughts even surfaced in Qi Si’s mind, but she quickly cast aside the distractions and said, “I’m here.”

The woman’s lips curved faintly, revealing a hint of mockery. Without warning, she said, “Get out.”

Qi Si: “?”

A burst of hurried footsteps came from the hallway. A male voice wearing black-framed glasses rushed over. When he got close, he lowered his voice and said, “Are… are you the one who rang the doorbell just now?”

Qi Si had been stunned for a moment by the scolding. She turned back and said to the man in black-framed glasses, “That was me.”

The glasses guy bent slightly, as though he were wary of something. As he gestured for her to come over, he said in a tiny voice, “Aiya, I knew it. You went to the wrong place. This is the south building. Come with me…”

Qi Si looked back at the woman who had just told her to get out. For some reason, she seemed a little familiar. Qi Si was still dazed when the glasses guy grabbed her and pulled her away, his attitude as if he feared she would dirty that beauty’s eyes.

Once they were farther away, the glasses guy patted his chest. “That scared me to death. Did she scold you just now?”

Qi Si said, “She told me to get out.”

“Oh, then that’s still pretty good. Quite gentle, actually. Be careful next time. If you run into that teacher, keep as far away as possible. She’s famous at school for being terrifying. The fact that she didn’t call security to chase you out already counts as lucky. You’re in the same year as Junior Moxiao, right?”

Qi Si said, “I’m one year below her.”

“Oh, that’s fine. Have you taken basic experiment courses yet? Have you done anatomy?”

“No.”

“Ah, right. Freshman year just started, so you haven’t learned anything yet. Fine. Change into this. I’ll teach you how to do the work later. Do you know how to raise mice?”

“I’ve raised hamsters.”

“Haha, that’s about the same. You just have to regularly feed them water and food and clean up after them. But the mice in our laboratory are high-grade nude mice. They’re quite expensive and very delicate, so you have to be especially patient when caring for them. Everything that goes in or out must be disinfected. You’ll be staying at school during the National Day holiday, right?”

Qi Si said, “…Probably. What did Su Moxiao say?”

“Ah, she didn’t explain it clearly to you?” The glasses guy adjusted his glasses, brought her to a records room, picked up someone else’s white coat for her, and began introducing the details of the job.

What Su Moxiao had told her was “research assistant,” but in reality, hiring a research assistant for a laboratory required necessary procedures and regulations. With Qi Si’s ability, she was completely unqualified for a research assistant position.

Su Moxiao herself was only an undergraduate. She was lucky enough to be favored by Professor Lin and had been arranged to follow several doctoral and master’s students in the laboratory to do research. When her senior brothers and sisters published papers, they could give her a second-author or third-author spot. If she was outstanding enough to write a paper herself, she might even produce one as first author. That would be enough for her to polish her résumé and prepare for applying to study abroad next.

At the end of the day, graduate and doctoral students were already cheap labor, working like oxen and horses to run experiments and produce papers. Undergraduates had even lower status here. They were unpaid beasts of burden driven by cheap labor, doing work such as washing glass instruments, raising mice, handling biological waste, and taking out trash.

How could a goddess be willing to do such dirty and tiring work? Usually, if Su Moxiao could push it off, she pushed it off, using a bit of money and connections to smooth things over with the master’s and doctoral students. But in the long run, that was not a solution either.

Just in time, after hearing that Qi Si was desperate for money, Su Moxiao used a few words to recommend her over to do the work.

The glasses guy was named Liu Peng. He was in his third year of graduate school and was about to face the crisis of graduation. Every day, he was so busy he practically lived and ate in the laboratory, working nonstop. Originally, he had agreed with Su Moxiao that she would be listed as an author on his paper, but this junior sister was a busy person. Whenever things reached a crucial moment, she would say she was too occupied to spare the time.

And recently, Liu Peng needed a large amount of experimental data. Washing culture dishes alone took one or two hours. On top of that, the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holiday at the end of the month were approaching. Once students went home for the holiday, he would not even be able to find anyone to help.

The day before, he heard that his junior sister had spent money to introduce a classmate over to help. Liu Peng was so moved he could practically cry. Money really was good. With money, he would not have to work like an ox or a horse.

As Qi Si listened to his explanation, she thought this job was not easy at all.

Other tasks like washing culture dishes and cleaning were fine. Anyone could do them. But raising the mice was rather troublesome, especially that most special batch of nude mice. There were far too many disinfection steps before and after, and it would be very easy to forget one and make a mistake.

“The mice have very poor resistance. Once they come into contact with external microorganisms, they can easily get infected and die. You must be careful. Before you go in to clean, review the disinfection steps several times. The mice here aren’t just mine. They also belong to other senior sisters. This concerns everyone’s graduation, so you really have to pay attention.”

Those words made Qi Si want to retreat. “…Maybe forget it. This responsibility is a little too big…”

“Don’t! Junior sister, I’ll treat you to KFC. Today just happens to be Thursday. If you don’t help me, I really won’t be able to find anyone!”

Qi Si looked at him and thought he was quite pitiful too. A Beta man of twenty-five or twenty-six somehow looked as haggard as someone in his forties.

“All right. I’ll try. If I can’t do it, then forget it.”

In any case, she also wanted to earn more money and buy something nice for her little sisters when she went home. She had memorized the complicated operating steps from just now, so there should not be any mistakes.

During the day, she did odd jobs at the laboratory. At night, she worked at the bar. Coincidentally, Zhou Danqing also referred another job to her.

At the time, the boss had invited a table of friends over to play poker. Hearing the married people complain about how exhausting it was to tutor their children, Zhou Danqing sneered and called Qi Si over.

“Xiao Qi, how’s your English?”

Qi Si glanced at everyone and said modestly, “It’s all right. I got 147 on the college entrance exam.”

Zhou Danqing: “Pfft.”

“The full score is only 150, right?”

A woman in her thirties put down her cards, took the cigarette from her mouth, and asked, “Are you a student?”

Qi Si nodded. Zhou Danqing proudly introduced her. “Xiao Qi is a top student from University A’s medical school. She’s not the same kind of person as you slackers.”

Several pairs of eyes looked her up and down. After appreciating her for a moment, the woman smoking said, “Don’t work here anymore. Zhou Danqing pays too little. Come to my house and tutor my son. How about three hundred an hour?”

Qi Si: “!”

Three hundred an hour?! She had not heard wrong, had she?

Stay calm. Stay calm. The boss was right beside her. She could not show excitement.

Qi Si calmly lifted her eyelids and looked toward Zhou Danqing, who was sipping from a stemmed glass.

That gaze alone made Zhou Danqing feel completely satisfied. From her understanding of Qi Si, this little Alpha was not only exceptionally capable but also very loyal and reliable.

That midnight when she had Qi Si send Lin Ye home, this little Alpha had indeed not betrayed her trust. Even when faced with an Omega in heat, she had behaved with great restraint and calm.

Afterward, Lin Ye had even asked about her in passing. With Lin Ye’s personality, she would never normally take any interest in a young Alpha.

Sure enough, Zhou Danqing heard Qi Si say, “Boss is short-handed here, and the holiday is coming up soon. I can’t leave.”

“Why are you worrying about her? Plenty of people would fight to take this job for five thousand a month. You’re a student from a famous university. How can you be compared with those people just waiting around to get by? I’ll raise it a little. I’ll give you 350. Come over every day to tutor for two hours, and I’ll settle 700 with you. How about it?”

Qi Si: “…”

Zhou Danqing said, “You’re at least a famous rich lady in Jinbei District. Your husband’s assets are in the hundreds of billions, and you’re only willing to offer this little?”

“What hundreds of billions? Who told you that nonsense? Five hundred an hour. Xiao Qi, you’ll come to my house tomorrow.” The rich lady finally made the decision.

Qi Si looked at Zhou Danqing, and the latter said, “Go. Being able to hire you to tutor her son is her gain.”

“Thank you, Boss. Then I…”

“You don’t need to come work tomorrow. I’ll settle your wages later. When you have time in the future, come by and visit me often.”

Qi Si was still a little dazed. After getting the rich lady’s address and phone number, she returned to work behind the bar.

For most of her life, she had spent her time in school, receiving all kinds of instruction, following rules, and studying seriously. Yet all along, she had been deceived, used, mocked, cyberbullied, and excluded. From high school to university, she had received all kinds of malice.

But ironically, most of the kindness she had encountered came from society outside school.

During the time she had been a backpacker, she had always met all sorts of good people: people who gave her rides, herders on the plateau who took her in overnight, travelers who shared water with her when she was hiking in the desert, the cargo ship driver who let her board… and people like Zhou Danqing.

If these people had not healed her, perhaps she would never have understood the reason she was excluded. She might have thought she was targeted because she stood out too much, and therefore worked hard to become ordinary—hunching her back on the road, avoiding other people’s gazes, fleeing crowds, and living her whole life trembling with fear.

After settling her wages, Qi Si bought mooncakes and cake and went home.

Strictly speaking, this place could not be considered Qi Si’s home at all. Ever since she had begun boarding in high school, she had not had much contact with her family. Aside from regularly receiving living expenses transferred from home and occasionally staying there during winter and summer breaks, she could hardly even be called familiar with this family.

The old residential compound where she used to live still held some childhood memories. After it was sold, they rented a cheap apartment. It was packed with all kinds of young people who could not afford to settle down in the big city. Every time she waited for the elevator, she had to wait more than ten minutes.

The room number was 1538. From that number alone, one could see how densely populated this apartment building was.

Qi Si knocked on the door. Jiang Mingzhu was standing behind the door, washing socks at the sink, and opened it in a second. She made space for Qi Si to stand, held the child’s sock in her hand, and smiled at her. Lines had been carved beneath her eye sockets. She turned and said to the girls, “Your sister came to see you!”

“Sister!” Three-year-old Qi Yue was playing with building blocks. She turned her head and happily ran over. “Sister! Sister! For Sister!”

Qi Si accepted the triangular block from her hand. “Thank you. I bought you cake. Share it and eat.”

The second daughter timidly hid behind Jiang Mingzhu. When she heard “cake,” her eyes lit up. Qi Si touched her head. “Xiao Shu has grown taller again. Come cut the cake.”

Jiang Shu wore clothes that did not quite fit and obediently nodded.

Jiang Mingzhu hung the socks inside the room, rummaged through the cardboard boxes on the floor, washed her hands, wiped them clean, and smiled with embarrassment. “Actually, you didn’t need to buy cake. It’s not anyone’s birthday…”

Little Qi Yue stared eagerly at the cake and bounced excitedly. “July birthday.”

Qi Si found it funny. Holding the cake in one hand and lifting Qi Yue with the other, she stepped over the obstacles and arrived beside the small table.

A whole room of people were squeezed into this small ten-square-meter space with nowhere to put their feet, not to mention there was also a paralyzed person lying on the bed.

Qi Si originally could not bear to look at him, but recently, after seeing too many hairless mice, her resistance had naturally improved.

Old Qi had his eyes open and was smiling at her. There were tears at the corners of his eyes. His lips twitched, but he could not speak.

Jiang Mingzhu had kept him very clean, even better than Qi Si had imagined. Qi Si looked at the pile of cardboard boxes Jiang Mingzhu had saved in the room, and her feelings were terribly complicated. She did not know what to say.

“How has my dad been recently?” Qi Si asked Jiang Mingzhu while holding a portion of cake.

When Jiang Mingzhu smiled, her lips pressed into a thin line. “He’s been all right. Mainly, he’s worried about how things are going for you at school. Are you still working part-time at the bar recently?”

“I’m not going anymore. I’ve been tutoring recently. The income is decent.” As she spoke, she took out a stack of money she had saved and gave it to Jiang Mingzhu.

Jiang Mingzhu tried to refuse, so Qi Si handed the money to Jiang Shu and said, “During the holiday, go with Mom to buy a new outfit. Buy your little sister a schoolbag and send her to kindergarten, all right?”

Jiang Shu held the thick stack of bills and nodded.

Jiang Mingzhu sighed and took a box from the desk drawer. Qi Si saw Apple’s logo at once. “?”

Jiang Mingzhu said, “Your mom bought it for you. She had it sent here first. You’ll definitely need it for school. Come try it and see how it is.”

The box opened, and inside was a brand-new silver MacBook. Qi Si’s eyes shone.

“She… Doesn’t she, like, not care?”

Thinking of that woman she had not seen in many years, Qi Si did not know how to judge her.

When her parents divorced, that woman had cried as if her heart and liver had been torn apart. She had encouraged Qi Si to distance herself from her relatives and constantly fed her thoughts of hatred: hate her father, hate her stepmother, hate her younger sisters.

Later, after marrying a rich man, she did not even want to bother with Qi Si. When she heard that her ex-husband had been in a car accident, she quickly called to congratulate them.

Qi Si was full of doubts. Jiang Mingzhu gestured toward the bed with her eyes, and Qi Si immediately understood.

For her sake, her father had swallowed his pride and begged that woman.

Back when the divorce had been at its worst, Qi Pan had been young and stubborn. He would rather leave with nothing than admit fault to his ex-wife. The two of them fought until they were battered and bruised over the mess of their marriage, and dragging Qi Si into court against each other had also been common.

Then disaster struck overnight. The man lay in bed, unable to move, with only his mouth still able to speak. At last, he woke up and realized that over all these years, the only person he had truly wronged was Qi Si.

This small apartment made Qi Si feel suffocated. After leaving, she rode her bicycle in a daze.

Without phone navigation, Qi Si got lost on the streets for a long while. After turning this way and that, she entered a dark alley.

The scent of an Omega made her stop in her tracks. She tilted her head and saw a woman being forced into a dead end by several Alphas.

The moment their eyes met, Qi Si remembered.

This pheromone scent was the same as Zhou Danqing’s female Omega friend!

It was her!