Chapter 10
Chapter 10: Don’t Worry About the Details
Qian Qi nodded, satisfied. “I knew Classmate Miao Miao wouldn’t abandon me.”
She threw on a coat, washed up, and—just like yesterday—grabbed her textbook and slapped downstairs in flip-flops.
Chen Miao Miao trailed behind her, staring at the stairs like they were whispering her name. More than once, her fingers twitched as if she wanted to give Qian Qi a helpful little push.
But Qian Qi was tough. Freakishly tough. Like a cockroach with a personal vendetta against death.
And Chen Miao Miao wasn’t some brainless cannon-fodder character. If she wanted Qian Qi dead, she’d need an alibi. No suspicion. Not even a speck.
Qian Qi, for her part, felt a flicker of disappointment. “Why won’t she do it? I was totally planning to kick her down the stairs in self-defense.”
Blue Panel: “…So who’s the villain here? You or her?”
Qian Qi waved it off. “Don’t worry about the details.”
After breakfast, she charged back into Back Mountain, analyzed three more magic plant seeds, planted them in her borrowed plots, and tended them carefully.
Then she started roaming again.
The Magic Plant Academy had a lot of students. With four year groups combined, there were easily over a thousand. So as Qian Qi sprinted around the mountain, she wasn’t alone—plenty of students were up there recording growth data and checking their plants.
And when they spotted the rare sight of “Qian Qi,” they stared. Curious. Concerned. Slightly haunted.
“Why did that lunatic come to Back Mountain?”
“Who knows? What if she gets bored and rips out our plants?”
“I doubt it. She’s terrible at studying. She probably doesn’t even know magic plant weaknesses. If she fights one, she’ll die.”
“Not necessarily.” A senior leaned in, voice dropping like he was leaking classified intel. “You guys don’t know? Two days ago, Qian Qi stole Li Shu Yun’s Fire Qilin Fruit. I heard the Fire Qilin Lotus got smashed to pieces with a hoe.”
“What? Fire Qilin Lotus is vicious. Tough and aggressive. She killed it?”
“Not only that. I heard she even wanted to eat the Fire Qilin Fruit, but for some reason she gave it back.”
“Is she insane? Eat Fire Qilin Fruit? You can’t eat magic plant fruit raw—everyone knows that!”
They kept gossiping, voices rising and falling, and each sentence made Qian Qi sound crazier than the last. Someone finally sighed, disgusted. “I don’t know what kind of parents raise a kid like that.”
Qian Qi actually wondered the same thing.
Her memories were incomplete, and none of them included her parents. Her lightbrain contacts didn’t have any relatives. No family. No friends.
There was one fixed contact, but it didn’t have a name. Qian Qi didn’t dare call and ask, Who are you?
“Please don’t drop me into some awful family full of deadweight,” she prayed silently.
Because if that happened… she genuinely couldn’t guarantee who would suffer more.
…
Night fell.
A cold wind swept over the ridgelines, and the misshapen magic plants swayed in the dark like things trying to remember how to walk. Moonlight slipped between leaves and cast giant shadows across the ground. Now and then, something low and raspy scraped through the forest—like a throat clearing just out of sight.
Su Xing Le stood at the foot of the mountain with a plastic crate of magic beast meat at his feet. The wind made him shiver so hard his teeth nearly clicked. He rubbed his arms and tried very hard not to look at the moving silhouettes.
At this hour, the Magic Plant Department students were usually asleep. He genuinely did not understand why Qian Qi had demanded delivery in the middle of the night.
He waited.
And waited.
Still no sign of her.
Finally, he pulled out his lightbrain and poked her.
[su city young master]: Where are you?
Why haven’t you come down?
I’m Your Grandpa: You in a hurry?
[su city young master]: Not really…
It was just that he’d heard some magic plants could move on their own. The academy banned mobile magic plants, sure, but that didn’t stop stories from spreading. And stories loved midnight.
I’m Your Grandpa: If you’re not in a hurry, turn around.
Su Xing Le frowned and turned.
He came face-to-face with Qian Qi’s grinning expression—way too close, like she’d teleported out of spite.
“Holy shit!” he yelped, going pale. “When did you get here?!”
How did she make zero sound?
“Carry it up for me.” Qian Qi had a hoe slung over her shoulder and didn’t look remotely sorry about ordering him around.
Su Xing Le didn’t dare refuse. He snatched up the crate and hurried after her.
They walked along the so-called safety path. It wasn’t truly safe—it was just far enough from the plots to stay outside most magic plants’ attack range.
In the dead quiet, every crunch of branches under their feet sounded wrong, too loud, like a warning.
Su Xing Le kept stealing nervous glances at the shadows. Some plants stretched and twitched as if reaching for them. He forced himself to speak, hoping conversation would blunt the fear.
“Junior Qian… aren’t you scared?”
Qian Qi glanced back and let out a short, strange laugh. “Guess why I brought a hoe.”
“For defense?” Su Xing Le said quickly. “If a magic plant attacks, you can fight it off?”
She shook her head. “Wrong. It’s in case you get ripped apart by a magic plant and I need to dig a hole to bury the evidence.”
Su Xing Le: …
He was suddenly much more afraid of Qian Qi than the plants.
After nearly twenty minutes, they reached her destination. Qian Qi opened the crate and stared at the famous magic beast meat.
It looked like beef at first glance, but denser. She pinched it. Hard muscle—solid all the way through.
This thing was tough. Could the Fire Qilin Lotus even digest it?
“Is this hard to get?” she asked.
“Not really.” Su Xing Le nodded. “I know a graduated senior with a channel for fresh magic beast meat.”
“Oh?” Qian Qi’s interest sparked. “What kind of channels are we talking?”
“Three main ones,” Su Xing Le said, counting on his fingers. “First, the Awakened go into dungeons, hunt magic beasts, and carry the bodies back out. They sell valuable parts to the Magic Beast Research Institute. What’s left—like the meat—gets sold to beast tamers as feed for their contracted magic beasts.”
“Second is the Magic Beast Research Institute’s official website. It’s pricier, but supply is stable and they ship nationwide. You don’t have to camp at dungeon entrances waiting for someone to come out.”
“And the third…” He hesitated, lowering his voice. “If you work at the Magic Beast Research Institute, you can get perks—like exclusive sales rights. You buy meat inside at a lower price, then resell it.”
Qian Qi’s mind immediately started building a factory in her head.
If she wanted to produce hemostatic magic potion later, she’d need a stable magic beast meat supplier. If she could get connected to someone at the institute—like Su Xing Le’s senior—
No. Middlemen meant markups.
She kept her tone casual. “If your senior quits, does he still keep those exclusive sales rights?”
“He does,” Su Xing Le said, nodding.
Qian Qi’s eyes gleamed.
So why didn’t she just work at the Magic Beast Research Institute herself?
Get the exclusive rights… then disappear.
But then she remembered—didn’t you need a Magic Beast Department degree and diploma to get hired there?
Which meant she still couldn’t escape the fate of changing majors.
Fine.
For cheap, reliable magic beast meat, she’d grind, make money, and aim straight for the Magic Beast Department.
That honey-sweet retirement was waiting for her. No one was stopping her.