Chapter 20
Chapter 20: Principal, Let Me Cut You Once!
Qian Qi had no intention of letting a golden opportunity slip away.
A free walking billboard that practically paid her for the privilege was rare. Miss this one and she’d be chewing regret for life.
So instead of answering, she lowered her head, stared at the tips of her shoes, and went very, very quiet—like she was fermenting trouble.
The silence put a wrinkle between the principal’s brows. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, Qian Qi snapped her head up.
On that… highly expressive face, sorrow crept in by degrees. “Principal… do you really not want to believe your student?”
She clutched her chest and shook her head, disappointment dripping from every syllable. “Your student spends every day and night starving and sleepless, dedicating all her time to researching magic potions—so she can benefit humanity and repay the school that raised her. And in your eyes… it’s all worth nothing?”
“I—”
The principal hadn’t expected that. For a moment, he couldn’t even find the right sentence to start with.
It wasn’t that he thought it was worthless. It was that the person claiming it was Qian Qi, and that made it very hard to believe.
Qian Qi’s emotions hit full boil. Tears burst out like ball bearings, clacking down her cheeks as she launched into a furious indictment.
“How can you face your student’s sincere heart? How can you face your student’s ambitions? She only has one small wish, and you won’t even show support and trust—then who in this world can help her hold to her purpose and give everything to repay this country, this society?”
“All she wants is a verification of her results after years of work—day after day!”
“Principal—” She screamed like her lungs were being ripped in half. “Don’t freeze our students’ hearts!”
Her voice punched through the air. Students drifted closer, then gathered into a widening ring, whispering and craning their necks to see what was happening.
When they heard the yelling student had made a one-second hemostatic medicine—and wanted the principal himself to test it—eyes everywhere lit up with awe.
This classmate was insane. She actually dared to ask the principal to personally try the medicine?
The principal, hit with an uninterrupted barrage, felt his brain go fuzzy. He raised a shaking finger toward Qian Qi. “You—”
He “you”ed for several seconds and still couldn’t form a whole sentence.
Off to the side, Su Ang’s gaze slid over the girl in flip-flops and a battered leather jacket.
Alone in the noisy crowd, she stood like a nail hammered into the ground—eyes bright, posture steady, untouched by the chaos around her. She didn’t retreat an inch under the principal’s doubts. If anything, she sounded more composed the longer she spoke, every word crisp and sure.
She looked… convinced.
Su Ang stepped forward, voice cool and even, and neatly rescued the principal from the corner he’d been shoved into. “Classmate. I’ll test the medicine for the principal.”
Qian Qi turned toward the voice. Up close, Su Ang was so handsome he didn’t look real. Her gaze drifted down—then stopped dead on his pale, long-fingered hand.
That hand was outrageous. Like it should be insured.
If his hand looked that good… his arm had to be art.
Qian Qi lifted her little knife, eyes shining with sincere enthusiasm.
The principal nearly had a heart attack. He yanked Su Ang behind him like he was shielding a priceless antique. “No, no, no! I’ll do it!”
He absolutely refused to let Su Ang’s perfect body get injured. The boy was young—if he got a scar on his arm, how ugly would that be?
Not to mention Su Ang was an S-rank mental-power Awakened and a future commander. If anything happened to him, that was a loss for all of Zhong Zhou.
The principal glanced at the crowd—too many students watching, too many ears listening. He sucked in a breath. At this point, the arrow was already nocked. For his reputation alone, he had to prove the hemostatic medicine’s effects.
If it was fake, even better—there were plenty of witnesses to justify expelling Qian Qi on the spot.
Fine. If Qian Qi was going to be shameless, he could be ruthless.
With a pained expression, he rolled up his sleeve and tried to salvage dignity with an official tone. “As principal, I should encourage students to break through their limits. I am willing to—”
He didn’t even finish.
Qian Qi, apparently incapable of waiting another second, cleanly sliced his forearm.
“Sss—!”
“Sss—!”
The first hiss came from the principal.
The second came from the students.
“Principal, so brave!” Qian Qi shouted it like she was accepting an award, snatched up a packet of hemostatic powder, and—because shame had clearly never met her—added, “Um, Principal? The hemostatic medicine is 998. Packaging is two bucks.”
The principal blinked.
Once.
Twice.
“…I just got cut like Little White the lab rat, and you’re still charging me?”
“Principal, you know my family is really poor…”
“Fine, fine! Just hurry up!”
His face went dark. That cut hurt like hell, and he already regretted every life choice that had led him here.
Qian Qi wasn’t worried about being stiffed. She had a thousand ways to make him pay, and she looked like she’d happily demonstrate them. She tore open the sealed pouch and poured the powder directly onto the wound.
The effect was instant.
The pain vanished like it had been yanked out of his nerves. A cool numbness spread through his arm. In the time it took him to blink, the bleeding stopped completely—no drips, no seepage, nothing.
He wiped the area with a handkerchief. The cut had sealed so neatly it didn’t even look real. No raised skin. No trace of a scar.
“H—holy shit,” the principal breathed. “It’s actually that ridiculous?”
Qian Qi saw it too and blurted, “Holy shit,” with sincere, almost reverent wonder.
The principal’s eye twitched.
“You were just swearing it was absolutely real!”
Qian Qi realized what she’d said and immediately lunged into damage control. She grabbed the principal’s arm—still smeared with drying blood from before the powder set—and hoisted it up like a trophy.
“Classmates! Look! This is the principal’s unconditional support in living, breathing form!”
“This is his heartfelt trust—our greatest encouragement!”
“Because we have such a great principal, we will have a brighter future! Humanity will endure forever in the long river of history!”
“Let us remember this day, strive and advance, and repay the principal and the school for their trust and cultivation!”
She raised his hand again and screamed, “Today I’m proud of my alma mater! Tomorrow my alma mater will be proud of me!”
The crowd caught fire like dry grass. Students, swept up in it, shouted back with shining eyes, “Today I’m proud of my alma mater! Tomorrow my alma mater will be proud of me!”
“Long live the principal!”
“Long live the principal!”
Pure, untouched faces stared at him with worship. The principal stood there in the middle of it, bathing in admiration, and gradually… completely lost himself.
He was just starting to feel like his shoes barely touched the ground when Qian Qi’s voice blasted out again, full volume, zero mercy:
“Classmates! You’ve seen the effects of the hemostatic magic potion! One-second hemostasis is no lie—cut an artery and it’ll stop instantly. It’s the ultimate life-saving tool!”
“No 99! No 88! And definitely no 998!”
“Only 1998! Pack it up and take it home right now!”
The principal’s soul snapped back into his body.
“…Wait. Wasn’t it 998 ten seconds ago?”
This little demon was raising the price on the spot?
Right in front of him?
And about the whole “cutting the principal” incident—
Qian Qi beamed. “You only lost a few cells. I gained the money of all humanity—cough, I mean the trust of all humanity!”
The principal just stared.
“…?”