Chapter 37
Chapter 37: This Is Clearly Her Little Treasure
The moment Qian Qi returned to school, Chen Tong latched onto her like a shadow.
That idiot Chen Miao Miao didn’t know what she was doing. She hadn’t even reported Qian Qi’s whereabouts. Chen Tong only found out now that Qian Qi had left campus.
He’d missed the perfect chance to kill her off-campus.
Fine. Then he’d do it on-campus.
But not yet.
Behind a thick tree, Chen Tong hid in the shadows, staring at Qian Qi’s swaggering back. His eyes were dark and greedy, sharp with cruelty.
His family had money, sure—but money wasn’t power. And in this world, money alone wasn’t rare.
That was exactly why Mo Yin Qiu and Gu Li Heng hadn’t shown him any special treatment when the issue involved him and Qian Qi.
They didn’t fear his family.
But hemostatic potion?
That was different.
The moment Chen Tong thought of that ridiculous, against-the-rules effect, his heart started crawling.
If he could monopolize the supply channels—or better, the formula—then forget ordinary people. Awakeners across the world would bow and scrape to the Chen family, flattering and fawning, begging for a drop.
By then, a mere Qian Qi wouldn’t even be worth dirtying his hands. Plenty of people would happily kill her for him.
“She left campus this time… she probably went to restock.”
Chen Tong’s mind stirred. He followed.
—
Back on campus, Qian Qi immediately transferred five hundred thousand to Xiang Wen Yun.
After a moment of thought, she painfully transferred another thirty thousand.
It wasn’t generosity.
It was agony.
She’d just gotten that thirty thousand. She hadn’t even had time to enjoy it before sending it away. The average person couldn’t begin to imagine how much her heart hurt.
Still, she wasn’t doing this because she was kind.
If Bright Orphanage changed hands—or got taken over—the existence of that E-rank instance would be exposed.
And once it became public property, she’d never be able to monopolize it.
So Bright Orphanage could not close.
To Qian Qi, money mattered. But you needed to stay alive to spend it, and if she wanted to protect her growing pile of cash, she had to get strong.
That meant the instance’s attribute rewards were nonnegotiable.
“I’ll treat it like I bought the orphanage,” she decided. “When that instance stops being useful to me, I’ll stop sending money.”
Fair enough. Practically saintly, really. In her own opinion.
“Now…” Qian Qi rolled her shoulders. “Time to deal with the defense fruit.”
She dragged out her little stool, went behind the school doctor’s courtyard, and rummaged through the trash until she found a clean, brand-new paper box.
“Hahaha! Saved ten bucks!”
Hands on hips, she laughed up at the sky like she’d just pulled off the greatest heist in history.
Chen Tong, watching from a distance: …Is she sick?
Stingy like this?
Seriously?
Chen Tong’s eyebrow twitched as he followed her, equal parts disgusted and speechless, all the way to the Skills Department duel square.
Qian Qi set down her stool, dumped the defense fruit into the paper box, cleared her throat, and started shouting:
“Handsome buddies! Beautiful ladies! If your legs are tired, take a break! If your fists are tired, rest up! If you’re bored, come chat with me, Qian Qi!”
“Qian Qi’s goods are top-tier! If you know quality, take it home! Super defense fruit—eat one and you can block D-rank magic beast damage!”
“Maybe you can’t hold your breath underwater for ten minutes. Maybe you can’t last ten minutes in bed. But my defense fruit will absolutely let you last ten minutes under a D-rank magic beast’s attacks!”
“Real men eat defense fruit! Real women fuck men!”
Somewhere in her head, the System went dead silent.
Then it muttered, flatly, “Where the hell did you learn that slogan?”
But the crowd? The crowd loved it.
Her pitch was bizarre enough to draw students in like flies. A bunch of them had already seen her name on the forum and assumed she was selling hemostatic potion again.
“Big Shot, are you selling hemostatic medicine?”
“I want ten packs!”
“Hey, why are you buying so many? Planning to resell?”
“What are you talking about? I’m buying for my family! My parents go into instances all the time—hemostatic potion seriously boosts survival rates!”
They all opened their lightbrains, ready to transfer money.
Then they looked down—and saw only ten tiny brown fruits, each the size of a candy bean.
“Not selling hemostatic potion today!” Qian Qi grinned and tapped the box. “Today it’s defense fruit. Eat one and you’re immune to all D-rank magic beast damage for ten minutes!”
The crowd sucked in a collective breath.
“Immune to all D-rank damage? Even fire-element damage? Lightning damage?”
“Of course!” Qian Qi slapped her chest. “I tested it myself!”
A cold laugh cut through the noise. “You? Test it yourself?” someone sneered. “You’re so stingy you’d pick a fight with a copper coin.”
Qian Qi turned toward the voice and frowned.
Of course.
It was him.
Chen Tong stood among the students, wearing smug contempt like it was cologne. “That looks like fruit picked straight off a magic plant. Everyone knows magic plant leaves and fruit can’t be eaten raw. Even awakeners get side effects.”
He swept his gaze over the crowd, righteous as a preacher. “Hemostatic potion might be safe. But feeding magic plant fruit to your classmates? That’s wildly irresponsible, Qian Qi.”
His logic landed. The students who’d been eager to buy suddenly hesitated.
“Yeah… raw magic plant does have side effects.”
“If she really tested it, she’d be lying in the school doctor’s courtyard.”
“If she isn’t in the school doctor’s courtyard, then she’s lying.”
Trust was fragile. One lie and a seller died on the spot. Suspicion spread through the crowd like smoke.
Chen Tong saw them wavering and pushed harder. “And who doesn’t know you’re a lousy student? There’s no way you made that hemostatic potion. You must’ve bought it from somewhere.”
He sneered. “You get everyone’s trust, then turn around and sell fruit with side effects. That’s shameless.”
The System nearly exploded in Qian Qi’s ear.
“This stinky dumbass—what is he even saying? If he doesn’t want his mouth, he can donate it!”
Qian Qi’s frown vanished. She smiled, warm and sweet as poison. “Hey, don’t talk like that about Senior Chen.”
The System stalled. “…Huh?”
Qian Qi tilted her head, eyes shining. “How is he a stinky dumbass? This is clearly my little treasure.”
The System went blank.
Qian Qi sat on her little stool, spread her knees, and leaned forward with street-punk swagger, forearms braced on her thighs.
Her smile sharpened. “Young man,” she said softly, “you can’t eat whatever you want… and you can’t say whatever you want either.”