Chapter 53

Chapter 53: Make a Move? Then Can I Fight Back?

After class, Li Shu Yun rushed to find her grandpa, Li Hong Sheng.

With a new towel in hand, she ran into the Dean’s office of the Magiplant Department and found him at his desk, replaying the earlier bargaining match in his head.

“This one is hard to crack,” he said, rubbing his chin. “I do not have her weak point. I know too little about her, and I also need something from her. There is no way to break the only seller setup.”

Too rash, he thought. He should have stayed patient, studied Qian Qi first, then planned a bargaining strategy.

She glanced down at his scribbled notes. He had written out every line and gesture from both sides, with comments on who held the advantage. He had clearly spent hours on it. She was not surprised. To pull in sponsors and investors, the Dean of the Magiplant Research Institute had to do everything himself.

But when her eyes found one line, she frowned and pointed. “Grandpa, you and the Principal did not even prepare a cup of tea for her, did you?”

Li Hong Sheng froze, then smacked his forehead.

He had made a big mistake.

Because Qian Qi was a student from his own institute, he had subconsciously put her in a lower place. He and the Principal acted like superiors trying to get a deal from a student. Asking for a favor but not even offering tea? Who does that?

No wonder Qian Qi’s attitude hardened more and more until she stopped talking and walked out.

Li Shu Yun sighed and took a seat. “Leave that for now. Grandpa, do you have the ten million ready?”

“No. You know our situation,” he said, eyes dropping back to his notes.

“Did you try borrowing from your friends?” she said. “If we buy the Fire Qilin Lotus planting method, we will pay it back for sure.”

He paused and said nothing.

Silence stretched. A bad feeling rose in her chest. Her voice cracked: “Grandpa, do not tell me you have already borrowed from all of them.”

“I had no choice,” he tried to explain. “Your parents keep a tight hold on the money. I could only borrow from old friends…”

He had asked too many times and failed to repay. How could he ask again?

She pressed her lips. In this, Grandpa really was not as good as Qian Qi. Qian Qi had grown the Fire Qilin Fruit first, and her fruit was dozens of times better than the foreign one. The Fire Qilin Lotus left behind had already borne another fruit. If you did the math, she had made a fortune.

“So what will you do now?” she asked.

“I asked Little Zheng to lend me money. Now the two of us are thinking of ways to push the price down.” He brightened and looked at her with hope. “Yun Yun, do you know Qian Qi’s weak point? I want a final trump card.”

[Seriously?] she thought. [Her only weak point right now is that her temper has gotten better and she did not punch you.]

She warned him, grave and clear: “Grandpa, do not threaten Qian Qi. Do not test her patience. She may look all smiles now, but she used to be tough. If you push her, what if she hits you?”

“Hits me?” The old man perked up even more. “Then can I fake an injury? Would that work?”

[Help. Did you not hear anything I said?]

“She really will hit,” she said quickly, afraid he would get beaten up. “She used to wreck many classmates’ Magiplants and got into lots of fights. She even smashed the finished E level Fire Qilin Lotus I grew so she could survive, and she did it without any sodium bicarbonate solution.”

She took a breath and raised her voice: “If you end up with broken bones, I am not taking care of you in the hospital!”

He blinked, then slapped his thigh in delight: “You are the best. I have an idea now. Tomorrow I will threaten her with expulsion for bad conduct.”

[Great. I talked so much and you missed every key point.]

…

Li Hong Sheng invited Qian Qi again.

This time, he asked her and the Principal to meet at a downtown restaurant.

He spent big and ordered a whole table of dishes. He had decided to close the deal today no matter what.

Seeing the feast, Qian Qi beamed. She rarely got to eat this well. Since he was paying, she was not going to be polite.

Just as she lifted her chopsticks, he began: “Qian Qi, I heard you often fought with classmates before and even ruined their Magiplant assignments.”

Her chopsticks paused midair. She raised a brow. So the old man was going all in this time.

She set the chopsticks down and nodded: “Yes.”

When she first crossed over, she had asked the System if those things were really done by the original owner and whether there was some hidden truth. The System had said clearly that the original owner did them. So she would not whitewash the past. She would not whitewash herself either.

“As for their losses, I will compensate them later,” she said, fingers laced under her chin. Her smiling eyes went flat and unreadable. “I believe they will not hold it against me.”

He had not expected that answer. It threw him for a moment, but this was only the appetizer.

He kept pressing: “But those things already happened and had a bad influence. Also, I heard you charged classmates to do their homework. On top of that, you sold Magiplant byproducts and Magiplant fruits to students without permission from the institute. You sold unapproved, untested, and unlabeled items, ignoring their safety. This hurts the school’s name and causes all kinds of trouble.”

He lifted his cup for a slow sip, satisfied to see her face cool. “As the Dean, I have the power to expel you.”

[If she drops out, she loses access to Magiplant seeds. If my institute posts a statement saying her goods have long term side effects, no one will dare buy from her. Even if some do, she will be forced into the shadows, always hiding.] He judged it a hurt-the-enemy-and-yourself plan, but one she would not accept. [If she wants better resources later, she will back down.]

Qian Qi rubbed her chin. She had already guessed he might use expulsion to threaten her. If she left school, she could still farm with memories from her past life, but it would not make money as fast as Magiplants and magic potions.

For a sweet and easy retirement, she needed degrees from both the Magiplant Department and the Magibeast Department. Only then could she get formal selling channels and discounts. She wanted to earn money in the open, not hide in the gutter.

But she was not going to cut the price for nothing. She had been tough before on purpose, to push Li Hong Sheng into a corner so he would find the courage to truly talk. That way, she could fish for benefits beyond money.

She crossed her hands in front of her mouth. Behind her fingers, the corners of her lips pulled into a wicked, sneaky grin.

“Lowering the price is not impossible,” she said slowly. Her shoulders trembled with excitement. Her dark eyes flashed with the sly light of a thousand year old fox, and because she failed to manage her expression, a twisted, creepy aura rolled off her.