After two hours on the road, the bus finally arrived near the Future Technology Industrial Park, which lay on the border between the two cities.
The moment they entered the park, the students crowded around the windows to take in the scenery outside, all of them bubbling with excitement.
“Wow, this park is huge!”
“I heard Qizhi has biological culture labs. They might even let us cultivate hybrid cells ourselves!”
“I’m more interested in the small computer cluster. I heard you need to know how to use one if you want to work on AI. That’s my dream—I want to research artificial intelligence too!”
“Do you think they’ll let us do experiments? I really want to touch a centrifuge!”
“Students like us, who are only average, never used to get chances to come to a place like this. It’s all thanks to Board Director Yu… Ah, I’m starting to feel a little guilty. When I get back, I’m going to study hard. I’ll even pay attention in the classes I’m not interested in. Otherwise, I’d be letting Board Director Yu down.”
“…”
Yu Xiaxing had been sleeping, but she opened her eyes when she heard that.
You guys are overthinking this…
At last, they arrived at Qizhi.
“We’re here! We’re here!”
The students excitedly got off the bus.
A young receptionist was waiting at the entrance of Qizhi. When she saw the group from Shengde, she came over and asked, “You’re the Shengde team, right?”
Lu Yanzhao stepped forward. “Yes. We made an appointment with Director Shao for three days of educational activities, starting at nine-thirty this morning.”
The receptionist glanced at her tablet. “That’s right… but Director Shao is busy at the moment. Please wait in the lounge for now.”
Lu Yanzhao frowned slightly. “It’s almost the time we scheduled. We’d rather not wait.”
The receptionist remained polite but perfunctory. “I understand. But Director Shao really is busy right now, and I don’t have the authority to make any arrangements. Please wait a little while.”
With that, she pointed them toward the lounge and left.
The students had no choice but to go sit down and wait.
—
Lu Yanzhao and Yu Zheng went out to find one of Qizhi’s senior managers and negotiate.
They contacted the receptionist, Qizhi’s administration office, Director Shao’s assistant, and even Professor Zhong, the person in charge of the entire facility.
Either no one answered their calls, or they were brushed off with requests to wait a little longer.
They waited for two hours.
The students’ initial excitement faded into boredom, and their boredom eventually turned into disappointment.
Every one of them could feel that they were not being taken seriously.
Yu Xiaxing had never intended to renew the contract in the first place.
Now that she had seen Qizhi’s attitude, she was even more certain.
Renew this? In your dreams!
Suddenly, a lively commotion came from the other end of the corridor.
A group of students from another school walked toward them, chatting excitedly.
“That fluorescence microscope was amazing. Did you take a picture?”
“We weren’t allowed to. The teacher said no photography in the experimental area.”
“Wasn’t our group’s data the best?”
“Of course it was. Our school did a similar project last year.”
“Director Shao said they might let us work on a more advanced project next time!”
“…”
They were wearing dark blue uniforms, with an especially conspicuous school emblem on their chests.
Mingde High School was also a private school. Although its name differed from Shengde’s by only one character, its college admission rate was far higher.
Yu Xiaxing understood the situation at once.
So Qizhi had made them wait because it had arranged for students from another school to do the experiments first!
Jiang Tinglan also raised her head and looked over.
The instant she spotted someone in the group, her expression changed. She immediately picked up a promotional brochure and held it in front of her face.
Yu Xiaxing caught the movement from the corner of her eye and looked over as well.
Could there be something going on?
Just then, her phone vibrated.
Yu Xiaxing picked it up and glanced at the screen.
It was a newly created work group called “Make the Family Proud.”
The group contained only Yu Zheng, Lu Yanzhao, and her. It had just been created moments ago.
Yu Zheng: “Little sis, since you’re cosplaying as a student, I can’t exactly come over and talk to you directly. So let’s communicate here. What does our agreement with Qizhi say? Are they allowed to host another school while they’re receiving us?”
Lu Yanzhao: “The contract doesn’t mention it. There was a verbal promise that they would only receive one school during any given time slot.”
Yu Zheng: “Why wasn’t that written into the contract?”
Lu Yanzhao: “The agreement was signed several years ago. If I had been handling it, there definitely wouldn’t have been a loophole like this. I would have made them put the verbal promise in writing too.”
Yu Zheng: “All right. I’m going to have a word with Director Shao.”
Seeing this, Yu Xiaxing could more or less guess why Fifth Brother had gotten into a fight with them in her previous life.
With his hot-blooded temperament, there was no way he could tolerate his students being treated so poorly.
Beating them up had practically been inevitable.
Yu Xiaxing curved her lips into a smile and typed:
Yu Xiaxing: “Call me when the fighting starts!”
She didn’t want to renew the contract anyway!
They might as well beat the other side up and vent their anger before they left!
—
Outside the lounge, Yu Zheng had already intercepted Director Shao, who had just appeared.
Director Shao was around forty, dressed in a dark gray suit and wearing rimless glasses. A courteous smile hung on his face.
“Assistant Yu, I’m terribly sorry. Something came up unexpectedly this morning.”
Yu Zheng’s expression was cold. “Save the excuses. We had already scheduled this time. What gave you the right to arrange for another school to do the experiments first?”
Director Shao smiled amiably. “I’m sorry about that. Their students have a stronger foundation, and preparing the experimental area for them is more complicated. So we made a temporary adjustment.”
Lu Yanzhao came over as well. He was comparatively polite. “Director Shao, you’ve violated the terms of our cooperation and made our students waste two hours waiting. You owe us an apology and a compensation plan.”
Director Shao continued smiling. “This is all part of educational cooperation. A little flexibility is perfectly normal. Besides, the group of students you brought this time is somewhat unusual. We also have to arrange activities suited to their abilities.”
The implication was clear:
If you had brought top students, we would have treated you properly. Since you brought average students, we were going to neglect you. So what?
Lu Yanzhao was about to continue arguing.
Yu Zheng raised a hand to stop him, then leaned toward Director Shao. Lowering his head, he looked down at him with a chilling expression.
“Don’t push me into hitting you.”
—
Inside the lounge, the Shengde students were still sitting obediently and waiting.
The group from Mingde also entered the lounge to get some water and chat.
One of the boys had been talking with his companions when he suddenly noticed Jiang Tinglan sitting with her back turned in the corner.
He immediately laughed. “Isn’t that Jiang Tinglan? What a coincidence. You came here to do experiments too?”
Everyone turned to look.
Jiang Tinglan lowered her head even further, her face burning red.
But the boy had no intention of letting her off.
“I thought you’d dropped out.”
He turned to gossip about her right in front of his classmates. “Wasn’t there a report in the local news a couple of days ago about someone getting arrested for that ‘Breaking Cocoon’ scam? She was one of the people who got conned! She actually let people online manipulate her into cutting ties with her parents. She really went and did it. What a joke.”
“Wait, someone actually fell for that scam?”
“That’s just…”
Several of them burst out laughing.
Yu Xiaxing frowned.
Neither the school nor the police had revealed any information about the victims.
How did they know?
One of the boy’s companions asked on her behalf, “How do you know all that? What’s your relationship with her?”
