All five students were in a dazed state, causing a commotion right there in the hallway.
If Ye Qiusuo hadn't stopped him, Ding Hong would have been pinned to the ground by another student.
She snatched the so-called snack pack from Lin Lu's hands, wanting to see what was inside.
"Give it back!" Lin Lu struggled to grab it back.
Frowning, Ye Qiusuo blocked the student's hand and looked down at the snack packaging. The main ingredient was a type of mushroom cultivated in the lab, which contained mild toxins.
She remembered the lab had specifically worked on removing the toxins from this mushroom while preserving its original medicinal properties, but a side effect was that it could cause hallucinations.
Fortunately, the hallucinations came and went quickly. Within ten minutes of stopping consumption, the group recovered.
"Why are you hugging me?"
"Eww—"
Chaos ensued upon regaining clarity. Ye Qiusuo waited for them to slowly regain their senses.
"The food contained hallucinogenic mushrooms. Now that you're sober, come downstairs with me."
"Hallucinogenic mushrooms?! Are they poisonous?" Lin Lu covered his mouth; he had eaten the most earlier.
"No, it's a food-grade medicinal ingredient. Consider it a welcome gift." Ye Qiusuo threw the small snack pack back to Lin Lu. "Finish it here. You can't take this outside."
She had heard before that they planned to turn this mushroom into a product for the medical market, but she hadn't expected it to be in this form.
However, the hallucinogenic side effect was still too strong; it probably wouldn't easily enter the market.
"Will I hallucinate again if I eat it?" Lin Lu was afraid to continue.
Ye Qiusuo turned to look at him: "After the hallucinations occur, consuming more within twenty-four hours won't produce the same effect."
"Then I'll finish it." Lin Lu really did eat the last pack right there on the spot.
Everyone stared at him intently, waiting to see if he would hallucinate.
But as Ye Qiusuo had said, Lin Lu showed no reaction after eating it.
"Time to go. I'll bring you all again next time if there's a chance." Ye Qiusuo led the students to retrieve their belongings.
Ding Hong had only brought a phone. After getting his things back, he walked over to Ye Qiusuo and asked, "Professor, does the company also research food?"
"The Biology and Agriculture departments are responsible for that area." Ye Qiusuo pointed upstairs. "The eighth and ninth floors."
She had fought for those two floors. Initially, the company hadn't agreed to add these departments, wanting to stick solely to a technology-focused path.
Technology serves life. Combining biology and agriculture is also a form of technology that can improve lives. Thus, Ye Qiusuo convinced the shareholders to add these two departments.
This mushroom was developed by their department, though Ye Qiusuo hadn't expected their progress to be so fast.
Although she had advocated for establishing the two departments, Ye Qiusuo didn't pay much attention to them usually, focusing instead on her own field.
...
The Saturday broadcast of "Tomorrow's Star" brought Lu Mingzhe back into the public eye.
#LuMingzhe'sHighNotesAreAmazing#
In the top five competition, he sang a highly difficult song, receiving excellent reviews from the judge-mentors. As soon as the episode aired, Lu Mingzhe trended on social media.
"He's from the Lu family," Wan Yurou stated with certainty while watching the program.
"Are you sure?"
"That day at the banquet, I heard him call Lu Minglang 'brother.' And also..." Wan Yurou, seemingly remembering something, blushed slightly. "When he took me to change clothes, you could tell he was very familiar with the villa's interior."
Mo Hong thought carefully and said, "Right, I was wondering why the backing behind him was so strong. If he's from the Lu family, then everything makes sense."
Wan Yurou brushed her long hair aside as if to conceal. "Sister Mo, do you think he can win the championship?"
"Not winning the talent show championship isn't a big deal. The key is the resources afterward," Mo Hong said seriously, sitting in front of Wan Yurou. "You were his duet partner before; you can cheer for him on Weibo."
"Isn't that a bit inappropriate?" Wan Yurou had concerns. "What if others say I'm riding on his coattails?"
"Riding on what coattails? You're practically a second-tier star with ten million fans. Build a good relationship while Lu Mingzhe hasn't fully risen yet." Mo Hong's mind was busy calculating.
That night, Wan Yurou posted a Weibo: 【Go go go, Mingmingzi is the best! @LuMingzhe】
This post was deleted one minute after being sent, once fans had seen it and her agent had screenshotted it.
Mo Hong immediately created a trending topic.
#WanYurouAccidentallyUsesMainAccountToCheerForLuMingzhe#
Hahaha, this is hilarious, a certain actress's main account exposed for fan-girling.
【Wanwan is so adorable! I like Mingzhe too; he's handsome and sings so well.】
【If you like Lu Mingzhe, we're friends!】
【@LuMingzhe, please tone down the charm.】
Lu Mingzhe's team was online and quickly saw the trending topic.
"Is this an attempt to share the spotlight?" Being industry insiders, they recognized the coincidence of this move.
Seeing the hot search, Lu Mingzhe couldn't help but smile. He actually quite liked Wan Yurou. Even if this was a deliberately orchestrated topic by her team, he didn't mind.
He simply replied directly with his main account: 【Deleting is useless, I've already seen it @WanYurou】
After posting, Lu Mingzhe directly followed Wan Yurou on Weibo.
His Weibo account was registered when the "Tomorrow's Star" competition started. He only followed the three mentors and the official show account. Now, adding just Wan Yurou made it too obvious; fans noticed the extra follower immediately.
【Ahhhhh! I ship them!】
When I saw them singing together, I thought they looked so sweet. Wuu, Lu-Wan is real, no rebuttals accepted.
【This is hilarious, Wanwan you goof. If you hadn't used the wrong account, who knows how long you would have secretly liked Mingzhe.】
A trending topic where everyone was happy—both sides benefited, and netizens were entertained by the topic.
Except for one person.
"Why is it always entertainment news trending? It's getting tiresome," Xie Xi said, lying on the carpet, his eyes almost closed from drowsiness.
"Brother Xi, you're also in the entertainment industry," his assistant Zhang Dong whispered.
Back when Xie Xi was at his peak, he was jokingly called a "yearly subscription user" of hot searches, where his every move could trend, all genuinely pushed by fans and media.
"Forget it, stop reading. Bring me my homework," Xie Xi said, bored enough to start doing homework.
However, if he could settle down to write homework, he wouldn't be Xie Xi.
After writing a few characters, he threw the pen away and turned to look at his assistant. "Professor Ye hasn't been trending?" He was actually quite interested in hearing about her.
"Not this week," Zhang Dong shook his head.
"Then search for her information and read it to me," Xie Xi suddenly became interested.
The human audiobook assistant dutifully began reading from an online encyclopedia entry, with exclamations of amazement sounding in the room from time to time.
"She didn't study her current major before?"
"She has two doctoral degrees."
Xie Xi sounded like someone who had never seen the world, his exclamations never ceasing.
The promotional board at Huajing University only mentioned the achievements Ye Qiusuo made during her doctorate, never mentioning her past. But the online encyclopedia recorded everything clearly.
Ye Qiusuo had already earned her Ph.D. by the age of fifteen. She had also studied and worked abroad, not returning until she was nineteen. She then re-enrolled for another doctoral degree at Huajing University and eventually stayed on as a faculty member.
Her assistant read this with a sense of numbness; the gap between people was simply too vast. In comparison, it felt like their own brains were full of water.
Xie Xi felt around the edge of the carpet for his phone, tapped on Professor Ye's name, held down the voice message button, and casually asked, "You got your Ph.D. at fifteen. Why did you come back to study for another doctorate?"
There were still some differences between domestic and foreign Ph.D. programs.
The assistant beside him gasped. "Bro Xi, you're just going to disturb Professor Ye like that?!"
Having just finished reading a certain online encyclopedia entry, the assistant's image of Professor Ye was now infinitely elevated in his mind.
"Just chatting." As long as homework wasn't mentioned, Xie Xi wasn't afraid of Professor Ye.
Half an hour passed, and no message came from Professor Ye.
"Why isn't she responding?" Xie Xi cradled his phone, extending a finger to poke at Ye Qiusuo's profile picture again.
It was a scenic picture of a lotus flower, utterly staid. Just looking at the profile picture, Xie Xi would have guessed she was over forty.
"Professors are probably very busy," Zhang Dong guessed.
After waiting a while longer, Xie Xi lost interest and went to listen to his demo.
It wasn't until after three in the morning that Ye Qiusuo, having finished her work, found time to see the voice message from Xie Xi on her phone. Before opening it, she thought he had a study-related question, but it turned out he was asking about her doctoral studies.
Ye Qiusuo typed a line of text, then remembered it might be inconvenient for him to read, so she finally sent a voice message back as well.
She rested at four a.m. and got up at seven to go to the university.
She didn't force her students to stay in the lab, but several of them loved to be there on Saturdays and Sundays anyway. Ye Qiusuo would go check on them when she had time.
"Professor, there's been a consistent error with this set of measurements," Ding Hong asked, his tone somewhat gloomy. He kept feeling it was because he wasn't familiar enough with the instrument, leading to improper operation and problematic data.
But measuring data for this project had always been his responsibility, while another student had their own tasks.
Ye Qiusuo glanced over the large data set and understood. "This lab isn't completely sealed. The error is still within the normal range. You didn't make a mistake."
Ding Hong was taken aback. "Is that so?"
"You have too little experience measuring data. You'll know with more time."
Ye Qiusuo left the lab, took off her glasses, and rubbed her eyes.
Perhaps because she had stayed up late the night before, her vision had been a bit blurry when she woke up, so she had worn her glasses over.
She still had to tutor Xie Xi in the afternoon. Remembering what his agent said at the banquet the other day, Ye Qiusuo turned to go borrow some books from the library.
Reading some books on cultivating one's character might help a bit?
By the time Xie Xi got up, it was already eleven in the morning, so he combined breakfast and lunch. His assistant and life manager were used to it; as long as he got enough sleep and was healthy, it was fine.
"Where one gets a doctorate is the same. The university makes no difference to me."
Xie Xi had just sat down at the table and opened his phone when he saw the voice message Ye Qiusuo sent at three a.m. He casually tapped on it and heard that sentence.
Xie Xi raised an eyebrow, surprised that someone as staid as Professor Ye could say something so arrogant.
In reality, Ye Qiusuo meant that the depth of research in this field was currently similar both domestically and internationally. The area she wanted to research was a new branch, and university resources were comparable.
"Bro Xi, I put your homework in your bag, but it looks like there are still a few lines left unfinished," Zhang Dong suddenly said.
Xie Xi: "...Next time, wait until I finish eating before you mention that." It was hard to swallow.
...
"Me, read this?" Xie Xi flipped through the inspirational "beautiful mind" book on the table, feeling a bit novel.
"Read along." Ye Qiusuo had specially brought an audio cassette tape and a player. She had never tutored a student like this before and found it somewhat challenging, having even consulted a colleague.
"This book has a cassette tape?" Xie Xi said in shock, flipping to the publication info—a twenty-year-old chicken soup for the soul book.
This chicken soup was probably spoiled by now.
"Xie Xi." Ye Qiusuo's brow furrowed slightly as she tapped the page. "Read."
His personality had led him to suffer setbacks at the hands of the male and female leads not once or twice. Thinking of the plot from the book gave Ye Qiusuo a headache. Grinding down his edges a bit would be good.
"Oh."
As soon as the play button was pressed, music full of a sense of a bygone era flowed out, accompanied by an overly solemn male voice.
It was supremely 'healing'.
A hint of disdain flickered in Xie Xi's eyes, but he still followed along, reading slowly.
The book was useless in his hands.
Xie Xi naturally felt dizzy looking at the words in the book. Additionally, he was extremely sensitive to sound and could easily repeat the audio from the tape player.
After returning from taking her student to Tianqiu Tech, Ye Qiusuo had been staying up late. She propped her head on the desk, dozing off slightly. Her glasses, placed beside her, had been pushed to the floor without her noticing.
Across from her, Xie Xi was still mechanically chanting along with the voice from the machine, but his eyes were darting towards Ye Qiusuo.
How many days had she not slept? There were dark circles under her eyes.
Side A of the tape finished. Xie Xi waited for a long moment, then finally got up to proactively flip it to Side B, only to step on Ye Qiusuo's glasses, which had fallen on the floor.
A 'crunch' sound, quite jarring in the quiet classroom.
Ye Qiusuo woke up, following the line from his foot upwards to look at Xie Xi.
Xie Xi: "..."
