“Hmm… Grandpa, it’s not them. It’s a freshman named Qian Qi.”

“Qian Qi?” Li Hongsheng slightly frowned, lost in thought. “How come I’ve never heard of this person?”

Although he, as the dean of the department, didn’t often return to the school, he still glanced at the semester’s exam results. He truly couldn’t recall a student named Qian Qi among the top students in the first year.

Li Hongsheng couldn’t help but ask, “How is her academic performance? Has she submitted any planting reports? What kind of person is she?”

“Uh… she, actually…” Seeing her grandfather so curious, Li Shuyun stammered.

She knew Li Hongsheng’s temperament all too well. He despised underachievers and couldn’t stand talented students who refused to work hard. If he found out that Qian Qi skipped classes every day, often got into fights, and was the notorious troublemaker of the Magic Plant Department…

He would definitely come to the school himself, lecturing Qian Qi and urging her to study hard and contribute to society!

And with Qian Qi’s fiery temper and her tendency to resort to violence, she would probably beat up her elderly grandfather until he was unrecognizable!!!

No, she absolutely couldn’t reveal Qian Qi’s situation!

Li Shuyun quickly changed the subject, “Grandpa, that’s not the main point. The main point is that the other party is willing to sell us the planting method. Can you provide me with financial support?”

“Hmm, the Fire Qilin Fruit can enhance the strength of Flame Hounds. Acquiring the planting method would also secure funding for the Magic Plant Research Institute, but of course, that’s secondary…” Speaking of this, Li Hongsheng’s cloudy eyes suddenly gleamed with light, as if he had finally seen a glimmer of hope in the dark apocalypse, filled with hope and excitement.

He said word by word, “What’s important is that perhaps we can find a new breakthrough in cultivating magic plants from this planting method!”

In the holographic screen, the white-haired old man passionately talked about the future of the Magic Plant Research Institute and even the future of humanity. Li Shuyun, who had long grown tired of hearing it, slightly twitched the corner of her mouth and directly ended the call.

This old man, once he starts talking about the future of humanity, he just can’t stop. At his age, how can he still be like a middle-schooler wanting to save the world?

But…

Remembering something, Li Shuyun looked up at the sky and sighed deeply, “If we can’t find a way to quickly enhance the strength of Awakeners and their contracted magical beasts, this world might really head towards destruction…”

After all, the dungeons are becoming more and more unstable.

…

On the day the Fire Qilin Fruit was successfully cultivated, the Three-Scaled Orchid also reached its harvest period.

Qian Qi stood in front of her experimental field, holding a high-powered spotlight in one hand and a large pot lid in the other.

The spotlight was borrowed from a kind dormitory auntie, and the pot lid was borrowed from a kind cafeteria auntie.

How did she borrow them?

With her mouth.

“Without a mouth, a person can’t survive.” Qian Qi extended her thumb, proudly pointing at her lips. It was with this invincible sweet mouth that she called the aunties “beautiful sisters” and borrowed the tools for free.

After teasing the system, Qian Qi squatted on the ground, placing the large pot lid in front of her.

The weakness of the Three-Scaled Orchid is strong light exposure. Once directly exposed to strong light, its sharp leaves will wilt and lose their attacking power, and the three thick petals on its bud will shoot out to attack the enemy.

Qian Qi slightly adjusted her position behind the pot lid and turned on the high-powered spotlight.

When the strong light hit the Three-Scaled Orchid, the previously waving serrated leaves instantly drooped listlessly. Sensing danger, the orchid’s bud suddenly turned towards Qian Qi’s direction, and “thud, thud, thud,” like a pea shooter, it spat out three large petal bullets.

“Bang, bang, bang!”

The petals hit the large pot lid, leaving three shallow dents. Qian Qi was slightly pushed back by the impact. Looking at the dents on the pot lid, she couldn’t help but think that if those had hit her head, they could have killed her instantly.

She turned off the spotlight, placed the pot lid aside, and bent down to pick up the petals on the ground.

The petals of the Three-Scaled Orchid were very thick, somewhat resembling mangoes in shape. She estimated that they could be ground into a good amount of hemostatic powder. But how could she grind such hard petals into powder?

Qian Qi turned on her light brain and found that small ore grinding machines were available online, but the average price was over 40,000.

She decisively started searching for second-hand ones.

“Tsk, the cheapest second-hand grinding machine is still 25,000.”

Qian Qi sighed deeply. Right now, even eating was a problem for her. She only had 17 yuan left in her pocket, which she had saved by finally catching Chen Miaomiao, who had been avoiding her.

She decided to wait on the grinding machine. After all, the other magic plants in the hemostatic potion recipe hadn’t been cultivated yet. She could consider buying the grinding machine after Senior Li Shuyun gave her the money from selling the Fire Qilin Fruit.

For now, she needed to figure out how to get some meal money, especially since in a few days, several magic plants would need to be fed with magical beast meat, and she would have to spend money asking Su Xingyue to help her buy it.

But where could she get the money?

Scratching her messy hair in worry, Qian Qi’s gaze fell on the nearby students who were studying magic plants.

At this moment, they all looked troubled, clearly having encountered problems in their planting process. They wanted to remove the unsalvageable magic plants but couldn’t bear to part with the efforts they had put in over the past days, so they were racking their brains to save the dying plants.

Qian Qi watched for a while, then suddenly a “brilliant” smile appeared on her face. Because she was so happy and there was a hint of a sly smile, the corners of her mouth almost reached her ears, making her whole face look extremely…

Menacing?

[Your expression looks a bit scary ==.]

Qian Qi quickly restrained her expression.

As far as she knew, the Magic Plant Department’s final exams included both theoretical exams and planting reports. If a student failed to cultivate a single magic plant throughout the academic year, their planting report would be deemed unqualified. If they wanted to continue studying at the school the next year, they would have to pay a tuition fee of 4,500 yuan.

But most of the students in the Magic Plant Department came from poor families. A tuition fee of 4,500 yuan could crush their entire families.

In that case…

Qian Qi’s rough little face couldn’t help but break into a “menacing” smile again: As a kind-hearted person, she would definitely “help” them out of the goodness of her heart!

This was the perfect opportunity to change her previous image as a scumbag troublemaker and successfully create a gentle, kind, and positive image!

Great! Let’s do it!

Qian Qi hoisted her hoe and walked towards a frowning student. After slightly adjusting her facial expression, she put on a warm smile and patted the student’s shoulder.

“Hey, classmate, need some help?”