The office is soundproof, and you can't hear the absurd argument happening in the corridor outside.
And once the two juniors left, Li Peifeng was still reluctant to let go, attempting to extort more benefits from Zhao Qingge...
"It doesn't count, this meal doesn't count, you didn't treat me alone!"
"Are you bold because of the holiday?!"
Zhao Qingge glanced at him: "It's just watching a pirated copy, and you want me to treat you to a meal? I watched the pirated version to help you revise your manuscript, do you actually want me to give you a review fee while revising? Are you crazy?!"
Li Peifeng widened his eyes and said, "Teacher, how can you be so unreasonable..." He then flushed with embarrassment, his temples visibly pulsating, arguing, "Pirated copy is just piracy... Regardless of the circumstances, you shouldn't watch pirated copies, even if I pay you!"
He went on with incomprehensible words, such as "if everyone learns from you, wouldn't I starve to death?!" "Piracy deserves to die," "Long live genuine copies," "if you continue watching pirated copies, I'll cut it off," "so many things I've already cut, all because of you people watching pirated copies," which made Zhao Qingge frequently chuckle...
"Forget it, I'll go home to type."
Li Peifeng waved his hand dejectedly, picked up his computer bag to leave.
"Hold on."
Zhao Qingge involuntarily took a deep breath, as if possessed by the devil, uttered a sentence: "Write here, I'll help you take a look."
"Alright."
Getting serious, Old Zhao, are you getting serious?!
Li Peifeng felt a bit nervous, hoping the perfume would have an effect on one hand, and on the other hand hoped it wouldn't affect too much.
If his counterpart pounced on him like Wu Wenyue did, Li Peifeng felt he might lose control...
"Do you have any drafts? Let me take a look."
"The drafts are gone, but I can send you the outline, and you can give me some pointers."
"Sure, send it over."
In reality, Li Peifeng's worries were unnecessary, as Zhao Qingge's behavior remained perfectly normal.
She got up to fetch some water and casually opened the office door, allowing passing students and staff to see inside.
Then she sat at the computer, flipping through the book outlines, occasionally discussing creative opinions with Li Peifeng.
Midway, Zhao Qingge left for over an hour due to her teaching duties and research group discussions but soon returned.
The morning passed in a flash, and although Li Peifeng didn't write much, conversing with Zhao Qingge helped clarify the story's structure, making the subsequent plot handling smoother and clearer—quite a gain.
"Want to grab lunch?"
Zhao Qingge glanced at the time: "This I can treat you to."
"Faculty cafeteria? You're treating me with a meal allowance?"
"You can choose not to eat."
A fly may be small, but it's still a piece of meat, Li Peifeng was definitely not about to miss out.
He quickly packed up his computer, slung his backpack over his shoulder, and signaled by tilting his head: "Let's go!"
"You go on your own, it's too crowded at this time."
Zhao Qingge leisurely handed him a meal card: "Bring me a portion of lotus leaf diced chicken rice, I'll eat in the office."
Li Peifeng almost refused, but then thought of something, his face broke into a smile: "No problem!"
...
Although Beihua University's faculty cafeteria is named as such, it doesn't restrict students from eating there. Teachers just have priority without queuing, so it's quite crowded at this hour.
Li Peifeng found a less crowded food stall and first bought himself three dishes and a soup, paying with a swipe of the card.
[Zhao Qingge treating the meal, spent 106 yuan, remaining 29894 yuan to complete the assessment task (Zhao Qingge).]
A system notification flashed before him...
Li Peifeng cheerfully asked, "Old brother, how much is left on the card?"
"1870." The man serving food took a glance and laughed: "This is a professor's card, are you buying food for the teacher?"
"Yes!"
"Alright then, I'll give you extra food, kid."
"Thanks a lot!"
Leaving the stall, Li Peifeng picked up his phone to call the two junior sisters...
"Where are you? Have you eaten yet? Let me treat you!"
With just three sentences, Li Peifeng used Zhao Qingge's meal card to charge an additional 226 yuan.
When ordering, Lu Jing and Lin Zhihui kept stopping him: "Enough, enough, can't finish that!"
"No problem, you must fill up!"
Li Peifeng grandly waved his hand: "Tonight the teacher treats you, at noon your senior brother will treat you! We'll be united and loving, friendship as strong as gold, the good fellowship!"
"Thanks, senior brother!"
"It's what I should do."
The lunch cost for today was all covered by Miss Zhao!
The two junior sisters laughed happily, and Li Peifeng was even happier.
Initially, it was just a casual attempt, but unexpectedly, this 'borrowed blossom to offer Buddha' approach was actually counted toward the expenditure quota by the system, a pure and joyous surprise.
Although the 30,000 goal is far off, at least the difficult first step has been taken.
"332, approximately one percent of 30,000 yuan, a bit far off."
Li Peifeng deeply wished to spend the over one thousand left on the meal card, but reason told him that if he did that, once Zhao Qingge found out, he'd likely be asked to refund the full amount; currently, with just over three hundred, they wouldn't mind too much...
After ordering for the two junior sisters and settling the bill, Li Peifeng bought the lotus leaf rice Zhao Qingge wanted to bring back, refused the junior sisters' invitations, and returned to the office.
Zhao Qingge didn't comment on him being away for so long, nor did she criticize the heap of food Li Peifeng had bought, or ask how much was spent. She merely gave him a disdainful look, as if saying: Hmph, knew it, you deceitful disciple want to take advantage of this teacher.
"There's another meal tonight, pace yourself."
Li Peifeng declared confidently: "Don't worry, not only will I finish all this food, I'll still eat tonight without a hitch!"
Strangely enough, perhaps spending a woman's money makes the food digest better, or maybe it's the new "steel kidney" that needs more nutrition, causing Li Peifeng's already large appetite to increase significantly recently.
Now, his meal portions are roughly more than double that of a typical male, so these three dishes and soup are devoured completely by Mr. Li, albeit feeling somewhat stuffed.
Near one in the afternoon, Li Peifeng was finding it hard to stay because Zhao Qingge's behavior remained perfectly normal, just sitting there reading literature and clacking her keyboard, barely talking to him; the Nether Sea's breath seemed to have no effect!
"Did I spray too little? Shouldn't be, the passersby turned into zombies, spraying more could cause safety hazards!"
Unwilling to give up, Li Peifeng pondered whether he should return home to apply more perfume on himself.
"Do you have any plans for the afternoon?"
Zhao Qingge glanced at her phone: "In a while, to the writing center, there's a topic I need to discuss with some students, you have something?"
"Um, nothing."
Li Peifeng abandoned the idea of going home to spray perfume, while packing up the computer, he casually lied: "Found a part-time job at the school gate a few days ago with Starbucks, need to go for an interview later, you carry on."
"What part-time job?" Zhao Qingge asked curiously: "You're going to carry coffee at Starbucks? That's unlikely, you have the National Scholarship, financial aid, I even give you a monthly research assistant stipend, and you have your own manuscript fee, isn't that enough for you?"
"Recently, I'm indeed a little tight on money."
Li Peifeng began to pretend to be poor, then explained: "But this part-time job isn't a server role, it's a mood group."
"?"
"It's like, order a cup of coffee, sit there pretending to work, stay an entire afternoon. They pay around a thousand monthly. I saw this recruitment online before the National Day holiday, thought it interesting, for me it's just changing the writing environment, and could earn a bit extra, so I called them."
"Oh, then that job is indeed interesting."
Zhao Qingge understood, then remembered Li Peifeng asking readers for money in the TT group, she asked with concern: "Are you running short on money lately? What's really going on?"
You're prompt to send me 30,000 yuan, your disciple shall be as blessed as the East Sea and live like the South Mountain king, potentially support you in old age; otherwise, your eldest disciple would perish on the street within two months to show you!
"It's nothing..."
Li Peifeng hesitated to say more, then quickly left carrying his backpack.
"This kid!"
Zhao Qingge furrowed her brows, pondering for a moment, picked up her phone, and dialed a number. After connecting, her lips softly parted:
"Hello, is this Li Peifeng's mom?"
"..."