“What? They did it on purpose?” Tan Mo’s face turned pale immediately.
Her expression only made Zhong Liusi’s heart soften even more. “You are still too young to know how cruel and deceptive humans can be.” The senior sighed as she patted Tan Mo’s head like she was her mother. “Don’t worry, we will be here to protect you when people try to bully you.”
“Yay! You are the best!” Tan Mo hugged Zhong Liusi’s arm emotionally.
Yu Jianan glared at Zhong Liusi enviously and said, “I will be there to protect you as well.”
“Thank you! You’re the best also.”
The seniors then began to explain the work Tan Mo had to do in the research team. Once the explanation was finished, Yu Jianan said, “Just let us know if you run into any problems when you start.”
“Okay!” Tan Mo nodded.
“Everything should almost be the same as on Professor Guo’s team.” Yu Jianan smiled.
It was then that Shen Jingyi walked over to them and asked in a gentle tone, “Tan Mo, did you learn everything you need to know about the team?”
She had clearly heard Zhong Liusi talking about the competition since Zhong Liusi had a very loud voice. It was also possible that Zhong Liusi had done it on purpose for Shen Jingyi to hear.
“Pretty much. They told me everything in detail,” Tan Mo replied with a smile as if Shen Jingyi wasn’t her enemy and as if she trusted her.
Tan Mo acted as if she didn’t understand the true implications behind Shen Jingyi’s earlier catty comments.
“Is that so? If you have any problems when Jianan and Liusi aren’t around, you can always ask me.” Shen Jinyi was acting like a caring older sister to Tan Mo now.
“Thank you!” Tan Mo pretended to completely trust Shen Jingyi and gave her a pure smile.
Yu Jianan became worried when she saw that. She knew she had to figure out a way to warn Tan Mo to be wary of Shen Jingyi without making herself look as if she was trying to sour their relationship.
However, it wasn’t as easy as it would seem.
Yu Jianan already knew what kind of personality Shen Jingyi had, while Zhong Liusi didn’t. Zhong Liusi only knew that it was uncomfortable to talk to her.
In spite of not knowing how scheming Shen Jingyi really was, Zhong Liusi had never liked talking to her. She decided it would be best to ignore Shen Jingyi.
Zhong Liusi always avoided talking to Shen Jingyi and kept their interactions to the bare minimum. Even if Shen Jingyi made plans to include her, she would never leave any openings for the scheming girl to do so.
Zhong Liusi was the type of person who would always act according to her intuition. When people asked why she did what she did, she could never come up with an answer.
Yet that was the right way to deal with Shen Jingyi.
The only problem was that Yu Jianan could not rely on her team member to warn Tan Mo to keep her distance from Shen Jingyi. She was on her own.
This harsh reality made Yu Jianan let out a deep sigh.
…
After leaving the research room, Wu Xiaoye went straight to Professor Zhao’s office and knocked on the door.
“Come in,” Professor Zhao replied from inside.
Wu Xiaoye opened the door, and the first thing he saw was the professor writing something on a piece of paper, wearing a pair of reading glasses.
The professor raised his head and pushed his reading glasses down his nose a little so that he could see his student more clearly.
“I’ve put Tan Mo into Zhong Liusi and Yu Jianan’s group,” Wu Xiaoye reported.
Professor Zhao nodded, knowing that he could rely on Wu Xiaoye without telling him what to do.
“That Sheng Jingyi…” Professor Zhao slowly said her name as he put his pen down and removed his reading glasses. “You should pay more attention to her. See if she continues to act like she did just now in the future. It might sound like there are no bad intentions in her words, but I can tell she’s scheming about something…”
Wu Xiaoye was stunned for a second and asked a question to confirm his suspicions. “Are you saying that she’s scheming against Tan Mo? Or is it the whole research team?”
It was Professor Zhao’s turn to be stunned, but he quickly caught on to what Wu Xiaoye meant. “Are you saying that Shen Jingyi has done something similar to another team member before?”
Since they were already on the topic, Wu Xiaoye decided not to hide it any longer. “Yes, she did. There have been a few cases similar to what happened today. As you mentioned, her words might sound like she means no ill will, but if one really pays attention to them, then it’s obvious that she is trying to frame someone. And, when we challenge her, she always says that that wasn’t her intention. Zhong Liusi and Yu Jianan have both gotten the same treatment from her. That’s why they don’t get along well with Shen Jingyi, to the point where they don’t even want to talk to her.”
It was clear that the two weren’t sly enough to counter Shen Jingyi’s tricks, but they could still run away from them.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” Professor Zhao frowned.
“It’s pretty hard to bring it up.” Wu Xiaoye smiled bitterly. “In the end, it still took her a lot of effort to be part of your research team. If I brought the matter to you, I could ruin her future. That could be devastating for her.”
“Seriously, you don’t know me well enough,” Professor Zhao sighed as he pointed at his most prized student. “I don’t care how good she is. As long as she has bad intentions, she’s out of the team. I don’t even care if she’s the best among all of you.
And she wasn’t even the best on the team.
“Of course, I’m not saying that every one of you should focus solely on your topics and not pay attention to your own benefits,” Professor Zhao continued. “But, at the very least, no one should fight among themselves. There’s no way I can forgive a person trying to use their teammates as a stepping stone for themselves. I don’t want the team that I took a lot of effort to build up to become a place where people scheme against each other. A researcher should always focus on their own research.
Professor Zhao then got up and walked to the window to take a deep breath. “But now that we are halfway through the research, it’s not right to suddenly remove her from the team. Despite being a schemer, she’s still pretty good at her work. She has done her part in the research, and we can’t just kick her out midway through it. It would just cause a whole ton of drama.
The professor then let out a long sigh. “I should’ve removed her from the team two years ago when the research had just started and before anyone had put their efforts into it. It’s too late to do that now…”
All he could do now was prevent her from joining in future research and keeping her participation to the minimum.
Both Professor Zhao and Wu Xiaoye were kindhearted gentlemen.
Because of their personalities, their pride wouldn’t let them destroy Shen Jingyi.
Wu Xiaoye continued to smile bitterly. “There was no way we knew what kind of a person she was when the team first got together. When I realized what a scheming personality she had, it was too late to do anything about it. There was just no way I was going to report it to you since it would make us look like we were bad people trying to get rid of her.”
“Huh, really?” Professor Zhao raised a brow. “Then why are you telling me this now?”
“Weren’t you the one who brought the topic up first?” Wu Xiaoye laughed. “I didn’t know if you had finally noticed it because of Tan Mo or what, but now that you have realized it, I don’t have to hold myself back anymore.”
“I see…” Professor Zhao sighed and unconsciously tapped his finger on his desk.
