Chapter 28
Teacher Sun was petrified as she watched Mo Li run out of the school gate. She was at a loss for words.
On the other hand, Tao Wen was elated as he studied the paper in his hands. He was extremely proud of having such a student in his school. In his excitement, Tao Wen did not notice how awkward and bummed out Teacher Sun and her students were when he was praising Mo Li. Instead, the prevailing emotions on their faces were disbelief and shock.
“Teacher Sun, you’ve found the perfect candidate for your class this time. With this student’s logical mind and mathematical prowess, she’ll nab first place at the IMO easily.” Tao Wen then turned to grab his paper of Sudoku exercise that he had brought with him to class. It was already completed. Turns out Mo Li was working the Sudoku out of boredom when he was grading the paper. Tao Wen was dazed. He was reminded of a poem, ‘Each age bring forth new genius on this noble land, each will rule its own domain for years to come.’
His heart was filled with anticipation in his heart. Finally someone to play 3D Chess with me at school! How did such a brilliant student fly under the school’s radar for so long?
Qiao Qing, in her seat, looked at Prof. Tao’s barely contained excitement and then looked at her own paper which remained unfinished. Can a person really change so much over the course of a week?
1
…
When Mo Li arrived home, she was surprised to find herself alone. Mo Yun had to stay at the company because he had a video conference with someone across the globe at midnight; Mother Mo was still at the hospital taking care of Mo Zheng; Due to the negative press brought by Mo Li and Mo Zheng’s accident, Mo Yi had been racing back and forth between the house and company, to deal with the presses to stabilize the confidence of the company stockholders.
Aunt Qiu was sent by Mo Yun to the hospital to help support Mother Mo, because he was worried that his mother might not be able to carry on all alone.
So with everyone busy with their own thing, they had forgotten about Mo Li, which was honestly how Mo Li preferred it. With no one watching her every move, she felt freer.
She came to the underground lab. Mo Li studied her set of petri dishes and took a deep breath. There were both animal cell cultures and plant cell cultures. To achieve her goal, she used calf serums and specific culture mediums to nurture her experiments.
Next to these cultures, there was also a CO2 incubator with serum-free cultures. For now, Mo Li kept the content of her research to herself. These were techniques from Mo Li’s original world. If they worked, it would help Mo Zheng’s surgery immensely.
After she worked for a while, her stomach grumbled. She looked up and realized it was already past 11 pm. The babies that she cultivated were incredibly well fed but she had forgotten all about herself. Smiling at the positive result that she had so far, Mo Li left the lab and went upstairs to the kitchen.
She looked inside the fridge. It had to be said that Mo Family did know how to live. The fridge was stuffed with plenty of fresh ingredients. It was like there was an elf refilling the stock whenever something was taken out.
Mo Li made her decision when she saw the small bowl of fish maw and peeled mackerel skin. She decided to make braised pork balls with her own spin. The dish normally didn’t require fish but due to Mo Li’s background in Chinese Medicine, she believed that food had to be both healthy and delicious.
1
Fish maw, also known as ocean ginseng, was full of protein. It helped to improve one’s immunity; Mackerel skin was good for lifting fatigue.
2
Mo Li grabbed 5 pounds of pork and 1 pound of fish, 8 fish maws and 4 pieces of mackerel skin. She added 2 pieces of fresh gingers, 3 cloves of garlic and then minced them. Mo Li was a meat-lover, she decided to reward herself after the work she had done that night.
1
While the meat was coking, she looked around and realized if she was going for a rewarding feast, there was still much to be done. She picked some towel gourd and shiitake mushrooms and made a stir fry. Then she made a bamboo shoot soup to finish up the menu.
1
About an hour later, the feast was ready. Mo Li prepared more than she could finish because she had taken into account Mo Yun’s portion. He would be hungry when he came back from work.
While Mo Yun enjoyed her delicious food, she had no idea that her IMO mock test result had caused a catatonic explosion on the school forum.
1
“Did you guys hear about it? The school actually thinks about sending Mo Li to participate in the IMO this year!”
“Have the school board lost their mind?”
“Looks like IMO is not as free of scandal as we thought. The Mo Family must have bought her a way in.”
“Motherfucker, these are the most despicable type of people in the world! Qiao Qing has worked harder than she did, but all that effort was for nothing because of Mo Family’s preferential treatment of their bitch daughter!”
“That’s right. Qiao Qing couldn’t even get a perfect score so how could that bitch? She must have known the answers beforehand!”
“The bitch is truly a stain on our school reputation. We should make another petition to kick her out of school.”
“But Professor Tao Wen has always been fair and reputable. He stands by his decision. Is it not possible that Mo Li has gotten better at her studies? After all, hasn’t Qiao Qing mentioned that Mo Family has found the bitch a good family tutor?”
“That’s it! The family tutor has to be Tao Wen. They’re in this together!”
“If the school really wish to let Mo Li participate in the IMO, then so be it. It’s their reputation to lose anyway.”
…
The online rumors didn’t affect Mo Li because she didn’t even know about them.
Mo Yun only returned home after Mo Li had fallen soundly asleep. Seeing the table of food left for him on the table, Mo Yun said a word of thanks for Aunt Qiu.
1
He had not had a bite to eat since he arrived at the company this morning. He was so hungry he could eat a cow.