Ever since Qi Wendong’s personal demonstration, it was as if a switch had flipped for Qi Xiuyi. He began to clumsily learn from Qi Wendong’s every move.

His initial attempts were not smooth.

After all, one’s personality is hard to change, and the techniques of analyzing people’s minds and selling them grand dreams weren’t things one could master instantly just by understanding the concept.

But Qi Xiuyi adjusted and adapted very quickly.

Couldn’t create a dream to sell? Then he would just take the dream Qi Wendong had already created, add more details to it, and “cajole” others with the goal of making it a reality.

Didn’t know what would entice the other club members? Then he would just take the things Qi Wendong had used as bait and “serve them up” one by one.

Knew very little about the “normal students'” sore points and often angered them by accident? He’d consult his amazing roommate—no one understood normal people better than his roommate!

But this wasn’t enough.

Qi Xiuyi discovered that besides being able to sell dreams to others, Qi Wendong was also extremely good at winning their trust and friendship.

During his conversation with Yu Zhengling, Qi Wendong had claimed to be the original proposer of the exhibition project.

To make the lie hold up, Qi Xiuyi specifically found a time to invite Qi Wendong to a meeting with the members of the archaeology club.

The result? After a short, half-hour meeting chaired by him, Qi Wendong’s relationship with the club members somehow became even more familiar than his own!

Looking around, everyone in the room was calling him “Brother Wendong” or “Senior Wendong” with great cheer, flocking to him with questions big and small. They were infinitely more enthusiastic with him than they ever were with Qi Xiuyi!

Qi Xiuyi: …

Fine, he should have gotten used to it by now, shouldn’t he?

Starting with Yu Zhiqiu, that guy Qi Wendong was like a giant magnet. There wasn’t a single person he met who wasn’t drawn to his side!

Qi Xiuyi: … I’ll learn. What can’t be learned!

If Qi Wendong can be a magnet, why can’t I!

Through Qi Xiuyi’s diligent efforts, he finally managed to successfully win over a “clockwork” student with grand promises and a smile, turning this club member from clockwork mode to fully automatic mode.

This huge success made Qi Xiuyi ecstatic. His first thought was to rush up to the fifth floor and share his joy with Qi Wendong.

But his timing was poor, as it was right during Qi Wendong’s afternoon nap.

When Qi Wendong opened the door, his eyes were full of “waking-up anger,” as if he would mercilessly throw him out of the dorm if he dared to utter a single word of nonsense.

Perhaps it was because his own emotions were so joyful, so elated at that moment.

After Qi Wendong opened the door and saw him, his displeasure vanished, replaced by surprise and confusion in his eyes. Then, he actually started laughing along with him, even rarely placing a hand on his head and giving it a gentle pat.

That afternoon, apart from saying, “Don’t come knocking during nap time,” Qi Wendong didn’t say a single harsh or sarcastic word to him.

Qi Xiuyi was overjoyed.

Although he didn’t know what there was to be so happy about, he just felt that when Qi Wendong smiled at him, his eyes were beautiful, and he himself was even more beautiful. Just looking at him was incredibly pleasant.

A month and a half passed just like that.

After surviving the most difficult and arduous initial phase, the exhibition preparations finally got on the right track.

At the end of June, as the start date of the exhibition approached, Qi Xiuyi didn’t go home for two whole weekends, staying at school to work on the final preparations.

Qi Xiuyi found that ever since he had slowly gotten the hang of the exhibition preparations, his workload had increased, and his schedule had become busier and busier…

To what extent?

So busy that he didn’t even have time to rush up to the fifth floor and knock on the door of 509!

So much so that when the exhibition setup was basically complete and he could finally stop to catch his breath, he suddenly realized that it was already the end of the semester.

“Senior Qi!”

Walking along the tree-lined avenue on campus, Qi Xiuyi would occasionally hear greetings from other students.

Of course, the ones greeting him like this were not his former wealthy “friends.”

They were all students who had participated in the exhibition preparations—

Besides the members of the archaeology club, Qi Xiuyi had followed the method Qi Wendong had mentioned. After the event application was finally approved, he used credits and hours to recruit another batch of free labor from the entire university, turning the club members who held team leader positions into true “managers.”

The Qi Xiuyi of today was long gone from the “Young Master Qi” of a few months ago, who couldn’t even be bothered to glance at normal students.

The him of now:

He would regularly work at a milk tea shop for seven days in the middle of the month to earn meal money. He always had two boxes of instant noodles in his dorm for when he had to work overtime on preparations. He would rather squeeze into the subway than spend money on a taxi. He could haggle with Li Yunhui, whom he disliked, for a long time over a budget of a few thousand yuan. He could hang a smile on his face that held no mirth and barely manage to listen patiently to a clueless junior’s idiotic questions without losing his temper…

Qi Xiuyi: Haha.

What were high-end entertainment venues?

What was a young master from a wealthy family?

And what was money?

Haha, anything that could help him share the burden of the preparations was a good thing.

Things that couldn’t? To hell with them!

“Senior Qi, going for a meal? Let’s go together?”

Qi Xiuyi glanced to the side. The one greeting him was Yu Zhengling.

Ever since being motivated by Qi Wendong that day, Yu Zhengling had really shown some impressive work ability.

Their relationship had become surprisingly good over the past month of working together.

Qi Xiuyi: “You go ahead. It’s a day off today, I want to go find Qi Wendong.”

Yu Zhengling: “Senior Wendong… speaking of which, Senior Wendong is really busy. Our exhibition is about to start, and we still haven’t seen him come over after finishing his work.”

Qi Xiuyi was too embarrassed to say that Qi Wendong actually had no intention of helping them with the exhibition at all.

Yu Zhengling didn’t press further. “Alright then, you go do your thing, Senior. Want to play basketball this afternoon?”

Qi Xiuyi hissed, “Sure, let’s play. But don’t shut me out completely this time!”

Yu Zhengling: “I’ll try my best, I’ll try my best.”

On his way to the dormitory building, Qi Xiuyi called Qi Wendong.

No one answered.

He clicked his tongue in annoyance and quickened his pace.

He wasn’t sure if it was because his own preparation work had been too busy lately, or if their schedules just didn’t align.

Qi Xiuyi felt that he had rarely seen Qi Wendong on campus recently.

In the past, besides seeing Qi Wendong in class, he would often run into him in the cafeteria, the dormitory hallways, and other places.

But recently, he didn’t know if it was his imagination or what, but he felt that he hadn’t even seen Qi Wendong in class.

…Was Qi Wendong also busy with something recently?

Qi Xiuyi didn’t know.

After a two-week gap, he rushed up to the fifth floor of the dormitory with familiar ease and knocked on the door of 509.

The one who opened the door was one of 509’s roommates.

The roommate was surprised to see Qi Xiuyi. “Wendong’s brother! Wow, long time no see. What’s up?”

Qi Xiuyi was a bit confused.

In his memory, whenever Qi Wendong’s roommates saw him, they always assumed he was there to find Qi Wendong and never asked any extra questions.

Qi Xiuyi: “I’m here to find Qi Wendong. Is he not in the dorm?”

The roommate was puzzled. “Wendong? He hasn’t been staying in the dorm this week, has he?”

Qi Xiuyi: “?”

The roommate: “?”

Qi Xiuyi: “Where did he go?”

The roommate: “I don’t know, he didn’t tell us… Aren’t you his brother? Why are you asking us?”

Qi Xiuyi left 509 in a daze and immediately pulled out his phone to call the butler.

“Where is Qi Wendong? Did he come to school this week?”

The butler asked hesitantly, “Young Master Xiuyi, are you finished with your exhibition?”

A sense of unease crept into Qi Xiuyi’s heart. “We just wrapped up a phase today… Don’t beat around the bush, just answer my question!”

The butler breathed a sigh of relief and said, “Young Master Wendong had a minor surgery a while ago and is currently in the hospital for observation this week, but it’s nothing serious…”

Qi Xiuyi’s mind went blank for a moment, then he jumped up as if his fur was on end. “Surgery?! Why didn’t any of you *** tell me about something like this? Which hospital? Where is he??”

After the butler answered, he said, “Young Master Xiuyi, please don’t worry. Young Master Wendong just… Hello? Hello? Young Master Xiuyi?”

Qi Xiuyi didn’t even hear the latter half of the butler’s sentence. He hurriedly hung up the phone and immediately hailed a taxi to the hospital.

…

Ever since Qi Xiuyi had officially gotten busy with the exhibition preparations, Lin Chen’s daily schedule had become much more relaxed.

Early on, Lin Chen had permanently placed the system’s camera on Qi Xiuyi to monitor his work target’s progress in real-time.

The system reported diligently every day:

Qi Xiuyi tried to smile first when meeting people… Oh, he lost his temper again and got into an argument!

Qi Xiuyi tried to prepare before a meeting… Oh, but he didn’t prepare a script and his true abilities were exposed halfway through!

Qi Xiuyi tried to create his own dream to feed them… Oh, but the dream was too shoddy, too fake, and too lacking in confidence, and it was immediately seen through!

Qi Xiuyi tried to turn the dream he sold to Yu Zhengling and the fabricated preparation plan into reality… Oh, but he aimed too high and tried to take too big a step at once, and overstretched himself!

After a few days of reporting, the system couldn’t help but give a sharp review of Qi Xiuyi’s learning progress: “He’s just copying blindly, and the result looks less and less like the original!”

Lin Chen, however, expressed his gratification. “He’s proactive and has a good attitude. Keep up the good work.”

Lin Chen observed Qi Xiuyi for a few days and found that he had gradually transitioned from a “clockwork” mode to a “fully automatic” mode.

The current Qi Xiuyi no longer needed him to pop up every now and then for stimulation.

Qi Xiuyi had learned to study on his own and work on his own.

Although he was still clumsy when he worked, his brain was active. He had learned how to self-iterate and could also try to communicate and get along with others properly.

Lin Chen observed him in detail for a while and was very satisfied.

And he came to a conclusion: “We can try letting go and see how far he can walk on his own.”

Free-ranging Qi Xiuyi meant even more leisure time.

So Lin Chen simply spent a few days, following the exit idea he had privately discussed with Qi Jingming, and diligently wrote a very detailed exit plan to submit to Third Dad for review.

Third Dad couldn’t understand it, so he sent a doctor from his core team to communicate with Lin Chen.

After a period of professional discussion, the two sides finally settled on an exit plan with an implementation period of six months.

This exit plan was perfect.

Its core purpose was to “cover up the truth of Qi Wendong’s identity from all angles, with no blind spots,” and it fabricated a very reasonable, realistic, and coherent timeline for his death.

To avoid affecting Qi Xiuyi’s life during these six months, in the early stages of the plan, they specifically arranged for some insignificant but hospital-stay-requiring minor illnesses, in an attempt to desensitize and make Qi Xiuyi ignore the matter of “Qi Wendong being hospitalized” in the shortest possible time, creating a “boy who cried wolf” effect.

Qi Jingming’s team was very satisfied with the plan.

Lin Chen was also very satisfied.

And so, just one week before the opening of Qi Xiuyi’s exhibition, Qi Wendong was successfully admitted to Didu Hospital.