Poor Zhuge Liang, adrift for half his life, regretting only that he had never met a wise lord...

"Why did I just hear some strange noises coming from the room...? They really seem like they're about to go crazy..."

In the kitchen, Klein kept glancing outside anxiously and said,

"Miss Elysia, are we really not going to check on them?"

"Hoo~..."

Elysia blew on the cup of hot coffee in front of her, handed it to Klein, and said with a smile,

"Oh my~ Student Klein, you just got here, so you don't understand yet. The Professor and Little Ziling are boyfriend and girlfriend. If we girls go over there, we'll only be third wheels. So we can just wait here until they're done."

"So... they really are a couple?"

Klein blinked. She seemed to recall some particularly stimulating scenes, then thought of the romance novels she had once secretly read. She hurriedly lowered her head to hide her flustered emotions.

"Of course~"

Elysia blew a puff of hot air beside Klein's ear. As the leader of the yuri fan club, she could tell at a glance that Klein was definitely the sort of innocent girl who looked like an exemplary student on the surface but secretly read plenty of romance novels. She couldn't help feeling a little mischievous and said with a smile,

"If Student Klein wants to... you could also try listening at the door?"

With her inner thoughts exposed, Klein instantly panicked and hurriedly waved her hands.

"N-no need!"

Just then,

"Creak."

The door separating the kitchen from the living room was opened from the outside. The woman with emerald-green hair had an overbearing aura, like the mistress of the house, that could not be concealed. After casting an indifferent glance at Klein, who was trembling after being interrupted in her fantasies, she casually said,

"You're Klein?"

"Ah... ah... yes, yes, Professor Serpent."

Unstoppable panic showed in Klein's eyes, and she had once again mistakenly addressed Mobius as Professor Serpent. This was hardly strange. Before facing this woman today, Klein had heard Xu Ziling and Elysia mention more than once just how incredible this doctor was...

Now that she had actually met the doctor she admired, it would have been a lie to say Klein wasn't nervous. She was merely pretending to be calm.

Unbeknownst to her, Klein's nervousness was completely unnecessary.

Because Mobius was even more nervous than she was.

After suffering Blanca's pain, Mobius understood that when it came to assistants, one should either never hire one in the first place or find someone who could be used for a lifetime. As she looked at the trembling Klein, she was afraid that her first impression would leave Klein with a bad impression of her, causing the assistant she had finally obtained to run off with some random man later.

If that really happened, Mobius might never look for another assistant in her life.

"Ahem... I don't think our conversation needs to be this tense."

Xu Ziling coughed twice as a tactical gesture, then walked over and patted Klein on the shoulder.

"Also, since Student Klein will be staying here for a while, don't keep calling her 'Professor Serpent.' You should call her 'Doctor' or 'Dr. Mobius.' Understand?"

"Mm..."

Klein swallowed instinctively. After carefully looking Xu Ziling over from head to toe and taking in his breathtaking beauty, which resembled that of a national goddess, she recalled the fact that he had walked out of the room after only three minutes... Klein immediately regarded him with deep respect.

"I... understand, Assistant Xu. And... Dr. Mobius."

Mobius was just about to nod in satisfaction when she suddenly remembered that, as a doctor, she couldn't respond to everything. Occasionally ignoring people and maintaining a lofty bearing was the proper path. Thus, she coughed twice as a tactical gesture and said,

"Ahem... Klein, was it? Fine, I'll remember that. Have you eaten? If not, eat with us... Also, Little Mouse, after you finish eating, come back to the institute with me. We still have many hypotheses that haven't been experimentally verified."

Hearing this, Xu Ziling understood immediately. He nudged Klein with his elbow and said,

"What the doctor means is... when we go to the institute later, you can follow behind us and observe. If you have questions, you can ask them, but remember not to interrupt the doctor's experiments. Wait until the experiment is over, then summarize everything."

Klein's eyes widened slightly. Once she understood, she hurriedly nodded.

"Anyway, let's eat first. Goodness, breakfast is about to get cold~"

Elysia thoughtfully brought over a new set of tableware and handed it to Klein. Then she smiled at the three people in the kitchen.

"Also, Dr. Mobius and Little Ziling, I suggest that we introduce ourselves to Student Klein while we eat. I already introduced myself earlier, so it's Little Ziling and Dr. Mobius's turn!"

Mobius thought over Elysia's unconventional suggestion. After a moment, she decided there was no harm in introducing herself to Klein now. Klein had always thought she was merely an "ordinary" biology professor and had a woefully incomplete understanding of her identity.

With that in mind, Mobius looked at Xu Ziling, signaling for him to go first. As the doctor, she would make her entrance last.

"Ahem... All right."

After coughing twice as a tactical gesture, Xu Ziling said to Klein,

"Student Klein, we can be considered friends now, right? But since we're getting properly acquainted, let me introduce myself again. My name is Xu Ziling—Xu as in the character with the double-person radical, and Ziling as in 'tomb.' Also, don't worry about why I have a Western face but an Eastern surname. It isn't important.

"As for my identity, as you can see, I'm Dr. Mobius's bodyguard and romantic target. Occasionally, I also serve as her experimental assistant. If there's one thing you need to pay special attention to... well, I'm somewhat allergic to ultraviolet light. When you're at home, please don't open the curtains. Otherwise, even I will find it a real headache."

An allergy to ultraviolet light?

Klein blinked. She had heard of patients with that sort of illness before, but this was the first time she had seen one in person. She couldn't help looking at Xu Ziling several more times, even briefly wondering whether his skin, fairer and more delicate than a girl's, was the result of rarely being exposed to sunlight.

Seeing that the scene had been set up sufficiently, Mobius also coughed twice as a tactical gesture and said,

"Ahem... Little Klein, if you want to know my identity, you'd better prick up your ears and listen carefully. But even if I don't tell you, you must have seen or heard my name in your textbooks or on the news. That's right. I'm Mobius—the real Mobius.

"Come to think of it, I think I even wrote your biology textbooks. Unfortunately, the education bureau rejected them because they were too difficult... Tch, those people are so short-sighted."

"Dr. Mobius... from the news and textbooks?"

Klein now felt as if her head were itching so badly that she was about to grow a brain. She kept muttering to herself, as though trapped in a mysterious state where she was on the verge of remembering something but simply couldn't.

Mobius pursed her lips and said,

"Tch, you've never heard of me? Then you've at least heard the title 'World Serpent,' right? That was my registered ID when I published papers on M Continent's official forums. I used the same ID on Shenzhou's academic platforms. If you're genuinely interested in biology, there's no way you haven't heard of it."

It was obvious that Klein, whose mind was currently receiving information at high speed, couldn't process it all. She stood there blankly for a long while before staring at Mobius and asking in disbelief,

"Wait... who?"

"World Serpent, Infinite Serpent, and Mobius are all IDs I used when publishing on the world biology forums."

"?!?!!"

After finally understanding, Klein shot up from her seat—fast—and stared at Mobius in disbelief.

"Y-you're the Dr. Mobius who overturned all of modern biology, proposed an entirely new theory, and then had it ultimately proven correct?!"

"Mm~"

Mobius was clearly enjoying Klein's praise. She nodded with a smile, signaling that if Klein knew how to flatter her, she should continue.

And Klein did not disappoint. She blurted out,

"The ultimate green devil of M Continent?! The evil doctor who publicly claimed that anyone who went onto her operating table would never come back down?! The Dr. Mobius people would rather face ten death-row inmates than meet?!"

Mobius: ...

"Ahem~"

Even Elysia couldn't bear to watch anymore. She coughed twice as a tactical gesture and stepped forward.

"Those are just rumors, all rumors, Student Klein. You've already spent some time with the doctor yourself. Just look at her—Dr. Mobius isn't nearly as terrifying as the rumors say. At most, she just has some... well~ extremely adorable little quirks~"

Reminded by Elysia, Klein realized that she had gotten too excited. Seeing Mobius's expression gradually darken, she hurriedly corrected herself.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Dr. Mobius. I had indeed imagined that you might have this kind of true identity, but I never expected you to be so young. I always thought it was just someone with the same name... In any case, I may have overstepped before. I'm truly sorry. Please don't take it to heart!"

Mobius glared at Elysia, then looked indifferently at Klein.

"Heh... Klein, if you want to follow me in the future, you'd better change that nervous way of thinking. Also... talk to fewer pink-haired people in the future. Stupidity is a chronic illness. If you get infected too, that would truly be a shame."

"Ah... I... this... no... Yes! Yes, Doctor! Please point out any problems I have. I'll do my best to correct them!"

After learning Mobius's true identity, the way Klein looked at her changed completely. She looked just like an excited yet nervous young fan gazing at her idol.

Klein had actually realized from a young age that she seemed to possess an unusual talent for biology. Now that she had encountered someone at the very forefront of biology in the modern era, how could she not be excited?!

Looking at Klein's current excitement and nervousness, Xu Ziling, standing beside Mobius, couldn't help sighing inwardly.

Klein really was young and adorable right now. If he had to describe it, there was a kind of clear, limpid beauty to her.

But thinking about it carefully, that made sense. Klein was still a flower in a greenhouse and had yet to endure society's beatings, so of course her thoughts were pure beyond belief. The look in her eyes as she gazed at Serpent was filled with either excitement or admiration—the happiest expression a fan could show upon seeing an idol.

He just didn't know whether she would still be able to smile once Serpent made her work overtime like crazy.

"Tch."

Mobius raised her eyebrows. She was still working hard to maintain her lofty image in front of Klein, but judging by Klein's reaction... perhaps even if she stopped maintaining that image, Klein would still be determined to follow her for the rest of her life?

Not bad. Five extra points.

Thinking this, Mobius silently raised Klein's position in her heart by one level.

"Ahem."

After coughing twice more as a tactical gesture, Mobius looked at Klein.

"Little Mouse has already told me about your situation. You should have heard him say that I've recently been lacking an experimental assistant. If you're willing, you can come with me later and familiarize yourself with the institute...

"Of course, there's one thing you need to understand, Klein. The reason I'm hiring you isn't because of some 'stroke of luck,' nor because my Little Mouse and former assistant recommended you... It's simply because I don't currently have any other more suitable candidates. Understood?

"So, Klein, if you really want to follow me, you'll have to work harder and harder overtime... I mean, you'll have to keep developing your ambition. After all, you'll be following the greatest biologist of this era. Don't make me look down on you. Got it?

"Of course, whether you want to study under me is ultimately up to you. I, Mobius, would never force anyone. That would be no fun."

"I... Of course I'm willing to learn from you!"

Klein might not have been particularly clever, but she was definitely not stupid. She knew exactly how enormous an opportunity was being placed before her: to study under the greatest biologist of the current era. How could that not be an honor? How many people could pay any price and still never exchange it for such an opportunity? Compared to this, even the revelation that Assistant Xu was actually a boy was no longer all that surprising...

"Excellent."

Mobius nodded in satisfaction and said,

"Then after you finish eating, come straight to my institute with me. As for your school, the institute will take care of it. If your performance here satisfies me... congratulations. You might even become my permanent assistant. In any case, work hard, little one."

"Mm-mm-mm!!"

Overflowing with joy, Klein nodded repeatedly.

Seeing this scene, Xu Ziling sighed inwardly once again.

How did that saying go?

Poor Zhuge Liang, adrift for half his life, regretting only that he had never met a wise lord. Today, if Serpent does not cast me aside, I am willing to worship her as my ()...