I Didn't Expect Them to Be This Weak

"I have to study hard. Even if I have no foundation, I can't give up. I have to become an alchemist and buy herbs for Kitty."

Qin Yue murmured to herself. Her dark, gleaming eyes were filled with determination as she memorized the name of that herb.

Giant Flower, one hundred thousand per bloom, priceless and unavailable on the market!

After committing Giant Flower to memory, Qin Yue picked up the thick herbal encyclopedia and began studying it intently, working hard to recognize the herbs.

Since she had no foundation, Qin Yue needed to start from the first page and memorize everything.

With such a thick herbal encyclopedia, mastering it in a short time was indeed no easy task.

As a result, Qin Yue's studies were laborious and difficult.

The other nine apprentices, on the other hand, all had some foundation and had studied before. Most of them only flipped through it once before moving on to other things.

Song Xiaomei had even picked up some medicinal ingredients and started trying to prepare hemostatic medicine.

Such a gap made Qin Yue feel increasingly pressured and anxious, which in turn affected her learning speed.

"Don't worry. With me here, nothing will be a problem. Take your time reading."

Li Xuan lay on Qin Yue's shoulder and spoke gently, comforting her in a firm voice.

His reassurance made Qin Yue breathe a sigh of relief, and she obediently continued studying seriously.

The girl and the cat immersed themselves in their studies like this, occasionally walking over to the medicine cabinets to compare the herbs one by one, observing them and distinguishing their scents.

Time passed slowly in this atmosphere, and before long, three days had gone by.

That noon.

Qin Yue, who was watching the shop, and the little cat were lying on the counter reading. Since it was noon, it was time for their lunch break.

After reading for a while, Qin Yue became sleepy. Before she knew it, she had dozed off while lying there.

Only the little cat sat quietly before the encyclopedia, occasionally turning its pages with its tiny paws as it read with great focus.

Tap, tap, tap!

The rhythmic sound of high heels striking the floor rang out.

Following the sound, the female alchemist in a red cheongsam swayed her slender waist and slowly walked out of the alchemy room into the hall.

When she saw Qin Yue sleeping, the female alchemist frowned slightly, somewhat displeased.

However, when she saw the snow-white kitten seriously flipping through the encyclopedia, surprise appeared on her face.

Studying was extremely tedious. Even humans found it dull after studying for a while.

Yet this snow-white kitten was watching so seriously and attentively. That was rather surprising.

"Interesting. Very interesting."

The female alchemist in the cheongsam swayed her voluptuous figure as she slowly came to stand beside the kitten, silently watching it.

She watched for more than ten minutes. Throughout that time, the kitten continued reading earnestly, focused and absorbed.

This remarkable display piqued the female alchemist's curiosity. She felt that this kitten was quite extraordinary.

Yawn!

A yawn sounded, and soon, the other apprentices who had been taking their lunch break emerged from the break room.

Upon seeing the female alchemist, they hurriedly stood properly and respectfully greeted her, "Hello, Sister Qi."

With so many people calling out together, and Song Xiaomei deliberately shouting especially loudly, Qin Yue woke from her sleep and hurriedly stood up.

"H-Hello, Sister Qi."

"Mhm. Go wash your face. We'll have the first round of testing shortly. Anyone scoring below six can leave," the female alchemist in the cheongsam said unhappily.

She was already twenty-six years old and disliked being called boss or master. What she liked most was being called sister.

That was why everyone in the shop addressed her that way. But because her alchemy had failed today, and Qin Yue had been sleeping, she was in a foul mood, her brows tightly furrowed.

Naturally, everyone noticed this. Seeing her frown, they all became extra cautious, afraid of being dismissed.

Five minutes later.

After washing up, everyone stood in the hall, quietly waiting for Sister Qi to set the questions.

"The total score is ten. One point for each correct answer. I'll give you ten questions now. Write down each herb's medicinal properties, growing environment, and incompatible herbs."

Sister Qi took out a small blackboard and quickly wrote out the ten questions. Then she walked around the group, circling them as she inspected their work.

Scratch, scratch, scratch!

The sound of writing slowly rose. Everyone lowered their heads and worked hard on the questions, but this test was too difficult. Many of the questions were not in the herbal encyclopedia.

This made everyone present very nervous, feeling that things were about to go badly.

Among them, Qin Yue was the most worried, because she realized she only recognized one herb and knew none of the others.

Thinking that anyone scoring below six would have to leave, Qin Yue panicked at once. When Sister Qi stood beside her, Qin Yue's palms began to sweat.

"Don't worry. Write what I tell you," Li Xuan said, beginning to communicate with Qin Yue through their minds.

"Mhm, thank you, Brother Li Xuan."

Hearing Li Xuan's words, Qin Yue calmed down as though she had found someone to rely on. She began seriously answering the questions according to his instructions.

Sister Qi had originally seen Qin Yue panicking badly. Now, Qin Yue suddenly regained her composure and solved one difficult question after another, leaving Sister Qi surprised.

This test had been extremely difficult. Since she had been in a bad mood, she had deliberately made it hard in order to drive away more apprentices.

Originally, she had wanted to send Qin Yue away as well, but the cat was too cute, and Sister Qi was somewhat reluctant. She slowly changed her mind.

As for whether Qin Yue did well on the test or not, wasn't that just a matter of Sister Qi's word?

However, Qin Yue answered the questions one after another so quickly, which was truly surprising and completely beyond Sister Qi's expectations.

"Did I misjudge her? Is this girl actually very capable? No, she doesn't seem like someone with that kind of cunning. Could it be related to this cat?"

Sister Qi was puzzled, feeling that it had something to do with the cat.

Amid her doubts, the time finally came to stop the test. Sister Qi collected the test papers and began grading them.

Sure enough.

Very few questions had been answered correctly. Only seven people passed. Aside from Qin Yue, the highest score among the others was only eight.

Only Qin Yue had scored nine points. The result was truly surprising.

Across from her.

The apprentices stood nervously, watching Sister Qi grade the papers, each of them uneasy.

The questions had simply been too difficult, and they were all worried.

"Brother Li Xuan, why didn't we answer the last question? Was it too difficult?" Qin Yue asked inwardly.

"No, it was a very simple question. I've even seen the herbs from these questions in the summoned beast world. It was incredibly easy.

"The reason we didn't answer it was to hide our abilities. I didn't want us to perform too well and draw others' jealousy.

"As the saying goes, the tallest tree in the forest is the first to be toppled by the wind. If we score nine points, we won't stand out too much," Li Xuan cautioned.

"So that's how it is. I understand. Thank you, Brother Li Xuan." Qin Yue nodded blankly, vaguely feeling that she had learned something.

"All right, I'll announce the scores now."

Sister Qi stood up and swept her gaze around before finally letting it fall on Qin Yue.

"Zhao Mengmeng, eight points. Song Xiaomei, seven points. Ye Fan, six points. Niu Yanan, six points. Finally, the highest score goes to Qin Yue with nine points."

"What? Nine points? She actually got nine points? How is that possible? Those questions were so difficult," someone said in surprise.

"Exactly. Didn't she have no foundation? How could she get nine points? Even Mengmeng only got eight, and she's been learning to identify herbs since she was little."

Everyone stared at Qin Yue in shock, unable to believe that she had scored nine points. It was a little frightening.

"These are Qin Yue's answers. Take a look and you'll understand. Her answers are very standard. She didn't do the tenth question at all. Was it because she didn't know how, or because she couldn't be bothered?" Sister Qi said as she handed out the test paper for everyone to inspect.

Once everyone had passed the paper around, they all looked at Qin Yue with disbelief in their eyes.

They felt that Qin Yue was truly amazing. She had answered so well, even writing down the plants' growing environments. Most importantly, she had written them in great detail.

This time, everyone was completely convinced. The way they looked at Qin Yue changed entirely.

At the center of everyone's attention.

Qin Yue stood there blankly, swallowing nervously as she quietly asked in her heart.

"Brother Li Xuan, didn't you say we were supposed to hide our abilities? Why did it turn out like this?"

"My mistake. I didn't expect them to be this weak. Sorry," Li Xuan said helplessly, shaking his head.

"Eh?"

Qin Yue froze. Although what Brother Li Xuan said was true, why did it sound so irritating?

If Song Xiaomei heard that, she would probably tug on the cat's ears.