Chapter 1879 — So It Really Is an Acquaintance
The Blossom Guardian · Page 1 of 2
"So it really is you—haha!" the young man said excitedly. "Wahahaha, welcome, Junior Wei Zhao! Let me introduce myself. My name is Bai Weikai, and I'm a student council officer in our pharmaceutical program, in charge of liaison work between the program and the department's student council! Really, I'm just the head steward—if you ever need anything, just come find me!"
"Ha, then I'll be counting on you, Senior!" When Wei Zhao heard the name Bai Weikai, it struck him as somewhat familiar, as though he had heard it somewhere before, yet he had no recollection of it.
"No need for thanks—just call me Brother Xiaokai from now on!" Bai Weikai said.
"Pff..." Wei Zhao burst out laughing. The term "Xiaokai" was usually used to describe rich second-generation heirs; he had not expected it to be applied here.
"Haha, my family doesn't have much money!" Hearing Wei Zhao laugh, Bai Weikai knew exactly what he was thinking.
"Heh... so what should I do now? Where do I go to pay?" Wei Zhao asked.
Back in the economics department, he had accompanied Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu to register, and other student council members had led their group off to pay fees, collect dormitory keys and dorm supplies, and pick up textbooks and the like—but here, it seemed there was none of that?
"Mm... just wait a bit longer. In other programs they go in groups of twenty, led by the student council officers of that program to pay fees and collect their things, but this year our program has fewer than twenty people registered in total. As for student council officers, I'm the only one in the whole program, so you'll just have to wait. I can't leave—if I go, there'll be no one to receive the next registrants." Bai Weikai spread his hands and spoke with some regret.
"I see. Then doesn't that mean I have to wait until everyone in the program has arrived before I can go?" Wei Zhao asked.
"Not exactly. Once my little brother gets here, I'll have him cover for me for a while. He's a new student here too, but he knows all the rules!" Bai Weikai said. "That kid comes to help out every year. By the way, my grandfather is the only professor in our program—the rest are professors from other biology-related fields filling in."
"..." Wei Zhao was even more astonished to hear this. So the whole family was in this field? Still, he nodded and said, "All right, then I'll wait a while."
"Hehe, by the way, brother, why did you choose this department? Could it be your grades weren't good enough... No, that can't be—with grades like yours, you'd qualify for popular majors like computer science!" Bai Weikai glanced at Wei Zhao's transcript and spoke with some surprise.
"I enjoy studying medicinal herbs," Wei Zhao said.
"Well, you win. That's a solid enough reason!" Bai Weikai nodded and said, "But you'd better be careful. The old man in my family is different from other professors—there's a bit of the old master-and-apprentice tradition about him. If you're hoping to muddle through, hehe..."
"What, is he going to hit people too?" Wei Zhao asked, puzzled.
"Hit people? Hehe, that would be nothing—I guarantee there are things more terrifying than that!" Bai Weikai shook his head with a bitter smile. "He'll mix a pile of herbs together and have you sort them out one by one into their proper categories. If you can't, you fail the entire final exam, and I guarantee by then you'll be ****!"
"..." Wei Zhao was speechless. Was that supposed to be hard? Hadn't the old man in his own family had him doing exactly that since he was a child? And that had only been the beginning—later on, the old man would grind all the herbs into powder and make him tell them apart, and after that, brew them straight into medicinal soups and have him taste what was in them...