Professor 6
Someone is dead.
Tang Xi felt a chill run down his spine as he looked at the police officer in front of him.
The young officer’s face still held a hint of youth, reminding him of his own son. Softening his tone slightly, he said, “Don’t be nervous. I just need to ask a few questions.”
Tang Xi flinched.
The officer patiently asked a few questions.
Tang Xi only nodded or shook his head, too afraid to speak to the unfamiliar officer.
Just when he was at a loss for what to do, Duan Sifei arrived. He casually draped an arm over Tang Xi’s thin shoulders, offering reassurance as the boy trembled slightly.
Duan Sifei answered the officer’s questions on his behalf since they had been together at the time of the incident.
The officer asked, “What’s your relationship with him?” Years of experience told him the boy had psychological issues. Maybe it was his overly pure gaze that made the officer ask an extra question.
Duan Sifei chuckled. “Is that really necessary for the record?”
The officer hesitated, just about to reply when Duan Sifei spoke again. “He’s my research assistant.”
His smile was polite and restrained, making it clear he was a well-mannered person.
The officer nodded and didn’t press further before leaving.
The victim and Tang Xi were merely colleagues. In such a large research institute, they had almost no interactions. Once the officer confirmed Tang Xi’s alibi, that was enough.
“Were you scared?” Duan Sifei lowered his head slightly, looking at him with concern.
There was nothing suspicious.
Yet, Tang Xi felt a deep chill in his heart. He didn’t dare look up and simply shook his head lightly.
Duan Sifei assumed he was just frightened by the unfamiliar police officers and reached out to gently ruffle his hair.
Soft black strands slipped between his slender fingers, successfully soothing the “cat.”
Tang Xi calmed down a little. [1551, was it a murder?]
1551 hesitated. [I’m not sure either, but…]
According to the plot, the only killer was the villain. If a researcher had been murdered, there was no one else it could be.
The victim was Chen Duan, but Tang Xi had no impression of him at all—not even a vague image of his face.
That morning, Chen Duan’s body was found at home. Or rather, his body was found—but his head was missing.
It reportedly took the police over an hour to locate it—stuck to the ceiling. When they found it, the nose had been sliced off, leaving a gaping, bloody hole in the middle of the face.
. . . . .
Halfway through his experiment, 1551 suddenly spoke. [On the first day Duan Sifei arrived, that guy badmouthed you to him.]
It had noticed during its broadcast that day.
A single, out-of-context remark—yet Tang Xi immediately understood the implication.
Was there a connection between the two?
His hand trembled slightly as he held a test tube. Frowning, he suppressed his unease and instructed the system to pull up photos from the crime scene.
He refused to believe his “poop scooper” had done it. They had been together almost the entire day yesterday.
1551, reluctant to show such gruesome images, warned, [The villain is someone who can create an almost perfect alibi using any means necessary. What if he stayed with you just to establish an alibi?]
[No.] Tang Xi steadied his grip.
He couldn’t be certain whether Duan Sifei was a murderer, but there was one thing he was sure of—his feelings for him were genuine.
[Deduct whatever points you need. Just show me the photos.]
1551 couldn’t understand how its host had become such a points tycoon after just one world.
Unable to argue, it obediently displayed the crime scene photos—without even pixelating them.
The images were gruesome and violent, the brutality of the crime evident from the state of the corpse.
Since the photos were projected directly into his mind, closing his eyes was useless.
Tang Xi’s face paled. He was clearly afraid, yet he carefully examined each detail.
And finally, he noticed something.
[The corpse’s pinky finger is intact. This wasn’t the villain’s doing!]
The villain had a habit—he always removed the little finger bone as a trophy.
The murder was just as brutal as described in the plot, except for this one missing detail.
Realizing that Duan Sifei wasn’t the killer, Tang Xi let out a deep breath of relief.
His mission to save him hadn’t failed after all!
There was still a chance to stay in this world with his “poop scooper.”
1551 was puzzled. [If it wasn’t him, then who was it?]
The original story never mentioned another killer.
Tang Xi had no time to respond because the reagent in his hand had been ruined.
He had been too focused on looking at the photo, causing his hands to pause momentarily. The cat reacted swiftly—almost the instant the liquid began expanding and overflowing rapidly, it was transferred into another reagent, successfully preventing a small explosion.
“Are you okay? Need any help?” Chen Liu hovered outside the door, arms full of materials. Seeing what had just happened, he walked in without hesitation.
He wore a concerned expression, but his eyes were filled with curiosity as they darted toward the table.
Scattered across the surface were densely packed reports, filled with intricate calculations and characters. The computer screen displayed constantly updating formulas, recalculating in real time.
As the so-called child of fate, Chen Liu only needed a quick glance to understand the nature of the experiment. His expression shifted subtly, disbelief flashing in his eyes. “You’re conducting research on high-speed cellular regeneration? Impossible. That experiment has already been proven unfeasible by previous researchers. We still haven’t found the correct segmentation value.”
This was exactly what An Liang, the original character, had been working on—pushing the boundaries of what the world deemed impossible.
His success had allowed countless disabled individuals to regain complete, functional bodies.
You may think it’s impossible now, but once the results come out, you’ll be the first to steal them.
But with me here, that won’t happen.
Tang Xi didn’t like Chen Liu and ignored him, focusing instead on cleaning up the aftermath of his earlier mistake.
Mistakes in experiments were common, yet Chen Liu acted as if he had found the perfect opportunity to tear him down.
He kept citing various examples to “prove” that Tang Xi was wasting resources.
And, of course, he did it all under the guise of being helpful.
His tone carried an unmistakable bitterness—he believed that Duan Sifei choosing Tang Xi over him had been a mistake. Now that he was being ignored, his resentment only grew, and he couldn’t help but sneer, “You’re just wasting Professor Duan’s time…”
“He is not wasting my time.”
Duan Sifei walked in at a steady pace, his face expressionless as he addressed Chen Liu. “Do you have any business here?”
He had only stepped away briefly after being called by the dean, and the moment he returned, he found his little assistant being bullied—right in his own lab. That did not sit well with him.
Chen Liu hadn’t expected him to return so suddenly and was visibly startled.
Originally, he had planned to bring up a question for Duan Sifei, but now, faced with the professor’s cold gaze, he found himself unable to speak. Fear gripped him, and cold sweat dampened his palms.
For the first time, he saw Duan Sifei without his usual gentle facade. The warmth he showed in public was gone, replaced by an aura of chilling intimidation.
“If you have nothing else to say, don’t waste my assistant’s time,” Duan Sifei said, his eyes as cold as if he were staring at a corpse.
A merciless dismissal.
At that moment, Chen Liu suddenly recalled the morning’s news—the death of Chen Duan. A shiver ran down his spine, goosebumps prickling his skin. He barely managed a hurried apology before bolting out of the room.
The villain just scared off the child of fate…
Tang Xi felt a surge of satisfaction, his invisible cat tail swaying with delight.
Duan Sifei walked over and glanced at the usually neat and tidy lab table, which now appeared a little messy. “So, you really were scared.”
A completely baffling remark.
It wasn’t until Tang Xi was forcibly taken to Duan Sifei’s home after work that he finally understood what he meant by “scared.”
In the villain’s eyes, a timid kid—who had a fear tolerance as low as a cat’s—would naturally be frightened upon hearing that a murder had happened nearby. And such a kid would, of course, need to be taken home and comforted.
Returning to this place again, Tang Xi felt even more at ease than last time.
He didn’t want to be withdrawn forever. For him, opening up his heart step by step was the best approach.
And the villain was the best medicine for that.
While Duan Sifei was cooking in the kitchen, Tang Xi transformed into his cat form and played around in the bedroom.
He had been holding back all day and couldn’t suppress it any longer. Besides, the bed was soaked with the comforting scent of his “poop scooper,” making him feel incredibly safe.
This time, he was more cautious—he had the system check for surveillance cameras in the room first.
He rolled around on the soft bed, occasionally licking his little paws to wash his face.
Just as he was chasing his own tail, the system suddenly alerted him that the villain was coming out of the kitchen.
In an instant, he transformed back into his human form and sat up straight on the small sofa in the room.
Duan Sifei pushed the door open and saw that the boy was sitting in the exact same position as when he had left.
“So obedient.”
Dinner consisted of simple home-cooked dishes. Duan Sifei didn’t trust takeout, so he specially prepared a healthy meal with less oil and salt.
Compared to his own place, which was stocked with a year’s worth of instant noodles, this was practically heaven.
Having confirmed that Duan Sifei was indeed his beloved “poop scooper,” Tang Xi wanted nothing more than to move in on the spot. But when the time came, he still had to leave.
He secretly hoped Duan Sifei would stop him.
However, in a change of tactics, Duan Sifei not only didn’t stop him but even thoughtfully escorted him to his doorstep.
Tang Xi: …So you don’t love me anymore?
He didn’t bother questioning how this guy knew his address. Without hesitation, he shut the door right in Duan Sifei’s face.
After using him, the little cat happily sprawled back onto the bed.
His paws itched to play with a plush ball, but his persona wouldn’t allow it. So instead, he kneaded the air a few times, only to feel an even greater emptiness.
Frustrated, he furiously poked the system: [In the next world, I want a character who can be as reckless as they want!]
Money or not, that didn’t matter. The most important thing was doing whatever he pleased.
1551, annoyed by the constant poking, replied perfunctorily: [Yeah, yeah, I’ll keep an eye out for you.]
Only then did Tang Xi contentedly retract his claws.
Neither the cat nor the system realized they had forgotten something extremely important.
. . . . .
Fresh out of the shower, Duan Sifei wasn’t wearing his glasses, his expression one of pure “keep away from me.”
When he noticed the inexplicably messy bed, he paused, his gaze turning sharp. Because of the angle, he hadn’t realized the disarray until he got closer.
The once impeccably neat bed was now anything but—as if a small animal had been frolicking all over it.
With a blank expression, he flipped through the covers and soon found something suspicious on his pillow.
A single golden cat hair.
Held between his fingers was the very strand that Tang Xi had unknowingly left behind.
There was absolutely no way this could have appeared in his room on its own.
Which meant the only possible source… was the boy.
A hint of amusement flickered across Duan Sifei’s face. That little guy didn’t seem like the type to own a cat.
And it had even landed on his pillow…