Love Burned, She Rose Unscathed

But Madeleine was overseas attending an academic summit and hadn't returned yet, so Roseanne's team was without their mentor present.

And, just their luck, they were scheduled to present right after Edna's group.

Carlson stood up, detailing the academic progress they'd made that month. The highlight was Sybil, as the lead author, publishing an article in a highly respected scientific journal.

At this point, Carlson paused, seemingly overwhelmed.

The audience was momentarily puzzled, then quickly caught on that this might be their cue to applaud.

Soon, a thunderous round of applause filled the room.

Carlson was speechless.

The university and department leaders on stage were grinning from ear to ear. Especially Babur, whose smile was so wide it was almost comical.

Edna straightened up in her chair, a small smile playing on her lips.

Amidst the applause, Sybil stood up, saying, "Thank you, everyone. But the person who truly deserves my gratitude is my mentor-Ms. Edna! Her professional guidance and patience have been invaluable."

The applause resumed, even louder this time.

acknowledged the gesture with a

quietly took his

chilling, sometimes even skips classes. Yet, she managed to quietly publish in a top journal... That's just amazing!" Where did she even find the time to

the lab. Does writing a

mention last time you'd finished a paper and were about to submit it? Which journal

it?" Arkle asked, eyes

of having

of the journal and sending it home to

"I'm not submitting it."

to process, "...Not submitting it?!

had spent countless hours in the lab, laboring over experiments and analyzing data. How could he just decide not to submit? Carlson's expression was unreadable:

supposedly ready for submission. Such a significant

expression, Arkle felt a pit in his stomach and

up next? Let's keep this moving! We don't want to waste everyone's time," he said, casting a snide

our group secured a lab space, self-funded the purchase of a CPRT meter, and finalized our research

that it? Slater sneered, "Seems pretty basic. Well, I guess if you don't have any significant findings to report, there's

Roseanne remained silent.

lack of academic results was a fact, and there was