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

took

sitting nearby, couldn't help but marvel, "Oh my goodness! Sybil spends her days either out exploring or just 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

foot in the lab. Does writing a paper not

a paper and were about to

submit it?" Arkle asked,

dreamed of having his own

the journal and sending it home

"I'm not submitting it."

lost in his daydreams, took a moment to process, "...Not submitting it?! What do you mean?! Why

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: "There was an

ready for submission. Such a significant discrepancy

a pit in his stomach

want to waste everyone's time," he said, casting a snide glance toward

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

Well, I guess if you don't have any significant findings to report, there's not much you can

Roseanne remained silent.

of academic results was a fact, and