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.

gesture

took

skips classes. Yet, she managed to quietly publish in

set foot in the lab. Does writing a paper not require

and were about to submit

Arkle asked,

of having his own academic achievements

sending it home to his parents. They'd be

"I'm not submitting it."

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 issue with the direction of the experiment. All the data needs to be

a significant discrepancy shouldn't

a glimpse of Carlson's grim expression, Arkle felt a

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

group secured a lab space, self-funded the purchase of a

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

Roseanne remained silent.

results was a fact, and there was