Chapter 57
There was something undeniably condescending about her tone.
Lilian, ever the optimist, might not have picked up on it.
But Stellar’s smile faded as she finally looked Vivian in the eye.
“Even without someone backing me up, I wouldn’t stand by and let anyone insult my mentor without doing something about it.”
She wasn’t one to stir up trouble.
But that didn’t mean she was afraid of it.
Vivian’s expression darkened.
It was a direct jab–calling her out for standing on the sidelines and making snide remarks instead of taking action
Just as she opened her mouth to retort, Simon stepped in before things escalated.
“Alright, that’s enough. Since Alex is out of the way, let’s get back to work. We need to run the data.”
that, Nathan, who had been silent the entire time, tumed and entered the lab without another word.
Lilian quickly grabbed Stellar’s arm and followed.
Despite her irritation, Vivian had no choice but to do the same.
Simon was the last to enter, closing the door behind him before assigning tasks.
“Stellar, you’ll handle the first set of data, Nathan, you’ll take the second…”
As soon as he finished dividing up the work, everyone, except Vivian, got ready to begin.
Her displeasure was evident.
“Simon, I have a problem with this.”
He frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“I want to switch tasks with Stellar.”
Vivian cast a pointed, dismissive glance in Stellar’s direction.
“She’s been out of the field for two years now. Shouldn’t something this critical be left to someone with more experience?”
Her voice dripped with feigned concern.
Vivian saw it for what it was–someone who had already graduated suddenly returning? It was clearly just another case of leveraging the research institute to pad her resume
“She should just stick to the grunt work. When the paper is published, we can throw her name on it–it’s the least we can do.”
She sounded almost generous like she was doing Stellar a favor.
Stellar’s expression darkened at Vivian’s words, her gaze unreadable.
Chapter
+25 BONUS
Even Lilian, usually lighthearted, couldn’t stay quiet.
“But we all saw how well she handled those technical questions earlier! Not to mention her performance during the exams–everyone knows how impressive it was. How can you say that, Vivian? You’re completely underestimating her!”
Despite having known Stellar for less than an hour, Lilian stood up for her without hesitation.
That unwavering loyalty warmed Stellar’s heart.
Simon quickly cleared his throat, stepping in before things got any worse.
“Vivian, didn’t you just submit a research paper recently?igured you’d be swamped, so I wanted to ease your workload a bit.”
His tone was steady and diplomatic–he wasn’t attacking her, just presenting logic.
“As for Stellar, she deserves the opportunity to prove herself. We were all new to this once. The more experience she gets, the better.”
Simon truly lived up to his role as the team leader.
He handled things smoothly, keeping the peace while making sure fairness wasn’t compromised.
At this point, Vivian had no real excuse to push further.
“Fine, then let’s see if Stellar really has what it takes.”
A faint trace of mockery laced her tone, but Stellar didn’t bite.
At the end of the day, work spoke louder than words.
There was no point in wasting time arguing.
Everyone turned their focus to their tasks.
Two hours passed in silence, the lab filled only with the huth of equipment and the clicking of keyboards.
Finally, the data processing was complete, and the experiment wrapped up.
The moment Lilian saw Stellar’s results, her eyes widened in shock.
“Whoa! Stellar, your data analysis is incredible!”
Seated right beside her, she got the first look at the results and couldn’t help but exclaim in awe.
Lilian’s outburst immediately caught the attention of the others.
Curious, Simon and the rest of the team gathered around to take a look.
Only Vivian remained behind, arms crossed, a skeptical expression on her face.
She assumed Lilian was just hyping Stellar up
There was no way she had actually done anything that impressive.
But the very next second, Simon’s eyes widened in surprise as he examined the data.
“This… aside from Senior Ward, I don’t think anyone else could have produced results this precise!”
