Chapter 183

It all felt meaningless now. Hansel's belated affection was worthless to Miranda. She listened to him with a blank expression, her hand still gripping the doorknob tightly—a defensive stance. Then, she said slowly and concisely, "I'm sorry, but no."

There would be no forgiveness, no reconciliation.

Hansel visibly grew agitated. "Why? Tell me why! Before, you refused to get back together because of Ingrid, but I've already broken up with her. Why won't you accept me?" He had compromised so much; how much further did she intend to push him?

In contrast to his rage, Miranda remained calm. "My world revolved around you in the past. You were everything to me." She even gave up pursuing her postgraduate studies for him. When her love was at its most intense and beautiful, he was her whole world; he was the person she wanted to entrust her future to.

Hansel's eyes lit up almost instantly. His tone grew urgent, almost frantic. "Isn't it the same now? If you take me back, we can go back to how things were."

Miranda lowered her gaze and shook her head. "No one stays in the same place forever. You didn't, and neither did I. After we broke up, I suddenly realized there's so much more to this world than you—so many interesting things and goals worth pursuing."

Hansel's expression darkened. "What's there worth pursuing? Are you still talking about the postgraduate admission exam? Or just studying?"

"Even if you finish your Master's degree, you'll still need to work. And isn't work just about making money? I can give you whatever you want."

Miranda frowned. "It's not money that I want."

Hansel sneered. "Didn't you take the fifty-million-dollar check? And now you're saying you don't want money? Do you think I'll believe that? Or maybe you were after my money from the start?"

In his extreme anger, Hansel hurled reckless accusations. Seeing his words grow more absurd, Miranda ignored him. She pushed the doorknob, ready to shut the door. She moved so quickly and urgently that it caught Hansel off guard, forcing him to step back.

"Do you think getting into a postgraduate program is that easy? Those academic courses, the lab work… Sure, you used to handle them effortlessly and were outstanding. But so many years have passed, do you really think you're still the same Miranda as before?"

Before he could finish, the door slammed shut with a loud bang that echoed down the hallway.

Stunned and filled with anger, Hansel silently vowed to make her regret this.

Chapter 143

It was early April, and the signs of spring were becoming more obvious. Buds sprouted on the branches, and the wind no longer felt so harsh. That day, Miranda visited Christine. This was their first meeting since the start of the year. As the year progressed, the weather warmed, and Christine's health gradually improved. She had returned to the front lines of research and was so busy she hardly had time to go home for meals.

Upon seeing Miranda, Christine immediately handed her a stack of materials: original data from her lab and related academic papers. Miranda skimmed through them. She noticed some of the papers were quite old and covered niche topics, making complete versions nearly impossible to find online. The effort involved in gathering them must have been tremendous!

Miranda pouted slightly, and Christine knew exactly what she was thinking.

"These documents were scraped together from your seniors. I just asked for favors, so it's all thanks to them! An old bag of bones like me could never find such good stuff on my own."