David scrambled to catch the phone. When Josie saw he had a good grip on it, she finally let out a breath of relief.

Her phone was so old that if it hit the floor, it’d probably be done for. She’d have to get a new one for sure.

“What do you mean by this, Earl?” David asked, holding the phone with a puzzled look on his face.

Earl shot him a glare. “Take a good look at the paper on the phone!”

“This is an experimental paper one of my students published in the school journal two months ago,” David said, a flash of pride crossing his face. He added, “Honestly, he’s the least gifted of all my students. If he were any better, his paper would’ve ended up somewhere a lot more impressive than just the school journal.”

Earl shot him a look that said, “Well, at least you’re aware of that. It really is bad. If you know it, why are you still covering for him? Aren’t you afraid of ruining your reputation by letting a paper like that get published?”

Earl was a senior professor, much older than David. He had an honorary principal title. David didn’t dare to act smugly in front of him, but he was still a bit annoyed. “This paper is more than qualified to be published in the school journal. How can you accuse me of favoritism, Earl? I would never do something like that!”

“Is that so?” A hint of sarcasm flashed across Earl’s face. He clicked a few times on his computer before pointing at the big screen. “Why don’t you take another good look at this paper?”

David realized that the paper on the screen was Josie’s paper, which he’d brought with him. Up until now, those papers had just been sitting in the team’s research database. He’d never actually taken a close look at them. He figured there was no need. Josie was just helping out with odd jobs for her teammates, without any real skills or knowledge. If she weren’t so diligent, David felt that the team would’ve dropped her long ago.

“You haven’t even read it, have you?” Earl paced back and forth in frustration, then jabbed a finger at David’s face. “As a mentor, you can’t even treat all your students fairly. What am I supposed to even say to you?” he said.

Josie’s eyes were brimming with tears as she stared at David, stubbornness written all over her face. “Is what Earl said true? Have you really never even bothered to read the papers I put in the team’s database?” she asked.

In her previous life, she always thought it was because she wasn’t good enough, that her work never caught David’s attention. She felt that was why she never published a single paper while she was a student. She never achieved anything. She felt that her talents were always overshadowed by her teammates. It wasn’t until later that she realized her work, her ideas, and even the research directions she chose would somehow end up being credited to her teammates. What was even worse was that Natalie would always beat her to it and report every argument or theory she came up with to David first. In her previous life, she had no idea that Natalie had installed spyware on her computer, letting her steal Josie’s ideas again and again. After it happened so many times, Josie started to get suspicious. When she finally spoke up, David decided to throw her in jail. Before, she couldn’t understand why David never thought highly of her or trusted her. Now, she finally knew the answer. It turned out that, from the very beginning, he had never truly acknowledged her. On the surface, she was his student, but in reality, David never once took her seriously. He never approved of her.

Josie’s fists tightened just a little, her chest heaving with emotion. She thought she’d already reached the limit of how much she could hate David, but she realized she was wrong. Her hatred could go even deeper. Eventually, it burned itself out and vanished from her heart altogether. Josie thought, ‘I really don’t feel a thing for him anymore. He’s not even worth a shred of my feelings.’ She lifted her chin, a faint, mocking smirk tugging at her lips. “Sorry to trouble you today, Professor Lawson, but please take a good look for once. If it’s too much for you, then I’ll apologize in advance,” she said.