In the past, even up to the moment Josie died in prison, not a single one of them ever looked back. She never heard any of them say sorry.

Unexpectedly, at that moment, after she had just moved on from those hurtful memories, Josie heard Kyle’s apology.

In the past, Kyle often subjected her to verbal abuse, which ruined her reputation, caused her to lose face, and made it impossible for her to remain at school. But it was only recently that he started to realize his mistake and apologized to her.

"But why bother accepting his apology?" Josie was upset. Kyle should’ve apologized to her a long time ago. At that moment, she could no longer forgive him. Besides, it wasn’t like he was able to turn back time.

“I don’t need your apology.” Josie tugged at her scarf to shield her face from the biting wind. “For me, as long as you receive a fair punishment, that is enough.”

After she finished speaking, she did not spare Kyle another glance and walked away. It seemed that, to her, Kyle had become a stranger.

Her indifference and disregard were tough blows for Kyle. He felt a recurring tightness in his chest, so severe that he was nearly unable to breathe. ‘Why does even a single glance from her cause me such distress?’

It was only at that moment that he realized. Deep within his heart, there had long been a place for that well-behaved and sensible girl. He truly cared about her.

Kyle was attracted to his intelligent, quick-witted, well-behaved, and adorable junior. But because of his actions, he ruined his future possibilities with her. They already stood on opposing sides.

Kyle was deeply regretful. He hated himself for not having treated her well.

Kyle did not turn around and leave the school until Josie’s figure had disappeared from his sight.

However, Josie remains unaware of all this.

Josie had just arrived at the dormitory when she received a call from Claire. “I came to the school to pick up some materials. Shall we leave together if you’ve done packing?”

“Sounds good.” Josie turned and picked up her bag at the place where she and Claire had agreed to meet.

Except for two sets of clothes for changing, the contents of her bag consisted entirely of study materials. She would devote her entire winter vacation to studying.

After meeting Claire at the school gate, Josie noticed that she didn’t look well. “You didn’t sleep well?”

Claire yawned. “Had a hard time sleeping. I spent too long monitoring the experiment last night, and after getting up this morning, I had another meeting. This holiday is honestly even more exhausting than when I was in school.”

“Wasn’t the experiment supposed to start tomorrow?” Josie was aware that Delilah intended to bring forward her research plans by taking advantage of the holiday.

Claire yawned again. “Isn’t it all David’s fault? Aiden’s group has already signed an agreement with Audrey’s team, and their research began three days ago.”

Claire believed that the incident involving Kyle caused David to lose face. He proactively applied to become an external professor for the project and requested that the research institute commence research work immediately.

If he were lucky, he would be able to achieve research results after the New Year. His image would also be restored once the research paper was published.

Josie realized that, after the start of the new semester, as third-year graduate and fifth-year undergraduate students successively left for internships, faculty advisors on campus would select new team members.

At that time each year, the university gave David priority in selecting students. As a professor in a popular discipline, the number of students applying to study under him consistently exceeded the annual quota.

In contrast, all the students associated with Delilah were either those who had been reassigned or those taking elective courses. As a result, Delilah only had a few students.

Among her limited group of individuals, selecting students with a natural aptitude for acupuncture was exceptionally challenging. Otherwise, Delilah would not have spent so many years finding a suitable disciple.

“Did Professor Wilcourt bring forward the project research to compete with Professor Lawson for student recruitment?” Josie slightly pursed her lips. “If that is the case, perhaps I can assist.

“I’m not sure whether this time the research solely focused on the application of acupuncture in surgery, or whether both this method and Joseph’s research on the integration of nanorobots with