In academia, it''s not umon for the same theory to be hashed out over and over. Honestly, I don''t see an issue with that.


    "Exactly. With so many concepts in gic taxonomy alone, you can''t just im a monopoly on an idea. That would be downright unreasonable."


    "Let''s all chill a bit, shall we? Instead of nitpicking over nonexistent giarism, maybe we should focus on our own research. We''re all ssmates here; no need to make things ugly."


    ...


    Hearing this, Linden frowned, ncing at Meg''s other teammates. Theirments were really starting to grate on him.


    Ugly? If Meg hadn''t copied someone else''s work, why worry about usations?


    What made it worse was how they acted like they were in the right after using someone else''s ideas. It was downright disgusting.


    Linden felt like all his hard work on data analysis for them over the past few days was for nothing.


    "You guys are unbelievable. You steal someone else''s ideas and don''t even feel a shred of guilt. Anyone with a conscience would at least try to exin themselves. No one''s forcing you to do anything, yet here you are, throwing insults and dripping with sarcasm, making it seem like the victim is the one at fault."


    Linden was so frustrated he chuckled, then added, "Is it just because she''s a freshman with no one to back her up?"


    Meg''s teammates looked visibly upset, ready to argue, but Meg cut in coldly, "Senior, there''s no need to lecture us from a moral high ground. No one bullied her. This whole mess is her making baseless ims."


    After a pause, Meg continued, "If you don''t want to help us with the data analysis, that''s fine. We won''t push you, but thanks for your help these past few days."


    By now, Meg had shifted from her initial panic when she saw Mirabe, to a cool calmness.


    Her teammate had a point. It''s not just experimental papers; even the big questions in biology get debated repeatedly. What made her project any different? With that, any lingering guilt Meg felt vanished.


    Meg didn''t want to talk to Linden anymore. She turned and headed back into theb, "Let''s get back to work. We can''t let some pointless argument slow us down."


    With the paper submission deadline looming, it was better to do more experiments than waste time arguing.


    "You guys have really set a new standard for low," Linden said, turning to Mirabe. "Look, I think this giarism thing is serious. You should report it to the department."


    Hearing this, Meg stopped, turned back to Linden with a smirk, and said, "Go ahead, report it. Let''s see what the professors have to say about this so-called giarism."


    Everyone knew her mentor was Mr. Calvin, and Mr. Calvin had strong ties with the faculty. Thinking the professors would take a stand against her was wishful thinking.


    Meg scoffed and mmed theb door shut.


    At that moment, Linden remembered that Meg was Mr. Calvin''s student. While


    student disputes wouldn''t usually involve Mr. Calvin directly, when it came to his student... how could he not step in?