?Chapter 542:


    Back when she was abroad, she had been admired, even celebrated. But now, standing in the very ce she once called home, she had been thoroughly humiliated—first by Ste, now by William. She wouldn’t forget this—not today, not ever.


    William left the hall with Ste, and as they walked toward theb, she asked curiously, “How did you know I had made a deal with Mr. Schoenberg?”


    William nced at her calmly and replied, “Rutherford and I have worked together before—we’re sort of friends. He asked me to make sure the equipment made it safely to the institute today.”


    Ste was a little surprised, but it made sense. William had a lot of connections. If she’d known he knew Rutherford, maybe she wouldn’t have needed to rush all the way to nce yesterday.


    But then again, Ste reminded herself that she still needed to count on her own abilities.


    Later at lunch, Sandra nearly bounced with excitement the moment she learned it was Ste who had managed to settle the equipment issue.


    “Sylvia, you’re incredible! I honestly mean it—you’re my idol!” she gushed.


    Sandra’s admiration felt different—it wasn’t the shallow kind that people showed Nina. It felt genuine, and Ste could tell it came straight from the heart.


    “I really just went there to give it a shot,” Ste said modestly. “The distributor’s team was surprisingly understanding. I just got lucky.”


    As they were eating, someone walked up to their table with a tray, looking at Ste with hopeful eyes. “Sylvia, is this seat taken? Can I sit here?”


    Ste didn’t say anything and just kept eating.


    The woman tried again, a little nervously. “Thanks for bringing the equipment today. It means a lot—we can keep our experiments going. I really admire what you did.”


    Still silent, Ste scooped some beef from her te into Sandra’s without looking up.


    Feeling awkward, the woman quietly walked away.


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    Over in the corner, Nina watched the whole thing. The people who used to tter her, chasing after her approval, now flocked around Ste like she was the star of the institute.


    A wave of contempt rose inside Nina as she poked at her food with her fork. It was just a piece of equipment—nothing more. Yet somehow, that alone was enough to make everyone turn their backs on her and treat Ste like she was better than Nina. Why?


    Meanwhile, Ste calmly finished her lunch with Sandra, then went straight back to theb to continue her work.


    With the new equipment finally in ce, the pace of the project picked up rapidly. Issues that had once held them back were now being resolved with ease. Everything was finally moving forward.


    A week went by, and the research made great progress.


    But just as things were picking up, a new problem cropped up.


    “These samples can’t be preserved,” Elbert said with a frown, staring at the lifeless cells under the microscope. “Whether we keep them cold or warm, they don’tst more than two days. That’s not going to work for our research. We’re running out of usable samples.”


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