Chapter 269
Chapter 269
Saskia shot to her feet and strutted over in her heels, chin high.
She crossed her arms, looking down at Lucinda. "Hey, who are you? If you want to play saint and pick up trash, do it on the street—don't bring garbage into our class and drag down our standards."
Layla Scott's face went white. She ducked her head lower.
Lucinda didn't even lift her eyelids. She kept spinning the black pen between her fingers, her voice lazy. "Standards? You think you're qualified to talk about that?"
"You—" Saskia's face changed. She was caught off guard.
Around the room, students who knew what Lucinda was capable of exchanged uneasy looks, silently bracing for impact.
But someone couldn't resist stirring the pot.
"Saskia, this girl's full of herself. Probably thinks her grades make her better than everyone."
Saskia took a deep breath, swallowed her anger, and forced a contemptuous smile. "Good at studying, huh? Fine. I'm not unreasonable. The second half of class is a practical problem—multi-target molecular recombination probability modeling. If you've got what it takes, let's compete."
She slapped the table, raising her voice. "Whoever loses crawls out of this classroom! You in?"
Lucinda's spinning pen paused for a fraction of a second.
She lifted her eyes. Cool, steady, locked on Saskia's face.
"Sure." Lucinda tapped the pen on the desk. "Public timer. No excuses."
Saskia's eyes flashed with triumph.
Her father had arranged for a core institute researcher to walk her through this exact problem in advance. She'd rehearsed it dozens of times. She could do it with her eyes closed.
Compete with her? Death wish.
Two workstations were brought to either side of the stage.
On the big screen, the timer lit up.
Red numbers began ticking.
"Start!"
Saskia smirked and her fingers flew across the keyboard.
Strings of data scrolled across her screen at impressive speed.
She had the chops—and the prep work. Her execution was smooth.
Meanwhile, Lucinda sat slouched in her chair, working one-handed, occasionally pausing to glance at the trembling girl beside her and handing her a tissue to wipe her tears.
"See? I told you she was faking it." One of the socialites down below snickered.
"That hand speed? A turtle could crawl faster. Saskia's got this."
Two minutes in, Saskia was already past the halfway mark.
She glanced at Lucinda's progress bar. The contempt in her eyes nearly overflowed.
That's it?
Thought she was something special. Turns out she's all show.
Saskia dropped her guard completely, radiating confidence.
But then—
Lucinda moved.
The lazy look in her eyes sharpened instantly, turned razor-edged. Her other hand dropped onto the keyboard.
A storm of keystrokes erupted across the room.
Dense. Fast. Like hail hammering metal.
On the big screen, Lucinda's progress bar shot upward at a pace the eye could barely track.
5%... 20%... 50%... 80%!
"What the hell, that hand speed—"
"I can't even follow. How many characters per second is that?"
"Wait, look at her algorithm logic—she's rebuilding the base formula! How is that even possible?!"
Gasps broke out all around.
Saskia heard the commotion and reflexively glanced at the screen.
That one look hit her like a lightning strike. Her hands faltered. She hit the wrong key.
Her screen flashed red: [WARNING: Data overflow. Logic failure.]
Saskia panicked.
She scrambled to undo it, but the more frantic she got, the worse it became. Mistakes piling on mistakes.
Sweat dripped down her forehead.
A crisp chime echoed through the room.
[Task complete. Accuracy: 99.99%. Time: 3 minutes 12 seconds.]
On the big screen, Lucinda's name sat at the top beside a flawless green data loop.
Saskia was still stuck at 61%, her screen a chaotic mess of red error messages.
Lucinda stood, one hand in her pocket.
She walked over and looked down at Saskia. "That's your level? And you think you can bully people?"
Saskia's face went bone-white. She bit her lip hard, trembling, unable to say a word.
From the side of the stage, slow, deliberate applause rang out.
The senior academician had entered at some point, flanked by several institute heavyweights.
He studied the flawless data model on the whiteboard, then looked at Lucinda, eyes filled with admiration. "Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. What's your name? Would you be interested in joining my core research team?"
The room collectively gasped.
The core team. The place people spent lifetimes trying to break into.
Lucinda simply nodded once at the academician, then took Layla—who was still frozen in shock—by the arm. "Let's go. Find somewhere cleaner to study."
Under the stunned gazes of everyone present, she walked out without looking back.
Saskia slumped in her chair, surrounded by faint laughter, feeling like her face had been ripped off and stomped into the floor.
She ran out crying, enduring stares and whispers the whole way, and finally called her best friend through her tears.
At an upscale private spa in Starlight City.
Dahlia was wearing a face mask, listening to Saskia sob hysterically on the phone. A flicker of irritation crossed her eyes, but her voice stayed honey-sweet. "Saskia, don't cry. What happened? Who's got the nerve to mess with you?"
"Some bitch who just showed up at the institute! Her name's Lucinda!" Saskia spat through gritted teeth. "She humiliated me in front of the whole class! I'm so pissed!"
At the name Lucinda, Dahlia's hand jerked. The face mask nearly slid off.
Her expression darkened.
Lucinda. Again.
Dahlia took a deep breath, peeled off the mask, and let her voice carry just the right amount of helplessness. "Saskia... oh, it's her. If it's her, then... maybe you should just let it go."
Saskia paused. "Let it go? Why? You know her?"
"She's... actually the adopted daughter the Douglas family just brought back." Dahlia bit her lip, her voice full of grievance. "She grew up in the countryside. She's violent and unstable. The moment she came home, she turned the whole house upside down with her shady tricks. I... I get bullied by her at home all the time. Mom and Dad are completely wrapped around her finger now. I just have to avoid her. Saskia, don't fight with her. I'm afraid she'll come after you..."
On the other end, Saskia exploded.
"What? A washed-up adopted daughter the Douglas family didn't even want?" Saskia's voice shot up an octave, all hesitation evaporating. "I thought she had some major backing! Turns out she's just some feral country girl with no manners! Dahlia, you're too kind—that's why people like her walk all over you!"
She clutched her phone, face twisting into a vicious grin. "Don't worry. I'll settle this for you. Some nobody adopted brat thinks she can act out at the International Research Institute? I'll make her pay."
She hung up.
Dahlia leaned back in the spa chair, a cold smile curling at the corner of her mouth.
'Lucinda, someone's going to deal with you for me.'