Chapter 7
The air on the terrace froze for a few seconds.
Ellen's eyes swept back and forth between Zeal and Evelyn, his expression thoughtful. Zeal's casual "favor to me" carried serious weight. Zeal wasn't just Leon's final and most important protégé—he was also the power behind Atlantis International. Crossing Zeal wouldn't help the new project Ellen was planning.
"Zeal," Ellen finally said, his brow furrowed and tone firm, "I have my principles."
"I perfectly understand." Evelyn stepped forward, using her gaze to stop Zeal from pressing further. She met Ellen's scrutinizing eyes frankly. "Please give me ten minutes. No—five minutes is fine. Just look at the design itself."
She held up her tablet, her voice steady and confident. "If my actual design still can't convince you, I'll leave immediately. And I promise that any future Sparkle design drafts won't have my name on them."
Her words were neither humble nor arrogant, carrying a sharp pride that earned silent admiration from everyone present.
Zeal said nothing more, completely handing the stage to Evelyn.
Ellen narrowed his eyes, reassessing the young woman before him. He'd seen too many people trying to take shortcuts, but Evelyn's eyes were clear and her demeanor composed—nothing like those types. Maybe he'd misjudged her. Maybe he should give her a chance.
Just then, footsteps echoed from the stairway to the terrace.
Matthew and Britney emerged.
He'd intended to smooth things over with Ellen himself, but as he reached the last step, he heard Evelyn's resolute declaration.
Matthew's gaze fell on Evelyn's straight-backed figure. Her red dress rippled slightly in the night breeze, but her profile was extraordinarily determined. The scene was so unfamiliar it made his heart skip.
Evelyn looked at Ellen. He finally nodded, though his tone remained serious. "Five minutes. Let's go to the screening room downstairs—they have equipment there. If you waste my time, you know the consequences."
The group moved to the screening room. The atmosphere in the dim space was subtly tense.
Ellen sat in the front row, his expression stern. Zeal leaned casually against the wall by the door, his gaze on Evelyn as she connected her equipment. Matthew stood further back in the shadows, his expression unreadable, while Britney stood nearby, jealousy burning in her eyes.
Evelyn seemed oblivious to all the eyes on her. She connected her tablet to the projector and adjusted the lighting. When the first architectural diagram appeared on the screen, her entire demeanor transformed.
"Mr. Ellen, this is Sparkle AI Vision's original core architecture."
Evelyn's voice rang out—calm, clear, without any of the sharpness from earlier on the terrace, only pure professionalism. "We've abandoned traditional multi-layer convolution stacking. Here, we've introduced a dynamic sparse attention mechanism..."
Her fingertips glided across the tablet as she explained each key design point, compared the pros and cons of other industry solutions, and displayed performance curves from simulation tests.
The light illuminated Evelyn's profile. Those eyes that were usually so docile now sparkled with a captivating brilliance.
Matthew's pupils contracted slightly, undercurrents churning inside him.
He watched her smoothly switch between charts, answer Ellen's occasional sharp questions with confident composure, conversing with a heavyweight like Ellen without the slightest hint of intimidation.
This was Evelyn?
The woman who'd followed him around for three years, docile, handling trivial matters, never once defying him?
When had she learned all this? This top-tier design sensibility and sophisticated algorithms... couldn't have been mastered overnight.
A complex emotion gripped Matthew's heart. Surprise, confusion, anger at being deceived, and... a subtle flutter he wasn't willing to acknowledge, followed by an even deeper bitterness.
She'd never shown him this side of herself.
Britney's expression grew increasingly ugly. She couldn't understand any of those arcane terms, but she could read Ellen's increasingly focused attention, even leaning forward in his seat. She could see the undisguised admiration in Zeal's eyes. And she could definitely see the tremor in Matthew's gaze as he stared at Evelyn.
Ellen's stern expression had long been replaced by intense focus. When Evelyn reached a particular design element, he couldn't help interrupting. "Wait! This approach... this implementation method..."
He shot up from his seat, nearly pressing his face to the screen.
"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" He turned to Evelyn, visibly excited. "Miss Arden, your design... reminds me of someone. The internationally renowned Master Mercury! Do you know him? Or perhaps..."
When Evelyn heard "Mercury," a flicker of guilt crossed her eyes, but she quickly deflected. "You're too kind. I'm simply standing on the shoulders of giants, making optimizations suited to current application scenarios."
But Ellen gripped Evelyn's hand excitedly. "No, I'm not being kind! Miss Arden, your caliber is on par with any chief designer! That tampered draft was an insult to you! I'll personally clarify this matter within Atlantis International! Also, I hope we can stay in touch. I have an important cross-disciplinary project in Paris this fall that desperately needs talent like yours!"
He exchanged contact information with Evelyn on the spot, repeatedly urging her to keep in communication before hurrying off, as if eager to handle emails and clear Evelyn's name.
The screening room fell quiet.
Evelyn put away her tablet, her expression calm, as if she'd merely solved some trivial problem. She didn't even spare a glance at Matthew and Britney in the corner, walking directly toward Zeal with a smile. "Mr. Jennings, thank you. I should get going."
"I'll walk you out." Zeal responded naturally.
Evelyn didn't refuse. Just as she was about to leave the screening room alongside Zeal, a hand suddenly grabbed her wrist.
The grip was forceful, domineering, brooking no escape.
Evelyn turned back to meet Matthew's complicated gaze.
Matthew held her firmly, his eyes scanning her face as if searching for some flaw, his voice low. "Evelyn, when did you learn all this? Who taught you?"
Evelyn tried to pull her hand back. It didn't work. She looked at him and suddenly laughed softly, mockingly. "Mr. Perkins, shouldn't you be keeping your new flame Miss Fox company instead of grabbing me and grilling me with questions? Not very appropriate, is it?"
Her words pierced through Matthew's forced composure. Especially seeing her completely indifferent attitude, even eager to shake him off and leave with another man—that fury finally overwhelmed his rationality.
He gripped her chin with one hand, taunting recklessly. "I'm not appropriate? And you are?"
The malicious speculation in his eyes was barely concealed. "This design—Zeal did it for you, didn't he? To solve your problem, you really are... willing to latch onto any man."
"What, I didn't satisfy you, so now you're shopping for a new sugar daddy?"
As Matthew's words fell, the air instantly dropped to freezing.