Chapter 314
Chapter 314
It was the calm of a surgeon during dissection—the focus that remains after all emotions are stripped away, leaving only the core problem.
"They want 'Next Generation Life Sciences Initiative'," she said. Her voice was soft but exceptionally clear.
"I won't let them have it." Gary's voice was ice-cold. He'd already picked up his phone, ready to mobilize all his power to make this so-called 'Mr. White' and his organization disappear from the world.
"Your way won't work." But Calista pressed down on his hand.
She shook her head, gaze returning to the portfolio.
"This isn't corporate warfare or a capital game. This is a PR battle, psychological warfare. If you use force to suppress them, you'll only confirm the charges they're pinning on me—bullying, covering up the truth. At that point, even a hundred mouths couldn't clear my name."
Gary's brow furrowed.
He knew she was right.
White Chamber's move was vicious precisely because they weren't giving her a knife—they were giving her the 'truth' itself.
The more you resist, the more credible that 'truth' appears.
"Then what do you want to do?" Gary asked, forcibly suppressing his rage.
Calista stood and walked to the study. A moment later, she emerged carrying her private laptop.
She didn't answer Gary's question. Just sat back on the sofa, opened the computer, and began typing.
Her fingers flew across the keyboard, calm and precise, like she was writing the most rigorous code.
On screen appeared a blank document.
She transcribed that 'verdict' from the past word for word into the computer.
Project name. Accident details. The mentor's frame-up. How White Chamber had 'perfectly' forged the evidence chain.
Then she started a new section, recording Mr. White's visit tonight, the deal he proposed, that devil's contract trading 'Next Generation Life Sciences Initiative' for her reputation—again, word for word.
Gary stood behind her, watching the lines of text multiply on screen.
He didn't interrupt. Just silently watched her profile. Suddenly he understood what she was doing.
When someone tries to threaten you with your past, the best counterattack is to step into the sunlight yourself, tear open your own wounds, and let everyone see clearly how those scars came to be.
Rather than passively await judgment, become your own judge.
After writing the last word, Calista hit save.
She looked up, meeting Gary's deep gaze.
"Arrange a press conference for me. Tomorrow morning. As soon as possible."
"Done." Gary answered.
He didn't ask if she was sure. Didn't say 'I'll handle it.' He just chose to believe in her, then became her most solid support.
...
The next morning at ten.
The Frost Group headquarters' international conference hall was packed.
Reporters from major global media outlets lined up with cameras at the ready.
The invitation they'd received was vague—only stating that Dr. Softhart had an important announcement.
After the shocking reversal of the Heinrich incident, Calista's name itself represented the highest level of traffic and news value.
Everyone craned their necks, curious what bombshell this genius scientist who'd just ascended to the pantheon would drop.
Had 'Next Generation Life Sciences Initiative' achieved a new breakthrough? Was she formally announcing her Vice President appointment?
As they speculated, the conference hall's side door opened.
Calista walked in alone.
She wore a simple white blouse and black slacks, no makeup, hair casually tied back.
No assistants. No Gary. Just her, walking alone onto the platform.
Camera flashes instantly formed a continuous sheet. Shutter clicks dense as a rainstorm.
Calista didn't avoid them. Just stood there calmly, waiting for the noise below to settle slightly.
"Thank you all for coming." She spoke, voice transmitting clearly through the microphone across the entire venue. "I invited you here today not to announce good news, but to confess to the public a rather inglorious episode from my past."
One sentence silenced the entire hall instantly.
Reporters exchanged glances, faces written with shock.
Confess? Past episode?
Calista didn't give them much time to react. The giant screen behind her lit up, displaying the document she'd compiled last night.
"Ten years ago, when I first entered the institute, I participated in my first project—research on neural regeneration inducers. That project ultimately failed and triggered a serious sample contamination incident."
Like an outsider, she recounted in the most objective tone that experience which nearly destroyed her career.
"At the time, all evidence pointed to me. My operational error caused the accident. Though ultimately no reprimand was issued due to insufficient evidence, it became an indelible stain on my record."
Reporters below erupted, frantically taking notes. This was absolutely front-page material!
"I always thought it was an accident, that I lacked skill." Calista's tone shifted, gaze sharpening. "Until last night, when someone calling himself 'Mr. White' came to me with these items."
The document on screen switched to the second section.
Her mentor's signed transaction agreement. Manuscript of the forged experimental logs. Even screenshots from surveillance footage back then.
Evidence more conclusive than her own account.
"Turns out it wasn't an accident, but a carefully orchestrated frame-up. My mentor made a deal with a certain organization to cover up his own mistakes and threw me under the bus."
Gasps filled the hall.
If the Heinrich incident was an earthquake in academia, this was a collapse at the foundation.
A respected mentor could frame his own student so viciously for fame and fortune!
"And this organization," Calista's voice went cold, "is the mastermind behind the Heinrich incident—'White Chamber.'"
"They used this 'truth' sealed for ten years to propose a deal."
On screen, Mr. White's conditions were clearly displayed.
—Relinquish all 'Next Generation Life Sciences Initiative' patent rights.
—Resign from Vice President of the International Scientific Research Council.
—For the next ten years, exit the research field.
"They thought threatening my reputation would make me submit. They thought grasping my past meant strangling my future."
Calista's gaze swept across every shocked face below.
"Today, I'm standing here to give them my answer."
" 'Next Generation Life Sciences Initiative' is the crystallization of countless researchers' efforts. It belongs to this world, to patients waiting to be cured. It doesn't belong to me personally, much less can it become a money-making tool for certain people. My reputation is worthless compared to it."
"So I refuse the deal."
"This so-called 'dirt'—I'll expose it myself. This so-called 'stain'—I'll carry it myself. I want White Chamber and everyone hiding in dark corners to see clearly."
She paused, each word resounding.
"A scientist's value isn't whether she's flawless, but whether her research can bring real change to this world."
"My past—judge it as you will. But my future, and the future of 'Next Generation Life Sciences Initiative'—no one can touch."
The instant Calista's words fell, the hall went dead silent.
Seconds later, someone started the first clap.
Then applause spread like wildfire, instantly filling the entire conference hall.
This time not out of politeness or professional habit, but from genuine, heartfelt admiration for such powerful character.
They were witnessing not a scandal's self-exposure, but a soul's coronation.
Amid this thunderous applause, the conference hall doors opened again.
Gary walked in.
He didn't approach the platform. Didn't say a word.
Under the focus of over a hundred cameras, he walked straight through the crowd to Calista.
Then he opened his arms and pulled that slender yet upright figure—who'd faced the entire world alone—tightly, tightly into his embrace.
The embrace didn't last long, but weighed a thousand pounds.
Gary released her, just looked deeply into her eyes. Everything left unsaid was in that gaze.
Calista nodded at him. Lightly, but steadily.
She turned back to face the media already boiling below.
In the silver sea constructed by camera flashes, she said not one more word. Just bowed, then turned and left cleanly through the side door.
The press conference ended, but Calista's war had just won its most brilliant battle.
Online, public opinion wasn't exploding—it was going nuclear.
Calista's personal social media accounts saw millions of comments flood in within half an hour.
[Holy shit! I take back everything I said about her. That was badass!]
[Self-exposing your own dirt? White Chamber's people must be vomiting blood in front of their screens. They prepared that knife their whole lives and she just used it to peel an apple]
['My reputation is worthless compared to it.' I'll remember that line forever! That's true scientific integrity!]
[So that so-called 'academic stain' was itself a frame-up? God, how much has she carried to get here?]
[My heart breaks for Dr. Softhart, and I admire her. Also, that final embrace from Mr. Frost—who gets it! A CEO's love is action!]
The tide of public opinion turned toward Calista in an unprecedented manner.
White Chamber's meticulously planned 'psychological warfare' became a self-detonating bomb the moment Calista voluntarily showed her hand.
Not only did they fail to strangle Calista's throat, they'd personally forged for her a crown no one could match.