Chapter 34 He Protected Jennifer in Public and Left with Her

Chapter 34 He Protected Jennifer in Public and Left with Her

Although Arthur had known early on that Beatrice was quite accomplished in chemistry, he never imagined she'd be this good.

After all, Jennifer had spent over a month preparing this proposal, and he'd witnessed firsthand how much effort she'd put into it.

To ensure Jennifer could stand out at this seminar, he'd even hired industry experts in chemistry to review her proposal. They all said it was fine and even helped Jennifer fix some weak points.

Yet in the end, Beatrice still outshone her.

He should be feeling sorry for Jennifer right now, thinking all her hard work was a waste. But instead, his eyes kept drifting uncontrollably toward Beatrice.

Turns out Beatrice was far more excellent than he'd ever imagined.

Back when she was managing household affairs at home, how had he never noticed?

Arthur was so caught up in his shock that he completely missed how upset Jennifer was beside him—she was almost in tears.

Jennifer forced herself to calm down. "I accept my defeat this time, but I have a question I'd like to ask Ms. York."

Hearing this, Beatrice knew Jennifer was up to no good again. She looked at her coolly. "Go ahead."

"I'm just curious—we're the same age, so how did you manage to achieve such deep knowledge in chemistry at such a young age?"

Jennifer finished with a cold laugh, then added, "Don't get me wrong, I'm not doubting you or anything. I'm just genuinely curious and want to learn."

Though seemingly unrelated to chemistry knowledge, her words successfully made everyone suspicious of Beatrice's proposal.

There was no doubt that proposal was the best in the room, but whether Beatrice had actually written it herself was another question.

Faced with everyone's doubts, Beatrice remained calm. "If anyone has questions about my proposal, feel free to ask me. And it's not limited to just what's in the proposal—any chemistry-related questions are welcome. Both Miss Rivera and I will do our best to answer, because the main purpose of this seminar is to help everyone advance their chemistry knowledge, not to compete over who's better."

Jennifer had been ready to ask some tricky questions to embarrass Beatrice, but now that Beatrice had dragged her into it too, she suddenly felt uneasy.

The truth was, her proposal had only come together after collecting tons of reference materials, and then Arthur had paid experts to revise it for her to get the current result.

Her own knowledge alone wouldn't have been nearly enough.

By suggesting everyone ask questions, wasn't Beatrice deliberately trying to make things difficult for her?

"Ms. York, what are you trying to say? You're clearly the winner here. I have limited knowledge—how could I possibly answer everyone's questions?"

"But you came in second, Miss Rivera. Don't be so modest. Maybe I just got lucky and this proposal happened to be in my area of expertise. In other areas, I might not be as good as you."

Catching the panic in Jennifer's eyes, Beatrice smiled faintly.

So Jennifer wanted to mislead everyone into thinking she'd cheated? Fine, she'd let everyone see Jennifer's true abilities.

Beatrice's suggestion sparked everyone's interest. Some troublemakers deliberately asked difficult and tricky questions.

Beatrice purposely held back, letting Jennifer answer first.

Jennifer could manage the somewhat complex chemistry questions, but when they got harder, she couldn't handle them.

When Jennifer couldn't answer and her face flushed red under everyone's questioning looks, only then would Beatrice step in to answer.

After several questions, the difference in chemistry knowledge between Beatrice and Jennifer became crystal clear. The doubts about Jennifer grew louder and more numerous.

"Miss Rivera, can you actually do this or not?"

"Did you really write that proposal yourself? It doesn't seem like it's at your level."

"Could it be that the one who got in through connections isn't Beatrice, but Jennifer?"

Facing everyone's doubts, Jennifer's face turned bright red, her body trembling slightly.

She'd wanted to make everyone think Beatrice had cheated, but now she was the one being suspected!

Thinking of all her sleepless nights of hard work recently, Jennifer felt incredibly wronged.

Seeing Jennifer like this, Arthur's brow furrowed tightly. He stepped forward with a cold expression and pulled Beatrice aside. "That's enough! Know when to stop."

"What did I do? Someone suspected me—am I not allowed to clear my name?"

"Why did you have to drag Jennifer into your explanation?"

"She can suspect me, but I can't suspect her?" Looking at Arthur defending Jennifer, Beatrice laughed bitterly. "Besides, if Jennifer really has the skills, what I'm doing is actually good for her."

Arthur wanted to say more, but Beatrice's words left him with no comeback.

He simply stopped arguing with her and went to pull Jennifer, who was being cornered by the crowd, to his side. "Sorry everyone, she's put in so much effort preparing this proposal on top of her regular work lately for today's seminar. Now that the results are in, we'll be heading back."

With that, Arthur left the seminar with a pale-faced Jennifer.

Beatrice watched their retreating figures and smiled bitterly to herself.

She'd pretty much given up on Arthur by now, but at this moment, her heart still felt stuffy and uncomfortable, like a sponge soaked in water.

Nearby, the crowd who now knew that Beatrice and Arthur were actually married looked at her with some sympathy. Marriages in name only weren't rare, but it was unusual to see someone like Arthur publicly defending another woman without giving his own wife any face.

Beatrice forced a smile. "If anyone has more questions, feel free to keep asking."

She knew what these people were thinking. Fortunately, after all these years, she'd gotten used to it.