Chapter 36 Strike

Chapter 36 Strike

The meeting with Calvin hit Jennifer pretty hard.

If she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, she never would have believed someone could write such a proposal in just three days.

Before leaving, Jennifer asked, "Can I have this proposal?"

"Sure, it's just a rejected draft anyway."

After Jennifer and Arthur left, the disappointment on her face was hard to hide.

She finally understood completely the gap between herself and top-tier talent.

"Looks like I won't have a chance to join Mr. Morris's team anytime soon."

"Don't lose heart. I'll find a way to help you connect with Mr. Morris. Worst case, I'll invest more money. Don't overthink it."

Calvin, who was just coming out of the hotel, happened to hear this and couldn't help but find it amusing.

If it were him, he might pull some strings if paid enough, but with Sean, that approach wouldn't work at all.

Sean didn't need money, and what he hated most in life was people trying to corrupt chemistry with money.

After Arthur and Jennifer walked away, Calvin called Beatrice and teased her: "Beatrice, guess who I just met?"

Beatrice's voice sounded calm: "Arthur and Jennifer?"

"How did you know?"

Beatrice felt a bit helpless, thinking he'd been so busy with the new company lately that his brain had gone fuzzy.

Arthur suddenly invested so much money in his new company just to pull strings for Jennifer. After Jennifer's proposal failed to stand out at the seminar, how could she be satisfied?

Beatrice had predicted early on that Arthur would definitely bring Jennifer to contact Calvin.

"What did they say to you? Don't tell me they wanted Jennifer to join your company?"

"Even more ridiculous than that. Jennifer actually fantasized about using connections to join Mr. Morris's team."

Beatrice was stunned for a moment. She knew Jennifer had been spoiled and indulged by Arthur over the years and was quite self-absorbed, but she didn't expect Jennifer to be even more arrogant than she imagined.

"What did you say?"

"Of course I couldn't agree. If Mr. Morris found out I took money and stuffed just anyone into his team, he'd kill me."

"Congratulations, you saved your life."

Beatrice was secretly relieved to see his brain hadn't completely turned to mush.

Never mind that Jennifer's level wasn't good enough to join Sean's team—even if it were, for selfish reasons, she didn't really want Jennifer to join either.

She didn't want to have to guard against Jennifer sabotaging her while doing research experiments every day.

On the other end of the phone, Calvin was still chattering: "When I refused to let Jennifer join Mr. Morris's team today, she wasn't convinced, so I showed her your original rejected draft to make her understand that even if Arthur invested tens of millions more, it couldn't make up for the gap between her and the team members led by Mr. Morris."

After Calvin finished speaking, he realized he'd said the wrong thing.

No matter what, Arthur was still Beatrice's husband. He was spending so much money on another woman—she must feel sad about it, right?

"It's okay."

Beatrice, who had long given up on Arthur and was prepared to leave with nothing, didn't care how much money he spent on Jennifer. Even if he went bankrupt and they had to beg together, it had nothing to do with her.

Beatrice was just a bit surprised: "You gave Jennifer my rejected draft?"

"I figured since that proposal was scrapped anyway, why not use it to give her some perspective and knock her down a peg. But don't worry, I didn't tell her or Arthur that you wrote it. You're not mad at me for taking matters into my own hands, are you?"

Beatrice was silent for a moment: "Actually, you could let them know I wrote it."

Beatrice didn't care how Calvin handled that abandoned proposal. Giving it to Jennifer was perfect—Jennifer had been arrogant for so long, it wouldn't hurt to deflate her ego a bit.

Jennifer and Arthur had always looked down on her. If they found out that rejected draft was also written by her, their reactions would definitely be interesting.

After returning, Jennifer locked herself in her hotel room for several days, studying that rejected draft obsessively, trying to find flaws in it.

She couldn't understand why such a proposal, which seemed perfect to her, would be rejected by Sean.

If this kind of proposal didn't pass muster with Sean, and she couldn't even write something like this, wouldn't that mean she'd never have a chance to join Sean's team?

The more Jennifer thought about it, the more she felt like breaking down. After several days of fruitless effort, she gritted her teeth and contacted her chemistry mentor back in Eldoria, sending the proposal to him.

It took three full days for her mentor to reply to her email: [Did you write this proposal? It's absolutely perfect. I had no idea your chemistry skills had advanced to this level.]

Jennifer's face flushed. Faced with her former mentor's praise, she was too embarrassed to say the proposal wasn't hers. She just replied stubbornly: [Please look again—what's wrong with this proposal?]

[I've been looking at it for three days. There's nothing wrong with it. The professional level of this proposal is such that even if I wrote it myself, spending a month or two on it, I'd probably have trouble surpassing it.]

Reading her mentor's reply, Jennifer felt completely defeated.

Among all the people she'd encountered, her mentor had the highest professional level. If even he couldn't see any problems, it could only mean Sean's standards were demanding beyond imagination.

Jennifer was feeling dejected when Arthur arrived, bringing her favorite food.

"You've barely left your room these past few days. Don't tell me you're still studying that rejected proposal? If you really can't figure out what's wrong with it, just let it go. Don't force yourself."

Arthur had meant well, but somehow he touched Jennifer's sensitive nerve.

Could Arthur be looking down on her now?

At this thought, Jennifer quickly said, "I had my mentor back in Eldoria look at it. He's an expert in the field, and he also said there's nothing wrong with this proposal."

Arthur's gaze fell on the computer screen. Seeing the reply from Jennifer's mentor, he said with some surprise, "This proposal is that impressive?"

Jennifer nodded, then added, "Put it this way—this rejected proposal is much better than the one Beatrice presented at the seminar that day."

Her level in chemistry wasn't top-tier, she admitted, but Jennifer didn't want Arthur to think too highly of Beatrice.

Hearing this, Arthur became even more curious about the author behind this rejected proposal.

His instinct had told him it was written by Beatrice, but hearing Jennifer say this, he wasn't so sure anymore.

Arthur couldn't help wondering if he'd been overestimating Beatrice.

Although Beatrice had indeed surprised him lately, it was only to a certain extent.

No matter how capable she was, how much better could she really be than Jennifer?