Chapter 50 That Came Back to Bite Her

Chapter 50 That Came Back to Bite Her

As soon as Jennifer finished speaking, the venue erupted into chaos.

Below the stage, whether they were passionate chemistry enthusiasts or colleagues who either admired or envied Beatrice, everyone began denouncing Beatrice as a disgrace to the chemistry community, with calls for her to get out rising one after another.

Amid all the commotion, Beatrice remained very calm. Only after the noise died down a bit did she speak: "Do you want to hear my explanation, or do you want to keep making a scene?"

The crowd below quickly calmed down.

Seeing this, Jennifer felt an uneasy premonition stirring inside her.

Beatrice was acting far too calm—so calm it made her panic.

Worried that her carefully designed trap might fall apart, Jennifer wanted to keep stirring things up, when she suddenly felt someone's gaze fixed on her.

Jennifer turned her head and found Arthur looking at her.

His gaze was calm, yet somehow she detected a hint of coldness in it.

Arthur had never looked at her this way before. Could he be angry with her because of Beatrice?

Realizing this, Jennifer's eyes reddened with grievance.

Seeing this, Arthur's heart instantly softened.

He admitted that he had just felt inexplicably irritated and angry at Jennifer's aggressive behavior.

But what if Beatrice's proposal really was plagiarized, or even copied from the draft Jennifer had? Then Jennifer couldn't be blamed for raising questions—after all, she loved chemistry so much.

Between Beatrice and Jennifer, Arthur once again found himself uncontrollably choosing to believe Jennifer.

After Jennifer sat back down with red eyes, Arthur reached out and slowly took her hand.

But looking at Beatrice on stage, searching for something on her computer, he couldn't help feeling somewhat worried.

If it was proven today that Beatrice had plagiarized someone else's work, he didn't know what kind of infamy she would have to bear.

However, no matter what happened, he could smooth things over for her.

If Beatrice had to leave the chemistry community because of this, as long as she gave him an apology, he wouldn't mind bringing her back home to keep Sloane company, just like before.

Some people below were getting impatient: "Beatrice, haven't you figured out how to explain yet? We don't have all day to listen to your excuses."

"Alright." Beatrice's gaze shifted from the computer screen to the audience below, finally landing on Jennifer. She smiled faintly and said, "Although I don't know who created such fake evidence to frame me, I still want to say—whoever went through the trouble of making the evidence look so real, thank you for your hard work."

After Beatrice finished mocking Jennifer, she changed her tone: "But there's one thing the person framing me probably doesn't know. Anyone on our team, while creating their proposals, must work in the lab, under Mr. Morris's watchful eye. This is precisely to prevent cheating or situations like today from happening."

As soon as Beatrice finished speaking, Jennifer's face instantly lost all color.

How could this be? When Melissa secretly gave her the proposal, she never mentioned this.

Could Melissa have played her?

Unwilling to let her efforts go to waste, Jennifer steadied herself and, not caring whether Arthur would be angry, stood up again and questioned Beatrice: "Words mean nothing. We're not part of Mr. Morris's team—how do we know if what you're saying is true?"

"I can call team members at any time, or Mr. Morris himself, to testify for me. Do you really think Mr. Morris would cover for a plagiarist?"

Before Beatrice could call Sean, someone in the crowd stood up to vouch for her.

"I can confirm what she's saying is true. When I visited Mr. Morris recently, he did mention how strict their team rules are."

The speaker was also a big name in the field, a famous figure in the chemistry world. Bringing up Sean made many people believe it, even if they had doubts.

Besides, with so many people here today and several media outlets present, if Beatrice dared to say this publicly and offer to call Sean, it was probably true.

Seeing Beatrice clear her name so easily, Jennifer refused to give up and pressed on: "Even if you didn't plagiarize from others, how do you prove you didn't copy from this draft I have?"

Seeing Jennifer still wouldn't let it go, Beatrice didn't rush to prove anything further. Instead, she asked back: "Where did you get that proposal?"

Jennifer froze, not knowing how to answer for a moment.

If she said Calvin gave it to her, it could increase suspicion toward Beatrice. After all, Calvin was Beatrice's senior, so it would be easier for Beatrice to plagiarize Calvin's ideas.

But such a perfect proposal—she selfishly wanted to claim it as her own, wanted outsiders to think Beatrice had plagiarized her work.

Arthur beside her tugged at her hand, signaling her to stop.

From the beginning, he had suspected whether the proposal in Jennifer's hands came from Beatrice.

Now the answer was obvious. If Jennifer kept going, she would only humiliate herself.

Arthur meant well, but to Jennifer, his intervention looked like he was protecting Beatrice, telling her not to keep making things difficult for Beatrice!

At this thought, Jennifer was instantly consumed by flames of jealousy, caring about nothing else: "This proposal is of course my own work."

"Nonsense!"

Seeing Jennifer take the bait, Beatrice said with amusement: "Calvin gave it to you, didn't he?"

"How did you know?" Jennifer's heart jumped, and she accidentally blurted out the truth.

By the time she realized it, it was too late.

The looks from everyone present gradually turned contemptuous. Even Charlie and the others behind her found it hard to believe.

The academic world's greatest taboo was plagiarizing others' work. Although Jennifer hadn't plagiarized, claiming someone else's work as her own was even more shameful.

Jennifer's face gradually flushed red as she tried to explain: "I misspoke. Mr. Reynolds gave it to me for safekeeping."

This explanation was too far-fetched. No one believed it, and it only confirmed that Jennifer was a habitual liar.

Jennifer's face burned with shame, but she no longer cared about her reputation. At this moment, she was single-mindedly focused on discrediting Beatrice.

"Never mind where my proposal came from—it doesn't change the fact that you plagiarized!"

Facing Jennifer's meltdown, Beatrice calmly projected the content from her computer screen onto the large screen.

It showed her original draft—the one Jennifer had in her hands.

And the name on it clearly read: Beatrice.

Looking at the completely dumbfounded Jennifer, Beatrice smiled faintly: "When Calvin gave you this discarded proposal to study, didn't he tell you it was my first draft? The current version is the improved one, so of course there would be similarities."