Luo ijuan chuckled while eating sunflower seeds, saying: "Maybe she looked it up online and got over it. She doesn’t want to go abroad because she can’t bear to leave her friends here. But friends can be made anew, and no matter how close they are now, everyone will go their separate ways after graduation. Over ti, not seeing each other will lead to drifting apart."
"No, there must be sothing going on here." Mu Kaihua was about to go find Mu Chenxi with her ID card to figure things out, when the door that had just closed was suddenly pushed open. Then, Mu Chenxi rushed out in a flurry. Before Mu Kaihua could react, her ID card was snatched from her hand. As the door was slamd shut, Mu Chenxi’s voice was also swept through with the draft, "I need my ID card tomorrow, I’ll give it back to you next week."
Mu Kaihua looked at her empty palm and shrugged at the stunned Luo ijuan, "I told you, there had to be sothing more to this."
Mu Chenxi locked her room door, put the retrieved ID back into the section of her wallet, and lifting her head, she saw the four characters hanging above her bed, "Study Hard." Maybe she really should adhere to what those characters ant; study hard and advance every day, only by shining herself could she earn the right to stand beside her male idol. Even if she couldn’t have him, she wanted to watch over him from the closest distance possible and bless him.
Mu Chenxi let out a wry smile and rubbed her nose, "Alright then, let’s just keep going and keep impressing him."
~
Early Wednesday morning, Mu Chenxi went to see Teacher Qu, who said he would contact the magazine to publish her paper. She had waited a few days with no news. If it could be successfully published, she would have a chance to beco Professor Luo’s assistant. So, the usually slow Mu Chenxi couldn’t help but feel anxious.
There were only two other teachers in the office, and Teacher Qu wasn’t at his desk.
"Student, please have a seat and wait for a bit, Teacher Qu should be back soon," one of the teachers said warmly.
Mu Chenxi thanked the teacher and took a seat nearby. It wasn’t long before she heard Teacher Qu’s voice as if he was speaking to soone.
"This was sothing I worked on with that student, not just my own rit." Teacher Qu’s smile stiffened upon seeing Mu Chenxi.
He was talking to the departnt head, "Alright, Teacher Qu, keep it up and continue with this project. Aim for even better results."
After the head left, Teacher Qu nervously returned to his seat, "Mu Chenxi, you’re here."
Mu Chenxi, with her keen ears, caught their earlier conversation. She wondered if that "student" referred to herself. Could it an that her paper was published?
"Teacher Qu, how is my paper doing? Is the magazine willing to publish it?"
"Um," Teacher Qu picked up a magazine from his desk, avoiding eye contact with Mu Chenxi, "There’s been no word from the magazine. They might not be very interested in your paper. For now, go back and wait, and I’ll notify you imdiately when there’s news, okay?"
Although Mu Chenxi was anxious, there was nothing she could do but wait since Teacher Qu had put it that way.
Just as she left the office, she ran into an acquaintance whom she hadn’t seen much in the lab since her experint succeeded.
When Qiao Tong saw her, she passed by brushing against her shoulder as if she didn’t recognize her, and after a few steps, she suddenly said sarcastically, "Poor thing."
Mu Chenxi furrowed her brows, wanting to confront her, but ultimately, she held back.
At noon, she and a few dorm mates were having lunch in the cafeteria. Sitting nearby were two students from the next class, talking loudly enough for them to hear clearly.
Just as Quan Jin was getting a bit impatient with the noise, one of the students ntioned: "Qiao Tong really made a splash this ti. She is one of the few in our school researching PCR, and I heard the magazine published her paper and even ca to interview her."
The word "PCR" imdiately caught Mu Chenxi’s attention. This field is quite unique and challenging, and not many in the school are studying this topic. Her own experint was on this very PCR.
Quan Jin elbowed her, "Isn’t that Qiao Tong the one you don’t get along with, who often troubles you in the lab?"
"Yeah." Mu Chenxi nodded. PCR, Qiao Tong, and the magazine—these words linked together suddenly gave her a bad premonition.
"Excuse , which magazine was it published in?" Mu Chenxi couldn’t help but lean over and ask the two.
After giving the na of the magazine, the student added, "The supervising teacher is Teacher Qu, and I heard he gained much recognition with it too. The school is even considering promoting him."
At this mont, Chenxi had completely lost her appetite for food, almost certain that this matter was undoubtedly related to her.
"Xinyu," the person next to her put down her chopsticks, "why do I feel like sothing is off? Normally, publishing an article shouldn’t be this slow, and we should have a clear answer by now. What’s with Teacher Qu always delaying you?"
After speaking, Xinyu looked at the sowhat flustered Susu: "Susu, do you know what’s happening?"
Susu quickly shook her head: "I really don’t know."
Quan Jin glanced at Susu and pulled Chenxi aside, saying, "Isn’t there a fairly comprehensive bookstore outside the school? Shouldn’t they have the magazine you ntioned? We can buy a copy and find out."
"Yes, that’s all we can do."
"I’m going too." Susu quickly stood up, sowhat eager to prove her innocence.
So, the four roommates skipped their al and hurried to the bookstore off-campus. Fortunately, there was a batch of new books and magazines being shelved. Chenxi went up to ask, and the staff pulled out three or four volus from a stack and threw them over: "Is this it?"
"Yes, this is it." Chenxi picked up one of them, and the others also started flipping through a copy each.
"I found it." Xinyu suddenly exclaid, "Look, isn’t this exactly the sa as your paper, old four? Even the title is identical. But, why isn’t the author you? Also, look, there are actually two authors, one is Qiao Tong, and the other is Teacher Qu."
Chenxi quickly snatched the magazine from Xinyu’s hands, experiencing a mont of blankness in her mind as she saw her own paper credited to soone else’s na; it felt like her own precious creation suddenly belonged to soone else.
"How could this happen?" Quan Jin turned to glance at Susu, who was hiding in the back and dared not co out, "Old four had said that the paper never even reached Teacher Qu’s hands. Teacher Qu only offered guidance, old four never let her see the content. So, besides old four, the only other person who saw it was Qi Hao. How would you explain that?"
Xinyu quickly interjected, "This isn’t the right place to talk; let’s go outside and discuss."
Quan Jin put the money for the magazines on the cashier counter and left with the magazines.
"Speak up." Quan Jin shook the magazine in his hands, "I really can’t think of anyone other than your family’s Qi Hao who could plagiarize the content so perfectly."
Susu hurriedly defended, "The author’s na is Qiao Tong, not Qi Hao. If it really was Qi Hao behind this, why wouldn’t he change the author’s na to his own? What good does this do for him? I think it must have been Qiao Tong who used despicable ans. Old four, think about it, did she secretly read your paper at so point?"
"No." Chenxi said very firmly, "The paper was always within my sight from the beginning to the end, and the original copy has always been on my computer, which is password-protected. Apart from , no one else could access it."
"That’s strange then, Qi Hao didn’t take the paper, old four didn’t leak it. Could it possibly be that Qiao Tong has clairvoyance?" Xinyu said, baffled.
Quan Jin sneered, as if he had already seen through everything, and his gaze towards Susu was filled with anger and contempt: "Susu, don’t tell you really don’t know about the relationship between Qi Hao and Qiao Tong?"
"What?" Susu looked up in surprise, "I don’t understand what you are talking about?"
"Alright, since things have co this far, I’m not afraid to lay it all out with you." Quan Jin adopted a resigned manner, but Chenxi quickly held him back, shaking her head and giving him aningful looks.
Since the paper was already lost, whether Qi Hao had played tricks in it or not, she didn’t want to delve into it now. Because once so matters are brought up, they might lead to unpredictable consequences. She didn’t want to see Susu get hurt. While she was furious and saddened by her stolen work, it wasn’t entirely Susu’s fault. It was also her, after all, who had agreed to lend out the paper, and she should have been prepared for the worst.
"Quan Jin, don’t say anymore, forget it. It’s just a paper. If it cos to it, I’ll just do other research, write other articles," Chenxi said, pulling Quan Jin to leave, "Let’s turn the page on this matter."
"No, why should you suffer in silence, soone else benefiting from ready-made results? You have practically turned yourself into a honeycomb from all the blood tests these past two months; you used to be sowhat chubby and now you are as thin as a mummy. Day and night you read books and worked on experints. What was it for? Wasn’t it to beco Professor Luo’s assistant? Now just watching your results being stolen and soone else taking the position you covet?"
Quan Jin beca more agitated as he spoke, showing no signs of stopping.
"Quan Jin." Chenxi once again tried to stop her, but Quan Jin pushed her aside, pointing her finger at Susu: "Be honest, Susu, when you showed Qi Hao the paper, did you really not leave his side at all?"
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