Gabe frowned, looking at Dane with a puzzled expression.
After listening to Dane's explanation in a low voice, Gabe looked at Mariel with understanding. "Junior Sister, we do scientific research; it's not a palace intrigue drama. If we focus on our experimental projects, we'll all be fine, okay?"
Mariel bit her lip in exasperation. "Senior Brother, I know all that you're saying. I'm not trying to target Nikki, but... aren't you really not angry at all?"
As she spoke, she looked at Dane and said, "Stop pretending to be a nice guy. Let's be honest with each other. What makes Nikki think she can come and go as she pleases? What does she take this place for?"
"And why does she still have a chance? What about the girls who are limited in number? If it weren't for her, we should have at least five girls here right now."
Mariel sensed their lack of empathy and said with a bitter laugh, "You think I'm just picking on her and being unreasonable? I'm speaking up for those girls who were unfairly eliminated."
Those girls, each one of them, was well-read and full of dreams. They were the only hope of their families. They worked hard and persevered step by step to finally get here. But because of Nikki, her sudden withdrawal seven years ago made the school more strictly control the proportion of female graduate students admitted.
Because of this, those girls were eliminated without even realizing it.
Although Mariel wasn't among them, she could imagine how disappointed, how painful, and even how self-blaming and frustrated those girls must have felt. The competition for jobs between men and women in the workplace is inherently unfair.
Dane sighed helplessly. "But we can't blame all of this on Nikki."
"She doesn't know either."
Before Gabe could finish speaking, Nikki dragged her tired body into the laboratory.
After returning to her hotel last night, she experienced a severe headache. She took a lot of medicine and didn't sleep well all night, so her condition had deteriorated significantly.
"Your face looks pale. Are you alright?" Dane was the first to notice Nikki's condition and strode over to help her up.
Nikki steadied herself and forced a smile. "I'm fine. I just didn't sleep well last night, and I'm still a little tired."
"Take a break first. You don't need to be so busy for now." Gabe said, pulling over the chair from Nikki's workbench. Just as he was about to let her sit down, he heard Mariel's cold laughter from the side.
"You couldn't even last one night?" Mariel crossed her arms, her tone sarcastic and arrogant. "You're really delicate. No wonder you're a rich lady."
"Mariel," Gabe said in a deep voice.
Dane glared at her, signaling her to shut up.
Mariel's lips twitched with anger. She raised her chin and pointed at the slices on the table. "This little bit of stuff, any student at any school could make it. What does this prove?"
"It proves nothing." Nikki took over the conversation, forcing a complicated expression as she looked at Mariel. "I just helped you deal with the mess you made yesterday, and I'll clean up the mess for you."
"You."
Gabe and Dane saw that the two were about to start arguing, so they rushed over to mediate and break them up.
Nikki raised her hand to block the two of them and said calmly, "You two do your thing. I'm just going to say a few words to my junior sister."
Gabe glanced at Nikki, feeling that she wouldn't cause too much trouble, and then pulled Dane out first.
The huge laboratory was now empty except for the two of them. Mariel snorted and leaned against the control panel behind her, raising an eyebrow. "There are no outsiders here, so you don't need to pretend anymore. If you have something to say, stop being so mysterious."
"I heard everything you just said outside." Nikki took a deep breath. Her voice was calm and even, but her expression was earnest and sincere. "I'm very sorry to those five girls, and I completely understand what you mean. Mariel, it's not wrong for you to target me, and it's my own fault. If I hadn't come back and hadn't known about these things, I probably would have let it go."
"But I'm back." Nikki's eyes darkened, and her resolute voice became heavier. "I will do my best to make up for the mistakes I made before, as if it were payment for my foolishness back then."
"Mariel, I believe you are also focusing on the issue, not the person. In the future, we still need to communicate and cooperate well in our work. Is that alright?"
As she spoke, Nikki reached out her hand to her as well.
Mariel stared blankly at her hand, her face still showing anger. "You want to salvage the situation? The project is about to be suspended. How can you salvage it? The school has been limiting the number of female graduate students for a long time now. What changes can you possibly make?"
Nikki still held out her hand, giving her a calm smile. "I believe that anything is possible with human effort."
"You."
Mariel wanted to say that Nikki was talking nonsense, but looking at the determination in Nikki's eyes, which seemed to be a kind of desperate belief, it made it difficult for her to say any sarcastic words.
After hesitating for a long time, she simply pushed Nikki's hand away. "Let's get busy first. We can talk about the rest later."
This was where the attitude changed.
Nikki withdrew her hand, but a smile appeared on her lips. However, as she took out her phone, which was buzzing in her pocket, and saw the caller ID on the screen, her smile completely vanished. She didn't answer; she just muted it.
Then Nikki also got busy. She had just returned, and Paul didn't rush to assign her any work. Instead, he let her get familiar with the environment and help Gabe with his tasks.
Gabe assigned her some data calculation tasks. Compared to manual operations like slicing, calculating data on a computer was exactly what Nikki was good at, so she wasn't unfamiliar with it.
She spent the entire morning immersed in a sea of data, so busy and happy that she didn't even notice how many calls her phone had received while lying face down on the table. It wasn't until lunchtime, when Gabe came to call her to eat, that she noticed the phone she had left behind.
Just then, another phone call came in.
Seeing the same caller ID, Nikki's face instantly turned cold. She looked up at Gabe and said, "I'm not hungry yet. You guys go eat first. I'll just order takeout later."
"Don't always treat yourself like this. What would you like to eat? I'll pack it up and bring it over for you later."
Nikki shook her head. "I really don't know what to do. I just suddenly felt like eating spicy hot pot. I'll order a bowl later."
"Okay, I'll be going now."
After watching Gabe leave, Nikki hesitated for a long time before finally answering the phone.
"Have you had enough trouble?"
As soon as the call connected, Lucas's cold and deep voice came from the other end. Each word was spoken in a low voice, clearly conveying a strong sense of resentment and anger.
"You haven't answered the phone all this time, Nikki. You've really grown bold, haven't you?" Lucas laughed angrily. His cold laughter was like a sharp sword, stabbing Nikki with discomfort and pain.