Chapter 289: Chapter 289

However, the girls had a lot of courage, each edging forward, circling around Paige Sterling, expressing their admiration.

Skylar Hughes had long been pushed to the outskirts. Standing in the hall in her luxurious attire, she was not met with amazement but rather strange looks, as if tinged with contempt and disdain.

Skylar clenched her fists tightly.

Professor Lancaster clearly favored her before, but now because of Paige’s instigation, he had developed a different opinion about her, and up until now, hadn’t mentioned accepting her as a student. Maybe Professor Lancaster had been brainwashed by Paige and was about to change his mind.

No, she had to find a way to change Professor Lancaster’s view of her. She must make him personally announce today that she was his student.

Otherwise, she, Skylar Hughes, would truly become a laughingstock.

Many of the people at the birthday banquet today were actually from the scientific community. After they finished wishing Professor Lancaster a happy birthday, the conversation inadvertently shifted toward topics within the scientific field, becoming increasingly professional.

In high spirits, professor Lancaster even posed a question to test the young people present.

The young people naturally expressed their own views, eager to showcase themselves before Professor Lancaster.

However, it was evident that none of the answers satisfied him, so he kept listening without speaking.

Skylar, too, had read a lot of books on scientific subjects these days, and she seemed to have seen this particular question somewhere before, leaving a deep impression on her.

Seeing that none of the answers matched what she had encountered, she realized that perhaps only she knew the correct answer.

This was her opportunity, one she absolutely had to seize.

So without a second thought, Skylar stood up, afraid someone would steal the lead, and promptly said, "Regarding the question Professor Lancaster posed, I have some of my own thoughts. I’m not sure if they’re right, so I ask Professor Lancaster and my fellow colleagues here for guidance."

The crowd was a bit bewildered; since when did Skylar become one of their colleagues?

However, as Professor Lancaster didn’t speak, naturally neither did they.

Seeing this, Skylar assumed Professor Lancaster was waiting for her answer, and she confidently began her explanation.

The more she spoke, the smoother her words flowed, grateful once again for her diligence. Had she not been diligent in reading and gaining experience these past days, she might have missed this opportunity to answer Professor Lancaster’s question today.

Skylar spoke eloquently, and seeing everyone listening intently to her, she grew even more animated.

The non-experts present, hearing her well-spoken speech, assumed she must have some genuine expertise.

However, those within the scientific community found Skylar’s views and understanding rather peculiar.

Oblivious, Skylar thought they were captivated by her unique perspective.

When she finished, the room fell silent, oddly so.

Skylar looked towards Professor Lancaster and found his expression somewhat strange, "Professor, did I say something incorrect? If I did, please point it out to me."

Yet, Professor Lancaster didn’t offer any guidance; he simply asked, "Are these all your own ideas?"

With such a perfect interpretation and understanding, of course, Skylar had to claim it as her own to demonstrate her abilities, didn’t she?

"Of course, I came up with it. There might be areas I haven’t thought through thoroughly, so I hope Professor Lancaster can give me some insight."

Professor Lancaster chuckled and casually waved over one of his students, "Have you heard someone mention this perspective before?"

The student nodded; not only had he heard it, but many others present had as well—because Paige Sterling had only recently proposed this viewpoint.

It was just that Paige had presented it in a class without systematic demonstration and explanation; many students who attended naturally spread this idea around, and some scientists even elaborated on this viewpoint in their own works.

Currently, Paige was conducting experiments to prove her viewpoint’s correctness, which was common knowledge.

And now Skylar had come forward claiming that the perspective Paige had long articulated was her own idea?

Plagiarizing so blatantly—was this woman out of her mind?

Skylar immediately froze, how could this be possible?

She stiffly asked, "This perspective is indeed something I thought of myself, perhaps someone else just happened to think of it too..."

"Miss Hughes, although I don’t know why you would claim Professor Sterling’s idea as your own, such behavior is despised by the entire scientific community, akin to plagiarism. I hope you correct your actions and no longer claim others’ ideas as your own."

Skylar’s previously smiling face instantly stiffened.

What a joke! How could this possibly be Paige’s idea? Clearly, she had read it in a book, so how could it be Paige’s proposition?

Moreover, she had already elevated the book’s viewpoint and formed her own perspective, so why wasn’t it her idea? Why was it considered plagiarism?

Plagiarism from Paige? Simply ridiculous.

Skylar immediately denied, "I did not, it really was something I came up with myself..."

She instantly looked towards Paige, "Paige, why would you claim my idea as your own? You can take anything from me, but even this you want to take? Can’t you stand seeing me do well at all?"

Without Paige needing to respond, someone immediately stood up to refute Skylar’s accusation.

"Ridiculous, this viewpoint was proposed by Professor Sterling two months ago and is already backed by experiments. This is common knowledge; your perspective is two months behind Professor Sterling’s, clearly plagiarizing his idea and claiming it as your own, and then blaming him? Miss Hughes, aren’t you the shameless one here?"

This kind of shameless woman is really a rare sight.

Skylar truly hadn’t expected that the viewpoint she thought no one else had seen would actually be Paige’s proposal.

This was partly because she was too eager for success, having only a superficial understanding of the scientific community, thinking she knew everything, leading to such a ridiculous joke.

But in such circumstances, she would never admit she had plagiarized Paige’s idea, not in a million years.

She said, "I can swear, before this I really didn’t know someone had already proposed this viewpoint. It’s indeed a perspective I came up with myself. If it coincides with Paige’s idea, it can only be considered a coincidence. I have not plagiarized anyone’s work, and I believe everyone here has had their viewpoints coincide with others at some point..."

Blaming everything on coincidence was the best way to handle it.

Skylar even weakly pointed out that her perspective differed from Paige’s.

But soon someone asked, "If you hadn’t seen Professor Sterling’s perspective in advance, how would you know how your viewpoint differs from his?"

And even state it so clearly.

Skylar immediately choked, gritting her teeth, "To be honest, this perspective began to sprout in my mind as early as three months ago, so there’s simply no chance of me plagiarizing. Instead, it might be Paige..." Official source ıs 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵⚑𝓯𝓲𝓻𝓮⚑𝓷𝓮𝓽

She looked towards Paige, "Maybe during a conversation, I inadvertently mentioned this to Paige..."

This implication was accusing Paige of plagiarizing her instead.

Skylar’s current action of shifting the blame genuinely validated the saying—"the most shameless person is invincible."