Han Weicheng nervously caught the phone, and once he had a firm grip, Shu Lanzhou finally relaxed.
Her phone was pretty old; if it hit the ground, it would probably need replacing.
"Professor Cheng, what do you mean by this?" Han Weicheng asked, looking confused as he held the phone.
Professor Cheng shot him a glare. "Look at the paper on the phone, and open your eyes properly."
"This is an experimental paper my student published two months ago in the school journal," Professor Cheng continued, his face momentarily showing a hint of pride. "To be honest, he's the most poorly skilled student among my group, otherwise, his paper wouldn't have been published only in the internal journal."
Professor Cheng gave him a look of disdain. "It's really that bad. Since you know this, why would you still favor him? Let such a paper be published—it really makes me wonder about your judgment."
Professor Cheng was an old professor, much older than Han Weicheng. He also held the title of Honorary Principal, so Han Weicheng didn't dare to act high and mighty in front of him.
Still, he wasn't happy. "That paper being published in the school journal was completely appropriate. How can you say I favored him? I, Han Weicheng, have never done such a thing!"
"Really?" Professor Cheng shot him a sarcastic glance. He lowered his head to click on the computer, then pointed at the large screen. "Then take a good look at this paper."
Han Weicheng realized the paper displayed on the screen was Shu Lanzhou's—the very paper he had brought with him. Up until this moment, the paper had only existed in the team's research database, and he had never bothered to seriously read it.
He hadn't seen the need to; after all, Shu Lanzhou was just tagging along with her senior colleagues, not really contributing anything of value. If it weren't for her diligence, the team would have long since discarded her.
"You've never looked at this, have you?" Professor Cheng fumed as he paced back and forth. He then raised his hand and pointed directly at Han Weicheng's face. "As a mentor, how can you treat each student unfairly like this? What am I supposed to say to you?"
Shu Lanzhou's eyes reddened as she stared at Han Weicheng, her expression one of determination.
"Professor Cheng, is what you're saying true? Have you really never looked at the papers I submitted to the team database?"
In her previous life, she had always thought her work lacked merit, which is why Han Weicheng had never shown any interest in her. That's why, during her academic years, she had never published a paper nor achieved any noteworthy success—her intellectual abilities had always been suppressed by her senior colleagues.
It wasn't until later that she realized her work, her ideas, and the research topics she had chosen were often mysteriously appropriated by her seniors.
The most terrifying part was discovering that every argument and theory she came up with was always stolen by Lin Muyao, who would report them to Han Weicheng before she could.
In her past life, she had no idea that Lin Muyao had installed a screen-monitoring software on her computer, letting her get away with stealing her ideas. After a while, she became suspicious and eventually confronted Han Weicheng, which led to her being wrongfully imprisoned.
Back then, she couldn't understand why Han Weicheng looked down on her and never believed in her. Now, she finally understood the truth.
From the very beginning, he had never recognized her. She had always been just another student to him in name, but he had never truly considered her as one of his own.
He had never thought highly of her. Never.
Shu Lanzhou clenched her fist slightly, her chest rising and falling with emotion. She thought that she had already stopped hating Han Weicheng.
But now, she realized that she still hated him—more than she ever thought possible. And in the end, even that hatred would fade from her heart.
She no longer had any feelings for him. This man wasn't worth her time or energy, not even the smallest bit of her hatred.
She lifted her chin and smiled lightly with faint mockery.
"Then I guess it's up to you today, Professor Han. Take a good look. If it offends your eyes, I apologize in advance."
"This kind of teacher is not worth you apologizing to," Mu Yaning said as she stepped forward and grabbed Shu Lanzhou's hand.
"Don't be afraid. He doesn't think you're worthy of attention, but I do. He won't take your papers seriously, but I will. Just send them all to me later, and I'll review them, one by one."
She stepped forward, now directly in front of Han Weicheng.
"Mr. Han, if you really think these papers are unworthy of your noble eyes, you don't need to suffer. After all, there are many professors here, and they all have their own standards."
She turned toward the others in the room.
"Director Zhou, Principal Cheng, I'll put it out here today: If any of you think I've violated school regulations in my handling of Shu Lanzhou's case, I'm willing to resign."
"But if you think I've done nothing wrong, I hope that Professor Han will let this go. Stop targeting my student, and stop being unable to tolerate her shining. It would only make you look small-minded!"
Han Weicheng's face turned from blue to white with rage as Mu Yaning spoke. He clenched his fist, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation for himself, but soon realized that he couldn't find any.
He had never read those papers. He couldn't justify his actions.
But to him, what could Shu Lanzhou have possibly written that was worth noticing?
He sighed and turned back to the screen. "I said I don't want to argue with you. Let's stick to the facts. Shu Lanzhou's paper..."
But when he saw the content on the screen, Han Weicheng was unable to continue.
He stared in disbelief at his phone and compared the paper on the screen with the one on his phone, back and forth, several times.
"It's impossible! This can't be! Shu Lanzhou, is this really your paper? How can it... How can it be more complete than the one written by Guo Jialiang? After all, he's your senior, and he's two grades above you!"
"I'm in my senior year, he's in his second year of graduate school—he's three years ahead of me," Shu Lanzhou raised her hand to illustrate. "The experiment two months ago was related to a minor course he's been taking. In order to have me help him with the experiment, he gave me a book on the topic in advance."
"If you remember, Professor Han, that book was hard for me to understand, and I asked you about it privately. You didn't have time to help me, and just handed me two basic books instead."
"I spent the entire summer reading those three books. When the semester started, I still didn't fully understand everything. I was even scolded by Senior Guo. To avoid delaying his experiment, I even went to attend two classes."
Shu Lanzhou looked intently at Han Weicheng.
"You don't have to believe me. You can doubt me, but please trust the facts in front of you. This paper was brought by you. The investigation today was also at your request."
"As a student, I don't have the right to question your decisions. If you don't think my paper is good enough, I accept that. But you can't deny that these papers came from my hands."
"In my academic career, I have never taken any shortcuts. The reason I left your team was simply because my paper lost to Lin Muyao's."
"I joined Professor Mu's team after carefully considering all the options available. I believed I could graduate smoothly from it, and that's why I chose it."
"If I hadn't had the courage to approach the hospital, or if Professor Mu's team hadn't been short-handed, I would have never found a mentor so smoothly."
"Professor Han, you may not like me, but please don't doubt my abilities just because I was once a student you pushed aside. Don't destroy my chance to graduate just because of that!"
Her words moved the teachers in the room. Everyone except Han Weicheng...