She saw it clearly—though Lynette tried her best to hide it, the slightly reddened tips of her ears and the almost uncontrollable glint of joy that flashed in the corner of her eye as she turned away just now, had already betrayed Lynette's inner delight.
Keep pretending, keep pretending.
Serie snorted triumphantly in her heart.
Facts proved that all the struggles and social niceties were just fleeting clouds.
As long as the modeling was in place and the values were high enough, everything would naturally fall into place.
In the eyes of the ambitious new students outside the door, being chosen by Dr. Lynette was the highest honor, akin to one's ancestral graves smoking with good fortune.
She was a star beyond reach, high above the clouds; her favor symbolized an acknowledgment of one's talent and future.
They held their breath, trembling, just to gain a single glance of her attention.
But in Serie's eyes, her choice was, instead, a kind of 'reward' and 'grace' for Lynette.
No one knew that Dr. Lynette, admired by all, felt a surprise akin to finding something lost and then regained, simply because she was chosen by Serie, a most ordinary student.
This required her to exhaust all her self-control to maintain that appropriate, brief, and detached calm when her gaze had previously swept over Serie, as if she were just another ordinary student.
Fortunately, Lynette wasn't a golden retriever, otherwise her tail, which would have been wagging uncontrollably, might have exposed her true feelings.
Outside the door, after a brief silence, came an even more surging wave of noise.
"What's going on?"
"It's a fix! Absolutely a fix!"
"Who exactly is that Serie...?"
Claudia watched the farce with cold eyes, a knowing and slightly mocking curve on her lips.
The way Lynette looked at Serie... there was simply no other possibility for this matter.
If she were in that position, the answer would still be the same.
She turned her head and watched Yuki pat her somewhat ample chest, finally letting out a sigh of relief: "Whew... I knew it!"
"Dr. Lynette still cares about Xiao Die the most after all!"
Claudia remained noncommittal...
A few hours later—
Serie officially became Dr. Lynette's only student at the moment.
Dr. Lynette's student positions were notoriously scarce and valuable within the Control Bureau.
The other few students, she heard, would spend the entire academic year exchanging experiences at other branch offices and might not return until Serie's second year.
Dr. Lynette's exclusive research area was located in the core of the experimental zone—Section A-13.
This space occupied nearly a quarter of the section, clearly a fully functional indoor research institute.
Huge floor-to-ceiling windows were divided into multiple screen walls displaying data and real-time monitoring footage, connected to several high-standard laboratories filled with precision instruments, and the air was filled with the smell of disinfectant and metal.
Dr. Lynette's course—Abnormal Entity Behavior and Containment Strategies—was precisely her main research direction.
Its purpose was to analyze the behavioral patterns of anomalous entities through rigorous experimentation and observation, and to formulate containment plans with the lowest risk and highest efficiency.
There were not many staff here, only a handful of core researchers, and just two interns—
Jared, Claudia's brother.
He inherited the family's distinctive black hair and deep green eyes, with a tall stature and a handsomely almost stern face.
He always wore an immaculate white lab coat, disciplined and self-controlled; unlike Claudia, his every move carried an almost rigid sense of integrity, and though siblings with Claudia, they were at two extremes.
If Claudia was the wicked witch in a fairy tale, then Jared was the seemingly righteous prince in a fairy tale.
It was a pity that Serie seemed to prefer evil witches, as she was a witch herself, making them somewhat related.
Jared's attitude towards Serie was subtly different from his polite indifference towards others.
When Serie entered the laboratory, Jared's gaze would always linger on her for a moment, sometimes subtly; occasionally, he would proactively ask if she needed help operating certain complex instruments, his tone flat but carrying a restrained concern.
Unfortunately, this concern only earned a 'annoying' evaluation from Serie.
The other intern, Melinda, was a standard Chinese-American; her appearance was ordinary, and her talent was average, though her family had some money, but she excelled in her hardworking and diligent nature, which was largely why she was able to stay on Dr. Lynette's team.
Of course, such a comparison was not fair.
Comparing looks with Serie, and talent with Lynette...
Even a deity couldn't stand such a comparison.
Serie didn't particularly resist her; in this organization full of Caucasians, Melinda was half a fellow countrywoman.
It was just that Melinda paid more attention to Jared.
She always quietly observed Jared's every move, handing him tools or data pads the moment he needed them.
Before Serie arrived, she was the lowest-ranked and least experienced intern on the team.
She was often assigned errands and miscellaneous tasks by other researchers or Jared.
Therefore, when she learned that a new, even lower-level student was joining, Melinda's heart almost leaped with joy.
She was finally not at the bottom of the food chain!
A misconception of 'the daughter-in-law finally becomes the mother-in-law' made her eager to exercise her senior authority.
It was on the afternoon of Serie's first day in the lab.
Serie was sitting by a window in the outer room of the lab, looking through the introductory materials Lynette had given her.
Melinda, carrying a freshly brewed cup of coffee for herself, casually walked over, clearing her throat.
"Ahem, Student Serie," she tried to make her voice sound official, "As a new student, there are some lab rules I need to tell you about in advance."
Serie looked up from the materials, gazing at her calmly, with a hint of confusion in her eyes.
Rules? What rules? Dr. Lynette didn't tell me about them?
Melinda felt a little guilty under her gaze, but she couldn't let her senior facade crumble, so she puffed out her chest: "Look, we're all very busy here, especially Dr. Lynette and Senior Brother Jared; their time is very precious."
"Basic tasks like serving tea, pouring water, organizing documents, and running errands for printing need to be proactively taken on by us juniors. You need to know how to respect your seniors and be observant, understand?" She said, casting a pointed glance at her steaming coffee cup.
Serie blinked, then slowly uttered an "Oh."
Then her gaze returned to the materials, showing no intention of getting up to "proactively take on" anything.
Melinda was a little anxious; why was this newcomer so clueless?
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