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Chapter 2

Auteur: Mango
A voice full of delight came through the line. "Beth! I knew you wouldn't disappoint me! I'll send you the invitation immediately!"

The call ended. Beth stood at the far end of the corridor, her fingertips still trembling.

Not far away, inside an office, Rick was speaking in a low voice to comfort Summer. Summer leaned against him, sobbing as she poured out her fear and grievances.

An academic power couple, fighting side by side—they looked perfectly matched.

Beth stood there, her heart feeling as if it had been soaked in formalin—cold, numb, and lifeless.

"Beth, are you all right?" Summer noticed her first and immediately tightened her grip on Rick's arm.

Almost by reflex, Rick moved Summer behind him.

The wariness in his gaze was like a scalpel, slicing into Beth's heart inch by inch. He was afraid she might hurt the partner he valued most.

The man who once said, "I recognize only your talent," now guarded against her as if she were a corporate spy.

Only after Summer was escorted away by an assistant did Rick walk over. He reached out, as if to touch Beth's shoulder.

"Beth, the situation is very complicated right now. The more trouble you cause, the harsher the board's punishment will be. And we're close to the final results. I don't want any distractions. I'll handle the data issue—why do you have to…"

"I told you there's nothing wrong with the data!" Beth's eyes suddenly reddened.

Rick seemed startled by her intensity. He paused, then softened his tone. "All right, all right. None of that matters anymore."

Doesn't matter anymore.

Those words were like poisoned needles, piercing her already shattered heart.

He still didn't believe her.

Seeing the stalemate, he reached into his pocket and took out a velvet box, handing it to her.

"This—you've always wanted it."

Beth's pupils shrank. She opened the box. Inside lay an exquisitely designed fountain pen, a tiny star engraved on its barrel.

It was the limited-edition commemorative pen of her most admired, late Nobel laureate—only ten existed in the world.

"You gave it to Summer!" Her voice trembled. "I saw it—in the pen holder in her office!"

"Summer liked it, so I gave it to her first." Rick frowned and grabbed her hand. "Consider it an apology to me for the trouble you caused this time."

"That pen is my entire faith in academic pursuit!" Beth was on the verge of collapse. "How could you treat it like something you can casually give away? You know how important it is to me!"

She reached out to snatch it back, but Rick suddenly clamped down on her wrist and flung her aside.

"Beth!" he shouted her full name for the first time, his eyes terrifyingly cold. "It's just a dead object. Is it more important than the reputation of our entire institute? Have you not made enough of a scene?!"

He used too much force. Beth was thrown hard to the side, stumbling into a nearby lab bench.

Her waist slammed into the sharp edge of the cold metal. The pain nearly made her black out.

But Rick only cast her a cold glance before turning away.

"I'll take care of the data problem," he said, his retreating figure resolute and icy. "You—calm down and stop causing trouble for me."

The door slammed shut.

…

When Rick stormed out, Beth was still slumped on the floor, the searing pain in her side stealing her breath.

She stared at the tightly closed door—so decisive, so cold, without the slightest hesitation.

In her agony, she suddenly remembered that he used to worry about her like this, too.

Once, when she cut her finger on a shattered test tube in the lab and a bead of blood welled up, his eyes had reddened with distress. He carried her to the infirmary himself, his hands shaking the entire way.
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  • He Was But A Failed Detour   Chapter 11

    Beth pulled her suitcase and walked past him without a single pause, not a flicker of hesitation. "I created my own miracle. It has nothing to do with him anymore."…Rick never saw his "miracle."One late night, after exhausting the last of his strength, he closed his eyes forever.In his hand was still tightly clenched the pen Beth had left behind—the one etched with a tiny star, the one she hadn't taken.His funeral was quietly held. Few attended: mostly Allen family relatives and some business associates. Almost no one from the academic world showed up.It rained lightly that day, a soft drizzle that soaked the earth.Just as the ceremony was about to end, a woman in a black trench coat appeared at the cemetery gate, holding a black umbrella.It was Beth.Everyone froze.Rick's mother, eyes red with grief, rushed forward, almost as if to tear her apart."What are you doing here?! You curse! You killed my son! Get lost!"Beth did not respond.She walked straight to Rick

  • He Was But A Failed Detour   Chapter 10

    Rick could no longer produce a single piece of meaningful research. Because his inspiration, his talent, and every ounce of his academic passion had been completely drained away the moment Beth left his life.He became nothing more than an empty shell, hollowed out of its soul.Three years later, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced.The laureate: Beth.The award was in recognition of her revolutionary breakthroughs in neural regeneration.When the news reached him, Rick was sitting alone in an empty laboratory, staring blankly at a pile of experimental data that had made no progress at all.On the television, a live broadcast was playing.Beth stood beneath the brightest spotlight in the world, dressed in a white gown. From the hands of the King of Sweden, she accepted the golden medal that represented the highest honor in science.She delivered her acceptance speech fluently, thanking her mentors, her team, and her family.She did not mention him. Not once

  • He Was But A Failed Detour   Chapter 9

    "Professor Allen."Beth finally spoke, her voice cold as ice."First, let go of me. Your behavior constitutes harassment."She paused, then raised her other hand and pried his fingers off her wrist—one by one.The movement was slow, yet carried an undeniable force."Second, Summer's outcome is entirely of her own making. It has nothing to do with me. I have no interest in watching the fate of a fraud.""Finally"—she freed herself completely, stepped back, and put an absolutely safe distance between them—"the institute is yours. You are you. And I am me. There has long been nothing between us."With that, she turned to leave.But Rick snapped, lunging forward again and wrapping his arms around her from behind."No! There is!" He buried his face against her neck, his voice breaking with desperate sobs. "Beth, I love you! I did everything wrong, but my love for you is real! Give me one more chance—just once…"His tears fell onto her skin.In the past, she would have been heartb

  • He Was But A Failed Detour   Chapter 8

    Beth took the "contaminated" data model from back then and, using an entirely new algorithm, corrected it, refined it, and pushed it forward—deriving a research paradigm powerful enough to reshape the entire field of neuroscience.She made no accusations. She did not mention the past.She simply used irrefutable, overwhelming brilliance to prove who the true owner of that research had always been.It was the most brutal slap in the face and the most decisive farewell.When the presentation ended and the Q&A session began, a reporter stood up and asked sharply in English, "Dr. Chalke, we all know that the early results of this research sparked significant academic controversy. How would you evaluate your former collaborator, Professor Rick Allen?"Every gaze in the hall snapped toward her.Rick's heart leapt into his throat.A part of him even hoped—hoped she would accuse him, rage at him, break down in tears.Because at least that would mean she still cared.But Beth only smil

  • He Was But A Failed Detour   Chapter 7

    Summer's true ability didn't even measure up to that of an outstanding undergraduate.In that moment, Rick felt his entire world collapse.He had always believed that sacrificing Beth was a reluctant but necessary act of academic politics—an unfortunate compromise to protect a partner who, though flawed, still possessed talent.He thought he was the strategist, the one moving the pieces on the board.Instead, he was nothing more than the most foolish tool, played in the palm of an academic fraud.And what he had sacrificed for it was the most precious treasure of his life—the most gifted mind he had ever known, the woman he had once sworn to protect with his entire existence.His views on scholarship, on values, on love—along with his ridiculous arrogance—were all smashed to pieces by reality in that instant.He sat in the conference room like a petrified statue, his ears filled with the investigators' verdict on Summer and the deafening roar of his own world collapsing.…Sum

  • He Was But A Failed Detour   Chapter 6

    Rick believed Beth's resignation was nothing more than a burst of anger—a young woman venting under overwhelming pressure.With a touch of arrogance, he even thought that once she had calmed down, she would naturally come back. After all, in this world, aside from him, no one else could offer her such top-tier resources or a platform of that caliber.Lost in the fantasy that once he smoothed things over with the board, he and Beth would soon reconcile, he wrapped up the mess left by the conference and returned to the institute.He expected to see a Beth who was crying, regretful, waiting for his forgiveness.Instead, what he found was an office desk stripped of every personal belonging—utterly empty.On the ergonomic chair he had personally chosen for her, there was no longer a figure bent over papers and data.The lab's silence and emptiness formed a violent contrast with the anticipation pounding in his chest.For the first time, he felt a loss of control and panic.He called

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