Ruby anxiously said, "I heard that in the few days since Martha got injured, Trevor and Celeste—even the other members of the Rodriguez family—have been in frequent contact."Yesterday, someone even saw Trevor having a meal with the old lady from the Rodriguez family. Could they be rekindling their past relationship?""There was never a relationship to rekindle," Wynn replied calmly, though she disliked Ruby's choice of words.Seeing how worried Ruby was, Wynn patiently explained, "Madam Daniels has a close relationship with the Rodriguez family. Trevor needs to keep Celeste and the old lady on good terms, so they'll continue visiting Martha. "That way, Martha won't use her surgery as leverage to force Trevor to break up with me."Ruby had never thought of this.Ever since Martha's fall, she had expelled both their families from the Fleming Group. For the past two days, both families had been worried that Martha would demand Trevor and Wynn break up as a condition for agreeing t
During lunch, Celeste bought movie tickets. After eating, they watched the movie and then went shopping for a while.While Jamie was trying on clothes and Hector was buying figurines, Celeste said to Jordyn, "I'll take you home later.""Home?" Sitting beside her, Jordyn said, "I don't want to go home. I want to stay at Granny's for another night. I'll go back tomorrow evening."Celeste took a sip of water and said, "Jamie and Hector have spent the whole day with you. Tomorrow, they need to focus on their homework. If you stay at Granny's, you'll distract them.""I don't need them to play with me. I can play on my tablet by myself."Celeste didn't say anything more, but she found a moment to send Trevor a message, asking him to have someone pick Jordyn up later.Trevor was probably busy, as he didn't reply for a long time.After Jamie finished shopping, they walked around a bit more before heading back to the Rodriguez residence.Betty and Ivan were genuinely happy to see Jordyn
After Jordyn left, Celeste went upstairs, turned on her computer, and got to work.About an hour later, Jason sent her some documents to review.Celeste opened them and looked through them. The first thing that caught her eye was the three newly added properties, with their specific locations clearly marked.She paused when she saw the details.All three properties were vacant units in the Rodriguez family's residential neighborhood, and they were relatively close to the Rodriguez residence.To be honest, although Trevor had previously helped her buy the house in front of the Rodriguez residence, that alone didn't completely put her at ease.After all, Betty loved going out for walks. Even if the Shaw family no longer lived right across from her, as long as they were in the same neighborhood, they would inevitably run into each other.That had always worried her. But now…Looking at this new agreement—was Trevor trying to eliminate her concerns once again?Even though he was l
Celeste and Betty stayed with Martha for about half an hour before Trevor said, "I'm stepping out for a bit."During that time, Trevor had mostly remained a silent observer, barely speaking.Hearing this, Martha scoffed, "Just go then."Trevor left the hospital room. But once he was gone, he didn't return for over half an hour.Earlier, Samantha had been there, making sure the fruit, pastries, and tea were all well taken care of.After Samantha stepped away for a moment, Celeste noticed that Betty's tea had gone cold. So, she picked up the small teapot and went over to the table, intending to brew a fresh pot of tea.Seeing Celeste personally handling the tea, Martha suddenly thought of Trevor.She frowned and muttered, "Trevor really is something… I don't know what he's off doing, but he's been gone for so long."When Trevor had said he was stepping out, Celeste didn't pay much attention to it. But hearing Martha's complaint, she suddenly recalled that Wynn was still downstair
Celeste and Betty walked toward their car.Just as they were about to get in, Wynn stepped out of a nearby vehicle."Oh, so she hasn't left," Betty said and glanced at her before withdrawing her gaze.Celeste had thought Betty didn't notice Wynn earlier, but apparently, she had.As she watched Trevor walk over to Wynn, Betty seemed to remember how he had left the hospital room for over half an hour earlier.She remarked, "Their relationship seems to be quite good."Celeste fastened Betty's seatbelt without responding.Just as she pressed the gas pedal and was about to drive away, she saw Tucker running out of the hospital.He had probably just spotted Wynn as he looked both surprised and excited as he quickly ran over to them.Celeste took one glance before withdrawing her gaze and driving off.…"Trev!" Tucker ran over, his eyes locked onto Wynn. "You… You're really CC! I-I thought I was seeing things!"Wynn knew that Trevor had a younger brother in high school. But they h
Celeste had just driven away from the hospital when Betty suddenly recalled something. "Trevor made it to the hospital, but what about Jo? Where did she go?"Before Celeste could speak, Betty's expression darkened right away. Celeste could tell from her expression that she was unhappy about Trevor leaving Jordyn behind while he and Wynn came to the hospital to see Martha. "Don't worry. He'll take good care of her," Celeste said. However, Betty wasn't convinced. "If he keeps this up, Cel, take him to court. No matter what, you have to get custody of Jo!" Celeste paused for a brief moment before she spoke flatly. "Okay."Betty remained displeased. She got out of the car as soon as they arrived at the Rodriguez residence. Just then, Celeste's phone rang. It was a call from Jordyn, but she didn't pick it up. Maybe it was because she hadn't spent much time with Jordyn these past few months and had been missing her calls, but over the last two days, she could clearly sense
Celeste murmured a reply. Jordyn paused, realizing that Celeste might not know who Shanice was, and quickly added, "Shanice is my friend—she calls Mr. Harper her uncle."Celeste responded softly, noticing how eager she was to share. "What did you guys do?""We explored a maze!"Celeste listened without much reaction, but Betty's expression grew stern. When Trevor took Jordyn back, she thought he would be looking after Jordyn himself. It was only now that she realized Trevor wasn't taking care of Jordyn himself. Instead, he was focused on dating Wynn and would rather leave her with someone else than let Celeste care for her. Betty's face soured. Jordyn had no clue what Betty was thinking. Then, she added, "Mr. Harper asked me to stay for dinner, but I want to come back, so I called you."Celeste nodded. "Did you thank him then?" she asked. "Yes, I did!" Jordyn replied cheerfully. Celeste didn't ask any further. Since Jordyn had finished her homework, she stayed in
Even though YodaVision had sealed the deal with Jorge and Beck, certain aspects of the business still lacked suitable partners. To accelerate the search for the right partners, enhance the company's exposure, and push for growth, YodaVision had been organizing an investment conference, which officially took place on Monday morning. After dropping Jordyn off at school in the morning, Celeste headed to the hotel for the conference. By the time she got there, Matthias and the others were already present.Celeste was set to take the stage shortly as the company's core engineer to deliver a speech and answer the media's questions. Hence, she was going over the agenda backstage with Matthias. Just then, Beck arrived.He had only been seated for a moment when Jorge also showed up. About 20 minutes later, Matthias and Celeste went upstage to give their speeches. Jorge appeared engaged during Matthias's speech, yet when Celeste stepped forward, a frown crept onto his face. Was
The group chatted while playing golf.However, it was obvious that Theodore and Rowan were far more interested in the topic they were discussing than in the game itself.At first, they talked about international affairs. As the conversation went on, Theodore and Rowan ended up simulating a battle arrangement right there on the spot.As they got more and more into it, Celeste and Matthias simply stood by and listened, along with Trevor and Wynn.Maybe not wanting the younger ones to just stand around, Rowan said, "Why don't you join in and share your thoughts?"After a moment, Celeste spoke up, "With strong enemies on all sides, it's not suitable to charge in alone. So for now, staying put would be a good choice."Hearing this, Wynn paused.She had to admit, it was a good idea. If Celeste hadn't said it first, she honestly wouldn't have thought of it herself.Just as that thought crossed her mind, she saw Rowan smiling and nodding in agreement.Matthias reacted quickly too. He
Rowan said to Trevor, "Since you're here, why don't you stay and join us for a while?"Trevor replied, "Sure."After exchanging a few pleasantries with Trevor, Rowan turned back to Harold, Matthias, and the others and asked, "Where were we just now?"Matthias answered, "We were discussing how we should appropriately handle the situation if we discover a foreign probe entering our controlled area."Hearing this, Wynn couldn't help but start thinking about it too.Rowan smiled and asked, "What do you think? Cel, do you have any thoughts?"Earlier, Matthias and Celeste hadn't had time to really think about it before Trevor and Wynn showed up.Now that Rowan asked again, Celeste and Matthias both paused briefly.When Wynn heard Rowan call Celeste by her nickname, she suddenly got distracted.Cel? Rowan was addressing Celeste so intimately.Moreover, she noticed that whenever Rowan looked at Celeste, his demeanor was very warm and kind—he genuinely seemed to admire her.She frown
After dinner, Jordyn followed Celeste back to the Rodriguez residence.That night, she received a call from Rowan, inviting her and Matthias to play golf the next morning.Celeste agreed. However, when she saw the address Rowan sent, she hesitated for a moment.The golf course happened to be a property owned by the Fleming family. She had been there before.Still, since she had already agreed, it wouldn't be appropriate to back out now.…Early Saturday morning, she drove out as planned.When she and Matthias arrived at the golf course, Rowan, Theodore, and Harold were already there.Seeing them, Rowan and the others greeted them with a smile, "You're here."Celeste nodded.Rowan asked, "Do you know how to play golf?"Celeste nodded again. "I've learned a bit."After some polite small talk, they began playing golf while chatting casually.Not long after, just as Celeste was putting away her club, she saw two people walking toward them from a distance.It was Trevor and Wy
Although Celeste and Matthias had already asked Candice to politely decline Cayden's request for a meeting, he still showed up uninvited two days later.Since he had come in person, Celeste and Matthias couldn't completely refuse to see him.They gave him a brief, symbolic reception, but after chatting for just over ten minutes, they politely sent him off.After that, whenever Cayden tried to arrange another meeting, they simply ignored him.With Celeste and Matthias maintaining a firm stance, and unable to meet with them, Cayden invited Wynn out for a meal the next day instead.During the meal, Cayden chatted with her about the developments in the industry for a while before saying, "If you had joined YodaVision last year, you would've grown so much by now. What a shame."At their last meeting, Cayden had asked about her current situation. After hearing she hadn't gotten into YodaVision, he didn't comment much.But now, recalling the matter, he couldn't help expressing his regr
Celeste didn't care how Trevor thought of her or looked at her, nor was she interested.After leaving the restaurant, Celeste and Matthias' group headed back to Fleming Tech for a meeting.This time, Lilian and Linda didn't follow. But Wynn did.Seeing Wynn come along again, Matthias secretly rolled his eyes and said, "Mr. Fleming, about Ms. Locket—"Trevor seemed to know what he wanted to say.Before Matthias could finish, Trevor spoke up, "If you're concerned about confidentiality, you don't have to worry. If anything does happen, I'll take full responsibility."Matthias had expected him to say that. After all, when they first started working with InnovaTech, Trevor had said exactly the same thing.Even so, Matthias still needed clear assurance.Hearing Trevor's words, Matthias put on a half-hearted smile and said, "I feel better with your assurance."During the meeting in the morning, the seat at the center of the table was occupied by Trevor alone. Now that Wynn was here,
Before Trevor could respond, his phone rang.He stepped outside to take the call, and by the time he returned, the food was being served.Miles' question was left hanging—brushed aside just like that.Right now, the author of the paper that engineers in the country and abroad were scrambling to read was sitting right in front of them.As the meal progressed, Rodney and his students couldn't help but ask Celeste questions as they skimmed through the paper's core content and experimental data.Whether they asked about specific parts of the paper or about broader problems that had puzzled them in their own research, Celeste responded to everything fluently and confidently.Wynn watched in silence. Her heart was calm.Watching Celeste speak so assuredly with Rodney and the others actually seemed like she did know what she was talking about.But was that really possible?Given Matthias' capabilities, if he was willing to credit Celeste as first author, then he must have ensured she
It really was Celeste?Even though Jorge, Lilian, and Linda didn't specialize in AI and couldn't fully grasp how groundbreaking Celeste's paper was, they did know one thing—Wynn's advisor, Cayden, was a major figure in the AI world.A world-renowned expert like him paying this much attention to a paper—personally messaging Wynn and urging her to study it thoroughly—was a huge deal.On top of that, Rodney's student had just said Celeste's paper had caused a massive stir both at home and abroad, with top engineers staying up all night to read it.All of this pointed to one thing: Celeste's paper had real weight. But how could such a powerful paper possibly have come from Celeste?Rodney, not knowing who Celeste was or her history with the Lockets and the Shaws, hadn't read the paper yet.Still, just hearing that it had increased large language model efficiency for long-text processing over tenfold was already enough to get him excited.He immediately turned to Matthias and asked,
Linda looked smugly at Celeste.Lilian also felt genuinely happy for her daughter. Celeste, as usual, couldn't even be bothered to look in their direction.She quietly lowered her head and sipped her tea, blending into the background, not participating in the discussion between Wynn and Rodney at all.Seeing Wynn receiving so much admiration from all these seasoned experts, Jorge finally felt a sense of satisfaction in his heart.Just then, Cayden sent another message to Wynn."YodaVision is a truly astonishing and innovative company. Not only is its founder Matthias, but many of the engineers under him are highly creative. "I'll likely visit again soon. I hope to have an in-depth conversation with Matthias and some of his engineers."The NMI journal adopted a strict double-blind review process, where reviewers couldn't see the identities of the authors. So until now, Cayden had no idea who had actually written the paper he was so impressed with.Wynn saw his message and ass
As soon as the words were spoken, a knock sounded at the private dining room door.It was Miles and Beck.Miles pushed the door open, and upon seeing how many people were already inside, he exclaimed in surprise, "Whoa, so many people?"This restaurant was owned by his family.He and Beck had just come over for a meal. After hearing from the restaurant manager that Trevor was dining here, they decided to drop by and say hello—they didn't expect such a large gathering.And on top of that, it was full of familiar faces.Seeing so many people there, Miles instantly felt that just the two of them dining alone would be no fun, so he asked, "Trevor, since there are already so many here, do you mind if Beck and I join as well?"Trevor turned and asked, "Professor Milford, Mr. Yoder, I wonder if—"Since Rodney had just voluntarily invited the Lockets and the Shaws to join, Trevor couldn't very well refuse his own friends.Rodney replied graciously, "Of course, I don't mind. I wonder w