"Of course we'll continue the interview!"After saying that, the man took the initiative to extend his hand toward Celeste. "Hello, I'm Kieran Gibson. Nice to meet you."Celeste shook his hand. "I know." She already had his resume in hand.Looking at him, she asked, "So, are you interviewing me, or am I interviewing you?"Kieran grinned. "Either works."His resume indicated that his strengths lay in algorithms. Celeste assessed his skills in data cleaning, feature engineering, and parameter tuning. She also evaluated his ability to come up with innovative solutions when faced with new problems.By the time they finished talking, quite a bit of time had passed.Celeste could confidently say that Kieran was highly skilled—especially considering that he had just switched fields.In fact, he had only been in the AI field for a little over a year. It was rare for someone to develop such deep expertise in such a short time.If he maintained this momentum, his future would be limitle
Celeste didn't give any response. Matthias glanced at the resume again and asked, "It looks well-written. How's his actual ability?""Pretty good. He's only been studying for less than two years, but his skills already surpass most PhD students from top universities.""Oh? That definitely makes him a genius." Matthias mused, then asked, "You want to keep him?""I'm considering it, but...""Worried he won't stick around?""Yeah."Even though she could tell that Kieran was genuinely interested in Cuap and Infinite-CM, there were still other unstable factors about him."We can put him on probation first. If he's not a good fit, we can let him go." Matthias suggested."Alright."…Meanwhile, Kieran instantly became the center of attention the moment he stepped into the arcade. He was a handsome, broad-shouldered, long-legged young man, exuding an elite aura.Several young women wanted to approach him, but his slightly pursed lips and the distant, unapproachable vibe he exude
That morning, Celeste hadn't been working for long when she received an official acceptance notice from an AI journal.A little while later, Matthias came by to discuss work with her. He wasn't surprised when he learned that her paper had been accepted.After all, with Zachary's endorsement as an authority in the field, if even he believed the paper was solid, there was no doubt it would pass the review stage.After finishing their discussion, Celeste checked the time and asked, "Want to grab lunch together?"Matthias rubbed his temples, looking a little weary. "I've got plans."Celeste looked up. "What's up?"Matthias smirked. "A blind date. Arranged by my grandpa."Hearing this, Celeste chuckled. "You're already 28 and only now going on your first blind date. That's pretty good."Matthias was speechless.Honestly, his family had never been too pushy about his marriage.But this time, the young woman was the granddaughter of his grandfather's close friend. Since it was hard
Trevor sent another message. "I'm at a business luncheon. You guys carry on."After that, he didn't appear in the chat again.After getting into his car, Beck also decided he wasn't going to pay any more attention to this matter. He simply replied, "Busy too. You guys chat."Then, he exited the app.Seeing that both Trevor and Beck had lost interest in the topic, Wynn also sent a message. "I'm going for lunch. Talk later."Miles couldn't do anything.…After lunch, Celeste went to the R&D department for a meeting.Kieran was there as well.As she precisely pointed out issues and quickly proposed solutions, he sat in silence, watching her.When the meeting ended, Celeste was about to leave when she noticed Kieran looking at her. She paused and asked, as a formality, "It's your first day at the company. Are you adjusting well?"Kieran replied, "I'm adapting. Thanks for asking."Celeste nodded and, without saying anything more, left the meeting room with her laptop.Over the
A moment later, Trevor answered the call. "School's out?""Yes."Trevor then asked, "Missing Mom?""Yes.""You didn't call her?""No."Trevor chuckled and said, "Go ahead and call her. She should have time to answer today."Jordyn's eyes lit up. "Really?""Really. Call her.""Okay!"After hanging up, Jordyn quickly dialed Celeste.When Celeste saw the caller ID, she paused for a moment.Although she had seen Jordyn twice recently—once when Martha fell down the stairs and was hospitalized, and another time at the Yoder family's house—those encounters didn't count toward their usual once-a-month meetings.Aside from those two incidents, it had actually been over a month since they last met.Thinking of this, she answered the call. "Jo, are you out of school—"Before she could finish, Jordyn, thrilled that she had actually answered, excitedly called out, "Mom!"Her voice was filled with joy.Celeste froze, her hand gripping the mouse stopping in place.It took her two se
After dinner, Jordyn mentioned something that made Celeste realize Trevor was away on a business trip.At around 9:00 pm, while Celeste was taking a shower, her phone rang.Jordyn saw that it was Beck calling and answered it. "Mr. Harper."Hearing her voice, Beck paused slightly. "Jo."Before Jordyn could continue, Celeste stepped out of the bathroom. Seeing her, Jordyn handed her the phone and said, "Mom, it's Mr. Harper.""Okay." Celeste took the phone, but before she could speak, Beck beat her to it. "I hope I'm not disturbing you?""No."Beck said, "I'm out of town right now, so we'll have to reschedule our dinner for another time.""That's fine."After hanging up, Celeste was about to dry her hair when Jordyn suddenly looked at her in confusion.Noticing her gaze, Celeste asked, "What's wrong?""Mom, you know Mr. Harper too?""Yes.""Okay."…The next morning, Celeste went downstairs to make breakfast.About half an hour later, as she was heading back upstairs, she
Over the years, the Locket family's tech company had been struggling, constantly losing money due to a lack of core technology and high-level talent.To help them solve this issue, Trevor had spent a significant amount of time during his business trip overseas recruiting a few top-tier tech experts for the Locket family's company.With his support, the Locket family's business would likely improve in the near future.However, none of this had anything to do with Celeste. If she still had lingering feelings for Trevor, knowing about this would only upset her.So, Beck chose not to mention it.After lunch, since Beck had other matters to attend to, they went their separate ways.…On Monday, the transfer of InnovaTech's shares to Wynn was finalized.Celeste and Matthias found out about it because the moment the news broke, the industry group chat they were in immediately shared the information.Whether it was the luxury villa worth over 600 million that Trevor gifted to Lilian o
Beck still continued to ignore Linda.Just then, someone happened to come over and greet him. The person also knew Celeste and Matthias, so the four of them started chatting.Linda was left standing there, completely ignored. Her face grew increasingly awkward until she had no choice but to leave, humiliated.…Not far away, Miles glanced in their direction and remarked, "Beck seems to be getting closer to them." By "them," he was naturally referring to Celeste and Matthias.Wynn shared the same thought.After all, if Beck and Matthias were simply business partners, a quick greeting and some polite small talk would have sufficed at an event like this.Yet, Beck was engaged in a long conversation with Matthias and Celeste. It was starting to look like they were actually becoming friends.Of course, in Wynn's view, the reason Beck would consider befriending Matthias was that Matthias was indeed worth knowing. As for Celeste, she was just along for the ride.Hearing Miles' comm
Bryson, unaware of the grudge between Celeste and Wynn, followed up on Rodney's words and said, "Yes, we were just discussing some new developments in the industry."Ms. Locket also studied AI—more minds mean more ideas. It would be great if Ms. Locket joined the discussion."Wynn responded, "Oh, I see..."As she spoke, she glanced over at Celeste.After finishing the serious work discussions, Celeste had planned to leave. But unable to resist Rodney and Bryson's enthusiasm, she stayed and chatted with them for a while longer.Now with Wynn's arrival, she finally had an excuse to excuse herself.She stood up and said, "It's getting late, and I have something I need to attend to. Mr. Fleming, Professor Leonard, Professor Milford, let's chat again next time."Besides Celeste's recently published paper, a few other companies in the AI field had also made significant technical breakthroughs lately.When they were chatting earlier, Celeste had quickly grasped the core of those break
Celeste nodded and sat down on the sofa by the coffee table.Trevor then instructed, "Have someone bring us some coffee."Zeke replied, "Already taken care of."Just as he finished speaking, Naomi came in carrying coffee.When she saw Celeste, she froze for a moment. "Ms. Rodriguez?"Naomi had been the one to take over Celeste's job after she left Fleming Group. Since then, they had basically had no contact.Celeste nodded with a smile, "Long time no see.""Long time no see." Naomi smiled too. But given the situation, it wasn't really appropriate for her to chat too much.She placed the coffee carefully in front of both Celeste and Trevor, and was about to leave when she seemed to remember something and turned back to report on some work matters.After listening, Trevor said, "Got it. I'll have time this afternoon. Tell him to come by before three.""Okay." Naomi answered, then smiled and nodded politely at Celeste before hurrying out.Celeste watched her leave, slowly stirr
After they finished playing golf, Celeste and the others still had other plans.Trevor and Wynn had joined midway, and perhaps guessing that Celeste and the others had other arrangements that they might not be suited to join, Trevor took the initiative to say, "We have some other plans later, so we won't keep interrupting everyone's fun."Hearing this, Rowan and Theodore didn't insist on keeping them and said, "Is that so? That's fine. Let's meet up again next time when we're free."Trevor smiled and nodded before leaving with Wynn.Matthias had actually been a bit worried that Trevor and Wynn might tag along for their meal afterwards.Seeing Trevor leave on his own initiative, he felt a little relieved and whispered to Celeste, "At least he knows when to back off."Celeste smiled and hummed a response.…After they had walked a distance, Trevor finally asked, "Upset?"Having stumbled twice today, Wynn was indeed feeling down. Especially seeing how much Rowan and the others li
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