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Chapter 3

Author: Evil SIL
Lucy finally showed up.

She came in drenched in sweat, clutching a thick stack of freshly printed documents.

“Sorry! Sorry! There were way too many people at the print shop!”

I sat in the corner, glaring at my clueless little sister, my irritation rising by the second.

I had only asked her to print a few documents for me, and she had taken this long.

In that short time, I had already been turned into the villain of the story. The professor’s boy toy. A homewrecker. Public enemy number one.

The moment Lucy noticed the tension in the room, she froze.

“W... what’s going on?”

The second Eric saw her, his whole expression changed.

He frowned, strode over, and demanded, “Lucy, what took you so long?”

Startled, Lucy hurried to explain. “Eric, there were a lot of materials, and...”

Eric let out a cold laugh and pointed straight at me.

“Stop making excuses. Was it because of this guy who keeps harassing you?”

“He refused to leave, and I knew it. He clearly hasn’t given up. He wants to flirt with you right in front of everyone.”

“And Professor Jackson will be here any minute. Just having him sitting here is already making our whole group look bad.”

Lucy followed his finger and looked at me. Her face instantly went blank.

“No... Eric, I think you’ve got it wrong. He’s actually...”

She was just about to say “my brother” when I shot her a look.

Years of sibling intimidation worked instantly. She clamped her mouth shut.

I signaled with my eyes: Be quiet. Let’s watch this play out.

Lucy might be a little slow sometimes, but she knew how to read the room.

She swallowed hard, then stiffly turned back to Eric. “Um... Eric, it’s fine. He’s a guest. Adding one more chair won’t hurt.”

Eric stared at her in disbelief.

“I knew it. You’ve been completely taken in by him!”

“First you help him write his paper, and now you’re taking his side too! Don’t let him fool you. He’s ruining your future!”

“Do you even realize that if Professor Jackson finds out, you could get expelled?”

Lucy looked utterly confused. “Write his paper? Who? Me?”

She glanced down at the documents in her arms.

They were the extended analysis from the top journal paper I had just published. Every formula in it was enough to make her, as a grad student, want to kneel in worship.

Her expression turned strange. “I’m not even qualified...”

“See? You admitted it yourself!”

Eric didn’t listen at all. He took her reaction as guilt.

Then he turned and glared at me viciously. “You’re pretty good at this, I’ll give you that.

“But let me tell you something. In this field, real ability is what matters.

“When Professor Jackson gets here, I’m going to expose you for who you really are.”

“Enough!”

Lucy finally couldn’t take it anymore.

She jumped to her feet and stepped in front of me, shame written all over her face.

“Eric, he’s my brother. My actual brother!”
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  • The Most Important Lesson I Taught Them   Chapter 10

    Police quickly formed a special task force.To avoid tipping anyone off, they asked me to cooperate in staging a little performance.Three days later, Adams University held a press conference.Eric appeared in front of the reporters looking pale and weak.He was still acting his part.“I don’t want compensation,” he said hoarsely. “I just want justice. I want to see Lucy Jackson go to prison!“And Alva Jackson too. He needs to get out of academia! A professor abusing his power to cover up his sister’s sexual harassment of a student. It’s outrageous!”Just as he was crying and putting on his show, I walked onto the stage.Behind me was a squad of fully armed tactical officers.“Eric Pensworth,” I said coldly, looking straight at him. “Your justice has arrived.”A police officer stepped forward and held up a warrant.“Eric Pensworth, you are suspected of extortion, defamation, and involvement in the trafficking of illegal drugs. You are under arrest.”The room exploded.The

  • The Most Important Lesson I Taught Them   Chapter 9

    In the video, under dim lighting, Lucy looked completely out of it. Her clothes were messy as she clutched at his shirt, mumbling nonsense.Eric attached a dramatic caption to the video:“I wanted to stay silent, but I really can’t take this anymore!“Because I exposed her brother’s academic fraud, Lucy held a grudge against me. She tricked me into going to a rental apartment, tried to play the victim, and even sexually harassed me!“Afterward, Alva Jackson not only refused to apologize, he even threatened to ruin my reputation! This is what they call a doctoral advisor? This is what they call an honorable academic family?“I’m calling the police! I’m going to make this brother and sister pay!”The video exploded across the internet like a bomb.The moment sexual harassment was mentioned, people went wild. Lucy and I were instantly flooded with insults and accusations.What shocked me even more was that several of the master’s students in my own research group had written a joi

  • The Most Important Lesson I Taught Them   Chapter 8

    But I hadn’t expected Eric to keep pushing things.The dean called me in a panic and told me that Adams University’s campus forum had completely blown up.Eric had posted a thread titled:‘Breaking: A certain female student (L.J.) has a brother who stole the department heartthrob’s PhD spot by sleeping his way to the top!’In the post, Eric painted himself as a poor student who had been bullied by powerful connections and robbed of his rightful opportunity.And I had been turned into a kept man who climbed the ladder by trading on my looks.Some people had even dug up my name, Alva Jackson.“Alva Jackson? That sounds like a woman’s name. Why is it a man?”“You don’t get it. That’s the contrast. Rich older women love that kind of thing.”“Wait, isn’t the new professor who just returned from overseas also named Alva Jackson? What a coincidence.”“Mystery solved! This guy must’ve changed his name just to flatter the rich professor. He might’ve even started calling her godmother!

  • The Most Important Lesson I Taught Them   Chapter 7

    After saying that, she turned to the others and scratched her head awkwardly.“Professor Jackson really is my brother.“My actual brother. Same parents and everything.“That night in the library, I was just being stupid. I couldn’t get the data to run, and my brother spent the whole night scolding me.”Then she looked at Eric, and the last bit of light in her eyes faded.“Eric, you started spreading rumors without even knowing the full story.“That’s nothing like the person I thought you were. I was blind. I misjudged you.“My brother is the person I admire most in this world.“He once lived in the lab for three months straight for a single project. Every paper he’s published was earned the hard way.“You can insult me if you want, but you do not get to insult his academic work.”The truth was finally out.There had been no sugar arrangement. No seduction.Just jealousy from a weak student toward a brilliant one, and the ugly suspicions of a petty man aimed at someone far b

  • The Most Important Lesson I Taught Them   Chapter 6

    I looked back at Eric and spoke coldly. “Mr. Pensworth.“I’m thirty-two years old this year, not some fifty-year-old woman.“Academic work requires rigor and evidence. Not wild accusations about someone’s private life based on nothing more than a name and a single photo.”I paused, a faint trace of sarcasm curling at the corner of my mouth.“You may still be a graduate student who hasn’t even gotten started in this field. I haven’t seen much academic ability from you.“But your talent for spreading rumors is truly impressive.”I walked up to him and looked down at him.“And you said you were already my chosen top student?”Eric was trembling now, sweat dripping down his face.He tried to explain, but his throat seemed completely locked.“I read your email.”I said it calmly, in front of everyone.“The logic was a mess. The data looked fabricated. Even the formatting was wrong.“And you thought something like that would get you into my lab?“You must think very little of m

  • The Most Important Lesson I Taught Them   Chapter 5

    The dean’s attitude was almost reverent.“Oh dear, we got held up by a last-minute meeting at the school. I’m terribly sorry!”“We’ve kept you waiting in a place like this. That’s our fault. Please forgive us, Professor Jackson.”I didn’t react much. I simply gave a small nod.To be fair, it wasn’t surprising that the dean was so nervous.To recruit me to the School of Life Sciences at Adams University, he had practically come to see me three separate times and offered me the best possible terms, a full professorship from day one.All I had wanted was to quietly focus on my research. I had no interest in spending extra time mentoring students.It was only after my grandfather and Lucy took turns persuading me, saying I should step out and start teaching the next generation, that I finally gave in.The moment I signed the contract, the school’s doctoral program application, which had been stalled for three years, was approved almost overnight.So in the dean’s eyes, I wasn’t ju

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