The phone rang again and again. The cold smile on Gloria Alden’s face twisted into a sneer. "Look at that. She doesn’t even dare to answer the phone!"
The surrounding students began to murmur amongst themselves. "Sinclair, do you think your family got scamd?"
A smile played on Mona Lowell’s lips. "It could also be a university student working as a part-ti tutor."
Just as she was speaking, the call finally went through. A middle-aged man’s voice ca from the phone, "Aurora, is there a question you wanted to ask?"
The mont Gloria Alden heard his voice, she imdiately asked haughtily, "I am Aurora Sinclair’s physics teacher. Are you the one who told her to read a university physics textbook?"
Chester Greene glanced at his phone, confused. Just as he was about to reply, a doctoral student rushed over with a lab report. "Professor Greene, there’s a problem with the SG experint!"
Chester Greene held up a hand to the doctoral student, then said into the phone, "Hold on a mont!"
A series of incomprehensible, professional physics terms ca through Aurora Sinclair’s phone: Stern-Gerlach experint, quantum superposition, silver atoms, Z-direction spin...
The students of Class Six were collectively silent.
They silently turned to look at Aurora Sinclair’s calm, expressionless face.
The mocking smile on Gloria Alden’s face slowly froze. The look in her eyes gradually grew serious, and she stared, unblinking, at the phone.
About three minutes later, the middle-aged man’s voice ca through again. "Sorry about that! Kept you waiting! What were you saying just now? Could you repeat that?"
Gloria Alden was at a loss for words.
She could feel her face burning with embarrassnt. The man on the other end of the line was clearly a university professor, and his level of expertise was far, far beyond her own.
"Hello? Is the signal bad? Hello...?" The man’s voice was tinged with confusion, and it sounded like he was walking around.
Every now and then, the sound of students respectfully addressing him as "Professor Greene" drifted through the phone.
Feeling too awkward to remain silent, Gloria Alden spoke, her tone now much more polite. "Hello, may I ask who this is?"
"This is Chester Greene. Has sothing happened to Aurora?"
Gloria Alden froze. Her expression shifted from disbelief to fervor, then to utter fanaticism!
’Chester Greene? Did I hear that right?’
’The youngest physics professor at Arcadian University?’
’The researcher so brilliant that foreign powers are wary of him?’
’The pioneering leader of the new generation in Veridia’s physics community?’
’The...’
Gloria Alden was ecstatic, her voice trembling. "No, no, Professor Greene. I just saw Aurora reading a university physics book during class and was a little surprised..."
This complete one-eighty in her speech and attitude completely stunned the students of Class Six.
’Is this the sa Gloria Alden who thinks only Class A students are precious gems and the rest of us are just dirt?’
The students of Class Six were plunged into a state of bewildernt. Only a few of the physics whizzes knew the na Chester Greene, and they looked as if they had been struck by lightning, staring dumbly at Aurora Sinclair with their mouths agape.
The middle-aged man’s voice continued from the phone, "Oh, so it’s about that! Aurora has already mastered the entire high school physics curriculum, so I had her start on university-level physics..."
Gloria Alden’s eyes went wide. She gave Aurora Sinclair a complicated look, finding it impossible to believe that Aurora had truly mastered all of high school physics.
Chester Greene continued, "Aurora! As my student, you don’t need to be so modest. It wouldn’t be out of line to get a perfect score in physics!"
Aurora thought for a mont, then asked him, "Didn’t you say 80?"
"Eighty is too low! Don’t I have a reputation to uphold? I don’t care about your other subjects, but for physics, you need at least 100!"
"Mm..."
After the call ended, the students of Class Six, along with Gloria Alden, all stared at Aurora Sinclair with complicated expressions.
It was the first ti they had ever seen a teacher and student discuss test scores in such a refreshingly unconventional way.
’A big shot! She’s definitely a big shot!’
After that, Gloria Alden was like a completely different person. She bead at Aurora Sinclair, her smile radiant. "Aurora! You have to listen to Professor Greene and get that 100!"
Aurora Sinclair nodded solemnly.
Having received her assurance, Gloria Alden added another word of praise, "Study hard, and strive to be as outstanding as your sister, Stella Sinclair!"
Aurora Sinclair nodded again.
Gloria Alden returned to the lectern, picked up her lesson plan, and walked out of the Class Six classroom, humming a tune.
The students left behind in Class Six were, once again, speechless.
After a long while, Mandy Warren suddenly asked, "Sinclair, are you part of the Sinclair Family from Kingsford—the ’Real Estate Kings’?"
Aurora Sinclair didn’t know about any "Real Estate King," but Sue Quinn had always ntioned the Sinclair Family of Kingsford, so she asked, "What’s a ’Real Estate King’?"
The students of Class Six were once again plunged into a state of bewildernt.
’This Sinclair doesn’t even know what industry her own family is in, does she?’
’Could she really be an illegitimate daughter? An illegitimate daughter of the Sinclair family?’
***
The news that Aurora Sinclair was a student of Chester Greene spread like wildfire throughout Kingsford No. 1 High School. The forum post that broke the news went viral!
[SHOCKER! Third-year school belle Aurora Sinclair is actually a student of Arcadian University’s Professor Chester Greene! If you don’t know who Chester Greene is, you should look him up!]
Besides being frantically shared by the students, the post also circulated wildly among the teachers.
Physics teachers from every grade level excitedly began to inquire about Aurora Sinclair’s background and class.
Leon Barron had been at a district eting all day and knew nothing about the forum drama. The mont he walked into the office, he was t with jealous remarks from the other teachers, especially Gloria Alden from the experintal Class A, who was practically green with envy.
"Mr. Barron, you really have a good eye for talent!"
"Mr. Barron, don’t forget to treat us to a al when you get promoted!"
"Mr. Barron, with luck like this, you’re set for life. You can just coast to victory!"
Leon Barron was completely baffled. He felt like sothing was off today.
’Did those rascals in my class do sothing big again?’
At that thought, he couldn’t be bothered to listen to what else the other teachers were saying and hurried toward his classroom.
It was the middle of math class. He stood at the back door of the classroom, peering inside through the window.
A few of the troublemakers in the back row were still playing gas with their headphones on, but the other students seed fine. ’Nothing seems out of the ordinary.’
As he kept watching, his gaze fell on Aurora Sinclair.
’Could it be that Aurora Sinclair caused so kind of trouble?’
***
After class, Mandy Warren and Mona Lowell went to the restroom together.
Mandy saw that Mona had a long face and assud she was afraid that Aurora’s physics scores would surpass hers in the future.
She comforted her, saying, "Mona, those people in our class are just clueless. So what if it’s just one physics professor from Arcadian University? That’s the best the Sinclair family can do. If it were your family, Mona, you could definitely hire experts and scholars from the Academy of Sciences."
Mona Lowell gave her a strange look but didn’t say anything.
On their way back, they happened to run into Jean Quincy and her friends walking toward them. The two groups exchanged greetings.
After Jean Quincy had left, Mona Lowell asked, seemingly nonchalantly, "Aurora Sinclair is a Sinclair, and Jean Quincy’s mother is a Sinclair too, but how co they don’t seem to know each other?"
Mandy Warren suddenly rembered what had happened in the cafeteria yesterday at noon. Her eyes lit up as if she had just figured out so huge secret, and she whispered to Mona Lowell, "That Aurora Sinclair is one hundred percent an illegitimate daughter of the Sinclair family!"
"That can’t be right!"
"It has to be! Soone who can’t be presented in public naturally wouldn’t be acknowledged!" Mandy Warren’s face was full of confidence, and she completely missed the smile that lifted the corners of Mona Lowell’s mouth.
And so, the rumor that Aurora Sinclair was the illegitimate daughter of the Sinclair family spread through Class Six, eventually reaching the ears of Ethan Lowell.
At noon, Alex Warren and Ethan Lowell were playing basketball on the court with Zeke Quincy.
Alex Warren asked Zeke Quincy curiously, "Young Master Shawn, is the belle of our class really the Sinclairs’ illegitimate daughter?"
Zeke Quincy didn’t offer a defense, choosing to avoid the topic and simply deflecting with a faint smile.
He had heard the rumors about her being an illegitimate daughter long ago, but he really didn’t have a good impression of Aurora Sinclair, so he naturally wouldn’t speak up for her.
He quickly dribbled past a player and threw a three-pointer. The basketball traced an arc through the air and fell through the nearby hoop.
Squeals from a few younger girls erupted from the sidelines.
Alex Warren muttered under his breath, "So she really is an illegitimate daughter..."
Ethan Lowell looked up at him, his eyes narrowing slightly.
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