"Apologize."
Ryan Ford’s tone was harsh and crisp, his voice cold to the bone like a biting wind in the dead of winter.
Richard Carter had always respected Ryan; at the sound, his eyelids twitched, and he turned back nervously. "Captain Ford—"
Without listening to his explanation, Ryan’s face stayed frosty as he enunciated, "Apologize."
"..."
Richard hesitated for a long mont.
"I’m sorry, I was too extre in my words and actions." Taking a deep breath, Richard lowered his head, suppressing his resentnt and grievance, and said through gritted teeth, "Please, Miss Scott, don’t take it to heart."
Nora Scott smiled. "Okay, but I don’t accept it."
With an apology this reluctant and half‑assed, whoever wants to accept it can accept it. She sure doesn’t.
"What exactly do you want?!" Richard demanded. Maybe he felt too wronged, because his eyes actually turned red.
Nora was stunned by the pitiful grievance in his gaze.
What the fuck?
This guy’s a drama king, right? Making it look like she’s the one bullying him...
Nora paused for a beat, and right then, her sugar daddy Pedro Langley said in a deep voice, "Swap him out."
Two words, decisive and clean, easily determining whether Richard stayed or left.
Richard froze.
Ryan and Richard were friends in private; he didn’t want to see this outco, which was why he’d ordered Richard to apologize. Now that Pedro had spoken, he hesitated, wanting to argue, "Mr. Langley—"
"Would you like to list it out for you one by one? Making her wait at the door when she first arrived, then throwing her bag, forming cliques to target her, and then ganging up online..." Pedro cut him off, defending Nora without holding back. "She’s here to help, not to be treated like crap. You all haven’t bullied her enough yet, and now even an assistant thinks he can push her around, treating her like so soft persimmon you can squeeze?!"
"..."
Such an overprotective speech left the experts completely confused.
Hold on.
Who’s bullying who again?!
When has Nora ever not hit back hard?!
But Deputy Llewellyn had said it on the first night: "Whoever makes the first move is the cheap one." Thinking it over, it really was them who provoked her first, and only then did Nora start fighting back.
Realizing this, the experts actually felt a little guilty.
Before today, no matter what Nora or Pedro said, Ryan would have shielded Richard.
But Richard picked the worst possible ti to stir up trouble.
Nora had just shown her skill in chanical Techniques. Even if the experts still had issues with her as a person, in terms of ability they’d collectively changed their opinions and unanimously acknowledged her, so even wanting to "consult" her. At a ti like this, how could they possibly force Nora out for Richard’s sake?!
After thinking a mont, Ryan lifted his gaze and swept it over Richard, then made his decision on the spot. "You leave right now."
"Captain Ford..." Richard panicked.
"Not up for discussion."
Ryan didn’t give him any room to haggle.
"..."
Richard knew what kind of man Ryan was—when he said sothing, it was final. With him acting like this, there was no way Richard could stay.
He drew in a breath, and rather than standing there continuing to embarrass himself, he shot Nora a cold glare, then turned and left.
Ryan glanced at Richard’s back and then retracted his gaze. He asked Nora, "You’re not free this afternoon?"
"Nope."
"Then when will you be free?" Ryan pressed.
It was like he wouldn’t leave without a definite answer.
"Haven’t decided." Nora said calmly. "If you have questions, you can contact on WeChat."
That was a compromise.
Ryan thought it over and decided to agree.
But the next second, he saw Nora curl her lips into a smile, her eyes sweeping around the cafeteria with a teasing glint as she joked, "On the condition that you add back into the group chat first."
"..."
The experts instantly felt their scalps tingle.
Back when Richard kicked Nora out of the group, they’d actually been pretty happy—finally they didn’t have to see that irritating troublemaker popping up in the chat.
Ryan had clearly known about it and had tacitly allowed Richard to do it. Now that Nora had called it out in front of everyone, he didn’t have the nerve to keep arguing; he just grunted an "Mm" and hurriedly turned to leave.
His expression kind of cracked as he turned around.
Frank Ford was leaning against Thomas Langley, silently cracking up. After a long while, he said, "Ever since I joined the team, that guy’s kept a straight face and talked cold as ice. Finally seeing him crack is so damn satisfying, hahahahaha..."
Thomas: "..."
Soone please co drag away this brat who’s about to laugh himself crazy.
*
Richard casually packed up his luggage and walked out of the villa.
"Assistant Carter," a security guard called out to him, beaming. "All done with work?"
Richard’s expression stiffened. He gave a noncommittal "Mm."
"While you guys were in a eting, we saw Captain Smith get a few people to carry sothing big into the conference room. Heard it was a model?" The guard chatted idly with him. "Looks like your project’s going pretty well, huh?"
Richard Carter wasn’t stupid. He keenly sensed sothing was off and asked, "Why do you care about that?"
"Just asking," the security guard smiled. "My kid at ho’s been sick lately. If things go smoothly for you, this can wrap up earlier. Then I can spend more ti with my kid."
That reason was passable.
Richard nodded in understanding, paused, then said, "The project’s going pretty smoothly."
"Because of the chanical Techniques?"
"Yeah."
Even if he wasn’t thrilled about it, that much Richard still had to admit.
"Master Sliver is really sothing." The security guard sighed, then casually sought confirmation from Richard. "Right?"
"Has to be." Richard drew his brows together, thinking of the culprit who’d gotten him pushed out, and added unhappily, "Master Sliver is Master Sliver. Not so random stray cat and dog shoved in here who can be compared to her."
The security guard paused, his eyes flicked, then he smiled.
Speak of the devil, and the devil appears.
Just as Richard was about to end the conversation and leave, he heard a "Assistant Carter," and when he turned his head, he saw Daniela Esteves jogging over.
Richard’s heart stirred. "Master Sliver."
Did she specially co to see him off?
Or to comfort him?
Just the thought of it made Richard’s heart ripple uncontrollably.
However, Daniela just glanced at his car and asked, "Assistant Carter, are you leaving right now? The site visit continues this afternoon, I want to head over early. Can you give a lift?"
"..." Richard froze for a second, confird Daniela didn’t have the slightest trace of regret or farewell, pressed his lips together, but quickly nodded. "Sure, get in."
"Thanks."
Daniela followed behind him.
Normally, Daniela was never enthusiastic about field investigations. She’d always preferred scooping up ready-made data.
But with Nora Scott stealing the spotlight, making her look even more useless by comparison, she felt so uncomfortable hanging around the experts that she might as well leave ahead of ti.
Getting so air wouldn’t hurt.
...
The two of them got in the car.
And that security guard from earlier, after seeing the vehicle leave, shiftily scanned the surroundings, then walked to a corner, took out his phone, and dialed a number.
"They should have finalized their project blueprints. They’re using chanical Techniques, with Master Sliver as the main engineer." The security guard quickly finished his report, then his voice suddenly dropped low. "She just happened to hitch a ride with soone and left. The license plate is XXXXX. This is a rare opportunity. I recomnd you move in."
*
After lunch, the experts collectively vanished.
Nora Scott wanted to talk to Shaw about the model, so she didn’t hurry off and instead went with Shaw back to the conference room.
And during this period of ti, the experts awkwardly gathered together, stiffly discussing the sa topic—
How to apologize online.
"We’re really gonna call her granny on the internet? At my age, I could be her grandpa. I’d die of embarrassnt."
"Once this kind of Weibo goes out, I’ll never be able to show my face in the academic circle again."
"Say no more, just thinking about it now makes my skin crawl. How did we end up getting played like a fiddle by so little kid?"
"We never should’ve posted on Weibo! Stuff like this, you brush over it in private, nobody knows and it’s done. Now everyone and their grandma knows."
...
"What’s the point of arguing about it now? Think about how to fix it."
"With Nora Scott’s temper, we can only apologize."
"True. If we don’t, the online attacks on her are never going to stop."
"Even the dia have stepped out to criticize her. What’s that phrase again—oh, ’full‑platform blacklisted’. She’s got eighty million fans, and barely any of them are speaking up for her."
"...So we’re the ones who ruined her?"
"But she really did go a bit too far!"
...
They all talked over one another.
In the end, soone asked, "Can’t we get Deputy Llewellyn to put in a good word for us?"
"..."
Imdiately, all their gazes swept in unison toward Deputy Llewellyn, who was making tea.
"Don’t look at ." Deputy Llewellyn paused, then hurriedly made his position clear. "I’m here to supervise you in fulfilling your promise. If you ask , the Hall Master’s already being rciful with you. Otherwise... forget it, I won’t say more."
With the capabilities of Biel Hall, crushing these old fossils would be child’s play.
Soone was puzzled. "Deputy Llewellyn, we keep hearing you call her ’Hall Master, Hall Master’—what hall is it, exactly? Don’t tell it’s really ’The Hall of Beauty Like a Flower’ or sothing. You don’t look the type."
"Oh." Deputy Llewellyn straightened his sleeves and smiled. "One of you must’ve heard of it. Biel Hall. The ’intelligence organization that knows everything under the sun’ in the Martial World."
"..."
"..."
"..."
The whole world went quiet in that instant.
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