Chapter 1

“We finally produced the material we’ve been researching for so long!”

“To celebrate the birth of this material, which is sure to make us famous in history, let’s raise our glasses to our greatest contributor, Ethan Miller!”

My wife, Claire Bennett, pushed up her glasses, lifted the wineglass in her hand, and gazed at Ethan with undisguised affection.

His face was glowing with joy as he looked back at Claire, his eyes just as full of emotion.

Ethan raised his glass high and looked at everyone.

“This experiment couldn’t have succeeded through my efforts alone. Everyone worked hard!”

“And of course, we couldn’t have done it without Professor Bennett’s help. Come on, let’s raise a glass to Professor Bennett!”

The material produced by this experiment could only be described as revolutionary: a room-temperature superconductor.

Because of this one material, our little-known lab had become the force leading a global transformation.

And because of this material alone, everyone in our lab was now destined to go down in history. Our names would appear in every university textbook on materials science.

No researcher could endure such glory without celebrating.

Happiness lit up everyone’s face. At that moment, they forgot their usual elegance and strict professionalism and gave themselves over completely to their excitement.

Ethan picked up an expensive bottle of champagne and shook it vigorously before popping the cork.

Sweet champagne sprayed into the air, and everyone’s excitement reached its peak.

The look in Claire’s eyes grew hotter and hotter as she stared at Ethan, and amid everyone’s cheers, she suddenly leaped into his arms.

Ethan caught her tightly, his hands wrapping around my wife’s lower back as they pressed their foreheads together, their mouths almost touching.

When the people in the lab saw this, the wild atmosphere made them forget Claire’s usual sternness, and they began egging the couple on.

“Kiss her! Kiss her!”

My wife, who normally wouldn’t even let me hold her hand, clung tightly to Ethan without saying a word of protest.

The second male lead wore an even broader smile as he called out to everyone in the lab.

“Don’t let Professor Carter find out about this!”

Whistles and jeers began to ring out among the employees.

“He’s just Professor Bennett’s pretty boy, here to pad his résumé!”

“Exactly! As far as we’re concerned, you two are a perfect match!”

“That useless man can’t do anything, yet he still wants to lead our lab. He doesn’t deserve it!”

And my wife, Claire, couldn’t even bring herself to scold them. Blushing shyly, she buried her face against Ethan’s neck.

Their faces drew closer and closer, while the cheers from the lab grew louder and louder.

Just before they kissed, I pushed open the door at the entrance to the banquet hall.

I had stayed up all night finishing the paper on the room-temperature superconductor and was about to submit it to Nature.

I had come to ask my wife whether there was anything else that needed revising.

But I searched the entire lab and couldn’t find a single person.

I called my wife again and again. Every second mattered. If we produced the material and published the paper before anyone else, we would truly become the fathers of room-temperature superconductivity.

I managed to get through to Claire countless times, but she never answered. I called everyone I knew at the lab, yet not one of them picked up.

In the end, an old employee who had been by my side since the lab was founded secretly told me that everyone was celebrating in the banquet hall.

But I never expected that after driving through the rain all night to get there, this would be the scene waiting for me.

Claire lifted her head from Ethan’s arms and looked at me.

Her face was flushed from alcohol and embarrassment, but her brows were tightly furrowed, and her gaze was colder than the rain outside.

“Alex Carter? What are you doing here? Did you finish the paper?”

“Didn’t I tell you to finish it and publish it as soon as possible? Did you just ignore everything I said?”

She was still in Ethan’s arms, greedily enjoying the warmth of his embrace.

“Since you’re here, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“Revise your paper. I’ve decided to give Ethan first-author credit and the naming rights.”

“Isn’t there an application for Outstanding Young Scholar coming up? With this achievement, Ethan will definitely get it.”

There was no discussion and no plea in her voice. There was only a cold command.

The heart that had just been burning with excitement was instantly doused by those few words.

Only then did the chill of the rainy night crawl over my body, and I couldn’t stop myself from shivering.

How many times had this happened? How many times had she spoken to me this way?

Ever since Ethan had joined the lab, Claire had changed the first author on every paper to Ethan.

Sometimes, I would spend days conducting an experiment and nights writing the paper, only for Claire to take it to Ethan the next morning and put his name in the first-author position.

This had happened countless times, but whenever it happened again, the anger was still impossible to suppress.

Everyone present was waiting for me to explode. They watched me with malicious smiles, eager to see me humiliated.

I stared at Claire, my eyes burning with fury.

They had never conducted this experiment or even read the paper, yet I had compromised again and again.

I had given them second-author credit and listed them as supervisors, but they still weren’t satisfied. They wanted to take first-author credit too.

The flames in my heart surged higher, nearly consuming me.

I pulled the lab director’s ID card from my coat—it hadn’t even had time to come off my neck—and shoved it into Ethan’s hand.

.

I smiled at the two of them and said, “How could I possibly hit anyone?”

“Fine, take it all. You can even be the director of this lab!”

“I quit!”