Chapter 1 The Explosion

"Sarah, the one who's not loved, is the third wheel. Mr. Carter can only choose between you and me. Let's make a bet and see who he picks!" After Amanda said this, she knocked over the gas cylinder on the table.

In that split second, the force of the explosion sent both of us flying toward the door. Unfortunately, Amanda blocked the door immediately.

When I saw her take out a wet towel and cover her mouth, I realized she had come prepared.

The fire grew larger, and alarms blared throughout the laboratory. I was worried about my experiments. As I impatiently tried to push Amanda aside, I suddenly caught a peculiar smell.

Oh no! What was happening?

In that split second, my legs went weak, and I started to feel dizzy.

Suddenly, William opened the lab door while wearing a gas mask.

At the same time, Amanda threw the wet towel onto my face.

I reached out my hand toward William and said, "Help me!"

However, William picked up Amanda, who was panting. He looked at me and said, "Wait for the rescue team. You protected yourself well but left your student exposed to the smoke. A teacher should care for their students. If anything happens to Amanda, you don't deserve to be a teacher!"

As soon as he finished speaking, my head began to throb intensely. My hand went limp, and I could only watch as they left with a blurry sight.

William and I had stopped talking to each other for a month. After some time, he texted me and told me to place Amanda into my lab group to enhance her resume for her PhD application. I didn't refuse at that moment since I thought this was his way of trying to reconcile.

However, after Amanda joined the lab, she disrespected me and kept going against me. I complained about this to William, but he always believed I was the one who bullied her first. Slowly, I was too tired to argue with him.

My head hurt, and I felt like I was about to die. The experiment I was doing was only one cycle away from completion.

William, I wonder how you would react if you knew you indirectly caused my death and Astran University to be kicked out from the World Project group.

…

My colleagues were dealing with the gas leak in the lab while the students crowded around me as they watched the rescue team performing initial treatment for my poisoning.

Unfortunately, William didn't see any of this. At this moment, he was probably accompanying Amanda at the hospital.

…

The rescue team worked hard to save me. However, I had already lost consciousness.

Suddenly, my soul left my body.

Just like that, my life was nothing more than a fleeting dream.

"I'm sorry," the rescue team leader said sadly.

At the same time, the heart monitor showed a flat line.

The students broke into sobs. My colleagues were already drained from clearing the toxic gas in the lab. When they heard the news of my death, they collapsed to the ground.

Jessica, one of my colleagues, leaned against the wall and said calmly, "I don't think Sarah's death was an accident."

Lisa, one of my students, suddenly exclaimed, "Amanda must have something to do with it!"

When Jessica heard her words, her face turned pale. Then, she said sorrowfully, "Sarah is the only one who fully understood the experimental data for Project X. She can't just die like this!"

Another colleague of mine, Winny, said heavily, "She documented the data thoroughly and was going to use it to apply for the World Project. However, we weren't responsible for her part of the experiment. Even if we get that data, it won't be enough. This project is ruined!"

I wanted to cry but had no tears. I had wasted the school's resources, and everyone's precious five years.

Just as I was about to apologize, a mysterious force suddenly pulled me toward William.

At this moment, he was sitting beside Amanda with a dark expression.

We had stopped talking for a long time, so it had been ages since I had looked at him so closely.

Back then, he was the famous but poor campus heartthrob of the university. However, he was a proud man and never surrendered to life's hardships. I loved him for this.

Later, I rejected offers from prestigious research institutes just to stay by his side. After courting him for a long time, my wish came true as I became engaged to him.

After he became a professor, time seemed to favor him as he grew more handsome, attracting many girls. However, he remained indifferent and even went to extreme lengths to reject them.

Still, there was one exception—Amanda Rowley.

After meeting Amanda, he seemed to have become a different person. Even though she failed four of her courses, he still praised her as a genius. For her sake, he even broke his promises to me time and again.

Thinking about this, I felt a pang in my chest.

Suddenly, William looked at me with a soft expression and asked, "Are you okay?"

I was horrified.