Luna swallowed hard. “I could probably go a whole year without eating or sleeping and still not match his speed or precision.
“But if we set those aside, I think I have a shot at graduating smoothly.”
Erin’s expression darkened. “You only want to graduate smoothly?”
“Of course not,” Luna said as she shook her head. “If I can get into grad school, I’ll keep pursuing this major. I want to accomplish something here.”
Erin’s expression eased slightly. “Why?”
Luna pursed her lips and gave a rare smile. She had a sweet face, and when she smiled, it was especially endearing. “Besides the two reasons I gave yesterday, would you believe me if 1 said I’ve fallen in love with it?”
Erin burst into laughter. “You’ve got taste, child. That’s the right thing to do. Remember what you just said. If you don’t pick this major for grad school, I’ve got plenty of ways to make sure you don’t graduate.”
Suzie sneakily tugged on Rhett’s sleeve. “Look at my mom. Doesn’t she seem like a bandit luring in a naive little girl? Poor Luna doesn’t know she’s being schemed against.”
“No one’s scheming against her.” Rhett’s expression darkened.
Suzie raised an eyebrow. “Of course she is. Mom’s been eyeing Luna for a while now. After all, she’s the top student of our faculty. She’s been waiting to poach her from Professor Hanley and drag her into traditional treatment.
“Now, she finally got her wish.”
Rhett’s expression grew colder as he turned and glared at Suzie. “She came to us.”
Suzie quickly nodded. “Yeah, yeah, whatever. But how do you know she came to us? Maybe she was looking for another professor that day at the hospital, and Mom intercepted her.”
“You’re overthinking it. She’s already a senior, and if she wants to change her major, acupuncture is her best bet.” Rhett gave Suzie a look, as if she were an idiot.
“She was doing fine in a mainstream major, so why would she switch? Even if she wanted a double degree, why choose something so niche?” Suzie couldn’t understand.
“She had no way out,” Rhett said as he threw the tablet over.
Suzie glanced at the screen showing the campus forum. “She accused Mia of plagiarism and was disliked by the entire team? Not only was she criticized, but she also had to apologize? “Even so, she didn’t have to leave her team and come to us. That’s Professor Hanley’s team
Chopp
we’re talking about. They’re top–tier!”
Rhett sneered. “Because she’s not stupid. Rather than be some doormat, she could be the favored student here. What would you choose?”
“If it were me, I’d obviously stick with the mainstream major! You know how it is. If
acupuncture wasn’t a family tradition, I never would’ve studied it,” Suzie replied matter–of- flatly.
Then, she continued, “From Luna’s perspective, she should stick with Professor Hanley’s
team if she wants a good job. Even if she’s invisible there, at least she’s an invisible part of a prestigious team. Isn’t that better than a niche major with no job prospects and little research future?”
“Hah!” Rhett looked at Suzie as if she were an idiot again. “So, all that effort you made to talk her into staying was to get yourself a head start running away? Shall I tell Aunt Erin about it?”
Suzie glared at him. “Shut up. I was helping you vent, okay? I’m sure you picked this major back then because…”
Rhett’s expression darkened almost instantly. “Read the posts and shut up!”
“She quit Professor Hanley’s team, and it’s already public. The whole campus forum is talking about it. I wonder who she pissed off this time to have her escape routes cut off.
“Well then, I guess I won’t have to convince her anymore. She has to stay now,” Suzie said clicking her tongue.
Rhett grabbed the tablet back and skimmed through it. The corners of his lips curled into a sneer. “Remember when Aunt Erin and Professor Hanely fought over that student? Would your like to help her get her revenge?”
Back then, Erin and Wilson had similar research directions. Both were senior professors with lots of teaching experience and were about the same rank.
At that time, a promising new graduate student had been their target, and they both wanted to rope the student over to their team.
The student had agreed to join Erin’s team, but somehow, Wilson pulled some tricks and the student to change their mind.
got
That incident prompted Erin to leave mainstream majors and go in a completely opposite direction of Wilson’s research. That was to make sure he could never steal another one of her students again.
However, because the field she picked was too nice, she was a joke among the faculty for a long time. Everyone said she’d completely lost to Wilson.
“What are you planning? You’d better not act recklessly. Luna might not want people to know she switched majors, and you can’t just make that public without her approval.” Suzie looked
nervous.
Rhett glanced at her and walked straight to Luna “When did you quit Wilson’s team?”
“I submitted my resignation request last night.” Luna blinked and was unsure why Rhett would suddenly ask this.
“Do you want to make your joining Professor Willer’s team public?” he probed.
A spark of surprise flitted across Luna’s face. “Really? Can I actually join her team? I thought I had to wait until the finals for this semester ended.
“If I can join, I’d surely want it public!”
If that happened, Wyatt’s group could see how serious she was. She wasn’t bluffing, and she really meant to leave the team!
Rhett
gave a small smile. “Let’s make it public then.”
“You brat!” Erin playfully scolded but didn’t oppose. Instead, she pulled Luna over. “You’ve got all the acupoints correct, but just knowing the names isn’t enough. You need to locate them correctly on the body.
“I’ll give you three days, and I’ll test you again after that. If you don’t pass, there will be punishment.”
Luna was in a great mood, and her smile was the sweetest it had ever been. “I’ll definitely pass! Don’t worry, professor!
“So I’ve joined the team, right? You guys aren’t lying to me, are you?”
“Rhett is going to make it public, so how can it not be real?” Suzie walked over and Rhett working on the tablet.
inted to
Luna happily threw her arms around her. “That’s great! Awesome!” This was the happiest thing that’d happened to her since her rebirth. She never expected switching mentors to go this smoothly.
She wasn’t sure if Erin would turn out to be better than Wilson, but at least they had no conflicts of interest for now.
But more importantly, she believed that as long as she treated the acupuncturists with sincerity, they wouldn’t necessarily be horrible people.
After Rhett posted about Luna joining the team on the forum, he tossed the tablet back to
Suzie.
No one paid much attention after that as they went back to prepping for the consultation. To them, it was nothing more than Erin accepting one more student. It was no big deal.
“Charger
Over on the campus, Wyatt and the others fumed,
Luna’s
“Who the hell made Luna’s withdrawal public? Are you guys braindead? She just apologized to Mia, and Professor Hanley agreed to let her join the team. If she quits now, what are people supposed to think?” Wyatt was practically yelling
Even if Luna was going to quit, they had to do it privately and not blast it all over the campus. forum!
