She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 328

Several teachers from the Ace Class and Giselle's homeroom teacher, Mr. Ludlow, were present, seated next to Hallie. They had collaborated on the questions, but with a tacit understanding: there would be no shared answer key. The standard answer for each question existed only in the mind of its creator.

Cyrilla was also seated in the auditorium. She glanced at the packed hall and then at the composed figure of Loyce. "Why is only Loyce here? Is she participating too? Is Giselle not coming?"

"If she doesn't show, she'll be expelled," Hallie said, giving her a cold look. "The outcome will be the same."

Cyrilla caught Hallie's subtle glance and obediently fell silent.

Down in the audience, students from Cyrilla's class were murmuring. The news had spread that Loyce was a useless heiress who had scraped into college on the back of her family's wealth.

"She's got some nerve, challenging so many teachers in a public Q&A with her limited skills."

"I heard from Cyrilla that her tutor is incredible, a PhD who studied abroad, specializing in physics and math," a student said. "This rich girl is done for."

"But I remember seeing her at the Steinway piano competition. I thought she played really well."

"Who knows if the audio was dubbed over in post-production."

At two o'clock, under the watchful eyes of everyone present, a breathless Giselle finally arrived.

She scanned the auditorium, intimidated by the crowd at first. But the moment she met Loyce’s calm gaze from the stage, she steadied. Her previously hunched back straightened, and she walked to the seat reserved for her.

Across from her and Loyce sat Hallie and a panel of seven or eight teachers, including those from the Ace Class.

It was quite an intimidating setup.

"Since everyone is here," Clayton announced, standing up, "the three of you will use the examination materials provided by the school. You will have exactly one hour to answer all the questions, and your scores will determine the final judgment."

"This test paper was jointly created under mutual supervision by the teachers and was only printed at one-thirty this afternoon. Therefore, besides the teachers, no one could know the questions. This is the fairest possible examination."

Cyrilla looked down at the paper, took a deep breath, and at Clayton's signal, began to write. Having already memorized all the answers, she started at the same time, feigning contemplation before writing down the solutions Hallie had provided her. It was the first time she had ever openly cheated in front of the entire school, with a teacher's help.

Clayton went forward to collect Cyrilla's and Giselle's papers, handing them to the teachers for grading. Loyce kept her own paper, tapping the tip of her pen against it as she waited for the results to be announced.

She already had a rough estimate of their scores. For Giselle, the accuracy rate would be around seventy percent at best. The last few questions were all beyond the curriculum, and worse, the person who wrote them had made a huge oversight, making two of the questions flawed and unsolvable.

The air in the auditorium was thick enough to chew. Even the spectating students fell silent, their drinks forgotten. The only sounds were the rustle of paper and the silent burn of countless gazes fixed on the thin test papers in the teachers' hands.

Giselle's straightened back grew stiff, her cold fingertips digging into the hard wood of her chair. She could feel the stares coming from all directions—blatant doubt, contemptuous amusement—like a thousand tiny needles pricking at her skin. She instinctively looked across at Loyce.

Loyce was still leaning back in her chair, relaxed. A pen twirled between her slender fingers, its silver path steady and unhurried, as if the suffocating tension in the room had nothing to do with her. When she caught Giselle's frantic gaze, she tilted her head slightly and gave a faint nod, an almost imperceptible gesture that carried an undeniable sense of reassurance.

That tiny movement was like an invisible anchor, instantly steadying Giselle's heart, which was threatening to leap out of her throat. She knew that with Loyce here, she had nothing to fear, even if the sky were to fall.

From the judges' panel, Hallie noticed the small exchange and a cold, barely perceptible smirk touched her lips. She looked at the composed Loyce, her disdain nearly overflowing.