She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 331

“Do you see this?” Loyce’s voice was like a final judgment as she pointed to the equation on the whiteboard: 'v ≈ 0.9988c'. “Under the parameters you set, the electron’s velocity isn’t low enough to be handled by classical formulas, as you imagined. It reaches 99.88% of the speed of light! This is an extremely relativistic electron!”

She jabbed a finger toward the test paper.

“And yet, your question makes no mention of this! It still requires students to use the classical formula, which is only applicable when v is significantly less than c. The problem itself is fundamentally flawed.”

As her words fell, the entire auditorium descended into a dead silence. Every student, including those who had been mocking Giselle moments before, stared dumbfounded at the clear derivation and the shocking “0.9988c” on the whiteboard. The physics teachers, their faces grim, began murmuring to one another.

Hallie’s face had turned from pale to ashen. She swayed slightly, her fingers digging into the edge of the lectern so hard her knuckles turned white. Her lips trembled, but as she tried to form a rebuttal, it felt as though her throat was blocked, and not a single word would come out. Loyce’s proof was irrefutable. The “difficult problem” she had been so proud of had just been exposed as a massive, laughable blunder in the face of true physical laws.

“So, that makes me very curious,” Loyce said, a faint, sharp smile playing on her lips. “Why would the answer to this flawed question appear, verbatim, on Cyrilla’s paper? Her problem-solving method and her line of reasoning are identical to yours, Hallie. Is that a coincidence? Or just a case of a teacher and student being perfectly in sync?”

“Or,” she paused, letting the implication hang in the air, “did you give Cyrilla the answer beforehand?”

Loyce’s question sent the room into an uproar. Every eye in the auditorium swiveled like a spotlight, focusing intensely on Cyrilla, on the near-perfect physics and math papers in front of her, and on Hallie’s deathly pale face on the stage.

She took a deep breath and looked toward the other teachers who had contributed to the exam, as if searching for support. Her voice took on a deliberate, self-righteous tone.

“More importantly, this exam wasn’t just my questions! What about the other teachers’ problems? What about the math section? Cyrilla scored nearly full marks on those as well! Did I ‘give’ her those answers too? Did the other teachers also help her cheat? Loyce, you can’t use my mistake on a single question to negate the genuine skill Cyrilla demonstrated on all the others! This is malicious speculation! It’s slander!”

Her speech, though rambling and defensive, was just enough to sow doubt and momentarily steady some of the wavering opinions in the audience.

They had a point. One flawed question didn’t mean all of them were. Cyrilla had done exceptionally well on the rest of the test; surely that wasn’t all copied? And even if Hallie had made a mistake, that didn’t automatically mean she’d abetted cheating. That was a serious accusation against her character.