She Left She Thrived She’s Worth Billions novel Chapter 376

"These aren't honeysuckle. They're wild mountain honeysuckle. The supplier mixed up the order, which is exactly why the batch was rejected."

An uproar immediately rippled through the crowd.

Dr. Hayes was the first to rush over to the small square table.

He pulled a magnifying glass from his pocket and scrutinized the herbs on the plate.

"It... it really is mountain honeysuckle."

Hearing this, Aria rushed over as well.

She was a pharmacy major, after all. Upon closer inspection, she could clearly see that the herbs masquerading as true honeysuckle were indeed the cheaper mountain variety.

A drop of cold sweat slid down Aria's temple.

Beside her, Sabrina stomped her foot in utter frustration.

After coaxing Nathaniel into revealing that the test for tonight's welcome banquet would be identifying the quality issue with a rejected batch of honeysuckle, Sabrina had ruthlessly drilled Aria on every possible defect. It never even crossed her mind that the herbs simply wouldn't be honeysuckle at all.

"All those quality control issues you just rattled off... you generated those with AI, didn't you?"

A gentle breeze carried Melanie's nonchalant voice across the patio.

Aria's jaw dropped as she sucked in a sharp breath.

"Stop slandering her! Aria is brilliant! She would never stoop to looking things up with AI!"

Sabrina defended her daughter with exasperated fury.

"If the medicinal herbs grown at the Royce Group's ecological base actually suffered from all the horrific issues you just described, the company wouldn't have survived this long. They would have gone bankrupt years ago."

Every single guest in the room silently agreed with Melanie's logic.

What kind of establishment was the Royce Group?

They were the undisputed titans of the herbal medicine industry.

Even if a batch had been returned, it would never be for the catastrophic, amateur reasons Aria had just recited.

"Now that I think about it, everything Aria said sounded professional at first, but it totally had that generic, AI-generated vibe!"

"Isn't she supposed to be a top student? Why would she use AI?"

"And she genuinely couldn't even tell the difference between true honeysuckle and mountain honeysuckle!"

The tide of public opinion turned in an instant, leaving Aria drowning in humiliation.

She lowered her head, though she couldn't resist shooting a vicious glare at Melanie.

Aria's eyes filled with sudden panic, as if Melanie had just struck a devastating nerve.

"Now that you mention it..."

Dr. Hayes naturally picked up the thread of the conversation.

He stroked his chin, muttering thoughtfully,

"Aria was jointly recommended by Mr. Brenner and Dr. Hartmann. They explicitly asked me to take her under my wing for the new cold medicine project."

"Mr. Brenner and Dr. Hartmann, huh..."

Melanie dragged out the syllables, leaving the implication hanging heavily in the air.

"Stop looking down on me!"

Abandoning her sweet, ladylike persona entirely, Aria shrieked at Melanie at the top of her lungs.

"You couldn't even get into the project! What gives you the right to point fingers at me?"

"She has every right."

Accompanied by a deep, magnetic voice, Preston slowly stood up.