Getting Her Off from the High Horse

As the crowd was still present, Mrs Hansley could only indirectly confront Mr Spivak about the sudden change in the decision without informing her or the other higher authorities.

She went up to the new Head of Chemistry Department and hinted, "Mr Spivak, did you make any mistake in announcing the names of the top-ranking students?"

Mr Spivak thought that since the Dean of Sciences, Mrs Hansley had helped Aelia to get the top rank in all these years, this time too she was using her authority to help Aelia.

He had a disgusted expression on his face and righteously announced on stage, "Mrs Hansley, Phillon National University is one of the best educational institutions in the world. I'm sure that the Chancellor will agree with my decision to eliminate malpractices from the educational system.

When Mrs Hansley heard Mr Spivak even involving the Chancellor, she felt extremely vexed. In a hushed whisper, she asked Mr Spivak, " What are you doing? Did you investigate the situation thoroughly before making your decision?"

Though Mr Spivak momentarily hesitated after hearing Mrs Hansley's question, when he thought about how his friend's daughter had confidently confirmed the news, he again felt reassured.

He thought that why would Reine unnecessarily tell him false news? It was not like she could get any advantages from him by doing that!

So, Mr Spivak confidently retorted, "The news that I got about Aelia misusing her connections to get the top rank in the examinations is from a confirmed source. Mrs Hansley, don't you think as her elders as well as teachers, we should stop Aelia from going down the wrong path?"

Mrs Hansley felt frustrated about the situation and was about to scold Mr Spivak about his muddle-headed decision, when the Chancellor of the university also joined them on stage.

His authoritative figure had a serious expression on his face and he directly stopped Mr Spivak and Mrs Hansley from arguing any further with his few words.

"Since Mr Spivak thinks he made the right judgement, why don't we bring Aelia's paper on stage and let him decide again?"

As soon as everyone heard this, another commotion broke out among the audience.

"I can't believe even the Chancellor is supporting that fake bitch!"

"But could the rumours about Aelia have been actually wrong? Otherwise, why is even the Chancellor standing up for her?"

"You maybe right! Maybe we should just wait before judging anyone!"

"Hey! Did you people forget that even her own cousin testified against her? Maybe the Chancellor is supporting Mr Spivak and want to show Aelia's papers in front of everyone, so that Mrs Hansley can't continue to support her!"

"Hmm! Do you really think so! I felt that the Chancellor is angry with Mr Spivak's decision?"

When Reine heard the doubts and disbelief of the students about the accusation against Aelia, she gnashed her jaws in anger. She was also panicking a little as she had not thought that the Chancellor would be present today and he would even order Mr Spivak to recheck Aelia's paper on stage.

Reine tried to calm herself down and tried to think rationally, "Anyway, I've come this far! How can I back down now?"

Reine's friend, Natalie, who was sitting below the stage could see the worry on her friend's face. So, she decided to fan the flames against Aelia.

When Natalie heard one of her classmates wondering why the Chancellor would support Aelia without any rhyme or reason, Natalie turned towards the girl and said with a disgusted expression, "Why else do you think? It's because they have something inappropriate going on in between them! Maybe Mrs Hansley was forced to help Aelia in her underhanded methods in order to get into the good books of the Chancellor. Am I not right, Leila?"

Suddenly being put on the spot, Leila was momentarily shocked.

However, her silence was regarded by the students as Leila agreeing to what Natalie said.

The students again broke out into another fervent discussion.

Seeing this, Leila frowned and whispered to Natalie, "What are you saying? When did I say that Aelia did such inappropriate things!"

Natalie hissed back to Leila, "If you want to help our friend, Reine then just shut up! Besides, if this is not true, then it'll be just another false rumour and won't really harm your cousin, will it?"

When Leila heard this, though she felt a little conflicted, she decided to remain silent. She thought what Natalie said was quite reasonable. If this rumour was indeed false, then it would not really affect her cousin. But if it was true, then she too wanted to see this cousin of hers getting off her high horse!

Meanwhile, despite the ongoing commotion and the circulating rumours, Aelia kept her calm and continued to watch the show. Why did she need to worry when the truth will eventually be revealed?

Just as everyone was getting impatient with the Chancellor's decision for standing up for Aelia, a university official came back with Aelia's answer script of her examinations.

The official handed over the papers to the Chancellor, who in turn handed it to Mr Spivak with a dark look on his face.

When Mr Spivak looked through Aelia's answers, he was dumbfounded.

What was he seeing? The answers Aelia wrote were so detailed and precise that he was not sure that he himself could have written such comprehensive and critical answers.

Besides, he also would have difficulty in answering a few questions within the time limit of two hours, as the questions needed very thorough explanations. However, Aelia had not only answered each and every question, but all the questions were also provided with detailed yet accurate explanations.

Seeing Aelia's answer script, Mr Spivak felt that he was not looking at an answer-script of an examination but looking through a thesis paper.

With shaking hands and a disbelieving expression on his face, Mr Spivak looked at Reine with an accusing glare.

Seeing this Reine panicked and quickly thought of another plan.

She confidently said, "Mr Spivak, don't accuse me of saying the wrong things! Aelia's own cousin said that she was using her connections to get the top rank! Besides, how do we even know that this is the real answer script that Aelia answered during her examination? She could have very well used her connections to swap her answer script!"

The Chancellor and Mrs Hansley heard Reine's accusation with a dark look on their faces.

Actually, it was not that the Chancellor was going to extreme lengths to support Aelia. It was just that Aelia's doctoral thesis and experiments on plant poison had garnered a lot of attention from many renowned botanists as well as chemists.

So as the Chancellor of the University Aelia was a student of, he naturally felt proud of his student and wanted to show his support for this excellent pupil!