Chapter 3

The phone was on speaker, and every word came through clearly to my ears.

Harrison hung up the phone and looked at me with bloodshot eyes, his voice hoarse: "Lucy Snow, did you hear that? Now it's not just about saving your sister, it's about completing Charlie's rescue plan! This is an order!"

I lazily yawned, not even bothering to respond to him.

Just then, there was a commotion outside the detention center.

Several parents of the missing students, having somehow gotten wind of the news, had rushed here as well.

As soon as they saw me, they fell to their knees in unison with a thud.

"Professor Snow! Please! Please save our children!"

"Yes, Professor Snow, we only have one daughter, she can't die!"

Cries and pleas rang out in a chorus.

I looked down at them from above, my gaze as cold as ice.

"What does their life or death have to do with me?"

One sentence silenced all the crying.

They looked at me in disbelief, as if looking at a monster.

One of the mothers reacted, immediately pulling out her phone from her pocket, opening a screenshot of a transfer record, and holding it up in front of me.

"How can it not be related to you! This is the record of my daughter paying you 'research fees'!"

"She said you stipulated that every month, we had to transfer $5,000 to this account, otherwise you wouldn't let her participate in projects or graduate!"

"Our children's futures are in your hands, how can you stand by and watch them die!"

Others also took out their phones, one transfer record after another, like heavy hammers, striking at me.

"Yes! Our family paid too!"

"We all paid! For two whole years!"

Harrison, seeing those records, trembled with anger, pointing at my nose, his voice quavering.

"You... you ungrateful daughter!"

"Not only are you cold-blooded and heartless, but you've also done such despicable things as corruption and extorting students!"

"You've completely disgraced our Land family!"

He shouted in rage, as if I had really committed some unforgivable crime.

But he and I both knew the truth.

That receiving account didn't belong to me at all.

It belonged to his precious daughter, Stella.

No matter how they begged, cursed, or even threatened to die, I had no reaction.

I was like an outsider, coldly watching this farce unfold.

Time ticked by second by second, and the golden window for rescuing the "Deep Diver" was rapidly closing.

The online public opinion had completely exploded.

#Chief Engineer Lucy Snow Refuses Rescue#

#Lucy Snow Suspected of Leaking Secrets, Detained#

#Lucy Snow Extorts Students#

One glaring topic after another was pushed to the top of trending searches. My name, in just a few short hours, had become synonymous with cold-bloodedness, greed, and shamelessness.

Just then, in the live rescue broadcast, a weak and intermittent electrical sound suddenly came through.

It was Stella.

"Sis... sis... can you hear me..."

She seemed to be using all her strength, her voice full of fear of death and a desire for life.

"Sis... I believe in you... I know you'll save me..."

"Ever since we were little... you've always been the sister I admired most... you won't abandon me, right?"