Flora’s Guide to a Second Chance at Love and Life

"Sure," Libby nodded.

Honestly, she thought Alexa was overthinking things. Even if she didn't help her study, there was no way Alexa would fail against Flora. Two months into the semester, and Flora had barely attended any of her professional classes.

Libby was known by all the teachers as the top student in the field. How could she possibly fail against Flora? She was determined to crush her underfoot!

Libby's thoughts drifted to the charismatic man she had met at the night market. Where was he now? She had been frequenting the night market these past few days, but hadn't seen him again. Libby was confident; given enough time, she was sure to make Connor fall head over heels for her.

Meanwhile, Shawn had just finished dinner with Flora and returned to the medical research lab. Alexa was already back and cleaning. When she saw him enter, she instinctively tried to hide. Shawn, however, didn't even glance her way and headed straight to Dr. Ray's office, knocking on the door before going in.

"Dr. Ray, you wanted to see me?"

"Shawn, come on in!"

Dr. Ray was engrossed in a stack of papers. Seeing Shawn, he waved him over with an enthusiastic smile.

"Shawn, you've made impressive progress lately. I read the paper you submitted on Monday, and it's outstanding. It shows the caliber of our lab's senior researchers!"

Shawn was puzzled. Was it really that good? It was just his usual work. He even thought it wasn't up to par and feared Dr. Ray would criticize him. Could it be that his work just happened to hit the mark for Dr. Ray?ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

"But there are a few sections I'm not quite clear on, so I wanted to ask what you meant by this part here," Dr. Ray said, handing Shawn the printed paper and pointing to the section in question. "What I initially intended here was..." Shawn began, but then he froze, staring at the unfamiliar paragraphs. This... wasn't what he wrote.

Shawn quickly examined the paper more closely. The more he looked, the more alarmed he became. It was his paper, alright, but it had been altered. The changes were subtle but brilliant, making the entire paper shine.

No wonder Dr. Ray was so impressed.

"What's wrong?" Dr. Ray asked, noticing Shawn's strange expression.

"Professor..." Shawn struggled to contain his shock. "My paper... someone has altered it..."

And there was only one person who had touched his paper. Flora. Suddenly, he felt like a fool for bringing Flora study materials today. She didn't need them at all.

"What do you mean?" Dr. Ray asked, even more puzzled.

Shawn didn't respond verbally. Instead, he silently showed Dr. Ray the original version of his paper. After reading it, Dr. Ray was astounded.

He had wondered how Shawn could have improved so much so quickly. Now it was clear; this wasn't Shawn's level.

"Who made these changes?" Dr. Ray asked, intensely curious. Such talent would be a great asset to the lab. He remembered the remarkable woman he had met at the night market and had been searching for her for a long time without success.

"The person who revised my paper is..." Shawn looked deeply at Dr. Ray and paused before saying, "Flora."

The name 'Flora' hung in the air, and the office fell into a silence as heavy as death.