How self-righteous!

Ella felt nothing inside. These meaningless words could no longer affect her.

She wouldn't fall into the trap of having to defend herself.

She gave Judith a cold look. "Apart from your talent for distorting the truth with your words, do you have any actual evidence of an inappropriate relationship between Mr. Castillo and me?"

"Don't you dare speak to Judith like that."

Peter had come to the break room for coffee to help him stay alert and unexpectedly, witnessed Ella's confrontational attitude.

"If I didn't have thefacts, I'd be led to believe you were Judith's devoted follower," she said, glancing at Peter.

She'd had enough of his behavior in the company group chat.

Peter lunged forward,furious.

Judith held him back, appearing magnanimous. "Ignore her. We don't stoop to the level of people with no class."

No class?

Weren't they the ones who started this?

Ella couldn't deny that she possessed an undeniable class. That's why she could endure Judith's underhanded tactics behind her back.

Peter sneered. "You're just jealous that Judith is beautiful, has men who adore her, and has endless resources. Someone as venomous as you might have made it into R&D, but without real ability, you'll be kicked out of the department soon enough! We'll see about that."

Peter snorted dismissively, looking quite pleased with himself.

Judith seemed to enjoy Peter's defense, offering a slight smile. "Peter, don't say that. Ella actually does have some talent."

"Talent? Can she create a project of her own?" Peter scoffed. "You graduated from Westfield Art Institute, a first-class talent. Those who can't rise to your level are simply envious, lamenting what they will never obtain."

"Some people rely on ability, while others," He lowered his voice to a suggestive tone, "Rely on selling their bodies."

After his nasty insinuation, Judith pretended to be uncomfortable and led him away from the break room.

She was afraid of causing a scene that might attract their colleagues'attention.

Ella stood in the break room, eyes downcast, a cold smile playing on her lips.

She hadn't been defeated by these taunts.

She had a meeting with Daron that afternoon to discuss the Prometheus Project for an upcoming product exchange conference.

There would be many seasoned industry investors there to witness her work.

After finishing her tasks, Ella prepared to leave for the day.

"Seriously, Ella! You just joined, and you're already leaving this early?Have you no sense of propriety?" Marshall Banks, the R&D department manager, scrutinized he as she was the first to pack up her bag.

Everyone else was working frantically while she seemed to be doing nothing at her desk.

"What value have you contributed to the company? Have you developed any new products for us?" he demanded.

"I knew you secretaries were just decorative fixtures. They'll throw any garbage into my department now. Do they think R&D is a recycling center?

”

Marshall was fuming, having taken an instant dislike to her.

The rumors circulating throughout the company only made matters worse.

Being principled and opposed to using connections to get ahead, Marshall made Ella his first target.

"Mr. Banks, I'm new, and nobody has assigned me any work yet. I'm still getting familiar with the position." Ella replied calmly. "If you think I'm not performing well, perhaps you could tell me what tasks you'd like me to handle?"

"Here's a project proposal from the Design department related to Al technology," he said, handing her a folder.

"Learn from Judith in the Design department. Young as she is, she's already working on projects. Though there are some issues, at least she's making a serious effort."

Hearing the managor's implied pratse of Judith and criticism of hiergen.

Ella took it instride.

She didn't bother to explain.

"I'll study this project proposal carefully," shesald.

Marshall laughed coldly, adding. "Do you even understand it with just a bachelor's degree?"

She sat down at her desk and began working diligently.

Marshall assumed she was juast pretending and dismissed her with a contemptuous snort.

Less than two hours later. Ella had finished her analysis.

She discovered that the project proposal had been guided by someone with expertise.

Though she couldn't identify who, it was certainly more sophisticated than Judith's original draft.

Ella prepared several extended reports based on the proposal and brought them to Marshall.

He hadn't expected her to finish so quickly.

Seeing her anxious expression as she stood at his door, he assumed she had merely gone through the motions.

He kept her waiting for a while before finally saying, "Come in."

Ella handed him the reports and turned to leave.

"Did I say you could go?" Marshall stopped her. "This report is for tomorrow's meeting with Mr. Castillo. I'll be submitting it to his office shortly. Are you certain there are no problems?"

He was giving her a condescending warning to double-check her work.

He didn't want her embarrassing the entire R&D department.

Ella smiled confidently. "No problems."

Marshall thought her confidence must be a front to save face.

"Just so we're clear, if Mr. Castillo gets angry, you'll take full responsibility."he warned.

Ella didn't take his blatant hostility to heart.

She simply nodded.

"You may go."

Two hours later than planned, Ella finally left work.

After leaving the company, she immediately headed to the tech park to meet with Daron.

"The company's been quite busy lately. I'm short-staffed, so I'm a bit late.Please don't mind, Ella," said Daron, arriving breathlessly with his briefcase.

He found a well-lit table and sat down.

Ella had just arrived and was looking through the menu. She ordered a butterscotch Americano.

"Please, enjoy your coffee. Let's get straight to business," Daron said.

She nodded in agreement. "Fine. Let me start by saying this product exchange conference could be the springboard for the Prometheus Project.Everything depends on this opportunity."

"I've asked around, and some of the judges from the upcoming Al and Intelligent Manufacturing Summit will be at the product exchange conference. We could bring the project to them for a preliminary introduction, make a good first impression," Daron explained.

As he was speaking, he suddenly remembered something and asked, "Ella.there was an AI model that emerged during internal testing a few days ago. I discussed it with my team, and we decided to create an app based on that model. What do you think?"

Ella hadn't expected Daron to take the AI model she'd casually developed so seriously.

She almost choked on her coffee, and Daron quickly handed her a napkin.

After wiping her mouth and swallowing, she said, "Of course, that's fine.But for future collaborations, I hope you'll consider me your first choice."

"Absolutely, Ella. We're comrades in arms,after all."

Ella agreed, then happened to glance up and spot a familiar group-Austin, Judith, and Royce were also there.

Talk about bad luck.

Ella turned her attention back to Daron. "Remember to ask about inside information regarding the summit."

"I've already asked Valentin to look into it. Leave it to me," he assured her.

"Mr. Raymond, your project proposal certainly has commercial foresight,"Royce was saying to Austin. "However, compared to the AI project. I'm more interested in collaborating on your drone project."