Chapter 80
His words quickly caught everyone’s attention.
“No way! Let me see!”
“Below this ‘unemployed housewife‘ are students from Princeton, Stanford, and Caltech!”
The elevator filled with gasps of disbelief.
Even Harrison’s secretary, though usually composed, couldn’t help but be drawn into the growing buzz.
He chuckled and turned to Harrison. “The ALI Math Competition organizers must’ve messed up the contestant info. Every year, the gold medalists are either top–tier elites with international experience or renowned scholars from leading universities. How could a housewife even enter, let alone take first place? If that’s true, ALI Group would be making a mockery of itself.”
Before the secretary could finish, one employee read aloud from his phone, “First place in the prelims goes to… Selene, age 27. Graduated with a bachelor’s from Aldonia University of Science & Technology, then spent seven years as a full–time housewife.”
This was public information, easily found on the ALI Group’s official website. The competition was a national sensation–a golden ticket to jobs at powerhouse companies or grad school at elite universities. Contestants made their résumés public, hoping to catch the eye of recruiters and admissions officers.
Out of the top hundred contenders, only Selene had nothing but a bachelor’s degree. The rest were festooned with awards year after year; some were international students with dazzling work histories. Selene’s résumé, though, was a blank stretch of seven years summed up in two words: “full–time housewife.”
The secretary’s mind buzzed, “What did you say her name was?”
“Selene. Here, Secretary Burnett, have a look.” The employee handed over his
phone. Secretary Burnett squinted at the screen, almost as if he could see through
- it.
He gave a tense little laugh. “What a coincidence. The world really is full of surprises.”
Secretary Burnett glanced anxiously at Harrison.
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19:59
Harrison remembered–Selene did graduate from Aldonia University of Science Technology and spent seven years as a stay–at–home mom. Could it really be her?
Impossible.
He quickly dismissed the thought. Sure, ten years ago, Selene had been a prodigy–a genius beyond compare–but she hadn’t touched math in seven years. Anyone would forget that much; she probably wouldn’t even remember high school algebra now.
If the top scorer in the ALI Math Competition prelims really was his ex–wife, the only explanation was a clerical error..
Just then, a man’s voice cut through the murmurs. “Could I see that
contestant–Selene’s profile?”
The employee holding the phone turned and hurriedly handed it over. “Director York, here you go.”
The speaker was Gavin York, head of R&D at Vaughn Enterprises, a name everyone in the company knew even if they’d never met him.
Gavin tapped open Selene’s profile on the ALI website. There was no photo, but the enrollment dates told him all he needed to know.
He smiled. “She was my senior at university.”
“Your senior?” an employee blurted out in amazement. “But she’s younger than you.” “That’s because she entered Aldonia University’s gifted program at fourteen. Graduated at eighteen with her bachelor’s. I didn’t even get in until I was eighteen.”
Gavin’s words set off a fresh wave of exclamations.
He went on, “She was a legend at Aldonia. At sixteen, she swept the international Olympiad, taking first prize in every category–math, physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. She made headlines across the academic world.
The world’s top universities, even Nobel laureates, tried to recruit her. Harvard and Stanford were willing to assign her a full–time private tutor, anything to get her to enroll. They’d have handed/her a Morganian passport on the spot.
But she chose to stay, earning her PhD under Professor Theodore Shaw, the leading figure in modern mathematics, at Capital University.”
The elevator doors slid open, but no one moved.
པ་་པ་་ས་ ་་་
“So what happened?” someone asked. “Her résumé says she only has a bachelor’s degree.”
Gavin’s voice grew wistful. “By the time I heard of Senior Thompson again, she’d already dropped out and gotten married. Professor Shaw was devastated–he never took on another female student after that.”
